Friday, May 29, 2009

New Artist - Elizabeth & The Catapult



I love iTunes when they introduce me to some fantastic new artist that I've never heard of before. This is the case with Elizabeth & The Catapults. If you're a fan of iTunes on facebook, you can get ten songs for some sort of summer promotion, and the track Taller Children was on there. Very rarely will I have a track really pull me in like this one has. After purchasing the album and giving it a half dozen listens through, I have to say, it's one of the best debut albums that I've listened to in a long time. (Or second album - they've released an indie record through CD Baby)

Elizabeth & The Catapults is a Brooklyn trio composed of Elizabeth Ziman, Pete Lalish and Dan Molad, along with a couple others who collaborated with them on the album. The group seems to have been around for a couple years, since 2005, and with this new major record, they have already been noticed by Rolling Stone and iTunes, who named it to their Next Big Thing list.



It's pretty easy to see why too - Taller Children is a fun, quirky album that is rich in sound and feel, sounding more like an indie record than what might be expected off of a major record label. I've heard this sort of thing with artists who's albums I've liked, but my interest has faded a bit, but I have a feeling that this won't be the case for this album. The 13 tracks are wonderfully varied when it comes to tone and mixes up genres a bit. There's representatives from pop-lounge sounds, indie-rock, and rock, all ranging from fast to playful, to slower, sweeping and grand songs.

Coupled with some insightful lyrics, this new disc really stands out from some of the other albums that I've listened to. Listening through this album again, I think I know why: it's fun, it's playful, and serious where it needs to be, and most importantly, it's not dull, which is one of the most important things when it comes to an album.

Taller Children is out now on iTunes, and will be released on hardcopy on June 9th, 2009.

Taller Children - Elizabeth & The Catapult

Friday, May 22, 2009

Cover and Original: Bon Iver


Bon Iver is one of my favorite artists, and he's been getting pretty popular with the hipster crowd. No surprises then, that other artists have begun to cover some of his songs off of For Emma, Forever Ago.

Flume - Bon Iver
Flume (Bon Iver) - The Chairs

Wolves (Bon Iver) - Ellie Goulding

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Concert Review: Alternate Routes / Carbon Leaf


Last night, I ventured out once again to the Higher Ground music hall in South Burlington, Vermont, where Carbon Leaf came out with another CYA favorite, The Alternate Routes played a fantastic concert.

I've seen the Alternate Routes a couple of times now, and really had a lot of fun seeing them again. Once again, they played a fantastic set of music, mainly songs from their new album, A Sucker's Dream. I've noted this a number of times, but these guys really go all out for their shows, and the energy level was about normal for them here. Their set was a little shorter than other opening acts, and they didn't play their fantastic song Time Is A Runaway (they must be getting tired of it or something), but they did play a number of favorites, such as Toe the Line, On and On We Whisper, and The Future is Nothing New, which went over very well.

Set List:

Toe The Line
Ain't No Secret
California
All That I See
On and On We Whisper
Standing At Your Door (Cover?)
The Future Is Nothing New
Ordinary
Sucker's Dream


There's not much that I can say about Carbon Leaf that I haven't already talked about at length in my numerous other concert and album reviews for these guys. Once again, they put together a show that absolutely rocked, playing a number of favorites from their prior albums, going pretty far back, which surprised me a little - given that their new album is a day out the door, I expected a setlist dominated by a number of new songs, but there was a rather good mix of new and old songs, plus a couple new covers that I hadn't heard before (and I really hope will be popping up online at some point via Archive.org or something). Like the Alternate Routes, they held up a high energy level, and even reworked a couple songs a bit, such as On Any Given Day and Love Loss Hope Repeat, almost spoken word at points (I think it was those two), which was interesting to hear. Let Your Troubles Roll By and Sweet Emotion both saw members of the Alternate Routes on stage, which was fun to watch, and they had a great time jamming to the end of the night.

Miss Hollywood
What About Everything?
Cinnamindy
Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young)
Love Loss Hope Repeat
One Prarie Outpost
Under the Wire (Acoustic)
Lake of Silver Bells
Carter Solo
> Paloma
Desperation Song
Drops of Rain
Another Man's Woman
Life Less Ordinary
On Any Given Day
Changeless
Pink
Day-O (Trad.)
> The Boxer
Encore:
Block of Wood (Acoustic)
Let Your Troubles Roll By (With the Alternate Routes)
Sweet Devotion (Aerosmith) (With the Alternate Routes)

Seed (Live) - Carbon Leaf

The Future Is Nothing New (Live) - The Alternate Routes
Ordinary (Live) - The Alternate Routes

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Album Review: Nothing Rhymes With Woman




My favorite group, Carbon Leaf, is back with their third major label record, Nothing Rhymes With Woman, the followup to their fantastic Love Loss Hope Repeat, released in 2006 on Vanguard Records. Over the past three years, they've been touring in support of that album, while working on new material. They've come up with what is possibly one of my favorite albums from the group, (although Echo Echo, their last independent release will always be my absolute favorite), and Nothing Rhymes With Woman showcases the best of what Carbon Leaf has to offer.

Where Love Loss Hope Repeat was fairly consistent throughout when it came to tone and theme, Nothing Rhymes With Woman is far more varied, and at my first listen, it felt like a step backwards. However, with several more plays through the disc, I've come to believe that the album has a far more nostalgic theme to it. Where Love Loss Hope Repeat was tightly structured around the idea that falling in love and out of it again is akin to the passing of the seasons, it came with a fairly dark and somewhat somber feel to the album as a whole. Nothing Rhymes With Woman feels far more free and lively in comparison, if a bit less connected together when it comes to the overall sound and feel to the album.

In a way, this album feels like it should fall between Indian Summer and Love Loss Hope Repeat. There's a share of the more thoughtful, lyrical songs, such as Mexico, Lake of Silver Bells, Pink and Snowfall Music, more lively, free songs, such as Indecision, Miss Hollywood, Cinnamindy, What Have You Learned, and X-Ray, while there's a couple harder songs such as Another Man's Woman and Meltdown.

This is also the first foray for the group with their two new members, Jason Neal and Jon Markel, who replaced Scott Milstead and Jordan Medas on drums and bass, respectively. The change doesn't seem to have effected the group all that much, although I can somewhat detect some differences there, but nothing overly noticeable. The other three members, Barry Privett, on vocals, Terry Clark and Carter Gravatt, both on guitar, sound excellent as ever - their overall sound feels tighter, more mature and overall is easily at their best - this is something that I've noticed on the numerous concerts that I've attended for these guys, and it's fantastic to hear it translate into this album so readily.

The overall feel to this album is that it is nostalgic, looking back to good times. Indeed, the opening track, Indecision, contains the lines: "I face the trail of the old lonesome pine, I catch a glimpse, flickers of brilliance, straight ahead for what's left behind. Long days, fade away, I hope to see them again." and "I may get lost but I'll know where I've been." Lonesome Pine was a track from Echo Echo, and I can't help but wonder if this album is an attempt to go back to that style - a number of songs, such as Indecision, Lake of Silver Bells and Drops of Rain feel as if they could fit on that album quite easily.

The idea of nostalgia is prevalent throughout the album, and there are two tracks in particular that really highlight this - X-Ray, which looks back to the rosy boyhood days on summer vacation, something that I myself remember fairly fondly, and Pink, which looks at a woman dying of cancer, looking back to the days before her illness. Looking back towards better days isn't necessarily a bad thing - in this album, it shines, as each song looks back towards good times gone by, as well as some bad ones, but there's a parallel feeling that there's more to come, that there'll be more to look upon in the future. I especially got this feeling with What Have You Learned, a quasi-breakup song that looks at the failure of a relationship, but also looking at what good can come from such an event in one's life.

Of all the songs on the album, my absolute favorite is Lake of Silver Bells. It's a gorgeous song that starts off smoothly before everything kicks into high gear about a minute into the song. This is the perfect song to drive along with the windows down, the volume up, and falls well within Carbon Leaf's tendencies to write very descriptive and lyrical songs, and it feels very much like the album that I like the most, Echo Echo, for much of those reasons. Thus far, it's easily the best album that I've listened to all year, and undoubtedly (and I'm a bit biased here) one of my favorites for the year.

Lake of Silver Bells - Carbon Leaf
Torn To Tattered - Carbon Leaf




Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Album Review - Crooked Measures




Myra Flynn's first album, Crooked Measures is a stunning debut disc that showcases her fantastic voice and writing. I've covered her before on this blog, over a year ago when she started making a splash in my homestate of Vermont. In the year since then, Myra's shifted full gear towards full time music, refined her sound and has what is hopefully the start to a long and successful career.

Crooked Measures has rapidly become a favorite album of mine in the short time that I've been listening to it. Comparisons will inevitably go back to another Vermont artist, Grace Potter, of the Nocturnals, but that's not necessarily accurate in this case. Myra's music here feels intensely personal, close to the heart, which helps to make this album so good. It feels geninue, right from the start with Just Because and Bones. While I love the music of the Nocturnals, they seem to have a slightly different approach to songwriting, something more open, and dare I say, a bit more commercial. While I'm not about to use that to take away credit from them, Flynn's first album feels very much like an album that she wanted, and was completely free to make.

Myra seems to have dropped some of the more overt soul feel from some of the earlier demos that I've heard through her myspace page, in favor of a somewhat more country-folk, soul/pop and indie mix, which gives the album a good variety of sound. There's some songs that feel a bit more energetic, such as Sunshine, Small Talk, Miss Independance, and Fragile, to more thoughtful, such as Where Do You Go, Just Because, Bones, and So It Goes. The last track of the album, Freedom, breaks the mold a bit by transitioning in and out of a sort of beat or spoken word poem.

Fellow Vermont singer Anais Mitchell shows up for a duet with Myra for the song Miss Independance, which is a welcome surprise, and further helps to reveal a growing talent pool of musicians within the state, along with The Nocturnals and Gregory Douglass. These four musicians seem to fall within the same sort of genre and feel for their songs, and I'm eager to see what will be coming in the future within the state. Myra is one of the rising stars, with a fantastic start with Crooked Measures. I look forward to seeing her live and in person in the near future as she goes on tour this summer.

Crooked Measures will be released June 20th during a performance in Burlington Vermont's Flynn Space, the first of two release parties for the album. The second will be a week later, June 27th at the Black Door in Montpelier Vermont.

Bones - Myra Flynn

Friday, May 8, 2009

Cover & Original : Star Trek


Okay, I know I'm a bit of a Star Wars fan. Okay, a big fan. But, I have to say, I really dug the new J.J. Abrams take on the franchise. It's fun, exciting, interesting and it looks absolutely fantastic.
I haven't done one of these in a while, so here's a couple covers of the original theme song:

Star Trek Theme - Keller Williams
Star Trek Theme - String Cheese Incident
Star Trek Theme - Toad The Wet Sprocket
To Boldly Go - Michael Giacchino
Star Trek Theme - Alexander Courage