We went in skeptical at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in October, but came out completely won over by the talent of The Head and the Heart.  Their set was the second-best of the entire Festival behind Glen Hansard’s over-the-top set.  Check the heady band out below, as captured well by “Audio-Files,” performing a re-arranged Sounds Like Hallelujah off their debut album in a warehouse somewhere in Salt Lake City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liN_frVYqAw&feature=em-uploademail-new

Last Saturday we posted some fan videos of the Avett Brothers covering Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.   The Avetts must have grown weary of the amateur videos and had their own videographer “Crackerfarm” properly record them covering the song.  Check it out below.

As we’ve repeatedly written, Daniel Lanois can do no wrong in our minds.  Watch/listen below a 50-minute set by his band Black Dub (featuring Trixie Whitley on lead vocals, guitar, and keyboards; the fantastic Brian Blade on drums and Jim Wilson on bass and vocals) at the  Miles Davis Hall in Montreux, Switzerland from July 2011.  Amongst other things that he does so well (producer, songwriter, singer, you name it), Lanois is one of our most soulful, tasteful and talented guitar and pedal steel (check at 11:37 on) players extant.  Watch and feel it.  The setlist is below the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zWviNBgsleU

1) Intro
2) Surely
3) I Belive In You
4) Steel
5) The Collection Of Marie Claire
6) Silverado
7) The Messenger
8) I’d Rather Go Blind
9) Ring The Alarm

Where to start with Correatown, Angela Correa’s project?  We were first introduced to the talented Correa when she and constant musical companion Tom Brosseau (together they were/are The Shelleys) came to Santa Barbara to play in-store at John Healy’s much-missed Buffalo Records.  And we’ve been in love with both artists’ music ever since (more about Brosseau later).  Initially Correa/Brosseau sang  folk/country/standards.  And Angela put out a couple of great Correatown discs that continued in the indie-folk-ballad genre.  So we were floored when Angela passed along a new disc of Correatown demos a while back, but didn’t tell us of the seismic shift in her/their sound.  Suddenly Correatown had gone ’80s synth-pop!  And what a perfect sound it was/is to show off Correa’s phenomenal songwriting and vocals.  Correa explains: “When I began writing songs for our latest recordings I kept imagining the sounds and instruments that would shape the direction of our new songs. The most appealing were really freaked out thick and pulsing bass sounds or odd twitchy static noises tucked into shimmering and ethereal melodies. The more the band explored different arrangements and instruments, the more I felt the possibility of having a less organic sound that felt more evocative of the music we wanted to create was our compass.”

We’re not alone in our appreciation for Correa and Correatown.  Angela’s voice was featured in the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story on the song Let’s Duet, she has sung backup with Moby and others, and last year Further was included on the Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack Vol 4.  Her songs have also appeared on Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters and How I Met Your Mother.  Correatown is fresh off the heels of a successful UK / European tour where Angela did a session with Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music and received raves at CMJ, making Spin’s “Next Big Thing” list.  Correa has also recently scored her first film, Sassy Pants, which was released this October as well as having one of her tracks in the recent Scott Hicks’ film, The Lucky One starring Zac Efron.  Where does she find the time?

You can get a feel for what we’re talking about by listening/watching the official video for Play, the first single off of her fantastic album Pleiades below.  After, check out one of our all-time favorite songs (making our Best Songs of 2010) , Further, off of the album, which was released in the US on October 16th by Highline Records.  Put that one on repeat.  Wow.  We are still mesmerized by this song.  Further Everything, All At Once is a phenomenal song off of the album that made our Best Songs of 2011 list.

We can’t say enough about the album.  Go forth and buy it HERE to support this talented artist.

For those of you wanting to click and let your music ride, listen to our recent YouTube faves in sequence by clicking on the first video of the playlist below.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have just released the official video for song Driftin’ Back off of their new album Psychedelic Pill.  Given the title, it’s an unabashed nostalgic look back by Young.  But it still resonates well in our ears.  And it comes in at a scant 27:50.

Last night while you were sleeping, late night musical mayhem ensued.  Check out Father John Misty, Ben Folds Five, Ty Segall and RNDM below.  As seen on Conan, Father John Misty’s Josh Tillman has adopted well his new hip-shakin’, white-linen-suit-wearin’ persona and continues to show why he was THE talent there was to find in the Fleet Fockers.  Next up are pop maestros Ben Folds Five on Jimmy Kimmel performing Do It Anway and Erase Me off their fourth studio album The Sound of the Life of the Mind.   That Folds lad can write a pop song, bang a piano and sing like few can.  And then for fun (plus it’s only 2:00 long) watch the throw-back Ty Segall on the Letterman Show raging on You’re the Doctor before yelling into the microphone “Go Vote!!.”  Dave was both amused and frightened.  Finally, check out supergroup RNDM (Joseph Arthur, Jeff Ament) be-decked in Halloween/SF Giants colors with matching instruments/amps and performing their song Modern Times (J-Fal just can’t help playing along at the end) and Ain’t Got No Mag 7 (a mash-up of The Clash and Nina Simone).  That’s entertainment folks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ubw2XzxsM&feature=em-uploademail-new

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_sNXLnJspg&feature=em-uploademail-new

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVKyRMal0sM&feature=em-uploademail-new

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtYQHGBgzig&feature=em-uploademail-new

We are huge fans of Iron & Wine.  We caught them live in early 2011 at the Wiltern in LA and were mesmerized throughout.  You can get a great feel for that tour from the hour-long concert video below of Sam Beam and the band in Germany in late 2010.  Sweet stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf7nUnvVumc&feature=youtu.be

Time to open up the evening hymnal again.  After glossing over this band for entirely too long, and posting their video for Family Tree only yesterday, there seems to be a conspiracy afoot to keep Toronto band Evening Hymns in the forefront of our musical minds.  Today the band pointed to a new video directed by Neil Haverty for their song Spirit in the Sky off of their haunted and haunting Spectral Dusk album.  According to the band, the album “is a study of loss, pain, and hope and a pathway drawn out of the dark into the light. Spectral Dusk finds Jonas Bonnetta dealing, through music, with the loss of his father three years ago.”  Let the record and video show you below.  Bonneta recently had this to say about Spirit in the Sky:  “This song was written as an intro into ‘Irving Lake Access Road’. I wrote a big list of things I related to Dad. Images of us as kids playing with him. Swimming, hiking, fishing. Just meditated on my youth with brothers. The idea was for the song to be dreamlike and have the long string piece wash in and take it away. To carry it out to sea.”  It’ll carry you away if you’re not careful.

Evening Hymns – Spirit In The Sky from Neil Haverty on Vimeo.