Justin Vernon Can Do No Wrong

By now, everyone's heard of Bon Iver.  I credit my friend Ali with introducing me to Justin Vernon's music back right around the time when "For Emma" was released... Her and Justin share the same hometown (Eau Claire, WI), and thus she had somewhat of an "inside scoop" on his early recordings.

5 years later, I'm still a total sucker for my Bon Iver albums... they're ones I keep coming back to, again and again.  When I heard the band was going on a (potentially permanent) hiatus at the end of last year, I was pretty bummed.

The silver lining to this news, though, is that Justin has consistently (for years now), created great music outside of the confines of Bon Iver.  The first side project of Justin's I was aware of was Gayngs, a kind of half indie/half retro soft rock band with seemingly a zillion members in it.  Ali and I actually caught their live act at the Paradise in Boston, and had a great evening.

Anyways, the point of this post is to share some of Justin Vernon's perhaps lesser-known-yet-still-awesome music contributions over the past few years.

#1:  Justin provides the background vocals on this track from Lia Ices, a fellow artist on the Jagjaguwar record label.  It's a fantastic track that tilts from its initial choir-like, mellow intro to a massive lilting ending full of piano and percussion.

#2:  Volcano Choir is a band originally formed by Justin and Collections of Colonies of Bees.  They're set to release their 2nd album, entitled "Repave," on September 3rd of this year, off of which this single comes.  It's called "Comrade."

Jon Hopkins - Immunity

In my year and a half now of generally being stuck in front of powerpoint slides studying, ambient electronic music has been one of my best friends.  One of the artists I've come to love is a British producer and musician named Jon Hopkins.  He started out playing keyboards for Imogen Heap, and since then has collaborated with the likes of Brian Eno and Coldplay.

Jon Hopkins

The way Hopkins creates sound is unique.  To me, it feels like sitting in the middle of an igloo where music is piped in, allowed to reverberate against every wall, and hits the listener's ear at the most opportune time.  

Hopkins' latest album, "Immunity," was just recently released, but a cut off of it, entitled "Open Eye Signal," dropped a few weeks ago.  I've been listening to it ever since.  The synth ebbs and flows infectiously throughout, and the music just envelopes the listener.

His stuff begs to be played on some high-quality headphones, if you have them.  Enjoy.

Audio:  Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal

Laura Stevenson

My first post in a long while, since I had a few weeks of craziness!  Between vacationing in the Pacific Northwest (which was AWESOME) and getting through a week of wrap-up stuff at school before heading off to clinical rotations (which was decidedly less awesome), things got busy.  Anyways, now I'm back to my bloggin' self.

I just came across a recently released album entitled "Wheel" by Laura Stevenson on Spotify (via the Pitchfork app).  Regardless of Pitchfork's semi-lackluster review, I decided to give it a try (primarily because I loved the album cover art, I admit it).  I haven't been disappointed though.  Laura's stuff is a mixture of country twang and punk-pop that's worth a listen.

I'm going to post two different songs off the album:

• The Spotify link I've provided is the first track off the album, entitled "Renee."  This cut sounds decidedly folksy thanks to a nice string accompaniment.  
• The Youtube video is "Runner," which I believe is the first single off of "Wheel."  Way more upbeat, way more kinda-like-Tegan-and-Sara-ish.

Spotify:  Laura Stevenson – Renée

Youtube:  

Bonobo

Bonobo, also known as Simon Green, is a British producer and DJ you'd expect to see spinning records in the basement of some hip Parisian club.  His music is a fusion of hip hop, electronica and jazz.  The sounds he creates are interesting to really analyze if you've got a good pair of headphones, but I usually just let my Spotify playlist run through his library while I'm lounging around or studying.

Simon Green, aka "Bonobo"

His latest release, entitled "The North Borders," is unfortunately not available on Spotify just yet... but one track off of it, "Cirrus," is.  I've pasted the link below.  Additionally, I've embedded a Youtube link to an older song of Bonobo's I've always enjoyed.  It's called "We Could Forever," and is off his 2010 release "Black Sands."

Listen Here:  Bonobo – Cirrus

Youth Lagoon

Youth Lagoon is the stage name for Idahoan Trevor Powers, a slight 24 year old musician who looks like he could still be in high school.  His work, however, suggests wisdom way beyond his years.  

Trevor Powers

"The Year of Hibernation," his debut album, was released in 2011 and quickly became one of my favorites.  It's title couldn't be more applicable... the rough editing and muffled vocals make it clear that this record was one made while Powers was tucked away somewhere far from a polished music studio.

The songs on "The Year of Hibernation" are a unique combination of catchy whistles or electronic melodies, and a very palpable underlying emotional fragility.  A perfect example of this is the song "Montana."  This piece, like so many of Powers's creations, slowly builds into a crescendo of sound that makes you want to turn your speaker volume way up.

In addition to "Montana" being a great song, Powers managed to make one of the best music videos I've seen in a long, long time for it (see below).

Youth Lagoon's 2nd album, "Wondrous Bughouse," was just recently released via Fat Possum Records.  I haven't gotten the chance to check it out fully yet, but something tells me it will deserve a future post.

Listen Here:  Youth Lagoon – Montana

Anais Mitchell, Folk Genius

This girl is the real deal.  I got hooked on her 2012 release "Young Man in America" a few months ago and have had it on repeat ever since.  At first listen, her voice may sound precocious... but give it time, and you'll soon be in awe of the emotion it conveys.

Anais Mitchell

On "Young Man," Anais Mitchell's songwriting is, quite simply, the best I've heard from an artist in years.  She effortlessly weaves together tales of love, betrayal, work, death, and everything in between.  Though the album's stories clearly seem to be set in a simpler time somewhere in middle America, any careful listener can relate to Mitchell's poetic narratives.

My boyfriend often makes fun of me for being what he likes to call "emo"... because I admittedly have a fondness for songs that break my heart a bit.  Well, I can think of no song more "emo" than this...

"Shepherd" is the 9th track off "Young Man in America."  The story Anais tells in this piece, and the imagery her lyrics transmit (i.e. the shepherd rode the yellow rows/the clouds above and the field below), are astounding.  

Listen Here:  Anais Mitchell – Shepherd

Timbre Concert App

As a music fan, do you get super frustrated trying to find all the upcoming shows in your city?  Do you look up particular venues, go to their independent websites, and scroll down their event lists?  Are you then forced to compile all of those shows you might want to attend on a massive personalized concert calendar you make for yourself?  Aren't you sick of doing all of that?  Doesn't it seem like such a time consuming process?

If you answered "yes" to at least a few of those questions (like I did), you should think about downloading Timbre to your smartphone.

Timbre is the best application I've found that provides a scrollable list of all upcoming concerts in a particular region.  You can find shows near your current location, or type in any cities of interest.  

Click on an artist, and it will pull up the location of the show, the date, and auto-play a song of theirs (a cool feature which you can turn off if you so choose in the settings menu).  The app even lets you share your concert find on Facebook or Twitter, or email/text the show directly to someone who might want to join you.  There's also a link to SeatGeek, which can help you find tickets.

Timbre provides a great user experience.  It's easy to utilize, aesthetically pleasing, and groups all shows in a particular region onto one application for you.  It also gets bonus points for not forcing me to link to my Facebook account.  I really, really hate that.

Downsides (at least for me using it on my Android device):  

• It doesn't allow me to send concerts I find directly to my Google calendar.  That's a big bummer.  
• Also, it doesn't filter any artists/genres out.  I'm really not interested in going to see Aaron Carter sing "I Want Candy" in Virginia Beach this April 23rd, but Timbre doesn't care.  It won't let me delete him from the list.

Still, though... Timbre is worth checking out if you're a music fan.  The app is available for Android and iPhone.

Call It Forgiveness

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I only just recently realized what a random, eclectic project Broken Social Scene is.  Formed in Canada in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, its rotating list of members includes members of other bands like Feist, Stars and Metric.

Broken Social Scene

This song is entitled "All to All" and is the 5th track off their 2010 album, "Forgiveness Rock Record."  It's a beautiful, swaying song that's synth-heavy.  Lisa Lobsinger provides the airy, feminine vocals.

Song:  "All to All"
Artist:  Broken Social Scene
Album:  Forgiveness Rock Record (2010)

Listen here:  Broken Social Scene – All to All

Start.

I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog for a while now... not because I have anything even remotely pertinent to say, but because I love music.  

I had a conversation yesterday with a good friend of mine about my idea.  When she told me that her future blog she's already crafted in her mind would be entitled "Porcelain Heaven" and would provide maps and ratings of public toilets around the world, I figured I didn't have much to lose.

Really, though, my ultimate goal in posting this is to help family members, friends, (and perhaps even internet strangers) to discover music that they love. The beautiful thing about music is that it can get inside you and evoke every facet of your personality.  Songs have made me think, cry, reminisce, smile, imagine, reflect, dance, relax... and more.  All music lovers, I think, can appreciate those feelings when they listen to a piece they truly love.  

So, yay for great music!