POST #206

I've mentioned Welcome To Ashley before - back when their EP, Absent Man, was big on my personal playlist. Now, I wanted to let y'all know that they have a new full-length out, Beyond the Pale.

Their sound, if you haven't already given them a listen, is a modern-edged throwback to eighties and nineties college/alternative rock. Their most obvious influence is The Smiths, but there's also some Psychedelic Furs, perhaps a touch of The Cult, and even a bit of seventies glam thrown in.

Here's a taste of the new disc:

Welcome to Ashley - "These Dreams of Mine"

If you like that, you can take a listen to the whole album at their MySpace page, or their Bandcamp page. Be sure you give a listen to "What a Day It Was For Dying" and "The Catbird Seat". Awesome stuff.

Beyond the Pale can be purchased on iTunes, but it doesn't look like Amazon has it yet.

For the locals:

This Friday and Saturday is the annual Hoodstock benefit over at Hoodlum's Music in Tempe. Here's the line up:

Friday, May 7th

5PM: Carol Pacey
6PM: Integers are for Counting
7PM: What's Left
8PM: Psych 101

Saturday, May 8th

1PM: Nina Curri
2PM: Sarah Roberts
3PM: Robby Roberson
4PM: Big. Fast. Easy
5PM: Maricopa County Prison Band
6PM: Mojo Farmers
7PM: Dry River Yacht Club
8PM: Flathead

More information at the Hoodlum's site.

BLUES TRAVELER

First off, an addition to yesterday's post on the Haiti earthquake. It has come to my attention that some folks aren't comfortable donating to a charity they're unfamiliar with. These days, I can't blame them.

If you're more comfortable donating to a tried and true charity, here's a link to the American Red Cross. If you can afford it, please give a little something.



Most out there are likely already familiar with jam band Blues Traveler. They had a minor hit in 1990 with "But Anyway", and have had a huge group of loyal fans ever since. Then in '94 they broke through to the mainstream with their single "Run-Around".

While they've never repeated that success (which is probably a good thing), they still maintain a huge following, with particular thanks to their legendary live shows.

Here's a bit of an introduction for the newbs, and a bit of a treat for the fans that only have the albums:

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Blues Traveler with Carlos Santana - "Mountain Cry" (live) Recorded at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on September 29, 1991. Taken from the very limited On Tour Forever EP, which was included in some copies of Travelers and Thieves, which is also the album that has the studio version.
Blues Traveler - "I'm Walkin'" (Fats Domino cover) From the Cool and the Crazy soundtrack.
Blues Traveler - "Diner" B-side of the "Canadian Rose" single.
Blues Traveler - "Escaping" B-side of "Run-Around".
Blues Traveler - "Run-Around" (live) B-side of the "Hook" single. Recorded live on Vh-1.
Blues Traveler - "12 Swords" One of the tracks given away for free at their website. It had been planned for an album called The Sun, The Storm and The Traveler, but the album was scrapped after the death of bassist Bobby Sheehan. Instead, the band released four of the tracks as a free EP. I had planned to link to the download page, as it was still available two days ago, but it seems to be gone now.

Albums:

Blues Traveler, 1990 (buy)
Travelers and Thieves, 1991 (buy)
Save His Soul, 1993
Four, 1994 (buy)
Straight On Till Morning, 1997
Decisions of the Sky: A Traveler's Tale of Sun and Storm, 2000 (free EP)
Bridge, 2001 (buy)
Truth Be Told, 2003 (buy)
¡Bastardos!, 2005 (buy)
Cover Yourself, 2007 (buy) (acoustic versions of older songs)
North Hollywood Shootout, 2008 (buy)

In other news. . . Welcome to Ashley have released a new video. "Nothing But Grey Skies Ahead" also happens to be the first song I heard from them, and now we have visuals to go with the excellent track:

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.)