Our hero’s first performance in over a year included three new songs, per the man himself: “Ashes & Fire,” “Dirty Rain,” “Shining Thru The Dark.” Fingers crossed that a fellow crazy Ryan fan paid $250 for a ticket and bootlegged the show.
More on Adams’ upcoming albums, new and archival, in our archives.
Photo via
“I never joined a coven.” Read the rest of this entry »
Jon Brion joined the Punch Brothers (that’s their Chris Thile blazing away in this clip) earlier this month for a rare night outside of Largo — opening himself up to camera phones. The result? Actual documentation of this FUCKING JAM. [Via Fuck Yeah Jon Brion]
“Division St.” makes me think of that line in Elliott Smith’s “Punch and Judy,” where he sings about walking down Division St. Ravens & Chimes’ latest, a single from the upcoming sophomore set Holiday Life, captures much of the same mood: dusty drums and soft, somber melodies united by loneliness. “All my friends are gone,” Asher Lack laments. Wherever they may be, the song picks up where 2007′s Reichenbach Falls left off, which is, you’ll remember, a pretty great place.
Ravens & Chimes – “Division Street”: mp3
If you can hear “Daisy, Where Did You Go,” the new song that opens this video, and not pledge $10 toward Marissa Nadler’s Kickstarter account… well, I’ve been judgmental enough this week. But Nadler’s body of work is one of the more evocative, valuable singer-songwriter collections of the last few years and I’m happy and proud to contribute to her next album. Hopefully you are, too.
Marissa Nadler – “Cortez the Killer” (Neil Young cover): mp3
“Open your doors, turn on your lights,” Brian Miller sings to open the Lightning Bug Situation’s “Call.” His mournful, resigned vocals evoke Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan as well as another Rawkblog favorite, Burd Early’s “Phonecall Away.”
The song has other plans than streamlined sad balladry, though, picking up sprightly xylophones as Miller sings of a relationship “broken and suspicious.” Electric guitars and drums the size of an Olympic pool interrupt the self-pity, but then the song’s over — leaving you to press play again.
The band’s latest album, Call, is out now. Right here, you’ll find the complete single for the title track — art at left, “Call,” b-side “The Risk Pool” and “Call (Jamuel Saxon Booty-Call Remix).” I would suggest not playing this during booty calls.
The Lightning Bug Situation – “Call” (Rawkblog premiere): mp3
The Lightning Bug Situation – “The Risk Pool”: mp3
The Lightning Bug Situation – “Call (Jamuel Saxon Booty Call Remix)”: mp3
I’ve been doing most of my writing on L.A. psych-folkies Pepper Rabbit over on Brand X recently — if you’ve missed it, the band’s debut album, Beauregard, is out this week on Kanine. It draws on their two self-released EPs in addition to a few freshly recorded songs, including “Babette!,” a ukulele-driven anthem that showcases what the maturing band’s capable of. (As singer Xander Singh told me earlier this year, they’re already wrapping up a new batch of songs for a 2011 album, as if there’s not enough to be excited about already.) I premiered the song over on Brand X this morning — here it is again.
Pepper Rabbit – “Babette!”: mp3
(Photo by David Greenwald)
