Country, Americana, Folk, Power Pop, Indie Pop
A quick video post, but an important one. Elephant Micah is a long-time favourite of mine. Last year Western Vinyl released his excellent album Where in Our Woods. The highlight of this beautiful album was the last song Rare Beliefs. I’ve listened to it so many times that my math skills aren’t good enough to count them all. Rare Beliefs is a rare beauty and a song that I hold dear.
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pg7mgm5suUs]
One of my biggest music heroes, Emitt Rhodes, just released a new album. His first in 43 years. This is a huge deal. He is a big part of the history of pop music. Ok, maybe not world famous in the grand scheme of things, but incredibly influential and definitely a huge part of the history of pop music that I’ve (and a lot of other people) experienced. First as the leader of the excellent 60s pop group The Merry-Go-Round and then releasing four perfect or near-perfect solo albums in the early seventies that gave him the nickname “The One Man Beatles”. I can monstrously recommend all of those. They are cornerstones of my music education. If you want a starting point, I would go with the self-titled solo album, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
But enough about the past. It has been a few years in the making, but finally we have a new Emitt Rhodes album called Rainbow Ends. It came out on Omnivore Recordings on the 26th of February. I’m just spinning it for the first time on Spotify (I will pick a physical copy from a record store later) and it’s safe to say that Emitt hasn’t lost his touch. This is sounding mighty fine to my ears even on first listen and it’s very clear that the man can still make heavenly good pop music. Even though Emitt himself of course takes the spotlight, the album also has a real all star cast. There’s appearances from people like Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, Roger Joseph Manning Jr, Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs etc. Oh my. It’s like two generations of pop geniuses working together and creating a little bit of magic. My 90s pop heroes backing Emitt Rhodes in 2016. I couldn’t possibly ask for much more. Great to have you back Emitt.
[youtube=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vwklFEv0Z68]
Going through all the promo e-mails is a tough task, because even my tiny amateurish blog/website gets hundreds of them every week. Thankfully there’s a reward there sometimes (albeit not very often) and I end up finding a treasure that I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise. Songwriter Dori Freeman from Galax, Virginia and her self-titled debut full-length is one of these rare treasures. The album was produced by Teddy Thompson and it’s a real, sincere and beautifully sung collection of americana songs. I could listen to her sing all day long even if the songs weren’t that good and there’s nothing wrong with her songwriting either. This is Go On Lovin’ from the album that recently came out on Free Dirt Records.
Due to some distribution hiccup my vinyl copy of the new Nap Eys album Thought Rock Fish Scale still hasn’t reached the local record store. Therefore I still have to rely on Spotify stream for the new album and have to spent my offline life with the previous one Whine of the Mystic. Not a huge first world problem, because even the old one still keeps on revealing more and more greatness with each listening session. I’ve also managed to spent enough time with Thought Rock Fish Scale to confirm that this Canadian band is still in great from and there’s no second album curse anywhere to be found. They just deliver some of the finest and most inspiring indie rock these days. Sure it took a while to get used to that sound and style that at first felt almost lazy and uninspiring, but after getting dragged into the world of Nigel Chapman and co, I no longer wish to get out of it and I’m fully ready to join the choir that refers Nap Eyes as some kind of weird saviours of indie music. Maybe I even start a Finnish subsection of that choir.
Thought Rock Fish Scale is now out on Paradise Of Bachelors (US/Europe) and You’ve Changed Records (Canada). This is Mixer From the new album.