New Cloud Cult song

Cloud Cult - Take Your Medicine (unreleased)

Final Fantasy, Live at Bottletree August 24

I almost decided against going to see Final Fantasy, aka Owen Pallett, last week. At the time, I had only listened to a few songs and from what I had heard it wasn't anything I would listen to repeatedly. But seeing him live was, for lack of a better cliche, magical. (Okay, I regret describing it as such almost immediately after I typed it. But I'm too lazy at the moment to think of a better adjective, so just snicker at me and let's all move on.) The crowd of around 130 seemed enraptured, even the drunk frat boy that punctuated his appreciative applause with loud "Whoo's!" Jonathan Purvis recorded the show and he has been kind enough to allow us to post a few songs. (Jonathan is also a talented photographer, he took the photo of Leah and me that we use as our banner.)

Final Fantasy - Hey Dad + The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead - live
Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win and Regine - live
Final Fantasy - Peach, Plum, Pear (Joanna Newsom cover) - live
Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos - live

And a brand new Final Fantasy song, title unknown:
Final Fantasy - New Song
Is he saying "cabbages" or "carriages"?

You can find the rest of the show at Jonathan's website.

Arrr! M. Ward and a Pirate's Loot!

Today, young lads and lassies, is a special day, for it is the release day of the great Post-War, the fourth studio album by the great M. Ward. He's so special he don't need a first name!

Ward has proven himself since his first release in 2001 to be very consistent as a songwriter and performer, unlike some, er... songwriters we know that somehow get that same "prolific" label(we are not NAMING ANY NAMES). Even though less intimate than its 2005 predecessor Transistor Radio, Post-War nevertheless maintains a personal narrative voice and sincerity that hooked us five years ago. It's just less like reading some cat's personal diary and more like hearing him blather on about his lost love at some loserly self-help seminar. Only...without the negative connotations that simile suggests. Yeah.

Poison Cup
Magic Trick

Skip lunch and buy Post-War. It'll probably wind up being cheaper, too, fatso.

And, here's another delicious find that was released last week:






It's called Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, and it's an assortment of pirate ballads and sea songs recorded by, well, a very eclectic group of musicians. Here's the chocked-full tracklisting and a few mp3s of my personal favorites:

Disc 1:

1. Cape Cod Girls - Baby Gramps (backed by Akron/Family as on the Letterman Show 8.28.06)
2. Mingulay Boat Song - Richard Thompson
3. My Son John - John C. Reilly
4. Fire Down Below - Nick Cave
5. Turkish Revelry - Loudon Wainwright III
6. Bully In The Alley - The Old Prunes
7. The Cruel Ship's Captain - Bryan Ferry
8. Dead Horse - Robin Holcomb
9. Spanish Ladies - Bill Frisell
10. High Barbary - Joseph Arthur
11. Haul Away Joe - Mark Anthony Thompson
12. Dan Dan - David Thomas
13. Blood Red Roses - Sting
14. Sally Brown - Teddy Thompson
15. Lowlands Away - Rufus Wainwright & Kate McGarrigle
16. Baltimore Whores - Gavin Friday
17. Rolling Sea - Eliza McCarthy
18. Haul On The Bowline - Bob Neuwirth
19. Dying Sailor to His Shipmates - Bono
20. Bonnie Portmore - Lucinda Williams Listen
21. The Mermaid - Martin Carthy & the UK Group
22. Shenandoah - Richard Greene & Jack Shit
23. The Cry Of Man - Mary Margaret O'Hara

Disc 2:

1. Boney - Jack Shit
2. Good Ship Venus - Loudon Wainwright III
3. Long Time Ago -White Magic
4. Pinery Boy - Nick Cave
5. Lowlands Low - Bryan Ferry w/Antony
6. One Spring Morning - Akron/Family
7. Hog Eye Man - Martin Carthy & Family
8. The Fiddler/A Drop Of Nelson's Blood - Ricky Jay & Richard Greene
9. Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold - Andrea Corr
10. Fathom The Bowl - John C. Reilly
11. Drunken Sailor - Dave Thomas
12. Farewell Nancy - Ed Harcourt
13. Hanging Johnny - Stan Ridgway
14. Old Man of The Sea - Baby Gramps
15. Greenland Whale Fisheries - Van Dyke Parks
16. Shallow Brown - Sting
17. The Grey Funnel Line - Jolie Holland
18. A Drop of Nelson's Blood - Jarvis Cocker
19. Leave Her Johnny - Lou Reed
20. Little Boy Billy - Ralph Steadman

Ahoy, and Amazon's got a good deal on
Rogue's Gallery. Arrr, bye for now, you scur'y dogs
Ye'll ne'er get me buried booty!

Duquette Johnston

Good morning, children of men. Today I write to encourage you to check out a few mp3s from Duquette Johnston's recently released solo record, Etowah. Just to clarify,Duquette Johnston was formerly know as Daniel Johnston, ex-member of Verbena not to be confused with the more infamous Daniel Johnston.

Confused? Let me illustrate:


Daniel Johnston (the not just a little crazy one)





The other Daniel Johnston, now known as Duquette:


Certainly you can understand, dear reader, why Duquette gladly took the other name his mama gave him.

Etowah is a collection of songs written about Johnston's experience in a correctional facility in North Alabama (Etowah County), from which he emerged a changed and God-fearin' man. It's a great collection of slow- to mid-tempo songs, the best of which are slow and confessional with sparse accompaniment. Several of the tracks feature Through the Sparks as a backing band in various capacities, although vocal harmonies are mostly by Johnston himself. The styles and melodies on this record undoubtably warrant comparisons to Neil Young and newer artists in a similar vein such as Damien Jurado and Gillian Welch.

The CD release party for Etowah (Superphonic Records) will be at Bottletree in Birmingham, AL Saturday, August 26th.

Escucha:

Crazy to Believe
Temptation
Etowah

A Say Hi to Your Mom Photo Retrospective

Here are some pics from Red Blondehead's first sponsored show at Bottletree, Say Hi to Your Mom. Photos are by the talented Jonathan Purvis, who also took the photo you see in our banner. He saw us nekkid! Okay, not really, but that kinda spoils the magic now don't it?

Click on the photos to see them full-size in all their glory.

The Decemberists' Crane Wife

Looky leaky loo...I've got a leak for you. The Decemberists' latest effort The Crane Wife is scheduled for October, but we're all about some immediate gratification.

The Decemberists - O Valencia
The Decemberists - Sons and Daughters
The Decemberists - The Perfect Crime

"The Perfect Crime" is pretty danceable for a Decemberists tune.

News Flash: Now you can type redblondehead.com into your little browser window and voila! There we are! We're all official now and stuff.

New Buffalo

Pretty, melancholic jazzy pop.

New Buffalo - Inside the Corrections (with Jens Lekman)
New Buffalo - I've Got You and You've Got Me (Broken Social Scene remix)



This blog is dedicated to the Wondrous Buffalo Hat That Was Mistakenly Thrown Away By Its Blogmate Owner Who Shall Remain Nameless (or WBHTWMTABIBOWSRN for short). One day we shall meet again. And from that day on, we shall never be parted.

William Elliot Whitmore

I'd like to send out a huge e-hug to Kyle at More Cowbell for turning me on to William Elliot Whitmore. I think that if Chris Robinson assimilated himself into a fire-and-brimstone, evangelizin' gospel preacher man and listened to a lot of Iron and Wine records for inspiration, he might come out approximating the sound of William Elliot Whitmore.

So let's recap, students:

Chris Robinson + Jonathan Edwards + Iron and Wine records = something like William Elliot Whitmore.

These two songs are from Whitmore's upcoming release, Song of the Blackbird, which you should really want to grab a copy of:

The Chariot
Take it on the Chin

Sunny So Brite

Sunny So Brite is one of those band names that is just asking to be misspelled, like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sunn 0))), or Neu!--or like one of those kids whose parents just had to give them a boring-ass, otherwise normal name with an unusual spelling (Hayleigh, Tielyr, Stefanee, Danyell).

I bet these kids' own parents even forget how to spell their names from time to time, just like Sunny So Brite. Their tunes were featured in a short film once, and the folks doing the film couldn't even get the name right! I think it was Sonny So Bright or something like that. Jeez, what's wrong with you people? I mean, those people? I mean... nevermind.

Due to band member Jan-Michael Cifonie's Jeff Tweedy-like stage fright, Sunny So Brite almost never make a live appearance. However, with our wily ways, the girls of Red Blondehead have pulled him out of his shell enough to get him to agree to play this coming Sunday night, August 13, at Bottletree. If you live in Birmingham, then, come on out. If you really want to see JM go beserk, we've heard that the key is to shout "Holiday" mid-song. Make sure you do that, and the girls of Red Blondehead will reward you with a fresh, crisp, $100 bill.*

Here are two songs from Sunny So Brite's latest record, The New American Century.

The Bigger Picture
Holiday

Finally, here's an exclusive track fresh from the studio that is to be included on SSB's next record, tentatively titled Pretend World:

Brave New Boy

To hear more, find them on myspace.

*"fresh, crisp, $100 bill" = an evening's endless supply of cupcakes