Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Crazy, Crazy World Mix

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We've reached the final day of April.  This month has flown by, but as I mentioned yesterday, it has also been jam packed with great music. We will be reformulating our current month playlist to prepare for May, and soon we'll be presenting a recap of April and adding some great artists to the Ear to the Ground "Family". In the meantime, we have some great music to present today.

Pre-Shuffle:  

1.  "The Blood Beyond" by Skeletons in the Piano from Please Don't Die - one of the albums we featured this month.
2. "Watch Who You're Calling Space Garbage Meteor Mouth" by Game Theory.  18 seconds of weirdness off the album Lolita Nation.
3. "High on the Skyline" by The New Mendicants from Australia 2013 E.P.  - Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.  This is an amazingly lovely song.
4. "Free to Fly" by Markus Rill 
5. "In the Rain" by The Danbury Lie from ? (2013) - We love this band and their new record is strong in all the right ways.  Glad to feature another song as April comes to an end.
6. "Dripping With Looks" by Game Theory - a slightly longer song from the Lolita Nation album.  Happy to close out the month with a few more Game Theory songs.


Let's dive into our final shuffle of April 2013 after the jump:

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Big, Bad Wolfe Mix

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 "Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good!" Run D.M.C.

 Wow.  April is almost toast.  It's been a helluva month for music.  We hope to have a recap up soon.  In the meantime, we're packed with our usual quirky mix of old and new music to enlighten, entertain and excite your senses.

PRE-SHUFFLE

"Did You Lie" by Taco Land
"Being John McEnroe" by The Pistolwhips
"Brick x Brick"by Christopher Paul Stelling
"Soulard" by Taco Land 
"Mary Magdalene" by Game Theory

The two Taco Land tracks are from the band's latest Pancakes and Pizza.  The Pistolwhips song (great title and a great song) is off The Appetizer Sampler put out by the good folks and Built 4 BBQ.  The song by Christopher Paul Stelling is the first track released from his brand new album False Cities which is tearing it up right now! The pre-shuffle ends with the Game Theory song - as we continue to feature the great music of this 80s era San Francisco band in memory and homage to the late Scott Miller.

SHUFFLE commences after the jump...

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Goodbye Possum Mix

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Sad to hear about the passing of the one and only George Jones.  It's been amazing to see the posts coming up on Facebook from all around the world and from creators and fans of so many different genres of music. He lived the life of his songs and he traveled many roads (sometimes on a Riding Lawnmower). He leaves behind an amazing legacy of song and lore.

We move on... and time is very short.

The Pre-Shuffle:  

"The Shit Song" by The Imperial Rooster

"The Only Lesson Learned" + "What the Whole World Wants" + "White Blues" by Game Theory

"Salvation" by Langhorne Slim and the Law 

"Hard Love" by The Mohawk Lodge

Shuffle after the JUMP.... JUMP

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Firehouse Mix

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Time is short and we have some great music to cover in today's pre-shuffle and shuffle.  Let's get to it.

Pre-Shuffle:

"Odd Fellows Local 151" by R.E.M.
"A Good Man Knows" by Black Jake and the Carnies (the song from their new EP we didn't get to yesterday!) 
"Digging Underneath the House" by Skeletons in the Piano
 "Machine Gun" by Taco Land

Shuffle awaits you after the JUMP

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Waiting for Cluckaphony Mix

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Let's face it, there is no shortage of bands dancing around the "Americana", "Roots Rock", "Alt-Folk-Bluegrass-Country-Blues" sound. Hell, these days it's not too unusual to hear a banjo (or  more likely a banjitar) even on the "Hit" radio stations.  If you liked Mumford and Sons then you'll probably like the other half a dozen or so bands who sound just like them.  Right? So, here is the question: If there is this glut of Rootsy sounding bands being blasted out of radios and computers and MP3 players, does not mean any band falling however loosely into that area of music is redundant or superfluous? Well, keep in mind, this is coming from someone who writes a music blog for goodness sakes!  But, I think the answer is... wait what was the question?  Bottom line, the world can never get enough of creative and talented people following their passion down whatever path that leads them. So if a creative or talented group of musicians happen to play rootsy music (or punkish indie, or blues based rock or whatever) so be it and more power to them.

All that long windedness to say, I have had the good fortune to become acquainted with tons of amazingly talented people over the last couple of years, and it seems like at least half of them are releasing new music this year.  Today, I'm going to delve into two bands who are similar in a different way from each other (or maybe they are different in a similar way)... Join us after the Jump for a very special episode of Ear to the Ground's Morning Shuffle:

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Fingernails and Cigarettes Mix

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We're back.  Sorry for the lack of Shuffle action yesterday - it could not be helped...


Yesterday, the music world lost two greats... Chrissy Amphlett of Divinyls and the legendary Richie Havens.

 

Last week, we learned of the passing of Scott Miller (Game Theory and The Loud Family).  If you are not familiar with the music of these two great, but underknown bands, now would be a great time to rectify that situation.

The family has released all of the Game Theory albums for free download at The Loud Family Website.   We have added the entire Game Theory collection into our current batch of songs from which we shuffle.  We will keep the songs up for the rest of the month in tribute to Scott Miller, and then will likely keep some of them up just because they are awesome.  We'll be getting some Loud Family added to the mix soon, too.

Let's get right to the Pre-Shuffle which includes two Game Theory songs:

"Ray Wilkins, 1996" by The Lucky Jukebox Brigade

"Little Ivory" by Game Theory

"Finest Worksong" by R.E.M.

"Together Now, Very Minor" by Game Theory

"Eleanor Rigby" by Skeletons in the Piano (covering some lads from Liverpool)

Shuffle - after we JUMP!

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Time it Was Mix

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Time is short - so let's get to it....

Pre-Shuffle:

"The Way We Move" by Langhorne Slim and the Law
"Gold Dust Woman" by Fleetwood Mac
"Long Harbour" by April Verch
"Buried in the Murder" by Lonely Wild
Muskegon Harbor" by Taco Land (I love this song!)
"Blue" by Joni Mitchell


After the Jump - we expose our Shuffle of the day and post our daily You Tube playlist

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - What's So Funny? Mix

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Okay, Okay... I have to start off by setting some things straight.  In my haste to complete the post yesterday some errors, omissions and general crap occurred. 

1. I am well aware that Slim Dunlap replaced Bob Stinson not Tommy Stinson in The Replacements as I originally wrote. This faux pas has since been corrected. Doh!
2. I kind of blew by some important information regarding the Songs for Slim benefit project.  First that The Replacements contribution is just part of a massive project.  Second, that limited edition vinyl presses of the who project are being sold. Here is a link to the Facebook page for the project.  This is a very worthy cause.  I was extremely fortunate to have been Slim with The Replacements  (including Tommy - see I told you I knew that) back in the day at an epic show at the Armory in Nashville. 
3. I neglected to post the You Tube Playlist for yesterday.  Here it is:
4.  I reported that an arrest had been made in the Lincoln assassination. It turned out that an arrest had been made in the Boston bombing, but then it turned out that this wasn't the case either.
5. I posted the Grimey's Record Store Day performance schedule, but failed to highlight a few cool things.  First that Paramore are performing, second that Pujol is coming back for the second year in a row and third that there will be a middle school orchestra performing selections from Beck's Song Reader album of sheet music.  Not to mention Josh Rouse, Hotpipes, The Features! and much more.
6. I have to retract a statement I made about a Nigerian Prince underwriting Ear to the Ground.  Apparently, that deal fell through.
7. Finally, I have to apologize for my statement that if Anne Frank were alive today, she would be a fan of Ear to the Ground.  Turns out that if she were alive today, she would be about 84 years old and well below the target demographic of Ear to the Ground (we are geared primarily to nonagenarians and centenarians).
 

Enough, on to today's mistakes...

 Pre-Shuffle:  Joni Mitchell - "Case of You", The Mohawk Lodge - "1000 Violins", April Verch - "Headin' Up to the Pike/ Jimmy Got a Lizard/ Farewell to Tryon", New Madrid - "Juniper", Killing Kuddles - "Dropped the Pop".

 

Shuffle after the JUMP:

 

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Tripped Up Again Mix

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 Reminder, Saturday April 20 is Record Store Day.  Be sure to support your local brick and mortar record store.  I have to say, Nashville appears to be THE place to be for RSD13.

Grimey's New and Preloved Music as always has a stellar lineup for live music and DJs.

RECORD STORE DAY! - Saturday, April 20th, 10AM-8PM
10:00 - Store opens
11:00 - djb (DJ set)
11:30 - Poplar Grove Middle School Ensemble (performs selections from Beck's "Song Reader" album of sheet music)
12:00 - Daniel Bachman
12:30 - Pimpdaddysupreme (DJ set)
1:00 - Paramore
1:15 - MINDUB (DJ set)
1:45 - Alanna Royale
2:15 - The Record Wranglers (DJ set)
2:45 - Josh Rouse
3:15 - DJ Hammelandeggs (DJ set)
3:45 - PUJOL
4:15 - Janet from Out The Other (DJ set)
4:45 - Hotpipes
5:15 - D-Funk (DJ set)
5:45 - The Features

 Third Man Records has live music by Karen Elson and Mark Watrous plus they have this:

In addition to the Nashville RSD festivities, I know our friends Tim Lee 3 are playing at Lost and Found Records in Knoxville, Tennessee.

If anyone else has Record Store Day events to promote, please let me know, and I will try to get it mentioned in the next couple of days. Bottom line people, support your local record store(s) not just Saturday but all through the year.

Pre-Shuffle:  In the pre-shuffle today, we heard a couple more tracks from the KidGrownUp mixtape by Christian Robins.  If you haven't - check it out here.

 We heard music from a couple of totally unrelated but equally awesome Nashville artists.  Leroy Powell and the Messengers released their latest album, Life and Death, at the end of February - this is some real deal Country/Rock.  Grass Root Kids have been getting a lot of buzz in the past several months since I first found out about them.  Among their members is the daughter of a good friend.  They have a 3 song sampler from their Debut Ep Loose Change out on Noisetrade.

Rounding out the Pre-shuffle is a raucous and totally cool cover of the Hank Williams song, Lost Highway, by The Replacements from their brand new benefit CD, Songs for Slim. The record is to support Slim Dunlap who took Bob Stinson's place in The Replacements, and who suffered a devastating stroke.

Shuffle after the jump.

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Roadrunner Mix

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I want to take a minute to send my love to the City of Boston. As well as to send my love to all victims of violence everywhere. Unfortunately, the capacity of human beings to inflict pain, death and destruction on our fellows is not new. I do think the best response when things like this occur is for each of us to work toward making small movements away from fear and anger and toward love.

Today's subtitle is a reference to one of Boston's many great musical exports.

Music heals, so let's dive in...

First up, with a h/t to The End Men, we discovered that Ear to the Ground has and has had a theme song.

Today in the pre-shuffle, we heard another great song from R.E.M.'s Document album which has been in the shuffle, since we found a copy at our local Goodwill (on Half-Price Saturday)!

We also heard two more songs from The Essential George Gershwin which we picked up on that same shopping excursion.  This time, a couple of classics performed by Tony Bennett and Ethel Waters respectively. 

Throw in another track from the awesome new The Imperial Rooster record which they are giving away on Bandcamp. (Throw them some seed if you are able).

We also heard a track from the Skeletons in the Piano album, Please Don't Die which we reviewed last week.

We close out the pre-shuffle with a song by a band from South Alabama called The Bear which we dig a whole bunch.

Now for the Shuffle - after the JUMP

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - A Mean Idea Mix

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It's Monday, it's also Tax Day here in the USA.  Our goal of late, seems to be to cover as much musical ground as possible in the span of 7-10 songs or so.  I hope today's Pre-Shuffle and Shuffle Shuffle do not disappoint.

Let's get to it....

Pre-shuffle:  April Verch is a Berklee trained Bluegrass/Traditional music fiddle player and step-dancer.  She has a new sampler out of Noisetrade, so there is no excuse not to check her music out.  We listened to two selections from the release this morning.

We also heard more music from Taco Land's Pancakes and Pizza album - (see our review). Plus another song from the awesome new record from Sad Baby Wolf.  This morning's Gershwin song is performed by the late, great Rosemary Clooney, and we closed out the Pre-shuffle with John Wesley Harding with the opening track from his 2011 album,The Sound of His Own Voice.

Let's head into the shuffle - now....

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Heavy Metal Drummer Mix

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Good morning - er afternoon.  After two days of Non-Shuffles, I turned the Shuffle mode back on and came up with some songs to get us through the last day of the work week...

Pre-Shuffle:  We started things off with another track from the fantastic self-titled EP by The Foresters - a track called "Alone".  Next, we had a fun little triad of songs which featured two more songs from The Lucky Jukebox Brigade's album Pretty Well Damned.  In between, "Taffy" and "Carnivultures", we had Sinatra's version of Gershwin's classic Someone to Watch Over Me.  It was really cool how well those three songs worked together.  We closed out the pre-shuffle with a track from Odd Man Out, the Killing Kuddles' album we reviewed on Wednesday. 




Coming up after the JUMP, we have a shuffle which includes two cover songs and an Arrested Development reference...

Thursday Morning Music Non-Shuffle - Please Don't Die Mix

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Please Don't Die is the title of the forthcoming new album by Saratoga Springs, New York band and 2012 Band of the Year (as voted by Readers of Ear to the Ground).  The Digital Deluxe edition goes on sale on Record Store Day (Saturday April 20, 2013).  That same day, you can pre-order the 180-gram vinyl record. The record is the band's first since signing with Magnetic Eye Records.

My Non-Shuffle reflection/insight/review (if you will) of this record begins after the forth-coming JUMP

Wednesday Morning Music Non-Shuffle - Odd Men and Pancakes Mix

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The plethora of great new music which has dropped in the first part of this rapidly aging year has lead me to this point - another Ear to the Ground first.  We did our first Non-Shuffle Album review earlier this year for The Gyspy West's EP Accomplices III: There are Rules.  Then, we did our first ever multi-part review Non-Shuffle for our review of The End Men's new album Play With Your Toys.  Today, we have two reviews for the price of one. 

 

Great music made by really cool people inspires me to step out of my comfort zones.  It encourages me to take chances.  After the jump, you can see what happened when I turned off the Shuffle mode and listened to Odd Man Out by Killing Kuddles followed by Pancakes and Pizza by Taco Land.

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Reasonable Man Mix

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You know, I'm not one to dwell in the past... well at least as it relates to this blog, but I was thinking about yesterday's Shuffle, and how proud I was to be able to present three great new pieces of music from artists and musical styles which could hardly be more diverse, and which (at least in my mind) were united by a love of what they do and an authenticity of spirit which can be a rare quality in music these days (or any days).

As they say, now for something completely different.  We shuffled up the same playlist of songs and here is what emerged for today....

Pre-Shuffle Shuffle:  A cool Punk Rock band from New York State called Bridge Under Fire which we pulled off of The Appetizer Sampler from Built4BBQ.  A couple more tuneful tracks from the outstanding Pretty Well Damned album by The Lucky Jukebox Brigade.  We close out the Pre-shuffle with a pretty cool Rock band from Brooklyn called Brothers (not be to mistaken for any other band called Brothers, this band is referred to as Brother NYC).

Shuffle forward after the Jump

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Let's Make History Mix

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Well, it seems like I actually made progress last week - presenting more tracks on the blog than I added to the Playlist.  Then, this weekend came along...  There is a seemingly endless amount of really good to great music out there, and the list keeps growing.

Meanwhile, my album review to do list keep growing, while the free time seems to dwindle. So, I'll keep at it... 

 The Pre-Shuffle included another track from the minuteflag EP.  "Candy Rush" is a wild jazzy, punk rock jam of an instrumental.  We followed that with some more great bluesy folk pop from our friends Val and James who record as You and Me - this time we heard "Today is Gonna Be a Better Day".  NOSE! demonstrating the timeless art of "Hamboning".  We heard a classic.  Harry James and His Orchestra doing "Blues" from An American in Paris composed by - you guessed it - George Gershwin. We closed out the Pre-Shuffle with all 10 minutes of "Go Girls (Complete)" from the Go Girl album by Dog Without Warning.

 Shuffle comes up right after the jump.... JUMP!

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - D Day Mix

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Don't bother to double-check your calendar, it's not June 6.  No, the D here is a reference to the Roman Numeral D which equals 500.  What you are reading is the 500th  Blogger Post here at Ear to the Ground.  (Note: We began as an upstart blog on the now (or soon) to be defunct Posterous site).  In transferred to Blogger sometime around the beginning of 2012. Full disclosure, we did transfer a handful of our Posterous posts over, and those are included in the 500, but we still think this is a remarkable achievement.

As we approached 500, we considered a self-indulgent retrospective post looking back on our finest moments with perhaps some blooper reels thrown in for good measure, but none of that stuff seemed to fit what we try to be all about. 

So without further ado (but with a huge tip of the hat and thanks to everyone who has joined us and assisted us on this continuing journey), we are simply going to do what we do best... we offer up an inexplicable mix of new and old and well known and obscure music which by all rights (maybe) should not be in the same mix, and we offer it with our simple and overriding (usually unstated) message: "Hey, I heard some cool music today.  Let me tell you about it."

Today's list of songs comes up after the jump:

 

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - April 4 Memphis Mix

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Thinking about MLK and the price of Freedom and Justice and the power of Love and Mercy.  For the record, the shot didn't ring out in the early morning of April 4 (despite U2's poetic license, it was the late evening). But I digress. 

The awesome music continues to roll in faster than we can distribute it out to you.  Stay tuned!

First up, we had a whopping eight songs in our Pre-Shuffle Shuffle this morning.  Just to explain, I listen to music on my ride into work and then on my walk from the parking lot. It was taking to long to write a complete post about all of the music, but I wanted to take the opportunity to give some quick shout outs.  So I invented the Pre-Shuffle Shuffle which contains fewer details but 100% of the love.

Pre-Shuffle Shuffle includes: Colorado by way of Brooklyn Singer-Songwriter and CXCW Alum David Lott, Birthday boy Luke Anderson and his band The Danbury Lie with another great song from their '?' album out now via Bandcamp. Built4BBQ band and friends of The End Men (obligatory The End Men mention) New Red Scare are a Rock and Roll band from Albany - Unlucky One is from The Appetizer Sampler.  More Gershwin. Connecticut prodigies, The Foresters with Mugshot from their self-titled EP. A track from the forth-coming album, Damaged Goods from veteran Canadian band The Mohawk Lodge. A classic track and one of my favorite songs by Nashville by way of Mobile, Alabama singer, songwriter and guitar god, Will Kimbrough going back to his This album.  And the Pre-Shuffle closes out with yet another great track from Taco Land's awesome new album Pancakes and Pizza which is out now.

 

We hit the Shuffle, Shuffle after the Jump

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Regression: As a Path to Progress Mix

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I haven't counted in a while, but I believe there are over 50 bands/artists that we have featured here at Ear to the Ground.  This includes spin-off bands, solo projects etc. As we mentioned the other day, once we feature a band or artist here, we consider them family and try our dead-level best to keep up with their progress and new projects.  So far in 2013, the projects seem to be coming faster than our ability to keep up with them, but we're trying... This week, we received an invite to the release party for the new (and long anticipated) solo CD by The Alternates front-man Spencer Livingston. Now we get word that preorders for Christopher Paul Stelling's new album are underway. Not only that, but none other than Spin.com has the first single up...

Listen, I pick the songs which go into my MP3 player (duh), and so I get the credit and/or the blame for the Shuffles that some up (even if it is the Shuffle Monster than actually selects the order and timing of the songs).  All I can say, is today we have a damn good selection of songs - new music from old friends, a rock and roll classic and other cool tunes to help brighten your mid-week.  

As always, the You Tube playlist embedded at the bottom of the post includes the songs from the Pre-Shuffle and Shuffle (if possible) or at least a close representation from the same artist.

Pre-shuffle:   Another track from the Self-titled John the Conqueror album - brought to our attention by The End Men (there I said it - again).  We also have another great song from Ben de la Cour.  We have a track from Nashville band Kopecky Family Band's 2010 album The Disaster. Special Note to the person who keeps donating KFB albums to Goodwill: 1. You obviously are either dying or lack good sense and 2. Please keep it up.  Our good friend, the audaciously talented Elwood Kuddles (aka Killing Kuddles) just released a new EP called Odd Man Out.  We have our first taste in a track called Save Me a Seat.  Finally, we close out the Pre-Shuffle with one of the two older songs released by The Danbury Lie just ahead of their new album '?' - Rhode Island Summer is a great song that sounds nothing like the other music we've heard from this band.

 

 

On with the Shuffle - click on to read

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Avant Guard Dogs Mix

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It's festival announcement time. We'd love to hear from our Readers about which festival lineup you are most excited to see. I'll be honest for most of the major festivals, probably 90% of the lineup seems almost obligatory.  By that, I don't necessarily mean it's bad music, just that there seems to be a core group of bands who you know are going to be at every major festival.  So, we're most interested in any artists who you were surprised to see on a festival line-up.  

Let's get to it:  This morning, we had four songs in our pre-shuffle shuffle and four song in our Shuffle shuffle.

Pre-shuffle:  we continue to dig on the Dog Without Warning album Go Girl.  Today, we heard Pacific Time Zone which more of an alt-country feel to it then some of the other songs we've heard from the album.  We also had another great song from the self-titled You and Me album. We heard a newish track from our good friend Galen Wade via Soundcloud, and the pre-shuffle closed out with another great track from The Lucky Jukebox Brigade - he heard Flip which the band performed for this year's CXCW.

Now, let's get to the Shuffle - it's after the Jump

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Fools in Love Mix

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No fooling, today's pre-shuffle shuffle and Shuffle Shuffle have an interesting and entertaining mix of music.  We are short on time so let's get to it.  Remember, as per our new habit, we have created a handy-dandy playlist which represents most of the songs in the daily shuffle.  The video playlist is posted at the very bottom of this post.

Pre-shuffle-wise we have the only non-instrumental track off the legendary Minuteflag EP which was released back in '85 and featured members of SST bands Minutemen and Black Flag.  The song Fetch the Water is included below.

We also have a song from Porgy and Bess composed by George Gershwin and performed by the great Sarah Vaughan along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

We have our first taste of the new album by Taco Land.  Look for much more on this great album in the days and weeks to come.

And we close out the pre-shuffle with another track from Dog Without Warning  who came to our attention via CXCW.

Now the shuffle: