Category: Kalpa

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Godard Mix

Why Godard? Why not Godard? !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);Plus today’s mix includes a song which was on the soundtrack of an movie that was a remake of a Godard film…

https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.jsThis year has been incredibly busy and has left little time for reflection. It’s been a great year for music – both in terms of great new music from “old” friends and great music from new friends.  I’ve done a massive overhaul of the Playlist from which the daily mixes are drawn.  As always  I will be adding new music as it comes to me, but I’ve stocked up the playlist with some of our favorites from 2013 so far…

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–> Today’s mix begins after the jump:

Pre-Shuffle:

* “Play With Your Toys Pt. 1” by The End Men

*”Ornamental” and “Grey Scale” by Let’s Active (for Faye Hunter)

*”Breathless” by X (Jerry Lee Lewis (Otis Blackwell) cover – featured in the 1983 film Breathless which was a remake of a 1960 Jean-Luc Godard film)

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Shuffle:

“Double Brahma” by Valued Customer from Kalpa (2013)

More sheer brilliance from these Toronto kids. “live for the present like a kid at christmas speaking in tongues my flow french kisses “

“By My Side” by Aaron and the Spell 

 
 
 
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Some kick ass Philly Soul – check out these guys!

“Stained Glass Window” by Courier from Cathedrals of Color (2013)

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A recent discovery.  A “big music” alternative band from Austin. 

 

 “Play With Your Toys Pt. II” by The End Men from Play With Your Toys (2013)

We close out today’s set of music with Pt. II – we began with Pt. I. How appropriate*

The End Men have both their EP and this album up for Sale on their Bandcamp Page – at Name Your Price.  As always, I encourage you to 1. get this album and 2. as you are able, give generously.  The End Men have pre-announced a big announcement for September 1 and could use your support.   You can go back and read everything I’ve written about this band and this album.  The remain the number one most frequent tag on Ear to the Ground.

They also have a spiffy new website – check it out

PLAYLIST
 
 


 

 

 

 
 

 

 



 

 

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Your Own Chosen Speed Mix

Well we have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s not tarry.. or whatever…
Music begins after the JUMP

Pre-Shuffle 
1. We begin with one of the best examples of pure British Pop (with a capital ‘P’) that I’ve heard in a long time.  We’ve featured the band Human Face – who came to our attention via a Twitter Follow – several times, but it’s been a little while.  “After Lunch” is just a flat out great song. As I mentioned before, I really do put this band in the long line of great British Pop bands that includes Squeeze among others.  Check out the video (in the playlist)
2. As a poor lowly music blogger, I spend a lot of time trolling the internet for legal free music to present to you.  Noisetrade has become a favorite site of mine.  They recently teamed up with the folks at Paste to offer up a Radiohead show from June 1995.  We’ve been periodically featuring tracks from that album. Today, we have “Anyone Can Play Guitar” which was released as a single just before the release of the album Pablo Honey which includes the song.  
3. The Great Mistake are Buffalo New York band that we’ve featured a couple of times. They are just in the process of releasing some new music which sounds great.  “Haphazard” goes back to their 2010 album, Wave to the Astronaut.  Below is a widget with a newer song called Your Philosophy which may be on their next album.
4. I have this strange obsession with cover songs.  I mean, yeah there are the occasional tragic mistakes, but for the most part, I think, cover songs are pretty interesting.  They can be defining like Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watch Tower”, redeeming like Aztec Camera’s deconstruction of Van Halen’s “Jump”, or they can just be spot on but still cool versions like today’s first cover – Matthew Sweet doing a cover of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic, “American Girl”. This comes from a cover album featuring covers of songs from the 80s which were featured in iconic films of that era.  The album is a few years old, but it just came into my consciousness and there are some interesting songs on here.


5. We’ve been hyping  Kalpa, the new album from Toronto-based lovable misfits, Valued Customer.  We got our first taste a couple of weeks ago with the song “Second Moon”. Now, we go deeper with the longest track on the album.  “New Jerusalem” clocks in at 14 minutes and has several movements running through it. Historically, I’m not a big fan over long songs.  “Sister Ray” and “Telegraph Road” are two notable exceptions. And, I have to add “New Jerusalem” to that list.  In some ways, this surprisingly reminds me of the The Gabriel Construct album I’ve been featuring of late.  Like that work, this is experimental, challenging, complex, and extremely, extremely good.  Patrick and Ugggy of Valued Customer are hilarious to follow on the Twitter and the Facebook. They are sometimes silly, obscure, and irreverent.  This album is revelatory. They obviously put tons of work into this album, and it has paid off. 

Some lyrics from “New Jerusalem”

“civilizations like chocolate donuts
if one isn’t good enough a hundred won’t be good enough”

“running to new jerusalem
the towers are in the exosphere
goodbye you whores of babylon
trumpets are playing burning spear”

“(hide your daughter hide your wife
lock up all your beets and chives
they’ll kill you for your salt and spice
the end of twitter and being nice)”


http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=50545387/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/transparent=true/

6.  In the weeks since we first introduced you to James the Giant, he has gone on to have his first single introduced by USA Today and the video for that song featured on Huffington Post.   As much as I want to say that being featured on Ear to the Ground lead to these impressive credentials, the fact is this accolades are well-deserved.  The single “Two Weeks on the Ocean” is one of the emotionally powerful songs I’ve heard in a while. Today, we feature “Leave it Buried”.  The eponymously titled EP had it’s official released yesterday.

Shuffle

1. Night, which is the newish album from Beijing (the band not the city). The band comes from Connecticut.  Today’s track is “Into the Rain”. The album is a great achievement. On it, the band walks a precarious balance which could have easily sent them plummeting into one of several miasmas. The band and this album successfully navigates these treacherous paths.


 

2.  In 1986, I started hearing this awesome song on the college radio station. It was rollicking and dark and hinted at something just outside of my vision. I eventually bought the album which quickly came and has remained a favorite of mine.  The artist and album are called Peter Case. The song is “Walk in the Woods“.


3.  Another cover.  A year after Bob Dylan released his fourth album (1964). Johnny Cash (who admired and was admired by Dylan) recorded a cover version of “It Ain’t Me Babe” with June Carter for his 1965 album Orange Blossom Special which was Cash’s 21st album.

 
 PLAYLIST
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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Ice Ice Baby Mix

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Tuesday by JWM 7/7/2013

I don’t have much to say, so let’s hit the music – shall we?  After the JUMP


PRE-SHUFFLE

 “You’re Probably Good at Kissing” by The Great American Novel (You probably are…)

“Meeting” by Canopy Climbers (Uplifting and majestic)

“Marvin’s Room” (Drake Cover) by Valued Customer (Okay, so top secret sources have leaked the name and release date of the new album by Valued Customer. Kalpa is due out July 17. You have just over a week to prepare yourself of epicness, face-meltiness, and perhaps world domination. Just remember, you heard about them here first.  Meanwhile, we have a pretty awesome instrumental cover of this song by Drake.  Drake, I am told, was once on the hit Canadian teenage soap opera Degrassi (something, something). You remember, it was Wheels, Joey, Snake and his twin brother Drake. Okay, maybe not, but he was on Degrassi and that was from Canada just like Valued Customer and Molson’s and SCTV and William Shatner – so there.  Remember Kalpa July 17!)

“Fire Fire Fire Fire” by Casey Black (When one “Fire” is not enough. Casey Black is from Nashville and makes pretty awesome music.)

“The World’s Last Night” by Heath McNease (more from the Weight of Glory hip-hop remix)

“Grown-ups” by The Burning Hell (The Burning Hell are from St. Johns, Newfoundland. To my knowledge this song has no connection to the hit movie franchise of the same name. It’s a nifty song. The Burning Hell is Mathias Kom joined by a number of other people)

“You” live by Radiohead (A live version of the first track on the first Radiohead album)

SHUFFLE 

“El Blues Es Mi Amigo” by Guadalupe Plata from Guadalupe Plata (2013)

Some Deep Blues from Spain.  Guadalupe Plata performed at the Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota back in June. Our good friends, The Dead Exs were there, too. The Dead Exs reported back and we paid attention.  That’s what Ear to the Ground is all about.  Check it.

“The Problem of Pain” by Heath McNease from The Weight of Glory: Second Edition (2013)

This is really powerful stuff. I’ve said all I can about this  record. Seriously, check it out.

“All the Times We Had” by Ivan and Alyosha from All the Times We Had (2013)

The title track from the full-length debut from this promising Seattle band.

“Missing My Home” by The Blind Owl Band from This Train I Ride is Made of Wood and Steel (2013)

Tomorrow is the official release date of the second album by The Blind Owl Band from New York State.  Having heard the record, I can tell you it’s damn good.

PLAYLIST

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