Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – The ‘Mats are Eight Mix

Have you downloaded our awesome Compilation yet? Well, why not?

Several bands we’ve featured on Ear to the Ground have projects worth mentioning:

Those Mockingbirds have a new single that dropped today. Go get it!

The Jinxes have a Kickstarter project to raise funds for a new professionally recorded EP.  Can’t wait to hear the awesome Migration in it’s fully realized form.

Gabriel (Redding) also has a Kickstarter Project to raise funds for a brand new music video.

Finally (for now), if you are in New York City on Saturday the 28th of April, head down to RIFF NYC to see the Bowery Bangs (featuring tons of great musician including David of The Dead Exs and Gerry of Lost Romance) recreating the Rolling Stone’s classic album, Some Girls.

If I missed anything (which I know I did) drop me a line.

To the list:

First up, we have a cool song from a recent discovery – Tipi Valley – a British singer/songwriter.  It’s called Looking forward to the light from The Sweet Life EP.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=996768359/size=grande3/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/ Next up, is a classic track from alt-country/Paisley Underground band, The Long Ryders, who may reform for some dates this summer???  It’s I Want You Bad from the 1987 album, Two Fisted Tales.

 

Next is a brief bit of sonic loveliness from ELIKA’s new album Always The Light. It’s called, Never Touch the Sky

 

And finally, we have a live version of Doolittle era Pixies’ song, Monkey Gone to Heaven.  This version was recorded live at Coachella in 2004. You can get an EP of 4 Coachella 2004 Pixies performances here.

 

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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – Flights of Fancy Mix

Thanks for visiting and reading Ear to the Ground. We know you have a wide choice of music blogs to read, and we are glad you chose to spend some time with us.

There is this moment (at least for me) in blogging when you realize that people other than your immediate circle of friends and acquaintances are reading your posts. This is the moment (at least for me) where everything can come off the rails and an inflated ego can cause me to think I need to say something profound and important. As when people say, that they enjoy my blog or call it “cool” or offer praise of my writing, and I think I better hit a home run with every post or I will lose this admiration.  The truth (at least for me) is that I began writing just what was on my mind – just narrating the stream of thoughts going through my brain. Fortunately, should be ego get out of whack, I have a teen-aged daughter to bring me back to earth.  “Dad, stop talking, my friends are here.”


I try and fail not to get to caught up in the Blog Stats so readily available, but it is interesting to see the search streams which get people to my site.  Of course, I can’t always tell if they stick around.  These search streams range from the insightful to the strange.  More than one recent visitor got here from the search string “Sad Easter”. To my knowledge I did not write about a sad Easter.  Also, there have been (over time) a number of visits via a search for Zombie Apocalypse Music Shuffle (or some variation).  Now, I did have a post which was subtitled Zombie Apocalypse Mix but like many of my posts, the song shuffle associated with that title did not have tangible connection to the subtitle, and so I think maybe those who came here from that search might have been disappointed????


Enough – to today’s song shuffle:


San Francisco’s The Fresh and Onlys are up first with a newish track called, Do What I Came to Do which is right now available on a free Mexican Summer sampler at Amazon.  The picture above links to that sampler.  Did I mention it’s free!

Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) has a new band called Off! We featured the song Upside Down earlier.  That song is on the first 4 EPs release which you can find above (the album with the Raymond Pettibone cover art.  Today’s track, King Kong Brigade is from the forthcoming self-titled first studio album.  You can grab the MP3 of the song over here. Off! will be touring with the reunited Refused this summer.

The music of Always The Light by Band of the Week alums ELIKA continues to amaze and delight me.  We Had it All is the luscious offering in today’s shuffle.  Always the Light is on Amazon using the picture above (little girl with the balloon).

And finally, continuing yesterday’s cover theme.  We have English Rose a lovely Paul Weller penned ballad originally on the Jam’s seminal release All Mod Cons.  We have the classic Jam compilation Snap! linked above.  The cover is by Hull band Everything but the Girl and if off of Ambition Volumes I & II: The History of Cherry Red Records which is linked above also. 

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The Fresh & Onlys The Fresh & Onlys

The Best of Flipside Video, Vol. 1: Bad Religion, Circle Jerks, Dickies, Weirdos Two of the best-known and longest-running bands on the Southern California punk scene, the Circle Jerks and Bad Religion, skank up a storm in this video, which combines footage from two live concerts. Bad Religion performs 11 songs, including “Damned to B

The Best of Everything But the Girl The Best of Everything but the Girl is divided between selections from their early records and remixes of ’90s hits such as “Missing.” Consequently, the album draws a slightly misleading portrait of their career, yet it still functions as an excellent introduction to the band, since it features many of their best songs, including “Apron Strings.” ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

English Rose (Import) For reasons that no one seems to recall in detail — but for which we can be grateful — when it was time to release a second Fleetwood Mac LP in America, producer Mike Vernon and the band didn’t just send the existing Mr. Wonderful album across the Atlan

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Free at Last Mix

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 44th anniversary of his death.

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Last night I was able to load an eclectic mix of 16 songs, and this morning I did a shuffle of those songs and was well pleased with the outcome… 🙂


First up, we did a sneak preview of the new Elika album (Always The Light) – A full-fledged review is still to come, but today we have the first track to make it into a morning shuffle.  Elika are a Brooklyn based band recently signed to St. Marie Records. Their music is dreamy electronic pop with amazing vocals and a strong sense of song which keeps the music grounded in spite of the ethereal sounds. (I am totally going to use that in my review).  The track today is called Stay Beside Me

 

Hat tip to Popatunes yet again… I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to catch up with Elephant Goes West.  They are from New Jersey (damn there must be something in the water there – okay obvious statement I know), but whatever it is, in this case it’s a good thing.  Like fellow NJ resident, Don Ryan, they make wonderfully vibrant carnival-type music.  theme from “Everytown” is from the band’s Whirling Dervish EP which you can grab using the bandcamp widget below.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=4121733150/size=grande3/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

 

I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from this band.

Next up – from the vaults comes a song from the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 box office disaster One From the Heart.  The soundtrack is made up of songs written by Tom Waits and sung by Waits and Crystal Gayle. Today we have Little Boy Blue  by Tom Waits.

 

And finally, we have a new track from Portland, Oregon band The Dandy Warhols.  The song is Sad Vacation. The album, This Machine is out April 24th.

 

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One From the Heart [2 Discs] After completing Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola initially planned for his next picture to be an intimate romantic musical shot on a low budget in Las Vegas. Three years later, One from the Heart had mushroomed into a big-budget spectacular, shot on

The Dandy Warhols Are Sound The Dandy Warhols opened their 2003 album, Welcome to the Monkey House, with a brief, snide dig at record industry greed and illogic that ran, in part: “When Michael Jackson dies, we’re covering ‘Blackbird.'” The line was obviously intended as a flip refe

Some random video linkage…

Hey ho!  I’ve been out of pocket today, so no music shuffle, but I couldn’t let a day go by without subjecting you… er treating you some music that’s been going through my mind…


First a teaser: one of our earlier Band’s of the Week: Elika are back with a new album that just dropped this month.  I’ve got my grubby little paws on it, and it’s sweet stuff.  A more in-depth discussion is to come, but below is a bit of a tease.

Finn Bonel is a singer-songwriter from South London.  More on his music to come. Here is a video of his called Wedding Song.

The Mobbs were the first annual Band of The Year at Ear to the Ground.  They are planning a U.S. tour for the fall – so stay tuned to this space for more later.  Here is the official video for Jolly Good!  Jolly Good, indeed!

Off topicish, but we’ve lost a couple of greats this week.  Here’s a video of a recitation of Adrienne Rich’s poem ‘song’.  Adrienne Rich died this week at the age of 82.

Earl Scruggs died yesterday at the age of 88.  A true pioneer and innovator of contemporary bluegrass music, his storied career as placed him beside many great musicians of the past several decades.  His work with Bill Monroe and later Lester Flatt are beyond legendary. Here is a selection from Mr. Scruggs…

Ear to the Ground Presents: Band of the Year (Readers Poll Results) – Top 10

At long last, it is time to reveal the Band of the Year voting results.  

I want to thank everyone who voted.  I hope you will visit often.  We had almost 2,000 votes. Which totally blew me away. 

We shall begin with positions 6-10 in alphabetical order:


Clepto (website) – In spite of my screwing up their name on the Poll, Saudi-born punk rockers Clepto rallied to reach the top 10.  If you are in to hard punk rock with a Middle Eastern tinge, please check out Clepto.


Elika (website) – New York based indie band Elika offers cool electronica with a slight shoegazey feel to it. I have no idea what I just typed.  Elika makes good music.  Check them out today!


Lost Romance (website) – New Jersey based alt-rockers Lost Romance play big music.  One of my favorite tracks “Top of the World” has a brilliant, expansive sound.  Their music deserves to fill arenas. Check them out. 


Those Mockingbirds (website) – another New Jersey based alt-rock band.  Not just another New Jersey based alt-rock band.  Those Mockingbirds possess strong songwriting and the musical chops to carry it off. Visit their website, pick up their new EP and prepare to become a fan.


WorldService Project (website) – I’ll admit, when WorldService Project first began following me on Twitter, I thought they were a non-profit providing volunteer opportunities to third world countries. Okay I have an active imagination.  Turns out they are a London-based Punk-Jazz band. I like jazz and I like punk, and I really like World Service Project.  Give them a listen.


Now to the Top 5….

 

Bands of the Week 2011 – Part II – Weeks 9-17

We continue our recap of the 2011 Bands of the Week.  Reminder: Please be sure to vote in the First Annual Reader’s Poll for Band of the Year.

Week 9:  The Mobbs – an honest to goodness – British band with a punk attitude.  They play it fast and nasty and it makes me want to walk around saying “bloody hell” all the time.  Well here check out this video:

Week 10: Mikey Wax – is a singer and songwriter – Long Island born.  He recently released a new album Constant Motion which hit #6 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart. Here’s a video for his song In Case I Go Again which has been viewed over a half a million times on You Tube:

Week 11: Elika – are an indie band from Brooklyn.  Their sound features astonishing vocals set atop a complex yet lovely combination of guitar, synth, bass and drum machine. Check out Elika’s video for their song Summer here:

Week 12: Clepto – is a punk band with a definite Middle Eastern influence.  The band formed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2000 and has since relocated to Canada. The play it hard and nasty and the music is not for the faint of heart. For the unfaint of heart it’s a jolly good time….  Check out this video:  NOTE:  I screwed up on the reader’s poll and mispelled the band’s name. I know the band’s name. It was a typo.  So if you like Clepto please vote for Cleto.

Week 13: Simon Fagan – is an Irish singer/songwriter.  He has a unique voice and a great sound.  Look for a new EP coming soon.  Meanwhile check out this video of one of our favorite songs, Something I Don’t Know

Week 14: The Walla Recovery – a cello-folk rock quartet from Texas.  They write moving and beautiful songs.  Here is a video of The Walla Recovery performing a cover of Coldplay’s Til Kingdom Come:

Week 15: Lost Romance – are a New Jersey based rock band.  They play expansive music which lives up to the vast history of New Jersey music.  Here’s a favorite of ours, Top of the World, performed live at The Saint in Asbury Park:

Week 16: Sealight – is a French/Australian band.  Their sound combines acoustic and electronic elements to make a beautiful soundscape.  They recently released their debut EP – Dead Letters which was reviewed here at Ear to the Ground.  Here is the title track from the EP:

Week 17: The Jinxes – are a melodic folk-pop band from Monterey, California. They have a rich creative spirit and a ear for sweet melodies.  Here is a video of a song, we love called Migration:

That’s it for now…. Stay tuned… Part III is coming soon. And be sure to vote.