Tag: song embed

One Comment

Wölfbait: Wölfbait

  By ,

Wölfbait is a sonic sledgehammer-steamroller, heavy experimental noise that walks the fine but bright line between deeply satisfying and painful to listen to; and is for anyone who has ever listened to Metal Machine Music and thought This needs to be faster and should also have some echoey howling and shouting and more weird screeching noises.

Other notes: they do interesting things with feedback, and their drums are steady and powerful but not as pounding and punishing as some hardcore drums can be.
 

 

No comments

The Dirty Nil: Little Metal Baby Fist

  By ,

The Dirty Nil’s summary of themselves on bandcamp is The Dirty Nil play rock and roll, and, you guys, that’s an accurate statement. They sound like a dive bar: loud and a little dirty.

Little Metal Baby Fist is the A-side from their most recent single, which I picked because I can almost see the circle belling out and the pit forming before they even get through the first chord. I would totally wade into the fray and put my arms up to bounce sweaty dudes away from me while scream-singing along to this song.
 

 
I can also recommend the B-side, Hate is a Stone (slightly heavier, sounds like stewing in self-loathing) and their cover of Moonage Daydream.

One Comment

AF THE NAYSAYER: An Agglomeration of Thoughts (album sampler)

  By ,

In the department of “electronic music I really enjoy”: AF THE NAYSAYER, of New Orleans, with a sampler for An Agglomeration of Thoughts, his most recent record:
 
AF THE NAYSAYER – An Agglomeration of Thoughts (Album Sampler) by AFTHENAYSAYER
 
Just so you can hear one all the way through, here’s Imagerial Denouement:
 
AF THE NAYSAYER – Imagerial Denouement by AFTHENAYSAYER

No comments

Jail Weddings: Four Future Standards

  By ,

Four Future Standards is Jail Weddings‘ follow-up to Love is Lawless(2010) and the prequel to Meltdown (coming soon). It is both a teaser – Meltdown is apparently going to be about, well, meltdowns, and these songs certainly presage that development – and a breather – these tunes are tremendous, but have a different kind of energy than, say, Tough Love. They’re more cabaret than drag race.

This is the one I like the best so far:
 

One Comment

Feel Bad for You, November 2012

  By

 

It’s that time again, kids. The Feel Bad for You mix for November is live!

“Hidely-ho neighbors! We’ve back, and feeling bad for November. Your favorite bloggers, twitters, hurricane survivors, pinko commie liberals, and conspiracy theorist wingnuts present this month’s mix. Thanks to Hoosier Buddy for the artwork – he took the photo while standing in the ocean near La Jolla, California. Feel bad for those of us standing in snow (or worse).”

Download

Feel Bad for You, November 2012

1. Title: Done Got Old
Artist: Heartless Bastards
Album: Stairs and Elevators (2005)
Submitted By: Rockstar Aimz
Comment: I just turned 40. This is my new theme song.

2. Title: Outrageous
Artist: Paul Simon
Album: Surprise (2006)
Submitted By: @philnorman
Comments: It’s outrageous a man like me can stand here and complain.

3. Title: Sadie
Artist: Hound Dog Taylor
Album: Natural Boogie (1974)
Submitted By: Truersound
Comments: just three guys laying the groove down, no big deal

4. Title: A Horse Called Music
Artist: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
Album: Heroes (2012)
Submitted By: Gorrck
Comments: The original of this song is almost too clean and pure beauty. This has some rough edges but retains the beauty of the song.

5. Title: Beat Surrender
Artist: The Jam
Album: Direction Reaction Creation (1997)
Submitted By: Simon
Comments: Thirty years ago this month the ‘best fucking band in the world’ released their final single and were on the road for their farewell Beat Surrender tour – what else could I choose this month – more on the blog later this month.

6. Title: Blackberries
Artist: Boca Chica
Album (year): Transform Into Beasts (2007)
Submitted By: BoogieStudio22
Comments: I can’t remember how I stumbled upon Boca Chica, but I’ve had them on my ‘buy’ list for a while. I finally picked up one of their earlier albums and have been enjoying it this week. I had a tough time choosing a song for this month’s FBFY, but I keep going back to this one, so here you go.

7. Title: California Dreamin’
Artist: Barry McGuire
Album: Dunhill LP 50005 (1965)
Submitted By: tincanman
Comments: Sounds like someone taking the piss (UK saying), but this is the original. The Mamas & Papas were in the studio at the same time, so supplied the backing vocals. The Cave-like harshness over the sappy sweet harmonies make it almost punky … or is it because McGuire can’t hold a tune?

8. Title: Everybody Knows
Artist: Allen Thompson Band
Album: Salvation In The Ground (2012)
Submitted By: Bryan Childs (ninebullets.net)
Comments: “Everybody Knows” isn’t a comfortable song. It doesn’t really have a groove and you’ll never dance to it, but like The Eagles “Desperado,” you might find yourself wanting to hold up a lighter while it’s playing. The track eschews “a catchy tune” and goes for the “honesty so brutal you can’t help but sit down and pay attention” lyrics…

9. Title: Separation Anxiety
Artist: Mutts
Album: Separation Anxiety (2012)
Submitted By: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: I figured there could hardly be a more fitting contribution to a mixtape that encourages drunken commentary than this shambling, drunken, everybody-sing-now ditty from Chicago’s Mutts.

10. Title: Jamie
Artist: Weezer
Album: DGC Rarities, Volume 1 (1994)
Submitted By: Ryan (Verbow @ Altcountrytab.ca)
Comments: Been on a Weezer kick lately. This is a fine track that didn’t make the Blue Album – just a sweet slice of power poppy goodness. It also comes with a cool story – it was recorded by a friend of the band for his college final – he got a B on it. Nice. Also reminds me of a girl I knew named Suzanne – I keed I keed, a girl named Jamie. Swoon. Good times.

11. Title: Two Riders
Artist: Bohannons
Album: Unaka Rising (2012)
Submitted By: TheOtherBrit
Comments: While the bulk of Atlanta was down the street at the democrats’ bar watching the election results, the Bohannons were putting on a scalp-peeling show for less than a dozen people that rivaled the show I saw for a near sold out crowd in their home-town Chattanooga. This album doesn’t do their live show justice (which is one of the best I’ve seen in years), but for $5 from thisisamericanmusic.com it’s gonna be one of your favorite albums this year.

12. Title: Snake Song
Artist: David Olney with Sergio Garcia
Album: Unreleased – Live at Grimey’s (2012)
Submitted By: toomuchcountry
Comments: Back in February, author Brian Atkinson made an in-store appearance at Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville to promote “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”, his book about Townes van Zandt. Grimey added to the promotion of Brian’s book by inviting incredible talents such as Will Kimbrough and the legendary Steve Young to sing covers of Townes’ songs or their songs that may have been somehow influenced by him. The striking highlight for me, however, was David Olney’s cover of Snake Song featuring jaw-dropping guitar work by Sergio Webb. My video of the performance is also on YouTube (as well as the performances by Kimbrough and Young).

13. Title: Oxblood
Artist: The Donkeys
Album: Born With Stripes (2011)
Submitted By: hoosier buddy
Comments: Like your second trip to the kissing booth, this song is as thrilling as it is comfortable. With echoes of Marc Bolan, Ray Davies, and the Commotions (minus Lloyd Cole), the alt-country psychedelia whangs and burbles along. The musical question, “could there be a relationship here?”, applies as much to the listener as it does to the girl who says she’s “got friends in from out of town.”

14. Title: Reefer
Artist: Harlan Pepper
Album: Young and Old (2012)
Submitted By: @popa2unes
Comments: I spent most of the week trying to weed out a song to submit, and then Colorado and Washington State made this old stoner a very happy hippie.

15. Title: Joe
Artist: The Pollies
Album: Where the Lies Begin (2012)
Submitted By: Trailer

16. Title: Fields of June
Artist: Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo (featuring Frank Turner)
Album: Field of June single (2012)
Submitted By: scratchedsoul
Comments: I don’t know much about Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo but Frank Turner tweets about them a lot. Now he’s singing with her and it’s obvious why he likes her. She was part of the Revival Tour in Europe this year.

17. Title: Calm Me Down
Artist: Port O’Brien
Album: Threadbare (2010)
Submitted By: annieTUFF
Comments: Lately this has been my “ease me into the morning while driving” song.

18. Title: Rotten Alabama
Artist: Ramsay Midwood
Album: Larry Buys A Lighter (2011)
Submitted by: Corey Flegel (This Is American Music)
Comments: Ramsay is a Texas legend in my eyes. Every record he’s put out is stellar. If you’re ever in Austin…

6 Comments

Empires: Garage Hymns

  By ,

I’ve been writing about a lot of dreamy electronic music and chill folk rock lately, but now I’m ready to push the pendulum the other way.

Luckily, I have some Empires – scrappy little band of my heart, North American division – to listen to. Garage Hymns is their latest record, out earlier this year, and it is just what I need to clear out the cobwebs.

Some sample tunes, with annotations:
 
Can’t Steal Your Heart Away: A perfect evocation of a particular kind of party, specifically, the kind that ends with people playing Bad Decision Bingo. And so wryly observed that it fills me with longing for nights that end with fries drenched in cheddar cheese and mornings that start with strong tea.
 

 
Night Is Young: This one will always evoke the lights of Times Square blinking while I study for the bar, for me, but there’s other things in there, too. Like, I live here in this rambling, sometimes beautiful sometimes disgusting 19th century city because every day is anything can happen day. Maybe I’ll pass the bar on the second try. Maybe someday I’ll get to spend a summer in France drifting between music festivals and eating French carnival food. The night is young!
 

Surrenderer: This is the one I put on in the morning when I need a little push to get moving.
 

 
Hard Times: Choosing between this one and We Lost Magic was difficult, but this tune finally won because as much as I like songs that double as squares on Bad Decision Bingo cards, I’m twice as fond of songs about finding people who love you even when (or perhaps because) you’ve got a bad habit of backflipping yourself into the slipstream and calling your dismount as you come down.
 

3 Comments

Wickerbird, The Crow Mother

  By ,

And now, from the wild woods of Washington State, is Wickerbird (Blake Cowan) with The Crow Mother.

I’ve been listening to it all weekend and it is just lovely. If dreamy, soothing folk music with rich harmonies and an undercurrent of melancholy is your thing, you are going to want to listen to these songs.

Some examples:
 

 

No comments

Candidate, Psychic Dissonance from the Unself

  By ,


 
Do not be fooled by the title of this record. It might sound terribly heavy and serious, but really it’s a collection of jams that stretch across the mellow-bouncy spectrum. There’s some fuzz but no drag, which is an intriguing change of pace, and draws me back to it over and over again.

For example:
 

 

 
Candidate is: Cedric Sparkman (Vocals), Laurence Adams (Lead Guitar), Jason Matuskiewicz (Bass), Chris Infusino (Drums) and Justin Craig (Guitar, Synth), and they are from Brooklyn.

They survived New York’s recent Weather Event unscathed, but the studio where they recorded the record – Translator Audio – was completely destroyed.

To encourage donations to hurricane relief, they will be giving a free copy of the record to anyone who sends them an email with the subject line “I donated.” They solemnly swear no spam shall be forthcoming, only delicious music.

One Comment

Build A Fortress Around My Tears: Picardy III, Lonely Songs

  By ,


Lonely Songs, by Picardy III, a musical collective led by James Summers of Austin, Texas, starts with a spoken word track, As You Climb The Mountain, which sets the mood for the rest of the record: quiet, meditative, embued with the quality of sadness that goes with rain on foggy windowsills and low, heavy skies, but can be banished by a warm cup of tea.

And what comes after the introduction is music that called me out of my bedroom, away from my unpacking of bags and boxes of things lately liberated from storage, that said: I require your full attention. You have to listen carefully.

The record is officially out in January 2013, but a partial version is available for free for a limited time from both bandcamp and Noisetrade.

The Noisetrade download also includes a special bonus track, a folk-rock cover of What Is Love by Haddaway, and, you guys, never has a club banger been so magnificently transformed into a mournful lament.

As encouragement/enticement, here are a couple of his tunes: Going (The Lonely Song) is the first single; Ever Be is the one that punched me right in the heart.
 

 

 

One Comment

Mutts: Separation Anxiety

  By ,

Mutts, Now That's Class, Cleveland, Ohio

 

Your teeth are diamond studded
You’re always smilin’ at me
When I ain’t got any teeth

 

 

Happy Voting Day, friends! This lyric from the Mutts song “Washington (Still) Owns People”, from their album Separation Anxiety, seemed like an appropriate way to start this Election Day post.

I’ve been putting this post off for a while because I’ve had a difficult time getting a handle on exactly how to talk about their music. I was intrigued by the album from the start – it’s hard not to be when an album starts with a rhythmic, imaginative gem like “So Many, So Many” that makes you want to find a bucket and a wooden spoon so you can beat along.

 

 

But then they bring in the amped instruments, and things get complicated. Elements of rock, hardcore, progressive, thrash, funk, blues all throw in together for a meaty stew in songs that lyrically explore subjects from politics to religion to maintaining a romantic relationship as a touring musician.

 

 

It’s a compelling mess (and I mean that in the best way) Mutts are making here, never falling into cookie cutter parameters or imitation. Many of the elements used are familiar, but the direction these elements are taken is not, and that keeps your attention, wondering where Mutts will go next.

My favorite song on the album is the title/closing track that leads in like a raise-the-rafters gospel stomper, but then devolves into a drunken, shambling barroom sing-a-long.

 

 

The digital version of Separation Anxiety is available on a name-your-price basis, and CD and vinyl version are available for just a little scratch, including the beautiful “Mending Wall” LP.

Now here’s the part that really excites me: Separation Anxiety was funded in a Kickstarter campaign as part of a double-album deal. The second album, Object Permanence, will be an acoustic album and a sampler listen shows the album running in a vein similar to “So Many, So Many” and “Separation Anxiety”, so keep your ear to the ground for that one.

 

Mutts Official Website

Mutts @ Twitter

Mutts @ Facebook