Party Dolls – Love Wars Baby

partydolls

Last friday, I split the work day between Party Dolls and Tedo Stone. First four hours of Party Dolls and then four hours of Tedo Stone. I came to two conclusions. 1.) This new Party Dolls album Love Wars Baby is just magnificent 2.) I really didn’t pay enough attention to Tedo Stone last year. Good Go Bad is a very good album and I don’t think I even mentioned it here.

Party Dolls is a new project that contains members from The District Attorneys, Tedo Stone and Crooked Fingers. The District Attorneys album Slowburner was a big hit in 2012. Well maybe not in the world, but it was a hit in my head. It was one of the big surprises of 2012 and took the #11 place on my albums of the year list. The District Attorneys frontman Drew Beskin is also the main songwriter on this project and he has again written some fantastic songs. Love Wars Baby will be released on 14th of February by This Is American Music. Valentine’s Day sure is a good release date for an intimate and brutally honest album that was written after a bad break-up. This is Kindly Leave from Love Wars Baby.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/124686253″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”100″ iframe=”false” /]
 

Party Dolls at Facebook

Continue Reading

Nudie – Remember This

Still staying in Canada, but this is something very different. Nudie’s debut solo album Remember This is a great country record. I really like the songwriting. The songs might often be fairly simple country ballads, but there’s always some really good lines that lift them to another level. I suppose the record could sound even better, but country music doesn’t really need a gigantic backing. The thing that counts is the song and Nudie has that thing covered. This is the title track Remember This.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/121874009″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”100″ iframe=”false” /]
 
Nudie at Facebook

Continue Reading

The Pinecones – Ooh!

ThePinecones

Time to start focusing on 2014 favorites. One of my recent favourites has been Ooh! by The Pinecones. I think this came out originally in 2013, but Reel Cod Records will release the physical LP in February 2014. I got into Brent Randall & His Pinecones several years ago through The Heavy Blinkers, but I had lost touch during the recent times. If I remember correctly the earlier band made pretty amazing orchestral pop music. Things haven’t really changed quality-wise, but the style is a little different. Brent Randall, Paul Linklater and Marshall Bureau aka The Pinecones have made a great power pop album. Sometimes it’s sweet and harmonic, sometimes it’s closer to Shazam-like rockin’ power pop. It’s nothing that will change the world, but it makes staying on it a whole lot of fun. This is That’s The Way I Wanna Do It.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/128646681″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”100″ iframe=”false” /]
 

The Pinecones at Bandcamp

Continue Reading

Mike O’Neill – Wild Lines & Matt Paxton – How The Land Lies

Before digging deeper into the sounds of 2014, these two older releases have to mentioned. These beautiful things have been out there for a few years, but I only bought these a little over a month ago. Both of these have been in a really heavy rotation and my last.fm already shows over 150 plays for both artists.

mikeoneill

Mike O’Neill – Wild Lines (2012)

I didn’t really know who Mike O’Neill was when I was browsing the Zunior Boxing Day sale, but he did look like a nice chap and there was also a cat on the cover. And well you know that I love cats. So I took a little risk and invested 4.88 CAD for Mike O’Neill’ solo album Wild Lines (2012) and that risk really paid off. This turned out to be a magnificent pop album. Some of it reminds me of Emitt Rhodes and that’s never a bad thing. I need to do investigate further, because this is just the kind of pop music that I love.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/28738027″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”100″ iframe=”false” /]
 
Mike O’Neill Website

mattpaxton

Matt Paxton – How The Land Lies (2011)

Another one that makes it harder for the 2014 releases to reach my head & heart. Today I was again planning to listen to some new music at work, but while browsing the iPod before starting I saw the cover of Matt Paxton’s 2011 release How The Land Lies and I just couldn’t go over it. So instead I listened to this for the next few hours. I look forward to hopefully hearing some new music from Matt Paxton this year, because this sure is a great folk album (and the 2012 singles on Other Songs Music are also gorgeous). How The Land Lies is available on his Bandcamp (name-your-price). This is Charlotte (My Wild Valley Wind) .

Matt Paxton Website
Matt Paxton at Bandcamp

Continue Reading