Steve Almaas - Trailer Songs

Trailer Songs is the brand, spanking new album by Steve Almaas.  It was almost a year ago to the day that we first told you about this album, and it is finally here.

This will not be a review, because I have only had time to preview some of the songs, but it sounds like vintage Steve Almaas.  For the uninitiated, Steve Almaas is a veteran musician who is originally from Minneapolis where he was a founding member of the legendary punk band Suicide Commandos.  Later he released a solo EP called Beat Rodeo which he made with Richard Barone of the Bongos and Mitch Easter of Let's Active.  

He then formed a band named after his EP.  Beat Rodeo were signed to IRS Records. They put out a couple of great records: Staying Out Late With Beat Rodeo which was produced by Don Dixon and Home in the Heart of the Beat which was produced by Scott Litt.

Trailer Songs was recorded in two Airstream trailers in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  This time around he worked with a variety of musicians such as The Elegant Too (guitarist Chris Maxwell and drummer Phil Hernandez), Mark Sidgwick, Ambrosia Parsley, Mitch Easter, Marcellus Hall and Peter Holsapple (the Dbs).

The album cover above will take you to Amazon.com where you can download the album for just $8.99.  Great music from a great guy.  Give a listen and show some love!

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - PB&J Mix

It's Friday - smile!

Um or um - not sure what to say.  I've found some words, and will be writing about the In-Store performance I saw yesterday...so stay tuned.

Today we have a quirkily awesome mix of music so let's get to it...

First up we have transplanted Nashvillian Eef Barzelay's band Clem Snide post-reunion effort The Ghost of Fashion (2010) and a track called Joan Jett of Arc which name drops Hall and Oates, John Mellencamp's Pink Houses  and others to great effect and humor. 

   

Next we have a track from the solo debut album, Resolutions by Dave Hause who has been a member of several Philadelphia-based bands over the years. We have the excellent lead track of the album, Time Will Tell is a raw and starkly, beautiful song.

 

 Next up we have a cover, and it's a good one.  Mitch Easter the producer was responsible for tons of my favorite music way back in my youth - R.E.M., his own band Let's Active, yesterday's Connells album we featured, Marshall Crenshaw, Pylon, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory ... deep breath. Here we have Mitch Easter the performer from the fairly recent Velvet Underground tribute CD American Velvet.  His cover of The Black Angel's Death Song  which was on the Velvet's first album The Velvet Underground and Nico.  Easter's gentle Carolina twang adds a note of Southern Gothic charm to the dark and dissonant song. 

 
Lou Reed John Cale and Nico Reuniting in 1972

(Couldn't find a video of Mitch Easter's version - so here's Beck's cover)

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Eef Barzelay Eef Barzelay

The Velvet Underground and Nico The Velvet Underground and Nico has influenced the sound of more bands than any other album. And remarkably, it still sounds as fresh and challenging today as it did upon its release in 1967. In this book, Joe Harvard covers everything from Lou Reed's lyrical genius to John Cale's groundbreaking instrumentation, and from the creative input of Andy Warhol to the fine details of the recording process. With input from co-producer Norman Dolph and Velvets fan Jonathan Richman, Harvard documents the creation of a record which - in the eyes of many - has never been matched. EXCERPTIn 1966, some studios, like Abbey Road, had technicians in white lab coats, and even the less formal studios usually had actual engineering graduates behind the consoles. Studios were still more about science than art. Clients who dared make technical suggestions were treated with bemusement, derision, or hostility. The Velvets were a young band under constant critical attack, and the pressure to conform in order to gain acceptance must have been tremendous. Most bands of that era compromised with their record companies, through wholesale revamping of their image from wardrobe to musical style, changing or omitting lyrics, creating drastically edited versions for radio airplay, or eliminating songs entirely from their sets and records. With Andy Warhol in the band's corner, such threats were minimized.

Steve Almaas - Ear to the Ground's 7 Questions

Steve Almaas is cool.  He is in the Minneapolis band Suicide Commandos.  Worked with Richard Barone with The Bongos - made a killer solo EP - Beat Rodeo which was produced by Barone, Almaas and Mitch Easter at Easter Chapel Hill studio - visual vinyl evidence above.  Then he formed a band which was named for the EP.  Beat Rodeo produced two albums for IRS Records.


Below is a new track called Your Life to Live via Soundcloud.


Your Life To Live by Steve Almaas



Recently Steve Almaas sat down with Ear to the Ground* to help us launch a new feature called Ear to Ground's 7 Questions.  

1. What is the first music you can consciously remember hearing?

Jud is dead from the movie Oklahoma. Scared the piss out of me...

2. What was the first music that really caught your attention (if different than 1.)?

Beatles on Ed Sullivan

3. When did you first begin playing music?

Piano lessons from my mom in 2nd grade.

4. Biggest thrill as a musician?

Many thrills, but one big one was playing a show with Townes Van Zandt in Berlin and then hanging out with him for the next few days.

5. What music is currently at the top of your play list?

The new Nick Lowe album. He's no dinky do....

6. Any music you like which might be a surprise to the casual observer? 

I have an inexplicable fondness for Lambada... 

7. If you could see any band or artist live at any point in their career, who and at what point would you want to see?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Louis Armstrong cut Blue Yodel #9 with Jimmie Rodgers

*Disclaimer: Although technically speaking Mr. Almaas did not sit down WITH Ear to the Ground, we were in fact sitting when we typed the questions and one can assume that there is a reasonable chance he was sitting down when he answered the questions. So there.