Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
I can’t get enough Fleet Foxes these days. Check out this video of them performing Blue Ridge Mountains shot in the Grand Palais. It is a truly stunning performance. Its cool to see all the instruments they use in the song which I didn’t really have an appreciation for until I saw this. Fleet Foxes are the best new band of 2008 by a mile!
I’m still a little shocked that it actually happened. Had you told me four years ago that in 2008 a black man would become president I’d probably have called you crazy. Now we can finally hold our heads up high and turn a new page. We can say goodbye to all the destructive politics of the last 8 years. Goodbye to McBush, Bible Spice, Bush, Cheney and the lies and destruction that they’ve brought upon the world. Hello peace, democracy and prosperity!
Here is a great video of Wilco playing an Obama rally in Chicago. Tweedy does a great job of verbalizing all the things that are great about our newly elected president:
The new Todd Snider album Peace Queer officially comes out on Tuesday October 14 but its being offered up as a free mp3 download on toddsnider.net through the end of the month. I love the prelude he gives about being abducted by a coalition of “Peace Queers” and forced to write an album of protest songs. Some of my favorite Snider tunes are the protest songs, such as You Got Away With It and Conservative Christian Right Wing Republican. Anyway, download it, buy it when it comes out and go see a Todd Snider Show. On a related note, I saw him on Thursday at the Cactus Cafe and as always he was amazing. Here are some pics from the show.
Todd Snider’s new album Peace Queer is set to be release October 14. Can’t wait to hear Forunate Son and all the new material. Here is the track listing:
1. Mission Accomplished (because you gotta have faith)
2. The Ballad of Cape Henry
3. Fortunate Son
4. Is This Thing Working?
5. Stuck On The Corner (prelude to a heart attack)
6. Dividing The Estate (a heart attack)
7. Ponce of The Flaming Peace Queer
8. Is This Thing On?
In related news, Todd is slated to play the Cactus Cafe on October 9 and 10. Yay!!!
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals have a new EP out called Follow The Lights. The material on it sounds much like Easy Tiger and if it had a couple more songs (there are seven) the EP could stand up as an album. I’m always amazed at the volume of amazing music Ryan Adams cranks out especially with all the touring that he does. You can sample Follow The Lights here but I highly recommend picking up your own copy!
Kings Of Leon are streaming their first single off their new album Because Of The Times (set to be released sometime this spring) on their MySpace page. The song is called “On Call” and while its a little more down beat than most of the previous KOL stuff it remains true to their sound. Kings of Leon are one of those bands that gets unfairly written off as a Strokes clone. While they do have the retro vibe to them, Kings of Leon have a sound thats all their own and I wouldn’t be suprised to see these guys making great records for many years to come even after the Strokes thing is no longer cool. (via stereogum)
There is a Texas style troubadour that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. His name is Richard Buckner and he is phenomenal! The only thing more soulful and heartfelt than his songwriting is his voice and his guitar. He’s conveniently labeled “Alt Country” and I’m still not sure that I know what that term means. Buckner’s voice reminds me slightly of Dwight Yoakam and his songwriting reminds me of Townes Van Zandt. When you check him out listen to his debut album “Bloomed” which features Buckner in his purest form. Oh and by the way, he’s getting ready to play Madison Square Garden.
Myspace Page Here
It seems like Jam is a four letter word these days, with all the great jam band pioneers breaking up right and left. The new Trey Anastasio album Bar 17 is a great anecdote to all the bad jam karma lately. Its not quite as radio friendly as last album Shine was but is considered by Trey to be an accompanying album to Shine. Trey is in the company of some killer musicians on this album including Skeeto Valdez, Mike Gordon, Joe Russo, Marco Benevento and John Medeski. Most of the lyrics were penned by Trey’s old friend Tom Marshal. The sound on this album has more of a big jam band sound than on Trey’s last two releases and features more bass and drums. Bar 17 is chock full of signature Trey guitar style but you can also hear an evolution of Trey’s solo sound. I know Trey is feeling the backlash from the Phish breakup still, but Bar 17 is excellent and deserves a listen even by the most critical of Phish phreak.
Related Jambase Links:
A video was just released for God’s Gonna Cut You Down which is one of my favorite tracks on Johnny Cash’s American V: A Hundred Highways release. I miss music videos and while mtv no longer plays them on TV, you can catch just about any music video on mtv.com. You can watch the God’s Gonna Cut You Down video here. The video features cameos from tons of musicians an actors including:
On a related note, Johnny’s farewell album American V: A Hundred Highways is one of my favorite albums of 2006 and has been in my regular rotation for a couple months now. The amount of pain and wisdom that Johnny bestows on this album can’t be beat. I highly recommend a listen if you haven’t heard it yet. (via)
Willie Nelson’s new album Songbird was released today, what an excellent Halloween treat! The album was produced by Ryan Adams and features Ryan and his band the Cardinals as Willie’s backup band. The album is very bluesy and has some killer guitar licks to compliment Willie’s lyrical presence. The steel guitar really sounds sweet, giving Songbird the country sound of a Willie Nelson album. The album features many covers including Grateful Dead’s Stella Blue, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Gram Parsons‘ $1000 Wedding and Fleetwod Mac’s Songbird. If you are a Willie Nelson, you must check out Songbird!