Leather Headed Snare

I've been meaning to get these links up on here since my trip up to see this show in Mil-town last weekend. I'll admit some bias since the Schaefers let me shack up in their place on the trip... still, I think these tunes speak for themselves.
Benjamin Schaefer drums with both Wolfgang Schaefer and with Vitrolum Republic, and did at Linneman's, though the Wolfgang video here is from one of his older solo performances.
Benjamin's drumming complements the sparkle of Wolfgang's finger style with expressive, explosive bursts of syncopated drumming across a full palette of artfully selected percussion. You might notice his kit in the VR video, cobbled together from the myriad kits he's had over the years with pieces that make his favorite sounds. Of particular note is the specially outfitted leather headed snare that he plays usually with brushes or by hand.
Also, if fiddle is the Southern way to play a violin, then surely strumming is the way of the Midwest.

Wolfgang's voice has a rich texture and it matches well with the tidal ebb and flow of sound that emerges from his unique playing. His voice and the guitar work closely together, rising and falling at the same time to create a singular effect.

Castle Thunder has an interesting, Radiohead-influenced sound with synth punches burbling through crisp walls of chords. With the bumping drums and filled out sound, this music is crafted with a little something for everyone.

Closer To Utopia

This Brooklyn based Jagjaguar band is just wrapping up a two month US tour. The samples and sets of keys illuminate their music with a haunting ethereal quality, but beneath it all thrums a locked and pulsing live drum and bass groove. This excerpt from Small Black’s blog gives a sense that the band is aiming higher than just party synth rock, and helps offer meaning and direction in understanding the collection of bands characterized as chillwave:

“In 2008, I was floating around from job to job, thinking of what sorts of songs to do, where to do them. I ended up in Greece on the island of Santorini, minding after a little bookstore called Atlantis Books. Through the kindness of the shop's patrons, I was able to stay there rent free for the winter, working on music, gazing out onto the Mediterranean every morning as I woke, organizing & reading through the books, shelved below the bed where I slept. Have never been closer to utopia! Probably won't be again!

My time there was hugely instrumental in coming up with the songs that would become the first Small Black material. Songs like Hydra & Baby Bird Pt II are loaded with samples of field recordings I'd make on my hikes around the island. The calm of my simple life there gave me the space/clarity to focus. And the blind faith the small group of friends had in creating the shop is beyond inspiring.”

Rainbow Chorus Effect

Okay, sweet music Friday time...
Agesandages: a Portland band in the midst of a big US tour, cruising along the cold weather states and even poking up into that syrupy dollop of land on top where beer is expensive and good bands are ubiquitous. You can really hear the Portland string collective kind of sound here, but this crew is an evolution on it, not only in that it's ebullient music flowing from beneath those overcast skies, but also that they play together melodically, so that we get blasted with angel choruses of sound (rather than distinct counterpoint melody lines wiggling against each other). Plus, they can all really sing, so you get a rich rainbow of sound (without the group yelling effect that some bands use). I think the talent and tightness (along with the bumping rhythm(lots of parenthesis today (it is Friday though, so the rules are a little more flexible))) here is what gives the sound an almost classic rock feel.

It's not really fair, because they hooked me with their space art. Still, it always comes back to Milwaukee, bringing it again with synth-rocktastic Faux Fir. My favorite track so far is Unhappen. I like how this band breaks away from just four four rock with keys on top. They vary the drumming, evolve the key sounds, and take moments in their songs to let the sound drop away and change. Overall, a really strong EP, particularly in the back end. Last three tracks knock it right out of the park.

Also, I've been clicking this video for Summer Camp over and over. I love the aesthetic, and the synths. The pieces come together wonderfully here, with the guitar bubbling through at perfect moments and the resonance of Elizabeth Sankey's and Jeremy Warmsley's vocals complementing the tone. This is an unassuming and beguiling song, just when you try to lock in on a part, it fades away, drawing you in further and further into the moment.

Someone Just a Little More Funky

The open mics here are replete with singers trying to emulate Bob Dylan circa Highway ’61 Revisited. Maybe it’s just a Chicago thing, but I seriously doubt it.

It’s not so blatant as Elvis impersonators zipped up into white bejazzled jump suits. Sometimes I wonder if it’s even on purpose. We all know a friend or two who has spent several hazy months under the impression that he was Bob Marley. Such mistakes can be common.

Surely this flattery, if imitation is considered the greatest form, is in part because Bob Dylan seems a cinch to sing along to. Caricatures of his rough and reedy voice are breezy to emulate after a couple cigarettes and a hearty snifter of whiskey neat. That his singing is easy to mimic correctly is a common misconception. He was a good singer pretending to be bad, though for all of us romantics, it's more fun to consider it the other way around. Still, I’ll try and keep ease of delivery in mind for the mix. (No Muse.)

I’ve set out to compose a mix of more modern singers --whose bag of tricks seem pilfer worthy-- in hopes of spurring a little more current inspiration. These vocalists use approaches that come across more like a response to modern tropes in contemporary radio and a celebration of current modes of playing and recording, rather than a direct response to music birthed in the 1950's and to Woody Guthrie (who is a legendary and historic singer/songwriter, no doubt).

Blitzen Trapper – Furr

The clever lyrics and casually gruff delivery sound deceptively easy to pull off, something definitely worth aiming for. Listening to the wolf-like quality in the melody, the note slides that almost sound like howls.

Ben Sollee – It’s Not Impossible (Boys Don’t Cry)

Sollee got his start playing cello with Bela Fleck when he was twenty one, so there’s an unmistakable prodigy element in his cello playing, but it's not the overwrought tune-smithing, like many arduous progressive rock bands or jazz mills. If anything, the elegance and warm simplicity of his songs illustrate his talent.

His voice captures a soulful bluesy, almost classic sound, while still ringing fresh, direct, vibrant, and young. His style is lyrical and lucid. (The creativity and fun in his singing style might be two elements for tyro singers to capture first perhaps, even before trying to sing in key.)

Olof Arnalds – Klara

While her high register may not be easy to emulate, her deliberate approach and enthusiasm certainly are. With her pure, clear tone, she brings to mind the singer Jonsi. (His voice remains so effective, even outside of his recordings.)

I recommend Olof here to new singers despite her quite hard to match register. For Olof, it's not just that she's endowed with a beautiful voice, it's that she wields it with the power required of a less naturally gifted singer. I love how she hums around 1:20.

Wooden Birds – Hometown Fantasy

Andrew Kenny formerly sang with American Analog Set, perhaps the most underrated band of all time in at least one person’s humble opinion. His subtle vocals have much to be admired and still sound fresh, bearing years of repeated listenings. (The kick-patter-snare style pioneered by original drummer Lisa Roschmann is a game changer for the Shoegaze genre and its influence still seems to shine through in Kenny's new band.)

American Analog Set- Punk as Fuck

M. Ward – Paul’s Song

His delivery is so emotive and feels so casual, so simple. I keep returning to this theme of simplicity. People may love complicated music, but they don’t want it to feel complicated. It’s like watching a slam dunk: we want it to seem easy, even if we can’t do it ourselves. Though, I would say that a little emulation of M. Ward would bear much fruit and, while his style is certainly his own, borrowing gently from it won’t make you sound like an impersonator.

The album this song was pulled from, the magnificent Transistor Radio (which will mend broken hearts and keep you dry between raindrops) has a Beach Boys cover and a rewrite of “Here Comes the Sun.” Perhaps this was Ward’s way of tipping his hat to the legendary vocalists that have come before him, while sidling along on his own path. (This might be a good place to note that that Olof Arnalds has a beautiful cover of Brian Wilson’s That Lucky Old Sun.)

Bon Iver – For Emma

Why does it always come back to Wisconsin? This band lit the fuse to a musical explosion. Lead singer Justin Vernon’s falsetto isn’t hard to emulate, it’s just totally his signature. There is always a push to be original above all as a singer. I think this is the right direction but slightly misguided. Rather than trying to be original, sing as an individual, sing as yourself.

... Everyone Must Get Stoned...

In the end, they’re going to compare you to Bob Dylan anyway, so if you’re going to sing like Bob Dylan, try and capture some of the sublime effervescent joy that couldn’t help but sneak into the most majestic of his tunes.

And just for fun…

Just Like Waking Up Mix

“I was running through a bad dream, but now I’m waking up…”
-Lady Lamb the Beekeeper

I made this mix to cheer up a gloomy-rain/fog-clouded afternoon. I think it's working. Give it a try.

I like these songs because they achieve grandeur through relative simplicity; they sparkle with that rare ideal that is increasingly lacking in our marketing culture: authenticity.

The Boy Who Spoke Clouds is the moniker for Aussie Adam Casey. His sounds arrive at the hyper resonant acoustic aesthetic through Euro-folk along the lines of England's I Am Kloot (Hear the breathtaking Proof.) and Scotland's Meursault (Gorgeous folk cacaphony in Crank Resolutions.). TBWSC, compared to Steve Reich and envisioned perhaps more as "shamanic-folk" than folk pop or anti-folk, emerges from the largely slowcore electronic pre-chill-wave (:P) label Sun Sea Sky.
BWSC appears to spring from a different vein than Iowa native Laurel Sprengelmeyer of Little Scream, who is, perhaps, influenced more by Iowa's rich folk heritage (i.e. Greg Brown). Or there's Portland's Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. Look to Portland's Black Prairie for indications of some of Lady Lamb's melodic glamorously downplayed sound.
Cotton Jones (from once all-time-most-killer indie label Suicide Squeeze) and The Idaho Falls (California country western) help highlight the pop sweetness in this mix. CJ and IF sometimes realize the orchestration that the other singer-songwriters beautifully insinuate with their more tonal sounds and amped-up reverbs and delays.
I ended the mix with Damn Choir because lead singer Gordon Robertson hails from Ohio but is Scottish by heritage, thus an international folk ambassador of sorts for this collection of songs. Also, Katy Myers' outstanding cello parts in "Stars on Strings" capture the heady effect of the tonal echoes and orchestral insinuations heard in some of the other songs here. Katy also achieves an immediacy with her playing that gives the song room to breathe but prevents it from fluttering away altogether. This immediacy is elusive to many capable musicians and avoided by the capable but less courageous.


Little Scream – The Lamb

The Boy Who Spoke Clouds – Fill This Room

Cotton Jones – Egg On A Sea

The Idaho Falls - Hard Weather

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper – Almond Colored Sheets

The Damn Choir – Stars on Strings

Subvert Your Sadness

When I started on this mix, I had a couple songs with unique acoustic guitar in mind thus I proceeded under the guise of a “folk” mix. As I put in more songs, including Tallest Man on Earth and Devil in These Guys, from Sweden, and British lads Vadoinmessico, I thought maybe this could be a walk around the world in a pair of folk shoes made out of acoustic guitars. At this point, though, I realized I’ve broken a couple rules and stepped on a couple toes, since Those Darlins would definitely be a bunch of lady garage rockers and Vadoinmessico goes by the term “Anti-folk,” which, according to Wikipedia, “takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it.” Cool, whatever that means.
What I like about this set of songs is that they stand on their own two feet: good lyrics, intriguing guitar style, and in the case, particularly of Houston’s Ms. Cook and Chicago’s own Mr. Pug, deeply expressive vox.
For the linchpin song, I ended up in Durham, NC. Megafaun’s “Volunteers” is one of my 2010 top songs of the year. If you’re in a hurry, check that one out, though you may be late to where you’re going if you end up playing it three times in a row.

Tallest Man On Earth- King of Spain

Vadoinmessico – Curling Up Your Spine


Those Darlins – Wild One

Sarah Cook – Love Approached


Joe Pug – Unsophisticated Heart

Devil in These Guys – Den Storsta av sma segrar

Megafaun – Volunteers