these are the sounds

You Must Listen: Teddy Thompson – A Piece of What You Need

Jim — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:28:55 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Tift Merritt in concert a few weeks back at one of my favorite venues in Atlanta, Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. Tift’s opening act was Teddy Thompson, which really meant nothing to me at the time. In fact, even after having been on stage for fifteen minutes, I still really wasn’t feeling this guy. There was nothing wrong with his live act, but the audience and the artist weren’t sparking off each other and things just seemed to fall flat. The songs kind of plodded along, and, even though his personality seemed to help him immensely, I just couldn’t connect the way I wanted to.

After the concert was over and I was able to say in hindsight that I enjoyed the evening (and how could I have not? Tift Merritt singing live is an occasion not to be missed),I decided to give the guy a second chance and I picked up A Piece of What You Need, which, in all seriousness, turned out to be exactly what I needed. The songs, the voice the lyrics, everything, it’s a great CD that deserves to be heard.

From the gentle strumming of the first track, “The Things I Do”, with the slightest bit of electronic flourishes to the end of the final track which slowly unwinds and dismantles itself, there’s not a filler to be heard. Teddy’s voice is engaging, defiant, angry and curious. On “What’s This” he catches himself in a happy moment only to reply “Oh shit” , while on “Turning the Gun on Myself” he sings about doing just that. The highlight “In My Arms” should be blaring out of everyone’s cars. It’s a great mid tempo rocker about what he has and has to offer in his arms. And the chorus just soars.

I’ve already recommended this to a lot of friends who enjoy earthier sounds and folk, rock, and americana genres. This cd has been on non-stop in my car, my home and my ipod and will definitely make it into my year end top ten.

http://www.teddythompson.com/

You Must Watch: Eskobar – Someone New

Jim — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:46:32 +0000

Here’s a desert island video. Definitely in my top 5 songs.

You Must Watch: Roisin Murphy – Movie Star

Jim — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:40:45 +0000

Speaks entirely for itself, no?

You Must Listen: Ladyhawke

Jim — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:29:15 +0000

It was bound to happen, I just never thought it would be on some debut album on import from Amazon.co.uk. Ladyhawke’s self-titled CD seamlessly blends elements of 70’s rock, 80’s synths, 90’s angst and the DIY singer/songwriter aesthetic of the 00’s into a cohesive album that is as dancefloor ready as it is literate. Elements of Madonna, Pat Benetar, Elastica, and ‘til Tuesday act as a trigger conjuring pleasant new wave memories of the ’80s while creating an entirely new soundtrack to your autumn of 2008. Solid and meaty music. Definitely one to watch.

http://www.ladyhawkemusic.com/

You Must Read: When I Grow Up by Juliana Hatfield

Jim — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:12:50 +0000

I’ve recently gotten back into reading after plowing through two books by Marianne Faithfull. For years I’d been under the impression that fiction was better than non-fiction due to the fact that the story being told was malleable. An author of fiction could go to painstaking efforts to craft a story that was planned perfectly from start to finish and presented in the same way that a host or hostess would plan a menu and set a dinner table. But after discovering several rock memoirs, such as Black Postcards by Dean Wareham and A Bit of a Blur, by Alex James, I’m convinced that the best stories are the ones that have actually happened and that give insight into a particular individual, event, or time frame, rather than sifting through pages filled with carefully constructed characters used to foil each other or convey some sort of symbolic significance. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, in fact, here’s a secret: Nothing is better than eating a Henry James novel)

Juliana Hatfield’s memoir, When I Grow Up, is a great example of a book giving insight into a woman whose career I’ve followed since her first solo CD, Hey Babe, was released in 1991. In a way, it also chronicles the rise and fall of “alternative/pop” throughout the early ’90s and up until 2007/8.

The book moves back and forth through time starting with a tour diary from around 2003/4 with Juliana’s newly formed band, Some Girls, and is interspersed with vignettes from her childhood, the beginnings of her first band, the Blake Babies, and the rise and fall of her solo career. What I really loved, and as someone who loves music I can admit I never gave much thought to, was the tour diary entries that described how certain events, within and beyond Juliana’s control, would affect a concert. Whether it’s an overzealous fan who stands in front of the stage and videotapes her to not having a good meal prior to a show after driving all day, to a midriff baring top she decides to wear on stage that suddenly makes her feel uncomfortable; there really are a lot of stars that need to align in order to feel that a show is going well. She often talks about wanting to get into a place where she loses herself onstage, yet still seems hesitant and guarded. It’s refreshing that she’s so objective as to admit when she’s being a bitch, and even though I would heartily recommend the book to other music fans, I still think the book is slightly guarded, as if the tone it was written in is something like, “I’m-going-to-tell-you-this-but-I-don’t-know-why-but-whatever” kindaof way. Maybe it’s rock attitude, maybe I’m misreading. In the end I came away with having read a book that, at it’s most simplest, is a search to be relevant, and finding relevance in the world.

Note: If you like Juliana, pick up her new CD How to Walk Away. It’s her best work in years, and having read the book and heard the CD, it’s a great introduction or reintroduced to someone who’s been a constant voice music over the past twenty years.