Fuel/Friends debut: Rogue Wave “Solitary Gun” video clip

San Francisco Bay Area band Rogue Wave has stolen my heart in many ways over the years, and not just because of where they hail from. Their music lilts and lifts, drenched in sonorous harmonies and prominent percussion.

For their upcoming album Permalight (out March 2 on Brushfire) they have assembled 11 short videos with the help of Tyler Manson and Emmett Malloy, filmed in and around the Bay Area. This one shows our favorite organ donation recipient out and about, with his awesome hair and his good attitude.

This retro-feeling song starts the album, with the singsong falsetto opening before the handclaps hit:

Solitary Gun – Rogue Wave

Read more about their adventures and concept behind the filming over at IFC (including the Zach Rogue’s love of Bluebottle coffee – yum) and watch all the video vignettes from around the SF Bay Area as they are unveiled at the Rogue Wave site.

Blind Pilot looks for Miss Ohio

I have “a thing” for this song — both the way Gillian Welch conceived of it and the way anyone else covers it. It is, quite simply, a sweet, sad, powerful song that oozes goodness. I have been known on occasion to drive around (in my Nissan Sentra, so no ragtop down) to this song on repeat, on roadtrips through the barren lands — singing how she wants to do right, but not right now.

To finally have a good quality recording of Blind Pilot performing it (one of my favorite newer bands) is just heavenly. Israel’s voice radiates an enveloping warmth, and an understandable melancholy.

LISTEN: Look At Miss Ohio (Gillian Welch) – Blind Pilot

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From their iTunes Live Sessions EP, out now, also worth it for the achingly to-die-for good version of “3 Rounds And A Sound” with ukulele, and the previously-unreleased track “Get It Out.”

You can also now order their amazing album 3 Rounds and a Sound on 180-gram vinyl, and I can think of very few albums released in recent years that sound as good that way.

Angel dust and my dress just comes undone

I’ve been listening to a good deal of Hole these last few days, since reading about Courtney Love’s return to band form and the live stage after a decade. I’ve also been mulling over ideas about Kurt Cobain’s argued influence on their whizbang, still-excellent-sounding 1994 album Live Through This.

I think I’m going to go read some conspiracy theories on the subject, ponder whether attributing her good album to the nearest (musical genius) man is offensive, and enjoy listening to this:

Asking For It (feat. Kurt Cobain) – Hole

[Magazine scan via this post; How Sassy Changed My Life? I was a fervent subscriber and still have all the issues in my basement. So I just ordered the book.]

First hips, then knees, then feet — don’t think anymore

I’ve always been impressed with Matt Pond PA, from the standout track of theirs (“Brooklyn Stars”) I first included on my NYC Mix in 2007 (the band now lives in Brooklyn, via Philly) to the wintry soundtrack he brought us last year. This new album is no exception.

I am making a pit stop at home on this snowy Friday evening before I head up to Denver for the Justin Townes Earle/Joe Pug show, drinking a beer in my kitchen and playing this loud on my stereo. This song sounds like the most perfect thing I could be listening to at this moment. It’s a warm and dense song, with handclaps and harmonies and intricate lyrics, but a tightly thrumming sense of anticipation (especially around the 2:30 mark — try to sit still!). It’s thoughtful indie balladry you can dance around to, like I just did across the wood floors.

“We could start tonight, slide back the deadbolts…”

Starting – Matt Pond PA

The Dark Leaves, their eighth album, is out April 6 on Altitude Records. They’re playing a few shows at SXSW, and I do believe I would like to see them.

UPDATE: The Dark Leaves has quickly become my newest obsession, and my most-listened-to album for the last few weeks. It is absolutely superb.

I know you want to, I just don’t believe that you will

Shiny news from the good folks at Saddle Creek this morning:

Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) and Nena Dinova have teamed up again to record four new songs for the expanded reissue of their 2004 collaboration One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels.

The original six track release from ’04 will be augmented by these four new songs, and released on Saddle Creek on March 23. You can preorder it here. Details:

“Dividing the songwriting duties, the original tracks were recorded by Conor Oberst and Jake Bellows in basements of houses on quiet, leafy streets in Omaha in the fall of 2003. Those tracks were mixed, tweaked, and sprinkled with magic dust by famed producer-in-residence Mike Mogis at his Presto! Studios in Lincoln, Nebraska. The groups reconvened in the fall of 2009 to write and record four new tracks at Mogis’s renowned ARC Studios in Omaha for the reissue.”

Here’s what they sound like:

you taught me the fire, i taught you the hunger

This song reminded me a bit of the elegy found in a Leonard Cohen song, the hymn-like structure, the ancient weariness in the words. Listen in a darkened room with caution.

We started out, we were much younger
you taught me the fire, and i taught you the hunger
i remember love ,but love don’t remember me

…i’ll wait at the bar rooms, and you’ll wait at the station
and we’ll dream of each other, in our old situation…

The Casanova (I Remember Love) – Andy Clockwise (video)

I love that second line; after all, don’t we all want something to sparkle brilliantly as it combusts against the night sky? A supernova of fire and hunger.

Andy Clockwise is an Australian living in LA, and I first ripped a version of this song many months ago after falling in love with it during a live performance on NPR’s All Things Considered. It’s out now in proper form on the Australian version of his EP Are You Well?, with the marvelous addition of a harmonica bridge that’ll simply break your heart.

For two weeks only, you can download the EP for free on his website, including a fuzzy Beck-reminiscent tune called “Love and War,” his cover of Bjork’s “Hyperballad,” and a duet with Lissie, that gal I fell in love with recently.

This is a musician that has been vigorously championed to me for many months by my friend Garrett who lives out there in the California sunshine, and swears by the Clockwise live show experience. Lucky for me, Andy’s playing SXSW on Friday, March 19th at midnight at The Parish, and I’ll be pleased to be there.

Stream the Local Natives in full

On Monday, Pitchfork bestowed the coveted designation of “Best New Music” on Los Angeles’ Local Natives, a well-deserved feat for this band I’ve been loving ever since they wooed me last summer with their propulsive melodies, joyful urgency, and clattery Simon & Garfunkel covers in the backyard.

The band just sent me this link for you to stream their whole album, and I think you should. “World News” remains one of the very best things I heard all of last year. Their debut full-length Gorilla Manor came out yesterday on Frenchkiss Records (The Hold Steady, Freelance Whales).

And this should be fun….

LOCAL NATIVES US TOUR
3/18-20 Austin, TX – SXSW (venues to be announced)
4/20 Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
4/22 Dallas, TX – The Cavern
4/23 Austin, TX – Emo’s Inside
4/24 Houston, TX – Mango’s
4/26 Little Rock, AR – Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack
4/27 Hattiesburg, MS – Thirsty Hippo
4/29 St. Augustine, FL – Cafe 11
4/30 Nashville, TN – The Basement
5/1 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
5/4 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
5/5 Washington, DC – DC 9
5/6 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
5/7 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
5/8 Allston, MA – Great Scott
5/11 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
5/12 Columbus, OH – The Basement
5/14 Chicago, IL – Schubas
5/15 Rock Island, IL – Rock Island Brewing Company
5/17 Minneapolis, MN – 400 Bar
5/18 Iowa City, IA – The Mill
5/19 Columbia, MO – Mojo’s
5/21 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
5/22 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
5/25 Spokane, WA – Empyrean
5/26 Boise, ID – Neurolux
5/27 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
5/28 Vancouver, BC – Media Club
5/30 The Gorge, WA – Sasquatch
6/3 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill

Red seas at night

The Clogs are a somnolent musical endeavor of Bryce Dessner from The National (who just confirmed for Sasquatch but I suppose that’s another post altogether), and friends he met while studying at the Yale School of Music: Padma Newsome (viola/melodica/voice/piano), Rachael Elliott (bassoon), and Thomas Kozumplik (percussion).

Similar to their friend Doveman, the dark and dreamlike music they create finds its home on the Brassland record label, and since they like to keep it all closely knit, the album also features Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National, Sufjan Stevens, and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond.

The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton is their fifth full-length, and starts shipping today from Brassland directly (CD+EP or CD+shirt).

It will be in stores on March 2.

Red Seas – The Clogs

Also, this instrumental song from their Veil Waltz EP (“a prologue to the album“) makes me feel suddenly and untraceably wistful.

Three Two – The Clogs

CLOGS TOUR DATES
Feb 19 — Minneapolis, MN @ Southern Theater
Feb 20 — Minneapolis, MN @ Southern Theater
Mar 22 — Listen to them on WNYC
Mar 24 — New York, NY @ Bell House w/ Ólöf Arnalds and Julianna Barwick (album release party)
Mar 26–28 — Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival

UPDATE 2/17: “Big Ears Festival, March 26-28: Sufjan Stevens along with Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner of The National and Shara Warden (My Brightest Diamond) will be joining Clogs in their performance of the new song cycle ‘The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton.’ This will be the only live performance of the piece currently scheduled with all of the guest vocalists from the album.”

here beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again

Ben Cooper is from Jacksonville, Florida, and sometimes makes music under the name Radical Face. Although it sounds like the band name of an exuberant bunch of 14-year old skater punks, Radical Face music is intricate and echoey, hummable and immensely enjoyable.

This song from his 2007 album Ghost has been the soundtrack to my afternoon. The ooooh-ey harmonies remind me a bit of Shins goodness, and I really like the clapping, shuffling percussion that makes the song feel like tape reels, winding and rewinding in a vacant room. One writer noted that the windchimes that start the song are almost “like the song was carried on a breeze through an open porch screen door.”

Yes.

Welcome Home, Son – Radical Face

Ben also plays music with friend Alex Kane and together they become Electric President, another band I enjoy.

They released a new album last month called The Violent Blue (on Fake Four Records), and the “first proper Electric President show in a long while” will take place at SXSW this year!

We’ll count that as just one more of the many reasons I am excited about Austin in five weeks.

Safe and Sound – Electric President (new song)

put on your blue lipstick and i’ll put on my venus boots

One of my favorite songs on Langhorne Slim‘s last outing Be Set Free was the rambling, jangly romanticism of “Say Yes” — specifically where he pleads, “Put on your blue lipstick and I’ll put on my venus boots, and we’re in California but it might as well be the moon. Say yes, say yes, say yes…”

I couldn’t resist that request from him, even if I’m not exactly sure what it means. I’d say yes.

Go send the song in a fancy little Valentine’s Day card to someone you’ve taken a shine to. I’m seeing Langhorne on Wednesday night at the Hi-Dive, and I have a prize pack to give away to a lucky Denver reader:

LANGHORNE LOVES YOU: SAY YES PRIZE PACK
- One vinyl copy of Be Set Free
- One signed Langhorne Slim canvas bag
- A pair of tickets to his show Wednesday night at the Hi-Dive

Leave me an amenable, yes kind-of comment and we’ll sort things out Tuesday night.

Say Yes – Langhorne Slim (do it!)

He is touring all over to about 40 cities between now and April so seriously, you got lots of chances to agree with him, and I think you’ll find him and his music…mighty agreeable.