Snail Mail is the lo-fi bedroom pop project of singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan. She’s a thoughtful lyricist who tends to buck the ‘woe is me’ cliche in favor of a wider, balanced perspective focused on forward motion. This refreshing view is shared over dreary textures, slow moving guitar work and Jordan’s effortlessly melodic vocal presence.
http://
Band Members
Lindsey Jordan – Guitar and Vocals
Alex Bass – Bass
Ray Brown – Drums
__768_659_80gaus-20.jpg)
Celebration’s fifth album, “Wounded Healer” will be released in June. The song “Freedom Ring” was released for streaming about a month ago, this is the second track to be available, “Spider.” The song would seem right at home in a Lynch film, feeling fully contemporary while availing itself heavily of comfortingly familiar ’50s tropes. Per the band: “Spider” was inspired by the Mary Howitt poem “The Spider and the Fly,” a cautionary tale about the dangers of flattery. But this is from the Spider’s perspective. It’s the seduction between predator and prey. A juxtaposed romance caught in the circle of life and death. Seeing the beauty in interdependence and deepest connection because of survival. Psychedelic rock’n’soul from Baltimore legends
Celebration is a psychedelic soul band based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Formed in 2004 the band is composed of singer Katrina Ford, multi instrumentalist Sean Antanaitis and drummer David Bergander, with a number of additional rotating members: Walker Teret plays bass, sometimes guitar, percussion and backing vocals; .“Spider” is taken from the upcoming album “Wounded Healer”, released 2nd June 2017 via Bella Union.
Mothpuppy’s new record is out now, Opening track “Kilgore Falls“, one-minute and forty-four seconds of leaping vocals and stirring violin, is the gleaming epitome of their sound in fact. On initial listens I found it to be wildly invigorating, The music remains exhilarating and it’s backed up by a lead vocal that burns with realness, the bottled-up sound of making the most of a day that lies right there in front of you. “All my songs are just letters and I hope they reach you some day,” Morgan Murphy sings with a gusto and a buried sense of longing that feels crushingly pertinent, even to those of us on the outside of such a story.
This kind of unbridled desire for making the most of what you’ve got is wonderfully invigorating but it feels beaten down, for much of the record, by life’s (and other people’s) ability to shackle such things. The album takes many twists along its journey, a tale of gross male machismo on “Basketball Court” is powerfully unsettling, while the fragile but utterly compelling “Follow Thru”takes it somewhere else entirely.
Murphy is Mothpuppy’s focal-point throughout and while the band is billed as a five-piece, her guttural voice and poetic words pitch her as chief protagonist, and she positively thrives in such a role, presenting a sustained and continual slideshow of emotional honesty that joyously comes alive in the form of pop songs; the five-minutes of “Space”, for example, a gleaming example of all the frayed fortitude of their craft coming together in exquisite, empowering, emotive majesty.
That sense of unshackled outpouring continues in to the following track “Cranberry Juice”, a brilliantly resounding, jagged piece of guitar-pop which closes with Murphy bellowing the line “I know that I’m alive, I don’t know why. Well maybe I would have died a long time ago, but I’m still here.” A definitive, poignant example of the record’s journey from that initial seizing-of-the-day to full blown declarations of defiance in the face of it all, the track might well be Mothpuppy’s calling card; an emphatic message, in the arms of a gleaming composition, delivered with all the bluster that we hope always shapes our favourite art. And a message that continues to resonate each and every time we meet it.
Ryan Vieira – bass, scream
Becca Kotula – violin
Morgan Murphy – vocals, guitar
Shawn Durham – drums
Becca Willis – guitar, glass cup
While “Depression Cherry” radiates warmth, its stately follow-up is like an ice castle sculpted from Alex Scally’s guitar textures and Victoria Legrand’s voice and keyboards. A vast, frostily majestic work, the album beckons to us from afar, trading immediacy for an enigmatic remoteness that offers new mysteries with every listen,
More composers than songwriters, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, who perform as the duo Beach House, create soundscapes, waves of ambiance and/or dissonance that render a variety of moods and atmospheres.
Theirs isn’t commercial music; there are few, if any, pop moments in their songs. And depending upon how deeply their listeners let themselves get involved, prolonged exposure to their music and midtempo rhythms can be either hypnotic or monotonous. Legrand the band’s lead singer and keyboardist. Her voice (think of Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star or Julee Cruise) is pretty in an interesting way. Amid the sounds that surround it — drums, synthesized noises and Scally’s ornate guitar forays — her voice becomes another instrument, another layer of sound.
“Thank Your Lucky Stars” is the 6th album from Beach House (and 2nd new full length of 2015)! The band have the following to say about it: Slow music for the soul. I think I like it a little more than Depression Cherry.
“Thank Your Lucky Stars is our sixth full length record. It was written after “Depression Cherry” from July 2014 – November 2014 and recorded during the same session as Depression Cherry. The songs came together very quickly and were driven by the lyrics and the narrative. In this way, the record feels very new for us, and a great departure from our last few records. Thematically, this record often feels political. It’s hard to put it into words, but something about the record made us want to release it without the normal “campaign.” We wanted it to simply enter the world and exist.
Thank you very much,
Beach House”
Gun Is Coming is a wonderful slice of swampy folk with radical gospel roots and more than just a whiff of the blues. Ian Francis was born with hands that don’t work so he taught them how to play. He sings songs to keep them on a leash. Whatever breath he has left at the end of the day is spent looking for his last cigarette.
It is taken from the upcoming debut from Baltimore singer-songwriter Ian Francis and can be grabbed for a pay-what-you-want deal from Bandcamp
Carter Tanton is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. As well as his solo work he has been a member of Lower Dens and Strand Of Oaks, and recorded or toured with the likes of The War On Drugs and Marissa Nadler. Marissa appears as a guest vocalist on his most recent record, as does the always wonderful Sharon Van Etten.
Carter Tanton’s music seeks to blend roots music from either side of the Atlantic, The Long Goodbye is finger picking from Nick Drake and Richard Thompson’s big book of British Folk, whilst the alt-country of Ryan Adams and Americana of his Strand Of Oaks bandmates are also clear influences. The majority of tracks here take an acoustic guitar as their lead, although the instrumentation builds on that basic sound, incorporating a huge array of instrumentation from synths to slide guitars.
Although the majority of his latest record, “Jettison The Valley”, was written in a trailer by the side of the M5 on the outskirts of Bristol, Carter is originally from Baltimore. The city, made famous by gritty TV show The Wire, is the largest city in Maryland with a population over 600,000 people. Baltimore boasts the rather odd fact that it has more public monuments per capita than any other city in the US. Famous resident include Babe Ruth, Edgar Allan Poe and John Waters, whilst musical offspring include Billie Holiday, Tori Amos and Frank Zappa as well as bands Beach House, Animal Collective and Wye Oak.
Carter started playing shows in Baltimore at the age of just 15, and found a modicum of critical acclaim when playing in the band Tulsa in the mid-2000’s. Following a legal-wrangle the band split up without releasing their second album, and Carter sunk into the background playing guitar and producing. 2012 saw him return to the front of stage though releasing a collection of songs entitled Freeclouds via his latest home Western Vinyl. 2012 also saw Carter move to the UK and begin work on his upcoming album, Jettison The Valley.
Talents don’t come much more prodigious than Carter Tanton; bar two tracks of pedal steel, Carter plays every instrument on Jettison The Valley, as well as engineering the whole thing himself. His guitar playing throughout is constantly impressive, the way his fingers flutter effortlessly around the instrument, makes it clear that he is someone who has just made playing guitar a part of his everyday life. Whether he’s finger picking his way around a folk number, or propelling the more wide-screen Americana sound, he is just a natural guitar talent.
Whilst Carter has spoke of Jettison The Valley’s very English inception, for the most part it’s his American roots that shine through. The title track, featuring a stunning lead vocal from Marissa Nadler, starts off like Fleet Foxes minus the harmonies and takes a beautiful side-step into Cicada Rhythm-like country, whilst much of the record recalls the varied and versatile work of Ryan Adams. The Dressmaker’s Girl, the stand-out track on the album, has the alternative-country of Heartbreaker nailed, Through The Garden Gates is the sound of gloomier Love Is Hell period, whilst Diamonds In The Mine with it’s gorgeous acoustic guitar works and crystalline pedal-steel is pure Whiskeytown.
When you’ve called the likes of Sharon Van Etten and Marissa Nadler into help on vocals you’re in danger of not being the star yourself, but Carters own voice is excellent throughout, there’s hints of Gram Parsons and even a touch of a more insouciant Rufus Wainwright at times. What’s even better though is the treatment of the vocals, the use of harmonies and reverb throughout is capable of lifting many of these songs into intriguing territory.
Whilst the story behind Jettison the Valley is intriguing, Carter is prone to the odd clunky lyrical misstep; his regular use of baby, darling and honey are a little grating at times, whilst, “here the sky feels ten feet tall from Wales to the pubs of Hull”, is a lyric that sticks with you for all the wrong reasons, even if it does make us smile every time. There’s also a question of how relevant Carter’s sound is in 2016. This sort of earnest-Americana is entirely out of fashion, and unless you’re a huge fan of the genre, Jettison The Valley is likely to be impressive rather than life changing.
From the album ‘Jettison the Valley’ out March 4th, 2016 on Western Vinyl Records.
By the time he was 15, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Carter Tanton was already playing bar shows in his hometown of Baltimore. Two years later, he caught the attention of Gary E. Smith, best known for discovering and producing The Pixies. After working together for a year, they parted ways, but Tanton never slowed down. In the mid-2000’s he released a couple of EPs with his band Tulsa, prompting Rolling Stone’s David Fricke to claim “…his indie-seraphim voice is not of this world…”, and after a particularly impressive live set KEXP’s John Richards said “…he’s one of the best singer-songwriters in the country today.” Beyond his critical acclaim, Tanton’s early work was cited as an inspiration by his old friend Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs. As Granduciel recalled in an interview with Pitchfork, “He was sleeping in someone’s basement, playing every instrument, going through this breakup,…That was the first time I saw someone make music obsessively. I’d never seen anyone living inside of something, to that level.”
Over the years, Tanton has toured and recorded with numerous artists including Marissa Nadler, Strand of Oaks, Lower Dens, and The War on Drugs. In 2012, he assembled Freeclouds, his first collection of songs for Western Vinyl. A couple of years later, Tanton moved to England where he wrote all of the songs on his new album Jettison the Valley. The change of environment, and his rediscovery of early British influences including Richard Thompson, Nick Drake and John Cale sparked a powerful shift in perspective, which led him to write his most cohesive and personal work to date. Other than the pedal steel featured on two songs, Tanton engineers and plays every instrument on the album. His old friend and collaborator Marisa Nadler contributes lead vocals to “Jettison the Valley”, and Sharon Van Etten sings on “Twenty-Nine Palms” and “Through the Garden Gates”.
More about Jettison the Valley in his own words:
“Jettison the Valley” began in a little dot of a town outside Bristol called Hambrook in the Fall of 2013. I had just moved to England with my girlfriend where we lived in a caravan on her family’s plot of land with the M5 motorway on one side, and a horse farm on the other. To get away from the incessant low rumbling of cars, I often walked along the area’s ancient public footpaths that carve strange ways through the countryside. On those walks, my previous 30 years in America billowed and collapsed in front of me. As I stood there in the blowback, the constant push of time seemed to finally relent, and I found enough distance from it to see my past in clear broad strokes. After a few months we moved to Oxford and lived in a little attic apartment up on a hill. I spent most days watching the weather roll through the valley and writing these songs about my relationship ending. Eventually, I felt I had to come back to the states to record them. I consider this my first solo record. The other two releases I’ve put out under my own name since 2005 were simply collections of scattered recordings, mixtapes essentially. Jettison The Valley” was written in one long sitting, each song feeding the next.
“Joan of Arc” by Thrushes , from the forthcoming album Exposing Seas.
Thrushes are a noise pop/shoegaze quartet from Baltimore. They put out two gloriously noisy records –2006’s Come Undone, and 2010’s underated Night Falls— before taking a long hiatus. During the hiatus, the members of the band did things like get married, have kids, focus on day jobs,
At some point in 2011, the band’s website and the site for their microlabel both went dark. Aside from the occasional mention of some shows they played in the Baltimore area, their social media sites were pretty quiet. I kind of assumed that they had called it quits. About a year ago, they started to whisper about a new album, and the details have very slowly started to emerge. In May, we learned that the band had signed to the Tampa-based label New Granada Records. In the last few weeks, the band offered a couple of song teasers via their facebook page, and they offered the name of the new album, but I didn’t know the release date until today.
Prince will take the stage at Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena for Rally 4 Peace, a concert honoring Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who was allegedly killed while in police custody. In anticipation, Prince has debuted a new song.
Aptly entitled “Baltimore”, the song “addresses the unrest in Baltimore and the socio/political issues around the country in the wake of a slew of killings of young black men.” It’s dedicated to “all of the people of the city of Baltimore.”
The song’s accompanying SoundCloud description adds, “Please know that all involved in this project never take for granted the privileges we have in this country. Let’s all continue to fight the good fight and confront inhumanity on every level until the day it is no longer.”
A fabulous piece of jangly retro psychedelia if I’ve ever heard one. I’m not the only one who thinks so either it seems, with this Baltimore based group catching the ear of the Marshmallow Overcoat’s Timothy Gassen, whose expert hand ensures period-perfect production on this wee gem of a 7″.
“Never Ever” is a lovely slice of jangling twelve string – unmistakably an homage to Roger McGuinn’s influence, but the whirling Farfisa, and Flying Nun style vocals elevate it beyond the level of other sound-alikes. Its melancholy, memorable melody line doesn’t do it any harm either.
The B-Side, “Beware The Noble Krell”, is a different kettle of fish altogether. While still exhibiting enough of the same sonic characteristics to retain fans of the A-Side’s attention, it’s a noticeably more progressive offering, and a much darker one to boot. Fuelled by a giant mellotron / organ riff which is more King Crimson than the Byrds, “Beware The Noble Krell” creates a sense of Lovecraftian unease, which explodes into full-blown disorientation courtesy of shards of expertly manipulated backwards guitar.
An excellent balance is struck between these two sides, and one that makes it very difficult to guess which direction (or directions) a follow up full length could take. Quite the exciting launching pad.
Who are the Noble Krell? Discover for yourself with these two tracks of jangle-desert-psych. The A-Side “Never Ever” is twelve string Byrds influenced bliss while the B-Side “Beware The Noble Krell” hints at everything from The Electric Prunes to Saucerful of Secrets era Floyd. First 75 orders from us get a super limited edition Noble Krell die cut sticker, first 250 of these beauties are pressed on YELLOW vinyl so order fast.
Dedicated to all jangly indie/guitar/jangle-pop
Show a little faith there's magic in the night
Horror, Science Fiction, Comic Books and More
IN MEMORY EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAPPEN TO MUSIC - Tennessee Williams
A Celebration of Thrillers, Noire and Black Comedy by Pamela Lowe Saldana
Join me as I listen to every single #1 single!
Two Guys In Search of Great Music
Hoping to make the world more beautiful
hear ye, hear ye!
Celebrating music craftsmanship
Favorite song lists, reviews, featured indie artists, and music commentary.
A Blog About Music, Vinyl, More Music and (Sometimes) Music...
Eclectic reviews of ambient, psychedelic, post-rock, folk and progressive rock ... etc.!
A transparent attempt to promote a writing career
Quality articles about the golden age of music
Slow molasses drip under a tipped-up crescent moon.
Click Header to Return Home
to Rock, Country, Blues & Jazz
A Glasgow view of Americana and related music and writings.
Rewind the Review
A stroll down memory lane through my music collection
the best music of yesterday today and the tomorrow, every era every genre
The Fat Angel Sings 