Oh man. Well, my initial reaction was I absolutely cannot do this. This is just not in the cards for me. It was just like, ah that’s too bad because that would have been a super cool opportunity, what a cool thing for them to think of me, blah, blah, blah. So I slept on it and I told a couple of people about it, one of whom is my manager, Michael. He was like, “Oh dude you have to do this.” (NPR)
Son Lux’s second LP, We Are Rising, will get an official release on June 14th (vinyl on the 28th); recorded over 28 days for the RPM challenge, the creation of the record has been being documented over at NPR’s All Songs Considered, and NPR have also interviewed Ryan Lott on his experience of putting together the LP in such a constrained amount of time. The record’s already picking up some positive chatter, and now new single “All the Right Things” – a kind of spooky and ethereal song, all tremulous vocals and striking musical refrains – is available for a listen via soundcloud.
Monday’s exciting stream of excitingness is Rome, from Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi. It’s pretty epic, totally befitting the eternal city and the timeless soundtracks of Ennio Morricone which provide some of the inspiration. The guest spots are pretty ace (with the nice conceit of “starring”), especially that from Jack White – and from Morricone’s spaghetti western choir.
Alas, I missed Sea of Bees’ recent visit to the UK; but Julie Ann Bee will be stopping by for a bunch of dates in NY, fresh from making an appearance at SXSW. What’s more, there are a whole heap of new videos to share. Definitely my favourite of the two – and probably one of my favourite Sea of Bees songs – is “Sidepain”, a kind of rollicking, celtic-beaty song with a healthy sense of joy (“you’re the sweetest pain in my side”).
Sitting down with NPR last week, Broken Records talked about their music (how they’re a rock group and not a folk band), the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh (one’s a rough old town and the other is all fur coat and nae knickers, as the saying goes), and the cinematic visions that lay behind their debut and sophomore records (Apocalypse Now in the case of Until the Earth Begins To Part). The band also discussed the recent developments that have led to their shrinkage from a 7-piece to a rather less epic 6-piece group (while keeping a clammy grasp on their trademark “anthemic” sound).
NPR has just revealed their list of what their writers, announcers and musically inclined interns have deemed the 50 best albums of 2010. The list, culled from more than two dozen NPR insiders, varies much more than the recently released NME list of 75 albums (compare and contrast here) which focuses mainly on indie rock and pop music.
Songs from the chosen albums will be played on an upcoming episode of All Songs Considered but for now, you can stream a selection from the NPR site. Don’t agree with the choices? Vote for your personal top ten here and check out the full list after the jump. (Read the article)
Amongst the other streams over at NPR’s First Listen this week is a selection of tracks from The Witmark Demos, volume 9 of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series.
Most of the recordings on The Witmark Demos 1962-1964 were made for the M. Witmark & Sons publishing company. Artists would record their songs for publishing companies so they might be heard by other artists wishing to cover their songs, or maybe for TV or movie use.
Witmark had a small 6×8-foot studio, and it’s there that these songs were recorded and then transcribed into sheet music. So what you get is a fairly relaxed and young Bob Dylan playing his newest songs at the time. You hear flubs, forgotten verses, inspired playing and brilliant songs. Many of these tunes you already know, even if you’re just a casual Dylan fan. But you’ve probably never heard “Mr. Tambourine Man” on piano, or the roughly 15 songs never released in any official form.
NPR have a short interview with Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian in which he SLAMS the lack of decent tacos in the Second City of Empire. Well, “slams” in that nice, polite Belle & Sebastian manner of his.
“I have some ideas that I might have to act upon. One of them is to open a taqueria in Glasgow. There’s no decent Mexican food in Glasgow. And I’ve had this idea for a while, to open a Belle & Sebastian taqueria. You’re laughing, but I’m about to get serious about this. Because this could be the thing that allows me to carry on doing music — to serve a decent taco.”
I have no idea about Glasgow but I was always partial to Viva Mexico on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh. I also quite like the notion of some kind of Dear Catastrophe Waitress-esque place where they serve Lazy Lime Painter Jane based drinks and Chickenfactor Enchiladas. Yum!
Antony & The Johnsons’ latest, Swanlights is streaming over at the Graun and also at NPR’s First Listen. Haven’t had a chance to have a go of this yet, but it’s bound to be something pretty exciting – and typically challenging. Keep an eye on the Graun’s music site as they’ll be turning the editing chair over to Antony for a week, beginning 11th October.
