Easily one of the best purchases I've made this year, Saints of Valory's The Bright Lights.
One of the ways I hear a lot of new music is just by watching what bands I love are listening to, other bands that they promote, and bands with whom they tour. Probably a good 50% of my “new in rotation” music is found this way. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a handful of my favorite Texas bands talking about a band called Saints of Valory. Regrettably, it took me until now to listen to them.
Holy crap, what have I been missing?
This Austin-based quartet is the real deal. With super international influence bleeding through from its well-traveled, multi-national band members (Brazilian, French man, American and Canadian), Saints of Valory’s debut record The Bright Lights is just great modern rock n’ roll – it’s not indie hipster kid stuff, but real, guitar-centered, melody-driven rock. All the band members have worked producing music in the past, and one did scoring for films, and that experience shines through in the sheer quality of the music. If you like Kings of Leon, Coldplay, and Alpha Rev, you should check this band out because you’re bound to find something you love on this record. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the only record I’ve listened to for the past week – I’ve played nothing else since I bought it.
Seriously crushing on them right now. In a big, big way.
The band has been around since 2008 where they got together in Atlanta, although they say that they all sort of met in Rio. A trip to SXSW inspired their fairly recent move to Austin, and now they are firing on eight cylinders. I encourage you to check out the Vivogig Podcast interviewing Saints of Valory at SXSW. It’s chock full of great info on the band, including who Valory is (a real person, actually), and most of all, it showcases their true passion for music…it’s inspiring to hear musicians who talk about loving music for music’s sake.
And if you’re a more visceral person, just watch this video of the record’s title track from the fine folks at Do512, Austin’s hippest little social happenings group. Then go buy yourself The Bright Lights.
In 1996 and 1997, I was living in Chestertown, Maryland, in my first post-college apartments. Oddly, both of them were the top two stories of old houses. I had zero furniture, most of my friends had left town after graduation, and I spent a ton of time by myself reading. What little else I remember of those two years consists of driving back and forth to Annapolis to see one boyfriend play in his cover band, eating my weight in crabs and beer (Eastern Shore of Maryland, people, it’s kind of the best thing ever), grilling out with my roommate Jen and inventing the best summer alcoholic beverage ever (fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream and amaretto), falling head over heels in love, and most of all, the music. My life for two years was set to a soundtrack of varied and wonderful mid-90s music: Counting Crows. Tonic. Cool for August. Reel Big Fish. Fiona Apple. And anything that WHFS played…
One of those radio acts was a band called Chalk FarM. Not many people remember them – some remember their one single, “Lie on Lie.” That summer, their record Notwithstanding was pretty much all that I listened to. I remember dubbing it from my CD player to a tape so that I could listen to it in my car. I wore that record out. Every song had its place… When I was driving to Annapolis, I would blare “Hey” over and over again while driving over the Bay Bridge, and when I needed to stay awake on the late night drive home, I remember rocking out to “Lily Anne.” When my boyfriend cheated on me, I cried for days with “Don’t Believe You Now” playing in the background. I would still put that record in my top 25 of all time. If you know my love for music, you know this is a huge statement. It’s a shame that the album is actually not available on iTunes these days so that people could easily download it….
Chalk FarM actually did put out a second album before breaking up in 2000 – I’m probably one of a few hundred people who own it. That and Michael Duff’s, the lead singer, solo record. What can I say – when I love a band, I love them all the way… [Side note: Weirdly, my past and present day musical worlds collided one day when Wil Seabrook saw me post something about Michael Duff’s solo record and sent me a “the world is too small” note – turns out, Wil and Michael are friends!]
So, imagine my excitement tonight when I saw this tweet come through:
@michaelduffla: New Chalk FarM music brewing and it feels good. Music is good.
Oh, and note that she is making a profit selling tickets to second party brokers, who sell them at exorbitantly increased prices.
Katy Perry is not the only artist engaged in this sort of outrageous-ness. But it’s a perfect example of what’s broken with the music industry.
Support independent artists, attend shows at independent venues, ones that don’t charge you 30 and 40% service charges – because your service fees, whether directly or indirectly, are paying for Katy Perry’s dressing room to be draped in pink. Back the musicians who are in it for the love of music, not the love of fame.
UPDATE: More than 24 hours after her rider hit The Smoking Gun, there’s been no response from Perry’s camp. Her PR team must suck as badly as her proofreaders.
To say I love Austin, Texas is probably a bit of an understatement. The city is like Mecca for me.
Austin music seems to have a huge pull on me; anyone who knows me knows that Alpha Rev is in my top ten, if not my top 5, artists of all time. Because of them, I’ve been introduced to DOZENS of other great bands…one of them being The Soldier Thread.
While I don’t typically go gaga over bands with female leads, The Soldier Thread is an exception. Patricia Lynn’s voice is just hauntingly beautiful (she also has the cutest haircut ever, and I’m so super jealous of it). I love it. And the band has this ability to go from stunning balladesque songs to full on rockers. I could listen to their Shapes album all flipping day…In Spades, their latest, is also marvelous – I recommend downloading the song “Erin” immediately if you want to have your world changed.
I have a knack for falling in love with artists that seem not to want to tour, record, or be heard from more often than once every five years (see previous posts on Christopher Jak). One of my favorite “talented and silent” types is a fella named Justin Hopkins from Hermosa Beach, California. Thanks to some previously unreleased stuff recently showing up on iTunes (without announcement of any type, so who knows how long it’s actually been there) and a string of shows happening recently in California, my love for this amazing songwriter and musician has been resparked.
I first heard about Justin in 2004…he was one of my first MySpace finds, if I remember correctly. His Building EP was one of the soundtracks to my fall that year, and I actually have it in hard copy…the only one of his releases I actually own a physical copy of. He just has this HUGE voice, and his style of songwriting was right up my alley … very story tellerish. On that EP, he was still pretty rooted in guitar; at the time, I was madly in love with acoustic, and the opening chords of “Laughing Out Loud” were just magical to me (I think “We Live Art” was probably my favorite from that EP, however).
Fast forward three years to when he released Bastard of a Gentleman via digital download only. I’d been keeping up with him via MySpace and had downloaded an acoustic version of a song called “Goddess” that I was maniacally obsessed with. I remember being so excited for the release, sitting at my desk waiting an eternity for the 17 songs to download – SEVENTEEN SONGS! Worth every second of waiting…it is an amazingly brilliant album. This record was definitely more of a production – the guitar was still there, but full on electric, and he started to mix piano into a some songs. Now I love me some guitar, but Justin on piano is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard. I was also intrigued by how “Goddess” had changed … and lyrics from the original version of the song showed up in a song called “Racecar.” I know a lot of songwriters do this, but with “storytellers” (like Springsteen, for example), I’m always amazed by how they can take part of the story and put it into another one and it still works. Many of the Bastard of a Gentleman recordings made their way onto iTunes last year as Vol 1: Here Goes Nothing under Justin Hopkins & The Guilt, although a few bonus tracks (“Try,” “Better Than You Are”) never made it anywhere. The whole album that was Bastard of a Gentleman is not available anywhere today, at least not that I’m aware of.
In 2008, a charity record called AFL Music – The Cause, Vol. 1 got released, and one of Justin’s songs called “The Best Part of Me” was on it. It had never been released before, so of course, I had to get that. The crashing piano was in full on effect…In the meantime, he was teasing us by putting songs into his MySpace player that hadn’t been released yet, like “Courderoys,” which quickly went into contention for my favorite Justin Hopkins song EVER – but frustratingly, was never available. He also kept touring in Sweden, of all places, and a few places in Europe during this time and would put up live versions of songs he played there. He had a free download of him performing an acoustic version of “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” in France, and it is one of the most beautiful versions of the song I’ve ever heard done (feel free to e-mail me if you want a copy of it).
A couple of weeks ago, a few tweets popped up on Justin’s Twitter…he was playing a handful of shows in California. Flipped over to his Facebook page to get some more info. Just scrolling through the feed, I saw an album cover that I didn’t recognize and some notes about it being on Spotify. I went trolling on iTunes and found We Are Where We Came From, which included another handful of songs from Bastard of a Gentleman, some other unreleased stuff that I’d heard (“Why Would God Come to L.A.”!!!!), and a few songs that I’d never heard and … HOLY SHIT – “Courderoys!” I have NO idea how it got onto iTunes without me knowing about it, or how long it’s been there, but it has reignited my obsession for Justin’s music. “Courderoys” will be the first song on my Summer Mix, and I’ve had it on repeat in the car lately – sunroof open, windows down, volume all the way up repeat.
So here’s my plea…Justin, please, please, please tour. Please come to the East Coast. Please release new music. 2011 has been good to me so far, and getting to see you live would totally just make my year.
Y’all check him out. There are a shit ton of old videos on YouTube; none are great quality (except one official music video where the sound and the video don’t match up). Then go buy some Justin Hopkins music to feed your soul.
Someday (this one is a brilliant showcase of his piano ability if you can get past the distorted sound)
jrzygyrl.com 