Very excited The Pollies will be playing with Doc Dailey and Magnolia Devil at 10:30 this Friday at Green Bar in Tuscaloosa. It should make for good festivities after the Homecoming Pep Rally and Bonfire, so come on by after that.
Here’s Doc Dailey and Magnolia Devil with “Thorns of Gold.”
Stream the new Pollies album at http://www.polliesband.com/
So ACL was a blast, but I spent most of the time seeing bands I was already familiar with and wanting to see for the first time rather than tracking down new music. But one name kept sticking in my mind: Father John Misty. I felt like I had heard the name a lot recently, but I couldn’t think of any of his songs. So I abandoned my crew of festival goers to trek over to a smaller stage by myself to see this guy.
It was completely worth it.
I was completely with the sound, and was thoroughly entertained by the on stage theatrics of Father John Misty, the new faux religious leader persona of former Fleet Foxes drummer Joshua Tillman. I was not the only one in the crowd who thought the dancing was reminiscent of a certain singer from a few decades back.
Here’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings,” [yes, that is Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Rec] but you should also listen to “Every Man Needs a Companion” and “Only Son of the Ladiesman.”
My buddy Ryan Davis has got a new tune about the Crimson Tide, and I expect we will here it in BDS sometime soon.
The preview is posted on the front page of Birmingham Mountain Radio’s website.
When I first heard “North Side Gal” by J.D. McPherson, I was impressed but skeptical that he could sound that good through an entire album. I love the new stuff that sounds like the old stuff, but few artists can rarely pull it off for more than a couple of songs. I went ahead and bought McPherson’s debut album “Signs and Signifiers,” and he proved me wrong.
Here I’m posting “A Gentle Awakening” because I like how the video looks, but my favorite song from the album is “Your Love (All That I’m Missing).” Still not convinced this guy is something special? He has received graduate-level course credit in card magic.
One more Olympic-related post: The Clash with “London Calling.”
In our final preparations for the Olympics, I give you Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
If this doesn’t make you want to win a gold medal, nothing will.
With the London Olympics just around the corner, you’ve probably had that epiphany:
I SHOULD MAKE A BRITISH MUSIC PLAYLIST!!! AREN’T I CLEVER?!?!
And then you start combing through your music collection for your favorite songs from The Beatles, the Stones, Radiohead, the one Coldplay song you will still listen to shamelessly, and maybe even something by the Arctic Monkeys…
But your playlist will not be complete without one of my favorite British bands that for some inexplicable reason many people (read: Americans) do not know about, The Coral. Posted here for your listening pleasure is Pass It On. [Historical note: As a young lad working at a college radio station about seven years ago, Pass It On was one of the first songs I was assigned to play, and it turned me on to The Coral, and now I get to pass it on to you.]
If by chance you do know about The Coral, you are probably aware of their most successful song in the States, Dreaming of You, but you should also check out In the Morning, Who’s Gonna Find Me, and Don’t Think You’re the First. They just put out so much good stuff, I needed to link to four extra songs.
Well isn’t this just entertaining. Delta Rae with “Bottom of the River.”
“You bragged of religion and put me through hell.”
A clever lyric from “Widower’s Heart” by Trampled by Turtles from their album Stars and Satellites. ”Widower’s Heart” is my favorite song on the album right now, but the song with perhaps the broadest appeal is “Alone.”
Here’s “Something New” to listen to. Last night I got to check out my friend Reed Watson’s band, The Pollies, for the first time. I really enjoyed the show— hopefully they’ll be able to make it down to Tuscaloosa more often. [Bonus: I was pleasantly surprised by the band that opened for The Pollies, The Wooden Wings. Not the greatest thing ever, but better than what I’m used to stumbling on in Tuscaloosa.]
Here’s a few photos from my trip to the Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores.
Dawes doing “If I Wanted Someone” at Bonnaroo.
I am an endless search for new, good music. (Good is harder to find than new.) A friend of mine named John Moye turned me on to The Lumineers, who sound like a cross between Edward Sharpe and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Check them out. Here.
