John K. Samson & John Statz

JOHN K. SAMSON

I’ll take a small break from selecting the album of the year 2011 and focus on the album of the year 2012. John K. Samson is releasing his first solo album Provincial on january 24th, 2012. This guy is a poet, one of the best songwriters in the world and his band The Weakerthans has released some of the greatest indie rock albums of the past 10-15 years. The last three of them have been top 10 albums at onechord.net and I’m sure the solo album will be equally brilliant. Check out Epitaph’s album sampler below and start counting days. It looks like the Christmas might be a month late and this time it will arrive on the 24th of january.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfqLrWMMPZ4]

And why not post a couple The Weakerthans classics:

Tournament of Hearts (the greatest rock song ever written about curling.. ok the competition probably isn’t very high)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQF5xuLrjpY]

And here’s John K. Samson singing One Great City by The Weakerthans at Songwriting Panel. I recommend checking out other videos from that panel as well. I’ve watched them a few times over the years. Other great songwriters there as well.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK8x-77GqB0]

John K. Samson at Facebook
The Weakerthans Website

JOHN STATZ

It looks like the singer-songwriter Johns are taking over the world on the january 24th, because also John Statz is releasing a new album on that day. Mr. Statz might not be as household name as Mr. Samson is at this point, but he is also able to craft some really fine songs. I enjoyed the previous album Ghost Towns and really look forward to hearing this new one. It’s his first release on the great Yer Bird records and the label recently gave away the first single Distance as a free download. Sounds great to me. Check it out yourself below.

John Statz Website

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Year 2011 Round-Up Part 5 – The best Finnish songs (unreleased or self-released)

Title pretty much covers it all. These are Finnish songs that I absolutely love and adore. Some are waiting to be released, some will probably (and unfortunately) forever remain unreleased, some are self-released. All are utterly wonderful. I hope I didn’t forget anyone really important. Of course there’s plenty of others I really enjoyed as well, but these are the ones I really loved the most. It’s actually rather pointless to divide these finnish songs into label-stuff and unreleased, because let’s face it. If I make a top 30 finnish songs of the year list, these all would make it to that list.

Here we go (again).. These are not in any specific order.

Carmen & The Devil – Love Drove My Baby Away & Tell-Tale Heart

Impossible to decide between these two Carmen & The Devil originals, so I have to include them both. It’s definitely been a year of Carmen & The Devil at this household. I loved their concerts and those three limited edition cassettes. Playing just the kind of music I love these days and doing it exceptionally well. Country duets, traditional folk songs, great cover choices, beautiful originals. Hopefully an album next year.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12211863″]
 
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/28673494″]
 

Carmen & The Devil at Facebook

Tolbiac – Elokuussa

Just how amazing is this song? The radio host of the highest order and the writer of the legendary indie hit Purkkaa , the international man of mystery, Tolbiac returned with a couple of stunning songs. Especially this song entitled Elokuussa is so good that I could listen to it all day long.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/24343728″]
 

Heartjet – Grace

A big onechord.net favourite, power pop duo Heartjet gave a couple of new songs for free. Grace & World are both awesome. A bit more serene than before, but equally great.

Heartjet at facebook

Puskii! – Mä haluun bändin

Puskii! has an album ready, but it seems to take a long while to get it out and available. A big shame, because I love listening to them. This song is a whole lot of fun and sometimes that’s everything you need.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/17006370″]
 

Puskii! at Facebook

The Wonderminers – Stars in the Window

Petri Nakari’s new band released a digital 4-song EP that is a thing of beauty and takes a high place on the best EPs of the year list, if I decide to make one. This slice of pop heaven is called Stars In The Window.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/15055848″]
 

The Wonderminers Website
The Wonderminers at Facebook

Swaying Wires – Never Fade

Swaying Wires is a new band from Turku and I’m enjoying them more and more each day. They have four songs over at Soundcloud. I can’t really decide which one I like the most, because they are all extremely good. I previously posted Bluebird, so let’s go with Never Fade this time around. It brings to mind early Songs: Ohia occasionally. I’m loving it.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/22124175″]
 

Swaying Wires at Facebook
Swaying Wires at Blogspot

The Spoonshiners – Three Years

The Spoonshiners EP hits all the right spots for a fan of 90s US indie, and 70s power pop. I especially loved this track called Three Years, because it reminded me of things like Dinosaur JR and Buffalo Tom.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/25574468″]
 

The Spoonshiners at Facebook

Treehouse – By The Lake

I was totally into this song early in the year and it still sounds brilliant. Just a fantastic pop song. A bit of TFC, a bit of Popsicle and a bit of country. A perfect formula if you ask me. And I love those harmonies..

Treehouse – By the Lake from Hessu on Vimeo.

Treehouse at Facebook

Matti Jasu & The Loose Train – Fingers Crossed

And then a really late favourite. This outtake from the upcoming Matti Jasu & The Loose Train album is friggin’ great. I loved Matti Jasu’s work at Goodnight Monsters and this new stuff seem to be equally awesome.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT80lUksDRs]

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Year 2011 Round-Up Part 4: Mirel Wagner, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Robert Ellis, Daniel Romano, Patrick Sweany

More highlights and more favourite singer-songwriters of the year 2011. All these will definitely feature on the upcoming albums of the year list. Especially the first two will demand a really high place on that list.

Mirel Wagner – No Death (from the album Mirel Wagner)

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

Jessica Lea Mayfield – Run Myself Into The Ground (from the album Tell Me)

Jessica Lea Mayfield “Run Myself Into The Ground” from American Songwriter on Vimeo.

Daniel Romano – Hard On You from the album Sleep Beneath The Willow

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH6Go6llEBs]

Robert Ellis – Friends Like Those (from the album Photographs)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP3HZC4hKpk]

Patrick Sweany – Shoestring (from the album That Old Southern Drag)

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Sammal – Kylmää usvaa

Sammal deserves some love around here, because being a prog-rock band and still writing a song that I find amazing is not an easy task. Mainly because progressive is pretty much a curse word at the onechord.net headquarters and I prefer spending my days listening three minute pop songs or whiskey-soaked country ballads. However, Kylmää usvaa by Sammal is pretty fantastic. There’s a great 70’s thing going on. Almost something like Kaseva going progressive. The album is due out sometime next year. I’m still not sure will I enjoy the whole album, but prog-rock fans will certainly have a lot to look forward to. While waiting you can check out Kylmää usvaa and a couple of other tracks from the upcoming album on their myspace.

Sammal at myspace
Sammal at Facebook

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