Podcast: Play in new window
A remarkable diversity of music on SnC this week from New York, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt and Toronto but that’s just one of the tracks! We’ll also hear about which artist has been selected Artist of the Month for September by Sarah Groves at Adnams who I met up with earlier today. Head brewer Fergus was recording a video at the time. You can currently see the result (and the lovely brewing vat, which is now in the cafe) at http://adnams.co.uk
Somehow rain on the coast on a blustery warm day with fabulous grey clouds never seems bad. We even went for a paddle, hell yes. Even if it was by accident. There were some big waves!
Stand Back – Kopecky Family Band (Nashville, TN, USA)
The Kopecky Family Band is a living and breathing collage of sorts, combining sound, people, and a DIY sensibility, exemplified in all aspects of their music and aesthetic. Whilst they hail from Nashville, Tennessee, their sound could be placed in cities as far-flung as Brooklyn, Melbourne, Toronto or London. Their infectious multi-layered harmonies, coupled with a string section to rival the Arcade Fire has propelled the band into the forefront of the hard working, fast paced Nashville music scene. The family is now embarking on a Griswald style ‘vacation’, bringing their show to New York City for CMJ in October and releasing their second EP The Disaster on the 9th of November.
Like all families, Kopecky Family Band members each beat with the same heart and write in the same blood. The Family began creating music together in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall of 2007. What started as late night talks about life and dreams has now gradually and continually flowed into eccentric and beautiful music.
Leading the family are singers Gabe and Kelsey, along with Steven (lead guitar), Corey (bass), Markus (cello), Benjamin (violin), and David (drums). The emotion of their music is raw and vulnerable whilst maintaining an unmistakable power and presence. The sounds created by the booming and orchestral-like septet challenge the listener’s ear while still offering simply melodies to sing along with.
www.kopeckyfamilyband.com/
www.myspace.com/kopeckyfamilyband
kopeckyfamilyband.bandcamp.com
Now that you’re mine – Leslie DiNicola (NY, NY, USA)
DiNicola moved around a lot when she was growing up, and has that unique perspective of someone who’s been “the new kid at school” a few too many times. After graduating from Syracuse University, Leslie found herself pulled in opposite directions by her love of music and her love of sailing. She reflects, “By the time I was 22 and moved to Manhattan, I had already lived in 8 different places. No matter how much you like a place, the way I liked NY, there’s a hesitancy to get too comfortable. I think that’s what kept me running off to sea so often, sailing to different countries every chance I got.”
www.myspace.com/lesliedinicola
www.reverbnation.com/lesliedinicola
www.twitter.com/LeslieDiNicola
Gambler’s Blues – Tin Pan (NY, NY, USA)
Tin Pan connotes a world from the past – the most dominant and enlightened strains of American music of the early part of the 20th century – jazz, blues and American popular song. But it would be a mistake to say that Tin Pan is fixed in that past. Rather, it is music created to be enjoyed profoundly and joyously in the present. The band has created a rabid following by playing music that resonates powerfully because its intention is pure – to make people dance, smile and conjure with the spirit of music itself. On their new album, Hound’s Tooth, the band has perfected their sonic vision – effortless, wondrous and festive, feeling much like, as the band describes themselves, Ray Charles and Tom Waits at a Bourbon Street Parade.
The band comprises Jesse Selengut on trumpet, lead vocals and compositions, Clifton Hyde on guitar and hollerin’, Stefan Zeniuk on reeds and boy soprano vocals, and Peter “Baby Hands” Maness on bass and some singin’.
They describe themselves as a “street band,” they often play in Central Park and in the New York City transit system. It’s the embodiment of the band’s belief that their music should be accessible – literally and figuratively. With two previous CD releases, Early Jazz and Americana and Alice McNulty, they sold a total of 6000 CD’s in 2008, a phenomenal total for an completely unsigned band, and earned rave notices in the New York Times and Huffington Post, among others.
www.tinpanband.com
www.myspace.com/tinpanband
twitter.com/tinpanband
www.last.fm/user/TinPanBluesBand
Teri Muhabbeta Mar Sutia (Your Love Is Killing Me) – Achanak (Punjab)
I heard this on one of Pete Cogle’s shows (find them all at www.petecogle.com )
Achanak “Teri Muhabbeta Mar Sutia (Your Love Is Killing Me)” (mp3) from “The Rough Guide To Bhangra” (Rough Guides/World Music Network) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Amazon MP3 More On This Album
Sunrise – My Education (Austin, Texas, USA)
For the past 10 years, My Education have released five full-length albums full of feedback-laden guitars, swirling melodic viola, a storm cloud of a rhythm section along with flourishes of vibraphone, bells, strings and horns.
After touring throughout the USA this summer, My Education is busy in the studio right now, slaving away on new material that may show its face next year. The band has been playing new material live and have been seeing audiences being floored. The new music sees My Education expand further and grow further and will be quite a surprise and an engaging listen for all fans. Major touring will commence next year seeing the band head overseas to tour as well as more touring throughout the U.S.
But let us not forget the amazing album Sunrise the band released in April on Strange Attractors Audio House and Golden Antenna.
The album is available on beautiful vinyl. Sunrise is available via all the usual digital retailers like iTunes and Amazon MP3 but help some truly independent record labels and buy direct from them!
scott telles- bass
chris hackstie – guitar
chris stelly – drums
james alexander – viola
kirk laktas – piano
brian purington – guitar
sarah norris – vibraphone
henna chou – cello & piano
www.myeducationmusic.com
www.myspace.com/myeducation
Sarah Groves chooses the Adnams Artist of the Month for September.
Sarah took on the mammoth task of selecting an Artist of the Month from five shows worth of great music.
Hear a longer version of the interview on the Artist of the month page.
Morning Sun – Shayna Zaid and The Catch (New York, NY)
Blending elements of folk, jazz, indie pop and cabaret, Shayna Zaid’s melodically inclined lyrical work leaves traces of solace, reflection and affection. The combination of Zaid’s dynamic stage presence, her powerful smoky voice and her playful jazzy swagger lends an enchanting display.
A worthy winner of the AOTM.
UPDATE: I have it on good authority that the Ford commercial is all over the world and has been spotted on TV in Germany. Keep your eyer’s open, although I think the tune will attract your attention.
www.shaynazaid.com/
www.myspace.com/shaynazaid
Can’t see the Soul – RookieCop (Nottingham, UK)
It’s refreshing, in today’s climate of fame-seeking want-it-now! fabricated pop to find an artist who values strong concepts, credibility & a depth of music that reveals more with each listen.
With a number of years in the underground arts & music scene & a sneaky 2 year ‘Media Music’ course under his belt Rookiecop has been quietly honing his production skills & learning to write in a number of styles.
Often mixing orchestral elements, trip-hop, ambient, funk & house music, the sound has been described as filmic, dark, melancholic, warm.
Rookiecop signed to Fusion Room Records in 2009 and has started to become more experimental, taking in more esoteric time signatures and sounds.
Rookiecop also produces, remixes, composes music & sound design for films and sometimes experiments with video.
His music has been used in several short films (arthouse, cartoon, documentary) and digital media applications.
www.myspace.com/rookiecop
Eyes – Neon Legion (New York, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt and Toronto)
Neon Legion, the rock band based around German-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Philip Kurt Kressin. In a music landscape where many artists are concerned with shiny veneers over artistic content, Kressin demands that his work stand for something. With Empire, the debut Neon Legion album, he seeks to honor the values of his forefathers while crafting a sound that brings together elements of rock, electronic, and classical music, honoring his own personal tradition.
Kressin received formal training at the exclusive art and music-oriented Frensham Heights School near London, where rock & roll is an accepted part of the curriculum. Here, he learned about Bach’s harmonies and Handel’s melodies, toured Europe as a member of the choir and orchestra, and rubbed elbows with the children of rock legends like Roger Waters and Brian May, often visiting the house where Led Zeppelin famously recorded “Stairway to Heaven”. After school, Kressin expanded his musical studies in London with attaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree in music at Brunel University. He specialized in composition and won the university´s Steve Thomas Memorial Prize during his second year.
Upon finishing his formal education, Kressin returned to Germany, where he began two years of work at Black Solaris Studios, an old (and possibly haunted) WWII bunker in Frankfurt. Here, he produced a number of German hip-hop and electronic artists, and had his first foray into film composing with his classical score for the award-winning short film Geigensolo. The latter would prove to be a most intense experience: The film’s director was partially deaf, and had previously rejected the work of twelve other composers. Because the director could not hear high-range melodies, Kressin found himself adding sub-bass frequencies, “so that deaf viewers could feel the bass in their bodies.”
Amid his other work at Black Solaris, he found time to record his first album, Cyan (under the name Kirt). But soon after its completion, Kressin left Germany for the sunnier climes of Buenos Aires to release the disc. “I didn’t see very much light in the bunker for a couple years,” he says. “I just needed some light again.”
When restlessness struck again, the artist set out for what are now his twin bases in North America: New York City and Toronto. “The move seemed like a logical step,” he says. “I’ve always been nomadic, living in different places, establishing myself there as an artist, and then moving on to the next one, building a network of collaborators in that way.”
It took more than a dozen musicians in four countries on three continents to make Empire. After working out arrangements with his Argentinian group, Kressin enlisted Priestbird cellist Daniel Bensi in New York, as well as a large cast of Toronto musicians, referred to him by a mutual friend of Broken Social Scene’s Jason Collett.
The album’s ten songs delve into existential and sometimes political topics—the nature of man, intellect vs. instinct, man vs. the environment—from an omniscient perspective, in an effort to bring clarity and truth to humanity’s larger patterns.
www.neonlegion.com/
www.myspace.com/neonlegion
www.twitter.com/neonlegion
www.reverbnation.com/#/neonlegion
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