For a couple of years now I have been impressed by the unique sound and instrumentation of Paper Route. Today I stumbled across some live recordings from The Serial Box, which is a music site that videotapes live performances in only one take, without any cuts or over-dubs. The artists are asked to offer alternate versions of their songs that differ from the album versions. The result is some incredibly intimate performances that showcase the fundamental elements of song’s origins. These Paper Route recordings capture the true talent of the band as the highly produced album versions showcase more energy and electronic expertise.
Paper Route – Are We All Forgotten (mp3 download)
This is the second installment of what hopes to be a year long experiment; my documentation of monthly playlists that encapsulate 12 songs I have been intrigued by in 2011. In case you missed January’s mix, you can download it here.
This month brought about a couple of new singles from bands that are well established in my catalog, as well as some new discoveries from bands I was not previously familiar with.
February – Caught Among the Winter Air
Over the past three months, I have seen Seattle local band, The Head and the Heart, three times. The first two times as openers, and the third time as a headliner at Neumo’s in Capitol Hill. All three shows were amazing and captivating, catapulting their first album into top rotation on my itunes.
However, after their April 29th show sold out in less than 15 minutes this morning, I have to come to grips with the fact that those previous three experiences I had will never be duplicated. The days of seeing this local band in a small venue are over. While I am happy for them and acknowledge that they absolutely deserve the success they are receiving, it’s a little bittersweet as a fan. If nothing else, I am happy that I got to see them early on, but I didn’t think that they would sell out the Showbox in 15 minutes this early on in their career.
Whenever Pete Yorn comes to town, I am excited. But when he is coming to town and it is the 10-year anniversary of my favorite album of all-time, the sun shines brighter and even managing this budget at work doesn’t seem so bad. About a month ago, it was announced that PY would play musicforthemorningafter, in it’s entirity, in six select cities. Today it was announced that Seattle is one of the six! This is literally a dream come true. The only thing that could make this better would be a live CD/DVD recording of the show. However, if that happened, my heart might stop. At least I would die a happy man.
I just realized that the show is on April 1st. This better not be an April Fool’s joke, Pete.
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I decided to try something new. The intent is to post a new mix at the end of every month. The mix will consist of 12 songs that I have been enjoying most during that time period. I have spent a lot of time and effort putting together mixes in the past and they are almost always confined by some sort of self-imposed restriction. The most common is that the material has to be new and up and coming, but I have also limited the genre, mood, tone or season to these mixes. I want this new project to be free from any parameters. The hope is that it will serve as a musical time capsule for what particular songs I was excited about during a given month. Considering the attachment I form with songs and their impact on me, it should ultimately provide a pretty visceral experience when I do choose to reflect on these collections.
January 2011 – “Could it be January ’cause it feels so cold without you here”
Posted in Music
Several years ago, I was gearing up for my first live U2 concert experience.
Naturally, I raced to see which of the five possible opening bands would be coming with U2 to the Northwest. I had read an earlier press release that the possibilities were; The Killers, Keane, Kanye West, Snow Patrol and Kings of Leon. At the time, my preferential ranking probably looked like this:
Naturally, Kings of Leon was the choice and my first reaction was one of disappointment. I had heard of them plenty of times, but never really put forth the effort to invest in them. Then I read a quote from Bono lauding their musical talents, and professing that it was his decision to invite them on tour as a supporting act. This provided KOL with plenty of credibility in my mind, so I decided to approach the concert with an open mind.
Now opening for the biggest band in the world is no small task, but to say that I was underwhelmed by KOL would be putting it kindly. Lead singer, Anthony Followill’s voice sounded like he smoked a pack of unfiltered Marlboro Reds that he found in a time capsule from 1977 that he dug up outside of the arena. They just didn’t excite me, or have the texture or full sound to be playing in front of 17,000 people. I found myself longing for any of the four other opening acts.
For the next couple of years, I didn’t pay much attention to KOL, I had made up my mind that their sound just didn’t appeal to me and I was OK with that. Then, they were everywhere. All of my friends were listening to them and some were even listing them as one of their favorite bands. Bands mature all of the time, they grow, they improve and they evolve. I decided to give the new album a fair shake. Before I knew it, you couldn’t go into any clothing store or turn on any FM radio station and not hear “Sex is on Fire” or “Use Somebody”. Kings of Leon had taken a firm grasp of the rock landscape and despite my attempted objectivity, I still just couldn’t understand it. Most of their songs have choruses of the same sentence repeated over and over again. The chord progressions felt as repetitive and predictable as the lyrics. How come I am the only one that feels this way? I love classic southern rock, I am supposed to appreciate a band that is attempting to bring that classic southern rock sound to my generation. Still, something is missing.
Last week, Atlanta-based Ponderosa released their LP, “Moonlight Revival”. The lead singer showcases a nice southern grit to his voice and it feels like what southern roots rock should sound like in 2011. It’s catchy, with soulful undertones and impressive instrumental accompaniments. There are melodies, great electric guitar solos and diversified styles. Measured up against Kings of Leon, Ponderosa expresses more musical talent and less predictable repetition. Ponderosa has finally delivered a modern version of Southern Rock and I can’t wait to see them in concert. Whether it be as an opening act on the world’s biggest stage, or in a rundown southern bar with way too many tacky Jack Daniels dispensers and light beers on tap. Either way, I’m already sold on their talents.
At times, I have become predictable with my musical tastes. I like to just say that it’s because I know what I like and don’t waver much from it, but if I only ever ate foods that I knew I liked I would have never discovered Cami’s lovely green bean casserole. However, finding new music/food takes a risk; time and money. So when a sure thing comes along, I am beyond excited. You can imagine my reaction when I heard that Anthony D’Amato recorded with Sam Roberts and members of Ben Kweller’s band. Why not just throw in a song with Pete Yorn for good measure. I had to check him out immediately, and he didn’t disappoint. His debut album, “Down Wires”, combines a few infectious, upbeat rock songs with some melodic, folksy acoustic songs.
Here is what D’Amato had to say about working with Roberts on “One Good Time”,
“My old friend Quentin Fielding added some keyboards, but the song was still missing a spark, something to bring the energy up, so I emailed it to Sam Roberts. I opened for Sam last fall when he came to America, and I’m always blown away by the amount of energy he packs into his songs. I’ve learned so much from listening to his records and watching him play, so I was beyond thrilled when he returned my email with several parts he’d recorded in Montreal for me. To have his stamp on something I wrote is an incredible honor.”
First of all, I couldn’t agree more, the energy that Roberts packs into his songs and performances is what makes me so addicted to his music. Second of all, how cool is it that Roberts just recorded a bunch of stuff on his own and sent it right back to him? This album is right up my alley and I couldn’t be more excited to discover it more fully.
It’s been a while since I wrote anything on here. Whether it was because I have been too busy or because I didn’t think anyone would notice, I took a long hiatus from my postings. A newfound artist brought me back, at least for now.
While riding the bus to work, I stumbled across an artist that I had never been exposed to. Doug Burr, a 37-year-old singer-songwriter from Denton, Texas. Without having heard any of his work, I was already sold, simply by his ability to answer standard interview questions with such ingenuity and transcendent perspective. Perhaps Paste Magazine sent him the questions prior to the interview, which is most likely the case, but his responses caught my attention regardless.
When asked about where he draws from lyrically, Burr responded “Lyrically, I don’t know. I guess what I try not to do is give people my sentiment about something, but what I want to do is talk about something, something that anyone can identify with, something that everybody’s felt, y’know? Like, I don’t wanna talk about some specific experience to me. Nobody cares. I don’t even care. But I wanna talk about something that everybody’s felt. Let’s just talk about fear. Let’s just talk about love. Maybe it’s the general specific. I’m probably gonna do it in a specific form, but, hopefully, it applies in a very general sense…That’s because that’s what I like. That’s what gets under my skin typically, and I think that’s what art does when it’s working really well, because it reminds you of things, maybe helps you deal with things, or just kinda connects you with your humanity, connects you with the world. … I like to try to make people feel something. One of my rules of thumb that I always go to—I don’t ever want to tell anyone anything in a song. I want to make them feel, because I hear plenty of songs on the radio that are telling somebody something, and I just immediately can’t stand that. I immediately dismiss it. It’s boring, and, to me, it has no power. But if I can make somebody feel something, and when a song does that to me, it’s powerful, and it’ll live on and on and on.”
Burr deliberately chooses to challenge himself to write about things that won’t be limited to his own personal first-hand experiences. Instead, exploring things that can challenge and propel the thought process of the listener. Subjects that might promote the listener to conjure thoughts, opinions and lessons about their own personal experiences that they might not have reached on their own. He’s right, approaching the songwriting process in such a fashion will produce timeless material.
It doesn’t hurt that he resembles a lot of the same talents as Iron and Wine and David Ford either. I think I found a great album to help me get ready for the Fall season.
My early favorite off his new record “O Ye Devastator“:
“A Black Wave is Comin'”
I understand that there are plenty of Jackson 5 covers out there, but I found this Steel Train rendition of the 1969 hit “I want you back” to be particularly interesting. It was recorded for their 2003 cover EP entitled “1969”. It takes quite a bit of confidence to record a cover of a song as well known as this one, and this relatively small band does a pretty nice job with it. Lead singer Jack Antonoff, former boyfriend of Scarlett Johansson, is currently working on a project with Nate Ruess of The Format fame on a project called Fun (new album due out this summer).
Posted in Music
Never My Love 