Music
Free Music from Harriet
Harriet is a new project from Dawes member Alex Casnoff (vocals), Aaron Folb (bass), Adam Gunther (guitar) and Henry Kwapis (drums). As self-described “Anti-motivational motivational music,” Harriet grooves through the body, riff-kicking your shoulders and twirling at your smile lines. They just released Tell The Right Story and as a promotion, have made the album available for free on their site.
Here’s new song “Dont Fight the Feeling”
Free Music from Christopher Paul Stelling
Migrate Music News is a new emagazine (division of Migrate Productions) that you should put atop your list of Weekly Stops. Curating a tight selection of features, album releases, tours and live shows from under-the-radar bands, Migrate is really a great place to lose time / find a new sweet spot in that space between your ears.
Currently, they’re offering free downloads of:
“Ghost Ship” from songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling, off his great new record Songs of Praise & Scorn
“Only Skin” from one of my favorite Indie-folk bands The Spring Standards, off their new 2-disc EP yellow//gold
Jesse Thomas: War Dancer
Jesse Thomas has one of those voices, like Brandi Carlisle, or Lucinda, that sounds, in some way, sharded. It sounds like something that has surely been clawed or ravaged— left with edges so rough and stunning that when breath moves path them, it leaves you, the listener, feeling ravaged as well.
When I think about Jesse’s debut album “War Dancer,” the title conjure the image of someone doing a victory dance, either while marching into or back home from a great battle. And, I like to think of the record this way. When I finally win that civil war with the part of my heart that still loves the person who doesn’t belong there— this is the album I’ll be listening to, whiskey in hand.
Jesse’s 2010 EP “Hazel” debuted in the Top Ten on iTunes’ singer/songwriter chart and was featured as both a “New and Noteworthy” and “Indie Spotlight” release. In February 2011, her song “You I Want” was featured at US/Canadian Starbucks stores as their “Pick of the Week.”
Jesse’s debut album War Dancer, released on February 14, 2012, has been keeping me company for weeks now.
Now, go fall in love with her:
Additional Links:
Strand of Oaks: A New Vision & Sonic Atmosphere
Timothy Showalter, aka: Strand of Oaks, released Pope Kildragon, one of my favorite records of 2011, and how he has returned with folk-rock stunner Spacestations. Recorded by the Philadelphia-based WXPN series Shaking Through, the song marks a sonic departure for Strand of Oaks’ last record, with its acoustic, slow-wrenching storytelling and sparse instrumentals. On Spacestations, Showalter bares his early techno influences and introduces listeners to a whole new sonic vocabulary; using synthesizers to build a beautiful, growing landscape for his words to float on, as he stands, stranded and isolated on the earth—waiting for someone to return for him.
welcome to my new spacestation
staying as long as you’d like is a sad vocation
you leave me standing alone on the earth
I realize that it just won’t work
you leave me standing alone in the cold
telling everybody that I just don’t know
and you wait just a little, you wait just a little too long
why you gotta leave me stranded up here
why you gotta leave me stranded up here
why you gotta leave me stranded up here
when the sunlight chased away
when the sunlight chased away
when the sunlight chased away
welcome to my next big decision
welcome to my next big decision
welcome to my next big decision
Shaking Through: Strand of Oaks from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.
The song Spacestations was produced by Brian McTear and engineered by Jonathan Low at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia. This episode of Shaking Through was conceptualized by Chris Ward of Johnny Brenda’s (one of my favorite Philadelphia music cafes), recorded on December 28-29, 2012, produced by Peter English, filmed by Peter English, and edited by J. DeVirgilis. Additional photo and video by Larry DeMark. To see other episodes, please visit ShakingThrough.com
Tour Tips from Levi Weaver
If you’re not familiar with Levi Weaver, then stop reading this, click here, then come back all rosy cheeked to finish reading this article and thank me profusely.
Don’t feel like leaving? Ok, ok. I give in. Here’s a video for you so you can see what I’m talking about.
Seriously, this man is wonderful.
Ok, now that we’ve taken care of that, let me get back to my original point:
Over the past few months, Levi Weaver has been posting some invaluable touring and $$making tips that he’s accrued over his many years of driving back and forth throughout the country, being a solo, touring artist, etc.
Two of my favorite articles he’s poste are:
Tour Tips:
This article covers everything from getting mailing list sign ups, selling merch, planning a tour budget and figuring out your routes between shows. It’s a super helpful, easy and concise read that I strongly recommend for anyone who’s new to touring.
I Can’t Afford a House Show and Other Myths
Here, Levi talks about the economics of house shows and some of the biggest misunderstandings that artists have about what is feasible within a tour.
SquareUp: The Greatest (FREE) Tool You Can Take On the Road
SquareUp is a no brainer. It allows you to process payments for ticket sales, merch and any other items via your iPhone or Android, all via this little square device that is… wait for it… FREE!!
Here’s what’ll happen:
Fan: “Hey, I really want a CD but I don’t have any cash with me.”
You: “Oh really, cuz I have this little device here where you can swipe your plastic and be done with it.”
Fan: “Oh, awesome! That’s so fancy of you! You’re rad!”
So what are you waiting for? All the cool (ahem, smart) kids are doing it. I promise.
HEAVY AND LIGHT: An Evening of Songs, Conversation & Hope
Yep, this is the way to do a Dylan cover. Here’s Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), David Bazan, William Fitzsimmons, Mariah McManus, Noah Gundersen, Abby Gundersen singing “I Shall Be Released” as an encore for the Heavy and Light event at the Orlando House of Blues.
Red Plastic Buddha: Running on Empty
Here’s a great new track from Chicago-based psych-pop-rock band Red Plastic Buddha.
Shimmering tambourines, swirling harmonies and a sonic wonderland sugared with reverbed riffs. Yum.
when we’ve died and our lips are blue they will write a thousand novels…
The first line seems too hurried for a promise; too panting to describe a love that must violently fill a thousand novels about loss. But it needs to be. I need to feel the quickening of aural lanscape as I travel with the vocalist to his final battlefield, and I need to resist: “I can’t hear my feet on the grass, I can’t hear the heart in my chest, a bullet just killed my friend, a bullet rang out in my head.”
The hopeful, fluttering harmonies calm me. I breathe out with the long draw against a violin. I have both eyes open when the haunting piano notes reach over them; frigid parted fingers daring me stare at the beastliest question staring back “how do I die alone?”
When the bullet breaks him into the ground, I too am broken. There’s a shiver and a scream; a grisly vocal sears through a crisp carnage of guitars. It buries you, it buries you again, and then it tenderly says goodbye, fulfilling its promise, leaving you to lie with a blue-lipped gaze, altogether speechless and brimming with a thousand words.
Paper Thick Walls is a Chicago-based indie-rock band. Their debut album A Thousand Novels, was released on May 3, 2011 and features Eric Michaels (vocals, guitar, motif), Kate Schell (vocals, piano, trumpet), Roger Sherman (upright bass), Andrew Sabo (drums) and Jacques René (fiddle, mandolin, guitar).