I can hear that old brass band playing our song down the hill

Today feels like one of those dulcet, lucky days of indian summer reprieve before the air turns crisp and cold around all the edges. As I sat on a front porch this morning with my coffee, looking at the mountains, I took note of the slightest suggestion of autumn coming. I can feel it waiting for me. Hence I am cramming my days and nights full with as many warm-weather things as I can before the seriousness (and wildness) of Colorado autumn wrestles me into sweaters and rainboots.

I think I’ve said this ten thousand times before in this forum, but I really do love my summer nights (minus mosquitoes). The sitting in a lawn chair at nine thirty, the sky still echoing with sunlight like a colossal glow-worm being held just beyond the horizon. The midnight bike rides, campfires, drinks like mint juleps and Pimm’s cups….

My pal J Tom Hnatow, pedal steel/electric guitarist for These United States, put together a whiz-bang mix this summer for that time of day when the twilight is deepening and the air is cooling. Of all the excellent tracks he picked, I’ve fallen for this Jayhawks song the hardest. It’s one of those terrific songs that sounds like you already know it as soon as it cues up for the first time.

Haywire – Jayhawks

Tom explains:

“A friend of ours from the band Revival once told me that he always forced himself to be doing something, anything, at twilight — the longest, loneliest, heaviest time of day for him to get through, when all your thoughts and memories seep hazily in at the edges, darkness creeps inevitably on.

This is a mix for driving west, the sun setting red through the clouds, watching the world fade away until there’s nothing left but the glowing instrument panel and the lonely headlights of fellow travelers.”

As for me, I am heading to a little cabin the mountains of Colorado this weekend and I’ll be waiting for the light to change, as the aspen leaves flutter yellow for probably just these next few days, and then they’ll be gone.

[photo by Thierry Lombry from The Venus Transit 2004]

8 shades of black / 8 shades of blue

Dark and pulsing and irrefutably cool, British band Fujiya and Miyagi announced their fourth full-length album will be out in early 2011. Billed as “singular deadpan funk,” the first track from Ventriloquizzing makes the windows smoke up with its sexy whispered threats of violence.

Sixteen Shades of Black and Blue – Fujiya and Miyagi

Ventriloquizzing is out January 25 on YepRoc Records. This song from 2006′s Transparent Things remains uneclipsed as one of my absolute favorite tracks for spontaneous, possibly uncoordinated, 3am dance-move parties in my kitchen. Rock it.

Collarbone – Fujiya and Miyagi

seems we made a mess with nothing much to show

The simplicity and, dare I say, perfection of Clem Snide frontman Eef Barzelay always ambushes me. Eef recently stopped by the NPR Tiny Desk offices to perform four songs, and I find myself cueing it up on repeat today.

The NPR intro completely nails what makes Clem Snide special: “As a general rule, Barzelay doesn’t get enough credit: He may be the most underrated songwriter in the business today, with a sneakily firm grasp on poignancy and humor, and his live performances convey a kind of awkwardly fidgety fearlessness. He’s a disarming performer: He can seem above it all, until he hits an emotionally devastating kill shot when listeners least expect it.”

Eef Barzelay on NPR
[setlist: “With Nothing Much To Show Of It,” “Something Beautiful,”
“We Are Flowers,” and “Denver”]

how to fight loneliness

“Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion — these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated.”
–David Foster Wallace

[thanks, Dainon]

this is the season when everybody’s leavin / so go on and break my heart

California troubadour Matt Costa has always had an anachronistic, classic streak to his music, from the sunny-sunshine beach vibe of his first album Songs We Sing, to 2008′s Unfamiliar Faces with quirky piano tunes like “Mr. Pitiful” (with that one-man-band video filmed on one of my favorite beach boardwalks of all time).

Matt’s third studio album Mobile Chateau (9/21, Brushfire/Universal) is the first time Matt has helmed the production, and the golden ’60s psych-pop result evokes The Zombies and the 13th Floor Elevators in a way you don’t hear much these days.

I admittedly grew up on a straight-awesome diet of KFRC (San Franciscooo) and their “oldies,” so you’d better believe I keep listening to this album over and over again. Here’s the first track — just listen to that.

The Season – Matt Costa

Stream the entire album below, in advance of its release next week.

Mobile Chateau by Matt Costa Music

MATT COSTA FALL TOUR DATES
Sept 18 – Manasquan, NJ – Algonquin Arts Theatre
Oct 2 – Chico, CA – Bell Memorial Auditorium
Oct 7 – San Diego, CA – Casbah %
Oct 8 – Tempe, AZ – The Club House Music %
Oct 9 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress %
Oct 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour %
Oct 14 – San Luis Obispo, CA – Downtown Brewing Co. %
Oct 15 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s %
Oct 17 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge %
Oct 18 – Victoria, BC – Sugar %
Oct 19 – Vancouver, BC – Venue %
Oct 20 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon %
Oct 22 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex %
Oct 23 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater %
Oct 25 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater #
Oct 26 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
Oct 27 – Chicago, IL – Double Door #
Oct 28 – Detroit, MI – Magic Stick #
Oct 29 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom #
Oct 31 – Toronto, ONT – Mod Club Theatre #
Nov 1 – Montreal, QC – Le National #
Nov 2 – York Beach, ME – Inn on the Blues #
Nov 3 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club #
Nov 4 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom #
Nov 5 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Nov 7 – Washington, DC – Black Cat #
Nov 8 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
Nov 10 – Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theatre #
Nov 11 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Nov 12 – Atlanta, GA – The Loft @ Center Stage #
Nov 13 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In #
Nov 14 – St. Louis, MO – Firebird #
Nov 15 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
Nov 17 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues / Cambridge Room #
Nov 18 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s #
Nov 19 – Houston, TX – House of Blues / Bronze Peacock #

% with Threes & Nines
# with Everest (!), a truly superb pairing.

[polaroid photo by Raymond Molinar]

On the road with David Bazan

Former Pedro The Lion frontman and chronic literate deep thinker David Bazan is heading on the road soon, and a short documentary has just been released by J. Wakeford Francis and the folks at Feltheart Filmworks. This three part video series follows Bazan on his recent tour supporting his 2009 release Curse Your Branches (Barsuk Records), an album that scratches deep at life and spiritual truths until the scabs come off.

Bless This Mess – David Bazan

Interspersed with live tour footage, this mini-documentary traces Bazan’s reasons for going solo, how he’s working on interpreting the Christianity he grew up with, songwriting on long van drives while touring, and religion’s role in being “a decent human being.”

In it, Bazan muses: “It was said by some that I threw away my chance when I killed Pedro The Lion, that you really only get one kinda go at it. And I thought, if that’s true I still gotta do this, you know…”

Watch the full mini-documentary here.

On the Road with David Bazan (part 1) from Feltheart Filmworks.

On the Road with David Bazan (part 2) from Feltheart Filmworks.

On the Road with David Bazan (part 3) from Feltheart Filmworks.

Go see him live this Fall, with some great bands…

DAVID BAZAN FALL 2010 TOUR
Sept 10 – Doug Fir/MusicFest NW – Portland, OR
Sept 10 – Neurolux – Boise, ID
Sept 11 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT %
Sept 12 – Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO %
Sept 14 – Waiting Room – Omaha, NE %
Sept 15 – Mojo’s – Columbia, MO %
Sept 16 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL ^
Sept 17 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI ^
Sept 18 – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, Canada ^
Sept 19 – Il Motore – Montreal, Canada ^
Sept 21 – Club Metronome – Burlington, VT ^
Sept 22 – TT The Bear’s – Cambridge, MA ^
Sept 24 – Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY ^
Sept 25 – Black Cat – Washington, DC ^
Sept 26 – Southern – Charlottesville, VA ^
Sept 27 – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC ^
Sept 28 – Earl – Atlanta, GA ^
Oct 1 – Jack Rabbit – Jacksonville, FL ^
Oct 2 – Social – Orlando, FL ^
Oct 3 – Engine Room – Tallahassee, FL ^
Oct 5 – Bottle Tree – Birmingham, AL ^
Oct 6 – One Eyed Jack’s – New Orleans, LA ^
Oct 8 – The Korova – San Antonio, TX #
Oct 10 – Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX
Oct 11 – Foundation – Lubbock, TX #
Oct 12 – Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM #
Oct 13 – Club Congress – Tucson, AZ #
Oct 15 – Spaceland – Los Angeles, CA #
Oct 16 – Casbah – San Diego, CA #
Oct 17 – Downtown Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA #
Oct 18 – The Independent – San Francisco, CA #
Nov 27 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA *

% with Mt St Helens Vietnam Band
^ with The Mynabirds
# with Wye Oak
* with The Head and The Heart

Elizabeth and The Catapult + Leonard Cohen

I spent last night listening to a new song cycle from Brooklyn’s Elizabeth & The Catapult, commissioned by NPR and inspired by the challenging, incandescent Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen.

Fittingly, I first heard Elizabeth & The Catapult when I added their rousing cover of Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” to my Stomp Clap Mix at the beginning of the summer. This girl can compose and sing with an immensely strong voice, and loves whistles and claps and stomps as much as I do, so anytime she wants to also be inspired by the genius of Cohen and his words, I can get down with that.

These two songs are fantastic, and each so different. The first one I really loved is called “Go Away My Love” (at about the 38 minute mark), and sounds like it rises up from some riverside bank in the deep South, all feet stomping and hands clapping. The title track “The Other Side of Zero” is right after that one, and reminds me some of the harmonies of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

The full album The Other Side of Zero is out on Verve Forecast October 26th, and you can hear selections from last year’s Taller Children on Daytrotter.

There’s also a page of full “liner notes” for the song cycle, dotted with Cohen’s poems and drawings here. I bought Cohen’s Book of Longing last year on a particularly gratifying afternoon browsing trip lost amidst the stacks of Denver’s Tattered Cover bookstore. So many of the poems in there have resonated with me this last year, including this, one of my favorites in the collection (or, one of my few G-rated favorites in the largely NC-17 collection, I should say):

You’d Sing Too
You’d sing too
if you found yourself
in a place like this
You wouldn’t worry about
whether you were as good
as Ray Charles or Edith Piaf
You’d sing
You’d sing
not for yourself
but to make a self
out of the old food
rotting in the astral bowel
and the loveless thud
of your own breathing
You’d become a singer
faster than it takes
to hate a rival’s charm
and you’d sing, darling
you’d sing too

New Josh Ritter & Dawn Landes: “500 Miles”

As if Josh Ritter and his folk-singer wife Dawn Landes weren’t already cute enough together, now we get to hear their voices together on a free new download. And it is sublime. They sure as heck better have some golden-voiced offspring.

STREAM: 500 Miles (Hedy West cover) [download here]

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Josh sets out on a European tour (more than 500 miles) today, before looping back around through these domestic lands in late autumn. You may recall how much I loved the Telluride shows, so you know I will be there for the Denver stop on 11/11.

All tour dates here: GO.

[photo credit Brian Stowell]

Short-order music

Philadelphia band Dr Dog announced today that they would be making a handful of new tracks (written since Shame, Shame) available for free download to their fans via their Facebook page over the next few weeks. The first offering, “Take Me Into Town” is an unhurried bluesy treat:

STREAM: “Take Me Into Town” (download)

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Scott Hutchison from Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit blogged Monday about how he recorded a cool, collaborative EP of songs with folks from Twilight Sad, Idlewild, and others in a remote house in Perthshire (with “plenty of fruit wine”) and lickety-split, two songs were available now for free download (quite good ones, all broguey and anthemic). The Music Like A Vitamin supergroup is raising money for Scottish mental health, which of course you need after you submerge yourself in the marvelous misery of Frightened Rabbit for too long.

STREAM: I Forgot The Fall – Music Like A Vitamin (download two songs here)

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And then of course Tallest Man on Earth and Sufjan both dropped EPs on us from out of the blue (bam! available now!), Josh Rouse put together a free EP of live cuts and remixes from El Turista last month, and current Fuel/Friends favorite Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives made a name for themselves by releasing a steady stream of 7″ singles in the Portland music community over the past year, coming out in advance of their full-length, as they wrote and recorded them.

This trend I see gaining steam among indie musicians this summer is one that I love. I call it “short-order music” — not to imply a lack of quality (some of those diner omelettes whipped up in three minutes can be the best thing you eat all week) but rather a visceral, vibrant, of-the-moment transmission direct from the artists you love into your eardrums.

Arguably, we are becoming an impatient, on-demand culture whose attention span is brief and flickering. Nowhere is this more true than in the music community. One is reminded of Veruca Salt (who wants it NOW, Daddy) in our insistence to be constantly sated and titillated, and I am no different. But perhaps musicians can also harness this constant hunger to work in their favor.

In an age where the anticipation of a full album (and the inevitable leaks) can severely quell a musician’s financial gain from new music, this seems like a possible temperance. The guerrilla approach to releasing new songs via digital EP seems to encourage the immediate, bite-sized purchase of new music. At a few bucks per pop (or as Scott Hutchison blogged, “only six fucking quid!!”), it is more financially palatable for fans who are often used to getting, well, everything for free. There also is the perception of less risk – with only five songs, it’s less likely you’ll be getting that 12-minute art rock jam instrumental at the end of the disc. Unless you like 12-minute art rock jams.

While of course there will always be a place for us to fall in love with the well-crafted, cohesive, full album, I also welcome the willingness to mix things up a bit during the in-between days. Let me see what you’ve been up to since the tour ended. Surprise me with four new songs from the summer when I wake up tomorrow. Yeah?

sometimes the blues is just a passing bird

In the early pre-dawn hours of this morning while I was floating through dreams of swimming pools and apples, the folks at iTunes were busy activating the sale of the newest Tallest Man on Earth EP, which no one knew was coming.

Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird contains four new songs and a reworked version of “Like The Wheel” – originally a bonus track from his latest full-length album The Wild Hunt. The original version shone a darker radiance, with doleful piano instead of the intricate guitar construction it has become on the new EP:

Like The Wheel (original piano version) – The Tallest Man on Earth [from this post]

Like The Wheel (new EP version) – The Tallest Man on Earth

I couldn’t be more pleased to hear this song again. This was a standout from the first time I heard Kristian perform it live back in May. It held me rapt when he closed his rather earth-shaking set with it.

In those shining, final moments of the night, the crowd fell quiet as he played this song. It took me by surprise with the visceral tug, as he’s honest with all the uncertainties he’s parsing through.

…In the forest someone’s whispering to a tree now
this is all I am so please don’t follow me
And it’s your brother in the shaft that I’m a-swinging
please let the kindness of forgetting set me free

And he said oh my Lord…
why am I not strong?
like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on
like the wheel that will take you home

And on this Sunday someone’s sitting down to wonder,
‘Where the hell among these mountains will I be?’
There’s a cloud behind the cloud to which I’m yelling
I could hear you sneak around so easily

And I said oh my Lord…
why am I not strong?
like the branch that keeps hangman hanging on
like the branch that will take me home …

Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird will be released in physical form on Dead Oceans on November 9th, and Kristian is on tour all over this Fall. His show remains one of the most captivating and rich that I have seen.