I've been doing these RIYL thingies for about [hold on, let me look at the post title] 41 weeks now, and there's only been a few times where I didn't listen to at least part of an album before writing up a little blurb for it. Each time it was from being so busy that I barely had time to look for new music, let alone listen to it. This week I've got a new excuse: nobody is putting their music out there to listen to.
Okay, maybe not nobody - AOL is streaming the new Fall Out Boy release, but I'm nowhere near being interested in that disc. Beyond that, good luck.
Rickie Lee Jones The Sermon on Exposition Blvd. Mark Twain famously commented on the phenomenon that makes your parents grow wiser as you yourself mature. Well, Rickie Lee Jones voice hasn't really changed from the one that used to really annoy me, but as I gotten older I'm astonished at how much better she sounds. Her willingness to try diverse music styles makes her releases somewhat hit-or-miss, so I'd really like to hear this new disc she has out today.
Except you know what you get music-wise when you go to Rickie Lee's website? Nothing. And you know what you get when you go to her MySpace page? "Chuck friggin' E.'s in Love." Thanks, Rickie, nothing tells us what you've been up to better than a twenty-eight-year-old song.
[Update (02.07.07): Today I received an email from New West Records letting me know that Rickie Lee does indeed have some of her new songs posted on her official myspace page. That settles it, I'll never understand myspace.]
Patty Griffin Children Running Through Patty's better known for providing songs for folks like the Dixie Chicks, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Emmylou Harris but, like so many other singer-songwriters, it's often best to go back to the original source.
Now, I don't need to be convinced that Patty Griffin's a great singer, but hearing some of the stuff from her new CD might make me more willing to buy it. Oh sure, Barnes and Noble has a free stream of her sounding very Bonnie Raitt-esque on "Heavenly Day," but that's little more than a tease. Being able to stream the whole new disc would certainly make me that much more excited about seeing her at this Friday's WXPN Free-at-Noon concert.
Joe Ely Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch Someone else I saw live on WXPN's dime was Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely. About ten years ago I scored a pair of tickets to see him in the Philly 'burbs at the old 23 East Cabaret. Ely was/is also part of the Lubbock supergroup (there's two words you wouldn't expect to see together) the Flatlanders (whose album, you might recall, was my very first Amazon purchase), and I'd be very interested in hearing what his new disc sounds like but, alas, there's nothing at his website. The Philadelphia Inquirer seemed to like it, though.
Sondre Lerche Phantom Punch A friend gave me Lerche's (pronounced "Lerk-Aye") 2003 debut Faces Down a while back and it didn't take long to get hooked. It reminded me of Elvis Costello's late-career take on the cool Burt Bacharach sound, except Sondre was only nineteen when he recorded Faces Down and hadn't spent his youth abusing his vocal cords like Costello did. Now I hear that his new album has him rocking a little more than he usual, but unfortunately he only has a couple short samples streaming so I can't be too sure.
Bloc Party Weekend in the City Okay, Bloc Party does have their new disc streaming over at AOL, but to be honest with you I'm still on the fence when it comes to these guys. I liked a few songs from their first album, Silent Alarm, well enough but I didn't hear anything that made them stand out from the millions of other indie mp3s I have shuffling on my iTunes. Plenty of other people thought it was outstanding so I'm willing to give their sophomore attempt a few tries (though reviews of that one seem more mixed) and maybe I'll figure out what it is that I'm missing.
Over the Rhine Discount Fireworks This Ohio husband-wife duo have always been very generous with the mp3s. They don't have many of the songs from this new best of disc available for free, but they still have enough other songs to get a good-sized sample of Karin Bergquist's Maria McKee-meets-Amiee Mann vocals.
And yes, this is the band that brought you "Poopsmith," the potty-training ode that still brings more visitors to the Long Cut than any other Google search. That song's not on the new disc or even available on their website anymore, but I'm happy to report that "All I Need is Everything" is available on both the CD and from their website.
Over the Rhine - "All I Need is Everything" [mp3]
This week's list:
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- ERIN McKEOWN Sing You Sinners
- CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH Some Loud Thunder
- SONDRE LERCHE Phantom Punch
- PATTY GRIFFIN Children Running Through
- MARK KNOPFLER & EMMYLOU HARRIS Real Live Roadrunning
- HARRY CONNICK, JR. Oh, My Nola
- OVER THE RHINE Discount Fireworks
- RON SEXSMITH Time Being
- NEKO CASE Live from Austin, Texas
- THE DECEMBERISTS The Crane Wife
- VARIOUS ARTISTS Endless Highway: the Music of the Band
- BAND OF HORSES Everything All the Time
- JOE ELY Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch
- KRISTEN HERSH Learn to Sing Like a Star
- SAM ROBERTS Chemical City
- YOUTH GROUP Casino Twilight Dogs
- CROWDED HOUSE Farewell to the World
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN The Good, the Bad and the Queen
- THE PERNICE BROTHERS Live a Little
- JOHN HAMMOND Push Comes to Shove
- BILL RICCHINI Tonight I Burn Brightly
- THE HOLMES BROTHERS State of Grace
- THE BROTHER KITE Waiting for the Time to be Right
- THE HOLD STEADY Boys & Girls in America
- RICKIE LEE JONES The Sermon on Exposition Blvd.
- BLOC PARTY Weekend in the City
- BIRDIE BUSCH The Ways We Try
- SERA CAHOONE Sera Cahoone
Dropping off the list this week:
- CALIFONE Roots & Crowns
- CENTO-MATIC Fort Recovery
- MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO'S The Dust of Retreat
- THE CAPITOL YEARS Dance Away the Terror
- MADELEINE PEYROUX Half the Perfect World
- NEKO CASE Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
RIYL for the week beginning February 5, 2007. Backstory here.
I hadn't even caught wind of Discount Fireworks before reading this. I'm going to have to get my hands on that soon. There's some stuff I haven't listened to in a while on there. Oh, the memories.
Posted by: howard | 2007.02.07 at 01:44 PM