Townes Van Zandt’s song “If I Needed You” is one of the most quietly sad laments I know of, an asking for help, even while not quite asking. In a session posted on World Cafe on Friday, the Mumford kids take a shot at this song and wring out all the latent desperation that underlies the words. On the last verse, when Marcus cranks it up to a wail, it no longer becomes a polite request, but more of an exhortation yelled into the unresponsive silence of an empty room.
I just almost fell out of my chair when Field Report confirmed to play at my house show next Monday, October 8, with Seattle’s magnificent Hey Marseilles. They’re in town with a day off so WHY NOT. I love both bands so much that my ears might disintegrate into bliss right now, and you should come disintegrate with me.
I first wrote about Field Report after a friend of mine from their record label shot me an advance last March as a personal recommendation, with serious urgency for the understated burn throughout this record. Those days were the season of schizophrenic springtime icestorms, and this is a record of sleet and woodsmoke and fever dreams.
Chris Porterfield was in a Wisconsin band called DeYarmond Edison, along with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and what would become Megafaun. The Field Report record was made in Bon Iver’s Eau Claire studio, and has a similarly gripping effect to the first Bon Iver record, for me. It settles on me and clings to me, probing “unmapped chambers of hearts.”
This rich and thoughtful record is terrific all the way through (reminding me somehow of the gritty landscape of a Cormac McCarthy novel) but “Fergus Falls,” in particular, is the song I have listened to probably 200+ times, often in the car with the windows up and the volume dial as high as it can go because: THAT CRESCENDO. I had myriad ideas about what the song was about — there’s something distinctively dreamlike about the lyrics, except the kind of dream where you get wrapped in the sheets and try to run but your legs are lead. I recently read a piece in Rolling Stone that described how it was inspired by a pregnant woman he saw at a Milwaukee music festival who was with a guy who “looked like an asshole,” and that she seemed trapped. The song-pieces all fell into place, and lines like “And no one saw my banners, my bruises, my flares, my flags” made quiet sense.
You can stream the whole Field Report record here, and go buy it right now (it just came out a few weeks ago on Partisan Records – the home of other great artists like Deer Tick, Dolorean, and Middle Brother).
I can’t disentangle myself from this Shovels & Rope song this morning. There’s something powerful and affecting in the way that Cary Ann Hearst and her husband Michael Trent’s voices push and relent against each other on this simple rendition of their song under the pines at Oregon’s Pickathon this past August.
I only heard about Shovels & Rope a few weeks ago when a friend raved about their performance at eTown up in Boulder, and I was snagged by their name’s inferences of digging and tying. After looking them up online, I realized I’d heard effusive ravings about Cary Ann Hearst in 2010, oddly enough from my seatmate on a homebound flight from SXSW – Creed Bratton (of The Office and from the Sixties band The Grass Roots). He raved about her to me, and even mailed me a copy of her record, to which I replied that her “take no prisoners wail” sounded like she should be playing shows with the White Stripes. (Funnily enough, Shovels & Rope are on tour opening for Jack White right now).
Another friend told me that she also saw them at the same Boulder show, and that Cary’s presence onstage reminded her of a young and fiery Dolly Parton. That same fearlessness in this stripped-down formation is really killing me. I like fearlessness.
So lay low, baby, just for a little while more
if you can’t keep waiting – I will find my way back to your door
And this song is going to be the second or third track on my Autumn 2012 mix that I am working on, but I just couldn’t wait — so watch for it again soon.
Their record O’ Be Joyful is out now on Dualtone Records, and Shovels & Rope plays Denver’s Ogden Theatre on December 30 and 31. I would like to do that.
This just in! I am pleased to announce the newest Fuel/Friends house concert, this one with Hey Marseilles, who make explosive, soaring, colorful songs from the drizzly streets of Seattle. They will be kicking off their extensive fall tour with an intimate show in my community on Monday night, October 8th, and I am thrilled to be hosting them.
The first song of theirs that captured my eardrums was “Rio,” instantly whisking me off to a land peppered by handclaps where, happily, there are “always Brazilian boys to discover”:
Also, check out their NPR Tiny Desk concert to see what the house show might be more like: cozier, more acoustic, fewer video projection screens and sand.
FUEL/FRIENDS HOUSE SHOW INFORMATION HERE.
If you can’t make it to my house, here are the rest of their dates! Definitely, definitely go see this tour of they come near you.
HEY MARSEILLES FALL U.S. TOUR with Sea Wolf
Tue-Oct-9 – Denver, CO at Hi-Dive
Thu-Oct-11 – St. Louis, MO at Plush
Fri-Oct-12 – Louisville, KY at Good Time Emporium
Sat-Oct-13 – Cincinnati, OH at Taft Theatre
Sun-Oct-14 – Columbus, OH at The Basement
Mon-Oct-15 – Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE
Tue-Oct-16 – Asbury Park, NJ at The Saint
Fri-Oct-19 – New York, NY at Le Poisson Rouge (CMJ)
Sat-Oct-20 – Boston, MA at Church Of Boston
Sun-Oct-21 – Philadelphia, PA at North Star Bar
Mon-Oct-22 – Washington, DC at DC9
Tue-Oct-23 – Toledo, OH at Frankie’s Inner City
Wed-Oct-24 – Chicago, IL at Lincoln Hall
Thu-Oct-25 – Milwaukee, WI at Club Garibaldi
Fri-Oct-26 – Minneapolis, MN at Cedar Cultural Center
Mon-Oct-29 – Salt Lake City, UT at Urban Lounge
Tue-Oct-30 – Missoula, MT at The Top Hat
Wed-Oct-31 – Pullman, WA at Bell Tower
Fri-Nov-2 – Vancouver, BC at Electric Owl
Sat-Nov-3 – Portland, OR at Doug Fir Lounge
Mon-Nov-5 – San Francisco, CA at The Independent
Wed-Nov-7 – Santa Cruz, CA at Rio Theatre
Thu-Nov-8 – Fresno, CA at Fulton 55
Fri-Nov-9 – San Diego, CA at The Casbah
Sat-Nov-10 – Los Angeles, CA at El Rey Theater
Two absolutely phenomenal shows from the Communion Records family in London are coming through Denver a day apart from each other at the end of September, and Fuel/Friends is excited to get to give away a pair of tickets to each!
Ben Howard is playing the gorgeous Boulder Theater in a (sold-out) show on September 29 with Marcus Foster. He was on my spring mix with the glorious, slow-building warmth of “Old Pine,” and also added his unique spin on that cover of “Call Me Maybe.”
Michael Kiwanuka is playing the next night, September 30, at the Fox Theatre with Bahamas. All of these things are good on so many levels; Michael Kiwanuka blew me away at SXSW this past March, and he was on my summer mix. That new Bahamas record has been on constant rotation (and I also love his first album, still listening to it regularly).
WIN TICKETS! Please leave a comment on this post with an interesting fact about something cool. Also indicate which show you are entering for! I will pick a random winner for each concert sometime in the middle of next week.
As a reminder, here is what happens when all these folks make music together. Communion Records is so squarely in my wheelhouse, just curating some of the best music out there lately:
(Filmed at Cacophony Recorders, Austin TX during SXSW Communion Records artists Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard with his band, India and Chris, Ben Lovett, The Staves and Johannes from Bear’s Den jam to John Martyn’s ‘Over The Hill.’)
And a feature from NME about the ethos and philosophy behind Communion Records with founders of the label: Kev Jones (who took me out for lovely pints in London in November) and Ben Lovett from Mumford and Sons.
You might want to check out Communion’s New Faces record, to see what other goodness they have waiting in the wings.
On Saturday night, Seattle’s Pickwicktore through Denver on a short tour, and the energy in the Hi-Dive was palpable. Their music leans towards the toe-tapping, hip-shaking soul variety, but when they burned their way into this Damien Jurado cover and then “The Ostrich” by Lou Reed’s The Primitives as their penultimate song, they showed that they can also rage like a proper punk band. Holy mackerel, being in the front row for this just about killed me (in the best possible way).
This band keeps surprising me, and from the looks of the packed club on Saturday night, they keep surprising and converting increasingly large circles of fans. I predict good things coming with their debut full-length that they’ve almost finished. Watch out.
Will Johnson makes smoky music that simmers understatedly, rewarding you for spending time sitting with it. The frontman for Centro-Matic / South San Gabriel, Will’s also made music these last few years with Monsters of Folk (with Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Jim James) as well as that great Woody Guthrie album with Jay Farrar and Jim James earlier this year.
This opening track off Scorpion(his first solo record in eight years) wrestles exquisitely with “what to do with the golden beast of love,” but this song is not, as they say, a victory march. The first 90% of this song feels hesitant, and beautifully unsure. It grows slowly. There’s something in the emotional map of this song that feels like the end of a soul-sucking workday, when you come home and slip off your shoes and sit there in your stocking feet in a dark living room with a glass of something amber and alcoholic. It’s rife with doubt, and little flashes of bliss. It feels like a stumbling relationship. It’s only for the very, very last final measures of the song that finally all the pieces come together that have been missing colliding with each other for the whole song — finally, the rhythm clicks double time and the melody falls into that simple ladder step progression that’s so satisfying.
The whole song is a weary unfolding of fits and starts. That dopamine-rush of an ending makes me think it was worth it, for just a few measures. And then it’s over; unresolved. Damn you, Will Johnson, for leaving things as messy as our real lives.
Scorpionis out on September 11, a self-release distributed through Thirty Tigers/Undertow Records (Avett Brothers, Dave Bazan, Joe Pug, Langhorne Slim).
You can listen to the entire album now over on his site. I honestly haven’t been able to get over this first track, so I haven’t even listened to the whole thing yet. One of these days I’ll stop wanting to click “play again” on Track 1. Not today.
WILL JOHNSON FALL TOUR
Sept 11 – Waterloo Records in-store, Austin, TX
Sept 14 – Waverly, AL @ Living Room Show
Sept 15 – Birmingham, AL @ Living Room Show
Sept 16 – Atlanta, GA @ Living Room Show
Sept 17 – Athens, GA @ Living Room Show
Sept 18 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom
Sept 19 – Baltimore, MD @ Living Room Show
Sept 21 – Philadelphia @ Living Room Show
Sept 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Living Room Show
Sept 23 – NYC @ Mercury Lounge
Sept 24 – Boston, MA @ Living Room Show
Sept 25 – Montpelier VT @ Living Room Show
Sept 26 – Buffalo, NY @ Living Room Show
Sept 27 – Cleveland, OH @ Living Room Show
Sept 28 – Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s
Sept 29 – Saint Louis @ Off Broadway
Oct 2 – Dallas, TX @ Texas Theatre
Oct 3 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
Oct 4 – Austin, TX @ Cactus Cafe
I’m sitting by my window watching a late summer storm brew and foment. The thunder is rolling in the distance as tree branches thrash around in the wind; all the humidity and grey heaviness of this afternoon is finally ready to break. The line I just sang to myself in the quiet kitchen, without thinking, was “a big old hurricane / she’s blowing our way…” This song keeps following me around (because Patty Griffin pens some of the best songs around, anywhere) to keep reminding me of stubborn lessons.
The version that always gets me is The Local Strangers‘ take on it, and the way that the hurricane of Aubrey Zoli absolutely owns this song, invoking that gospel certainty as she raises her arms and sings the truth. I watched Matt and Aubrey slay this song at silvery sunset on the beach at Doe Bay Fest a few Sundays ago, and it was one of the purest and most stunning moments of the fest for me. For as many times as I hear them perform this song (they often end their shows with it), I always get chills — every time.
We keep waving and waving our arms in the air, but we’re all tired out.
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.
WIN TICKETS! Please leave a comment on this post with an interesting fact about something cool. Also indicate which show you are entering for! I will pick a random winner for each concert sometime in the middle of next week.
Name: Heather Browne
