Posts Tagged ‘Folk’
Lord Huron’s newest release is a slowly building version of the celebratory classic Auld Lang Syne. It’s an appropriate way for me to kick of the new year; it’s got a feel of optimism and it doesn’t ring too harshly in the ears of a late night warrior. You may remember Lord Huron from their earlier Caribbeanesque exploits. Worth a listen if you haven’t already. I was going to make my first post of the year something from deep within the annals of my music taste but that can wait until the end of the week.
Lord Huron – Auld Lang Syne
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Also, Raz Bradley this week claimed that Boy & Bear is musically better than Sufjan Stevens. I won’t pass any judgement on Raz for that comment, I leave that for the Lord our God at the end of days.
Someone recently asked me if I posted about anything but Sufjan anymore and I said, “no.” In an effort to prove that true, here is yet ANOTHER song from Sufjan, this time featuring the vocals of Vesper Stamper. Another new song. For a guy who claimed to be on the verge of calling it quits (someone find me a link to this interview please) he’s had a damn prolific year. An EP, a full length, a Christmas record and now this, a Christmas single recorded for the folks over at Sounds Familyre Records. You can pick up the entire ‘A Familyre Christmas Volume 3′ for free over here.
Give this song the time it needs to ruminate, I’m in love with it. A sort of dirty interformat love between an organism and an mp3. It’s rare enough in nature but right now you’re seeing it in full effect on your computer screen. Let’s hope it doesn’t get messy. As is often the case with Sufjan, if you don’t listen to the full four minutes of this track you won’t hear what you need to hear.
Sufjan Stevens & Vesper Stamper – Up On The Housetop
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Up on the housetop, reindeer pause
Out jumps good ol’ Santa Claus
Down through the chimney with lots of toys
All for the little ones, Christmas joys
Merry Christmas.
The new Middle East track Jesus Came to my Birthday Party is now available to download on itunes. Alongside the new single are two other new tunes. Western is an upbeat toe tapping country rock number that reminds me a little of Graveyard Train (and sees Bree’s vocals once again on the sideline) while Sydney to Newcastle is an instrumental with some samples of moving trains and station announcements. I couldn’t tell you if they’ll be included on the upcoming record but my gut instinct tells me no. Download the three unreasonably priced mp3s here.
I have to be quick because I need to be at work in less time than it’ll take me to get this posted so here’s the short summary. Sufjan has five discs worth of Christmas songs, each recorded year by year. He’s just released a brand new Christmas album (he’s had a productive year huh?) that he’s made in collaboration with the Dessner brothers from the National. At the moment I don’t think it can be purchased but you can stream it in it’s entirety right here. Heck, I haven’t even had time to listen to it again so if it’s rubbish (impossible) then I’m sorry (improbable). Go.
[EDIT: This is no longer available. Apologies.]
If you’d like to download his 42 other Christmas tracks for only $12 then click here. I recommend having a listen to Holy, Holy, Holy at the very least.
There have been whispers that old man Faith is back in the game with another cracker and they’re right. Dead right. I’m here with a surefire winner. High Highs is the name of the artist and the team at Sound Doc are truly enamored. We’ve all been talking amongst each other about the harmony, the reverb, the haunting vocals, the Deathcabian acoustic tones and the fact that they’re Australian, initially hailing from Sydney though they now perform out of New York. Download two songs free of charge from their Unearthed page.
Having just visited their facebook page I’ve noticed that five of my friends have already ‘liked’ this band. So to Samantha Howell, Zak Kaczmarek, Patrick Wall, Nicola Robinson and Peter Covington, thanks for taking some of the wind out of my sails.