Just wanted to remind everyone of Mountain Man’s show tonight at the Hemlock in San Francisco. My expectations were actually set pretty high for them when I caught them at Zoo Books this past weekend over in Oakland. Needless to say these girls were nothing short of spectacular live, harnessing some of the best raw harmonizing/attention silencing presence I’ve seen since I first caught Joanna Newsom hopping around stage singing solo in ‘04. As excited as I am to see them again tonight at the Hemlock I really hope the next time they come back to the West coast they’ll be able to stop by the Henry Miller Library; I can’t imagine a more apt setting for their music than in a redwood encircled grove off the coast of Highway 1.
Have One on Me. Two hours, eight minutes, and 10 seconds of anticipated bliss.
01 Easy (6:04)
02 Have One on Me (11:02)
03 ‘81 (3:52)
04 Good Intentions Paving Company (7:02)
05 No Provenance (6:25)
06 Baby Birch (9:30)
07 On a Good Day (1:49)
08 You and Me, Bess (7:13)
09 In California (8:42)
10 Jackrabbits (4:23)
11 Go Long (8:03)
12 Occident (5:31)
13 Soft as Chalk (6:29)
14 Esme (7:56)
15 Autumn (8:02)
16 Ribbon Bows (6:11)
17 Kingfisher (9:11)
18 Does Not Suffice (6:45)
If you’re in the New York-area, you’re in for a big treat. Kevin Barker’s amazing documentary about what is quite possibly the 2000’s most amazing tour will finally be unveiled at 92Y Tribeca. A nice little taste of sunshine in the dead of winter, especially if you weren’t able to score the Joanna Newsom tickets that sold out in about 8 seconds.
Sharon Van Etten recently recorded a single for Weathervane Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of independent musicians. This is the only track where you can hear Sharon without her signature acoustic, and the results are beautiful. You can view some great behind-the-scenes video from the recording sessions for this song too. Head over to Weathervane music to learn more about their mission and make a donation too!
I get the feeling that John K.’s music isn’t going to be a secret much longer if he keeps churning out the steady flow of solid melodies that he has been over the past few months. Lost somewhere in the sonic neighborhood with Ariel Pink and Gary War, he’s already self-released five albums this year alone which I’ve only just started to make my way through. I rarely find a single that catches my ear so it was to my extreme delight to have a majority of the songs found on his freely downloadable albums stand out through their diversity and infectiousness. Go grab them now.
These two tracks have been on repeat and are pretty representative of the range of his music:
If there’s any place that realizes the value of the tragically unheralded musician, it’s here on naturalismo. There was a time in music when not everybody could share their idiosyncratic music with the world, when some of the best musicians were relegated to the shadows because their songs weren’t hummable enough, weren’t marketable enough, weren’t user-friendly enough. Sometimes they were just too strange. There were just as many obscure troubadours in those days as there are today; only difference for the fiercely singular talents of yesteryear is that it took a little more effort and a little more legwork to actually get some songs laid down on vinyl. That is why an artist like Ted Lucas, who released a single, self-titled record in 1976, deserves to be lifted on someone’s shoulders and paraded down the main street of the interwebs and sprinkled with confetti and fanfare. This album is seriously good. I don’t often speak this bluntly, but for someone like Ted Lucas I feel compelled to be as clear as possible. This is one of those rare records that achieves melancholy and hope at the same time, a record that more accurately captures the nature of our mercurial mind than something of pure saccharine or pure bile. His voice has an otherworldly quality; it sounds like it was laid down in a field of cotton. It is resonant and rich, but simultaneously smoky, numbed, and crestfallen. The melodies are almost always circular, as if they were designed to be sung in the round (and on one song, it is). The flow of the album is immaculate. It’s a record that you only listen to from beginning to end.
Many thanks to Yoga Records who tipped me off to this masterpiece. They will be re-releasing The Om Album on vinyl soon, so stay close!
[ stream ] Ted Lucas – It’s So Easy When You Know What You’re Doing
[ stream ] Ted Lucas – I’ll Find a Way to Carry It All
Glad that I finally get to mention this amazing undertaking McGregor over at Chocolate Bobka has taken over the past year. Collecting articles, music, video, art and more from a vast array of some of the most interesting figures in contemporary art. McGregor has assembled what is likely to become one of the most interesting publications this year and will only be made available for a short period of time, each copy being handmade to order. The Report is a cultural breath of fresh air with its focus on slowing down a bit from the rapid and brief fragments comprising much of online music/arts documentation and delving deeper into what is happening at the moment. It also has a focus on bringing you content that doesn’t translate as well online as it does in print and physical media, in McGregor’s own words:
The Report, if you don’t already know, is a 100+ page bi-annual journal, compilation and DVD package, containing the weirdest, wisest musings on culture, art and music. Contributors include Dent May, Ben Chasny, Rob Mitchum (Pitchfork), Devin Woolf (Naturalismo), Justin Gage (Aquarium Drunkar), Molly Sarle (Mountain Man), Matt Mondanile (Ducktails, Real Estate), Sawyer Carter Jacobs (Underwater Peoples, Family Portrait), Emilie Friedlander (Visitation Rites, Arthur Mag, Tiny Mix Tapes) and Cian Traynor (Guardian, SeeWhatYouHear.com), and Douglas Gibson (Mountain Fold Music), amongst many, many others.
View the trailer:
The Report also comes with a cassette mix tape and digital download (tracklist is below), as well as an exclusive DVD of never-before-seen footage of Justin Townes Earle, Pure Ecstasy, Twin Sister, the Alex Bleeker and the Freaks supergroup (featuring 2 drummers and Julian Lynch on keys), as well as selections from the Chocolate Bobka Church show featuring Mountain Man, Liam the Younger, Lux Perpetua, and No Demons here.
Get a taste of the video here, with an exclusive preview of Alex Bleeker and Mountain Man covering Girls “Oh Boy” at the Chocolate Bobka church show last December.
The Report is made to order, and pre-order will only be available for 2 weeks, so go to Chocolate Bobka (http://chocolatebobka.blogspot.com/2010/02/video-report-bleekermtn-man-oh-boy.html) asap to order a copy. Editions will be limited.Mixtape Tracklist:
Side A
1. Madalyn Merkey – Excerpt from Orphic Breathing
2. Twin Sister- Kimmi In The Ricefield
3. Raw Thrills- Komiche Traveling With Vampires
4. Javelin – Clamato
5. Family Portrait- Dog Wah
6. Holiday Shores- Three-Peat
7. Run DMT- Let’s All Take Acid
8. Alice Cohen- The Binding of Cords
9. Real Estate – Wonder Years jam
Side B
1. Alex Bleeker- Journey Through The Past
2. Mountain Man- The Loon Song
3. Pillow Talk- Living Room Jam
4. Pigeons- Behind the Reeds
5. Woodsman – Mothka
6. Pure Ecstasy- Dream Over
7. Alex Craig & the Cedermark Kitchen Singers – If It Makes You Happy (Sheryl Crow cover)
Nate Grace of Pure Ecstasy has generously put together an awesome 7 song mix today for us here at Naturalismo. Pure Ecstasy’s most recent release, ‘Easy’ hasn’t really left my record player since I picked it up two weeks ago at his show here in Aquarius records and that’s saying a lot since it’s only a 45! It was actually during the performance of his last song Easy that I caught myself dying to know what music had caught his own ear recently. The result: a rad mixtape that should take over your playlist for the afternoon. So without further ado, here’s Pure Ecstasy’s Mixtape for Naturalismo. Thanks again to Nate for putting this together, while you’re listening go grab his new 45 here.
Update: Nearly forgot that Nate had sent over a 7th song for it that I think is my favorite track on the mix. You can grab the full mix above or download any of the individual songs on the mix below.
Love the combination of that early drum machine with some of Dennis’ best solo recorded vocals. “Fallin’ in Love” was originally intended to be released on Sunflower in 1970 with Brian on lead vocals, but was left off the album and released shortly after as one of Dennis Wilson’s first singles.
One more rad clip…
Love hearing Carls’s lead in this version of “Breakaway”
Holy shit-to think that I thought my expectations were lofty a bit back after seeing her play for 2+ hours and thinking it would result in a 2xLP, well head over to Drag City to pre-order the 3xLP!
Videod by Dr. Elwood Snock himself, this 88 minute documentary is now available as a hand-stamped DVD in an edition of 100. It is centered around a tour Michael took with Amy Annelle and Ralph White in August of 2008. Here is the ten minute trailer, retitled “The Shortwave Stall”
Michael has also released a new 7″ through Mississippi Records with Betsy Nichols joining in on vocals.
To buy this stuff straight from the Doctor go to-> Snocko News
Up here in the downpour of beautiful rain in Arcata, I’ve been playin this on repeat.
Sometimes I could take or leave Bill Fay’s somewhat overproduced debut 1971 self titled album. I think a lot of people promptly dismiss it after hearing its oddly baroque instrumentation and I can’t blame them. The overproduced instrumentation just sounds out of place set against his unfairly maligned as Dylan tinged tunes. However, he has that distinctly British knack for effortlessly and seamlessly wandering between an upbeat and cheerful melody while half a minute later in the same song dragging you through the gutter. Like Ray Davies drinking cold Tea with Dylan with plenty of Cohen and Lennon thrown in the mix as well. I guess I’d plead with those who have formerly dismissed him to listen to the collection of Bill Fay acetate demos, my favorite of which is from 2007’s easily overlooked and mostly mediocre Fading Yellow 9 comp. The song, simply titled “Unknown Track” is pretty hauntingly brilliant and I don’t think appears on any other album or outtake collection. When I first heard the acetates awhile back I was surprised at how much better they were than anything I’d ever heard by him. Finally here was the Bill Fay promised to me in that beautifully bedraggled photo of him sitting solo at the piano. Stripped of the, in my opinion, unneeded flourishes found on his later albums, I’m a bigger fan of the stripped down sound on these early recordings. Trying to wake up too early, drinking coffee, staring out the window and seeing rain-these songs have made so much sense again lately. Maybe if I get over this cold I’ve had going on two weeks they’ll get put back up on the shelf for a bit, but until then Fay is better than any over the counter…
Also, just last week he released a new double album that he recorded in 2009 that includes and extra disc of rarities and unreleased tracks from this same 60’s period. I’d say start with the above then head over and buy his new double cd set here:
Our dear friends over at Arthur Magazine invited me to guest DJ their inaugural radio show on Brooklyn’s Newtown Radio this past Sunday afternoon. They’re going to be spinning some pretty amazing music every Sunday from 4 – 6pm EST, so tune in if you get a chance!
