Sigur Rós – Gobbledigook

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I’m feeling very visually inclined this week and Sigur Rós beautiful new video for their song Gobbledigook feels like the perfect way to start summer. The song is accompanied by the stunning visuals of the previously mentioned Ryan McGinley, who I think has done an amazing job at reviving the (sadly) now nostalgic [...]

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy in italiano

Will Oldham just keeps the surprises comin’. The mercurial and prolific songster, whose new album Lie Down in the Light has been on steady rotation – er, has had a high iTunes playcount – throughout the past week, has lent his his trademark croon to the Italian band Numero6. Better still, he sings in Italian. [...]

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The Fall

Immediately upon viewing the trailer for Tarsem Singh’s upcoming film ‘The Fall’ I was reminded of the intensely rich surreal and psychedelic landscapes that Jodorowsky painted upon his cinematic masterpieces. While it’s quite a stretch to evenly correlate the two, I have high hopes for “The Fall.” Both Spike Jonze and David Fincher have put [...]

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Marissa Nadler reveals new information on upcoming full length

Photo by Joana Linda

No new material to hear yet, but Marissa Nadler has just announced some more details about her new album:
“This is just a bit of updating on my new record. I begin tracking for it this Monday, June 1st, at the Carriage House in Stamford, CT. The lineup will be Me, Myles [...]

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Video Naturalismo: Celebration at Big Sur

“In 1971, everyone did it. And they did it for love. Filmed at the legendary West Coast philosophical retreat The Esalen Institute (which gave birth to EST and which counted Henry Miller as a regular guest), the very rarely-screened Celebration At Big Sur is a terrific document of this formerly annual [...]

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Natural Snow Buildings – The Snowbringer Cult

To think of snow is to conjure all the crestfallen majesty of loneliness, of stillness, of plaintive surrender to isolated introspection. It’s a bleak, blustery place where the wind is as relentless as the mind is restless. But in that plain of being, that frost-clenched tundra, there beats a warm, human heart: the lone survivor [...]

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Naturalismo Presents: Fern Knight Unplugged

I had the amazing pleasure of meeting Fern Knight’s Margie Wienk and Gillian Chadwick (of Ex Reverie as well) and hearing them play a beautiful, unplugged version of Fern Knight’s “Magpie Suite: Parts II & III.” I shot an interview too, but the dumbass that I am botched the footage. So [...]

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…listen for the sound of your friends singing.

I’ve been slowly made aware of a collection of artists who have been quietly plugging away on some fantastic indie folk.  I’m not sure when or where this movement started, and I guess it’s not surprising that in the internet age they are geographically spread out yet (more-or-less) aesthetically cohesive — and they all seem [...]

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Children of the Sixth Root Race – Songs from the Source

This is probably what Chuck Manson’s cult would’ve become if the darn fool had just been more interested in health food than murder. Just sayin’.
The mystical sages over at Drag City have gotten their delightfully idiosyncratic hands onto a lost (or at least shelved) recording of Father Yod’s Children of the Sixth Root Race. The [...]

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Album Review: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Lie Down in the Light

Whenever a new Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album is released, it creates a feeling in me not unlike what my Mom probably feels when I tell her I’m coming home: excited, yet deeply concerned. For, who knows what unexpected changes may have taken place?
Now, I love the Billy. I admire the frank depiction of human sexuality, [...]

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New Beck: “Chemtrails”

People have been crawling all over themselves to attempt to describe the new sound Beck has ventured into on his new song “Chemtrails,” descriptors ranging from Barrett era Floyd to the gossamer pop of the Beach Boys, unfortunately to my ears it sounds more like straight Caribou. It’s not the end of the world, Caribou [...]

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Mariee Sioux: New & Unreleased Songs

When I first heard Mariee Sioux’s debut album Faces in the Rocks, time seemed to stop. Her voice, fragile yet confident in its own understated elegance, wove a tapestry of images and sounds that brought me to an emotional and spiritual plane bereft of worldly obligation or anxiety. In other words, I felt beyond time, [...]

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the thin line between ‘folk’ and ‘country’

Last night, I moseyed over to the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax here in the fair(ly atrocious) city of Los Angeles to catch a documentary on Harry Smith, the renowned and reclusive Renaissance Man who not only assembled the definitive Anthology of American Folk Music, but was also a writer, experimental filmmaker, and philosopher. The [...]

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The Entrance Band Live at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, concert review in photos

Photos: The Entrance Band Live at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur

Click Here for more, all photos by Devin Edvard Woolf (me)

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Rio En Medio unplugged

The fine folks over at Mp3.com sat down with the always enigmatic Rio En Medio and recorded two beautiful unplugged performances of “My Star” and “Kill the Messenger.” Its always fascinating to hear musicians stripped down to the core of just them and their instrument. Danielle’s simple, plucked baritone ukulele and delicate voice create a [...]

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The Plain Truth about Karen Dalton

The PopMatters website conducted a fantastic, highly in-depth interview with Joe Loop who was a close friend with Karen Dalton and recently released a collection of live/rare recordings called “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” If you were ever curious about anything related to Karen Dalton, Loop puts these mysteries to rest. From the site:

“Dalton’s old friend Joe Loop [...]

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Naturalismo Presents: Vetiver live @ Troubadour

A true landmark event for naturalismo. I’m proud to present a very special video: Vetiver, Live at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA, May 7. Andy Cabic sat down with me to answer a few questions and allowed me to shoot some exclusive live footage. The song included in the [...]

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Colleen Kinsella (Fire on Fire) opens online gallery

I’ve always felt that to be an artist is to always be open to all forms of expression, as if the line between music, painting, writing, photography, sculpting, cooking is never and should never be defined. It is the artist’s curse – and greatest joy – that the best and sometimes only means of expression [...]

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Helena Espvall/Masaki Batoh Collaboration Update!

So you may remember a while back I posted about Helena Espvall’s (Espers) new collaboration with Ghost guitarist Masaki Batoh. And you also may remember that I promised to let you know when I heard more…

“The recording session was held in Tokyo over four days in December 2007. For instruments fans, this session might be [...]

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Faun Fables announces new EP

Drag City’s Faun Fables has just announced a new 4-song EP, A Table Forgotten, which will be released on July 22. While you wait, check out this video for the song “With Words and Cake” from the upcoming EP.

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