I just got word that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the creators of my second favorite album of 2007, are at it again. The oscar-winning duo, The Swell Season, are in the studio putting the finishing touches on their follow up to the incredible ‘Once’ soundtrack. Before this movie, Hansard was the lead singer of a fairly sucessful indie band called the Frames, and Irglova was an unknown Czech singer. But after the success of ‘Once,’ they were able to go on a sellout world tour, which was captured for a documentary that is coming out soon.
The new album is titled Strict Joy, which comes from the work of an Irish poet named James Stephens. It was co-produced by Hansard and Peter Katis (The National, Mates of State) and finds them acompanied by many of Hansard’s band-mates from the Frames as well as many other talented instrumentalists that have played with the likes of Leonard Cohen and Levon Helm. I haven’t had the opportunity to hear anything yet, but it’s set to be released September 29th on Anti-, and I am counting down the days.
Here is a live recording of the first track off the album and a fantastic cover of probably my favorite Van Morrison song.
1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms
4. The Rain
5. Fantasy Man
6. Paper Cup
7. High Horses
8. The Verb
9. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke
Hello I Hope Your Ears Bleed world!My name is Alex “Ceach” McEachin and I have been blessed to begin a new series entitled “Lessons from Late Night” in which I will review notable performances that take place on the many late night shows.
In this inaugural post I would like to draw attention to the newest late night show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.I have begun following his show closely after taking over for the legendary Conan O’Brien.I have honestly been pretty impressed with how well he has assumed this new role. I love how he has gone to great lengths to become relevant by embracing all of the new cultural and technological norms such as Twitter and Facebook (although it seems the show tries too hard at times). And I am especially impressed with the musical guests he has been able to line up thus far.The debut show, that aired March 5, 2009, included the legendary artist Van Morrison in which he played “Sweet Thing.”The two performances I would like to highlight are Glen Hansard of The Frames performing a cover of “Hair Shirt” by R.E.M. on March 12, 2009; a very intimate performance of a man and his Mandolin.The second is Vampire Weekend on March 18, 2009 debuting a brand new song, “White Sky.” This song will be included on their new album that will hopefully be released this coming fall.I bring attention to each of these notable performances so that you may venture over to hulu.com and watch them for yourselves.
We have embedded the March 18th episode so that you can watch the Vampire Weekend performance right here, right now. This is truly one of the best late night performances I have ever seen. For those of you who have been living underground for the past year and have yet to hear their debut album, you must go out and get it immediately. You won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a video with just their performance, so what you have here is the entire episode. But if you want to jump straight to Vampire Weekend’s performance, just click on the second to last white dot at the bottom of the video. Unfortunately the Van Morrison performance is no longer available, but if you head over to hulu.com, you can find the Glen Hansard performance and many more. I hope they bring you as much joy as they brought to me.I hope your ears bleed and maybe even your eyes a little with these amazing performances. More to come soon.
i realize that i am extremely late on this, but i think it’s ok because i just started this a couple months ago. plus i feel like i need this much time to process. had i made this list back in january, a couple of these well-deserving albums would have been left off the list. so here it is.
10Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
like most great albums this one took a little while to grow on me. but i am glad i gave it the time, because i have definitely found some great gems on this album. if you love wilco already just listen and enjoy. if not i suggest you see them live, it will surely help you to appreciate this album. at least it did for me.
balkan music at its best. seriously. if you have never listened to this one man band you are missing out. each track has just gorgeous horn and string arrangements, and condon’s voice accompanies the music so well.
I just got word that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the creators of my second favorite album of 2007, are at it again. The oscar-winning duo, The Swell Season, are in the studio putting the finishing touches on their follow up to the incredible ‘Once’ soundtrack. Before this movie, Hansard was the lead singer of a fairly sucessful indie band called the Frames, and Irglova was an unknown Czech singer. But after the success of ‘Once,’ they were able to go on a sellout world tour, which was captured for a documentary that is coming out soon.
