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."