Category: Steve Almaas

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Slow Bar Mix

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Added tons of music to the lineup – so stayed tuned.  

Let’s get to the Shuffle – after the jump:

1.  Thule Fog by John Vanderslice from Green Grow the Rushes (2010)

From a 2010 EP released for free by the Florida-born singer/songwriter. (A different Vanderslice song is on the Amazon Widget above)

2.  Crows by Shelly Colvin from Up the Hickory Down the Pine (2012)
Another great song from a former featured artist on E2TG.  We were fortunate to be able to attend the album release party for this record.
Here’s Colvin with other at Music City Roots

 3.  Dialtone by BELL from DIAMONITE (2011)

Brooklyn based Olga Bell heads up this electro-pop band.  An extended single with a few remixes of this song was released in June 2012.

4.  The System by The Black Pacific from 2010 SideOneDummy Summer Sampler (2010)
From the California punk band’s self-titled debut album…

5.   Paint a Vulgar Picture (Demo) by The Smith from Unreleased Demos and Instrumentals (Bootleg Vinyl Rip) (2010)
 Final version of song appeared on The Smith’s final album, Strangeways, Here We Come.  
6.  East Nashville Skyline by Todd Snider from What the Folk (2005)
Not on his 2004 album of the same name.  Does appear on his 2007 Rarities compilation called Peace, Love and Anarchy.  Name drops some East Nashville haunts from days gone by – also Phoenix Radio.
7.  Ain’t Dumbo by Night Beats from Trouble in Mind’s Stax-O-Trax! (2012)
Originally released on the band’s 2011 eponymous release. Seattle based Garage, Psychedelic, Soul band.

8.  The Way It Never Was by Kim Richey from Glimmer (1999)
A recent Goodwill score.  Kim Richey is an amazingly talented singer-songwriter. Her last album was called Wreck Your Wheels and was released in 2010.  Word is we may see some new music in 2013, and I, for one, cannot wait.  This song is about guaranteed to get into her head and stay… you won’t complain.
 
 

9. Younger Us by Japandroids from Cruel Summer: Stereogum Summer Jams 2010 Vol. 1 (2010)

Originally released as a single in July 2010 b/w a cover of X’s Sex and Dying in High Society.  Later released on the band’s 2012 album Celebration Rock. This duo from Vancouver does the modern alternative rock thing pretty darn well.

  10. Heavy Soup (Outro) by Cornershop from Handcream for a Generation (2002)

Groove heavy instrumental from this English band’s fourth album.  This record has become one my favorites.

11. Saturday’s Child by Steve Almaas from Trailer Songs (2012)
ex-Suicide Commando and Beat Rodeo front man released this fresh sounding album last year. Fans of Beat Rodeo will recognize the bright pop vocals and the mildly countryish twang of the music.  I know I’ve had this song in my shuffle before, and hopefully more of the record will show up soon, but I don’t mind hearing it again.

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Last Hurrah? Mix

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Well, it’s Friday again, and we’ve reached what will likely be the final Morning Shuffle of 2012.  As I mentioned yesterday, I loaded up my new memory card with a random sampling of my digital music collection.  I left some space for all of the great new music to come in 2013.  

UPDATE on Band of the Year Voting:  As of the time I am writing this post, we’ve had in the neighborhood of 1750 votes.  Brooklyn based The Disappointment are holding a 5% point leave over Skeletons in the Piano who are from Upstate New York.  Currently, New York band The Great American Novel are running third.  You’ve got a couple more days to vote. Voting will end just before Midnight (Central Time) on Sunday December 30.  Also, we need about 200 more votes to surpass our total vote count for last years inaugural Band of the Year poll.  So keep the votes coming.  Here is where to vote:  CLICK HERE

Now for the shuffle which is pretty mind-blowingly eclectic and includes some songs I probably heard for the first time today.  After the JUMP!


 Amazingly all but one of the songs were available on the widget and the one that wasn’t was a cover and we got the original on there.

1.  Clap Your Hands by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band from The Wages (2010).  (Rural Indiana Blues) I noticed that four Facebook friends Liked this band’s page including two friends from my hometown, a Carnie (of Black Jake and the Carnies) and a member of The Imperial Rooster.

2. Walk On by G. Love from The Hangout Music Fest 2012 Sampler – from G. Love’s 2011 album Fixin’ to Die (Hold the Special Sauce) 

3. Virtue and Wine by Sondre Lerche from Faces Down (2002) (A Goodwill Store find and a damn good album)

4.  Saturday’s Child by Steve Almaas from Trailer Songs (2012) (Ex. Suicide Commando/Beat Rodeo: songs recorded in two airstream trailers in the Catskills – I’ve been a huge fan of Steve Almaas for years. This is a great record which we told you about right after it came out).
5.  She Floated Away by Husker Du (umlauts omitted ’cause I’m too lazy to add them) from Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987) (The sixth and final album from the post-punk legends – completing a Minneapolis themed set of two songs – this is a Grant Hart penned song)
  
6.  Dinner by Blood Orange from the Dinner Btw Bad Girls single (2011) (Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion aka Blood Orange – well crafted electronic based R&B music)

7.  Black Leaf by The Cave Singers from No Witch (2011) (Seattle based Indie music featuring former members of Pretty Girls Make Graves – this was one I downloaded and subsequently lost track of – I kind of dig this).

8.  Black Picket Fences by Walking for Pennies from Forget About Wonderland (2012) (awesome Mo-Grass music from one of the bands in our Band of the Year poll)
 (Couldn’t find a video for Black Picket Fences so how about a Radiohead cover?)
9.  Wave Goodbye by Ty Segall Band from CMJ Mixtape – June 2012 – from Ty Segall Band’s Slaughterhouse (2012) (awesome garage punk music from San Francisco with rat-a-tat-tat drums and hard guitars – coolness)
10. Wake Up (Live in NYC 9/23/10) (Arcade Fire cover) by John Legend and the Roots from a download only release (2010) (Cool and funky cover of the Funeral single – The Roots are by far the best house band on television).
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Steve Almaas – Trailer Songs

Trailer Songs is the brand, spanking new album by Steve Almaas.  It was almost a year ago to the day that we first told you about this album, and it is finally here.

This will not be a review, because I have only had time to preview some of the songs, but it sounds like vintage Steve Almaas.  For the uninitiated, Steve Almaas is a veteran musician who is originally from Minneapolis where he was a founding member of the legendary punk band Suicide Commandos.  Later he released a solo EP called Beat Rodeo which he made with Richard Barone of the Bongos and Mitch Easter of Let’s Active.  

He then formed a band named after his EP.  Beat Rodeo were signed to IRS Records. They put out a couple of great records: Staying Out Late With Beat Rodeo which was produced by Don Dixon and Home in the Heart of the Beat which was produced by Scott Litt.

Trailer Songs was recorded in two Airstream trailers in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  This time around he worked with a variety of musicians such as The Elegant Too (guitarist Chris Maxwell and drummer Phil Hernandez), Mark Sidgwick, Ambrosia Parsley, Mitch Easter, Marcellus Hall and Peter Holsapple (the Dbs).




The album cover above will take you to Amazon.com where you can download the album for just $8.99.  Great music from a great guy.  Give a listen and show some love!

Ticking in my head….

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;A HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Feartothegro00-20%2F8010%2Fc72aae72-99e1-4a92-8efd-9fc5442a4903&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;Operation=NoScript”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Amazon.com Widgets&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/A&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; At the time I am writing this there are less than 27 hours to go.  To date, over 1,500 votes have been cast.  Today has been the heaviest voting day since the poll began, and this has resulted in a dramatic shift in the leader board.


Please note:  the U.N. Election monitors have failed to show, so everyone is encouraged to vote as often as you like.


More importantly (to me), please check out all 27 of the bands and artists.  In my opinion, all of the bands are great.  The run a pretty mind-blowing gamut from Indie Folk Pop to Punk/Metal to Cello Folk Rock to pure Alternative (whatever that means)…..  So……  yeah…. vote and vote and vote!

Steve Almaas – Ear to the Ground’s 7 Questions

Steve Almaas is cool.  He is in the Minneapolis band Suicide Commandos.  Worked with Richard Barone with The Bongos – made a killer solo EP – Beat Rodeo which was produced by Barone, Almaas and Mitch Easter at Easter Chapel Hill studio – visual vinyl evidence above.  Then he formed a band which was named for the EP.  Beat Rodeo produced two albums for IRS Records.

Below is a new track called Your Life to Live via Soundcloud.

https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F29699274 Your Life To Live by Steve Almaas



Recently Steve Almaas sat down with Ear to the Ground* to help us launch a new feature called Ear to Ground’s 7 Questions.  

1. What is the first music you can consciously remember hearing?

Jud is dead from the movie Oklahoma. Scared the piss out of me…


2. What was the first music that really caught your attention (if different than 1.)?

Beatles on Ed Sullivan


3. When did you first begin playing music?

Piano lessons from my mom in 2nd grade.


4. Biggest thrill as a musician?

Many thrills, but one big one was playing a show with Townes Van Zandt in Berlin and then hanging out with him for the next few days.


5. What music is currently at the top of your play list?

The new Nick Lowe album. He’s no dinky do….


6. Any music you like which might be a surprise to the casual observer? 

I have an inexplicable fondness for Lambada… 


7. If you could see any band or artist live at any point in their career, who and at what point would you want to see?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Louis Armstrong cut Blue Yodel #9 with Jimmie Rodgers

*Disclaimer: Although technically speaking Mr. Almaas did not sit down WITH Ear to the Ground, we were in fact sitting when we typed the questions and one can assume that there is a reasonable chance he was sitting down when he answered the questions. So there.