CRANES AND CROWS

Another shot at hyping an album that I've really been enjoying as of late.

Cranes and Crows are a band out of Wisconsin, lead by singer - songwriter Paul Brandt. They released their debut album, Blame Winter, early last year. I was impressed by the few songs I heard on various blogs back when it was issued, and have been listening to those throughout the year.

A few weeks ago, I decided to give the album a shot, and I'm glad I did.

I've never been great at adequately describing music, so suffice it to say their sound is a folky singer - songwriter indie sort of thing. The most direct comparison I could make would be to say that they are following in the footsteps of Nick Drake and Paul Kelly - and those are some good footsteps to be in. Beyond that, I'll let the music speak for itself.

If you like what you hear, buy the album. They've got the cd on sale for $5 ($7 with shipping). You can't beat that. Hell, I'm still jobless, and I bought it.

A couple of tracks from Blame Winter (buy)
Cranes and Crows - "Ruins"
Cranes and Crows - "The One About Leaving"

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For more info on Cranes and Crows, head over to their MySpace page, or their label.

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

. . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead formed in Austin, Texas in the mid-nineties. Fronted at times by Conrad Keely (vocals, guitar, drums, piano), and at other times Jason Reece (drums, vocals, guitar). The rest of the band has changed over the years, currently consisting of Kevin Allen (guitar, vocals), Danny Wood (bass, vocals) and the newest addition, Aaron Ford (drums).

The music is loud, aggressive, anthemic, artful, and melodic. Have a listen.


Trail of Dead - “Invocation / It Was There That I Saw You” from Source Tags and Codes (buy)
(note - the US version of Source Tags doesn’t include “Invocation”)
Trail of Dead - “Counting Off the Days” from The Secret of Elena’s Tomb
(note - read the story behind the EP title here)
Trail of Dead - “The Rest Will Follow” from World’s Apart (buy)

Rarities:
Trail of Dead - “The Porpoise Song” (Monkees cover) b-side of “World’s Apart” (buy)
Trail of Dead - “Boudelaire” (Peel Session) b-side of “Another Morning Stoner”
Trail of Dead - “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (The Band cover -live)

. . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Discography:
. . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (1998) (buy)
Madonna (1999) (buy)
Source Tags and Codes (2002) (buy)
The Secret of Elena’s Tomb (EP) (2003) (buy)
World’s Apart (2005) (buy)
So Divided (2006) (buy)

You can find more music from them at the Live Music Archive. More info at the official site, or the official unofficial site.

By the way, next time around I’m going to change things up a bit. I’m going to try to concentrate almost entirely on rarities. Which means, I may post by some better known bands, but it will be lesser known songs (b-sides, soundtrack cuts, live covers, etc) by them. The only other blog I’ve found that deals mostly in obscure stuff is Lost in the Eighties (which I highly recommend), but they limit their stuff to bands from the 80s, so I figure there’s room for a new guy on the blog block.