brand new music from the old canes

Lawrence, Kansas resident Chris Crisci has temporarily set aside The Appleseed Cast and finally finished recording the latest album for his second musical project, The Old Canes. Their latest album, Feral Harmonic was released in late October and is the group's second overall and first in five years. It's not difficult to connect the Old Canes sound to the Appleseed Cast but it's definitely more folky and less experimental. You could find The Appleseed Cast in the same musical box as Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros, whereas The Old Canes might better fit in with Iron & Wine and Bright Eyes. Crisci's lyrics are simplistic and direct but still manage to carry weight....the simplicity of "when I'm thirsty, you are the fountain. In the face of danger, I am unafraid" just seems to work.

Crisci's made it clear that The Appleseed Cast is still his number one, but that he'll take this new gig as far as he can, when he can. He and the other band members are currently touring, playing mostly small shows for the time being. He's taken the group to Saddle Creek Records (who have signed similar artists such as Bright Eyes and Eric Bachmann) and one would think it will only help the the music spreading process. I certainly hope word about them does spread and that you check out the songs below to see what you think. Also, if you don't have the Low Level Owl albums by The Appleseed Cast, you should make that happen too.

The Old Canes - Little Bird Courage (with extended intro)




The Old Canes - Trust




The Old Canes - Both Falling Bright




As always, listen hard, sing loud and enjoy.

three degrees of dan wilson.

For a few random reasons, I've been listening to Semisonic as well as lead singer Dan Wilson's solo stuff lately. After a bit of reading about Wilson, I came to find he's very involved as a producer as well. This post will take you from Wilson himself and then through three degrees of his musical world.

Dan Wilson - Closing Time
This video runs nearly ten minutes because Wilson tells the truth behind Semisonic's most well-known song, Closing Time. I didn't see it....but now, thanks to his insights, I do. This song has just never gotten old for me.



Mike Doughty - Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well
Dan Wilson produced the last two of Doughty's albums, and this is probably his best known song. He is now on his second "Question Jar" Tour, where he allows the audience to write down questions and stuff them into a jar before the show and he does a Q & A during the show. Wilson produced two albums for Doughty...degree number one.




Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson
Mike Doughty toured with the Barenaked Ladies in 2006. Degree number two.


The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Brian Wilson and the rest of the Beach Boys sing my favorite song of theirs. Love Actually, yes. Degree number three.


As always, listen hard, sing loud and enjoy.





BFS

what's in my ears

a few tracks that i've spent a lot of time with lately.

Dan Auerbach - Trouble Weighs a Ton
Auerbach's debut solo album didn't disappoint. He brought all the good things he brings to The Black Keys with him, but managed to harness the energy and bring things down a notch, while still providing music that has a real and powerful kick to it. This song, to me, isn't his best, but in this moment it is.



Frightened Rabbit - I Feel Better
I've smothered myself with the brothers (plus more now) that make up this group lately....Both of their albums are top drawer, and the content of The Midnight Organ Fight is simply right place and right time for me. This happens to be the song that's sticking with me most right now. I predict an acoustic tribute to this group soon...



Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay
I sat down the other day, tired and hungover, and turned on the TV. I soon found that The Royal Tenenbaums was just on and was only five minutes in....and needless to say, the next two hours or so were faaaaaantastic. I've been a longtime Smith fan, but for some reason hearing this song this time around struck a personal chord. Maybe it's because I have a Richie Tenenbaum shirt on order....this is the song that play's during Baumer's suicide attempt.



As always, listen hard, sing loud and enjoy.

BFS.

there's nothing to good intentions...

As mentioned not too long ago, I've been waiting for the release of Serena Ryder's album Is it O.K. to be released for about a month...well, it's finally arrived and as soon as I played it she drove straight for the soft spot in my musical heart for acoustic singer songwriters. She's a Juno winner (Canadian Grammy's) and her songs are, to her own admission, relationship based, and I found many of her lyrics to be super simple, but easy to relate to. She looks little but her voice is bigger than her body, full of power and beauty.

As always, listen hard, sing loud and enjoy.


Weak In the Knees


Dark As the Black (fast forward to about the 1:25 mark)


Sweeping the Ashes

If I

The 41st post on this blog will not be dedicated to music. This time the focus is a comedian that's been dominating my free time lately, Demetri Martin. Martin's got all kinds of material on youtube, as well as a sophomore year show, Important Things, coming back to Comedy Central in the spring. Below are six youtube clips, five of them about nine minutes in length and the last one less than four. Put together in order they form a performance of Martin's from The Edinburgh Festival. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Martin combines stand-up with auto-biographical content and molds a chunk of it together with music. It's simply an original show, and it's going to take you some time, about fifty minutes if you did the math, to watch it all. I wouldn't post them if they weren't worth your time. I also recommend "Jokes with Guitar," which can be found on youtube as well. Enjoy.

If I Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five


Part Six

tribute to eddie vedder and pearl jam

Eddie Vedder and his voice have been a part of my life since the seventh grade. Seemingly with each year, especially between the ages of 13-22, Vedder and Pearl Jam's influence continued to grow, continually played an important role in my days, weeks and years. Pearl Jam was my musical constant, they were what any new band was compared to. But, as my desire for individual musical expansion grew, I stepped back from PJ, but always managed to come back to them when the time was right. I've put a good amount of time in lately listening to their early stuff, Ten, Vs. and Vitalogy, and then digging for youtube clips of Eddie on his own. Most of what you'll see isn't straight from an important moment in my life that matched up with a PJ song, it's just good, quality videos of Eddie and/or the whole band. There's really some tremendous stuff....a few of them are tracks I'd heard only previously on overpriced bootleg albums purchased from Budget Music. I've certainly enjoyed the digging process...now it's your turn to enjoy.

Covering Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down"



Covering Cat Stevens' "Don't Be Shy"



Solo acoustic version of "Porch" off Ten.



Singing a remake of Phil Ochs' "Here's to the State of Mississippi" that he co-wrote (and sang with in this performance) with Tim Robbins



This is the only video in this post that has the full band in it, but it's been such a massive favorite of mine for nine years now that it had to be included. It's a version of "Daughter" that blew me away when I first heard it, and I still can't get enough of it. The first version I heard was off the #26 Live Concert Album from Virginia Beach in 2000. It was their first show since the Roskilde Festival Tragedy; it was their first show back in the United States as the remainder of their European tour was canceled after the tragedy. I can't find that exact version anywhere on the internet, but this one is from the Jones Beach, NY show that wasn't long after. Let me just share what Eddie said to the crowd in VA Beach before they went into the It's OK part..."The last time we had to ask the crowd to do something it was under completely different circumstances than this. So, it's a little nerve-wracking to...
It'd be nice to start, uh, anew. So, I was gonna ask you to do something and maybe you'll do it? [crowd cheers] And it's uh...singing. Sing. Sing loud cuz it's
outside, sing loud cuz you're st-.....you're still alive. Just sing loud, alright?"

the best of the best of live from PASTE

PASTE magazine, the leader in the world of musically driven magazines, recently posted 20 videos of musical performances from various artists over the last year and called it the "Best of Live from PASTE." I spent nearly two hours going through all the videos, because come to find out, most of the artists recorded more than one song in their time at the PASTE studios, and those videos were also posted. Below are the five I enjoyed the most, though I suggest you check all of the Top 20 and bonus videos out for yourself by clicking here.


5. The Low Anthem - This God Damn House
Just last week I heard my first Low Anthem song (Charlie Darwin) and immediately dove into more of their music and of course, youtube videos. They are innovative, creative and simply bizarre. I've come to really enjoy them lyrically, and this song is a terrific example of all of the things just described....great lyrics, bizarre yet awesome whistling into two cell phones, and old school horns leading the way through the track.




4. Pete Yorn - Last Summer
I hadn't heard this track that's off Yorn's latest solo album (he also recently put out an album with Scarlet Johannson). Yorn attacks his harmonica and this song has a pure folk feel to it....by the sound of it, it could have been written forty years ago. Love it.




3. The Everybodyfields - Worth Keeping
I've seen this band open for The Avett Brothers twice, and both times they put out a great performance. They're definitely a "certain kind of mood" band, as their long, brooding songs either require you to be in a certain place while listening or they'll eventually take you to that place if you didn't start there. It's usually dark and quiet, but it's always worthwhile. There's simply something about Jill Andrews' voice that doesn't get old.




2. Josh Ritter - The Temptation of Adam
This track made it onto AVSH 2007 and is one of the all-time best live songs I've ever seen performed (at Headliners Louisville). The more I read about Ritter, the weirder it gets, but the bizarre setting for this song is a creative way of writing a fairly simple love song.




1. Bell X1 - Rocky Took a Lover
This track made it onto AVSH 2008, so it's been a favorite for awhile. The story behind the song and this performance takes it to a new level.




Note: When I first saw that "Mr. Wendal" by Arrested Development was in the Top 20, I immediately resigned to putting them in my top five, but after hearing it, it was relegated as it was nothing special. Good to know they're still alive and well, though.


As always, listen hard, sing loud and enjoy.