Playlist

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #45

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Another week, another weekly playlist.

For months I’ve done too little, this week I did a bit too much. Sorry if I overwhelmed you with the posts. I’m fully aware it was too much. Just wanted to catch up a little bit. The posting frequency will get significantly slower very soon. Of course the Four Arms to Hold You posts are kind of silly too and I will see if I carry on making them. They would never fit on a proper music media, but might still fit well to this overly romantic music blog where my only guideline has been to passionately love music.

The summer hasn’t slowed the release schedule. At least not significantly. So far I’ve spent most time with the new albums from Jacob Miller, Loamlands, Mariee Sioux and Jake Xerxes Fussell (yeah, Loamlands took a bit of head start and was here a couple of weeks ago, there was a bit of a mix-up and the actual release date was 7th of June). There’s so much more though and the week gave us new albums from Peter Perrett, Stef Chura, Palehound, Olivia Barton, Dylan LeBlanc, The Hollering Pines, Damn Tall Buildings, Eleni Mandell, Oliver Ray, Haybaby and Vanishing Twin. Teal Moss album is a month or so old, but I just found it this week so it’s here for the first time. A couple of excellent EPs too from Charlie Whitten and Jordie Lane.

The Finnish section is very small this time around. Only revisiting the Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus album and featuring the new album from Hot Heros and the new Markus Perttula single. I’m sure there had to be more, so drop me an email if you so wish.

And then there’s obviously lots of magnificent singles. The big news of the week was that there’s a new Jesse Malin album coming out and it will produced by Lucinda Williams. The first single is already out and available. Some other personal faves came from Mercy Bell, Bedouine, Angela Perley, Malin Pettersen, V.V.Lightbody and David Ritschard, but again I could just as well namedrop them all. They are on the playlist because I liked them.

Some previously featured albums also appear with a new song, but that’s all for now. Next week’s playlist won’t be up on Sunday, because I have some Sthlm Americana plans for the weekend. I still try to do it, but it will be either Monday or Tuesday. Just in case somebody actually cares and waits for this. Some blog entries should appear before the weekend though. Remember love.

OCTA Weekly Playlist Episode #45

1. Jacob Miller – Lifted (This New Home, 2019)
2. Loamlands – For You To Own Me (Lez Dance, Cruisin Records, 2019)
3. Jake Xerxes Fussell – Jubilee (Out Of Sight, Paradise of Bachelors, 2019)
4. Mariee Sioux – Coyote with the Flowering Heart (Grief In Exile, Night Bloom Records, 2019)
5. Jesse Malin (feat. Lucinda Williams) – Room 13 (single, Wicked Cool Records, 2019)
6. Charlie Whitten – Teacher Teaching (Tiny Horse EP, 2019)
7. Peter Perrett – Carousel (Humanworld, Domino Recording Co, 2019)
8. Taylor Knox – Happening (Here Tonight, Cadence Music, 2019)
9. Stef Chura – They’ll Never (Midnight, Saddle Creek, 2019)
10. Mercy Bell – Bent (single, Bell & Faulkner Records, 2019)
11. Palehound – Bullshit (Black Friday, Polyvinyl, 2019)
12. Teal Moss – Lewis (Dewy, 2019)
13. Olivia Barton – ¨James Taylor (I Could Have Smiled at Your More, 2019)
14. Bedouine – One More Time (single, Spacebomb Records, 2019)
15. Dylan LeBlanc – Sand and Stone (Renegade, ATO Records, 2019)
16. Angela Perley – Don’t Look Back Mary (single, 2019)
17. The Hollering Pines – Blow Away (Moments In Between, 2019)
18. Malin Pettersen – Pause (single, Die With Your Boots On Records, 2019)
19. David Ritschard – Som en Hank Williams refräng (single, Rootsy Music, 2019)
20. Mike and The Moonpies – You Look Good in Neon (single, Prairie Rose Records, 2019)
21. Damn Tall Buildings – I’ll Be Getting By (Don’t Look Down, 2019)
22. The Resonant Rogues – Be Around My Darlin’ (Autumn Of The World, 2019)
23. Hot Heros – And She Made The Shadows Dance (Days After The Rodeo, Eclipse Music, 2019)
24. The Teskey Brothers – Man of the Universe (single, Decca Records, 2019)
25. Shane Leonard – History (Strange Forms, Wayvard Chicken, 2019)
26. Eleni Mandell – Ghost of a Girl (Wake Up Again, Yep Roc, 2019)
27. V.V. Lightbody – Car Alarm (single, Acrophase Records, 2019)
28. Whitney – Giving Up (single, Secretly Canadian, 2019)
29. Japanese Breakfast – Head Over Heels (single, W Records, 2019)
30. Haybaby – Get Down (They Get There, Tiny Engines, 2019)
31. Dude York – Box (single, Hardly Art, 2019)
32. Fernando Viciconte – Hey Darlene (single, Fluff & Gravy Records, 2019)
33. Chris Staples – River in Reverse (single, Barsuk Records, 2019)
34. Oliver Ray – Ready (Out Passed Nowhere, Royal Oakie, 2019)
35. Matt York – Going Crazy (single, 2019)
36. Lucy Langlas – Savage (single, Early Hearts, 2019)
37. Bridal Party – Too Much (single, 2019)
38. Natural Bridges – Cactus Flower Blossom (Residual Daydreams, Royal Oakie, 2019)
39. James Rose – Simplicity (single, 2019)
40. Matthew Milia – Why Is It? (Alone at St. Hugo, Sitcom Universe, 2019)
41. Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus – Kirjat (Maapallon hautajaiset, Lumpeeela Julkaisut, 2019)
42. Markus Perttula – Näiltä lakeuksilta (single, MPM, 2019)
43. W.C. Beck – Steel Bird (single, 2019)
44. Edan Archer – Six Wing Angel (single, 2019)
45. Elaine Kay – Daddy Issues (single, 2019)
46. Christopher Gold & The New Old Things – Trouble (single, 2019)
47. Jordan Lane – Burning (Lost EP, 2019)
48. Ian Noe – Dead on the River (Rolling Down) (Between The Country, National Treasury, 2019)
49. Her Crooked Heart – Young Love Is Like Nothing (To Love To Leave To Live, 2019)
50. Vanishing Twin – You Are Not An Island (The Age Of Immunology, Fire 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.

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Four Arms to Hold You, International music

Four Arms to Hold You: Esther Rose, Steven Lambke, Jordan Moser and Rachel Toups

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Another short one for tonight, because the pile isn’t getting any shorter. Note to self: do these regularly. Trying to cover months of music in 1-2 weeks, doesn’t work all at well. Who would have guessed?

Tonight’s music journey begins from New Orleans with the folk/country songwriter Esther Rose. I raved about her earlier single Don’t Blame It On The Moon a few months ago and since then we’ve gotten two more singles, Handyman and Only Loving You. Not a whole lot has changed in my feelings towards her music. It’s still all love and I’m so eager to hear her new album You Made It This Far, which will be released by Father/Daughter Records on the 21st of August. The legendary GemsOnVHS made a music video for the latest single Only Loving You. Watch that below and join me in counting the days to the release. I desperately need that, because I’m horrible at math.

Esther Rose Website

Travelling north to Toronto, Canada for a get together with the new Steven Lambke album Dark Blue that came out on the 29th of March. I really suck at being a music blogger these days, because I haven’t even covered the music that matters the most to me (other than on the playlist). The hushed poetic indie rock brilliance of Dark Blue falls into that category. It’s not the most instantly catchy record you’ll hear, but given a chance, it stays with you for a long time. Here’s a couple of personal favorites from the new album. Oh and you might see a familiar looking chap playing guitar on that live video of White Horses. He also played a big role in the making of this beauty of an album. There’s also another live video + two music videos on youtube, so check them out if you like what you heard.

Steven Lambke Website

Another new one from the Keeled Scales treasure vaults. Jordan Moser is a folk-country songwriter from Austin, Texas who has been making and releasing music on his own for the past ten years. His label debut Long Night will come out on Keeled Scales on the 26th of July. GoldFlakePaint premiered the first single The Devil a couple of days ago and it sure lifts the album expectations sky high. Irresistible folk song that features Molly Burch on the beautiful harmonies.

Jordan Moser Website

Last one for tonight is a bit of a hidden gem from Los Angeles, California. Rachel Toups is a singer-songwriter and her magical, eerie and expiremental folk album Sundog came out 8th of March on Peconic. Especially these songs Foxes and There have been beautifully haunting me ever since. Not that I have any desire whatsoever to shake them out of my mind.

Rachel Toups Website

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.

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Finnish music, Four Arms to Hold You

Four Arms to Hold You: Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus, MeriTuuli, Kielo Kärkkäinen & Amuri

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The weather is too hot for staying inside blogging so instead I went outdoors to do the exactly same thing. Quite frankly it’s too hot here as well, but let’s do a small Finnish language special, because so much wonderful Finnish music has been released during the past month or so.

Starting from Tampere with the new Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus album Maapallon hautajaiset. It just came out last Friday 31st of May on Lumpeela Julkaisut and I’m very fond of it. The whole album is really good and contains engaging folk rock songs with a lot of pop sensibility. The biggest treasure on the album is the song called Kaikki oli paremmin ennen and this one should be a radio hit on every station.

Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus Website

I’ve managed to miss MeriTuuli until their recent run of singles. I’m sort of ashamed about that, because based on these songs in question, not knowing about them feels like a criminal offence for a Finnish music blogger. Anyway, MeriTuuli is a Finnish folk/pop band led by twin sisters Meri and Tuuli Wallenius. They are releasing their new EP Yö Saimaalla next week and the early singles Ruusut and Minä Odotan are both wonderful. The first one also appeared in a form of a beautiful music video.

MeriTuuli Website

There’s also a new folk single from Kielo Kärkkäinen and this one is quietly spectacular. A light breeze of the music carrying the heavy burden of the lyrics. So easily and instantly enjoyable, yet there’s so much depth & detail. Keitä me olemme is the first single from a forthcoming album that will be released by Texicalli Records in the fall of 2019.

Kielo Kärkkäinen Website

This last song for today has been out for several months, but I think I’ve only posted it on the playlist. And well that’s just not right, because this is probably my favourite Finnish song of the whole year. It’s the debut single Halla from a new band called Amuri. The musicians aren’t actually newcomers though, because if you look at that cover photo above you might recognise some usual suspects. I love everything about this starting from that Asko Raivio homage in the cover art. A glorious wistful pop song that reminds me of Kaseva. What’s not to love. I hope there’s more on the horizon and Helmi Levyt will bring us more Amuri music during the coming months.

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.

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Four Arms to Hold You, News

Four Arms to Hold You: RF Shannon, Will Beeley, Aaron Beckum and TK & The Holy Know-Nothings

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Hey another night, another blog entry of magical music numbers. This time I’m sort of having a very loose desert / driving theme. Our journey starts from Wild Rose Pass, which is also the title of the wonderful lead single from the forthcoming RF Shannon album. The full RF Shannon album of desert blues with mellow psych-moods will be released on the 2nd of August by the awesome Austin-based label Keeled Scales.

RF Shannon Website
Keeled Scales Website

Next we are driving on U.S. 85 with truck driving country songwriter Will Beeley. US geography isn’t my strongest suit, but if the RF Shannon album is for long drives between Texas and LA and on this Will Beeley song we see El Paso on the left, I think at least for a moment we can’t be too far off. Anyway, Highways & Heart Attacks is Will Beeley’s first album in 40 years! A couple of years ago Tompkins Square released his albums from the 70s and suddenly we have a brand new album coming out on the 14th of June. The first single is called U.S.85 and it’s so damn good. I look forward to hearing the whole thing in little over a week.

Tompkins Square Website

I’m not sure did I ever post Aaron Beckum’s short movie Born Forlorn to the blog or was it just social media. Well it doesn’t really matter, because a) it fits so well to this blog entry b) Aaron Beckum just released his lo-fi cosmic americana album Obsolete that also contains this gorgeous song. Super high recommendations both for the new album and the dry humour adventure short movie where the singer gives his best shot of driving through the desert.

Aaron Beckum Website

On the last entry, I’ll forget the driving and start searching for Desert Rose together with TK & Holy Know-Nothings. The frontman Taylor Kingman released an excellent singer-songwriter album Wannabe a couple of years ago, but this time he wanted to flavour his storytelling with some rock’n’roll, groove and bar boogie and therefore put together a band called TK and the Holy Know-Nothings. Both the earlier solo album and this new band album Arguably OK came out on Mama Bird Recording Co. Here’s an excellent Live from the Laurelthirst version of Desert Rose. There’s two more of those live videos on Youtube, so if you enjoyed this one, you know where to go next.

TK & The Holy Know-Nothings Website
Mama Bird Recording Co Website

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