Having previously discussed a love for She & Him, I am upset with myself for not listening to much of the “Him” portion of the band. And that wasn’t till just the other day when I heard the recording of M.Ward on Morning Comes Eclectic. One of the songs, called Fahey, took a few days to realize was the ice-cream truck song. Its tough to tell whether I like it or am just excited about ice-cream, Pavlov style. The original version of the song was written by one of Ward’s major influences, John Fahey, an amazing guitarist. Anyways, he has been on Morning Comes Eclectic and other radio like XRT because he has been promoting is new album “Hold Time,” which is worth checking out either at his myspace or at the Hype.
The Arctic Monkey’s were the first band who I discovered on them internets and had an intense love for before they were played on the radio. I’m not saying I was ahead of the curve (they were the new favourite band of practically every blog that I read), I’m just saying they are the first band I cultivated a love for through downloading, other blogs and not the radio. Their awesomeness has since fizzled in my eyes after a mediocre second album and depressing side project for Alex Turner called The Last Shadow Puppets. I am still excited about this third album they are working on, but not as much as I am about Pretty Much Amazing’s Arctic Monkey’s B-Sides and Rarities Project. There is a reason these songs were not picked for the proper release, but the two that were posted already capture them at the their best (at least in my mind). Before this, my only experience to their b-sides before was their cover of a Girls Aloud (sorta like a UK version Pussycat Dolls) cover on a BBC Radio show, Love Machine:
Here is another post from the fabulous Videogum. I think if I saw this Cribs originally air, it would have been just as funny without the translation at the bottom. It starts out ok, but the end is fucking great.
There are a couple great sites get bands to come in and record live/acoustic/whatever versions for their site particularly. The good ones that I know of are Daytrotter, Black Cab Sessions, and The Take-A-Way Shows. I recently discovered Hear Ya (from Shh…cago by the way) because of two bands that are worth a post.
Those Darlins, who I mentioned before, are getting more and more recognition these days. Just this morning I noticed they got a shout out in the Chicago Tribune talking about SXSW “We’re virgins to South by Southwest, but we’re going to slut it up all week.” Its that attitude that is presented in their twangy, country-rock-ish songs. They don’t have a proper cd out, just a single (Wild One), so I was excited when I saw that they did a few more songs over at Hear Ya sessions. “The Whole Damn Thing” is the best one. PS. I guess they also did a Daytrotter session.
The other band I wanted to mention was The Heartless Bastards. Their last album was good, and many blog nerds have been eagerly awaiting this next album, The Mountain. But after hearing the album, many seem to have the same response: The music is solid, but the real reason to love this band is the undeniable voice of their lead singer, Erika Wennerstrom. Check out the songs they did for Hear Ya. PS. HB also have a daytrotter session.
