CD of the Month
Every month, WNRN picks the best of what’s new. We pick an album for acoustic and rock programming. All CD of the month members will receive their copy in the mail. Everyone else can download them here!
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month- May 2012
This month’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month is Little Broken Hearts by Norah Jones.
From Rolling Stone:
Norah Jones sometimes gets derided for being too downtempo – which, really, is like hating on peaches for being juicy. But her fifth album is a brand-rejigging songwriting collab with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton that both picks up her pace and pumps up her palette. See “Happy Pills,” the bouncy single that triangulates the sexy bounce of the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket” with a lite-soul kiss-off ballad and an AM-radio bubblegum tune. Call it Norah in Neon. Jones’ sweet-smoky purr has always sounded great with meaty grooves: Talib Kweli’s “Soon the New Day,” Wax Poetic’s “Angels.” Here, she frolics through reverb and gets frisky over Burton’s midtempo beats on “Say Goodbye,” savoring the word “misbehave” like a toddler with her hand in the cookie jar. It was fun to hear Jones, the archetypal girl-you’d-take-home-to-Mom, play the fallen woman on Burton’s RomeLP from last year. That project echoes through “All a Dream,” a ghostly mix of dub-reggae groove and spaghetti-Western guitar. On the best songs, the Danger Mouse thumbprint is fainter: “She’s 22″ sets Jones against wisps of guitar and piano, while “Travelin’ On” mates her with a moaning cello. It’s a balancing act, which the lyrics occasionally upend – Jones as a murderous lover on “Miriam” is a near-comic stretch. But even good girls need revenge sometimes.
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Modern Rock CD of the Month- May 2012
This month Melissa Goode is featuring Jack White’s first solo album, Blunderbuss, as the Modern Rock CD of the Month.
From BBC Music (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/5q6m):
Having recently divorced his wife of six years, it’s tempting to interpret Jack White’s debut solo album as his very own version of Dylan’s breakup classic, Blood on the Tracks. After all, with its bruised, scabrous lyrics – full of nosebleeds, burst lips, missing limbs and pummelled digits – and preoccupation with love gone not so much bad as cataclysmic, it sounds as though the erstwhile White Stripe has been eviscerated by his loss.
But it’s important to remember that, not only was the split apparently amicable (his ex sings back-up on three songs here), but that White has never been a confessional songwriter in the conventional sense. Despite his deep devotion to the blues – that most ‘authentic’ of musical genres – he’s a conceptual art-rocker at heart, inhabiting his own unique crossroads between theatrical artifice and bloody-minded sincerity.
There’s a sense throughout Blunderbuss – trust him to choose such an archaic weapon – that White is positively revelling in the role of the wronged lover. So you never get the sense that he’s being entirely serious; he’s too eccentric and machismo-camp to suggest otherwise. It’s what defines him as an artist and it’s why he may be the only great rock superstar of recent years.
While this isn’t a major musical reinvention, it certainly develops his trademark synthesis of stripped-back garage-rock and Americana. Despite his guitar God reputation, White – ever the contrarian – relegates his axe to a supporting role, favouring instead a sort of aquatic country-blues dominated by Rhodes electric piano and the punk-Liberace glissandos of pianist Brooke Waggoner. She’s part of a small group of musicians who never detract from White’s minimalist aesthetic – Meg may be gone, but the primal rhythms remain – and who hit upon a particularly delightful sound on the breezily Kinks-esque Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy and the compact mini-opera Take Me With You When You Go.
During those moments when White’s guitar does come to the fore, it fits and squalls as though it’s having a breakdown, although he still swaggers with the best of them on the likes of Sixteen Saltines and on a raucous cover of Little Willie John’s jittery hoodoo, I’m Shakin’.
After all these years, there’s still nobody quite like him.
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month: April 2012
Locked Down by Dr. John is Anne Williams’ pick for April’s CD of the Month.
From Greg Kot at the Chicago Tribune:
Mac Rebennack has been making records since the ‘60s and has been a revered figure in New Orleans music for just as long. In reinventing himself as Dr. John, he took the city’s funk tradition deeper into the swamp of his imagination, mingling soul, blues and Afro-Cuban mysticism for some of the trippiest music ever to come out of the deep South.
One of his fans, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, guides John back to that shadowy “Night Tripper” era with a batch of fresh songs. The legendary pianist sounds reinvigorated on “Locked Down” (Nonesuch), in part because he’s not plugging into a formula, but animating it with some feisty new sidemen. Auerbach’s terse, reverb-encrusted guitar and the studio band he assembled for this project play vital roles, particularly drummer Max Weissenfeldt and bassist Nick Movshon. They keep things syncopated and slippery, and Auerbach tosses off an ornery solo on “Getaway.”
The Doctor plays less piano and more electric keyboards, which means he’s less inclined to draw on his tourist-friendly Professor Longhair mannerisms. Instead, he soaks “Revolution” in Farfisa-organ eeriness and conjures voodoo imagery from an Optigan (a vintage sampling keyboard) on “Big Shot.”
“My Children, My Angels” and “God’s Sure Good” allow the 71-year-old artist to close the album on a reflective note, but the cracks, imperfections and mystic weirdness of this music are where his personality truly lies. “Let’s all pray on it, right now,” he mutters before digging into his keyboard solo on “Revolution.” He brings the trickster god “Eleggua” out of the murk, and presides over the “Kingdom of Izzness.” It’s Dr. John’s world, in all its voodoo inscrutability, rediscovered.
Modern Rock CD of the Month: April 2012
Melissa Goode’s pick for CD of the Month is The Lumineers by The Lumineers. They were named one of the best new bands by Paste Magazine at the end of 2011 and their self-titled album drops April 3. Their music has been described as “floor-stomping, instrument-clanging, yell-out-loud goodness.” Check out the first single “Ho Hey” below!
March Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month
Our Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for March is Break It Yourself, the latest from Andrew Bird.
You can get your copy of Break It Yourself by joining the CD of the month club or by picking it as your premium in our upcoming fund drive!
March Modern Rock CD of the Month
Our CD of the Month for March is Delta Spirit’s self-titled album.
You can join the CD of the month club right now or pick up Delta Spirit in our upcoming fund drive!
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for February
Punch Brothers’, Who’s Feeling Young Now?
Completed over three weeks at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Who’s Feeling Young Now? was produced by Grammy Award winner Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse). Ten songs from the album were written by Punch Brothers, with the band’s friend Josh Ritter co-writing lyrics on two tunes (“Hundred Dollars” and “New York City”). Additionally, the album contains the band’s interpretations of Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Swedish group Väsen’s “Flippen.” The new album is Punch Brothers’ follow-up to 2010’s Grammy-nominated Antifogmatic.
Legendary producer T Bone Burnett recently said of Punch Brothers, in an interview with American Songwriter magazine: “That’s one of the most incredible bands this country has ever produced. Chris Thile, their mandolin player, is probably a once in a century musician, like Louis Armstrong was a once in a century musician. Chris is one of those kind of cats.”
-review from nonesuch
Modern Rock CD of the Month for February
Craig Finn’s, Clear Heart Full Eyes
When I first heard that Craig Finn was working on a solo record, I was worried. Was there trouble in The Hold Steady? Would he go in a “new direction”? My fears were assuaged when Finn shared a few early songs on Minnesota Public Radio’s Wits in April 2011. They were great, and I made a point to keep tabs on the project. Over the following months, Finn provided context via his blog and Twitter about how he was interested in trying something new and wanted to grow as a songwriter and musician by working outside his comfort zone. The Hold Steady, thankfully, lives on.
So, nine months after that first taste, we have Clear Heart Full Eyes — out Jan. 24 — and it’s clear that this is first and foremost a “lyrics” record. Finn’s vocals reside at the forefront of the mix, while the musical arrangements are subtle and mellow, which allows listeners to concentrate on the words. His chosen themes haven’t changed much; there’s still that same Craig Finn take on religion, solitude and change. It basically comes down to this: Finn is a great storyteller, and Clear Heart Full Eyes provides another great opportunity to let his voice shine.
-review from npr music
Modern Rock CD of the Month
January’s Modern Rock CD of the month is Nada Surf’s “Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy”.
From Amazon.com:
Nada Surf singer-guitarist Matthew Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot are in love with the way rock music can transport you to a new and wonderful place in a beguiling rush of beats, chords, hooks and words. And they do it 10 times over on their brilliant sixth album, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy. Before, Nada Surf albums simply took on the character of the songs that the band came up with at the time. This one was different–there was a plan. ”We’ve always played faster and a little harder live,” Caws says, ”but we’d play so carefully in the studio. So with this album, we made a conscious decision to preserve what it felt like in the practice room, when you play with that new-song energy. Just embrace it and not worry whether we’re overdoing it, kind of get all the thinking out of the way.” Chris Shaw came in to record and produce. Shaw, who’s made records with the likes of Bob Dylan, Super Furry Animals and Wilco had mixed Nada Surf’s indie hit ”Always Love,” impressing the band with his quick and expert work, not to mention his sense of humor. The Stars has a somewhat more optimistic, more outward-looking tone than previous Nada Surf albums.The album springs from the notion of music as an alternative reality, and songs as things you can keep by your side for inspiration and support. Which is what makes Nada Surf a truly beloved band.
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month
January’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month is “Voyageur” by Kathleen Edwards.
From Amazon.com:
Kathleen Edwards’ ‘Voyageur’ is the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter’s fourth album, and her first since ‘Asking for Flowers’ (2008). Produced by Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) and Edwards, ‘Voyageur’ is less of a departure than it is a journey, and like any transforming trip, it demands that we let go of any preconceptions about the destination. ‘Voyageur’ evokes a spectrum of overwhelming feelings within the atmosphere of a lucid dream. Edwards’ characters speak to the grief, loneliness, shock, and confusion that come with endings as well as the hope and irrepressible joy that accompany new beginnings, but the stories are told with a seductively quiet strength. Aided by the musical support of fellow travelers Justin Vernon and Norah Jones, ‘Voyageur’ features standout tracks such as “Change the Sheets,” “Mint,” and “A Soft Place to Land.”
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month
Acoustic Sunrise December CD of the Month: “Wolftown” by Carl Anderson
WNRN is celebrating Virgina native Carl Anderson’s first full-length album “Wolftown” with a CD release party on Saturday, December 10 at The Southern Café and Music Hall. The Carl’s album was recorded at White Star Sound in Louisa County and produced by Dave Stipe.
Ticket information here
Modern Rock CD of the Month
Modern Rock December CD of the Month: “El Camino” by The Black Keys
“El Camino trades the soulful stylings of Brothers for harder-driving, faster-riffing rock & roll: Opener ”Lonely Boy” is all quick-shimmying drums and raunchy guitars; ”Gold on the Ceiling,” with its swarm-of-bees organs and acid-trip gospel harmonies, could be a lost Nuggets gem. The best surprise, though, is edge-of-sanity epic ”Little Black Submarines,” a crate-digger thriller that starts as a quiet acoustic hymn, then explodes. They don’t make vintage folk-rock heavy metal like they used to — if they ever used to. And that’s a very good thing”
-Entertainment Weekly
Modern Rock CD of the Month for November 2011:
Florence + the Machine’s, Ceremonials
Ceremonials honors the grandeur of Lungs as if acknowledging a national holiday, or creating a movie sequel. To extend the film metaphor, Ceremonials offers the aural equivalent to a sword and sandal epic, shot in Cinemascope and recorded in Sensurround. In the opening Only If ForNight Florence enters the track like Cleopatra, declaiming the lyrics for the masses with a vibrato that flaps like a flag in the wind. The backup singers suggest a cast of thousands throwing garlands in her wake. It sounds like something that should be performed not in a modern sports arena but at the Parthenon.
Naturally, this brings a certain camp element to the proceedings. Don t be surprised if, in time, Florence types are crowding the stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Still, the rarity of Florence s melodies, and the conviction in her voice, circumscribes the giggles. She s doing serious work here. Most notably, she s creating an aggressive style untethered to typical pop genres, like punk, metal or soul. Only one song, Lover to Lover, holds to a common sound, specifically 60s R&B. Even here, though, Florence informs the soul mama role with her own character one that s valiant, grand and most importantly, unique.
Join the Modern Rock CD of the Month Club!
Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for November 2011:
Tom Waits’s, Bad As Me
Waits, of course, is an expert at feeding the mystery surrounding his deeply weird but strangely accessible music; to interview the man is to be led into a catacomb of misdirection and non sequiturs. But on his 20th album Bad As Me, out Oct. 24, Waits and Brennan continue to craft songs marked by uncommon empathy. Waits’ first all-new studio record in seven years, it toggles constantly between heartsick vulnerability and hell-bound defiance: He may attempt to wake the devil in the stomping title track, commiserating with a lover who’s “the same kind of bad as me,” but a few songs later, he’s grimly mourning his status as “the last leaf on the tree” — a survivor, but a lonely one.
For Waits, vulnerability and defiance are two sides of the same coin anyway; just listen to the blisteringly ramshackle “Satisfied,” in which satisfaction and death are practically interchangeable. He may exude fatalism in “Pay Me” — a punch-in-the-gut ballad in which he memorably sings, “All roads lead to the end of the world” — but his delivery is a carefully controlled mix of ruefulness and realism. For Waits, ugliness and beauty both find ways to persist against all opposition. But in the end, amid these 13 songs’ furious clatter and gutter-level grime, beauty improbably wins out.
Acoustic Sunrise October 2011 CD of the Month: Ryan Adams’s “Ashes and Fire”
This time out, we have a happy (we hope) and clean (we’ll take his word) Adams, making perhaps his sparest, mellowest record to date. His wife makes an appearance, singing a lovely, high harmony, and his friend Norah Jones pitches in, too. At the controls is the venerable Glyn Johns (father of Adams’ sometime producer, Ethan Johns), who, at nearly 70, has records to his credit by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and more.
The result, Ashes & Fire, is soulful and low-key; not without edge but certainly more lean and hushed than, say, Easy Tiger. The lyrics are considerably softer — “I will shelter you with my love and my forgiveness,” he sings, later adding, “Do you believe in love?” — but he’s allowed to have a honeymoon record, right?
It helps that Ashes & Fire, out Oct. 11, features the delicious work of keyboardist Benmont Tench, on loan from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Tench adds color and character, particularly in “Dirty Rain.” It’s not his first time working with Adams, and here’s hoping it’s not the last.
Modern Rock October 2011 CD of the Month: Feist’s “Metals”
It’s been four years since Leslie Feist broke through with her fourth solo album The Reminder, which scored four Grammy nominations, and her hit single, “1234,” which helped sell boatloads of iPod Nanos, thanks to that ubiquitous Apple commercial. She’s remained relatively low-key after wrapping up a grueling world tour in 2008, but the Canadian singer-songwriter will end her break this fall with a new record Metals, due out Ocobter 4.
For the album, Feist joined longtime collaborators Chilly Gonzalez and Mocky and worked up a dozen songs in Toronto. Then they headed down to Big Sur, on California’s central coast, to complete the record with percussionist Dean Stone, keyboardist Brian LeBarton, and Valgeir Siggurdsson, who’s produced albums by Björk and Kate Nash.
The result — produced by Feist, Gonzalez, Mocky, and Siggurdsson — is a gorgeous collection of overtly poppy tunes, cinematic art-rock, and strummy ballads. It’s probably too early to say if Metals will yield a crossover phenomenon like “1234,” but the songs are definite growers.
Modern Rock September 2011 CD of the Month: Primus’s Green Naugahyde
Few bands summed up the early to mid-nineties musical era like Primus, a bass heavy act that orbited around the four-string mastery of Les Claypool. By taking the idea of anything goes a step further than any other band in that period (oft and disgustingly referred to as the “grunge” era) Primus captured the spirit of alternative in ways their peers didn’t. While Nirvana, Pearl Jam and bands of that ilk made brilliant but often dark and brooding music, Primus injected a much-needed sense of humor and off-kilter musical structure. Twelve years after their last full release, Antipop, Primus is back to kick music in the nuts again with Green Naugahyde.
Acoustic Sunrise September 2011 CD of the Month: Lisa Hannigan’s “Passenger”
Irish folk/pop songstress, best known (still) for the seven years she spent touring and recording with Damien Rice, follows her acclaimed, Mercury Prize-nominated debut Sea Sew with this new ten track project produced by Grammy-winning producer Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Allen Toussaint) and engineered by Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne)…Hannigan says the new songs (and album title) come from the “loves, heartbreaks, confusions and friendships that we take with us through life”…Ray LaMontagne duets on the stark lament “O Sleep” // Release: Passenger (September 20, ATO)// Sounds like: the luxury of time played a big part on the songwriting as Hannigan says she “took her time” in putting the songs together…a low-voltage but palpable energy permeates many of the tracks — notably on the bristling “Knots” and “What’ll I Do”…
Quote: “Many of [the songs] were written while I was away from home or on the road, and the feeling of transience and nostalgia that this constant traveling evoked seemed to seep into every song.” // What we like: there’s an air of mystery in the lead track (and free download) “A Sail”, some dark shadows creeping into the wistful melody…the title track is typically wonderful Hannigan fare, sweet and unassuming…”Paper House”, with a whispered intensity, is one of our faves…while she put some time into the songwriting, Passenger has the urgency of a project that has tried to capture a live feel to the production and arrangements — we can’t remember an album that has such an extraordinarily intimate vocal mix and presence…
Modern Rock CD of the Month for August 2011: Fruit Bats “Tripper”
If that album was about reminiscing about the past, then Tripper is very much about seizing the moment. Beginning with a chance encounter with the title character on the opening track, “Tony the Tripper”, the album weaves a narrative of people trying to get away, or trying to find a new home, or just trying to get lost between those two poles. Johnson has always had this sort of wanderlust on his mind, but previous records found that wandering happening more in the head, in people trying to change their perception more than their place. Tripper is an album with a landscape and propulsion. It moves forward: sometimes ambling, sometimes stopping to take stock, but always heading to the next thing.
As a next step itself in the band’s discography, Tripper is out on its own. At its base, it continues the dusty AM-gold vibe the other records achieved, but Johnson—who has of late begun to work on film scores—pushes himself to incorporate new layers on the record. After the band recorded all its parts, Eric Johnson holed up with producer Thom Monahan and began messing with synthesizers, adding less organic elements to mix up the textures. The resulting record, after its four warm-sounding predecessors, sounds decidedly cool. There’s a darkness hovering around these songs, and if they still ride on the bright tones of Johnson’s voice, they are unafraid to let clouds cover the shine from time to time.
In the end, we can’t get away from ourselves; we can only change so much. Lucky for us, though, Johnson has changed just enough on Tripper and he has remembered to bring the best bits of his musical vision along for the ride. You’ll hear more about Fleet Foxes in 2011, surely, but that doesn’t mean you’re not missing out if you overlook this album.
-PopMatters
Acoustic Sunrise August CD of the Month: Ollabelle’s “Neon Blue Bird”
Ollabelle, a band beloved for “breathing new life into old sounds” (NPR), has emerged from a five year period of great artistic and personal change – including marriages, births, tours and other projects – to deliver their most assured, deeply felt album to date, Neon Blue Bird, due August 16 via Ollabelle Music/Thirty Tigers.
Neon Blue Bird was produced by Ollabelle and recorded in Athens, NY and at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock. It contains five original tracks, two traditional songs arranged by the band, plus covers of Paul Kelly, Taj Mahal, Chris Whitley and a goosebump-certified take on Stephen Foster’s classic, “Swanee River.” The album is the follow-up to 2006′s critically acclaimed Riverside Battle Songs, which inspired the Washington Post to name Ollabelle “one of the hottest bands going in roots music,” and saw tours with Ryan Adams, Alison Krauss and others. Emmylou Harris said of the band, “Every time I hear something on the radio I truly love, it’s Ollabelle.”
-Cybergrass Bluegrass Music News