Harbinger - Second Coming (1970)

Well as you can likely see by my recent finds post both of my Dave Bixby albums showed up yesterday. Once I found out that the Spanish label Guerssen had reissued both of his albums I was first in line to get my hands on a copy, and sure enough they're hot out of the plant, beautiful 2009 pressings. Since yesterday I've listened to them both through twice and I must say that I still favor Ode To Quetzalcoatl because of just how personal it's lyrical content is. It's almost haunting in how revealing and troubled Bixby sounds on it, a man lost but trying desperately to find his way out. It's brilliant.

And that brings me to Harbringer's Second Coming Lp, which is after all Dave Bixby's second effort. It's mostly made up of songs that were written around the same time as Ode To Quetzalcoatl and while some may think it should sound the exact same, well it doesn't. The most striking change is the level of accompaniment Dave has on the songs. Instead of a strict solo effort like the 1st album now you have layers to contend with, and that's not always a good thing on Second Coming.

Right from the intro track "Cosmic Energy" one can tell that the timing of the guitars seems off, as well as out of tune. You'll also notice that the lyrics are seemingly nonsensical compared to any cut off of Ode To Quetzalcoatl. That aside I think when you forget about his first album and concentrate solely on this record you will see it's brilliance. It's just the constant comparison between the two that end up faulting this album.

One thing that I did find very interesting though was taken from the incredibly informative insert included with the album, it's that during this time Ode To Quetzalcoatl had done quite well for Dave and they were selling the album at all of the shows they played. In fact so successful that the seemingly guru like Don Degraff chose to use Bixby's talent for his own profit. Using the Second Coming recordings (which were already made) he slapped his picture on the front and titled it under a group, "Harbinger" which tied it directly to the cult known as "The Group". This was a group of people that came later to worship Don religiously, and it was something Dave apparently always felt really leary of. He has since been associated with The Group but was never a full fledged member. This is all likely why this album is even harder to find than his first, it was not only a private pressing but strictly a cult album, which was sold as services and concerts. When those responsible for the reissues were looking for source copies of the albums (no master tapes exist) they could only track down 2 copies of Second Coming. That just shows how rare it is.

Anyways, listen and decide for yourself.

01. Cosmic Energy
02. Time To Clear Your Mind
03. Control
04. Circus World
05. Harmony
06. The More You Know
07. Rainbow
08. All Of The Truth
09. Open Doors
10. Ode To Elias

Download "Second Coming" (1970) @ Sharebee

Mailbox Finds

• Dave Bixby - Ode To Quetzalcoatl (2009) Guerssen (GUESS058)
• Harbinger - Second Coming (2009) Guerssen (GUESS059)

R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

Well I was truly crushed to hear the news today that Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital after going into cardiac arrest, and after following the news coverage for an hour or so it was confirmed that he had in fact passed away. One thing that sickened me about the whole situation though was the media coverage itself. I mean, is nothing sacred in this fucked up world we live in?

I can understand that as a celebrity you are constantly in the public eye, and that is your role in life and one must accept it. But I think that we as a society could have a little fucking respect when it's a matter of death. Not only for the deceased but also for the family. I had the news on during dinner and sure enough it's on every channel imaginable, but on Larry King they had a 1 min fucking still of the "last photo taken of Michael". It was honestly one of the most disturbing things I've seen in a long time, why the hell do we need to see photo's of a lifeless man in cardiac arrest whom paramedics are drastically trying to revive? Who is interested in this shit? And if people honestly are interested in it then it's just an example of how truly grotesque and morbid our society has really become. It's just like the leaked photos of David Carradine's dead body hanging in that closet, those were released but that was in fucking Thailand! In a place like that it's something one comes to expect, but apparently we have the same sick fascination with death and it's photographic proof

I'm sorry but I've always had a deep hatred for modern media and it's incredible heartless ignorance, and seeing what I saw today just cemented my stance on the entire thing. I think the world would be better off without them and I feel that the only true way to mourn the loss of the man is to listen to his music. That's the legacy he's left behind and I'm sure it's what he would have wanted to share with people the most. That's why I'm spinning Thriller right now and just trying to comprehend the shit that's gone down.

I'm deeply saddened by this news, he'll be greatly missed.
-Dan

Dave Bixby - Ode To Quetzalcoatl (1969)

This album was something that I saw on eBay not long ago, it was incredibly selling for $2000+ and I had never heard of it in my life, and as a record collector that sort of surprised me. So needless to say I was very curious to hear this album and after some searching finally tracked it down in mp3 format. And I must say it is one of the best albums I've ever heard, honestly...It reminds me so much of the loner acid-folk psychedelia sound of Skip Spence's Oar, Barrett's Madcap Laughs and Drake's Pink Moon. All three of those albums were very poor sellers upon release and over time have gradually been spread around and recognized as true masterpieces. Well this Dave Bixby album is in the same category but is just far more obscure. And if I do say so, much better than the others. Both of his record have been re-released on vinyl by the Spanish label Guerssen Records and I have just bought both of them on eBay, so I can hopefully one day sit and relax to these amazing albums.

After being involved in 60s Michigan folk and garage-rock bands such as The Shillelaghs and Peter & The Prophets, Dave Bixby started playing acoustic guitar and experimenting with LSD. After a year of drug abuse he felt broken. Starting a soul-searching, spiritual journey, he wrote Ode to Quetzalcoatl and most of the material for his second album, Harbinger’s Second Coming in just one month and a half. Ode to Quetzalcoatl is considered the best loner folk album of the era and has been championed for years by such luminaries as musicologist Paul Major and Xian rock archivist Ken Scott. Harbinger’s Second Coming was recently described by influential underground DJ Tony Coulter as “almost scary good”. Shrouded in mystery, the legend of Dave Bixby has grown in the recent years. Many collectors had tried to found him in search of information and original Lps with no avail. In 2006, a young collector named Matvei Procak finally tracked him down in Arizona.

Since its discovery in the late 90s, Dave Bixby’s legendary $2000 private press album from 1969 is considered by all serious record collectors as the king in the loner/downer folk genre. The album title was inspired by the Toltec king Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, not by the Aztec serpent-god of the similar name. It was home-recorded in the span of three nights at a makeshift studio located in a flat’s living room. An echo-laden Roberts reel-to-reel machine and a four-track recorder were used. There’s no double tracking or anything, it was just a one-time track. The entire pressing was sold exclusively at concerts in Michigan and Ohio. The sound is lo-fi and sparse: just acoustic guitars and some occasional harmonica & flute, added to Bixby’s haunting, emotional vocals, spiritual lyrics and solid songwriting. The opening cut, the eerie and painful “Drug Song” sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the album which contains more tormented titles like “666” , “Lonely Faces”, Open Doors”, “Secret Forest”…Never an acoustic folk album sounded so intense as this. Reissued for the first time under license from Dave Bixby. Carefully remastered sound from vinyl (no master tapes exists) done at Shadoks Music Studios.

01. Drug Song (3:18)
02. Free Indeed (3:16)
03. I Have Seen Him (3:13)
04. Mother (2:58)
05. Morning Sun (3:31)
06. Prayer (3:12)
07. Lonely Faces (3:54)
08. Open Doors (3:05)
09. 666 (3:10)
10. Waiting For The Rains (2:15)
11. Secret Forest (4:53)
12. Peace (2:21)

Download "Ode To Quetzalcoatl" (1969) @ Sharebee

Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972)

Well my parcel from Amazon.ca arrived on Monday, June 15th, and well, I've been downstairs listening to this box set ever since. It's honestly that amazing...

Comprised of 128 audio tracks, hours of video footage, and countless pieces of memorabilia all spread out over 10 Blu-Ray discs. And to think a Blu-Ray disc's storage capacity is anywhere from 25-50GB, so that's just goes to show the amount of material there actually is in this set. Not only is the content amazing, the actual audio quality of it is truly unbelievable. Over my lifetime I've probably spent days worth of time listening to Neil Young's music, but I've never heard it like this. The Blu-Ray set features "ultra-high resolution 24-bit/192 kHz stereo PCM state-of-the-art master quality sound". And to most that may sound like a load of technical gibberish (me included) but after experiencing it for almost 3 days now, I can see what all the fuss was about. I'm experiencing this music like it was all new again, I'm hearing guitar parts I've never heard before, I've listened to each of the classic 'jam' tracks like "Down by The River", "Cowgirl In The Sand", and "Southern Man" 4-5 times already. It's far beyond just listening to a Neil Young song, it's an entire thing of it's own, it's the Archives experience.

A set like this is totally foreign territory for myself, as many of you know I am more or less strictly a vinyl collector, and while I do use digital formats (mp3) out of convenience, I still understand that nothing can beat the warmth of a vinyl record. So when I heard about the whole Archives project being planned for Blu-Ray format I didn't think much of it, and when I heard the price tag I thought even less of it. All I can say is that I tremendously happy with my change of heart, it has opened my eyes to what Neil is trying to do and has succeeded in doing, which is create a state of the art listening experience. All the while create a direct link to his fans through the Blu-Ray Live Updates, now throughout the years to come as more and more material gets chosen for the Archives collection it can be simply added through an Internet gateway. It really goes to show how amazing technology can be when it's utilized the right way and that one doesn't have to be content with 128kbps mp3's for the rest of their life.

I know I'm coming off as a bit of a salesman in this post, but it's only because I am so damn impressed with the product. They did officially sell out of the Blu-Ray format within 1 week from release and apparently around 10,000 units were moved in that time. It goes to show that there's enough tuned in people out there and I know just how they are feeling as they're enjoying their sets. If you are looking to get one do it now before the distributors are out of stock because there will be a 2 month period between the 1st run and a 2nd run. I'm glad I bought when I did, I couldn't imagine having to wait any longer, 5 days was long enough...

Just another quick note, I cannot commend Amazon enough for their fantastic service. My parcel arrived 2 days before the scheduled delivery, it was packed (as you can see) very well in a large box, and arrived with no issues whatsoever. Also since they have region specific sites (USA = .com, UK = .uk, Canada = .ca, etc) you can order from within your country, using your own currency. Thus not having to pay any nasty exchange rates, taxes, or duty charges.

Cheers,
-Dan

Todays Finds

Well this actually all happened last night, but it wasn't until this morning that I was able to sit down and really look through, catalog, photograph and listen to these albums. What happened was my neighbors were having a big garage sale (they have one every 2-3 years). But he mentioned that there was a box of records at his grandmothers house and since he knew I collected them I could have whatever I wanted before he put them out for the sale. At first I didn't think much of it personally, I was expecting it to be a big box either beat up stuff, or just crap music in general. And well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Out of probably a box of 70 Lp's I picked out a total of 39. And the best part is that they were all free, although I did give him a $20 when I brought the box back, that's only $0.50/each and I figured it was the least I could do, especially considering a few of the gems I got.

Blonde On Blonde - Contrasts
This was just one I picked up because of the other music in the box. See if I'm going through a box and there's a bunch of stuff I really want, I figure that the stuff I don't know will be of the same genre. I've yet to listen to this, but the band took their name from Dylan, so that has to mean something. They also only released this one album.

Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield (Collection)
This I've been looking for now for a while, I've seen it at record stores for around $20 but I already have most of this material on their 3 studio Lp's. The only real reason to search this out is because of the alternate 9:00 min version of "Bluebird".

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
This was the absolute best record I found in the box, should have seen my initial disappointment though when I saw that one of the Lp's was missing! But thank goodness I found it in a Joplin cover later on, so it is complete. It's also the very rare 1969 edition on Straight Records where the covers catalog number (STS 1053) matches the labels catalog number. Apparently these "are known to exist" meaning it must be fucking rare! My Goldmine book grades it at $250.00 so who knows. Most of the stock copies labels have a STS 2027 catalog number. Crazy record, and can't beat it for $0.50.

Cheech & Chong - Big Bambu
This I simply picked up because of the gimmick packaging which is made to look like a pack of rolling papers, it even has a slit on the inside with a facsimile paper. It's pretty neat!

Alice Cooper - Muscle Of Love
This was again more of just a $0.50 cool packaging find, I've never been a big Alice Cooper fan, but again I've never really tried all that hard either. I figure I should always pick them up because one day I might regret not doing so. Every album seems to have a really cool packaging concept as well.

The Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah
This was another one of my favorites in the box, I've been on the hunt for Dead albums for a long time but they're pretty hard to come by. This one is in great shape and I enjoyed a listen of it this afternoon, it even has the lyric sheet.

The Grateful Dead - American Beauty
I guess this will have to be simply a spot filler for now as the record itself has been beat to shit, at least the cover is in marvelous shape though, whenever I see a copy in a record store they always look so beat!

The Guess Who - #10
Haven't listened to this one yet, I like the Guess Who's early work so I'm interested to see what this will be like.

The Guess Who - Canned Wheat
Speaking of early Guess Who this is a very early Lp of theirs, probably their 2nd album with the Bachman/Cummings team. I'm still hunting for Wheatfield Soul though, you can't beat "These Eyes"!

Jefferson Airplane - Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
This is the first of many JA albums I picked up, I've always been a big fan of theirs but Surrealistic Pillow is sort of my comfort zone, I'm interested to stretch out and listen to more of their catalog (now that I have a lot of it). Apparently this is a live album, it should be interesting.

Jefferson Airplane - Long John Silver
This album I actually found 2 copies of in the box, maybe it was good enough they wore 1 copy out! The packaging is truly amazing on this one though, made to look like a cigar box, it actually has perforated edges and instructions for you to fold it into a flip lid box. I'm sure many people out there have tried this in their day, and maybe dismantled it afterwards. It's nice to see that this copy hasn't been played with at all.

Jefferson Airplane - Bark
Totally out there packaging, I can see the band going "hey, what do you want to put on the cover?" ... "how about a fish wrapped in a package?" ... "awesome, let's call it Bark". I guess that's close to the mindset, because frankly it makes no frickin' sense, but I guess that's what acid can do to you.

Jefferson Airplane - The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane
This is the JA album I'm happiest about because it's in great playable shape, so I can finally enjoy "Embryonic Journey" without having to endure the terrible surface noise my copy of Surrealistic Pillow suffers from.

B.B. King - Paying The Cost To Be The Boss
This is just a Pickwick shit compilation, but it was $0.50, and I'm sure there's a track or 2 on it that I don't have on an album already.

Buddy Miles - Them Changes
This was an awesome find from Hendrix's amazing drummer Buddy Miles. I've yet to play it but I've heard lots of good things about it. One point worth mentioning though, my label reads John Turner as the artist, which makes no sense whatsoever. Anyone else have a copy with this same misprint?

Nazareth - Loud 'N' Proud
I'm not a Nazareth fanatic, but they're alright. I just picked this out because I saw they did a version of Dylan's "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and I thought it'd be interesting to hear that.

New Riders of the Purple Sage - The Adventures of Panama Red
I know NRPS once had members of the Dead in their group, other than that I'm pretty clueless. I'm looking forward to putting this on sometime and (hopefully) getting my mind blown.

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
That's right, another copy of Ummagumma! haha.
This one is truly a gem of a find though, it's a NM 1st UK pressing, on Harvest/EMI. It has the Gigi album showing leaning against the wall (later pressings have it whited out due to copyright issues). This sells for upwards of $400+ which is insane. I'm simply going to put this on the shelf and leave it be, I have 2 other copies I can listen to.

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
I've been meaning to check out more Quicksilver Messenger Service, and this is supposed to be a real great album.

The Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Ya's Out!
This was simply just an empty cover in the box, and the strangest thing is that I already had a god vinyl copy but the cover was worn and taped up, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to pull a little swap. I now have a nice frankin-record copy of this great Stones live album.

Bessie Smith - Any Woman's Blues
This is a nice package, and Mrs. Smith had a fabulous voice. I look forward to putting it on and relaxing sometime.

The Sunshine Company - Happiness Is The Sunshine Company
This looked a little psychedelic artwork wise, I haven't listened to it yet, but it might be interesting. I'm expecting something sort of like The Mamas And The Papas.

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
This is another one I'm most excited about, and probably my favorite Zappa album next to the Mothers "Freak Out!". This one Hot Rats, is 99% instrumental and the guitar work is brilliant. The only vocal track is by Captain Beefheart so it's all about as strange as it can get.

The rest of the albums I picked up were all duplicate copies of things I already had, and since this post has already taken me a day to complete off and on, I really don't feel like going into each and every one of them. You'll see what I picked up just by what's in the photo. Again these are all doubles, and are open for trades.

Todays Finds

Well I simply stopped off at Melodiya for a quick browse, there were a few things I was looking for in particular (ie. The Faint, Steve Earle's "Townes", etc.). I noticed that their used section had seemingly doubled in size, and it was obvious that they had just got a whole new haul of records in from someone. After looking through most of it I stumbled upon a plain white album priced at $10. The once I noticed the bullet holes I knew it was The Muslims self titled Lp, which I've been looking for since release! I first read about the album in an issue of Vice Magazine and once I heard that each copy of their Lp has been shot at 3 times by a police officer I thought "I have to check these guys out!". And after downloading the album I really liked what I heard, it was a very 60's garage-rock style, something not totally uncommon in the current indie scene, but still pretty decent. Personally the packaging of this album wins out over the music itself, which is smart on their part. What it is is a plain white gatefold jacket which has been shot with 3 bullets. Then on the inside there is a shotty silkscreened photo of the band, and a ink stamped logo of the record label i928 on the back. That's it! Nothing else whatsoever. Pretty intriguing to the average collector, but at the same time I think it's an album that many would skip right by after seeing it's in fact not a copy of the Great White Wonder bootleg. The Muslims have since changed their name to Soft Pack, apparently due to threats they recieved from actual Muslims! haha. This was the only full length released under the Muslims title, and who knows, it may grow to be a big collectors item in time. Regardless it's a pretty decent indie-garage rock record with a cool story to tell behind it with the packaging. A good find for $10.

I'm looking forward to getting up early tomorrow morning and heading out to some garage sales, there is one that advertises records at 9:00am, so that's where I'll be heading first (probably at 8:30!). Hopefully I can come back with a whole box of great stuff and make a great new finds post on here, ever since I spent $300+ on ordering the Archives I've sort of sworn off spending a ton else on vinyl. If stuff is cheap enough I still will, but no more $100+ spending spree's at the store or on eBay! At least not for a while...

I've Been Waiting For You

Well I've done it! As of last night I have officially coughed up the bucks and purchased the "Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972)". For any of you who do not know this is a project that Neil himself has been meticulously working on with his archivist Joel Bernstein for over 30 years. The problem had always been that their wasn't a proper medium to showcase audio & video of this immense level together, until Sony came out with Blu-Ray. Now with discs of a 50GB capacity he was finally able to fit everything on as well as not compromise any quality. Many denied this projects existence after the repeated and almost expected, delays that occurred over the last few years. It had been announced for 2008 release, then pushed to Feb. 2009, then April, and finally June 2nd 2009 was the one that stuck. Sure enough it was released and amazingly enough even with all the naysayers out there, it has officially sold out worldwide in Blu-Ray format!

And if I can be totally honest when I heard the original announcement on the 10 disc Blu-Ray set and I heard an initial price estimate of around $400, I thought (along with many) it was too much to pay. Then as release approached and I was reading the posts at Thrashers Wheat, there were all the fans hyping it and the haters hating it. Then the trailer and tracklisting were released and I got a little more interested, but I was still intent that $400+ was far too much. Then Amazon comes out with the pre-orders and the official price of $249.99 USD, what would become $315 CAN on Amazon.ca. Long story short this all eventually added up to me wanting the set, badly...

Once release hit on the 2nd I'm seeing people unbox them on YouTube, I'm reading about how pleased people are with the set, and eventually I just gave in. I first went the route of trying to get a deal, so I called my brother who works at a independent music shop in BC, and he thought he could order it in at cost (around $150). Turns out their retail list price for it is $499 and the cost itself is $315!! Needless to say I cancelled that as quickly as possible and I placed my order from Amazon.ca last night. It's currently "being prepared for shipment" and it has an estimated ship date of today, June 10th. The arrival estimate is June 16th - 19th. I'll be a nervous wreck talking about this set until then...

Although the set is being released in other lesser formats of DVD and CD at lesser cost I eventually was drawn to Blu-Ray mainly because Neil and the Archives team are going to be updating the set periodically with new material at completely no charge. But these updates will only be available for the Blu-Ray customers as they are issued through Blu-Ray Live downloads. Meaning that all you need it to have your player hooked up to the Internet (through LAN Ethernet) and you'll be prompted to download any updates as they are released. That pays for itself in my mind!

This first set is only Volume 1 which stretches the period of 1963 to 1972, and now that the platform has been perfected we can expect to see 4 more of these volumes released at some point. But with the wealth of material to work through on these 10 discs I don't think people will be too hungry for it right away. I'm sure some of you are still confused on what these discs include, and I'll tell you. It's a 10 disc set, and each disc represents a different period (ex. Disc 1 - Early Years (1963-1968)) and they have developed an interface for these discs that mimics a filing cabinet. Each song has it's own file, and within that you can choose to play the track while looking at any scanned documents or memorabilia (ex. original lyric sheets, tabs, import 7" sleeves, etc.) It also will give you full info on each recording, the musicians involved, location, date, etc. And generally you can watch a video of the record being played. If that wasn't enough for some songs there is even video included. For instance with the electric tracks from Harvest like "Words", "Alabama" and "Are You Ready For The Country" you can watch the video of their recording in Neil's barn.

While I do have the CD version on my computer I won't be sharing it, I simply downloaded it from What.cd as a preview of what I'd be hearing on the Blu-Ray set. If you want to leech it go find it elsewhere, if you like Neil as an artist please support him and buy this collection, I don't think anyone will regret it. Watch the trailer below for a real idea of what's on the collection and how it all operates.

And The Furies Say - And The Furies Say (2006)

Post rock is the relative parallel to the early hardcore scene. Constantly hyped bands that suffer little improvement on a tired equation are mostly what make up post-rock's current saturation of unamusing talent. Sure, an album like say Burton Wagner's "A Sentinel's Eyes" can come along and change my perspective on this staleness, but not every artist can have the relative emotion that comes with being 21-years-old and unsatisfied with a spectrum of life. Most post-rock bands phase their dynamics and emotion through a pretty limited prism of build ups and field recordings, a cenotaph to the seemingly dissolved Montreal post rock super giant Godspeed You! Black Emperor if you will. And the Furies Say is a pretty similarly structured group when compared to GYBE of eight plus members that flirt with post-rock tendencies. Perhaps what makes them unique is that their dedications seem more devoted towards the early '90s "chamber rock" of Louisville's Rachel's. The band also expresses a love for Stravinsky and Penderecki on their Myspace, but those influences seem to come through little on their self-titled release. Perhaps which "composers" they seem to take most from are those of the minimalist movement, like Glass, Reich, or even Palestine.

With a group of instruments that range from melodica to French horn, to call And The Furies Say's sound "lush" is an understatement. Like most orchestral compositions, their sound breathes in realms of extensive interplay. "Engines of the End" perhaps signifies this "chamber" aspect the most. Running through is a repetitious, but hauntingly tragic, piano line as the band skillfully and subtly accents with a realm of brass and cello. Reflecting the bands post-rock ambitions is the tragically minimal composition "Iphigenea," which dredges through a casually depressing guitar line that is slowly built upon with a intensely dense drumming section and echoed full band performance. While it does seem like it could possibly be a unreleased GYBE demo for the first five minutes, the waltz heavy section that concludes the piece is something way too complex and dizzying for those Canadian anarchists. When the unraveling piano lines trigger into the staccato string section to conclude the song, the band's sixth sense of post-rock dynamic triggers an instant emotional response. Although the way they got there is not the same as most bands, the way they play those final moments of crescendo rival any post-rock band's best try. A naysayer could focus on the constant low mood of And The Furies Say's sound or perhaps that their sense of "all things epic" is what is currently wrong with the music scene, but when the band pulls out all their cards on the closer "Silhouettes and Paperbucks," I doubt few can deny the power this group can wield.

Because of their obvious devotion toward a group that predates them by over a decade, I can't in good faith give And The Furies Say's self-titled release a perfect score. Too many of the elements on this record are borrowed and not in vein with the level of evolution I associate with my favorite bands. Still, I can not deny the high level of composition found on this record. While most bands like say Yndi Halda or This Will Destroy You are clearly following a path that is well tread, And The Furies Say are cultured enough to rip from a band that seems to have been lost in the shuffle of post-rock's history. With their self-titled album, they aren't reaching into the genre and doing anything different, but they are doing something that is rarely seen. For that, this album and band interest me. Perhaps, in future recordings, they will prove themselves a more consistent collective than Rachel's, or maybe they will fall into the endless traps of repetition that capture many post-rock bands. For now though, they are seemingly one of the more interesting new post-rock groups, and I'd suggest anyone with a interest in the genre give them a glance because they are a very solid Rachel's "tribute". - Review from sputnikmusic

01. God As Gun (10:59)
02. Iphigenea (9:53)
03. Engines Of The End (10:56)
04. Silhouettes And Paperbacks (6:38)

Download "And The Furies Say" (2006) @ Sharebee

Steve Earle - Townes (2009)

Oddly enough I first heard of this album on David Letterman. It was of course at the end when the musical guest plays and it was none other than Mr. Steve Earle. The performance was just brilliant (watch it here), and as I watched I noticed that the song sounded really familiar, it took me a while to realize that he was in fact singing Townes Van Zandt's "Colorado Girl". Then I see Dave walk over and he holds up a copy of Steve's new Lp "Townes", and from the title one can figure out that it's a record of Townes Van Zandt covers.

So I went and downloaded the nearest copy I could find, and I'm still waiting on Melodiya to get there copies in stock. But once they do, I'll be the first guy over to get one because this album is amazing. If you know Townes' music, and you respect his masterful songwriting, then you will be amazed at how great of a job Earle does in covering these songs. The album features guest appereances by the likes of Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine), Earle's wife Allison Morrer, and even Earle's son Justin Townes Earle. And that name right there is an example of how much Van Zandt influenced Earle's life both as a musician and on a personal level. Having been mentored for many years by Van Zandt himself, Earle went on to name his son after him, and even later make this album.

Review taken from Rolling Stone:
Is anyone more entitled to make a Townes Van Zandt covers album than Steve Earle, who named a son after the Texas singer-songwriter? As Van Zandt's protégé, Earle knows these songs intimately — some of the greatest in the folk-country canon — and delivers them with the ease of breathing, mostly unadorned. His voice lacks Van Zandt's sweet frailty, but it brings gruff tenderness to classics like "To Live Is to Fly." Two songs break form: the apocalyptic "Lungs," which adds dusty break beats and noise guitar, and "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold," a duet with son Justin Townes Earle — the sound of a torch being passed again.

It's a spellbinding tribute to one of the most underrated and overlooked songwriters in north american music. Enjoy.

01. Pancho And Lefty (4:02)
02. White Freightliner Blues (3:28)
03. Colorado Girl (3:35)
04. Where I Lead Me (3:30)
05. Lungs (2:19)
06. No Place To Fall (2:53)
07. Loretta (3:14)
08. Brand New Companion (5:12)
09. Rake (3:23)
10. Delta Momma Blues (5:14)
11. Marie (4:53)
12. Don't Take It Too Bad (3:12)
13. Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold (2:18)
14. (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria (3:20)
15. To Live Is To Fly (3:40)

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