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

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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

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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.

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 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 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

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.

NYDailyNews.com

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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.

-NPR.org

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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.

-NPR.org

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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.

-Spin.com

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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.

-Crave Online

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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…

-Direct Current

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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

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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

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They Might Be Giants, Join Us

“You’ve got the clever, esoteric lyrics which cry out for explication. Where else are you going to get a refrain that uses a kind of enamel work as a simile, Quonset hutting used as a gerund? You’ve got the infectious syncopating rhythms. You’ve got the band’s characteristic harmonies and instrumental gamesmanship. You’ve got the joyful echoes of musical styles long gone. This is deceptively simple music that can bite.”

-Blog Critics

Photo courtesy of Pitchfork.

Imelda May, Mayhem

“The London-based Dubliner is an imperious, take-no-prisoners personality who can certainly electrify a tune with the tigerish yelps and whoops that run deep into the marrow of the blues. In fact, on the moodier pieces, May has a tone that slightly recalls Carmel, the singer whose raw, somber songs have aged well in the past two decades. Like Carmel, May writes the bulk of the material and impresses with both melody and lyric, none more so than the hard times chronicle of Kentish Town Blues, which smartly distills the realities of life at the low end of the social scale, right down to “those stews that lasted three days into four”.

Mayhem effectively proves that Imelda May is an artist of real substance and it will be interesting to see how she develops in due course, for as much as she has the rock‘n’roll template down pat it would be a shame if it became a sine qua non. There are times when the band slides into Cochraneisms that border on pastiche, but several others when the arrangements tilt into a pleasingly undefined stylistic space and suggest that May could be more than a retro queen who can sport a quiff with style.”

-BBC Music

Circuital, My Morning Jacket

“Without losing the playfulness of its predecessors — the chugging “Holdin’ On To Black Metal” lives up to its title — My Morning Jacket stays far more focused on room-filling rock majesty. The album opens, ostentatiously enough, with “Victory Dance,” which billows beautifully into the stuff encores are made of. From there, it’s on to a suitably ambitious array of rock epics (like the seven-minute title track) and grand ballads (“Wonderful,” “Movin’ Away”) that find James continuing to channel George Harrison as best he can.

It’s no criticism to suggest that Circuital promises to reach its full potential on an assortment of live stages; that these 11 songs were made to cut through humid summer air at maximum volume. Until then, headphones and car-stereo speakers will do just fine.”

–NPR

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Manchester Orchestra Simple Math

Simple Math from my perspective is broken down into 4 main parts, the opener, and three separate, similar – 3 song sections. The opener “Deer” isn’t your ordinary Manchester song, bringing more of a spin to the slow side of Manchester it’s easy to see from the start what’s been in the works for the past 2 years. Next is the upbeat, familiar version of Mean Everything to Nothing that will be familiar to quite a few. “April Fool” is found here, which while being the most accessible song on the album is also likely to be one the most overplayed ones. Quickly after that we can dive into the five through seven section of the album which is where you’ll find three of the strongest and most well written Manchester Orchestra songs to date. It’s almost as if “Pale Black Eye”, “Virgin”, and “Simple Math” were grouped together on purpose, but whether you play them in this order or backwards does not make a difference. The middle-section meld so well together that it’s unmistakable these tracks were put in this order. “Pale Black Eye” showcases Andy’s emotional vocals most predominately through that familiar near shouting he displayed on many songs on the groups previous release.

“Simple Math” itself blows everything else Manchester has done out of the water. From the opening seconds to the closing notes it’s easy to see that it’s the most ambitious song that Andy Hull and co. have put their time into. It’s difficult to pinpoint whether it’s the string arrangements or the lyricism that makes the song but one thing is for sure, “simple math, believe me, all is brilliant.”

Manchester wasn’t looking to make Mean Everything to Nothing part two but instead created an entirely different album comprised of a diverse sound and it worked; it worked really well.

SOURCE: Sputnikmusic.com

Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

The image of Fleet Foxes has always been that of mountain men — outcasts stuck in a woodland cabin, seemingly transported here from centuries ago. Pecknold furthers this image by covering songs like “False Knight on the Road” and “Silver Dagger”, songs that date back to the early 20th century and perhaps earlier. It is an image that has led critics to call them “timeless” and “authentic.” Pecknold’s attention to the past blends with the band’s composite sound of shapenote-inspired Appalachian harmonies, acoustic instruments mixed with sparse warm electronic sounds. And indeed, as folk revivalists, Fleet Foxes are nothing but authentic.

Helplessness Blues continues this trend. Pecknold’s lyrics make no attempt to modernize; “Bedouin Dress” makes a Yeats reference when he sings “One day at Innisfree/One day that’s mine there.” Yeats, an early 20th century Irish poet, wrote a poem called “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, describing a bucolic place of solace.

Herein lies Pecknold’s inspiration for the entire album, an unsurprising theme for someone who describes himself as suffering from “social anxiety.” Constantly, we find Pecknold continually wanting to climb back into his shell, or perhaps to his orchard, as apples are a key image in many songs on the album. “If I had an orchard, I’d work ’till I’m sore,” he repeats on the title track after expressing his wish to be no more than “a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.”

Perhaps most telling is the memorable line in “The Shrine/An Argument”, the band’s most experimental work to date. “Sunlight over me no matter what I do,” he sings, no, screams in frustration, allowing his voice to rasp for the first time in memory. The song ends with a strange, free-jazz inspired bass clarinet solo over unconventional tremolo chord planing. Fleet Foxes use new instruments and sounds on Helplessness Blues to expand their seemingly all-encompassing American style.

Some of these new inclusions are more logical, such as the violin melody in “Bedouin Dress” or the fiery acoustic jam session ending “Sim Sala Bim”. It’s the classic sound of a band evolving into their prime, trying anything they want and making it work every time. Despite the expansion into more myriad territories, nothing on Helplessness Blues is a throwaway track; nothing lacks in quality. Helplessness Blues is, without a doubt, the best release of the band’s career.

Source: Sputnikmusic.com

Wasting Light by Foo Fighters

From EW:

We’re a measly two decades out, but ’90s nostalgia is already hitting its dubious peak: Scuffed-up Doc Martens and slouchy flannel shirts are ubiquitous again, My So-Called Life DVDs are required (re-)viewing, and Pearl Jam are steadily reissuing their grunge-defining back catalog.

Still, it’s hard for any new band to compete with Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl’s post-Nirvana behemoth. Wasting Light, the group’s seventh studio album — and first since 2007 — was recorded with rock überproducer Butch Vig (he manned the boards for Sonic Youth, the Smashing Pumpkins, and, yes, Nirvana) in Grohl’s basement using only analog equipment. As if that weren’t enough, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Hüsker Duü’s Bob Mould, and the Germs’ Pat Smear, who played with the Foos from 1994 to ’97, all appear, forming a kind of Voltron of ’90s alt-ness.

Here’s the miracle, though: Foo Fighters never feel like a backward-looking band. Light is a muscular rock & roll throwdown, featuring the Foos delivering exactly the kind of catchy, pummeling anthems they’re known for, with total disregard for the whims of the masses. ”Bridge Burning” is rich and fiery — its layered chorus and machine-gun percussion will knock you over on first listen — while ”These Days” is a tough, moody power ballad in the melancholic spirit of 1997′s ”Everlong.” ”Once upon a time, I was somebody else,” Grohl growls on ”Back & Forth,” but it turns out he’s still that guy — affable yet fierce, and ready with a memorable chorus