Having spoken of Port St. Willow here before and having listened to and been moved by ‘Even’ in the past few months, it should come as no surprise that I’m loving this new track I stumbled upon this morning. Even better is the project that brought forth this new jam, Shaking Through. Put on by Weathervane Music and WXPN , Shaking Through is billed as a musical and video web series designed to help out the indie artist. Fuck yes.
I’m spoken about that here before too, you know. How we should all respect and appreciate and support individuals and groups that are kind enough to live in relative poverty with no real sense of a home because of all the coming and going that revolves around supporting oneself by touring. They have put themselves out there for us, to inspire us and make us think, when the alternative, so very kindly spoon fed to us by popular culture, is Katy Perry and Britney Spears. I’m sorry, but the only thing either of those women make me think is:
- “Dude, is she fucking serious?!”
- “Dude, when will she stop?!”
- “Dude, does she really think jeans cut off to look like underwear are appropriate?”
- “Dude, I could sell her my high school journals, all rhyme-ey and shit to sing and I could make a killing!”
- “Dude, America. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”
Tangent. Apologies. This line from Shaking Through did me in: “…today more than ever there’s a profound need for all of us to actively support independent music.” Right?! Part of what’s so great about this community is that you need not be the drummer in a band or the biggest blogger on the block to be included. I can love a Beaten Sea song and get an email from the guy that made it. I can write one of my favorite record labels and they’ll talk to me. I can contact a booking agent and she’ll call me on the phone. This music and this community is not iron-gated.
There is great music to be heard. It’s easily found and sites and organizations like Shaking Through make it easier to wade through the shit and get to the heart of it. As Peter Silberman (of The Antlers) says, “This way of releasing music and introducing new bands could be the start of a huge change that is really needed right now.” Nick Principe, the man behind Port St. Willow agrees: “I think that more things like this need to exist and I think that as a culture we clearly value art but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find ways to support it.”
Below, Shaking Through was kind enough to document the process of life-long friends Silberman and Principe recording ‘Stay Even’. It’s a slide show that, as the men say, lets us see their process, piece by piece, and in the end we get to experience the same magic that people actually making records do. It’s a road we, as listeners, don’t often get to travel. And it’s golden.
Port. St. Willow :: Stay Even [MP3]
Hit up Shaking Through and be sure to check the jams by Floating Action, Springs, and the wonderful and lovely Sharon Van Etten, among the rest.
BUY Port St. Willow’s Even // Wasteland
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