Party Dolls - Love Wars Baby - 2/14/14 - This Is American Music

Itunes : http://tinyurl.com/jwylk5a

Spotfiy : http://tinyurl.com/lvthwy9

At its core, Party Dolls is a collaboration between This Is American Music label mates The District Attorneys and Tedo Stone. These two rising bands have shared the stage many times, but it took one long year of heartbreak, restlessness and inspiration to bring them together in the form of Party Dolls. The high-chemistry new project also features members of Moths, Ruby the Rabbitfoot and Archers of Loaf side project Crooked Fingers.
 While The District Attorneys took their time, casually working on a new album (due out in late 2014), frontman/songwriter Drew Beskin amassed dozens of new songs he wasn’t sure could—or even should—fit with The District Attorneys’ sound. “Everything I was writing at the time,” Beskin says, “was dark, honest, therapeutic and true.” During this prolific period, Beskin began to bottle lightning—writing disarmingly intimate, emotionally direct tunes in an attempt to transcend the pain he was feeling in the wake of a bad breakup.

"These songs had to be written,” Beskin says. “At first, they were just for me, and for a long while I did not care if anyone else ever heard them. They poured out of me. They were about turning a negative into a positive."
 
Some time after the heart-wrenching period that birthed these songs faded into the rearview, The District Attorneys were invited to play a Valentine’s Day show with Southern rockers Ponderosa at Athens, Ga.’s Caledonia Lounge. Only half of the District Attorneys were available, but instead of declining, Beskin approached musician friends Tedo Stone and Jeremy Wheatley (Crooked Fingers), who joined him alongside District Attorneys bandmates’ Frank Keith IV and Walker Beard. Together, they learned Beskin’s newer, more personal songs, and Party Dolls was born.

With this simpatico group of players, the arrangements came instantly, effortlessly. Within a month’s time, the band made its live debut on Valentine’s Day 2013. The show was so well-received that Party Dolls decided to record an album, working on it in spurts over the course of a year whenever the band was able to gather for a session at bassist/engineer Frank Keith’s home studio in Athens.

Party Dolls’ debut, Love Wars Baby, is slated to drop on Valentine’s Day 2014, exactly one year to the day from the band’s first show. Though still peppered with first-rate rockers, the new album emphasizes acoustic-guitar ballads backed by a big drum sound and sweetened with a healthy dose of cello and piano. Beautiful and haunting, Love Wars Baby captures the more reserved, thoughtful side of The District Attorneys and Tedo Stone. It’s a vehicle for the prolific Beskin’s honest, inventive songwriting, showcased ably by Keith’s skillful engineering. With songs like the anthemic title track and the female-harmony-anchored “Indigo,” with heartbreaker “A Firecracker” and the epically catchy sea-chantey singalong “Sweetheart Moon,” this album is an impressive and revelatory debut from start to finish.

 ”These songs timestamp a very specific point in my life,” Beskin says. “For better or worse, I have a record I’m very proud of.”

Credits:

All songs by Drew Beskin 

Engineered and Mixed by Frank Keith IV at Madison Studios in Atlanta, GA

Mastered by Drew Vandenberg at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA

Produced by Frank Keith IV, Tedo Stone and Drew Beskin

Party Dolls are Drew Beskin, Frank Keith IV, Tedo Stone
with Jeremy Wheatley and Walker Beard

Cello by Jacob Morris
Lead Vocals on "Indigo" by Kathryn Boyd
Guitar solo on "You Let Me Know" by Clay Houle

"Love Wars Baby" by Drew Beskin and Daniel Womack

Artwork by Brian Manley (FunWithRobots)

Special thanks to Matt Martin, Rob Lawrence, Lee Berg, Allison Ward, Madison Studios, The District Attorneys, This Is American Music, Space and Time.

Buy on Bandcamp

Party Dolls - Love Wars Baby

Fire Mountain– All Dies Down– 5/20 release via This Is American Music 

Effortlessly alternating between Southern slow-burners and folk-rock jams, Fire Mountain’s first full-length album, All Dies Down (This is American Music), propels the band into the forefront of Southern indie rock and roll music. Taking a massive step forward from the band’s 2011 EP, Of The Dust. Lead singer/songwriter Perry Brown’s complex, heartfelt songs have led to this proud Troy, Alabama band making quite a name for themselves. Since their formation in 2009, Fire Mountain has recorded a Daytrotter session, was named by Paste Magazine as one of the "12 Alabama Bands You Need To Know Now [in 2013]”, and has relentlessly toured throughout the Southeast. 

Recorded and produced at the expert hands of Les Nuby (Verbena, Vulture Whale) at Birmingham’s Ol Elegante studios, these are songs that take a page out of a chapter in anyone's life. Time and again, Brown is able to express the human journey of love, life, and faith through his poignant, scalpel-like lyrics. Those words are buoyed up by the bands sonic sculptors—Adam Vinson on percussion, Walter Black on bass guitar, Ryan Richburg on electric guitar, and Bryan Segraves on the keys. 

“We tend to write a lot about life changes,” says Brown. “Our previous albums have been about changes and All Dies Down is no different. This album focuses mostly on the shift that occurs when you start to settle down in life and have to learn to get over yourself in order to live with another person.” 

Fire Mountain continues to improve on an already outstanding sound with All Dies Down. With growing acclaim and an aggressive ambition, the band is poised to be the next standout in the ever-fertile musical soil of Alabama. 

Released by: This Is American Music 
Release/catalogue number: TIAM0044 
Release date: May 20, 2014

Fire Mountain - All Dies Down

Have Gun, Will Travel - Fiction, Fact, or Folktale? 

Bradenton, Florida's Have Gun, Will Travel have a natural instinct for combining folk, pop, rock and classic country influences to create a sound all their own. "Their music has a great energy to it with infectious, sing-along choruses and refrains" remarked NPR's Robin Hilton. American Songwriter called HGWT's music "organic, infectious Americana Pop. Their music has a refreshing immediacy to it."

Over the course of three acclaimed albums, hundreds of shows and copious populist-radio airplay, they've nurtured a tradition of inviting all manner of gifted musicians to join the fray. The group's inclusive nature allows it to flesh out tunes that run the gamut from foot-stomping front-porch spirituals and evocative Texas swing to strum-punk rave-ups, hill-country historicals and more.

HGWT's music has been featured in a national Chevy TV commercial; multiple episodes of the PBS series Roadtrip Nation; and an episode of CBS's The Good Wife. Their previous albums have spent months on the CMJ Radio Top 200 chart. And their live performances have been described as rousing, rollicking, energetic and dynamic.

The band's highly anticipated, fourth full-length album "Fiction, Fact or Folktale?" will be available September 10th on CD and digital formats through This Is American Music. The album was mixed by HGWT's own Scott Anderson and mastered by Rodney Mills (Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Drive-By Truckers). Fall U.S. tour dates to be announced soon!

FOR MORE INFO ON HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL: 
https://www.facebook.com/hgwtmusic

FOR MORE INFO ON THIS IS AMERICAN MUSIC: 
http://thisisamericanmusic.com

Fiction, Fact, or Folktale

The Kernal - Farewellhello

Based in Jackson, TN, The Kernal & His New Strangers call the Downtown Tavern home and from that halfway point between two Tennessee music mecca’s, tour the country with their home-grown brand of Southern mystique.  Tied deeply to the legacy of the wandering musician and the historic Grand Ole Opry, the Kernal, a southern gentleman with an old soul and youthful ambition, found his sound and showmanship in the greats of the classic Country music scene like Del Reeves. “My dad,” The Kernal reminisces, explaining the impetus of the band, “met Sleepy LaBeef at Limebaugh’s Restaurant in Nashville. Lonzo & Oscar were looking for a drummer and he asked my dad if he could play a shuffle beat on the table. He did and he left for a 10-day run the next day. It worked out because soon he was playing with Sleepy.”  From there, his father found his way to The Kendalls, and eventually to the legendary Del Reeves, with whom he would play until Reeves’ death in 2007.  His father died in September of the same year and the seed was planted. This legacy of the old country music way, of rock and roll on the fly, was not lost on the Kernal, and he took it as starting point from which to build his own contribution to the cannon of southern music.

“It’s about old fabrics on new skin, and seeing how they get along, the frontman explains; the chemistry of tension with the old guard and the young gun, but with the respect and love that can only come from the South itself.

Farewellhello

Doc Feldman & The LD50 - Sundown at the Station

After years of supporting other musicians and playing in bands, including his most recently defunct band, Good Saints, veteran multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Derek “Doc” Feldman is releasing his first solo album Sundowning at the Station. The album was recorded by Jason Groves at Sneak Attack! In Lexington, Kentucky and is being released via This Is American Music on July 16th, 2013. Calling themselves “the LD50,” Doc enlisted the help of a few friends, including close friend and sometimes songwriting collaborator James Jackson Toth (aka Wooden Wand), to help fill out the sound.
Similar to an old, well-constructed house that has been lived in by lonesome, lost, and booze-lovin’ residents for centuries, each element on Sundowning at the Station serves its purpose and without one the others collapse. One might be tempted to listen to this album with a couple of pain pills and a shot of whiskey to numb the heartache, but the songs themselves serves as the vaccination from the real disease. Songs like the mournful “Ready” and the bluesy and bruised “Alive for Now” both sung with honesty and experience. Or there’s the earthy minimalist howl of “Can’t Quit You.” There’s the hardened and gritty “Cold Tile Floor” or lapsteel-laced “A Texas Moan,” both of which are collaborative songwriting efforts between Feldman and Toth. “A Texas Moan” has been re-worked here, but the song itself was originally released on a 7” vinyl split with Kill County when Doc and James were with Good Saints. Also of particular note is the weary yet hopeful “Battle Hymn” performed by Doc, but written by old friends and St. Louis, Missouri staples Brothers Lazaroff.

“Doc Feldman’s debut album Sundowning at the Station brings the gothic South front and centre. Find yourself immersed in a bluesy whiskey soaked ode to what real country should be…finally something to dig my teeth into again and again.” – Sandy Smith, Slowcoustic

“Doc Feldman’s new album sounds like the weary, worndown end of a dark barroom set. Tired, frustrated, and beaten, his songs are of a particularly compelling breed of Southern gothic. There’s hope there, but the kind of hope you find at the ass-end of a hot humid Southern day as you collapse on your bed for rest. There’s depth to these songs, and weight, and something that fills up your soul just a little bit.” – Devon Leger, Hearth Music


Cold Tile Floor

Have Gun, Will Travel - Standing at the End of the World

Trouble

High Road

The Places

The Show Must Go On

Have Gun, Will Travel - Silver and the Age of Opulence

While We're Standing

Homicide

Push Your Button

Lay A New Rag (Upon My Head)

Good-Bye Flowers

Tennessee

Chris Porter - Guitar, Vox
Jay Burgess - Guitar, Vox, Producer
Chris James - Bass
Reed Watson -  Drums
Daniel Stoddard - Steel, Keys, guitar, vox
Helen Gassenheimer - Fiddle, Vox on "Rest These Bones"

Recorded in Green Hill, Alabama
Produced by Jay Burgess
Mixed by TJ Mimbs and Jay Burgess
Mastered by TJ Mimbs at Easy Street Studios
cover art by Jeff Moore - Green Olive Media

Porter - Your Hometown

Porter and The Pollies

In the dead of winter of 2013, Chris Porter (of Back Row Baptists and Some Dark Holler) came home to his native Alabama to record some songs with some fellow Alabamians, the Pollies, who he justifiably calls "the best rock band I know."  Porter  - yeah, that's what everyone calls him - had relocated to Austin, Texas the previous year, running both to some things and from some others. Some Pollies were also caught up in life upheavals. As Porter puts it, "Each and every one of us were in some shape of disrepair or healing. It seemed that 2012 had treated all of us with equal amounts of drama, and reconciliation." A somewhat rare Southern snowfall was approaching. And they gathered in tiny Greenhill, Alabama, just barely this side of Tennessee - the kind of place where you remember just how damn dark it gets at night when light pollution isn't an issue. Porter brought a red guitar, and was of a mind to make some noise. The Pollies, of course, were game to rock. This is what happened.  It's fuzzy. It's buzzy. It's rough, and more than just a little surly. 

"I heard all of its quirks and twitches the first time I heard the mixes. I heard the quirks and twitches while we tracked it, and I love them," says Porter. "We ditched any desire to track cleanly and opted to go all five or so of us live. Dirty. For the next three days, The Pollies and I caught up, and conversationally covered all of the dramatic bases in regards to our winding up in the studio that week. We almost called the EP 'Divorce Camp.' We managed to have beers and whiskies in at least two different states, spend restless hours with countless Shoals area musicians, and tracked six tunes. Live. Those buzzes, fuzzes, and pops remain to remind me more of the context of the session. We kind of talked about cleaning it up a bit for y'all. Then we said 'f@%k it.' We made it sad, and angry, and drunk." We're so happy that some of our family was able to get together, lean on each other a bit and draw from each other, have some good times - and share with us, and y'all, what they made together. 

Chris Porter - Guitar, Vox
Jay Burgess - Guitar, Vox, Producer
Chris James - Bass
Reed Watson -  Drums
Daniel Stoddard - Steel, Keys, guitar, vox
Helen Gassenheimer - Fiddle, Vox on "Rest These Bones"

Recorded in Greenhill, Alabama
Produced by Jay Burgess
Mixed by TJ Mimbs and Jay Burgess
Mastered by TJ Mimbs at Easy Street Studios
cover art by Jeff Moore - Green Olive Media

Fourth of July

Party Dolls - Love Wars Baby - 2/14/14 - This Is American Music

Credits:

All songs by Drew Beskin 
"Love Wars Baby" by Drew Beskin and Daniel Womack

Engineered and Mixed by Frank Keith IV at Madison Studios in Atlanta, GA

Mastered by Drew Vandenberg at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA

Produced by Frank Keith IV, Tedo Stone and Drew Beskin

Party Dolls are Drew Beskin, Frank Keith IV, Tedo Stone
with Jeremy Wheatley and Walker Beard

Cello by Jacob Morris
Lead Vocals on "Indigo" by Kathryn Boyd
Guitar solo on "You Let Me Know" by Clay Houle

Artwork by Brian Manley (FunWithRobots)

Special thanks to Matt Martin, Rob Lawrence, Lee Berg, Allison Ward, Madison Studios, The District Attorneys, This Is American Music, Space and Time.

Love Wars Baby

Kindly Leave

Indigo

I Am Not The One You Love

Party Dolls - Vampire

Fire Mountain - Be Your Eyes

Anchor Iron

Factory Line

Fire Mountain - At The Seams

Fire Mountain - Doing Fine

Fortress

I've Been Wrong

http://calebcaudle.com/
https://calebcaudle.bandcamp.com/

"I would trade every last light in New York City, to be there tonight with you in New Orleans." - Caleb Caudle's Trade All the Lights from the upcoming album, Paint Another Layer on My Heart.

Caleb Caudle's last album, Tobacco Town brought him National exposure upon its release in 2012. With Blurt Magazine noting "jaw-droppingly fine songs steeped in classic Earle, Clark, McMurtry and Van Zandt." Caudle decided to take his American rich songs out on the road.

In just a year, Caudle played over 300 shows in 30 plus states, performed on the radio web sensation, Daytrotter, and even found time to pack up all of his belongings and make the move from North Carolina to New Orleans.

For the new album, which was all written during his time on the road, Caudle decided to record at Echo Mountain studios in Asheville, NC. Along with his producer and engineer, Jon Ashley (Dawes, Band Of Horses, The Avett Brothers), Caleb manages to craft a beautiful composition of his road worn songs with some help from Lydia Loveless (harmony vocals), Whit Wright (pedal steel), Jordan Powers (bass), Greg Herndon (piano), Tommy Scifres (guitar), and Jack Foster (drums).

Paint Another Layer On My Heart is a fully realized vision consisting of classic songs, instrumentation, and production.

"I just want to connect with folks. This album is about love and distance. That's something I feel like most people have had to go through, something that was very much a part of my life this past year." - Caleb Caudle

>>>>
Paint Another Layer On My heart was engineered by Jon Ashley at ECHO Mountain in Asheville, NC and mastered by Evan Bradford.

Bass/vocals: Jordan Powers
Drums: Jack Foster
Electric Guitar: Tommy Scifres
Pedal Steel: Whit Wright
Piano/B3 organ: Greg Herndon
Vocals: Lydia Loveless

Pre-Order

Caleb Caudle - How'd You Learn

Transmissions

10 - Love Is All We Want

09 - Lonely

08 - Postcard Symphony

07 - Note He Wrote

06 - Love's To Fault

Transmission

05 - Knocking At My Door

04 - Fell In Love

03 - Summertime Suicide

02 - Hold On My Heart

01 - You Want It

Moving On

Joey Kneiser - Moonlight For The Graveyard Heart

This Is American Music release - 12/11/12

Dark lonely roads, graffiti-ed brick churches, and full-mooned night skies make up the landscape of Joey Kneiser’s new EP, Moonlight for the Graveyard Heart. As member and songwriter for the band Glossary, Joey has used his love and knowledge of writing and recording in his newest release. While Glossary’s latest album focused on being upbeat in a pessimistic world, Joey decided to try something new in Moonlight for the Graveyard Heart.

“I wanted something that felt dark without being macabre,” Joey says about his motives for recording Moonlight for the Graveyard Heart. “There needed to be a spark of hope even in the desperate of places.”

Like his 2010 release THE ALL-NIGHT BEDROOM REVIVAL, Joey was the only writer, performer, singer, and recording engineer on each track of MOONLIGHT FOR THE GRAVEYARD HEART.  Every instrument played, every vocal harmonized, and every lyric written was done solely by Kneiser at his home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  The result of his solitary work is a release that is finely detailed while expressing a lot of heart, full of songs dedicated to both the despondent and the hopeful, songs that herald our sins and our goodness, a record for everyone who has driven into dusky nights with a great hopeful heart.



Born With A Black Eye

Recorded in Athens, GA at Easy Street Productions in the fall of 2012. 
Mixed & Mastered by TJ Mimbs at Easy Street Productions.
credits

released 21 December 2012 
Frankenstrangler is: 

TJ Mimbs 
Frank Keith IV 
Danny Hurley 

and this time involved: 
Emily Braden
Jeremy Wheatley

Run Run Rudolph [Chuck Berry]

Frankenstrangler - Little Saint Nick

Recorded in Athens, GA at Easy Street Productions in the fall of 2012. 
Mixed & Mastered by TJ Mimbs at Easy Street Productions.
credits

released 21 December 2012 
Frankenstrangler is: 

TJ Mimbs (The District Attorneys / Surf Bored) 
Frank Keith IV (The District Attorneys / Tedo Stone / Ruby The Rabbitfoot)
Danny Hurley - (Dana Swimmer / Lord Baltimore)

and this time involved: 
Emily Braden (The Breaks)
Jeremy Wheatley (Crooked Fingers)

Itunes -  https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/little-saint-nick-single/id771076534
Spotify -  http://open.spotify.com/track/33hqnrPGpuAeFNDmQnSj4v
www.thisisamericanmusic.com

Little Saint Nick [Beach Boys]

Last Christmas [Wham!]

Dana Swimmer - Veloce

Dana Swimmer was born in a vacuum.

As you leave the band's adopted hometown, the musical mecca that is Athens, GA, drive due north on US Highway 441. When the city falls away, keep driving. Eventually you may see signs for Cleveland, GA -- The Vacuum. A sprawling stretch with little to do and no trace of a music scene. Singer Jack Blauvelt, sister Maggie Blauvelt, and drummer Parker Lusk spent two decades here in the mountains pulling songs from the thin air before joining guitarist John Riccitelli and bass player Danny Hurley in the city for the litmus test.

The catch-and-release, separatist epics of the band's debut album “Veloce” [Available February 1, 2013 via This is American Music] carry with them a lifetime of discord: A scenic mountain side littered with homemade skate ramps. Electric guitars feeding back inside a recommissioned barn. Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello. The forced juxtaposition of the avant and the pastoral drives the record; a record that utters the names of Patsy Cline and Ween in the same sincere sentence. The songs carry with them the verve of finding yourself suddenly on the edge of civilization, mountains and buildings mimicking each other on the skyline.

The band spent the better part of 2012 playing a rigorous live schedule, sharing the stage with bands such as Poliça, Hospitality, Pujol, and The Henry Clay People. Along the way, they recorded an album with producer T.J. Mimbs of the District Attorneys. “Veloce,” the title of the album, is a musical term turned ideology. It refers to a piece of music that is played at a steady pace, yet faster than the previous section; or a life that never wants for motion.

The new year found them in Athens on New Years Eve, playing in front of a packed-out 40 Watt Club. The first of February will see the release of “Veloce” and the band will continue the year down any road that leads to a stage.


Recorded August 2012 - December 2012
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by T.J. Mimbs at Easy Street Productions in Athens, GA
Additional recording at 'tilda's House, Athens, GA
Produced by T.J. Mimbs and Dana Swimmer
All music by Jack Blauvelt and Dana Swimmer
Lyrics by Jack Blauvelt
© 2013 Dana Swimmer

Fairground Girl

          
After half a decade spinning wheels on the Great American Highway, through the brutal heartbreaks and dire sacrifices that come with chasing the mythical rock & roll dragon, Great Peacock’s Andrew Nelson and Blount Floyd have finally eased up on the throttle. Like rock & roll as it transitioned from the erratic abandon of the late ’60s to the country-tinged storytelling of the early ’70s—donning cowboy boots and dipping its bucket in the well of American folk music—they’ve put their electric guitars back in the case, rolled their stacks back from 11, and let a serene hush wash over them. Their sound now? Beautiful, unadorned, moving—the bountiful harvest of a deep friendship and an unbreakable musical bond.

“The hangover is definitely starting to wear off,” Nelson says. “The amps had gotten a little too loud.”

“With our old band, we’d been playing all this angsty downer rock,” Floyd explains. “So with Great Peacock, we wanted the songs to be simple, poppy—infectious.”

For the first time, Nelson and Floyd weren’t writing songs for themselves, but rather songs they hoped would connect with fans. With Great Peacock they would embrace an unselfish, unpretentious aesthetic. “I don’t want to alienate people any more,” Nelson says, laughing a bit as he recalls the darker, more confessional songs he used to write. “I’m at a point where I want as many people to like our music as possible.”

Floyd and Nelson met in their early 20s in Nashville, the former having come to MusicCity to break into recording and the latter to play rock & roll. When they first ran into each other, neither had any close friends in town yet, and their connection was instant. “From the moment we said ‘hello,’ we realized we were gonna be best friends,” Nelson says. “It’s the only time it’s ever happened in my life. Blount’s brother introduced us, and I was like, ‘This guy is cool!’”

About an hour later, they were shotgunning beers together. “And it’s not like there was a party going on, either,” Nelson explains. “We were talking about music and I said, ‘Let’s get some beer.’ So we went to the gas station and bought a 12 pack of Busch. At every moment in the night, we became better friends—I was like, ‘Dude, we should get the camouflage cans,’ and Blount was like, ‘Hell yes, let’s do it!’”

“And there was this guy in front of us buying a single gas-station rose,” Floyd recalls, “and he says, ‘Yo, can I get some cigarillos and a box of magnums?’”

“We were both like, ‘That’s real love, man. Real love,’” Nelson says. “‘This guy has his life figured out—we need to figure out ours!’ I don’t think we drank a single beer normal that night—we shotgunned the whole 12-pack.”

The new friends soon found that their musical chemistry was just as intense, and that their strengths and weaknesses were the perfect complement. “The big thing about us,” Nelson says, “is that I can’t sing harmony—I’m terrible at it. And Blount doesn’t have a strong lead voice. When we’re riding around listening to music, he never sings the melody; he naturally sings the harmony. So we’re a perfect fit—I need him to sound good, and he needs me.”

Since the pair started playing together, they’ve seen two bands—and about a dozen bandmates—come and go. Through it all, their musical partnership has been a constant. “We always seemed to get what each other was doing more than anyone else,” Nelson says. “He keeps me artistic, and I keep him grounded.”

As far as Great Peacock has already come—recording a stunning debut EP of harmony-driven acoustic pop, performing as part of stylish, socially conscious eyewear company Warby-Parker’s Class Trip, and landing a coveted spot at one of Paste magazine’s 2013 SXSW showcases—the group began, almost literally, as a lark. “We kept noticing this hilarious trend of bands with names like Fleet Foxes, Deer Tick, Vulture Whale—they all had two names,” Nelson says, “one of which was always an animal.”

Kidding around one night, Nelson and Floyd decided to start a new band called Great Peacock. “I thought it was gonna be this cockamamie joke,” Nelson says. “We’ve talked a million times about starting random bands—including a Southern-rock band called Swamp Ass—and didn’t follow through. But even for a while there, when we didn’t really have anything going, I never stopped writing songs because I have to write to maintain my sanity. It’s my version of therapy. And Blount hadn’t stopped, either. Writing gave us an excuse to hang out.

“But I still didn’t think we were actually gonna do it,” Nelson confesses about the new band. “Really, the only reason it happened is because we wrote ‘Desert Lark.’”

Without giving it much thought, Nelson and Floyd posted an acoustic demo of the song on Bandcamp. Friends, family and fans went crazy over it, begging them to follow through on the new project. “We didn’t expect that,” Nelson says. “I wasn’t planning on being in a band again. I really wasn’t.” The chiming, triumphant acoustic anthem would become the centerpiece of the Nashville duo’s new self-titled EP.

Great Peacock’s harmony-driven sound appeals to fans of indie-folk, but the group is different from contemporaries like Fleet Foxes and The Head and the Heart in that their music is inextricalbly linked with the South. It’s who they are—Floyd hailing from a family of Alabama peanut farmers, and Nelson a long line of Mississippi preachers and sharecroppers. “If I had my way in life,” Nelson admits, “I’d be a country singer. My dream is to be George Jones.”

“But those country singers don’t exist any more,” Floyd says.

So instead of trying to live in a long-gone past, Great Peacock draws from the same inspirations that once fueled their now-extinct forebears (geography, aging, love/hate family relationships, blood, death, birds), channeling them into an unmistakably modern sound. For Nelson and Floyd, it’s natural, inutitive. “We know that even though there’s a history we’re connected to, we’re of our time,” Nelson says. “We know most records aren’t made on tape any more, but we’re also very much aware that—no matter the year or the production style—the right melody can be timeless.”

Take Me to the Mountain

El Cantador - Mobile, AL

Sean Murphy: Drums/Percussion
Alex Scharr: Bass/Piano/Synths/Vocals
Heath Underwood: Guitar/Vocals/Electric Piano on "Ennui"

El Cantador took residence at the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center of Arts and Education in Ocean Springs, MS for a total of six days in May and September of 2012 to work on Translation Wave. With access to the building’s Scharr-Ello studio, performance arts room, and main theater the trio was once again free to explore their sound within high ceilings and stairwells in one of the coast's most richly and artistically diversified areas. Chris Staples (TwoThirtyEight, Discover America, Telekinesis) was invited in to engineer three of the EPs more percussion oriented tracks (BlackSound, Particle and Wave, Reynosa). 

In this new collection of music we find a more intimate, cinematic, and sporadic group of songs. Translation Wave is an expression of how a band can morph and evolve from time on the road and turn to reflect on those experiences through instrumentation. Having already freed themselves of popular expectations on the previous album, El Cantador appears willing and able to take us anywhere at any time without notice. In the EP's first track, "BlackSound”, the listener is greeted by a sparse and intricately picked out acoustic guitar riff alongside Underwood's immediate foretelling to "Don't buy into most of my dreams/I'll make your head spin with my own disconnectivity" - lyrics which imply Underwood's satisfaction in playing with language and could serve to intimate the EP's darker hues and cathartic uplifts. Translation Wave proudly hums with a warmth and rawness akin to older classic albums you might find in your local record bin.

http://twitter.com/#!/elcantador
http://facebook.com/elcantadorband

Pilgrims

GREAT PEACOCK (Nashville, TN) -- self-titled EP release via This Is American Music 3/5/13

After half a decade spinning wheels on the Great American Highway, through the brutal heartbreaks and dire sacrifices that come with chasing the mythical rock & roll dragon, Great Peacock’s Andrew Nelson and Blount Floyd have finally eased up on the throttle. Like rock & roll as it transitioned from the erratic abandon of the late ’60s to the country-tinged storytelling of the early ’70s—donning cowboy boots and dipping its bucket in the well of American folk music—they’ve put their electric guitars back in the case, rolled their stacks back from 11, and let a serene hush wash over them. Their sound now? Beautiful, unadorned, moving—the bountiful harvest of a deep friendship and an unbreakable musical bond.

“The hangover is definitely starting to wear off,” Nelson says. “The amps had gotten a little too loud.”

“With our old band, we’d been playing all this angsty downer rock,” Floyd explains. “So with Great Peacock, we wanted the songs to be simple, poppy—infectious.”

For the first time, Nelson and Floyd weren’t writing songs for themselves, but rather songs they hoped would connect with fans. With Great Peacock they would embrace an unselfish, unpretentious aesthetic. “I don’t want to alienate people any more,” Nelson says, laughing a bit as he recalls the darker, more confessional songs he used to write. “I’m at a point where I want as many people to like our music as possible.”

Floyd and Nelson met in their early 20s in Nashville, the former having come to MusicCity to break into recording and the latter to play rock & roll. When they first ran into each other, neither had any close friends in town yet, and their connection was instant. “From the moment we said ‘hello,’ we realized we were gonna be best friends,” Nelson says. “It’s the only time it’s ever happened in my life. Blount’s brother introduced us, and I was like, ‘This guy is cool!’”

About an hour later, they were shotgunning beers together. “And it’s not like there was a party going on, either,” Nelson explains. “We were talking about music and I said, ‘Let’s get some beer.’ So we went to the gas station and bought a 12 pack of Busch. At every moment in the night, we became better friends—I was like, ‘Dude, we should get the camouflage cans,’ and Blount was like, ‘Hell yes, let’s do it!’”

“And there was this guy in front of us buying a single gas-station rose,” Floyd recalls, “and he says, ‘Yo, can I get some cigarillos and a box of magnums?’”

“We were both like, ‘That’s real love, man. Real love,’” Nelson says. “‘This guy has his life figured out—we need to figure out ours!’ I don’t think we drank a single beer normal that night—we shotgunned the whole 12-pack.”

The new friends soon found that their musical chemistry was just as intense, and that their strengths and weaknesses were the perfect complement. “The big thing about us,” Nelson says, “is that I can’t sing harmony—I’m terrible at it. And Blount doesn’t have a strong lead voice. When we’re riding around listening to music, he never sings the melody; he naturally sings the harmony. So we’re a perfect fit—I need him to sound good, and he needs me.”

Since the pair started playing together, they’ve seen two bands—and about a dozen bandmates—come and go. Through it all, their musical partnership has been a constant. “We always seemed to get what each other was doing more than anyone else,” Nelson says. “He keeps me artistic, and I keep him grounded.”

As far as Great Peacock has already come—recording a stunning debut EP of harmony-driven acoustic pop, performing as part of stylish, socially conscious eyewear company Warby-Parker’s Class Trip, and landing a coveted spot at one of Paste magazine’s 2013 SXSW showcases—the group began, almost literally, as a lark. “We kept noticing this hilarious trend of bands with names like Fleet Foxes, Deer Tick, Vulture Whale—they all had two names,” Nelson says, “one of which was always an animal.”

Kidding around one night, Nelson and Floyd decided to start a new band called Great Peacock. “I thought it was gonna be this cockamamie joke,” Nelson says. “We’ve talked a million times about starting random bands—including a Southern-rock band called Swamp Ass—and didn’t follow through. But even for a while there, when we didn’t really have anything going, I never stopped writing songs because I have to write to maintain my sanity. It’s my version of therapy. And Blount hadn’t stopped, either. Writing gave us an excuse to hang out.

“But I still didn’t think we were actually gonna do it,” Nelson confesses about the new band. “Really, the only reason it happened is because we wrote ‘Desert Lark.’”

Without giving it much thought, Nelson and Floyd posted an acoustic demo of the song on Bandcamp. Friends, family and fans went crazy over it, begging them to follow through on the new project. “We didn’t expect that,” Nelson says. “I wasn’t planning on being in a band again. I really wasn’t.” The chiming, triumphant acoustic anthem would become the centerpiece of the Nashville duo’s new self-titled EP.

Great Peacock’s harmony-driven sound appeals to fans of indie-folk, but the group is different from contemporaries like Fleet Foxes and The Head and the Heart in that their music is inextricalbly linked with the South. It’s who they are—Floyd hailing from a family of Alabama peanut farmers, and Nelson a long line of Mississippi preachers and sharecroppers. “If I had my way in life,” Nelson admits, “I’d be a country singer. My dream is to be George Jones.”

“But those country singers don’t exist any more,” Floyd says.

So instead of trying to live in a long-gone past, Great Peacock draws from the same inspirations that once fueled their now-extinct forebears (geography, aging, love/hate family relationships, blood, death, birds), channeling them into an unmistakably modern sound. For Nelson and Floyd, it’s natural, inutitive. “We know that even though there’s a history we’re connected to, we’re of our time,” Nelson says. “We know most records aren’t made on tape any more, but we’re also very much aware that—no matter the year or the production style—the right melody can be timeless.”

http://greatpeacock.com/


Take Me To The Mountain

Desert Lark

Sailing

Family Home

Bluebird

teen getaway - hits and missives - this is american music release late spring/early summer

God Save The Spleen

Mod Mobilian Records and This Is American Music are proud to announce the release of Hurray for the Riff Raff's album "My Dearest Darkest Neighbor" on July 1st, 2013. The album will be available for the first time publicly, including the previously unreleased "My Sweet Lord."

These are songs I've gathered over the years. I've taken them with me wherever I go. For a musician who lives most of her life on the road, the songs you know and love are one of your only consistencies. They carry a feeling of home. These songs have been there for me in a dark hour. They've guided me down long roads that stretched through time. They have illuminated me on the human spirit, its unbreakable will, its strength and power.  The songwriters who've penned them have inspired me endlessly. I have studied them through records because I hope to never cease my education on how to write a  good tune. I threw on two songs I've written that were building blocks for me. These are my attempts at the folk tradition of writing a song where someone else left off. I try to learn from the greats. These are soul songs, let's sing them together. - Alynda lee Segarra

My Sweet Lord

A Southern Indie Record Label. Nobody gives a bigger shit than us...

This Is American Music

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