Country, Americana, Folk, Power Pop, Indie Pop
Brian Wright’s latest release (and a couple of older ones) Café Rooster Sessions Vol 1 is name-your-price deal over at Bandcamp. I’m not sure will the songs appear later in other shape or form, but I think they are gorgeous as they are. So it was a good decision to throw a few bucks in the jar and put these into the iPod. Brian Wright is an excellent songwriter. This is the opener Tarantula.
Daniel Markham’s new album Disintegrator has been sitting on that Album of the Month slot for so long that it’s probably already time to choose the next one, which will probably The Party by Andy Shauf. First I need to praise this one a little bit. Disintegrator has been on heavy rotation for the past month and it’s among the finest releases of the year so far.
I really fell in love with Daniel Markham’s music when the previous one Pretty Bitchin’ came out and our relationship is still going strong. I’m magnificent at turning into sort of a miserable fellow for no apparent reason and therefore it’s good to have guys like Daniel kicking me around in a good way. When the needle drops on Disintegrator, the previously mentioned miserable fucker turns into a smiling lunatic who is playing air guitar and singing along to these short but great rock’n’roll tunes. For example the song Zelda is so wonderful. Oh how I love that one. The little chorus is a pure bliss for a power pop fan. Melodic distortion is always my thing and some of these take care of that department perfectly. Calling it power pop would still be very far-fetched, but there’s a whole lot of 90s alternative rock influence there. And a lot of slower, darker and folkier stuff as well. Call it what you will, I just call it an album that I love wholeheartedly. Here a couple of great songs from the album.
One more for tonight, because I’m trying to catch up after not posting for a month. Hayes Carll dropped a new album Lovers and Leavers during that time. It doesn’t seem to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like it. The Magic Kid has become my favourite moment of the album and this beautiful music video probably played a little part in that process. Sure I liked the song from the get-go, but this warmhearted video brought a joyful tear to my eye and added another layer to this tremendous and inspirational song. The song is actually about his own son Eli. This is The Magic Kid by Hayes Carll.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmNN8VX2VJ0]
I had extremely high hopes for the Pony Bradshaw album Bad Teeth, because the first outtake Josephine was/is a mighty fine candidate for the song of the year award. Bad Teeth is finally out and available at Bandcamp and it mostly fills my expectations. Ok, perhaps nothing else completely reach the same mountain high level of Josephine (Work comes close), but that would have been an unfair assumption, because that is such a monster of a song. There’s no shortage of great songs on the album and there’s so much to love. Especially the latter half of the album is friggin’ awesome. Work, Bad Teeth, Lafayette and Josephine is one hell of a way to finish an album. These slow tempo ones really drill their way into my heart. A very impressive album.