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Take Patrick Watson’s soundscapy experiments, add some falsetto Antony Hegarty come Jeff Buckey vocals, warm strings, electronic glitches and bells, slightly unsettling multi layered vocal arrangements and you might get an idea of what DM Stith’s debut album Heavy Ghost sounds like. I am entirely seduced.
Mr. Stith’s social circle includes the Asthmatic Kitty family, with its delightful head honcho Sufjan Stevens being responsible for getting him into the lime light.You could easily mistake this startling debut for a mere side project, as he is also a prolific graphic designer. You can admire his work accompanying his blog entries, as well as many cookery tips.
Do do do go and stream the entire album Heavy Ghost for free through Muxtape. At this moment I’m lapping up every track, but keep a definite ear out for Pigs, Morning Glory Cloud and first single Pity Dance.
DM Stith – Pity Dance
DM Stith – Isaac’s Song
If you look back on your acquired music collection, is there one album that you can pin point as being the quintessential Big Bang? One album that gave you a whopping kick up the back side and determinded your outlook on music from that moment onwards? Today I am reliving that very moment.
My earliest music memories are a bizarre brew with The Beatles and Paul & Art as main ingredients (thanks to my mom) and smaller helpings of Carpenters, Linda Rondstadt, and Neil Diamond (and thank you dad…). For whatever reason this resulted in Whitney Houston’s 1990 release I’m Your Baby Tonight being the first official tape I bought at the tender age of 11.
For a long time after that I got stuck in a nondespcript swamp of R&B drivel, with a quite intense phase of Mariah Carey dedication around the age of 12 (yes, it’s confession time), and an interest in the likes of Boys II Men and Jade (click for youtube links if you are also in the mood for reminiscing by the way).
After all this sublimely slick, over produced and sickly sweet input I was ready for something with a bit more of an edge. When I hit 13 I veered towards Mary J. Blige, Naughty By Nature and ultimately A Tribe Called Quest, who I still love to this day.
But then around came 1993, and everything changed. I was late to sign up for the grunge movement at that time, considering Nevermind was released in 1991, but I guess it took reaching the age of 14 before I could fully ingest the Seattle wave. Suddenly all things R&B were of no significance whatsoever.
Soon after I fell head over heels in love with a green Doc Martens wearing grunge boy and he gave me the cd that awakened the music-hungry monster in me: Pearl Jam’s Ten. I don’t think I listened to anything else for at least a solid month. Nothing I heard before had ever had such a profound effect on me. I can recall the intoxicating excitement of hearing songs like Once, Black, Porch and State of Love and Trust for the first time.
As I look at my cd collection and iTunes library spanning the fifteen years that have passed since first hearing Ten, it’s influence is omnipresent. It brought me straight to Counting Crows‘ August And Everything After, and opened my ears to know instantly that Radiohead was to be the love of my life upon hearing Killer Cars. Eddie Vedder’s songwriting ignited a long standing passion for singer songwriters, from Jeff Buckley to Elliott Smith and on to Bright Eyes. Thank you Pearl Jam (and thank you grunge boy)!
Which brings me to the main reason for writing this post: the 2009 reissue of Ten! Coming up to the band’s 20th anniversary, Pearl Jam have kicked off festivities by releasing 4 deluxe versions of Ten, most notably with a (less worked, cleaner) remix of the original album and previously unreleased bonus tracks.
I walked out of the music store today anxiously holding the 2-cd and dvd package, feeling 14 all over again. I popped in the band’s 1992 MTV Unplugged session the moment I got home and vigorously banged my 29 year old head with Eddie to the ever awesome Porch:
Photos thanks to Woes van Haaften
That’s basically all there is to do at a Friendly Fires gig: shake it right down. The fiery four piece live band from St. Albans, England definitely had all the indie kids shaking what their moma’s gave them in the Melkweg tonight.
Delightfully disco, synthesizingly danceable, hysterically eighties but right at home in the naughties, Friendly Fires’ self titled debut album packs a powerful pop punch in under 40 minutes. Sadly this meant they left the crowd wanting with their equally short set, but what’s to complain when you’ve been treated to the likes of Lovesick, Jump In The Pool, new single Skeleton Boy, Fotobooth, On Board, the awesome White Diamonds and well chosen set closer Paris.
Lead singer Ed Macfarlane infectiously girates his way across the stage in a Prince-come-Pelle-Almqvist fashion, all the while managing to deliver the vocals in tune. The band as a whole seemed really into the concert and gave a very energetic performance, which was copied by the first few rows of the audience by bouncing all over the place.
The encore Ex Lover was probably the weakest song of the night, but it was the only one off the album left to play. What a shame they didn’t take the opportunity to play the irresistible Bring Out Your Dead from their 2007 Cross The Line EP, then it would have been sheer perfection.
Check out some excellent shots of the Friendly Fires and their support act Heartbreak in action, thanks to Woes van Haaften.
There he stood, a gaunt bushy haired man, more beard than face, guitar strapped around him as if to protect him from the outside world. I instantly felt like taking him home and cooking him up a wholesome Irish stew. But there’s nothing helpless about Ray LaMontagne the second he opens his mouth, that voice!
Many might try by means of decades of whiskey consumption, sleep deprivation and nicotine inhalation, but a voice like Ray’s is hard to come by. Paradiso was clearly mesmerised by his a spine tingling combination of delicate mumblings and raw raspy outcries last Saturday, his second sold out gig there within a week.
He openend with the appropriately stomping Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame), perfect to get the crowd going. Just a shame it was a predominantly seated conert, unnecessary as far as I’m concerned. In the course of the evening we were treated to gems like Hold You In My Arms, I Still Care For you, Shelter, Let It Be Me and the crowd favourite for set closer: You Are The Best Thing. The lighter moments in the set like Meg White and Hey Me, Hey Mama also worked really well.
Personal highlights would have to be the gut wrenching Jolene, the beautifully melancholy Empty, the upliftingly hopeful Trouble and the solo acoustic performance of Burn, whose last words echoed in my mind long after: “I will stand here and burn in my skin”.
For me, the songs from his first album Trouble are the ones that cut straight through you, with those rambling man lyrics best suited to his amazing voice. But the whole concert was very enjoyable and there were only one or two songs where my mind wandered off a bit. The rest of the hour and a half set I was completely hooked on the man standing on the Persian rug, singing right to me with his eyes closed.
