Music for the Common Folk! I'll be posting a new song every day at noon US Pacific time zone for your enjoyment. You may not like every song and that's OK. Just listen with an open mind and expand your musical palate. Come back each day and check out the song of the day.
Singer, painter and songwriter, Piers Faccini, was born in England but grew up France. He first appeared on the music scene in London in 1997, when he performed with performance poet Francesca Beard the group Charley Marlowe, playing spoken word gigs initially, and moving on to acoustic melodies after.
In 2004, Faccini released his first solo album, Leave No Trace and toured extensively. He toured with Ben Harper and Jack Johnson. In 2006, he released Tearing Sky, featuring backing vocals from Harper and accompaniment from several members of his band the Innocent Criminals.
When not busy with his musical career, Faccini is also a visual artist who has exhibited his paintings of landscapes and portraits.
Folk Indie-Rock band, Port O'Brien, is named after the bay on Kodiak Island where founder member Van Pierszalowski's parents met. The group was originally a duo of Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin. Eventually they added Caleb Nichols and Joshua Barnhart as rhythm.
They have done a lot of travelling and toured with Nada Surf, Bright Eyes and The Cave Singers and toured Europe with Modest Mouse. They have released three albums; a self record album called The Wind and the Swell and two studio-recorded albums.
Stuck On A Boat is off their 2008 release, All We Could Do Was Sing.
Visqueen is a Seattle based power pop/punk band that formed in 2001. The band formed from former members of Hafacat (singer/guitarist Rachel Flotard and drummer Ben Hooker) and legendary punk band Fastback (bassist Kim Warnick).
With the release of their first two albums, King Me and Sunset on Dateland, the group quickly moved from a local band with a loyal following to a nationally known power punk band. Following their second release in 2004, Flotard took a hiatus to care for her father after he was diagnosed with cancer. She then worked with Neko Case before regrouping with the others and releasing Message To Garcia in 2009.
My House is off their debut release, King Me.
Trivia: The band takes their name from the brand of polyethylene film that US Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge once recommended as a defense against bioterrorism.
I've been a Rush fan since an old friend had me listen to Fly By Night. Uh, wow, that was a long time ago. Anyway, since then, they have always been on my music rotation.
Rush started out in 1968 in Toronto. After the release of their first album in 1974, original drummer John Rutsey, left the band right before their first US Tour due to diabetes and a distaste for touring. He was replaced by Neil Peart. This change would have a monumental impact on the band as Peart soon took over most of songwriting and helped move the band from a straight forward Rock 'n Roll band to one that played unique and technically complex compositions. Their sound is only possible due to the incredible talent of each member. Each has won several awards in magazine readers' polls for their particular instrument; especially Peart who is widely recognized as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time.
Over the years, Rush has had incredible success. They have had 24 gold records and 14 platinum (including 3 multi-platinum) records. According to the RIAA, Rush's sales statistics also place them fourth behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith for the most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band.
Their sound has changed over the years and recently, they have gone back to more solid rock sound devoid of synthesizers. But their fan base after 3 decades is still strong and they continue to find new fans who can still be amazed at the decades old releases like 2112 and Moving Pictures.
Today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is the excellent tune The Spirit of Radio is off their 1980 release, Permanent Waves.
Breakestra is a ten-piece funk "orchestra" from Los Angeles. The group is lead by Miles Tackett who put the group together as the house band for the legendary club called the Break.
The style in which the band plays is much influenced by late 60's and early 70's soul and funk music. Through the course of their nearly decade-long existence the only two members that have remained constant are bassist/guitarist/upright cellist/producer/vocalist Miles Tackett and vocalist Mixmaster Wolf. When asked about the rotating members of the band, Miles responds, “The Breakestra has always been an amorphous project.
After releasing several EPs and two full-length albums of mostly covers and sample-filled breaks, Breakestra put out Hit the Floor in 2005 on Ubiquity Records, which included all-original recordings fusing elements of hip hop, funk, and soul.
Family Rap, off their 2005 release, Hit The Floor, is an excellent example of the soul, hip-hop and R&B fusion of Breakestra.
Austin, Texas based, Bob Schneider, gained his initial fame in the late 90's as the frontman for the Ugly Americans, a Phish style jam band, and later with The Scabs. They were regulars in the Austin scene and gained some national recognition when they toured with the Dave Matthews Band.
In 1999, he went left the band and started a solo career. He has an diverse and eclectic sound; a little bit singer/songwriter, bits and pieces of funk, country, rock, and folk. He released his first solo album, Lovelyland in 2001 and followed up with I'm Good Now in 2004. Bother releases were very well received.
During this same time, he released several albums as side projects on Vanguard records with limited number of copies released. Although he could play to larger crowds, Schneider would rather play smaller venues and he tours relentlessly.
Schneider dated Sandra Bullock for two years and it was speculated that the breakup following their passionate relationship became fodder for his music, although Schneider has been known to deny autobiographical content in his music.
40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet) is off his 2009 release, Lovely Creatures and is perfect example of Schneider's unique writing style.
Folk singer, Langhorne Slim actually hails from Langhorne, PA. Now, I can see someone named East Texas, Slim or Baton Rouge Slim, but calling yourself Langhorne Slim, which is a really a north suburb of Philadelphia, is pretty funny. But this fits perfectly with him. He has been described as a one-man mixture of the Cramps, Beck's early indie records and the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou. Quite an interesting sound.
Langhorne Slim, whose real name is Sean Scolnick, released his first album, When The Sun's Gone Down, in 2005. He put together an album in 2007, but before the release, his label V2 Records folded and the self titled album did not come out until 2008.
His popularity grew with performances on Dave Letterman, US and European tours including festivals like the Newport Folk Festival, Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, Lollapalooza, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. He also sang "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch during a Phillies-Marlins game in August 2009.
His latest release, Be Set Free, came out in 2009 and the track, Say Yes, is getting a lot of airplay.
Set Em Up is off his debut album When The Sun's Gone Down.
Post-punk, New Wave band, The Cure, has been around since the late 70's. The band lineup has changed many times with front-man, Robert Smith, being the lone constant member. Early Cure music was more of a goth-rock sound with dark lyrics. They released an album per year from 1979 throughout the 80's, slowly gaining popularity. In 1982, Smith wanted to move past the gloomy sound the band was know for and inject more of a pop sound with songs like In Between Days and Let's Go To Bed.
They finally broke through to the mainstream with the 1987 release Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me which had the song Why Can't I Be You. In 1989, they brought back some of the goth-rock sound from the early days with the release, Disintegration. It built on that success with the track, Love Song, making it to #2 on the US charts. The Cure was now a world-wide success and the 1992 release, Wish, made it to #2 on the US album charts.
Although they continued to record and release albums, it was much more spread out than their early career. The band line up also changed quite a bit through the 90's. Recent releases, 2004's self-titled release and 2008's, 4:13 Dream, have continued to be successful and the band routinely sells out live shows.
In 2009, received the Shockwaves NME Award for Godlike Genius.
For today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track, I chose one of my favorite Cure songs, the track, Boys Don't Cry, off their 2nd release, 1980's album of the same name.
7 Worlds Collide is a musical project by New Zealand singer/songwriter, Neil Finn. He first put together the group in 2001 and released an album under the name 'Neil Finn & Friends'. The group consisted of many artists like Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien, Tim Finn, Sebastian Steinberg, Phil Selway, Lisa Germano, and Betchadupa (featuring Neil's son Liam Finn).
Finn got the project back together at the end of 2008 and recorded a new album with most of the original members and some new ones like Jeff Tweedy and three other members of Wilco, KT Tunstall, and New Zealand songwriters Don McGlashan and Bic Runga.
Hazel Black is off the excellent 2009 release, The Sun Came Out.
TRIVIA: Finn takes the band name from the line "Seven worlds will collide / whenever I am by your side" from Crowded House's 1993 single "Distant Sun".
Originally born in Freiburg, Germany, Corneille, spent most of his childhood in Rwanda. He discovered his passion for music in 1993, and joined an R&B group doing most of the songwriting and musical composition. However, his life changed after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. His father, Émile Nyungura, was a leader of a political party and as a result his parents and some of his relatives were killed in the massacre.
Corneille fled back to Germany, where some of his parents' friends took him in. In 1997, he decided to leave Germany and pursue a degree in communications at Concordia University in Montreal. But the draw of music was strong and Corneille founded the R&B group O.N.E. Although it did not last long, he continued to pursue music writing and composing music.
In 2003, he released his first solo album, a French language release called Parce qu'on vient de loin, which became a success, selling more that one million records. He then released Les marchands de rêves in 2005. Most recently, in 2007, he released his first English language album, The Birth of Cornelius.
Too Much of Everything is off his The Birth of Cornelius release.
Datarock is a Norwegian electro rock duo of Fredrik Saroea and Ketil Mosnes. Formed in 2000, the band has had more members, but soon settled down to two memeber.
Their first release in 2005, the redundantly titled, DataRock DataRock was and accidental success. Although they spent almost no time recording the record, their songs were licensed all over the world in films and advertisements.
Fa Fa Fa is off Datarock Datarock and has been featured in both Coca-Cola and IPdo advertising and is featured in NHL 08, FIFA 08 and NBA Live 08 and The Sims 2: Free Time.
Today's Hump Day Retro Closet track is dedicated to my buddy Gene because next week he is actually going to see Devo. How cool is that!
Devo formed in Akron, Ohio in 1973. The early band was very fluid changing members and size several times. The band took their name from the the term 'de-evolution' which is the idea that instead of evolving, mankind has actually regressed, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society.
They gained some fame in 1976 when their short film "The Truth About De-Evolution" won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. The same year, they released their first single, Mongoloid, followed by an odd electronic version of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".
It was 1980's, Freedom of Choice, that catapulted Devo to the limelight. The single, Whip It peaked at #14 and Devo's mastery of the new medium, Music Video, kept them in the spotlight. Although subsequent releases, New Traditionalists in 1981, Oh, No! It's Devo in 1982 and Shout in 1984 lacked the success of Freedon of Choice, they remained a very success live band.
More unsuccessful releases followed and the band "broke up" in 1991. In January 1996, Devo performed a reunion concert at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and went on join the Lollapalooza tour. The members also did many side projects, releasing a multimedia CD-ROM adventure game, The Adventures of the Smart Patrol, recording a number of songs for various films, including a cover of the Nine Inch Nails hit, "Head Like a Hole" for the film Supercop and a remake of Girl U Want for the film "Tankgirl", forming a surf band called The Wipeouters.
Most recently, in December 2007, Devo released their first new single since 1990, "Watch Us Work It" and in September of this year, Warner Brothers and Devo announced a re-release of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice, with a tour performing both albums. And current rumors are the band is working on a new album.
Girl U Want is off the eternally classic 1980 release, Freedom of Choice.
Canadian crooner, Michael Bublé, is a throwback to the past with his Sinatra-style sound. Helped by his italian grandfather, he he began singing in nightclubs at the age of 16 facilitated by his Italian grandfather, a plumber who offered free plumbing services to get his grandson on stage. His grandfather also paid for his singing lessons with opera baritone, Joseph Shore.
When he was 18, he entered and won several local talent contests but that did not translate into much success. For seven years he would sing in anything from talent shows, conventions, cruise ships, malls, hotel lounges, bars, clubs, corporate gigs, theatres, music revues, and even the occasional singing Santa Claus.
He was about to give up and pursue journalism when he got his big break in 2000. Michael McSweeney, an aide to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, showed the album to Mulroney and his wife. Subsequently, Bublé was invited to sing at the wedding of Mulroney's daughter Caroline. At the wedding, Bublé was introduced to David Foster, a multi-Grammy Award winning producer and record executive who had worked previously with artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Kenny G., Cher, Josh Groban, and Andrea Bocelli.
This led to a record deal and the release of his first album in 2003, a self-titled release, which was a success. Subsequent releases have only built on his success and he has accumulated many awards including a Grammy for 'Call Me Irresponsible'.
Call Me Irresponsible is off his 2007 album of the same name.
The Zac Brown Band is a true working band, despite their success, playing over 200 shows per year. They began with humble roots in Georgia, playing at a restaurant owned by Brown and his father and going on the road during the week. After they sold the gourmet Southern-style food restaurant, they bought a tour bus and the touring intensified.
They released 2 albums independently and Atlantic released their third after the original label, Live Nation, went under. The 3rd album reached #2 on the Country Album chart and #11 on the Billboard 200.
Even with this success, Brown remains down to earth and is a devoted philanthropist. He bought land for his own summer camp, a venture he plans to run in cooperation with Brain Balance, an organization that works with kids with autism and ADD. This was a dream of his since he attended a summer camp and worked with mentally and physically challenged kids making him aware of how lucky he was. Chicken Fried is off their third release, Foundation, and went to #1 on the US County charts.
The Swell Season is the musical duo of Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. The duo were approached by the Czech film director Jan Hřebejk while touring in the Czech Republic, and were asked by him to record songs for his upcoming film Beauty in Trouble. It was the first album that Hansard, the singer for The Frames, had released independently of his band. This led to them recording their first full length album, a self-titled release.
Their popularity rose when they recorded the the soundtrack for the movie Once, in which both starred. The album when gold and they received an Oscar for Best Original Song. Hansard and Irglová were a couple on stage and off. Although they broke up earlier this year, they continue to record and perform together.
I Have Loved You Wrong is a haunting beautiful song off their sophomore release, Strict Joy.
Trivia: The group's name is derived from Hansard's favorite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title.
Santa Cruz, California band, The Call, is an incredibly underrated band. They released three albums in the early 80's with little success. They went 2 years without a contract due to to what singer and guitarist, Michael Been, describes as "legal bickering" between The Call's former record label and their management company. It wasn't until the 1986 release, Reconciled, that they had commercial success with the songs, Everywhere I Go and I Still Believe. Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds's Jim Kerr, and from The Band members Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson all helped out on the album.
1989's release, Let The Day Begin, was the height of their success with the title track reaching #1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. The band has not officially broken up, but has not recorded or toured since 2000. Been's son is currently the frontman for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Michael Been tours with them as their sound engineer.
Today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is an excellent song, The Walls Came Down, off their 1983 release, Modern Romans.
Martin, Medeski and Wood, MMW, is Billy Martin on drums and percussion, John Medeski on keyboards and piano and Chris Wood on double bass and bass guitar. They all met when they were introduced by Billy Martin's instructor, Bob Moses. The trio originally began as an acoustic jazz group, playing mainly in the New York City area. Due to the trouble of touring with a piano, Medeski switched to a Hammond organ.
MMW gained significant exposure outside of the New York City jazz scene when they performed with Phish in October of 1995. Their inclusion in the Jam Band circuit and, their performance on John Scofield's 1997 album A Go Go helped increase thier fan base. This led to many future collaborations with Scofield, including 2006's release Out Louder with Scofield.
End of the World Party is a funky jazz, almost pop, track off their 2004 release End of the World Party (Just In Case).
The band members were introduced to each other by jazz drummer Bob Moses, who had performed with Medeski and Wood, and was Martin's instructor.
Despite incredible songwriting talent, Gary Jules remained obscure after his first solo release, 1998's Greeting From The Side, because of poor handling by his record label. It would take three years before he released a second album independently, Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets. The album was even more stunning than the first.
Jules began his musical career forming the band, The Origin, with childhood friend, Michael Andrews. The band released two very good albums, but were not big commercial successes. They disbanded and Jules began his solo career, but despite his talent, he did not gain success until he released a cover of Tears For Fears' Mad World for the Donnie Darko soundtrack in 2003.
The song would be featured in many TV shows and was famously covered by Adam Lambert on American Idol. It's ironic that a song that he did not write was the one that pushed him into the limelight.
Mad World is off the Donnie Darko soundtrack and his 2001 release, Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets. If you have a chance to check out his work, it is worth it.
Many people place Lyle Lovett in the country music category. His music does have a county/western sound, but he incorporates elements of folk, swing, blues, jazz, rock and even gospel music. This blend along with his voice creates a unique sound.
Lovett grew up in Texas, attended Texas A&M and studied German and Journalism. While in college he lived next to Robert Earl Keen. The two became friends and performed together on the front porch many evenings. This eventually grew into inspiration for a song entitled "The Front Porch Song", which both would add to their repertoire.
After several albums, Lovett was thrown into the limelight in 1993 when he married Julia Roberts. The two met on the set of the movie, The Player. After a 3 week romance, the two eloped. The marriage lasted less than two years, but the divorce was due to the amount of time they had to be apart because of their careers and the two remain close friends today.
Besides music, Lovett has starred in several movies, primarily Robert Altman directed ones, The Player, Short Cuts, Prêt-à-Porter, The Opposite of Sex and Cookie's Fortune.
My Baby Don't Tolerate is off his 2003 release of the same name. His latest release, Natural Forces, will be released on October 20th.
Today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is from INXS. They started out in 1977 as the Farriss Brothers in Sydney, Australia. They released their first album, a self-titled release, in 1980 gaining moderate success in Australia. Shabooh Shoobah, released in 1982, was the first release to gain a foothold in the US, peaking at #46 on the billboard charts.
They became international stars with Listen Like Thieves in 1985, Kick in 1987 and X in 1990 and had several top 10 singles. The band's sound that made them so successful was also a cause for their downfall as the were boxed in by that sound as people tastes changed. But they continued to record and tour throughout the 90's. The band hit the low point in 1997 with the dead of front-man, Michael Hutchence. They continued to tour with several different singers like Terence Trent D'Arby and Jon Stephens, finnaly settling on a new singer, a former Elvis impersonator from Canada, J.D. Fortune. They released the album, Switch, in 2005 reaching #17 on the Billboard Top 200.
The One Thing, off Shabooh Shoobah, was the first song I ever heard from INXS, first hearing it on a low-watt local St. Louis Radio station, KYMC and then seeing the video on MTV (when MTV showed music videos 24 hours a day).
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