SnC 172 – Wed 17 June 2009

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There was a spectacular light show last night outside the barn. After heavy rain from dark clouds the setting sun shot its light across the landscape from a very low angle and so created a spectacular rainbow again a dark sky, highlighting the poplar trees in the meadow. Wow! Sometimes it feels quite unreal living here. And, before you ask, no retouching, digital enhancing or other flim-flammery was used on the photo. That’s exactly how it looked from the barn door. Honest! Rebecca – ist (Leicester, UK)This time around I’m a bit better informed. Kenton sent me the album Toothpick Bridge, to be released in August.The band are:Kenton Hall – Guitars, Hammond, Vocals;John McCourt – Bass, Vocals, Mandolin, Ukulele;Flash – Drums, Percussion, Loops;Brett Richardson – Guitars, Bassoon, Vocals and String Arrangements. Nice that their MySpace credits the musicians on the Toothpick Bridge album.You’ll find the band at www.istianity.co.ukwww.myspace.com/istMyspace lay off 30% of staff (400 people). It sounds a lot but as a source close to the company said yesterday "If you can’t run that site with 750 people, you don’t now how to run a business."http://tinyurl.com/ll58wrLook for Me – Dudley Saunders (W. Hollywood, CA, USA)Like k.d. lang and Laurie Anderson, singer/songwriter Dudley Saunders began his music career first as a critically-acclaimed "transgressive" performance artist – only to find the experimental folk music he wrote for his pieces take over his career. 

Described by critics as "surreal, modern folk tales," Dudley’s performance pieces were a fixture on New York’s East Village scene in the late ’80s and 90s. But as he began to merge the Appalachian music of his native Kentucky with the post-modern art-rock and jazz he heard at New York"s Knitting Factory, he began to draw an entirely new audience who convinced him to pour all his surreal images into the songs.Look for me is from the album Emergency Lane. www.dudleysaunders.comwww.MySpace.com/DudleySaundersAMPed this week it’s Rowley from Dark Compass with an interesting selection of tunes. Next week Colin from Ourobouros. Subscribe at: http://musicpodcasting.orgLove is a Mantra Remix – Astronauts of Antiquity (New York, NY, USA)Astronauts of Antiquity = your mystery date. They entice you to leave behind limited conceptions of self and music. AoA invite you to celebrate life in a deeper sense. Everything else can wait.Revel in the AoA sound and relish a pot of funky-luscious neo-soul. Add a pinch of Indian/ Brazilian spice. Toss & serve over a warm bed of jazzy, eclectic pop…and the girl."Their vision is to offer up the ancient on a modern platter of undeniable tunes, catchy yet subtle like the muse. "Inventive electro lounge… mesmerizing songcraft!" (The Independent – Chapel Hill)www.astronautsofantiquity.com/www.myspace.com/astronautsofantiquityRaindrops – Duane Andrews (Newfoundland, Canada)Heavily influenced by the brilliance of early twentieth century French Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, Duane Andrews’ unique blend of jazz and traditional Newfoundland folk music is consistently recognized by both industry and fans with awards and accolades. www.duaneandrews.ca/www.myspace.com/duaneandrewshttp://cdbaby.com/cd/duaneandrews2Never end up like this – Fresh Body Shop (Nante, France)From the album The Ugly Army on Jamendo where you can download it free or do the decent thing and buy it for $10. Not so much an ethical dilemma as a question of conscience. There is another way: make a donation.Pedro (voice, guitar, piano, prod)
Oli (Live Bass, Synth)
Fyjen (Live Drums)
Albums: Orgamilk (2006), 
Make This End (2007)
 and Tasteless (2007)
Video of "Words Of Happiness" (solo acoustic)The artist page on Jamendo is at: www.jamendo.com/en/artist/freshbodyshopwww.myspace.com/133439871  www.last.fm/music/Fresh+Body+ShopBrigitte Bardot – Lola Dutronic (Berlin, Germany and Toronto, Canada)A French Pop/Electronica duo, who sing really interesting material in both French & English. LOLA DEE – Voice, RICHARD CITROEN – MusicBrigitte Bardot is from the new 3rd album, LOLA DUTRONIC IN BERLIN recorded over a 3 week period in an abandoned Berlin apartment, and mixed in Toronto. it also features the legendary Mike Garson (of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane fame) on piano. "We divide our time between Berlin and Toronto. We’ve put out three albums so far: The World Of Lola Dutronic, the Grammy Award nominated The Love Parade and our newest album, Lola Dutronic In Berlin. We’ve also appeared on several compilation albums and repackages in Asia and Europe.Available on iTunes and on CDBaby at http://cdbaby.com/cd/ldutronicwww.myspace.com/loladutronicSonar 2009 – Barcelona’s international festival of advanced music and multimedia art18.19.20 JuneSonar, one of the largest and most diverse music and digital art festivals in the world, is held in the heart of Barcelona for three days in June. More than 80,000 people enjoy a musical line-up that includes many of the best artists in electronic music.http://2009.sonar.es/en(Lord It’s Hard To Be Happy, When You Aren’t Using) The Metric System (feat. Worm Quartet) – MC Lars (San Francisco, CA, USA) The MC Lars experiment began on his parent’s couch, where at an early age he performed groundbreaking songs about not wanting to clean up his room. He was experimenting with tape recorders and computers by the time he hit the fifth grade, but it wasn’t until the ripe old age of fifteen that he found Beck and discovered the concept of home-recording beats and music together. This led to a dark period, otherwise known as the Insane Clown Posse Evil/Scary Phase ("Trust me, it wasn’t pretty"), of which Lars will deny everything. Soon after, he began performing regularly at hometown open mic nights, ultimately pulling together a style that was inexplicably all his own. As his home recordings developed, he took on the name MC Lars Horris – eventually dropping the Horris because "people often thought it was Lars Whores, which is terrible."www.mclars.comwww.myspace.com/mclars

MC Lars "(Lord It’s Hard To Be Happy, When You Aren’t Using) The Metric System (feat. Worm Quartet)" (mp3) from "Up End Atom" (Hartless Hind Records) Stream from Rhapsody Buy at Rhapsody More On This Album

Blindside – Johnny Neel (Nashville?)From the album Saddle Up & Ride (truckers Tracks vol 1) which Co-producer Doug Jones kindly sent me.An interesting approach with a really solid backing band on all the tracks and different taking lead parts on each track. For instance Johnny Neel took the vocals on that track and plays B3 on all tracks.Doug shares harmonica and guitar duties. A set up as though they all got together and jammed in the studio but the production suggests that it was a lot more carefully done than that. I"m surprised at how impressed I am. I’d never have said that I was a fan of trucker"s music but having listede=ned through these CDs, I’m close to becoming a convert. Not that I"m  going to rush to the local truckstop and buy all the cheep trash on a whim, but I thank Doug for opening my ears to another genre. There will be more tracks in coming weeks – there are some particularly fine blues sounds on these albums.You can stream the albums or buy from CD Baby.www.truckerstracks.com


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