tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335152362009-11-22T11:46:00.559-05:00An indie folk, antifolk, lo fi, bedroom pop, singer songwriter corner of the world.iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.comBlogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-24878845482817984152008-12-03T02:10:00.003-05:002008-12-03T02:13:29.593-05:00

Very sad news.Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 77.The cause was heart disease, said her manager, Doug Yeager. He added that she had been hoping to sing at Barack Obama’s inauguration.Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-90276411323138290082008-11-19T22:59:00.003-05:002008-11-19T23:20:06.096-05:00

Say a prayer for Odetta, who hopes to sing at Barack Obama's inaugural. Her Odetta Sings Dylan album has long been a favorite. Via Pollstar, a letter from her manager:Dear Friends of Odetta,On behalf of Odetta's adopted daughter Michelle Esrick and her niece Jan Ford (in California), I would like to share with you - Odetta's large extended family of brothers and sisters - the current health

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-35329510277063810072008-10-03T00:05:00.000-04:002008-10-03T00:05:44.225-04:00

This late in the game - their fifth record, and a lineup whittled down to two members, nominally - Scotland's Ballboy have issued their best record yet in I Worked On The Ships.It's quieter than their last, 2004's The Royal Theatre, and from the admittedly far-off vantage point of America, the band seems to be all but dormant. Their website lists no tour, and if not for an eMusic new-release RSS

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-81350513603447591912008-08-10T17:57:00.002-04:002008-08-10T18:11:44.812-04:00

The Guardian surveys a raft of new folk (Loudon Wainwright III, Noah and the Whale) and issues a general "meh", but they like the new Joan Baez the best. The album, "Day After Tomorrow", carries the name of its Tom Waits cover.Trolling the Live Music Archive, scrolling through page after page of Disco Biscuits concert upload, has its benefits. I unearthed a few new show uploads with some

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-74719339749622757432008-08-06T23:39:00.000-04:002008-08-06T23:39:14.547-04:00

It took three or four listens, but the charms of Donovan Quinn's new record grew each time. The melodies are strong in composition but doggedly low-key in delivery, hiding in rich, aching, sweater-warm arrangements. They require close listening, at least until you've got yourself familiar, but the payoff feels especially sweet in the age of music oversaturation, when dozens of songs whiz by a day

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-54779101234600169452008-07-30T00:20:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:00.329-05:00

If indie rock was baseball, Karl Blau would be the best journeyman utility player around - the Jamey Carroll of the underground. Blau hustles, turning out several albums a year to subscribers of Kelp Lunacy, his audio zine. With infectious zeal, he incorporates increasingly disparate influences into his music, the way Carroll might do time at every infield position, and act as your emergency

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-80594838185234316352008-07-27T23:21:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:00.540-05:00

Where has Joel R.L. Phelps gone? His music, with Silkworm and especially the solo albums recorded with the Downer Trio, has always carried a remarkable, almost offhand intensity. It's a bit baffling how Phelps has not managed to maintain a following and profile along the lines of, say, Mark Eitzel or Vic Chesnutt, because he's every bit as talented and singular. Nowhere is this more apparent than

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-31171561567404794972008-07-25T08:16:00.001-04:002008-07-25T08:17:19.160-04:00

Loudon Wainwright has gotten a burst of late-career exposure through the good graces of the Judd Apatow comedy juggernaut, culminating in the soundtrack to Knocked Up (whose best song is written by Peter Blegvaad, of all people). Now Wainwright is going the rerecord route with the Joe Henry-produced Recovery, which will feature new versions of some of his earliest songs. The first 250 pre-orders

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-48620186334226760042008-07-22T00:27:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:00.711-05:00

Eric Bachmann, well established as a singer-songwriter in indie circles, should be getting more calls to produce and arrange. He does wonders with the work of Liz Durrett, whose alluring voice and sturdy songwriting has gotten a bit lost amid similar post-Cat Power sadcore female folkies like Alela Diane and Jana Hunter. Durrett's work is a bit less freaky and desolate than those two, and her

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-24156939041753820782008-07-15T19:41:00.000-04:002008-07-15T19:41:44.965-04:00

During my exile, when I wasn't in crisis over the death of the maxi-single and liner note shout-outs, I often found solace in the mostimportantelectionofourlifetimes, campaigning for Mr. November and refreshing politico.com a few thousand times on certain early mornings.Now that the thrill of watching demographic groups fight it out has died down a little, it's as good a time as any to have some

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-19191899771236475652008-07-12T00:09:00.003-04:002008-11-12T21:01:00.809-05:00

I have two Hush t-shirts, the simple "cross" logo and the hush-bulance special, which are well-worn with pride. Back when small labels were harder to pull off, the Hush folks persevered, from humble CD-R beginnings to the beloved Portland institution they are today. Pure indie folk integrity, folks, now made available in a bulk buffet of free and (mostly) previously-unreleased goodies to

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-29660446347490019482008-07-11T00:36:00.000-04:002008-07-11T00:36:49.687-04:00

Ron Sexsmith albums used to be mini-events, and I still remember driving back from Baltimore after snagging a pre-release copy of Cobblestone Runway at the venerable Soundgarden, letting "Former Glory" flow over me. It's a certain kind of genius that can turn such simple lyrics, so many cliches, into songs that so wholly comfort and envelop you, take you inside Ron's little world, where the ghost

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-2084791635559214082008-06-29T23:20:00.003-04:002008-06-29T23:47:28.764-04:00

So it's been a while, and a (small) number of folks have perhaps wondered if this blog is gone, but how could I let such a name brand expire? What's been happening is that I've been coming to terms with digital music, the end of liner notes as we know it, and life after Tuesday trips to the record store.See, for the longest time I was the rare bird: a blogger stubbornly clinging to the physical

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-77061024511238252282007-12-12T23:45:00.000-05:002008-11-12T21:01:01.768-05:00

It's true that the presence of Kimya Dawson was the main impetus behind me inserting the Terrordactyls' new self-titled disc into the laptop right away when it arrived. Her duet with one of the 'dactyls on track 7, "Devices," is surely one of the best in class since Paul and Michael laid down "Say Say Say", but then Kimya's voice gets me choked up every single time I see the Juno trailer in the

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-22777448596357966632007-11-01T00:23:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:02.062-05:00

It's been a while since Matthew Sweet, one of my very favorite singer-songwriters, made me really smile. His last few projects - toothless folk collaboration The Thorns, the bloated, hook-deficient Living Things, his head-scratching covers album with Susanna Hoffs that did nothing for some hard-to-screw-up tunes - added up to a serious fallow period, if not the end of the line.Yet here he is on

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-33149572449022930542007-10-23T00:02:00.000-04:002007-10-23T00:02:43.749-04:00

He's had his ups and downs, album-wise, but through his career Dan Bern has remained one of my real shoulda-woulda-couldas - someone with so much talent, smarts, and showmanship they just plain shouldn't be playing tiny venues to two dozen people. Yet his music has never gained much traction beyond the core faithful.But, at this somewhat late date, the stars are coming together a little. It's

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-58372801491902193372007-10-07T20:42:00.001-04:002008-11-12T21:01:02.375-05:00

Jeffrey Lewis, leading light of the anti-folk contingent, is back with a new album 12 Crass Songs, covers of punk band Crass, of which Lewis has long been a fan. It's out in a slew of real and unreal formats; your best bet, especially if you live in the US, might be to order from Bleep; with this method you get 2 bonus tracks and individual comic book art for each track. Also available all DRM-ed

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-26482993467486328512007-10-01T07:53:00.000-04:002007-10-01T07:54:31.319-04:00

The Onion A/V Club pays tribute to Red House Painters' eponymous "Rollercoaster".If Mark Kozelek had formed Red House Painters recently, they'd probably be called emo—The Promise Ring even borrowed some of the band's lyrics on its debut album. But in the early '90s, they were considered slowcore or sadcore, tags that aligned them with artists like American Music Club, Low, and Idaho...But in

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-55210934177790692282007-09-26T00:21:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:02.833-05:00

The big release this week at iff is Iron & Wine's The Shepherd's Dog (buy it), an album I'm warily looking forward to. Less on the basis of any sort of quality and more on my personal taste, Iron & Wine's releases have been getting progressively fewer spins from debut The Creek Drank the Cradle forward. The sort of intimacy Sam Beam got across on songs like "Upward Over the Mountain" has been

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-69521461720642248952007-09-23T23:55:00.000-04:002007-09-24T00:43:52.018-04:00

Today's New York Times featured a stand-alone section for the new fall television season. It reads like the first try at such a thing for the paper, although I'm not sure if it is. Beyond plenty of self-conscious apologia ("Many people in the culture department of this newspaper never watch television unless it’s an adaptation of a George Eliot novel on Masterpiece Theater. But one of the

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-6026219638759522142007-09-18T23:47:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:03.262-05:00

I don't automatically jump to blog when I read copy describing an artist as a "bedroom-ensconced D.I.Y. savant" but the odds are good that you'll soon see it here. Fog is based in Minneapolis and their new album Ditherer (buy it) features contributions from AndrewBird and members of Low. My first impression is that this is far more conventional music than the description might suggest, but

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-773738988819879202007-09-11T01:19:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:03.755-05:00

Today sees the release of Vic Chesnutt's North Star Deserter, recorded in Montreal with members of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion. Truth is, I've always loved stripped-down Vic the most, with Little the soundtrack to many a yelp-along, and West of Rome not far behind. But going whole hog with the indie wall of sound crew might be just what he needs -Left Hip is enthusiastic.

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-83447705695469749212007-09-05T00:41:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:03.992-05:00

Ben and Bruno have managed to make themselves epic to me with a few lines of press. Via Parasol: "B&B is a group of songs based one character named Ben. The newest album focuses more on his life a long while after his abduction by a religious fanatic & has to do with his wife & two daughters. The album centers around those relationships & Ben's inability to shake this past impression he acquired.

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-12943736102028713392007-08-29T08:14:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:04.310-05:00

Daytrotter has a new session from the incomparable Laura Gibson. These four songs showcase her voice in all its sweet, paralyzing, lonely beauty, and this is especially clear on the rendition here of If You Come To Greet Me lead track "Hands in Pockets". Damn if these don't transport you way way out of your cubicle. Why she isn't bigger is really, truly beyond me.I've still never seen Hayden live

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33515236.post-85674964332767301112007-08-27T01:06:00.000-04:002008-11-12T21:01:04.504-05:00

It's hard not to like Murder Mystery's debut album Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here It Comes. Retro with a refreshing lack of pretense, the band turn out slice after slice of Yellow Pills-worthy power-pop, low on substance but high on hooks. There's nothing earth-shattering or even remotely original here, but pop-underground fans looking for a skinny tie fix will dig this.Mostly

iffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403490284421912708noreply@blogger.com4