Another Bad Day for Justin Townes Earle

Sorry I've been outta commission for a while. Thanksgiving caught me unawares. I promise I'll make it up to you, though. These past couple of weeks I have been listening to a lot of music (especially on my long walks around Manhattan this past weekend). So here goes the next installment:


I find that there are a lot of older songs, especially country songs, that have really fun, upbeat tunes and rythyms, but have depressing-as-hell lyrics (Johnny Cash's "Train of Love" comes to mind). Maybe it's spurred on by a desire to find the silver lining in the situation. Maybe it's more of a desire to mask one's feelings. Maybe it stems from a musical tradition--- traditional Irish folk? Blues? Whatever the reason, a LOT of singers have mastered this marriage of sad lyrics + happy tune. And, Justin Townes Earle, one of my favorite alt-country-folk-rock-whatever-genre-you-wanna-box-him-in singer, has revealed the fact that he is pretty darn good at this as well.

He's feelin' down. I'm feelin' his style.  

His new album, entitled "Harlem River Blues" is amazing, and the title track is what kills me (no pun intended). It's a really fun song, and if you ignore the lyrics, quite uppity. But, of course, when you listen to what he's actually saying, it's kind of a downer. The opening lines?


"Lord, I'm goin' uptown to the Harlem River to drown/
Dirty water gonna cover me over and I'm not gonna make a sound." 

Here is the GOOD SONG: Harlem River Blues


It's clearly about a guy about to go drown himself in the Harlem River, although it's a little unusual as he seems to think that what he's doing is actually *good* for his soul. He wants to avoid trouble in the future by simply killing himself off right now while he's still "good in his grace." Interesting. Doesn't convince me, though, that it's the best idea.
Honestly, this sort of song doesn't really surprise me, coming from Justin Townes Earle. A little background: He's the son of the famous country singer Steve Earle. His middle name is a nod to another famous country singer, Townes Van Zandt (who is so awesome, by the way). He was raised in Nashville, although now he lives in the East Village (near where I was raised, which is I'm sure the reason for his move up north). He got super into drugs in his youth and then got clean. He's on tour right now, although part of his tour had to be postponed as he was arrested in Indianapolis on charges of "battery, public intoxication, and resisting law enforcement." Hmmmm...  Now you see why I'm not so surprised by his happy/sad songs. 
Apparently he decided to back into rehab after that incident. 


He's so freaking talented, I hope he gets himself together and keeps making amazing music, though, because the music world can't have people like him getting arrested all the time. 


If you like this song, you might also like:


Steve Earle (you know, the Dad)
Townes Van Zandt (you know, the namesake)
David Rawlings Machine
Old Crow Medicine Show
The Felice Brothers (I believe he's toured with them)
Those Darlins
Langhorne Slim (I believe he's also toured with him)


BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: tasty music from JTE


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. I feel obligated to mention that his song "Can't Hardly Wait" (no connection to the movie), from his earlier album "Midnight at the Movies" is my NUMBER ONE top played song on my itunes. It's freaking fantastic. No hint of suicidal tendencies on this one, I might add. It's actually a Replacements cover, not an original.
Here is a nice, pared-down, very earnest live version of it, dedicated to the late, great Christ Feinstein, bass-player for Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Can't Hardly Wait

Good Things, Indeed

So I'm aware that I haven't posted a lot of soul/R&B since my post on Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. This post changes all that. I haven't been able to stop humming these two GOOD SONGS by Aloe Blacc and I thought I would share them with you.

GOOD SONG the first: I Need A Dollar (Who doesn't need a dollar these days?)

This song has the perfect mix of piano, trumpet, and Aloe Blacc's SWEET vocals. Who is Aloe Blacc you might ask? Well, his real name is actually Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III... I don't blame him for changing his name. He is the son of Panamanian immigrants, and a lot of his music has a nice Latin flair to it. He began as a hip-hop/rap artist, but then branched into more retro music, and boy! am I happy about it! He has two albums out now: "Shine Through" (2006) and his most recent album "Good Things," which came out this September (2010). He weaves together R&B, soul, hip-hop, jazz, and salsa influences to make his songs work so damn well.

Mr. Blacc looking pretty snazzy in white.

Good song the second: Loving You Is Killing Me (the song + the lyrics)
Also from "Good Things," this song is just so good, and makes me wanna dance. You can definitely tell he has some real rapper cred here. My favorite line: "How did you get to be so evil, girl?" sung by the falsetto chorus.

If you like this song, you might also like:

John Legend
The Roots
Talib Kweli
People Under the Stairs
Danger Doom/Danger Mouse
Janelle Monae
Al Green
Marvin Gaye

BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: Aloe Blacc!

Over and out,
Anna

Your Video Game Soundtrack

So in my head I like to put together music videos for the music I'm listening to. Often times they include ridiculous, super-choreographed dance sequences that can only happen in my head. Lots of special effects. Engaging story lines. Beautiful people. You know, the works.

My imaginary music videos for the music of Ratatat are no exception. Cool (read: goofy) dances and the whole shabang. 

The one difference: All of my imaginary characters, set, moves, and costumes are stolen from Mario Bros. I freely admit it. Floating gold coins, overalls, and a princess are all extremely important in all my imaginary Ratatat music videos. I can't help it! I dare you to listen to Ratatat and NOT think of video game music. It's impossible. Their music (especially the songs on their earlier albums) is clearly influenced by the crunchy guitars and goofy sound effects you probably grew up hearing on your gameboy/nintendo/other outmoded and obsolete form of entertainment. 

Inspirational stuff.

Try imagining your very own video game music video with this GOOD SONG, from their album entitled "LP3": Shempi

Now, this isn't to say that Ratatat always sounds silly. Plenty of their music is surprisingly sophisticated, and actually moving (for some reason, this GOOD SONG always gets me, even sans lyrics: Breaking Away).  Ratatat is comprised of Mike Stroud (guitar) and Evan Mast (all that other stuff) , and they've got real talent. They met at Skidmore College and recorded their first album entitled, oddly enough, "Ratatat" in 2004. Excluding remix albums, they have four albums out to date: "Ratatat" (2004), "Classics" (2006), "LP3" (2008), and "LP4" (2010). Their first album betrayed their sense of humor, as pretty much all the vocals it included were only silly clips at the beginning and end of songs. The have kept this humor, which makes me like them a whole lot more. 

Serious music for serious people. Clearly.

Their most recent album, "LP4," came out just recently and has carried on their tradition of dance-able but unusual instrumental techno music.  Currently, I'm addicted to this GOOD SONG off the album:
Neckbrace.

You'll probably need a neck brace after bobbing around to that one as many times as I have.

BUY THEIR MUSIC HERE: Ratatat music!

If you liked these songs, you might also like:

LCD Soundsystem
Daft Punk
RJD2
Simian Mobile Disco
Justice

Over and out,
Anna