POST #214

Just a quick post to get everybody up to date on all the information that has been passed along to me in the past week or so.

First off, the biggest news. Jonny Rumble, who I mentioned a few posts back, is currently giving away their brilliant new album, JR, for FREE. I highly recommend you jump on over here and download it. Then head on over to their page, and sign up for their email list, so you can support them by catching a live show or two - or ordering the vinyl.

You gotta love free music - especially when it's this good.



Several bands (The Swell Season, The Shins, She & Him. . . ) have new music available for free download over at Levi's Pioneer Sessions. By the way, Glen & Markéta's song is a cover of Candi Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free", and it's excellent.



Frightened Rabbit have a new single and video out. "Living In Colour" is available for (paid) download over here, or you can try to get your hands on one of the (not yet available) extremely limited edition 7" single with individually hand-drawn sleeves!

Living In Colour from Soft City Lights on Vimeo.

NPR is currently streaming Herbie Hancock's new album, The Imagine Project. Among the many guests on this outing are The Chieftains and Lisa Hannigan. You can listen to it here. The album will be coming out Tuesday, and can be ordered here.

One more completely random note - if you were to get Bruce Campbell and William Shatner in the same movie, I don't care what the script is (buddy cops / zombie cow apocalypse / two older-than-twenty somethings starting a punk band. . . ) you'd make serious bank. I'm just saying.

RANDOM SONGS & NEW RELEASES

Another Tuesday with nothing in particular to write about.

I'm in the mood for some covers today, I think. Here's a few I've found over the past few years.

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The Swell Season - "The Auld Triangle" (traditional) I'm still giddy over the Swell Season show last week. This is a live track found streaming on their website.

The Polyphonic Spree - "Love My Way" (Psychedelic Furs cover) This was issued as a b-side of one of the 25+ member band's singles, though I don't recall which one.

Tenacious D - "Aussie Medley" JB and KG, do some AC/DC, among others, live on Australian radio station Triple M.

Crowded House - "Everybody's Talkin'" (Fred Neil cover) Made famous by Harry Nilsson, largely thanks to its inclusion in the movie Midnight Cowboy. Here, Neil Finn and company play it on Aussie's Triple J radio station. Are all Australian radio stations triple letters?


Here's what's new and interesting in the stores today. Mostly box sets and live albums. Typical of the getting-ready-for-Christmas season.

Genesis - The Movie Box 1981-2007 (buy) DVD box of post-Peter Gabriel live shows.
Kraftwerk - The Catalogue (buy) 8 disc box set. I've never been a huge fan, but there's no denying their influence on music.
Miles Davis - The Complete Columbia Album Collection (buy) Now this is a box set. 70 CDs and one DVD. If you've got an extra $300 or so burning a hole in your pocket. . .
Moby - Wait For Me (Deluxe Edition) (buy) New version of his latest, adding a couple new songs, a full ambient mix bonus disc, and a live DVD.
NOFX - Cokie the Clown (EP) (buy)
The Ramones - KSAN Show (live) (buy)
Thompson Twins - Box Set (buy) Deluxe versions of all their 80s albums, in all their cheesy new wave goodness.
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - The Live Anthology (buy) 4 CD live box.
Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom (live) (buy) Tom's live performances have always been amazing. I just wish they hadn't edited all the between song banter onto a separate disc.
Various Artists - Wrecktrospective (buy) 3 CDs with over 80 songs from Fat Wreck Chords.


As a special bonus, here's an unbroadcast performance by Elvis Costello with The Roots, recorded for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week.

THE SWELL SEASON play MESA, AZ

Wholly crip, I'm a crapple.

While leaving my house this afternoon to make my way over to the Swell Season show in Mesa, I missed the last step on my porch and twisted my knee something awful. Naturally, that wasn't enough to keep me from the show, though I did arrive with a pronounced limp.

I'm mighty glad that I did decide to go (I'm a bit of a recluse, and rarely do the social thing these days), because it now ranks among the best live shows I've ever been witness to. Top honors still remain with The Pogues in their prime, touring for If I Should Fall From Grace With God, and with Luka Bloom opening, but tonight's show is only slightly below that.

Though I knew going in that I would enjoy the headliners, the nicest surprise for me was how much I enjoyed the opener, Rachael Yamagata. I had heard her name mentioned in various places around the web, but had not had the pleasure of hearing her music before tonight. Let me just say that I am now a big fan. Most of her set, she was alone on stage playing either piano or guitar, and at times she was joined by guitarist Kevin Salem.

By way of comparison, for those who haven't heard her yet, her sound is a bit similar to Nora Jones, with a bit of Janis Joplin on her bluesier songs. And her personality and sense of humor shown between, and sometimes during, her songs. I will be picking up some of her albums in the near future.

That's all well and good, but what of The Swell Season?

From start to finish, an absolutely electric show. They began with just Mar and Glen sitting in the middle of the stage, performing "Fallen From the Sky", and ended with a blistering rendition of "Fitzcarraldo" (though in the interest of full disclosure, I have never heard a less-than-blistering version of the song). In between they played nearly all the tracks on the new disc, Strict Joy, about half of the Once soundtrack, a smattering of tunes from their first album, and a few other assorted bits and bobs from Frames albums, solo albums, and covers.

Glen was very talkative between songs. Markéta was in fine voice, and as radiant as ever, and the rest of the band were in top form.

The full set list (not completely in order) was: "Fallen From the Sky", "Low Rising", "Feeling the Pull", "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain" (Willie Nelson cover), "In These Arms", "If You Want Me", "Fantasy Man", "The Rain", "The Moon", "Back Broke", When Your Mind's Made Up", "Lies", "Leave", "Say It To Me Now", "Once", "Rise", "Falling Slowly", Fitzcarraldo"

There was also a Van Morrison cover, the title of which escapes me, a brand new untitled song, and a solo tune from Colm's album, I believe it was "The Court of New Town", but I might be wrong on that one. Oh, and one line from Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing".

I may have missed a song or two in that list, as I was too in to the show to bother keeping track.

The only bad thing about the evening (other than the knee problem), was that I didn't think ahead to bring any cash, so I went home without any goodies. That's my own damn fault, though, and the show was more than enough to make up for my disappointment on that front.

If you have the opportunity to see them, I give them my highest recommendation. If you can't make it to one of their shows, here's a couple of hard to find tracks to ease your pain:

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The Swell Season - "Just Walk Away" Unreleased track that's been hanging around on the Web for the past couple years.
The Swell Season - "Into the Mystic" (Van Morrison cover) From a limited edition version of the Once soundtrack.

Now, give up the cash:

Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová - The Swell Season, 2006 (buy)
Various Artists - Once, 2007 (buy) (soundtrack)
The Swell Season - Strict Joy, 2009 (buy) (buy deluxe)
Colm Mac Con Iomaire - The Hare's Corner, 2008 (buy Amazon) (buy official)
Rob Bochnik - Blowing the Cobwebs, (buy)
Rachael Yamagata - Elephants. . . Teeth Sinking Into Heart, 2008 (buy)
Rachael Yamagata - Happenstance, 2004 (buy)


And as an added bonus, having nothing to do with the concert, here's a new video from the band Welcome To Ashley, which I mention a couple weeks ago. The video is difinitly a low budget affair, but it does have its charm, and the song is great. I need to hear more from these guys.

THE SWELL SEASON (REVIEW)

I think I've mentioned before that I don't consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination. That's the main reason I very rarely do album reviews. However, I felt like putting in my two cents on the latest from The Swell Season. So prepare for what will likely be the shortest review anywhere on the web.

First, a tad bit of background for those who happen by and aren't already familiar with the group.

The Swell Season is fronted by Irishman Glen Hansard (of The Frames) and Czechoslovakian singer and musician Markéta Irglová. The rest of the band varies, but usually has at least a couple of Glen's Frames band mates.

Depending on how you look at it, Strict Joy is either their second or third album. The debut being an album titled The Swell Season, by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and the second (on some lists) is the Once soundtrack, on which the majority of the tracks where performed by Hansard and Irglová.

So here's my brief and in-eloquent review of Strict Joy:

There have been many follow-up albums over the years that have come up short of the greatness of the disc that made a given band "big". I am very happy to say that this is not the case with this one. After giving the album several listens, I can honestly say that I'm enamored with it even more than I was with their debut album, and I was quite fond of that one.

"Feeling the Pull" is gorgeous. Markéta's voice has never been more beautiful than on "I Have Loved You Wrong". And "Love That Conquers" ventures into - dare I say it - nearly Dylan-esque territory.

Buy it. Better yet, buy the deluxe version. You won't regret it.

But don't take my word for it. Download "In These Arms" for free and legal right here, or catch them on their North American tour and see for yourself:

Tonight Toronto, ON Massey Hall
Nov 4 Montreal, QC Olympia de Montreal
Nov 6 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
Nov 7 Providence, RI Lupo's
Nov 8 Philadelphia, PA Merriam Theatre
Nov 9 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Nov 12 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Nov 13 Houston, TX Warehouse Live
Nov 14 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
Nov 15 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
Nov 17 Mesa, AZ Mesa Arts Center (Yeah!!)
Nov 18 & 19 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
Nov 20 Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
Nov 22 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
Nov 23 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre
Nov 24 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Nov 25 Vancouver, BC The Centre
Nov 27 Boise, ID Egyptian Theatre
Nov 28 Salt Lake City, UT Jeanne Wagner Theatre
Nov 29 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
Nov 30 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
Dec 2 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theatre
Dec 3 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre (Seriously? Did they have a contest for most redundant name?)
Dec 4 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
Dec 5 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre

Then it's off to a jaunt around Europe. All the details are on their site, along with several music samples.

The albums:

The Swell Season, 2006 (buy)
Once, 2007 (buy)
Strict Joy, 2009 (buy) (buy deluxe) (deluxe comes with a full-length live CD and a live DVD)


I have no good rarities from The Swell Season, but since I can't go away without giving you any music, here's an mp3 that was passed along to me just yesterday that I'm already digging. It's from a band called Welcome to Ashley, which I don't yet know a whole lot about, but this song reminds me a bit of the really good alternative bands that were around in the eighties. A bit of The Smiths with a dash of PiL, and throw in some Athens, GA bands. Enjoy

Welcome to Ashley - "Nothing But Grey Skies"


Now for new releases:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas (buy) (I'll admit it. I'm curious)
Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits (buy) (Catalog killer, but it comes with a full DVD)
Morrissey - Swords (buy) (B-sides compilation)
Nirvana - Live at Reading (buy) (CD and DVD - not a big fan myself, but I know others love 'em)
Weezer - Raditude (buy) (buy deluxe)
Various Artists - The Village (buy) (Looks like a good folky comp.)