Sound Cloud Sunday, April 14, 2019

Happy Palm Sunday from Laurel Canyon Radio! While we’d never give up music for Lent, there is every reason to believe that good music will rise three days after it’s killed and then some. Great music from around the globe on this week’s edition including new music from our friends in Wales, the groovy duo Zervas and Pepper who sound as though they channel the morning music block at the Laurel Canyon store. First single from the Italian brothers Sale della Terra and stunning new music from Chet Nichols who never gets cynical about being cynical about LA in the new track “Hollywood, Hollywood” are also on tap in another talent filled edition of Sound Cloud Sunday on Laurel Canyon Radio. We are looking for a new home to store podcast editions of all 45 editions of our show…so stay tuned.

Pica Pica – Sucker Punch

Hometown:      London, England

Album:  Their debut album “ Together And Apart” is out June 7 on Rough Trade.

Review Snippet: PicaPica features the vocal interplay of Josienne Clarke and Samantha Whates, dual front women who create powerful harmonies atop layers of texture created by Adam Beattie & Sonny Johns, a tiding of magpies picking shiny moments of tone and timbre from 60s west coast, sunshine pop and indie folk.

Website:   https://picapicamusic.com/

Driftwood – What You Do To Me

Hometown:      Binghamton, NY   

Album:  From the album “”Tree of Shade” released on April 5. 

Review Snippet:  Their roots are actually in classic rock, but their current sound blends a plethora of genres with the subtle hints of classic Americana. Since their debut album released in 2009, they have been hard-hitting the East Coast. We caught up with them at Northwest String Summit for their first West Coast music festival performance.

Website:   https://www.driftwoodtheband.com

Joshua Lee Turner – I Do I Think 

Hometown:      Indianapolis, IN

Album:  .From the album “As Good A Place As Any” released April 5 on Bring Luck Records. 

Review Snippet: Josh began making YouTube videos in 2007. Ranging from popular to esoteric, local to far flung, and playful to serious, Josh’s videos offer a little something for everyone. Josh also performs regularly with long-time collaborator, Carson McKee, as the folk duo The Other Favorites. Josh’s first full-length solo album, As Good A Place As Any, will be released in April 2019.

Next Time in LA:  July 3 at the Hotel Café. 

Website: https://www.joshualeeturner.com/

Jess Klein – Back To My Green 

Hometown:      Rochester, NY

Album:  From her album “Back To My Green” released last January on Mother Lode Records. 

Review Snippet: On this striking collection of ten new originals, Klein’s incisive lyrics address living in uncertain times and the resilience that carries us through.  Songs like “New Thanksgiving Feast”, “Tougher than I Seem”, and “Kid” look through the lens of a world-traveler and granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, to celebrate the human capacity for healing and redemption during dark times.  Guest vocalists include Gaelynn Lea and Jonathan Byrd.  Simonsen and Canova’s deft production calls on influences including Motown, Classic Rock, Tropicalia and 70’s folk and creates a stirring backdrop to Klein’s passionate mezzo soprano on this timely and powerful album.  Back to My Green will be released everywhere in early 2019.

Website: https://www.jessklein.com/

Wild Child Charlie – Subway To The Moon

Hometown:      Paris, France

Album:  From their  new album “Wild Child Charlie” self-released on March 29

Review Snippet:  

Website: https://soundcloud.com/wildchildcharlie

Zervas And Pepper – There Is Only One Light 

Hometown:   Cardiff Wales

Album:  Single from the forthcoming album “ Endless Road Restless Nomad” 

Review Snippet:  From summery, electric echoes of early Steely Dan, to James Taylor-esque acoustic sensibilities, everything about Abstract Heart screams ‘California circa 197-something’.

Fuelled by several weeks in LA, and a short tour in India, it’s a warm shot of exquisitely harmonised, blissed-out folk rock. But before you mentally consign them to Radio 2, trust us when we say it is extremely lovely.

Website:   https://zervasandpepper.com/

Canyon City – Bluebird

Hometown:  Chattanooga, TN 

Album:   From his third album “Bluebird” self-released April 5. 

Review Snippet: When I hit play on the first song of Canyon City’s newest record Constellation, the simple guitar picking grabbed my attention instantly, and for the better part of the next hour, I listened to some of the most eloquently written music that I have ever heard. It was one of those experiences where I immediately looked up tour dates, rewound to replay certain lines, and wanted learn more about Canyon City and Paul Johnson’s musical history. As I reviewed this work of art, I chatted with the voice behind the words to get a deeper look into both the artist and the record.

Website:  https://www.canyoncitymusic.com/

Renee Wahl And The Sworn Secrets – Cold Day In Memphis

Hometown:  Nashville, TN 

Album:  From the album “Cut to The Bone” released in March on Double R Records.     

Review Snippet:  Wahl delivers a career defining moment with Cut to the Bone, out this Friday, March 15th. Helmed by guitarist Stuart Mathis (Lucinda Williams, Wallflowers) and recorded with an ace band featuring Ron Eoff on bass, Bill Livsey on keys and longtime friend and bandmate David Strayer on drums, the album crackles, barely able to contain the energy emanating from every track.  The album boasts nine songs, all but “From Here To There” were penned by Wahl (it was written by Brian Langlinais along with Randy Sitzler and Drew Nelson) and after the last note fades away you immediately feel the need to listen to it all over again. The lead track “To the Bone” sounds like if you took a film noir and wrung the darkness and suspense out of it and turned it into a song. Her voice is inviting and warning at the same time.  The song instantly draws you in with its pounding drums and masterful guitar work not to mention the subject matter. “To the Bone” is the perfect song to open this collection and it stands as an invitation to what comes next.

Next Time in LA: Seven Grand on May 30. 

Website:  https://reneewahl.com/

Chet Nichols – Hollywood, Hollywood

Hometown:      Evanston, IL 

Album:  From his new self-released album “Hollywood Altars”

Review Snippet: But, from outside my family influences, I enjoyed the popular artists of the time: Danny & The Juniors, Richie Valens, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and others. But, I found that I was really drawn to the blues. I loved Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Robert Johnson and many others. Most of the early albums I bought were by the blues artists. They had a huge influence in my music, especially, when we started “bands” as pre-teen agers. The blues was easy to play to and jam to.

Aside from these influences, in 1960’s, I was introduced to The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Zombies, The Hollies and that whole basket of popular rock and pop bands of the day. It was an amazing time to be growing up as a young musician.

Still, there was a soloist streak that was brewing in me and I was VERY MUCH drawn to the amazing troubadour, singer-songwriters of the day. Gordon Lightfoot, Phil Ochs, Dylan, Donovan, Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, Tim Harden, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Ian & Sylvia and others. Then, in the mid and late 60’s when I was band-less and going to college at Kansas University, I really focused on these artists and my solo, singer-songwriter career. I was very much what you might call an “outside-loner-acid-psychedelic-folk” artist. Much of what I wrote back then was also influence by the great poets, British romantic poets, physics, math and Greek Mythology that I was studying.

Just beyond those earlier years, I also had a deep respect and interest in Eric Clapton, Blake Sheldon, Lowell George & Little Feat, Don Henley, John Mayer, Sara Bareilles, John Mayall, Sonny Lindreth, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Gary Baker, Timothy B. Schmidt, Steely Dan and many, many other groups and writers.

I am really drawn to other singer-songwriters and I love jazz singers, too.

Website:  https://www.chetnichols.net

Mrs. Greenbird – Morals

Hometown:      Cologne, Germany

Album:  From their album “Dark Waters” released April 12

Review Snippet:   
The folksy harmonies of Steffen Brückner paired with Sarah Nücken’s unique voice are what makes this a truly beautiful record. It’s reminiscent of another duo’s sound — Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová of The Swell Season and Once fame. While Mrs. Greenbird has a similar aesthetic, they manage to create something that is entirely their own. Their voices, along with the gentle guitar and melancholic lyrics, result in the kind of music that is brutally honest as well as poetic.

Website:   
https://www.mrsgreenbird.com/

Weyes Blood – Something To Believe

Hometown:      Santa Monica, CA 

Album:  From her new album “Titanic Rising”  released April 5 on Sub Pop. 

Review Snippet:  A half century ago, Brian Wilson weighed the end of a relationship against the end of the world on “God Only Knows.” Ever since, people have looked to the song as an ultimate testament to devotion, and it’s become a go-to for both weddings and pining mixtapes. But when Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering slipped a cover of the Beach Boys ballad into her set at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of Pitchfork’s Midwinter event earlier this month, it became something else: Situated among tracks from her upcoming fourth album, Titanic Rising, “God Only Knows” sounded like a meditation on our tenuous connection with a planet we’ve taken for granted. “God only knows what I’d be without you,” she sang, as if she was addressing the Earth itself.

Next Time In LA:  June 13 at the Troubadour.

Website:  https://www.tylorandthetrainrobbers.com/

Old Mexico – Neon Tree

Hometown:      Los Angeles? 

Album:  From their self-titled EP 

Review Snippet:  
Of all the songs that Jason Simon brought to the table that evening, none were more important to the future NorCal/SoCal collaboration between these two sonic tribes than “Past the Western Wall;”  a song Simon felt necessitated a Free Jazz approach that had proven difficult to capture. Not so in San Francisco, where the song became the lengthy and searching centerpiece of the set. Behind Dave Mihaly’s inspired work on the trap kit, Jason Simon’s exploration of Indian motifs on lead guitar, and the Bob Weir-like rhythmic accompaniment of Trans Van Santos, the song found its wings, stretching freely in the open landscape of the songs middle section. Clocking in at nearly fifteen minutes, “Past the Western Wall” was the clear highlight of a show that featured more than a few bright moments. The next morning Jason Simon drove back to Los Angeles with a copy of Dave Mihaly’s most recent album and an invitation to join Trans Van Santos at the TVS2 sessions in Joshua Tree, California the next month.  

Next time In LA:  June 30 at the Love Song

Website: https://jasonsimon.bandcamp.com/album/old-mexico

Sale Della Terra – Un Mondo che Cambia

Hometown:      Italy  

Album:  New single 

Review Snippet:  Two brothers from Italy form a band, send a song to Laurel Canyon Radio and voila, here it is, sounding every bit as American as pizza.

Website:

Swimming Bell – 1988

Hometown:      Brooklyn, NY    

Album:  From the album “Wild Sight” released April 5 on Adventure Club Records. 

Review Snippet:   “ …a lush, mid-’70s California vibe” – Brooklyn Vegan

Website:   https://www.swimmingbell.com

State Cows – Deportee

Hometown:      Umea Sweden

Album:  From their  forthcoming album “Challenges”.    

Review Snippet: STATE COWS is one of very few modern yacht rock / westcoast / AOR bands that creates new original music. The band consists of Daniel Andersson on vocals and guitars and Stefan Olofsson on keyboards and bass. Many guest musicians have contributed to their recordings and live gigs, most notably Jay Graydon,

Website: https://statecows.com