noisenursery

On The Baptist Generals’ sophomore album, the word “heart” repeats eight*** times. The Denton, TX band, known for its haunting, claustrophobic take on drunken folk, needed ten full years to bare its hearts—one of which is in the album title, Jackleg Devotional to the Heart, a name that songwriter Chris Flemmons conjured shortly after he recorded, and then trashed, the album’s first attempt in 2005.

Flemmons goes so far as to call this his “love album,” and it’s an apt description—though love through The Baptist Generals’ eyes is plenty complicated. Jackleg‘s hearts don’t resemble valentines. No smooth curls into a final point. The band’s vibraphones, guitarrons and ambient feedback combine like a mess of ventricles, aortas and veins—not to mention, from the sound of it, all of the blood spilled while Jackleg lurched for years toward an eventual finish line.
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Rondeau’s unique brand of country music is energetic but subtle, much like his presence. In Rondeau’s live performance, the lyrics take center stage, supplemented by the full sound of five-piece band (upright bass and steel guitar included). Rondeau’s tunes tell simple stories with a hint of humor that isn’t lost among melodies that make people want to dance, even at midnight on a Monday.
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Shortly after collecting the ashes of perennial bar darlings, John Wilkes Booze, and noise thrashers, Hot Fighter 1, Bloomington’s Apache Dropout traded in garage grease for a seat on the Donovan and Vashti Bunyan cross-country caravan vision quest– all while participating in some light prophesying of #occupy. Though the oft-lauded soul-imbued boogie punk of Bubblegum Graveyard captured the attention of the blogerati, their under-the-radar early cassette releases showcase a mercurial and mystery-laden cosmic outfit, convenientlly collected on Magnetic Heads. Evocative of the murky outsider folk of Alexander Skip Spence and Holy Modal Rounders, Magnetic Heads conjures the cultish flavor of outsider psychedelia that’s equal parts intimate and unsettling – without taking itself too seriously. Ignore the goofy album art that could almost pass for a NOFX poster and take a trip, tune out, and flip off the institution that got us in this danged mess in the first place with “Don’t Trust Banks.” The rerelase Magnetic Heads jumps from tape to limited edition vinyl via Family Vinyard February 5– The Decibel Tolls
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Brennen Leigh represents what is best about American music. If you call it Americana, then she is someone who embodies it in her music and her life. She has been born and raised into the roots, trees and musical branches many others sketch out of their own imagination and admiration for the music of our common history. Brennen Leigh lives it through her life and love for delta blues, authentic honky-tonk, country-gospel, bluegrass and the shaped notes of the Sacred Harp.
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Hank Williams’ granddaughter dedicates this sad-eyed country ballad to a fickle lover who can’t stop running around her back. While fiddles and acoustic guitars duel in the background, she poses a string of questions – “Why you drinking like the night is young?”, Why you cheating on a woman like this?”, “Why you leaving like we don’t exist?” – without receiving a reply. By the end of the song, her lover has walked out the door, and Williams finds herself picking up the bottle he left behind. Looking to chase away the heartbreak, she starts drinking while the night is young, thus bringing the song full circle.
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“Acoustic, Rockabilly, Country, Blues, Cowboy, Old-time music, infernal jangling, yodeling and toot-a-looting” is how The Dirt Daubers describe their music. Their newest release on Colonel Knowledge Records, Wake Up, Sinners, is an “eclectic mix of Appalachian, ragtime, and hot jazz standards and original music.” Band members J.D. Wilkes (banjo), Jessica Wilkes (mandolin), and Mark Robertson (bass) hail from Paducah, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee. Citing influences such as Tom Waits, Wanda Jackson, Ralph Stanley, Dock Boggs, and Cab Calloway, The Dirt Daubers are a band to behold. This title track video was directed by Joshua Black Wilkins.
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Music has never lacked for boot-knocking soundtracks, from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” to Lovage’s Music To Make Your Old Lady By.

But what happens when the parties involved have trouble agreeing on a soundtrack? Something like what goes down in the video for John Welsey Harding’s “Making Love To Bob Dylan,” an unreleased song from the veteran English singer-songwriter.

But there’s a twist here: It’s Harding, whose stage name is borrowed from the Bob Dylan song and album title, who can’t perform to Robert Zimmerman’s musical stylings, no matter how much his partner Janeane Garofalo wants to. (Too Malkovich Malkovich?)

Harding does his best to find a compromise — What about the Beach Boys? Maybe Massive Attack? Come on, not even T. Rex?? — but Garofalo isn’t having it.

Source and Germany working video link:
http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/08/23/john-wesley-harding-making-love-to-bob-dylan/

Two years ago, Tuareg guitarist and singer Omar “Bombino” Moctar burst into international consciousness with an amazing solo debut album, Agadez. Here was a young artist who was, in certain ways, molded by the towering demigods of Saharan guitar rock in Tinariwen. But, as he proved on Agadez and again in his early live shows, Bombino works from a more inventive sonic palette. His sound is far looser, more rolling and just plain riffier than Tinariwen’s style, but Bombino’s melodic ideas are coiled as tightly as a guitar string.

For his second international solo album, Nomad, Bombino benefits from an inspired pairing: He teamed up with a kindred spirit in The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who produced this new album. The fuzzy, loose and wide-open sounds will be familiar to Black Keys fans — and totally complement the singular honey-and-sand texture of Bombino’s voice.

Born in northern Niger in 1980, Bombino is an ethnic Tuareg, a member of the nomadic tribe spread out across the Sahara Desert and over several countries’ borders; its members are ethnic minorities in every one of those nations. Drought and two bloody wars forced his community into exile. As a youngster, Bombino fled with his family — first to Algeria and then to Libya — before coming back to Niger. As another Tuareg rebellion against the government of Niger heated up in 2007, Bombino escaped to Burkina Faso for several years before returning to Niger three years ago.

Those experiences have shaped him as an artist. While Bombino occasionally meanders into lyrically elliptical love songs, most of his lyrics, sung in the Tuareg language of Tamashek, directly address burning Tuareg geopolitical concerns. He sings about finding unity among the transnational Tuareg community (“Adinat [People]”) and the ever-present, pressing problems of desert life, such as in “Her Tenere [In the Desert]” and “Aman [Water].” While the political issues that occupy Bombino’s thoughts may well be a world away from his American fans, his sound and style are alluring on a global scale.
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Bursting back on to the scene with their first album release since 1995, The Godfathers have lost nothing of the passion and energy which characterised them as one of the most exciting and respected rock ‘n’ roll acts of the late eighties and early nineties

The psychedelic ‘Let Your Hair Down’ and ‘If I Only Could’ kick the LP off with a marked 60’s influence before ripping into the superb gangster rock of ‘Primitive Man’. Raw guitars and aggressive vocals continue with the menacing, rock ’n’ roll inspired ‘The Outsider’ both characterised by Pete Coyne’s harsh vocals and trademark vitriolic lyrics.

The Godfathers then pay homage to Link Ray with a rendition of his 1965 ground breaking classic ‘I’m Branded’. The beautiful ‘Can of Worms’ follows, another in a long line of inspirational tunes penned by Del Bartle whose mercurial guitar skills are fully displayed in the highlight of the album ‘Back To The Future’. A Godfathers masterpiece matched by its lyrical wizardry.

The melodic ‘Man In The Middle’ and contemplative ‘Thai Nights’ close what is a stunning statement of intent from the legendary South London outfit. A long time coming but things of quality have no fear of time
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Escondido is Nashville, TN based artists Jessica Maros and Tyler James. Recorded live in a single day, their 10-song debut album is due out Feb. 2013. Their sound is a washed out desert landscape steeped in American roots music. “We wanted it to be like Clint Eastwood playing pop songs at one of the honky-tonks downtown,” James mused. “But we’ve been told it sounds like desert sex.”
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