The Current Music Blog: September 15, 2009 Archive

Mason Jennings sings (You) "Ain't No Friend Of Mine"...

Posted at 10:33 AM on September 15, 2009 by Barb Abney

Mason Jenning's eighth full length record, Blood Of Man was released today! In celebration, today on our Song Of The Day podcast you can get the tune "Ain't No Friend Of Mine" for free!

If you're a new subscriber, you'll also receive new music from Yo La Tengo, Red Pens, Wild Beasts and Hope Sandoval. Later this week we'll be featuring new music from Jay Reatard, Hockey and new local music from James Buckley Trio.

Mason dropped by last week for a live performance and interview session with Jill and Steve. You can check it out here...

He's playing First Avenue on November 22nd.

New music added to The Current this week!

Posted at 3:10 PM on September 15, 2009 by Melanie Walker (1 Comments)

Hey there! It's Melanie Walker the Music Director here at The Current! Check out the latest new music we'ved added to our playlists each week here on The Current's music blog! You can learn more about the artist or band and listen to more of their music by clicking on their name. It will link you directly to their website. Enjoy!

Mason Jennings has a new album out titled Blood Of Man and it is our featured CD of the week! We'll be hearing multiple tracks from the record all week including "Ain't No Friend Of Mine", "The Field", "Sunlight" and "Pittsburgh". Blood Of Man is in stores today. Mason is well known as one of the most recent success stories to come out of the Twin Cities. But, most don't realize that this singer songwriter was surprisingly born in Hawaii. Mason Jennings blends the talents of both an introspective poet, the political savvy and passion of an activist, with an eclectic palette of musical influences and the passion of a true rock n' roller. On Blood of Man, Mason indulges that rock n' roll side of himself more than most of the work he's done. Blood of Man is Mason's 8th full lenth album.

Bat For Lashes "Sleep Alone" from her new album Two Suns in stores now. Bat for Lashes from Brighton, England is the creation of singer/songwriter Natasha Khan. Born in Pakistan Khan finds inspriation from her art school education and her experience producing multimedia installations. She's been compaired to leading ladies like Bjork, and Kate Bush. Her latest release, Two Suns, came from the concept of Khan and her blonde, hedonistic alter ego Pearl.

Brandi Carlile "Dreams" from her new album Give Up The Ghost in stores October 6th. Only 23 when she released her major-label debut, Brandi Carlile was born in the small town of Ravensdale, WA, an isolated area 50 miles away from Seattle. Coming from such a small town, Carlile grew up learning to make her own entertainment, teaching herself to sing. She grew up loving her parents old country records like Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. In 2005 Carlile was signed to Columbia Records and released her first self titled album. It earned enthusiastic reviews, and Carlile was named one of 2005's "Artists to Watch" by Rolling Stone. Carlile and her band began work on her second album in 2006, The Story, with T-Bone Burnett producing. Give Up The Ghost is Brandi's third album.

Death Cab For Cutie "Meet Me On The Equinox" from the new soundtrack to Twilight 2 New Moon coming out in theatres soon. Started in the bayside college town of Bellingham, WA, the band was a side project for singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard, who at the time was also an engineering student at Western Washington University. Chris Walla was the producer at that time and lent his help to the recording sessions, which soon produced an eight-song cassette entitled You Can Play These Songs with Chords. The tape was a local hit, so Gibbard reached into his circle of friends to assemble a band. Bassist Nick Harmer (Gibbard's roommate) and drummer Nathan Good joined in, while Walla came on as the band's guitarist. Gibbard's group rechristened itself Death Cab for Cutie (named after a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) and signed a contract with the Seattle-based Barsuk Records within a year's time. 6 albums later Death Cab For Cutie is one of indie rock's greatest success stories.

Grand Archives "Silver Amongst The Gold" from their new album Keep In Mind Frankenstein in stores today. The Seattle indie folk band Carissa's Wierd helped pave the way for a number of acoustic bands partially inspired by British and American folk-rock of the '60s and '70s, from Joanna Newsom to the Decemberists. Splitting in 2003 after an eight-year tenure, the group splintered into several factions. Singer Jenn Ghetto started the lo-fi D.I.Y. project S, drummer Sera Cahoone opted for a solo career, and guitarists Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell formed the indie rock outfit Band of Horses. Brooke left Band of Horses to form his own band. At first called "Archives," but quickly renamed Grand Archives.

The Idle Hands "The Sleazer" from their new album The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show in stores now. Made up of five band members, two Irish, and three Minnesotan, local twin cities band, Idle Hands has made quite the splash on the local music scene this last year with their debut release The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show.

Lou Barlow "Gravitate" from his new album Goodnight Unknown in stores October 6th. One of the most prolific songwriters of his generation, Lou Barlow has also been one of the most influential as well. Born in Dayton, OH, Barlow was raised in Amherst, MA, where during high school he joined forces with J Mascis in the hardcore band Deep Wound. After the group's breakup in 1983, Barlow and Mascis reunited to create the band Dinosaur (later Dinosaur Jr.) which continued to become one of the most prolific indie bands of the era. Tensions grew between Mascis and Barlow, and Lou soon left to pursue other projects such as his band Sebadoh and side project Sentridoh, and solo efforts Emoh and his most recent Goodnight Unknown.

Mayer Hawthorne "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" from their new album A Strange Arrangment in stores October 6th. Ann Arbor native and longtime eclectic DJ/producer Andrew Cohen began recording soulful material as something of a joke. He was not planning on it to reach beyond his circle of friends and family. He soon dubbed himself the pseudonym Mayer Hawthorne. Renounded DJ/producer, Peanut Butter Wolf soon heard Hawthorne's songs and was floored. He soon signed to Peanut Butter Wolf's label Stones Throw Records and will soon be releasing his first full-length album A Strange Arrangement.

Mike Doughty "You Should be Doubly" from his new album Sad Man Happy Man which due to release September 29th. Before emerging as a solo artist, M. Doughty was best known as the frontman of Soul Coughing. Created in 1992, Soul Coughing was formed after Doughty met his bandmates while working as a doorman at the Knitting Factory in New York City. In March 2000, the members of Soul Coughing split up to work on their own side projects. Shortly after the breakup, Doughty, who had been writing as a columnist for New York Press on the side, embarked on a solo acoustic tour consisting of material from a then-unreleased solo album recorded in 1995, entitled Skittish. Sad Man Happy Man is his fifth solo release.