Julie Doiron - Heart & Crime

When you're in the mood for something soft, something true, and something with a hint of sweet sadness, I've got a treat for you. (And yes, that is the cover art)


Maybe I love you too much...

Full of pianos, soft and unobtrusive female vocals, and lovely strummed guitars, and the occasional harmonica (and horn!) this album is a treat for relaxing. Throw it on in the tub, when you're letting yourself be calm in the water. Throw it on when you can't sleep because you're trying to fix your sleep schedule, but you're too wound up, and need something to calm down to. Throw it on when you wake up in the morning, wake up real slow. She's got a beautiful voice, and I'm not one for female vocals. It's like morphine candy, in the form of an album. You'll relax and feel real good. It's like a female city and color, but with much more slowcore influence. So maybe it's a female bon iver, that might be a better comparison to make. She sings about loving you maybe too much, about things she's done, and about her life, about broken hearts. It's simple, honest, lyrically one of the most beautiful albums I might have in my collection. She has a lovely way of singing anything, and calming it down, making it something real, something lovely.

"Jackson C. Frank" by Jackson C. Frank

Sometimes I forget that I listen to folk music primarily. I mean, I love punk rock so bad. It holds my hand and leads me down a path I need to walk. It's my best friend when I need a shoulder to cry on. Punk rock means the world to me, but folk is the universe.

Which is cheesy and self-centered, but oh well.

This is Jackson C. Frank. To quote from wikipedia:

When Jackson Frank was 11, a furnace exploded at his school, sending a ball of flames down corridors until it ended up in Frank's music classroom in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York. The fire killed eighteen of his fellow students and burned over more than half his body. It was during his time in the hospital that he was first introduced to playing music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought in an acoustic guitar to keep Frank occupied during his recovery. When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance check of $110,500 for his injuries, giving him enough to "catch a boat to England."

His songs are beautiful, and if you enjoy this, I highly recommend you obtain "Blues Run the Game" as well.

Just your shadow on the window
And your step on down the hall
You never wanted me babe
You never knew me at all

"Unbearable" by Paul Baribeau

i don't know what to say. this album is really good. i guess.

Anchor & Braille - Felt

There's a baby downstairs that won't stop crying and all I want to do is nap for fuck's sake.
just download ittttt
Anchor & Braille is the side project of the singer of Anberlin (and I don't remember his name but it's not that important) and it's just a dude with a guitar (I seem to be stuck on listening to that kind of thing lately) who writes some reaaaallly catchy songs. Super indie - 18k listeners on last.fm, nobody will know who that beautiful man writing sweet songs is that you're listening to, but you'll love every fucking second o it.

preeeeview, whatever it issss.

Sorry about the lack of posts. It's been a fucking ridiculous week.

"Live From New York City, 1967" by Simon & Garfunkel

I just finished a very important drink, it's 1:06 a.m., and I am lost, swimming in my own head. Today has been a peculiar day, if only for slight coincidences and the seeming ever-tidiness of the known universe. The sun shone, the rain fell, and the clouds gathered. My phone rang, shook, and bounced me up and down. My bed lies dormant tonight, as I am not there to toss and turn, lost in a dream I will not remember. I have a headache, I threw up today, and I feel wonderful.

I chose this album because it contains an amazing acoustic version of "Leaves That Are Green". I also love live albums.

I had a whole other 3 paragraphs written about this band and why I love them, but I erased it because it was really self-centered. The end.

this is the best i can do

The Every Day and Every Night EP by Bright Eyes (and comics about ethan being sad)

There are a few records out there that are made of concentrated sadness. There is "I See a Darkness" by the legend Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, there is "Alopecia" by the indie-rock/hip-hop group Why?, there's obviously "Nebraska" by the Boss, and then there's this. This is Bright Eyes before he had all the funding and support and notability. This is Bright Eyes at a point where Bright Eyes didn't matter, and it shows. This record shines through with dissonant country, ominous ballads, and a closer that feels like the musical equivalent of throwing up alcohol. Conor's wavering voice guides you through a journey into 21 minutes of his diary. Musings on every lost love, and every urge to cry, and every day wasted on a three minute poem that's gonna mean something to someone. If I had to choose between a very good sandwich and this EP, I would choose the EP. That's a major selling point.

mmmm sandwich

(in case you were wondering if there's a comic for this album, here)

Justin Vernon - Self Record

I'm going to go back to what I was doing now. Excuse the Circa Survive and Snowing posts, I can be a little emotional.

get it
Many of you may already know of Justin Vernon - the guy who uses the moniker Bon Iver. This is the more lo-fi, more heartfelt, more truthful folky side of him. He self released these songs, and to be honest, it's a beautiful record. Very similar to Bon Iver, but the guitarwork is a little different. He sings longer, rawer songs, and the outcome is a gorgeous album that you can play with all your hipster friends in starbucks as you discuss existentialism and how drunk you got that one night with that one girl from that one band who nobody else knows (because you pretty much made the story up.) He's a little more experimentally focused here, just pouring all his feelings into writing and singing and creating, which is more than you'll ever do. The vocals sound a little rougher, a little lower pitched, and slightly more folky. Listen to this, because you probably don't have it.

Greenland Is Melting - Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass Is Blue

I'll be gone all weekend, so I have to do something nice I guess. (BUT NOT BECAUSE I LIKE IT, BUT BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.) I have a conscious, unlike you assholes. Also, I'm aware when I smell bad. (Smell yourself for once, dude. Actually smell yourself.) Get somebody to smell your beard - trust me, it stinks.


mediafire.

Greenland Is Melting is a twangy folk band out of Gainesville, which automatically makes them hipster and DIY as fuck. They have a whopping 966 listeners on last.fm, oh my god talk about a +10 hipster cred. You can show these songs to your friends, too. They're so amazingly folky, it's not surprising to listen and automatically (rightly) assume that they're really pretty much the best ever. They have a banjo (for hipster authenticity) and an acoustic guitar, and a bass drum (but no drummer.) These are songs to get drunk as fuck to, and stumble around a bonfire smoking a lucky and drinking a cheap ass 40 (while taking ironic drunkpix of you and some cutie with a septum ring and 00 gauges). You'll end up mumbling them, or screaming them out with all your windows down when you're driving to Athens to catch the newest hipster folk band. More heartfelt than any band I've ever heard - the vocals are pretty much the most legit thing you can ever fucking hear. The lyrics are genius, and yet so simple, you should be able to wrap your tiny head around them. You'll learn this album pretty god damn quick, and trust me, it'll be on constant rotation. Even city slickers will love this shit, so feel free to play it low in Starbucks when you're nursin' a caramel macchiato (to get rid of the hangover from last night) and also nursin' your favorite Salinger, Dostoevsky, or Kerouac novel. You're going to love this shit, and if you don't at least find yourself humming 'No More Sorry Songs' (or better yet, trying to cover it with your cheap guitar) get the fuck out of this here blog right now.

The Devil Makes Three - s/t

Since I'm not nearly as much of an asshole as I pretend to be, I'll give you another something to break you into good music - turn off the Strawberry Jam, and prepare to want to stop cutting your hair into an ironic mullet.

Mediafire
The Devil Makes Three's s/t is a whiskey-soaked delight of folk/americana music that only city slickers with no hearts won't like. It actually has heartfelt lyrics, true feeling put into the music, and isn't so random and cluttered with shit to take away from the fact that the people playing have no idea what they're doing. It's for listening in your room when nobody else is around and your last.fm scrobbling is turned off (unless you really 'like' and 'get' folk music, and in that case this will raise your hipsterdom +10 points). Or hell, if you want to show your friends (you have friends? haha) how awesome music without shitty pop instrumentals, weird time signatures, faggoty overplayed synth can be - show them this. It may truly be a case of too deep for you, if you're too used to overproduced, soulless, hard, cold, glittery "indie" music.