they sparkle, bubble over, and in the morning all you got is rain

As I’ve blathered on about before, Josh Ritter is one of the most talented epic songwriters we got goin’ right now. His words and music are nothing short of poetry, demanding a closer listen over and over.

Somehow in the cold winter bustle of December, I missed two renditions he recorded of his songs with a string quartet from Dublin’s Vicar Street Orchestra. Josh has used strings before in his recorded music (listen: “The Temptation Of Adam“) and played live shows with orchestras to immense effect, but these versions take it to a whole new level of sublime.

Girl in the War is laden with conflicted biblical imagery (as with many of his songs), and the deep waters of ache get even more vast here with the taut beauty of the strings. They speak to me in ways that no other instrument can.

These lyrics are all I really want to listen to on this gray day.

Girl In The War – Josh Ritter with String Quartet
(originally from 2006′s Animal Years)

Paul said to Peter you got to rock yourself a little harder
pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire

But I got a girl in the war Paul, the only thing I know to do
is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through

…I got a girl in the war Paul, her eyes are like champagne
they sparkle, bubble over, and in the morning all you got is rain

they sparkle, bubble over
and in the morning all you got is rain

Also download a string version of “Empty Hearts” (originally from 2007′s Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter), and if you are still unacquainted with his genius, many of his incredible songs are available for free download here.

JOSH RITTER SUMMER TOUR
# with Joe Pug (!)
* with Blind Pilot (!)
% with Helio Sequence
@ with Langhorne Slim

July 04 – Cork, Ireland. The Marquee (with full 24-piece orchestra and Lisa Hannigan!)
July 07 – Cleveland, OH. Beachland Ballroom #
July 08 – Des Moines, IA. Vaudeville Mews #
July 09 – Minneapolis, MN. Varsity Theater #
July 10 & 11 – Winnipeg, MB Winnipeg Folk Festival
July 12 – Fargo, ND. The Aquarium
July 14 – Boise, ID. Egyptian Theatre *
July 15 – Boise, ID. Egyptian Theatre (solo acoustic with string quartet. Tift Merritt supports)
July 16 – Sun Valley, ID. Elkhorn Resort (outdoor show)
July 17 – Kennewick, WA. Red Room %
July 18 – Moscow, ID. Rendezvous in the Park %
July 20 – Helena, MT. Myrna Loy Center @
July 21 – Bozeman, MT. The Emerson Cultural Center @
July 22 – Salt Lake City, UT. Urban Lounge @
July 23 – Denver, CO. Bluebird Theater @
July 24 – Lawrence, KS. The Bottleneck @
July 25 – Omaha, NE. Slowdown @
July 27 – Columbia, MO. Blue Note @
July 28 – St. Louis, MO. Off Broadway Nightclub @
July 29 – Louisville, KY. WFPK Waterfront Park (FREE)
July 30 – Chicago, IL. Metro
July 31 – London, ON. Music Hall
Aug 01 – Montreal, Canada. Osheaga Festival
Aug 02 – Newport, RI. Newport Folk Festival
Aug 15 – North Adams, MA. MASS MoCA Festival
(with Elvis Perkins, Ben Kweller and more)

[photo credit Eric Connolly]

I want to hold you in the bible-black predawn

I saw modern Chicago soul group JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound at the Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul Revue in April, and these young guys added a fiery verve of new sound amongst the vanguards and legends performing that night. I thought they had immense charisma live.

The Chicago Tribune recently called these guys “the real deal,” and the band says by means of self-description: “For us, it’s a little like, ‘What would it sound like if Otis Redding fronted the Stooges?‘”

A friend sent me this incredible cover from a few weeks ago at the Do Division Street Fest in Chicago, where the Uptown Sound played the mainstage alongside acts like Viva Voce, Handsome Furs, and White Rabbits.

All infused with shiny horns and a groove where I never thought I’d hear one, this song makes a freaking fantastic barnburning soul tune.

[via]

Last night with the Handsome Furs

That was definitely the best show I’ve seen all year. As we shuffled out of the sweaty, dark Larimer Lounge last night, the most we could utter were dazed expletives at the power and the explosive chemistry of the Handsome Furs‘ live show. Dan Boeckner (of Wolf Parade) and the scorchingly smart Alexei Perry combine forces to drill music into my brain that won’t leave. It was a dancing, searing, yelling, blistering rock supernova. Get into this band.

Radio Kaliningrad – Handsome Furs

I’m Confused – Handsome Furs
(And: watch the zombie video for “I’m Confused,” black blood and all, and never be the same; Dan mentioned last night over pizza that he’d read World War Z twice, and that sickly eerie feeling permeates this music video)

AND YOU MUST STREAM: “All We Want, Baby, Is Everything”

Face Control is out now. I highly recommend it as one of my favorites of the year so far — the unrelenting icy alienation of huge drum-machine beats paired with startling streaks of wild Springsteenesque romanticism.

[More tour dates here]

I really don’t understand what’s so complicated about the whole situation…

“…like, it seems pretty cut and dried. It’s just this guy, and he just… doesn’t like her very much.”

Complicated (Avril Lavigne cover) – Ben Gibbard

“…I don’t know if that was a good idea or a bad idea to play that.”

[song via, my pic above from the Obama/DNC party last summer]

Fanfarlo only costs you $1, and will give so much in return

Swooping and melodic, with a voice that undoubtedly reminiscent of a young David Byrne or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Fanfarlo evokes the freshness of springtime to me. Following the success of their record over at Rough Trade recently, where it was album of the week and flew out the proverbial door, they are offering Reservoir for only $1 from now until July 4th. That gives you a few weeks to shell out for this ebullient gem and have the perfect soundtrack for your summer BBQ festivities and sittin’ by the crick with a campfire.

When you download it now, your 100 pennies also buys you four bonus tracks not on the record. Their chiming crescendos of songs are perfect to watch outdoors in Austin. This video was shot in a quiet neighborhood alley at SXSW in March.

Secret Garden Video Series: Fanfarlo (SXSW Edition)
from hoovesontheturf on Vimeo.

And here — sample a few more:

Finishline – Fanfarlo

I’m A Pilot – Fanfarlo

Luna – Fanfarlo

But, I think my favorite song of theirs still might be Harold T. Wilkins (watch this fantastic video, all bright lights and science experiments).

Go snag the whole album!

New Fruit Bats! “My Unusual Friend”

Several years ago when I first heard the Fruit Bats, it was via their slice-of-pop-heaven single “When U Love Somebody.” I listened to them nonstop for a whole summer, and many friends received that song on a mixtape. Maybe even you.

So I’m mightily excited by the news from Sub Pop today that they have a new mp3 for your enjoyment off their upcoming album later this summer:

My Unusual Friend – Fruit Bats

…. or how about this lovely, burnished, backporch-sunset older tune? It’s another favorite of mine:

Slipping Through The Sensors – Fruit Bats

The Ruminant Band is out August 4th on Sub Pop. And while I usually don’t quote from the press release, this paragraph flawlessly sums up that quality I love about the Fruit Bats:

“In this often reflexive and world-weary era of popular music, there seems little room for unabashed wonder, or joy without suspicion. Some regrettable fear planted within each of us around the 7th grade or thereabouts still makes it hard to dance, hard to hold hands, hard to say ‘I love you,’ at least without a quick caveat or escape route at the ready. Over the course of three records, the last two on Sub Pop (2003’s Mouthfuls and 2005’s Spelled in Bones), Eric D. Johnson’s Fruit Bats have looked for ways to file down the cynical edge of modern life and found many. Using bright melodies, defiantly major-key chord structures, natural imagery mixed with the occasional blazing insight and tender observation, the Fruit Bats have never shied away from darkness, but more uncommon in this day and age, they’ve refused to shy away from light.”

Precisely.

FREE BONUS: This song is part of the absolutely brilliant new Sub Pop Free Summer Sampler, hosted on one of the flashiest, tackiest, worst-designed website I’ve seen since, oh, 1997.

Perhaps it is best viewed in Netscape Navigator.

2009 Sub Pop Cybersex Digital Sampler Track List
1. Vetiver – Strictly Rule
2. Handsome Furs – I’m Confused
3. Mark Sultan – Hold On
4. Red Red Meat – Gauze
5. Obits – Pine On
6. The Vaselines – Son of a Gun
7. Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
8. Iron and Wine – Belated Promise Ring
9. Tiny Vipers – Dreamer
10. Zak Sally – Why We Hide
11. Fruit Bats – My Unusual Friend
12. Pissed Jeans – False Jesii Part 2
13. Grand Archives – Silver Among the Gold
14. Flight of the Conchords – Hurt Feelings

DOWNLOAD THE SAMPLER HERE

ALSO: If you know any high school seniors who love music, Sub Pop has a VERY cool college scholarship program, with one of the best URLs I’ve seen this month (read it closely).

[top photo credit Annie Beedy]

Come wander the Golden Triangle this weekend (giveaway!)

The Golden Triangle sounds like a mystic land of enigma from which no one returns, but it’s actually the area of Denver that the 15th annual Westword Music Showcase will overrun  Saturday with 85+ ace bands, both local and national.

On Saturday, come peruse ten stages of goodness with me; we’ll see local bands worth vigorously loving like Everything Absent or Distorted, Young Coyotes, Meese and Houses, as well as influential Denver punk pioneers The Fluid (their 2008 reunion show looked like this), and super duper national acts coming to town for the occasion: sonic annihilation via Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers, Cursive from Omaha’s Saddle Creek label, and Boise’s epic Built To Spill. All that for twenty bucks, or less than $10 if you pre-purchase.

Even less expensive (as in F-R-E-E) are the five pairs of passes that Fuel/Friends has to give away to YOU and your selected companion. If you wanna come join us all day Saturday, please send me an email with “WESTWORD GIVEAWAY” as the subject line. We can maybe even have a beer or milkshake at the fest.

I feel fortunate to have a vibrant, active, effusively talented music scene to soundtrack life in Colorado, and the Westword (our local alt-weekly) is one of the two great festivals we have to look forward to this summer, with this tightly-curated day on Saturday.

Several Bocumast bands (Denver’s best record label, according to those who decide these things) add a rich streak of eclecticism through the lineup. I spent this afternoon listening to their spotlight feature on Radio 1190′s Local Shakedown show from last Friday (June 5), with new tunes from bands like Astrophagus, Hunter Dragon, BDRMPPL, Iuengliss, Tim Pourbaix, and Natural Selection. All are playing this weekend; download their tasty free sampler here to prepare.

BOCUMAST BANDS I’LL SEE
Raygun – The Revenge of Astrophagus
Taste Her Spells – Natural Selection
cyberpunkmorphbanger – BDRMPPL
Wake-Up Time – Iuengliss

OTHER HEATHER BROWNE FAVORITES TO CHECK OUT
We’ll See The Sun – Houses (saw these guys last week and WOW. Also; this is one of my new favorite songs)
Momentary Drowning – Young Coyotes
Aquariums – Everything Absent or Distorted (they hold my heart so tightly)
Preacher Man Blues – The Fluid
Tidal Wave – Joshua Novak
Car – Built To Spill
We At The Disco – Chain Gang of 1974 (ridiculously fun live)
I Keep You In A Flask – Ellison Park
By Yourself – The Knew
From The Hips – Cursive

There’s also a band I don’t know called “Lyin’ Bitch and The Restraining Orders.” And that’s just brilliant.

RELATED: The lineup for the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (July 23-26) is also starting to be unveiled. Bookending the late summer to the Westword’s June soiree, the UMS is the largest indie music festival in Colorado, and last year we absolutely killed it. This year I helped with the lineup and am even more excited, if that’s possible. Check it out, and support both avenues for discovering (really good) local music!

[for a bunch more free songs, go to the Westword’s Backbeat blog, and listen to the Donnybrook music Snobcast on the subject.]

MGMT makes Violens even more fresh and enjoyable

Today’s aural fixation is the skittering, diving new MGMT remix of the Violens song “Doomed,” which is anything but foreboding in this incarnation.

Undulating and  iridescent, like looking up from the bottom of the clear blue ocean with the sunlight filtering through, this remix ends too quickly for me, after only two and a half dulcet minutes. It’s totally and completely irresistible.

Doomed (MGMT remix) – Violens

The original version appears on their EP (out now through Cantora Records), and you can count me as a fan of what Violens is doing. The first time I heard them I wrote, “Zombies! The Zombies stumble into a very fashionable ’80s club where everyone has long angular bangs cut diagonal in a swoop. The music of Violens strikes me as a little new wave, a little smoky, but with good structural bones and catchy melodies under all the haze.”

SPIN raved (of their single, “Violent Sensation Descends“) : “In 1966, this alternately ominous and sparkly nugget would’ve been the No. 50 British single of the year, after the Creation’s ‘Making Time.’ It’s that good.”

**********

IN UNRELATED NEWS (MUTUAL APPRECIATION SOCIETY):
I got an extremely kind mention today in Magnet Magazine from author Nick Hornby, under the guest editor eye of Old 97s’ Rhett Miller. Like whoa! It’s a richly wonderful feeling to be able to give back to someone whose work resonates with you so intensely.

Music hits me – so hard

That absolutely made my Monday. Also: I want to join them.

[Thanks Joe!]

J Tillman gives me all sorts of late-night shivers

This song feels like true religion and creeping sadness in the middle of beauty, and a quiet night on a patterned bedspread.

I got real authentic goosebumps the first time I listened to it tonight and have been stuck on repeat.

Earthly Bodies – J Tillman

Let me lie across your christened spine
press my bare leg to the mountainside
glorious our earthly bodies rise
…fall and rise

The wineskin and my eyes are dry
though the spirit and the truth abide
when you stir throughout the wakeless night
…stir and sigh

J Tillman is a Fleet Fox, and he is from Vashon Island in Washington. J Tillman has an album coming soon, his sixth, called Year In The Kingdom (Sept 22, Western Vinyl). I think you should get it.

[my pic from SXSW above]