Tim Buckley, Live at the Folklore Center, NYC - March 6, 1967

If you didn't know already, Tim Buckley died in 1975. He was 28. Cut to Sweden, where legendary folk proprietor Izzy Young was sitting on a master tape of Buckley for over twenty years.

The tape was Tim Buckley, age 20, rip-roaring through a acoustic live set at the Folklore Center in New York City. Thanks to the prowess of Tompkins Records (everything they release is good), we have the CD now.

You have to hear it. When a great musician dies too young, his or her critics are left wondering, "What magic would he have created?" Live at the Folklore Center is a captured moment of Buckley's powerful musical talent. Listen to the energy, guitar and voice, of "Song for Jainie," and the stunning "Just Please Leave Me."

Like listening to Nick Drake, or Buckley's own son Jeff Buckley, you feel an undercurrent of sadness sitting with Live at the Folklore. He was too good, too young to die and the way Buckley's acoustic guitar rings in your chest--it feels like you knew him. The warmth and fidelity of this record makes his music all the more personal and moving.

Tim Buckley (live) - Song for Jainie

Owen Pallett : Heartland + MP3

Owen Pallet, the violinist prodigy responsible for the most-impossible-band-to-google Final Fantasy, is a huge dork. He Poos Clouds, his last CD, was partially based around the eight schools of magic in Dungeons and Dragons (won the prestigious Polaris Prize in 2006). He's also a church organist. Forget that--look at his rap sheet. His good friends and collaborators are Beirut, Grizzly Bear, The Mountain Goats, Arcade Fire.

Heartland, his newest release, drops the moniker "Final Fantasy" for bigger, more poetic themes. But if you've seen Owen P. live, you might feel short changed on the album. In a small room / ballroom / bar, Pallet is a winged thing--he rips up the air and his voice is effortlessly perfect. Heartland is good, but often so rich with harmony and layers of strings it becomes cloying. The writing is fascinating and fun, like the verse from the best song from the album, "Lewis Takes off His Shirt":

"My senses are bedalzzled by the parallax of the road / I concentrate to keep contained the overflow"

"Tryst with Mephistopheles" has the catch needed on more songs of the album, and a more balanced mix of classical and indie-pop. Of course, fulfilling his dork destiny, the chorus is partially in Latin. It would be pretentious to say the album is bad: it's too good to sweep it under the one-word-rug. The best part is the concept (the poetry of living in American mind), and the wildness of his sound. Why he's better live--the layers are stripped down and it's just violin and voice. It allows him to let his dorkness fly with no shields, power-ups, or medicinal mushrooms.

Heartland is out now on Domino Records. Get it on big ol' vinyl, it's better that way.

Owen Pallett - Lewis Takes off His Shirt

Crazy Heart (with Vampires): A.A. Bondy @ Lola's Sixth

I wrote a review for Dallas based Parade of Flesh, check it out here. If you don't feel like clicking, here's a bit of it:

First of all, I missed a huge chunk of the opening act of this show thanks to the Hellraiser labyrinth of Texas highways on the way to Fort Worth. I hate missing opening acts, (sorry Amy Cook) it’s like joining a movie five minutes in: you feel hustled, out of breath, the need to reach over and bug the person next to you with questions like, “What just happened? Who’s that guy with the rifle?”

Unlike me, A.A. Bondy was prompt and charismatic, and he calmed my hurried nerves. It’s the first thing you notice from his stage presence: he exudes confidence. Which is hard to do considering his music is dark, lonely, and bourbon washed. Like Bob Dylan, Bondy likes to mix his songs up live–”Oh the Vampyre” was deliciously slow and full of rich steel guitar; “I Can See the Pines Are Dancing” was finger-picked instead of strummed. With his dark red light on stage, I imagined A.A. Bondy’s live show to be Cormac McCarthy's favorite band.

 

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Dante's Inferno (The Crawdad & Weed in the Mouth Version)

Daytrotter is currently showing an absolutely killer session with Los Angeles boot-kickers Roadside Graves.

Occasionally their songs are about Heaven and Hell, and that's when they transcend modern fiddle country into good, Rolling-stones like blues rock (listen to "Far and Wide" at the bottom of the Daytrotter post, and then scream obscene words like I did because you can't download it).

Roadside will be playing hearty sets at SXSW this year, as you can see from their Myspace page. Their album My Son's Home is out on Autumn Tone Records.

Roadside Graves (Daytrotter Session) - Ruby

For Your Cocaine Habit

Fair Park in Dallas, TX is known for concocting recipes of deep fried imaginations (enough to make you lose that leg of yours) like fried coke, and fried ghosts. The last one is fake, but I'm ready for whatever.

More realistically amazing, as you can see from the visual aid, MusInk is hosting a kick ass live set: Old 97's, Lucero, Shooter Jennings (for your cocaine habit a-forming), and the great and local Telegraph Canyon. Get your arteries ready by drinking some cheddar and picking up Telegraph Canyon's freaking great album The Tide and the Current.

Telegraph Canyon - Into the Woods

Civil War Reenactment Music

One of the few folk artists out there giving a little Antebellum flavor to his folk is Joe Pug (see "Bury Me Far From My Uniform"). He's one of the better songwriters out there:

"Your senses have been soaked / it must be more than smoke...She's a messenger if she knows she doesn't care"

He's part of a dirty secret: there is good country music out there amongst the nonsense.

Pug's new album debuts Feb. 16th, and you can see the tracklist here. Also, his site has a embed player available, so you can hear a few new tracks:

Your Local Burlap Sack

Welcome to your local hand-sewn burlap sack record (literally): the new LP from Los Angeles band Slang Chickens. The Chickens are full of piss and folk vinegar:

"I got blues dripping down my leg / I should go to the doctor but I really want to stay in bed"

Through some genius digital-atude, you can listen/embed/stream five songs from the S/T album (see the fancy player below). It's good for wave crushing, banjo licking and not cutting your hair for a long time in rebellion of a conservative mom. I love it.