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

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!

Bang Bang Bang!

So Recommendation month continues on the AGSIHTF... This week, though, I'm kinda cheating. I know Last.fm isn't really a friend of mine, but I just had to give this website credit for introducing me to so much good music.

The GOOD SONG for this week is FRANKIE'S GUN by the Felice Brothers (I know, I know I just posted about another brothers group, but this one is different I swear).
I don't remember exactly how I came across them on Last.fm, to be honest, but at this point it doesn't matter. They are FANTASTIC!
And what's weirder is that they are from Palenville, New York, which is about 20 minutes from my own house in upstate NY. Palenville is pretty much a nothing little town, so I give it kudos for producing these badasses.

Ok boys I know you're from the sticks, but
it's not THAT hard to find a shower.

How are they badasses, you might ask? Ok, example of their badassery: in 2008 they played at the Newport Folk Festival (of Bobby D infamy) and a huge rainstorm cut off their power. Instead of wussing out and waiting for the power to come back or just cancel, they played a totally acoustic show, jumping off the stage, and mud-puddling it out to the soaking wet and happy crowd.

The band consists of David Turbeville on drums/vocals, Christmas (that is his real name... he used to be a traveling dice player) on bass, and the two brothers Ian (vocals/guitar/piano) and James Felice (accordion/piano/organ), with occasional additions of washboard, horn section, and fiddle. Another brother, Simone Felice, used to be part of the band as well, but left amicably to start his own thang called The Duke and the King (characters from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn). Although they hail from the Catskills, they moved to NY a few years ago and started playing their ramshackle music in the subway stations. Since then, they've made it big(ger).

Frankie's Gun in particular is a great song. Sounds like the story of a guy in an old-school Mafia drug or booze run, who is taking money off the top to buy his mom and sweetheart nice things. I like the line:

"I saw a man hit my mom one time, really
I hurt him so damn bad
I had to hide in Jersey."


Here is a link to a great live version as well: Frankie's Gun Live. Yay for accordions! I am going to go see them play live at the Rock n Roll Hotel here in DC this coming Friday (the 22nd), along with Adam Haworth Stephens. Nice! Anyone in the area is welcome to join me.

BUY THEIR MUSIC HERE: Felice Bros

If you like them you might also like:

Bob Dylan
Pete Molinari
Avett Brothers
The Duke & The King
Old Crow Medicine Show (they toured with them!)
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (they also toured with them!)

Over and out,
Anna

Tales of Yore and Country Lore

On continues Recommendation Month on AGSIHTF!

This week's shout out goes to Jessie K. for her awesome recommendation of Seth Lakeman.

How he manages to play the fiddle so well with cold hands,
the world will never know.

Seth Lakeman is a pretty sweet (read: fantastic and award-winning) fiddler from Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England (read: middle of nowhere, English countryside). He originally made it relatively big on the British folk scene while performing with his brothers Sam and Sean (c'mon Mr. and Mrs. Lakeman, you couldn't have picked Gilbert or Theodore or something?).

In 2004 he released his album "Kitty Jay" which was a big success in England, and earned him a Mercury Prize nomination. Many of the songs on the album are folk songs based on stories, legends, and songs from his native Devon. Some of them are a bit morbid/spooky. In fact, the album gets its title from a local legend about a young servant girl who killed herself. A bit depressing, yes, but hey! perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit (ha! spirit! no pun intended).

The pleasant British countryside,
dotted with picturesque suicide graves.

Here is a link to the audio of today's GOOD SONG on youtube, but there are plenty of cool live versions to check out, too. --------- >  Kitty Jay

If you like this song, you might also check out:
(OK, so I wasn't sure what to write here, and so I checked Last.fm to see what it had to say.
Apparently, the following bands are closely linked to Seth Lakeman musically)

The Imagined Village
Peatbog Faeries
3 Daft Monkeys
Shooglenifty
Roddy Woomble


!!!!!!

CLEARLY, Seth has to get a cooler band name, because these freaking blow him outta the water. I think Shooglenifty is my favorite.

BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: Seth Lakeman

Over and out,
Anna

Good Advice

So I've decided this month is recommendation month. Meaning GOOD SONGS that were recommended to yours truly by some of the cool cats I know.


So the GOOD SONG  for today is Spanish Pipedream, originally by John Prine, but covered here by The Avett Brothers (one of my favorite groups EVER). It's from a John Prine tribute album called Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows. Here's the link to the song: Spanish Pipedream
Kudos to Dan C. for recommending this whole album to me.

John Prine: the other "Man in black."

It includes some of the best advice I've seen in a long time:


"Blow up your T.V., throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home,
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches,
Try an' find Jesus on your own."

The Avett Brothers: Man in black. And man in Mickey Mouse.

John Prine was a pretty cool dude, a fantastic country/folk singer-songwriter in the best way. He was almost (but not quite) a contemporary of Bob Dylan's. He co-wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," which is truly one the best and funniest country songs ever written and includes what is quite possibly my favorite country verse ever:


"Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison.
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train."


Ok, not good advice. But still funny. 
Anyhoo, Prine is great. And the Avett Brothers are, too. They have a *huge* cult following, especially down south. Their blend of country-folk-rock-bluegrass-amazingness gets me every time.
Listen to the song. It's a lot of fun. And check out the rest of the tribute album, too. All the songs are covers of Prine songs, by various different bands, so there are a lot of musical styles and genres on there (although there is a definite focus on country/folk, especially the Nashville type), so even if you don't love Prine's style, you might like it anyway.


BUY THE ALBUM HERE: Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows



If you like this song, you might also like:


Neil Young
David Allan Coe
Bob Dylan
The Felice Brothers
Justin Townes Earle
Old Crow Medicine Show
Deer Tick


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. This quote from an Avett Bros. interview will give you an idea why I love them:
" 'I hope truth exists,” says Scott.
Seth looks over with a hard, no-bullshit firmness.
“Music without honesty or hope will leave you empty. We try to avoid that emptiness.' "