Rising Star: Kyle Swartzwelder (with Audio)

May 11th, 2010 • Commentary, Folk • No comments

When I met Kyle Swartzwelder, he was hosting open mic night at the Burlap and Bean, a coffee shop outside of Philadelphia that knows its coffee and knows its music. That evening, Kyle informed me that he was going to have to find a real job. Music simply isn’t enough to support him. Anyone who heard Swartzwelder play his folk ballads that night, however, might disagree with that assessment. Though music might not pay the bills at the moment, Swartzwelder is certainly a promising young craftsman and songwriter. His self-titled 2008 debut album deserves further investigation.

Swartzwelder performs an uncomplicated country tinged folk. His ballad Julianne, a song expressing the joys of new love, best exemplifies the songwriter’s genius. He does not mess around with complicated lyrics or deep metaphors. Rather, his beautiful voice expresses his longing. Ever repeat the name of the girl you love to yourself to hear the sound of it on your own lips? That’s the chorus of this song—longing repetition that instantly touches the listen. The song ends with a usual and welcome flourish for the album. In the only true guitar solo of the project, Kyle plugs in the electric and rips out an Allman Brothers sounding guitar solo. Read more »

Video: Jonsi at Boston’s House of Blues

May 8th, 2010 • Boston, Iceland, Video • No comments

Here are some videos from the Jonsi show at the House of Blues in Boston on May 6, 2010.

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Jonsi Photo Blog

May 8th, 2010 • Boston, Iceland, Photo Gallery • No comments

I was fortunate to have attended a concert by Icelandic post-rock legend Jonsi in Boston’s House of Blues on May, 6 2010. It was one of the most stunning visual and audio experiences I have ever had. Check out these photos I snapped while there.

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BOBCATRACKS 6

April 30th, 2010 • BOBCATRACKS • No comments

M.I.A. Takes the Cake

April 29th, 2010 • Commentary, Electronic, Video • No comments

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written for (mthfl), and was published in that publication on April 29, 2010. The video below contains scenes of nudity and violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

The webs are aflitter with talk of the new M.I.A music video, “Born Free,” and all MTHFL has to say is “bravo, m’lady.”

I think I have found the second candidate for the “futurevisions” series.

Treading a tender line between blatant outraged social commentary and dark science-fiction future-drama, this artist has made something that feels uncomfortably close to the truth, and yet remarkably and violently foreign. The tune is great, sampling a late 70′s punk song by a band called Suicide. Some people are saying this plays special significance to those who lived through that era of music and can remember the time and place that song came out. I cannot be counted among those poeple, so I cannot attest to this fact. i suggest you read more about that if you are interested. Read more »

ALBUM REVIEW: Mount Eerie — Black Wooden (EP)

April 29th, 2010 • Album Review • No comments

Phil Elverum is an undisputed, but still relatively obscure master of the American underground. Elverum first made waves when he was still known as The Microphones, in the early 2000s; his 2001 album, The Glow Pt. 2 especially gained him a following for its unusual and varied sonic texture, its naturalism and its range of tape hiss and hum among softly strummed songs and whaling static and feedback. Elverum wondered at his solitary and unique position under the stars and among rocks and trees.

Elverum is a musician both interested in intense documentation and dissemination (e.g. Elverum’s own record label, P.W. Elverum & Sun, and his detailed liner notes, complete with clippings footnotes and illustrations) and his own privacy—he usually tours solo, and he sort of famously lived in solitude in arctic Norway in 2002-3. This concern between public and private selves, and between interiority and exteriority illustrates itself best on his muddled and brilliant 2005 album, No Flashlight.

But years on, Elverum, now in his early thirties, has progressed and matured in his production and lyricism without losing the austere, concerned and articulate poetry of his music. Read more »

Meshuggah – Alive (DVD)

April 28th, 2010 • Rock, Video • 3 comments

Finally Meshuggah’s brilliance has been caught on tape! Everybody who has witnessed it will only be able to concur: in a live situation technique and compositions are just as baffling and unintelligible as on record. Their first DVD, simply titled ‘Alive’, now enables us puny humans to (re-)experience Meshuggah’s mechanical tightness. The live part consists of images shot during their North American Obzen-tour and their appearance at Loudpark festival in Tokyo. This, indeed, means that the DVD contains footage of a fair amount of songs from their latest album.

In between unbelievably perfect renditions of crushing tracks like ´Bleed’, ‘Pravus’, ‘Electric Red’ and a number of golden oldies, we are treated on bits and pieces of interviews and documentary-type footage. In these segments you become more acquainted with the band and their touring life, which in itself is quite interesting. However, when you are expecting a continuous liveshow, this format might be annoying. Especially for these people the DVD comes with an audio CD enabling you to listen to the live songs uninterruptedly. Read more »

WRBC Charts 4/27/10

April 27th, 2010 • Charts • No comments

1 SHARON JONES AND THE DAP KINGS I Learned The Hard Way
2 SHE AND HIM Volume Two
3 BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
4 DAVID BYRNE AND FATBOY SLIM Here Lies Love
5 GORILLAZ Plastic Beach
6 BROKEN BELLS Broken Bells
7 MARK SULTAN $
8 TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS The Brutalist Bricks
9 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS The Big To-do
10 SARAH JAFFE Suburban Nature Read more »

Music Video Log 4/23/10

April 23rd, 2010 • Video • No comments

Here are four more awesome new music videos for your viewing pleasure.

Mustafa Khan – Earth Day Sex

It’s like birthday sex, but drastically more environmentally friendly.

A Singer Must Die – God Elvis

I got an email from this French band asking me to check out this video. I was not disappointed.

Gorillaz – Stylo

The combination of animation and reality is presented really seamlessly. A really cool video and Bruce Willis is the man.

Phantogram – Mouthful of Diamonds

A cool video from this hip new band. Read more »

BOBCATRACKS 5

April 23rd, 2010 • BOBCATRACKS • No comments