sxsw megapost, part deux

Here's another batch of good pre-Austin listening for yas:

The Singer-Songwriters and otherwise acoustic types:

Joe Pug - Hymn #101. Singer/songwriter with more than a little Peter Case influence, easily one of my top 5, of the 1000+ mp3s made available.

Colin Moore - Disease. Just the right amount of grit & urgency in his delivery.

The Wooden Sky - When Lost At Sea. Way over yonder in a minor key.

Good Old War - Coney Island. Mother Nature's Son...with a beat.

Jay Nash - Over You. A decent voice, a pretty acoustic tune. Honorable mention.

John Cruz - Missing You. Fortunately, not the John Waite tune. Unfortunately, lyrics just about as trite.

The Rockers:

Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be. Well, duh, you say. Ok, yeah, I know. This is can't miss stuff for my taste; really can't wait to see these guys live.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Seven-Mile Island. Duh part 2. What's not to like?


The Woggles - It's Not About What You Want. Wasn't this on last year's torrent? Or on the Foxboro Hot Tubs thing? No matter -- Rock. And. Roll.

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons - Take Off Your Sunglasses. Think Chrissie Hynde covering Dirty Boulevard and you're pretty close. Except it's a guy singing. Oops!

The Heavenly States - Lost In The Light. A rave-up very reminiscent of Hothouse Flowers "I'm Sorry", to my ears

The Johnstones - Bank Song. Doo-doo---doo-doo-doo---yeah! A catchy tune, sure, but what makes this irresistible for me is the bio on the sxsw site that says they've been thrown in jail and banned for life from Disney World. A must-see for sure!

Five Times August - Beautiful Girls. Yeah it's totally an 80s radio rock/tv show dramatic moment tune. But chicks dig it :)

The Best of the Rest:

Jim Bianco - I've Got A Thing For You. A guy who sings like Tom Waits; a Paris jazz club tune complete with accordian. A duet with Madeline Peyroux is inevitable. Actually, I love this one.

Josh Charles - Pickin' Up The Pieces. A little pop-soul ditty in a very classic style.

Thrift Store Cowboys - Dirty Your Knees. Because a little west Texas twang never hurt anybody.

The Devil Makes Three - The Plank. Imagine if Tom Waits sat in with the Dead on Jack-A-Roe. (Try not to hurt yourself in the process.) Not bad!

T-minus-6-days!

sxsw time again!

Wow, you're still here? Yeah clearly I don't do much on TRF anymore...but when SXSW rolls around, I can't resist!

So, the first 280 mp3s are online...No official torrent (again), boo. But, I got a little help downloading the whole set and have done the first triage round, and although I wind up overly partial to more familiar/old-school production values (and maybe miss a few gems), here's a smattering of what's made the cut for me so far:

Seth Walker -- This year's James Hunter. Sweet soul music, on the bill with Eli Paperboy Reed at the Continental. I'll be there!

Dear and the Headlights? Ew! Awful name, pretty good straight up power pop rock.

Smokekiller -- Okkervil fans, you liked the last one, but this is so calling your name.

Moonlight Towers -- ok sure it's kinda derivative, Fratellis/Oasis, but that works for me

Cotton Jones, just what you'd expect with a name like that. Southern twang in the voice; a folk-rock sound right off Blonde on Blonde.

Caroline Herring, is pure Passim trad folk. Nicely done, good voice, a pro.

Jackie Bristow...very radio-friendly country/folk/pop tune, but I am a total sucker for the B3 fills underneath a shimmery Tele over the top, and her voice is pretty good.

Raydibaum -- Familiar-sounding rock from Barcelona (a serious rock & roll town)

Los Claxons - 1 shot each Los Lonely Boys, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, add ice and salt the glass

Grecco Buratto -- maybe I'm just into foreign languages this year? Dunno, nice Brazilian feeling pop tune.

Did I miss something great? Enlighten me! And where are the Jersey bands this year?

sxsw mp3 obsession #2

Ok so since we've been told that there would be no torrent for the 762 mp3s this year, I wrote a little script that uses the amazing wget program to pull them all down last night. (Email me if you want the script.)

This is not conductive to getting a lot of real work done today.

However, my employer's loss might just be your gain. Thanks to some rapid-fire rating triage (using the kinda-nice linux player known as Rhythmbox) I have culled 50 or so decent songs out of the vast mountain of dogshit that passes for contemporary music in 2008.
No wonder our kids listen to classic rock!

Anyway, my new favorite songs:

Olga - Your Love Don't Work Like Mine - real nice, bluesy, great voice and vibe.

The Black Hollies - Paisley Pattern Ground - Like the retro rock sound here; reminds me of that Green Day/Foxboro Hot Tubs set from a couple months back. Also had to have a Jersey band represented!

Sonya Kitchell - Let Me Go - might be a little too Corrine Bailey Rae for some of you, pure chick-pop but I'm a total sucker for a hook and a lilting R&B voice. How can she be only 18? No way.

Trevor Menear - Reason To Leave - Another kid, just 21! Bluesy sound, decent vocal, good guitar (though trust me, kid, lay off the overdrive a bit ;)

The Gaslight Anthem - Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis? - Good song, but they make the list because there's just no way I'm gonna leave out a band from New Brunswick NJ!

Nouveau Riche - Sick - Ok, so I have absolutely no idea why I like this song. As a 43-year-old white guy, I seem to be genetically programmed to hate all hip-hop. There must be some subliminal messaging buried in the mix!

More to come, from the likes of the BoDeans, Presidents of the USA, James McMurtry, Nicole Atkins, and many even-less-known artists.

sxsw mp3 obsession #1

And you thought The Raw Flame was dead...surprise!

I've been busy with a little side project (please don't be too critical; these are Genuine Basement Tapes!) and anyway, there just hasn't been much free music popping out on the net that's really caught my attention.

Until the SXSW mp3s came out, that is.

Two years back, there were a bunch of awesome tracks. Last year was pretty mediocre. This year, there's a lot of promise, and I'm really just getting started at this point.

An easy pick is Ms. Marcia Ball. Fantastic New Orleans blues pianist.

Louella.mp3

Another is Jason Collett, with a tune Lou Reed would've been happy to add to New York...

Out_Of_Time.mp3

And to show you how cool and funky I am, I'll recommend this Chuck Prophet ditty:

Freckle_Song.mp3

More soon!