Assembled we are strong…
This is my new laptop background.
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The Week in Music…Blogs – Jan 21 to Jan 27, 2012
Early last week Bryan Childs from ninebullets.net wrote a blog entry called Pimping Other People’s Podcasts. It was sort of a ‘we all love doing this, let’s help each other out’ thing.
So I decided to post links to some of the great music blogs and media I read this week, sort of like a week in music recap only with less Kurt Loder and more check out this band review.
And here we go:
Michael Barwise interviewed Dylan Williams of The Carpels.
The Carpels were finally able to get the video for their new single, ‘Bears‘ viewable in the US.
Rachel over on Adobe and Teardrops (such a cool blog name) reviewed The Creak and provided a link to download their free album Fool’s Gold.
Autopsy4 previewed a single off the new Arliss Nancy in a blog entry and then previewed another during the Thursday night ninebullets radio show.
Iaan Hughes waxed poetic about Harley Allen over on his blog, the Real Mr. Heartache.
Jake Smith filming in Death Valley
Jake Smith (The White Buffalo) was in Death Valley last week filming a video for his upcoming release, Once Upon a Time in the West and was nice enough to share this image from the shoot.
I ranted about integrity and responsibility in music journalism after reading some reviews of We Take Care of Our Own, the first track from Springsteen’s upcoming release, Wrecking Ball.
Damien interviewed Virgil Dickerson and previewed a track from the upcoming Arliss Nancy release, Simple Machines on his Mostly Harmless podcast.
Yes, yes I do have a ‘thing’ for Arliss Nancy. Why do people keep asking me that?
Finally, this is a very small sample of all the awesome music news posted this week. If you tossed up a music post or review on your blog this week you would like added to the list just drop me a note with your addy in the comment section and I’ll put your link up in the post.
Now go read the cool blogs. 
- Kit Tweet
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Just say to me, that you love me…
The Coronas released their new album, Closer To You, this past November. It is awesome and you all should go buy it.
What? Okay, okay. That is brief, even for me. Let’s try this again.
The Coronas, Danny O’Reilly on vocals and guitar, Graham Knox on bass, Conor Egan on drums, and Dave McPhillips on lead guitar, are an indie rock band out of Dublin with a knack for for taking basic themes like relationships and religion and adding in subtle layers of meaning. They have always written good songs but the tracks on Closer To You are some of their best so far.
My favorites are the beautiful and bittersweet Write to Me, the bouncy Addicted to Progress and What You Think You Know with its heavy rock drums and the closest the guys get to ‘screamin’ guitars’.
I also like Mark My Words, the next single set to release on February 3rd. It has a just a little of an ’80′s sound.
You can listen to all the tracks and purchase Closer To You from iTunes or Amazon. Catch The Coronas on their website, check out their facebook page or follow them on twitter @TheCoronas.
- Kit Tweet
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Long way from nowhere…
I get twitchy if the blog goes too long without something Ryan Bingham-esque on it…
Kit’s Awesome vid of the Day – Interview with Ryan Bingham.
- Kit
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Some of the Mondays that I’ve been through…
Bleh. Did the whole ‘go have your bloodwork done or we won’t insure you any more’ thing Kahuna’s work requires every year. Forgot to tell the lab tech I can’t do latex so I came home with a rash all over my incredibly sore arm.
I have scoured the Amazon site and can’t find my pre-order for Serpent Sea by Martha Wells anywhere. Sigh. I keep thinking I saw a tweet where someone had a few signed copies left so I may go check that out and pick one up from them.
According to Google, it would take 41 hours to drive to E3 from my house.
If I were Tony Stark I would invent a device so every time I walked through a door ‘Fire‘ by Viv and the Revival would play. It would be like having my own personal theme song. People would still be humming it after I left the building. Captain America would (in a long-suffering tone) tell me to keep it off the coms during battle and that no, I could not organize a cheerleading squad and band to play the song live every time I smacked Dr Doom or a Hydra agent with a repulsor blast. Sigh…Cap never lets me have any fun.
Okay, maybe I really need another cup of coffee.
- Kit
This is for the hearts that never quit…
The Viv and the Revival song “Fire” will be featured during the Georgetown – Pittsburgh game Jan 28th on ESPN as part of the College Basketball ‘Who’s Next’ on the music scene. From ESPN Media Zone:
Many musical artists build their fan base in the local community or on a college campus before hitting the mainstream. Beginning Saturday, Jan. 21, ESPN will showcase music from 12 artists in select men’s college basketball telecasts and give the fans the opportunity to determine the next band that should garner a national following…”
You can tune in, check out the game and vote for Viv and the guys.
Kit Tweet
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The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone…
Okay, this is very, very simple. Like painfully simple.
We Take Care of Our Own is not a ‘Woohoo, Go USA, America Rocks’ song. At any time did you guys stop to think that if they pay you to write a review maybe you should actually listen to the song. Did you even read the artist name? How could you possibly get from Springsteen to ‘our government is awesome’? Hello, I-R-O-N-Y.
Seriously dudes…What is wrong with you?
Apparently, reviewers from the LA Times, The New York Daily News and a few other publications received their copies of Wrecking Ball, the new Bruce Springsteen album due to release in early March, from an alternate universe where Bruce and the Band shoot little kids with rock salt to make them pick crops of genetically altered tobacco faster, then send them off to special schools that teach them how being poor is a just punishment visited on those who are morally corrupt.
For a slightly more realistic (as in might be from our universe) take, check out Christopher Phillips review of the song over on Backstreets.com.
Wrecking Ball hits the streets (oh come on, how could I -not- say it) on March 6, 2012. You can pre-order it from Amazon or from iTunes where you can also buy an early release of We Take Care of Our Own.
- Kit
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In the haze and the high…
I woke up this morning with a song playing in my head. This isn’t unusual for me as I often wake with music playing, either from the alarm 
or from some internal speaker. What is unusual is I have been waking to the same song for three or four days in a row.
What on earth have I become,
I can’t hide forever from, the light of day.
It’s not what I want,
It’s always too late…”
I have written before about singers that sound as though they have lost their love. In The Dark Side of Town, Jake Smith sounds as though he has lost his entire world. When people say they are haunted by a song they could easily be talking about this one. It is sad and beautiful and the quiet, hopeless resignation almost makes me cry.
This is my favorite track on the new EP release from The White Buffalo, The Lost and Found. I first heard Jake on a StageIt concert and his voice just blew me away. Add in Tommy Andrews on bass and Matt Lynott on drums and the music is phenomenal.
If I had been able to spend some time listening to The Lost and Found before the year ended it would have easily made my Best of 2011. Jake has joined my list of songwriters that take tales of everyday life and craft them into amazing songs. How the West Was Won and The Pilot (two tracks also on the upcoming full length set for release in late Feb) use themes that have been put into song countless times but when Jake takes those themes and runs them through the filter of his life they come out sounding new and modern while still carrying a timeless quality.
Okay, okay… I also have days when I really, really ‘wish I was an outlaw’.
Look, I can ramble on for pages but it all comes down to the sound and no amount of description can replace hearing the music for yourselves. Check out the video for The Dark Side of Town and listen to The Pilot mp3 above, then pop over to The White Buffalo website and launch the music player to hear even more music and check out some older videos.
Bottom line – this EP is awesome and well worth the money. You can purchase The Lost and Found from Amazon or iTunes. You can also find The White Buffalo on Facebook or follow Jake on twitter @blancobuffalo. Keep an eye (and ear) out for the upcoming full length release, Once Upon a Time in the West, which comes out on on Feb 28th.
- Kit Tweet
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I'm Kit Brown and this is my blog. It began eons ago after Hurricane Dennis left a water leak causing me to fall and trash my knee. I started the blog and returned to guitar playing because I needed something to do other than hobble around on crutches...
