Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers - The Confiscation EP

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/28/07

Photo by Samantha Lamb
If you've got a hankerin' for some splendid americana then this is an album I heartily recommend.

It's five blisteringly beautiful rootsy tracks by Samantha Crain and The Midnight Shivers called 'The Confiscaion EP'.

Her voice is similar to that of Erin Mckeown with a bit more chew and drawl and her music is in the tradition of folk that blossomed from the early days of bands with jugs and washboards. In fact she put out an EP prior to this called "i'm going to meet the devil and i don't know what to wear" that drops a couple notches even closer to that end.

I'm not sure if the "i'm going to meet the devil and i don't know what to wear" EP is still available but you can always hit her myspace profile and ask. It's worth your time -- neat little CD -- very raw.

I do know that as of this writing you can get 'The Confiscation EP' direct from her and that's the method I recommend. As much as I love CD Baby -- the more money you can get directly to the artist the better as far as I'm concerned.

Samantha Crain is a seriously underrated artist. It takes about a minute of your time to hear for yourself via the samples included here or the player on her myspace profile.

Tip: Try 'Beloved, We Have Expired'

You'll thank me later for this...

Samples - Double Click a Track to Listen



Tracklistings

- Samantha Crain -
i'm going to meet the devil and i don't know what to wear EP (2006 Green Corn Rebellion Music)
All songs by Samantha Crain © 2006
1.) devils in boston
2.) house of love
3.) hold each other up
4.) river run, rock roll
5.) 400 blows
6.) goodbye darlin

- Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers -
The Confiscation EP (2007)
All songs by Samantha Crain © 2007
1.) The River
2.) Beloved, We Have Expired
3.) Traipsing Through the Aisles
4.) In Smithereens, the Search for Affinity
5.) The Last Stanchion Goes Belly Up

Links for Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers:

• Green Corn Rebellion Music
  
• MySpace (You can buy 'The Confiscation EP' direct here)
• CD Baby - The Confiscation EP
  

Cherry Vid - The Rain by Lou Rhodes

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/28/07

This is the new video from former Lamb singer/songwriter Lou Rhodes for her song The Rain.

It's from her forthcoming album Bloom due out next month (Sept '07).

She's pretty endearing just as a person let alone a prolific artist - here's a quote from her bio for Bloom:

“Sometimes I think, ‘My God, I keep writing all these love songs,” and I really struggle with that,” she confesses. “I think I’m a bit of an emotional junkie, you know? It seems to be what consumes me. The heart never ceases to provide me with subject matter. I don’t know why that is. Someone asked me the other day, ‘Are you in love with being in love?’ And I couldn’t really answer that question.”

Hope you enjoy this video and Lou Rhodes as much I do.


>'The Rain' - Handwritten Lryics - by Lou Rhodes<

Links for Lou Rhodes:

• Website
• MySpace
• Merch
• Amazon: Beloved One (2007)
• YouTube: More Lou Rhodes Videos

Alina Simone - placelessness

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/27/07

Photo by Vinciane Verguethen
Alina Simone's debut LP placelessness, released this August (2007), plays partly like a disquieting recountance of people, circumstance and actions that could perhaps have been and gone better but are being related precisely because they did not and partly like endearments and yearnings that fall under the same unsettled skies.

The music is an edgy brand of sparse rock and would-be folk with blues undercurrents that combine to form a unique and cohesive flavor with a surreal bite. Throw Simone's voice into the mix, reminiscent of Tracy Marcellino^[1] and Björk^[2] with an added signature "wail" that dispels any and all doubt of conviction, and the results are positively hypnotic.

Placelessness is easily one of the best albums of 2007.


Tracklist:
1.) Velvet Painting
2.) Saw Edged Grass
3.) Refugees
4.) Pacifica
5.) Swing
6.) Nightswimming
7.) Black Water
8.) Lonesome
9.) Riot Act
10.) Country of Two

Track 2 (Very Popular) Lyrics:

Saw Edged Grass:
You just took off running through the saw-edged grass --
we didn't even turn, we knew you would come back.
No one really knew... we tiptoed around the things that set
you off, like playing with matches in the high dry grass.
Run, run there you go, over the creek bed. Why are the
brilliant ones always so crazy? I know you love us more
than you love your demands, but something keeps you
running and only you can stop it. We let it go in silence.
It takes off the edge. Sometimes we wrap it up in silence,
cuz it's the only way to rescue the wildest friend. There
you go, running through the saw-edged grass (turn, turn,
you burn on the horizon). Hair whips round your face,
tumble through the weekend (underneath the overpass,
over the offramp). Something keeps you running and we
can only guess (digging up the things you hid under the
footbridge). Scratches from the branches will only give you
away.

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Links for Alina Simone:

• Website
• MySpace
• 54º40' or Fight! Online Music Store: Placelessness (2007)
• CD Baby: Prettier in the Dark EP (2005)

Notes & References: 1. Tracy Marcellino is the voice of LA alt/electronica band Twilight Sleep [website|myspace], 2. Björk [wiki|website|myspace]

Leah Siegel - Little Mule

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/25/07

Leah Siegel's most recent album 'Little Mule', released in 2006, is 'pick O the litter' one of the best from a year that brought us a robust population of high quality non-mainstream works.

Listening to her music is an intense experience. From ballad to board rattler her charged rock-n-roll delivery is electric and memorable.

Little Mule - Track listing:

1. A Day At The River (With You & Your Lover)
2. The Water
3. The Grandma Song
4. Sea Dragon
5. Lemon
6. A Trail Of Peach Pits
7. My Heart Is A Graveyard
8. Pin Down
9. The Motorcycle Song
10. Black Tile Room *
11. Raincloud
12. The Pond Was Dry **

All Songs Written by Leah Siegel
Except *Seve Elliot, Chris Tarry, Leah Siegel
Geoff Stanfield & Brian Wolfe
**Leah Siegel and Geoff Stanfield

Her music has a signature sound but beneath that it's alternative and good old rock and roll.

The signature 'Siegel' sound is created largely through her amazing and attention grabbing voice along with what I believe are chord progressions containing a sizeable number of rich sounding 7ths and 9ths. There's also a distinct crunch to much of her overdriven guitar^[§].

Of her voice and guitar --

In the song 'Pin Down' she takes her voice deep into her throat and sings softly with much emotion along a gentle rich progression. Then she soars to skin dimpling heights through a beautiful repeating straight sequence split by arpeggios that are near wont of transformation to a song in full Spanish style -- all the while tending your ears with that beautiful throaty voice.

And she can turn around and punch the pedal on songs like 'The Water'.

Both these songs, and a couple of others, have chord structures that remind me of something Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) might have put together. My mind jumps to many examples but I don't want to get burried here so I'll toss out just one -- anyone remember The Crunge, a song drenched in 6ths and 9ths that had a kind of rhythmic crunch^§ or bite to the guitar?

Leah Siegal is one of the hottest acts around and she's given us 'Little Mule' -- one of the best albums in recent years.

It's definitely one of my favorites.

She has some excellent tracks loaded on her myspace profile. It's a great place to start...

 
 
 

Links for Leah Siegel:

• Website
• MySpace
• Artist Direct: Little Mule

Cherry Pick - Jenny Lundmark

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/24/07

I'm a huge fan of Swedish artists, which you'll be hearing more about not too far down the road, and I also like electronic, traditional (think Greensleeves or the many inerwoven themes within Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture) and world music.

Especially when it's all rolled into one package.

Most of the Swedish artists I listen to are far southerners in and about Scania -- the city of Malmö in particular. It seems many don't actually live there but rather maybe it's 'the place to be' for music in Sweden.

Time to head up north (Norrland)...

Based there in Umeå is the very versatile composer and singer Jenny Lundmark.

You may have seen her on YouTube singing Då and Vilsen with Swedish hip hop artists Block 44 (from their album 'I skuggan av Tellus') and you can also hear her sing with Patrik Öberg in their folk-rock/pop-rock project Below Zero.

Not enough contrast for you?

Okay dig this -- as a solo act she writes and sings in a genre that is very 'epic-world'. This one's the sweet spot for me.

While claiming influence that include Vangelis and Loreena McKennitt I believe it's the Enya sway that you'll hear above all else.

I always took Vangelis as 'epic-electronic' (Blade Runner, for example - one of my favorite movies) and Loreena McKennitt as 'celtic-world'. Enya seemed to be a fusion of both gone super nova. I'll never forget the first time I heard Orinocco Flow (Watermark - 1988) -- I could not get to a record store fast enough. And being a student of classical theory going back to the origins of scales I was beside myself with pieces like 'Cursum Perficio'.

It's in the similar vein of 'epic-world' that Jenny Lundmark writes and she's incredibly talented at it.

She currently has a few pieces up on her myspace profile from the project she's putting together.

Here's your chance to get in on something fresh with an artist in situ.

Lyrics for "Du och Jag" by Jenny Lundmark (2007)

När din blick möter min
Säg mig vad är det du ser?
När du rör vid mig
Säg mig vad är det du känner inom dig?

Lalala...

När din blick möter min
Stannar världen, allt blir tyst
När du rör vid mig
Tänds en låga jag ej trodde var möjlig

Lalala...

All den tid som vi har kvar, ska vi dela du och jag
Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha, det finns inga tvivel kvar

Lalala...

Links for Jenny Lundmark:

• MySpace: Jenny Lundmark
• Below Zero