ICYMI - please check out Sandy Hook: Somewhere Over the Rainbow featuring the Children of Newtown along with Ingrid Michaelson which was produced by Chris and Tina of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club renown.
It continues to be winter here in Nashville, but we press on... Let's shuffle - after the jump:
So, here we go... after several months of waiting, I finally have a 32GB card in my phone and to celebrate I added a random 20GB (left room to grow) sampling of my entire digital library and then I randomly shuffled that 20GB and the resulting Morning Music Shuffle is after the jump:
Well, well, well - 2012 is winding down. A lot a of people are putting out Best of Posts and I have the Band of the Year thing - but that's for my readers to decide. Rather than some neatly organized recap or whatever of 2012 in Music, I thought I would indulge in something I don't get to do very often and that is just write out my random thoughts as they occur to me. I may supplement with some videos or other linkage, but for the most part this will just be my thoughts for whatever that is worth.
By my estimation, 2012 has been a great year for music. Chances are, you will hear someone name some random disposable pop stars of the moment as an argument that "music sucks these days" and then name from great artists/albums from the past and say, "music was better in the 60s/70s/80s/90s/2000s/2011" The thing is, you can always make that argument and quite a few people always do. Every year, the most mundane/crappy pop music of the day does not compare favorable to the classic/legends of the past - so it is in 2012 and so it will be ever after.
2012 was a great year for music because I say so. Not that my say so is that important, but it is for me. Tons of great music have some through various media and into my ears. Some of the best of 2012 include Anais Mitchell's Young Man in America, Bob Dylan's Tempest, Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas, Justin Townes Earle's Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, Jack White's Blundebuss, Mumford and Sons' Babel, and so many more...
Our friends' The Dead Exs started a Relovolution.
We met and fell in love with tons of great new artists. In addition to those in our Band of Year poll, we also discovered some great music from all over the world including: Cosmonauts, The Danbury Lie, Shelly Colvin, Brennen Leigh, The Grimm Generation, The Amboys, The Dogs of Oz, Christopher Paul Stelling, Citizen Smith, Aoede, Cupla and again so many more. Finding great new music was not our challenge in 2012. Finding the time to post it all was our challenge. While you are here - explore the site. Over on the right side bar, down the page a little, is a list of tags from the most used to the least used. Check out our posts about some of these bands listed above or about of the other music.
In addition to the new stuff, we remain conscious of the fact that was obsessed with music as we are, there is tons of older music which has slipped past us, and when we "discover" some great old music, we aren't ashamed to present it to you and admit that we missed out on the music the first time.
We also like to feature music which shaped our lives. So, we can discover/ or rediscover the music of our youth and young adult lives.
For Ear to the Ground, we are completing our first full year of blogging (we started in May 2011). We outgrew the Band of the Week format, we introduced the Featured Artists of the Month, as always our signature feature is our Morning Music Shuffle. We released our first ever down compilation (on Record Store Day) which featured several of our favorite artists. In 2013, we have big things on tap. Expect a volume 2 of our Compilation album. We anticipate new music and a Nashville tour stop by our friends The End Men, we are exploring options for moving our blog to our own Domain, we look forward to presenting tons of great new music and continuing to find exciting ways to bring the music to you.
Man, it's been a busy few weeks... Please be sure to check out our Featured Artist for July 2012. I am going to try to get some more info up about each of the bands. Also, the Band of the Month Poll will be opening probably on Sunday or Monday so keep an eye out for that.
Shamelessness to follow: If you like this blog, please spread the word and subscribe. If you do shopping on Amazon.com, you can use any of the Amazon links (most of the album covers and some links on the right sidebar) and navigate to what you need, and Ear to the Ground gets a percentage of the sale. Does Amazon sell houses? You could buy a house, that would be cool....
Okay - it's about the music, and we had a neat shuffle today which I would like to share with you:
Last week marked the 25th Anniversary of the seminal Replacement's album, Pleased to Meet Me. If you keep up with me on Facebook you already knew that. Well, today we have a cover of one of the great songs from that album. Micah Schnabel is a singer/songwriter who is also a member of the Alt-Country/Rock band Two Cow Garage. His minimalistic and ragged cover of Can't Hardly Wait is on his 2010 solo album, When the Stage Lights Go Dim.
A early demo version of Can't Hardly Wait which was recorded around the time of the Tim album.
Adam Carroll is a Texas Singer/Songwriter, and I cannot believe I have missed out on his music for so long. Blondie and Dagwood comes from his 2000 album Lookin' Out the Screen Door, and Carroll turns the long running comic strip into a John Prine worthy twangy, folk ballad. I loved every single moment of this song.
And finally, the shuffle concluded with another instant classic from Anais Mitchell's Young Man in America. Tailor sounds like a folk standard, and I have the feeling it will be in due time. Mitchell's unique voice and incredible songs completely blow me away.
We got five songs, and a mea culpa - so let's get to it.
Rise to the Sun is a track on the Boys & Girls album by one of the most buzz-worthy bands around, The Alabama Shakes. If you've been hearing the buzz (or even if you haven't) and haven't gotten around to checking out this band - do so now.
Well, I loved yesterday's track by Those Darlins so much, I had to grab another. Be Your Bro is also on the Screws Get Loose album. Gender-blurring and fun.
We go deeper into the fantastic Young Man in America album by Anais Mitchell. Venus is our track today.
Stuck in RED is by a band we just heard from this week called Larisa & the Raindoggs who hail from Austin, Texas - and play some mean rhythm and soul music. Self-described as a shot of Tom Waits and a twist of Snoop. The song is on their album One Armed Bandits which came out in January.
And finally we come to my mea culpa. This was bound to happen sooner or later, and frankly, I'm surprised it is just now happening. I add music to my MP3 player from a variety of sources, and although I am very thoughtful and deliberate about what I add, some files do not convert on my MP3 player with the album and/or artist information. Usually, when this happens, I can backtrack and figure out who it is and where I got it. However, today, I have a track called Happy Song with no album name or artist name listed on my MP3 player. I spent way too much time trying to track down this song through some of my usual sources, but alas, I have come up empty. It's a really cool song - up tempo indie rock. If it's your song or you know who did the song, please let me know. Otherwise, I will look at the original file when I get home and post an update.
UPDATE: Mystery solved. Happy Song is by FallsStart at band who are from Honolulu, HI.
They have an album called Our Summer which is due out in August. Here's a video for you:
Hey ho! It's the final day of May. Remember tomorrow we will introduce a new feature on Ear to the Ground which will take the place of the ever popular Band of the Week, and hopefully move us forward in our mission to introduce you to the many talented artists putting out music around the world. In the meantime, stay tuned today, I'm going to be posting our Band of the Month poll for May, and I also have a free MP3 of a brand new song.
Back to a real live music shuffle - the air felt good this morning, but there was definitely quite a bit of humidity in the air. Storms are forecast for this afternoon, and as per usual, I am sans umbrella (did I ever mention that I hate umbrellas?) so I'm looking forward to the possibility of walking through a downpour this afternoon!
On to our shuffle:
First up:
I presented this song a couple of weeks ago in my post about The Bluefields. Bluefield, Joe Blanton, before he was in Royal Court of China, was part of a local Nashville Thrash band called, The Enemy. Today's song is by The Enemy and according to the tag information on the download I got from Nashville 80s Rock - dot - net , it is from a Cassette release called Tijuana Go! which was also the title of a song on Royal Court of China's second album, Geared and Primed. Anyway, the song is Jesus Rides a UFOand I must say hearing this song always brings me back to the mid-80s.
Bonus: Here's the video for Take Me Down from Royal Court of China
Next you we offer you another track from the fabulous Jo Wymer, a bluesy, rockin' lady from New Jersey. That Kiss is on Jo's 2011 album Living with Scars.
Bonus Video: Here is Jo Wymer doing Dirty Secrets another track from the album
Finally, we present the title track to the latest album by an amazing singer/songwriter who happens to share a first name with one of my daughters. Young Man in America- the song - is sprawling, captivating and memorable. Young Man in America - the album - is a remarkable achievement.
