Happy

Heartbeats - José González
Comfort - Carbon Leaf
Hold You In My Arms – Ray LaMontagne
Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie
Re: Stacks – Bon Iver
Heart Made of Sound - Softlights
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
Much Further To Go - Rosie Thomas

Hype – Buy

Mix

I’m hopeful. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but for the first time in a while, hopeful.

Comfort - Carbon Leaf
Hold You In My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
Stop the Bus - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Dreaming - Sara Wheeler
Song for You - Alexi Murdoch
Walk With You - Dispatch
Got To Get You Into My Life - The Beatles

Hype

House : Carry You Away Soundtrack

I’m a huge fan of the TV show House, MD. It’s got good stories, even better characters and a fantastic taste in music for it. Last fall, FOX released a soundtrack of some of the songs that made it onto the show. It’s a very fun soundtrack, with some really good, and some rare songs onto it.
Beyond that album, there’s a bunch of other songs that have made it onto the show that didn’t make it onto that soundtrack (and a couple that did, but are still really good.)
The main point in looking at this cross section of music from the show is it’s tone and how that relates to the show itself, particularly when it comes to the character of house. All of the below songs are fairly moody ones – mostly dealing with loss or are otherwise not really ‘up’ songs. Overall, they form a really good feel for the show and House himself, who is a fairly depressed character all things considered. The comedy in the show aside, there’s usually a couple of moments where we really see House as himself – alone and depressed. These songs fit perfectly.

Are You Alright? – Lucinda Williams
Beautiful - Elvis Costello
Colors - Amos Lee
Good Man - Josh Ritter
Grey Room – Damien Rice
Hope for the Hopeless – A Fine Frenzy
Human - Civil Twilight
In The Deep - Bird York
Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
See The World - Gomez
Some Devil - Dave Matthews
Walter Reed - Michael Penn

Hype – Buy – Look

Cover & Original – All Along The Watchtower

All Along The Watchtower is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, and it’s one of those songs that’s covered a lot. Off all the covers that I have, it’s got the most versions, good and bad.
There’s quite a bit of variety here. The definitive version, by Jimi Hendrix, seems to be the one that’s the most copied, although there are some other groups, such as the Dave Matthews Band (who features it regularly in their concerts), who’ll do their own take. My favorite version is probably Bear McCreary and BT4′s version, which was featured in the show Battlestar Galactica, which was really cool.
Some of the versions that I’m not a huge fan of is the Alexi Murdoch and Blues Traveler set and the one by the Grateful Dead. Just didn’t work for me really.

It’s an interesting song, with a number of different meanings through the lyrics. Dylan started writing the song after a motorcycle accident and when he began reading the bible, and there’s several biblical and end-of-the-world references in the lyrics.

All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – Bear McCreary
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – The Fratellis
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – Dave Matthew’s Band
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – The Grateful Dead
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – Bryan Ferry
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – Alexi Murdoch and Blues Traveler
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - Jimi Hendrix
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) / Best of You (Foo Fighters) – Prince
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) – U2
All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan

Hype – Buy

Weekend Mix – Home

So, I have a new apartment. I have to say, I lucked out completely here. a) The rent is fantastic. b) it’s big, and I don’t have a roommate. Bedroom’s big, second bedroom is now a library/office, good sized kitchen as well as a living room. c) heat and water included and d) it’s not far from where I work, and it’s in a city (well, as close as you can get in Vermont).
Needless to say, I’m very pleased with this, especially since I’m no longer living at my parent’s house. Not that I have anything against my parents, but it’s nice not being the geek in the parent’s house. I’m currently awaiting two more bookshelves from UPS, who apparently can’t find my place. I also need to pick up a bunch of odds and ends, like a cutting board, pizza cutter and some pots.

Yeah… So, here’s some songs about homes:

Home - Alexi Murdoch
Going Home With You - The Alternate Routes
Interior of a Dutch House - Beirut
Can’t Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
Home - Carbon Leaf
Home - Foo Fighters
On Your Porch - The Format
I’m Goin’ Home - Hootie and the Blowfish
Home Life - John Mayer
Welcome Home - Peters and Lee
Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel
Screen Door - Uncle Tupelo

Hype – Buy

One Hit Wonders

I was going through my music library for a couple of albums, and noticed that there’s a couple of bands that I really, really like. The only problem with them is that thus far, they’ve only released one album. Either they’re a newer band and haven’t written anything else yet, they just seem to have vanished from the face of the Earth, or they’ve broken up after only one album. Here’s my favorites with only a single album:

Existing Bands Dragging Their Heels

Ex-Girlfriends – Low Millions

Low Millions came out with a hit single in 2004, called Eleanor, closely followed by a couple of other singles, Statue and Low Millions. The band has a very cool and relaxed sound, and the theme of the album is pretty overt – breaking up and ex-girl friends. I’ve been listening to it a lot more than I usually do. There’s nothing especially different about this band – they’ve got a fairly mainstream sound, but they maintain a solid beat and some pretty good vocal work here. I really liked this album, save for a couple of tracks, and I had hoped that they would get going on a followup sometime in the near future. I believe that the band is made up of a bunch of members from other bands, which might be part of the reason for no activity on their part. According to a myspace blog entry, they were starting on some new material in 2006. Hopefully, we’ll see some more from them.

Mockingbird - Low Millions

Give Up – The Postal Service


This is one of the Indie super groups, made up of members of Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley and a couple of others, under the indie favorite Subpop records. They’re the ones responsible for the fantastic song Such Great Heights, as well as We Will Be Sillouettes and a couple of others. Give Up has a fantastic sound and a nice blend of electronic and rock there. Unfortunently, they have also not come up with a followup album, although it seems that one has been in the works for a little while now, with most, if not all of the original members coming back for the album. This’ll be a good one to wait for.

Natural Anthem – The Postal Service

A Girl Called Eddy – A Girl Called Eddy

I came across A Girl Called Eddy through Amazon.com when they had a list of free MP3 songs – I downloaded and fell completely in love with Under The Warm Sun, Golden and The Long Goodbye, and went out to get more of her music. She’s got a great voice and sound, smokey with some really good guitarwork. Her debut, self titled album followed her first EP, Tears All Over Town. Unfortunently, that seems to be it for now – her webpage has vanished, in place of a myspace account, and while I think that I’ve read that she’s coming up with a followup, I haven’t seen or heard anything recently. I hope that she’ll be recording again, because her music is fantastic.

The Long Goodbye – A Girl Called Eddy

Bands Gone the Way of the Dinosaur

Buring in the Sun – Blue Merle

Blue Merle is another band that released a single that had some radio play – the title track, Burning In The Sun. The band has a pretty unique sound, with some very good guitar work, as well as employing some cool insturments on various tracks. I just saw one of the former members of the band, Luke, when he played with Brett Dennen’s band and with Guster the other night. (I didn’t realise that until after the concert). The band sounds something like a mix between Carbon Leaf, Dave Matthew’s Band and Coldplay, with some good lyrics and what I thought was a nice, rich sound. Unfortunently, the band didn’t really like the direction and sound, and split up a couple of years ago. The band members are now all doing their own thing.

Bittersweet Memory – Blue Merle

New and Upcoming Bands

Good and Reckless and True – The Alternate Routes

I found these guys this summer, and they’re a pretty new band, out of Connecticut. I’ve seen them twice, and they’ve really good a good sound, a solid rock album, with a good amount of media exposure thus far. Their live shows were a lot of fun to watch, and their first album, Good and Reckless and True was a really good one to listen to. I talked with one of the band members, and he said that after their current tour, they’ll be back in the studio.

Ordinary – The Alternate Routes

One Cell in the Sea – A Fine Frenzy

One Cell in the Sea is the first album by A Fine Frenzy, which was released earlier this summer. This is a fantastic first effort from a very promising musician. This has a number of fantastic songs on it, and because it’s a first album that’s recently been released, I’m confident that we’ll see her soon again.

Rangers – A Fine Frenzy

Say No To Being Cool Say Yes To Being Happy – The Softlightes

This is another first album from a cool sounding band, the Softlightes. Fans of Death Cab for Cutie will like these guys, as they’ve got a similar sound. Heart Made of Sound is the best track on the album, and it’s got a really cool video as well. I’m relatively certain that we will be seeing more of these guys in the near future, and I’m sure that it will be worth waiting for.

Heart Made of Sound – Softlightes

Time Without Consequence – Alexi Murdoch

Alexi Murdoch came out last year with his first full length album, Time Without Consquence. Murdoch has a sound akin to that of Nick Drake, abit a little more modern and a little more experimental. This is a fantastic first effort from Murdoch, one that has brought out a number of fantastic songs. This is a guy that I desperately want to hear more from, and soon.

Blue Mind – Alexi Murdoch

Hype – Look

Is There A Doctor in the House?

Earlier last week, the soundtrack for the fantastic show, House, MD was released, featuring a good lineup of songs that were featured in the show, just in time for the arrival of Season 4, which starts this next Tuesday. House, for those who haven’t heard about it, is a brilliant show about Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant, bitter and sarcastic doctor who’s generally always right and tends to drive most people away from him from his attitude. He’s loosely based off of Sherlock Holmes.
The soundtrack, which I just picked up, features some music that’s commonly available, but some other songs that haven’t made it onto albums in the US, such as Elvis Costello’s cover of Beautiful.

Here’s a couple of songs that didn’t make the lineup:

Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch
In The Deep – Bird York
Some Devil – Dave Matthews
In The Waiting Line – Zero 7

Hype – Buy – Look

Artist Comparison

Acoustic-Folk has become fairly popular in recent years, with the popularity of the genre getting more noticed as certain singers are picked as the hip thing to listen to, often times, as radio stations pick up on certain tracks or more often, as popular television shows or movies finding some real gems and dumping them on an unsuspecting public. The following two artists have both really surfaced recently due to the media attention. While this is a good thing, as more people listen to them, it’s a bit of a shame that they haven’t really come through on their own. However, they’re out there, so that’s a plus.

Both Alexi Murdoch and Nick Drake have come to my attention through soundtracks. Murdock’s song Orange Sky was featured on an episode of House, MD (A show with fine music tastes) while Drake’s song One of These Things First came to me via the fantastic Garden State soundtrack. (Incidently, Orange Sky was also in that movie, but not on the soundtrack.)
There’s a number of similarities between these two. The first is that they’re both from the United Kingdom. Drake was raised in England, while Murdoch hails from Scotland. Indeed, this similarity has been mentioned in various articles about the two. Alexi Murdoch is undoubtably influenced to some degree by Nick Drake.

Their sound is amazingly similar to one another. Solo guitarists, with the use of picking on the guitars is their matching style, and their vocal work is also fairly similar – on the mid-high level. A number of their songs tend to be fairly laid back, calm and soothing, the perfect thing to listen to after a long day. I have a fixed mental image of riding home on the train from Oxford set to Three Hours. Similarly, I have the song Orange Sky rooted in my memories that are associated with my time in England.
There are some smaller differences between the artists – they’re not clones of one another. Alexi tends to experiment a little more with some songs, such as 12 and Shine. Nick Drake tends to incorporate more insturments into some of his songs. But for all practical means, they’re very similar, which is a good thing, as they have a fantastic sound between the two of them. I’m hoping that someday, I’ll come across a Nick Drake cover by Alexi Murdoch. That’d be really cool.

Place To Be – Nick Drake

Song For You – Alexi Murdoch

Three Hours – Nick Drake

Orange Sky – Alexi Murdoch

Hype – Buy – Look – Look Again