Tag: song embed

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Late Night Listening: Lunatic Soul, Walking On A Flashlight Beam

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Late Night Listening: a home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.

Lunatic Soul is the solo project of Mariusz Duda of Riverside, and Walking On A Flashlight Beam is the most recent release. It’s ambient music, but it’s ambient music with muscle. If it was a film soundtrack – and it should be! someone use it! – it would be for a movie with a lot of fast cars flying through forbidding landscapes and fever dream sequences.

Here’s a selection of tracks as an enticement:

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Late Night Listening: The Point, Pretty Marsh

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Late Night Listening: a home for things that might be fleeting, might be soothing, might be weird, might be soothing and weird. The blogging equivalent of sitting in the garage twiddling radio knobs just to see what might be out there.

Pretty Marsh is the debut record from The Point, the newest project from Michael O’Neill (JD Samson & MEN, Ladybug Transistor) and Sammy Tunis (formerly of The Lisps). It’s a meditative record, and a complicated one. It’s dreamy, but it also sounds like soundtrack for an existential crisis:

And then there’s this cover of Thirteen, which caught me by surprise the first time I heard it, and about wrecked me:

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A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink, Pauline Andrès

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

All Them Ghosts, Pauline Andrès’ debut album, due out next week, is both a delight and a challenge; all of her stories are good, but some are easier to listen to than others.

Here are three of my favorites – She, I Remember Her and Sweet Fortune Tellin’ Ma – chosen because of they way they showcase both her rich smoky voice, the interesting ways she winds threads of rock and roll through a country framework, and her storytelling skills:

And now, I turn the floor over to her, to share her favorite book, record and drink:

Photo credit: Ceven Knowles

Photo credit: Ceven Knowles

A Good Read

H.P. Lovecraft. Always. Followed shortly by Cormac McCarthy, he is my absolute favorite writer. It’s probably because he is a master in crafting atmospheres and that’s always something I’m craving. No one does it better than him: telling a terrifying, weird (and sometimes philosophic) tale while creating a warm poetic bubble to hide into while you read it.

He was a true genius and a poet and inspired a dark ode called On The Doorstep we featured on our debut record. Just reading the titles of his stories is an experience: The Thing On The Doorstep, At The Mountains Of Madness, The Picture In The House . . . his work is full of fears and shadows but it is oh so beautiful and always inspires me.

A Good Listen

Well since we’re talking about atmospheres I’d go with an all time favorite by Neko Case: Blacklisted. It translates perfectly her talent for -yes here it comes- creating an atmosphere around her words with a perfect control of her monumental voice but also with the dazzling richness of the arrangements. She’s one of the best singer-songwriters I can think of anyway and this album definitely is one of her best. A perfect listen for an autumn evening while you pour the drink you’ll have in bed with Lovecraft. It’s rare for an album to get so close to perfection from writing to production; it’s flawless and hits me every time like a really sweet bullet.

http://youtu.be/3fhur6g8_BM

A Good Drink

I’m a big drinker. I drink a lot of everything and I don’t just mean alcohol, so this is a tough one. But if I were to listen to Case and read Lovecraft tonight, I would probably have some of that red wine I hide under the kitchen table. The dark red Bordeaux that makes your throat feel like its got central heating too. A perfect drink to gently fall asleep after the music stops and the story is over.

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Dirtwire, The Carrier

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TheCarrier_Cover_1600x1600

I clicked “play” on The Carrier by Dirtwire (David Satori (Beats Antique) and Evan Fraser (Stellamara)), with a good deal of curiosity, and, based on the cover art, expecting something heavy and dissonant and dark, maybe an experimental noise space opera set in a dystopian future. As it turns out I was wrong. Well, mostly wrong: heavy and dark in places, yes, dissonant experimental noise, no. (That said: I do like dissonant experimental noise space operas and they are also welcome in my inbox.)

Anyway. Back to the music at hand, which is a refreshing fusion of Appalachian and world rhythms – experimental noise in its own way, perhaps – which I have already listened to on repeat three times. This is the good stuff, y’all, go on and get it.

Some examples to whet your appetite:

Only One, a slow-burn stomper, which you can have for the cost of your email address:

Yunan, an instrumental number that mixes and matches twanging strings and hand-claps to delicious effect:

And finally Bottles, which, okay, maybe could be part of a dystopian space opera, what with all the cold echoes:

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Cash for Gold, Swan Dive

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Cash for Gold are: Jordan Knight (vocals/guitars), George D’Annunzio (drums/back up vocals) and Stella Sue (bass/piano/back up vocals), and they are from San Francisco, CA. Swan Dive is their first record, and it’s a wild ride. A wild, glorious, ride.

This Out All the Time, the first song, which starts out with one of favorite things – big aggressive guitars – and then becomes a sprawling tale of love and self destruction.

Cash for Gold - Out All the Time (Official Video)

This is Sunshine, which starts slow (well, slow-er) and rolls into my absolute favorite thing: a fast sea chantey hammer-stomp:

The rest of the record switches between dreamy saltwater-shoegaze (Keen, Mexico and Swan Dive) and jagged surf-infused punk (Cobra Fight, The Witches) and is in all ways awesome.

If you’d like to hear it live and in person: they’re having a record release show on Oct. 16, at Slim’s, in San Francisco. If I could be there, I would. Here’s hoping their future plans include coming east.

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A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: Cory Branan

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

Cory Branan recently released his fourth album, No-Hit Wonder; the title track is below. The song, like the record, feels – lived-in, I guess – familiar and a little rough around the edges. It’s also sharply observed; the lyrics have bite in unexpected ways.

Other highlights include All The Rivers in Colorado (my personal favorite); C’mon Shadow and Daddy Was A Skywriter.

He’s currently taking his show on the road; New York, your show is on Oct. 1 at the Mercury Lounge, and Ohio, yours is in Columbus on Oct. 8 at the Rumba Cafe.

With that, I turn the floor over to the man himself, to tell us a little bit about one of his favorite books, records and drinks:

Photo by Marco Krenn

Photo by Marco Krenn


A Good Read:

I was just talking to someone about Garcia Lorca‘s lecture: In Search of Duende. The Spanish concept of Duende is different from the western idea of muse/inspiration. Lorca describes it as “wrestling the angel” that can only happen in live music and dance because those art forms occur in real time and then are gone. Anyway, it’s what I’m after in the music I play and seek out. Lorca explains it much better.

A Good Listen:

I haven’t heard the whole thing yet but there’s a collection of Keith Richards‘ solo work with the Xpensive Winos I’m itching to check out. I heard the one track Locked Away and it was tore up and beautiful in the best of ways.

http://youtu.be/2vFAv5HJwuY

A Good Drink:

My wife makes a good moonshine Manhattan. Some buddies work this still in Gatlinburg that makes a rye based shine. Mix that with sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters and brace for impact.

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Mumblr, Full of Snakes

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Mumblr, of Philadelphia, have recently released their first full-length effort. It is called Full of Snakes. The accuracy of that title will depend entirely on your personal feelings about snakes. (I have a certain wary appreciation, providing no venemous fangs are in evidence.) I have a good deal warmer feelings about the record; it’s brash and messy and weird and contains a love letter to Philadelphia which gets stuck in my head every time I listen to it:

But there are also tunes like Sober, which is distorted, fuzzy, primal shriek of anxiety:

And Greyhound Station which seething, roaring meditation on the strange combination of sweaty exhaustion, low-level terror, and rage that eventually settles on anyone required to spend any time in the titular location:

It can be a challenging listen, at times, but it is absolutely worth it. In conclusion: here is the video for I Think About You All The Time – also their first video ever – which contains a dude in green paint for no apparent reason and some nudity towards the end. Adjust your viewing plans accordingly.

ITAUATT (I Think About u All The Time) by Mumblr

You can listen to the rest of the record here on Soundcloud, at least for now. Alternatively you can visit their bandcamp.

They will be taking their show on the road starting in October; New York you have a couple shows, but probably should attend the one on Oct. 4 at Shea Stadium, for the complete Grotty Punk Rock Clubhouse Experience; Ohio, they’ll be stopping in Athens on October 10. Everyone else, check their listings and plan your road trips if you need to.

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Blackwater Jukebox, Blackwater Jukebox

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blackwaterjukebox14

Dearest readers, Blackwater Jukebox (Geordie McElroy and a legion of talented friends) has put out a new, self-titled record, and it is packed full of foot stomping, hip-shaking, grab-your-partner-and-swing-em-around tunes. Some are remixed versions of material from Sleaze of the Reaper and Banjos and Breakbeats; others are new. But they are all great, and worth your time.

To whet your appetite, here is Cleo May, a new tune which I like a lot:


And also the video for Eastside Girl, featuring Sadie D’Marquez and, you guys, I love it so much I wish I could teleport myself inside it, so I could dance along with the crowd.

Blackwater Jukebox - Eastside Girls feat. Sadie d'Marquez (official)

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Favorite Waitress, The Felice Brothers

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favoritewaitress

If Celebration, Florida (2011) was The Felice Brothers taking a hard left out of Americana into a dark, strange corner of indie rock, Favorite Waitress is them – to mix a metaphor somewhat – doubling down on that murky weirdness and swinging for the fences.

It begins with Bird on a Broken Wing, which I had to listen to a couple of times before I really started to like it. In many ways it extends a thread back to River Jordan, the last song on Celebration, Florida, and, as it happens, one of my favorite Felice Brothers songs. River Jordan is a slow burning geyser of hurt and rage; the last time I saw them perform it live was a transcendent experience, but also made me almost certain they were about ready to call it quits on being a band.

They didn’t, though, and Bird on a Broken Wing is the resolution, and, perhaps, ending, of that pain. The narrator has had a moment to breathe and reflect (and heal?) and also, perhaps, find some peace.

Continuing through the tracklist, some of the songs have country roots: Katie Cruel is a slow-burn country-blues stomper; Cherry Licorice contains echoes of a barroom sing along; Lion sounds like something The Band could have written if they had dropped a lot of acid.

But those songs are trifles; smokescreens, even, behind which more complex treasures are hiding.

The real meat of the record is songs like Alien, Meadow of a Dream, Saturday Night Alone, and Constituents, where the Felices slow down and stretch out as only they can, and tell stories full of longing, alien heartbreak and world-weary menace.

And the diamond – and perhaps harbinger of things to come? – is Silver in the Shadow, the last song, which is about surviving work to find love, and starts out slow and thoughtful before expanding into a majestic fuzzy roar.

Verdict: A++, and I look forward to more in this vein.