Topical Thursday Morning Shuffle - An Artist Man Mix

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I need to start by saying cancer sucks... I hate it!  Rest in Peace to Grant Hart (Husker Du).  Along with The Replacements and Minutemen, Husker Du were part of the holy trinity of great American post-punk bands on the 1980s.

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Whew... I am somehow still functioning (at least as good as I normally function).  So far this week, I've seen somewhere close to 15 hours of live music (with 7-8 more on tap tonight), worked my regular schedule, posted my normal blog posts, recorded a radio show, run into a ton of good friends, strategically managed to drink quite a bit for a fraction of the cost ;-), posted on Instagram for the radio station, danced at 1:00am at The Family Wash, and even got to sleep - just a little.

Last night, I saw the amazing Bonnie Whitmore, K. Phillips (who co-wrote the Erica Blinn song we premiered last week), and the always enchanting Amelia White.

Tonight: As if the case almost every day/night this week, there is a ton of amazing music.  I plan to start my evening at The 5 Spot.  E2TG Favorite Mark Robinson Band.  This is Mark's fifth year running of holding down the Thursday early slot at The 5 Spot. This year, in addition to hi stellar band, he will be joined by Dave Coleman (who I saw playing with Amelia White last night), and one of my favorite local songwriters Kevin Gordon (according to my Facebook memories, two years ago, I was attending the City Winery CD Release show for Gordon for his most recent album).

Speaking of City Winery, their lineup tonight includes, Robyn Hitchcock, Dave Alvin, Tony Joe White and more.

If all goes as planned, my evening will end with North Mississippi All-Stars and Blackfoot Gypsies at The Beast.

Meanwhile, I have Shuffle to present.  It somehow is Thursday, and that means today's shuffle comes from the special E2TG Topical playlist... featuring songs from across the six year history of this blog.

Let's shuffle!

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Riotous Clown Car Mix

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 Ah, mid-week and finally some sunshine here in Nashville.  So many exciting things happening.  Just under a week ago, I had the incredible opportunity to do an hour long phone interview with an amazing musician/songwriter/producer who has been involved in some of my all-time favorite albums/songs/bands.  I cannot wait to present this to you all. I just have to get my butt in gear to get this completed.

I had such a blast doing the interview and I found a great location. I'm looking forward to making interviews a bigger part of the blog.

Let's get to the shuffle:

First up we have Denver-based band, The Lumineers with Dead Sea off their self-titled debut album which was released back in April. The Lumineers have created quite a buzz with this record, and (but) (so) they make great music. 

 

Next up, we have our friends and August Featured Artists The Holograms. On The Sacrifice, they are joined by Seattle-based musician Ralph Buckley who sings and plays the acoustic guitar. On soundcloud, the song is labeled as Glamglitchrawk. I'm not even going to pretend to be cool enough to know what that means, but it's a sweet piece of music with a good beat, cool vocals and a nice sound. 

Here's an older video from Ralph Buckley

And finally, we wrap up the Morning Shuffle with some West Coast funk and roll via the L.A. band Orgone. Crazy Queen is from their 2010 album Cali Fever - check it out!

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Lingerer Mix

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We go stumbling forward into our week. Unsure of our direction and our destination, but ever mindful of the composition of the surface of the road we walk upon.  

MP3 player is now fully reloaded, and we are ready to shuffle  through some of the songs most recently added.

We start out with a cover of an iconic song from the 1980s.  August Featured Artist, The Holograms - featuring our friend Galen Wade - are back with a post-modern version of  the Talking Heads classic, Burning Down the House .

Next up, we have a song by the band Superdrag, the Knoxville, Tennessee based Alternative band.  Superdrag front man John Davis was recently a guest at the Big Star tribute show during the Americana music festival.  This one goes back to 1995 and the band's first full length album The Fabulous 8-Track Sound of Superdrag. The song is called Sugar.

Next up we have a song from the most recent album by first wave punk pioneers, The Mekons, who are celebrating their 35th year as a band this year.  The band's 2011 album is called Ancient and Modern and the song today, Geeshie, has a old-timey feel to it.

Finally, we have Canadian Corb Lund from his recent album Cabin Fever with a song co-written by Jason Boland of the Stragglers and Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll, and performed by Lund and Carll. Bible on the Dash off the album Cabin Fever, is a great example of the Country side of Americana music. 

 

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Featured Friday Music Shuffle - Triplight Mix

So and yeah... it is Friday!  That means, it is time for Featured Friday. Over the past three weeks, we've highlighted tracks from each of our 10 Featured Artists.  So, we reloaded our playlist with 1 track from each band and shuffled them up.

But, before we get to the shuffle - an update/revision- you can vote for Band of the Month now - HERE!  I had previously stated that the voting would end around midnight on the 31st. However, I am going to revise that until midnight on the 30th.  I may be out of pocket on the 31st, and I have to manually shut down the poll.

Here are the results so far with just under 1 week to go:

1.  Loners Society
2.  Rooftop Runnders -49
3. The Imperial Rooster -58
4. Cupla  -66
5. Cosmonauts -68
6. Pony Boy -70
7-10. SIRS, Traverse the Skies, The Holograms -73

It's really still anyone's contest to win.  Remember, you can vote more than once and  be sure to check out all of the Featured Artists (here).

Today we had a couple of longer songs, so just two made it into the shuffle:

Our friend, Galen Wade and his newish band, The Holograms from their Crowbar set are up with a track called Tumble Weed.



Next up, we have the L.A. band Pony Boy with their song Saints and Liars.

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 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits is $3.99 over at Amazon.

Featured Friday Music Shuffle - Territories Mix

Guess what - it's time to vote for your band of the month:  Go here to vote!


Today we shuffle up songs from the final three of our featured Artists.  The other 7 appeared on the previous two Feature Fridays.  Here and Here .

This week we turn the spotlight on three very different bands with a shuffle that highlights the diversity found here on Ear to the Ground:

Galen Wade is a mid-day DJ on Radio Station WSBS in Massachusetts.  When he's not spinning tunes, and giving away food-based prizes, he's making tons of great music.  Here at Ear to the Ground, we've followed Galen around for some time and have had music he's worked on in our morning shuffles a time or two.  He primarily releases music via Soundcloud, and it through that site that he hooked up with Wade Walker. Thanks to the marvels of this magical age, the nearly two thousand miles that separate the two Wades, they have come together to form The Holograms who are not to be mistaken for Holograms - the Swedish band.  Today we have Make Believe, a nifty instrumental with cool electronica mixed with a bit of hip-hop sounds.  Check it out:




Next, we have a epic sounding indie-rock ballad from Germany by way of Canada. Rooftop Runners - Streets off of the band's We Are Here (from earlier this year) offers brilliant, passionate vocals combined with music that brings us all down to the Streets.

 

   

And finally, SIRS are a hard rocking band with a great sound, who come from Chicago.   Boo Hoo is the title from the band's EP which was released just about a year ago.  

 

Here a video for another song from the EP

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VOTE NOW: BAND OF THE MONTH - AUGUST 2012

Go here to find out more about these great bands - then vote, vote, vote and spread the news!

Did You Know? Featured Artists for August Edition Vol. 1 (Updated)

Did you know....?*
*UPDATED


The Holograms:
 .... are the result of a collaboration between Wade Walker and Galen Wade (who is a great supporter of this blog) who got together via Soundcloud.



 Traverse The Skies:
...front man, Jeremy Hatch likes long walks on the beach and animal videos on Youtube (per his Twitter account and people don't lie on their Twitter profiles!).

Cupla:
...is Irish for twins, Bob and Bill McAloney formed the band, and they are twins.

Loners Society:
...front man, Matt Megrue was previously a member of a band called Usual Suspects. There are literally dozens of bands with Facebook accounts called Usual Suspects or The Usual Suspects.  The majority of these bands are not the band that Matt Megrue was a member of. Update: My bad, Matt was actually a member of the Unusual Suspects which explains why he wasn't in any of the band's I looked up...

The Imperial Rooster:

...lists as band members as:  Cootie LeRoux, Nat King Kong, Tennessee Skilly McGee, Khorn Syrup, Lulu Lotus Cornblossom, Dusty Vinyl.

Cosmonauts:
...have some new music coming out soon, recently had an "adventure" on the road and has some awesome artwork associated with their story/records.

And now a Video-Extravaganza

and since The Holograms don't have a video (as far as I know)

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Go-Go Dancer Mix

First:  In case you missed it over the weekend, ETTG BOTM for May, South of Ramona, dropped a new EP called Step Inside yesterday. Read my review here. Hit it up the Band's Website for more information.  Please notice the kind words about yours truly.  Remember, a good review cannot be bought, but I never turn down free beer!

Also, yesterday we unveiled our Featured Artists for August.  Check them out here. At least two of the Featured Artists are dropping some new music today.  Check out new music from Pony Boy and from The Holograms.  This is purely a coincidence... or is it... yes, it is... maybe... probably...

Now to the shuffle:

First up we have legendary singer-songwriter, J.D. Souther with House of Pride from his 2008 release, If the World Was You. 

Here's Souther performing a different song in one of my favorite places - San Juan Capistrano.

Next up we have Don't Say from the eponymous album by the British Indie band of the same name.  It's Scars on 45.

 

Next we have One Way Train which the title track from to the 2011 EP by WPB, FL singer-songwriter Alex Bennett.

 

Alex covering Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine

  

Finally, we offer you, Seattle-based singer-songwriter, Damien Jurado from his most recent release Maraqopa which is out on the Secretly Canadian label. The song is Life Away from the Garden.

  

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Featured Artists for August

The Page is up now - please say hello your

 Featured Artist for August

 (Lots more to follow throughout the month.)

COSMONAUTS

CUPLA

THE DANBURY LIE

THE HOLOGRAMS

THE IMPERIAL ROOSTER

LONERS SOCIETY

PONY BOY

ROOFTOP RUNNERS

SIRS
TRAVERSE THE SKIES

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Questions? Mix

First off this morning, I can going to attempt to answer some of our most frequently asked questions.*  Some of these have been covered before, but we've recently added a bunch of new readers so...**

Q:  What's with the Shuffle?
A:  I  have a ten to fifteen minute walk to my office every weekday.  I listen to music during my walk up the hill in the morning and I use the shuffle feature on my music player to determine the songs for the day. I do create various playlists and yes, I do sometimes shuffle a couple of times to get "better" mix, but I try to keep it as random as possible.

Q:  How can I get my band's music on your blog?
A:  Bribes help... just kidding.  Contact me (Put Ear to the Ground in the subject line) and include a link where I can at least hear some of your music.  If you have music I can download, I will try to get you in the mix.  If I really like what I hear, I will feature your band as Band of the Week or some equivalent feature. Be patient but feel free to follow up after a few weeks.  

Q: What kind of music do you like to receive?  
A: Anything good.  If you stick around long enough, you will notice that I feature a pretty diverse range of music.  Personally, I think the concept of genres is pretty dumb, although I understand (sort of) why band's have to use them. For me though, I try to judge the music on the music not which pigeon-hole it does or doesn't fit into. But, that is just me.

 * Okay - these are the questions I think people may have.  In actuality our most frequent asked question seems to be "Did you hear what she is saying about you?" followed by a indecipherable link. 


** Readership tends to vary over time and depending on what is going on. Still, to be the best of my ability to understand blog stats, I think Readership is increasing.  Mainly, though, I just included that statement to make you think very highly of me.... ;-)

On to today's shuffle:

Make Believe  is by The Holograms  featuring Galen Wade (who we have featured before and who is also a great supporter of Ear to the Ground along with Wade Walker.  Wade x Wade get it?  It's some great guitar-driven electronic music.  Below we have the song on Soundcloud.
 
  Make Believe by The Holograms

Okay so I couldn't find a video for The Holograms (they are too new) so I've posted Jem and The Holograms for your... um enjoyment. No connection between Galen and Wade's band and Jem's band is implied. :-)

Next, we have an awesome cover of Sweet's classic Fox on the Run.  This cover is by 80s California punk band, Nip Drivers and was featured on the soundtrack to the 1984 low-budger film Desperate Teenage Lovedolls.

Nip Drivers Cover here:

   

Check out Sweet's original here:

 

Finally, we have Scotty's Lament, the opening track from the 1987 Mitch Easter produced album Boylan Heights by The Connells. 

 

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Desperate Teenage Lovedolls - A comically punky version of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls , Desperate Teenage Lovedolls tells the story of three disaffected young girls who leave home to become rock stars. Lead singer Kitty Carryall (Jennifer Schwartz), whose mother is played by a shrill, hysterical man in a dress, runs away to Venice, CA, where she and a friend shoot heroin and meet a drummer named Patch. Kitty joins Patch in beating a Dylanesque tramp to death with his own guitar and battles a tough girl-gang called the She-Devils on a beach, stabbing one of them to escape. Despite raping one of the girls at his Brentwood condo, sleazy agent Johnny Tremaine engineers the Love Dolls' rise to the top, off a hot album called Electric Catbox. Soon, the band is at the top and decides to drop Johnny, so they drug his wine, setting the scene for a hilarious "bad trip" segment involving stuffed cats and a suicidal plunge from a building. The tragedy continues in grand rock-movie style as the band's guitarist is murdered by the She-Devils and Kitty shoots one of them to death in retaliation. We next see Kitty a year later, wandering the train tracks as a derelict. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi