Sep 9, 2009
Some cracking tunes again - a selection of extremes of acoustic and
very electric from the likes of New York, British Columbia,
Edmonton, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Budapest, Nashville and
Brooklyn.
Sorry. No picture; I've been confined to studio and office all
week. Heavy deadline met this morning - whoo hoo! Plan to take it
easy until next year now (yeah right!)
Radio Days - The Octagon (New
York)
In case you're new to The Octagon, the band's been around since
'04. Front-man Zachary Mexico is a best selling author, drummer
Will Glass is a former member of the Dirty Projectors and the bass
guy is a shadowy Dead-loving loner known only as Bunny. The band
has performed with Idlewild, Jay Reatard, the Homosexuals, Tokyo
Police Club, Sam Champion, the Spinto Band, Ra Ra Riot, Dragons of
Zynth and many more. Radio Days is from their Arm, Brain, Heart and
Liver album.
www.theoctagonrock.com
www.myspace.com/theoctagon
Midnight - Allison Crowe
(Nanaimo, BC, Canada)
"I love singing for people," says Allison Crowe. "It's a way to
connect and share with others. Communication is crucial. Just being
able to do what I do, to write and sing and perform, makes me feel
not only alive, but incredibly lucky. Knowing at any moment
everything could change, I don't take one second for
granted."
Born 26 years ago, on an island, in the harbour city of Nanaimo,
B.C., today Crowe's reach is global. The audience for her music
videos and song downloads numbers in the millions and she has had
the sense to plough her own furrow.
www.allisoncrowe.com
Henry Porter in The
Observer
http://tinyurl.com/lhngep
When a Newfoundland-based singer Allison Crowe and two of her band
members, Billie Woods and Laurent Boucher, arrived at Gatwick to
tour Britain they were arrested, held in cells, photographed and
fingerprinted and had their passports stamped "Barred from Entry"
before being returned to Canada.
... new laws that mean that artists have to submit to a set of
expensive and time-consuming procedures to get their visa and
further restrictions on their movements while they are here.
This shocking and disgraceful treatment - designed to exclude
illegal immigrants and terrorists - seems fundamentally
unBritish.
So let's just agree that new rules barring artists from visiting
this country and so enriching our culture are some of the most
contemptible ever devised, even by this narrow-minded apology for a
government.
The English National Opera and [the London] Southbank have both had
problems bringing in foreign performers because of the stringent
requirement for non-EU citizens to provide biometrics and
photographs and submit to controls over their day-to-day activity
while here.
Is this Britain? If so, the rational half of our brain has been
overwhelmed by "suspicion and parochialism", in the words of the
staunchly sensible Manifesto Club, which has started a petition
against the laws .
The Manifesto Club needs your support and, if you're in the UK,
your signature on a petition:
www.manifestoclub.com/visitingartists
Shrug it off - F&M
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
A very new discovery for me which I would guess some of you may
have already checked out after my Twitter post this afternoon about
F&M. The hit me like a very gentle and sincere steam-train, but
hit me they did.
F&M is a gently sardonic, dark and hopelessly clever art-folk
band that began as a 48 hour experiment in recording during a
fireworks festival. Delicate, glacial, heady, F&M approaches
folk music with refreshing maturity and restraint. Music that
breathes.
www.fandmtheband.com/
www.myspace.com/fandmtheband
You can keep your finger on the generally unfaltering pulse of
@suffolkandcool along with
Pete Cogle, Rowley and his beer, Alan at Darkhorse, Colin
Gazeley, Stuart from Insomnia Radio, Graham Holland, Erk in Aus and
a few other of the usual suspects. I'll see if I can get a Twitter
list together.
Ever Be Here Again - Kelly Joe
Phelps (Oregon, USA)
In the UK from 18 to 30th Sept then over to Belfast, Dublin and
Cork. Dates are on his site at:
www.kellyjoephelps.net/tour/index.htm
Kelly
Joe Phelps
"Ever Be Here
Again" (mp3)
from "Lead Me On (15 Year Anniversary Edition)"
(Burnside Records)
Buy at
Allegro Music Direct
Stream from
Rhapsody
Buy at
iTunes Music Store
More On This Album
The End - Peasant (Bucks
County, PA)
Peasant is Damien DeRose, 23-year-old poet turned artiste, from
fabled and beautiful Bucks County, PA. The sleepy hometown
and its surroundings, melded with trials and tribulations, to
inspire Peasant's confessional and straightforward style of music.
In and out of the bedroom studio throughout high school, DeRose
helped form a small scene in Bucks County by doling out frisky live
performances and DIY records. After high school, he traveled solo
on several tours of the US and Europe before signing with Paper
Garden Records in 2008 and releasing "On The Ground."
This track was recorded at the Daytrotter Sessions (http://daytrotter.com/article/1507/peasant.)
He has a whole load of dates in Europe over the next few weeks in
Germany, Austria, France, Belgium Holland and one date in
London.
www.myspace.com/peasant
www.papergardenrecords.com/shop/item/47
A Piece of All Other Things -
Zanza (Budapest, Pest, Hungary)
"Zanza is a new Hungarian Rock Band founded by Lehel Kovács. Debut
album (Plug In) is coming out in August. Songs mainly influenced by
Kravitz, Hendrix, Zep, Robben Ford, Hungarian folk music... singing
both in English and in Hungarian. The Plug In album was recorded on
the one hand by my previous musicians: Miklós Szalóczy (drums) and
Csaba Pázmándi (guitars) and by sterling session musicians like
Antal Gábor Szűcs (guitars), Albert Földi (piano) and Zoltán Balogh
(bass). ZANZA - "Plug In" album released August 14, 2009.
www.zanzaband.hu (page under
construction at time of posting)
www.myspace.com/zanzaband
Smackin' Pepper - Johnny Neel and the
Criminal Element (Nashville, TN, USA)
Although not a household name, Johnny Neel is a Grammy award
nominee recognized in the music world for his work with the Allman
Brothers, Lonnie Mack and Gov't Mule, among others. In addition to
his soulful vocals, harp, piano and B-3 proficiency, Johnny is an
accomplished songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by the likes
of the Allman Brothers, Joe Louis Walker, John Mayall, Irma Thomas,
Ann Peebles, Marie Osmond, the Oak Ridge Boys and Travis Tritt.
Born and Raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Johnny Neel cut his first
single at the age of twelve, as Johnny Neel and The Shapes Of Soul.
As an adult, the Johnny Neel Band had a strong following up and
down the East Coast and released two well-received independent
albums. Neel moved to Nashville, the premiere song writing city, in
1984, where he immediately became recognized as an "A" session
studio player. Others began to notice Neel’s songwriting talent and
decided to take advantage by recording his songs on their
albums.
www.cdbaby.com/thecriminalelement
www.johnnyneel.com
Subway Man - Jesse Alejamndro and the
Big Fatt (Brooklyn, NY)
Like zombie Batman coming back from the grave to exact revenge on
the joker who stole his woman, this band is intelligent, vicious
and unstoppable. The Big Fatt hold permanent resident statuses in
funk, blues, and classical music, but spend most of their time in
Brooklyn.
From "Belly Full of Brains" LP - Release Date: 9/9/09 - today!
The music of this ensemble mirrors the monster of amalgam that is
the Brooklyn music scene, stealing from heros as far flung as Duke
Ellington, Tom Waits, Claude Debussy and Stevie Wonder. The group's
morbidly obese base of influences and guillotine sharp execution
ensure an entertaining evening for anyone who isn't a Nazi child
molester.
Jesse Alejandro- Vocals, Guitar
Matthew Ferry- Drums
Westbrook Johnson- Trombone
Matt Scott - Bass
Heather Sommerlad - Violin
Peter Ferrari - Saxophone
Marie Valigorsky - Viola
www.thebigfatt.com
www.myspace.com/thebigfatt