This blog is certainly still going, but the post a day may have caught up with me!
I have a new music project in the works, and other ventures that are keeping me busy. In the meantime, stay tunes, as new posts will come!
And again, thanks for reading!
Last year I managed two “Spring Cleaning” posts. They are of course as they sound, the blog equivalent of Spring cleaning, that is, going through old drafts, fixing them up a little bit, and publishing them. I tend to accumulate quite a few drafts, blog post ideas that come to mind, that may or may not actually see the theoretical light of day that is the availability of everyone on the internet to be able to enjoy reading it.
Last year’s were: Spring cleaning: Best synthline of 2011 and Spring cleaning post #2: Music podcasts I’m listening to.
This draft was saved as “YouTube” in my drafts way back on July 10, 2011(!), and it just contained the two links you will find below. With that in mind, I will add (quite) a few words once again.
The two links are YouTube channels that feature live music performances.
The first one is called Le HibOO out of Paris. I have no idea which video it was that made me discover this channel, but it seems to have a wide variety of performances based on the thumbnails, many artists I have not heard of. I am also guessing they are fairly mellow in nature, again, from the thumbnails, and also their name is ‘the owl’ in English.
Check out First Aid Kit (Swedish folk) walking and performing “The Lion’s Roar“. The acoustics at the end are cool (watch and see/hear), including a van mucking up the making the performance interesting!
Also, Laura Gibson’s (American folk) performing the title track from her latest effort, “La Grande”
The next one is from the other side of the English Channel, it is called “Watch Listen Tell“, and they seem to focus on acoustic versions of popular songs.
The first video of theirs I saw was Lissie’s doing a very bare bones version of “Everywhere I Go“, but whew, her voice steals the show, especially on the chorus!
Their featured video right now is Half Moon Run, a band I had never heard of until four minutes ago, and happen to be from Montreal! They perform their song “Unofferable“.
Le HibOO has 483 videos while WLT has 40.
So, go enjoy some good music, starting with what I linked. And once again, thanks for reading!
With all the turmoil in the world, it is sometimes nice to listen to some nice calm, peaceful, mellow music, perhaps even borderline sad if in a minor key and low-tempo. Regardless, these are emotions we go through, and they have to be released. Released in a healthy manner of course. I will keep the self-help advice to a minimum and move onto the music:
For the sad one, Ane Brun – Temporary Dive
(My thoughts go out to those affected by the Boston bombing, and those suffering around the world)
And a bit more positive, Laura Veirs – Galaxies
Continue for the videos embedded:
Folk is back! Did it ever leave? Not as far as I know, but I am referring to folk in the mainstream! Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers and Laura Marling to name only three.
With that in mind, that is why you should listen to up and comer Corinna Rose!
Her debut self-titled debut EP from 2011 was four great folk numbers with a perfect balance of banjo (of course!), guitars and percussion.
Her new album, Northeast Southwest comes out this Thursday and coincides with the CD launch in Montreal (Club Lambi, 20:30, that is 8:30 for the non military time users out there).
It is streaming over at Midnight Poutine for your aural needs! (Be sure to check out the title track when you do listen…!)
My album review will follow in the not so distant future, but so far it sounds like the EP and then some, exploring some new avenues, and the addition of a prominent string section!
Check out Corinna Rose’s official site, Facebook and Twitter!
Some really cool mellow English female fronted folk/rock! Recommended if you like Laura Marling, or Feist’s slower numbers. (I would compare other artists, but I am not always that great at that).
Listen, and buy at their Bandcamp. And check out their official site.
They have a massive list of tour dates starting April 2. Check them all out after the jump:
The problem with being addicted to music is I can always find stuff to listen to. And although it is a good addiction, it can cause me to procrastinate, such as making my own music, or learning an instrument (bass for the most part now), but both of those are other blog posts for another day!
On with this post…!
I just learned Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces, and having released her solo debut in 2011 (Last Summer), is releasing her second album late this Spring (Personal Record, June 2013). With that in mind, I want to go back to listen to The Fiery Furnaces music. I believe I only really started listening to them around the time Eleanor Friedberger’s solo album came out!
In my quest to listen to new music, and continue listening to old music I have yet to hear, I just read a review about Toronto’s Parallels on exclaim.ca, having just performed Canadian Music Week (CMW). The reviewer said their 2011 debut (Visionaries) was fantastic, while their latest, XII, “felt like just another record in a crowded field”. Regardless, there are two albums to listen to. As far as old music goes, Mick Fleetwood was recently on the great motoring TV show Top Gear (UK edition of course!), so I am listening to Rumours (Fleetwood Mac of course) as I type this. And a friend also recently cited that as an album he quite enjoys. And Rolling Stone calls it the 25th or 26th greatest album of all-time, depending on which version you are looking at (the original, or the revised 2012 list).
To be continued…
(Regular readers will notice the new theme? Thoughts, comments? Do tell! I was thinking of a static page with previews of all recent posts, but the one I was looking into did not have a sidebar, which I like. This one seems to only load so many posts, and since I embed quite a lot of stuff, I do not really want to make your browser become unresponsive! On that note, thanks for reading once again!)
Thanks to §HE CAME WITH BRAID§ for recommending them, although I think I would have heard them eventually, but I digress!
Chvrches according to the Wikipedia: “Chvrches (pronounced as “churches” and sometimes stylized as CHVRCHES) are a Scottish electropop band from Glasgow, formed in 2011.”
Listen to “Lies”:
Watch the brand new video for “Recover”:
Watch out for their debut EP, “Recover”, on March 26!
“The Mother We Share” live on Detour Scotland’s YouTube channel.
Chvrches:
on SoundCloud
on Twitter
on YouTube
on Facebook
on Songkick
on Tumblr
official site
SoundCloudSunday request? Tweet, or leave a comment!
Once again, thanks for reading!
Valentine’s Day I hear. So a quartet of love songs handpicked by yours truly! Lyrics are linked.
Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You
The Cardigans – For what it’s Worth
And for the local ladies following this blog, I am single! *hint hint*
We interrupt this normally scheduled blog post for all 16 #SoundCloudSunday posts to date:
October 14, 2012: Ainsley McNeaney
October 21, 2012: Metric
October 28, 2012: The Strombo Show (radio show on CBC)
November 4, 2012: Jessie Ware
November 11, 2012: Marina and the Diamonds
November 18, 2012: Maïa
November 25, 2012: Cali
December 2, 2012: Solange (& Terrible Records)
December 9, 2012: Wild Belle
December 16, 2012: Annie Dressner
December 23, 2012: Warner Music Canada
December 30, 2012: Noisettes
Januray 6, 2013: I am Harlequin
Januray 13, 2013: Alternative Tentacles (record label)
Januray 20, 2013: Mastodon
January 27, 2013: Wynter Gordon
Hopefully a new #MontrealMonday tomorrow!
Just discovered this, and it is good:
Each chanteuse has released one album, Ren Harvieu most recently released Through the Night in May of last year, while Karen Elson released her debut, The Ghost Who Walks, two years earlier in May of 2010. Both are definitely worthy of your listen!
Hard to tell from the above collaboration (from Ren’s Open Your Arms EP) as their vocals work so well together, but Ren Harvieu leans a little more soul, while Karen leans a bit more folk.
After the jump, a music video pick of mine from each artist:
Too Much Music (is a good thing) 