Coconut Records

It's been a bit quiet around here I know, but I've got a few questions for you...

Have you heard of Jason Schwatzman?

You may have seen him in films like Rushmore, I Heart Huckabees or The Darjeeling Limited.

But did you know that he was the original drummer in a band called Phantom Planet who are probably best known for their song 'California' as it's the theme for The O.C.

More importantly though, did you know that he's now in a band called Coconut Records?

Well, it's more of a solo project with a band name. The debut album by Coconut Records 'Nighttiming' was released in 2007 and was one of my favorite records that year. Originally it was released as a download only, but when the CD came out and you ordered it from Young Baby Records you even got a one of a kind Polaroid taken by Jason with the album. There were also bonus tracks, which were most of the album in demo or alternate form. Great, independent stuff.

Thankfully this wasn't a one-off. It's just been announced that Coconut Records will be releasing a new album in January, called 'Davy'. First single, 'Microphone' is available as a free download now from Amie Street, where they will donate $1 for each download to the Mr Holland's Opus Foundation, which donates new and refurbished musical instruments to undeserved schools, community music programs and individual students in America. Pretty cool if you ask me.

You can also isten to it here, there's not much to watch though:

Creepy Doll

Neil Gaiman is one of my all time favourite authors. His writing style and imagination never fail to draw me into his world whenever I read anything by him. Amercan Gods, Stardust, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett) are all wonderful books, not to mention the awesome Sandman comic series and so much more, it's so hard to pick a favourite.

Recently he made a guest appearence at a Jonathon Coulton show in Manchester where they performed 'Creepy Doll', a song from Coulton's 'Thing For A Week' album.

Gaiman did a spoken word version of the second verse. The lyrics work really well this way and almost sound like something Gaiman would have written himself. I'm currently reading 'The Graveyard Book', his latest novel and really loving it.

Here's a clip of 'Creepy Doll' with Mr Gaiman...

You can download the annoyingly catchy 'Creepy Doll' here.

Halloweenhead

Happy Halloween!

Five Long Years

It's five years today since we lost Elliott Smith. I wish I could visit Solutions Audio in LA to write on his memorial wall featured in these videos. The wall has recently been repainted due to grafitti obscuring most of the original work and fan notes/writing, including those seen below:

Too Many Bubbles

The Wildhearts release their 'Live In The Studio - A Film By Tim Smith' DVD tomorrow. Mine turned up in the post early and I'm just watching it at the moment. It captures the awesomeness of The Wildhearts live in a very intimate environment. And it's so funny! The talk and antics between songs very tongue in cheek and hilarious. Check out this clip:

The DVD see's the band playing their 2007 self-titled album in full. As well as the promo videos from that album, including the awesome 'Destroy All Monsters', which is really messed up.

Here's the video for 'The Revolution Will Be Televised' from the DVD:

The DVD can be ordered here and here.

MAdM

Melissa Auf der Maur released her debut solo album four years ago after working with Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. Since then not much has been heard from her.

In an interview in 2007 she mentioned that she had finished her second album, which would go hand in hand with a graphic novel and a concept film. The album would be released under the name MAdM, whereas the comic and film would go by Out of Our Minds (OOOM for short). Other than a website with teasers being set up in 2007, not much has happened with these projects, until recently.

A MySpaz page sprung up for MAdM in September and a live date has been announced for November 1st in Montreal. No other details have been anounced as yet.

The trailer for Out of Our Minds looks pretty cool:

It's Thursday...

I thought it was Friday.

Down In A Hole

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover Alice In Chains:

Unlplugged version of the song by Alice In Chains:

Girl In The War

Josh Ritter, 'Girl In The War':

Download the song here.

Mako

Cyclefly were alternative rock act in the late 90's who released two albums. I caught them supporting Bush soon after they'd released their debut album in 1999 and again in 2002 when I saw them headlining. They had such presence and great songs and really didn't release enough music into this world. Thankfully two members of the band have a new project called Mako.

Declan O'Shea (vocals) and Christian Montagne (guitar and bass) formed Mako after a brief project called Hueman (also featuring other members of Cyclefly) following the breakup of Cyclefly in 2003. Hueman did not release any records, but there are still a few songs streaming on their MySpaz page.

Mako, on the other hand, released their debut album this year. Living On Air keeps the great songwriting of O'Shea, but stips down the sound of the previous band withour losing any of the integrity. Check out the video for 'Grace' and get lost in his voice:

Living On Air can be purchased here.

Flight Of The Conchords

"Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo"

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are Flight Of The Conchords, a Grammy award winning folk-comedy-duo who are also stars of their own TV and radio series. They are also sometimes known by their rap aliases, Rhymenocerous & Hiphopopotamus.

I've been a big fan of the TV series since a friend recommended it to me about a year ago. It's so funny and original and works on so many different levels. The show is about Bret and Jemaine trying to make it as a band in New York along with their manager Murray and their only fan, Mel. Each episode has a musical performace in it, which is part of the plot. My favourite one of these would probably be in the episode 'Bowie', where they pay homage to David Bowie:

They released their debut album earlier this year, which features a lot of the songs from the TV and radio shows, all re-recorded with producer Mickey Petralia for the album, which has now been certified Platinum. Their previous EP 'The Distant Future', won a Grammy award in 2007.

To promote the release of the album, the band played an instore performance at Amoeba records in Hollywood back in April. It's about an hour long, but well worth watching if you have time:

Doesn't the Amoeba record store look awesome? I'd love to go there, it looks like a proper record store should, cluttered, loved, full of passion and with lot's of good music. Wish we had one in the UK.

Seeing Things

Jakob Dylan released 'Seeing Things' earlier this year, his first solo album away from The Wallflowers. The album was produced by super-producer Rick Rubin and is a pretty laid back affair, a long way from the full band sound of The Wallflowers.

Jakob is the youngest of four of four children born to Bob Dylan and ex-wife Sara Dylan. His Dad has cast quite a big shadow on his career, which is one of the reasons I think he's kind of hidden behind The Wallflowers all these years.

The solo effort is a breath of fresh air for both listeners and Dylan alike. He was said to be "weary of the band" and had "creatively bottomed out with what to do with the band". He was asked to open a tour for T Bone Burnett in Sping 2006 where he played alone and acoustic, which is where the idea of a solo album was born. "I liked the isolation of it, the simplicity of what I was doing," says Dylan. "And out of that I started getting songs together".

I absolutely love the mainly acousitc album, in fact it's probably one of my favourite releases of the year. It's a quiet album that demands attenton, certainly not something you can have on as background music. Check out the video for 'Something Good This Way Comes', a song from the album that has such a lovely, warm opening:

You can still stream the album in it's entirety on his MySpaz page.

The Patty Duke Syndrome

Before the Cardinals and Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams was in a band called The Patty Duke Syndrome. He'd previously perfomed in a few other local bands, but it was with The Patty Duke Syndrome that he released his first record in 1994. It was a split 7" with 'Texas' & 'History' by the band on one side and two songs by GlamourPuss on the flipside. Since then a collection of demos have surfaced on the internet, you can easily find if you look in the right places.

In August this year, someone uploaded two live videos of The Patty Duke Syndrome that were recorded February 4, 1994 at the Brewery in Raleigh, NC. The videos feature a very young Ryan Adams along with Jere McIlwean on bass and Brian Walsby on drums. The sound of the band was quite raw and draws comparism to Husker DU.

'Maybe I':

'Texas':

"Finding Diamonds In The Dirt"

When I read a blog on MySpaz by Art Alexakis of Everclear last night saying that they were releasing a brand new song for free today I got quite excied. Then I saw the title of the song, 'Jesus Was A Democrat' and my excitement started to wane. Art talks in the blog about the song saying,

"I have been wanting to write this song for a long time, if this song offends you....then dont listen to it. If you do not believe that everclear is the proper forum for political opinons, then you havent been paying attention, I have been writing political songs from the very beginning. But if you do believe that i,like you have the right to speak my mind and respect what I think regardless if you agree or not(which incidentally IS what being an AMERICAN IS ALL ABOUT!!!)....then I urge you to read the lyrics and listen to the song with an open mind."

I agree that the band have been writing political songs from the beginning, but they were written in a subtle way. The lyrics for 'Jesus Was A Democrat' leave no room for interpretation, they're there to get the point across. Musically though, the band are on top form, with the sound more like their gritty earlier work from the 'Sparkle & Fade' and 'So Much For The Afterglow' albums, both of which will always have a place in my record collection and heart.

Maybe the lyrics don't mean too much to me because I'm not caught up in the political situaion in America at the moment, as I live in the UK and am watching it all from a distance. Maybe I'm a bit biased towards the band since Craig Montoya and Greg Eklund left the band in 2003. The orignal three piece had a spark, a creativity and a sound that grew and grew. I'm hoping that Art can continue to grow with the 'new' Everclear and not go stale.

You can download 'Jesus Was A Democrat' for free from here, where you can also view the lyrics in full.

Rocking The Cradle

I've never been a huge Dead Head, but the new live album from The Grateful Dead sure looks tempting to me, just look at that packaging! It was recorded in Egypt in September 1978, when the band played a three night stand at the Sound & Light Theater, outside Cairo, nestled in the dunes just a short mummy-walk from the Great Pyramid and the mysterious Sphinx.

The band had to set up in 110 degree heat and even managed to max out the local power grid. The final show on September 16th was played during a total lunar eclipse. A live album was orignially going to be put out soon after the dates were played, but upon return to the States they found that due to technical issues pretty much all of the first night and some of the second were unusable. The project got put on the backburner while they completed their Shakedown Street album, which was released in November of the same year. That is until now...

I think that this release appeals to me even more as I fell in love with Egypt this year when I went on holiday there with my girlfriend. I would go back there in a heartbeat and the combination of one of my favourite places on the planet and great music seems irresistable.

My links to the Grateful Dead's music are through Ryan Adams who has played with Phil Lesh (founding member and bass played of the Dead) on many occasions and the Counting Crows who covered 'Friend Of The Devil' for their Films About Ghosts compilation. Both Bob Dylan (who also released a live album called 'Dylan And The Dead' with the band) and Tom Petty have covered the band's songs many times.

The album is released on October 31th and can be pre-ordered here or here.

American Blues Vol.1

Pete Yorn recently posted a new song on his MySpaz page. 'American Blues Vol.1' is more somber in content than his previous releases, with Yorn seeming a bit wrary and at odds with the world. Lyricaly it's quite a departure from his usual style. He's been in the studio recently with producer Mike Mogis (of Bright Eyes and Saddle Creek records fame) and Frank Black (of The Pixies). The track is apparantly available for download through the MySpaz page, but it doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment.

'Nighcrawler' was the last release by Yorn in 2006 which was preceded by 'muscforthemorningafter' (2001) and 'Day I Forgot' (2003). The three albums make up a kind of trilogy, that are "more of a diary of sorts; a person gaining new life experiences and simply commenting on them in linear." Hopefully a new album next year, which is rumoured to be called American Blues.

Here's the music video for 'Life On A Chain' from 2001's 'musicforthemorningafter' album:

I Started Out With Nothin'. . .

I think I'm going to have to get the new Seasick Steve album. I caught his performace on Later with Jools Holland the other night and absoluetly love the warm sounding blues that he plays. His voice and guitar sound from 'Walking Man' on that show blew me away. He seems to sing from the heart and with real passion.


After a bit of research and a bit of YouTube watching, I've found out that he plays his own personalised instruments as well as the normal acoustic and electric guitars. The Three String Trance Wonder is a normal guitar, but with only three strings in the wrong positions. And The One Stringed Diddly Bow is a one stringed instrument that he plays with a slide, usually a screwdiver. He has travelled the world extensively and once worked as a recording enginner, carnie, producer and a cowboy.

Here's the performance from Later With Jools of 'Walking Man':

When asked about his nickname, Steve said: "because it's just true: I always get seasick."

Infinity Blues

I've just preordered my copy of Infinity Blues, the first book to be published by Ryan Adams. Infinity Blues is a collection of poems and short fiction and is according to Adams "the jewel of my life's work."

The preorder includes a signed HARDCOVER edition of Infinity Blues, with a BONUS poetry chapbook by Ryan Adams titled Sad American Mythology. The chapbooks will all be signed and numbered; Sad American Mythology is a limited edition available ONLY here as part of this preorder. The official publication date for the book is April 2009, but these pre-orders will be sent out on or before the 19th December.

I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into this. You can preorder the book here.

“Ryan Adams, one of America’s most consistently interesting singer-songwriters, has written a passionate, arresting, and entertaining book of verse. Fans are going to love it, and newcomers will be pleased and startled by his intensity and originality. The images are vivid and the voice is honest and powerful.”—Stephen King.

Busking For Change

Since my recent post about Raine Maida busking in 2007 to raise money to build a school in the Congo, he's only been up to it again. This time with his band Our Lady Peace who, along with many other Canadian musicians, took to the street of Toronto on Thursday to raise money for War Child Canada. Students from across Canada were also busking for change on campus.

Busking for change was inspired by Raine's efforts last October. Check out a fan video of 'Clumsy' that was played on Thursday:

Our Lady Peace are in the midst of finishing up their seventh studio album. Here's what it says on their My Spaz page:

"We've gone about this recording process much differently than any album we've made before. For one, we chose not to work with an outside producer. Collaboration has always been essential to art, especially music, but we felt we needed to keep the collaboration between to the 4 of us. We were very curious to see how the music would end up without any outside influence. "Trust ourselves".... that was the mantra. Safe to say the songs we've recorded so far have been some of the most special and rewarding pieces of music the band has ever put to tape."

Donations to Busking For Change - War Child can be made here.

Brooklyn

Since I seem to have a bit of an obsession with the music scene in Brooklyn of late after blogging about Joseph Arthur, Scary Mansion and Creaky Boards who are all from there, I thought I'd post a pretty cool live video of the song 'Brooklyn' by Jesse Malin, that was recorded at the Mercury Lounge in 2007.

There's a great story at the beginning of the video about Jesse and his 'man with a van' business, where they moved a bed for Barbra Streisand. It's always great to catch Jesse at his solo shows as he's not only a gifted musican, but also a great story teller. Check it out:

'Brooklyn' is featured on Jesse's debut album, which was produced by Ryan Adams.

Jesse is playing a three night stint at the Bowery Electric, NYC this weekend. It's called 'Almost Grown - An evening of songs and stories with Jesse Malin'. I'd love to go to the show, it's been too long since I've caught Jesse live.

You can check out more Jesse goodness at his MySpaz page. I'm off to check out some more music from Brooklyn. Feel free to post a comment if you know of any good Brooklyn based bands I should check out.

Autumn De Wilde

Autumn De Wilde is a photographer who has photographed album covers for the likes of Elliot Smith, Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins, The White Stripes, Beck and The Raconteurs. Last year she published a book of her photos of the late Elliot Smith, which also included handwritten lyrics and interviews with close friends and family.

She has also directed numerous music videos, including this one for 'Gamma Ray' by Beck, which I've really been enjoying lately, taken from his new album 'Modern Guilt' (which I still need to get):

And this video by The Raconteurs for 'Salute Your Solution':

You can check out more of her work at her official website.

Drever McCusker Woomble

Roddy Woomble released his debut solo album, 'My Secret Is My Silence' in 2006. The sound was quite a departure from his band Idlewild and ventured into new and different territory where he really pushed himself as a songwriter and musician. I've been a big fan of Idelwild for years now and really loved the album. Here's an awesome live version of the title track from the album:

Since then he has released a new Idlewild album and now a new collaborative effort along with fellow Scotsmen, Kris Drever and John McCusker, 'Before The Ruin' was released in September.

There are a few tracks streaming on the band's website, which sound really nice. Say Woomble of the collaboration "The solo record was the first time I'd really pushed myself in other directions, and that's given me the confidence to take it further: Kris and John each have such a different take on things like melody and lyrics, but we're all working equally on the songs together, so the whole thing feels totally new."

Temporary People

'Temporary People', the new album from Joseph Arthur And The Lonely Astronauts is unleashed upon the world today. I've yet to receive mine in the post, but am hoping the postman will be dropping by very soon. Joseph Arthur has released four solo EPs this year, the first 'Could We Survive' featured 'King Of The Pavement', my favourite track of the year so far.

It's been hard to resist the 'album premiere' on MySpaz and what I've heard on there sounds really good. After 'Let's Just Be', the first release by The Lonely Astronauts I was worried how the new album would sound as I really couldn't get into that release. It lacked the magic from the Joseph Arthur solo releases that I've been listening to for so long. Thankfully the new record doesn't seem to. There have been two music video's made for the album so far:

The first being for the title track, 'Temporary People':

The second track from the album to have a video made is 'Faith':

'You Are Free', a documentary film by Bryan Johnson will be premiered at the at Pop Montreal on October 2nd. The film documents Joseph Arthur's first show of the 2005 tour at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, "the film is an unforgettable blend of music, art, and drama. "You Are Free" goes beyond merely documenting the performance, it allows the viewer to truly get to know this unique artist. Performances are inter-cut with scenes of Arthur speaking with moving sincerity about his career, his life, and his spiritual journey as a person and a musician. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur demonstrates why he is 'one of the last true artists left in the world' in this immediate and unflinching documentary that blends music, art and drama into an unforgettable movie experience."

You can view the trailer here. I'm really hoping that this will get a DVD release soon.

You can also download the title track from the new album via Stereogum.

Ships In A Bottle

Butch Walker, the singer-songwriter, producer and former member of the Marvelous3 lost everything in the Malibu wildfires in November 2007. "I lost everything I've ever owned. Every master of every song I've ever recorded, every piece of recording equipment, guitars, drums and things I've collected over the years, cars, motorcycles, every family memorial, heirloom, picture, and document we ever had.... Gone." he was quoted as saying at the time.

I can't imagine what it would be like to lose everything like that, my heart went out to him when I read the news. It's now been almost a year and Butch has picked himself up and got back to doing what he does best - music. His new album 'Sycamore Meadows' comes out in November and the single 'The Weight Of Her' has been released digitally on iTunes, but only for those lucky folks in America as it's not yet in the UK store.

But he has made a video for 'Ships In A Bottle' that gives us UKers a taste of the album. It was filmed in the remains of his house in Malibu before it was torn down. The song itself was written two weeks before the fire that savaged his house and features the lyrics "Just wanna walk away from the ashes, and take the fact that I've been burned", which really pull at the heart strings.

Butch Walker has also released a live album and DVD this year as well as a record from his other band, 1969. He also recently started his own blog.

Brooklyn Is Love

Creaky Boards are another Brooklyn based band that I’ve been getting into recently, along with Scary Mansion. In fact, both bands have even worked together in the past. Creaky Boards is the name Andrew Hoepfner has given to all of his music since moving to New York City in 2004. They got quite a bit of publicity earlier this year when they accused Coldplay of copying one of their own songs, the aptly named ‘The Songs I Didn’t Write’, by posting the following video on You Tube.

The song does sounds a bit similar at first to “Viva La Vida”, but to my ears sounds a lot better than anything Coldplay have put out since ‘Parachutes’. It may have been a bit of a cheap publicity stunt, but certainly something that has helped spread the word of the ‘Boards. This all happened back in June. I must have been oblivious to it as I only just found out about the band.

The bands new album, 'Brooklyn Is Love', comes out in November and can be pre-orderd through the band's MySpaz site, where there are also a few songs streaming from the album, including the pretty groovy ‘Brooklyn’.

Every Joke Is A Half Truth

I've been addicted to the Scary Mansion album 'Every Joke Is A Half Truth' for about a month now. They are Brooklyn based Leah Hayes' musical project. I discovered them through a blog post on Foggy when Ryan Adams was talking about her awesome graphic novel 'Funeral Of The Heart'. Much like her graphic novel work, the album is intense and sweeping, creating a very haunting landscape. The vocal and instrumental delivery throughout the album is very unique, which adds to it's charm.

Here's a 'live in the dark' video for 'Go To Hell':

It also turns out that Leah has done the cover and lyric book for the limited edition vinyl of the new (Ryan Adams &) The Cardinals album 'Cardinology', which comes out on October 27th.

Check out the Scary Mansion MySpaz page for more songs (try 'Sorry We Took All Yr Money' first) and buy the album here if you like what you hear.

Eureka!

The Eureka Machines are one of the support bands from the Wildhearts Eath Vs gig I went to recently. Unfortunately I didn't get to catch all their set as I was waiting in line to get a t-shirt with a blokes beer belly pressed against my back. But what I heard was very good.

Chris Catalyst (also of the other Wildhearts support act that night, The God Damn Whores) is the singer/guitarist/songwriter for the band. Bobby Ball of 'comedy' duo Cannon And Ball once called him 'last of the mohicans'. And Crispian Frigging Mills out of Kula Frigging Shaker once accused him of stealing his minidisc player. Oh, and he writes some irresistibly catchy pop nuggets.

They released their debut album 'Do Or Die' on September 1st. Check out the coolio video for 'Everyone Loves You':

And as usual, check out their MySpaz page for more awesome songs. You can also buy the album from the band here.

Raine Maida - "Works Everytime!"

I stumbled across this hilarious video of Raine Maida busking in The Hour (a Canadian TV talk show) offices on YouTube today. Raine is the lead singer of Our Lady Peace and released his first solo album last year, 'The Hunters Lullaby', an awesome album that explores much different musical landscapes to his Our Lady Peace work. In this clip he is playing 'Yellow Brick Road' from that album.

I just love how he keeps a straight face during the toilet scene. Classic! The clip relates to the official video that was released for 'Yellow Brick Road', where Raine busked on the streets of Toronto to raise money for War Child Canada’s School Rehabilitation and Revitalization Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He personally made $22,000, enough to build what is now called the Abala School.

Our Lady Peace are currently in the studio finishing up their seventh album. Raine is taking on producing duties this time himself and says of the album:

"There’s no, "Okay, let’s demo up this and demo this and see what we think." It’s like we have an idea, let’s write, finish it, and record it. That’s one of the things I’ve learned over the last five or six years, is really just to try and capture that moment as best you can. And that’s what we’ve done and probably made the best record yet."

I can't wait to hear the new material.

Raine Maida official site.

Listen to to 'The Hunters Lullaby' in full here.

Sorry And The Sinatras

When I saw The Wildhearts this past weekend in London playing the Earth Vs album in it’s entirety and all the b-sides, I saw a t-shirt at the merch booth for Sorry And The Sinatras. I knew that the new bass player for The Wildhearts was called Scott Sorry, but didn’t know anything about this band. It was especially odd seeing as Sorry And The Sinatras were not supporting The Wildhearts that night, those duties went to The Eureka Machines and The God Damn Whores.

So I checked them out on Myspaz the other day and really liked what I heard. They have a very DIY punk approach to their music, which sounds very raw and enjoyable. Check out a live video for ‘Hated Heart’:

Sorry And The Sinatras played their first show supporting The New York Dolls and will be supporting The Misfits this October. They are currently recording their debut album ‘Highball Roller’, which comes out in early 2009 on Undergroove.

Check out their MySpaz site for some cool DIY demos that you can download. I suggest you start with ‘Riverside’.

Cardinology

Cardinology, the new album from Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, will be released on the 27th October in the UK. The cover art and tracklisting has been confirmed as:

Born Into A Light
Go Easy
Fix It
Magick
Cobwebs
Let Us Down Easy
Crossed Out Name
Natural Ghost
Sink Ships
Evergreen
Like Yesterday
Stop



The first single from the album will be 'Fix It', which was released digitally to radio stations today. You can listen to a clip of 'Fix It' at the Cardinal Cave.

The Cardinals are touring America and the UK from September 25th. Check out the official site for full dates.

Here's a video of an early demo version of 'Crossed Out Name' that Ryan posted on his blog Foggy earlier this year, as introduced by Wilson & Barnabus.

I absolutely love this song and can't wait to hear the album version. You can also download a live version of 'Crossed Out Name' from the September 4th show in Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, ON. Check out the full set at Archive.org.

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