01.31.09
Listen to Ane Brun’s Album
Ane Brun at Blue Shell in Cologne.
This week I’m listening to female singers a lot, for whatever reason. I just noticed that Norwegian songstress Ane Brun’s 2005 album A Temporary Dive is fully streamable on Last.fm. I don’t know how long it will be available, so just click on the link and click play. The album certainly contains interesting songwriting by someone whose native tongue is not English, listen to Balloon Ranger for instance.
Last night I saw the Finnish band Hormonés. They played a really nice acoustic set featuring their own songs and covers ranging from Iron & Wine to Queens of the Stone Age, and I was also glad to see them play a Jason Mraz song.
And thanks to Christoph of the German language Konzerttagebuch blog (which looks like a great music blog at first sight) for the photo of Ane!
01.30.09
Taylor Swift, that Fearless Girl
This might be something I should just listen to secretly instead of scrobbling my last.fm profile with it, let alone write about it. But that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the music of the young and beautiful Taylor Swift. In many ways, she looks to me as one of the most promising young singers.
I like to listen to music that I feel is genuine. With all the teen sensations, there’s undoubtedly lots of marketing involved, and it’s hard to say what is just marketing and what is “genuine.” The stories are told in a way that sells records. Taylor’s second album Fearless has been a huge success, and she’s only 19 years old. You could imagine that kind of success to easily spoil someone that young, but not Taylor, she still seems to be a very down-to-earth person.
One thing I’ve noticed about many great guitar players is how humble they are when talking about themselves, like Tim Reynolds lately describing himself as a student of the guitar. That attitude of always wanting to learn of certainly accounts to what makes them so great. If Taylor succeeds in keeping that kind of a humble attitude despite all the success, who knows where she can go with her music! She’s already writing her own songs, which are many times quite personal. They may sound naive, but isn’t that like it’s supposed to be when you’re only 19?
Annie also recently wrote about Taylor on her blog You Sing, I Write and posted videos of some of her favorite songs. This is Taylor performing her song White Horse at the Taylor Guitars factory (and no, she’s not a luthier, that’s Bob Taylor).
Friday Night Blogging
Staying home alone on a Friday
Flat on the floor looking back
On old love
Or lack thereof
Those lines are obviously from a great song by John Mayer, Love Song for No One, which appeared on his 2001 release Room for Squares. But well, tonight’s not going to be like that. Tonight I’m seeing a local band called Hormonés with some friends. You can listen to their music on their MySpace page.
I could have met you in a sandbox
I could have passed you on the sidewalk
Could I have missed my chance
And watched you walk away?
John’s got a way with words. And talk about the delivery. The song starts at about 3 minutes in the video, but the story before that is worth a listen, too.
01.27.09
“People Got A Lotta Nerve” by Neko Case
Neko Case at the Austin City Limits Music Festival 2008 (Photo by Eric Wittman)
Neko Case is an artist I was going to talk about eventually, and what better time to do it than now, because she is donating $5 to Best Friends Animal Society every time her new song People Got A Lotta Nerve is posted on a blog until February 3, 2009. Now that’s a nice charity because I like animals.
Neko Case started her career in mid-’90s, being both a solo artist and part of the Canadian band The New Pornographers. She’s not that well-known outside North America, I think I started listening to her music after reading her remarks against the pitch correction software Auto-Tune, so often used (and abused) in the production of music these days.
People Got A Lotta Nerve is a song from her upcoming album Middle Cyclone, due out on March 3. Download the song as MP3.
If you’re a blogger yourself or have an iLike account, here’s the instructions how to post the song.
01.26.09
Song of the Week #5: Tyrone Wells – Remain
Tyrone Wells in Hoboken, New Jersey in 2008 (Photo by Mick Arieta)
Tyrone Wells is a singer-songwriter from Spokane, Washington, but he has lived in California throughout his solo career, starting from the year 2000. His music has been featured in numerous TV shows, so maybe you’ve already heard him even if the name doesn’t ring a bell. His debut album on a major label – Hold On – was released in 2007 by Universal Records. Tomorrow, the second one called Remain is released. It has already been available as a digital download for some time.
Remain is the title track and first single from the new album. Also tomorrow, Tyrone will start his tour from San Diego by playing at House of Blues. He will be on tour until late March, so if you’re in the States, check out his tour dates.
This is an acoustic performance of Remain from last October.
01.22.09
From the Archive #10: Jack Johnson on Latitude 32
Jack Johnson at Pavilhão Atlântico in summer 2008 (Photo by José Goulão)
Not that I’m running out of artists by featuring Jack Johnson for the second time in this series, I just wanted to get this out of the way. This is going to be the last one of the weekly archive.org entries, but by no means the last one ever. There are still many recordings to introduce, I just don’t have the time to write about a new show every week.
Many people say that all Jack Johnson songs sound the same. While I don’t agree, I can certainly understand them. There’s that certain style to his music and his vocals are very distinctive. And there’s a melody in many of his songs that first has a couple of low notes, this goes up about an octave, then comes back down and does that over and over again. But his music has never been too repetitive to me, I like it.
This is a recording Jack made for a San Diego radio show called “Latitude 32″ awhile back. The sound quality is fantastic, but very little is known about the recording, not even the date or if it ever aired. It’s an old one, most likely from the time before the release of his debut album in 2001. The recording is available in all the usual formats or can be played in the onsite player.
Jack Johnson Live at Latitude 32
It’s just Jack and his guitar. He’s introducing songs and playing them, there’s no radio host. Times were very different at the time of recording, Jack was just a starting artist, most likely with no idea how popular he was to become. All of the songs sound so innocent, and almost all of them are now fan favorites.
The first song is Rodeo Clowns. It first appeared on G. Love & Special Sauce’s 1999 album Philadelphonic, then later on Jack’s second studio album On and On. It’s one of my favorite ones. I saw Jack last summer in the beautiful town of Sankt Goarshausen on the river Rhine in Germany. G. Love was opening for him, and one of the things I anticipated the most was G. Love joining Jack and the band to play Rodeo Clowns, and sure enough, they did just that.
All of the remaining songs made it to Jack’s first album Brushfire Fairytales. The second song, Posters, lyrically touches some of the same aspects as the first one – I’m an energetic, apathetic version of another person, check out my outsides, there ain’t nothing in here – and Jack sings it so genuinely.
The News is a naive and beautiful song. Drink the Water interestingly has the same intro that is used for Rodeo Clowns on the On and On album. Bubble Toes and Flake have grown into big crowd favorites over time. To sum it up, this is eight early songs by Jack Johnson and some stories about the songs. Definitely worth a listen if you are at all into Jack Johnson.
01.19.09
Song of the Week #4: Mason Jennings – The Times They Are a-Changin’
Not the most original selection, but I could think of no better song for this week than Bob Dylan’s famous The Times They Are a-Changin’, the biggest event of the week being Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration tomorrow. It’s such an enormous change and one that I am very happy about.
Of course, times are hard now, and there’s only so much one man can do, but the direction things are going looks good indeed. I wish Barack Obama all the best in his presidency.
Mason Jennings recorded a version of the song for I’m Not There, a 2007 film about Bob Dylan. I like Mason’s cover, he has stayed close to the original.
01.17.09
Welcome to the Grassroots
Two weeks ago I introduced Fiction 20 Down, an acoustic rock band from Bel Air, Maryland. They released their second album, Welcome to the Grassroots, in 2008. The record is produced by the band’s frontman Jordan Lally. I’d say it is well-produced for an independent release; the album is a pleasure to listen to.
One thing I often ask about albums is whether they are truly more than just a collection of songs. Of course, if I say some album is just a collection of songs, it probably tells more about me not being able to find the story within than about the album itself. Let’s see how this one develops.
The album starts with the percussion and bass riffs of Declaration of the Grassroots, a song where the title of the album comes from. The lyrics are about the message the bands wants to spread. What follows are three catchy songs in the style of f20d: Gossip & Gunplay, Stoke the Fire and Wake Up.
The next two – Abraham and the Aftermath and UpRise and Shine – are the most intriguing songs on the album to me. Both of the songs are build around groovy bass lines and percussion, accompanied by guitar riffs. Next up is a very warm-sounding song Brother (As You Were). Jordan Lally’s vocals sound great and are well-audible on this one.
Some of the band members list Jack Johnson as their favorite current artist. If you compare Fiction 20 Down to Jack Johnson, there’s one big difference. F20d is a band with a richer sound in their music, while Jack is a strong singer-songwriter and the music is just serving the song. I believe what has made Jack so popular is largely his ability to make his warm and relaxed persona part of his music. This is much harder for a band to do.
The song with the strongest lyrics on the album is Conclusions. It is also musically a good one and definitely one of my favorites on the record. The melody somehow makes me think of O.A.R. These two bands may sound pretty similar at first listen, but listening more to f20d makes it clear that they are no imitation of O.A.R. The next song, Your Energy, is a quieter one and likewise a little different from most of the album. The last song, Wind Me Down, is such an addictive one and ends the album in a nice manner.
This is what I think after some listening. I recommend you take a listen yourself to see if you like it. As I wrote two weeks ago, some of the songs off the album are available as MP3 downloads from Fiction 20 Down’s promo page with the code glimmer01. To buy the album, check out Fiction 20 Down Store.
As I’m writing this, the temperature outside is -15 degrees Celsius (that’s 5 degrees Fahrenheit). I feel it’s not the best kind of weather for music like this. The best conditions to listen to this record I can picture would be chilling out on a warm summer night. It’s obviously going to take some time before I can see if that’s true.
01.13.09
From the Archive #9: Donavon Frankenreiter @ Palace Theatre
Donavon Frankenreiter at Conrad Sohm in Austria in 2007 (Photo by Robert Mölzer)
Donavon Frankenreiter is an artist I’ve mostly heard jamming with his long-time friend Jack Johnson on acoustic guitars, but I haven’t listened that much to his own stuff.
In this week’s recording, Donavon and his band are opening for Gov’t Mule, so his set is a pretty short one, less than 50 minutes. The recording is available in all the usual formats: Flac, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or can be played in the onsite player.
Donavon Frankenreiter Band Live at Palace Theatre on 2006-11-30
All of the Donavon Frankenreiter shows in the Live Music Archive are under “Donavon Frankenreiter Band.” I haven’t seen “Band” appear elsewhere, and as far as I can tell, that’s what it usually is when it just says his name.
Many of the songs in this show are from Donavon’s self-titled album from 2004, which was released by Jack Johnson’s Brushfire label. The opener is called Free, a song Jack also cowrote and used to play frequently at his own shows. It’s a small catchy tune, like many of Donavon’s.
The next three songs, What ‘Cha Know About, It Don’t Matter and Call Me Papa are also from the same album. The first one of them contains a nice guitar solo by Donavon. Call Me Papa has an interpolation of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man in the middle of it, such a mellow version of the classic. Donavon sure got used to playing southern rock songs in his previous band, Sunchild.
The remaining four songs are from Donavon’s second album, Move by Yourself. Fool, All Around Us and That’s Too Bad are bluesy songs with a slightly more electric sound than the rest of the show. This is a nice recording with an okay sound quality, and it won’t take too long to listen.
01.12.09
Song of the Week #3: Chris Cornell – Call Me a Dog
Chris Cornell at Montreux Jazz Festival in 2005 (Photo by Simon Jacquier)
Chris Cornell, frontman of former bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, is now on a solo career and working on a record called Scream with the famous hip hop producer Timbaland. Four singles have already been released off the album. The change of style hasn’t been taken well at all by his long- time fans; many think the upcoming album is a disgrace to his former bands. Chris Cornell over drum machine beats is something that I haven’t either quite digested yet. The only one that I like out of the new songs I’ve heard is Two Drink Minimum.
Chris Cornell’s recent direction reminds me of Dave Matthews Band teaming up with hip hop producer Mark Batson and recording the album Stand Up. They didn’t go as far as to completely change their style, but enough to upset much of the fanbase. Things like replacing one of the best drummers in the world with a drum machine didn’t make the fans too happy. However, some of the Stand Up songs have developed into awesome live songs. I’m willing to give Chris’ new album a similar chance once he gets on tour to promote it. He is a great live artist after all.
This week’s song is one of the good old ones. Call Me a Dog is a Temple of the Dog song from their self-titled album, released in 1991. Temple of the Dog was a collaboration between Chris and the members of Pearl Jam in early ’90s when Soundgarden hadn’t had their breakthrough yet and Pearl Jam was just starting out. The song has become a real fan favorite among Chris fans, one that people want to hear at his shows. And sometimes he plays it.
This is an acoustic version Chris played at an unplugged solo show in Stockholm in 2006. The bootleg of the show called “Unplugged In Sweden” has been a pretty popular one.
