King (Joseph) Arthur

Sometime in high school I got a copy of CMJ magazine, which had a CD attached to it and heard the song "Let's Embrace" by Joseph Arthur (which I couldn't find on youTube unfortunately), and fell in love with it's lyrics and poppy beat. Since that day long, long ago, he has released a bunch more albums, of which I have only a few. But the ones I do have are great. And definitely worth spreading the word about.

Channeling the Bob Dylan look, methinks

So Joseph Arthur is originally from Akron, Ohio (like the Black Keys!). He tours a hell of a lot, although I still have yet to see him live. I find a lot of his lyrics interesting, and I like that his songs range from quieter, more melancholy singer-songwriter-y songs, to fun, high-energy poppy numbers like the first one I heard. A lot of people compare him to R.E.M., and in fact they actually covered a song of his. He's released five full LP's so far. He lived in NYC for a while, was there for 9/11, and then to escape NYC he moved down to New Orleans... right before Katrina hit. Man, he doesn't have the best timing for choosing places to live, does he?? His latest album didn't get the best reviews, but I don't give a crap. I like a lot of the songs on it. Like this one:

GOOD SONG: Black Lexus by Joseph Arthur (from his album Nuclear Daydream).
The song sounds like it's about a woman wanting to head out from NYC to LA, to make it big, and yet can't seem to get the momentum. I really like the guitar on this one, and also the lyrics
"You don't know where you're going
Almost anytime
Things lost just lighten up your load."

Buy his music here: Joseph Arthur

If you liked this song, you might also check out:

Fistful of Mercy (another group that he is part of, with Ben Harper & Dhani Harrison)
Pete Yorn
Griffin House
Johnathan Rice
Ray LaMontagne
Langhorne Slim
Liam Finn

Over and out,
Anna

I guess now I'm a Bond(y) Girl

Ok, so Palenville, NY is this tiny and quite random town in upstate NY near my house in the Catskills.  There is almost nothing going on there. And yet, it produced the fantastic Felice Brothers, who I posted about earlier. 
Turns out Palenville is also where A. A. Bondy (originally from Birmingham, Alabama) went to record his second album entitled When The Devil's Loose.

At first, I just thought to myself, "Oh, that's odd. I wonder what the connection is." I figured it was just a random coincidence. BUT...

I noticed that a bunch of photographs of A. A. Bondy on Last. fm were taken by a certain "Clare Felice." Hmmm.... Felice. Sounds familiar.

Yup, looks like Palenville. 

Turns out it's his wife. And I'm betting you a billion dollars that she is related to the infamous brothers of the same name.

So there's your connection. I feel like a veritable SLEUTH. (Although brooklynvegan knew all this way before I did. Oh well.)

Anyway, A. A. Bondy is great. I stumbled across him while on Last.fm, and haven't regretted it. He's originally from 'bama (like I said), and became mildly famous for singing in the band Verbena, although he was known as Scott back then. I have no idea why, when his real name is Auguste Arthur Bondy, which is a great name. Verbena sounded much more like Nirvana than anything that A. A. Bondy makes now, which is cool by me. His first album entitled American Hearts came out in '07, and his sophomore album came out in '09. Let's hope he keeps them coming.

With no further ado, here is today's GOOD SONG:
When The Devil's Loose by A. A. Bondy.

Enjoy!

BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: A. A. Bondy!

If you liked this song, you might also check out:
a lot of stuff I've already told you to check out, like:
Deer Tick
The Avett Brothers
The Felice Brothers
Bob Dylan (ha!)
Ryan Adams (& the Cardinals)/ Whiskeytown
Justin Townes Earle
Adam Haworth Stevens
Forest Sun
and also:
Benjamin Fitton
Cass McCombs

Over and out,
Anna

Bet You'll Like The Beta Band

I originally got into The Beta Band (from Scotland) upon the release of their album Heroes to Zeros (2004), which I fell in love with at first listen. NOT at first sight, though, since the cover looks ridiculous.

Stupid cover

Unfortunately, Heroes to Zeros was their last album before they broke up. Thus, I was forced to search deeper into their past for "new" Beta Band music. But it's OK! There made plenty of awesome stuff! I discovered their album The Three EP's, which, no surprise here, is a compilation of three EP's they made.

So, here's an older GOOD SONG song for ya from The Three EP's: Dry The Rain by The Beta Band.

It has a great chorus to it, and I can't help but groove to it. The song is hard to define, like most of their music. While doing some research on them, I discovered that they were listed as part of the following genres (listed in order of increasing ridiculousness): Alternative, Experimental, Art Rock, Folktronica,  Neo- Psychadelic, Space Rock.
Right.

Ever seen the movie High Fidelity? He puts this song in this scene:  "I will now sell five copies of "The Three EP's" by the Beta Band"

Los amigos del beta bandidos!!

If you liked this song you might also check out:

Tame Impala
Thievery Corporation
Panda Bear
Gruff Rhys and the Super Furry Animals
Air
Caribou (also known as Manitoba)
The Flaming Lips

Over & out,
Anna

A great band you probably missed for about 10 years

So this last post for the month of October is dedicated to Luna, a fantastic band that my brothers Daniel and Peter got me into. Yay for recommendation month!

Witty caption

Unfortunately, Luna broke up in 2005, but they're still one of my favorites. They're sorta dreamy, indie rock/pop from the 1990's and 2000's. Dean Wareham, the lead singer, is from New Zealand, but they recorded a bunch of their albums in NYC (right near where I used to live, on Avenue B--- whoot whoot!). I think they were much bigger in Europe than they were here. They made it sorta-kinda-big here in the US, enough to land a pretty sweet opportunity to open for the Velvet Underground on their European tour. In fact, that might have been the spark for them to record a *great* cover of John Lennon's song (which was covered by Lou Reed) "Jealous Guy."See if you can find it yourselves. I have no idea what album it's from (sorry!).

So, the last GOOD SONG for this month is Luna's song "Speedbumps" from their final album "Rendezvous" (2004). It has a very fun intro and beat to it and Dean Wareham's distinctive voice really works well here. The lyrics are about a sense of uncertainty, moving without any clear sense of where, and dissatisfaction.

"I am tired of all of us...

Tell me who I'm supposed to be.
It's raining rain.
It's raining snow.
Tell me where you wanna go."

There are a TON of Luna songs on youTube, but they're mostly live. Check those out if you like what you hear.

By the way, Dean Wareham later married the bassist, Britta Philips, and now they record their own stuff together, as Dean and Britta. Aw.

BUY LUNA'S MUSIC HERE: Luna!

If you like this song, you might also like:

The Go-Betweens
The Lucksmiths
Margot & the Nuclear So-and-So's
Nouvelle Vague

Thus endeth Recommendation Month on AGSIHTF.

Over and out,
Anna

P.S. Happy Halloween!