May Day Moscow by Mexican artist Diego Rivera, 1928. MoMA, fair use.
CHICAGO Celebrate International Workers Day with a HotHouse special online cultural program featuring Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Marvin Tate, and Bill MacKay, plus shout-outs from activists in the labor movement.
Jon Langford and Sally Timms have been performing together in and around U.K. Punk Rock band the Mekons since the early 1980s. This acoustic duo situation is most likely born of pandemic necessity because they prize collaboration above all else and love to work with other writers, artists, and musicians like Vito Acconci, Kathy Acker, Roger Knox, The Sadies, Will Oldham, Greil Marcus, Johnny Dowd, Lee Scratch Perry, Freakwater, The Magnetic Fields, Handsome Family, and many more.
Matt Sweeney, Bonnie Prince Billy and Yola: 5 new releases we love
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16 years after
Superwolf, the first collaborative album from Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney that combined the former’s cracked country croon as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the latter’s gritted guitar, comes a sequel, of sorts.
Superwolves unequivocally exists in the same soundworld as its predecessor – wearied outlaw soliloquies and playful love songs to kith and kin laced around intensely hushed electric guitar – but is also heavier than last time round.
That’s not to say Oldham’s gone rock, 30-plus years into a career of quiet:
Superwolves’ heaviness is more often implied than enacted, with Sweeney’s guitar playing largely muzzled and hints of feedback swirling in the background of otherwise fairly delicate songs, rendering the likes of ‘God is Waiting’ and ‘Watch What Happens’ as the sort of gothic chamber pop whose ever-present growling low end threatens to erupt at any time, even if it never does.
The 10 Best Americana Albums of 2011
If you ask a critic or music fan to define Americana, be prepared for an avalanche of diverse responses of opinion. Still, superb songwriting is essential.
If you ask a critic or music fan to define Americana, be prepared for an avalanche of diverse responses of opinion. Is the definition found in the pastoral lyrical sensibilities of a song? If so, then Fleet Foxes, Megafaun, and William Elliott Whitmore certainly qualify. Or is the genre better served by songwriters of a confessional ilk? Then welcome Bright Eyes, Mount Moriah, and Tift Merritt to the fold. Some think Americana acts need be of the downtrodden, sad-bastard variety. If that suits your qualifications, check out the Civil Wars and the venerable Will Oldham. However, if you want to keep things on the sunny side, then there are bands for you too: Del McCoury Band, Those Darlins, and Ry Cooder are there to keep the positivity flowing.
(5 out of 5 stars) I first heard a few cuts of The Creek Drank the Cradle via some MP3s a good friend sent me. Having no idea who Iron & Wine was, I was immediately taken by the lo-fi, harmonious, hushed vocals, and soft, slow, easy pacing. I swore that this had to be some lost recording from the late 1960 s from some unknown progressive (for the 60 s) folk/blues/country inspired band. It sounded nice, but I didn t end up listening much for a few weeks. After getting the album and learning it was released late last year (9/2002) inspired me to give the tunes a much closer listen (on headphones, eyes closed, listening closely) early one morning at home. That experience was one of the most moving musical experiences I have had in years. I felt like I had been drained and then refilled. I was literally brought to tears listening to the Sam Beam s sorrowful lyrics of Promising Light and Upward Over the Mountain (two of the best tracks on the disk IMO). Very moving and so
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