Take me to your music…

Singer-songwriter preview

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under alt-country, folk rock, indie folk, local scene, music, music news, singer/songwriter | Leave a Comment

Artists in and around the South Shore area just outside of Boston have brought back a genre that resonated in the 60s and 70s — singer-songwriters. Today, because we need labels for everything, it’s being called everything from indie-folk to alt-country. Call it what you want.

Stephen MacDonald — Photo by Katherine Cota

Either way, you’ll be blown away by a number of local musicians, including Stephen MacDonald, Shaun Dever, Stephen Infascelli, Jake Hill, and Greg Loftus, as well as West Virginia’s Tucker Riggleman and L.A.’s Jim Hanft. Here’s a sneak preview of the full-length feature I wrote for GateHouse News Service/CNC Newspapers. It will be available on newstands and online this week.

Here are some quotes from the cutting room floor:

“Most of the time, something just pops in my head. If don’t have notebook with me, I’ll just keep saying it and then write it down,” MacDonald said. “Sometimes I’ll think of a verse and two weeks later think of another verse and piece it together like a puzzle.”

“For a while when people asked me what my music sounded like I could only relate it to older musicians like Bob Dylan or James Taylor,” Jim Hanft said. “Now when I am hitting on a girl in a bar telling her about my music and I say something like, ‘You know it’s kinda like folk/indie/Damien Rice after a cup of coffee.’ She says, ‘Oh yeah, that Irish dude with the song in that movie with Natalie Portman. I love that song. Can you please get your hand off my leg.’ When a few years ago they’d look at me like I was this pretentious prick for name dropping a musician they’d never heard of.”

“Inspiration is everywhere, bands, movies, books, beer, everything,” Loftus said. “A lot of my songs are satirical.”

Are you a Badfish, too? Sublime tribute band hits Foxboro Sept. 6

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under live shows, tribute band | Leave a Comment

Had Bradley Nowell not OD’d 12 years ago, we’d still be enjoying the finest reggae-laced, ska punk rock of all time. But, sadly, the 28-year-old lead singer of Sublime succumbed to the rock and roll lifestyle. However, the band’s legacy lives on and has for years due in large part to hands down the best Sublime cover band in world — Badfish. The boys of Badfish formed in 2001 at the University of Rhode Island. A week from Saturday, as in Sept. 6, at Showcase Live at Patriots Place in Foxboro, MA. The all-ages show begins at 8 p.m. with Scotty Don’t opening up. That band features members of Badfish. The tickets are $20 (advance) and $25 (door). I don’t have a clue where you can buy advance tickets. But you’re a smart group of lads. Go online, stop wasting time on Facebook, and search Badfish. Never seen or heard of Badfish. Check out this video from a live show. The boys cover “Santeria.”

“We took a load of acid in the studio” Verve bassist talks about the past, the breakup, and the reunion

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under UK scene, interview | Leave a Comment

One of the best 90s Britpop bands of all time, The Verve, have returned with its first album since the band split in 1999. The original lineup of Richard Ashcroft, Simon Jones, Nick McCabe and Peter Salisbury put their differences and disagreements behind and today (Aug. 26) released Forth, marking a phenomenal return for the Brits. Their single, “Love is Joy,” has received heavy airplay on Sirius Satellite Radio on channels Left of Center and Alt Nation. The new album brings back the rock that made The Verve, well, The Verve, and it’s filled with some experimentation. All of it works brilliantly. It’s like The Verve never left. I caught up with bassist Simon Jones this morning. He talked about how far the band has come, from its drug-fueled days of the mid-90s all the way to what he calls the best Verve record of all time.

“Our second single, we took a load of acid in the studio and put out a 10-minute single (1992’s “Feel”), you know, and it was like, we didnt have any boundaries. It was all about the music. It wasn’t about being commericial or record sales,” Jones said Tuesday afternoon from England, recalling the early days of The Verve. He said he wasn’t sure how people would receive Forth, particularly after a decade-long hiatus. ”I think with the success of Urban Hymns, probably a lot of people wanted Urban Hymns Two, but it was never on the agenda for us to do that. It was on the agenda to make a really true Verve record, and that’s what we’ve done, and that’s why I’m so proud of it. I’m never going to equate its brilliance to record sales. I don’t give a f***, you know, whether it sells a quarter of the amount of Urban Hymns. What matters to me is coming away making that record, knowing that the other guys in the band think it’s the best record we’ve made. It’s the record that we wanted to make. That to me means everything.”

Watch for the full interview in my next Sound Off column, which hits newsstands in the next few weeks.

Damon Albarn, yup, still a genius

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under music news, music videos | Leave a Comment

All hail Damon Albarn. No, he didn’t get Blur back together, but he did get his hands involved in another project, and once again, he’s helped create (or in this case recreate) a gem. It’s called — Monkey: Journey to the West, which is based on the Chinese folk novel of the same name. The video below is from the BBC’s sports marketing campaign for the Beijing Olympics; it’s also part of Journey to the West. The full length album, Monkey: Journey to the West, comes out Sept. 23 in the states. Basically, Journey to the West was created by Albarn and a few of his mates from Gorillaz. It is performed by both European and Chinese musicians and singers. Albarn produced the album, which is “a natural development of art and music based on the opera of the same name.” For more info about the album and the history of the Monkey, go to www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com/

Jean Grae’s greatest verse

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under hip-hop, mp3, music | Leave a Comment

Brooklyn’s Jean Grae just released her fourth studio album, and as I mentioned in my latest column my latest column, her finest work can be found on a track from Boston emcee Mr. Lif’s I Phantom 2002 album. Grae joins Lif, El-P, and Boston’s Akrobatik on the track. Listen to it (but only if you have iTunes or your computer can open m44 audio files). Listen: “Post Mortem”

!!! Los Campesinos! are back (already) with new disc

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under indie, music, music news, music videos | Leave a Comment

Canvas Media/Arts and Crafts announced this week that Cardiff (UK) sevensome Los Campesinos! are releasing they’re second full-length album of 2008. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed will be released Nov. 11, 2008, in the states. For now, enjoy a video from their current disc, Death to Los Campesinos!

Say it ain’t so - Be Your Own Pet breaks up? (sadly it’s true)

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under mp3, music news, punk | Leave a Comment

(Updated Aug. 3, 2008, at 3:30 pm EST)

This has been confirmed by their publicist. When asked if the rumours were true about the band breaking up, she said to me: “They are indeed.” There’s your confirmation. Sorry BYOP fans.

Just after releasing its latest album — Get Awkward, a few months after putting out its Get Damaged EP –Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet has announced through its website that it has decided to break up. I don’t buy it. On one hand it’s believable — they started this band in high school and 9 out of 10 high school bands break up AND earlier this year, they bailed on the Warped Tour, posting this on their website: “We have been going non-stop for the past 6 months and didn’t realize how much the instense schedule would take out of us. Something had to give and sadly its this tour.” But, they were picked up by Universal, one of the biggest major labels. That’s a huge break. But then again, maybe that’s the problem. These kids spoke their minds — just read their lyrics. Three songs were taken off Get Awkward (all three make up the Get Damaged EP). In a nutshell, the three songs have two main themes — fighting people and hating school. Listen to Becky. Here and there it sounds like a song you’d hear in a diner in the ’50s. Yeah, then go listen to the lyrics. I’ve got an email into their publicist asking if this breakup is for real. Stay tuned. Thanks to Stephen MacDonald for first informing me, thus informing you, of this crappy news.

Sigur Ros: the bestur band í the veröld

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under music | Leave a Comment

ÉG áhorfandi “Heima” á The Sundance Channel fyrir the fimmtándi tími í the síðastur tveir vika (og, já, ÉG jafnvel hafa the DVD), en allir tími it’s á, ÉG réttlátur verða að horfa á það. The tími undirskrift og samsetning Sigur Ros skapa og nota ert geðveikur. Þú vita hvernig mikill kunnátta það tekur til leika tónlist svo hægt og svo í synch? Enda þótt þeirra nýjastur diskur er a hluti ólíkur en þeirra fyrri vinna, það er enn einstæður.

English translation:

I watched Heima on the Sundance Channel for the 15th time in the last two weeks (and, yes, I even have the DVD), but any time it’s on, I just have to watch it. The time signatures and compositions Sigur Ros create and use are insane. You know how much skill it takes to play music so slowly and so in synch? Although their latest disc is a bit different than their previous work, it’s still phenomenal.

Be Your Own Pet “Gets Awkward”

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under CD review, indie, music, punk | Leave a Comment

In my July column, I reviewed the Be Your Own Pet EP, Get Damaged, and I promised to give you the full review of their full-length. Bottom line: It’s brash, it’s ballsy, and it’s brilliant. This nation is so uptight and so many labels were scared to sign BYOP. Like I’ve said time and time again, free speech is no longer free speech, which is rubbish. Lyrics from a track off BYOP’s Get Awkward full-length are edgy and bleeping great. On “The Kelly Affair,” lead singer Jemima Pearl shouts, “Everybody here parties all the time/Everybody here’s got sex on their mind/Everybody here is popping pills.” These kids are from Nashville and they kick … butt (yes, I have to say that and not the three-letter word). The second greatest track on the disc, “Black Hole,” makes you want to punch your best friend (only because your best friend has probably punched you before and he or she won’t mind if you tell them why you punched them). It’s hard to compare BYOP to another group, but musically, they’re part punk, part riot grrrl. Download this album now! That’ll give the middle finger to all the labels that passed on BYOP.

Tornado warning posted

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Ryan Wood
Filed Under live shows, music, music videos | Leave a Comment

For the first time in my entire life, I was told to take cover in a basement, cover my head with pillows, or if I was outside, to lay in a trench. Yes, for the first time ever, I was told a tornado was about to make a direct hit in my town. But as we’ve all come to learn, some meteorologists get way too excited about weather and post warnings that 9 times out of 10 never pan out. The tornado warning was lifted about a 1/2 hour after it was first issued. But I thought about tornados and how they hit areas such as ….

KANSAS