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CHIRP Playlist: Friday, January 13, 2012

Sarah — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:15:50 +0000

I got through a four hour show without once mentioning the fact that it was Friday the Thirteenth. You can thank me later.

Next week, I’ll be back to my normal-sized two hour show, nothing to worry about. Four hours of me is a lot to take.

11:54 PM John Aler & Gino Quilico Les Pêcheurs de perles: C’est toi!…Au fond du temple saint from 100 Best Opera Classics (EMI)
11:52 PM Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal from Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
11:50 PM Sea Lions I Loved Her So Much from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sea Lions But Were Afraid to Ask (Slumberland)
11:44 PM Brandi Carlile Before It Breaks from Give Up the Ghost (Columbia)
11:40 PM Mavis Staples Wrote A Song For Everyone from You Are Not Alone (ANTI-)
11:37 PM The Mighty Imperials Thunder Chicken from The World of Daptone Records (Daptone)
11:31 PM Low Especially Me from C’mon (Sub Pop)
11:28 PM Dayna Kurtz Beautiful Yesterday from Beautiful Yesterday (Kismet)
11:24 PM Darkness Falls Noise on the Line from Alive in Us (hfn)
11:19 PM The Benny Goodman Quartet Moonglow from Greatest Hits (BMG)
11:15 PM Jason Adasiewicz’s Sun Rooms Run Fly from Spacer (Delmark)
11:09 PM Ha Ha Tonka Death of a Decade from Death of a Decade (Bloodshot)
11:05 PM Bell X1 Pinball Machine from Neither Am I (Island)
11:03 PM Nada Surf No Snow on the Mountain from The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy (Barsuk)
10:54 PM Carissa’s Wierd September Come Take This Heart Away from Songs About Leaving (Sad Robot)
10:51 PM The Darcys Glasnost from The Darcys (Arts & Crafts)
10:44 PM A Hawk And A Hacksaw Espanola Kolo from Cervantine (L.M. Duplication)
10:41 PM Mar Caribe Pirates of Lake Michigan from Songs From Under the Flight Path (self-released)
10:36 PM Herculaneum Elmyr from UCHŪ (EF)
10:31 PM Róisín Murphy Primitive from Overpowered (EMI)
10:27 PM Booker T. Jones Progress (featuring Jim James) from The Road from Memphis (ANTI-)
10:25 PM Little Ben & the Cheers I’m Gonna Get Even with You from Eccentric Soul: The Nickel & Penny Labels (Numero Group)
10:21 PM Girlyman The Shape I Found You In from Remember Who I Am (Daemon)
10:15 PM Sigur Rós Lúppulagið from Inni (XL)
10:08 PM The Avett Brothers Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise from I and Love and You (Sony)
10:05 PM Mumford & Sons The Cave from Sigh No More (Glass Note)
10:01 PM Cloud Control Ghost Story from Bliss Release (Infectious)
9:57 PM The Get Up Kids Close to Me from Eudora (Vagrant)
9:53 PM Rainer Maria Hell and High Water from A Better Version of Me (Polyvinyl)
9:51 PM Los Campesinos! Hate for the Island from Hello Sadness (Arts & Crafts)
9:49 PM April Smith and the Great Picture Show Terrible Things from Songs for a Sinking Ship (self-released)
9:44 PM Brown Bird Nothing Left from Salt for Salt (Supply and Demand)
9:40 PM Luke Roberts Anyway from Big Bells and Dime Songs (Thrill Jockey)
9:37 PM The Milk Carton Kids I Still Want a Little More from Prologue (self-released)
9:34 PM Lawrence Arabia Eye A from Chant Master (Bella Union)
9:30 PM Coconut Records West Coast from Nighttiming (Young Baby)
9:27 PM Tiger Bones When You Fall from When You Die (Candy Dinner)
9:20 PM Jacaszek Dare-gale from Glimmer (Ghostly International)
9:16 PM Marissa Nadler No Surprises from Covers I (self-released)
9:08 PM Nicole Mitchell F.O.C. from Awakening (Delmark)
9:02 PM Dave Douglas Bowie from Spirit Moves (Koch)
8:58 PM Sloan Take Good Care Of The Poor Boy from Between The Bridges (murderecords)
8:54 PM Guided By Voices Spiderfighter from Let’s Go Eat the Factory (Guided By Voices Inc.)
8:50 PM Whitehorse Passenger 24 from Whitehorse (Six Shooter)
8:45 PM Cat Power The Greatest from The Greatest (Matador)
8:40 PM Kathleen Edwards Change the Sheets from Voyageur (MapleMusic)
8:38 PM 16 Horsepower Wayfaring Stranger from Secret South (Razor & Tie)
8:33 PM Ray Davies Dead End Street (ft. Amy McDonald) from See My Friends (Universal)
8:29 PM JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound Baltimore Is the New Brooklyn from Beat of Our Own Drum (self-released)
8:26 PM Doomtree The Grand Experiment from No Kings (Doomtree)
8:21 PM Apex Manor Under the Gun from The Year of Magical Drinking (Merge)
8:18 PM Chris Connelly The Paraffin Hearts from Artificial Madness (Relapse)
8:14 PM Save the Clocktower You Got Me from Carousel (self-released)
8:08 PM Sandro Perri Love & Light from Impossible Spaces (Constellation)
8:03 PM Rufus Wainwright Release the Stars from Release the Stars (Geffen)

My 2012 Music Resolution

Mel — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:45:59 +0000

One of my favorite moments in music in 2011 was the performance by Mumford and Sons, the Avett Brothers, and Bob Dylan at the Grammys last February.

Mumford and Sons performs “The Cave,” the Avett Brothers perform “Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise,” and Bob Dylan fronts the combined bands as they perform “Maggie’s Farm.”

There are a lot of things I love watching in this performance. It’s pretty clear that the first two bands are thrilled to pieces to be there. I like “The Cave” — that harmonizing cornet line at the end! — and I like “Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise,” and while I’m not sure I buy those songs plus “Maggie’s Farm” as a medley, it was entertaining enough that watching the performance the morning after the Grammys made me late for work.

It’s nice seeing a performance on the Grammys that isn’t heavily choreographed, too. Part of what I liked about this performance is the way they dig into what they’re playing with mostly acoustic instruments — that’s not something you see too often in a venue like that. They’re good musicians and it’s fun to watch them do what they do.

It’s also fun to see how thrilled they are at getting to back up Bob Dylan. Speaking of Dylan, he’s working it like RuPaul. Look at the way he steps around that bass and takes his rightful position at the front! Look at the facial expressions on that line behind him! In that performance and in that venue, Bob Dylan is an acknowledged diva, and he is playing that role with enthusiasm.

I’ve been thinking about this performance since February, and over the course of the fall semester I did a little work and a little research into this kind of thing, and friends, it sure does bother me that this kind of music I like a whole lot, this indie alt-country y’allternative singer-songwriter whatever, got physically portrayed on the Grammys as music played by white men only, with the Bob Dylan Stamp Of Approval™.

Here’s a list of all the performers on the 2011 Grammy telecast. This performance was the only one consisting solely of white men. When I watched it the morning I was late for work, even as I was clapping like a seal with delight, there was still that small voice asking, so does this mean that the publicly acknowledged acolytes of, or heirs to, Dylan are only young white men? Because that is one white male backup line.

“Maggie’s Farm” bothers me, too. Wikipedia gives a quick background on dominant readings of the song, but one thing that isn’t there is the inherent inclusion of gender in the title. We don’t hear from Maggie — Maggie is absent — and the speaker’s rejection of the farm always has to do with gender, because it’s not “I ain’t gonna work on this farm no more,” or whatever’s necessary to adjust for scansion. It’s “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.” Combine that with Dylan’s infamous performance at Newport ’65, where some people took “Maggie’s Farm” as a shot fired across the bow, and the Grammy performance takes on added layers of defiance outside of the lyrics — all of which is context bearing on the Grammy performance that can’t be ignored. The Grammy performance is a party in Bob Dylan’s honor, and the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons are thrilled to be there — but it’s hard to see where anyone who doesn’t look like them gets to fit in.

I mentioned that I did a little work over the course of the fall semester about things like this. One of my final projects was digging more deeply than I did in this post into the influence of the Mississippi Sheiks on Andrew Bird’s “Fake Palindromes,” and I found out a few things that surprised me. I don’t think Bird is responding to the Sheiks and “I’ve Got Blood In My Eyes For You,” as I did when I wrote that post. Instead, I think he’s using the music of the Mississippi Sheiks as a springboard for a response aimed far more broadly in the direction of systematic misogyny. Bird isn’t responding to a specific person, but rather a pattern of behavior, and that’s pretty notable. When speaking about popular music and musicians, as a general rule, we place value on influences — who people sound like, who they’ve played with, who they themselves want to emulate. The result is a kind of twist on Great Man theory — and, incidentally, a way to establish credibility with other people based on who you listen to.

The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons look pleased as punch to be up there on that stage on national television with Bob Dylan — and they should be. It’s a nice career boost. But I wonder if it’s not possible to broaden this Great Man narrative of indie alt-country y’allternative singer-songwriter whatever, and instead try popular music from below. Thinking about what that might look like excites me.

So that’s my 2012 music resolution: think differently, get past Dylan, pay attention to context, and write about it — hopefully more here than I’ve done since I moved to Mississippi. Onward and upward, y’all.

CHIRP Playlist: Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sarah — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:23:58 +0000

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to my inaugural (internet) radio adventure on CHIRP Radio. If you’re interested to know what kind of music I play whenever I get three hours behind the controls of Chicago’s best radio station, then read on. I’ll be back on the air on Saturday, October 8th, from 9 am to noon, Central time.

8:56 PM Neil Young Southern Man from After The Goldrush (Reprise)
8:52 PM Jessica Lea Mayfield Blue Skies Again from Tell Me (Nonesuch)
8:51 PM The Jayhawks She Walks in So Many Ways from Mockingbird Time (Rounder)
8:47 PM Tinariwen Tamiditin Tan Ufrawan from Tassili (ANTI-)
8:44 PM Martha Wainwright Jesus and Mary from I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (Zoe)
8:40 PM Serengeti Flutes from Family & Friends (Anticon)
8:33 PM Andrew Bird Not A Robot, But A Ghost from Noble Beast (Fat Possum)
8:29 PM Brandi Carlile Looking Out from Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony (Columbia)
8:25 PM Milagres Halfway from Glowing Mouth (Kill Rock Stars)
8:20 PM The Bowmans Make It Last from Far From Home (self-released)
8:17 PM Wilco Black Moon from The Whole Love (dBpm)
8:14 PM Justin Townes Earle Poor Fool from Midnight At The Movies (Bloodshot)
8:08 PM Allá Es Tiempo from Es Tiempo (Crammed)
8:04 PM Vienna Teng 1BR/1BA from Dreaming Through the Noise (Zoe)
7:59 PM Active Child Johnny Belinda from You Are All I See (Vagrant)
7:54 PM Gotye Somebody That I Used to Know from Making Mirrors (Ais)
7:52 PM Buffalo Rome Plant White Roses from Obscurities (Merge)
7:45 PM Ohbijou Balikbayan from Metal Meets (Last Gang)
7:41 PM The Avett Brothers The Weight of Lies from Emotionalism (Ramseur Records)
7:37 PM Low Majesty / Magic from C’mon (Sub Pop)
7:33 PM White Mystery Take a Walk from White Mystery (self-released)
7:28 PM Okkervil River Your Past Life as a Blast from I Am Very Far (Jagjaguwar)
7:25 PM Peter Wolf Crier Beach from Garden of Arms (Jagjaguwar)
7:20 PM Booker T. Jones Representing Memphis (featuring Matt Berninger and Sharon Jones) from The Road from Memphis (ANTI-)
7:15 PM Teddy Thompson Separate Ways from Separate Ways (Verve)
7:07 PM Braid Universe or Worse from Closer to Closed EP (Polyvinyl)
7:04 PM St. Vincent Northern Lights from Strange Mercy (4AD)
7:01 PM Anais Mitchell Hades & Persephone from The Brightness (Righteous Babe)
6:57 PM Dessa Into the Spin from A Badly Broken Code (Doomtree)
6:53 PM The Grey Race On the Chin from Give It Love (Unfiltered)
6:51 PM Tom Vek World of Doubt from Leisure Seizure (Co-op)
6:45 PM Nico The Fairest of the Seasons from Chelsea Girl (Polygram)
6:42 PM Laura Marling Rest in the Bed from A Creature I Don’t Know (Ribbon)
6:39 PM Jeff Pianki Missing Parts from Paper Window. (self-released)
6:35 PM Alpha Consumer The Crown Salesman from Kick Drugs out of America (self-released)
6:30 PM A.A. Bondy Surfer King from Believers (Fat Possum)
6:25 PM Dusty Bibles Wintersong from Sinus Rhythm EP (self-released)
6:20 PM April Smith and the Great Picture Show Drop Dead Gorgeous from Songs for a Sinking Ship (self-released)
6:17 PM Beirut Goshen from The Rip Tide (Pompeii)
6:14 PM Neko Case Runnin’ Out of Fools from Blacklisted (Bloodshot)
6:09 PM The Mountain Goats Psalms 40:2 from Life Of The World To Come (4AD)
6:03 PM Girls Just a Song from Father, Son, Holy Ghost (True Panther Sounds)
5:59 PM Ha Ha Tonka Usual Suspects from Death of a Decade (Bloodshot)

This Week in Great Music: 9/26 – 10/2

Sarah — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:48:54 +0000

Apparently in addition to last week being Andrew Bird week, last week was also “Sarah’s Too Busy to Blog” week. No worries, friends, I have a review of the (thoroughly amazing) Hideout Block Party coming up. Let’s just pretend that last week didn’t happen, otherwise.

This week is full of shows I want to go see but might not get to. I am hoping to see The Low Anthem tonight and Megafaun on Wednesday, but in reality, I might just go home and go to sleep instead.

Also, you’ve got a chance to hear me make my internet radio DJ-ing debut on Chicago’s own CHIRP Radio. I’ll be playing some tunes for the music-loving masses from 6-9 pm on Saturday, October 1st. Give a listen, it will make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. And if you’re in to supporting local, all-volunteer organizations, consider giving a tax-deductable donation to CHIRP to help out with its fall campaign. CHIRP is a non-profit organization, and all donations go towards things like rent, internet streaming fees, and paying utilities. No donation is too small; even $10 will be a help. Check out the donation page, read up on CHIRP if you’re unfamiliar, and please consider giving. As an added bonus, if you put my name (or even the blog’s name) down under the “How did you find out about CHIRP” box, I’ll hook you up with your very own customized, possibly potentially hilarious, mix CD. Do it, it’ll make you feel good inside.

Monday, September 26
Beirut; Congress Theater. 7 pm, $30
Robbie Fulks, Randy Lee; Hideout. 7 pm, $10 suggested donation
The Low Anthem; Empty Bottle. 9:30 pm, $12

Tuesday, September 27
Lucy Wainwright Roche, Anne Heaton; SPACE. 8 pm, $12-20

Wednesday, September 28
Bear Lake, The Juliets, Missing Chums; Double Door. 8:30 pm, $5
The Damnwells, Harper Blynn, Carley Tanchon; Lincoln Hall. 9 pm, $15
Megafaun, Doug Paisley; Schubas. 9 pm, $12

Thursday, September 29
Dar Williams, Joan Osborne; Park West. 8 pm, $35
Girls, Nobunny, Papa; Lincoln Hall. 9 pm, $18

Friday, September 30
Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen; Chicago Theatre. 7:30 pm, sold out
Mason Jennings, the Pines; Park West. 7:30 pm, $20-22
The Avett Brothers, Truth and Salvage Co.; the Aragon. 8 pm, $38.50-43
Tony Lucca, Jay Nash, Matt Duke; SPACE. 8 pm, $12-22
Ari Hest; Schubas. 10 pm, $18

Saturday, October 1
Dala; SPACE. 7 pm, $15-26
Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen; Chicago Theatre. 7:30 pm, sold out
April Smith and the Great Picture Show; Henry Wolfe; Bottom Lounge. 9 pm, $10
Jon Drake and the Shakes, The Future Laureates, Kingsley Flood, Ben Ripani Music Co.; Subterranean. 9 pm, $10

Sunday, October 2
Meh

March in Review

Sarah — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:01:09 +0000

It’s been a bit of a quiet month around here. I blame the Mountain Goats. Because I can.

At any rate, here’s a glimpse of what I spent March listening to.

Confession Time: Why I Hate “Wagon Wheel”

Mel — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:26:12 +0000

I gave it a good effort, I tried every trick I could think of, I thought about it for months, but I don’t just dislike what’s probably Old Crow Medicine Show’s best-known song.

I really, really hate “Wagon Wheel”.

To be honest, I’m sad about that. It’s catchy and it’s fun to sing along with — as long as you don’t think about what you’re singing. Stealing the chorus from Bob Dylan I can forgive. Snatching bits of other songs is a time-honored tradition in country and folk music. (Here’s a game if you’re bored: see how many songs contain the line peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall.) It’s just unfortunate that the chorus is the best part of the song, because the rest of the song is irritating at best.

The problem starts in the first verse. I spent a lot of time hanging out in dogwood trees as a kid — one in the front yard, one in the back — and I’m here to tell you that no matter how hard you try, you can’t pick a bouquet of dogwood flowers. You can put together some dogwood branches that have flowers on them, but then that’s a bouquet of branches. The actual flowers don’t have stems long enough to make for a bouquet.

The more egregious lack of research comes in the last verse: the Cumberland Gap is west of Johnson City, Tennessee, not east.

These slips showcase the larger problem in the song, which is that the whole thing is little more than a list of overly romanticized clichés about itinerant life in the Eastern time zone. It’s name-dropping, and sometimes image-dropping, and ultimately it comes off like a failed audition tape for A Mighty Wind, rejected because the tape was made by people who thought the movie was supposed to be a serious documentary about non-fictional bands. I have no problems envisioning a cover of “Wagon Wheel” by the Folksmen; the song is only slightly better than the Folksmen’s “Never Did No Wanderin’” and “Old Joe’s Place”.

In order to try to like “Wagon Wheel”, I compared it to a song about itinerant life in the Eastern time zone that I like a lot — The Band’s “The Weight”. The comparison showed me another reason I hate “Wagon Wheel”: the protagonist isn’t only stupid (dogwood- and geography-related errors), he’s selfish. Part of the beauty of “The Weight” is that it underscores how even when you’re traveling, you run into people and places you know. You carry messages back and forth. You stay in touch. You help out other people when, where, and how you can. All we know about the guy in “Wagon Wheel” is that he went up to New England, thought the weather was too cold, lost all his money in a game of poker (and presumably his girlfriend, as she used to be up there too), and started hitching down the East Coast in an effort to see the same girlfriend in Raleigh.

We’re probably not supposed to think about this song from the girlfriend’s perspective, but let’s pause for a moment. The guy you’ve been seeing wants to play fiddle in an old-time string band in New England. Good enough. For some reason, you head back down to North Carolina. Meanwhile, this guy gambles away all his money and starts hitchhiking down to see you — and the last non-chorus line we get from him is and if I die in Raleigh, at least I will die free.

Really? After all that effort? With that whole story with him chasing this girl up and down the East Coast and acting like a jerk in the process, the last thing we get is an affirmation that he’s okay dying without any kind of human connection? Why is the girl supposed to care about this guy if he’s that stupid and self-centered? Why are we supposed to care about this guy?

It’s not that the protagonist is an unbelievable character, but rather that it looks like no effort went into the songwriting. (At least with “Old Joe’s Place”, you know it’s supposed to be a parody.) “Wagon Wheel” is a fancy Americana Mad Lib. There seems to be a complete lack of awareness on two levels: the protagonist, and the songwriters. This lack of awareness is galling because of the selfishness inherent in being able to be that unaware of other people. It’s great that the protagonist of “Wagon Wheel” can enjoy meandering all over the place, but to disavow all human connection in celebration of some false freedom is a slap in the face to everyone else in the song, from the girlfriend to that trucker in Philly kind enough to share his pot to the other people in the old-time string band.

That Old Crow Medicine Show still appears to sing this song like it’s serious might not be a slap in the face, but it’s a headscratcher at the very least. According to Matt Dellinger’s piece on OCMS from the Oxford American in 2003, they got helping hands at every turn from people like Doc Watson, Marty Stuart, and David Rawlings — people who were established in the industry, people with influence, who could get their music in the right places.

If you’re going to play traditional folk, bluegrass, jug-band, string band, what have you, you owe your predecessors. You have to acknowledge them in one way or another. And while the band may not have intended for “Wagon Wheel” to become their signature, it’s a little ironic that a bunch of privileged boys from New England who became a part of music culture in Nashville through help from older, more established musicians get to get up on stage and sing a song about how they do whatever they want, whenever they want, and if they die, at least they’re going to die without encumbrances. If you’ve got privilege, the very least you can do is acknowledge it — and to my knowledge, Old Crow Medicine Show hasn’t yet.

On the whole, I’ll take “I Hear Them All” over “Wagon Wheel” any day. And if I’m going to listen to a song about a selfish boy chasing a girl only as long as he feels like it, whether or not she gets a say, the Avett Brothers’ “Pretty Girl from Chile” is an infinitely better option. At least in that one the girlfriend gets a word in edgewise — not to mention a name.

Old Crow Medicine Show: Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | YouTube

The Avett Brothers: Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

Wheel of Fortunepalooza?

Newport Folk Festival: July 30 – August 1

Sarah — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:50:36 +0000

You can tell that summer is rapidly approaching, given the number of festival line-ups that are tumbling in. The Newport Folk Festival, in (where else) Newport, Rhode Island, has announced its lineup for its 2010 festival.

Artists appearing include:

AA Bondy, Andrew Bird (in his only summer appearance in the US), Ben Solle and Daniel Martin Moore, Brandi Carlile, Calexico, Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, John Prine, Justin Townes Earle, Nneka, O’Death, Punch Brothers (with Chris Thile), Richie Havens, Sarah Jarosz, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, Tao Seeger, The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Swell Season, and Yim Yames, among others.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday.

BRB, trying to figure out how to get to Rhode Island! WTF, summer, you are not helping me tame my desire to travel long distances for music.

Wow, That’s a Good Song: The Avett Brothers, “Murder in the City”

Sarah — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:12:29 +0000

In honor of tonight’s Avett Brothers’ show that I’m not going to be at. A song about being murdered shouldn’t be so pretty.

If I get murdered in the city
Don’t go revenging in my name
One person dead from such is plenty
No need to go get locked away
When I leave your arms
The things I think of
No need to get over alarmed
I’m coming home

The Avett Brothers: Official Website | MySpace | Twitter

This Week in Great Music: 3/1 – 3/7

Sarah — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:30:11 +0000

March is getting off to a bit of a slow start. I think the month of March knows that I will be spending most of April skulking about in various venues for an absurd number of shows. March is telling me that I need to get my sleep, I think.

Monday, March 1
The Ike Reilly Assassination, Schubas. 8 pm, $10
Richard Shindell, Antje Duvekot; SPACE. 8 pm, $15-25

Tuesday, March 2
Nothing

Wednesday, March 3
Alicia Keys, Allstate Arena (6920 Mannheim Rd., Rosemont). 7:30 pm, $49.50-125

Thursday, March 4
John Prine, Rialto Square Theatre (102 N Chicago, Joliet). 8 pm, $46.50-86.50
Sara Watkins, SPACE. 8 pm, $15-25
Angelique Kidjo, Lincoln Hall. 8 pm, $30

Friday, March 5
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Lincoln Hall. 10 pm, sold out
Robyn Hitchcock, Schubas. 10:30 pm, sold out

Saturday, March 6
Robyn Hitchcock, SPACE. 8 pm, $23-25
Rhett Miller, FitzGerald’s (6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn). 9 pm, $15
The Blacks, Schubas. 10 pm, $12

Sunday, March 7
Punch Brothers ft. Chris Thile, Old Town School of Folk Music. 5 pm and 8 pm, $18-22
The Magnetic Fields, Harris Theater. 7:30 pm, $30-35
The Avett Brothers, The Low Anthem; House of Blues. 9 pm, sold out

2009 Favorites: Part Two

Sarah — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:10:40 +0000

Here’s the second of four installments of what should really be called “stuff I listened to a bunch this year” but more concisely referred to as “favorites”. In case you missed the first post, you can find it here. I’ll be back next week with the last two installments.

Alec Ounsworth, Mo Beauty.

This is a new discovery for me; I found it because the song “Holy, Holy, Holy Moses (Song for New Orleans)” appeared on a couple of Best Songs of 2009 lists. I liked what I heard and searched out the whole album and, yes. Just, yes. Ounsworth’s voice is intriguing; in places, it almost reminded me of Elvis Perkins, with this low, gritty feeling and delivery. The vocals are interesting and took a few listens to grow on me, but at the end of the day, I’m a sucker for interesting voices. The album doesn’t fit neatly into one style, with the slow beauty of “Holy, Holy, Holy Moses” being followed up with the more perky almost-rocking-out song, “That Is Not My Home (After Bruegel)”, for example. You can’t pigeon-hole this album, but on a whole, it works.

Mo Beauty was released October 20 on Anti.
Official Website | MySpace
Purchase the album here.

The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You.

This album is positioned so far down on my non-ranked-but-still-segmented list of favorites because for me, the best song is the title track, which leads off the album. The rest of the album is still fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I had higher hopes for it based off of that first track. I’m a newcomer to The Avett Brothers’ music, having heard a few songs here and there over the years, but not bothering to look into their music more until this album came out. I’m a fan, though, based on what I’ve heard, and the album’s on rotation on my Not iPod, so here’s to hoping the rest of the album winds up growing on me as much as that first track has.

I and Love and You was released September 29 by American Recordings.
Official Website | MySpace | Twitter
Purchase the album here.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Elvis Perkins in Dearland.

This album isn’t Ash Wednesday, and with good reason. Perkins set out to make a different record entirely, and this album is overall much more upbeat… sonically, at least. The lyrics are a different story, full of heartbreak and hurt. Even the perky “Doomsday” (which gets redone into a slower version for the equally wonderful Doomsday EP) throws in the heart-wrenching reference to Perkins’ mother’s death on 9/11: “Now in all of my wildest dreams it never once did seem that doomsday would fall anywhere near a Tuesday.” Perkins’ voice gets his point across perfectly, though. His sound’s been fleshed out more on this album, with his backing band providing trombone and clarinet and saxophone, moving away from the stripped down sound of Ash Wednesday and instead making an album that’s probably as close to a celebration as Perkins can get.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland was released March 10 by XL Recordings.
Official Website | MySpace
Purchase the album here.

Justin Townes Earle, Midnight at the Movies.

Listen to this even if you don’t like country-esque records. Midnight at the Movies is a creative, sophisticated entry into the world of modern country, and deserves to be heard by more people. S0me of these songs sound like relics from a time long ago, not songs written by a 27-year old, no matter what talented family tree he comes from (son of Steve Earle). This is a travelling record for me, the kind of thing I could imagine popping in on a long ride through miles and miles of endless corn fields or something. Maybe the next time I’m crazy enough as to drive for that long again, I’ll bring this along with me.

Midnight at the Movies was released on March 3 by Bloodshot Records.
Official Website | MySpace
Purchase the album here.

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone.

The more I listen to Middle Cyclone, the more I like it. You can’t describe it as anything other than a Neko Case album. While I still like Fox Confessor Brings the Blood, this album has been growing on me. The album has been a great critical and commercial success for Neko, with Amazon naming it as its album of the year (and selling it so cheaply that I don’t know how anyone managed to make a profit) and it’s fabulous to see her getting the attention that she deserves. All of the songs on here are gems, just classic pop-rock songs carried along by Neko’s always strong vocals. Even the 30-minute sounds of nature track that closes out the album is interesting to listen to.

Middle Cyclone was released March 3 by Anti.
Official Website | MySpace
Purchase the album here.