Saint Bernadette, continuing to evolve

Long time readers are familiar with the name Saint Bernadette. I wrote about their debut album, In the Ballroom, back in November of 2007. They were kind enough to tell me about one of the songs (and the story about how Ashford & Simpson played at their wedding) from their follow-up EP, I Wanna Tell You Something, in March of 2008. And now, after a long hiatus, the band has released their newest offering, their Word To The Lourdes EP. Just as their sophomore EP was a shift from their debut, this new EP continues on evolving in the same direction. Gone are the bluesy, jazzy subtleties; these six new tracks straight out rock.

Saint Bernadette - Already Gone : Word To The Lourdes EP

and an older favorite:

Saint Bernadette - Sidestep : In the Ballroom

and a live old favorite:

Saint Bernadette - Love Is A Stranger (live) : Live at Southpaw, NYC 4-30-09 (studio version appears on I Wanna Tell You Something EP)

Visit their website, their label Exotic Recordings, and become their friend on MySpace.

Luaka Bop!

As open as I am to world music, sometimes it’s hard to sift just through all of the diverse American music, never mind the stuff being made halfway around the globe. That being said, it’s always welcome to find an American label like Luaka Bop that does the heavy lifting for me to bring sounds from around the world that I might not hear otherwise.

For those of you not familiar with the label, as well as for those of you who’ve heard the name but don’t know much about it, Luaka Bop was formed by former Talking Heads founder David Byrne back in the 80’s. Besides being an outlet for his solo work, it also has helped introduce American listeners to such diverse world musicians as Los Amigos Invisibles (Venezuela), Zap Mama (Belgium/European/African), Os Mutantes (Brazil), and many others. Byrne has also revived interest in and the careers of several artists through the label, artists like Tom Zé, Shuggie Otis, and the previously mentioned Os Mutantes, as well as broken contemporary artists in the US like Nouvelle Vague. In its twenty-one years, the label has gone through its share of growing (and shrinking) pains, but it's stuck to what it does best: digging and highlighting some great music from countries far and wide.

And as it enters its twenty-first year, Luaka Bop has released Twenty First Century Twenty First Year, a compilation of fifteen songs released by the label since its birth. This isn’t the first compilation the label has done. In fact, they’ve released a fairly steady stream of compilations that have done a commendable job of bringing together the various artists from its diverse roster onto single discs of music to better introduce listeners to the many flavors of music they might have missed on their own. Their latest is no exception and serves as a primer for those who would like to explore the world of world music that is available.

Of course there is no way to neatly package a description of the music contained on the compilation. With the songs here coming from all corners of the globe (including some from here in the US), the only unifying theme here is diversity. That being said, I’ll share two that I enjoy and hope they trigger an urge in you to check out the rest and musically explore the world without the need of a passport. The first comes from a relatively unknown Malian artist, Moussa Doumbia, and lays down some serious afro-funk grooves. The second is some Venezuelan acid jazz modern retro funk from the previously mentioned Los Amigos Invisibles that doesn't need to be in English to get you to move.

Moussa Doumbia - Keleya : Twenty First Century Twenty First Year

Los Amigos Invisibles - Sexy : Twenty First Century Twenty First Year

Visit the Luaka Bop website and become their friend on MySpace.

(soft) Thunder Power

Here's a satisfying slice of Nebraska served up in the form of a folk-rocker from the six-some Thunder Power. It's off of a five track, split EP titled Friend Ships that the group just released along with the very distant London based artist Alessi's Ark. The three contributions from the group are served up with a dreamy, winsome air that's nice and light on the ears and occasional kicks up a gear or two, but still retains an earthiness about it. The track below, Sleep, Not Violence, is the middle cut from the EP and strums along for about two and half minutes before almost reinventing itself into something new for the last two minutes or so before drifting back to something akin to its original form. Listen, enjoy.

Thunder Power - Sleep, Not Violence : Friend Ships Split EP

Visit their label Slumber Party Records and become their friend on MySpace.

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Tour Dates

5/20/09 Omaha , NE The Slowdown
5/23/09 Omaha , NE The Slowdown
6/12/09 St. Paul , MN Eclipse Records
6/13/09 Milwaukee , WI Stonefly Brewery
6/14/09 Chicago , IL Ronny’s
6/16/09 Toledo , OH Frankie’s
6/18/09 Buffalo , NY S ugar City
6/19/09 Brooklyn , NY NYC Taper Presents @ Monster Island
6/21/09 New Brunswick , NJ Slumberland
6/22/09 Brooklyn , NY Monkey Town
6/23/09 Richmond , VA The Camel
6/24/09 Columbus , OH Circus
6/25/09 Cincinnati , OH Blue Rock Tavern
6/26/09 Carbondale , IL Booby’s
6/27/09 Kansas City , MO Czar Bar
8/8/09 Des Moines , IA Vaudeville Mews
8/27-30/09 Omaha , NE Nebraska Pop Festival

A Passage of the Hands

first touch

"If there were a way to speak directly to the hands, to allow them a language of their own, what I would most wish to hear is what they recall of human touch, of the first exploration of the body of another, the caresses, the cradling of the breast, of head, of buttock. Does it seem to them as to me that we keep learning, even when the caressed body has been known for years? How do daydreams of an idealized body, one's own or another's, affect the hands' first tentative inquiry? Is the hand purely empirical? Does it apply an imagination? Does it retain a man's shyness, a boy's clumsiness? Do the hands anguish if there is no one to touch?"

- Barry Lopez in "A Passage of the Hands," from About This Life

Eloise Laws - Touch Me : Love Factory: The Invictus Sessions

Mike Evin's Great Pop Song

Pop music. What makes good pop music? Why do some people love to hate pop music? Mike Evin knows what makes a great pop song and tells you all about it in the aptly titled Great Pop Song, the lead off track from his fourth album, Good Watermelon.

it was the first time i heard it
but i listened to it twice
it's exciting when you first hear a song
that can stay with you for life
you gotta cherish those first few hears
but for me, it gets better through the years!

i heard a great pop song today
it made me wanna sit down and play
there was something in the message
and there was something in the singing
oh, that great pop song today
it had feeling

Yea, that feeling that grabs you. That simply catchy, yet instantly connectible message that hooks you like the first time you heard _________ (fill in the blank with your own song). It's unavoidable. Impossible to resist (unless you're an indie snobster). It's ridiculously simple, and yet allows you to put your thoughts and dreams in to it.

That's what this album is all about. Almost always silly and yet you can take it deeper if you're in the mood. Think the piano of Ben Folds meets the tom-foolery of They Might Be Giants. That's it. I'm going to keep it simple, just like a great pop song...

Mike Evin - Great Pop Song : Good Watermelon

Visit his website and become his friend on MySpace.

John Scofield sings the praises

I'm not an overly religious man. I don't attend church regularly and don't have a crucifix hanging anywhere in my house. Regardless, there's something about gospel music that hits me hard, Maybe it's its intensity and sincerity. Maybe the genuine messages and earnest roots which spawned it. Maybe it's its lack of pretentiousness. Whatever it is, I enjoy it.

That being said, when you take gospel and mix it with some blues, the result is an album that really does it for me. That's where John Scofield's latest album Piety Street comes in. If you're not familiar with Scofield's name, that's alright, that's what this post is about. Let me lead of by telling you he's played his guitar with the likes of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Herbie Hancock, among many others. At this point you're hopefully getting the idea that the man is an insane jazz guitarist who's skills run the gamut from bebop to blues to jazz-funk to ______ (fill in the blank with a whole list of genres).

As hinted at above, his latest album incorporates his blues' skills with a repertoire of gospel songs which really lights my devotional candle. His guitar chops add a liveliness to these songs, many of them traditionals, that will get you out of the pew and dancing in the aisle. Not to say that they're hokey or heretical, just full of spirit that's hard to deny. Carrying these tunes is his electric blues guitar playing that's very reminicscent of some of Eric Clapton's work. Check out the rollicking opening track, his version of the classic Dorothy Love Coates song That's Enough.

John Scofield - That's Enough : Piety Street

and the original:

Dorothy Love Coates - That's Enough : The Best of Dorothy Love Coates & the Original Gospel Harmonettes, Vols. 1-2

Visit his website, his label Emarcy Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

Air Guitar Tuesday - I Remember You

Mostly memories

I paint a picture of the days gone by
When love went blind and you would make me see
I'd stare a lifetime into your eyes
So that I knew you were there for me
Time after time you were there for me

Remember yesterday
walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand
I remember you
And through the sleepless nights
through every endless day
I'd wanna hear you say
I remember you

Skid Row - I Remember You : Skid Row

Get the tabs to hit the right notes.

Kat Takes to the Sky

Much like the recent Hollywood, Mon Amour, Take to The Sky, the debut album from Austin singer Kat Edmonson, is an album full of interpretations. While the former drew upon 80's movie soundtracks as its inspiration, the former pulls from a wider range of material, as you can see from the track listing:

1. Summertime (George Gershwin)
2. Just Like Heaven (The Cure)
3. Night And Day (Cole Porter)
4. Charade (Henry Mancini)
5. Lovefool (The Cardigans)
6. Angel Eyes (Earl Brent & Matt Dennis)
7. Just One Of Those Things (Cole Porter)
8. One Fine Day (Carole King)
9. (Just Like) Starting Over (John Lennon)

You have some standards from the American song books, with picks like Summertime, Night And Day, Angel Eyes, but then you also have some more modern, and surprising, picks from recent decades with covers of The Cure's Just Like Heaven (which you can listen to below) and The Cardigans' Lovefool. Therefor, perhaps a better comparison would be with Nouvelle Vague, who tackled everything under the sun.

Kat sings these songs accompanied by a small backing quartetish sounding group with a jazzy approach that's got Latin elements mixed here and there when you don't expect them. Thankfully, the campiness factor here is quite low, sometimes dropping off the radar completely. Check out her slowed down, Martin Dennyfied version of Just Like Heaven, where Kat's voice adds a wistful flair.

Kat Edmonson - Just Like Heaven (Cure cover) : Take To The Sky

Visit her website and become her friend on MySpace.

Sinatra's Way

“You can be the most artistically perfect performer in the world, but an audience is like a broad–if you're indifferent, Endsville.”

-Frank Sinatra

There is no denying that Frank Sinatra deserves a spot in the elite ranks of America's musicians, if not THE top spot. The question is, as time goes by, who is going to hold on to him? Thankfully, Concord Records is trying to keep his legacy alive for new generations of listeners to hopefully latch on to with the release of two albums which came out earlier this week.

The first is a re-issue of his classic album My Way, forty years after its initial release. Built around the title track which could pass for Sinatra's theme song for life, the album includes standards as well as covers as only Frank could pull off, including a slowed down strings version of the Beatles' Yesterday and a swinging version of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson. With the re-issue comes two additional bonus tracks: a rehearsal recording of For Once In My Life and a live version of the album's title track recorded in 1987. This is definitive Frank from the middle of his long career


The second is a live album recorded in East Rutherford, NJ on March 14, 1986, and titled Live At The Meadowlands. I'm not going to lie to you here, Ol' Blue Eyes was certainly in the September of his years at this point, and it shows. Gone is the swagger and attitude, and they're replaced with a knowledge that he had more years behind him than in front of him. Instead of the witty banter between songs that you'll hear listening to his live shows from the 60's and 70's, it feels like Frank is saying good bye here. His voice lacks the vitality and range it once held and seems to be working hard to belt out what it does. But despite all that, it's still Sinatra, and even on his bad days, he knew how to sing like the legend he was. On top of that, coming from the 80's, this show is able to draw on material from all parts of his long and storied career, and boy does he have plenty of material to choose from. While I wouldn't suggest this as the first live Sinatra disc to spin, if you've got enough from the other decades, Live At The Meadowlands will round out your collection nicely.


So now for the goods. I'll start with a track from My Way that probably won't be all that familiar, a swinging cover of a Ray Charles song, Hallelujah, I Love Her So. The second, from the live album, slows things down and is just plain old textbook Sinatra: one of his saloon songs where he makes you feel like a buddy on the bar stool next to him, One For My Baby (And One More For The Road), one of my personal favorites.

Frank Sinatra - Hallelujah, I Love Her So (Ray Charles cover) : My Way (40th Anniversary edition)

Frank Sinatra - One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) [Live] : Live At The Meadowlands

Visit his official website and these releases' label Concord Music.

Hello My Apple

but i preferred a life of sin

well i hope you don't get the wrong idea
but i can't get over your love my dear
i just don't know how to show it
so please don't take this the wrong way
but i mean every word that i say
and i just want you to know

that you are my apple
and i want to take a bite
i especially love it when you're kissing goodnight
you are my apple and i want to take a bite
i especially love it when you're kissing goodnight
you are my apple
and i want to take a bite
you may be hard on the outside
but you're oh so sweet inside

i love when you call and say you're just saying hello
my apple
hello my apple hello
my apple hello

Priscilla Renea - Hello My Apple : Hello My Apple EP

Visit her website, her label Capitol Records, and become her friend on MySpace.

Sunday Soul - California Soul

beach kiss

They had the melody and the beat
But it still didn't seem complete, yes
Until they saw two lovers kissin'
They knew just what was missin'
So happy they were rockin' and reelin'
Because they had added that lovin' feeling
To California soul, California soul

Like a sound you hear
That lingers in your ear

Marlena Shaw - California Soul : The Spice of Life

daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra - California Soul : Live At Grand Performances, 7/2/04

Cara Robinson - California Soul (acoustic) : Blue Boy

want to fly again...

want to fly again...

i'm wide awake and so alive,
ringing like a bell.
tell me this is paradise
and not some place i fell.
cause i keep on falling
down

i want to feel the car crash
i want to feel it capsize
i want to feel the bomb drop, the earth stop, til i'm satisfied
i want to feel the car crash cause i'm dying on the inside
i want to let go and know that i'll be alright, alright.

Matt Nathanson - Car Crash (live) : Live at the World Cafe 4-4-06 (studio version appears on Some Mad Hope)

Visit his website and become his friend on MySpace.