I have fallen in love with today’s song…..the best new music (and the best new voice) I have heard in a long time. Let’s listen to the song and then I will share some of the back story of Ashley and Used.
I am embarrassed to say that Ashley has been around since 2006 but I have just recently become aware of her. Ashley recorded her first album, Satisfied, in 2006 but when here first two singles failed to make the top 20, the record company decided to not release it. Ashley continued to pursue a career in country music, achieving significant success as a writer. (note: Satisfied was eventually released and is now available for download on sites like Amazon) It wasn’t until March of this year that she recorded and released her second album, Like A Rose. I highly recommend that you buy it now! Here’s a video of Ashley and Vince Gill discussing the recording of Used for the Like A Rose album.
So, as Ashley indicated in the above video, Used was actually included on her first ill-fated album. In case you are interested here the original recording of the song.
An amazing voice, song writer, and a beautiful young lady. If that isn’t the complete package I don’t know what is? She is destined for bigger and greater things! Oh….one more thing. I forgot to mention that Ashley is also a member of one of the hottest country groups performing today….Pistol Annies. Be looking for a post about them very soon but in the meantime here is a video of their live performance debut.
This must be my week for milestones.
This post is my 500th…….next week I turn 60 and (as the song says) I got some dents and bruises but…….maybe (with a little luck) we can keep me and this blog going a while longer!
If you have been paying attention over the past year you already know that Dawes has been featured in several posts. The first time I heard them I knew that it was just a matter of time until they produced an amazing record and I am very happy to tell you that that time has arrived.
I am going to characterize their new album in an way that will probably be controversial but if you give me time I think you will understand. Here goes……Stories Don’t End is the best Jackson Browne album I have heard in many years. Let me explain…..Jackson Browne, at the height of his talent, produced some of the best albums of all time. His albums were an amazing combination of brilliant songs, beautiful vocals, and incredible instrumentation. Jackson wrote, and sang about, things that I had either been through, cared about, and/or wondered about. Put more simply Jackson’s music spoke to me in a very personal way. Stories Don’t End is the first album in ages that makes me feel the same way I felt when listened to some of Jackson’s best albums like Late For The Sky. Does that help??
Enough talking, let’s listen…..
This is my favorite song from the album. When the instruments drop out leaving only the drum beat for the following lyrics I knew for sure that I was listening to something special
At the scene of all I’ve left unlearned, in the directions to your house
In every swing I took to crack the code
I need a cold beer from a dressing room, I need a string of dates back out
I think there are a few of us that still belong out on the road
This is my second favorite song from the album. I am absolutely entranced each time I listen to this song and hear to breakdown where counterpoint vocals sing the chorus. Really good stuff!
To top things off here are a couple of really good live performances of other great songs from the album.
If you like great music you owe it to your self to buy this album.
I’m a worrier at heart. I worry about everything. One of my biggest worries about this blog is that it is not living up to its name….The Best Music You Have Never Heard. Today I am putting that worry out of my mind because I have some music for you that truly fulfills this blog’s promise!
I work hard to try to stay current with new music. As part of this never ending quest, I was recently on the KROQ (K-rock) Los Angeles radio station website trolling for new music and I found a reference to a group that I was not familiar with….
Echo Park stalwarts NO closed out the night. The band has steadily gained steam in the music scene and has gotten a ton of critical attention for their latest EP, Don’t Worry, You’ll Be Here Forever. Their attacking, rhythmic back-beat paired with a down-trodden vocal style draws comparisons to indie rock gods The National, but their is also a late-era New Order level of melody and pop to their songs. NO perfectly closed out a musically heavy night.
This caught my attention and sent me off on a quest to discover more about NO. First stop, YouTube, hoping to get a taste of what this band was like. Here is the first NO song that I found…….
O my gosh where the hell did these guys come from, why have I not heard of them, and where can I find their album? This song is so good that it seemed like the band sprang to life fully formed….the musicianship, the song writing, the production, and the performance were all spot on. I could easily imagine NO performing this anthemic song in concert with the crowd singing along.
While all of these thoughts were running through my head I warned myself to not get carried away…..anyone can can produce one good song. Luckily for me there was more NO music on YouTube and I picked out another song……..
Holy shit….these guys are not one hit wonders. I liked this one better than Another Life and that is saying a lot. Now I definitely needed to know more about NO so I headed back to the internet.
After some searching (NO is not the easiest word to search on!) I finally located the band’s website (http://nomusicfor.me) which provided some background information on the band.
Echo Park’s NO began as a home recording project in July 2011. In a small house on Mohawk Street a group of friends began building something to represent their collective ethos of searching for the more authentic elements in music and in themselves. Their sound has since been dubbed ‘Post-Hymnal Anthematic’ and would appear to be stemming from their desire to collectively sing & yell while driving others to do the same.
Post-Hymnal Anthematic seemed to fit the band’s sound perfectly but I was sad to discover that they did not yet have an album. Their first album is only now nearing completion and won’t be released until later this year. This story has a happy ending; however, because I discovered that NO had produced an EP, “Don’t Worry You Be Here Forever”. To make the story even better, I discovered that the EP was available for free download on their site and contained both of the songs that I fell in love with on YouTube. We have a Freebie Friday winner!
I love this band and am certain that they are going to be huge. NO is the best music I have never heard and you can have their EP for free just by visiting their site. Grab it while you can and let me know what you think!
So hopefully youv’e noticed that I have been trying to broaden my musical horizons in an effort to provide you with recommendations for new music that doesn’t suck. This week I’ve been listening to a new group called Bootstraps that was originally formed to make music for a movie. Here is the band’s Bio from their website bootstrapsmusic.com.
Bootstraps is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles by Jordan Beckett. The band further consists of Nathan Warkentin and David Quon. Their debut album was recorded by Skip Saylor in Northridge, California after actor/director Sam Jaeger asked Beckett to write a few songs for his film ‘Take Me Home’. Beckett recruited his college friends Warkentin and Quon to experiment; spending one day in the studio tracking songs the old fashioned way—recording them live in an attempt to capture raw moments. The result lead them to return for four more sessions, tracking three songs a day to complete the record with the help of Richard Dodd (Kings of Leon, The Raconteurs). The bands name is a play on the expression, “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.”
Let’s listen to a couple of my favorite songs from the album. Here is Sleeping Giant, my favorite Bootstraps song, at least for today. It is a really pretty song,in a folky kind of way, and seems to help me relax no matter how stressed I might be.
This next video really compliments a Bootstraps song called Guildtfree and the combination of the two perfectly captures how Bootstrap’s music makes me feel.
Some of you might notice that the vocals sounds a little like Ray LaMontagne. Please don’t let this fact throw you. The band has a lot more going for it than sounding a little like Ray. I highly suggest you checkout Bootstraps….I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! I’m really hoping they stick around for a second album.
Before we end this post here is a great song from Ray LaMontagne for those of you that have not had the pleasure of hearing him before.
So…..I have a story about how I learned about Wild Nothing. My son called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about this new band, Wild Nothing, that he was super excited about. I consider myself to be relatively hip, from a musical perspective, so I was shocked I had never heard about them. The excitement in my son’s voice convinced me that I needed to check them out. Here is a transcript of our text messages from a couple of days later.
Me – I bought Wild Nothing on Amazon last night (MP3 download). Listened to it yesterday at work and am listening again this morning. I couldn’t tell you what any of the songs are about but I can tell you that when I am listening I feel like I am just floating through space in a happy little bubble 🙂
My Son – I know….right! My only complaint is that the songs run together just a lil. But they are all super pretty. From what I have heard of his first record (live versions of those songs) it’s killer too. The songs running together makes it a lil much sometimes to listen to the album as a whole.
And that, my friends, pretty much tells you almost everything you need to know! Notice I said almost……here is the rest of the story and some music to go with it.
Wild Nothing is Jack Tatum (with a backing band for live performances). Jack has written and performed music that some people refer to dream pop since 2009. Confused about what dream pop is…..think British 80’s synth pop and that will get you close. Wild Nothing’s latest album, Nocturne, is the one that I have been listening to and it’s where I would suggest that you start as well. Here’s a short excerpt from the Pitchfork review of the album that will provide you a little more insight.
Entire labels and local scenes are dedicated to preserving the era Nocturne evokes– lacquering the malaised vocals, getting the right reverb plates, and hoping that aesthetic identification is more important than writing melodies that stick. Tatum, however, is a songwriter first who just happens to work in this medium. His vocals are put to the forefront to give the listener a clearly marked place to return, and his melodies are smoothly curved, like a small divot at which the rest of the arrangements can dig deeper. The hopscotch verse melody of “Shadow” works in tandem with an insistent, four-note motif doubled on lead guitar and violin. On “Counting Days”, a simonized harmony serves as the chorus, but the little guitar countermelody that darts around it is the hook. Tatum understands the semantics of this stuff.
So, with Pitchfork as an introduction, here are a couple of songs from the album: Shadow and Counting Days……
Brilliant…….yes?
I hope you are convinced……..but if you aren’t aren’t I have a special surprise for you. You, my loyal readers, can listen to the whole album (see below) before you decided to buy it. You will eventually decide to buy it….music this pretty doesn’t come along every day!
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 