Featured Posts
Introducing — Mikaela Davis: “Dreaming”
The wonderful video for this song by Mikaela Davis — a Rochester, NY native who has been playing the harp since she was a child — has a sort of handheld-cam Wes Anderson vibe, and it fits the mood of the song rather well. Davis is working on an album with a couple of friends while she’s studying at The Crane School of Music at SUNY. I first laid ears on Davis when I heard her excellent cover of Sufjan Stevens’ “Casimir Pulaski Day” last year, and it’s good to hear some of her original material. She has a lovely voice in addition to being a darn-fine harpist, and “Dreaming” is worth a watch and a listen, methinks. She’s written about a dozen songs for her forthcoming album — no release date on that just yet, but we’ll keep an eye out. Check out “Dreaming” as well as the aforementioned Sufjan cover below, and watch the video above.
Mikaela Davis – Casimir Pulaski Day by TWJukebox
–Sean
Video: Races — “Big Broom”
Sometimes I wonder where the ideas for music videos come from. Oh sure, I imagine there are pitch meetings, storyboard gatherings and tweaking sessions, all to arrive at a cohesive concept for a visually arresting clip that fits the song’s mood or its message. But I think sometimes someone pitches an idea that just sounds fun or weird or both. Thsi video for Los Angeles band Races features a whole helluvalot of balloons and a somewhat alarming level of face-smushing. But it’s certainly appealing to the eyes, and the confetti is a nice touch as well. The song is still very good — “Big Broom” broods, booms and rocks pretty hard too — and it looks like the band had an enjoyable time making this video, along with everyone involved. I dig it, and I think you should check it out. The band is working on a full-length followup to the Big Broom EP, titled Year Of The Witch, set to be released March 27th on Frenchkiss. Download the song below, get lost in the balloons above!
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–Sean
Andrew Bird: “Eyeoneye”
Andrew Bird is back! Well, to be honest, he never really went very far. The Chicago native has a new album Break It Yourself due out March 6, and “Eyeoneye” is the first single from that record. Noticeably absent from the mix on this track are the violins that have populated much of Bird’s more recent material. But fear not, as his signature whistle is coupled with chimes on this song’s breakdown and is as powerful as ever. My hope is that this means that Break It Yourself signifies a growth moment for Bird as an artist. That’s not to say I haven’t loved nearly everything I’ve heard from Bird in the past (I have), or that I wouldn’t be pleased with an album that sounded comfortable and familiar (I would). But I always appreciate it when artists are willing to try out some new things and see what works and what shall never be tried again. And undoubtedly, we’ll still get the same witty wordplay and lovely turns of phrase we’ve come to expect from this whistlin’ fool. Check out “Eyeoneye” below.
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–Sean
Electric Guest: “This Head I Hold”
The fact that Electric Guest‘s debut album was produced by Danger Mouse should be a pretty clear indication of the potential this duo out of Los Angeles has in their back pocket. Mondo is due out April 24th on Downtown Records, and initial single “This Head I Hold” has soul to spare and is nigh impossible to resist. It’s easy to hear Danger Mouse’s influence on this track, with its cool attitude and doo-wop sensibilities. The song is an awful lot of fun, and it has me curious as to what Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton’s first record will sound like.
Adding a little bit of intrigue to the mix are two facts: 1. Asa Taccone’s brother is Lonely Island member and Saturday Night Live writer Jorma Taccone (Asa apparently helped with some of the tunes on Lonely Island’s two records to date), and 2. The video for “American Daydream,” another cut off of Mondo, is directed by Jorma, and it’s kinda creepy. Okay… super creepy. The video for “This Head I Hold,” however, is super normal by comparison. Check out the song — and both videos — below!
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–Sean
Video: Radical Face — “Bishop’s Song”
Acoustic, Alt-Folk, Dust-Pop, Electronic, Experimental Electro-Acoustic, Videos
If you hadn’t figured it out based on the fact that we’ve posted on him twice in one day, or by the interview we did with him last Summer, I am a big fan of Ben Cooper, the singer and songwriter who embraces a DIY aesthetic by making weird, gorgeous, haunting folk music that he records inside a shed in his own back yard.
As Radical Face, Cooper has shown that he has a remarkable gift for storytelling, whether it be the kind of fable that’s rooted in his own history, in folklore, or — as is seemingly always the case with his music — a very thoughtful blend of the two. Such was the case with the first volume of a series of albums Cooper has planned for the near future, with the title The Family Tree. This past year saw the release of The Family Tree: The Roots, an LP that displays his talent for developing characters within songs as well as along the narrative thread of the concept record. We learned from exchanging questions and answers with Cooper last year that he is rarely not composing some kind of music, and it appears that there was plenty of overflow from The Roots. The first installment of a YouTube series of songs that weren’t on his latest record, but that would’ve fit just fine, is called “Bishop’s Song,” a murder ballad that’s sad and beautiful and gripping all at the same time. The video here is just a live take of the song, but it’s interesting to watch the intensity with which Cooper performs.
Radical Face is currently on tour in Europe, and as always Cooper has his finger in a number of different pies for 2012. Check out the video above, and listen to one of my favorite songs of 2011, “Ghost Towns” from The Family Tree: The Roots.
08. Radical Face – Ghost Towns by Marine_D
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–Sean
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