Friday, June 29, 2012

Featured Friday Music Shuffle - End of the Month Mix

Here we are the last Friday in June, and the voting has picked up.  Skeletons in the Piano have made a huge push and taken over second place.  They are within possible striking distance of Killing Kuddles who has lead since the beginning of the polling period.  The next 38 hours or so will decide the whole thing.   Remember even if you have voted, you can vote again - here.


For our last shuffle of the month, I have loaded roughly an equal amount of songs for each of the top three (poll results as of this morning) Band of the Month nominees.  Strangely enough, the shuffle came up in order from 3rd place to 1st*
*Okay I shuffled three or four times to get it to come out this way.

To the shuffle:

The more I hear of the Living with Scars album, the more impressed I am by Jo Wymer and he band.  On Come on Baby, Jo shows off her vocal chops with a passionate pleading blues number that stands alongside some of the best female blues vocalists of all time.  





Upstate New Yorkers, Skeletons in the Piano are up next with the lead off track from their Stranger On A Damned Staircase album. That Old Hound Dog came up earlier in the month, but it's worth repeating here. A damned fine blues based bit of indie rock from a highly original band.




And finally, we have another stand-out track from Killing Kuddles - the folksy, grungy, punk troubadour from Atlanta, Georgia.  Today's song is a nifty, rocking tune called Runaway Queen.






 couldn't locate a video for Runaway Queen, so here's Too Crazy.



Thursday, June 28, 2012

MP3 & Video: Turbo Fruits and Bad Cop to Release Split 7" on Jeffery Drag Records


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via Audible Treats:
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Critical Praise for Turbo Fruits: 

"When he's excited (like on the spastic album opener, 'No Drugs To Use'), Stein sounds like a hoarse Henry Rollins. When he's feeling mellow (as on the proto-grunge 'Volcano'), a hint of Mark Arm's cultivated ennui creeps into his voice." -Pitchfork

"Stein's endlessly engaging melodic style gives nods to Bowie and even Elvis, plus there's a sprinkling of psychedelic dynamism now and then." The Guardian

Critical Praise for Bad Cops: 

"It's a soulful, greasy, howlin' whiteboy kind of rant-rock that's even greater than the sum of all its crazy parts, a frantic, no-holds-barred, 'fuck the rules' kind of album that we desperately need right now..." Impose


The 7":


Nashville garage rockers Turbo Fruits and Bad Cop are proud to announce the release of a split 7" on Jeffery Drag Records, which is available for pre-order now. The albums will ship on July 15 and be in stores on July 31. There is a limited edition of 300 on clear vinyl. The tracks will be available on iTunes on July 15.

The Turbo Fruits track "Love Tennessee" is an anthem of sorts for the radical music scene currently bursting out of Nashville (JEFF the Brotherhood, Pujol, Natural Child) as exemplified by the lyrics, "Whiskey and Coke / Telling our jokes / This is the place to be / We love Tennessee / No place we'd rather be / No place like Tennessee / That's where we'll always be."

Like their previous music videos, the video for Bad Cop's single "Wet Lips" also stars an attractive femme fatale and is slightly NSFW. The sixties garage rock sound is amplified by the swirling psychedelic footage- it's a wild rock n' roll party you'll want to be invited to.

Turbo Fruits have been on tour with Deer Tick since April and Bad Cop recently toured with Cage the Elephant. Both bands will have full-length LPs out later this year.

Attention vinyl junkies: We have a limited amount of 7"s available for review-let us know if you're interested and we'll send you a copy.

Check out the premieres at Prefix:
http://www.prefixmag.com/media/bad-cop/wet-lips-prefix-premiere-video/66649/
http://www.prefixmag.com/media/turbo-fruits/love-tennessee-prefix-premiere/66641/





Check out the "Wet Lips" video here

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - SCOTUS Mix!

R.I.P. Don Grady


I'm not at work today, so my morning shuffle was not part of my morning walk, but instead, I listened to the shuffle while waiting with my daughter for the bus to take her to ESY and then while feeding the dogs.  Enjoying what will be the only bearable part of the day.  Temperatures here in Nashville are predicted to hit 101 today, and they will only rise from there over the next few days.

My wife is volunteering for an appearance by Michelle Obama at the Opryland Hotel - and it looks like mood should be jubilant over there.

To the shuffle:

First up we have theB-side to a 7" from The Flint Hill Specials which is a side project of Americana band National Grain.  The song we have today is Unknown Folk Singer  and took me to the Last Motel Room (the A-Side of the 7") where the faces of the forgotten and never known pass unseen along the concrete sidewalks and on the metal and concrete staircase.

You can grab the Downloads (plus a couple of covers) over the the Flint Hill Specials site.  You can catch up with National Grain on their site.


(by the way, you may have noticed over the past couple of days, I've been posting the Amazon ad rather than just the album cover image.  That's because the embed code for the image link has been truncated.  I like the way just the album cover looks, and I hope to return to that format as soon as Amazon fixes the code)

Here's The Flint Hill Specials from this years SXSW.

Next up we have another track from The Bluefields' debut album, Pure. This time around Warner, Dan and Joe make a departure in Dub Step territory... just kidding... Seriously thought, ya'll Don't Let Me Fall  is pure Rock 'n' Roll in a slow burner that speaks to the yearning that all good Rock 'n' Roll has at it's core.


Here are The Bluefields from what I believe was their first show back in September 2011 doing a cover of Led Zeppelin's When the Levee Breaks


From there, we move on to a track from Lo-Fi, Indie Pop band TV Girl from their recent release, The Wild, The Innocent and the TV Shuffle, called Loneliness Can Be Demanding. Give a listen below.




Some tunes from TV Girl from last year.



Next up we have Death Cab for Cutie with a track from their last album (2011's Codes and Keys) - The song is called Monday Morning - which is perfect for a Thursday morning.




And finally, we hit up another tune from Justin Townes Earle's Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now. Justin takes us Down on the Lower East Side.




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Death Cab for Cutie Barking Dogs T-Shirt Sheer Death Cab for Cutie Barking Dogs T-Shirt Sheer
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Theme From My Three Sons Theme From My Three Sons
Theme From My Three Sons - Soundtrack & Theme Orchestra

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Don't Forget Band of the Month Poll Closes Saturday!

Go VOTE

To help you decide - Here are the top five so far!

Tied for 5th Place 



Tipi Valley



And Big Mosey



3rd Place

Skeletons in the Piano


2nd Place

Jo Wymer/Jo Wymer Band


and leading going into the stretch

Killing Kuddles



Also send some love and votes to the rest of the featured artists

Shayfer James
The Riverbreaks
Elephant Goes West 
and
Dogs of Oz

And I totally suck so bad.  I just realized that I left Dean Fields off the Band of the Month Poll.  I am so sorry, and why didn't anyone tell me this!!!!!
I am going to add him to the July Band of the Month Poll!

Speaking of which I've about narrowed down the ten Featured Artists for July, and it's a great group - so stayed tuned.

As way of an apology here's a Bonus Dean Fields Video:




Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Isolated Incident Mix

Yeah, yeah, yeah... blah... it's f**king Wednesday and where does the time go when it goes away.  I'm just randomly typing words, and if they make sense, it's not my fault.  In other news, I have no news.

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This morning some pretty cool songs to lead us into the day:

First up we have the title track from Sam Phillips 1992 album Cruel Inventions which produced by her husband at the time T Bone Burnett. I'm pretty sure I saw her live back around the time this album came out, but my memory is failing me, and I'll have to check with Rex Silo (as if he has any more working brain cells than I do) to confirm it.  In any event, this is a great album that totally does not sound 20 years old to me.

Trivia: Sam Phillips appeared in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance.

   


Next up we have Jolie Holland from her 2004 album Escondida with a song called, Goodbye California. To the best of my knowledge, Jolie Holland did not appear in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance. 




And finally, we wrap up the morning shuffle with a bonus track from the 2011 reissue of the The Rolling Stones' classic album Some Girls. No Spare Parts  features some newly recorded vocals by Mick Jagger who despite doing some acting in his career alas also did not appear in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance.




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Die Hard With a Vengeance - Widescreen AC3 Die Hard With a Vengeance - Widescreen AC3
Bruce Willis returns as misfit cop John McClane in the third film in the Die Hard series. McClane has fallen on hard times; after moving to New York City and breaking up with his wife, he's developed a drinking problem and has been suspended from the NYPD. However, his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Simon (Jeremy Irons), a terrorist bomber who has been using McClane as his contact as he plants a series of bombs in public places and gives McClane inane "clues" to their whereabouts in the form of riddles and bizarre games. McClane soon discovers he's been involved in Simon's scheme as part of a personal grudge; while associated with an international terrorist group, Simon is also the brother of the man McClane threw off the side of a skyscraper several years back (in the original Die Hard). Now McClane, with the help of a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), has to find out where Simon has planted the bombs, guess where he'll strike next, and try to find his base of operations before more bombs go off and thousands of people die. The supporting cast features Graham Greene and Colleen Camp; singer Sam Phillips made her acting debut as a member of Simon's terrorist group (Phillips never speaks, so as to not to reveal her Texas accent). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Grass Root Kids Kickstart Their First EP

Grass Root Kids are a young indie band from Nashville.  They are currently running a Kickstarter campaign  to fund their first EP.  We have the campaign video below. Check it out.  




Now check out the band's song Forty Dead Men.  If you feel moved and are so able drop send some love and $ their way.

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Respite Mix

A rare cooler day, but alas temperatures will be rising soon enough. We got a stunning potpourri of songs this a.m. so sit back and take it all in....

First up is a song from an unfortunately defunct Indie Pop band from here in Nashville.  Popular Genius played extremely listenable, intelligent music.  Apologize  comes from the band's 2003 album, How to Be Popular.






A while back we presented a song from the Brooklyn Band EndAnd (who should in no way be mistaken for our friends (also from Brooklyn) The End Men.  EndAnd are a hard rocking Alternative band.  They have an album called Adventures of Fi in Space which came out this past December.  The song today is called Labor Force.





We've been hitting up Justin Townes Earle's album Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now pretty hard.  It's another excellent record by the Americana giant. Justin Townes Earle will be part of the Mumford and Sons cavalcade (my term) which will hit a few cities this summer (including a stop on the Tennessee/Virginia border).  The song today is called Won't Be the Last Time.




And finally, we got a track from the Pure album by Nashville supergroup, The Bluefields.  Warner, Dan and Joe Lay it on the Line right here!





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Monday, June 25, 2012

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Tarantula vs. Wasp Mix

Thank you Dawn for the subtitle of today's shuffle.

Like we did last Monday, we shuffle up some of our classic tunes and play them back for you...

First up, we have one of the most exquisitely perfect Pop songs of all time by a master of the genre from his very first album.  Marshall Crenshaw was released in April 1982 (30 years!) and Someday, Someway got played on Casey Kasem's American Top 40.  Blah blah... let's get to the song (a nice way to start a cruddy Monday morning).

 



For our second song of the morning, we go back another 11 years or so for a song written by Kris Kristofferson.  Janis Joplin died in October 1970, and her version of the song was released in January 1971.  It turned out to be her only Number One song. It appeared on her classic album Pearl.


Now we go back another five years or so to a song released around the time I turned one month old. Since I seem to be unusually obsessed with Billboard chart positions, this song reach #5. So there.
 Homeward Bound is from Simon & Garfunkel's album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. This song always comes to my mind when I am in the final leg of a return from a long vacation.




That last video was recorded at the Monterey Pop festival in 1967.  The final song in this morning's shuffle was recorded just two days later.  For What It's Worth was originally released on Buffalo Springfield's self-titled debut album.  


 



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Rhino Hi-Five: Marshall Crenshaw Rhino Hi-Five: Marshall Crenshaw
Rhino Hi-Five: Marshall Crenshaw

Janis Joplin Janis Collage Spiral Dye Men's T-shirt Janis Joplin Janis Collage Spiral Dye Men's T-shirt
JANIS COLLAGE - MEN'S T-SHIRT


Classic Paul Simon - The Simon and Garfunkel Years Classic Paul Simon - The Simon and Garfunkel Years
The music from four landmark albums. Bookends, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Sounds Of Silence, and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme.


Monterey Pop - Fullscreen Dolby Monterey Pop - Fullscreen Dolby
The first concert film of the rock & roll era, Monterey Pop is an invaluable record of some of the major musical figures of the late 1960s. The organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival, held June 16-18, 1967, wisely chose to record the proceedings on film for commercial distribution. Even if some of the festival's big acts -- The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, and Buffalo Springfield -- didn't make the final cut for various reasons, the roster of performers who did reads like a who's who of the era: Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), Simon & Garfunkel, and The Mamas and the Papas (that group's leader, John Phillips, was one of the festival's principal organizers). The festival's "international" tag is well-earned by one performer in the film: Ravi Shankar, whose final-day performance was one of the festival's highlights and closes the movie on an exuberant note. Though the festival seemed to be anticipating nearby San Francisco's Summer of Love, the film chooses to concentrate on the musical performers, with only brief intimations of the burgeoning counterculture. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

Friday, June 22, 2012

Featured Friday Music Shuffle - Penultimate Mix

It's Friday!  Time to shuffle up some of our Featured Artists of the Month.  And another chance to plug our Band of the Month poll.

Words cannot express how much I loved this morning's shuffle. Wait a minute, I'm a writer, so yes, words can express how much I loved this morning shuffle:


First up is Dean Fields with Forever Never Knowing from his release entitled Under A Searchlight Moon. Forever Never Knowing is indie folk pop at best.  Bottom line, it's just a well written and wonderfully executed song. It's a love song that doesn't slip into sentimental silliness (but what's wrong with that, I'd like to know).  Dean Fields is soon going to moving from Richmond, VA to Nashville, and I look forward to seeing him around town soon!

  


Killing Kuddles is currently leading in our Band of the Month poll.  He brings a grungy, punk spirit to a folk troubadours' heart (or maybe it's the other way around).  In Vegas, from his Waking Up Older EP, I hear shades of early X, it's a fun little number and damn good song.





 Couldn't find a video for Vegas so here's another Killing Kuddles song


Then there is Shayfer James. Weight of the World from his Counterfeit Arcade album was my introduction to this amazing New Jersey artist. With a carnival-like sound and uniquely emotive vocals, Shayfer, like Don Ryan and Elephant Goes West, draws from what must be a verdant garden of Waitsian magic located somewhere in the Garden State. The thing is, it is very easy to pick the fruit, but it takes a master baker to know what to do with it. Shayfer James is a master chef, and I can't wait for the next batch of tasty treats to come out of his kitchen....  Damn, I made myself hungry!

   


And we close out this shuffle with Jo Wymer who is currently holding down the number two spot in our Band of the Month Poll. This powerful bluesy rock singer/songwriter makes sings classic sounding original songs.  I hear that she is coming to Nashville in September, and I for one, can't wait.  This Ain't Love (Love and War) is another stand-out track on her fabulous Living With Scars album.

 

I couldn't find a video for This Ain't Love so here's a live clip of Jo performing a P!nk song from a show she opened for Corey Glover (Living Colour)



Thursday, June 21, 2012

MP3: Warm Weather "Stay"

(via Audible Treats)


Sophomore EP, Looking Through, Out Nowspacer
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Critical Praise For Warm Weather:

Artist of the Month (May 2012) – The Deli LA

Best Albums of 2011 (Dances) – I Guess I’m Floating

"Warm Weather is a still-wet-behind-the-ears outfit outta Los Angeles who play kaleidoscopic indie rock replete with vocal harmonies that will have fans of running the spectrum from The Beach Boys to Grizzly Bear snapping their fingers in approval." –My Old Kentucky Blog

"Warm Weather are exactly what you want them to be – a dancey synth pop LA based band with plenty of boyish charm and heart-crushing soaring harmonies." – Listen Before You Buy

The Song:


It's ironic that the title of the second track on LA-based band Warm Weather's sophomore EP, Looking Through, is "Stay" as the song will make listeners want to do anything but sit still. The fastest and most urgent sounding song on the EP features smooth, complementary vocals and almost unexpected rocking guitars.Music Dissection says, "Guitars and drums support with almost Mediterranean zest the soothing vocals, the catchy refrain--a stand-out feature. An incredibly thick musical interlude harks back to The Who; classic rock lent a folk sensibility..."

The guys are currently in the process of recording new material at Truth Studios in Los Angeles, which will be ready later this summer.

Download Warm Weather’s “Stay” here: http://media.audibletreats.com/Warm_Weather-Stay.mp3

Stomacher - Clara - On Sale Now!!!!

Stomacher were our second ever Band of the Week shortly after this blog got started.  They are an awesome band from San Francisco with unique, dark and melodic sound.  They have been hard at work, Kickstarting and working with some awesome folks, and now the fruits of their labors are ready... I'll let Stomacher tell you about it!




We have great news! Our new album 'Clara' is out and stream-able for free here:
http://stomacher.bandcamp.com/album/clara

If you like what you hear, please support us and purchase for $9. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and help us continue as an independent band.

Grammy Award-winning Stuart Sikes (Cat power, The White Stripes, Loretta Lynn) mixed the record, and Howie Weinburg (U2, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Buckley) mastered the record, and it sounds fantastic!



Here is a taste....



Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Carburetor Mix

Why Carburetor? Why not?

So, the Black Keys played a secret show in Nashville and from I can tell people were racing around all over  town to try see them. With my luck, I probably would have ended up at an Are You Randy show.*  

*Obligatory Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist reference.

To the shuffle:

First up - It's Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers doing Black Bottom Stomp  - from 1926.


 


Next, we have Nashville's own Darrell Scott from his 2008 release Modern Hymns with a Paul Simon cover: American Tune .

 


We seem to be all about The Joy of Painting this week, as we dig deeper into their Asterisk album with the song, My Personality

 


Finally, we have our second cover to the morning, this time it's Delta Spirit covering Tom Wait's for a Daytrotter Session. Come on Up to the House is from Wait's 1999 album Mule Variations.


 Delta Spirit's Cover
 The Wait's original

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The Best of Jelly Roll Morton: Piano Solo The Best of Jelly Roll Morton: Piano Solo
20 pieces from this popular jazz composer, including titles featured in the Tony Award-winning musical Jelly's Last Jam. Includes: Billy Goat Stomp * Jelly Roll Blues * London Blues * Queen of Spades * Shreveport Stomp * and more.

Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters
This autobiographical portrait of Tom Waits takes shape through a selection of more than 50 interviews. Starting with the first interview--on KPFK-FM's "Folkscene" in 1973--Waits speaks out on a variety of topics and shares something truly unique with his readers. In a rap that is a synthesis of inflections--Louis Armstrong, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, hobo, pool hall attendant, vaudevillian huckster, musicologist par excellence, and a fresh slathering of the organic word-ooze of William S. Burroughs--Waits comes across as well read, informed, and lucidly aware of current pop culture. He delivers prose as crafted, poetic, potent, brilliant, and haunting as the lyrics of his best songs.