Huge news in Krissie-land, folks. Well, actually, more like Hoge news!
Will Hoge has just announced a concert in Charlotte on MY BIRTHDAY. This is like a serious confluence of other worldly forces. It gets absolutely NO BETTER THAN THIS. My favorite live artist. Playing in my town. ON MY BIRTHDAY.
I know, I know. I haven’t blogged at all lately. Not making excuses, but I’m moving, and work is killing me. The good news is, there’s been all sorts of new music floating my way…so expect some blog goodness soon.
For now, though, I wanted to share this gorgeous tune that Passenger and Stu Larsen did on Balcony TV yesterday. Holy heck, I love Mike’s voice and his witty lyrics, and I’m now all about checking out Stu’s stuff. It’s mellow, but happy and a perfect way to get your Friday afternoon chill started off right.
If you dig Passenger’s sound, you should definitely pick up his latest album All the Little Lights. It’s ah-may-zing. It seems to have disappeared from iTunes and Amazon in the U.S. for download (thank goodness I bought it the day it came out!), but you can buy the import hard copy CD on Amazon still.
When I moved to NC in 1998, I came with a fella. We made it a lil’ shy of two years, but then called it quits. I spent the next two years of my life redefining myself…It’s when I discovered my love of live music and my affinity for unheard of bands. One of the CDs I spent ages listening to was Philly native Bree Sharp’s Cheap and Evil Girl. She had another record that followed it, but fell off of the grid for awhile.
A couple of years ago, Bree resurfaced, playing with an electronica-influenced rock band called Beautiful Small Machines. I somehow completely missed that they released a single last month, a cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” – completely Bree-ified, rocked out with banjo, and I loooooove it. Luckily, I follow some awesome music bloggers. The RSL posted the video just the other day…and it’s freakin’ awesome. It deserves this week’s Friday spotlight.
If you dig BSM’s version of the song, you can download it on iTunes.
Given my domain name, it should come as no surprise that I love Bruce Springsteen. That’s actually a bit of an understatement. There’s actually a bigger post that this one brewing in my brain about Bruce, so I’ll refrain from the excessive love for now.
“Trapped” was originally written by reggae phenom Jimmy Cliff, but Bruce covered it and put it on the Live ’75 – ’85 box set. I was 11 years old when that box set was released, and I wore those tapes out listening to “Trapped.” I just loved it.
Now that The Boss is out on tour, most die-hard Bruce fans keep up with what’s happening night-by-night on the setlists, hoping for some long-unplayed gem to crop up. Greasy Lake, a fab Twitter account that stays on top of all things Bruce, posted a link to this in Philly last night. HOLY crap. And check out The Big Man’s nephew, Jake Clemons, on sax.
My good buddy and top Atlanta music blogger, Allison from RadioPotato, was visiting Charlotte and was keen to visit The Evening Muse, my absolute favorite venue in town. It didn’t matter who was playing, she said, so off we went to see Shearwater – a band I knew nothing about. But hey, they’re from Austin, they have to be promising, right?
This is a band of musical dudes. Originally started a few years ago by two members of the critically acclaimed indie band Okkervil River, and now fronted by one of those fellas, Jonathan Meiburg, the band has an interesting mix of operatic vocals, soothing melodies, strategically used on stage mixing, and a driving rhythms. I adored Danny (Reisch? I’m not sure if this is right) who was playing drums for them – insanely fantastic – but apparently, he is filling in for their full-time drummer on this tour and on this newest record. And Lucas Oswald, the little guy that could play everything – guitar, keys, drums, mixing board…flat out fabulous, and obviously just a little talented.
As a gal who loves a happy pop song, this was definitely outside my box, but I found myself really digging some of their tunes. “Animal Life,” off their new album Animal Joy, is unbelievably catchy and it’s been stuck in my head for the last two days…so it’s definitely worthy of Friday Awesomeness. So worthy, in fact, that I’m posting it 5.5 hours before Friday. It’s that good!
I encourage you to check out their other tunes, especially the song “Breaking the Yearlings” a dark, cacophonous, pounding ditty full of metaphor. A writer’s dream, really, which might be why I like it so much.
jrzygyrl.com 