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)

The Fox Hunt

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. NMM. It feels good to have the virtual pen in my hand again and I am proud to report that I have a good one for you all. The Fox Hunt are a surprise band to me that I have known about now for a grand total of four days after seeing them play a free show in Charleston, WV on the beautiful Kanawha River. They are a band that plays traditional music with bluegrass and country influences and hail from the hills in West Virginia. They feature acoustic guitar, banjo, madolin, fiddle, and stand-up bass. The easiest (and probably most apt) comparison is to Old Crow Medicine Show, which is hard because comparing bands to OCMS means you are going to say something like they are not quite as good to one of the best bands going. However, The Fox Hunt does admirably with their own songs and their adaptations of others. They have two singers- a sweet voices clean cut guy and a long haired dirty with a rougher edge. Their songs are good; murder ballads, drinking songs, songs about bad women and good women, songs about being on the road, and of course, songs about coming home. But the real fun is seeing the band live. Their energy plays better in person than on record (also something they have in common with OCMS) and their range of cover songs is great. In the two shows I saw this past weekend, the played songs by Hank Williams, The Rolling Stones, The Bottle Rockets, The Band, The Replacements, two John Prines, and at least one Irish waltz. However, the best part about the band is their are trying to be their own band and that includes seperating themselves from their big brothers. When some drunk asked to hear "Wagon Wheel," one of the guys stepped to the mic and said, "We don't know that one."

RTB2

Not to be confused with the Star Wars character, RTB2 is a duo from Denton, TX that I have recently opened my ears to (which can make liking a band that much more sweet, I have noticed). Within the continuum of my musical taste, they definitely represent something near one end (the hard rock end, to be specific), but it is melodic and emotive and I enjoy their sound immensely and think you might too. It is in the neighborhood of The Black Keys, but more garage-y and raw. You can listen to some songs of theirs on their myspace page here or download their whole first album for free from their record label here (a label, by the way, with lots of other good bands, most of which let you pay-what-you-want or download their music for free). RTB2's most recent album was recorded live. What they sacrifice in so-called perfect sound quality I think they hoped to recoup in raw energy, and I can vouch for the fact that they put on a great show. Listen to The Spilling Blood Child (which will be on my 2010 Lake CD in a few short weeks) for an example of why I have come around....

Rocky Votolato

Rocky Votolato is an artist based in Seattle via small town Texas that plays music firmly planted in country folk and indie rock. I have been listening to his album "Suicide Medicine" for the past short while and the best way to describe it is Son Volt with a completely different voice out front. There are a few political songs on the album that are EMBARRASSINGLY bad but that is probably easy to imagine when you read the list of influences on his myspace page. It reads like a who's who of influences for self-important, over emoting 25 year olds. Luckily, Votolato is not any of that. When he wants to be more introspective (read: folky), he knocks it out of the park. If nothing else, Votolato is playing with his heart on his sleeve throughout the album and there is nothing wrong with that.