Well once again, fate, circumstance, procrastination and mysterious forces beyond my control or understanding have combined to lead me to this very point.... namely, as I've mentioned several times, I am way over due to for a wrap-up of April. As you may recall, at the end of March I did a big ole summary for the first three months on 2013, gave a shout out to old friends who made new music and welcomed a few new bands into the Ear to the Ground Family. I resolved at that time to try my best to do this same exercise monthly.
April was an amazing month for new music. From our old friends, we covered new albums by Skeletons in the Piano, Taco Land, Killing Kuddles, The Danbury Lie, The Imperial Rooster and Black Jake and the Carnies. - I've probably forgotten some, and if so, I sincerely apologize.
Taco Land - Buy
Killing Kuddles - Buy
The Danbury Lie - Buy
The Imperial Rooster - Download
Black Jake and the Carnies - Buy
Now on to our new additions to the Ear to the Ground family (again family is my designation and no consent is required...)
After the JUMP, we get down to business with today's Mix (Unshuffled)
The Lucky Jukebox Brigade
We start things off with the first five songs from Pretty Well Damned - the debut album by Albany, New York's own The Lucky Jukebox Brigade. The album is almost a year old, but it just came into our consciousness following the band's performance at Couch by Couchwest.
So, the deal here is this: We liked the CXCW video enough to want to hear more - we downloaded the album and added to our queue. The first song we heard, we thought was pretty cool and with every subsequent listen and every additional track we heard, we begin to really love this band. I decided a while back, I wanted to include them in the list of artists we follow here at E2TG so today, I am happy to make that official.
A few observations: I hear some Musical Theater, some 60s girl group, some bohemian carnival music and more. This record is tons o' fun and the range of musical influences and styles are bound together by the incredible songs. In my head, I was working on some bold statement like Music making is art while songwriting is craft. I have no idea is that is true or if it's even what I'm trying to say. There are tons of people in Nashville who will sell you a formula on how to write a hit country song, and yes it is try that you can't swing a guitar around your neck without hitting a songwriter, and I guess in that sense, songwriting is a craft. I'm not smart enough to know if The Lucky Jukebox Brigade followed any formulas in writing the songs from Pretty Well Damned, but if I were a betting man, I'd wager that they didn't. Nevertheless or therefore, these are really strong and wonderful songs. I was actually surprised to find out that this was the band's debut as there is a maturity to this band. I can hardly wait to find out what is next from the latest "Ear to the Ground" artist from the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area.
The Lucky Jukebox Brigade:
Dog Without Warning
The Bay Area band Dog Without Warning also came to my attention at this years Couch by Couchwest anti-festival. The band's Facebook page lists their genre as Rock, Garage Rock and Indie Rock. In April, we featured several songs from the band's 2012 album Go Girls which struck me as really good indie rock and kind of weird in a good way. So as I was contemplating the April wrap-up, I was trying to decide if I knew the band well enough to list them as an Ear to the Ground featured artist (or whatever). Then, in a moment both serendipitous and motivating, I was contacted by a member of the band with a link to some brand new music by Dog Without Warning. A five song EP called Bark.
And let me tell you, Bark was a revelation. Right from the opening bars of the opening track, "Chili" I knew I was in for something unexpected. A cautionary tale perhaps and yes a great song. I was reminded of something I was taught growing up - "there are three things you don't talk about, Politics, Religion and Chili Recipes."
The record is a rollicking good time and pretty damned Americanaish. It's acoustic as opposed to the more electric sound I'd heard previously from the band, but surely that is not the only difference. At first, I was thinking I had the band mixed up in my mind - full disclosure. I just downloaded the album last night - scanned through enough to experience my first shock to the system, and then gave it a complete spin on my walk in to the office today. I kept thinking, I don't remember them being a Country band. I don't even know "Country" is an accurate description, that is what was going on my mind before the second song "Flood" took me away, and I just let the music be what it was.
When "Infatuation" kicked in I didn't care what you called it, it was just good. The Indiana cheerleaders are okay, but nothing like the honkytonk women.
"Nostalgia" was evocative and lovely, and the last song, "Dromedary" was silly, goofy and just plain awesome.
So call me fickle, call me whatever you want, just call me! Wait, what? Overnight, Dog Without Warning went from this interesting band that I liked and wanted to know more about to one of my favorite bands of the moment. Bark is out now and available for download using the Embed up above. It's Name Your Price, but c'mon throw 'em a bone. Pun intended. Now, I gotta give the EP a second and third listen.
Dog Without Warning
A Special The Lucky Jukebox Brigade/Dog Without Warning You Tube Playlist
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