How's My Living? » Sharing

Wow, That’s A Good Song: Mbira DzeNhaira, “Toputika Neshungu”

Mel — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:14:42 +0000

Here’s your gorgeous for the day. The professor in the music class I’m taking this semester started off this morning with this video, and I’m considering skipping the rest of the day to watch it over and over.

Mbira DzeNhaira is a mbira orchestra from Zimbabwe, and they have an album available on iTunes. Check them out — when I’m not running between classes and meetings, I certainly will.

Mbira DzeNhaira: Official Site | iTunes

First Aid Kit, “The Lion’s Roar”

Sarah — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:39:25 +0000

Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg return with their second full-length album, a collection of simple indie-folk songs which feature their well-matched vocals above all else. Beyond the lyrics and the songwriting — none of the lyrics are particularly groundbreaking — their voices are the real draw on this album. They’ve been previously compared to a female version of Fleet Foxes, which is understandable, given their tight harmonies and simple backing music. Most of the tracks fit that model of gentle but mostly upbeat folk-rock songs. Title track “The Lion’s Roar” is an excellent track, one which I already admit to listening to on repeat an embarrassing number of times. “Emmylou”, a sweet tribute to country greats like Emmylou Harris and Johnny Cash, is heavy on lap steel and could easily be mistaken as a track from any of the current Americana-inspired US bands rather than a pair of Swedes. Closing track “King of the World” features a guest appearance on vocals by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes).

The Lion’s Roar is out today on Redeye (Wichita in the UK).

First Aid Kit: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Store

Hooray for Covers! Walk off the Earth, “Somebody That I Used To Know”

Sarah — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:28:53 +0000

Stop! Do not pass go! Watch this!

That is five people, on one guitar, playing Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”.

I’ll be right back; I’m busy feeling inadequate with the handful of chords that I know.

Walk Off The Earth is a Canadian group which plays their own original music, but who are gaining a lot of attention for this fairly inventive take on an already awesome song.

Walk Off The Earth: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter

Wow, That’s a Good Song: Quiet Company, “Fear and Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree”

Sarah — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:51:51 +0000

I was introduced to Austin, TX-based Quiet Company by fellow blogger and curmudgeon Steve, of Baby, You Got a Stew Goin’! and was sufficiently impressed. Their new album, We Are All Where We Belong, could easily be one of my favorites of 2011, if I was bothering to keep track of those sorts of things this year. Check out this video for their song “Fear and Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree”. I dare you not to like it.

Quiet Company – Fear and Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree – Official Music Video from Digital Shakedown on Vimeo.

The problem with me and the problem with you,
is that we’re all just so scared to die.
But I know my time is coming,
I can’t keep my time from coming.

Quiet Company: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Store

Earl Scruggs Is A Funny Man

Mel — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:04:48 +0000

High on the list of things I never thought I’d see: Earl Scruggs in a Funny or Die video.

Bluegrass Diva with Steve Martin, Ed Helms and Noam Pikelny from Steve Martin

And yet I am surprised and delighted. Also present: Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Bela Fleck, Gabe Witcher, Ed Helms, Steve Martin, and Noam Pikelny.

Lest we forget, Earl Scruggs covered things with the Byrds; he also covered “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35″ with Lester Flatt. And there’s your twang for the day.

Earl Scruggs: Official Site | Store

Wow, That’s a Good Song: Brown Bird, “Bilgewater”

Sarah — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:41:07 +0000

Brown Bird is David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, based out of Providence, RI, although by the sounds of them, you would expect them to hail from some creaky barn, surrounded by rusty machinery and maybe a farm animal or two, somewhere in the rural south. Their latest album, Salt for Salt, was recorded live to tape, and it shows, as the songs are polished but still somewhat raw. While the album would probably best be filed under Americana, there are definitely a good deal of world music influences; they were described to me as having “Eastern European vs. barn-burner stylings”, which is just right up my alley.

Here’s a video for “Bilgewater”, a track off of Salt for Salt. It is, somewhat aptly, filmed atop a military boat.

Kitchen Sessions Presents: Brown Bird – Bilgewater from Kitchen Sessions on Vimeo.

Brown Bird roll through Chicago on Saturday, October 29th, supporting These United States and Paleo at Schubas. The show is at 10 pm and tickets are $10. To check out more of their live performance, head over to NPR to stream or download their set from this summer’s Newport Folk Festival.

Brown Bird: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Store

How I Spent My Blogging Vacation

Mel — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:34:39 +0000

August 5, I quit my job. August 9 and August 10, I saw Andrew Bird in Colorado with friends.

On August 11, I picked up my father from the Denver airport. By then my apartment was 90% packed. Since he’d had a long flight and I had additional packing to do, I introduced him to my Roku box and my Netflix subscription. “See, they even have the old Flatt and Scruggs variety hour.”

He turned off the TV past 11:30 that night — 1:30 in the morning, his time.

***

The morning of Saturday, August 13, I took that span of time between what used to be my apartment and the truck rental place up at 48th and Jackson to listen to the song I’d used to keep me sane my last few months of work: “This Year.” It helped — or at least it made it easier to stop crying before anybody saw me.

We left Denver pretty shortly thereafter.

***

Eastbound I-70 and southbound I-35 across the plains. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine. Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Andrew Bird. (“This one sounds different than his others,” my father said, unprompted by me, about Armchair Apocrypha. “Why is that?”) Ralph Stanley. Konono N° 1. The Mountain Goats.

I played “Quito” from We Shall All Be Healed a second time through and asked my father whether he thought John Darnielle would make a bluegrass singer.

We listened, and he said, “He might be all right, but he doesn’t have enough range to be really great at it.”

Sunday morning we listened to the Smithsonian Folkways Southern gospel compilation and decided to make a Sunday pilgrimage to Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa — we’ve both seen the opening credits to the Wilco Ashes of American Flags movie, with the portraits of early country and Western swing artists on the walls. We know what Cain’s is. We poked around long enough to get a glimpse of the portraits, as well as Matisyahu’s tour bus pulling in for the show that night. Downtown Tulsa is eerily quiet on a Sunday morning. We had lunch a few blocks away, and kept driving.

Our next stop: Southaven, Mississippi, just across the state line from Memphis, where the concierge at the front desk asked us if we were there to keep vigil at Graceland for Elvis’s death week. We said we weren’t. Plenty of ladies in the hotel were, though.

The next morning we moved me into a house in Oxford, Mississippi. A week later, I started graduate school.

***

Lots of trips to see friends and family, now that I’m back on the righthand side of the Mississippi River. I went to a wedding in Baltimore; I figured out where to find Colorado beer in Atlanta and Birmingham (no beer above 6% ABV in Mississippi, and I love my stouts). I listened to the new Wilco album — and one afternoon, I put “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” on repeat for seven and a half hours, until I finished a book for class. I drove across the state to spend an afternoon in Clarksdale, home of the Delta Blues Museum and many, many musicians, and went across the river to Helena, Arkansas, birthplace of Levon Helm, just for the pleasure of seeing a big river. Drove on Highway 61 while I was at it — though I wasn’t listening to Dylan; I was listening to Bobby Charles, on the recommendation of a guy in my program.

A lot of reading, a lot of writing, a lot of adjusting to life in the South again. (It’s been an adjustment.) Last weekend I finished unpacking. Yesterday I got stuff up on my walls — the open liner notes to Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville are at eye level, just like they were in my apartment in Denver.

Tonight I joined a friend at the Blind Pig Pub, just off the square in Oxford, and drank a couple of Shiner Bocks and listened to Michael Hurtt and his Haunted Hearts. First live music I’ve seen in over two months. I liked them. You might, too.

***

So that’s how I spent my blogging vacation — moving, settling, resettling, and finally, a couple of months later, sticking my head out to see who’s there. Music around the edges, everywhere. I’m working on having more things to write about; as my time in school progresses, I’m hoping to find ways to share some of the things I’m learning. The goal is for music to get less peripheral as time goes by.

This last week it’s been all about early popular music in the United States, from nineteenth-century minstrel shows through the Jim Crow era. But more on that some other time. I’m back, at least a little bit, and glad to be here.

No related posts.

Wow, That’s A Good Song: Jeff Pianki, “Old Habits”

Sarah — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:26:34 +0000

I recently saw Michigan-based artist Jeff Pianki at Lincoln Hall, opening for Rocky Votolato and Matt Pond PA, and was quite impressed. He’s a singer-songwriter, boy with a guitar, and quite a charming one at that. There were plenty of melancholy songs to go around, like you have with singer-songwriter-boys-with-guitars, but also plenty of humorous moments, too. There was a kazoo, okay? A kazoo.

Jeff Pianki – Old Habits from Blair Neighbors on Vimeo.

Four years and a new man falls for you
So why fight it when you think you might love him too?
Old habits die hard or never do
Keep lying ’till they all catch up to you

I’ll be playing one of Jeff’s songs tonight whenever I take over CHIRP’s airwaves (or, um, streaming-internet-waves) from 6 to 9 pm Central. You can listen along at home by clicking on this link right here.

Jeff Pianki: Official Website | Facebook | Tumblr | Bandcamp

Hooray for Covers! Willie Nelson, “The Scientist”

Sarah — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:47:51 +0000

Alright, look, I know it’s cool to hate on the following things:

Coldplay
Covers of Coldplay songs
Anything that has to do with Coldplay
Corporate product placement
Anything that was sponsored by corporations

It’s not cool to hate on the following:

Adorable animations of pigs and cows

Keep that in mind while watching the below video clip.

You don’t have to like Coldplay or Chipotle or sustainable farming or even Willie Nelson, but those little cartoon pigs are darn cute.

Willie Nelson: Official Website | Facebook | MySpace | Twitter | Store

Wow, That’s a Good Song: Gogol Bordello on NPR’s Tiny Desk Series

Sarah — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:05:02 +0000

[ The North Coast Music Festival kicks off today. In the time leading up to the festival, I'm going to introduce you to some stand out songs from bands, both local and further afield, who will be making appearances during the weekend's events. ]

For me, perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the North Coast Music Festival would have to be Gogol Bordello. They’re a band who I never quite warmed to in regards to their studio albums, but after much prodding from people at last year’s Lollapalooza, I decided to check them out. Live, their gypsy punk finally made sense to me. The raw energy and enthusiasm of Eugene Hutz and company comes across loud and clear on stage. This collection of multicultural musicians are incredibly talented, not to mention some of the hardest working people on stage today. Below, check out their performance as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Series. I guarantee you’ve never quite seen anything like it.

Gogol Bordello plays on Sunday, September 4th at the North Coast Music Festival. You can see them at 7:30 pm on the The Named After Groupon Stage.

The North Coast Music Festival is September 2nd – 4th in Union Park (1501 W Randolph). Three day passes have been sold out for a while now, but single day tickets ($50 for Friday, $60 for Saturday or Sunday) are still available.