Todd Beene, John Calvin Abney & Friendship

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Todd Beene is working on a solo album called I Can’t Be Serious and will write, record and release a song every ten days or so until the album is finished. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he is the pedal steel wizard that you have seen or heard on Glossary, Lucero, Chuck Ragan albums/concerts. All great ones and Glossary obviously among the very best there has been during the past ten years or so. Based on this first outtake We Miss You, Todd Beene is capable of doing his own thing in an equally amazing fashion.

Todd Beene at Bandcamp

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John Calvin Abney is a prolific tunesmith. After releasing a really good album Better Luck early in the year, he is returning on December 5th with a new EP Vice Versa Suite. The first outtake Daisy and Clover is a stunning song. A lot like Elliot Smith, but that’s never a bad thing in my world.

John Calvin Abney at Facebook

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Burst & Bloom Records is a small-ish label from Portsmouth, New Hampshire whose taste I’ve grown to trust. They release pretty much only great albums. Guy Capecelatro III, Hello Shark and Cape Snow are some of my earlier favourites. The latest to grab my attention is You’re Going To Have To Trust Me by Friendship. I haven’t really focused on the whole thing yet, because I always get stuck on this gorgeous opener Responsible for an hour or two. Such a great song. This is Responsible.

Friendship at Facebook

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The Provincial Archive – Bad Connection

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Canadian group The Provincial Archive returns with a new EP that will come out on the 20th of November on their own Consonant Records. They first won my heart over a couple of years ago when I found their 2010 album Maybe We Could Be Holy. Their sort of folk songs meet Death Cab For Cutie thing instantly appealed to me and that album was filled with great songs.

Fast forward to November 2015. They have become three-piece since keyboardist Nathan Burge left to follow his other goals in art. The remaining trio have also changed the path a little and have went from beautiful folk to beautiful distortion. The new set of influences come from 90s alt.rock and guitar driven power pop like early Weezer. Apparently they’ve always had this side as well, but now they let it shine more brightly on their music. So it looks like they are totally my kind of guys. That’s the music that I will always love the most and no matter how deep I sunk into this country thing, the foundation of my music taste will always be that 90s guitar pop and 90s indie rock.

The new six-song EP drops on your lap next Friday, but you can already listen to the whole thing. Exclaim! has a premiere going on, if you want to get head start. This one below is the excellent opener Bad Connection from the forthcoming EP.

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The Provincial Archive Website

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Pearl Charles – Mind’s a Mystery

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The great Beat Surrender blog introduced Pearl Charles to me a few months ago. I think it’s about time to follow his lead and share some of the excellent music Pearl Charles is currently making. It’s sort of a combination of psych folk, 70s west coast rock and garage pop, if you need a lousy description of this amazing music. This is her new wonderful music video Mind’s a Mystery. Such a magnificent song and video.

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And here’s another great one from her self-titled EP that you can buy from her Bandcamp.

Pearl Charles at Facebook

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Moonsocket – Eurydice

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Chris Thompson from the legendary Eric’s Trip just released a new album Eurydice under the moniker Moonsocket. There’s no words to describe this. The loss of a loved one and coping with the loss of a loved one put into words and music in such a remarkable manner. It’s honest, fragile, devastating and breaks my heart into tiny pieces. I’m not sure is there a human being that could watch that video of the song The Future Isn’t A We without being deeply moved. Eurydice is a tough one to listen to, but the warmness and serene humanity of it still somehow hides all that sadness underneath it in the end and becomes the emotion that will stay in your heart after listening to it. The last song Shaped by Your Love is something incredible and a beautiful ending to this emotion-filled album. I shed some tears during that song. Actually I shed a lot of tears of during that song. A remarkable album that everyone should hear.

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Moonsocket at Facebook

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