Tag: song embed

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Tallahassee: Old Ways

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Tallahassee is: Brian Barthelmes (Vocals, Guitar, Banjo, Resonator), Scott Thompson (Guitar, Banjo, Keys), Shawn Carney (Electric Bass, Upright Bass) and Matt Raskopf (Drums, Percussion), and they are from Rhode Island, not Florida.

Despite taking their name from a Native American word meaning “Old Town” and calling their most recent record “Old Ways,” this is not a band that is facing backwards or hewing closely to traditional lines. Or at least not just one traditional line; their tunes are a rich stew of country, blues, and funk lightly spiced with shoegaze, the kind of thing that will warm you up and stick to your ribs at the same time.

These are three of my favorite songs from the record:

Old Brown Shoes: Because Meet me down at the Greyhound station / What have you got left to lose resonates in weird ways right now, mainly because I’ve spent a lot of time on the bus these last couple of months. Sometimes it’s been awful; other times it’s been shared hash browns and shared stories in the chilly light of dawn.
 

 
Riding With the Devil: I don’t ramble as much as I used to, but I’d still sing this song around a campfire, while toasting marshmellows for s’mores.
 

 
Minor Blues IV: It was a tie between this one and I’ll Be Damned; I finally picked this one to share to highlight the way they weave shoegaze shimmer and drone between funk bounce in deft and interesting ways.
 

 
And in conclusion, here are some pictures of them from a recent show at the Bowery Electric, in New York:
 


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Two Songs from: Lance Whalen

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Lance Whalen is singer/songwriter from Nashville via Kentucky. The tracks below are from Sweet Sugar Pie, his latest EP. It is a collection of fan favorites, and, y’all, his fans have excellent taste.

There are four songs on the EP, and it was hard to choose two to share because they are all just delicious.

I picked the first one, the title track, because it one has one of the best song-as-marriage-proposal-lyrics I’ve ever heard: Stay with me / just for one life / you can bring all of your books / and dress all in white.
 

 
And this one because it is a strange beautiful love story:
 

 

He’s headed out on tour next Monday; be sure to check his listings and get out to see him if he’s playing near you!
 

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El Sportivo & the Blooz, Nights & Weekends

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elsportivo

Nights & Weekends, the new record from El Sportivo & the Blooz, is aptly named; this could be music for the after-hours, for unwinding and spinning down. Or it could be company for the dark hours of the third shift. It definitely is high-quality smooth country funk – sippin’ whisky for the soul, if you will.
 

 

The songs have a sneaky hypnotic quality. Sneaky in the sense that days may pass between the time you listen to a song and the time you find yourself singing it to yourself while doing the dishes; hypnotic in the sense that it is easy to become wholly absorbed by the bright ribbon of pedal steel twining through the crashing guitars, and forget all about the dishes.
 

 
That’s okay, though, the dishes can wait, because it’s time to grab your sweetie and slow dance around the kitchen.
 

 
Other notes: El Sportivo (Daron Hollowell, co-founder of Black Iris and White Iris) is actually a man with two bands: The Blooz, on the West Coast, and the Dirty Palms, on the East. They play the same songs, though, and should either name appear in your concert listings this year, get out and see them. I promise it will be refreshing.
 

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Two Songs From: Night Engine

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Night Engine are from London, England. They only have four songs; I’ve picked these two because I listened to them and immediately wanted a) acquire all of their music and b) lace up my boots and go out dancing.

This is I’ll Make It Worth Your While, and, darlings, THEY WILL. Click that button, you won’t regret it:
 

 
This is Seventeen, which takes a minute to get into gear but when it does it takes off like bounce and swagger-fueled rocket:
 

 

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Empires: Live in Chicago

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Empires, scrappy little band of my heart (North American division) have made a live album. Recorded last September at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, it showcases Empires in all of their grimy, bluesy glory.

Check it out:

 

 

 

 

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Willow Sea: Across the River and Into The Trees

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The songs on Across the River and Into The Trees by Willow Sea (Willy O’Connor) are, collectively and individually, balm for the weary soul. I listened to them a lot this winter, because this winter was very, very long.

Here are two I especially like. This one is a ray of cheery sunshine on cold gray days:
 

 
And this one sounds like the realization that the night be dark and deep, but it is lovely, too, and not full of monsters waiting to crunch your bones. The lights you can see are not an oncoming train, but rather the lanterns your friends have left on their porches for you to find your way home.
 

 
For more, go to CD Baby or iTunes.
 

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White Fence: To The Boy I Jumped in Hemlock Alley

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A couple of years ago, I went to a White Fence show for New Year’s Eve. They were in the middle of the bill. At the end of the show my friends and I agreed, that while the headliners were good, we would have been happy to listen to Tim Presley and friends noodle around on their guitars all night long. He is truly the king of gloriously weird psychedelia.

Here is To the Boy I Jumped in Hemlock Alley, from Cyclops Reap, White Fence’s most recent record:
 

 
You can listen to the rest here.
 

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Mud, Blood & Beer: The Sweet Life

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MBBTSL
 
On their second record, Mud, Blood & Beer have added some hard rock muscle to their country bar band sound, and the results are fantastic.

For example, there is this tune, which I love in part because they manage to make nasturtiums sound kind of dirty:
 

 
And also these two, which which I love because I love aggressive almost-fuzzy guitars and sing-along songs:
 

 

 
If you’re in New York this weekend, you can hear them play songs from the record at their CD release party, which is Saturday, April 13 at the Bitter End at 8 PM.
 

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The Big Nowhere: Don’t Burn the Fortune

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TBN2
 
Pull Down the Moon (2012) rollicked and rolled; Don’t Burn the Fortune, the second record from The Big Nowhere, is contemplative, quieter, and a little melancholy, more evocative of a piano bar than a frontier dance hall. Whatever kind of heartbreak you have, they probably have a song for you.

The following are three of my favorite tracks:

 

 

 

 
The record is available digitally right now, and as a limited edition 100 CD release on May 1, 2013. The CD booklet will include artwork from some of the Big Nowhere’s friends, including author and comics genius Neil Gaiman; legendary singer-songwriter and BBC6 Music presenter Tom Robinson; TROMA films head and director Lloyd Kauffman; author Christopher Moore; singer-songwriter Stephen Jones (Babybird); singer-songwriters Devon Sproule and Paul Curreri; and comedian Josie Long, all of whom were asked to draw whatever ‘Don’t Burn The Fortune’ brought to mind.

 

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[strangers], Something New

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Something New, from [strangers] featuring Eleanor Fletcher (Crystal Fighters), music for: Here we go over the falls, one more time. Maybe this is a terrible idea, but we don’t care. We can see the white water and the rocks but it doesn’t matter, we have each other. We’re too busy making new universes every time we kiss to care about things like logic and sense and appropriate planning. Are we doomed? Maybe. We’ll find out when we land.
 

 

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