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Friday, January 30, 2009
New-music-wise, 2009 has been off to a semi-slow start for me, with just a few eagerly-anticipated albums released within this first month, including Andrew Bird's "Noble Beast", Loney Dear's "Dear John", and just a few days ago, SPC ECO's download-only debut "3-D" (that's Dean Garcia of Curve's new band with his daughter Rose on vocals). I'm also semi-obsessed with The Hush Now's new one which, while technically available for a couple months, gets its official release party in a couple weeks (and can be downloaded for free). While those four albums have been plenty enough to occupy my ears, things really pick up with February's arrival. Like last year, I took some time to pull together a list of discs officially scheduled for release in the year ahead (and some rumored to be) that I'm most excited to hear. This practice makes my year-end list more interesting by contrast, just to see which bands let me down, and which ones weren't even on my radar. Speaking of that, if there's anything not listed that you think I'd dig, leave a comment (and yes, this is implied permission for promo-people to go nuts). Keep in mind, though, if there's something blatantly conspicuous in its absence, there probably be a good reason. I also threw in some other random events and releases at the bottom that have me very much looking forward to the remainder of the year ahead... fyi, I'll be updating this list randomly with schedule changes and new releases as I find out about them. February Other random happenings I'm looking forward to in '09 Yes, those last three are very wishful thoughts, but I remain optimistic...  Wednesday, January 28, 2009  The first season of the Elvis Costello-hosted "Spectacle" series on the Sundance Channel has been a curious thing. In aiming to appeal to a fairly broad range of music-fans (and not just devotees of Mr. Dynamite), the lineup of interviewees includes more than just Costello's aging contemporaries (The Police, James Taylor, Lou Reed, Elton John), but a few more, um, how shall I say, 'relevant' songwriters (M. Ward, Jenny Lewis, Rufus Wainwright), along with some utterly random non-musicians (director/painter Julian Schnabel and... Bill Clinton?). Some of the chats have been fascinating, others fairly run-of-the-mill, but all watchable, usually due to Costello's obvious respect and familiarity (and sometimes kinship) with his subjects, who invariably reciprocate. And even if the shared reflections aren't your thing, Elvis and his guests usually make up for it by sharing the stage for a song or two (well, except Clinton, thank goodness). This week sees the debut of Elvis' sit-down with opera singer Renee Fleming (and if there's a musical collaboration, it's sure to be... interesting), followed by a spotlight on Herbie Hancock next week. But it's the February 11th episode I'm most looking forward to, when Mr. MacManus hosts a group discussion with M. Ward & Zooey Deschanel (aka She & Him) and Jenny Lewis. According to Elvis' site, he'll join Jenny to recreate "Pretty Bird" as well as "Carpetbaggers" (which he contributes to on her latest album) with Deschanel on backing vocals, then Jenny will return the favor by performing on his "Go Away". She & Him also do their own "Change Is Hard", and Costello teams up with Jakob Dylan to cover The Clash's "Straight To Hell" before all the guests hit the stage to tackle Elvis' classic (and Nick Lowe-penned) "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?". My DVR is already set.The promote Spectacle, the PR folks behind the show are offering up a bunch of eco-friendly "Spectacle/Sundance Prize Packs", which includes: A Keen/Sundance totebag, a t-shirt, notebook, a Sigg /Sundance thermos, and most intriguingly, a pair of desktop speakers. Here, have a look...  Want it? Just send an email (subject: "Spectacle!") to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com before noon this coming Monday, February 2nd, and I'll randomly pick one winner. And just for the hell of it (and to see if you're reading closely), include the title of your favorite Elvis Costello song as well. Since everybody must have one. U.S. residents only, please, and if I pick your name on Monday, I'll contact you that afternoon to get your snail-mailing address. Friday, January 23, 2009
A few upcoming events, both very soon and a little later on, that I'm compelled to bring to the attention of any and all Boston-area Almanac readers. Some truly great stuff ahead...  Tomorrow night sees the very first benefit show for the wonderful Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville. While the Armory itself is located on Highland Ave., the fund-raising event is happening at the Somerville Theatre over in Davis Square. Three fantastic bands have donated their musical services to the worthy cause: Mission of Burma, The Neighborhoods, and Faces on Film will take the stage to introductions by emcee Jimmy Tingle. Tickets for the altruistic, all-ages evening are still available at the Somerville Theatre and Middle East box offices, or via Ticketb@sterd if you're up for some extra service charges. Monday night, the 26th, introduces us to another new venture that is focused on helping artists thrive: Illius Rock. The start-up, which has the goal of directly connecting bands with their fans, will host a free launch party at the Middlesex Lounge near Central Square in Cambridge. Four bands will perform in the intimate setting: The Main Drag, The Wandas, All These Kings, and It's From the Sky. To get an idea of what Illius is trying to do, have a look around their sub-site for It's From The Sky. In a nutshell, fans and followers of bands on Illius are able to help directly fund specific projects (studio time, tours, cd pressing) and in return get added access, cool merch, and more. Cuttin' out the middle man, and giving you something special in return. It's something that's become far more common over the past year or so, and will only expand as the broken major-label system continues its slow descent into irrelevancy. More power to the music-makers, I say. Here's something very different from the norm, and utterly intriguing: Next week, on Wednesday the 28th (7pm) and Thursday the 29th (8pm), Bryce and Aaron Dessner (of the National and Clogs) will be in town to take part in a special project at M.I.T.'s Broad Institute Auditorium entitled "Darkness Visible". The two-night event includes multimedia collaborations (between the Dessners and visual artist Matthew Ritchie, joined also by sound designer David Sheppard and M.I.T. Professor/instrumentalist Evan Ziporyn), a lecture, a Q&A session, and the unique performance of some music that Bryce Dessner wrote for string quartet and small orchestra (consisting on Thursday of M.I.T. and Wellesley students). Not only does it sound totally fascinating, but it's completely free and open to the public. The following week, on Tuesday, February 3rd, Austin's Heartless Bastards will celebrate the release of their third album, "The Mountain", at Allston's Great Scott. That's the very day it arrives in stores (thanks to the Fat Possum label), and just the third day of their national tour, so the band is bound to be in very high spirits. It's another one of the fine Fenway Recordings Sessions, so DJ Carbo will also be there to spin tunes before and after their set. Listen to some Heartless Bastards at MySpace, or grab the album's title track here... Heads up for area fans of School of Seven Bells (who released one of my favorite records of '08) - We don't have to wait until Sunday, February 15th to see them at the Paradise (opening for Fujiya & Miyagi). In fact, we can see them do a longer set a week earlier, and on a Friday night, when they play a show at Wellesley College. It's free for students, but open to the public for a measly 5 bucks. Details here. And finally, congrats are due to Jen in Cambridge, who was my randomly-chosen winner for the two tickets to see tomorrow's Longwave / Wheat / Bon Savants show at Great Scott. See y'all there. Thursday, January 22, 2009
I've finally come to accept the inevitable tardiness of my yearly list of musical faves, and really, it's only tardy when compared to everyone else's list. Y'see, I listen to way too much music in the waning months of the year, using extra-long workdays and holiday travels to catch up on discs I haven't spent enough time with. A couple of the albums below didn't even hit my ears until last month, but rose quickly above many others. And then I need these first few quieter weeks of the new year to let some sounds settle, to narrow down the contenders and pull together this post. So here it is. As with last year, I've come up with an alphabetical list of the 20 discs that defined 2008 for me, along with a couple of EPs that stood out. At the bottom I also rattle off some also-rans, albums I either a) liked a lot but didn't spend enough time with, or b) enjoyed some of but had too many skip-worthy moments. These are the ones that would round out a top 30 or 40, but even I'm not that self-indulgent. I long ago abandoned the futile exercise of numerical ranking, and it should go without saying that these are not the 'best of' the year, just the ones I heard and loved most. And believe me, given my ever-demanding dadly-duties, there is a lot I didn't hear. Hell, I've been listening to something for a few weeks now that should probably be in this list, as it was technically released a couple months back... but I'll save that one for a later post. With each album listed below you'll see a few things -- the titles of my favorite couple tracks, a link to the record label where you can buy the disc directly, and of course, an artist/label/promo-sanctioned downloadable Mp3 from each album. If an Mp3 wasn't officially made available last year, I've included a link to where you can stream some songs instead. Keep an eye out next week for a extensive post about the albums I'm most looking forward to this year (I love looking at last year's version and comparing it to this favorites list). Time permitting, I'm also hoping to pull together a list of last year's live shows that moved me most. But first, the albums...  British Sea Power - "Do You Like Rock Music?" (on Rough Trade) faves: "No Lucifer", "Down On The Ground" Mp3: "Waving Flags"  The Broken River Prophet - "With Infinite Arms To Cradle The Flames" (self-released) faves: "Burned In Place", "She Gives Me Hope" Mp3: "Burned In Place"  Centro-Matic / South San Gabriel - "Dual Hawks" (on Misra Records) Centro-faves: "Quality Strange", "Counting the Scars" SG-faves: "Kept on the Sly", "Alabama Crusade" Mp3: Centro-matic - "I, the Kite" Mp3: South San Gabriel - "Trust To Lose"  Crooked Fingers - "Forfeit / Fortune" (on Constant Artists, Inc. / Red Pig Records) faves: "Cannibals", "Your Control" Mp3: "Phony Revolutions"  Death Cab For Cutie - "Narrow Stairs" (on Atlantic) faves: "Cath", "Long Division" Mp3: "Long Division" (Seattle Session) (via Stereogum)  Land of Talk - "Some Are Lakes" (on Saddle Creek) faves: "Some Are Lakes", "Give Me Back My Heart Attack" Mp3: "Some Are Lakes"  Mogwai - "The Hawk Is Howling" (on Matador Records) faves: "The Sun Smells Too Loud", "Thank You Space Expert" Mp3: "The Sun Smells Too Loud"  My First Days On Junk - "No Order" (self-released) faves: "Count Me In, I'm Good To Go", "Try Hard" Mp3: "Count Me In, I'm Good To Go"  New Radiant Storm King - "Drinking in the Moonlight" (on Darla Records) faves: "Clouds Cover Everything", "Eraser" Mp3: "Senseless"  The New Year - "The New Year" (on Touch & Go) faves: "X Off Days", "MMV" Mp3: "The Company I Can Get"  The Notwist - "The Devil, You + Me" (on Domino) faves: "Gravity", "Boneless" Mp3: "Good Lies"  Plus Minus - "Xs On Your Eyes" (on Absolutely Kosher) faves: "Unsung", "X's On Your Eyes" Mp3: "Unsung"  Retribution Gospel Choir - "Retribution Gospel Choir" (on Caldo Verde) faves: "Take Your Time", "What She Turned Into" Mp3: "Somebody's Someone" Download: Full live shows @ the Live Music Archive  School of Seven Bells - "Alpinisms" (on Ghostly Int'l) faves: "Connjur", "Face to Face on High Places" Mp3: "Connjur" Mp3: "Connjur (acoustic)" (from the Stereogum Decomposed Session)  Sigur Ros - "Med Sut I Eyrum Vit Spilum Endalaust" (on XL Recordings) faves: "Inni Mar Syugur Vitlajsingur", "Vid Spilum Endalaust" Mp3: "Gobbledigook"  Stereolab - "Chemical Chords" (on 4AD) faves: "Three Women", "Vortical Phonotheque" Mp3: "Three Women"  Sun Kil Moon - "April" (on Caldo Verde) faves: "Moorestown", "Tonight in Bilbao" Stream "Moorestown" at Caldo Verde and more songs at MySpace  Tokyo Police Club - "Elephant Shell" (on Saddle Creek) faves: "Juno", "Listen To The Math" Mp3: "Juno (Ra Ra Riot/Andrew Maury Remix)"  The Wedding Present - "El Rey" (on Manifesto) faves: "Palisades, "The Thing I Like Best..." Stream songs at MySpace  Wye Oak - "If Children" (on Merge Records) faves: "Warning", "I Don't Feel Young" Mp3: "Warning" (more Mp3s at their site) And a couple of 2008 EPs I really dug...  Bottomless Pit - "Congress" EP (self-released on vinyl/cd, on Comedy Minus One digitally) faves: All four tracks (Hey, it's Bottomless Pit) Mp3: "Fish Eyes"  50 Foot Wave - "Power + Light" EP (self-released) faves: the whole epic 26-minute beast Stream in its entirety at CASHmusic (physical release coming soon) The honorable mentions (aka 'If I'd made a longer list'): The Breeders - "Mountain Battles", The Cure - "4:13 Dream", Frightened Rabbit - "Midnight Organ Fight", Grand Archives - "Grand Archives", Ida - "Lovers Prayers", Magnetic Fields - "Distorion", The Night Marchers - "See You In Magic", Okkervil River - "The Stand-Ins", Shearwater - "Rook", The Stills - "Oceans Will Rise", Nada Surf - "Lucky", Ra Ra Riot - "The Rhumb Line", REM - "Accelerate", Silver Jews - "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea". Tuesday, January 20, 2009  Great Scott and Massconcerts present a pretty stellar triple-bill this Saturday night, headlined by NY's Longwave, who are joined by a couple of the Boston-area's best: Wheat and Bon Savants. Longwave are here on the heels of their latest album, "Secrets Are Sinister", and while I've generally liked what I've heard from the band, it wasn't until their opening set for the reunited Swervedriver last June at the Paradise that something really clicked for me. I was surprised to learn that they didn't have a label at the time, but given the strength of the new songs they played, I figured it wouldn't be long. November proved me right, when Original Signal Recordings released the new disc. I'm dying to see Wheat again, to erase the disappointment of being out of town for their long-awaited return to the stage at TT's a couple months back. The band will no doubt be playing familiar favorites alongside preview tracks from their upcoming full-length, "White Ink, Black Ink", due this Spring. To say I'm looking forward to hearing new sounds from them would be an understatement, and I count myself very lucky to live in the area they call home. Bon Savants have been relatively quiet as well, playing less than a dozen times (and only a couple in town) last year as they focus on finishing the followup to 2006's well-received debut, "Post Rock Defends the Nation". When they have played out, the band hasn't been shy about sharing the new stuff (check out "Destroyer" on MySpace and a live clip on Youtube), and I figure we'll get a healthy dose on Saturday (and hopefully an album-release update). The crew at Great Scott has generously given me a couple guest list spots for the show, so if you're free this Saturday, January 24th, drop an email to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com before Noon this Friday, the 23rd. Throw "Great Scott!" in the subject line, include the city you live in (area residents or in-town visitors only, obvs), and oh, double-check your ID to make sure you're over 21. Otherwise they won't let you in, ya whipper-snapper. I'll pick the winner on Friday and let you know right away if the two guest list spots are yours. If you could bet on such things, I'd throw tall dollars down on the show selling out, if not in the next few days then surely at the door. Stay on the safe side and grab your own tickets via Ticketweb. Again, it's 21+, ten bucks, and kicks off at 9pm. Ah, sweet, sweet Saturday night show... my sleep-deprived self thanks you. Labels: giveaways Monday, January 12, 2009  The year 2007 saw the welcome arrival of Travels, the musical team-up of ex-Metal Hearts member Anar Badalov and former Victory at Sea singer/guitarist Mona Elliott. Their self-released debut disc was a gorgeously haunting labor of love, written mostly as the two fell for each other during the 2006 European tour of their two bands, and as Mona dealt with the onset, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer. Well, this brand new year brings us the gift of their second full-length, a batch of songs penned as the two settled into their Union Square digs. The upcoming disc, titled "The Hot Summer", officially arrives in a month or so, but the duo has been gracious enough to allow me to share the very first downloadable preview in the form of the song "Severed". As much as I loved their self-titled debut, this single track already shows remarkable growth, both in songwriting and their home-spun production, and has me hankering hard for the rest of the album... Mp3: Travels - "Severed" Two other new ones, "The Forgotten" and "Favorite People", can now be streamed at their MySpace page, along with a brand new demo of a post-"Hot Summer" song titled "Fiction". Keep an eye on that page for future demos, as well as ordering info for new album. update 1/14 - Pre-ordering info is now available, and can be made via PayPal (see link on their MySpace page). Early orders get emailed a digital copy of the album in a month, on February 14th, and get mailed the disc that week, along with an 'extra-fun gift'. Travels will celebrate the release of "The Hot Summer" on, appropriately enough, Valentine's Day, with a show at PA's Lounge in (where else) Somerville. Joining them to mark the occasion will be Animal Hospital, Arms and Sleepers, and Mary Page. Can't wait. Friday, January 02, 2009  First official 'Nac post of the new year, and it's a gift for one of you. There are many scheduled releases I look forward to in '09 (and I'll write about them in another post soon), but one I anticipate the most is David Bazan's Black Cloud, which should be arriving on Barsuk sometime this Spring. The former Pedro the Lion frontman has been sharing several new songs on stage for awhile now, and simply stripped down you can tell they're some of his best. To help ease the long wait for "Black Cloud" (technically his first official solo full-lengther), David and the crew at Undertow released the "Bazan: Alone At The Microphone" DVD in October. Documented last summer, the intimate, hour-long offering sprinkles revealing interview segments among 10 bare-bones performances. These run-throughs cover of a wide variety of David's work, including PtL songs, some Headphones tracks (remarkable in these very different guitar-based versions), and the disc closes with the new "Please Baby Please", a live favorite for awhile now. So, thanks to the generosity of Undertow, I've got a copy of the David Bazan DVD to give away to a random Almanac reader. With the holiday season wrapping up, and surfing having slowed waaaaay down, the odds of your snagging this sucker is that much greater. So if you want to take a shot, drop a quick email to me at giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com before 9am next Friday, January 9th, and I'll let you know if it's yours that afternoon. Throw "Bazan DVD" in the subject line, and include the city you live in (North Americans only, unfortunately). If the chips don't fall your way, you can pick up your own copy of the DVD via Undertow, Barsuk, or at Insound. Check out a couple interview segments from the DVD right here, some bonus material over at Elbows, and these clips via YouTube... Also well worth noting is that David recently released a couple new tracks via iTunes, the politically-charged "American Flags" and his version of "Please Baby Please" from the DVD. For those who hanker for something to hold in your hands (as I do), both tracks will also be found on a 7" version that arrives later this month from Barsuk. Alright, get those emails coming and keep those fingers crossed. Labels: giveaways |
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