Exclusive first listen! New from Mason Jennings :: “Fighter Girl”

Hot on the heels of a great solo Ed Vedder show last night (more later), I am so pleased to find a song from the new Mason Jennings album sitting in my inbox this morning — fresh for the sharing with you all!

Mason’s brand of songwriting has affected me with his vivid lyrical pictures and the simple honesty in his music (I interviewed him last year, if you missed it). “Fighter Girl” is a concert favorite that has finally made it onto a proper album for his upcoming effort In The Ever, due in May on Brushfire Records. This tune was previously on the If You Need A Reason bonus EP in a different version.

In The Ever is the follow-up to his major label 2006 record Boneclouds, on Isaac Brock’s Epic-distributed Glacial Pace label. The new album was recorded during stripped-down sessions in Mason’s home studio in the Minnesota woods. “It’s been a slow growth, but extremely fun for me,” he says. “For me, it’s about expanding and working from a place of joy. If I can enjoy what I do, and make new art that inspires me, everything will work out for the best.”

This is one of my favorite songs on the (excellent) new album:

Fighter Girl – Mason Jennings

Spinning your umbrella over your head
You should be in bed but you’re here instead
Walking with me towards a midnight swim
I can give you baby what you can’t get from him

Songbirds singing in an old dead tree
The way you drive honey scares the hell out of me
A hundred miles an hour on a brand new road
Look at me again, you make my heart explode

Hey hey little fighter girl
It’s you and me now against this whole wide world
Sleeping together in the lion’s den
Got your earrings in my pocket till I see you again

Clouds roll by, laying up on the hill
Everything is still, do you think we will?
If we do there’ll be no turning back
If we don’t — well there’s no chance of that

Come on kiss me
Keep on kissing me

Cars in the distance, a bicycle bell
Dogs are barking as the kingdom fell
And in its place stood a golden town
Where people walked without touching the ground

MASON IN THE COMING MONTHS
April/May – Co-headlining tour with Brett Dennen & Missy Higgins
June – Jack Johnson US tour & Bonnaroo
July – Jack Johnson European tour
August – Lollapalooza
September – Austin City Limits

All dates at www.masonjennings.com

Red Collar :: “Used Guitars”

There is a visceral, rough-hewn punch to this song from Durham, North Carolina quintet Red Collar, a fast-rising local group that was recommended to me by a student reporter for the UNC Daily Tar Heel during the course of an interview. Somehow we got to talking about the fury that will always exist in the thousands of fledgling bands around the country who sweat it out and work for every new set of ears that hear their music — the ones that are earnest and spread their own brand of fire through intense live shows and word of mouth. Ones like Red Collar.

These guys (and one gal) have vibrancy and melody, with a smart and honest punk aesthetic reminiscent of influences like Rancid or Fugazi. It’s hook-filled rebel music with heart, topped in this song with biting lyrics of alienation and disillusionment.

When I heard this song, it felt a hot-faced glance back into the insecurity of teenage dreams — the hopefulness slicing against the feeling of unexpectedly running smack into a hidden brick wall at full speed. It’s angry and it’s sad, but dangit if it doesn’t have those “bah-bah-buh-dahhh” backing chorus, as if all your friends at the pub are chiming in. We can’t be everything we wanted to be.

Used Guitars – Red Collar

I guess this means we’re not on our way
But the wants that I wanted
they were the wants that I had yesterday
And there’s a boy looking for a great buy
Just another boy with a dream, he’ll be quick to realize

We can’t be everything we wanted to be
We can’t be everything we wanted to be

Red Collar has an EP for sale called the Hands Up EP and they’re finishing their full-length debut with producer Brian Paulson (Wilco, Archers of Loaf, Superchunk). In addition to fantastic songs like this, they also have a thought-provoking essay entitled “Boobies or the ability to fly?” on their MySpace. Hmmm. Indeed.

[photo credit Dave Jones]

The National cover Springsteen

This seems exceptionally fitting to post today, as I have a date with Bruce Springsteen this very evening. The National does a gorgeously arresting cover here. The rich, round tones of the plucking of strings sound for all the world like rain on the roof of a wooden cabin I stayed in once, deep in a redwood forest.

Mansion On The Hill (Springsteen cover) – The National

I think my heart stops at a few points during that song — the way the strings stretch and hover, pause and swell.

Pitchfork wrote yesterday that The National is including this cover on a new CD called The Virginia EP (a 12-track “EP”) which will also contain unreleased demos, b-sides, live recordings, and a song from last year’s Daytrotter session.

It’s part of a package that will also include the excellent Vincent Moon documentary A Skin, A Night: watch clips here.

[song via, photo credit Valerio]

Before They Were Blogged: M. Ward demo tape

Before M. Ward embarked on his own glowing solo career making mind-bogglingly terrific albums, and before he met Zooey Deschanel and started recording some (She & Him) music and playing festivals with her, Matt was part of a band called Rodriguez in the mid ’90s with a strong college circuit following.

During one such university show around 1997, a kind future Fuel/Friends reader happened to pick up a modest cassette tape of solo material that Ward was experimenting with. Two years later, a similar (or maybe the same) collection of songs would end up in the hands of Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), who became fond of this Portland troubadour’s warm, stark folk sounds and released his first album Duet For Guitars #2 on his own Ow Om label.

Third in a mini-series of “Before They Were Blogged,” it has taken me over a year to realize exactly how buried and forgotten these tunes are. Since my reader actually converted them from that original cassette tape he still has, I’m fairly sure this is an unheard sonic collection — one that M. Ward’s fans will enjoy listening to as much as I have. Unfortunately I don’t have much more information to go on other than what my reader tells me, but all the things I love about M. Ward are certainly here in all their humble, honey-drenched, warm, raspy vibrancy.

M. WARD
SOLO CASSETTE/DEMO TAPE
If The Devil Came And Promised Me Joy
Don’t Crack
Made of Glass
Tom Violence (Sonic Youth cover)
Intermission
Must Be Waiting
No, You Can Never Make It New Again
Bye Bye Love (re-working of the Everly Brothers hit)
I’m Going Higher

M WARD CASSETTE/DEMO ZIP

Beautiful beat, get me out of this mess :: Nada Surf at the Gothic Theatre (04/01/08)

Nada Surf was phenomenal Tuesday night, as I had expected. After seeing them acoustic and intimate in the fantastic jewelbox of the Swedish American Hall of San Francisco, I was sated with the gorgeous golden side of their music, but left aching to hear the full electric band treatment.

This is one ferociously good live band that I would see again and again. My companion Kristan had never heard of them but was duly and thoroughly impressed, and more than a few fist-pumping college dudes admitted to being there only because of their 1996 hit song “Popular.” But winning hearts and eardrums seems to be what this New York trio does best, and by the time we got through to “Beautiful Beat,” the room kinda felt like it was going to explode. Or maybe just me.

The always affable Matthew Caws introduced “Inside of Love” by saying that they wanted to write a soulful Smokey Robinson-type song that you could dance to, something to do a little swingin’ twostep to. He charmed the whole crowd into stepping back and forth while they played it. The raddest detail of the stage setup were the five convex mirrors set across the back of the stage reflecting us back upon ourselves. In this video you can see the undulating wave of soul & fancy footwork moving through the crowd, if you look closely:

NADA SURF – “INSIDE OF LOVE” (live in Denver 4/1/08)

Nada Surf is currently doing some shows with Martin Wenk of Calexico, who added keys, trumpets and other flourishes to their set and to their most recent album. During the encore they brought out Lisa Fendelander from Sea Wolf (the opener) to add accordion, which was sublime and wistful. This video turned out really stellar as well:

NADA SURF – “BLONDE ON BLONDE” (live in Denver 4/1/08)

And here is the full setlist of what they played (except I’m pretty sure they left out “Are You Lightning,” which is sad). But man alive — “The Blankest Year” was even more cathartic all electric and loud and yelling. A few more pics are here and a nice local review here. Oh what a night.

Ra Ra Riot: “Too Too Fast” (new song)

I can’t get this new Ra Ra Riot song out of my head, from last Friday at the Larimer Lounge. Look how much fun they are having — it’s infectious:

RA RA RIOT: “TOO TOO FAST”

[direct link]

If you want to hear the full song (my camera battery died), go check out the mp3 from their woxy.com set. They were extremely impressive – sort of a chamber pop meets indie rock meets synthesizer danceability. They are coming back through Colorado two more times in the coming months which means they are probably heading where you live too (well, maybe if you don’t live in, say Iceland — and I know you’re out there). Absolutely go see these guys live.

Also! The lead singer Wes? Yeah, he’s got real good taste in music websites, sporting a shirt from the stint they did with our friends over at Daytrotter. Go Wes!

[more pics from the show here]

Think, hands, note.

The good folks at Barsuk Records notified me earlier today of this fascinating new side project from Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie. As Ben says, “It shouldn’t work, but it totally works . . . and that’s part of the magic.”

That’s the best thing I’ve seen today.

In related Barsuk news, Nada Surf plays tonight at the Gothic in Denver. Come out and see their superb live show in support of Lucky – easily one of my top ten albums of this year.