Discovery: The Gallerist delivers ‘Yesterday’s News Today’

The Gallerist

facebook.com/thegalleristband

Here’s a song for a grey and windy November day.

Recorded on an island off the coast of Maine, and written and sung by Boston native Mike Collins, aka the Gallerist, it’s a simple, archetypal, folk tune demo — the circuits buzz, the guitar picks and hammers on, brushed snare and bass shuffle forward: nothing extraneous here — phrased with quotidian loneliness but also a sense of sweetness in just hoping for the best — inner and outer weather be damned.

The Gallerist recently released an EP called “A Falling Waltz.” You can hear the whole thing at Bandcamp. Recommended for fans of the Low Anthem or the Bowerbirds, or if you’re just looking for a new songwriter in the Prine/Brown tradition.

Yesterdays News Today (Island Version) by TheGallerist

Posted by | November 14, 2011 | Music | Comment 

Album review and MP3: Centro-matic’s brilliant, economical ‘Candidate Waltz’

Centro-matic Candidate Waltz 2011 Undertow Music

Centro-matic
Candidate Waltz
Undertow

In the time since Centro-matic’s last record, 2008′s Dual Hawks, lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Will Johnson has been as busy as ever. The band itself has kept a relatively low profile while Johnson has diffused his energy across several other projects.

Johnson has been recording and touring as the drummer for the supergroup Monsters of Folk, making a record with close friend Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co., embarking on two solo living room tours, and quietly releasing a fine EP of solo material. The seeming result is that he and his bandmates returned to the studio with a more refined and focused energy. The band’s new release, Candidate Waltz, is the best collection of songs that Centro-matic has produced in years.

Over the past 15 years, Centro-matic has remained amazingly consistent at a time when the indie sphere increasingly emphasizes (one might say bastardizes) innovation at the expense of quality content. The band has retained the same lineup over that time and has become known for doing essentially one thing, but doing it incredibly well: producing sprawling and urgent rock tunes saturated with distorted, melancholy guitar and punctuated by melodic drumming.

From the first notes of Candidate Waltz, however, we hear the band embarking on new territory. A percolating synth beat eases us into “Against The Line” and remains there throughout the song, just below the surface. The band’s hallmarks are still there though. A fevered and clanging guitar is the next to enter, followed by the familiar crack of drummer Matt Pence’s snare. The addition of looped synthesizer is a minor change, but it significantly alters the feel of the song and sets the tone for the rest of the album.

These songs see the band stretching its limbs in new directions, while not feeling the need to depart wholesale from its signature sound. The songs display a creative economy: guitar riffs are clean and simple and bass lines syncopate the melodies in tandem with the drums. While Johnsons’s lyrics are characteristically oblique, they have been distilled to the point that the swirl of imagery is always refreshing and never tiring. The words are often less about communication than they are about creating a phonetic fabric to sit amongst the other parts of the composition.

Some songs constitute a more drastic departure than others. On “Only In My Double Mind” a minimalistic arrangement is used to maximum effect as thundering piano and strong but sparse drumming take center stage while still leaving space for Johnson’s layered vocals. The quieter and rhythmically-driven “Estimate x 3″ begins innocently, but the reemergence of synthesizer during the bridge propels it into slow jam territory. Over the refrain “Give me what you want, don’t tell me,” hand claps and falsetto backing vocals produce an R&B-like effect that creates what is possibly the catchiest minute and a half the band has ever recorded.

In contrast to Centro-matic’s past few releases, not a single song here disappoints. The ambling “Solid States” is dominated by buoyant piano which provides a refreshing textural contrast to the ubiquitous guitar fuzz. “All The Talkers” is a bouncy and attitude-infused anthem that contains the most literal lyrics on the album and provides what may be considered its thesis. It paints the scene of a bar full of indifferent and chatty patrons who are eventually won over by the determined energy of the band on stage. As Johnson sings “it was not like the night before,” there is no doubt as to the band’s identity.

Candidate Waltz is a mature record that demonstrates the wisdom of a band that knows its strengths but is also leery of sitting still for too long. If the length of past releases is any indication, by including only 33 minutes of music Centro-matic likely left quite a bit of material on the cutting room floor. What did make the cut has been executed to exacting detail, especially with regard to texture and dynamics. The album is wonderful in its simplicity and inventiveness, to the extent that the first listen is rewarding while subsequent spins only deepen the listener’s affection.

Centro-matic performs at Off Broadway in St. Louis on July 5.

Centro-matic – “Only in My Double Mind”

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Posted by | June 30, 2011 | Album Reviews | Comment 

Gifts From the Spirit: The life and music of Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron

gilscottheron.net / Mischa Richter

If and when the revolution needs a soundtrack, it need search no further than the music of Gil Scott-Heron. The artist, one of the true American greats, passed away on May 27 at the age of 62.

From “Johannesburg” to “Whitey on the Moon,” from “The Bottle” to “Lady Day and John Coltrane” from “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to “B-Movie,” Scott-Heron’s songs, raps and improvisational vision had no equals on the American musical landscape of the 1970s and ’80s. He didn’t just speak truth to power. He made the truth sing with a searing honesty.

Scott-Heron was the subject of an 88.1 KDHX Great American Music Series special — narrated by DJ Doug Morgan and written and produced by Michelle McCarthy — and in honor of the artist, we’re posting the complete program on the KDHX SoundCloud for you to stream and share for the next two weeks.


Gil Scott-Heron “Gifts From the Spirits” by KDHX

Posted by | June 3, 2011 | Music | Comment 

Album review: Jessica Lea Mayfield seduces on ‘Tell Me’

jessica-lea-mayfield-tell-me

Jessica Lea Mayfield
Tell Me
Nonesuch

Jessica Lea Mayfield’s sound is like a silk negligé; soft with an innocent facade yet sultry, seductive and maybe a little dangerous.

With love sick lyrics and a provocative blend of country rock, pop, blues and indie rock, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter’s new album Tell Me could easily be the soundtrack to a summer love fling.

The Kent, Ohio native was born into music, traveling and performing with her family’s bluegrass band, One Way Rider when she was only eight years old. After a break up with her first boyfriend at age 15, heartbroken Mayfield began writing her first solo album.

Two years later, the White Lies EP was released and caught the attention of Black Keys singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach. Since then, Auerbach has pushed Mayfield’s career forward, inviting her to perform at Black Keys’ shows, helping her in the studio and producing her last two albums.

In both lyrics and music, Tell Me is a raw depiction of what a young lover’s mind endures with feelings of inadequacy, torment and selfishness matched with elation, arousal and wonderment.

The track “Somewhere in Your Heart” is a dark and hair-raising portrayal of love-crazed rejection with heavy drum patterns, throbbing piano and eerie, screeching waterphone.

“Blue Skies Again” is a stark contrast with a pop-infused sound, cheerful melody and uplifting, layered chorus that creates an image of winter melting away into the clear sky of spring. “Nervous Lonely Night” is equally bright with swirling extraterrestrial-like flutters and light-hearted vocals while Mayfield sings satirically about going crazy.

In “I’ll Be the One You Want Someday” Mayfield’s bluegrass roots are revealed with twangy, echoing guitar, stacked vocals and tormented lyrics about self perfection.

Although Mayfield’s voice is front and center throughout the album, Tell Me‘s dynamic music breathes new life — and love — into the singer-songwriter genre.

Jessica Lea Mayfield performs at Off Broadway on May 13.

Jessica Lea Mayfield – “Our Hearts Are Wrong” by Nonesuch Records

Posted by | May 10, 2011 | Album Reviews | Comment 

Richard Buckner returns with ‘Our Blood’ and a new MP3, “Traitor”

Richard Buckner by Kate McDaniel

Kate McDaniel

Consider Our Blood Richard Buckner’s Chinese Democracy. His last album, Meadow, was released in 2006, and since then he’s been touring, with regular stops in St. Louis, and apparently recording what is, by the sound of the first shared track from the album, a brilliant return to form. If you’re wondering what’s taken so long, we can only imagine that a rather creepy run-in with the law and the burglary of his studio had something to do with the delay.

Our Blood is due out August 2 on Merge Records.

“Traitor” by Richard Buckner

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Posted by | May 3, 2011 | Music, News | Comment 

Dearly Departing: An interview with Amy Cole of the Rural Alberta Advantage (with bonus MP3 download)

Amy Cole of Rural Alberta Advantage

myspace.com/theraa / Garry Tsaconas

Shortly after departing for a tour to support her band’s newly released second album, multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole of the Rural Alberta Advantage was kind enough to take a few moments out of her day for some good conversation and a brief glimpse into how the RAA comes up with such powerful songs.

And don’t miss the download of a new track by the band after the jump.

Matt Champion: Let’s start with a little about you. Did you always want to make a career of being a musician or was it something that just happened over time?

Amy Cole: For me personally? No, I never thought I’d have a career being a musician at all. I took music when I was a kid just because I liked it, I guess. As a kid I started taking lessons and getting involved in school plays and things like that, but it was never something I thought would become something I did with my life at all. The way things have gone with the RAA, you know, we were doing it for fun and people started liking it. We decided to just record something and maybe get to play a music festival and it kept building and building, and now it has become what we’re doing. But no, it wasn’t a plan of mine at all. It’s just a happy kind of accident, almost. [laughs] Not that we haven’t put any work into it happening, but it’s for sure not something that has driven us professionally.

I know in the band you wear a lot of different hats musically. What duties do you handle other than backing and harmony vocals?

Oh, in terms of what I play? I play keyboard, I play percussion, the harmonies are a big thing for me. We’ve always been searching for a way to satisfy getting, like, a good lower end into our sound since we’re only a three piece and we don’t have a bass player. I recently started playing the bass pedals and that’s been going really well so far too. I guess that’s one more instrument in my arsenal. Oh, and the glockenspiel too.

I was wondering about that since I know that you don’t have a full-time bass player and there were a few tracks on Departing that have a pretty distinct bass line to them.

Yeah, now we’ve got that with the bass pedals. I guess I’m kind of the bass player now. We’ve worked it out that way. We got it right before our first show in New York at the end of December, around Christmastime. I’ve just sort of tried to learn all of the songs. I just sort of listened to the records over and over and tried to map out the bass parts and then we all got together when practicing for this tour to try and fit it in. We’re really happy with the way it’s been going. It sounds really awesome and we love it. Yeah, I’m really excited about it.

That actually segues into my next question. I know the RAA started with five members and now it’s down to you, Nils [Edenloff] on guitar and vocals and Paul [Banwatt] on the drums. Do you find that you have more freedom musically with a three piece?

I think that’s definitely true. Having less people there’s definitely more freedom. We weren’t a five piece for very long, but when we were it was kind of a struggle of who’s going to do what. There were times I remember playing live shows where two or three of us weren’t actually doing anything in a particular song. It was, like, what’s the point of having all these members if everyone isn’t contributing something valuable to every song? I think with a three piece it works out really well. Paul has the freedom to come up with the crazy beats that he has that maybe he couldn’t have if there were more people and more elements to consider in a song. If there’s just three of us Nils can write his lyrics and melody and pick his instrument, whether it’s guitar or keyboard, to build the song around and Paul can come up with basically whatever he wants on the drums. I listen and try to fill in whatever might still be missing, if it’s a harmony or a different keyboard line, if it’s more percussion or whatever. I feel like we all have a lot of freedom and that’s why we like this band so much.

Read more

Posted by | April 19, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

Discovery: Cameron McGill and What Army break free on “Houdini”

Ben Mudd

Who knows how I stumbled across boho, neo-folk, semi-popular singer-songwriter Cameron McGill. The song I first heard was “What You Wanted,” from McGill’s 2006 album Street Ballads & Murderesques. As post-Dylan, post-Elliott Smith songwriting goes, it’s a beautiful bummer, with a melody that steps carefully like an alley cat on a fence and a tone that’s as resigned as it is bittersweet. I’ve played the song a few times on Feel Like Going Home; every time I do, I get a phone call: “Who is this guy?”

Well, Cameron McGill now performs with What Army, a young but accomplished rock band that never overwhelms the singer’s sense of wanderlust and occasional piano excursions. The Chicago natives are forever on the road and have made St. Louis a regular stop. Still, they’ve never quite found the audience they deserve. Tonight they’ll be back in the river city, performing songs from a new album, Is a Beast, at the Old Rock House. If you’re looking to discover a new favorite songwriter, this show has my highest recommendation. Listen to and download a new song — with a finely textured, free-spirited indie rock sound — below.

“Houdini” – Cameron McGill and What Army

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Posted by | April 15, 2011 | Concerts, Music | Comment 

Discovery: Joe Pug and Strand of Oaks cover each other this spring

Joe Pug at KDHX

Joe Pug at KDHX. Photo by Roy Kasten.

Cover songs usually take the form of tributes to the fallen or the famous or infamous; sometimes they’re just back-room, borderline-Soprano paybacks.

In the case of Joe Pug and Strand of Oaks, two lesser-known but persuasively rising artists in the indie folk world, cover songs can be a clever way to enhance a co-headlining spring tour.

On the two songs, which you really should listen to or download below, Pug and Strand of Oaks cover each other, and sound wholly at home in doing so. Pug gives his instantly identifiable, post-Guthrie, North Carolina-raised twang to the Oaks’ song “End in Flames,” and the line “Thought I was too old to have dreams like this / covers thrown on the floor / sweat stains my lips” seems to resonate with his own experience.

In return, Strand of Oaks tackle one of Pug’s best-known (as in maybe 12 people know it by heart, but how well they surely know it) songs: “Hymn #101.” Bathed in reverb and doubled vocals, the song, a wanderer’s socio-political hymn, becomes something majestic.

Joe Pug and Strand of Oaks will be making a stop in St. Louis this spring. May 3, 2011 at Off Broadway. It will be sweet to hear them perform these covers live.

Joe Pug/Strand of Oaks Split Single by nodoor

Posted by | April 1, 2011 | Music | Comment 

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