Alt-Country

The Roadside Graves, a criminally overlooked New Jersey band, is back with a massively ambitious release. After 2007’s No One Will Know Where You Have Been, the boys have landed on Autumn Tone Records which is also home to J. Tillman and The Henry Clay People. My Son’s Home is 18 tunes strong and, while that usually is a signal that a band needs to trim some fat, this album is brimming with alt-country genius from beginning to end.

Each song is unique in sound with exceptional lyrics that strike you between the eyes. For those unfamiliar with them, I would liken their sound to a blend of Felice Brothers, Trainwreck Riders, Son Volt and The Band with a sprinkling of Gaelic influence in the vein of The Waterboys. The band is fronted by John Gleason and his voice and songwriting will have you believing the man has lived a number of lives.

In a day, where America spends countless time voting on their next plastic wannabe superstar, our time would be well-spent listening to bands like The Roadside Graves who fill their songs with emotion, heart and soul. Oz and I both have the same favorite track, “Ruby.” This is one of the tunes that has that loose, ramshackle Felice Brothers sound as it tells the story of a man back from war and his love, Ruby. Gleason and Jeremy alternate singing verses towards the end of the tune and the interplay is extraordinary.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the title track, “My Son’s Home.” Gleason pours every ounce of his soul into the tune with the barest of instrumentation and backing vocals. It’s absolutely mesmerizing and hasn’t lost an ounce of its impact despite numerous listens.

I could rattle off amazing tune after amazing tune which would make this review about 2,000 words long but instead I will just urge you to purchase this brilliant album. The boys will be doing a tour later this summer and will be making their way through Chicago, hopefully with a stop in Shirk’s studio for a session.

Website | MySpace

The Roadside Graves – Far and Wide

Update: After reading that we loved “Ruby,” we were given permission to also post that mp3.

The Roadside Graves – Ruby

Tucson by way of Philly experimental alt-country act, Golden Boots, have released two new tracks from their upcoming album Winter At The Discotheque. It’s due out on January 27th via Park The Van Records.

Their press release has a better description that I could ever come up with:

A seemingly more refined vision of Golden Boots’  hook laden, future-as-now confused melancholy pop, this album attempts to walk that fine line between malt liquor and Malbec, between strip malls and malls… a self induced field recording sobriety test.  What’s more, this album has moxie. Blending pop-folk with distortion-laden breaks, fuzz guitar, primitive keyboards and the unique clarity of unencumbered experimentation. Golden Boots is deconstructing Americana one curio at a time. Some say “Winter” is like driving a dump-truck up Route 66 with a tankful of $4 gasoline and every light is yellow.

MySpace | Park The Van

Golden Boots – Love Is In The Air

Golden Boots – Country Back High II

A couple of times a year we come across a release that, in addition to the music, has a back story that makes the HearYa staff pull a little bit more for the band. Three days into the recording of their prior album, North Twin bassist/vocalist Rebecca Young was diagnosed with breast cancer. She never missed a beat and met the disease straight on, barely missing any studio time. I am sure we’ve all known someone afflicted by this horrible disease and its always inspiring to read about someone with Rebecca’s fight and resolve.

Inspirational story aside, we wouldn’t posting anything about the Seattle quartet if the music didn’t deliver. The first song, “Hope It All Goes Away,” is a beautiful poignant tune that hits you between the eyes after you hear of Young’s battle. Lead singer Tony Fulgham’s voice does a fantastic job of filling the tune with a perfect amount of emotion to deliver the goods.

“Clear As Day” has a little bit more outlaw alt-country in it, telling the tale of a man who’s made some questionable choices in his life. It peaks with a blistering guitar/trumpet solo that really kicks you in the ass.

Stronger At The Broken Places is a fresh piece of alt-country with a great back story. North Twin are also looking for gigs at SXSW 2009 so if anybody is interested, shoot us an email at hearyablog@yahoo.com and we’ll put you in touch with the band.

Website | MySpace

North Twin – Fool

North Twin – Clear As Day

North Twin – High Low

As my crush with Weewerk Records begins to blossom into a full-fledged affair, they’ve now introduced me to Canteen Knockout out of Toronto. Like many of our favorite artists, Canteen Knockout mix a little bit of alt with a little bit of country.

Navajo Steel, the Toronto outfit’s first LP, is best served on a long road trip. As it reads on their press kit, the album is “beautifully-crafted yet
high-energy music inspired by long journeys along the road less traveled through hot, dry places; and a thirst that can never be fully quenched.”

The album has a cast of characters and host of experiences that resonate with the road weary. Vocalist and founder, Andre Skinner, has a wonderful voice for spinning yarns – the sound is slightly worn, but warm and earnest. It immediately draws you in and keeps you interested throughout each story’s twists and turns.

Picking favorite tracks off of the album isn’t easy because it’s best digested as a whole, but “Mexico” is a wondrous tune. “Bill Cody” and “Overnight Girl” are two of the characters that you’ll meet throughout the journey and “Balls Out Trucking” is the true kick-ass rocker that the name suggests.

Navajo Steel is akin to a dusty pair of jeans. They are a little musty, real comfortable and, if they could talk, I’m sure they’d sit you on a knee and tell of the sights and sounds from Mexico to Canada, where Canteen Knockout call home.

Website | MySpace | weewerk records

Canteen Knockout – Back To The Country

Canteen Knockout – Mexico

Will Quinlan and The Diviners hail from Tampa, FL, a town who’s music scene I know nothing about. It’s home to Nine Bullets, a great alt-country blog that first introduced me to Will Quinlan’s music. After first sampling a few tracks, I looked at the usual digital retail suspects and couldn’t find Navasota anywhere. I regret forgetting about Will altogether.

Luckily, the fast up and coming online retailer Amie Street surprised me last week when I ran across Will Quinlan’s album for less than $4.00. I promptly downloaded and have been listening since. Okay, enough about my buying behavior.

Will Quinlan and The Diviners play a brand of country music that’s hard to find amongst the weeds of mainstream pop garbage the genre puts out nowadays. Navasota’s songs are honest, well-written, introspective and full of joy and heartbreak. Will’s vocals on songs like “The Thieving Life” will remind you of Richard Buckner on Devotion and Doubt and at other times you’ll hear a bit of Old 97’s (”Plastic Rosary” and “Promise”) and Magnolia Electric Co. (”Navasota”).

Will Quinlan’s music isn’t meant to be reviewed by critics (luckily I’m an ameteur). I’d imagine that Will would be uncomfortable with too much praise for his seemingly simple songs. Navasota is an album you’ll feel you’ve heard somewhere before, maybe with a margarita in your hand. It’s comfort food for your ears.

Will Quinlan and The Diviners – Beatitudes

Will Quinlan and The Diviners – “Navasota”

Tom Schraeder & His Ego was stuck on the tarmac at LAX as I was setting up for their live session in Chicago. I’d never seen Tom Schraeder perform, but had heard plenty of buzz around Chicago music circles and was excited to see and hear firsthand. Knowing the dependability of both LAX and O’Hare airports I knew that, at best, they’d be late arriving and, most likely, would never show up.  Luckily fate intervened, the flight took off and landed, and the band rolled in around 8:15pm.

Tom was geared up be back in Chicago after his Hotel Café  performance in Los Angeles.  Bandmate Dan Moulder (on keys) brought in his monster Fender Rhodes and a Roland synth and the rest of the band used most of my backline equipment. After a warm up song and High Life later, we were tracking.  Here’s a snapshot of each song:

1. The group opened with “Needle Will Bite,” the single from Tom’s new album, Lying Through Dinner, which was recorded earlier this year with HearYa live session alum, Danny Malone down in Austin, Texas.
2. Next up was “Guadalupe Cries,” a song that blends Ryan Adams & The Cardinals with Wilco circa AM.  Matt Schuessler (Bass) and Adam Kaltenhauser (Drums) locked in a solid groove and the band seemed to really catch their stride.
3. “Which Excludes You” was my favorite of the session.  I loved the instrumental textures and sunny arrangement.
4. From there, the band dialed it back and asked me to adjust the lights in the live room.  In a dimly lit room, Tom delivered a great rendition of a smoky, dark tune called “When You Were Young.”  Dan’s Rhodes parts sit in there just right, leaving plenty of room for Tom’s vocals and sparse acoustic strums to dictate the mood.  The highlights of the tune are guitarist, Henry Bianco’s lead breaks.  His tasty use of volume swells add the perfect seasoning on top of this track.  At the climax of the song he lets it rip with a beautiful melody into the change.  Nice tone, Henry.
5. Finally, Tom closed things out with an unreleased solo acoustic track called, “Another Night In NY.” It’s a beautiful tune that really showcases Toms’s vocal control and lyrical abilities.  My only complaint about the recording of this track is that I forgot to tell the rest of the band to turn their amps off.  You can hear a sweet steady buzz of guitar amps and a stomp box pulling in some FM radio signal underneath the entire song. Oh well, it’s always something when recording live sessions…

I’m glad this session happened the day it did.  The band was late and I missed a BBQ with my wife and friends, but I got the chance to record some great music, made some new friends and got reacquainted with some old ones.

You can see TomSchraeder & His Ego perform at Schubas this Saturday, Nov. 15th for their official Chicago Lying Through Dinner CD Release party. I look forward to hearing the band live on stage this weekend.

Exclusive: Tom Schraeder and His Ego – Needle Will Bite

Exclusive: Tom Schraeder and His Ego – Guadalupe Cries

Exclusive: Tom Schraeder and His Ego – Which Excludes You

Exclusive: Tom Schraeder and His Ego – When You Were Young (previously unreleased)

Exclusive: Tom Schraeder and His Ego – Another Night In NY (previously unreleased)

Sessions in the hopper: Gringo Star, The Everybodyfields, AA Bondy, and Ben Sollee.

Speaking of bands that were dealt an unfair hand by Pitchfork, let me introduce you to The Donkeys. I hadn’t heard of them until the Pitchfork review and luckily I was able to read between the lines. This is a loose translation of their review. “I am a self-important music critic” which was followed up by, “blah, blah, blah, random reference,” and “influences by The Byrds, The Dead, and Gram Parson.” They were daring me to like this album, so being the indie music superhero that I am, I rose to the challenge and downloaded it.

The influences mentioned are ingrained in The Donkeys and they wear their SoCal origin on their sleeves. When asked why they love San Diego, the response is “Where else in the universe does the air smell like burritos and suntan lotion at the same time?” Fodor’s couldn’t have said it better.

Their tunes are breezy and make me yearn for the days of my parents Old Woody (no pun intended). There are a number of wonderful tracks on the Dead Oceans debut, but some of the highlights are “Dolphin Center,” “Traverse Wine” and “Walk Through A Cloud.” The album cruises along, never getting you worked up but never leaving you disappointed.

If you dig the sweet Cali sound with easy-going Fender licks, generous amounts of organ, and lazy harmonies, than consider yourself a fan of The Donkeys.

MySpace | Dead Oceans

The Donkeys – Nice Train

The Donkeys – Walk Through a Cloud