Posts Tagged ‘folk’

BRIEF: The Low Anthem ready tour, 7″ release

The Low Anthem

The Low Anthem are a American folk-rock group currently comprised of four members. With a range of interesting musical instruments and vocal harmonies, they create a comforting blanket of sound to easily float away in. The Low Anthem are incredibly talented across the board and are worth a serious listen.

The Low Anthem’s first headlining tour begins February 23rd in Pittsburgh, PA with stops at SXSW Music and Media Conference and Festival and Sasquatch! Music Festival at The Gorge in George, WA. The Low Anthem are set to release a limited-edition 7″ of their single “Charlie Darwin,” on the A-side and previously unreleased tracks on B-side. The 7″ will be available for purchase March 2nd, 2010. Their latest album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, released with Nonesuch records in 2009. It is available for purchase on CD as well as 12″ vinyl here: www.lowanthem.com/store

The Low Anthem — “Charlie Darwin” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/charlie-darwin.mp3]

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PLAYLIST: Hung over the day after Valentine’s Day

By Ashlie Meredith and Matthew Montgomery

While Valentine’s Day holds a certain appeal to many in love with love, for others, it serves as a precursor to a nasty hangover. It’s inevitable when you drink that much. Hey, lucky us, Valentine’s Day fell the day before Presidents Day! Working while nursing a pounding headache and a churning stomach doesn’t exactly improve mental productivity.

Spiritualized – “I Think I’m In Love”

I think this song is most potent with lyrics like, “I think I’m in love — probably just hungry.” The song continues in this vein. It’s pessimistic, and when hung over, who isn’t pessimistic?

The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Drain the Blood”

If you’re not so hung over that you can’t bring yourself to listen to some frenetic indie pop, this short, not-too-distressing tale of vague heartbreak isn’t so abrasive as to provide a new approach to your relationships, but it won’t make you vomit (more) from overt enthusiasm.

News: Monsters of Folk set debut album release date

Photo by Autumn De Wilde

Photo by Autumn De Wilde

Monsters of Folk, with its obvious tribute to the festival Monsters of Rock, is threatening to create quite a stir in the music world. Having already announced the concept — the band is comprised of Bright Eyes alumni Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and songwriter M. Ward — they’ve now confirmed their plans to release a debut album on September 22, 2009. The album will be released in the U.S. on Shangri-La Music and internationally on Rough Trade in the UK, Spunk Records in Australia and New Zealand, and P-Vine Records in Japan.

The album was produced by Mogis and features all four members of the band performing every instrument on the album.

Source: Girlie Action Media and Marketing

Concert Photos: V-Tunes 2009

V-Tunes, a music festival in the small town of Big Water, Utah, featured performances from Steven Swift, Sean Hayes and other folk and blues musicians. Following are some photos from my Flickr photostream.

Concert Photos: Karli Fairbanks

Karli Fairbanks, a country-folk musician from Spokane, Washington, performed at The Grind Coffee House with support from Henry Nordstrom and Cedar City locals Wood-Skin-Steel. Photos are also available on my Flickr.

Karli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli FairbanksKarli Fairbanks

Track Review: Chris Cotton – “Going Home”

Chris CottonChris Cotton
The Big Sea
“Going Home”

Chris Cotton – “Going Home” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/chris_cotton_-_going_home.mp3]

“Going Home” is shocking in its immediacy: a track from Chris Cotton’s latest, due out September 2nd on Little Fish Large Pond Publishing. This vintage-style piece, recalling some of the earliest recorded American folk music, is a refreshing blast from distorted guitars and whining vocals. There’s something strangely enthralling about anachronistic music, isn’t there?

Review: Conor Oberst

Conor Oberst’s self-titled release hit shelves August 5th.Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst
Merge Records, 2008

When I first heard Conor Oberst, I was an impressionable 14 year-old in grade nine. Following the recommendation of Bright Eyes by a friend whose musical interests I trusted (“Download ‘The City Has Sex With Itself,’ by Bright Eyes” he told me,) I engaged in musical exploration, learning of a great many styles, genres, and tepid over-classification, all of it new to me.

It wasn’t more than a year after my discovery that I ran into Conor Oberst’s first album he recorded and released: 1993’s cassette-only Water, an uncertain, less-confident release by the man that became, for all intents and purposes, Bright Eyes. He was a young 13 at the time of the release, and it was the first on Lumberjack, which later became the now-influential Saddle Creek Records.

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Released This Week: The OaKs – Songs for Waiting

The OaKs - <i>Songs for Waiting</i> The OaKs
Songs for Waiting
Self-released
March 4, 2008

The OaKs, previously the subject of a MusicGeek.org spotlight, self-released Songs for Waiting Tuesday. Opening track, “The Two Calls (of Dietrich Bonhoeffer)” — posted below for download and streaming — isn’t rough, and it’s certainly not too soft. The historical narrative, written by one of two founding members, Ryan Costello, is, at the very least, interesting. The arrangements involved in this new release are well planned, providing a listening experience that’s bound to impress.

The OaKs / Photo by Steven Taylor, Courtesy of Fanatic Promotion

The OaKs – “The Two Calls (of Dietrich Bonhoeffer)” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/theoaks-thetwocallsofdietrichbonheoffer.mp3]

The OaKs – “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/theoaks-theheartisalonelyhunter.mp3]