David Crosby

I think i'm getting a little obsessed by David Crosby. Yep, that's him above. He was in CSNY and The Byrds. He was also on the TV show Roseanne. You knew that. Anyway, I've spent the week listening to his debut solo album from '71 which is called "If I Could Only Remember My Name". Its smooth, and hippy, and groovy, and spiritual and 'far out'. A bunch of famous people play on it and its worth owning. iTunes have it for under ten bucks. Its left me back to one of the best concert albums of all time, Crosby Stills Nash and Young's "4 Way Street". Two of the key highlights of the acoustic set is Crosby's tunes Triad (my favourite never-released Byrds song) and the haunting Lee Shore. So amazing. I have no idea what David Crosby is up to now, although i vaguely remember hearing about a recent CSNY concert film... anyone seen it?

Check out this performance of Lee Shore with Graham Nash for the BBC:



And with CSNY doing Neil Young's Down By The River:

High Highs

I'm going to Sydney next week for work, and then a weekend of play. One of the things we're doing is heading to the bi-annual Finders Keepers Market which is on Friday May 15th and Saturday May 16th at the Carriage Works. Playing on Saturday at around 6pm is a duo called High Highs. I've fallen for the gentle, otherworldly acoustic folk/pop tunes on their myspace page. They even try their hand at a cover of Dan Auerbach's "Trouble Weighs a Ton". There's no official release or label or any more details but the full list of artists appearing at the markets is here.

Jonathan Boulet

Got the hot tip about this guy, Jonathan Boulet, from Steph at Triple J's Home and Hosed. I can hear why she's a fan - lovely tropical pop-folk in a way similar to something like Vampire Weekend but less preppy, or Ruby Suns but less 'way-out'. Why doesn't everyone know about this guy!? He's from Castle Hill in NSW and has a full debut album available online too. Check his myspace for the tunes and details of the record. You can also download the excellent tune "Community Service Announcement" from RCRDLBL.

Easter tunes - Tilman and Cymbals

I've been neglecting this blog somewhat, and for that, apologies dear brethren, but my music radar has been in mothballs for some weeks now. I've had little time or inclination for discovering new tunage, besides just a couple of albums added to the collection last week and the odd aural dip into All Songs Considered podcasts while on the treadly at the gym. In terms of the latter you could do worse than check out their recent post-SXSW analysis and the sterling interview/special with Mr Bonnie Prince Billy. His new album - Beware - sounds like it could be a corker, so I reckon I'll get the greedy mits on it quick smart once it hits stores...

In the meantime I'm trying to emerse myself in a couple of great new albums from the US of A which i procured from eMusic...



Cymbals Eat Guitars (above) make classic indie rock. Not the bland stadium-indie peddled by so many lego-haired british silver spooners. But the down-home yankee-college indie rock that drips forth from albums like Crooked Rain Crooked Rain or Lonesome Crowded West or more aptly Perfect From Now On. Slack guitars ring out like cymbals and cymbals crash like guitars. I guess the name works on that level. Sometimes its shouty too, and sometimes shuffly, broody or urgent while still being loose. They love Pavement and I love them. It's an easy, no frills equation.

In all honesty I don't know much else about the band though so thats all i have to share. The album is called "Why There are Mountains" and they are from Staten Island, NYC. Like the Wu Tang Clan. You can hear Cymbals Eat Guitars on their myspace page, as if you didn't know you could, hey?


photo by kjten22 from flickr

J. Tillman (above) has also been in my stereo (aka the iPod) with his new album "Vacilando Territory Blues". You should listen online. I have blogged about him before. He drums for Fleet Foxes but is a capable, inventive songwriter and performer in his own right. His ragged, intimate vocals sit across strummy acoustic folk-ballads and occasional lush rushes of strings, steel and brushy drums. The songs weave a kind of magic that isn't completely full of surprises but still offers solace from the other nonsense offered up by modern noisemakers or the half-rate songsmiths that radio cling to and champion.

I wish he'd played shows in Australia when the Foxes toured recently. I think people would have reacted well. Nevermind. Its Easter Saturday and I have him and the cymbals to keep me company as the sun casts treacle across the trees and through my dusty window.

Here We Go Magic

New from Brooklyn we have Here We Go Magic. A wonderful folky three-piece peddling reverb-drenched psych-pop with electro leanings. "Tunnelvision" from their debut ticks all the right boxes - falsetto indie-dude whispers, steady looping percussion, offbeat/otherworldly BVs and strummy acoustic rhythms. Stream it on Myspace. The band is a vehicle for Luke Temple's songwriting, but he's also a mural painter, and his previous recordings (Snowbeast from 2007 as an example) only hint at what was to spring forth from this new project. The self titled album is out through Western Vinyl, home to J Tillman and The Dirty Projectors. I've been using eMusic to download albums for a couple of months now, its the perfect place to buy Here We Go Magic. You can also read and listen more on Obscure Sound.

Astral Weeks

I've been listening to a bunch of new stuff in the past fortnight. I'll try to post about more of the sweet nuggets soon, but for now I'll recommend you track down Astral Weeks, the classic album by Van Morrison. Many people dig it, and now so do it. Rolling Stone rate it. So does Lester Bangs.

Its a sprawling folk-psych, jazzy, free-wheeling trip, straight out 1968. Dig it. Unpopular at the time, it seems, and I guess I can hear/see why, but it makes so much sense in light of all the post-folk, pastoral, free-spirited, mystical, wanna-be psychedelic stuff we've been hearing over the last couple of years. Maybe I sound like a wanker. Do I? I don't know why I never got into it earlier though, maybe its one of those albums your parents had to own for you to discover. It makes sense now. I'm going to need to take more of it in. Its dense, weird, imperfect, magical.

Van apparently played the album in its entirety in November last year at the Hollywood Bowl. Woah! You can watch it on Youtube with an annoying full-screen watermark. Boo.

J Tillman

Lucky punters seeing any of the Fleet Foxes UK shows over the next month will have the chance to check out folky bluesman J. Tillman in the support slot.

Joshua Tillman is not only the drummer with Fleet Foxes, but an accomplished singer-songwriter in his own right, ploughing a field similar to Iron and Wine, Nick Drake, Sun Kil Moon and Damien Jurado (who he has also toured with as a drummer). Its sparse, sometimes haunting, at times meloncholy, at others uplifting. There's an authenticity to his approach, a craftsman's ear at work in the production.

Autumn Tone Records are releasing his three albums, which were previously only limited runs, but you'll still have to dig around Australian record stores to find them.

Hear more J Tillman on his myspace page and download some tunes from "Cancer and Delirium" at Yer Bird Records who sell his albums online. His new album "Vacilando Territory Blues" is out in January but available online in a couple of weeks time.

Oh, and tickets for the Fleet Foxes' Melbourne show in January have now sold out, but are still available for the other two gigs in Sydney and Brisbane. Details at Handsome Tours. Fingers crossed we can get J Tillman to do a little sideshow or something while he's down under!

Tom Cooney

Brisbane singer-songwriter Tom Clooney brings his tear-jerker (aka acoustic guitar) down to Melbourne town this week as part of the launch tour for his debut album “Presque Vu”. His sensitive, restrained folk ballads have drawn apt comparisons with Iron and Wine, Bonnie Prince Billy and M. Ward. The album is beautiful but meloncholy, full of unexpected textures and understated grandeur. I reckon he'll fit well between Jen Cloher and Laura Jean on their upcoming November dates.

In the meantime, catch Tom Clooney on Wednesday at The East Brunswick Club in Melbourne with George Byrne and McKisko (who also features on his CD)... and check out some of Tom's songs online at myspace or on Mess and Noise.

A tall touring troubadour

photo by Karl Gunnarsson

Its just dawned on me that Sweden's Tallest Man On Earth visits our Great Brown Land this week, playing in Sydney tonight, Canberra on Thursday and then my hometown on Saturday night at The Toff. I must remember to get a ticket...!

I've been consistently listening to and loving Kristian Matsson's beautiful debut album Shallow Grave for weeks now. The Dylan references are beyond obvious but apt, and as Pitchfork's glowing review of the album points out, he seems to have "mined the American south for inspiration, and his frantic strumming and front-porch poetry recall everyone from the Carter Family to Lead Belly to, most noticeably, country bluesman Mississippi John Hurt." It's mesmerising, compelling and, dare i say it, authentic folk music.

Full Australian dates and some tunes on Tallest Man On Earth's myspace or check out the amazing tune "Pistol Dreams" below...

New Melbourne Discoveries

Having not blogged for a while i thought i might do a quick wrap of some of the newer Melbourne artists starting to catch my attention.

First up is a guy called Grizzly Jim Lawrie who weaves catchy, melodic folk tunes around his slightly muppety, or some say Neil Young-esque voice. Its your fairly standard m-town 'man-with-guitar' stuff, but still makes for compelling listening. His standout tune Wish I Was There can be downloaded from his myspace page. Jim's been doing Wednesday nights at the newly refitted Birmingham Hotel in Collingwood and can be seen drumming for The Hondas and Flats and the Friendly Few. Grizzly Jim Lawrie plays the Empress on August 16th and the Tote on August 19th.


photo by James Greer.

Also on the folkie tip is Major Chord (above), the new project for Dan Flynn and Kate Connor. In spite of their uninspiring name, the tunes are well crafted modern folk pop, at times recalling Iron and Wine, Machine Translations or Nick Drake: Dan's gentle, confident balladeer's voice croons lovingly over his warm acoustic guitar and Biddy's violin and harmonies add a slight alt-country edge to the affair. The self titled debut album is out in stores and their tunes can be heard and downloaded at the Major Chord myspace page.

Major Chord plays Bar Open on August 14th with International Karate.

Luluc

photo courtesy of thevine.com.au

Melbourne folk duo Luluc head up my Melbourne gigs of the week. They play a free instore at Polyester city on Flinders Lane this Friday from 6:30pm. Luluc are about to release their independent debut Dear Hamlyn, songs from which are already getting FBI, JJJ and RRR rotation. Zoe (Grand Salvo) and Steve (Wagons) launch the album on August 8th at The Corner Hotel. Their tunes are up on myspace too and with excellent new management and label support from Shock, plus a New York tour planned for late August, you can expect big things from these guys over the next 12 months. More info on the group is at their official site.

Also happening this Friday 25th July is a cool show at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. The lineup of Pikelet, Aleks and The Ramps and a new project for James from Architecture in Helsinki looks very promising... plus visuals from Robbie (Grey Daturas) and aural-wallpaper from Dj Faux Pas. Lock it in.

Death with Grand Salvo

GRAND SALVO (aka Paddy Mann) will be finally releasing his album Death, the animal concept record he's been working on for years, on March 15th through rad Australian labelsSpunk and Preservation.

Last time I spoke to him about it he said it was cursed and that it would never be released, and put its recording on hold to make The Temporal Wheel.

Death will feature Zoe from Luluc and hopefully include the song about the little bear who falls through the ice on a frozen river and his animal friends wait for him on the other side until the spring and their bones are all thats left. SADNESS!

Anyway, Paddy describes it thus:

"Death is a fable of rich proportions. A bird, a rabbit, a rat, a bear and a man all tell their own tale, coming together to weave a beautiful fairytale that will resonate with anyone of any age."

There's a great interview with Grand Salvo on Mess and Noise and check out more of him on his myspace and a video here.