Early favorites include “Working Titles” which contains trademark Jurado dark lines reading:

You could use to be more like your heroes.
A darker shade of damaged distortion.
Wearing death like a cape or a costume.
Cut your ties and leave town when you want to.

“Museum of Flight” is another standout with a simple effective chorus that repeats thrice and hooks you with one listen. Consisting of only ten tracks, Maraquopa is a mellow enchanting album that is great for late night repeat and a worthy addition to Damien’s stellar catalogue.

RIYL:  warm candle wax, hard rain, sad poems

1.  Frank Turner/England Keep My Bones

Peggy Sang The Blues:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ns6ouwO1g&ob=av2e

2.  Butch Walker/The Spade

Synthesizers:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz0EAMDsyVc

3.  My Morning Jacket/Circuital

Circuital:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsD8-Sx2QKw

4.  Gillian Welch/The Harrow and the Harvest

Hard Times:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k35haKwqY14

5.  Kasey Anderson/Heart of a Dog

The Wrong Light:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9qeGxUafeo

6.  The Felice Brothers/Celebration, Florida

Ponzi:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTS7gv5ffQ

7.   Florence + the Machine/Ceremonials

Shake It Out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbN0nX61rIs&ob=av2e

8.  Adele/21

Rumor Has It:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_6BBAVfzqM

9.  Iron & Wine/Kiss Each Other Clean

Walking Far From Home:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg5403yj4II

10. Wilco/The Whole Love

One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa2XnouRXKo

11. The Low Anthem/Smart Flesh

Ghost Woman Blues:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpadm5i_CKU

12. Drive By Truckers/Go Go Boots

Mercy Buckets:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOMdN6X–7c

13. Jason Isbell/Here We Rest

Codeine:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_vBPaI1d0

14. Hayes Carll/KMAG YOYO

Grateful for Christmas:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5er6FZLRm1U

15. Lucinda Williams/Blessed

Buttercup:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6z7b5aIi4

Columbia, SC Local Music Year in Review

Local journalist (armed with video camera) Kevin Oliver posted some highlights of the local scene here in Columbia on his youtube page.  Or at least the highlights that he recorded this year.  The link to the entire listing is here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL31D79D06C47E4864&feature=g-all-a

My favorites include:

Number 4:    Zach Seibert, Darla

Number 8:    Honey Dewdrops, When Was the War

Number 22:  David Adedokun, Professional Travel On a Closed Course

Number 44:  Tom Hall and the Plowboys, Carter’s Garden

Number 49:  Sea Wolf Mutiny, Lovers

Number 52:  Bill Wells Blueridge Mountain Grass with Willie Wells, Another Night

 Neil Young:  For the cool, rainy days, it doesn’t get much better than Harvest or Harvest Moon.  Throw in After The Goldrush and Tonight’s the Night and you can pretty much get through the season with Young along.  Even more recent efforts such as Prairie Wind and Le Noise can paint colors as pretty as the changing leaves.

 Greg Dulli:  I tend to associate the Twilight Singers with the Fall.  Play Blackberry Belle or She Loves You one night while downing a bottle of wine and argue with me.  That’s what I thought…

 Erik Bachman:  The frontman for the band Crooked Fingers’ dark, melancholy ballads are the perfect way to finish off an evening or for a dark drive through an unknown town.  Just keep the windows cracked a bit so you don’t drift off. 

 Margon Timmins:  Margo Timmins crooning for Coletrane?  Ye-haw Cowboy Junkies, sign me up.

 Dave Doughman:  AKA Swearing At Motorists, Doughman’s tunes often provide the perfect soundtrack for a crisp Fall breeze. The More Songs From the Mellow Struggle and Number Seven Uptown albums hold fine examples.

The book is basically the long version of the song “Going Back / Going Home” from his 2008 album Sycamore Meadows (probably my favorite Butch album) which goes as follows:

Cut to a life
Being born in ’69
Low class suburb,
Everything’s fine.
Fondue parties
My mom and my dad,
Drinks being drunk
And fights being had.
I lost my virginity to a girl in my band
She was four years older, she made me a man.
So addicted to sex
Every chance that I got.
With whoever I wanted
Until I got caught.
So I took my penicillin and I took my band
To a town made of glitter girls and cocaine friends.
Got handed the job by the age of eighteen.
Saw more than most people that I know had ever seen.
Played every bar, drank till black and blue.
Did the morning show bullshit
And went to China too.
Where they left us to die, without a ticket to flee.
Inciting the riot, we were only 23.
Packed it up, started over just as fast as we can.
Selling tapes making merch in the back of a van
Living hand-to-mouth for the next five years.
Took up drinking wine, gave up drinking beer.
Signed another big deal with a devil in a dress.
A ‘one hit wonder’ I think, describes it best.
Decided to burn out, then to fade away.
Went back to the van the very next day.
Picked it up, made a living without any help.
Made amazing friends, if I saw so myself.
If living like this at thirty-eight is a bore,
Then c’mon God, please give me thirty-eight more.

Of course the book also focuses more on the production side of things and how he has worked with some of today’s biggest stars (Pink, Avril, etc.) in production/writing while maintaining his ultra-cool persona and being true to himself. Basically it is a book for Walker’s fans, (of which I am a big one) but accessible to anyone that has tried to “make it” in the music business, and for the casual reader as well. At a little over 200 pages it is a quick, easy, enjoyable read, not unlike some of Walker’s best songs!

Not anymore. The new album has been in my car for about 3 weeks and it keeps getting better with every listen. From the haunting opener “Fire at the Pageant” to the burning closer “River of Jordan” the band shows that they are much more than a one trick pony. The album is laced with samples and loops that sound anything but contrived. (For contrived see: Steve Earle). It could be that the songwriting is so superb that the tracks could work filled with kazoo fills, but it’s more than that. To me, the sounds complement the songwriting to create the empty haunting feeling of the characters from the songs. I have to say it has been a long time since an album has conjured up so many different images in my brain or left me with so many questions about the fate of the characters.

Standouts include the aforementioned tunes above along with the horn laden “Honda Civic” and the sing along chorus of “Ponzi” (see video link below) but there really isn’t a bad track on the album. I don’t know the band’s history or aspirations, but in my mind this is their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, signaling that they shouldn’t be labeled an Americana or Alt-Country band, but should be labeled truly as musicians. They are making an artistic statement. They have documented a period of where they are creatively. And we are the lucky few who get to share it.

RIYL: Faulker, Schitz, Chicago

Ponzi

The album has a bit for everyone in the slow country balladry of “Show Me Your Silence” and some nice Southern Rock cowbell and guitar riffage on “Struggle.” Thematically the album focuses on the wild west mixed with a band of troubadours trying to make a living playing music.

RIYL: whiskey (not whiskey sours), leather, beat up old guitars

I caught up with lead singer Jason Bible to discuss the new record:

Where, when, and with whom was the new album recorded?

We cut all the tracks at Elevated Basement Studios in Savannah, GA in 2010. Miles Hendrix and Kevin Rose produced, recorded and mixed the album with us co-producing. Terry Manning masterfully mastered the album.

How do you go about writing songs for a new album? Also, there seems to be a couple of themes running through the album. Can you explain?

When we finished “Whiskey and War” I began looking for songs and really wanted the second album to be a concept thing with themes that evoke images of the wild west and the south. A cowboy type thing with a modern twist on the things that make me want to write. Tennessee Mare was intentionally a spin off of the Tennessee Stud. I wanted a Johnny Cash type murder song and we got the story to go over Stu’s dobro line.

I write some with Dave Williams and some with Stu Harmening. The Train Wrecks work out arrangements and we usually try them all live. Eric Dunn worte the bass line for Southern Skies years ago and we all added our parts and I wrote some words about Hawaii and put the vocal over it. I look for concepts and subjects to write about and usually they come quickly and I bounce demos on piano or acoustic and finalize them with Dave and or the band. My buddy Whiley Workman IV had these words for Hang Me High and I wanted it to sound like it come out of Sun Studios. We added and changed a few words and there it was.

Fortune and Fame developed over a year of having the verse chords and words for the chorus. I finally got the verses together and it took shape. Markus really kicked ass on the drums and his input on all the songs was vital. The percussion end and the vocals he added were great. It is wild to hear the first demos of alot of the songs and then to hear them on the record is pretty amazing to see how they turned out. We worked really hard on this record and are really proud to be The Train Wrecks!
The themes are there. I know the main two are freedom and stopping at nothing to do what you love. It’s really about the struggle of life and the pursuit of being a songsmith……I don’t know shit! I am just really happy to play with the best musicians and writers and studio folks that I have found!

What are The Train Wrecks’ plans for the rest of 2011?

God has been good to me and the boys! We are all gonna keep playing shows and get more tours happening in 2011! Making our way to New Orleans in the summer! Really want to stop and play some shows for people hit by the oil spill along the way.

Top tracks include the aforementioned tune as well as the immensely catchy “Cry Baby”, “Bodies” which features some nice drumming, and “Fool for You.” The intro and outro them plays on James Bond movies and everything else in between will have you shaking and grooving enough to make the Funk Brothers proud.

RIYL: warm fuzzy rabbits, popsicles on a rainy day, fluffy sheets

This Fucking Job / Drive By Truckers
Swollen But Not the Same / Bobby Bare Jr.
Hurricane J / The Hold Steady
Won’t Somebody / Bad Religion
Bastards of the Highway / John Moreland and the Black Gold Band
Torn Apart / Kasey Anderson
Sinister Kid / The Black Keys
Bloodbuzz Ohio / The National
She Likes Hair Bands / Butch Walker
One More Night in Brooklyn / Justin Townes Earle
Rachel and Cali / Damien Jurardo
I Wasn’t Built for a Life Like This / Caleb Stine
I’m Not So Sure / Joe Pug
Nothing But the Whole Wide World / Jakob Dylan
I Don’t Care if There’s Cursing / Phosphorescent
Are You Ready to Die / Cary Ann Hearst
Too Stone To Cry / Andrew Combs
If I Needed You / Carrie Rodriquez and Ben Kyle
God Only Knows / Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
The Toll / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Machado describes the album as “an attempt to deconstruct the tradition of Christian morality in the South and explore a range of conflicting theological interpretations through the album’s characters,” and this is exactly what the album does as it follows Constance throughout her life’s struggles. Daniel goes on to explain that, “Though Constance takes place at the turn of the twentieth century and uses themes and techniques for discussing gender and race common to that period, I wanted to bring those devices into the more accessible realm of popular song in hopes of holding a mirror to the bigotry that still results from theological interpretations today.” Wait a second, is he saying that God didn’t want slavery in the South, or that the wine Jesus drank was really like grape juice and didn’t have alcohol? I’m confused…

Make no mistake that these songs and the album’s theme can sit rather heavy, but don’t let that turn you off from giving it a spin. The music of Constance ranges from jubilant to yearning and features gorgeous violin, nicely picked banjo and a number of other stringed instruments. The standout in my mind is the album’s closer, “The Lynching,” and “Drowning Mr. and Mrs. Palmer.” I figure if you’re going to do dramatic, then go all out, and that is just what the band does with these two tracks. Chalk Constance up as a fine Americana release for 2010 and keep the Restoration on your radar for 2011.

RIYL: The Good Book, Restless Heart videos, H2O (otherwise known as water)

www.therestoration.net

The middle of the album slows down a bit and failed to catch my attention on repeated listens, but picks up steam again around track 8, with the juvenile “Cuckoo” which talks of “skipping school and smoking cigarettes.” Contrasting this track is the next, “Everywhere I Go” a beautiful ballad showcasing Lissie’s vocal range along with a sonic nod to friends Band of Horses. (Bill Reynolds recorded some of the tracks on this album.)

Overall Catching a Tiger is a good listen falling somewhere between polished pop and folk.

RIYL: Driving with the top down, bikini bottoms, warm sun

http://www.fatpossum.com/artists/lissie