Pernice Brothers is one of those bands I assumed we’d already posted, but no, we haven’t, so behold “Somerville.” Fronted by ex-Scud Mountain Boy Joe Pernice, this collection of “breathy Massachusetts sad sacks” took first place in Spinner.com’s “25 Most Exquisitely Sad Songs in the Whole World†contest. And while “Somerville” wasn’t the winning tune, you can hear in it the qualities that would lead to such success with despondency. If you’re looking for another good (but not free) Pernice Brothers download, and one that’s not necessarily sad, grab “Water Ban,” the second song from Yours, Mine and Ours (2003). In my mind, that would be a contender in the “Totally Shimmery and Transcendentally Beautiful” contest. Maybe we should host that one here at 3hive?
The Utah Carol
Joe is reigning king of the mix tape. While most of us have grown lazy (just look at our sporadic podcast output), Joe still makes mixes — most often on CD-R these days — with little more impetus than capturing a theme or mood: spring songs, road songs, grading papers songs, cooking songs, songs featuring a particular girl’s name… The latter prove to be the most difficult (unless your name happens to be Baby), which is why Utah Carol’s latest album, Rodeo Queen, reminded me of Joe. Among the 13 rich country pop songs we have “Kimberly Smiles,” “I’m Sorry Maria,” “Sam’s Ranch,” and, featured here, “Ruby” and “Come Back Baby” (see, they even have Baby covered). Utah Carol, named after a traditional song about a cowboy who dies trying to save his friend from a stampede, are in fact the Chicago-based JinJa Davis and Grant Birkenbeuel. They take country and pop influences with equal weight, producing precious harmonies, delicate instrumentation, loping rhythms, and memorable lyrics. Hit record, Joe.
Hayward Williams
Like most people, I imagine, I go through serious phases where all I want to do is immerse myself in the Midwest. Living in Michigan and rarely traveling outside my area code makes this quite easy. And so, the landscape (flat), the language (flat), the food (fat), the culture (forlorn) all feel like home to me. Hayward Williams is from Milwaukee, hence he’s a Midwesterner, so it’s kind of like we’re related. That’s why these tracks below, from his albums Trenchfoot and Another Sailor’s Dream sound so right, to me at least. “Redwoods” is my jam for the day, even if we don’t have a tree a third of one’s height here.
The Linemen
Full disclosure: I know Kevin Butterfield, the lead singer of St. Louis’ The Linemen. I don’t know him well, but I did once make him pancakes. And before you go getting ideas about this happily married man, I’ve made strictly platonic pancakes for plenty of people. You could even say it’s a specialty of mine. Kevin seemed to like them, at least. Anyhow, The Linemen are good old-fashioned country (think Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, George Jones) in both sound and spirit: Butterfield’s crooning tenor favors the kind of heartbreak that’ll get you down without putting you out and Scott Swartz’s pedal steel seems to be singing the melodies rather than twanging them. It’s a toe-tapping affair just right for road trips through the heartland. And if that ain’t your cup of tea, you might consider switching to whiskey.
The Beauty Shop
Two things: 1. Good drumming really stands out sometimes. Think “The Bleeding Heart Show” by the New Pornographers, and all those great, tight drum fills in the last half of the song. The Beauty Shop’s “Monster” is kind of like that, at least with the fills. It’s a good, solid, catchy track reminiscent of Blue Mountain’s alt-country or maybe even The Promise Ring. 2. The other thing this Champaign, IL, band reminds me of is another Illinoisian, Chris Mills. In the mid-1990s, Mills was opening up for Wilco in their earliest gigs. (I was the guy always yelling for Jeff to play “Gun.” Sorry I was so obnoxious.) He had a deep, rich, twangy voice that seemed far older than his actual age, and I used to listen to his promo CD on the El all the time and stare forlornly out the window. (Sorry I was so obnoxious!) The Beauty Shop’s lead singer John Hoeffleur has that kind of voice and it works well on the re-release of their 2004 album Crisis Helpline, due in late February.
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones with a free & legal MP3. That’s fun. Yeah, I know it’s cool to be all indie and stuff… I promise next week to post some band that no one has ever heard of. (Or, maybe I’ll post Tom Waits and bring this old couple back together. There are some free tracks of his over at the Anti website.) “Elvis Cadillac,” off the forthcoming The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, offers a taste of an album on which all of the songs are inspired by Jesus. While I’m not exactly the religious sort, if the rest of Sermon is as smooth and becoming as this song, Rickie Lee might make a believer out of me yet.
The National Lights
BloodShake Records’s (or is it Records’? Yeah, it’s Records’, right? You do ‘s when following a singular noun ending in s? This is what happens when I teach only history classes for a semester…) other artist , Sonya Cotton, was well received here at the ‘hive, so I though I’d pitch The National Lights. Slow and brooding, the Lights provide a further vehicle for Cotton’s lovely voice — here as backing vocals — while setting somber scenes of desolation and vague desire. Well, at least it’s pretty music, even if it’s not exactly fun.
Angela Desveaux
So, the photo here might not do Angela Desveaux justice. Then again, if you see country girl instead of modern Lizzie Borden, maybe this does work. Montreal-based Desveaux’s layered country-pop calls to mind fellow countrywoman Kathleen Edwards, or fellow North American Lucinda Williams. (Yeah! Go continent!) (If you can’t tell, I need a holiday break right about NOW.) Angela’s debut album Wandering Eyes is likewise avaliable NOW. Peace for the season.
Sonya Cotton
You know how, with some singers, you can pick up on speech or vocal patterns like accents or dialects really easily, while with others it’s almost impossible? Think about how British Billy Bragg sounds compared to, say, Paul McCartney. Or how a lot of the Swedish and Canadian bands we’ve posted actually sound like generic suburban America. Research has probably already been done on the impact of mass media on localized speech patterns ever since the popularization of radio; heck, this research could probably go back to the effects of court (ruling class) language on the merchant or even lower classes. Anyway, to get to the point, I like how Sonya Cotton sings the phrase “Guard your heart, darling,” in the song below with a similar title. It reminds me of Gillian Welch, and they both remind me of people singing the way they really speak. And sometimes that sounds nice.
First Coat
Another band from Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the Mr. Hyde Records family, First Coat is a band that keeps getting better and better. This improvement could be due to maturity or significant line-up changes, but either way, their newest work is confident and well-constructed. The thick and rich 8 minutes or so of rock in “Catchy Pneumonia Pajamas,” from their recent album Move Like Sparrows, is a stark contrast to the demure country strains and simple pop off Great Lakes Disorder, their first effort. Check it out for yourself. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!