Car Tunes

Aside from frequent listens to new releases on Mog or Spotify when I’m piddling about the house, the place where I love to treat myself to good tunes is in the car. My car player isn’t the greatest; it’s got good sound but it it just a basic 6-CD changer with no randomizing capability (or, maybe it does, but I’ve never learned it.) Anyway, I like to load up the changer with CDs that work well together. 

Today, I drove to Hanscom AFB on a mission to fill the fridge and the pantry, as well as to stock the liquor cabinet. On the drive, I listened to these:

Trampled By Turtles - Stars and Satellites (HUGE thumbs up. When that CD ends, I just want to hear it again.)

Aunt Martha – Bloodshot - (It’s an EP, and it’s brilliant. Awesome follow after the TbT CD, too.)

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead -(Last year’s release still resides in the car player. Yes, it’s that good, IMO.)

The Band – The Band (I needed to hear some and it fits right in with the contemporary CDs in rotation. Still hurts a bit when I hear Levon singing.)

I had two others in, but didn’t hear them today, since there’s hardly any skipping of songs.

The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You

Nickel Creek – This Side

I’m never paying for satellite, as long as I have CDs to love. 

 

Tomorrow’s New Releases

There’s not a whole lot that interests me in this week’s spankin’ new list. I thought I might dig the Sleigh Bells release, until I saw them on SNL. Meh.

Cheap Girls – Giant Orange – You can preview the entire thing here.

Damien Jurado - Maraqopa - The song Nothing Is the News, starts off sounding like typical Damien Jurado, but then it gets interesting when the Santana-like guitar kicks in. Listen here. Very nice.

Frankie Rose – Interstellar –  The track, Interstellar, takes a minute to get going, but this is very poppy and energetic. Listen here.

Fun. – Some Nights – Preview the entire thing here.  Everyone’s into the cut, We Are Young, but I love the title cut, Some Nights.

Lambchop – Mr. M – First listen on NPR, here. Whoa, it’s their 11th album.

Sinead O’Connor - How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? 

Tindersticks -The Something Rain – Free download of the song, Frozen, at their site. It’s the kind of moody-atmospheric tune I like to unwind to, without putting me to sleep.

Here’s to some great treats for your ears this week.

Tomorrow’s New Releases

After a stunning display of accolades for Adele in last night’s Grammy awards, I’m ready for some new tunes to get into the running for next year’s awards.

Band of Skulls -Sweet Sour -

Eisley -Deep Space Ep – Stream it here.

Heartless Bastards-Arrow - Stream it here. I love Erika Wennerstrom‘s vocals.
Howlin Rain -Russian Wilds - You can stream it here, on RDIO.

Amos Lee-As The Crow Flies – Stream available here.
Punch Brothers-Who’s Feeling Young Now – The Chris Thile-led band delivers another engergetic string-fest.

Rumer-Seasons Of My Soul- She’s got a very smooth voice, and I know there will be Dusty Springfield comparisons, starting with me. I listened to the album this morning on Spotify. Very nice, but not stand-out-ish.

Shearwater-Animal Joy - NPR had the stream, but it will disappear soon.

Good stuff. This is the first week in awhile that there’s been more than one release I’ve been diggin’ after the preview stream. Things are looking up.

Buckingham-Nicks and Experimenting with Noise Removal

I dragged out the album boxes and one of the first records I pulled out was one I had almost forgotten: the Buckingham Nicks record from 1973. Lindsey and Stevie (or, Stevi, as spelled in the liner notes) were still 2 years away from super-stardom when “Fleetwood Mac” hit the bigtime in 1975. They recorded this one at Sound City in LA, and it was produced by Keith Olsen (owner of 45 Gold/Platinum Record Awards and 6 Grammies.)

Here is “Crystal” in its original, if overproduced, form. Yes, there are stings and, I think, synth wind instruments, but the beauty of Lindsey’s guitar and the vocal play between the two of them is just plain lovely. In comparison, Olsen’s production on the “Fleetwood Mac” album was quite a bit more polished and lots less cheesy.

I recorded a raw .wav file, then attempted to clean it up with Audacity, and this is my first time working with files like this. It’s just a little shaky, and I didn’t remove the small pops you hear from my needle riding the grooves.

Oh, this record never made it to CD, so, until it does, this is what you get.

Buckingham Nicks – Crystal

Shearwater – You As You Were

Shearwater – You As You Were

From the new release, Animal Joy, which comes out next week.  It’s their first release on the Sub Pop label.

Follow this link to NPR to stream the entire thing. Joy, Joy, Joy!

Adventures in Vinyl Land

Oh, I do love being a music geek when there are so many techno tools. I’ve had my DAK mixer since July, and I hooked it up to an old (really old) desktop machine in what is now my younger son’s room. He didn’t like me in there taking up his space, so when we recently acquired a new laptop, I scarfed the old one to use as my recording machine. The old Technics turntable (vintage 1977 or 78) is still going strong. Now I have to unbox all of those LP’s!

I did buy a reissue of The Ramones, which I do need to record, but I dragged out an old Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers album, along with a mediocre Jeff Beck Group release that, despite its generally “meh” nature, contains a few great songs.

Let’s see if this works.

Jeff Beck Group – Going Down.
I love this song, not only for Beck’s great guitar, but for Clive Chaman’s awesome bass playing, and Max Middleton’s piano.  I just wish Rod Stewart were the lead vocal, although Bob Tench is raspy enough to carry it off.

Now, to get out those boxes and get out and hit the used vinyl shops.

Jonathan Coulton – Artificial Heart

I admit it; I used to think of Jonathan Coulton as a poor-man’s Ben Folds, but I got over that.  Now I think of Jonathan as an indie tour-de-force.It’s great to hear  him with a full band, fulfilling the dreams of geeks everywhere. (I count myself among them.)

Thank you, Jonathan.

Wild Flag Kicks Ass

 

That is all. Just listen to their entire album and tell me I’m wrong.

Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur

Next week, my ears will be treated to Kathleen Edwards‘ latest release, Voyageur.  I’ve been a fan since my first listen to her first release, “Failer,” in 2003. (Holy crap, that seems like ages ago.)  That release propelled her into Paste Magazine’s list of artist to watch in one of their early issues, and I think they’ve been a fierce supporter of hers ever since.  I just love everything about this girl’s music, including the snark and the swear words.

Here’s the track listing:

Voyageur

Out Jan 17, 2012
Produced by Justin Vernon and Kathleen Edwards

01 Empty Threat
02 Chameleon/Comedian
03 A Soft Place to Land
04 Change the Sheets
05 House Full of Empty Rooms
06 Mint
07 Sidecars
08 Pink Champagne
09 Going to Hell
10 For the Record 

So far, I’ve heard “Change The Sheets” and loved it. It’s more polished that her early work, but that’s progress. .  Besides, it gives her the opportunity to get back to her roots later on. See, that’s the way I look at it when critics go completely bonkers over things like production.  There’s stepping up, and there’s overdoing it. I don’t see Kathleen overdoing it here. The keyboards really punch the poppiness of this song

Looking forward to next week!

Favorite Music-Related Stuff of 2011

 

I posted the favorite songs, but I never would have discovered some of them if I had not found turntable.fm.  I spent some time on that site over the summer, mostly in the “Play 3 & Step Down” rooms. It reminded me of chat room days in the mid-90′s, only with music and avatars.

So, here’s a list of cool music things from last year:

 Turntable.fm – I think it’s still in beta and you have to sign in via Twitter or Facebook, but it’s tons ‘o time-wastin’ fun. You don an avatar and DJ name, search for songs and build playlists, and take turns DJ’ing in themed rooms. Oh yeah, there’s a chat feature. So fun!

 Spotify – I use the free version, but I’ve heard tons of new music on Spotify. Yeah, there are ads, but I don’t find them as intrusive as the ones on Pandora.

Newbury Comics – As much online music as I listen to, you’d think I’d given up buying CDs. Au contraire!  And now I’m back in the vinyl business, too. YAY! This is my favorite place to buy, and now they’re expanding to add clothing lines in their superstores. It’s youth-oriented, of course, so I won’t be wearing any of it, but I can get cool stuff for my teen son.

Vinyl – I bought a DAK mixer and their software to record my LP collection to mp3. Yeah, there are other ways, but this works for me, and it was easy to set-up and use. I bought some new and some old vinyl, and I’m feeling the love.

This Is My Jam – Another site you have to join via invite with FB or Twitter and it’s very user-friendly, and it’s still in beta. You search for a song and post it, and it’s just one song at a time. You leave them up for a week, then post another. When the week expires, so does the song (if you forget and let your post lapse.)  It’s perfectly laid-back.  I have invites left, so if you want to check it out, let me know in the comments.

Anything else I should know about?