To start off the interview with Joey Ryan of the Milk Carton Kids, I did something that’s probably a total “no-no” if were a more traditional media outlet. I told him a personal story and said “thanks,” because the Milk Carton Kids latest album The Ash & Clay has literally made my life easier. I kid you not, every single time I play the album, my little rugrat son drops his head on my shoulder and falls asleep. It’s usually within one song, but at the most three or four. It’s a total daily ritual, and it never fails.
That’s the vibe of the album; it’s totally relaxing. But that’s not to say it is a sleepy record. On the contrary, it’s a captivating record. That’s why it’s so relaxing – with the dueling vocals and acoustic guitars playing off each other in harmony.
The list of great complete albums that can serve as wind-down music is very short, and it’s especially rare to find a wind-down album that might actually have your favorite song on it. Cat Stevens and Nick Drake could do it without really trying. Roger Waters has done it. Carl Broemel just did it. Billy Breathes? Maybe a couple of Dylan albums? I’m sure there are more, but The Ash & Clay is right up there with the greats in this category.
Anticipation. Tension before the release. Two of the things that Phish has always been masters of. And with summertime looming, which will see Phish embark on the beginning of their 30th year as a band, expectations are running sky high – especially for this journalist and fan who can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. So, for this week’s column, I simply wanted to run down a short list of some things I would like to see happen throughout the rest of the year.
[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]
7.) Encores Galore
If you’ve seen one Bouncin’ >Tweeprise encore, you’ve seen them all. Encores, in my eyes, have always represented a final exclamation point on what has often sometimes been a landmark show. This year, I hope the band decides to bust the hinges off the “formula” and play some wild encores that represent not only the evening’s show, but magnificent accomplishments in that venue, city, state or moment in time. Think 12.30.97′s mayhem (still a top three or five show for me thanks to the “unforgettable” factor and my favorite AC/DC Bag of all-time), or 7.13.99′s Tuesday’s Gone encore, which I’ve been listening to a lot this week. The significance of 30 years in the Phish world cannot be understated. So fellas, let’s move past the often tacked on encores and make them count. Some of us are still listening, and not in a hurry to scurry out to the lot for a fatty veggie burrito.
Last week’s Google annual I/O developer conference didn’t bring any new hardware announcements. However, it was rife with news from across the company’s vast services. One of the exciting pieces was the announcement of the rumored streaming service dubbed “All Access.” This streaming service expands the utility of the existing Google Play Music service. Similar to existing streaming services such as Spotify, MOG and Rdio, Google Play All Access is nothing groundbreaking of course, but has a handful of features that make it stand out. Likewise, there are a bunch of drawbacks that leave much room for improvement.
This week we’ll take a quick look at Google Play Music All Access and five features that make the service awesome, five drawbacks to the service and five additional suggestions to help tip the scales and make it the best streaming service available and draw people away from whatever service they are currently using.
It’s exhilarating capturing video from action sports or adventures like mountain biking, white water rafting, scuba diving, skydiving and other intense sports. Sometimes it is also fun to capture footage on a stroll around a festival site, a leisurely hike through a mountain pass or even a back-road trip on a 4×4, snow mobile or a Jeep. Yet unless one was willing to drop a couple hundred dollars, there really has not been an affordable action camera for the occasional user. Until now.
Monoprice’s MHD Action Camera is one of the most affordable POV camera yet. Opening up action videography to a huge market (that may only be a sporadic user and unwilling to spend $200-$400 on offerings from GoPro, Sony and others) the Monoprice camera doesn’t skimp on quality, durability, or ease of use. Offering 1080p HD video in a fully waterproof body with good battery life and a compact, lightweight form factor, this camera is quite amazing for a little less than $100. Read on the view examples of videos and learn more about this camera.
Close to seven years ago, I wrote a piece for Earvolution entitled The Ten Greatest Books About Rock And Roll. Motivated by arrogance, entitlement and a desire to prove that Largehearted Boy wasn’t the only Internet journalist that reads, I felt perfectly comfortable in proclaiming a finite set of books as the elite strata of rock and roll journalism. In a revelation that should surprise no one, I was quickly disabused of the motion that I covered the subject adequately. Even subjective endeavors such as “best of” lists can have some objectively egregious omissions.
With a little less arrogance and entitlement (but equal desire to show that others beside LHB can write about the written word), the original Earvolution list of ten has been refined and expanded to a full dozen. Anyone wishing to become well-versed and well-rounded in music from the business side to the listener side could do much worse than to stock their library, in no particular order, with the following twelve books.
Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey In Rural North Dakota – Chuck Klosterman (2001)
Last weekend I walked into my local Berkeley coffee shop and Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row was playing on the stereo. I turned to my friend and asked if he had any way of identifying what verse we were at – but neither of us could place how far into the song we were, or how likely it was the song would still be playing when we left. It was, in fact, still playing when we left. Later that night, I saw Wilco at The Greek Theatre open with One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) – yet another song with numerous (albeit short) verses, and thus was born this week’s B List. Interestingly, both of those songs, and many listed below, share the characteristic of also not having a chorus.
Hurricane – Bob Dylan
There was a time in high school where I could recite all eleven verses from Dylan’s protest song for boxer and accused murdered Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. If I had time to dig through enough songs, we could probably make a B List of only Bob Dylan songs that have eight or more verses. In addition to the mention of Desolation Row in the intro, Tangled Up In Blue, Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts, the list goes on and on.
{note: all of my 2013 picks can be found in a single Spotify playlist, updated weekly: RecommNeds 2013, enjoy!}
1939 Ensemble: Howl & Bite
Equal parts haunting, beautiful and funky, 1939 Ensemble are an instrumental duo comprised of vibraphone and drums. Yes, you read that right and if that doesn’t intrigue you a little bit, I don’t know what will (hey, would Neddy steer you wrong?). Floating between rock, pop, jazz and groove with lots of added horns and other percussive noise this album is a treat. These guys are definitely on my watch list.
We’ve already reviewed two of Monoprice’s outstanding audio values. Their $7 offering in earphones and a $20 set of headphones each offered fantastic sound quality, build quality and even comfort. Relatively recently they’ve added to their lineup with a pair of active noise cancelling headphones called simply, “Noise Cancelling Headphone.” Can the company that has become synonymous with discount cables & connectors score another win and go 3-for-3 in our reviews? With a retail price of about $100, the expectations are certainly higher. Likewise, in this hyper-competitive segment of the headphone market, there is a ton of competition.
Noise cancelling headphones have several things of critical importance to note when evaluating them. Typically, they are used when travelling, so they need to be durable yet portable and relatively lightweight at the same time. Battery life should provide plenty of juice and not be a constant concern. Like any headphone, they need to be comfortable. And of course, the two most important things: Overall sound quality and the noise reduction that they offer. Fortunately, Monoprice has done quite well in all these areas.
Located in the heart of the “Forever Wild” Catskill Forest Preserve in Big Indian, New York; The Full Moon Resort continues to add events to its already formidable lineup of Music Masters Camps. Three HT faves will be throwing camps at Full Moon this summer as Umphrey’s McGee will present sUMmer School from June 17 – 21, Dweezil Zappa will host Dweezilla Music Boot Camp from July 1 – July 5, while Dark Star Orchestra will lead DSO High School on August 5 – 9.
All three events will feature workshops, performances, master classes, presentations, interactive jams and many other activities all at the comfortable Full Moon Resort. Each act will bring special guests with them to their camps as Umphrey’s will welcome Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band / Flecktones) to sUMmer School, Dweezil has invited a number of “counselors” such as Oz Noy and Chris Buono to Dweezilla Boot Camp, while DSO has Grateful Dead Hour host David Gans, legendary Dead recording engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson and former Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux signed up for DSO High School. Spots are currently available for all three camps.
As part of our Everybody Wins When We Plug Something And In Return They Offer Us Free Shit To Give Away program, we’ve got an autographed CD for each act for our readers. We’ll let sUMmer School hosts Umphrey’s McGee, Dweezilla Boot Camp host Dweezil Zappa and DSO High School hosts Dark Star Orchestra determine just what CD you’ll get, but they will be signed. Simply leave a comment below telling us which CD you’d like to win and you’ll be entered.
Back on October 10th Phish fan Myke “LawnMemo” Menio started a project called The Daily Ghost in which he would listen to and the write about every version of Ghost Phish has played since its debut on June 13th, 1997. Recently, Menio completed his project after detailing all 112 Ghosts the quartet performed up until this past New Year’s Eve at Madison Square Garden.
Myke’s passion came through in each of his posts and we were impressed at how he methodically analyzed the Phish fan-favorite as he seemed to learn from each previous article. We asked LawnMemo to share some thoughts about what he learned, not only about the song but also from the process of listening to and writing about 112 Ghosts. He put together this list detailing 10 of those things.
1. Ghost is an incredible jam vehicle. The sheer amount of fantastic jams blew me away. There is a lot to take away from just about every version. When the song Ghost starts up during a show, chances are it is going to be memorable. My top 10 list has to be a top 12 because there are just too many outstanding versions.
Tell me what it is you like about music. Because I’m pretty sure Kiki Pau does it on this album. It takes this Finnish band four tracks to cover 45 minutes, each one more a rock-and-roll suite than a song, amassing styles, genres and varied instrumentation along the way. Moving, transcendent, unique, progressive and very, very good.
This week, I have a handful of great gadgets to review that I have been using over the last several weeks. If you’ve ever run out of power on a mobile device – then you’ll definitely want to read on. Likewise, if your fingers have ever gotten tired of tapping on hard glass, then you’ll also want to check out a couple of great mobile accessories. There’s five devices in total and I bet at least one would be great for you! Read on and see!
With a debut album entitled The Year of Hibernation and a follow-up entitled Wondrous Bughouse, a blind assumption regarding the artistic direction for Youth Lagoon’s Trevor Powers would probably be accurate. The title, Wondrous Bughouse, certainly suggests a sojourn to the fantastical and that’s very much what happens on the new record. Similarities exist between the two albums, but Wondrous Bughouse is more experimental, more psychedelic, more demanding, and generally weirder. If The Year of Hibernation was Pixar, Wondrous Bughouse is Tim Burton.
It’s always a question of which way musicians will lean after releasing a widely acclaimed album. The Year of Hibernation was easily palatable yet sophisticated enough to avoid being deemed catchy, but what comes next? Stick with the formula? Reverse course? Thankfully, Wondrous Bughouse pushes the envelope in all the right directions. It’s well-produced; the attention to detail allows the depth to reveal itself in layers and the overall level of accessibility is tastefully reduced. It’s a more mature project that disregards immediate gratification and asks more of its listeners.
Hidden Track: Relative to the Year of Hibernation, the new album has a more psychedelic feeling to it. Were there any clever aproaches that you took in the studio to get some of those more experimental ambient sounds?
Trevor Powers: I wanted the music on this record to reflect a feeling of uneasiness. Taking sounds that are foreign but then applying them in ways that still make a bit of sense. A lot of time writing was really spent on exploring the sonics behind everything. Sometimes making music almost feels like some sort of science experiment, only it’s hard to ever feel content with it. There always seems to be more ways to tap into a certain idea. I don’t like recording in traditional ways. I like doing things I’m not necessarily comfortable with because I feel like it bleeds out through the music. It’s strange to look back at a completed work of music because your memory always seems a bit fuzzy about it. Like you concentrate so hard while you are creating that after something is created, you don’t even really know yourself how exactly it was achieved.
Now’s the time that we need to share…(new EP’s from three 2012 RecommNeds picks)
Zeus: Cover Me
Zeus is a band I am constantly trying to turn people on to, cuz… they’re awesome. Maybe this will convince you: as part of the “deluxe edition” to last year’s fantastic Busting Visions album, they’ve added an all-covers EP. This includes a killer studio version of their live-concert staple cover of Genesis’ That’s All, but also gotta-hear takes on the Flaming Lips, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and more. Have fun figuring out which is your favorite!
I was excited to listen to RHA’s new on-ear SA950i headphones. I’ve been using one of their earphones (MA-350′s) quite religiously since reviewing them last year and have really grown to love the “RHA sound.” These new headphones did not disappoint and have a lot going for them.
An extraordinary value at $60, these headphones are among the lightest I have ever worn and offer great comfort, fantastic style and great sound. What is most impressive is the ability to provide relatively deep bass and high volumes without distortion given the 3.5 oz. weight. Typically, smaller, lighter headphones just can’t offer the overall sound quality and “oomph” that can compete with larger headphones. These do a great job stacking up against the sound quality of much costlier and larger headphones. But, are the SA950i’s right for you? Read on to find out.
