I haven’t done too much digging for string bands; my previous experience with them was limited to enjoying .357 String band from knowing Kate Brice and not enjoying Yonder Mountain String Band from hearing Joan’s ipod. But after helping dj for a bunch of Irish kids who wanted to hear “Mum-feerd!” every week, I fell in love with Mumford and Sons, a folk-rock band from England who has been getting a lot or radio play recently. If you’ve only heard Little Lion Man or The Cave, definitely give the rest of the cd a listen.
Their all of sudden popularity seems to have forced stations like WXRT to start playing more folk/string bands like The Avett Brothers, another folk rock band from North Carolina who are also worth a listen. They have been around a little longer and have a deeper catalog to peruse. I had not heard of their last album, I and Love and You, until more recently despite being on many blogs’ best-of-the-year-end lists, being produced by Rick Rubin and even going #16 in the us charts.
While I might mock Joan for her love of the Yonder Mountain String band, she did introduce me to Old Crow Medicine Show, a nashville band that seem to be hugely popular (and not new at all) with some people and unknown with most others. Wagon Wheel, from 2004’s OCMS album, is an uncompleted song found in a Bob Dylan bootleg that was expanded to now be their most famous song. Probably one of my current favorite songs:
I probably posted this 100 Greatest Insults before; though its worth another watch even if I did. Of course I am trying to think of ones that they missed, but all I can think is that there should have probably been more Denis Leary, Denis Farina and/or Robert Loggia. Apparently there is even a sequel and, I was going to wait for another day for this, but I would probably forget: 100 Cheesiest Lines (which I think Austin or Kevin Staunton showed me). Here is that video:
With somewhat long drives to work, I like to fill my time with podcasts and comedy albums. I mentioned this before, but Doug Loves Movies is a great weekly podcast that led to many other great things to listen to like the previously mentioned Garfunkel & Oates and The Nerdist podcast.
The Nerdist is hosted by Chris Hardwick, who is almost completely opposite of the guy who used to host Singled Out, and two other guys who have an hour long long interview/chat with a somewhat famous guest. On the most recent episode, they decided to change the format to a full stand up episode of Comics You Should Know featuring a couple good comics I had never heard of (but worth listening) and my current favorite Kyle Kinane, doing hilarious new material.
But Kyle wasn’t the closer of the show; the last comic was Matt Braunger, who ended the show with a story about a Clown Bar Crawl from when he was still in Chicago. While on it’s own was a fantastic story about how funny it was to have 90 full costume/makeup-ed clowns enter unannounced into a bar, it was even funnier to know that Joan bartended at the Isle when one of these Clown bar crawls came through.
Basically I am saying you should check this episode out. Also, Joan should re-tell her experience with the clown bar crawl.