I’m having a hard deciding if this blog is good for forcing me to discover 300 new albums every year, or, if it’s destroying my ability to appreciate music. I find a new album, post 2 songs, and instead of enjoying the album, scramble to find another album. It’s no way to appreciate music …
NL RPM Week: Thom Coombes’ Recurring Themes
Every February there’s an international music challenge — the RPM Challenge – and the goal is to record 35 minutes or 10 tracks of new material, in 28 days. Newfoundland takes it seriously, and accounts for about half of the world’s output.
Newfoundland’s new lo-fi sui generis genius Thom Coombes embodied everything great about the RPM on this album: he flirted with experimentation without it being a total departure from his trademark sound, he did it on a broken 4-track, and he had some friends pop by and join him. I’m a really big fan of the guy, there’s no one like him in town, and I threw some of my Atlantis Music Prize Votes his way last year, without question. As always, an interesting, endearing listen. He’s a mellower, lower-fi version of Shotgun Jimmie. A damn good guitarist too.
“Plateaus”
“How I Learned to Love the Rain”
NL RPM Week: KnoahKnoah’s Knoah Learns the Trumpet
Every February there’s an international music challenge — the RPM Challenge – and the goal is to record 35 minutes or 10 tracks of new material, in 28 days. Newfoundland takes it seriously, and accounts for about half of the world’s output.
I’ve been hearing this Noah Bender guy’s name around town a lot lately, and this was a great introduction as to why. Accomplished, confident, well-executed, and a blast. As the album title implies, there’s some well-placed trumpet throughout, for great texture.I’m too busy to say much more, but the music speaks for itself anyway, and like most every RPM album, it’s a free download on Bandcamp. Hop to it.
“History”
“Never going to see the sun again (Winter in St. John’s)”
NL RPM Week: AM/FM Dreams’ Something into Nothing
Every February there’s an international music challenge — the RPM Challenge – and the goal is to record 35 minutes or 10 tracks of new material, in 28 days. Newfoundland takes it seriously, and accounts for about half of the world’s output.
One of the best things about recording an RPM album, is that by the end of it you’re exhausted, sure, but you get to unwind by checking out albums by more than 100 other people in your great little city. This holds particularly true for AM/FM Dreams, as, for years now, an RPM album is all you’ll hear from them every year. There’s not a live show to attend. And they make it count. I think they made the best RPM album of 2012 and I think they might have done it again this year. They have most certainly made their best record to date this February.
Something into Nothing has more atmosphere, and even more diversity than they’ve ever crammed into ten songs, and for the multigenre music-makers they are, that’s saying something. This album soars through many a genre, unsure of what to sink its talons into, so it sinks its talons into everything, serving up a pleasant buffet of genres for any lover of music to dig into. Moreover, it’s easy to play it simple or even be lazy and careless on an RPM: you only have 28 days to do this. But these three carefully build and record their songs, and you never know where any one of them or going, or what’s next. From the flowy, atypical guitar in the intro of the opening track onwards, there’s no indication where the album’s about to take you, but a feeling you’re going to enjoy it, and give it the listen it deserves. Come track 7, “Nobody Knows,” you’re tapping your foot along to a kazoo, and one of the catchiest songs of the year’s RPM output. Track 8, “Buried Deep” is straight up calypso.
To single out one trait in some of these songs I really enjoy, it’s the way songs like “Idler” and “Move On” build so slowly, threatening to break, so their strength is in that Almost Snapping Point Feel, that they manage to carry across the full length of a song. Typically, that feeling is reserved to maybe just a prechorus, but in many of the tracks on this album, it lasts the whole song. Another standout here is the use of well-placed, well-toned lead. The lead on this album is more forward, though subtly used, than ever. It’s confidently played to add texture in all the right places And then there’s the grungy 90s’ vibe in “Fire” and “Something into Nothing” that could only come from a band that loved the 90s as much as I did. Those two, I’ve playlisted already.
“Move On”
“Something into Nothing”
NL RPM Week! Album One: Caribou Horses’ Song for Mal
Every February there’s an international music challenge — the RPM Challenge – and the goal is to record 35 minutes or 10 tracks of new material, in 28 days. Newfoundland takes it seriously, and accounts for about half of the world’s output.
This year’s overnight sensation was a supergroup effort. Bryan Power (Pilot to Bombardier), who rents a room to local darling songstress Joanna Barker, and is boyfriend to Rebecca South (The Drows), banded together with a friend of theirs, Annie Mcewen to record a few songs of their own, while accompanying each other on others.
Joanna Barker provides the bulk of the album, 4 songs to everyone else’s 2, and Joanna Barker is like a sparrow you want perched on your windowsill lullabying you to sleep and awake. She’s a confident songwriter with a first-rate, smoky, smoking voice you can’t miss. There’s an annunciation to her vocals that begs you to listen hard and ache along with the songs. If someone asked me who the best lady songwriter in town is these days, I’d probably say Joanna Barker. At least, that’s what I told my mom the other day when she was asking for new music. Here’s a track of hers off Songs for Mal, called “Cold Embers”
Speaking of the best songwriters in town, Bryan Power’s the man in that category. Best known as the guy behind Pilot to Bombardier, he caught my ears many years ago as a man behind an acoustic guitar, all alone, as he more or less is here. He’s a suave, sophisticated, and careful songwriter, from his fluid approach to guitar to his engaging, distinctive lyrics. Both his tracks here shine like the gold they are. Here’s “Long Time Coming.”
Moving on to Rebecca South, she has the most stunning voice I’ve heard. It’s from another time, another era, and it gets in your bones or it stops or heart or it does something vital to you that good music should do. I mean, the last thing I care about in my favourite songs is how well someone’s singing, but when someone’s singing this good, you can’t help drop your jaw in awe of her otherworldly, old-soul vibe. Check it out in “Heartbreaker”
The most exciting discovery on this album was Annie McEwan, because I knew of the other three before, but this Annie, she’s kind of perfect. Songs with substance, interesting style and composition, and a damn perfect voice. Here’s a fun mocking of peoples’ reverence of Toronto. “Toronto, Toronto.”
Monday Folkin’ Morning
Stop the world, there’s a new Josh Ritter album.
Shows a lot of growth too, as always.
And by growth I mean evolution, not better-ment.
The Animal Years will always be his epic moment,
but I love this new approach to folk he’s crafted in the last 2 years;
interesting percussion and great lead, as the perfect texture for soft, sincere songs,
and as always the occasional, perfectly placed livelier number, jammed full of words.
“Lights”
“Hopeful”
Alan Jeffries’ Coffee Til’ Midnight
Big, bold, bluegrass, just the way it should be. Alan grew up playing in festivals with his father, and he’s
been supporting many great artists for years. Coffee Til’ Midnight is his overdue debut and
struts confidently between traditional and progressive bluegrass.
Unique Concept: Kim Janssen’s The Lonely Mountains
On The Lonely Mountains, Janssen rearranges works by Chopin and Britten, and adds new verses to poems by Robert Herrick and W.N. Hodgson. Equally impressive as the haunting music here, is the fact there’s more than 30 musicians on the EP, so that countless different voices and instruments flow through the album’s many moods and textures.
Out Today: Kurt Von Stetten’s Androlafi
Kurt Von Stetten has a reputation as New England’s eclectic, prolific musical genius. And it’s well earned. This album’s terrific, all over the place, and quite unlike anything else I’ve heard so far this year. And most importantly, reminiscent of the 90′s Sebadoh/Pavement sound. However, “Pounding Strange” sounds like a stray Interpol song. The songs feel more nostalgic than derivative, since he’s got his own spin and stylistically, he’s about as unpredictable as a whirlwind.
“First Daughter”
“Things a Camera Would Say”
Monday Folkin’ Morning: The Native Sibling’s Water Too Deep, Words Too Shallow
The Native Sibling are a brother-sister duo from California, talented as Angus & Julia Stone, and equally easy to like. They’ve been playing music since they were kids, but not together. After the death of their mother, and a show they each played in Ireland, they decided to unite and blend their songs. It prooved to be both a catahrtic and buzz-making move. This 4-song EP is more than enough to mark them as one of the most promising new bands in North America. Producers and musicians alike (Example: The Civil Wars) have taken note of the band, and they’re nearing the end of a kickstarter campaign to raise money to head into a studio. Check that out here. And check out the EP below. It’s a gorgeous, perfect EP, packed full of promise, authenticity, and not a second of filler.
The Top 112 Albums of 2012: Numbers 5-1
#1: Tom Fun Orchestra’s Earthworm Heart
Nova Scotia’s 7-piece sensation, Tom Fun Orchestra, sound bigger than an Irish Pub on bust. I’ve never heard an album with such energy and heart. As the band name promises, they’re a fun and orchestral ensemble. Not only are there seven members, but the album has more than a dozen guests to amplify them. The synergy of seven musicians, here, creates something that’ll rattle yer bones. If you were a fan of Mumford & Sons’ first album, but found their 2012 follow-up a bit too contrived, repetitive, and formulaic: behold the most impassioned, footstomping, fist-pumping sonic barrage of the year: Earthworm Heart. These 14 filler-free songs are packed so full of tracks they truck along with all the power of a freight train, well-conducted by the raspy, emotive, and Waits-ian voice of Ian Macdougall. Singer/guitarist Breagh Potter’s voice pierces these songs at all the right places, and their vocals swirl together swimmingly well. It’s an immediately engaging, very accomplished, highly likeable 14-song sensation. Virtually every song on here is a genre-blending symphony of awesome. Great lyrics, heart, and bandsmanship.
#2: Barna Howard’s Barna Howard
The best folk album of the year. The best folk album in years. Maybe the best folk musician I’ve ever heard: pure, sincere, and authentic. He’s a great, fluid guitarist to boot.
“I’ll Let You Pick a Window”
“I Don’t Fall Much Anymore”
#3: Shovels and Rope’s O’ Be Joyful
Every year, a band comes along to shake up folk some more. Last year, it was David Wax Museum’s Mexican twist on folk. This year, Shovels and Rope did it with the cackle and boom of their perfect chemistry. By lassoing all the qualities of a good folk song, then electrifying it some, pounding out footstompin’ rhythms on a homemade drumkit, and adding the vocal texture of a mic shared equally by a man and woman, they’ve made a vibrant, fantastic record. They even jangle up their sound with some with hoppin’ horns happening in all the right places. And part of the reason this album sounds so authentic, is because of the earnestness of this touring twosome’s recording: They recorded it on the road, in motel rooms, in their famous van, their house, and their backyard. (see the video below.) Shovels & Rope is a project-turned-sensation by musicians Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent.
”Hail Hail”
“Shank Hill”
Promo Vid:
#4: Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom
Raised by musical parents to be the kind of 25 year old whose first few singles off his debut LP are averaging 2.5 million views, his career started with a well-received EP and a fully sold out a UK tour to support it: Island records took note and signed him. It’s an astonishingly well-crafted batch of diverse songs that build and bloom and boast this guy as one of the world’s best musicians under 30. Most importantly, it’s not derivative of anything and a sound of its own. I’m not sure what more an artist can strive for.
“Black Flies”
“Wolves”
#5: The Avett Brothers’ The Carpenter
The Carpenter plays out like Classic Avett Brothers with a twist of old-school pop, a la Buddy Holly. As a rule anyway. Musically suave and sophisticated as ever, the album is full of hooks, harmonies, and hoe downs, alongside a heavy dose of mellow, thoughtful songs. Their folkgrass sound is at the core of the album, but there’s a few anomalies as well, like the raucous and curiously named “Paul Newman Versus the Demons” which is an interesting take on Rock and Roll. As a whole, the album feels like a very natural progression for the superstar trio, and in keeping with their tradition of songs for “Pretty Girl from [place name here]} there’s a song called “Pretty Girl from Michigan” on this one. It’s another album of sing-along songs shot through with musical grace and integrity. And in a world of 1,00,00,000 bands, they are, as always, distinctly The Avett Brothers here. Rick Rubin’s touch as producer gives them an extra shine here as well — what that man does for a band’s album is never short of magic. These songs deal with the fragility and tenderness of life — something top of mind for a band whose bassist’s daughter was fighting off brain cancer as these songs were written.
“February Seven”
“Live and Die”
The Top 112 Albums of 2012: Numbers 9-6
#06: Sean Rowe’s The Salesman and the Shark
A killer poet and potent songwriter, easily pitched as a more bad-ass Cohen with better songs. Sean put out an album last year, called magic, and never has someone so quickly become a favourite songwriter so fast. While his best songs might still be on Magic, The Salesman and the Shark as a whole is a better album: a fantastic diversity of sounds, unexpected compositions, with an uncommon aching and sentiment in the music itself. His feral, baritone chops help that along. There’s something for everyone, from killer ballads to crazy Waits-ian sounds — including a fantastic duet with Marketa Irglova on “Old Shoes.” A clear stand-out on the album.
“Horses”
“Old Shoes”
#07: Half Moon Run’s Dark Eyes
This album is one of the most musically solid, and easy to love albums of the year. What they do with vocals — the harmonies, the subtle background use of vocals as instrument — really adds texture, depth, and originality to their sound, and even the drums are innovative throughout the album. The instruments aren’t all doing their own thing here, their playing off each other to create a spare, piercing, fulsome vibe. And the range of genres and sounds covered is far too expansive to cover in the two song samples below. The overall result is an interesting, impressive listen from start to finish, like a mixtape, but it’s the same band: while the songs are all very different, Half Moon Run have enough defining traits for those songs to gel together. They’re fantastic new band, and the intricate arrangements on the album plain dropped my jaw.
“Full Circle”
“Nerve”
#08: Maps & Atlases’ Be Aware and Be Grateful
Totally unboxed in. Un-peggable. They’ve all got a unique approach to their instruments, and even the vocals weave themselves into the sonic pizzazz of their frenetic sound, as an instrument all its own. They go about being catchy in a very catchy and distinct way. It’s rock and roll, shaken up and shot through with the kind of magic that happens when the right pack of people get together to write an album, and click like legos in building something fresh and fantastic.
“Winter”
“Remote and Dark Years”
#09: Lord Huron’s Lonesome Dreams
Fronted by Michigan’s Ben Schneider, Lord Huron are possibly the finest band to fall under that silly Post Fleet Foxes genre. If only because of the opener, the comparison is easy, but, the album’s certainly a livelier take on renovated folk. The album is a big rootsy soup of sounds and many an instrument blended together to serve up a smooth, sophisticated sound.
“She Lit a Fire”
“Time to Run”