Starlight Mints :: “Submarine #3″

Everything about this song, from the crisp after-dinner zing of the band who brings it to us, to the heartswelling, immense, gorgeously elegant string section that starts it, to the pop confection that follows — it’s nearly perfect in every way that matters.

Submarine #3 – The Starlight Mints

Starlight Mints are from Norman, Oklahoma, and are signed to Barsuk Records. That tune is the first song on their first album, The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of (2000).

They have a new album out now called Change Remains, and a new Daytrotter session full of good free tunes to go along with it.

[painting by Kelley MacDonald, and thanks to G for making me listen]

go ahead and steal it

lyric from
The Sound of Failure – The Flaming Lips

My new daily jolt of artistic + musical beauty comes from clicking over to stolenlyric.com, a fresh artistic endeavor by my good friend, former Denver photographer Laurie Scavo.

When we were photographing shows side-by-side, before she up and moved to LA, I was always amazed at her eye for the smallest details on stage. She’d see things through her lens that I never noticed. In her new artistic project, she combines her eye for those achingly gorgeous scenes with snippets of lyrics that keep breaking my heart.

lyric from
Down By The River – Neil Young

Do check out stolenlyric.com for more of these, and note that “all images are created as 12.5″ x 12.5″ giclee prints designed to fit in a standard record frame. they look rad on the wall.” I wouldn’t mind having a row of these to call my own.

New Swell Season :: “Fantasy Man”

In 2007, Glen Hansard (The Frames) and Marketa Irglova entranced a whole lot of us music lovers with the simple and sweet story of Once, and the flawless ways their voices blend together on the soundtrack of original material. The song “Falling Slowly” still puts a knot in my gut when I hear it, and that whole soundtrack is magic.

If you liked that film, you must stop what you are doing today and visit the NPR “Tiny Desk” concert series to hear the set they recently did with six new songs, plus an urgent and impassioned rendition of “When Your Mind’s Made Up” from the film. They are back with their first album of new material since that soundtrack.

Strict Joy is out October 27th (-Anti Records) under their proper band moniker, The Swell Season. The forthcoming album takes its name from a work by Irish poet James Stephens, and was co-produced by Hansard and Peter Katis (The National, Frightened Rabbit).

Of the six songs they previewed from the new album for the lucky folks at NPR, this one riveted me the fastest. The dulcet harmonies remind me quite a bit of Lisa Hannigan’s haunting work with Damien Rice…

Fantasy Man (live on NPR) – The Swell Season

…And I second NPR’s notion that “Feeling The Pull” sounds like a lost Van Morrison track — which reminds me how much I love this cover:

Into The Mystic (Once b-side, Van Morrison cover) – The Swell Season

Download the whole seven song podcast here.

(New contest!) It might get loud.

To get you all riled up and excited like I am for the opening of the new film It Might Get Loud (opening in coastal NY/LA theaters Friday), I have a sweet poster signed by director Davis Guggenheim to give away.

I got little goosebumps of excitement when I saw this trailer, and I might have even uttered a profanity (sorry Mom).

Blue Orchid – White Stripes

From the clips I’ve seen, this movie draws me in because all three guitar players (Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page) truly, humbly love music and feel called to express part of themselves through the guitar. I love watching what flits across their faces as they watch each other play — the hint of a kid-like smile at seeing their idols at work.

The movie also seems to delve into how it can be almost like another language, this guitar playing — one that I can understand the meaning of when heard in the street, but I failed grammar class and could never speak a lick of it myself. As White says, “We’re all attempting to share something with another human being.” The Communication major in me thought that angle was pretty cool, and I can’t wait to hear more.

TO WIN THE POSTER: Leave me a comment saying which one of the three guitarists you are most interested to see and hear from and watch in this film, and why. I’ll pick a winner on Friday! (and sorry but you must be a U.S. resident to win)

In one of the press clips of the film that I got to screen, Jack White talks about how he came into making music through a Detroit co-worker (Brian Muldoon) at an upholstery apprenticeship he did in high school. The band they formed was fittingly called The Upholsterers, and their first 7″ was Makers of High Grade Suites (2000).

Even in these blisteringly raw tracks, you can hear the rumblings of what was to come from Jack White:

Apple Of My Eye – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)
I Ain’t Superstitious – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)
Pain – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)

The documentary also shows the making of a U2 single (I saw clips of The Edge out at a beach home, noodling), has original music from Page, and yields a new song written on the spot by Jack White for the film (his Fly Farm Blues single is out today on Third Man Records).

It might get loud, indeed.

The Henry Clay People continue to rock, and ravage me on Scrabble

I am currently engaged in a tight battle of wits and words with a Henry Clay Person, via the magic of our computers. He challenged me in some sort of turf war repping, calling our match “Denver vs. LA.” Sorry Colorado, I’m losing. Mostly because he played “axil” for a large number of points and I have not yet caught up (oh, but I will).

I’ve seen Henry Clay People live several times and they’ve blown me out of the water each time. I dragged everyone I could to see them at SXSW, and I think I tallied 3 or 4 times in the roiling sweaty masses beneath their stage.

Tomorrow they bring their literate, bluesy/Stonesy, Pavement-rock to Denver’s Larimer Lounge, part of their current summer tour that’s moved them through Lollapalooza (where they were one of 15 to see, alongside bands like Depeche Mode and Heartless Bastards), and will deliver them back home to Los Angeles on Friday (Aug 14th) for a show at Echoplex, where apparently it is a summer circus and there are balloon animals involved.

Their shows radiate the joy of a good, ragged rock anthem and brotherly love (Joey and Andy are sibs, and like to tease each other good-naturedly while they bring the rock). Their music is loud and expansive, even redemptive. It makes me feel good on my insides (and in my eardrums).

Henry Clay People recently debuted two unreleased songs over at Dodge‘s Laundromatinee site, along with two songs from their excellent, highly-recommended 2008 album For Cheap Or For Free (out on Aquarium Drunkard’s Autumn Tone label).

In that video up there for “Half Asleep,” you can feel some of the swaggering, lazy, sexy guitar work that won me over, along with memorable lyrics like, “I was half asleep when you said you were sorry to me …yeah I was half awake when you took it back.”

I Was Half Asleep – Henry Clay People
The End Of An Empire (unreleased) – Henry Clay People

For the other two songs (mp3s) and to watch the rest of the session, head over to Laundromatinee — there’s one more unreleased song over there (“The Good Ones”), a glimpse of where they’re going.

Their MySpace player features my four favorite songs on their album, including “You Can Be Timeless,” which I’ve never seen them play live so I am crossing my fingers for tomorrow night. The mp3 of that song is also part of the free Lollapalooza digital sampler, along with folks like Fleet Foxes, The Raveonettes, and Joe Pug.

Rock on, and scrabble hard.

New Houses: “Circles and Squares”

One of my favorite bands right now, in Denver or otherwise, is the ebullient collective known as Houses. The focus of my first Queen City Spotlight a few months back, these folks continue to illuminate the local scene with their expansive, golden songs that explode off the stage every time I’ve seen them.

Houses is releasing their second seasonal EP for summer TONIGHT at the Meadowlark‘s outdoor stage ($8, 8pm, with The Wheel‘s Joseph Pope III, and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake).

Here’s a track from the new EP, one that’s become a high point of their live show – imagine at the five minute mark where the “ba-ba-ba-duh-daaaaa“ing starts, but everyone in the crowd yelling along as loud as they possibly can.

It’s everything that makes Houses the perfect soundtrack to my summer.

Circles & Squares – Houses

New David Gray: “Fugitive” (and win tickets to see him tomorrow!)

My love for David Gray is vast and deep, the astounding way he can turn a lyric (these, for example are some of my favorite) or birth a simple piano melody to make my heart ache. His show in 2006 at the Colorado Convention Center still remains a top one for me.

Gray has just previewed a new track from his eighth full-length studio release, Draw The Line (due out Sept 22 on Mercer Street/Downtown Records).

The album has eleven new songs, two of which are duets with great female vocalists: Jolie Holland (on “Kathleen”) and Annie Lennox (“Full Steam Ahead”). I especially love Jolie Holland’s voice (of the Be Good Tanyas), and in an interview with Spinner, Gray said, “I’m a huge Jolie Holland fan. She’s absolutely fantastic and there’s not many people who manage to be so natural and unselfconscious. Her voice is just so warm. It reminds me of Cat Stevens in the best possible way.” Not a bad compliment, at all.

COLORADO READERS! Friday night’s eTown taping with David Gray (yes, that’s tomorrow) has long been sold out, but Fuel/Friends has a pair of passes to give away to the first person who emails me and tells me their favorite David Gray lyric and why.

Easy peasy, and you’re welcome. It’s gonna be a marvelous show.

For those of you who don’t win (or aren’t in Colorado) be sure to check out the list of fall tour dates elsewhere, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.

DAVID GRAY FALL TOUR
Oct 23 – Boston, MA, Wang Theatre
Oct 24 – New York, NY, WAMU Theater
Oct 26 – Toronto, Canada, Massey Hall
Oct 27 – Upper Darby, PA, Tower Theatre
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL, Chicago Auditorium Theatre
Oct 30 – Minneapolis, MN, Orpheum Theatre
Nov 1 – Denver, CO, Paramount Theatre
Nov 2 – Salt Lake City, UT, Kingsbury Hall
Nov 4 – Portland, OR, Arlene Schnizer Concert Hall
Nov 7 – Oakland, CA, Paramount Theatre
Nov 9 – Los Angeles, CA, Orpheum Theatre

Summertime with Pete Droge

After a week at sea, I might be listing to the side a little bit when I walk, and still securing things so they won’t fall over when the ship tilts. I have what some call dock shock; it took me a week to get used to living on the ocean, and now it seems a week until everything on terra firma stops moving. I had an absolutely incredible, transformative week at sea — you can see how it all unfolded in these pics.

I needed a kick in the proverbial pants to get me back blogging after that (much-needed) unplugged sea sabbatical, and this brand new EP from Pete Droge is just the thing. Droge keeps popping up over the years in places I love, with music that his site calls “rich and loamy” (and I love that word, loamy).

I find his tunes always hit the sweet spot of expansive, golden afternoons in the sound spectrum. The The Droge & Summers Blend: Vol. 1 EP is available for a pay-as-you-like download, and was recorded on Vashon Island, off the coast of Seattle.

Tie The Knot – Droge & Summers Blend

The title of the EP actually doesn’t refer to this current season (although it totally could), but the vocalist Elaine Summers who shares singing duties here with Pete. These same two recorded a fabulous little duet (an homage to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, according to Cameron Crowe) which appeared in the Director’s Cut of Almost Famous, of course one of my favorite movies. How perfect is this?!

Previously from Pete, he contributed the title track to the 1996 Ted Demme film Beautiful Girls, and notably popped up on a lovely little sampler from Pete Yorn’s label Trampoline Records in 2002 with this tune, a highlight of the very-strong album:

All Lit Up – Pete Droge

And, I will always take every opportunity I can find to post this song, one of my all-time favorite summer tunes that I never tire of listening to. “Long Sweet Summer Night” is from Droge’s collaboration with Matthew Sweet (their voices blend so well together) and Shawn Mullins (rockabye. Do it), The Thorns. It’s on their self-titled 2003 album

Long, Sweet Summer Night – The Thorns

There ain’t no traffic lights in this little town
and lots of places where there’s no one around

Out by the red water, on the new grass
we’ll wake up the morning, making it last

So yep. Get to know Pete Droge this August.

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