One may wonder how I’m so lucky. I often wonder the same thing. A great going away party has all your friends, plenty of good conversation, and maybe some beer if you’re into that sort of thing. Add to that an intimate, acoustic performance by one of your favorite musicians and it’s really hard to describe how amazing the outcome is.

John Vanderslice (myspace) did just that for my going away part. He and Jamie Riotto (on upright bass) played about an hour with no mics or amplification whatsoever. The gathered audience, sitting on the floor of my cleared out Mission apartment, was entranced. There was hardly a sound except for thunderous applause and “woos!” after each and every song. Figuring that the effect of having this show in my own apartment and for me had skewed my perspective, I said to a number of people afterwards “that was pretty good, right?” Every single one of them corrected me: “No, that was amazing.”

Thanks, JV, for making it a wonderful evening an unforgettable one. And if you were in the audience, thanks for coming. These videos and photos don’t do it justice, but they’re something I’d like to share here anyway.

Romanian Names from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

White Plains from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

Lucifer Rising, by John Vanderslice from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

I have a signed set list among my prized possessions but unfortunately I don’t have a scan of it handy. I will add it to this page eventually.

JV, by the way, has a new 7″ coming out with “Too Much Time” on it. You can get it from Dead Oceans. They’ve also posted a demo version of the song, which is flippin great:

John Vanderslice – Too Much Time (demo) (mp3)

This is emphatically not a return to form. I’ve been sharing songs with friends and I thought it was a bit silly to not share them here too.

colo(u)rful houses in Bo Kaap

I quite like this Alberta Cross song. The whole album is good, too, though I don’t love every song.
Alberta Cross – Low Man (mp3)

Volcano Choir is a side project of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. This track was not what I expected, but it’s quite catchy/ good. And Justin’s vocals are wonderful as always.
Volcano Choir – Island, IS (mp3)

Soul Sides has been posting some fantastic stuff lately and you’d be remiss to not check it out. Bobby Freeman’s “Good Good Lovin’” is a classic blues-based, Motown-sound track with a hard driving sax part. They posted two tracks by the Metros and both are excellent soul tracks, but I like the dark, swaggering “Since I Found My Baby” better.

They also posted these oh-those-are-funny videos of Lushlife doing acoustic covers of classic hip hop tunes. They are so funny, until you realize they’re actually quite compelling. For example, this Jay Z cover:

I definitely am going to keep my eye out for Mayer Hawthorne after a few tracks of his I heard recently. Grab the breezy, oldies- and Motown-inspired “Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’” at MBV.

I don’t know much about Monogrenade but I quite like folky The Acorn-reminiscent track “Ce Soir” that Anyone’s Guess posted.

The B-side of the Very Best 7″, “Yalira”, available here, is beautiful and worth the listen.

I’ve been listening to the Frightened Rabbit Daytrotter session a lot. The featured version of “My Backwards Walk” is great.

And, finally, if I’m posting, I feel it’s my duty to mention the great KevvyKev’s (one of KZSU’s own) 25th anniversary Bang the Drum concert with 25 DJs and 25 MCs. It’s definitely another impressive line up. Check out all the details.

boats in Kalk Bay, False Bay

Here are a bunch of links and thoughts and things that have come up over the last few days.

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Yup, Michael Jackson died. I’ve been pondering whether to post about it. If you want a proper tribute and a truly excellent MJ mix, head to Soul Sides.

I think something that people do realize and what I think is most amazing is that Jackson holds the record for best selling album of all time by a factor of >2X. That is, if the second best selling album ever (Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon and AC/DC Back in Black) sold twice as many records as they ever had, Thriller would still beat them by 20 million units. And with the way that record industry is going, I doubt that record will ever be broken. It had seven top 10 singles on it. You can say what you want about radio payola and major labels force-feeding people music, but I doubt a single record will ever capture so many people’s attention again.

Here’s a nice post with reminiscences by engineers and producers that worked with MJ. It gives a bit more insight into the musician Jackson was.

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Ali Akbar Khan also died last week. He was one of the foremost proponents and teachers of classical music of North India. A master of the sarod, Khansahib was recognized, along with Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee, as having been instrumental in bringing Indian music to the west. The Ali Akbar Khan College of Music was local here in San Rafael and Khansahib lived locally so this is also a great blow to the local music community.

Listen to this beautiful piece that really shows his mastery of the sarod.

Ali Akbar Khan – Tarana in Bhupali (mp3) (buy)

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On a lighter note, The Octopus Project (myspace) have released the first track off of their forthcoming EP, Golden Beds. I have a bit of a think for their rare tracks with vocals and this one works well. (via MBV)
Octopus Project – Wet Gold (mp3)

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Over the weekend I watched Adele’s (myspace) performance of “Hometown Glory” (a song I wrote about recently) about half a dozen times. It’s gorgeous and her voice is spot on. I can’t find a video of just the performance, but you can find it within this full episode:

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Who doesn’t love seeing some pure joy in music? See it when the Gaslight Anthem performs “‘59 Sound” with the Boss, one of their most obvious influences. I’m still enamoured with the song (and I know the words better than Springsteen). Brian Fallon, Gaslight’s lead singer, understandably milks this for everything its worth.

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Finally, I don’t really get ripping on P4k. I don’t really pay attention to much that they do anymore (except for their news section), but Popsense took a different take: they reviewed every thing Pitchfork did for a day. Their final rating? 6.7. Pretty well done.

Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

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Adrian (me):
John Vanderslice – Too Much Time (original) (mp3) (buy original)

John Vanderslice “Too Much Time” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

While I’m still listening to that Adele song a lot, this video–or really the audio from the video, as I rarely actually stare at the video while it’s playing–has caught my attention big time. (And it’s caught at least one other panelist’s attention; see below). I loved when he did a version of “Too Much Time” like this in January but with the studio version more prominent in my head, the magic of the orchestral version had faded in my mind.

I’m so glad this captures something like what that concert felt like.

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Keith:
Beastie Boys – Sure Shot (mp3) (buy)

So many fantastic lines in this loopy lead-off to their most sublime pleasure, Ill Communication. Don’t know if the Rod Carew or grey hairs references are my favorite, but with the new Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 movie coming I definitely recommend resisting the Tony Scott urge and seeing the original.

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Oz:
Other Lives – Paper Cities (mp3) (hearya session, buy original)

I’ve been obsessed with Other Lives and their self-titled album for a few months now, but their trip into the studio for our recent live session took me to stalker level. “Paper Cities” is one of my favorite tracks from the session and the album. I’m a little shocked we’re not seeing more buzz about them on the blogs.

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Dave:
John Vanderslice – Too Much Time (original) (mp3) (buy original)

[see video above]

I had heard the album version (above) before and really liked it, but there’s just something about this that really grabbed me. The string arrangement, drum, and even JV’s delivery add so much energy that it feels like a completely different song, it’s almost cinematic. I’ve definitely been walking around humming this one.

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Fanfarlo at Central Presbyterian during SxSW 2009

You may remember my crush of a little band called Fanfarlo (myspace) out of England. I may have have mentioned them a few other times as well. Last week, their debut album, Reservoir, got released, though it’s still in limited quantities, it looks like.

What can I say about this band? Sitting somewhere between the sweet emotional pop songs of Belle & Sebastian and the crescendo-filled orchestrated rock songs of the Arcade Fire, the band makes fun but nuanced songs that are filled with hooks while managing to not be too saccharine. They also put on a great live show as evidenced by the last two SxSWs. This year they filled the Central Presbyterian Church with gorgeous songs.

Reservoir has a number of tracks from previous EPs and singles (including some that I raved about previously) as well as a few new songs. The older songs were rerecorded for this album so it has a consistent aesthetic to it. But enough from me, just check out these songs.

Fanfarlo – I’m a Pilot (mp3)

Fanfarlo – Harold T. Wilkins or How To Wait a Very Long Time (mp3)

In addition to their studio work, the band has done some great one-off acoustic sessions for various web sites. Check out both of these below. I love how well their sound translates into that setting.

Here’s “Harold T. Wilkins”:

And a number of songs in a garden:

Secret Garden Video Series: Fanfarlo (SXSW Edition) from hoovesontheturf on Vimeo.

Reservoir is available directly from the band, from Rough Trade and from iTunes. They have some live shows scheduled in the UK but unfortunately none in the US right now. Perhaps you’ll just have to go see them next SxSW.

As always, the volume number is made up. . .

Horse Feathers performed a few songs for NPR. It’s a good set.

Brian Williams interviewed Deer Tick in the first of ‘BriTunes’–yes, the real name. Once you get past the shock of it–is it a good interview? No, not really. I’m sure they’ll get better as Williams realizes bands shouldn’t be interviewed like they’re a cabinet member.

Daytrotter has a set with J Tillman. It was recorded at SxSW and contains a number of song he was playing a lot around then, including the lovely solo version of “Master’s House”. I also found an interesting profile of him in the LA Times.

J. Tillman – Master’s House (Daytrotter-SxSW session)

The Dodos Miller Chill commercial I tweeted (self-consciously dumb verb acknowledged) about last week has appeared online. It’s great for them, but it still strikes me as strange.

Senator Russ Feingold likes Bon Iver. Have I mentioned it’s a topsy turvy world we live in?

Finally, Scrubs essentially ended with Peter Gabriel covering the Magnetic Fields. It’s a nice cover, but the original is hard to beat.

I found Letterman’s reaction to Atlanta R&B singer Keri Hilson + Kanye’s performance just as interesting as the performance itself.

Letterman:

Seriously! Oh man! Good gig. Oh my goodness. How about that?

Keri, how are you? Welcome to the show. Thanks very much.

Kanye, now how did she get away with this? Honest to god.

Thank you, girls [backup dancers].

[to the camera] I am so old.

A friend pointed me to this video by Nate Harrison about the Amen break, one of the most used breaks in hip hop and electronica. It goes on to use this as a point of discussion of copyright laws and music appropriation. I’ve heard discussion of this break before, but it was usually a more from a hip hop side; this gives a fairly full discussion of the track, though it’s a bit heavy on the electronica side of it.

The narration is a bit dry, but it’s really interesting nonetheless.

Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.

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Adrian (me):
Wintersleep – Weighty Ghost (mp3) (buy)

The recent Land of Talk cover of this that’s surfaced brought to mind the original. Walking to a friend’s party over the weekend, I listened to it a couple times and sang along–it’s a highly singable song (as some kids on the CBC know).

I thought I’d featured this track before, but it seems it was just on a mixtape. I’m glad my brain hooked onto this again so I’d feature it now. Better late than never, right?

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Keith:
Desario – Cane Cola (mp3) (buy)

Ever have one of those bands where there’s just one element which puts you off the bandwagon? This is a tune by a supremely catchy band on Darla who do a poppy style of power pop very reminiscent to Poole or other bands that detuned the rock from the 70’s style of the genre. But I just can’t get into the vocalist, who takes a bit more of a warbly angle to it rather than smoothing it out. This is my favorite song by them, but somehow I’d probably love the whole thing much more if it was instrumental. Sorry …

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Rob:
Gregory Brothers – Autotuning the News #2 (mp3) (free at the group’s site)

All right, I feel absolutely foolish about this, but I have to admit
that I’ve listened more obsessively to the “Auto-Tune The News”
YouTube clip than I have to any other song in… a long time.
Probably my first true song obsession for months. What is happening
to me?

It’s worth noting that without the Katie Couric bit the piece would be
merely another clever YouTube novelty. With the sequence… well, I
guess it becomes a merely clever YouTube novelty with a surprisingly
brilliant thirty second interlude.

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Weighty Ghost video, while we’re in a video mood, after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

A couple weeks ago, I finished Singing Family of the Cumberlands by Jean Ritchie. It was a recommended book for a class I took in the fall of 2002 and I’m glad I finally decided to read it.

Jean Ritchie was the youngest of thirteen children, growing up in Viper, Kentucky, in the Appalachian Mountains. Her family was well known–and well documented–for singing ballads, in the Anglo-American folk tradition. That is to say, they sang ballads that came over with English, Scottish and Irish settlers and could still be found on both sides of the Atlantic. The best documented of these were the Child Ballads, but that could be a whole other post.

Written in 1955, the book is a memoir of her childhood. As fascinating as her descriptions of growing up in the early part of the 20th century in an isolated part of the Appalachians are–and they are–what really makes this book special is the songs. Interspersed in the book are transcriptions of the ballads. Say there’s a vignette about learning a particular song around a fireplace on Christmas. Well, the song is there in the book, both music and words, if you want to sing along.

The writing is wonderful and evocative, too. She immediately sets quite conversational tone and it feels like she’s telling you her family stories from the armchair next to you. In that sense, it reminds me a lot of Cash by Johnny Cash.

Jean Ritchie – the Merry Golden Tree (mp3)

If you have any interest in Appalachian music or culture, I’d recommend this book.

Jean Ritchie’s still alive and she still does occasional live performances. Her website seems to have expired though, so I’m not sure where to get more info.

You can pick it up at amazon. Buy Jean Ritchie’s music at amazon.

And as a bonus, here’s Jean singing a duet with Emmylou Harris. Gorgeous.

Judging by youtube viewership of the video, you’ve probably seen unemployed, never-been-kissed Scot Susan Boyle blowing away the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent last week.

I’m not a fan of musicals–counting myself a fan of only one–or overly sentimental drivel, but I’m not made of stone.

So why is this so affecting? Undoubtedly she’s got a great voice, but there are scores of professional (and amateur) singers who do as well. I’m thinking it must be the expectations and the story. She’s not supposed to be good and the mismatch of her appearance and voice are almost as if scripted for a comedy. And yet she wows.

When she starts to sing, it’s triumph over her past but as much over our expectations and she sings triumphantly.

It’s counter-intuitive that the story is important here–or in music in general–but it’s got me thinking. What would Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago be without the story of a cold winter in northern Wisconsin alone recording songs? Maybe it’d be the same but perhaps that story subconsciously changes the way we listen to it.

Rural Alberta Advantage by Adrian Bischoff

Seeing Rural Alberta Advantage (myspace) at SxSW (twice) has reignited my love of the band.

Paste has a really cool video interview/ acoustic session by the band, including a great piano-based version of “In the Summertime.”

Hearya recently posted their session with the RAA. It sounds really clean and crisp–better than Hometowns in parts. They also have a video, which is below.

Finally, Woxy has their session up. It has a pretty similar set list as the Hearya session–just one song different–but it’s a nice listen too.

Lastly, the band has hinted they have big news coming up. Have they gotten signed by a label? We’ll have to wait and see.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Edmonton” – HearYa Live Session 4/1/09 from HearYa.com on Vimeo.

Listening to the two following pieces.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture:

Widor’s Tocatta from Organ Symphony No. 5:

It’s obvious how the former came to be a part of our tradition, but the latter? I think the organist at a church we went to when I was very young played it on Easter.

But they’re both gorgeous pieces.

I know I’m late posting about this and I’m just another voice talking about it at this point. Well, let’s say it’s good enough that it’s worth another voice.

Sometimes a compilation album comes across that’s more than a collection of good songs; it’s inspiration, in auditory form.

By sometimes, I mean about once every ten years. The last one I remember was the Lounge Ax Relocation and Defense CD.. It inspired me in a number of directions: the indie rock of Seam and the post rock of Rachel’s. (Those are still two of my favorite bands of that era.) It was the first place I heard Shellac, June of 44 and the Mekons.

Much like that Dark was the Night, put together by the Dessner brothers of the National, is the sort of compilation that inspires one to listen to new music. Granted, it has good National tracks and Bon Iver tracks. We knew it would, after all. Where it succeeds is its lesser-known tracks.

The gorgeous Riceboy Sleeps track, for instance, is a great track from a band I’d never heard of[1]. Ambient, instrumental and sprawling, it’s just beautiful. The Yeasayer track, a medium slow groove with layers of percussion and clapping and tightly wound but melodious vocals, makes me want to give them another try.

The many collaborations are also something to note. The Books with Jose Gonzalez (covering Nick Drake) put together a good track, as do Feist and Ben Gibbard. David Bryne sings on a Dirty Projectors track. Antony with Bryce Dessner put together a simple and gentle cover of Dylan’s “I Was Young When I Left Home.”

Now I’m not saying every track is a winner, but I think what’s important here is that, as a whole, the compilation is good enough to get you from beginning to end, to hear those tracks and bands you wouldn’t hear if you were skipping around to a few choice track. I’d recommend getting it.

the National – So Far Around the Bend (mp3)

Bon Iver – Brackett, W9 (streaming)

Riceboy Sleeps – Happiness (streaming)

You can pick up Dark was the Night on amazon

[1] Of course, I now know that it’s a side project from a band I do know (Jonsi of Sigur Ros’ side project).

Update: rewrote parts of it.

I didn’t know the original before seeing that, but it’s still pretty cool. See the original below.