Unpiano | Music Blog

I’m not much of a Folkie, so a lot of the subtleties of the genre are lost on me.  But every now and then, a Folk project just sounds “right,” like the songs really did need to be written in an abandoned church in the woods.  Microphones – The Glow Pt 2 grabbed me this way, and it sounds like Phil Elvrum is a major influence for Mesita, at least for A Million Shades of Sky.  The long-form song structure, guitar vamp, subtle arrangements all nod to Elvrum, but Mesita isn’t afraid to layer in a synth or drum break half-way through the track!  Where Elvrum stays grumpy and depressed, Mesita bring a warm, up-beat optimism to their seasonal depression soundtrack.

Mesita – A Million Shades Of Sky
Mesita – Time Away From The World
Mesita – Somewhere Else

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Happy New Year – I can’t believe that we are still doing this. And I love that.
This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite people. Stay up in 2012.

N Amesake E – The Ocean Is One Day To Give Up Its Dead

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This Winter is going to be much longer and lonelier than I first thought. This means that I will need more music like Ami Sioux to help drag me through these next few months. Ami Sioux takes good photos and is friends with all your art and fashion heroes in Paris. Her songs are just okay.

Ami Sioux – Boot Cut Black Jeans

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Some places just have a “sound” and San Francisco is one of them. Its not just a group of related people consciously borrowing from each other, its a subtle line of connectivity that transcends generations and scenes and finds its way into recordings, most of the time without the musicians even noticing. There’s something about smokey voiced S.F. folky Norma Tanega’s first LP from 1966 that I hear in everything from The Aislers Set, to Romeo Void, to Deerhoof, to Jefferson Airlplane, to Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, to the Sic Alps and so on. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, its a sound, a small guitar lick, a chord progression, a quirky lyric, but as the record moves from track to track I find myself thinking “that sounds like (insert any S.F. favorite here)”, and even more so, “that sounds like a wall of fog pouring over the Golden Gate into the bay”.

Norma Tanega – Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog
Norma Tanega – A Street That Rhymes at 6 A.M.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A respected figure in Michigan’s folk and rock scenes during the 60s and 70s, Ted Lucas released his self-titled solo album of home recorded psych-folk in 1975. With the gentle delivery of an acid-headed Nick Drake or a more-stoned-than-crazy Skip Spence, Lucas puts forth thoughtfully sparse, beautifully subdued folk arrangements, with the occasional room-noise tinged blues jam or fingerpicked ragga for good measure. Never capturing much more than local notoriety, this psych folk obscurity was unearthed and reissued last year. Definitely worth a spin on a hot, stoney summer day.

Ted Lucas – Plain And Sane And Simple Melody
Ted Lucas – It Is So Nice To Get Stoned

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

//photo by kit mcleod

Every time I think my submissions inbox is useless and filled with PR mailers, someone sends in something utterly incredible and proves me wrong yet again. I think the last time this happened was with Toro Y Moi almost two years ago and to be honest, this is what having a music blog is all about – getting musicians who deserve it instant exposure and then seeing it come to fruition when they are playing a huge venue the very next year.

When I first heard Joel Robert Melton, I spent days trying to figure out which of my friend’s had sent me his album, only to come up flat and eventually discover his email sitting calmly in the mailbox. The album itself is overly honest and humble, choosing each note wisely and sneaking up on you from songs that you’d least expect it. It also lends itself well to staying up in the early hours working on a project – a fact to which I can personally attest. I think I must have played the whole thing back to back for hours before I even realized what I was listening to. Joel had previously referred to his work as lo-fi, but I could only hear lush instrumentation and the signs of what I have recently come to know as orchestral folk. Anyways, this should ease you nice and gently in your week so that you can take a leisurely stretch and remember what’s right in the world. Get the full album here

Joel Robert Melton – Venus
Joel Robert Melton – Ghost
Joel Robert Melton – Staircase

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Bonus:
Joel Robert Melton – Shadowfingers Pt. 1 (video)

These are the projects that make me happy in a small place just under my heart. When musicians get together and make EPs just for fun, as friends. Owen Holmes, bassist from Black Kids invited different friends over to his place in Jacksonville to record some duets, and the result just emanates good feeling. Owen’s lo-key marble-mouth singing goes really well with regular vocalists like SoKo and Cassie Ramone. Note to all musicians, after you have a successful record, get together and make songs like this..

Gospel Music – Are Your Parents Still Together (ft. Cassie Ramone)
Gospel Music – I Miss The Shit Out Of You (ft. SoKo)
Gospel Music – Gamophobia (ft. Shirley Simms)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We posted about Marissa a while back, but this song was too good to pass up. I grabbed it off her Kickstarter post where she was trying to raise money for the new album (which raised like $6,000 over the goal by the way). In case you didn’t know, Kickstarter is where you can now have your favorite band come play at your house if you have a spare $1,000 or so. Anyways, make sure you find the new album when it comes out – you’ll probably like it if you like this song.

Marissa Nadler – Mary Come Alive

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sure Sharon has been around for a while and has now embarked on a very impressive European tour, but how awesome is this video of her floating around Central Park? Not to mention the electrified amp in her boat with water all around her.. total tough town. Anyways, the album version of this song (below) is beautiful as well and if you can find her episode of the Take Away Show, it will blow you away.

Sharon Van Etten – For You

I can’t wake up this week. My eyes won’t open and my heart won’t start. What I really need is a love song to gently lull me back into the world and Jean Marie had one hiding up her sleeve all along. This song is off her album Golden Cherries from earlier this year and while the album is full of love songs that make me happy-in-a very-sad sort of way, this is the one that walks me around the block an extra time. I really like how her voice warbles to the edge of breaking and almost whispers the words in my ear. If all songwriters were this vulnerable, people would stop skimming albums and actually listen to them.

Jean Marie – My Love, He Comes ‘Round