Folktastic

Urban folk singer/songwriter Damien Jurado quietly built up one of the strongest catalogs on the indie scene, earning high critical praise yet somehow never quite getting his proper due. Nick Drake had a definite impact on much of his work, but Jurado modeled his career on more idiosyncratic, unpredictable figures like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, or Randy Newman — songwriters who followed their own muse wherever it took them, whether fans and critics agreed or not. His independent-mindedness was born at least in part from the influence of punk, and one of the results was a concern for emotional authenticity that led him to delve into other people's lives instead of his own. Many of Jurado's best songs spun concise, literate tales of quiet everyday despair, which often earned him comparisons to short story writer Raymond Carver. But his storytelling bent — not to mention his ambivalence toward confessional material — arose from a stronger grounding in traditional folk than spiritual compatriots like Elliott Smith or Cat Power. And with detours into pop, roots rock, full-fledged electric indie rock, and even found-sound experiments, Jurado ensured that his body of work was impossible to completely pin down. A lifelong native of Seattle, Jurado started playing in a succession of local punk bands in 1989. One of them, the Christian-tinged Coolidge, also featured future Pedro the Lion mastermind David Bazan, and eventually had a track featured on the Tooth & Nail label's Christian punk/emo compilation I'm Your Biggest Fan, Vol. 1. Meanwhile, Jurado began to explore the solo route during the mid-'90s, writing simple folk-based tunes and releasing them on his own cassette-only label, Casa Recordings. Leaded, Trailer Park Radio, and Gasoline all helped create a local cult following for Jurado, and he found an influential fan in fellow Christian and Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk, who brought him to the attention of Sub Pop. After two 7" releases on Sub Pop, "Motorbike" and "Trampoline," Jurado issued his proper debut album, Waters Ave S., in 1997, and followed it with a spare, home-recorded EP for Made in Mexico, Gathered in Song, a year later. Jurado's sophomore effort was also his breakthrough; released in 1999, the excellent Rehearsals for Departure established him as a singer/songwriter of tremendous subtlety and skill, and won near-universal critical acclaim. Jurado's rootsy, minimalist folk-pop and fragile vocals pulled listeners in close, and his knack for a memorable hook kept them there. For his next move, Jurado confounded fans and critics alike with 2000's Postcards and Audio Letters, a compilation of conversation fragments found on the audio cassettes that Jurado collected obsessively (from sources like thrift-store boom boxes and answering machines) and often used for songwriting inspiration. The proper follow-up to Rehearsals for Departure was Ghost of David, issued on Sub Pop later in 2000. While it hewed mostly to the style of Rehearsals, it also dabbled in some of the found-sound collage aspects of Postcards, and wound up somewhat darker and more alien. Jurado next turned to the Burnt Toast label to issue the one-off EP Four Songs in 2001, then formed a full band dubbed Gathered in Song for a change of pace from his typically mellow style. Featuring guitarist Eric Fisher, bassist Josh Golden, and drummer Andy Myers (all of whom played more than one instrument), Gathered in Song debuted on Jurado's next album, 2002's fully electrified I Break Chairs. Audiences expecting another moody, late-night urban folk outing were thrown for a loop; some critics felt that Jurado was better off sticking to what he did best, while others found the transition not only convincing, but surprisingly varied and well-crafted. Jurado subsequently parted ways with Sub Pop, looking to scale back his recording and touring activities in order to spend more time with his family and, to a lesser degree, his day job as a preschool teacher. He landed on the Indiana-based Secretly Canadian label, for whom he debuted in 2003 with Where Shall You Take Me?, a return to his trademark low-key folk-ballad style. In typical fashion, he followed it with an EP for a smaller label (Acuarela) titled Holding His Breath. A year later, he returned to Secretly Canadian for another EP, Just in Time for Something; early in 2005 his next full-length, On My Way to Absence, arrived.--from AllMusic.com What Were The Chances White Center Texas To Ohio

Remix This (Calling All DJs)

Journalist Greg Palast, whose investigative reporting revealed massive voter fraud in the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections, has a remix contest going at his web site. He's inviting musicians to download audio tracks from his latest book, Armed Madhouse, and mix them with music or sound effects. Notes the site: The Palast Investigative Fund, Palast Productions, Creative Commons, Alternative Tentacles Records, and Air America Radio are proud to present the Armed Madhouse Remix Contest. The Palast Investigative Fund is offering tracks from the audio book by Greg Palast, “Armed Madhouse” online under a Creative Commons BY-NC license, so that music producers all over the world can easily create remixes from the NY Times bestseller’s audio book. All eligible entries will compete against each other, and will be voted on by the public. The top 5 remixes will win prize-packages - including being featured on Greg’s next spoken-word CD with Alternative Tentacles Records. To play along, go to the site, where you can download source materials for your remixes. Or just enjoy the pieces of Palast's new book. Songs from a variety of genres that sample Palast's reporting: Akir - Politricks The Farangs - War With Many Fronts TFYQA / White Noise - Dying Regime Part 1 TFYQA / White Noise - Dying Regime Part 2 TFYQA / White Noise - Lynching By Laptop Part 1 TFYQA / White Noise - Lynching By Laptop Part 2 Sell the Lexus, Burn the Olive Tree - Year of the Hawk

Tennessee Stud

In Knoxville, Tennessee, Todd Steed is a local legend. Over the years he's played in such bands as Apelife, Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes, The Opposable Thumbs, and now his latest lineup, Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere (a reference to Knoxville's Sunsphere). Steed makes music steeped in East Tennessee. Parts country, rock and americana, his songs are infused with humor and meditations on everyday life in the ever-changing South. Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - Normaal Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - New Knoxville Girl Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - East Town Mall Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - Smokey Mountain Dip Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - North Knoxville Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - Nobody Listens to Me Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - The World's Unfair (Since 1982) Smokin’ Dave and the Premo Dopes – Smokin’ Dave Intro Theme Smokin’ Dave and the Premo Dopes - Down in the Plaza Apelife – Tina Wesson Apelife – Goin’ Out Tonight The Opposable Thumbs – Wouldja The Opposable Thumbs – Write a Song You can download a few more free Todd Steed tracks at his MySpace page.

Free Album Friday: mc chris

mc chris is a whiney voiced rapper and voice actor who was born in Libertyville, Illinois. He is perhaps most famous for his song "Fett's Vette," in which he assumes the persona of Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett. It's a novelty song not unlike what you'd expect from Weird Al Yankovic. Only mc chris can actually rap. mc chris has appeared on Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Voice (as MC Pee Pants), Sealab 2021 and The Brak Show. He has released four albums, the first of which is available for free on his Web site. To get it, click here, click enter, then click media. You'll find Life's a Bitch and I'm Her Pimp in the audio section, along a few other songs, as well as remixes and a cappella tracks. If nothing else, grab Fett's Vette. Or watch this video created by a fan:

Ohio

Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist belong in a rare strata of artists who mine a deep Christian faith, but use it as a lens to view the world and fashion their music rather than telegraph a stiff religious agenda. Over the Rhine ’s music is redolent of brokenness: personal, spiritual and emotional, sometimes redeemed, other times unresolved, but paradoxically uplifting. Recalling the likes of Daniel Lanois, mellower Neil Young, The Innocence Mission and 10,000 Maniacs, the duo retains an understated writing style that constantly puts the maxim “less is more” to the test—and succeeds. -- Paste Magazine Flown Free Moth Last Night Thank You My Angel Everyman's Daughter All I Need Is Everything

A Cappella Tight

Who are Pennsylvania Six-5000? Only one of the most fun a cappella singing groups around. The group is perhaps the most popular a cappella singing act at the University of Pennsylvania. Blending humor (listen to Penn Six's take on Lisa Loeb's "Stay") and unbelievable talent, the group has gained recognition at the national level. Check out the songs below and you'll understand why. Aeroplane Stay The Girl Is Mine I Ran New Age Girl Princeton Strut She Blinded Me With Science

Unwed The Sailor Band

Unwed Sailor has a new disc coming out this fall. It will be a new direction for the band in at least one respect: it will be its first with vocals. Notes Fanatic Promotion, the band's PR gurus: If listeners were shocked by the ambient direction Johnathon Ford took with the Circles EP, the prelude to the first Unwed Sailor album in three years, they'll be even more perplexed to hear vocals for the first time from an artist whose music has become synonymous with post-rock, instrumental landscapes. Unwed Sailor's latest masterpiece, The White Ox (to be released this fall on Philadelphia’s Burnt Toast Vinyl) comes during a year of several releases for Unwed Sailor when originally there were to be practically none. Initially, Ford only planned on releasing remixes of an out-of-print 7” in 2006. In 2005, Ford traveled to the Bloomington, IN basement studio of frequent collaborator Dan Burton (Early Day Miners, Ativin) to commence work on the project. Here they were joined by guitarist Phillip Blackwell (Questions in Dialect) and musician Matt Griffi and before they knew it, Burton's basement was giving birth to The White Ox. Upon completion of the album, Ford discovered a 16-minute opus within The White Ox, with two separate movements, “Mist” and “Mesa”. They sounded strong and different enough to stand alone and precede the album's arrival. That piece comprised the “Circles” EP, released in the spring of 2006. Ready for the fall, The White Ox is a recording that defies classification in the rock genre. The album continues on from where Ford's previous album, The Marionette and the Music Box left off with “Shadows” echoing those staccato melodies, but channeling them through a dark dream of ambient effects. Here, Ford and Burton are challenging their audience, the fans that loved the upbeat melodies of The Faithful Anchor and were charmed by the sweet fairytale aspects of Marionette. The White Ox is brooding, washed in the night air darkness to which “Shadows” alludes. Surprisingly, for the traditionally instrumental Unwed Sailor, both “Gila” and “Numbers” feature longtime Ford collaborator Dan Burton's vocals, with Ford's murmuring falsetto providing the haunting background for “Gila's” almost gothic melody... Some songs: Ruby's Wishes Snowcaps Golden Cities Riddle of Stars Old Ironside Chandelier At Peace in the Forest Asleep in the Forest

A Bang Up Job

Knoxville's Royal Bangs write to say they're calling it quits. Sort of: royal bangs are on tour right now, and i'm actually writing this email from the van in durham, NC. the tour has been great so far. we've eaten a ton of hot dogs. i will likely post a full photographic account of the endeavor when we come back tomorrow. as some of you guys already know, i'm moving to france for a year in september, so we'll be playing one more show in knoxville before i leave. it'll be August 25th at the Pilot Light, with our good friends and tour-buddies the twinkiebots band. lastly, we've got a new album out, called "we breed champions." we'll have copies of the record for sale at the show, and probably only there. it's nine new songs, packaged in a case sewn by actual royal bangs! i will post an mp3 soon. No word on if this is a haitus, indefinite or otherwise, or if the band will continue to make "rock and roll that beeps and shakes" from two continents. Either way, some mp3s: New Scissors Fake That Chrysler Lucas Newman Vacation Log Exposition Universelle Also stop by the Royal Bangs MySpace page for a few more free tracks.

Free Album Friday: New London Fire

Earlier this month Brit Pop fivesome New London Fire (the new band of Sleep Station frontman Dave Deviak) released I Sing The Body Holographic, its debut album. You can stream the entire album over at Pure Volume. Several months ago the band also released a five song EP, A New Wave Form EP, to promote the full length. The EP was a free download at the band's web site. It still is. Download the EP, including album art, here. Or get just the songs right here: Different We Don't Bleed This Is What Became I Believe In Ghosts - DJ Goodwin dance remix I Believe In Ghosts

Green Beans And Pet Sounds

Ever wondered what would happen if you created a loop of the sound of green beans being snapped combined with cupboards being slammed? Wonder no further, as Casper & the Cookies solve the mystery on “Krotenwanderung”, the first track on their newest album, The Optimist’s Club. It is the Athens, Georgia power popsters second release on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. The result is classic meets unconventional, as boss guitars and powerful drumming are intertwined with loops made from green beans, pet sounds, and microcassette recordings. Kroetenwanderung Sid From Central Park April 18, 2003 part 4 Take It Away, Kathy Oh! Summer Spider

Punk Covers

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock cover band that formed in 1995. Drawn together by a mutual love of 1960s and 1970s music, the Gimme Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. They have covered songs from such artists as Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, and John Denver. The band is composed of several very recognizable faces in the new-school punk rock scene, including Spike Slawson of the $wingin' Utter$, "Fat" Mike Burkett of NOFX, Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters (and formerly No Use For A Name), and Joey Cape and Dave Raun of Lagwagon. They entered the studio on April 3, 2006 to work on their sixth album. It has since been announced the album will be titled Love Their Country, and it will be released on October 10, 2006. The website of Fat Wreck Chords, the band's label, previously mentioned that the theme of this album is country and western, and will include covers of tracks by Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Hank Williams, Sr. and Johnny Cash. --from Wikipedia The Longest Time (Billy Joel cover) End Of The Road (Boys II Men cover) Wild World (Cat Stevens cover) Leaving On A Jet Plane (John Denver cover)

Hogging All The Soul Junk

Soul-Junk aka Glen Galloway aka Glen Galaxy really is a mad rapper. Much like Half-Handed Cloud or Danielson Famile, he makes avant-garde music about God that is neither pretentious nor cheesy. It's the sort of religious music that even gets the athiest excited. Parts experimental Hip-hop, free jazz, noise, and indie rock, Soul-Junk is Beck if he were an acid-dropping rapper. Jumbled, jarring layers of loopy, whirring, lazy beats and psychedelic funk make this some of the most imaginative Hip-hop around. Hogging All the Islands Sunk Fang Shuffle ill-m-i Inverse Square Dance Netherjams

Sage Francis Manages Bandages

Sage Francis is many things to many people. He's a white rapper from Rhode Island. He's an Old School revivalist. He's a slam poet. He's a political pundit raging against Republicrats and Democrans. He's an underground phenomenon. He's a crybaby emo confessionalist. He's a verbose prophet who never quite hits the mark, yet who raps circles around anyone who can. He's a mindblowing talent who makes you remember how great Eminem used to be, back when every other line made you hit the rewind button over and over again. Bounce Bridle Crack Pipes Damage Makeshift Patriot Runaways Spaceman

David The Lion

Sojourners has a nice piece on David Bazan on their web site (I think you'll need the register to read it). An excerpt: For 11 years, Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan wove desperate tales of death, deception, and occasional joy under the name Pedro the Lion. Recently named one of the “Top 100 Living Songwriters” by Paste magazine, Bazan’s often ironic narratives on faith, hypocrisy, and social justice frequently gain him comparisons with legendary author Flannery O’Connor. Over the course of their history, Pedro the Lion rose to indie rock royalty, seamlessly shifting gears between slow, acoustic hymns and loud, catchy anthems of modern discontent. In January, Bazan officially laid to rest the Pedro moniker after the amicable departure of Tim Walsh, the only other member in the constantly rotating lineups of both Pedro the Lion and Headphones (a keyboard-based band formed in 2004 which Bazan also fronts) still standing. Bazan’s newly self-released EP, Fewer Moving Parts, is the first to use his own name, and may be his best songwriting to date. Containing five songs performed in two different arrangements – one acoustic, one with full instrumentation – Fewer Moving Parts will have to tide fans over until his full length solo debut, tentatively due next year on Jade Tree Records. Whereas his earlier albums sought to communicate very specific messages, Bazan has relaxed this approach in recent years, as evidenced by the comparatively looser feel to Pedro the Lion’s final LP, Achilles Heel (Jade Tree, 2004). Purposefully crafting work to convey one particular meaning is “just the opposite of what I think attempting to make art is about,” Bazan said in the Food for Thought café of Washington, D.C.’s Black Cat club before a June show. Bazan, clad in his unchanging attire of a black t-shirt and jeans, said he started to learn this after the release of Pedro the Lion’s Winners Never Quit (Jade Tree, 2000) – which he calls his “attempt at taking a shot at the … so-called righteous establishment” – and while writing PTL’s Control (Jade Tree, 2002) following Seattle’s turbulent World Trade Organization protests in 1999. After reading up on the WTO and globalization, Bazan decided he would “make just an overtly political record. And then, as I started getting into it, I realized, ‘Well, that’s not a really good way to go about doing anything. I know that I care about this stuff a lot. I’ll just go ahead and write songs and let my subconscious sort it out.’” These days, said Bazan, he doesn’t “set out to hit a particular mark.” “I started to put a lot more stock in the idea of writing being a process of discovery rather than a process of communicating some concrete idea that you have,” Bazan said between sips of Heineken. “I believe that if there’s something that I feel strongly [about], that it’ll find its way out in the most appropriate way that I couldn’t hope to manipulate. That stuff tends to come out automatically in a lot more pleasing nature.” Bazan’s desire to leave some breathing room for the meanings of his songs may stem from the negative feedback he received about his writing when he was younger, particularly from Christians. Much of the discomfort with his work stems from the sincerity with which his first-person fictional narratives are written, even when the narrators display despicable behavior. “The tendency toward dark subject matter and sort of morbid evaluation of things has always been with me,” said Bazan, “but I was just – up until a certain point - afraid to really express it. I had a lot of people giving me their opinions about it: ‘This is kind of what we think you should be doing.’ That pressure still was there and it still was informing.” In response, Bazan said he “actively tried to write happy songs. Even the songs that I was writing earlier on, they were just saying, ‘Well, where is this coming from? Shouldn’t you be writing happy songs?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. Maybe I should.’” After failed attempts at lighter subject matter, Bazan settled on songs that might sound happy, but navigate bleak thematic terrain. “I like writing really nice, kind of up tempo, like, poppy sounding songs with a real sort of dark lyrical content to it,” said Bazan. “That’s just so pleasing to me.” Still, a continued thread in all of his work is hope in spite of - or because of - bleakness. “There’s something about calling a spade a spade that is satisfying, and I think puts you at peace with your surroundings,” Bazan said, citing the denial and escapism he feels is embedded in Western culture. “Knowing how things are and stating it plainly as you understand it and not hiding anything, being transparent yourself and wanting, you know, the dynamics of culture and politics and situations to be transparent to you … to me, that’s the process of attaining some peace,” even in the midst of a seemingly hopeless scenario, said Bazan. The desire to reflect truth as he sees it rather than the expectations of fellow parishioners has made Bazan the subject of both controversy and titillation in the “Christian rock” world. The new book Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock (Da Capo Press) began as a Washington Post article by author Andrew Beaujon about Cornerstone, one of the largest Christian arts festivals in the country, and dealt heavily with the line between the sacred and the profane that Bazan seems to walk in his music and personality. While performing Pedro the Lion’s “Foregone Conclusions,” a bouncy, twangy narrative on fundamentalism and the assumptions people make, the crowd goes wild when Bazan curses on stage, Beaujon writes, highlighting the tension Bazan has known throughout his career. The same aspects of his work which many - Christian or not - find exciting are a cause of outrage for others. The longstanding “Question and Answer” portion of his live show, which allows for ongoing dialogue between the listeners and the performer, has been important to Bazan throughout his career, perhaps in part because it allows for misunderstandings and assumptions – say, about his role in Christian music – to be cleared up. “In Christianity, it’s real easy to get away with not paying attention, because everything’s based on sort of this stamp of approval system,” Bazan said carefully about the Christian music industry. “A lot of progressive things aren’t going to work for that business because the dynamics there have everything to do with the Christian bookstore owners and the potential complainers,” said Bazan, mentioning specifically the threat that some Christians have felt his work to be. “Ultimately, unfortunately, I think transparency in general is threatening to that … way of thinking. It’s a sad cycle to me. I just wish that people didn’t have to live with that.” Pedro the Lion - Rapture Pedro the Lion - Penetration Pedro the Lion - A Mind of Her Own Pedro the Lion - Never Leave a Job Half Done Pedro the Lion - I Am Always the One Who Calls Pedro the Lion - Letter from a Concerned Follower Pedro the Lion - Discretion Pedro the Lion - When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run Pedro the Lion - The Longest Winter Headphones - Pink and Brown

Jolie Holland

Singer/songwriter Jolie Holland sounds like a black and white era starlet. Combining blues, folk, gospel, jazz and pop in totally inventive ways, Holland marks the emergence of a unique and important new voice in the music scene. Jazzy, pure, graceful, poetic and sensual, she's a quiet Nora Jones meets Billie Holliday mixing a little bit of New Orleans with a little bit of Texas. Black Hand Blues I Wanna Die Black Stars Old Fashioned Morphine

Video Game Rock

Nevada City, California's The Advantage aren't the first band to perform instrumental covers of video games (see also, for instance, Minibosses and NESkimos). But they do seem to be the most popular. They might also be the best. Earlier this year the four-piece released its second full-length: Elf-Titled. Noted Pitchfork in its review: Substantially upgrading the fidelity, and stepping away from the more obvious titles they've already covered-- your Marios, Zeldas, and Bubble Bobbles-- Elf-Titled is more stylistically explorative than their reflective, scrapbooky debut. Game composers designed music that was meant to loop infinitely without growing tiresome too quickly, resulting in brilliantly complex, maze-like melodies that the Advantage are all too happy to make their own. With guitars executing tightly choreographed, noodly maneuvers through songs like Bomberman 2's "Wiggy" or the music from the "Metal Man" stage of Mega Man 2, the band amps up the originals to reveal the songs as more than just background jingles. Metroid, Kraid's Hideout Contra, Aliens' Lair+Boss Ninja Gaiden, Mine Shaft