Hard Times (come again no more): The Fuel/Friends Autumn 2012 Mix

When all the green slides out of the leaves, and the fiery yellows light up the skies overhead on my walk to work, there’s always the temptation for that Seasonal Affective kick-in-the-ass to creep in also. The chill in the air of October gets my attention and makes me introspect in a way that I do not do in the lazy indulgence of summer.

Last year, a good friend of mine commented that my autumn mix was almost too sad to listen to, and yeah – there is something about this season that has, in the past, made me quite somber. Last year’s theme coalesced completely on its own from songs I was listening to, and turned out to be about: bones, rivers, and too much space in empty beds. There was a lot of cello, which seems fitting in these days, but sad nonetheless.

But then –it turns out– you can also think about it in the way that I’m doing this season.

Autumn is also a time when all the externals dry up and fall away so that you can see the shape of the branches underneath, clearly defining us against those ice blue skies. The rich summer scaffolding is gone, and the graceful arc underneath can be seen and examined. I’m feeling like my bare branches right now are enjoying the freedom.

These are songs for that.

HARD TIMES (COME AGAIN NO MORE): THE FUEL/FRIENDS AUTUMN 2012 MIX

Hard Times – eastmountainsouth
I can’t tell if this song is a marker in the sand of celebration, a fervent wish made under our breaths, or (most likely) both. Eastmountainsouth is defunct now, with each of the pair making their own music, but I saw them live in San Francisco in 2005 and their powerfully-wending voices were part of the first surge of re-realizing that I needed music in my life that made me feel something. The way they sing this song from 1854 also makes me realize that we’ve collectively been wishing the hard times away for a long while now.

So It Goes – Portage
When I was in Minneapolis last weekend, I arrived at a random house show and descended to the basement to watch these guys play to a packed crowd, and was mightily impressed. I think Trent’s voice reminds me some of Local Natives, in that youthful urgency, and even joy. This is the lead-off track of their 2011 album The Unsalted Sea, and they have a new one coming next month.

Yer Fall – Hey Rosetta!
I wrote all about these guys on my birthday, and what they give and what they demand with their music. This song is a seasonal elegy to top all seasonal elegies, a song of love that has died and is buried in the autumn leaves, better hid.

I Feel Better – Frightened Rabbit
Sometimes even when you’re feeling better, and better, you feel worse and then better. This is a personal kickass anthem, an empowering gem off a record that I love but where all the other songs are wallowers. This track is not a wallower, this is a fist to the air and a vow that this is the last one I’ll do.

Hello My Old Heart – The Oh Hellos
A warmly enveloping, slowly-building typhoon welcoming a heart back out of hibernation. The voices here are a brother/sister duo from Texas.

Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San – John K. Samson
I love The Weakerthans a great deal, and the new solo record from their frontman is as quirky and poignant and terrific as I would have hoped. Our protagonist here is an Icelandic immigrant sent to a Manitoba sanatorium for tuberculosis, and these are his letters home. Over the sweetly sad, meandering violin, he writes to a loved one of the burns on his back from the xrays, that make him never want to show anyone anything ever again.

Lay Low (live at Pickathon) – Shovels & Rope
Gahhh. This song wrecks me from the opening lines: “Well I probably should be / swept out to sea / where I can’t hurt no one, and no one can hurt me.” How can such sonic goodness be so grippingly sad? This is a song of waiting, and waiting.

Miss Sunflower – Ryan Adams
The collection of Ryan’s songs dubbed The Suicide Handbook is pretty much what the title implies, a collection of acoustic songs that will effortlessly gut you. This one is such a perfect song. I don’t know how Ryan does it; I wasn’t missing anyone and then I listen to this and I’m suddenly wondering who I miss making smile. Damn you, Adams.

Princess On The Porch – Josh Rouse
A b-side from Josh Rouse that is one of my hands-down favorites of anything he’s ever recorded. That’s when I realized how you are, and how we’ll never be / ah, ’cause baby, it’s not you I was searching for — it’s only me.

Hollywood, Forever – Tyler Lyle
I’ll be happy with Tyler in every season y’all. Everything he records, I ingest as if it has life-giving elixir properties (and often it does). This is a demo he just strung together in his spare time because he does that. “Would it frighten or free us to think the world doesn’t need us – at all?” A song for a the most temporal-feeling of all seasons.

I Am Not Waiting Anymore – Field Report
A smoky song, off what is easily one of my favorite records this year, there’s one line here that just completely blasts down my anthropologist defenses, and I can’t explain why, other than to say I get it: “I’ve been a keen-eyed observer of the movements of concentric parts / of the bodies, and bones, and breasts, and unmapped chambers of hearts.” I am not waiting anymore.

Borrowed Tune – Neil Young
This one comes right after the Field Report song because they just covered it in the chapel for me, and I can’t extricate the melody from my head ever since (which is actually the melody from a Rolling Stones song, but nevermind). “I’m climbing this ladder, my head in the clouds, I hope that it matters…” Also – that piercing harmonica blending with the piano? This mix is laced with harmonica because it is the season for such things.

On Not Smoking Anymore – Isaac Pierce
I heard Isaac sing a version of this on a beach on Orcas Island, then I woke up on my birthday a week later in a tent at the Lyons Folks Fest, singing it under my breath. I went and waded in the cold river and sang it to myself as a reminder and an anthem for this year that there is indeed nothing missing. Sing joy.

Yulia (Wolf Parade) – Dan Griffin
Wolf Parade’s angular song of a Russian cosmonaut drifting lost in space is reinvented by Ontario musician Dan Griffin as something aching and simple — like a Springsteen Nebraska outtake. The effect of the lines about waking from a fever dream and floating in a salty sea takes on a whole new tinge.

October’s Road – Balto
From their autumnal album of the same name, Portland’s Balto is a band that a few readers wrote to me independently about, encouraging me to listen. There’s a loose freedom and joy in this song that builds to remind us that life ain’t that bad.

That Sea, The Gambler – Gregory Alan Isakov
I am pretty sure that if I ever wind up lost in the fog at sea, there will be no musician I would rather singing to me than Colorado treasure Isakov. There is something wooly and warm (but unsettling) in his voice that always feels right this time of year. The ocean is holding all the keys.

You Are The Everything (R.E.M.) – Redbird
A flawless R.E.M. song becomes something even warmer and stronger with the campfirey, flannel-voiced strength of Jeffrey Foucault. I have listened to this cover hundreds of times.

Flames and Ashes – Matt Ruddy
Ruddy is a Portland musician who I met one January night over many old-fashioneds in an Albina district neighborhood bar. He has a new EP out with this beautiful interlude that makes me think of leaves falling, and pushes back some space for me to take a deep breath. See previous notation about the harmonica, both on that Neil Young song and here; harmonicas remind me of train whistles and this season makes me want to take trips to the horizon and then keep going.

Rest (live on Daytrotter) – Michael Kiwanuka
This is the closest we as adults may get to lullabies and reassurances. And you know, I will totally take it.

Hard Times – Gillian Welch
Come on my sweet old girl
I’d bet the whole damn world
that we’re gonna make it yet
to the end of the road

ZIP: HARD TIMES (COME AGAIN NO MORE) MIX

[original image snapped by my friend Shawnté, and saved by me for months for this occasion; cover design by the always-terrific Ryan Hollingsworth, whose own fall mix is totally worth checking out]

Fuel/Friends Chapel Session #18 :: The Barr Brothers

The music of Montreal’s The Barr Brothers unfolds slowly, richly, and often jaw-droppingly. When the idea arose for us to tape a special chapel session during the Meadowgrass Music Festival in the tiny old adobe church on the grounds of La Foret, nestled in the woods of Black Forest (look!), I wasn’t very familiar with the band. Our sound guys were huge fans of the brothers’ previous work with The Slip, and I just knew that they had a harp player I wanted to hear a bunch more from. Their redolent, gossamer sound is absolutely perfect for the church — compelling, and achingly beautiful.

So there alongside the brightly painted folk-art frescos in the dusty, rarely-used chapel, with us and the miller moths, Andrew and Brad Barr were joined by the other half of the band: classically-trained harpist Sarah Page (who Brad met when she shared an apartment wall with him as her neighbor), and Anders Vial on keys, percussion, and other assorted instruments. They make some kind of magic when they all play together.

This session was recorded in the last days of spring, on Memorial Day weekend — but I knew as soon as I heard it that this was definitely an autumn collection of songs, for when the leaves were orange and the air smelled of woodsmoke somewhere. The season is here, and this one is extremely special.

FUEL/FRIENDS CHAPEL SESSION: THE BARR BROTHERS
MAY 27, 2012 – LA FORET ADOBE CHAPEL

Ooh, Belle
To start things out with some mind-blowing sonic coolness, that sound sending shivers down your neck at the beginning of this song is a long thread that Brad wrapped around the guitar string and slowly pulled back and forth to play the notes — riveting.

There’s something in this song that feels as round and golden, as unflawed and naive as a garden at the start of it all. “The nearer we came to salvation, the further we fell,” Brad sings.

Old Mythologies
I bought a Joseph Campbell book (The Hero With A Thousand Faces) for $2.15 at a used bookstore the other weekend, on the recommendation of one Joe Pug, who was shocked I hadn’t read it. Lately I have been very curious about how these “old mythologies” and stories of heroes can weave their ways into our lives, and what we choose to keep or break apart. Flowing out of the innocence of “Ooh, Belle,” the hand-slapped rhythms that Andrew and Anders lace through this song feels like a heartbeat accelerating.

Let There Be Horses
Anders found an old organ in the little room annexed to the main chapel, covered in dust and full of good histories, so we ran a mic in there so he could play the keys here on it. Once he figured out all the flip-switches, it was wheezy and perfect — and I deeply enjoyed weaving some of the uniqueness of the building into the song itself.

And this chorus? “Oh, let me hear music like you hear music, like you were just born / and oh, let there be horses, let there be danger, let there be one song.”

YES. Nothing more that needs to be said about this song: completely stunning, a benediction.

Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)
Whoaaa. This is one of my favorite versions of this song (off Young’s 1970 album After The Gold Rush) that I’ve ever, ever heard. I know these are fighting words but this is arguably more sublime than the original. In addition to the pendulous tension the plucked harp notes add throughout, those three-part harmonies during the extended breakdown? Holy shit. Each time through adds another layer and becomes even more heart-stopping. The two brothers, in particular, sound like fractal rays splitting off the same light.

ZIP: THE BARR BROTHERS CHAPEL SESSION

(see “Old Mythologies” on Kevin Ihle’s video page)

[marvelous photos also by Kevin Ihle; more on the Fuel/Friends Facebook]

These Twin City kisses :: A Minneapolis Mixtape

Maybe everybody else who wasn’t raised in far coast oblivion already knows this but: HEY YOU GUYS. MINNEAPOLIS HAS A LOT OF REALLY GREAT MUSIC. Tomorrow afternoon when I board a plane to Minneapolis, I’ll be streaming the sounds of the Twin Cities in through my earbuds, and enjoying myself immensely. Minneapolis is a city that I’ve tremendously liked on the handful of occasions that work has taken me to its shores in the last few years. In addition to a vibrant arts scene, I’ve always stayed in places right along the Mississippi River, borrowing bikes from the citywide program and exploring across the Stone Arch Bridge, seeing shows at notable venues like First Avenue.

On a run the other afternoon I started thinking about Minneapolis music after listening to The Hold Steady, and then that spiraled out of control and, well, here we are. There are other folks who are more informed on the music of the Twin Cities than I am, and this is not supposed to be any sort of definitive mix of Minneapolis bands, and I have indeed left off some major players, but this is the way I will be soundtracking my visit. All of these bands and musicians have some connection with the Twin Cities, either living and making music there now, formed the band there, wrote music there, or just love it enough to sing about it.

I’ve done this same thing with New York and San Francisco on a city level, and Utah and the wide-wide ocean on a grander scale, and there is a deeply geeky pleasure in this. I should note that I am indebted to a reader named Jim in the Twin Cities, whose five-page long list and commentary about the Twin Cities scene that I dug out of my gmail helped guide me to a few of these artists.

Let’s move to Minneapolis.

THESE TWIN CITY KISSES :: MINNEAPOLIS MIXTAPE
Stuck Between Stations – The Hold Steady
My first time in Minneapolis last year, I had just discovered this terrific map my friend Kyle made of Twin Cities locations referenced in Hold Steady songs, and I got frissons of delight every time I did something like walking over the Washington Bridge and talking to the river. Any mix I make about Minneapolis starts with this band.

Mpls – Grandpaboy
Paul Westerberg is second on my list (and on this mix, and in my heart) of great musical things to come out of Minneapolis, whether with The Replacements, or solo under his own name, or as Grandpaboy. This song is just a jubilant celebration of the city, with all the geographical references laced throughout from the first lines. M-P-L-S.

Your Favorite Thing – Sugar
I can’t tell through googling (BECAUSE YOU TRY TO GOOGLE “SUGAR”) if Bob Mould (of the tres-famous and tres-influential Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü) and his ’90s band Sugar ever counted as “A Minneapolis Band” but Bob Mould sure is as a human, so this band counts in my book. I first heard this song late, I think in reading Love Is A Mix Tape and making the corresponding playlist. Since then I’ve worn it out.

Singing In My Sleep – Semisonic
Ahhh, Semisonic. For the record, I have never liked the song “Closing Time.” And I have ALWAYS liked this song, about making a mixtape and “falling in love too fast with you or the songs you chose,” since the very first time I heard it (on a mixtape someone made for me!). It makes me feel like I am seventeen forever. I love that Semisonic is from Minneapolis so that I can find more reasons to play it.

Settling It Off – Peter Wolf Crier
Switching gears to a currently-creating Minneapolis musician, Peter Wolf Crier is putting out taut songs like these on the Jagjaguwar label, and when I saw him this spring opening for Damien Jurado, I was completely blown away by all the dense layers here. It feels like a struggle, like one of those dreams that you fight to untangle yourself from all night long, but keeps looping and pressing into your head with images of birds and old family home movies and the gravitational pull of the shoreline.

Shooting Star (Bad Company) – Golden Smog
Golden Smog is sort of an uber-group of Twin Cities musical royalty, made up of members of other bands on this same mix – Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, The Replacements. Here they are having some fun covering the 1975 Bad Company song which they’d contribute to the Clerks soundtrack.

Columns – Portage
I featured Portage on my “Nothing Gold Can Stay” Autumn 2011 mix, and am pretty thrilled to find that not only are they continuing to make elegant music in the Twin Cities, they are playing a house show Thursday night right after my flight lands. I’ll let you know how it is.

Badaboom – Tapes ‘n Tapes
This band’s clattery, danceable sound put Minneapolis back in the indie spotlight in the last few years, and their songs sound fresh to these ears. The band was formed at Carleton College, which goes to show that your mother was right when she insisted on a solid liberal arts education for you.

Misery – Soul Asylum
A few years back, a friend of mine made me a mix and we listened to it together blind, with no song intros or tracklist, the first time through. I was surprised after I heard the opening countoff how the whole song came flooding back for those opening notes. Say what you will about how well this band has held up, but I still think this song feels good (Frustraaaaated! Incorporated!)

Organ Donor – Jeremy Messersmith
A fresh-faced, bespectacled kid with a rabid musical following, lots of you guys have written to me over the last couple of years encouraging me to check out Messersmith’s beguiling pop, and more recently, to have him in for a house show, which he pairs with potlucks and participates in widely. I should probably listen to you.

Positively 4th Street – Bob Dylan
You could argue with me that this song is about the 4th Street in NYC’s Greenwich Village, but Dylan also lived above a drugstore on 4th Street in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis (I’ve been there!), so let’s just say it is a metaphor for both, and it celebrates the fact that Minneapolis is where Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan.

Haywire – Jayhawks
I just love this song SO DAMN MUCH. Thanks to something my friend J. Tom Hnatow once wrote, this song always reminds me of sunsets and old regrets and nascent joy. Another redolent, country-inflected song I never would have pegged as coming from Minneapolis.

The Turf Club – Ben Kyle
I’m going to the Turf Club Friday night, to see The Features (not from MPLS), and was thrilled to find a soundtrack for my jaunt on the terrific new album from Ben Kyle. Frontman of Romantica, Ben is a Minneapolis musician by way of Belfast, and I first heard his music when his lilt blended with Ryan Adams in a live recording of his song “The Dark.” So much melancholy goodness on this song; I can see the city lights reflecting off the river.

Drinking Again – Haley Bonar
Gahhh I love the indulgent, slowly-intoxicating sadness of this song, with those round red-wine chords throughout just vibrating with what it feels like to get drunk alone (“and it don’t help that much / but I don’t care”). Haley Bonar is one of my favorite women making music in the Twin Cities.

Drown – Son Volt
The third in the Twin-Cities trifecta of alt-country awesomeness (along with Jayhawks and Golden Smog), this blistering song could be played regularly throughout Minneapolis’ drawn-out winters to bring a little heat.

When Water Comes To Life – Cloud Cult
This band has been making complex and lovely music out of Minneapolis for over ten years. Their ephemeral string-laced anthems lend themselves extremely well to their live show where they have painters on-stage and they combine two distinct artistic disciplines into one color-streaked supernova. I saw it once, and it was just so very cool.

When It Sinks In – Farewell Milwaukee
Sheesh, listen to the harmonies on this one. I saw a video of them doing this acoustic on Jones Street in NYC’s West Village (freeewheelin!) and fell for it effortlessly. Please note: the Milwaukee thing is just a front.

Be Bad For Me – Paul Westerberg
Another favorite little Westerberg track, because you can never have too much of him.

Starfish and Coffee – Prince
Any Minneapolis mix, especially one that talks about visiting First Avenue in the intro, is contractually obligated to include a Prince song. I feel like everyone that comes to town or plays at First Ave is thinking of him when they do: as one of my friends in The Head and the Heart tweeted last week when they were in town, “Really hope Prince shows up to solo over Rivers and Roads.”

Don’t Call Them Twinkies – The Baseball Project (feat. Craig Finn)
J’adore baseball, and Craig Finn (of the Hold Steady), and this song which references a million things about the Twin Cities, and which I first heard on a car stereo while in Minneapolis for the first time. It’s just all around perfect (although, hey: sorry about those Twins this year).

M-P-L-S.

ZIP: THESE TWIN CITY KISSES :: MINNEAPOLIS MIXTAPE

OMG! Edits are messy but I HAVE TO DO THIS BECAUSE I FORGOT MASON JENNINGS. And I love Mason Jennings so much, and this is a travesty. And then two other additions: a friend sent me this charming addition by That Dog about the city, and I totally meant to include Caroline Smith & The Goodnight Sleeps and forgot. So you can figure out where all three of these songs go on the mix. They’re not in the zip file above:

Sorry Signs On Cash Machines – Mason Jennings
Minneapolis – That Dog
Eagle’s Nest – Caroline Smith & The Goodnight Sleeps