Daniel Markham – Pretty Bitchin’

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Daniel Markham from Denton, TX released his new album Pretty Bitchin’ yesterday 31.10.2014 and I instantly fell in love with it. Damn it feels good to be so ridiculously excited about a new album. It’s early days, but I think this is going to be an album of the year contender here at onechord.net. I have a bit of flu at the moment and playing this as loud as possible is the best medicine I can think of. I don’t really know the man, but it feels like I’ve listened to the same US 90s and early 00s indie rock and alternative rock albums when growing up. The wonderful Canadian The Weakerthans aslo comes to mind while listening to the opening track Make Believe and the record also reminds me of Finnish Penniless here and there (especially Coming Down). And that’s a high praise, because Penniless is one of the all-time greats. But enough with the pointless namedropping. This is Daniel’s show and he has created a damn impressive rock album. The whole thing was made in a couple of days, but why waste time in long and often pointless finetuning. This just let go and capture the moment thing certainly worked wonderfully for Pretty Bitchin’. Buy the album from Bandcamp and play it loud. I’m sure your neighbours will also be eager to hear such a magnificent record.

Daniel Markham at Facebook

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Album of the Month: Cale Tyson – Cheater’s Wine EP

caletyson

I haven’t selected album of the month since July I think, but I think it’s time because I seriously fell in love with Cale Tyson’s Cheater’s Wine. Actually Cheater’s Wine is an EP, but this is my blog and I can make up the rules as I go along. This is such a damn perfect slice of classic country music. Things are actually looking pretty good for the good kind of country music. Sturgill Simpson seems to be doing really well right now, Daniel Romano is doing some fantastic stuff in Canada.. well the list could go on and on. Cale Tyson is just as good as those other guys and has just released one incredible EP full of fabulous old-fashioned country tunes. I posted the opening track Fool Of The Year the other day, so let’s go with the second track Borrowed Love (To Go) this time around. Actually it’s my favourite song at the moment, but they are all fabulous.

Cale Tyson Website

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Caleb Stine – Maybe God Is Lonely Too

Stinemaybe

I became a fan of singer-songwriter Caleb Stine when I heard his fifth album I Wasn’t Built For A Life Like This a couple of years ago. His sixth album Maybe God Is Lonely Too saw the light of the day in April, 2014. It was pretty difficult to find a copy of this peaceful and beautiful folk album. Actually I didn’t find one until I asked him and he was kind enough to send me a copy. I’m happy that I asked, because Maybe God Is Lonely Too is a wonderful record. This combination of serene atmosphere and thoughtful lyrics is a perfect antidote against all that pointless every day stress and anxiety that I’m so good at creating. This is extremely highly recommended. I hope one day it will be little easier to find, but in this modern age where pretty much everything is instantly available for streaming, I kind of liked the idea that there was record that I loved to hear, but had to patiently wait until the little folk treasure had arrived in the mail from USA.

This is the only song that I found from the album online in the summer. The magnificent album opener called The Mountain.

The Mountain by Caleb Stine from Allen Moore Films on Vimeo.

Caleb Stine Website

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The Taste – Sea Legs EP & Sloan – Commonwealth

thetaste

Some fabulous pop music this time around. Lately I’ve been really enjoying the new The Taste EP called Sea Legs. They are a Toronto-based pop group and the new EP came out last summer on Reel Cod Records (cassette or digital). I just got a digital copy last week and this has been my a big part of my soundtrack for the day job at the factory ever since. Sea Legs is a truly entertaining slice of pop music. You can hear a couple of great samples below. There Will Come A Day and a music video for the last song on the EP, Happening Now.

The Taste – Happening Now from Ali Weinstein on Vimeo.

The Taste at Facebook
Reel Cod Records Website

Sloan_Commonwealth

Staying in Canada for the time being. Not a surprise there, because these days this blog seems to cover as much or maybe even more Canadian music than Finnish. Canadian rock heroes Sloan released a new album earlier this fall. It’s called Commonwealth and I’m loving it. Not a surprise there either. I suppose it’s fairly obvious that Sloan is very dear to me. This band consists of four excellent songwriters and this time they’ve given each member one side of the double album. Don’t ask me to pick the best side though, because I think they are all great. Even (or especially) Andrew Scott’s 18-minute long Forty-Eight Portraits works beautifully after the first couple of minutes. And that’s a lot said, because my impatient pop mind often argues that anything over three minutes is useless and only makes the song worse. I don’t think Commonwealth is the best Sloan album ever, but it sure is another damn great one. Commonwealth is out now on Yep Roc. This is Three Sisters from the new album.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44hAOVvIyBc]

Sloan Website

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