Lucinda Black Bear

Lucinda Black Bear were gracious enough to come perform at the agency a few weeks back - not all places of work allow for lunchtime live performances. I know I'm lucky.
I know that till I'm here till 3:37am on a Friday night working on a deck to take with me to a consultant in Santa Monica.
And I now know to "save" said deck every five minutes so I don't lose the entire night's work before exporting that motherfather. goddamn server gremlins. Lucky indeed.


{performing in the Gallery space at The Martin Agency}

H'anyway - the plaintive, string-happy LBB {cello is mainstay with a frequenting violin} is fronted by curly-mopped Christian Gibbs, who's force of nature hair happened to be offset by a moustache at this particular setting. I appreciated it.
Surrounding himself with what initially appeared hypertrained studio musicians, the silo'd impression dropped off after they warmed into their set and Gibbs lobbed a joke or two. Opening with the featured track, any pessimism in the crowd dropped away as their intricately crafted, preternatural folk songs this side of rock established that they were the legit biz.

Lucinda Black Bear // Hand Bible

The Week's Once Over

Smack yo' mouth Ema
Bitterly soulicious Irma Thomas {Dustin Artz}
Oddbird Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch
Under the Covers: Rave on Buddy Holly tribute album

good luck and godspeed nursing your tequila hangovers.
xx, chirgo

Hurricane Bells

Had that moment of being in the midst of normalcy when a song makes you stop in your tracks. You listen fiercely for a breath to catch some of the pieces, figure out what it is that made you freeze. Then you cast about wildly, who's going to tell you who this is?? Who knows this song?! You throw down the frilly blouse you were folding and stammer to your manager that you've got to know who the artist is, is there way to look? Hoping desperately that you don't come off weird slash socially awkward on the first shift of a part-time gig {a girl needs a little drop in the bucket to finance all these mp3s}.
With a cool confirmation she disappears for a moment to return with a magic post-it, scrawled on in graphite is the key to your craving. Nirvana. As is my 40% discount. I like this place.

Currently on tour with KT Tuntall, {VAST improvement from prior tour with Blue October. Gag me with a spoon}, Steve Schiltz of Longwave created solo album, Tonight is a Ghost, in the best sense - writing, playing, recording and mixing all the songs himself. Quickly followed by Down Comes the Rain, stream either or album here. Admittedly, I'm not as wild about the rest, that could be the mention of Blue October leaving a bad taste on my tongue

But like a locomotive racing down frostbitten rails, away away from here, "Freezing Rain" makes my heart hurt.

Hurricane Bells // Freezing Rain

Active Child

Well...erm...
Can't really top that behemoth post of a mixed tape. Ever ever. But I do hope all the feudal Lords and Ladies of the Empty Skeleton Kingdom revels in the soundwaves of my birthday tribute as much as I do.

Only feasible followup is to wax poetic over some favorites - cuz I know you want all the smutty slutty deets. I mean, along with the music! Right?
What are you really reading this blog for, anyway?

All right, Active Child = Pat Grossi, former member of the Philadelphia Boys Choir until his father packed up the family and took them cross-country before Grossi cleared the frightening forest of puberty. It was a necessary move - Daddy Grossi worked for Priority Records, a major rap label that required him in the West office. So Grossi grew up with full reign to listen to dirty gangster rap and shake hands with Snoop, Dre and other greats.

For some reason this trips me out when you check out the tracks, which sound like an evangelical rave.
But, as I think about it, raves have more in common with evangelical gatherings than most any other comparative event.

It took some time, some experimentation, but Grossi finally elicited a heady potion to combine electro synth with monastic hallows and his otherworldly tenor. Layers and loops later, you got yourself an EP my friend.

If you didn't catch it earlier.

Active Child // Wilderness

William Fitzsimmons

William Fitzsimmons // If You Would Come Back Home

William Fitzsimmons // After Afterall

Roky Erickson & Okkervil River

To spin the yarn of True Love Cast Out All Evil, the fibers begin to twist in Rusk State Hospital. Locked up on an insanity plea for possession of one joint, Roky Erickson spent years beside the worst kind of men in the criminal mental facility. After submitting to shock treatment for schizophrenia and to exorcize the LSD and heroine craving demons; he re-entered society a shadow of himself. Nearly unrecognizable as the once ferocious lead of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - a pioneering act of '60's psychedelic rock and storied muse of Janis Joplin. Paranoid and plagued by night terrors, he spewed dark, tortuous music for a few years until tumbling into his own abyss.

Keep braiding the twine to 2001 in a Texan courtroom where Roky is the knot betwixt a family tug o war over religion and modern medicine. Tethered for years to the care of his mother who prescribed prayer, sensible love and second-hand knowledge from spouting daytime talkshow psychiatrist; younger brother Sumner Erickson looked to gain guardianship of his shadow sibling. Pull him out of poverty and hopelessness; out of his head and into the light. (check out 2005 doc "You're Gonna Miss Me")

With urging of certain central figures and firm hand over hand on the line, Roky has pulled himself to where he is today. Fellow Austinites and temping troubadors Okkervil River incessantly champion him; Will Sheff & Co.'s lush guitars, horns and ivories make Roky's crystallized honey tenor all the sweeter.

True Love's songs blaze with redemption. As true love should.

Roky Erickson & Okkervil River // Goodbye Sweet Dreams

the National

Hi.

After a long, coastal hiatus - I returned to cubicle existence with a head full of inspiration. Tripping along boulders jutting out of the Pacific will do that to you. But a week of automaton immersion makes all that tidal beauty fade away - and all that inspired momentum with it.
Luckily, a dear friend sends a leaked copy of High Violet, the 5th album and Boxer followup from The National. The modular walls disappear and I'm back in the waves all over again. Music's f*cking great for that.

High Violet is an upswing but no, it can't be happy. That's just not their style. I spent a summer cross-legged on my backporch, smoking ciggs and purposefully listening to Boxer & Alligator for good reason. It's a contemplative low rumble from Matt Berninger. It's gothic and orchestral builds from the Dessner and Devendorf brothers - brass, woodwinds, strings, organs and enough guitar to flood the Sydney Opera House. There's cresting melodies and whydidn'tiwritethat lyrics like "live on coffee on flowers / try not to wonder what the weather will be."

And there isn't a skip-track in the bunch. Even if there was, cameos by Justin Vernon and Richard Reed Parry would keep your finger off the button. Guested by Sufjan Stevens, track 7 carries you on it's haunting winds and makes you pray to god you'll have the drugs to sort it out.

The National opens their spring&summer tour April 22 at, well, The National / RVA.
See you there.

The National // Afraid of Everyone

Lykke Li - continued

Recently reminded how much I adore this lil gal.

A fair-haired fairy from Stockholm - who happened to winter in Nepal and pad about Lisbon and Morroco before recording her first album in Brooklyn - Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson has gained notoriety since her 2008 release.

Rumor is "Little Bit" was inspired from a three-year previous relationship. Just enough to break your heart, change your life.
And instill the confidence to tell the world just what position you'll keep your legs until your lover returns. Bold, Ly. Bold.

Classified as sugarplum sweet neon lilac soul, her recent cover of Roberta Flack's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" reminds that table sugar has a similar hue to bleached bones.

Lykke Li // Tonight
Lykke Li // Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

Volcano Choir

A bunch of old friends. Jamming out in a roughhewn recording studio on a cold November weekend in the northern midwest. Standard in some circles, but this group of merry men stand apart. Collection of Bees. Bon Iver. When your powers combine to form Volcano Choir, you're not gonna play in the local battle of the bands or book some corporate lascivious Christmas party to exorcise your musical talents.

Predating Justin Vernon's mushroom cloud of success, "For Emma, forever Ago," the first rumblings of VC occurred when Collection of Bees, (Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack and Thomas Wincek) toured with Vernon's previous group, DeYarmond Edison back in 2005. Three years later in Vernon's home studio in Wisconsin, the cronies looped and yowled and sighed and pushed and tapped and crooned and smashed and exalted until "Unmap" came to be.

The result? At once hypnotizing and suspenseful, either they're this side of crazy or fucking brilliant.

Volcano Choir // Island, IS

Timber Timbre

Take Tom Waits and remove his lifetime smoking habit and you might get a born again grown baby that sounds somewhat like Timber Timbre. Soulful, haunting, and laced with a dizzying chemical that spirals the spirals in my pupils, this experimental Toronto duo led by space alien Taylor Kirk will likely have you moaning for more.

Lately, I've been getting into organs. Mainly boob organs. But this kind is good, too. Very good.

Timber Timbre // Lay Down In The Tall Grass

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks Video

Took me a minute or two to jump on this bandwagon, but these guys are pretty fantastic. The new album, Veckatimest, is quite masterful, layers and layers deep with quality sounds, including distorted church organs and singing childrens. You'll find a million other reviews on the interwebs from nuts like me pretending to know what the hell they're talking about. So I'm not gonna bother. I will suggest buying this album. And also to not have intercourse with your sister. Because that's what these guys did right before they shot this video and this really happened. Not kidding.

Grizzly Bear // Two Weeks
Grizzly Bear // Ready, Able