Category: Lawrence Welks and Our Bear to Cross

Featured Friday Music Shuffle – Dog Days Mix

Here we are at the last Featured Friday Music Shuffle for July.  Next Friday, we will be shuffling up a whole new crop of Featured Artists. 

Another opportunity to remind you to vote for your favorite Featured Artist to be Band of the Month for July.  The poll is on the left sidebar near the top.  One vote per computer or something like that.  Vote now!  Polls will close next Tuesday around midnight.


First up this morning is actually one of our Featured Artists for June. Toward the end of the polling period for Band of the Month, I realized that I had inadvertently left Dean Fields off of the poll. So, I have added him to the poll for July.  This morning I decided to add one of his songs to the final featured Friday shuffle.  Forever Never Knowing  is an infectious indie pop song from his outstanding Under a Searchlight Moon EP.



Next up we have FallsStart with their catchy, hard rocking song, Happy Song. The song is featured on the band’s forthcoming EP Our Summer. Which is due out August 10.




Next up we have a band from Burlington, VT doing a cover of a piece written by the guy who used a slingshot to defeat a mighty giant.  From their whimsical set, Lawrence Welks Does God: Psalms we have 11. In the hands of LW&OB2X, David’s Psalm is set to a disco beat caustic, pleading vocals. HALLELUJAH!






And finally, we have a track from Wolf and Cub with the a song from their double A-side Shut Me Out/Got Nothing Coming 7″ with Got Nothing Coming.

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Historic Print (L): Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee, 1897 / The Henderson Litho. Co., , 20 x 24in Historic Print (L): Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee, 1897 / The Henderson Litho. Co., , 20 x 24in

Historic Print (L): Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee, 1897 / The Henderson Litho. Co., This is a museum quality, reproduction print on premium paper with archival/UV resistant inks. Date: c1896. Subject:  Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition (1897 : Nashville, Tenn.) Exhibitions–Tennessee–Nashville–1890-1900. Centennial celebrations–Tennessee–Nashville–1890-1900. SOURCE: Library of Congress

No Voter Suppression Here!

VOTE NOW!  We’re going back to the previous method which means the Band of the Month poll is located on the sidebar.  It also means one vote per computer (you can vote for more than one band).
Also, we’re adding a new way to vote.  Please comment below with the name of your selection for Band of the Month. 
As always, be sure to check out all of the bands, even if you’re just here to support your favorite band/kid brother/spouse/neighbor.  Here is a condensed voting guide.  Remember details of all of our Featured Artists are located to the left.
Why should I vote for:
Lawrence Welks and Our Bear to Cross:  Because they are doing the Lawd’s work…
Justin and the Salty Dogs: Because they are salty.
Brian Bergeron: Because he’s Mr. Nice.
Big Wilson River: Because Don Ryan told you to.
The Raindoggs: Because you love Tom Waits and you love Snoop Dogg, and you never thought to put them together.
Francis Bowie:  Because you are intelligent and you love pop music.
The Shake: Because maybe a win will convince them to get back together.
Vinyl Thief: Because they have vinyl in their name.
Wolf and Cub: Because they come from “down under” and probably have those cool accents.
FallsStart: Because they originated in Hawaii, and you’ve always wanted to go there.
Dean Fields: Because you want to help assuage my guilt for leaving him off the June Band of the Month Poll.

That’s it: Go Vote!

Featured Friday Music Shuffle – Jason Vorhees Mix

Time to offer up our weekly selection of music from our Featured Artists of the Month.  Today the shuffle takes us on a musical journal from Burlington, Vermont to New Jersey by way of Nashville, Tennessee. 
Lawrence Welks and Our Bear to Cross – this band first came to our attention through an Area Code feature on Stereogum.  The song today, is one I download from that article: Psalm 39 from their Lawrence Welks Does God release.  I find it very hard to explain what it is I like so much about this whacked out bunch. So, I try not to think too much about it…

Vinyl Thief are up with the title-track from their latest release – Rebel Hill. By the way, the name Vinyl Thief makes me think about this theory Rex Silo and I came up with back in the day. After watching Louis Malle’s Murmur of the Heart and Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva is close proximity to each other, and (from my poor memory) both movies are set in France and have scenes where someone steals a jazz album), which lead to our theory that “The French love Jazz, but they don’t like to pay for it.) Whew, a long way to go for a connection which is probably not at all what the band had in mind.  Anyway, Rebel Hill! Check it out:

And finally, we close with Big Wilson River with the lead off track from their Octopus album which came out late last year. Eighty Dead Armadillos has a impressive mescaline influenced western/rodeo/deserty feel.  Pretty good for a New Jersey band.  Grant it, by now, nothing surprises me about the awesome music coming from the Garden State.

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Featured Artists (July) – Did you know?

Did you know….

…that sometimes, I obsess over whether a particular band or artist is “too famous” to be a Featured Artist?  (As if! I know, I know Radiohead and Black Keys etc. are dying to be named Featured Artists on Ear to the Ground!)

…that the listed order of the Featured Artists is completely arbitrary!

…that Featured Artists Lawrence Welks and Our Bear to Cross will soon be releasing some music on Moscow, Russia based Singapore Sling Tapes? It’s called Binary Execute Now and here’s the band’s description of what to expect.

Lawrence Welks goes beyond the iron curtain, releasing B.E.N. with comrades in Moscow.  How fitting for an album focused on 9/11, computers, nuclear fall-out, the illuminati, the apocalypse, and mostly with palindromes.  We’re so pumped and here’s a picture that shows it!

…that Featured Artist Brian Bergeron has a new band called Mr. Kind, and that they are in the running for Band of the Month on the SF edition of Deli Magazine?  You can vote here for Mr. Kind – the poll is on the right sidebar.

…that Featured Artists Justin and the Salty Dogs are from Chicago? And that Chicago apparently has some connection to the Blues? Who knew?

…that Featured Artists Big Wilson River have a quote from Ear to the Ground favorite Don Ryan on their Facebook page?  And that the said quote contains contains the word f**k? Surprising coming from Don Ryan? You bet… 😉

…that Featured Artists The Raindoggs have a new lead singer.  Kassy Key will be joining the band on an upcoming tour.  Can you say Nashville please?  They also have an awesome podcast that you can download from Itunes.