Playlist

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #55

No Comments

Another week, another weekly playlist

Had to switch back to the weekly, because there was just so much new albums this week. Somewhat easier to handle this on a weekly basis. I suppose one way forward would be to keep this weekly, but at the end of the month quickly compile some kind of favorites of the month list that doesn’t vanish. So there would be an option also for those who don’t need or want an insanely long playlist of new songs every freakin’ week (yeah, I know. Nobody really needs a list long as this every week). Submissions still open for the festival too, so if you are interested, shoot a live video of one song (can be just a quickly done phone video made at home, rehearsal place) and send it to me. More info by hitting those links in the right side bar.

But on to the new albums and oh my there were lots of them this week. Jason Hawk Harris, Leslie Stevens and Esther Rose are ones that I’ve been waiting eagerly for months and they are just as good as I had hoped. That’s just a tiny fraction of the action and there were new albums from Sunny War, Tanya Tucker, Dalton Domino, Queen of Jeans, The Po’ Rambling Boys, Croy and the Boys, The 40 Acre Mule, Ottoman Turks, Redd Kross, Bryan Estepa, The Rubinoos, Shannon Lay, Rose Dorn, Rachel Sermanni, Becky Ninkovic, Jay Som, Ward Hayden & The Outliers, Carriers, David Wax Museum and Tom Brosseau. That took a while to write, let alone listen. And still some say that there’s no good new music available. Oh and on the EP front there’s Erin Enderlin new EP. It’s already chapter three, but somehow I’ve managed to miss the first two. Sorry about that.

This week’s Finnish section contains singles from Kielo Kärkkäinen, Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly, Pink Chameleons and Grant Wood Company plus the new album from Jukka Nissinen. Oh and if you have chance to see a Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly concert do not think twice, just go. You will love every second. I sure did when they played at Ilmiö festival a month ago.

There’s also plenty of those international singles. Too much to namedrop all of them, but some personal favorites came from Jamie Lin Wilson, Joan Shelley, Darrin Bradbury, VanWyck, Itasca, Courtney Marie Andrews (from forthcoming Tom Waits tribute album), Sturgill Simpson, Anna Ash and Isobel Campbell. But hey these all rule and I could just as well list them all.

That’s it for this week. Most likely back with a new playlist next Sunday and before that a few of those round up posts mid-week. Love.

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #55

1. Jason Hawk Harris – Giving In (Love & The Dark, Bloodshot Records, 2019)
2. Leslie Stevens – The Tillman Song (Sinner, LyricLand / Thirty Tigers, 2019)
3. Esther Rose – You Made It This Far (You Made it This Far, Father / Daughter Records, 2019)
4. Sunny War – Rock n Roll Heaven (Shell of a Girl, Hen House Studios, 2019)
5. Tanya Tucker – Bring My Flowers Now (While I’m Livin, Fantasy Records, 2019)
6. Jamie Lin Wilson – Alice (single, 2019)
7. Dalton Domino – The Nerve (Songs from the Exile, Lightning Rod Records, 2019)
8. Darrin Bradbury – Breakfast (single, ANTI-, 2019)
9. VanWyck – Supermarket Line (single, Maiden Name Records, 2019)
10. Joan Shelley – The Fading (single, No Quarter, 2019)
11. Itasca – Bess’s Dance (single, Paradise of Bachelors, 2019)
12. Courtney Marie Andrews – Downtown Train (single, Dualtone, 2019)
13. Queen of Jeans – Centuries (If You’re Not Afraid, I’m Not Afraid, Topshelf Records, 2019)
14. First Aid Kit – Strange Beauty (single, Columbia Records, 2019)
15. Kielo Kärkkäinen – Laulun aika (single, Texicalli Records, 2019)
16. Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly – Iso juhla (single, Kihtinäjärvi Records, 2019)
17. Ana Egge feat Iris Dement – Ballad of the Poor Child (single, Storysound Records, 2019)
18. Erin Enderlin – Use Me Again (Chapter Three: Whatever Gets You Through the Night EP, Blaster Records, 2019)
19. Kayla Ray – The Jameson Waltz (single, 2019)
20. The Po’ Rambling Boys – Cold Hard Truth (Toil, Tears & Trouble, Rounder Records, 2019)
21. Croy and the Boys – I’m Broke (Howdy High-Rise, 2019)
22. The 40 Acre Mule – Bathroom Walls (Goodnight & Good Luck, State Fair Records, 2019)
23. Ottoman Turks – O C P (Ottoman Turks, State Fair Records, 2019)
24. Sturgill Simpson – Sing Along (single, Elektra Records, 2019)
25. Redd Kross – When Do I Get to Sing “My Way” (Beyond the Door, Merge Records, 2019)
26. Extra Arms – No Enemies (single, Dadstache Records, 2019)
27. The Sidekicks – Feed II (single, Epitaph, 2019)
28. Pretty Matty – I’m Fine (single, Get Better Records, 2019)
29. Bryan Estepa – I’m Not Ready for This (Sometimes I Just Don’t Know, Lilystars Records, 2019)
30. The Rubinoos – January (From Home, Yep Roc, 2019)
31. Shannon Lay – November (August, Sub Pop Records, 2019)
32. Wharfer – Myrtle Beach (single, 2019)
33. I Am Oak – Hidden Cove (single, Snowstar Records, 2019)
34. Rose Dorn – Collar (Days You Were Leaving, Bar None Records, 2019)
35. Isobel Campbell – Ant Life (single, Cooking Vinyl, 2019)
36. Rachel Sermanni – Come to You (So It Turns, 2019)
37. Becky Ninkovic – For the Love (Woe, Paper Bag Records, 2019)
38. Jay Som – Peace Out (Anak Ko, Lucky Number, 2019)
39. Rue Snider – Chelsea (single, 2019)
40. Anna Ash – Stalemate (single, 2019)
41. Pink Chameleons – Melting Face (single, Soliti, 2019)
42. Jukka Nissinen – Kirkonpolttaja (Jukka Nissinen II, Humu Records, 2019)
43. Grant Wood Company – Childs, Minnesota (single, 2019)
44. Matt The Electrician – Thank You (single, 2019)
45. Ward Hayden & The Outliers – Naturally Crazy (Can’t Judge a Book, 2019)
46. Carriers – Not This Way (Now Is the Time for Loving Me, Yourself & Everyone Else, Good Eye Records, 2019)
47. Amy Speace – Ginger Ale and Lorna Doones (single, Proper Music, 2019)
48. Gospelbeach – Bad Habits (single, Alive Naturalsound, 2019)
49. Cale Tyson & Thad Kopec – Talk To Me (single, 2019)
50. Jay Gonzalez – Rare Halo (Jay Gonzalez sings Eyelids / Eyelids sings Jay Gonzale, Jealous Butcher Records, 2019)
51. David Wax Museum – Night Gods (Line of Light, Nine Mile Records, 2019)
52. Tom Brosseau with Sean Watkins – Close of a Day (In the Shadows of the Hill: Songs from the Carter Family Catalogue, Vol 1, Crossbill Records, 2019)

Playlist link

Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you

If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.

Continue Reading

Four Arms to Hold You, International music

Ancient Shapes, Espanola, Run Coyote and Slow Healer

No Comments

Tonight’s round-up takes place in Canada. We shall begin with the latest hit song from Daniel Romano’s “flower pop supergroup” Ancient Shapes. A Flower That Wouldn’t Bloom is the first outtake and title track from their forthcoming album that is out on the 25th of October on You’ve Changed Records. It comes with colourful music video directed by Daniel Domenico Romano. What can we expect next from this multi-talented man. A novel collection, feature-length movie, re-imagination of Mona Lisa. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s going to be awesome.

Ancient Shapes at Facebook

A smooth transition to the new self-titled Espanola album that came out on the 28th of June. The man behind the name is Aaron Goldstein, a Canadian studio wizard, master of pedal steel and a true liner note hero. He has played with lots of my favorite Canadian artists (incl. Daniel Romano) and he has also produced and/or recorded lots of songs that mean the world to me. But even if you are great at making others shine more brightly, it’s good to do you own thing too. Espanola proves that he can also handle the songwriter department of music making and blasted out a gorgeous rock record with monster riffs, country flavors and psych traces. Here’s one awesome album cut called This High, listen to / buy the whole record by hitting the links on that bandcamp player

Espanola at Facebook

Well guess who played some pedal steel on this one and did some production work too. Aaron Goldstein of course. So there’s another smooth transition to the new Run Coyote album In Shadowlands that came out on 26th of April on So Sorry Records. If you are into some vintage film noir and spaghetti westerns, you’ll have a new favorite band right here. Actually just loving rock’n’roll is sufficient, because this is just a damn good record. Here’s Late Night Lovers from the album and as usual buy/listen whole thing by hitting the links on that player.

Run Coyote Website

Let’s end this little round up blog post with a song from the new Slow Healer EP Always Trippin’. It’s the musical side of Mitch Fillion, who should get some kind of lifetime award for everything he has done in the moving pictures department by documenting performances from countless amount of fabulous artists (Southern Souls, Live at Massey Hall). Apparently he can also do this songwriting too, because this is a really good EP. Oh and obviously Aaron Goldstein plays on this one too. Not on this particular track Tell Me though so this love letter to Aaron won’t go overboard.

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

Continue Reading

Four Arms to Hold You, International music

Simon Joyner, Sidney Lindner & The Silver Wilderness Collective, Claire Cronin & Red River Dialect

1 Comment

I should have gone to bed a long time ago, but I suppose there’s still time for one short blog post (mostly about exciting things to come). Starting from Omaha, Nebraska with the heavy first single Tongue of a Child from the forthcoming Simon Joyner album Pocket Moon. The album will be co-released by BB*Island (Europe), Grapefruit (North America) and Homeless Records (Australia & New Zealand) on the 25th of October. I can’t wait to hear it, because Simon Joyner is a true poet and one of the finest songwriters of the last couple of decades.

Simon Joyner at Facebook

A long time readers of this little blog might remember a band called Hotel Alexis. I loved them passionately in the early days of the blog. I think The Shining Example Is Lying on the Floor got full five hearts back then when I still wrote proper reviews. But time to let the past go and fast forward back to the year 2019, because exciting things are shining in the horizon. The frontman Sidney Lindner has a new group called Sidney Lindner & The Silver Wilderness Collective and they are about to release a new album on the 13th of September. It will be called Summer Ghosts/ Nightfalls and it will be co-released by Broken Sparrow and Burst & Bloom Records. Check out the song Mother’s Tongue below and the follow the links on that Bandcamp player for pre-order opportunities.

Sidney Lindner & The Silver Wilderness Community at Facebook

Continuing with blog favourites, but unlike the first two Claire Cronin’s new album Big Dread Moon is already out and available on Orindal Records. I’ve loved her poems and songs since the 2015 album Over and Through. The spare, dark beauty of her hauting folk songs always get my under skin and together we are able to keep the devil away. Here’s my favorite What the Night Is Thinking from the new album. Again follow the links on that bandcamp player to hear/buy the whole record.

Claire Cronin Website

Let’s wrap this blog post together in London with some of the finest UK folk of these current times. Paradise of Bachelors will release Red River Dialect’s new album Abundance Welcoming Ghosts on the 27th of September. This fabulous first single Snowdon surfaced a couple of weeks ago. Listen to it below and follow the links on the player, if you want to pre-order. Or better yet, ask your local record store to order you one, if you are still lucky enough to have a local store.

Red River Dialect at Facebook

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

Continue Reading

Playlist

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #54

No Comments

Another week, another weekly playlist.

Not sure did anyone miss the playlist, but some may have noticed that there was no playlist last week. I spent Sunday in Helsinki watching a Pat Reedy concert and thought this was a good opportunity to try that biweekly updating. So this one has songs from the last two weeks. If I do this biweekly in the future, I need to start making some notes because it was hard to remember to include stuff that came close to two weeks ago. I’m sure I forgot more than most weeks. I haven’t really decided it how I will continue. So there might or might not be a playlist next week. Oh and submissions still open for that forthcoming online anniversary festival. Click the links on the right column for more information and feel free to share them as well.

The two big album releases from the last two weeks were Beth Bombara and The Hold Steady (and of course Hulda Huima too from the Finnish section), but that’s just a tiny fraction of the release action. The playlist also contains songs from the new albums by Eilen Jewell, The Commonheart, Frog, Spirit Family Reunion, Dylan Earl, Lillie Mae, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Brack Cantrell, Kyle Cox, Jason McCue, Nels Andrews, Fionn Regan, Ikebe Shakedown and Field Mouse.

The small Finnish section contains albums from Hulda Huima and Aino & Miihkali plus a new single from Antti Autio.

There’s way too much wonderful singles to namedrop. I absolute love this third single from the forthcoming John Calvin Abney album. Simon Joyner as usual hits a homerun with the debut single of his record. Nickel & Rose song is very powerful, Kacy & Clayton single is again a treasure. If you dig some alternative rock and powerpop, you’ll need to listen to the Stoner Control single. Michaela Anne, Kelsey Waldon, Jason Hawk Harris released new ones from their fall albums. Oh well, these are all great, so just take a listen.

That’s it for now. Hopefully one or two those four arms thingies mid-week, but no promises whatsoever. The festival stuff will take a lot of the blog time I have and well I’m back in the day job again. I need to start yoga or something though, because otherwise I will resign soon.

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #54

1. Beth Bombara – I Only Cry When I’m Alone (Evergreen, 2019)
2. John Calvin Abney – Kind Days (single, Black Mesa Records, 2019)
3. Eilen Jewell – Who Else But You (Gypsy, Signature Sounds, 2019)
4. Simon Joyner – Tongue of a Child (single, BB*Island, 2019)
5. The Hold Steady – Denver Haircut (Thrashing Thru The Passion, Frenchkiss Records, 2019)
6. The Commonheart – Different Man (Pressure, Jullian Records, 2019)
7. Nickel & Rose – Another Man (single, Magik Family, 2019)
8. Kacy & Clayton – High Holiday (single, New West Records, 2019)
9. The Highwomen – Highwomen (single, Elektra Records, 2019)
10. Frog – RIP to the Empire State Flea Market (Count Bateman, Tapewormies / Audio Antihero, 2019)
11. Hulda Huima – Aika (Maa, Helmi Levyt, 2019)
12. Michaela Anne – Somebody New (single, Yep Roc, 2019)
13. Spirit Family Reunion – Ease My Mind (Ride Free, 2019)
14. Dylan Earl – Two Hearts (Squirrel in the Garden, Rootsy Music, 2019)
15. Christopher Gold & The New Old Things – Fellow Traveler (single, 2019)
16. Jason Hawk Harris – The Smoke and the Stars (single, Bloodshot Records, 2019)
17. Stoner Control – Open My Heart (single, 2019)
18. Jesse Malin – Chemical Heart (single, Wicked Cool Records, 2019)
19. Kelsey Waldon – Sunday’s Children (single, Oh Boy Records, 2019)
20. Lillie Mae – You’ve Got Other Girls For That (Other Girls, Third Man Records, 2019)
21. Karen & The Sorrows – Guaranteed Broken Heart (single, Ocean Born Mary Music, 2019)
22. Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors – But I’ll Never Forget the Way You Make Me Feel (feat Ellie Holcomb) (Dragons, Magnolia Music, 2019)
23. Big Thief – Not (single, Saddle Creek, 2019)
24. Field Guides – Guessing at Animals (single, Whatever’s Clever, 2019)
25. Antti Autio – Liikaa (single, Soit Se Silti, 2019)
26. Kyle Cox – Midnight Dance (Perhaps One Day, 2019)
27. Jason McCue – Shadow (Wasteland, Fluff and Gravy, 2019)
28. Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster – Friend of Mine (single, Big Legal Mess, 2019)
29. Hiss Golden Messenger – Happy Birthday, Baby (single, Merge Records, 2019)
30. Jacob Faurholt – Hide From the Dark (single, Raw Onion Records, 2019)
31. Yee & O’Brien – Break Waves (single, 2019)
32. Very Good – Ghost Warning (single, 2019)
33. Office Culture – Hard Times in the City (single, Whatever’s Clever, 2019)
34. Rachel Sermanni – Tiger (single, 2019)
35. Brack Cantrell – On a Dime (Famine or Feast, 2019)
36. Paul & The Tall Trees – Someone to Someone (single, Big Crown Records, 2019)
37. Malin Pettersen – Alonesome (single, Die With Your Boots On Records, 2019)
38. Andrew Combs – Born Without Clue (single, New West Records, 2019)
39. Josh Rennie-Hynes – Caught In a Dream (single, Soundly, 2019)
40. Spencer Burton – The Mountain Man (single, Dine Alone Music, 2019)
41. Vincent Neil Emerson – 7 Come 11 (single, La Honda Records, 2019)
42. Nels Andrews – Pigeon & The Crow (Pigeon & The Crow, 2019)
43. Pauline Andres – Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club (single, 2019)
44. Bror Gunnar Jansson – Will You Help Me When I’m Old (single, Playground Music, 2019)
45. Gospelbeach – Dark Angel (single, Alive Naturalsound, 2019)
46. German Error Message – Fine (single, 2019)
47. Queen of Jeans – Only Obvious To You (single, Topshelf Records, 2019)
48. Field Mouse – Skygazing (Meaning, Topshelf Records, 2019)
49. Fionn Regan – Head Swim (Cala, Abbey Records, 2019)
50. Reina del Sid – Bernadette (single, 2019)
51. Michael Kiwanuka – You Ain’t The Problem (single, Polydor, 2019)
52. Ikebe Shakedown – Kings Left Behind (Kings Left Behind, Colemine Records, 2019)
53. Josh Rouse – Trouble (single, Yep Roc, 2019)
54. Alasdair Roberts – Common Clay (single, Drag City, 2019)
55. Aino & Miihkali – May (Aino & Miihkali, 2019)

Playlist link

Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you

If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.

Continue Reading