Monday Music Roundup

So I finally, finally saw No Country For Old Men this weekend (I know, right?!) and thought it was a near flawless film. As I’ve mentioned before, Cormac McCarthy has been one of my favorite authors from the first time I read All The Pretty Horses in high school. I’ve been mesmerized by his austere, profound, unadorned writing ever since.

The Coen Brothers did something extremely rare by accurately capturing the mood and tone of the book in addition to just re-telling the story. If you’re even more behind than I am in this one, I won’t ruin the ending — but will say that it was one of the most perfect, piercing closing seconds to a film that I’ve seen in years.

This week is a busy one for me, holding 5 shows by my count. And I’ll be moving into a new place downtown in a few weeks. Wish me luck — heck, just wish that I survive. Here’s what I’ll be listening to amidst the madness:

The ’59 Sound
The Gaslight Anthem
This song is about death come too soon, but Gaslight Anthem‘s sound wraps up these themes of youth and death with a defiance that burns through in their music with resistant lines like “ain’t supposed to die on a Saturday night.” Some say that these New Jersey fellows evoke a contemporary America in a Born to Run way, loose and raw [via]. Their song “High Lonesome” pays subtle tribute to a fantastic line from Counting Crows’ first album, and I hear the urgency I love about Roger Clyne in the vocals as well. So yeah, they’ve got my attention. Gaslight Anthem is out on tour with Against Me, which I don’t know much about but now see that they have an exclamation mark in their name – Against Me! So that might be too much excitement for me and I’ll wait to check these guys out when they circle back through on the club circuit. What a show that would be — I’d predict catharsis and the purity of rock n roll.

Oppressions Each
Brightblack Morning Light
New Mexico freakfolk collective Brightblack Morning Light is fun to read interviews with. Why? How about this gem: Singer Naybob Shineywater used to sing shows with an arrowhead in his mouth. Why? “To let his own sung words & breathe touch this stone before European ears could hear them.” Naybob says, “I was not singing for war, but to engage the spirit of the maker of the arrowhead itself, to offer up Peace, that his warrior effort find a new respect, and to help my own warrior spirit sing in Peace.” See? That’s crazy fun right there. But no seriously — if you’re not all hippy dippy you still absolutely can and should enjoy this extraordinary song off their new album Motion to Rejoin (out tomorrow on Matador Records). It’s incredible — all thickly woven with retro sounds that sound like they are coming through a steamy bathroom, down the hall, and through a layer of feathers to your head under the pillow on a Saturday morning.

Get Yourself Home (In Search Of The Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
These United States
The most recent Colorado show that Washington D.C.’s These United States played was a few weeks ago at a farm party for Labor Day out near Nimbus Road and Diagonal Highway in Niwot. I hear the two things that existed in some abundance were farmland and alcohol. This sounds like the kind of band that you could have a lot of fun with in those doses. After getting positive reviews all over the place from folks like NPR, KEXP and Morning Becomes Eclectic, These United States are releasing their sophomore album Crimes tomorrow on United Interests. There’s a rustic folk charm here with a feisty and jittery thread weaving through this that would make M Ward proud.

Nice Train
The Donkeys
There’s a simple aura of palatable psychedelica that vibrates through this song from San Diego’s The Donkeys, along with a very basic rhyming scheme that reminds me in an odd way of “Girls” by the Beastie Boys. Don’t believe me? Listen to the “how/wow/cow” sequence and tell me it doesn’t echo “way/MCA/play/you may” bit. Or maybe it’s just me. It’s a unique blending of ’60s rock with modern day heroes, and I think they also might reveal a possible love of folks like Pavement. Living On The Other Side was out a few weeks ago on Dead Oceans (Bishop Allen, Bowerbirds).

Hold It In
Jukebox The Ghost
Despite the heartfelt personal invitation from these endearing fellows who were passing out hand-drawn flyers on Saturday at Monolith to encourage people to get there early Sunday to hear their set, I failed. I wanted to, especially after listening to the ebullient pop of their album Live And Let Ghosts, and especially because they stand out from the indie crowd with that fun dash of Freddie Mercury vocal drama. Aquarium Drunkard rubs salt in the wound of my tardiness by writing that Jukebox The Ghost “set a high bar for the rest of the festival, cruising as they did through an infectious set of grandiose piano-driven pop — for a 1:00 crowd, it was a packed and energetic room.” They are on tour now across the country, ending in SF on October 18th.

Monday Music Roundup

I promise I am really not obsessed with moustaches (far from it, although I do think I had a dream with Tom Selleck in it after last week’s post) but I feel obligated to share the results of the competition I mentioned previously over at Cinco de Moustache. The results are in and the photos alone are some of the most fun you can have at work without getting fired or the clap. Check them out.

I saw evidence with my own eyes of this new holiday, if you will, on Saturday night at Sancho’s after the KOL show. An entourage of (fake) moustachioed dudes were getting down in the middle of the bar to the irresistible pull of “(I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine,” which was my selection from the jukebox. When combined with the absurdity of the facial growth, their limber grooves were wholeheartedly the best thing I’ve seen in a long time, and made me hope for the continued “growth” of the Cinco de Mustache movement.

It makes any face just a little more special.

New music for this week:

Goodnight Rose (live on Henry Rollins Show) [pic]
Ryan Adams
A friend of mine feels that this is the best thing Ryan Adams has written in 5 years, and I gotta admit that there are moments here where I want to agree with that bold statement. This version of new tune “Goodnight Rose” is long and winding, jammy and filled with noodling and clocking in at 8+ minutes, which sometimes with Ryan can be a red flag for me. But something about the combination of the chord progression and the lyrics on, “If you get scared, hold my hand. Get out of that dress . . .” just pokes a blunt stick at my heart (and yeeeah, I can see how that suggestion would work to make me feel better, Ry). I would love to hear this song reinvented as quietly haunting, like the different versions I’ve heard of “Hard Way To Fall.” I’m crossing my fingers for how Easy Tiger pans out as a whole (note: Sheryl Crow adds vocals to two songs, which could be cool) and where he goes with it after all the quick-change versions of Ryan Adams we’ve gotten over the past decade.

I smile at the the charming addition here of the four-part acapella harmonies that Ryan and band add at the beginning, middle interval, and end – “Henry Rollins Show, Henry Rollins show, Henry Rollins Show….” If this rock-country musician thing doesn’t work out for Ryan, he could always join a barbershop quartet.

They’re Leaving Me Behind
Nick Drake
The folks over at Tsunami Records were much appreciated ’round these parts when they dropped this mp3 into my inbox last week, another sample track off the upcoming Family Tree album, a collection of early rarities and home recordings left unreleased by Nick Drake before his untimely death in 1974 (at the age of 26). What I’ve heard of the album so far isn’t going to radically shake-up what we already know about Drake and his lovely folksy fingerpicking output, but it’s great to hear some “fresh” sounds. Nick Drake always sounds to me like that gauzy, hazy layer of fog that burns off right before sunrise; there’s something so ephemeral and perfect in his music.

Roll On (feat Jenny Lewis)
Dntel
The new Dntel (aka Jimmy Tamborello, of The Postal Service acclaim) album Dumb Luck (Sub Pop) is a collage of densely fascinating electronica with a host of guest vocalists helping out along the way. Jenny Lewis’ contribution has a surprising bluegrass twist (with lyrics like “son of a gun”), with the subtle electronic layers adding interest to the song construction. It reminds me of the welcome breeze through an open window. The album also features Conor Oberst, Mystic Chords of Memory, and Grizzly Bear, among others. Up next (someday) for Tamborello is a new Postal Service album with Ben Gibbard that’s been in the works since last Spring.

Hold It In
Jukebox The Ghost
I’ve been hearing a bit of a buzz building behind Washington D.C.’s Jukebox The Ghost, whose herky jerky sound is a perfect complement to the warmer weather that I know in my heart of hearts will someday come to Colorado to stay for a spell. This reminds of stuff like The Futureheads or The Caesars, that is to say, it’s perfect for a future iPod commercial.

Rusty Cage (Soundgarden cover)
Johnny Cash
Although I still prefer the bloodcurdling ferocity of the original version of this Soundgarden song, which unforgettably opens their 1991 album Badmotorfinger, I have to appreciate Johnny Cash’s masterful take on it as well. Cash could take anything and loan it that dusty, apocalyptic, country-preacher feel, bringing up shaded nuances that you missed the first time it was done. And I have to say that as many times as I’ve listened to the original in the past 13 years, this cover was the first time I understand a good deal of the lyrics. This was originally released on 2005′s The Legend of Johnny Cash (the same album that gave us his cover of NIN’s Hurt).

And in case you need some paint stripping done today (Heather’s moment of specific interest in this song lies at 2:52, unreal):
Rusty Cage – Soundgarden