Better Late Than Never

While the time is winding down, the chocolate hearts half empty by the red tinted cellophane from which they came, and that awkward date's been reduced to a stomach churning reflection before bed... who's to say we can't revive the whole experience with a good ole' themed mix tape?

To you and yours after this most bipolar of holidays, here she is


Love & Hate: Candy Hearts in Water


01- Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminals' Starvation League - Valentine

02- Hello Saferide- Valentine's Day

03- DeVotchka- You Love Me

04- M. Ward- Magic Trick

05- Bob Dylan- Most Likely You Go Your Way

06- The Pipettes- Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me

07- Magnetic Fields- Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin

08- OneLineDrawing- Crush On Everyone

09- Otis Redding- Cupid

10- The Parson Red Heads- My Heart Is Bursting

11- The Zombies- This Will Be Our Year (Mono mix)

12- Tahiti 80- Happy Together

13- The Beatles- When I'm Sixty-four

14- Rufus Wainwright- My Funny Valentine (Ella Fitzgerald Cover)

Paris Station

"Abbesses" by Birdy Nam Nam


"Moving Like A Train" by Herbert

Lali Puna

I can't believe I never knew about this band...

It's no secret that one of my favorite bands is the Notwist, and since the purchase of Neon Golden in 2003 I have yet to find another band that can adequately satiate my thirst for perfect electronic pop. That is until now.

Lali Puna hails from Munich, Germany and captures the same transient, indiosycratic barrage of sound that you'd expect from Notwist front-runner Markus Acher. Oh wait, he's in the band? I totally didn't see this coming.

Lali Puna consists of Valerie Trebeljahr, Christoph Brandner, Christian Heiß, and the man himself, Markus Acher. The musical movement started in 1998 when Valerie began recording her songs using a 4 track, layering keyboards and vocals to set the framework for the band. Since then she's steadily picked up new members to hammer out the rounded sound of Lali Puna.

There's a lot to like here... and while keyboards and synths predominate the album, the instrumentation is heavy and ripens under the interwoven rhythym of mixed live percussion and drum machines. This album is beautiful!

Faking the Books can be found at the following site (just highlight and dump into your browser)

http://tinyurl.com/tnfne


I highly recommend Grin and Bear and Left Handed

Wax Fang

Jims James of My Morning Jacket takes his recommendations seriously. Back in July The New York Times asked James The Question: “Whacha listening to?”

His response:

Scott Carney

He's a guy from Louisville. I went to high school with him, never knew him, and he moved away to Pittsburgh. "Black and Endless Night" (scottcarneymusic.com) came out in late 2005, and I couldn't believe it was from this time period: it's got a futuristic energy, a lot of elements I've never heard work before. A combo of all these things you remember from the past. You can sense some David Bowie in it. It's so unique, it's hard to place. The cool thing about it is he made it by himself. Every single instrument is played by him, and he paid attention to the details. Enough people don't pay attention to the production of a record. Lots of people think about the songs or where they're going to record. They think about everything but how the record's going to hit your ears. The production is amazing, the songs are amazing. It takes you to a different place in the future.

That’s a nice little shout-out for a local Louisville act, but James took the hometown hospitality one step further and brought Scott (and Carney’s former Heavy Friends) on tour with him this fall.

Earlier this year Carney added bassist Jake Heustis and drummer Kevin Ratterman to his do-it-all-yourself act and formed Scott Carney and Heavy Friends, a name that was promptly dropped for the ultra-vicious Wax Fang.

Every compliment that James gave solo Carney in The Times has to be re-offered to three-piece Wax Fang, especially in a live setting. I saw them play a set at Louisville’s WFPK studio this summer, and the live interpretations of Carney’s songs off of Black & Endless Night, the accompanying projector show and the well-time theremin freak-outs kept me mesmerized. I’ll be interested in hearing new material…

(Because I know they have it: Cannibal Summer [Live])

…and seeing how they respond to a big crowd in the Louisville Gardens on Wednesday when My Morning Jacket returns home for (what’s becoming) their annual Thanksgiving-Eve show.

From Black & Endless Night: Bi-PolarBear

Another Jim James’ NYT pick, The Slip, will begin opening for MMJ on Friday, Nov. 24, kicking off the second leg of what looks to be a lengthy tour. Here’s their Guitar Hero song everyone loves.

Even Rats

Check it?

Here are just a few things I felt were worth mentioning

THE KOOKS

The Kooks are a relatively new band from Brighton, England who combine slick brit pop with a little Strokes-esque guitar filler. Their latest record Inside the Inside Out has been ripping through the UK charts and are slowly but surely earning a rep for themselves here in the states as well. They recently finished their first American tour and are set to turn a few heads

Naive.mp3



VIVA VOCE

Viva Voce (literally translating to 'word of mouth') is a brother/sister duo made up of Kevin and Anita Robinson, two kids hailing from Alabama. Get Yr Blood Sucked Out is a versatile album that excels at capturing a variety of moods and sounds; each track is notably different from its predecesor, yet the album is cohesive and distinguishes this band as something that deserves a slew of followers.

When Planets Collide.mp3



ALICE SMITH

Alice Smith has been opening for Citizen Cope lately, keeping audiences interested with her soulful vocals and bubbly, side-walk chalk sound. She's colorful and adds something a little different to the pop female singer/songwriter genre. I hate to say it, but check this out if you find yourself singing Natasha Bedeingfield's 'Unwritten' in your shower.

Woodstock.m4a



POLLY PAULUSMA

Following the female S/S trend, Polly Paulusma is a light, elegant, and sophisticated take on the never-ending surfacing of talented coffee house musicians. While this is definitely the kind of artist that I could see sitting in the Starbucks bin, it shouldn't divert any attention from the fact that she's got something special. This song cradles you and will put you right to sleep, you won't even need to warm the milk. You have been warned.
17_Mea_Culpa.mp3

Irish Eyes Assuredly Smiling

Good things come in Irish packages

Alright maybe that's not the real adage, but sometimes I think it should be. For starters: Ireland's got the whole lepruchaun bit pretty well worked out, the coolest tradtions, fantastic accents, alcoholism, potato famines... okay maybe it's not all great.

Regardless, Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice has been capturing our little American hearts since we got hold of his sit-on-the-knee, storytelling, balladeer delivery in the debut O in 2003.

With the recent release of 9, Rice is back with his signature vocals, acoustic stylings, and even another single digit title to boot. Rice's lyrics are as insightful and personally driven as ever, but what really shines is his ability to deliver each word like language was created specifically for him and hand-delivered on his front stoop. Maybe that's giving him too much credit, but it's no secret that Rices inflection and tea-kettle sustain has been captivating music-goers for quite some time now.

And then there is Lisa Hannigan, who perhaps plays a bigger role than ever in helping add a thick coat of primer to the artistic design that Rice lays out before his listeners with every mind-numbingly simplistic and innately beautiful arrangement. Her voice billows high above the musical landscape that this record provides and makes you a sucker for anywhere this record goes, pulling you along like a velcro-leashed child at the mall.

In short, this album is rich, vibrant, and plays to every strength of Rice's, making this his best effort to date. If you don't believe me, let Elephant play over your earphones on loud for the entirety of the track. You'll understand.

03_Elephant.mp3
06_Coconut_Skins.mp3

And a personal favorite from the olllddeerrr collection

The_Professor.mp3

Also, be sure to check out his live in-studio performace at KCRW morning becomes electic here

Options

Plenty of options to see a show in the next few days. Mecca hosts Califone on Saturday, and if Lexington wants to collect royalties in the future or something:

From New York Press:
If you’re spending any time in Los Angeles, be warned: Not careful, and you might end up on the next Califone record without even knowing it. The Chicago-based band has always incorporated field recordings into their albums, and since the band’s lyricist, co-songwriter and founder, Tim Rutili, moved to the City of Angels last year, he has had plenty of fodder for these ambient snippets. To collect them, he stays perpetually alert to the surrounding soundscapes and is ready to capture them at the drop of a hat.

“I just walk around with a portable DAT machine, and I carry a mic,” Rutili explains. “I just record stuff, and if anything kind of sticks out as something that you’d want to hear again, it usually finds its way into the record somehow.”

That explains how Califone is all about jazzing up their Americana better than anything I guess. What is that I hear on their cover of Psychic TV’s “The Orchids”? A bowling alley? Or something. Who knows.

"The Orchids" by Califone

The Avett Brothers take a less-subtle approach distinguishing themselves from the new-bluegrass field. On “Talk On Indolence,” the trio does two-part harmony and three-part talking and needs to take a breath or something. They’ll be at Headliners in Louisville Saturday.

"Talk On Indolence" by The Avett Brothers

Finally: Mac McCaughan finds some time in between founding bands and record companies to bring his indie rock outfit Portastatic by Mecca on Monday. Here’s “White Wave” from 2005’s Bright Ideas.

"White Wave" by Portastatic

We Are 'Famile'...

Some bands are just fascinating.

While this is a blog and I do get the advantage of throwing a pinch of personal opinion in every now and again, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more compelling backstory than Danielson.

Danielson's music is smart, endearing, and deeply, DEEPLY religious. In fact, religious is really the only adjective you need in the arsenal when describing just what it is they've got going on. Danielson is a 'famile': a term which was created by front-man Daniel Smith to describe the close-knit brotherhood which this troup rallies behind. The proverbial ball was set into motion in 1995 when Smith created Danielson as an art school project during his senior year in high school.

And yep, you guessed it, they were on a mission to save.

What's odd about Danielson is that it is so expressive and so uninhibited by the pressures of "good music" that it is often seen as a joke. The members have all hand-crafted uniforms for their performances, including solid white doctors and nurses uniforms bearing a heat of the sleeve used to accentuate their belief that their music heals those who listen to it. "Brother" Danielson (Smith's newly coined surname) has even donned a nine foot tree costume, created to visually symbolize the bearing of the "good fruit"


To watch them is like sitting in on a kinder-care morning session where the kids are handed instruments and everything happens to go right. Hand claps, xylophones, and choral singing are essentials to the Danielson sound. You don't have to get it, you don't even have to like it, but you've got to hand it to the creativity that these proud Christian folk are churning out.

If you're interested, a film crew has been following these guys around since March of 2002, documenting everything along the way. 'A Danielson Famile Movie' can be seen in select theatres come December of this year. More info can be found at the website

Of course we couldn't leave you without a taste:

Time_That_Bald_Sexton.mp3

Did_I_Step_On_Your_Trumpet.mp3



And for fun's sake... amazing


Lasse Gjertsen

Joanna Newsom and Ys

I’m inventorying complaints about Joanna Newsom’s Ys as I listen. Not mine, really, but just the norms:

The tracks are too long. There’s five of them and running times range from 7:17 to 16:53—a meandering 16:53 at that. They sound like something straight out of a Renaissance fair. She sounds like a mouse.

They’re predictable, and, oh, aren’t we so hard on Miss Joanna?

She sounds like nails on chalkboards.

Well give me nails on chalkboards then because Newsom’s really reined in her vocals from the screeches and squeals of her excellent 2004 release, The Milk-Eyed Mender. The voice that commandeered that record isn’t necessarily absent here, but it’s definitely not what Newsom wants us getting hung up on with Ys.

Same with the arrangements by American composer Van Dyke Parks, who collaborated with Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys on Smile. The orchestra always seems shushed up, playing second fiddle to Newsom’s harp, and rarely gets a chance to stand on its own.

So what does shine?

The lyrical content really keeps things moving here. Actually, it’s pretty tough to move anywhere without the lyric book. With Ys, Newsom’s constructed five miniature plays, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and with them a world that is easy to get lost in (and click goes the skhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifip button on the iPod). Following along with Newsom, however, you experience the beauty, depth and heart of her stories, and get taken in by them.

And that’s a far cry from the gut-reaction to the shrillness of “Saaaaadiiiiieeeee” from The Milk-Eyed Mender, and ultimately why Ys is the more rewarding record.

Joanna Newsom is currently touring and will be at Headliners in Louisville on November 24.

+ Monkey & Bear from Ys

Generation Gap

"Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John


"Older Guys" by The Flying Burrito Brothers


the older guys tell me what it's all about
the older guys really got it all worked out
and we don't care about the old folks
talkin bout the old style too

The Vigilantes

Michigan's got a pretty solid track record of producing bands that rock your face clean off (The White Stripes, Alice Cooper, Ted Nuget, The Von Bondies... you get the picture), so it's no surprise that yet another talented group of hipsters from the great lakes state are barreling through the rock scene with guitars amped veritably at 11.

The Vigilantes are composed of Joey (vocals/guitar), Isaiah (guitar), Luke (bass), and Matt (on drums). Yeah they've got a great sound, and yeah they've got absurdly catchy songs, and yeah I do want to dance every time I put this record on... but this band is more than that. These guys truly enjoy what they do and it exudes out of every little thing they do. Recently, they stopped in Lexington to play a show that wasn't on the schedule merely because someone asked them too.

The setting: The lobby of a college dormitory here on UK's campus. The guys drove an hour out of their way to play an impromptu show for a handful of kids who knew absolutely nothing about them, for free. They spent the afternoon out on street corners talking to kids and handing out samplers and pulled in a fist-full of kids. Whether it was the charm or the raw talent, who knows, but they played as if they had filled out Madison Square Garden. They stuck around afterwards and talked to everybody in the room. It's no suprise to see they left Lexington with a lot of new fans... and friends too.

They're currently touring around the east coast at a variety of venues, so if you're into fantastic shows that probably won't cost you any more than the one-drink-minimum at a local bar, make sure to check these guys out. The dates are posted on their myspace

You won't be dissapointed in these:

01_Sex_With_The_Devil.mp3

02_Keep_It_Movin_.mp3

08_Guns_Of_Mississippi.mp3

Sufjan on Austin City Limits

Two posts deep and we're already on Sufjan watch. Who could have possibly seen this coming?

Your friend and mine, Stevens is no stranger to the stamp of blogger approval. It seems like for years he's been highly tauted for his quirky stage get-ups, his army of brass and string wielding disciples, and of course the epic, knock-you-over-the-head arrangements of words that seem to burst out of him like an unattended garden hose. It's as if Stevens lyrical faucet was left on full and we get to collect all the magic through those three wonderfully placed porcelian holes.

Now that the salad's out of the way, it's on to the meat and potatoes.

Austin City Limits recently showcased the Detroit-raised captain of all things indie in a 4 song set combining tracks from the two state albums and Seven Swans. The visual of the Stevens mob decked full out in butterfly wings and a hybrid of military/boyscout uniforms was stunning in and of itself, but Stevens whispered pitch and elegant falsetto carried whatever sense of abnormality that may have been present right into the warmest parts of the heart and budded into an understanding. 'Casimir Pulaski Day' left my Manilow-vouching grandmother in tears and even caused her to go as far as to tell me she loved me; he's got one finger firmly fretting his banjo and the other picking gently at our heartstrings. It's well worth checking out, especially if you've already joined the legion of Sufjan fans that wait anxiously for the next installment of... well anything he seems to do.

You can catch a video of Pulaski along with a pretty sweet interview here:

Sufjan

More Sufjan Fun:

Majesty_Snowbird.mp3

04_Jacksonville.mp3

07_Sister_Winter.mp3

Come On! Feel The Illinois! http://tinyurl.com/yl7hr7

The Heartless Bastards

Where to begin?

In 2005, Stairs and Elevators sailed through the scrupulous criticism of inkpens and keyboard punches with hardly a scratch, being a black hole for the unremitted praise of anyone who was lucky enough to stumble upon it. The Heartless Bastards had compiled 12 clever, emotive tracks pumped thick with gritty television-static guitar distortion and the effortlessly blossoming tones of Erika Wennerstrom. The band was signed after fellow Ohioans and blues/rock extrodinaires The Black Keys offered up a demo tape to the suits at Fat Possum Records. My friends, it was lighting in a smoke stained antique whiskey bottle.

A year later, the Cincinnatti-bred three piece are playing phoenix with a sophmore release even more gorgeously arranged than before. The simple, pulsating guitar-driven fuzz is back with a polished and shiny Wennerstrom at the helm. The combination is undeniable; it's the kind of album that makes you wish you had enough hair to drape your face in to help punctuate the bobbing in every crashing climatic measure. All This Time is an album with hooks galore and perpetually bangs around in the space inside your head, like a rock that finds its way inside the hollow sole of your shoe.

The crown jewel of the Heartless Bastards is without question the vocal prowess of Wennerstrom. She's been drawing comparisons from Janis Joplin to Patti Smith, and in one review earned the title of 'the female Joey Ramone'. The girls got pipes... narrow, patina stained pipes that wail out in a way that is careening and soulful and painfully aware.

08_Valley_Of_Debris.mp3

02_Searching_For_The_Ghost.mp3

If you're lucky enough to be 21 (or have some plastic that just says you are), you can find them playing at the Dame in Lexington come November 22nd and at the Southgate house in Newport, KY December 23rd. Honestly, it's like stealing from under the tree a day early.