My friend down the hall, Joe LaDuke, has tossed two excellent suggestions my way in just the last few weeks. The first was Pandora, a subset of the Music Genome Project. If you haven’t seen it yet, Pandora is basically a personalized Internet DJ. Type in an artist or song that you like, and Pandora will break down your selection via a number of musical criteria and then offer up a selection of other artists that match up with your tastes. While it naturally can’t acknowledge my desire to have something cool and ambient after a hot ska set, Pandora is fantastic for exposure to new music. We kind of like that here at 3hive. Joe’s other offering was Hem, and based on what I’ve read about the band, it seems like someone should have told me about them sooner. Favorably compared to Mazzy Star and Cowboy Junkies, among others, Hem offers fat, lush, beautifully-written, unadulterated songs sung wonderfully by Sally Ellyson. “The Golden Day is Done,” from an album full of covers and other band favorites, gives a good hint of Hem’s unique sense of place along the backroads of the American South.
Benjy Ferree
An interesting tidbit about Mr. Ferree to start things off, he’s Domino’s first American worldwide signing. Meaning, I guess, that Domino’s British mothership is finally warming to the American music scene. And Benjy Ferree’s got a solid, old fashioned, back porch, red, white and blue sound running through his songs. I can almost hear someone blowing into a moonshine jug in “Why Bother,” and a washboard player would fit in just as well. “Private Honeymoon” waltzes along nicely with the sounds of the West Coast’s neu-folk folks. Ah, it’s probably the playful, beatles-esque romp “In The Countryside” that’s got the label giving Benjy the green light for worldwide domino-ation. His tour of the Midwest and East Coast starts tomorrow with the Archie Bronson Outfit.
Princeton
Princeton is not from Princeton. I have my doubts that the floppy-headed Santa Monica twins and their best friend, who recorded their first E.P. in London while on study-abroad programs, have ever set foot in New Jersey. They claim such classic Brit-pop songwriters Ray Davies and Rod Argent as influences, and their four-track stylings, carefree lyrical associations and bookish sensibilities also bring to mind Ben Lee, Lou Barlow, Stephen Malkmus, and Jonathan Richman. It takes more than cleverness to write a song about a pirate that doesn’t sound like a Broadway musical, or to sing a travelogue of an Asian city that doesn’t descend into kitsch. But Princeton does it well — with organs, acoustic guitar, and sweet, youthfully knowing vocals. Just don’t ask me which twin is singing.
Tim Fite
He’s a little bit country; he’s a little bit rock ‘n’ roll; he’s a little bit hip-hop. He’s straight outta Brooklyn. He’s Tim Fite. Basically, Mr. Fite builds songs around hip-hop loops and beats, infusing the tracks with folk’s lyrical sensibilities. “Away From the Snakes,” for example, follows country’s song template: “I lost my dog, I lost my wife, I lost my money.” Then, on “No Good Here,” he’ll fracture an upbeat, diddy-of-a-riff, with rock’s explosive power. Consider him Beck’s East Coast brother-in-arms, ten years later, but mining the same, largely untapped source of urban-folk gems. If cursing offends, beware. If cursing delights, dig in.
Tobias Fröberg
Tobias Fröberg has been compared to Paul Simon, which I guess would make frequent collaborator Linus Larsson his Art Garfunkel (sorry Linus). Together they craft sparse, timeless songs that examine human relationships with that same kind of calm candor that Simon and Garfunkel had. Tobias has a new album out called Somewhere in the City, which you can listen to in its entirety on the Cheap Lullaby Records site and purchase through the usual commerce links below. The MP3s featured here are from 2004’s For Elisabeth Wherever She Is. Great soundtrack for a solo train ride from Windsor to Toronto with a window seat so you can see the leaves starting to change. Not so great if you’re also taking pain killers for a pulled rib muscle…
Tara Jane O’Neil
Tara Jane O’Neil is a Portland, Oregon-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with a gently persuasive way of convincing you that, even though her heart is breaking, she’ll be just fine. On the just-released In Circles, she continues down a road marked by folksy self-discovery, which sounds awful in abstract. Yet, filtered through O’Neil’s steady voice and accompanied by the simplest of guitar twangs and sonic experimentation, personal revelations become occasions for rapt attention. She’s especially enchanting on the new “Blue Light Room†and beautiful “The Poisoned Mine.†O’Neil is also a wonderfully original visual artist whose work—equal parts playful and foreboding—gives insight into her music far better than a few words might, unless those words are her own.
Eric Bachmann
Sometimes a little sincerity really works. Eric Bachmann avoids irony and anything cute on his recently released album To the Races, and it makes me believe he means every word he sings. Excessively sentimental? Who cares? Think Springsteen’s Nebraska or The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats and you’re in the right neighborhood. If you don’t buy the record — and you should, if solid and unapologetically sincere songwriting is your thing — at least shell out a buck for the opening track, “Man O’ War,” which is sadly unavailable for free and legal download.
Evan Duby
If you’ll afford me a moment of cheerful codgerism: There was a time when you got a self-recorded release and you could tell. The guitar was flat and muffled. The vocals sounded like they were filtered through cellophane. There was no such thing as “layering†– you could barely get in what you needed on the four tracks you had to work with. There’s still plenty of room for such DIY ethics. But thank goodness for ever-improving technology too, because now songwriters like Evan Duby can create tracks that are appropriately multidimensional. The strings on “Words†bathe Duby’s soft vocals in warmth. “Separate Ways†and “Pale†surround themselves in the subtle ambience of an old-style organ, so that they’re acoustic with a little something extra. And his cover of Springsteen’s “State Trooper†has a sublime sonic kick. Of course, the best equipment in the world can’t hide something that was never meant to sound good. Fortunately, Evan Duby has nothing to hide.
The Folk Yous
Some cats, like Sean and Clay, were just born with good taste in music. Me? I took the long way, which included a phase of schlock rock—most of it consumed on 8-track. Now some of you youngsters won’t remember the delight of plugging an 8-track cassette into the player and listening to the sweet sounds of REO Speedwagon and Journey. Which means you also won’t remember how songs would fade out midway through the bridge, allowing the cassette to jump tracks with a clumsy “ka-chunk” sound, then the song would fade back in as if nothing had happened. It sounds as though Athens, GA’s Julie Dyles and Courtnie Wolfgang do remember those good ol’ days. Or they’ve at least developed a fondness for the power ballads of that era. Their covers of Asia, Jouney, and REO classics are earnest and well-honed, if a bit difficult to sing along to without falling back on old habits…
Justin Rutledge
I was listening to the always excellent CBC Radio 3 podcast a few weeks back while flying cross-country. Maybe it was the altitude or lack of non-peanut sustenance but Justin Rutledge’s live, sing-along rendition of “Don’t Be So Mean, Jellybean” made me bust up a cryin’. Here’s hoping it makes the cut for his new album due out in the fall.