long distance salvation :: a tribute to springsteen’s nebraska

Adam wrote about this last night and I’ve already had numerous conversations about it. One with Shakey Graves and another with Schleicher, he of Juniper Tar, who assures me that this tribute is indeed as righteous as it sounds like it’s gonna be.

There are some things that are unfuckwithable, some things that are better left uncovered by musicians because the first did it so perfectly, there’s no reason. Typically, I’d say Springsteen’s Nebraska is one of those things. But my mind was changed by a lineup that includes the aforementioned Juniper Tar, The Wooden Sky, Joe Purdy, Spirit Family Reunion, Trampled By Turtles, Strand Of Oaks, David Wax, and Roadside Graves, among others. I mean, look at that lineup. I get a musical boner every time I look at it.

Long Distance Salvation will be released 20 September. I’ll live with The Wooden Sky’s cover of “Nebraska” until then. It’ll do just fine.

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PRE-ORDER Long Distance Salvation: A Tribute To Springsteen’s Nebraska

the favorite gentlemen sampler :: right away, great captain! // ‘when i met death’

You should probably just go ahead and download this Favorite Gentlemen Sampler because you need it. Specifically, you need the song contained on it from the pert near perfect Right Away, Great Captain! Favorite gentlemen, indeed.

Andy Hull is Right Away, Great Captain! and also these things: Lead singer of Manchester Orchestra and man behind Favorite Gentlemen Recordings. How that much awesomeness is held within one dude baffles. We’re making the assumption most of the magnificence of Andy Hull is trapped inside his beard and he only occasionally lets out bits and pieces. Solid theory, that one.

Neurotic, I asked him what route we’ve gone…

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Right Away, Great Captain! :: When I Met Death

DOWNLOAD The Favorite Gentlemen Sampler :: RAGC! BANDCAMP

i’m just gonna sit this here :: jerry douglas (featuring mumford and sons) // ‘the boxer’

Oh…oh, wow. WOW.

 

I hope that this will remind America what a national treasure Jerry Douglas is.

[h/t to 1146 miles.]

i’m just gonna sit this here for you :: how to grow a band // punch brothers

I stumbled upon this yesterday, amazingly while on a random site that profiles upcoming documentaries, with which I have a time-consuming obsession.

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While I’ve spent a fair amount of my life in love with whatever it is that Chris Thile is throwing down, I was so happy to see this. Even better was the commentary from the dude who discovered this just as I did, by stumbling over the top of it. He’d never heard of the Punch Brothers and yet, after watching the trailer, was immediately enamored with the band. They’re sincere, that much is obvious from the clip above, and that’s sometimes hard to come by in music today…

The film opened in select theatres 13 April.

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BUY Who’s Feeling Young Now? :: How To Grow A Band SITE

i’m just gonna sit all this here for you :: jonas friddle & the majority, the james low western front, you won’t, & more…

In the future, I’m going to lament that music is making me sad and heart heavy, for it seems that doing so brings the goods. In the few days since those written words sprung forth from my keyboard, I’ve stumbled on more glorious things than in the last weeks combined. Alright universe, I get. I’M A WHINY DICK.

Whilst I could save all this up and give it to you in snippets, tiny delicious morsels of tastiness, I love you enough to lay it all out on the line at once. Prepare yourself. Grab a beer, dig in…

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Other Songs Music Co. released the Scott Orr record, Where I Lived, And What I Lived For, and while perusing their roster because seriously, I love their fucking moose logo that much, I came across Medicine Hat. Oh hai chick jams I actually like!

Medicine Hat :: To Be Named [stream]

BUY Medicine Hat

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I became aware of You Won’t in July of last year (if the date tag on the mp3 I possess is not a dirty liar) and like an asshole, sat on that shit. Prompted by a recommendation from Fuel/Friends, I fired it up again and now the full depth of my being a moron is exposed to the light. Get on this band. Like, literally, GET ON THEM.

You Won’t :: Who Knew [mp3]

BUY Skeptic Goodbye

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From a very succinct email sitting in my inbox, whose subject was “cheap beer and good tunes”, comes this track via Rob Bravery. It’s pretty. And I like it. “Sweet seratonin…” You should know, Bravery was the key’s man for Alessi’s Ark. Fun fact!

Rob Bravery :: Remy [mp3]

FACEBOOK :: SOUNDCLOUD

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I keep pages and pages of notes, a repository of handwritten thoughts on things I like and occasionally, why I like them. Truckstop Honeymoon caught my attention because, A. I’ve got a soft spot for the good ol’ truckstop, and B. They fucking rock.

Truckstop Honeymoon :: On The Prairie Now [mp3]

BUY Steamboat in a Cornfield :: SITE

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If country radio played more good shit like The James Low Western Front, well. I’d listen to more country radio. In other news, you guys, GET THIS. I was in our small town chinese restaurant last night and they had a country station blasting and there was this damn song, “Made In America” I think and it was the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard. I don’t care who sings it, I don’t even know, but seriously, it made me want to move to Canada because you bet your ass that crappy pap doesn’t get written there…

Anyway, rant and a ramble. This song has a line that goes, “Heat stroke killed my best blue ribbon steer,” which is just about the best line I’ve ever heard in a song, NO HYPERBOLE.

The James Low Western Front :: Whiskey Farmer [stream]

BUY Whiskey Farmer :: SITE

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{Illustration courtesy of Johnnie Cluney}

I waited for this session for approximately one million years. After all this time and since the months and years that have passed since I first heard Shakey Graves in December of 2010, I still dig this dude.With the release of this there are just two things left to pine for: Shakey in my backyard and his new forthcoming album. In other news, ELECTRIC SHAKEY!

Shakey Graves :: Word of Mouth (Live at Daytrotter) [mp3]

DAYTROTTER SESSION :: Seriously, spend two damn $’s and get access to this download.

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From a recent and totally badass piece at Paste highlighting Missouri bands you must hear comes The Grisly Hand. Home state, REPRESENT! How nice it was to find a band that’s not just not awful but also happens to be totally fucking rad.

The Grisly Hand :: Western Ave [mp3]

BUY The Western Ave EP :: SITE

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Nice dude Ray Foley once made a film about Neal Casal once. He wrote me about it but as it were, he also made a film about Mark Olson (Jayhawks, dude) once and while I have not seen that film, the trailer was stunning. You should watch that thing. Those of you city folk should look it up on watch it on one of your fancy cable channels. We don’t have those out here in the sticks.

Grain Pictures

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Sent to me; loved at first listen. The email containing the words that made me aware of this band was sparse on details but I encourage you to do some legwork and seek this band out. Both albums sent along for my listening pleasure were just…stunning. They felt like home and I love them for that.

Jonas Friddle & The Majority :: A String To A Bell [mp3]

BANDCAMP :: SITE 

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And that’s that. Boy, that escalated quickly! I mean, that got really got out of hand fast! (Brick killed a guy. Did you throw a trident?)

‘Til next time, y’all…

 

dudes, new edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros // ‘man on fire’

There is something within my city limits that is old and stagnant, in the best of ways. There is something within my street block that is so reminiscent of simpler times. There is something within the house next door, where I was raised with a record player behind the big, heavy front door, that still smacks of the sounds of the 1970s. It is something, here, that cannot be shaken.

While some may not understand and while some may call it trite or insincere, those some can fuck off. That shit is real and that shit is why I love Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros. I write about that feeling here so often and this band now because “I want the whole damn world to come dance with me”. These goddamn hippies have my heart…

 

Here will be released 29 May via Vagrant.

SITE

i’m just gonna sit all this shit here for you :: hip hatchet, mumford and sons, field report, others…

Dudes, shit. I’m gonna be honest, this second beer is my only motivator to write something right now. Also, please note: the third-fifth beers will be the only motivators to actually finish something here on the interwebs. Don’t worry ’bout me though ya’ll, I’ve got a high tolerance. THAT SHIT IS IN MY DNA.

Here are some things you should know about, if you like anything good at all. And I know that you do. It’s why we’re friends.

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There’s a new Hip Hatchet jam which means a new Hip Hatchet album. The liner notes tell me that there’s banjo on this album. Say it with me: B is for banjo and B is for badass. That CANNOT be a coincidence.

Gravitation Records is releasing Joy And Better Days 10 April. Mark your calendars.

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Apparently this is a new Mumford and Sons jam. So, that’s cool. Soundman needs to turn up that banjo feed, though, seriously. Is that the technical term? Banjo feed?

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Speaking of banjo, I’m seeing The Avett Brothers in two fucking days. This is awesome because A. I love the shit out of those bearded brothers, B. I only have to drive an hour to this gig as opposed to the usual three to see anything remotely awesome, and C. I’m going with my sister, my mother (!), my bestest pal in the whole of the damned world, and my smallish-son. This is his second concert. I am curating that kid’s Attended Gigs roster like a boss.

In honor of that, you get this.

The Avett Brothers :: Spanish Pipedream [mp3]

If I have to tell you who originally sang this jam, we’re not friends anymore. And seriously, eat more fucking peaches. Blow up your tv and move to the country.

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Conrad Plymouth is now Field Report, a name I will admit a fondness for. Also, holy shit you guys, these songs are so fucking perfect, it ain’t even funny.

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Daniel Sheron alerted me to the fact that Barna Howard is a Missourian. Just as that automatically inspires love for one Nathaniel Rateliff, it does so for this dude as well. Represent, Show Me State!

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So, there’s all that for you. From my heart to yours. Jams. Just for you.

the giving tree band covers the grateful dead…and it’s so fucking good.

Dudes, holy shit lap steel, this is just about the only Grateful Dead cover I’ve ever heard that I can stomach. And I’m not just stomaching this thing, I’m listening to it on repeat.

New band to fall in love with is a week maker. HELL YES.

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The Giving Tree Band :: Circles [mp3]

BUY The Joke, The Threat, & The Obvious :: SITE

i’m just gonna sit this here for you :: the lumineers new album

Last night I wrote up over 600 words about the first listen in this house to this record. And then I slept, had heartbreaking dreams, and woke up realizing that anything I had said, no matter how perfect or poetic it might have been (it wasn’t) would not be good enough. I’m convinced ‘Stubborn Love’ infected my dreams and the powers that be in the universe, or at the very least The Music Gods, were telling me I was doing an injustice to such an album. Fuck those 600+ words. Just listen…

(In other news, as if I wasn’t excited enough to see this band at Wakarusa this year, I’m now convinced that the money I’ve already spent on that endeavor is going to be so worth it, without thought to any of the other bands I’ll be seeing. Also, music in 2012, thus far, is turning out to be so good and so fucking healing. I think this year will kick the ass of the last.)

Full Soundcloud Stream of The Lumineers S/T:: WEBSITE

{Update: The album is no longer available as a set of tracks via the label’s Soundcloud page, but as individual tracks. You can listen here.}

i’m just gonna sit this here for you :: shakey graves day

Apparently, Shakey Graves is so fucking stellar that Austin gave the man a day. In honor of that, we, the populace of the entire world, not just that city, get some live Shakey jams.

{I love you Shakey, but Coors? Seriously?!}

You should download this…and quick.

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DOWNLOAD The State of Texas vs. Alejandro Rose-Garcia EP :: BANDCAMP