Sound Cloud Sunday February 10, 2019 – Episode 39

       Sound Cloud Sunday February 10, 2019

 We’ve been featuring the best new indie artists from around the globe for more than a year now on Sound Cloud Sunday on Laurel Canyon Radio and we’ve never featured a more eclectic bunch.  From the UK to Germany, from folk to psych folk to blues to country to Americana to rock, the umbrella of music that fits into the California sound, as it were, keeps expanding.  Enjoy this week’s episode (click below if you missed it live) and please, please, please patronize our Laurel Canyon Radio artists!  We wouldn’t be here if not for their extraordinary talents!

 

 

Art Carter – 20 Minute Train

 

Hometown:  Orlando, FL

Album:  From the 2008 self-released album “Freedom Rains”  just re-released this month.

 

Review Snippet: Carter’s voice is a cross between the natural wobble of Neil Young and the comfortable croon of Randy Newman (without the acerbic wit).

Website:  https://artcarter.com/

 

 

Mighty Oaks – So Low, So High

 

Hometown:  Berlin, Germany

Album:.  From their 4th release, the EP Driftwood Seat” released February 1 on Can-Can Records.

 

Review Snippet:   The unexpected commercial success of Mumford & Sons, and the increasing popularity of groups like the Avett Brothers has helped to spawn a new interest in folk-influenced bands on the alternative scene, going beyond the stereotype of the aging Baby Boomer audience for folk-influenced music. Out of that scene a fair number of groups have emerged who also go in for vocal harmonies. A number of them have been sibling and spouse bands, but there are also some groups that defy one’s expectations of a contemporary, post-alternative folk-influenced group. This week, we have a trio whose background is hardly what one would expect, and they have just released a very impressive debut full-length album. The band is Mighty Oaks, a

Website: https://mightyoaksmusic.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice Wallace – Motorcyle Ride

 

Hometown:  Southern California

Album:  From her 4th album “Into The Blue” released January 18 on Rebelle Rose Records.

 

Review Snippet:  Into the Blue captures the beauty of the California landscape as well as the devastation its seen in the most recent headlines. The horror and heartbreak experienced by the wildfires of the last couple of years is recounted to great effect in the dramatic “Santa Ana Winds.”  The blues-soaked highlight “When She Cries” recalls the devastating mudslides Californians experienced after a prolonged drought.

 

Next Time In LA:  February 15 at the Big Rock Pub in Indio.

 

Website:  https://www.alicewallacemusic.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Geiger Van Muller – Blue Moon Frequency #1

 

Hometown:  London, UK

Album:.

 

Review Snippet:   Some of it is experimental, some of it is gorgeous, some of it is both.

Website:  https://geigervonmuller.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Clark And The Long Shadows – Very Survivable

 

Hometown:  Brooklyn, NY via Floyd Knobs, IN

 

Album:  New single released on Bandcamp

 

Review Snippet:

 

Web Site: http://www.benclarkmusic.org/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Freund – East of Lincoln

 

Hometown:  Venice, CA

Album:  From the album “East Of Lincoln” released in September on Surf Tone Records.

 

Review Snippet:  The album’s title track is a slickly-produced roots rock tune that instantly evokes visions of California skylines. As Freund himself puts it, “It is an ode (and an adios) to my beloved Venice, CA.

Website:  http://tomfreund.com/

 

 

 

Andrew Leahey And The Homestead – Airwaves  

 

Hometown:  Nashville

Album:  From his album “Airwaves” out March 1 on Skyline Records.  This is the first single.

Review Snippet:  Airwaves is timeless American rock & roll that rings from sea to shining sea, a candy-apple-red Mustang convertible of a record burning up the interstate with the ragtop down. With it, Leahey refines the jangly Americana of his 2016 Ken Coomer-produced debut, Skyline in Central Time, grasping for the still-smoldering torch of Petty and Springsteen, angling confidently to assume the mantle of their unpretentious everyman sound.

Website: http://andrewleaheymusic.com/

 

 

 

Rose of The West – Roads

 

Hometown: Milwaukee, WI

Album:  Lead single from their debut album out April 5 on Communicating Vessels.

 

Review Snippet:

 

Website:  https://www.roseofthewest.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vandoliers – Cigarettes In The Rain

 

 

Hometown:  Dallas, TX

Album: From the album “Forever” out February 22 on Bloodshot Records.

Review Snippet:  Forever marks the Fort Worth, Texas, ensemble’s third album and its first since signing with Bloodshot Records. Having toured extensively since the release of 2017’s The Native, including a run with Lone Star State forebears the Old 97’s, the Vandoliers cut the 10 new tracks at American Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with producer Adam Hill (Low Cut Connie, Deer Tick). Forever will be released on February 22nd.

Website:  http://vandoliers.com/

 

 

 

Happiness Junkies – On A Tuscan Hill

 

Hometown:  Netherlands

Album:  From the eponymous album released last May on Commuse.

 

Review Snippet:   A great slowbeat rock disk…
…straight from The Netherlands on this two piece band’s freshman release. Guitar, piano, a mix of female and male vocals along with a rhythm box creates a great sound.

 

 

Website:  https://happinessjunkies.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Years – White Marble

 

 

Hometown:  Louisville, KY

Album:  From the eponymous album released in October on No Quarter Records.

 

Review Snippet:   ​ The duo understand old-time as essentially social: music that ought to be made with other people, even just one other person. It’s music to get you through hard days and tough chores, and that may be a lesson they’ve learned on the farms where they live and work. “We both love old-time music,” says Summers, “but a lot of people I’m friends with are still like, What is that? Maybe the Other Years is a good way to trick somebody into liking old-time.”

 

Website:  http://lostriversessions.org/theotheryears/

 

 

 

 

 

The King Heat Ensemble – Triumph

 

Hometown:   UK

Album:  From the EP “Songs” self-released in November.

 

Review Snippet:  The distinct vocals of Kightly, who delivers his personable lyrics with an intimate vocal style reminiscent of Jeff Buckley with a touch of the gravelly tone of Tom Waits. The track has an interesting time signature, not often heard within the genre which is both refreshing and disarming as it comes unexpectedly, however, the band pull it off effortlessly and the song is a great introduction to this relatively new band.

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Website:  https://thekingheatensemble.bandcamp.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Field Medic – Henna Tattoo

 

Hometown:   Brooklyn via San Francisco

Album: From the album “Fade Into Cover” out April 19 on Run For Cover Records.

 

Review Snippet:  Field Medic is the pseudonym of Kevin Patrick Sullivan, a San Franciscan creating a self-described amalgamation of “freak folk, bedroom pop, and post country.” Despite the barrage of genres I just used to describe his music, nearly everything created under the Field Medic moniker is immediately accessible, instantly catchy, and impressively melodic.

 

Next Time in LA:  Nah, but in San Francisco on February 27.

Website: http://www.fieldmedic.net/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better Oblivion Community Center – Dylan Thomas

 

Hometown:  Los Angeles

 

Album:  Eponymous album out January on Dead Oceans.

 

Review Snippet:  Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst team up for a tight-knit folk-rock album about alienation, solitude, and our potential to better ourselves against bad odds.

 

Website: https://www.betteroblivioncommunitycenter.org/

 

 

The Delines – Let’s Be Us Again

Hometown:   Portland, OR

 

Album:   From their 2nd album “The Imperial” released January 11 on El Cortez Records.

 

Review Snippet:  While The Imperial is not a huge departure from the group’s debut Colfax, it is a very elegant and bittersweet record, and makes for a more focused and refined effort overall. While a few of the songs do seem to repeat themselves musically, and it isn’t the most diverse or adventurous album, the stories and Amy Boone’s weary singing are mostly compelling enough to make up for that. The Imperial has a very sleek, wooded over matte aesthetic that wouldn’t be out of place at the end of a bittersweet drama season finale. It is also music that one might imagine being played in a small town Texan bar late at night. A fine album to begin 2019.

 

 

Website:   http://thedelines.com/

 

 

Night Beats – Her Cold Cold Heart

Hometown:   Seattle, WA

 

Album:  From the album “Myth Of A Man”  released on Heavenly Recordings

 

Review Snippet: The vibrant acoustic guitars and clamouring tremolo of the opening cut “Her Cold Cold Heart”, along with its bouncing main riff, create a brooding atmosphere, made murkier by the slack tempo. The slow song consists of catchy chord progressions and a lovesick Danny Rajan Billingslev, depicting his situation in lines such as “I shiver when I see her”. Piano, organ and electric keyboard are all layered into the track, as well as a crackling and whining lead line throughout the chorus, forming an interesting and impressive mix of instruments. Tonally, comparisons could be made to the newest release from Arctic Monkeys, with dense but separated instrumentation and slightly filtered vocals seen on this track, and across the album. Overall, the opener has an organic feel through its RnB roots, but with much repetition and lack of energy, it would appear as though the outfit is merely going through the motions.

 

Website:   http://www.thenightbeats.us/