Jake Nicoll – Two Things & Half Of Nothing

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Jake Nicoll plays the drums for my big favourite The Burning Hell, but apparently he is also a great songwriter. He recently released a double album Two Things / Half Of Nothing. I’m still in the stage of processing all that beauty that these albums injected into my heart, but I’m definitely impressed about this all. It’s not an easy task to make an epic double and hold it together through the whole journey. Many of these feel very personal songs and are little windows into his life. These are also kind of like motivational tapes for me, because more than a few of them give simple, but true insights about life and by doing so they make me want to overcome the self-doubt that is continuously crippling me. Here’s a couple of great examples of Jake’s songwriting abilities. One from each of these albums that are available for 5 CAD per album over at Bandcamp. My Friends from Two Things and Little Lies from Half Of Nothing.

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Hallelujah The Hills – A Band Is Something To Figure Out

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Hallelujah The Hills from Boston, MA dropped their new album A Band Is Something To Figure Out into our laps yesterday on the 12th of April. I really loved the previous one Have You Ever Done Something Evil?, which is one of the finest American indie rock albums of the past few years. Perhaps this new one hasn’t reached that ridiculously high level yet in my books, but we are getting closer and closer each given day. Actually these HtH albums always tend to be growers, so I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that you will find me up on the rooftops shouting “A Band is Something to Figure Out is the best thing ever!” by the time the summer comes. This is The Girl With Electronics Inside from the new Hallelujah The Hills album.

Hallelujah The Hills Website

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Suomen Zorro – Hölmö humalainen Maria

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Suomen Zorro released a new single from their forthcoming debut album on 1st of April. My apologizes that it took me so long to write about this one. Life has been busy with the hockey playoffs and Richmond Fontaine concerts etc . The few regular readers are probably well aware that I love all things Vähäsarja and this new song isn’t an exception. He definitely is one of the finest new songwriters in the country and Hölmö humalainen Maria is once again a brilliant and unique song. I can’t wait to hear the whole debut album that is due out on Sound Of Finland later in the year.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=7-1XPQNLC8A]

Suomen Zorro at Facebook

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Eric Bachmann – Eric Bachmann

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I spent the week mostly listening to Richmond Fontaine, because they were touring here (and played a spectacular concert, definitely among my all time faves despite some disturbances from thrash metal concert that took place upstairs). Therefore I didn’t have much time to listen to other new music before this weekend.

My favourite album of the weekend has been the new Eric Bachmann album. I’ve been listening to it all weekend long. I can’t say Eric Bachmann’s song vault is my biggest expertise. Actually it’s probably been something like a decade since I last listened to him a lot. Dignity and Shame by Crooked Fingers meant a lot in the mid 00s, but I’ve lost touch since that. It’s definitely time to reacquaint my heart with Eric’s songs, because this new self-titled album is an absolute beauty. Such a compassionate hug is much needed in this current world where complete lack of empathy to one another seem to be a running theme. This is Mercy from Eric’s new album that is now out on the always great Merge Records.

Eric Bachmann Website

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