Lisa Hannigan is the gorgeous-voiced Irish woman who essentially made up half of Damien Rice’s majesty, through her haunting collaborations all throughout the O album –on songs like “The Blower’s Daughter” and the secret and devastating “Silent Night”– and on the recent 9 Crimes.
Lisa’s new album Sea Sew came out last week in Ireland, and this is a melancholy demo version of the first single “Lille.”
Currently on tour in Ireland, she’ll be hitting the States in October and November. Her MySpace page shows her coming through Denver on October 27. In related news, the Fillmore website seems to suggest it is possibly with Jason Mraz.
Port O’Brien is from Oakland, CA, and they are riotously full of joy and good tunes. They brought a wooden box full of pots and pan lids to their show on Saturday and invited the audience to come up on stage in a collaborative percussion-and-yelling celebration. It was just fantastic.
We survived Monolith, and will be reporting more soon.
Although I’ve been a fan of the rootsy folk-rock throwback sounds of New York’s Rosewood Thieves for sometimenow, I’ve been completely remiss in mentioning their new LP Rise & Shine until I was reminded of it just now while pondering my schedule for the Monolith Festival this weekend.
Released back in May, their first full-length album touches on the same well-crafted, rollicking pop songs hazed with a golden psychedelica that made me love their EPs in the first place. Rosewood Thieves were previously signed to V2 Records, but that didn’t fare so well for them when the label folded. They are currently unsigned and bursting with talent.
Of the trippy album art, they write:
Rummaging around a used book store, Erick found a copy of Psychedelic Art by Robert E.L. Masters and Jean Houston and bought it specially because of the cover. On it was the painting All Things Are One Thing, 1967 by Isaac Abrams, and he decided that it had to be the cover for their album. “I researched him and found out that he was a part of the New York City acid tests in the 60′s and now lived in Woodstock,” says Erick. They called him up and found him to be very kind, and when they sent him mixes of the record, he agreed to let them use his painting on the cover.
“It fit well with the title of the album,” says Erick, “Most of the songs came from dreams and nightmares, so we wanted the title to be about waking up.”
After missing them at the great little 3 Kings Tavern in Denver in May, I’m looking forward to seeing them this weekend. If you’re in for the fest (and can weather one more trip down the billion stairs) they are playing 2pm Sunday on the main stage.
When I posted the new Rogue Wave video at the beginning of the summer, a reader posted a comment looking for Rogue Wave‘s cover of the 1970 Neil Young song “Birds” that they’d just covered at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Intriguing.
Well, after months of fruitless searching, I finally was pointed in the direction of a superb-quality acoustic version from FNX Radio in Boston. Warm, sparkling, and heartfelt:
When you see me Fly away without you Shadow on the things you know Feathers fall around you And show you the way to go It’s over
Because they love you, Cloud Cult has given Fuel/Friends one VIP pass to the entire Monolith weekend for a lucky reader to win!
So this VIP pass gets ya: - into both days of the fest - premium reserved soundboard seating - VIP Parking in Red Rocks upper North parking lot - access to Monolith VIP Lounge w/ private bar - Monolith 2008 limited edition CD sampler & poster - access to Exclusive VIP Afterparty 9/13/08 at Red Rocks with special performances from The Hood Internet, Passion Pit, White Williams, Candy Coated Killahz, Boyhollow, and Jackola - limited edition Monolith Eco-Tote Bag from Trek Light Gear - unlimited use of the Oxygen Bar in the Red Rocks Underground (weak out-of-towners!)
Cloud Cult has been making sweepingly gorgeous, thoughtfully incisive music since 1995, and their most recent album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-partying Through Tornadoes) is out now on Earthology Records. The winner of the contest will also get a copy of the album. Seeing them Friday will be my first experience face-to-face with the group (I missed their second-stage headlining set at Monolith last year for reasons we don’t remember).
What do I have to look forward to? “[A band of six] waving their stringed instruments about while wailing in unison in support of the lead singer. Songs that give you goosebumps, and shows that make you happy to be alive and breathing air and listening to music that is played with the same kind of passion that it was written with.”
Okay, yes. I’m in. I also hear that they paint live artwork on stage at their shows, shaped by the music, and that’s just beautiful.
TO ENTER THE VIP PASS CONTEST: EMAIL ME WITH “MONOLITH/CLOUD CULT” IN THE SUBJECT HEADER. I will pick one random winner from all entries received by Thursday at 9pm. You may also want to include your phone number in the email.
Please note — obviously if you want to win this you have to either be in the general Colorado area or be able to get yourself here by Friday (or Saturday morning). The pass will get you into all the festivities starting Friday night at the Bluebird. The contest will end in t-minus 24 hours.
Cloud Cult will also play tomorrow (Thursday, 9/11) at 11:30am for 600 kids at Cerebral Palsy of Colorado during the Monolith Festival Reforestation Project, then at the Aggie in Fort Collins tomorrow night. Aaaand they’re also on Carson Daly tomorrow if you are sitting at home.
* Final caveat: Cloud Cult may not actually want to party with you, per se, but the part about you being a VIP rockstar is totally true.
[top photo credit Scott West, live photo credit Laurie Scavo]
The Foo Fighters at Red Rocks were loud last night — some of the highest decibel levels I’ve heard in a while (I’m not complaining, I just can’t hear you).
It’s obvious to anyone who has seen these guys that Dave Grohl simply adores being a frontman, and has found his calling in life. His affability greased the wheels of the show and trickled into everything they performed — it was such a fun night. Musically it was a treat to watch Taylor Hawkins (the man, the myth, the machine) and Pat Smear (formerly of The Germs) play, as well as the two kickass women on their impressive stringed instruments (a cello and a violin methinks, but I was never an orchestra kid so it could be, like, a viola or something).
The Getaway Hawks of Paradise I’m gonna dive right into this week’s roundup with another great Denver band, this one of four I managed to see on Friday night through a combination of clever planning and masterful club shuttling. Hawks of Paradise were recommended to me by someone who is very much into the Dandy Warhols, and they absolutely dial into that sound as well as folks like Brian Jonestown Massacre and, more recently, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (notably their beat-poet-influenced Howl album). They are amazingly fun to see live, even if you’re just coming to watch their female tambourinist, who was cool and calm and fantastic as she kept her beat. A few more free songs are up for download on their MySpace, and they open next month for the Drive-By Truckers.
The Truth And The Lies Rubies My grandma’s given name was Ruby Nell, and I am fond of that name and this band. And I think she would have been too. Rubies is something that you can listen to with your grandmother, but that is not to say it is staid, boring, or a waltz. This trio of ladies from California makes songs that are throaty and gorgeous, whether a coffeehouse slowburner or a dance-floor filler. Members of Kings of Convenience, The Concretes, and Feist guest on their current album Explode From The Center (out now on Rough Trade) and this could be the perfect soundtrack to those moonlight winter nights that, sorry to say, are coming soon. Also speaking of Feist, Simone from Rubies designed that stunning artwork for The Reminder, which makes me want to give her a very enthusiastic hug. That was some of my favorite album art of the year. [tune via Julioooo]
Acid Tongue Jenny Lewis At that DNC shindig, Jenny Lewis charmed us early in the set with this ballad and her indie-supergroup backup choir that night. The song is absolutely winning, and really illuminates her warm, open, and slightly knowing voice. But after hearing her perform it live twice now, I gotta say that this studio version sounds like Sunday gospel in a a full church with those backing vocals swelling up. Her solo album Acid Tongue is due on Warner Bros September 23, and 2 of her Unconventional stage-mates (Johnathan Rice and Zooey Deschanel) guest on the album, along with M Ward, Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson. Not bad, Jenny. Not bad.
Dying Is Fine Ra Ra Riot This Syracuse band blew me away when I saw them live in the tiny, sweaty Larimer Lounge this spring. Ra Ra Riot blends this irresistible “chamber pop meets indie rock meets synthesizer danceability,” and they all were so tightly unified as a band that they practically cast off a humming vibration of synergy. Or something like that. I am so pleased to hear that their new album The Rhumb Line(out now on Barsuk Records) sounds absolutely divine, and this song in particular will stick in your head for days — those delicate strings, the hipshaking syncopated beat, the chimey female harmonies that try to assuage your fear of dying.
You Don’t Know Me Ben Folds and Regina Spektor I’ll admit that Ben Folds may be an acquired taste, as he doesn’t have a traditionally pretty voice but rather one that’s … pretty dorky. But he writes amazing songs. On this new tune he goes and experiments around with some early ’90s-feeling beat samples and high school musical duet play. But for whatever reason, I still enjoy listening to this perky collaboration with the lovely Regina Spektor (whose set I so enjoyed at Outside Lands). Way To Normal is out September 30th, and Ben plays with his reunited five in North Carolina on September 18th.
Bon Iver has said that Sarah Siskind‘s 2006 album Studio.Living Room changed his life, and he’s been closing his sets all summer with a haunting cover of her song “Lovin’s For Fools.” Sarah finally joined him onstage at Nashville’s Exit/In on August 11th to sing it with him.
If this isn’t enough to make you want to never give your heart again, then I don’t know what would be:
Sarah’s voice has a chill-inducing Appalachian edge to it that conjures the unflinching starkness of Gillian Welch, and this song sounds like sleepwalking and bad dreams. There’s also another fantastic rendition of this cover with Bon Iver and The Bowerbirds at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC on July 29.
Britt Daniel (of Spoon) played a solo set at MusicFest Northwest this weekend in Portland, and by the accounts of those who were there, he absolutely stole the weekend with his vibrant performance. Daniel debuted three new songs, playing with Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney on drums.
SlyOyster, who shot the video, reports that Daniel peppered the set with new tunes. In addition to the one above, he played “Writing To You In Reverse” (which has been making the internet rounds after being played at the Pitchfork Fest), and a new one described as “an aggressive uptempo number in the vein of their Telephono days — you could almost here the Pixies influence in the tune’s rawness.” Check out SlyOyster for more video and audio from the set.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Lisa Hannigan is the gorgeous-voiced Irish woman who essentially made up half of Damien Rice’s majesty, through her haunting collaborations all throughout the O album –on songs like “The Blower’s Daughter” and the secret and devastating “Silent Night”– and on the recent 9 Crimes.
Lisa’s new album Sea Sew came out last week in Ireland, and this is a melancholy demo version of the first single “Lille.”
Name: Heather Browne
