20. May 2014
Things You Can Buy Today 20 May 2014
Thoughts From Around the Web…Click On The Album Title For More Info…
Coner Oberst – ‘Upside Down Mountain‘ (Nonesuch)
Excerpt from the David Bevan article Spin:
At a Brooklyn benefit show in the fall of 2004, to raise money to pay legal fees for those arrested during the protests of the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, I remember him stopping in the middle of a song, to remind a singing audience, that, “This isn’t a Dashboard Confessional show. How about I sing the songs and you listen?” He’d later apologize upon finishing, say he’d just found it distracting, that the same audience relationship that worked for Chris Carrabba, a perceived contemporary, did not work for him. By that point, he’d taken on the mantle of serious folk singer, of someone who was attempting to leave that perception of who he was behind him. It’s been a challenge since. Perhaps more than any major songwriter in recent memory, Oberst has struggled to shed skins as well as his heroes. He’s been cast as a mope, a ponce, a prodigy, an alcoholic, a fraud, a dilettante, a loud-mouthed liberal, a sexual predator, the voice of his generation, Winona Ryder bait — his first impression strong. “I’m like a person who wants to be a chameleon, but is a bad one,” he says. “I think I’m pretty much always recognizable, even if I think I’m in costume. But I still like to get into costumes. It makes me feel like I’m trying new things, even if another person can listen and go, ‘Oh, there he is again.'” – David Bevan (Spin)
The Roots – ‘…And Then You Shoot Your Cousin‘ (DefJam)
“Hopefully you’ll get something new from it every time you listen to it, you’ll hone in on something different,” Thought said. “It’s short enough to do that, to take in, to digest in one sitting, so to speak. I think right now it’s at maybe 34 minutes; there may be one or two musical things added on to the record that I know is the record at this point. But I don’t think it will be any longer than 36 or 37 minutes in its entirety. So in that, it’s short enough to digest, but it’s gonna be dense. So dense that maybe in one sitting you’ll listen to it and only listen to the piano and string arrangements, and then you’ll listen to it again and you’ll get into the actual words that are being said, and you’ll listen again and get into some of the other musicality. There’s very many layers to this record, but it doesn’t take place over very much time.” – Black Thought (Dan Rys article XXL Mag.)
Brody Dalle – ‘Diploid Love‘ (Caroline)
“Her best strokes balance the chemical reactions of inventive imagery and dark secrets that come back to haunt her. But it’s nothing that she can’t defeat. The instrumental performance, assisted at different points by members of The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, Warpaint, and others, incorporates a few new tricks into her electric intensity to make things interesting, as on the mariachi guitar conclusion of “Underworld”. Dalle shines brightest through her poetic hand, as on “Blood in Gutters”: “Killing us slow, chemical wrath/ So suffer the madness, cling to the birth/ Of a new era, to hell with our worth.” Her vocals are relentless here, drawing near-exclusive focus, the rocker’s recovery seeming deceptively easy.” – Sam Willett (Consequence Of Sound)
Chatham County Line – ‘Tightrope‘ (Yep Roc)
“With blurred lines connecting all different subgenres of country music, it’s often hard to know where to start. But fans of americana/roots rock/singer-songwriter genres have an entry point for bluegrass with Chatham County Line. The band’s lead singer Dave Wilson has put together another stellar set of songs that include, but are not limited to, traditional bluegrass instruments (banjo, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and bass). The band is not afraid to show off its instrumental chops too. They have the sound of one microphone. Where instruments and voices fade in and out of the spotlight as needed. They blend together and stand apart when necessary.” – Jeff McMahon (Twangville.com)
What will you be buying this week…
NOTE: Not a single one of the other writers we excerpted from or their web-spots are associated with Global Texan Chronicles. Click the links for more on’em. Can You Dig It!