Recommended Listening - Noah and the Whale

Noah and the Whale is an indie band from London. I first heard about them when they were recently featured in Relevant Magazine. Their album "The First Days of Spring" will be out on August 31st. You can hear a preview of the title track from that record here:

Noah and the Whale Myspace

Album Review - Iron and Wine

Iron and Wine “Around the Well”
Sub Pop Records, 2009

To music fans, very few things are as irritating as rarities and b-sides collections. The only worse things are concert DVDs and solo-projects. All of these things have one particular purpose: milk as much money out of the fact that people like your band while having to put forward the least amount of effort. These projects normally come out in between releases (especially when a follow-up CD is overdue) and serve to satisfy the consumer without having to go through the process of writing or recording new material.

It has been two years since the release of “The Shepherd’s Dog” and Iron and Wine is in desperate need to keep the attention of the twenty-something’s that scooped up their music in the aftermath of their contribution to the Garden State soundtrack. That attention grabber is “Around the Well”: a two-disc rarities and b-sides collection that spans Sam Beam’s entire career as an acoustic performer.

Unlike most rarities collections, many of the songs on this CD are actually good enough to put on proper releases. Songs like “Sacred Vision”, “Communion Cups and Someone’s Coat” and “Love Vigilantes” sound just as good as any other track that Iron and Wine has released. Some tracks (like “Friends they are Jewels” and “Hickory”) are more lo-fi than others. However, the grittiness of Beam’s earlier recordings lends itself well to this kind of sound.

As a whole, this album does a great job at bridging the gap between Iron and Wine releases. Someone who isn’t an avid fan could put in this record and listen to it from start to finish with at least moderate contentment. In an attempt to build appreciation for “Around the Well” I have prepared a list of rarities and b-sides collections, solo projects, and DVD’s from other musicians (ranging from horrible to unpleasantly mediocre).

-Bright Eyes – “A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995 and 1997”
-Death Cab for Cutie- “You Can Play These Songs with Chords”
-Headphones – David Bazan’s side project from Pedro the Lion
-Thom Yorke’s solo CD that came out between “Hail to the Thief” and “In Rainbows”
-The Blood Brother’s DVD that I got as a companion purchase with “Crimes”… whatever that piece of junk was called

…that became a bitter rant toward the end. I apologize.

(7.5/10)

Iron and Wine on Myspace

Random Myspace Band - Cains and Abels

Cains & Abels is an indie/rock band from Chicago. I found them through Anathallo's myspace and loved them instantly. The most remarkable thing about their music is the distinct sound of an interesting vocalist. Their singer has a voice that is not easily digestible, but creates beautiful melodies that carry dark, but well-constructed lyrics. My favorite tracks so far are "Killed by Birds" and "Dark Days"

Cains and Abels Myspace

Recommended Listening - The Welcome Wagon

The Welcome Wagon is a two-piece folk band from New York made up of the Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique. Rev. Aiuto is currently the senior pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, NY. Their songs are beautiful and simple, and are filled with the same whimsical joy that is so often associated with Sujfan Stevens. Their most recent album, "Welcome to the Welcome Wagon" is a wonderful blend of gospel and folk music.

Give them a listen!

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon!

Their myspace has a rendition of "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood" that is beautiful.

It’s a Two-Movie Saturday!

Leah and I just got home from a weekend trip to Tallahassee. We went to all of our favorite spots from college (Vinyl Fever, The Coffee Pub [now The Red Eye], Avant Garb, The Leon Pub) and checked out a great new beer-lover’s bar called Fermentation Lounge. They have tons of craft beers available in a relaxed, smoke-free atmosphere. My beer pick for the weekend was the Gaelic Ale from North Carolina’s Highland Brewing Company. For the record, my pregnant wife did not drink any beer... we love our child.

This afternoon we went to our favorite theatre, The Miracle 5, and saw Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, and Alan Arkin. Judging by the title and the trailer, I was hoping for something tragically funny but still pleasant (the word association for “sunshine” naturally took me to Little Miss Sunshine, which also had Alan Arkin). The film was fantastic, but horrendously depressing. I would definitely recommend it, but make sure that you are prepared. Do not go to see this movie if you have any desire to smile for the following 2 hours.

We got home to our newest Netflix arrival, Man on Wire. This film won the 2009 Oscar for Best-Documentary Feature. It is the story of a Frenchman who is obsessed with daring tight-rope walking stunts. He spent most of his life preparing to attempt to walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center. The story is very well told with interviews, well-constructed dramatizations, and archival footage. It is very entertaining and dramatic. This is a movie for people who generally find themselves bored by the notion of watching documentaries.

mewithoutYou Review

Album Review #2

I promise that my next review will not only be a band that is not on Tooth and Nail Records, but also a band that isn't Christian.



mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy!, It's All False!, It's All a Dream!, It's Alright!
Tooth and Nail Records, 2009

mewithoutYou has maintained a steady progression of creativity during their existence. 2002’s [A-->B] Life was a mixture of aggressive drums, heavy guitars, and Aaron Weiss yelling out in a distinct, poetic way that was dripping with passion, but parched for melody. Catch for Us the Foxes and Brother, Sister showed distinct signs of creative development. Aaron began to sing from time to time. They used guest instrumentalists on songs like “C-Minor” and “In a Sweater Poorly Knit”. These two albums set the stage for what was to come with their newest project.

The first moments of It’s All Crazy... are ripe with a new emotion for mewithoutYou: joy! This is not to say that songs like Brother, Sister’s “O Porcupine” aren’t filled with happiness, but that they don’t communicate it with their instrumentation and melodic lines. The opening song “Every Thought a Thought of You” has a pleasant melody, and is filled with positive lyrics like “the trees raise branches high like arms in church to grateful sky, every song in praise of you.”

“The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie” is the first of several songs that play out like one of Aesop’s fables. Each of these songs has an over-arching idea that that Weiss is trying to convey. “The Fox, the Crow and the Cookie” is a story about a crow that steals a piece of candy from a baker. A fox devises a plan to get the candy from the crow. The fox decides to use flattery to get the crow, who is holding the candy in its beak, to sing. When the crow began to sing, the candy falls out and the fox gobbles it up. The story here, of course, is that we should strive to remain humble, because our pride will cause us to make bad decisions.

“A Stick, A Carrot & String” is probably my favorite song on the album. It tells an abbreviated version of Jesus’ life from the perspective of different animals. As weird as that sounds, it is actually quite touching. In the barn where Jesus was born, several animals have something to say about His coming into the world. For example, a donkey says to the baby Jesus: “child, in 30-some-odd years you'll ride someone who looks like me, untriumphantly.” The song concludes with a snake being crushed in the garden where Jesus prayed “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26)

Overall the new techniques of this album are successful. However, there are a few moments that fall short of what a mewithoutYou record should be. In “goodbye, I!” Aaron Weiss’ singing voice doesn’t have enough strength or range to properly deliver the melodic lines in the last half of the song (hence why he has relied on abrasive yelping for years). “Fig with a Bellyache” has the most Daniel Smith influence. The song could have been taken straight from a Danielson Famile record. This is alright if you are looking to listen to Danielson. However, as a mewithoutYou song, it fails to communicate. They are very different bands that don’t overlap harmoniously.

The album is definitely enjoyable. When Daniel Smith was adding his touch to the mewithoutYou style, the band sounded fantastic. When mewithoutYou was sounding like Danielson, the band fell short. Fortunately the latter was a rare occurrence.
(7/10)

mewithoutYou Myspace

Documentary Project

In college, Leah and I worked on a documentary project for my final production class. I haven't been able to find a copy of it for a while, but it finally turned up. Just a warning... the video sat on a miniDV tape for 2 and 1/2 years. There are a few breaks in the audio and video that degraded the quality.

The documentary is called "Custom and Precedent" and is about the hospital desegregation in Tupelo, Mississippi during the 1960's.

You can watch it here:

Custom and Precedent from Thomas Irby on Vimeo.