Sound Cloud Sunday – November 14, 2021
Sound Cloud Sunday November 14, 2021
Marla & David Celia – Paranoia vs Miracles/Goodbye
Hometown: Toronto
Album: Their new album “Indistinct Chatter” was released October 22.
Review Snippet: A follow-up to their 2018 debut Daydreamers, Marla and David Celia‘s Indistinct Chatter was recorded while locked in a German studio during curfew hours; this again subtly showcases their harmonies and intricate arrangements. The opening track, Clowns Everywhere, is a case in point, a lyric about corporate greed and today’s disposable culture (“they’re tossing goods into the dumpsters/Making room on shelves for profit we can’t use”) and suggesting that giving might be better than taking if the world’s to survive ensconced within a shapeshifting melody line that carries hints of 60s psychedelia in its midsection.
Website: https://marlaanddavidcelia.com/
Lizzie And The Makers – Mermaid
Hometown: New York City
Album: From the album “Dear Onda Wahl” out November 5.
Review Snippet: Lizzie & The Makers will tell us their music is grounded in Southern and English Rock, but there’s much more here.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/lizzieandthemakers
COIN – Chapstick
Hometown: Nashville
Album: Single released October 8 on UMG.
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.thisiscoin.com/
This Lonesome Paradise – Until You’re Gone
Hometown: Astoria, Oregon
Album: From the album “Electric Dreams” on American Standard Time Records.
Review Snippet: Occupying similar territory to 3hattrio and drawing on the cinematic intensities of Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky, it continues with the lazing dreamy narcotic sway Until You’re Gone, while elsewhere, they slow the pace on the bluesier moods of Night Stalker, Wild Ones and the lengthy Mourning. Still, while that haunted desert ambience is again evoked for the harmonica wailing Needles & Pines, they have an almost playful retro jazz and 50s pop lightness to the bubbly Hello Darkness. In contrast, the bass-anchored Creatures Of The Night imagines some lounge singer crooning away in a nightclub for those who live in the shadows.
Website: https://thislonesomeparadise.com/
Smokey Brights – Honey Eye
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Album: New single released October 29.
Review Snippet: Seattle-based band, Smokey Brights, drop their third LP, I Love You But Damn, today. The AM Pop Magic band features the husband and wife outfit, Ryan Devlin (vocals and guitar), and his wife, Kim West (vocals and keys), as well as Luke Logan (vocals/bass), and Nicholas Krivchenia (drums). Each member brings something different to the table which is all highlighted throughout the album.
Website: https://www.smokeybrights.com/bio/
Bebe Wood – 21st Century Hippie
Hometown: Kansas City, MO
Album: Her third single released October 23. Actress on the New Normal and Love Simon, 20 years old.
Review Snippet:
Website:
Ian M. Bailey – A Place To Live/Midday at The Hope Lodge
Hometown: North West England
Album: From the album “Songs To Dream Along To”
Review Snippet:
The new album from Ian M. Bailey takes some getting used to. Appropriately named Songs To Dream Along To, the Byrdsian guitars and harmonies are almost hypnotic. And like all good records, with each listen one hears new, interesting nuances. In total, this makes for an entertaining listening experience – an album you want to hear again and again.
Front start to finish, the melodies stand out as much as the guitar work. The Byrds vibe starts from the get-go with the delightful “This Is Not a Feeling”. “The Sound of Her Voice” could stand up favorably to any of the soft rock hits of the 70’s. The strings are lovely and the psychedelic flourish at the end is a neat surprise.
Website: https://twitter.com/ianbaileymusic2
Charlie Hickey – Ten Feet Tall
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Album: From the album “Count The Stairs” out now.
Review Snippet: If you’re familiar with Hickey at all, it’s likely because of news stories surrounding Phoebe Bridgers’ feature on “Ten Feet Tall.” While he isn’t on her Saddest Factory label, he has certainly become the latest property within the Phoebe Bridgers Cinematic Universe. It’s not just her co-sign of Hickey that makes the two feel inextricably tied. His music sounds frighteningly similar to hers. There’s no other artist who jumps out more as an obvious influence on songs like “Seeing Things” or “Two Haunted Houses.” “Yesterday I said your name three times in the mirror / but nothing happened” is not only writing that would feel at home on Stranger in the Alps, but even the way it’s delivered echoes Bridgers. This is not a value judgment by any means, many artists are creating music under the melancholy influence of Bridgers, and for listeners like myself, that is maybe a good thing. However, it is impossible to listen to Stairs and not think about this.
Next Time In LA: El Rey Theatre February 11 supporting Samia.
Website: https://www.charliehickey.com/
Mason Jennings – On The Brink
Hometown: Honolulu, HI
Album: From the album “Songs From When We Met”
Review Snippet:
Mason Jennings just released “On The Brink”, the first track from his forthcoming Regan Hagar (Malfunkshun, Brad) and Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Green River, Brad) produced album, “Real Heart” (out Feb. 4), and to celebrate we asked Mason to tell us about the track. Here is the story:
I worked with Stone Gossard and Regan Hagar as the producers for my newest album Real Heart. I sent them maybe 20 demos and out of that batch one of the first songs they picked to work on was On The Brink. I was actually surprised because I had been working on that song for probably five years and thought that perhaps the lyrical tone of it wasn’t in line with what people like about my songs. I mean, most of my stuff is optimistic and leading with heart and this song is pretty straight forward in calling out people on their crap.
The lyrical inspiration comes from a couple different places. One is my experience with some high ups in the music business, fancy producers and record label folks who claim to be walking a spiritual path but ultimately are just using that angle for control and their own financial and egotistical gain. I had one famous guy come backstage telling me how spiritual he is and then two seconds later he is trying to pull this 20 year old model girl onto his lap against her will. I could go on and on.
And the second thread comes from all the people who have come after me since I’ve been in the public eye telling me that they know what “God’s” will is for me and that they are my key to knowing it. Anything from people saying that John Lennon is trying to get in touch with me to people saying Jesus is invisibly right beside me and only they can see him.
At the end of the day I’ve had to use my own discernment to walk through all of this bizarre and confusing stuff. It’s been hard, I haven’t navigated it perfectly by any means but, ultimately I’ve grown as a person and become much stronger than I was when I started my career. The lyrics here reflect that. The original lyrics were even edgier. I originally wrote “your life is a toenail” instead of “footnote” and I also wrote “when the kingdom starts to crumble the prophets all get hard” but then changed it to “take it hard”. I think the updates are improvements but the originals show the underlying anger that is there.
So, I guess I would say that I’m grateful to Stone and Regan (and Loosegroove Records) for picking this song as the first single because I do feel like it shows a side of me that is authentic and important and perhaps I wasn’t ready to show it publicly until now. I guess the theme of this song is: we are all in this life together but that doesn’t mean we have to be doormats for other people’s manipulations and dysfunctional behavior. Hope you enjoy the song
Website: http://www.masonjennings.com/
Kris Drever/Spell Songs – Oak
Hometown:
Album: From the album “Spell Songs 2” out December 10.
Review Snippet: On “Oak,” the first single from the album, and a tribute to the mightiest of all the trees in the forest, lush guitar strums and fingerpicking open the song, unfurling spaciously like the immense branches and limbs of an oak tree. Kris Drever’s vocals and guitar ripple out in circles of sound, celebrating the many ways that humans interact with these venerable trees—children swinging from their limbs, acorns providing sustenance, oak planks used as material for caskets or dining room tables. The gnarled branches of ancient oaks offer shelter for weary pilgrims, homes for squirrels and other wildlife, and they possess the secrets to aging and wisdom unmatched my other creatures of the woods. The chorus tells the story of the oak’s wisdom by distinguishing it from other trees in the forest: “The Poplar is the whispering tree/And the Rowan is the sheltering tree/The willow is the weeping tree/And the Oak is waiting.”
Website: https://www.thelostwords.org/spell-songs/
Janis Ian – I’m Still Standing
Hometown: New York
Album: From the album “The Light At The End Of Time” released January 22, 2022.
Review Snippet:
In 1975, 24-year-old singer-songwriter Janis Ian‘s beloved ballad “At Seventeen” brought an invisible figure into the light. Millions of “ugly duckling girls” who didn’t fit the era’s feminine ideals sobbed along with Ian’s empathetic account of how those standards destroy souls.
Now, in the first single from her January release The Light at the End of the Line (her final album, she says), the 70-year-old Ian answers that song from life’s other side. Good-humored and unsparing, “I’m Still Standing” celebrates every line and rough patch on an older woman’s face: “Hieroglyphs that tell the tale,” Ian sings in her lucid alto. “You can read them in the dark through your fingertips, like Braille.” The song calls for an embrace of the aging body, one upon which time writes, as Ian puts it, the lyrics of our lives. And it’s the intimacy she also uncovers — touch shared by old lovers who embrace each other’s imperfections – that lends “I’m Still Standing” its powerful undertone of self-respect and joy.
Next Time In LA: Three day residency at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica March 11-13. Includes a master class. All is sold out.
Website: https://janisian.com/
Eleanor Buckland – Resignation
Hometown: Boston, MA
Album: From her debut album “You Don’t Have to Know”
Review Snippet:
Many female singer-songwriters I’ve heard through the years are superb. They write with clarity & sing well. But then there are artists like Maine’s Eleanor Buckland (vocals/acoustic guitar) who oozes high-spirited creativity, warranted with enthusiasm. Her songs resonate with intelligence. She has all the exponents of a truly original musical personality.
If there are new Joni Mitchells, Laura Nyros, & Patti Smiths fermenting in the musical scene — Ms. Buckland is one.
Website: https://www.eleanorbuckland.com/
Dean Friedman – Welcome To Stupid Town
Hometown: Peekskill, New York
Album: From his album “American Lullaby” out now.
Review Snippet: First hear Dean Friedman in the late 70, overseas with the Marines. Decided to look his music up on the internet and was able to get this CD. I have not listen to the CD yet but have listened to the music on Tidal. Given the number of music he put out he was not supper successful. However I really like this voice and the way he arranges the songs. Who knows, there could be a new push for him. It has happened to a lot of talented players who were overlooked in the past.
Website: https://www.deanfriedman.com/
Lilli Lewis – Copper John
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Album: From the album Americana released October 29.
Review Snippet: “Lewis’ single “My American Heart,” off her upcoming album, “Americana” demonstrates a caliber of genius…She launches the song gently, sweetly and then soars effortlessly…When Lewis hits the high notes, she personifies a contemporary Jessye Norman if folk-rock had been her genre.” – Grateful Web
Website: http://lillilewisproject.com/
Johnny Gallagher – Call Me Thursday
Hometown: Wilmington, DE
Album: From the album “8th and Jane”.
Review Snippet:
Johnny Gallagher’s career has been peppered with triumphs. His resume brags a Tony Award for his role in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. He also landed roles in Green Day’s critically acclaimed American Idiot, and the cult HBO series The Newsroom. Conversely, Gallagher was unable to rest easily on his attainments. Returning to music, his first love, Gallagher composed, recorded and is set to release his debut album Six Day Hurricane on January 15, 2016, on Rockwood Music Hall Recordings.
I know, I know. We’ve heard this “actor turned musician” story before. However, don’t be so hasty to lump Gallagher into a collection of attention-pursuing narcissists like Bruce Willis or Shaq (who was an even more extraordinarily reprehensible athlete-turned-actor-turned-rapper). Six Day Hurricane could stand on its own, sans Gallagher’s aforementioned reputation. Although he is an actor, he is also a particularly capable musician.
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