Category: The Plum Magnetic

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Never Enough Mix

On a Monday which began with a spilled cup of coffee… (and did I mention it was Monday?) the shuffle comes up with a fine collection of music.  No oddball pop gems, none of the usual suspects, just a nice collection of cool music from around the country…

Oh – I recorded a new bit of short fiction to my Soundcloud account.  Check it if you want…

“Lovely” by Solardrive from Solardrive

Our penultimate track from the self-titled Solardrive album which we have been playing for several months.  A cool video accompanies co-directed by Solardrive front man Balthazar Getty.  Solardrive are based in L.A.

“Photographs and Fables”  by Mission South from Migration Vol. 2

Mission South were from D.C. I became a fan after seeing their exuberant performance at The Basement last fall.  Sadly, they broke up just a few months after that, but they left behind some nifty songs.

“Desert Ground” by The Western Den from The Battle Hymn EP

The Western Den are from Boston.  Just a little ambient folk for the shuffle.

“Happy Man” by Sparklehorse from Distorted Ghost EP

The late great Mark Linkous was from North Carolina. This is a sweet song made sadder by time and circumstances…

“Burning Jacob’s Ladder” by Mark Lanegan from Mark Lanegan

A survivor of the Seattle grunge scene.  This is just a purely great song.

“Hide Away Folk Family” by They Might Be Giants from First Album Live

Again, I am reminded of the awesomeness of the first TMBG album.  They Might be from Brooklyn… There May Be Giants.

“Willy’s Song” by Rayland Baxter from Feathers and Fishhooks

Nashville represents….  Man I love this song. Don’t fly away…

“Never Enough” by Trixie Whitley from Fourth Corner

Trixie Whitley is the daughter of Chris Whitley and she is part of Black Dub with super producer Daniel Lanois.  This is good information to have, but it is secondary to the amazing talent and ability evident in this track from her debut full-length solo album.  She is from New York and Ghent.

“SheshBesh” by The Plum Magnetic from Terra Animata!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”);

We finish things up with some amazing fusion/world music from New Orleans.

VIDEOS

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Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Real Live Wire Mix

Okay – how many #E2TG readers watched the Grammys last night?  What did you think? Were there parts you liked? Was it all utter crap? How well did it represent the state of music from October 2012 – September 2013?  Seriously? Really? Was it worst than you could imagine or better than you expected?

So here’s the thing, for as long as I can remember, The Grammy’s have been completely out of touch with the music I like. Or at least a decade too late. That being said, there were a few parts of last nights broadcast that were okay.

Here’s the thing, regardless of your opinion of the Grammys, the fact is that every night of the week in clubs and small venues all across the country, indie artists are creating memorable moments playing a huge variety of music. Many of these bands and artists do not get the hype or press that your Grammy “caliber” performers get. Nonetheless, they aren’t that hard to find. Take the time, seek them out, and regularly read music blogs like Ear to the Ground (or just read Ear to the Ground if I may ever so humbly suggest.)


Anyway, we have a shuffle filled with interest music that you may or may not have heard about.  Check these artists out and see what appeals to you…

“Written in the Snow” by The Autumn Defense
 
“Momentum” by Left of Logic
 
“Mallrats” by The Orwells
 
“January” by prattle on, rick.
 
“Psycho Killer” (Talking Heads Cover) by Cage the Elephant
 
“The Delicious” by The Plum Magnetic
 
“and the Hippos Are Burning in Their Tanks” by HIPPIECULT
 
“No Drama” by Solardrive (feat. TC and Kevin Hicks)
 
“Sugar Dyed Honey Pants” by St. Paul and the Broken Bones
 
“Call Your Girlfriend” (Robyn cover) by Lucy Wainwright Roche
 
“Free Freedom” by Joseph Arthur
 
 
NOTES:


The Autumn Defense song is from a Noisetrade Eastside Manor Session recorded here in Nashville (East Nashville to be precise).

After seeing their recent performance on David Letterman, I just had to add The Orwells to the mix.

 A seasonally appropriate instrumental song for a blustery January morning – from Nashville’s own prattle on, rick.

A fun live cover of the Talking Heads classic by Cage the Elephant (who happen to come from Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz’s home state.)

HIPPIECULT from Philly make their E2TG debut with a song from their demo release. BTW, the song title actually begins with an ampersand (“and sign”), however, ampersands mess up the formatting of blog posts, so I have to spell out “and”

Some soulful funkiness from Solardrive (featuring drum ‘n’ bass artist TC and hip-hop artist Kevin Hicks), and also from Birmingham Alabama’s St. Paul and (ampersand) the Broken Bones. 

A cool cover of a Robyn song by a New York based singer with a fine musical pedigree, Lucy Wainwright Roche (she is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Suzzy Roche of The Roches).

SHOP

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3243551951/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/

 
WATCH

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Passion Fruit and Holy Bread Mix

If you’ve been reading Ear to the Ground for any length of time and ever wondered about the subtitles for each shuffle (like Passion Fruit and Holy Bread Mix* today), I thought I would provide a little historical context.

When I started writing Ear to the Ground (May 2011), there was a local blog that posted a news round up post almost every day, and each one was titles something like News Roundup (probably not that but you get the idea) – something edition.  I thought it would be cool as a homage to that site** to add subtitles to my daily shuffle.  I actually used the word “edition” before I changed it to the more music oriented “mix”.

These often obscure or even meaningless subtitles are derived from a variety of sources: Current Events, events from my life, overheard phrases, and sometimes they even have something to do with the music contained in that days shuffle.

* As I wrote this, I realized the unintentional humor of Holy Bread Mix (which I suppose could be used in a Holy Bread Machine.

** Homage is just a fancy way of saying blatant ripoff, right?

Anyway, I have had fun this week using part of lyrics of some of the more well known songs in each day’s shuffle as the source of the subtitle.

Anyway, no extra charge for all that useful information.  Let’s shuffle….

“She Bangs the Drums” by The Stone Roses
 
“Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” (Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) cover) by X
 
“The Sun in California” by The Autumn Defense
 
“Trece Leches” by The Plum Magnetic
 
“Misfit” by Britain.

 

“Crying in the Rain” by The Everly Brothers
 
“Final Wild Son” by The Long Ryders 
 
“Cadillac Desert” by William Tyler
 
“We No Who U R” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
NOTES
 
 
Nice combination of songs of different eras and styles.
 
What was and what could have been…. The Stone Roses….
 
To save you the time and trauma, the Ke$ha song is not a cover of either the Lead Belly original, the X cover or the unrelated Ultravox song.
 
To give my younger readers some perspective of how weird it is growing older: Wilco spinoff band The Autumn Defense have been together longer than X had at the time I first become familiar with their music.
 
In my initial contact about The Plum Magnetic, one of the “similar to” bands mentioned was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and it is really noticeable in today’s track. Good funky, jazzy grooves. The band is from my Dad’s hometown, by the way.
 
Britain. (yes the period is part of his name) is a young (I mean really young – not The Foresters young, but young) Indie Hip-Hop artist from the outskirts of Nashville.  As noted in the lyrics of song featured today, he doesn’t fit the profile of a hip hop artist, but he got the rhymes.  He is also a budding Reality TV star.  As a fellow misfit, I can appreciate this song.
 
The world lost an amazing voice earlier this month with the passing of Phil Everly.  Phil along with his brother Don produced some of the best and most enduring harmonies in modern era music. The Everly Brothers‘ influence is widespread and also enduring.
 
If I had been cooler and lived in California during the middle part of the 1980s, I think I would have been at least a stalker of the whole Paisley Underground scene.  As it was, I was just a huge fan of a lot of the music that came out of it.  The Long Ryders were among my favorites.  The band recently reunited for their first L.A. gig in something like 27 years (for a benefit concert that also featured a reunion of another favorite of mine from that time – The Unforgiven.)  Today’s track is the opening song on the band’s classic Native Sons album.
 
William Tyler is one of Nashville’s biggest musical assets, and I’m really glad the rest of the universe seems to be catching on to his music.  This is a great instrumental track of a Merge Records compilation from last year.
 



William Tyler from Grimey’s Record Store Day 2012 when he played with JEFF the Brotherhood and Caitlin Rose.

One can never go wrong by closing out a shuffle and a week with a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song.  This one is from his highly regarded 2013 album – Push the Sky Away.

WATCH
 



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SHOP

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Juicy Avocado Mix

We made it through another week.

Let’s move on….


Today’s Shuffle contains 7 songs: 2 covers, a couple of songs by a New Orleans World/Fusion band from New Orleans who are new to #E2TG, and more…

The Mix:

“The Light” by Swear and Shake

“All You Do is Talk” (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club cover) by Kopecky Family Band

“Scarlet” by Taylor Brown

“Sweet Confusion” by The Plum Magnetic

“Pablo Picasso” (Modern Lovers cover) by David Bowie

“Parallax” by The Plum Magnetic

“Raja’s Song (Hold on My King) by Ghost Pal

NOTES:

The deeper I go, the more I like Swear and Shake.

I dig Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and I dig Kopecky Family Band. And, I dig this cover.

A few weeks back I spent a little time following the Bandcamp recommendations rabbit hole, and I came to “3 Folk Songs” by Taylor Brown who was recommended by Brian Bergeron of Mr. Kind.

The Plum Magnetics are from New Orleans, and they play a rocking version of World/Fusion music.  Sweet Confusion is an extended kind of funky instrumental track.

I dig David Bowie and I dig the Modern Lovers. Pablo Picasso is one of my favorite Modern Lovers’ songs, and I think I like their version of this song better.  Still, this is an interesting conversation starter.

Parallax by The Plum Magnetics. From their album Terra Animata. This band came to me from James Moore of IMP.

The day would be complete with out some #MCFK, this time via Ghost Pal from their God Save MCFK album.

WATCH
 


SHOP
 
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