Country, Americana, Folk, Power Pop, Indie Pop
The song Fighter from the forthcoming Bonnie Whitmore album Fuck With Sad Girls that is due out 28th of October has been a big favourite in this household during the past week. This and the earlier outtake She’s a Hurricane are both gorgeous and I have really high hopes for the album. I’ll get back to this closer to the release date, but here’s the excellent Fighter.
I thought I should also share some new music that I love on this so called blog birthday (ok, it’s past midnight already so I’m a little late), because that’s what this blog is all about. Besides The Needy Sons fits quite well to this little 15 years celebration, because Bill Janovitz’s other band Buffalo Tom was quite a big thing to me around the time this website was born 15 years ago. Yeah, I was clueless in the mid-nineties when the classiest albums came out and got my Buffalo Tom education somewhere around 1999-2001. In case you haven’t heard of Buffalo Tom, listen to an all-time favorite of mine Taillights Fade and work your way from there to the whole excellent catalog. The other stuff like that Bill Janovitz and Crown Victoria album is also great and way too underrated at least in this corner of the world.
Anyway, enough with the nostalgic stuff. The Needy Sons has some new stunning music for you. That first paragraph might make you believe that this is a one man show, but that’s not true. The Needy Sons is a band that consists of Bill Janovitz, Mike Gent, Ed Valauskas, and Eric Anderson. Bill Janovitz and Mike Gent (The Figgs) share the songwriting duties and both do a really good job. The album Vis-A-Vis is now out on Bandcamp (CD/digital) and other digital outlets should follow within a few weeks. Here’s one excellent song from each songwriter. The Swimmer from Bill Janovitz and Majoring in Slow from Mike Gent. Listen/buy the whole thing on their bandcamp.
One Chord to Another is now 15 years old. Huge thanks for everyone who has been with me on this little journey through music. No matter whether you’ve red this blog the full 15 years or just browsed through a couple of post somewhere along the way. It means a lot to me that you’ve visited this and it makes the countless amount of hours I’ve put to this worthwhile.
I had this little anniversary thing going on for the past few weeks. I seriously run out of time, because I meant to do one or two each day, but I just didn’t have the energy to keep that going during 50+ hour work weeks. So very significant ones like Ochre Room, Daniel Markham, John Moreland, Topi Saha, Frontier Ruckus, Small Houses, Myriam Gendron, Lac Belot, Ilona V, Hezekiah Jones, The Deep Dark Woods, Koria Kitten Riot, Chris Bathgate are still missing. Maybe I continue doing these posts during the rest of this year. Not that anyone else than myself care that much if some significant onechord.net favourites are missing. Oh and the biggest inspirations behind this blog were mostly covered during the 10 year anniversary. The Sugarrush, Bridget, Cats On Fire, Office Building, The Rollstons, Penniless still rule my world.
It was clear from the start of these anniversary posts that I wanted to post something about Mörönsyötti by Viljami Kukkonen on this birthday. I’m forgetting my rules here a bit, because I couldn’t pick just one song from this wonderful album. It’s a friend to me that has been with me during the longest nights that thanks to Mörönsyötti always led to daylight. This album knows things about me that I might not even recognise myself by the time the morning comes. Sure the album has its fair share of sadness, but it’s presented is such a way that for me Mörönsyötti has always been a kindhearted shoulder. I so needed that when I had some heavy medical worries. Still do on some level, but Mörönsyötti and thyroid medication has significantly helped the situation.
Onechord.net has never been about music critique or writing analytic pieces about music. That is important and relevant too, but I don’t have the skills for that. Onechord.net is just about loving songs and albums so wholeheartedly that I want to tell the world or the 7 regular readers about them. Mörönsyötti by Viljami Kukkonen is an album that I’ve loved the most during these 15 years of One Chord To Another.
Wendell Walker was the first Andy Shauf song I heard back in 2013. It instantly grabbed me and haven’t let go over the years. Back then I wrote that “I’m almost scared to find out more, because how can anything live up to this”. Well apparently it did, because Andy’s 2016 album The Party has been sitting on that album of the month slot for months and might well be my album of the year so far. Anyway, here’s a stunning live version of Wendell Walker. You can find the song from the previous Andy Shauf album The Bearer of Bad News.
And here’s an outtake from the new masterpiece as a bonus. The Worst in You from The Party. Out now on ANTI- (US/Europe) and Arts & Crafts (Canada)
Andy Shauf Website
Onechord.net reaches 15 years on September 17. Leading up to that, I will be sharing some songs that I hold dear. Songs that I’ve loved the most during the years I’ve been making this. So basicly just some nostalgic crap, but with a damn brilliant soundtrack.