What I Listened To On My Summer Vacation: The Avett Brothers

After a few pages of political ranting elsewhere tonight, it feels really good to unwind a bit and write about what was easily one of the most pleasant discoveries of the summer.


I first came across The Avett Brothers via the always reliable music snobs over at Paste Magazine. On one of their samplers last spring, they featured the opener off their latest album “Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions,” and to say it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard is an understatement. After opening with some radio distortion and light driving guitar, “Talk On Indolence” breaks down out of nowhere into some sort of country-fried rap/rant that just begs to be reprinted:

Well I’ve been lockin' myself up in my house for sometime now
Readin' and writin' and readin' and thinkin'
and searching for reasons and missing the seasons.
The Autumn, the Spring, the Summer, the snow.
The record will stop the record will go.
Latches latched the windows down,
the dog coming in the dog going out.
Up with caffeine and down with a shot.
Constantly worried about what I’ve got.
Distracting my work but I can’t make a stop
and my confidence on and my confidence off.
And I sink to the bottom and rise to the top
and I think to myself that I do this a lot.
World outside just goes it goes it goes it goes it goes it goes...
and witness it all from the blinds of my window (three, four!)

Try saying that five times fast.

Almost as inexplicably, it then gets right back on track as a good old fashioned alt-county stomper. Needless to say, I was sold... only I couldn’t find their album anywhere until this summer, at a Tower Records in DC.

Surprisingly (but actually somewhat unremarkable in retrospect), nothing on the album sounded anything like that first track. This may seem like a disappointment, and first it sort of was… I was looking for some solid Southern tinged rock, and wound up with a lot of ballads and some jarringly raw vocal performances. Something kept drawing me back, however, and I soon found myself every bit as enthralled with the rest of the CD as I was with “Talk on Indolence”. The band seamlessly moves from country to folk to almost Buddy Holly-esque slower numbers, all while keeping an immediate and unvarnished style (yes, even the vocals grew on me…there’s actually some gorgeous harmonizing in between the wailing) that invokes the very heart of what it is to make good American folk music (this is in part due to the fact that the album was recorded all on the spot at a cabin in rural North Carolina). In an era of slick, produced to death pop, it’s a breath of fresh air that almost gives you hope for music in this country again.

I’m going to post two tracks here (including the aforementioned “Talk on Indolence”), but I cannot stress enough that this doesn’t even begin to demonstrate the scope of this album. If you like what you hear, I highly recommend tracking to CD down for yourself and buying a copy… you won’t be disappointed.

The Avett Brothers- Talk On Indolence
The Avett Brothers- A Lover Like You

...and cause I just can't get enough of these guys, live footage of them performing the always entertaining "Distraction #74" and then outright rocking to what I imagine is a song from an earlier album (hooray for upright bass!)

What I Listened to on My Summer Vacation: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

Jeff Tweedy’s got company at the top.

For those of you who know me, the Wilco frontman has long been my favorite musician of all time, to the point that he’s been accused of being God to me (I can neither confirm nor deny said charges). However, after this summer I can safely sat that another artist has moved into a dead tie for the number one spot: Mr. Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus, better known to the world as Elvis Costello. Granted, I was always a big fan of Elvis Costello, but a variety of things have moved him up into the number one spot over the course of this summer:

• The New Album. In June, Elvis Costello came out with a new album with New Orleans jazz legend Allen Toussaint entitled “The River in Reverse,” featuring covers from Toussaint’s catalog as well as some original compositions. Adding a horn section and Toussaint’s piano skills to the always impressive Imposters gave the music a fresh sound, and Costello’s voice only seems to be getting better with age. In short, it was a great addition to his catalog as well as yet another impressive genre experiment from the rocker turned musical chameleon.

• The Live Show. I managed—after an hour long ride on DC Metro and bus—to catch Mr. Costello and Mr. Toussaint on their tour this summer at the gorgeous Wolf Trap theatre in Vienna, VA. Most of the new album was played, complete with Elvis Costello fleshing out the allusions to Hurricane Katrina with scathing commentary on the Bush administration, as well as some classic Toussaint songs. Best of all, however, were the Costello hits rearranged for horns by Allen Toussaint, like the version of “Alison” that began with a gorgeous brass intro and closed with Costello segueing into the Motown classic “Tracks of my Tears”. All in all, it was a phenomenal show even from the lawn, and one of the more satisfying concerts I’ve been to.

• The Tribute. I covered this previously in this space, but the VH1 Decades Rock Live Tribute to Elvis Costello was every bit as amazing as I had hoped, with Death Cab for Cutie, Fiona Apple, and Billie Joe Armstrong all turning in stellar performances. The latter was perhaps the most amusing of all—the two of them seemed like a long lost father and son team strumming acoustic guitars on stage, with Billie Joe paying homage to “Alison” and Elvis making “Good Riddance” cool for the first time in a decade.

So welcome to favored musician status, Mr. Costello… I have no doubt you and Mr. Tweedy can share the spot without trouble, so long as Tweedy doesn’t turn into a bear and maul you to death.

Elvis Costello- The River In Reverse
VIDEO: Elvis Costello and Billie Joe Armstrong- Good Riddance

What I Listened to on My Summer Vacation: The Pipettes

So Lolla was phenomenal… for those curious on the details, hit up the ol’ LJ, where I’m chronicling it in painstaking detail.

Today, I’m getting back into gear by writing up some of the great music I picked up over the long summer in which I wrote pretty much nothing—a sort of catch up, if you will.

Now, I’ve written about The Pipettes in here before back when they were a quirky little underground act from England with a handful of singles, but now they’re a quirky little underground act from England with an album… and what an album it is, full of gorgeous retro-style harmonies and danceable rhythms and lyrics that stick in your head for days— which, by the way, is terribly inconvenient and more than a little embarrassing when said lyrics are “dance with me pretty boy tonight”.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit its not just the music I love here—the Pipettes have refined an image that makes them pretty much the dream girls of every indie geek on the planet, despite the lyrics clearly showing that these girls have no interest in settling down in a relationship, my favorite example being the stunning “It’s Not Love (But It’s Still a Feeling)”

Nonetheless, I’m completely smitten at this point, and I think you will be too.

The Pipettes—It’s Not Love (But It’s Still a Feeling)

VIDEO: The Pipettes—Pull Shapes

More New Wilco: Let's Fight

So I'm back from Washington DC, and finally have the free time on my hands to mindlessly ramble about music over the internet.... almost.

First is Lollapalooza, which I'm excited beyond belief for... its my first festival, and in one of my favorite cities on earth to boot. However, while I'm sitting in eager anticipation back here in the always lovely East Lansing, I thought I'd throw some more of that new Wilco at you.

This is easily one of their stronger new numbers, coming from the same dark place as classics like "She's a Jar" and "At Least Thats What You Said", while adding in a killer synth string thing that feels both refreshingly new and familiar at the same time. My only reservation is that lyrically, it doesn't have the 'oomph' of a line like "I thought it was cute of you to kiss my purple black eye" in there, but it's still a solid addition to the catalog. Also, there's some bonus Tweedy banter tacked onto the end, and who doesn't love Tweedy banter?

Wilco- Let's Fight

Stay tuned next week, when I'll begin to play catch up with "What I Listened to on My Summer Vacation".