Craig Finn – God In Chicago

Craig Finn has cut a swath through beer-soaked halls–playing on six-inch risers often never higher than six feet–for the last twenty odd years of his career with the band, The Hold Steady.

Course he’s had his solo work too. Equally impressive to be sure. And no, his music isn’t quite as dour as his photo. At least, not all of it. Shit, there’s a lot to unpack in his lyrics…

I’m not the only lazy music fan who’s been likening his rambling story-telling song lyrics to a modern Raymond Carver weened on Springsteen and Black Flag with a guitar. He’s consistent and reliable and undoubtedly an incredible amount of thought and care in each turn of phrase as evidenced by the narrative film with collaborator, Kris Merc on his latest contribution, “God In Chicago.”

Okay, well, see, it’s a story about a guy and a girl and drug deal/road trip.

But with Finn, it’s always more.

He’s a master of subtext, and his subtext is all in the gut.

Check out the video on The Nowness:

https://www.nowness.com/story/craig-finn-god-in-chicago-kris-merc

Finn is playing with Japandroids this Sat. March 11 at the Music Box in San Diego.

Neaux “Make Me Stay”

Totally seductive.

The Brooklyn four piece Neaux is set to release their debut Fell Off the Deep End via Iron Pier on Sept. 16.

Catchy, noisey, fuzzed out and addictive, can’t wait to hear the rest.

Angel Olsen – Shut Up, No Seriously, Shut Up and Listen to This Song Right Now!

Angel Olsen’s new record and third full LP, My Woman, has pushed through the noise to the top of the pile. It’s so good I want to drown in every reverb drenched guitar note. This has been an excellent year for music and My Woman will probably make a few dozen top tens.

Algiers “Black Eunuch” – Video Single

These talented Atlanta cats are poised to drop their self-titled on Matador.

Definitely worthy of more than a cursory listen.

Can’t wait to hear the full LP.

Is Algiers a reference to Old Bull Lee’s LA. home? Or the the capital city of Algeria?

There’s some voodoo in this tune.

Keep an ear open for the ghost of Joan Vollmer.

Spectres – Where Flies Sleep

“Sleep is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism.”Jonathan Crary

Anxiety abounds in this tense and compressed new track from Bristol UK shoe-wave band, Spectres.

They made NME’s album of the week and it’s about time to commend the lads for their diligent and provocative sound. For a band that has been anchored to an island, hopefully, the extra attention will garner a tour. Maybe, if the black supermoon aligns, a tour US will follow and they can anoint us all with layers of fuzz, suburban ennui and melancholy for an atrophied diaspora of guitar-centric music.

Mega Yay! Sharon Van Etten “I Don’t Want to Let You Down”

Suffice to say Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There bubbled by brains for the better half of 2014.

Late in 2014 I picked up Strand of Oaks Heal, on the title track, Showalter name checks Van Etten “my headphones on And I listend to Van Etten Sing You gotta give out, give up…”

Van Etten has a voice that seeps. Fills in the seams.

The way her voice wraps around words or, trying to explain Are We There to a friend when playing the “No Bad Songs” game in that irritating dancing-about-architecture explanation of music that is so subjective and personal I thought, man, even though I’ve only recently discovered Van Etten I feel like I’ve been listening to her my whole life.

Okay, enough with the exposition. Here’s a new track she released. Oh, and if you haven’t seen her and Shearwater’s performance of the Petty/Nicks “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” do yourself a favor and consult the oracle.

Vietcong “Continental Shelf”

Counting the days until this Calgary band makes the gradually warming drive south to San Diego for their performance at the Soda Bar.

In the meantime, I’ve got this charming Dario Argento-worship music video for their song “Continental Shelf” to keep me guessing.

Bully “Milkman”

Everything old is new again.

This song from Nashville band, Bully, will make your young heart go tachycardic.

They’re hitting the road with Strand of Oaks this winter.

Kata – Autumnal Reverie – Video

Kata is a San Diego based music collective, led ostensibly by multi-instrumentalist, Demetrius Antuña. The band recently launched and successfully funded their record, The Rising, through a kickstarter campaign.

The album will be released on vinyl (yes, I contributed and am anticipating my copy) delicious vinyl. Fidelity is mission critical when you have the kind of dynamics in songs like “Autumnal Reverie” and a lot of players on the track.

Sidebar: aren’t MP3’s the perfect medium for dub step and Beats By Dre headphones?

The band has been blowing minds and stopping hearts with their live show in San Diego for the past several years.

As a contributor to the KS, I received a digital download of The Rising. Musically, it parallels/apes/appropriates a few relatively known and familiar techniques such as single-note phrasing; tribal drumming; ambient, nearly indecipherable guitar atmospherics; throaty vocals. The music is at times dramatic, loud and bombastic yet refined and austere.

Certainly, the album is an exercise in ensemble collaboration.

Inarguably sincere.

Credit is due to the players in Kata. Their ability to execute this piece of music in a studio setting, translating a sense of immediacy is palpable. Urgent. A feat that is hardwon on song’s like “Autumnal Reverie” that span the 14 minute mark.

Song as narrative. Narrative as song.

RIYL: Neurosis (Eye of Every Storm), Nadja, Mono

Fall 2012 Mixtape – Prolapsed Apocalypse Sounds

 

At night, secreted away under a freeway overpass,

You listen to the sound of the passing tire treads, hoping, at some future juncture,

A symphony composed of broken geometry will ignite your light.

Finally, freeing you.

DOWNLOAD MIX

Songs:

Let It bleed 3:55 Goat World Music

Silver Age 3:02 Bob Mould Silver Age

To Carry The Flame 4:31 Old Man Gloom NO

Past Lives 2:22 Diiv Oshin

Having Sex [Explicit] 3:57 Reggie Watts A Live At Central Park [Explicit]

The Man With The Hammer 8:30 Leech The Stolen View

State of Non-Return 6:06 Om Advaitic Songs

The Starchild 10:57 Naam The Ballad Of The Starchild, Movements I-V

Ten Tiny Fingers 5:31 Marriages Kitsune

There Is No God 2:38 Mrs. Magician Strange Heaven

Drug Myself Dumb (Album) [Explicit] 1:19 Cerebral Ballzy Cerebral Ballzy [Explicit]

Dopestrings 5:19 Shooting Guns Born To Deal In Magic: 1952-1976

Anywhere 5:52 Anywhere Anywhere

Please Forgive My Heart 4:31 Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The Universe

Pov Piti 7:41 Matana Roberts Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres

Grass Canons 3:21 The Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One

Troth 5:24 Røsenkøpf Dispiritualized [Tape]

Wouldn’t It Be Nice 2:09 Bullion Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee

Sierra Leone [Explicit] 2:29 Frank Ocean Channel Orange [Explicit]

Jet Lag 3:38 Perry Porter & ICBM Paper Moon

Brack Lain 3:57 Clive Tanaka y Su Orquesta Jet Set Siempre No. 1

Ancestral 4:42 Kelan Philip Cohran And The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Kelan Philip Cohran And The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Cliches, Old Sayings 1:18 Louis C.K. Live in Houston (2001)

Boredom Is Counter-Revolutionary 1:43 Retox Ugly Animals

Kicking 2:35 Torche Harmonicraft

Open Your Heart 3:41 Men Open Your Heart

No Sentiment 3:36 Cloud Nothings Attack On Memory

Gargarismo 5:01 Truckfighters Gravity X

Case of Fidelity 4:00 Greenleaf Nest of Vipers

Captive 4:00 Ume Phantoms

The Daughter Brings the Water 2:41 Swans The Seer

War Elephant 5:08 Native Daughters War Elephant

Midnight Song 3:05 Wild Nothing Nocturne

Apostate 3:22 The Holograms Holograms

Monkey Riches 6:46 Animal Collective Centipede Hz

Endings 3:51 Graduated Cylinders Beginnings + Endings

Eula 6:48 Baroness Yellow & Green