Frazey Ford

Not *really* new music, because Frazey Ford is one of the lead singers of the Be Good Tanyas, but sufficiently awesome to revive NMM. Her first solo album came out last year, and I find it totally addictive... You can listen to her Tiny Desk Concert at NPR by following this link (one of the best parts of NPR at this point, period, and hopefully not something that will get cut when the government yanks their funding when the republicans finish destroying public support for art and media). Sorry, I accidentally slipped on a soapbox there for a minute, that's usually Lefty's domain. It just happened to be in the path where I was walking... Check her out! It is extremely fantastic, and she (of course) does a terrific Bob Dylan cover that I love....

Justin Gordon

NMM has been on hiatus the last few weeks-- our apologies to all of our millions of devoted readers. I am going to make it up to you with today's musical offering-- Justin Gordon. I am not sure I have ever read so many reviews of an artist that included the word 'underrated' as I have for this guy, but I am sure once his work is posted here, he will start to receive his just desserts... Check out his latest album (the one I have heard, called Love and Mystery; you can stream it for free here). If you care to, peruse back through his earlier catalog and you will probably see why he caught my eye-- lots of trailer imagery. Album covers, song titles, recording venues, etc. Justin Gordon appears to be a good candidate for spokesperson for my own personal ad campaign to bring trailer living to the forefront of modern american housing choices.... Enjoy!

April Smith and The Great Picture Show

I ran across April Smith and The Great Picture Show while listening to podcasts of shows from the Newport Folk Festival on NPR (I was feeling particularly pretentious that day) and found her incredibly charming with a unique, old-timey sound. She has that ability to mix sarcasm, wit, and charm while avoiding preciousness. It is fun music to listen to if you get the chance. Kind of like Gillian Welch if instead of getting her heart broken and saving the world, she just settled for crashing sorority parties for the jokes. And while there is more depth that that to April Smith's music, the vibe of what I have heard from her so far hits pretty close.

June Panic

God. Where have you guys been? I have totally been up on my NMMs but none of you have been around.

Today is June Panic and his strangely, slightly experimental and fractured pop. June Panic is the work of one guy, probably in a bedroom or basement (hipster requirement for authenticity- it's all about the music), and seems deeply personal. The best part about June Panic (and all good music that is deemed experimental) is the fact that there are easily accessible melodies through the different sounds. The songs are fun to follow through twists and turns. There is a payoff to this music as opposed to others that are trying different things (Sonic Youth and The Mars Volta, for instance). I am sure there is a very small subset of society that believes June Panic is genius. That seems to be a little strong but it is a very good listen.

Some morsels of the MFNW last week....

I arrived in POrtland about one week before an awesome music festival packed full of performances by bands I know and love, and by bands I don't know and might love, and bands I know and don't love. I still wanted to see them all. I couldn't though. Festivals in general stress me out. My desire to optimize is too strong. I can effectively triangulate the shortest distances between 8 million venues in a new city, and there are inevitably bands I LOVE playing at the same time. It isn't fun for me. So I bought individual tickets (you know, like in the old days) and went on Friday and Saturday night to one venue (each night) and saw 7 bands. I will talk about 2 of them for NMM....

Dan Mangan, from Vancouver, playing with a fantastic band and really delighting me beyond expectations. The finale was a song called Robots (it's on his myspace page) that was a giant singalong with Dan in the crowd. I am a total sucker for a singalong. The recorded version isn't quite as awesome, but it gives you a good entree.

and

The Portland Cello Project, an experimental, dizzying, audacious, fusion of classical instrumentation and (often) hip hop. On their Myspace page, there some okay stuff, but when they played behind Crooked Fingers, it was pure beauty (not on their site).

I suggest you check them both out, preferably live.

listenlisten

Am I the only person who posts to this blog anymore? Granted it's New Music Wednesday this week (my bad!), but I have been suffering some pret-ty significant technical difficulties the last few weeks. Throw in a Labor Day holiday and I am useless! But today's band is excellent. Perhaps not new to you, but excellent nonetheless. They are called Listenlisten. No, I didn't stutter. That's their name, which Rolling Stone LOVES (see below). They are from Texas and are helping me get over my emotional departure from the state with which, it turns out, I have a fairly complex relationship. The love, the loathing-- it's all very complicated. Anyway, listen to it. I can't really describe it any better than they did, but I can add that I dig it. You should just give it a listenlisten. I crack myself up.

“Finally, a band name we can believe in! Mysterious and borderline un-Googleable Houston collective proves expert at putting the ghosts back into Goth-folk. Their upcoming full-length, Hymns from Rhodesia, is a spellbinding collection of country-gospel songs haunted by loneliness and loss.” --Rolling Stone

Whiskey Folk Ramblers

This band is 1 part mariachi, 1 part klezmer, 1 part punk, 1 part jug band. I saw them last Saturday night in Ft. Worth as the headliners in a trio of great bands at a club in Ft. Worth (where they hail from) and was so delighted. The first band was called Oil Boom (check them out here-- Death of You is the best song they've got posted I think...). The second band was Spooky Folk, which I love and have blogged about previously (but you can now buy their album if you would like here). And the third band was the Whiskey Folk Ramblers, who I had heard of but never heard. You should listen, or better yet go see them live. Here are some of the things I like about them:
-the guy's voice is like butter
-they have a trumpet player, which I love
-they have an accordian, which I also love
-they sing a lot of story songs
-they are the kind of band that makes you want to dance
-they've been described as folk-noire (and I love new musical genre names)