So my friends and I get together for our yearly holiday shindig and there is music and fun and silly camaraderie. The music that holds up the next day during our raucous card game (peanut, if you don’t know it, you should learn it. And be prepared for some surprising in-game language from people you thought you knew…) are real keepers.
One of my recently favorite albums that made an appearance if Joe Purdy’s 2007 album “Take My Blanket and Go”, specifically the song “White Picket Fences”. It’s a twisting soul-felt intense blues number. See below for an impressive 9 1/2 minute version of the tune (there is a second song on the video as well).
And if you think you’ve heard him before, you probably have. His mellow “Wash Away” was featured on an early season of the very popular LOST.
And for this month only, download his new album for free on his official website http://joepurdy.com/
For the record,the first dictionary entry for badassery in the urban dictionary is:
Engaging in seemingly impossible activities and achieving success in a manner that renders all onlookers completely awestruck.
“Did you see that badassery? He just took down a whole battalion with nothing but his hands!”
(However, it should be noted, the urban dictionary is basically an open source slang dictionary, which while it’s an interesting source of colloquialisms, doesn’t mean they have to be known to anyone except the person who wrote the entry)
Anyway, on to my main point. Apparently two is the magic number for creating some rock magic, a la the White Stripes or even the sugary garage pop Ting Tings. While they’ve been around for some time, the Black Keys seem to be gaining some stronger momentum as of late. It can’t hurt that they just released the stellar new album “Brothers” in May of this year.
The sound tends to be simple and lo-fi, but reeks of old soul reminiscent of screaming jay hawkins and other greats. These boys evidently have a good sense of humor as well as evidenced in some of their videos. Check out a few below and prepare to be hooked…
So I ♥ these guys, I mean it. Course I do share my heart with many musicians but these guys have got so much soul I can barely stand it. I found out I just missed them by a couple days when I recently checked their tour dates. I do this often. I hear tell there’s a site where you can get updates on when all your favorites are touring- I will need to scope this out and share. Anyway, here’s a bit of what I’m talking about:
the Avett Brothers are one of my favorite recent musical finds (see the list of my top albums of 2009). Unfortunately, I discovered them too late to have caught them when they were touring locally.
It is interesting however, to have become a recent fan when, from some of the comments on youtube, it appears some of their older fans are lamenting some of the differences between their current and older albums.
Love this one too:
I am convinced I need to one day take a life-changing roadtrip with the Avett Brothers as my guide…
I was fortunate to be the recipient of my friend’s invite to see Emily Hope Price at hog farm studios, a cozy little venue in Biddeford, Maine. HFS is an intimate setting with a great deal of creative ambiance – walls slapped with inspired and fun colors and designs (check out the ladies room decked out with mexican wrestler masks!) and swaths of mismatched fabrics draped as a backdrop to the stage.
Emily Hope Price was first to play the evening we went – last Friday, Jan 15th. She began with just cello, looping various musical phrases via an effects pedal and teasing an intriguing range of sounds from her instrument. She really embraces multiple ways to create sound, playing her cello to its full potential. She also has a wonderful voice, smooth and lilting, reminding me at times of Nellie McKay, Regina Spektor, and Fiona Apple. Multiple instruments made appearances during the evening including an accordion (yay!), xylophone, and a $15 violin gifted from her father that sounded almost ukulele-like.
Emily Hope Price has an instantly likable personality. She’s gracious and witty and chats with her audience between songs. She played us several songs from her recently started 365 project – a venture where she plans to write 365 songs in the same amount of days. It’s in its early stages but has already yielded some beautiful songs, purposeful collaborations, and even some videos! Also be sure to check out Emily’s facebook and myspace pages.
Here are a couple videos from youtube that give a flavor of what to expect when (no maybe’s) you see her:
“The merger of two of the music industry’s most powerful juggernauts—Live Nation and Ticketmaster—has been in the works for nearly a year, but it wasn’t until late last week that the concert promoter and ticketing giant received their shareholders’ approval to merge. Still holding up the merger is the U.S. Justice Dept.’s negotiations with the two companies over possible violations of U.S. antitrust laws.
Shareholders may have given the go ahead to both companies, but the merger cannot go through without approval from the Justice Department. All three parties have been negotiating a deal—so far with no real progress. Reports say that the Justice Department wants Live Nation and Ticketmaster to make a number of compromises to ensure that this merger—between the world’s largest concert promoter and the world’s largest ticketing group—would not create an all-powerful monopoly in the industry.”
I know I’m disappointed because whether it’s technically a monopoly or not, the options to buy tickets in any other way is fast becoming as rare as [insert some apt, witty example of rapidly-declining trend]. I often get excited about a reasonably priced-show until I realize a $12 ticket price will soon be bombarded with handling fees, venues fees, fees for such-and-such’s cousin frank who is somehow involved twice-removed with the ticket process somewhere… For the music industry, who as a whole has realized much like the rest of the country, that they can no longer rise above such a stagnated economy, they sure are finding even more ways to alienate their customers.
These are some local boys I heard on the River (WXRV, Boston, 92.5), a pretty excellent independent radio station here.If I remember correctly, the band members all hail from Massachusetts.I was pretty taken with the lead singer’s voice, and I’m absolutely in love with their song, “Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts”
I’ve checked them out more since then, and while I find some of the songs are too similar to one another, I appreciate the simple but tight playing. The songs are sweet, slice of life stories – so far, there appears to be no shortage of love around here, with multiple songs by the band featuring a girl’s name in the title. They currently are on tour with their “Road to 1000” and I’m thinkin I should try and catch their Somerville show… but at the same time, I may be in Maine at that point and a Thursday night just doesn’t work. Why no Portland, huh?
I’ve liked Butterfly Boucher for quite some time now, starting with her first album “Flutterby” released in 2003.
One of the singles off this release:
She finally released a follow-up in 2009 called Scary Fragile. Check out her awsome acoustic performance hosted by PASTE Magazine. What I really enjoy about her is her voice has this really unique quality to it. The guitar sounds pretty different as well.
Here are two songs from the recent album culled from the same Boston show as the above clips:
Last Thursday, Nov 12, 2009 As Tall As Lions took the stage to open up for Mute Math.
I wasn’t familiar with them, but I ran into a friend at HOB (House of Blues) who had come just for them, which is always a great sign. My friend also told me that the lead singer had a polyp or something else equally uncomfortable going on with vocal chords recently. Luckily, we seemed to catch the band in full recovery. Their sound is really lush, with really pleasant vocals and the addition of horns on many of the songs. There doesn’t seem to be any videos posted from the performance I saw, but this clip of their song “Go Easy” from the Luxury Wafers Sessions should give you the idea:
The Mute Math part of the show was just indescribable. I’ve seen them four times and they’re definitely in my top five for live shows (and I’ve seen quite alot of shows…). There is this halo of unbelievable energy surrounding their performances. In terms of their sound, they remind me of a sort of cross between the police and radiohead. Their albums are really pleasant to listen to but the music requires the live experience to breathe a real life into it. Paul, the lead singer, is generally hopping around stage and jumping on top of his piano to play keytar. Darren is a fast drummer; so fast, he tapes his headphones around his head with duct tape to keep them from flying off. The band effortlessly switches instruments with one another during portions of the show and produces intensely rhythmic sonic moments. Instruments have been broken and concussions have been incurred during some of their shows. The most rock-n-roll moment of the evening was when Darren beckoned the crowd close, sturdily set his bass drum on top of their eager hands, stood on top of the drum (with some looks of concern from both the crowd and the band members on stage), and dove into awaiting arms to crowd surf. Very, very, cool…
Here’s a few clips from the Boston show. Sound is reasonable, and shaking on the videos are minimal. :
Partial Clip of “control”:
“Plan B”:
“Spotlight”, the end is indicative of the energy of their shows:
“Clipping”:
Alway’s their closer, “Reset”, they let the crowd play this funky homemade sort of instrument:
A Bit of Stardust 