New Greg Laswell gem

It’s Friday, typically a day breeds excitement in the form of the commencement of the work week. Today’s Friday is even better. Greg Laswell released a new single that aired last night on Grey’s Anatomy. The song is titled “Off I Go” and features another classic Laswell piano arrangement that continues to build in energy as the song progresses. The concluding chorus line provides an anthemic harmony that has kept this song on repeat all morning.

Laswell will embark on a full-band, headlining tour in June and will be playing at The Tractor in Seattle on the 21st.

Greg Laswell – Off I Go

Undercover

Another installment of my random cover song segment. Today’s song comes from the wonderful Scottish band Travis. On their current tour they have been playing a surprisingly great rendition of Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl”. In this version you hear the affable Fran Healy instill some of his wit and charm while introducing the song. He turns this overplayed pop song that constantly gets stuck into your head, to a really catchy sing-a-long showcasing his incomparable vocals.

Travis – I Kissed a Girl

Cover me, I’m going in

For a while now, I have been considering adding a “Cover Song” element into the blog, but I have been incredibly busy lately and just haven’t been posting much. Today is the day the cover song feature debuts…

When I was in high school, I always held Tim Reynolds’ “Stream” on the Live from Luther College album in high esteem. In fact, I probably vowed that it was my favorite acoustic recording of all time “once or twice (I enjoy hyperbole). Today, that title has been claimed by a guy named Gareth Pearson. His acoustic cover of MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” is pure gold. I can’t think of a better acoustical interpretation from such a stong electrical original recording. The song is suddenly soft, incredibly technical and less rigid. I love it.

 

Gareth Pearson – Time to Pretend (MGMT cover) 

For Andy….and Viers

“Possible song of the summer” – Matt Viers

Boom

New Pete Yorn Single

Pete Yorn has finished recording his fourth full-length album “Back and Fourth” which is due to be released on June 23rd. Pete has released, as a free download, the opening track off of the album “Don’t Wanna Cry”, an emotional acoustic song that resembles some of the work on his EP “Westerns” which was released back in 2006.

Pete has certainly never disappointed in any of his releases, developing a an astute skill to explore new musical boundaries while maintaining his own classic sound and engenuity. He attributes Rod Stewart to his main influence on this track…thankfully, I don’t hear it.

Pete Yorn – Don’t Wanna Cry (right click, save target as)

Acoustic Friday

The Fray released their second full-length album this week. After first review, I quickly appreciated the energy and an increased rock element.  After subsequent listens I can say that I am really enjoying this album. There is enough piano prominence to encapsulate the true sound of lead singer Isaac Slade, but enough stirring guitar riffs to produce exciting anthemic sing-a-longs.

After attending a concert over a year ago, I fully anticipated hating this album. The band is quite good live, but the over-abundance of adolescent screaming during every single lyric was enough to turn me off to their first album for quite some time. Maybe I didn’t give them enough credit for their talents, but I anticipated that this album would be filled with songs geared towards teenage girls. Thankfully that’s not the case.

The first single off of the album “You Found Me”, is an upbeat song that seems to display a little bit of anger with God over a lost lover. The itunes album is filled with 6 b-sides (including 3 acoustic versions) that are definitely worth the price of admission. The acoustic version of “You Found Me” provides a stripped down version featuring a slower pace that provides a new tone to the original.

The Fray – You Found Me (acoustic version)

New Damnwells Record…for free

Alex Dezen, lead singer of the band The Damnwells is also currently teaching rhetoric at the University of Iowa, talk about a guy who follows his passions. On Tuesday, February 10th, he will be giving away his new album for free at www.pastemagazine.com/thedamnwells.

Check out his blog posting about the free release…I couldn’t be more excited about the new album, it’s been almost 3 years since Air Stereo came out.

As of February 10, 2009, Paste Music will be offering the new Damnwells record, One Last Century, for free download from their website.  Go to www.pastemagazine.com/thedamnwells and download the record for free.

A few words regarding this free record.

I suppose the hardest thing to explain to people is why I’m giving this record away. “You’re just going to give it away?” seems antithetical to the human brain.  “Is this just a bunch of b-sides or something?  Some ‘give away’ material you don’t mind releasing into the ether?”  No.  Quite the contrary.  I have never worked so hard or put so much of myself into a collection of recorded songs.  It is for just this reason that I want to give it away.  To me it makes perfect sense.  I just want people to hear this music, and I don’t want them to have to enter into some kind of contractual agreement with a third party to do so.  Download the record, copy it and give it to your friends, lovers, and enemies.  Whatever.  It’s so hard these days just to get the actual music into people’s houses and cars, let alone their ears.  Besides, I know everyone’s broke, maybe I can supply the soundtrack.  So, I just want to give this music away because I want people to hear it.  I should have done this years ago.  I’m starting over.

Enjoy,

Alex Dezen

The new stuff is sounding great so far  www.myspace.com/thedamnwells 

New Coconut Records

Coconut Records, the solo project of former Phantom Planet drummer/successful actor Jason Schwartzman is releasing his second studio album Davy this month. His first album entitled Nighttiming was released in March of 2007, and showcased a variety of indie/pop tracks filled with versatility and freshness. Here is the first single off the new CD, “Microphone”.

Coconut Records – Microphone

Acoustic Friday

The multi-talented Matt Costa started off pursuing a career as a professional skateboarder. He ended up suffering a pretty dramatic leg injury and turned his focus to playing the guitar while he was rehabbing. It turned out to be a pretty good decision. He has released two stellar albums filled with creativity and versatility. Costa has proven that he has an uncanny ability to illicit any sort of mood in his music. From song to song he weaves different instruments and overall pace to show his diversity. One of his more simplistic, upbeat songs “Sunshine” appears on his first album Songs We Sing. In this live acoustic version, he adds a pretty impressive guitar solo while maintaining the fun fast paced simplicity of the studio version.

Matt Costa – Sunshine (acoustic version)

Sometimes I wish singers would just sing

For years I have been going to concerts and for years I have been frustrated by lead singers who insist on stepping away from the microphone and letting the crowd’s yelling resonate throughout the venue. “I came to hear your voice, not the annoying 16 year old female fanatic next to me” I would think in my head.

I remember when Dashboard Confessional released their live CD/DVD back in 2002, I was so eager to hear the live version of “Hands Down” and Chris Carrabba’s famed intro to the song “This is a song about the best day I can ever remember” only to be disappointed when the whole rest of the song was littered with adolescent girls screaming the lyrics while he steps away from the microphone and smiles. I never understood why artists assumed that fans would rather hear their peers singing along (poorly) than hearing the original author of the song singing a live rendition in person.

It’s something I have complained about for a long time, and thought about for even longer. I always assumed that maybe the singer needed a break in between long notes and that was a good way to catch their breath, or that it simply must be a very gratifying feeling to have thousands of people that you don’t know singing the lyrics to a song your wrote years ago in your bedroom while dreaming of getting a record deal and making it big. But then I also wondered if they ever felt like the crowd was butchering their masterpiece, removing the harmonic and artistic value of the song and replacing it with out-of-tune yelling.

A few years ago The Starting Line released a song called “Given the Chance” where lead singer Kenny Vasoli describes the feeling he gets when he is on tour, in a new town and finally gets to step on stage and hear his fans sing every word of what has been so important to him and the proof that he has arrived as an artist.

“the feeling is screaming out
the words of the things i think about
hearing them coming back
from the crowds mouth is perfect
and when the curtains close
i’ll realize how fast time could go
thanks for everything
you know how much this means

what can i say
that can explain
all this time
i’m loving life
theres not a day
that i can’t say
all this time
i’m living out my dream

what this is to me
is more than words could mean
i guess dreams do come true
this song itself is living proof”

 

Then today I came across a quote from the lead singer of The Damnwells, Alex Dezen, who might have summed up the emotions of being on stage, hearing the crowd singing back to you the best.

“Back to the Double Door show in Chicago.  Does anyone have any footage / pictures from that show they can pass around?  I would love to see what went on that night.  What a f****** affirmation that was.  When we were on tour with the Fray, I used to listen to the crowd sing along with them every night.  Three-thousand people singing at the top of their lungs with glorious abandonment—just amazing.  So I’m singing the breakdown section of “Kung Fu Grip Kiss” on stage at the Double Door—the part where I accompany myself without the band for a few measures—and I can hear these voices rising up to meet me, hundreds of them.  When I stepped away from the microphone, they sang without me.  They carried the song back to me and I heard it for the first time, heard it as something living.  Thank you.”

Affirmation. Something living. I guess it makes a little more sense to me now, I just wish they would realize that we have just as much fun singing along whether the speakers drown us out or not. I’d rather hear their voice than mine and thousands of other people who aren’t paid to sing for a living.