Country + Rock n’ Roll is still one of the most potent music out there in the modern rock wasteland. Thankfully, bands like Yukon Blonde is smart enough to eschew current obsessions with 80s post-punk/synth-pop and deal exclusively good old fashioned alt-country magic. For one week only, PoP visitors get to check out the upcoming new album – Tiger Talk – streaming in its entirety at Soundcloud. The album is due for released on 20th March. Can hardly wait!
Official Site
What I really like about Winfred E Eye and its latest LP – Today Was Another Day – is that the band does not sound like it’s really trying too hard to please anyone. Except maybe themselves. There’s a casual, laidback vibe on this collection of songs that is both charming and daring. In some ways, songs like the ethereal “Void” and “Sentimental Junk” might come across like something off Bon Iver’s sophomore effort but it does not take itself as seriously. Know what I mean?
No? Well simply put although there are elements of ‘indie cred’ in Winfred E. Eye’s songwriting, overall the sound is so rustic and homespun, it seems that the band is taking the piss! It’s all very 70s Laurel Canyon most of the time, equal parts Neil Young and James Taylor in approach especially in songs like “Hard Time Comin’” and “Burnin’ Alone”. In fact, on the latter track, the discerning music lover may also find traces of Giant Sand’s so-called Desert Rock agenda. It is spare and uncomplicated, letting the plain folk melody and emotive words carry the power.
All said and done, Today Was Another Day is Americana at its very best – in whatever era you might be listening from, this arcane country-folk-blues-rock transcends mere ‘genre’ to deliver a potent magical strange brew. For want of a better word, this is magnificent alternative country.
Official Site
Crooked Fingers – Eric Bachmann’s country-folk vehicle is back with another collection of warm rustic songs. The new album is called Breaks in the Armor and was released in late 2011. The wistful tone found on “Our New Favorite” is emblematic of Crooked Fingers‘ overall tone and style – heartfelt without mawkish sentimentality. There is a certain dissonance about the way the verse moves into chorus without interrupting the flow of the song (the angelic backing vocals smoothens things up nicely) that makes “Our New Favorite” particularly appealing.
According to label Merge Records‘ emailer – the video below was “directed and edited by James Fleischel” and “beautifully illustrates the feelings of impermanence and connectedness suggested by the song by capturing and slowing down the fleeting moments of everyday life.” No argument there! Expect a review soon. In the meantime…
Official Site
Nothing quite like arcane americana even if it’s made north of the US border. This Canuck alt-country outfit revels in all things twangy and you can easily put their music side by side with Fleet Foxes, Jayhawks and Band of Horses. Quite brilliant.
While ah have your attention – check out Fire here.
New album from Yukon Blonde due in 2012. Stoked!
I love alt-country/roots music/Americana (whatever) but you knew that. Here’s another country-folk chanteuse that will go all rustic on your ass. 24 year old Caitlin Rose has released her debut album – Own Side Now – and this live video of Spare Me finds Caitlin in conversational mood and performing with a crack band on the rooftop. And it’s a breezy number which will chase all your blues away. Don’t forget to check out the little story that Caitlin shares right at the end – worth the wait as well!
Caitlin Rose – “Spare Me” – Le Loft Rooftop from DUKE STREET on Vimeo.
Official Site
By now, regular PoP visitors will know what a band needs to do to be featured here! Psychedelic-country-folk-rock-blues is the ‘genre’ of choice and Parson Red Head fits the bill with two acoustic guitars, harmonica, percussion and gorgeous 4-part harmonies in this ‘live’ video. Burning Up the Sky is a song off new album, Yearling. Sweet! A PoP recommendation!
Official Site
Regular PoP visitors will know that I am an absolute sucker for good old fashioned honest-to-goodness country-folk-soul music. Add a spine-tingling female vox into the equation and the result is obsession! So here’s Star Anna, who at 25 has established musicians raving over her vocal abilities. Listen to this glorious track off her debut album of the same name and understand why…
Alone In This Together (Radio Edit) – Star Anna by grammy mammy
Official Site
I really hate to be one of those cynical reviewers who accuse a band of bandwagon-jumping, but let’s face it: there’s no way Seattle-based outfit The Head And The Heart can avoid the Fleet Foxes comparisons. What do you expect when you ply your trade in rootsy, old-time Americana?
(Press release)
April 10th sees the highly anticipated release of Robyn G Shiels new EP. The Great Depression is released through No Dancing records and is the follow up to Shiels critically acclaimed debut album A Lifetime Of Midnights. The Great Depression focuses on the retrospective, bleak side of Robyn’s catalogue; this isn’t the time for screaming choruses. It is night time and it is dark, after all.
There’s an honesty and truth laid out amongst the sparse percussion, piano and guitars. These are songs of reflection and regret but all the while a melody, suggesting that although things may have been better not occurring, we’ve at least forged a good story along the way.
Release date: 10/4/11 | Format: CD/DD
The Great Depression features 5 tracks and is available as a digital download from iTunes and every main digital retailer, over 60 outlets worldwide. Physical copies are available from select outlets and through robyngshiels.bandcamp.com & www.nodancing.co.uk.
Check out the video for Look What You’ve Done below
MY COUSIN, THE EMPEROR The Subway EPs (Self-released)
“Instead of recording a full album, we decided to record 2 EPs, but to give them entirely different personalities, volume 1 is more folky, country, singer- songwriter music. Volume 2 is more rock, upbeat, and energetic. This band does both of them very well, so I wanted to showcase it’s different personalities across the two EPs.” Jason Reischel
Serious doubts about the concept behind the presentation of one album as two EPs and the mannered self-categorizations BUT no denying that Brooklyn’s My Cousin, The Emperor parlays the perfect mix of country-folk-blues and rock ‘n’ roll music that Gram Parsons envisaged for his Cosmic American Music. I have always maintained that when done right, country-folk-blues can be some of the most soulful music on the planet and thankfully, Reischel and company provide ample evidence of this assertion.
On the 1st volume, Prospect Park West, there are luscious vocal harmonies, lush acoustic guitars and lusty evocations of rustic beauty in songs like Lies End and Burly, Old Coach. A dash of rockabilly informs Southern Nights whilst mournful strings will touch the heart on Annie (The Leevee Song). Volume II, Broadway-Lafayette, ups the tempo ever so slightly – Down N Out is white-knuckled barroom blues, Nothing Left For Us To Find is unapologetically rollicking and Early Morning Show channels The Band and Neil Young with slow burning intensity.
An excellent addition to the country-folk-blues-rock canon. File next to your Wilco, Uncle Tupelo and Jayhawks LPs.
Official Site
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THE DECEMBERISTS The King Is Dead (Capitol)
I am sorely tempted to declare The King Is Dead – Portland’s The Decemberists’ sixth album – as the album of 2011. After the steady move into progressive rock territory in the last two albums, critics have described The King Is Dead’s change in direction as “accessible”. Well, not unless it was released in the 80s, I daresay! Is an album that sees Colin Meloy and company basically go country on us a commercial commodity in 2011? In the age of auto-tuned prefabricated pop and groin-directed hip hop?
Lead single, Down By the Water, makes the band’s intentions clear with a harmonica intro, not to mention guest performances from Peter Buck (REM) and Gillian Welch. Commentators have already noticed the songs’s resemblance to REM’s The One I Love (especially the chord progression). Buck also plays on The Calamity Song and is immediately recognizable in the guitar appregios – the track sounds like an outtake of an 80s REM album but it’s a welcome relief to hear such classic songwriting in the new year!
ATLANTIC/PACIFIC Meet Your New Love (No Sleep)
NY-based duo Atlantic/Pacific, aka Garrett Klahn (Texas is the Reason) and John Herguth (House & Parish, The Love Scene) has been likened to the old world charms of Fleet Foxes and post-punk cool of The Smiths. Meaning of course, warm melodies/harmonies and sophisticated arrangements. Songs like the jazzy Patterns, the epic Shore to Shore and the U2-channeling faux-anthemic Let Me Into Your Light provide a counterpoint to the largely rustic country-folk-pop repertoire.
With the Decemberists’ new album – The King is Dead – adopting a clearcut country-folk-blues direction (review to come) and the UK music scene spawning it’s own dedicated 70s retro-country-folk scene (Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling, Noah & the Whale, Bombay Bicycle Club et al), it’s almost tempting fate to suggest that there is a neo-country wave coming in 2011. There’s nothing particularly new of course about all this, as we’ve had country-rock bands since Gram Parsons joined the Byrds and convinced to play the Grand Ole Opry and the Band got out from behind Dylan and began making its own brand of wild alchemy at the Big Pink but… I for one will be over the moon if this all comes to pass. In the meantime, here’s a few country-folk-blues gems you may have missed in 2010.
THE REDEMPTION CENTER Land of Plenty (Blind)
Regular PoP visitors will be aware of my weakness for the gorgeous hybrid of country music and pop-rock that may be variously referred to as country-rock, alt-country, roots-rock, Americana or as the late great Gram Parsons defined it, “Cosmic American Music”. I personally believe that at its best, this country-rock hybrid is at its core, soul music. It’s basic and heartfelt, with words and music that tug at your heartstrings. What more could anyone want from good old fashioned popular rock music?
Originally published at ReviewYou.com
ALEX LEVINE Falling Back Again (Self-released)
The cover of Alex Levine’s new album will remind Jayhawks fans of the seminal alt-country outfit’s third album – Hollywood Town Hall. Granted, Levine is posing in front of a church building rather than a town hall but the structures are uncannily similar. Not only that but the music on Falling Back Again will cement that particular comparison and reference point firmly in the minds of all right-thinking alt-rock enthusiasts. Basically, the continued alchemical quality of combining country and rock music. Simply put, Levine’s Falling Back Again is one of the more impressive alt-rock albums released in 2010.
I must confess that nowadays, it takes quite a lot to get me down to a Singapore rock gig. But of late, I have heard some good things about Cheating Sons over the grapevine. Checking out their Myspace page, I was rather surprised to hear country-folk-blues-rock from this new band! Now that is something you don’t often hear coming from a Singapore band. So definitely, this is a band I need to check out!
And you and I can tonight! Over at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre, Cheating Sons will be playing two sets -
7.30pm to 8.15pm and then 10pm to 10.45pm.
See ya’ll there, y’hear?! Hee-haw!
Listen to the Cheating Sons at www.myspace.com/cheatingsons.
David Vandervelde is a singer-songwriter that has interested me recently with his intriguing take on country-folk-soul-pop. What Vandervelde does is to filter a 70s classic pop-rock agenda through alt-rock sensibilities. In 2010, Vandervelde (via Secret Canadian) released four digital singles, which will now be collected on 12″ vinyl (cover art above, available on 3 August). My favourite of the lively bunch is Learn How To Hang (Great title! Listen below) which sounds to me like feisty hybrid of REO Speedwagon and Jesus and Mary Chain, if you can imagine that. Vandervelde probably sums it up himself best on the Lindsay Buckingham-channeling Wave Country. Certainly, David Vandervelde is one singer-songwriter to keep a close eye (and ear) on.
[audio:http://www.powerofpop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/learnhowtohang.mp3|titles=David Vandervelde - Learn How To Hang]
Myspace | Secret Canadian
PERNICE BROTHERS goodbye, killer (Ashmont)
1998 was a bad year. For me. Due to the Asian financial crisis, my employer decided to go on an austerity drive which included cutting my salary (in hindsight, what I’m going through in 2010 is even worse, but that’s another story…) As always, music provided soothing balm for my wounds (real or imagined) somewhat. Most crucially, the debut album of Pernice Brothers, which was ironically titled Overcome By Happiness functioned as a soundtrack for those troubled times.
Twelve years on and multiple albums and side projects later, Joe Pernice and gang are back with their overdue sixth studio album, goodbye, killer. Somehow I do not feel the need to hard sell goodbye, killer too much. I’ve found that Joe Pernice is the kind of artist that seems to get every damn thing right, if you know what I mean. Words, music, instrumentation and arrangements just seem to fit perfectly and create the right tone and nuance that touches me deep within my heart and my soul. The man can do no wrong in my book.
I sense that goodbye, killer is a return to basics – more country-folk-rock and less post-punk vibe - even the vaunted Bee Gees chamber pop of that debut album is also MIA. The overall sound is a little harsher in some respect and rootsier in others. Certainly an album of the year contender and if you want me to name favourite tracks, it would have to be the bright Bechamel, the dynamic Jacqueline Susann, the Faces-channeling title track and the rustic & poignant The End of Faith.
Methinks I will be examining and exploring goodbye, killer more closely in the days to come.
Official Site | Myspace | Facebook | Amazon
HORSE FEATHERS Thistled Spring (Kill Rock Stars)
I firmly believe that country songs are some of the most soulful and emotionally wringing sounds ever produced on this Planet Earth. Singer-songwriter Jason Ringle (aka Horse Feathers) understands this concept perfectly. So what does he do? He records his achingly fragile country-folk compositions with moving strings (i.e. violins, violas and cellos) arrangements and authentically rustic instruments (i.e. banjos, mandolins, saws and celestes).
With tracks primed to touch the soul, Thistled Spring is not targeted at the casual pop listener, but at serious music lovers who are able to appreciate the atmosphere and mood contained in such gorgeous songs as Starving Robins, The Drought, Cascades, As A Ghost and the title track.
This is an album to dissect and absorb over and over again, to capture every nuance – but definitely worth the time and effort.
Free download – Belly of June
Horse Feathers at the KRS site
Myspace
FRIDAY MILE Good Luck Studio (Timber Carnival)
Take authentic soulful alt-country material and deeply infuse a classic 70s pop-rock sensibility and you might be fortunate enough to produce the excellent country-folk-pop-rock hybrid that so gleefully inhabits the music on this fabulous album.
Friday Mile is based in Seattle, and fronted by gifted singer-songwriters Jace Krause and Hannah Williams, do a wonderful job in hitting all the right notes, to develop a heartfelt, melodic sound that is appealing on every level.
Songs like the poignant Lives of Strangers, the almost shocking Autograph (“I’ve been unfaithful to you”), the charming Adorable Machine (“as soon as I thought I was in, I was out”) and the sprightly FYI recall the diligent songcraft and delicate attitude of the Jayhawks, Blue Rodeo, Pernice Brothers, Neko Case, Cowboy Junkies and Wilco.
The icing on the cake must be the pleasing vocal interplay between Krause and Williams, adding spice to the multi-flavoured buffet already on offer in Good Luck Studio. Potentially, a PoP classic.
RADAR BROS. The Illustrated Garden (Merge)
The Radar Bros. are probably the quintessential 90s alt-rock band. Having released 5 albums (before The Illustrated Garden), they have distilled the Pixies-Flaming Lips-Dream Syndicate vibe perfectly. Y’know, equal parts country-folk and psychedelic rock. Throw in copious amounts of the inspirations of Neil Young and Pink Floyd and voila! The Illustrated Garden!
I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the hip and cool factor of the above references is high. And the songs on The Illustrated Garden bear this out as well. There is a weathered feel about the melodies and angular shape to the arrangements which strikes a fine balance between the classic and indie rock genres.
Highlights include the world-weary The Headlights, the obtuse and edgy Rainbow, the whacked out bluesy Quarry, the Syd Barrett-channeling People.
Official site
Myspace
BLUE RODEO The Things We Left Behind (Telesoul)
This album, Canadian band Blue Rodeo’s 12th, is a testimony to the creative staying power of this extraordionary country-rock outfit. A double CD set consisting of 16 tracks, The Things We Left Behind is a lesson in how to deliver a first-rate country-rock album in this day and age.
In fact, in the absence of the now-defunct Jayhawks, Blue Rodeo is probably the alt-country standard bearer with its astute (and consistent) development of country-folk tunes matched with pop-rock dynamics.
On songs like the excellent Waiting For the World, Sheba, Arizona, In My Bones, the fragile soulfulness of the best country-folk shines through as acoustic guitars, pedal steels and violins pluck at your heartstrings. Whereas from the pop-rock perspective, wonderful songs like Never Look Back, the title track, Don’t Let the Darkness In Your Head and Wasted deliver all the right chops and hooks.
Yes, folks, this one is a definite keeper!
Official site
Myspace
LAMBCHOP Live At XX Merge (Merge)
A brilliant introduction to the widescreen alt-country world of the magnificent Lambchop, this live album provides teasing glimpses into the genius of this genre-bending band. Believe me when I say that Lambchop is much more than your average alt-country outfit as they also incorporate elements of jazz and soul into their inventive compositions. With ten excellent studio albums to their name, it is not too difficult to come up with a winning set list every time.
Too clever for your common pundit? Probably but how can you not groove to Grumpus or smile to Sharing a Gibson with Martin Luther King Jr.? As frontman Kurt Wagner leads his multi-instrumental band with his trademark drawl, one cannot help but wonder at the sheer eclecticism and audacity of the songs being presented.
A rock connossior’s dream, Lambchop never needs to dumb down its music for the masses as long as there are enough of the faithful to carry them forward. Come on in and be part of a unique clique…
Official Site
Myspace
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