Sound Cloud Sunday – December 2, 2018 (Episode 33)

Sound Cloud Sunday December 2, 2018

 

Take a break from your Xmas prepping in and tune in to an overview of some songs we missed from the last couple of years, plus some previews into some new music rumbling at the starting gates of 2019, including these new important tracks from Mandolin Orange, Lowland Hum and Stephen Kellogg.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Mandolin Orange – Golden Embers

 

Hometown:  Chapel Hill, NC

Album:  The first single from the album “Tides of A Teardrop” out February 1 on Yep Roc.

 

Review Snippet:  Its really once in a lifetime that a band comes around like Mandolin Orange. The voices of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz were seemingly destined to make music and beautiful sounds together in harmony. Like finding that final puzzle piece under the couch cushions that completes the image you have been seeking out for what seems like forever, the music they make is nothing short of perfection. Marlin’s voice is devastatingly emotional, affecting and humble. Frantz has a siren, almost a secretive hush and a seductive allure that could make even the most steadfast sailor crash straight into a rocky coastline. The combination of the two creates a sort of intimacy in their music that erupts in audio jubilance and an emotional palette that is ever expanding. On their own I could say with a straight face that either one is one of my favorite singers, but together, man its all over and I am melted into a puddle. The latest sampling from the North Carolina birthed duo only further places them at the pinnacle of modern roots music and the brilliant artists creating it today. “Blindfaller” is another incarnation of pure brilliance, beauty and brunt force that will hit you like a ton of bricks. Leaving you dumbfounded and dizzy with just how moving and poignant two voices can be all while gently cradling you with the sheer gorgeousness that it encompasses.

 

Next Time In LA:  March 30 at the El Rey Theatre.

 

Website:  http://www.mandolinorange.com/

 

 

 

 

Ian Wayne – Wully

 

Hometown:  Brooklyn, Ny

Album: From his album “A Place Where Nothing Matters”  self-released on November 16.

 

Review Snippet:  “I was living the dream,” Wayne says on “Wully,” kicking off Nothing Matters. If you were unconvinced of his dedication to sarcasm, the end of this opening line will make you force a laugh: “I woke up in 2016.” Overt references to the election we would all rather forget don’t necessarily make this a protest album, but there is an implication that existence is political. After all, the moral of the record is to celebrate commonplace experiences as though they were vital; most of life is mundane, so villainizing those moments guarantees unhappiness.

Website: https://ianwayne.bandcamp.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Johnny Irion – Palm Springs 

 

Hometown:  Columbia, SC

Album: From the self-released album “Driving Friend”  released in May.

 

Review Snippet:  Johnny Irion is a rocker in and out of time. There’s something kind of timeless in the way he wrings out the sweetest melodies and deeper passions of both ‘60s Californian rock and Guthrie-era folk, and something so timely about the way he does it – there’s a reason Bernie Sanders asked him to sing at a rally in his sometimes-home of Santa Barbara.

 

Website: http://johnnyirionmusic.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew Armitage – Road Tripping

 

Hometown:  Wellington, NZ

Album: From the album “New Tide” (his debut) self-released in June.

 

Review Snippet:  2015-2017 saw Armitage become a dad and record his first studio album while also gigging the east coast over 250 times a year, both solo and with his two Aussie bands- popular Byron Bay 60’s cult Hollywood, surf, jive and blues duo, The Swamps and another duo, Chesta Hedron, an all original, heavy psych, kraut rock, surf instrumental band who released a 5 track EP Infinite Nought April 2016

Website: http://www.matthewarmitage.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Zack Logan – Ramblin Shoes

 

Hometown:  Newton, MS

Album:  From his album “Raised By Wolves” on Badlands Records out in August.

Review Snippet:

 

 

Web Site: https://www.zacklogan.net/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katy Hurt – Natchez  

 

Hometown:  London

Album:  Newly released single.

 

Review Snippet:  Bright, with a tight contemporary punchy feel with some crunchy driving guitar riffs and sturdy back beat witnesses Katy immediately lay down some ground rules relating a story of an unwanted, irritating male admirer who simply won’t take NO for an answer and whose hollow words are instantly dissed. This classy lady has seen his like before and he won’t even make first base!

Website: https://www.katyhurt.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Nau And The Mighty Thread – What’s A Loon 

 

 

Hometown:  Cumberland, MD

Album:  This eponymous album was released in August on Relearn To Boogie Records.

Review Snippet: Nau’s real forte flies in gentle melodies that meander beguiling sung in a rich baritone that is more Wagner than Bruce Springsteen.

Website:  https://www.michaelnau.com/

 

 

 

 

Zephaniah  Ohora – Take Your Love Out Of Town 

 

Hometown: New York

Album:  From his album “Blue Highway” released on MRI in June 2017

 

Review Snippet: “I have a band — and we play weekly, about three hours a week, all Merle Haggard songs; a pretty broad range from the ’60s all the way up through the 1990s,” the singer admits to Billboard. “I grew up in the church, and played music since I was a kid, and I’ve gotten into all kinds of genres and music. I didn’t grow up listening to Merle Haggard, but when I first heard it, it spoke to me. I’ve been collecting country records, and listening to it for about fifteen years, and I think Merle’s catalog really captured the country sound in a way that remains timeless.”

 

 

Website:  http://www.zephaniahohora.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan Meyer – Everything All Right 

 

 

Hometown:  Austin, TX  via Wisconsin

Album:  Her debut album “Fire Escape” was self-released at the end of September.

 

Review Snippet:  Her sound can be described as a mashup of blues, folk, and pop with the perfect hint of twang and grit. Morgan writes about life, love, childhood, mental health, and substance abuse. And she has a lot to say.

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Website:  https://www.morganmeyermusic.com/

 

 

Stephen Kellogg – Symphony of Joy

 

Hometown:  Northampton, MA

Album: From his 18^th album “Objects In The Mirror” out November 25 on Fat Sam Records.

 

Review Snippet:  The concept is fabulous for music that feels closer to the Americana genre than roots-rock, folk or country.

Next Time in LA:  March 29 at the Bootleg Theatre.

Website: https://www.stephenkellogg.com/

 

JP Ruggieri – The Meaning 

 

Hometown:  Nashville via Connecticut

Album:  This is first single.

 

Review Snippet: “The Meaning” is JP Ruggieri on guitars and vocals, Michael Bellar on keys, with Evan Pazner on drums, Jordan Scannella on bass with Karlie Bruce on vocals.   The song is rhythmically groovy with percussion sounds creating the feeling that you’re right in their midst, as Ruggieri tells us “I’m a book of beginnings that always sits on a shelf,” and his vocals tap into a throwback Southern rock ’70s vocal harmonious feel. The production quality is clear as a bell after a new fallen winter snow, though, which is a treat with its carefully layered sounds.

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Website:  https://jpruggieri.com/

 

 

Hiss Golden Messenger – Issa

 

Hometown:  Durham North Carolina

Album:  Virgo Fool was released in November on Merge Records.

 

Review Snippet: His music speaks to the everyman, focusing on raw emotions and mood inherent in the lyrics he sings. His songs are like meditations on all states of the human condition, even when his band performed upbeat and optimistic. I couldn’t recognize some of the songs that he performed at The Ohana Fest, but I have a feeling he performed tracks off his latest album, Virgo Fool, that was release November 2, 2018.

Website: http://www.hissgoldenmessenger.com/

 

 

 

 

Lowland Hum – Raise The Ring

 

Hometown:  Charlottesville, VA

Album: Their new single, from the forthcoming album “Glyphonic” out in February 2019

 

Review Snippet:  More interested in the sensuous potential of performance than one might expect a folk act to be, they’d erect a shredded fabric backdrop behind them, burn essential oils (where venues would allow it), hand out homemade hymnals of their lyrics and press their reedy voices together. Sonically, though, their impressionistic, narrative folk was deliberately sparse; that way, they reasoned, harried listeners would find room to breathe. But even such an artful quiet can come to feel suffocating.

 

 

 

Next Time in LA:  March 10 at the Bootleg Theatre.

Website https://www.lowlandhum.com/

 

 

 

The Steel Woods – Straw In The String

 

Hometown:  Nashville

Album:  From their  album “Straw In The Wind”  out in May 2017 on Woods Music.

 

Review Snippet: ” The follow-up to Steel Woods’ debut album Straw in the Wind, which came out in May 2017, Old News was recorded in Nashville and in Asheville, North Carolina, and, along with new originals, features covers of songs by Black Sabbath, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, Gregg Allman, and late songwriter Wayne Mills.

 

Website:  https://thesteelwoods.com/

 

 

Foxwarren – Sunset Canyon 

 

Hometown:  Nashville via somewhere in Canadana

Album:  From their  debut album out last Friday on Anti/Epitaph.

 

Review Snippet:  That’s before a guttural organ sounds and Shauf’s chorus echoes itself to sound synthesized. It all adds up to a stylish, alternative take on 70s FM rock, as well as something that Shauf hasn’t had until now – a proper band.

 

Website:  http://www.andyshauf.com/foxwarren/