After reading Ant’s snarky post about me being a lazy jerkhole, I took it upon myself to write at least one post for you guys. It’s not like I’m doing the hard work of making excellent music, anyway. Since I am indeed a lazy jerkhole, here is another lady that I’ve written about before, Sharon Van Etten. She has the kind of voice that sounds like it’s been submerged in whiskey, and that is a great attribute for folky music. Her debut, Because I Was In Love, was a bit sparse, musically speaking, but her second album, Epic, has some more instruments thrown in. Tambourines, even! Either way, stop reading this pointless banter and listen to these gems.
Now, eagle-eyed readers might realise that I’ve posted about She & Him before (that sentence is a bit optimistic because I’m not sure we have readers), but they’ve got a new album out now (well, it’s been out for a while now) and Zooey Deschanel is so dang cute that I think I should write about them again. Also, you can’t do anything about it – we’re all about repeated content right now.
Ok, enough frivolities. What I love about She & Him is that lovely old time feel to their tunes. With the follow up album, Volume Two, the trend is continued, but things are a fair bit boppier this time around and boy howdy there’s nothing wrong with that. It feels modern and catchy but incredibly charming at the same time. It’s a little slice of times gone by, but wonderfully fresh at the same time. Can I say it’s adorable perhaps?
It is sometimes a good thing that some groups pick and choose with their musical collaborations, because they have the potential to offer up a barrel full of agreeable music selections. If you’re like me, however, you probably don’t do enough research into groups to find the musical gold buried within. Woe is me! Such is the case with this gentleman, who contributed to Zero 7′s, The Garden record.
Unlike that particular record, José’s music is certifiably folk. Veneer, his first album, is pretty sparse on instrumentation: for the most part, it’s a whole bunch of layered classical guitar and some rad harmonies. Surprisingly, the tracks don’t blend into themselves, even with this lack of instrumental variety, which is more than can be said for a lot of music these days. Instead, we’re treated to a veritable symphony of soothing guitar pickin’, all pleasantly driven by his wonderful singing and lyrics, with tunes that drift in, out and away from the moody night and into the beautiful sunrise. And yes, despite the fact that Heartbeats track has been somewhat overused in various things, it most definitely fits in nicely with the rest of the album and is still a great cover.
This is probably my wankiest post to date! Also, as per usual, no downloadable media: I am seriously full of disappointments. :<
If you are a fan of The Decemberists, then you will also be a fan of The Builders & The Butchers. They are one of the best contemporary bands that plays traditional-style folk music that I’ve ever heard. If that is too many qualifiers for you, then they are one of the best bands to drop in my inbox this year. You might even say this band was all it took for me to get working on this blog again, and you might not even be a filthy liar when you say it.
Downloads
From Loch Lomond/Builders Split Vampire Lake – (MP3, 9.5 MB)
Music freely available online is always appreciated, even moreso when it means I don’t have to resort to the morally ambiguous hosting of the music myself. There aresomefolks who believe this is the way of the future, and even though I always end up buying physical copies, the word of mouth potential for free distribution on the internet is amazing.
Now, these dudes ended up on my list while finally catching up on the catalog over at Quote Unquote Records. Folksy, punksy, dudes with heart! I feel so corny saying that. The music is excellent. The recording quality gets a little sketchy on some tracks, and they may get a bit noisier than you want to handle, but it all works out for me. I’m already jamming too many links in here, so just check out their myspace page for links to the various downloadables and such. They’ve got two full lengths and some live stuff available.
Alright, I’m back. For how long who knows, but here we go, bringing up the lovely Yula again, of Nanuchka, World/Inferno, et al). This time, she’s got a whole different assortment of folks, and though some of it is fairly familiar (Thumb Cinema mostly so, due to it already having been lent to World/Inferno for their last record, though it has certainly evolved into a fairly different song by now), there is a lot of craziness going on here, most notably from the opener, Back Off America, which was almost too crazy to get into, but has since endeared itself to me greatly.
The whole album is available at Woodland Records, which is quite nice of them, though they also provide a means to not only buy a physical copy, but to donate if you enjoy it. It’s fairly similar to what they’ve got going at Quote Unquote Records, which has a bunch more bands I need to get to on here one day.
So, everyone’s favourite folk singer, Sharon Van Etten, is on tour, and if you don’t go see her, you will definitely be missing out. Here are the dates (and yes, I’m a bit late in posting this so some of these dates are not applicable anymore!) And before I forget, or in case you don’t feel like checking out the tour dates, she’s touring with both The Great Lake Swimmers and Rain Machine (the fellow from TV on the Radio’s solo group). So unless you’re like me and are lamenting the fact she’s not playing in your town, I command you to go see her. Or at least implore!
In case you haven’t heard any of her awesomeness, here’s the video of one of her many fantastic songs, For You.
I wasn’t planning on writing anything on here, not so much from lack of music worth writing about as, well, laziness. However, listening to Alela Diane’s new album, To Be Still, I felt compelled to get on here and ramble a bit about it. I’d quickly become a fan of hers after her first album on a label, The Pirate’s Gospel, so I was happy just to learn she had another album to get. After listening to White As Diamonds, one of the standouts on her new album, I was also happy to learn that the album was good. If her folksiness and fantastic singing wasn’t enough for me, the violin playing (and that she lives in Portland now) is a sweet bonus. I’m not sure if I like her new one better than The Pirate’s Gospel, but it is a worthy successor.
While I’ve written about Rykarda Parasol before, that was just a little over two years ago, so hey, why not write about her again? To summarize what I wrote about her back then, 1) her name is incredibly easy to Google, and 2) unlike many folk musicians, both her voice and the music she creates are dynamic. I’m posting a song of hers I didn’t post back then, She’s Like Heroin. It’s really two songs in one, since it’s got a hidden track as well. Also, she says her new album will be recorded by May of this year, with a release sometime this year. So until then, enjoy the free music, you slackers!
Timesbold is a folk band that hails from New York, so I guess we’re doubling up NY bands for now. Their singer, Jason Merritt, sounds a lot like the singer for Okkervil River, which is more confusing than anything else. I do not really feel like writing a whole lot of words today, but I will say that if you’ve liked my folk suggestions of the past, you will like this band. If you like Okkervil River’s singer and wished he had a side project that was decidedly more folky, you will like this band. These songs are all from their self-titled debut, but they’ve released an album this year, Ill Seen Ill Sung, that is also quite good. Oh, and I’m definitely going to do a best of ’08 list this year. Is that enough hints for you?
