Sound Cloud Sunday – August 9, 2020
Sound Cloud Sunday – August 9, 2020
Raise your hand if you thought you would be stuck inside this long. Not you either? Well, if there is any silver lining in this whole pandemic mess, it’s that we have a lot of time to sit at home and devour all the wonderful new music coming out and musicians have a lot of time to sit at home and write and record some amazing music. This week is an eclectic mix of Laurel Canyon era sound and a hand grab of styles that somehow fit including Mariachi, electronica, folk, rockabilly and more. Click on the link below to hear the whole show, and check out the great indie artists (include the return of the king of indie, Devandra Banhart) on this week’s show. Please patronize these wonderful artists; if they are giving you a little joy in their creativity, you can surely return the favor of patronage. Enjoy.
Cut Worms – Sold My Soul
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY via Cleveland, OH
Album: From the ep Sold My Soul released in July on Jagjaguwar Records.
Review Snippet: Max Clarke’s vocals, often double-tracked on Hollow Ground, vibrate in a kind of wiry Midwestern Scouse, and a number of his song titles could easily be mistaken for early Fab Four tunes: “Don’t Want To Say Goodbye”, “Till Tomorrow Goes Away”, and one word away with “It Won’t Be Too Long”. Buddy Holly, Hank Williams rockabilly saunter and 1950s rock ‘n’ roll sway all spin together in Clarke’s plectrum drag strumming and uncluttered percussion.
Website: https://www.cut-worms.com/
Karen Jonas – Pink Leather Boots
Hometown: Damascus, MD
Album: From the forthcoming album The Southwest Sky And Other Dreams to be released August 28 on Yellow Brick Records.
Review Snippet: Drawing from memories of love-struck travels around desert California in a converted Greyhound bus, and scribbled notes taken between tour stops in dusty West Texas, The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams overlays relatable characters and circumstances with the fathomless mystery of the human condition. Astonishingly articulate and atmospheric, it turns the desert’s dichotomous sense of endless space and counterintuitive claustrophobia – both actual and imagined – into a profoundly lucid metaphor that lingers long after its final notes.
Website: http://www.karenjonasmusic.com/
Devendra Banhart – Love Song (Helado Negro Mix)
Hometown: Houston, TX
Album: From the ep Vast Ovoid released July 24 on Nonesuch.
Review Snippet: Slinky tomcat with hipster charisma. Helado Negro takes a languid and pretty Devendra strumalong, one of those carefree little busked greats he can just peel off effortlessly, and dances a light electronica across it. Quite lovely.
Website: http://devendrabanhart.com/
Flor De Toloache – Our Love
Hometown: Mexico
Album: From the self-released album Indestructible that was out on May 31.
Review Snippet: Flor de Toloache stuns at the crossroads of fusion and mariachi girl magic. Whether intimately airy or ice-crackingly powerful, their intricate vocal runs and harmonic alchemy seem to defy logic with equally clever instrumental arrangements by the singers themselves.
Website: https://mariachinyc.com/
Nocona – Chasing Your Shadow
Hometown: Los Angeles
Album: From the album Los Dos released in July on Mule Kick Records.
Review Snippet: About half of the songs on the record channel some of the best rock of the 70’s. Free Throw has a kind of lazy beat that still rocks, and a singing-in-a-tin-can vocal presentation Joe Walsh would have been proud of doing. Tabernacle Woes takes an English psychedelic rock path with lead vocalist Chris Isom putting a Richard Thompson-esque spin on acoustic guitar. Never Come Back is a country rock number with some outstanding fiddle and steel guitar riffs.
Website: https://www.noconamusic.com/
Ken Yates – Grey County Blues/Quiet Talkers
Hometown: London, Ontario, Canada
Album: From the album Quiet Talkers released May 22 on Twin Tone.
Review Snippet: Sharing an easy-going vocal intimacy with Josh Rouse and Paul Simon, singer-songwriter Ken Yates’ new album is undeniably gentle on the ear. Spotlessly produced by multi-instrumentalist Jim Bryson (who also worked on Yates’ 2016 LP, Huntsville) there’s a light, west coast sheen to Yates’ brand of folky Americana. But, delve a little deeper and you’ll quickly find a sobering lyrical wisdom that’s not always synonymous with the genre.
Website: http://www.kenyates.com/band
Jenny Reynolds – Dance With Me
Hometown: Boston
Album: From the album Any Kind of Angel released June 19 on Pretty OK Records.
Review Snippet: Boston born Jenny Reynolds applies a finger-style guitar to her accessible tunes with convincing vocals. Sleek as the best old-school country female singers with silky voices & a touch of alt-folk early Sheryl Crow
Website: https://www.jennyreynolds.com/
Greyhounds – Nobody’s Judging
Hometown: Austin
Album: From the album Primates released in July on Nine Mile Records.
Review Snippet: One of the main principles of our approach to making music is to avoid being too cerebral. More emphasis on trusting your gut. Thats the underlying message in this song. We believe that overthinking things can get in the way of realizing ones true intentions. Getting out of your head and more into your heart. Words we try to live by.
Website: http://www.greyhoundsmusic.com
Kendall Morgan – Rescue Me
Hometown: Nashville
Album: Debut single.
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.facebook.com/k3ndallmorgan/
Drexel Baker – Girl Named Sunrise
Hometown: Little Rock, AR
Album: From the album Love And Pain released July 24 on Max Records
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.facebook.com/DrexelBakerMusic/
Reed Waddle – Tidal Wave
Hometown: Nashville
Album: From the album 20/20 Music on Devon Records.
Review Snippet: There’s been a ton of minimalism among modern folk/rock output in the last five years or so, but I love the liberal influence in the songwriting presented to us here. You can tell that, of all the things that were on Reed Waddle’s mind when he entered the studio to record this new pair of songs, conforming to any contemporary trends within his primary genre of music simply wasn’t one of them. He’s got no space in his songcraft for watering-down the music, nor critics like myself who have come to respect him for his approach.
Website: http://www.reedwaddlemusic.com/bio
Tenille Townes – The Way You Look Tonight
Hometown: Grand Prairie Canada
Album: From the album “The Lemonade Stand” on June 26 on Columbia Nashville
Review Snippet: With The Lemonade Stand, Townes proves she has the potential to become a prolific storyteller. With a curious and probing spirit, Townes infuses a distinct sense of wonderment into the stunning album that reflects her equally beautiful soul.
Website: https://tenilletownes.com/
Seth Bernard – Sandman’s Dust
Hometown: Lake City, MI
Album: From the album Let Love The Light Way on Earthwork Music on July 10.
Review Snippet: Remarkably, the album was created, recorded and released in the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic while Bernard also juggled a re-launch of the Earthwork Music collective he founded decades ago and his role as co-executive director of the statewide Title Track organization that promotes racial equity and environmental protection.
Website: https://samuelsethbernard.com/
Mike Polizze – Wishing Well
Hometown: Philadelphia
Album: From the album Long Lost Solace Found on Paradise Of Bachelors Records.
Review Snippet: The debut solo album by Mike Polizze—and his first release for Paradise of Bachelors—finds the erstwhile Purling Hiss (Drag City) frontman and Birds of Maya shredder stepping out from behind the wall of guitar noise into the bright sunshine. Performed entirely by Polizze with longtime friend Kurt Vile (largely live and acoustic) and recorded by War on Drugs engineer Jeff Zeigler, this intimate Philadelphia affair clarifies the bittersweet earworm melodicism of Dizzy Polizzy’s songwriting, revealing bona fide folk-pop chops. Long Lost Solace Find finally harvests the wild local honey from the buzzing hive of Hiss.
Website: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/category/artist/mike-polizze/
