It takes two

Ryan Adams is coming to town Oct. 25, and after seeing this clip of a cleaned-up Adams (looking Dead Poet Societyish) and the Cardinals performing "Two" on Letterman, I'm even more excited. His voice sounds even better than it does on the album.

Great Lake Swimmers

I got turned on to Great Lake Swimmers through Paste a few months ago, and they've become my favorite before-bed music, often replacing Iron & Wine (until Sam Beam's new album comes out on Sept. 25, another one I'm really looking forward to). The Ontario band's newest album, Ongiara, has some great tracks from what I've heard, but I've actually been listening to the self-titled debut. Apparently the band recorded the album in an empty grain silo, and it sounds like it--lots of reverb bouncing around hushed vocals and delicate guitars.

Great Lake Swimmers capture a similar vibe on a recent live EP recorded at Church of the Redeemer in Toronto. The band has generously decided to give the EP away, so download it here, put on your headphones and drift off.

One more bedtime recommendation: South San Gabriel, especially "The Dark of the Garage."
mp3: South San Gabriel - The Dark of the Garage

Anticipation

One of the albums I've been most excited for this year comes out on Sept. 25: The Weakerthans' Reunion Tour. The Canadian band is consistently overlooked while overachieving, and from what I've heard so far, the new record will be just as solid as previous efforts. Instead of describing what's great about The Weakerthans, I'm just going to quote Andy Whitman from a post he wrote awhile back called "Albums That Get No Love."

"These guys aren't exactly unknowns, but they are nevertheless criminally underappreciated. The transformation that lead singer/songwriter John K. Samson has wrought from Punk Brat (best shown in his former band Propagandhi) to Thoughtful Poet is nothing less than spectacular. The band mixes it up quite eclectically, tossing in influences from folk, country, and loud, abrasive rock 'n roll. But the secret ingredient is Samson's songwriting. He's one of the few songwriters whose words can stand alone as poetry. He tackles all the big subjects -- love and the loss of love, God, death, loneliness and alienation, the hole in the soul -- and he does so with compassion, warmth, humor, and something that sounds uncannily like wisdom. And he rocks like crazy."

mp3: The Weakerthans - Night Windows

Ric Flair Finance

Need someone to finance your mortgage? Or maybe it's an auto loan you need. Who better to turn to than former professional wrestler Ric Flair? At Ric Flair Finance, "Forget the rest. Just work with the best. Wooooo!"

I still like The National

So here's the new video to "Apartment Story." It's neat.

Recommendations

Busy Joel = fewer blog posts. But here's a few albums I've been enjoying lately:

Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Ritter is one of the best Americana songwriters out there today, and it really feels like he's found his voice and style on the last two albums. If you liked Animal Years, you'll like this one, though there's more layers here, less raw acoustic. I don't know if there's a track as incendiary as "Thin Blue Flame," but a couple are close. The extras track you get on iTunes and Amazon are worth it, as well.
mp3: Josh Ritter - To the Dogs or Whoever

Okkervil River - The Stage Names
I have a feeling this will end up in my best of 2007 list. These guys went from folk to rock with great success, and singer Will Sheff sings with the intensity of Arcade Fire's Win Butler. Sometimes indie rockers feel like having raw emotion shine through isn't hip. Not an issue for Okkervil River.
mp3: Okkervil River - Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe

Dappled Cities - Granddance
I bought this album solely because the band is labelmates with Sea Wolf, and it's one of those that reveals its pop hooks more and more with each listen. And I love the fact that frontman Tim Derricourt sounds really Australian.
mp3: Dappled Cities - Fire Fire Fire




The Mendoza Line - Thirty Year Low + The Final Remarks of the Legendary Malcontent

Plenty of artists sing about failed relationships, but this album documents what appears to be a quite bitter divorce. That would be interesting in and of itself, but it's performed by the former husband/wife team who did the divorcing, Timothy Bracy and Shannon McCardle (her tracks shine brighter). It's sad, tragic and uncomfortable at times--exactly what a breakup album should be.
mp3: The Mendoza Line - Since I Came
mp3: The Mendoza Line - Thirty Year Low

On the fence:
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
It's certainly diverse, and it sounds like it was recorded in a conch shell, as Devendra is want to do. There's some Doors (see "Seahorse" below), some reggae and lots of Spanish I don't understand. We'll see.
Devendra Bahnart - Seahorse

Hope for the music biz?

I interviewed Hanson recently for an upcoming Q&A in The Other Paper. (Don't worry, I'm not naive--I fully expect letters demanding why we would waste ink on such a band. But I guarantee more people will read that interview than any other music-related article in the issue.) No matter what question I asked Isaac (the guitarist and oldest brother), he always came back to how messed up the music industry is, how it can't possibly go on in its current form. Though this made for a frustrating interview, compounded with the fact that he talked way too much and I only had about 10 minutes, it's worth noting that a band that has grown up in the music business is utterly jaded by its inner workings. I can't help but agree that major labels are ruining mainstream music. (Latent in that statement are some positives for independent labels, but that's for another post.)

So I was exceedingly encouraged and hopeful when I heard that producer Rick Rubin was going to be one of the top dogs at Columbia. I'd say it's the best decision Columbia has made since signing Bob Dylan. The New York Times Magazine has a great article on Rubin and his possible effect on the music industry. (Thanks to Donewaiting for the heads up.) A quick excerpt:

Rubin, who is 44, has never gone to an office of any kind. One of his conditions for taking the job at Sony, which owns Columbia, was that he wouldn't be required to have a desk or a phone in any of the corporate outposts. That wasn't a problem: Columbia didn't want Rubin to punch a clock. It wanted him to save the company. And just maybe the record business.

What that means, most of all, is that the company wants him to listen. It is Columbia's belief that Rubin will hear the answers in the music — that he will find the solution to its ever-increasing woes.