W♥M

Leerone

Vu passed along singer-songwriter Leerone's debut full-length for me to post about and I'm so glad he did. Usually when a musician is labeled a "female singer-songwriter", the thought of acoustic songs comes to mind for some reason, but Leerone exceeded my expectations.

 

To Fill the Void

Leerone

Imaginary Biographies is Leerone's first full-length album featuring eleven original compositions with wonderful piano ballads. On choosing the title of the album, she said, "I think of this batch of songs as little stories and worlds that exist in my mind. I was thinking a lot about when something is imaginary, specifically that we choose to keep it imaginary, or to make it real. That's sort of where the title of the album came from." On the opening track "To Fill the Void", she provides some uplifiting words for anyone who's had uncertainty with their life; "Who are they to tell you what your life is supposed to mean? Why are you so willing to be at their mercy?". On "JUNK / Peace of Mind", she dismisses the media saying she can't find peace of mind among all the advertisements inviting consumption and greed, TV because it's too depressing, and People magazine because of its "rhetoric of stardom".

With songs like these, it urged me to listen to her two previous EPs, In This Life, On This Road and Hail to the Queen. They sound a little more raw and stripped down compared to Imaginary Biographies. Hail to the Queen is just her and her piano, whereas In This Life, On This Road features other instruments accompanying her piano and beautiful voice. A song that stood out while listening to these EPs was "All Is Well" from In This Life, On This Road. It's a simple song about her naivety as a child. She believed her life would be like Snow White, but as she grew older, that dream faded away and seemed intangible. Leerone is a great musician whose releases I look forward to, especially with her choice of subject matter in her songs and amazing musical compositions.

Leerone - Care For Some Whiskey?

Happy New Year to everyone! Here's to another year of sharing music with everyone who visits the site with open ears. I'm glad that WHM has a variety of contributors, all with their own personal musical interests. I'm looking forward to 2009 for some new releases.

"Hanging around is no fun if we can't share"

— Leerone, "Share"

Happy New Year!

Links: Official Website | Leerone's Blog | MySpace | MySpace (Extra Songs) | Facebook | Fussy Music

Posted by Jason

 

Ben Sollee - Learning To Bend

It's Not Impossible

Ben Sollee

Amid the releases from more popular artists such as N.E.R.D, Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris this past Tuesday was a quiet release from an up-and-coming musician named Ben Sollee. I wasn't too sure I would enjoy this album considering the cello isn't an instrument widely used and I'm not familiar with it, but Ben completely won me over with his debut album Learning To Bend. His voice has a similar quality to Donavon Frankenreiter, Ben Harper, or Jack Johnson that I really like. Stand-out track for me was "It's Not Impossible". The song starts with a pleasant cello solo and then other instruments join in creating an uplifting sound. Despite the masculinity or machismo that's associated with men and how "boys don't cry," he says that it's not impossible, "it's just the hardest thing I've ever done". The album also features an adaptation of "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke in which he wrote updated and politically relevant verses and was covered on W♥M. Other tracks that piqued my interest were "How to See the Sun Rise," a soulful tune and "Bend" about "learning to bend" or being strong enough to bend or change when something abrupt happens. Learning To Bend is definitely on my list of best albums of 2008 so far and hopefully it'll be on yours also.

♥ "It's Not Impossible" / "How to See the Sun Rise" / "Bend" / "Prettiest Tree On the Mountain"

Links: Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | Internet Archive

Posted by Jason | my♥posts

Priscilla Ahn

Wallflower

Priscilla Ahn

Priscilla Ahn has been playing guitar since she was 14 and grew up in Pennsylvania. She considered studying music in college, but a professor advised her to pursue a career in music instead. And so she did. Her friends brought her to a recording studio where she met Amos Lee while he was recording his first EP and she became an intern. After that, she moved to L.A. and through a gig at The Hotel Café, she met singer-songwriter Joshua Radin. They liked each other's music and voices and he invited her to sing songs with him. They went on tour and she found a couple of days in between touring to record her first EP. After touring with Radin, she played a showcase for Blue Note. They liked her and she liked them and she became part of the Blue Note Records family.

I first stumbled upon Priscilla Ahn last year while writing about Allie Moss and Ingrid Michaelson. She was one of the artists under "Listeners Also Bought" and I immediately purchased her self-titled EP after listening to the samples. So, it's been almost a year since then and her full-length debut album, A Good Day, is being released today on Blue Note Records. Two of the tracks, "Dream" and "I Don't Think So," the former being her current single, were featured on her EP, but were re-recorded for the album. If you're a fan of Ingrid Michaelson, Jaymay, Rachael Yamagata, or similar artists, you'll definitely enjoy Priscilla Ahn. A Good Day has a nice blend of folk, country, pop, singer-songwriter type songs and Ahn has an amazing voice that can be listened to all day.

A Good Day is out now on Blue Note Records in stores and online. Just a heads up, the non-album track "We Were Free" is included with the album if bought from iTunes.

♥ "Wallflower" / "I Don't Think So" / "Leave the Light On" / "Find My Way Back Home"

Links: Official Site | MySpace | Facebook | YouTube

Posted by Jason | my♥posts

Julia Marcell

 

Night of the Living Dead

I've been following Julia Marcell's progress on Sellaband since July of last year. That was when I stumbled upon her Sellaband page and ordered her Storm EP. The EP contained a riddle that I couldn't solve so I was never able to "open the gate" on her previous website.

Since joining Sellaband, she's been gaining "believers" (657 to be exact) and has raised enough money to record a full-length. Today marks the release of her debut album, It Might Like You, and is also Sellaband's first release by a Polish artist. As a promotion for the past month, she's been posting short teasers on Youtube that are quite... umm... uhh... well... just watch them. There are two versions of the album; the regular edition

 

Accordion Player

with all the tracks and a limited edition with extra goodies that includes a twenty-three minute video documentary on the making of the album, "Billy Elliot" music video, the five video teasers, the album as mp3s (so there's no need to wait for the tracks to encode), and photos from the recording session. The website for the album includes a feature where you can create your own cover by allowing you to draw on a square portrait of Julia. Quite an interesting idea.

There will be a listening session for the album on Sellaband starting at 8pm EST for Believers and 9pm EST for the rest of the world.

Julia Marcell's New Album Teaser 01

Links: Official Webite | Album Website | Sellaband | MySpace | Youtube

Posted by Jason | my♥posts

The Magic Numbers

I first came across The Magic Numbers in an issue of either GQ or Esquire Magazine a couple of years ago. The article included a nice illustration of them by artist Zohar Lazar, which is what really drew me to the article. I wish I could find the article, but I can't find it; I may have thrown it out :(

 

Gone Are the Days

The Magic Numbers are comprised of two pairs of brother/sister siblings; Romeo and Michele Stodart & Sean and Angela Gannon. They released their self-titled debut album in 2005 that was critically acclaimed. That same year, they contributed "Gone Are the Days" to a compilation album to help War Child International called War Child: Help! A Day in the Life. For the project, War Child invited artists to contribute a brand new, unique track and the songs were all recorded in 24 hours. Other artists part of the project include Coldplay, Radiohead, Bloc Party, Gorillaz, etc. "Funds raised by the charity's deal with Independiente Records will immediately go to their projects in Iraq and DR Congo. Further funds, profile and membership raised will go to maintain these projects and others in countries such as Afghanistan and Bosnia".

 

The Beard (Live)

2006 brought their sophmore album Those the Brokes, but it didn't get released in the US until a year later. The album was well received though some reviews thought the songs were too long. In 2007, they released a limited edition 2-disc live album that was recorded by Concert Live at the Kentish Town Forum in London. I've only seen The Magic Numbers in concert once at Webster Hall (with The Elected opening) and they were absolutely outstanding live. I've posted "The Beard", a song they tend to close with during live shows and will probably remain a live-exclusive. According to Romeo when asked about it on their message board he said, "I don't think there'll ever be a studio version of 'The Beard' as it would seem strange without an audience". So enjoy a live recording or catch it at one of their live shows.

 

Sissy & The Silent Kid

Most recently, they released a six-track EP consisting of their single "Undecided", an alternate version of "Let Somebody In" and four unreleased recordings.

Their vocals have also been part of songs by The Concretes ("Your Call"), The Chemical Brothers ("Close Your Eyes"), Ed Hardcourt ("Revolution in the Heart"), and a couple of others (List on Wiki).

Links: Official Site | MySpace | Wikipedia /// Similar Artists: Belle & Sebastian | The Zutons | The Mamas & The Papas

Posted by Jason

Little Boxes

Little Boxes

Malvina Reynolds

The third season of the Showtime series Weeds recently began. The popularity of the show has increased and the main theme song has become more recognizable. The song is called "Little Boxes" and was written in 1962 and originally performed by Malvina Reynolds. Since then, it's been covered by many artists and since last season, various musicians were asked to cover the song so it could be used in the beginning of each episode. They've continued this theme for the third season and this time around, there have been over ninety submissions. Below are the show's covers of the songs from last season and the current one. Also, I'll try updating each week with the latest episode's cover. I've chosen to put them in list format this time for organization purposes and so the same album art doesn't appear multiple times. There are also full versions that some of the artists recorded (click the "Full" link). I also attached them below in a subcategory.

Weeds Season 2

01 Elvis Costello
02 Death Cab For Cutie
03 Engelbert Humperdinck [Full]
04 Kate and Anna McGarrigle [Full]
05 Charles Barnett
06 Aidan Hawken
07 Ozomatli [Full]
08 The Submarines
09 Tim DeLaughter
10 Regina Spektor
11 Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice
12 Malvina Reynolds [Full]

Weeds Season 3

01 Randy Newman
02 Angelique Kidjo
03 Kinky
04 Donovan
05 Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters [Full]
06 The Shins [Full]
07 The Individuals

others will be added as the season progresses

English Covers:

 

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes

 

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes

 

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes (Live)

 

Pete Seeger - Little Boxes (Live)

The Womenfolk - Little Boxes

Nina & Frederik - Little Boxes

Keith Carradine - Little Boxes

Roger Scimé - Little Boxes

Kris Gruen - Little Boxes [Clean]

Kris Gruen - Little Boxes [Dirty]

Christopher O'Riley - Little Boxes

Devendra Banhart - Little Boxes

Abby Lappen - Little Boxes

The C.R.S. Players - Little Boxes

The Global Stage Orchestra - Little Boxes

Dogwelder - Little Boxes

Full Versions (of the 50 second long edits used on the show):

Engelbert Humperdinck - Little Boxes

Kate and Anna McGarrigle - Petites Boites

Ozomatli - Little Boxes

Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters - Little Boxes

The Shins - Little Boxes

Covers in Other Languages:

Graeme Allwright - Petites Boîtes

Nara Leão - Little Boxes

Victor Jara - Las Casitas del Barrio Alto

Parodies:

Tom Tuerff - Little Star Treks

Links: Music from Weeds (Showtime Site) | Wikipedia (Little Boxes) | List of Covers

Posted by Jason

bellawilfer wrote: Sep 17, 2007 at 1:43 PM

Fantastic job, but it would be great if you could note that Pete Seeger did more than just cover the song. Malvina Reynolds wrote it, but it definitely was Pete who made Little Boxes famous. I think his first recording of the song was on the live album of a 1963 concert at Carnegie Hall, We Shall Overcome, but there was a later studio version that was pretty successful as a single. There's what looks like quite a good discography on the Pete Seeger Appreciation Page.

Sixbucksamonkey wrote: Sep 17, 2007 at 7:04 PM

[ciò è buono] NICE! Decemberists version here.

 

Notes:
* French Voxer olivelela also has a post about the "Little Boxes" covers.
* There are apparently 3 different versions of the Pete Seeger cover. A live version that appears on The Essential Pete Seeger and Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits are the same exact versions. It's the same version that appears on We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert sans the stage banter. Then there are 2 studio recordings, one on Broadside Ballads, Vol. 2 that's acoustic and another on Headlines and Footnotes that uses a banjo.
* I noticed the "permalink" to this post includes an "s" after "little" making it "littles-boxes.html" instead of "little-boxes.html". That's a typo on my part because when I wrote up the entry, I entered "Littles Boxes" in the title field.

 

Plastiscines / Free NYC In-Store

 

The Plastiscines - Loser

Plastiscines are an all-female French pop/rock band signed to EMI/Virgin France. They derived their band name from The Beatles' song "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", more specifically from the verse "with plastiscine porters with looking glass ties". They formed the band in 2004 and have released one album titled LP1. This past July, their drummer Caroline left the group with the consensus of the rest of the band (she was actually a replacement for a former Plastscines member).

From their Wikipedia entry:

The Plastiscines are one of several Parisienne teenage bands, referred to collectively as les bébés rockers. Paris Calling, a compilation album of music by several of them, was released in France in June 2006 (and was due for release in Britain in April 2007). It contained the Plastiscines' first studio tracks, Shake (Twist Around the Fire) and Rake. Those present at its launch included the French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty. Such bands have tended to be scorned by some elements of the press for their bobo (bourgeois bohème or bourgeois Bohemian) backgrounds: in other words, they have been portrayed as "the spoilt kids of rich parents playing at being rock stars".

 

(Zazie Fait De La) Bicyclette

For you New Yorkers... Plastiscines will be in NYC this Thursday (September 6 at 5pm) to play an Urban Outfitters in-store at the SoHo location (628 Broadway) presented by Nylon and UO. It's free, but the only way to get in is if you have an e-ticket, which you can simply print out and bring with you. Although you may have a printed ticket, it's based on a first come, first enter basis. So, get there early if you can for a better chance of being admitted.

Updated with video from the performance:

Links: Official Site | MySpace | Wikipedia | Times Online Article

Posted by Jason

The Hotel Café Festival 2007

The Hotel Café is a singer/songwriter venue located in Los Angeles, California. Their annual festival showcases some great musicians you may have heard of already and some that are on the rise. Past musicians include Imogen Heap, KT Tunstall, Jason Mraz, The Honorary Title, and many others. Portions of the proceeds from the festival will benefit the Friends of Snuffy organization. "This all volunteer group works to improve the lives of pets and stray animals through education programs, grants and direct funding. It focuses on the Central New York State area."

This year, the festival will take place on August 4 in Highmount, NY at Belleayre and will feature the following 14 artists:

	Rachael Yamagata Official Site MySpace iTunes		Cary Brothers Official Site MySpace iTunes		Rocco DeLuca Official Site MySpace iTunes
	Ingrid Michaelson Official Site MySpace iTunes		Kate Havnevik Official Site MySpace iTunes		Stars of Track & Field Official Site MySpace iTunes
	Tracy Bonham Official Site MySpace iTunes		Greg Laswell Official Site MySpace iTunes		Priscilla Ahn MySpace iMeem iTunes
	Tom McRae Official Site MySpace iTunes		Meiko Official Site MySpace		Jim Bianco Official Site MySpace iTunes
	Jay Nash Official Site MySpace iTunes		Buddy Official Site MySpace iTunes	�

 

Links: The Hotel Café | The Hotel Café Tour | Belleayre Music Festival

Posted by Jason

Harry Potter and the Phenomenon of Wizard Rock

Hedwig's Theme

Today, the latest installment in the Harry Potter film series was released. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth film based on the popular book series by J.K. Rowling. So, it's only fitting that I post some Harry Potter related music. To kick this post off is the theme song. Arranged by award-winning and legendary composer John Williams, "Hedwig's Theme" was originally featured on the soundtrack to The Sorcerer's Stone (otherwise known as The Philosopher's Stone). It's since been featured in every Harry Potter film to date including The Goblet of Fire by Patrick Doyle and The Order of the Phoenix by Nicholas Hooper. Two teenagers who go by the name of Advanced Potion-Making created a rock version paying homage to John Williams and the series.

Lumos (Hedwig's Theme)

Williams was supposed to compose the soundtrack to The Goblet of Fire, but due to scheduling conflicts, he was not able to. Why? Well, he was working on a couple of small films that you might have heard of called Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Memoirs of a Geisha, and War of the Worlds. He provided the soundtracks to the first three films in the series, but for the second, The Chamber of Secrets, fellow composer William Ross helped to finish it and received adaptation credits. The Goblet of Fire was done by Patrick Doyle who also scored Eragon while The Order of the Phoenix was by Nicholas Hooper who scored The Girl in the Café. He's also rumored to be the composer of The Half-Blood Prince.


Now for some Wizard Rock! What is Wizard Rock? Well, basically artists create music all based on the Harry Potter franchise. It could be anything from Harry himself to some reference to potions or magic, as long as it has to do with the series. It's all for the love of music and reading. Now, there are way too many bands to post on here so I chose the ones I enjoyed the most. Besides, many of the Wizard Rock musicians only have one song in their repertoire. The below musicians have created more than one song and have been around for quite some time.

This Book Is So Awesome

The Wrath of Hermione

Harry and the Potters
The most popular of the Wizard Rock musicians and the guys that started it all are Harry and the Potters. They're two brothers named Paul and Joe DeGeorge who started the band in 2002. Joe planned a rock show in his backyard, but all the bands cancelled. So he grabbed his brother, wrote some songs, and played them for a couple of people. "This Book Is So Awesome" is only 30 seconds in length, so I also posted another song of theirs', "The Wrath of Hermione", which is unreleased.
Website | Virb | MySpace | DL "Book" | DL "Hermione"

In Which I Kick Harry Potter In the Face

Draco and the Malfoys
Draco and the Malfoys are two brothers, Brian Ross and Bradley Mehlenbacher who write songs from the perspective of Harry Potter's nemesis/adversary, Draco Malfoy. Not much info besides that, well except that they're from Rhode Island and they'll be touring the states and parts of Canada with Harry and the Potters until mid-August. But what else do you need to know?
Website | MySpace

I'm Ron Weasley

Ron and the Weasleys
Ron and the Weasleys, you can guess, are based on Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley. They're two brothers (yes, again) and each represent Ron at a different age. John represents "Ron" at year 3 and Mike represents "Ronald" at year 7. They started the band after booking a show for fellow Wizard Rockers, Harry and the Potters. After that show, other Wizard Rock bands started appearing and they felt the need to represent Ron Weasley.
MySpace

Not Your Messenger

The Hermione Crookshanks Experience
EDIT: Thanks to Lauren from The Moaning Myrtles for pointing out that there IS a band (well two, but only one has music online) called Hermione and the Grangers. Well, here's a "band" based on her name called The Hermione Crookshanks Experience from California. It's a one-girl band; she plays guitar, bass, drum machine, keyboards, sings vocals and records on a MacBook.
MySpace

And Then I Died

The Moaning Myrtles
This girl-due based their name on the ghostly girl in the bathroom that does the weird whiny moaning, which could get annoying, but their music isn't. Just like many other Wizard Rock bands, they too were inspired by Harry and the Potters to create a band based on the series. And since Harry Potter fans seem to have this whole comradership, Alex Carpenter from The Remus Lupins provided some acoustic guitar on The Moaning Myrtles album.

Website | MySpace

Looking For Trouble

The Remus Lupins
Although the name is plural, it's actually one guy, Alex Carpenter. Here's the description from his site: "The Remus Lupins began when Alex Carpenter looked at his bookshelf and held his guitar in his hand. A sudden lightning bolt of creativity jumped into his fingers and he began to play, and to write songs about Harry Potter. Since then, he hasn't been able to shake the habit and keeps writing them." He's touring this summer with two other guys, though they're more of a backing band.

Website | MySpace

Your Flying Car

The Whomping Willows
The Whomping Williows is plural, but once again is only one person, Matt Maggiacomo. He also runs a "record label" called Cheap Rent. A little description... "We form friendships with bands and we do our best to help them release and promote their music. We also encourage our bands to maintain DIY ethics so they never feel the need to sign with a corporate record label." Most of the bands on Cheap Rent are Wizard Rock bands.

MySpace | Cheap Rent

Concerning the Dementors...

The Mudbloods
The Mudbloods are five guys from Texas who took their name from the derogatory term that describes a muggle-born wizard. Draco uses the term as an insult to Hermione since she is one. Much like the other Wizard Rock bands, The Mudbloods tend to play in uniform, sporting the sweater over a buttoned-shirt with tie look. Sorry, they didn't provide much info on their site.
MySpace

If you're curious about this whole Wizard Rock phenomenon and want to delve deeper into the enchanted maze, there are a couple of websites that have much more information and lists bands that currently either have music already or are just starting out.

Wizard Rock - "Your source for the latest in Wizard Rock"
Real Wizard Rock - "Lyrics for your favorite Wizard Rock Bands"
Wizrocklopedia - They "aim to record the past, present, and future of all things related to wizard rock and hope to shed more light on the movement itself."
Wizard Rockumentary - "The Wizard Rockumentary is an independent feature length documentary exploring Harry Potter fandom, the Wizard Rock community, and the goals of these musicians to promote literacy."

So, check those sites out and watch the film when you can. The IMAX version supposedly has some crazy 3-D ending. And the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out July 21. 

.

Jason // Warner Bros. | The Order of the Phoenix | Wikipedia

Tetris Music

Having 30 contributors to this blog, there are a bunch of different musical tastes and it's great to share all of it to open ears. Although I think we're neglecting some genres... one being game music.

Tetris Game Boy Box

Back in the early '90s when I was a child, a little handheld gaming console made a splash in the gaming industry. This device I'm referring to was the Nintendo Game Boy. It was released in 1989 and shipped with the addictive puzzle game Tetris. I was only three when it was first released, but I still remember playing it at age five when I was first introduced to it... always leaving one of the sides empty, anticipating a stick or "I", trying to fill up as many gaps as possible with the other six tetrominoes falling, but the "I" never appeared and soon it was game over.

Original Cover

Tetris was first created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov on an Electronika 60 with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov. It was loosely based on a "classic geometric puzzle board game 'Pentominos'." (Tetris.com) In became popular in Moscow and after some legal copyright disputes, made its way to the Nintendo Game Boy. Pajitnov "derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra-", as all of the pieces contain four segments, and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport" (Wiki - G4 interview on 'Icons'). There's also a whole history page on Tetris.com.

 

Ozma - Korobeiniki

The music is highly addictive even with its lo-fi, 8-bit sound. The most popular song that many artists have covered and has become known as "The Tetris Song" is "Korobeiniki" (Russian: "Коробе́йники"). There's also a variant/original called "Kalinka" that starts out slow and increases in speed and suddenly stops. It's "a Russian song based on a poem with the same name written in 1861 by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov and printed in the Sovremennik magazine in 1861. Korobeyniki were peddlers selling fabric, haberdashery, books etc. in pre-revolutionary Russia." (Wiki). In the original Game Boy edition, it's called Music A. Music C is called "French Suite No. 3 in B-Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach (which is my favorite). I don't have any information about Music B, the opening song, or the high score song. They all can be downloaded in mp3 format from KH Insider.

 

Type 1        Opening Song
Type 2 (A)   Korobeiniki by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov
Type 3 (B)   Unknown Title
Type 4 (C)   French Suite No. 3 in B-Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
Type 5        High Score Song

There are a bunch of videos on YouTube of Tetris parodies and people covering the various songs. Below are a handpicked few.

Parodies

 

The Simpsons tetris

Family Guy Tetris

Tetris Ninjas

Japanese TV Tetris

Cover Songs

Re: harder tetris on piano (type a)

Tetris Type A on Marimba

Tetris Type B

Tetris Song C

 

Jason :: Nintendo | Tetris | Wiki (Tetris) | Wiki (Tetris Game Boy) | KH Insider | Directory of Tetris Cover Songs