ANGUS & JULIA STONE, DOWN THE WAY

Last week I chose Hold On as one of my song picks of the week. After another week with the album, I really wanted to give the Stones some more visibility here. Angus and Julia Stone are a brother and sister who have been writing and recording since 2006. Down The Way, their sophomore album, was huge hit in their home country of Australia, ultimately capturing the Album of the Year award and Single of the Year award at the Australian Record Industry Awards in 2010. Down The Way is a charming album with beautiful and subtle vocals and music. This is a wonderful album and I highly recommend a listen.
Hold On   

Sounding Out: Jonathan Byrd

I loved reading Jonathan Byrd’s bio. Open, honest, and descriptive, Byrd left no personal rock unturned. Upon finishing my read, I wondered whether Byrd was really such an open book about his life and music. Turns out after talking with Byrd, that he would not know how to close his book if he tried…and that is a good thing. It is what makes his music so good.

“I was nineteen when I went into the Navy. I took almost a year off after high school, and just worked at a grocery store and messed around town. And then went in. At that point I hated school. I realized that I was not a school guy. I knew I wanted to do something…and I sure didn’t want to go to college.“

I asked Byrd why the Navy. He told me that he had live in Europe with his family for a time when he was younger. His dad had been a preacher at a church in West Germany at the time. He said, “I wanted to go back overseas somewhere as an adult under my own auspices and explore the world a little bit. And the services allowed me to do all of that. It wasn’t really my place. The military is not really into creative people that much. But it was a cool extreme testing experience for me.” Ultimately he said, “I needed to see the world and live a life so that I could write the songs that I write.”

The Ballad of Larry   

Later in our conversation, Byrd talked openly about his childhood, his dad’s alcoholism and the empty relationship that he and his father shared. “We lived in the same house, but I did not really have a relationship with him. But he didn’t have a good relationship with his own dad, and he never learned how to have a good relationship with his son. He was 57 when he died. So we ran out of time.” Byrd said that his dad never got old enough to need him. “I think that I would have learned a lot more about him if I ever had to take care of him,” Byrd said. “We got to know each other a little bit and have some better times together towards the end of his life. That was what inspired my song Father’s Day. That day was the last time that I saw him. It was a blessing to me to have that final memory of him be so positive.”

Father's Day   

Byrd did not write the songs that he now writes when he got out of the Navy. Those songs would not come for many years. “Everyday I played my guitar regardless of what I was doing, but I didn’t even know how to do it for a living…I really did not know what my focus would be if I DID do it and I did not have a direction for it….it just wasn’t something that I thought about until I was 28 or 29.”

The turning point for Byrd came when he went back home to North Carolina. He said, “I discovered, very slowly, this really great scene of acoustic music. There is a lot of bluegrass here. And around where I live, there is a lot of old time, which is pre-bluegrass string band music.”  The scene that he discovered he went on to say, “was a bunch of folks that were really into old time, had all the old records, and learned the old tunes…and they got together on the weekends and at festivals and just had a good time playing this music.”

This Byrd said, was the turning point. “There are people who have really good tone and technique. And they can make records that are interesting to listen to. But really, the thing is to be there with everybody playing. That’s the deal. I find the same is true with Irish music. I listen to Irish music on recordings. Most of the music is really polished and perfected, but the thing to do is to go over there and sit in a pub with 12 people playing these tunes….i think that it is amazing and so magical that way….it is so much more than what a record can be.”

So Byrd sat in the circles and played. And quietly he began writing his own songs. And every once in a while he would throw one of his own into the circle. Byrd explained, “Jack Hardy once said, in the early 60’s before Bob Dylan came along and really changed everything for song writers, the thing to do was to play a bunch of old folk songs, slip one of your own songs in there once in a while and hope that nobody noticed. And that was kind of what I was doing….I was trying to write these songs that were so much in the genre that I would play them for people and they would say wow, where did you get that song. This got me really fired up to write more songs.” From that point on, Byrd had his musical focus and direction.

While Byrd’s first four albums mixed folk, bluegrass, and country music, Cackalack, Byrd’s latest album, takes him back to those music sessions that first inspired him. I told Byrd that in listening to his new album, there is a different kind of energy to it from his prior recordings. He said that he wanted to make an album about North Carolina and its music. “I wanted to get everyone in a room, around some mikes, and play this music, and get that feeling of everybody having a good time in playing music together.”

Chicken Wire   


Byrd is a wonderful songwriter. And I find the songs that hit closest to his heart are among his best. I asked Byrd about his approach to his song writing. He said that he processes things on a subconscious level.

“I am not a conceptual writer. What I mean by that is…..the guy in Nashville will say I have a title for a song…something with a clever twist in it….then they create a story to fit around the title, then they create some music that feels right for the song and they work their way from a conceptual place into a place that has some kind of feeling.  I really go the other way. I am a musician first, a guitar play first really. So when I am writing, I’m usually practicing my guitar and I stumble upon something that sounds good to me…..it starts with a feeling, which is what music is, its just a pure emotion, its all heart.” Byrd continued, “But eventually in the process some words will jump out of me, maybe remind me of someone that I use to know or a story that I heard or whatever has been in the back of my mind processing.”

At the age of 40, Byrd is the musician that he wants to be, writing the songs that he wants to write. Byrd says that he is glad for these past ten years. He said that it took a long time to figure out who he was. “I think that my dad did not know who he was…and I think that he passed that on to me a little bit. It took me until I was almost 30 before I started playing music for a living even though I was playing music every single day of my life since I was 14. It is just good to now know who I am and have spent ten years doing something that I enjoy doing and just figure my own head out.” Byrd has definitely figured out his own head and it comes across in every song that he writes and plays.

Jonathan hits the road in support of his new album in February. If you can, try to catch his show if he is in your neck of he woods. 

DESTROYER, KAPUTT

I have been waiting with great anticipation for months for the release of Destroyer's latest album Kaputt. And I will say that this 9th album from Vancouver, BC native Daniel Bejar was well worth the wait. Uncompromising, Bejar is one of those artists that seems to change musical direction with each new release. On Kaputt, Bejar creates dreamy-ambient pop songs that pay tribute to the sounds and sensibilities of the Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry at their best. I love the inclusion of the trumpet, sax, and flute on many of these songs. This is one of those albums that I know will stay in my listening rotation for a very long time to come.
Kaputt          

                                                       Chinatown     

IRON AND WINE, KISS EACH OTHER CLEAN

 

The Shepard's dog, Iron and Wine's last album, threw me for a bit of a loop. I was so accustom to hearing the lone guitar and voice of Sam Beam that I was unprepared for the expansion of his sound. Turned out to be a wonderful album and I appreciated his musical progression. On Kiss Each Other Clean, Beam has morphed Iron and Wine into an 8 piece band and has never sounded better. On The Shepard's Dog, Beam used various instruments and sounds to accent his song writing. On Kiss Each Other Clean, the instrumentation feels more naturally integrated into these songs. Beam's voice also has grown over the years, singing with more power and range here. As always, Beam's words, observations, and stories telling take center stage. Beam gives
                                                        the listener a lot to chew on and in the end this is my favorite aspect
                                                        to him as an artist.
                                                        Rabbit Will Run         

                                                        Tree By The River     

Sounding Out: Yellow Ostrich

Every once in a while I stumble across a band or album that completely excites me. The Mistress is one of these albums and Yellow Ostrich is one of these bands. Using mostly vocals and little else, Alex Schaaf, who records under the name Yellow Ostrich, has created an album that is fresh, interesting, and totally original.

When I first heard this album I was intrigued with the way Schaaf layers his voice to create these choral chamber-like vocal arrangements under what are otherwise very poppy and contemporary oriented songs. Wanting to learn more I tracked down Schaaf in NYC where he had recently moved from his home state of Wisconsin.

After listening to his album and talking with Schaaf, I was not surprised to learn that Schaaf grew up singing in church choirs, school choruses, and jazz a cappella groups starting in jr. high. The influences of his musical background, and his obvious appreciation for the human voice as a true instrument, can be heard throughout the songs and albums that Schaaf has written and recorded over the years.

Mary   

There are so many interesting facets to the way Schaaf constructed the songs on The Mistress, especially the way the vocals/voices and the other instruments are spaced and play off of one another.  I asked Schaaf how much of what the listener hears is by design. Schaaf said “For the album, I had a clear concept from the beginning, which was to make the album using only a few ingredients….to try and make a whole song using only vocals, one guitar, and one four top. I think that it is more interesting sometimes to put a limit on things.” He went on to add that he only wanted to add something if it was going to bring a new dimension to the song. “I wanted to keep things as focused as could be” he said.

This new focus is apparent. What struck me when listened to The Mistress and then earlier Yellow Ostrich recordings was how differently he uses his voice here. Schaaf said that he wanted to put out a sound that was more angular, aggressive, and harsh. He said, “I did not want to make the soft beautiful, and lush album. I wanted something more tribal.”

WHALE   

Given how open and sparse the songs on The Mistress can sound and feel, I was amaze to find out that there are as many as 30 tracks on a given song. After learning this, I commented to Schaaf that layering and building songs like this requires such commitment and patience. I asked him what this said about his personality and approach to song writing and playing. His initial response….a laugh, which I appreciated.

Schaaf is definitely a lover of the process of creating and building his songs. He told me that when he gets an idea he quickly lays down some rough tracks to keep the idea fresh in his mind. He then takes that idea and starts to play with it. He said that his favorite part about being a musician “is being in that moment when I begin to figure out how to turn that idea into a song.” He went on to say that he still likes the performing aspect of being a musician, but if he could only do one thing for the rest of his life, it would be to create.

Talking with Schaaf, I really felt a mid-West sensibility about him, which I think also comes through on his recordings. Given this, I was curious if his move to NYC was producing the kind of creative results that he expected when he left Wisconsin. He said that logistically the move was the right one. He said that access to other musicians and a wider audience has been great. He said in terms of the move's impact on his music and songs "it is hard to tell because I think even without moving here, the style would have changed....and I think that it should change. I don’t think that staying the same is healthy.”

Hold On   

One large change in Yellow Ostrich's approach to writing, recording, and playing has come with the addition of drummer Michael Tapper, who joined Schaaf a few months back. “It is really great to have someone else to bounce ideas off of and not feel so isolated…creatively” Schaaf said. He went on to say that a third musician, Jon Natchez, has also recently joined Yellow Ostrich, expanding the band's sound with horns, woodwinds and bass. 

As our conversation came to a close, I asked Schaaf if he has a favorite song. He said that his favorite song is always the one that he is creating at that moment in time. Circling back to a theme that we had visited earlier on in our conversation, he said he is happiest when he is creating something new. 

If The Mistress is any indication of how Schaaf plans on pushing himself creatively, I have no doubt that he is going to be a very happy musician for many years to come.

You can check out The Mistress and his other albums and EP's at Yellow Ostrich. There is a lot of great music here. I told Schaaf that I particularly enjoyed Happy Birthday on Carousels and the very brief Red Ribbon on Yellow Ostrich.

For those who live in Seattle, Yellow Ostrich will be playing at the Crocodile on March 31th.

ON ROTATION

The Decemberists, The King Is Dead
The Decemberists are back!! After the very ambitious rock opera-like The Hazards Of Love, The Decemberists have stripped their sound back down and set sail on a new musical direction. The King Is Dead, rooted in a kind of folk-rock Americana, stays away from the grand story telling that was seen on The Decemberists' last few albums. Each song here is allowed to stand on its own, yet collectively they deliver a rich and near perfect album. I know that it is early in the year, but I expect to see this album on my list of top albums for 2011.


Empresarios, Sabor Tropical

This album is just down right cool. Grooving to a mix of cumbia (a form of traditional Latin American dance music), reggaeton, dub, and house music, Empresarios have released an impressive debut album. The layering of sounds, beats, and rhythms of traditional instruments and electronics is flawless here. I found myself moving to these songs the first time I played this album. Yet, what really moved me was the shock that I got when I learned that Empresarios hail from Washington DC. Just goes to show that great music can come from the most unlikely of places.
Cumbia             

Sabor Tropical     

ON ROTATION

Abigail Washburn, City Of Refuge
Abigail Washburn's fascination with the banjo and old time music and love of China and Chinese culture has produced some wonderfully rich and unique music over the past ten years. On her new album, Washburn's clawhammer banjo playing is still present in all of its glory, but the songs are more pop and less folk oriented than what she has produced in the past. When one hears an album like this, we should be thankful that Washburn picked up the banjo instead of going to law school.
City of Refuge   

Tape 'n Tapes, Outside

I will admit that I did not know much about Tape 'n Tapes before listening to their sophomore album. I do know that this band from Minneapolis has crafted an album with one fun filled song after another. With influences that range from the Pixies to the Talking Heads, Tape 'n Tapes has produced one heck of an album that I have been thoroughly enjoying.
One In The World   

Duran Duran, All You Need Is Now
The 13th studio album by Duran Duran is a welcomed return to the sound and style of their early years....and a fun listen. The songs on this albums are catchy, pop morsels, and all the elements that made Rio and The Reflex such great albums are here; John Taylor's cool, funky, and loose base lines, Simon Le Bon's powerful voice, Nick Rhode's synthisizing (I do realize that this is not a real word), and choruses that are as over the top and indulgent as ever. The band has not sounded this good in years.

Safe (In The Heat Of The Moment)   

The Roots in 2010

I am a big fan of The Roots. Beyond the fact that they are absolutely amazing musicians, mixing hip hop, soul, jazz, funk, rock, and R&B, I have always appreciated their social mindedness. For over twenty years, the Roots have been putting out super albums that are musically and socially relevant.

2010 was another REALLY strong year for The Roots. The band put out not one, but two great albums, they opened The Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington DC, and they continued their presence as the house band on Jimmy Fallon's Late Night show.

In early 2010 The Roots released the first of the two albums, How I Got Over. From my perspective, this was the better of the two albums, and frankly, I am regretting that I did not include this album as one of my top albums of the year. Everything about this album works. Musically, this album is more restrained and toned down from previous releases, but there is a groove to these songs that I just love. Lyrically, the band has a lot to say. Social theme abound throughout this album as the the band reflects on the end of the Bush administration and the hope of better days ahead under the Obama Presidency. Even if one is not a fan of hip hop or rap, this is a great listen.
Now Or Never [Explicit]   

In September of 2010 The Roots released Wake Up! with John Legend. Comprised mostly of soul music covers from the 1960's and 1970's, Wake Up! was intended to draw parallels between the social and political issues of the times when these songs were written and today. The selection of songs here are fantastic and I love the way The Roots and Legend have incorporated musical elements that are squarely of today's times, while holding onto the essence of these songs. Listening to this album has made me go back to Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield albums that I have not listened to in years. I forgot just how great and powerful the song writing was for these artists.
Compared To What   

THE HEAVY, HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?

I find it amusing that there is some debate as to whether these guys are from outside Bath, England or Madison, Wisconsin. What is not up for debate is that The Heavy can lay down funk, rock, soul, and lots of attitude in the best of ways.  The songs on this EP have a great sound and can at once feel big and funky like James brown and stripped down like The Black Keys. Is that even possible? Yes it is.
How You Like Me Now?