This band is my new favorite find. Goodnight, Texas is a bi-coastal outfit led by Avi Vinocur (San Francisco) and Patrick Dyer Wolf (North Carolina) named after a ghost town equidistant between them. Their excellent debut album, A Long Life of Living, is about as Americana as it gets. Vintage, sepia-tinged artwork. References to Maggie’s [...]
If there is such a thing as an alt.country/Americana/whatever buzz band, this year it was Shovels & Rope. Heading to Pickathon this year, I was mostly excited to reunite with my Portland folks and drink during the afternoon for a few days. But Shovels & Rope was high on my short list of bands [...]
Hurray for the Riff Raff is the New Orleans group led by Puerto Rican, Bronx-raised Alynda lee Sygara, whose narrative reads like a folk song. After running away from home at age 17, she hopped freight trains and played crossing the country with The Deadman Street Orchestra. After two self-released albums, the UK label [...]
My top ten eleven from 2011. Listed alphabetically by first name. Top three noted with an *asterisk. Austin Lucas: A New Home in the Old World Austin Lucas: Thunder Rail *Chris Bathgate: Salt Year Chris Bathgate: Levee Dark Mean: Dark Mean Dark Mean – Lullaby The Decemberists: The King is Dead The Decemberists: Down By [...]
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Posted 21 December 2011
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Favorite Artists § Lists § Pacific Northwest Artists
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Tagged: Austin Lucas, Chris Bathgate, Dark Mean, Dolorean, Elliott Brood, Frank Turner, Horrible Crowes, Okkervil River, The Decemberists, Whil Phalen, Wye Oak
The usual internal debating and spreadsheeting has been underway here for several weeks as List Season moves forward. Instead of giving you several dozens of albums this year, I give you this mix of the runners-up and soon, a Top Ten. You can grab the zip file here. I also made a Spotify mix, because [...]
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Posted 18 December 2011
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Lists § Mixes
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Tagged: A.A. Bondy, Brett DeTar, Dark Mean, Glossary, Kurt Vile, little hurricane, Lydia Loveless, Megafaun, Middle Brother, Other Lives, Richmond Fontaine, Riviera, Roadside Graves, Star Anna, Whitehorse
We got it together to get our mix on before the 15th of the month. Enjoy. You can get full song details here. As always, drunken rambling comments are strongly encouraged.
Courtesy Tier is a two-piece, New-York based guitar and drums duo that caught my ear during an inbox sweep recently, and I haven’t been able to stop listening since. They’ve been providing a dreamy rock soundtrack to a lot of fall walks and drives around Northern California these last two months. Omer and Layton are [...]
I’ve been hemming and hawing over my Best Albums of 2011 for the last few weeks (color-coded spreadsheet included), but not too distracted to notice a handful of new singles from some of my favorite artists on some of the best small labels around. Here’s a sneak preview of some things to look for in [...]