Washington, DC, indie/pop trio Jukebox the Ghost dish up massive, twisty hooks and insanely catchy, high-energy melodic turns over the course of a dozen songs on their perfectly-titled sophomore album Everything Under the Sun, arriving September 7 via Yep Roc. Take the romping piano lines of Ben Folds, add in Beatle-ish harmonies and zig-zagging 10CC melodies, fold in some theatrical/progressive elements a la Queen and Yes, bake in the warm summer sun and you get Jukebox the Ghost's tasty, densely packed music recipe. It's fun to simply sit back and pick out the various retro influences and work (and play) here. But this is, in the end, a highly original, diverse album filled with intricately arranged songs of remarkable pop artistry. And it gets better the deeper you go.

"Sometimes, in the past, we were received as being this bubbly and jumpy and happy group,” says Ben Thornewill, Jukebox’s pianist and co-vocalist. "But this record seems like we’re sounding more thoughtful and personal. Besides, you’re going to think and write differently after 300 shows. People change, different things happen to you, you get some new influences, and the way you do your songwriting and arranging is going to be different." Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol), tracks such as the Fab Four-styled "Nobody", dramatic piano crescendos and turn-on-a-dime production of "The Sun" and the charging, playful radio-ready anthem "Schizophrenia" are just the starters from an album that may require a seat belt for proper listening. To borrow movie jargon, this is the closest thing we've heard to a pop musical "thrill ride" in quite a while. Highly recommended.

Jukebox the Ghost - "So Let Us Create" (from the album Everything Under the Sun)

Jukebox the Ghost - "Empire" (from the album Everything Under the Sun)

Click to read more ...

On a warm June evening last year at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, music fans and politicos alike paid tribute to The Marsalis Family, a multi-generational collective that has come to embody the rich tradition and contemporary explorations of that uniquely American musical genre: jazz. Led by partriarch Ellis Marsalis, honored that night with The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award, sons Wynton (trumpet), Branford (sax), Delfeayo (trombone) and Jason (drums) took the audience on an inspirational musical journey that touched a variety of styles, from Ellis' thoughtful piano ballads to the family's New Orleans roots to modern improvisation.

That special performance, including a guest appearance from family friend and fellow Crescent City jazzman Harry Connick, Jr., is captured on the new live recording Music Redeems, set for release August 24 via Marsalis Music. Highlights include Ellis Marsalis' lovely "After", Connick's jaunty take on "Sweet Georgia Brown" and Wynton and Ellis' inspired solos on "Syndrome." Of particular note is the timing of Music Redeems; five years after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, all proceeds of the album will go to help fund the planned Ellis Marsalis Music Center in New Orleans, an educational building and outreach program  that will give residents and visitors a place to share in what Marsalis' call "the redemptive nature music."

Marsalis Music Site 

The Marsalis Family - "Syndrome" (from the album Music Redeems)

Click to read more ...

Taken from Robert Plant's forthcoming solo album Band of Joy (September 14, Rounder), this cover of Los Lobos' "Angel Dance" is a piping hot rhythmic shuffle steeped in dirty blues water. Love Buddy Miller's Keith Richards-meets-Bo-Diddley muddy bed of rumbled riffs, Plant's restrained vocal soul and a gunshot backbeat from drummer Marco Giovino that practically blows a hole in the proceedings. Newly posted 10-minute EPK here.

Robert Plant - "Angel Dance" (from the album Band of Joy)

Click to read more ...

When Justin Jones sings "I could use another friend, I could us another brand new start" you get a sense of the mix of resignation, quiet desperation and, ultimately, the hope of redemption that seeps through the five new songs on his fine new EP The Little Fox (September 14, 9:30 Records). The recent rough and tumble years that have taken Jones through triumph and addiction, from sleeping on friends couches to critical acclaim, a home, wife and daughter are worn proudly like so many battle scars. Even before the first note is heard on songs like "The Gutter", "Daylight" and "Razor Blades" you simply sense that Jones' lyrical reflections and tough life lessons will pull no punches. And you'd be right.

That direct, clear-eyed approach can be heard in the Virginia native's rootsy folk and country rock, the majesty of a three-chord confessional that ebbs and flows through pin-drop intimacy and blustery, ragged-riffed anthems, sometimes within the same song. With a style that recalls the dramatic toughness of Ryan Adams and the wide-open Americana of early Wilco, Jones and his band The Driving Rain can still summon strutting, Seger/Petty/Springsteen arena-sized power on songs such "Razor Blades" or bring a muscular roadhouse kick to the the EP's charged title track.

Myspace  Artist Site

Justin Jones - "Little Fox" (from The Little Fox EP)

Justin Jones - "Razor Blades" (from The Little Fox EP)

Click to read more ...

There's a particular mood that permeates the songs of Canadian singer/songwriter Lynn Miles. A feeling of hopelessness and despair that, oddly enough, doesn't actually sound like either. Maybe it's the lovely lilt of her voice or the exquisitely turned melodies but there's beauty to be found in the dark shadows of Miles' emotional bloodletting, a sense that even the most melancholy reaches of the human heart have warmth. Like contemporaries such as Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gretchen Peters and Kim Richey, Miles creates personal musical vignettes that straddle contemporary folk and acoustic pop songwriting and reveal a depth of intelligent lyricism and maturity of approach that are light years beyond the latest twenty-something ingénue with an acoustic guitar.

Miles' upcoming Fall For Beauty (October 5, True North) is her first full-fledged studio effort since 2005's Love Sweet Love and the follow-up to 2008's stark and stripped Black Flowers I + II. Beauty once again weaves country tinged threads into Miles' folk/pop songs, from the "everything's broken or about to break" refrain of the opening "Something Beautiful" to the more hopeful closing track "Let the Sun Have Its Day". In between we get the heartbreaking song of domestic abuse ("Love Doesn't Hurt"), a gorgeous hymn of heartbreak ("Cracked and Broken") and the finger-picked lament on the end of a relationship ("Goodbye"), songs that confirm the NY TIMES observation that Miles "makes being forlorn sound like a state of grace".

Myspace  Artist Site

Lynn Miles - "Cracked and Broken" (from the album Fall For Beauty)

Lynn Miles - "I Will" (from the album Fall For Beauty)

Click to read more ...

When Scottish band Travis ended their world tour last year, frontman and chief songwriter Fran Healy decided to chart a solo excursion. "There comes a point where it naturally will occur to the main creative person in a band, 'Hey, I would like to try and work with maybe another musician," says Healy. "I want to try and do a duet with them or I want to do my own thing,' so for me it was just a very logical step." That step -- and temporary side-step from his mates -- has resulted in Wreckorder, Healy's eagerly anticipated solo debut arriving October 5 via Ryko.

Recorded in three disparate environs -- Berlin, New York and Vermont -- and produced by Emery Dobyns (Noah and the Whale), Wreckorder carries Healy's literate pop songcraft lightly even if he describes the project, like Travis' output, as just "a collection of (my) songs". Preview track "Buttercups" epitomizes Healy's skilled touch, a deft, lushly folk/pop song that adorns a rich melody with the perfect hint of minor chord tension and the touching lyrical bent of a relationship on the rocks (she obviously didn't take to humble gift of flowers). In a fitting nod to British pop/rock royalty, Sir Paul McCartney was invited to lend bass lines to the waltzing "As It Comes" while an inspired duet pairing with Neko Case arrives in the form of the gentle charmer "Sing Me To Sleep."

Artist Site

Fran Healy - "Buttercups" (from the album Wreckorder)

Click to read more ...

Since their beginnings a decade ago, NY/Philly outfit The Walkmen have appreciably refined their more immediate and primal indie rock into an expansive sound that comfortably travels in adventurous new circles. Bands grow up, writing matures, creative strategies shift...but few have traversed the stylistic road quite as seamlessly and effectively as The Walkmen. Not so much a sea change as a continuing series of subtle but sizable shifts, the acclaimed You & Me (2008) became a muted exploration of mood and atmosphere as frontman Hamilton Leithauser evolved his Dylanish wail into an instrument capable of nuance and emotive texture. "Intimate, intense and beautiful" declared The Guardian.

New album Lisbon (September 14, Fat Possum) promises "a bunch of fast rockers and big bashers, and a couple great oddballs" says Leithauser, with lead track "Stranded" -- one of the album's earliest recorded tracks -- certainly falling into the latter category. Surrounded by a stately brass choir and rolling, dramatic drum beats, Leithauser rides the theatrical aspects of the song -- an odd mix of Peggy Lee torch and Tom Waits-ian Crescent City funereal pomp -- and delivers one of the most mournful and unforgettable songs of recent memory. Over two years in the making and then wrapped in March with producer John Congleston (St. Vincent), Lisbon has already deserved it's anticipatory itch. Some bands you want to hear -- this is one we need. After five albums, The Walkmen are just hitting their stride.

Myspace  Artist Site

The Walkmen - "Stranded" (from the album Lisbon) Free download at the band's site.

Click to read more ...

New album The Devil and I (Bella Union) from Leeds singer/songwriter Paul "Lone Wolf" Marshall has turned out to be one of our favorites of 2010, one that we've described as "intelligent, meticulously arranged art-pop, the kind of songs that find the dark underbelly of the most gorgeous of melodies." Available today on vinyl (?) or digital, War also boasts one of the year's best songs: "This Is War", a relationship song that barely conceals its fangs. "I am a musician who likes to write about things like murder and death," Marshall declares on his blog. "Does that make me weird? 9 out of 10 reader's wives say no..." More DC on Lone Wolf here.

Lone Wolf - "This Is War" (from the album The Devil and I)

Click to read more ...

Tongues are wagging in full force across the pond as 22-year-old Brit singer Clare Maguire gets primed for a major roll out for an early 2011 debut album. You can tell just how big this is by how little is being revealed --  a scarcity of pics, music, bio, official press releases, etc. etc. As we await follow-ups from yesteryear's Next Big Things -- Adele, Duffy, Winehouse -- Maguire and her debut single "Strangest Thing" are filling the void with a song that is both big and haunting, a voice raw and emotionally charged, soulful pipes that can wail and shout backed with a spare production bed of reverbed piano chords and wood block beats. Impressive? You bet.

Background? We hear tales of bidding wars, drinks with Jay-Z at his club, a handful of knockout live gigs, Rick Rubin shot left waiting at the altar, A-List producers and co-writers courted and rejected and, finally, a deal sealed with Universal a million-pound check writ, well, large. The "less-is-more" press campaign keeps things focused on the music, we surmise, which is a good thing, though we can't help but wonder if the suits are simply going with this strategy more out of a fear of protecting their investment than in actually having -- in this viral day and age -- a controllable campaign. With a voice like this at stake, we get it. The rules are being rewritten as we write this. For now...listen. More? Check out the 60 second snip "Are You Ready?" at her site or myspace.

Myspace  Artists Site

Clare Maguire - "Strangest Thing" (Free download at her site)

Clare Maguire - "Strangest Thing" (Original demo)

Click to read more ...

Self-described "music geek" and cutting-edge comedian Margaret Cho knew where to go when she decided to make an album of songs that were, she says, "hilarious but also seriously good": she called up some of her "musical heroes" and "tricked them into writing songs with me." Clearly it pays to be connected. Cho Dependent, her unexpectedly fine and very funny debut musical album due August 24, has all of the things Cho's fans have come to expect: hysterical, in-your-face takes on sex, race, politics, relationships (and their various combinations) all served up with her searing, no-pulled-punches attitude and devastating wit -- and set to music.

Co-conspirators such as Patty Griffin, Fiona Apple, Jon Brion, Ben Lee, Tegan and Sara, Brendan Benson, Ani DeFranco, Grant Lee Phillips and Andrew Bird allow Cho's edgy humor to work in songs that can actually stand -- or fall down laughing -- on their own. We get "Lice", a Dylan-ish folk lament on the scalp malady complete with a wheezy harmonica solo. Then there's the completely obscene, laugh-out-loud rap ditty "My Puss" and the twisted electro-popped tribute to artificial insemination "Gimme Your Seed." Or the jaunty country/folk twang of the Andrew Bird co-write "I'm Sorry" which offers love lorn apologies for having "burned down your house", "shot you in the face" and "hit you with that brick"...but, she croons, "at least your death was fairly quick". In other words, classic Margaret Cho. Rated R (for Recommended). Full track list after the jump.

Artist Site

Margaret Cho (with Fiona Apple and Ben Lee) - "Hey Big Dog" (from the album Cho Dependent)

Click to read more ...

Has it really been FIVE years since Fiona Apple released her last album Extraordinary Machine? Fourteen years -- to the day actually -- since the drop of her debut album Tidal? An '08 live album with her friends in Nickel Creek never materialized but she has surfaced now and again with some interesting covers -- most recently on the fine Cy Coleman tribute album and she's soon to be heard on the hilarious new Margaret Cho musical album Cho Dependent (more on that soon). "So Sleepy" is a new-ish recording taken from Chickens In Love, a wonderful charity project that teamed amateur L.A. teen/tween songwriters from the arts non-profit 826LA with local musicians. Apple, along with Jon Brion and The Punch Brothers (featuring Chris Thile of Nickel Creek), took a shot with the kid-composed lyrics for "So Sleepy". We love the chorus: "I'm a gummy bear, I stand up on the chair, then I start I start to dance on the groove."

Artist Site  826LA  Chickens In Love

Fiona Apple (w/ Jon Brion and The Punch Brothers) - "So Sleepy" (from the album Chickens In Love)

Enjoy the stream but be a good egg and support 826LA by buying the Chickens in Love album!

Click to read more ...

Forgiveness may be in store for those who prematurely dismiss Austin 21-year-old Sahara Smith simply by getting tripped up by her willowy photogenic allure. But there's also a reason why the famed, Grammy-winning producer T-Bone Burnett (Raising Sand, O Brother) decided to take on the job of handling Smith's forthcoming rootsy folk/pop debut Myth of the Heart after describing her as "the best young artist I have heard in many years". For beyond Smith's glossy imagery is a serious and seriously talented young singer and songwriter who counts the likes of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt as her main influences and has been hushing noisy bars since her mid-teens with a voice that's a potent mix of whiskey and molasses.

Set for an August 31 release via Playing In Traffic, Myth of the Heart is aided in no small part by Burnett stacking the deck with ace picks from the his sideman bullpen including drummer Jay Bellerose, guitarist Marc Ribot, and bassist Dennis Crouch. There are some welcome roughhewn edges to songs like the shuffling title track, as Ribot's muddy, twanged fretwork hovers like a storm cloud over Smith's smoky vocals. Or the pedal steel that haunts from the shadows on the lovely lament "Roses and Ivy'", a song that simply gets better with repeated listening. A prodigious debut, Myth of the Heart is already shaping up to be one of 2010's best new finds. New video for "The Real Thing" after the jump.

Myspace  

Sahara Smith - "The Real Thing" (from the album Myth of the Heart)

Sahara Smith - "Roses and Ivy" (from the album Myth of the Heart)

Click to read more ...

The sign of a classic song? You don't just actually listen -- you savor every note, close your eyes and feel every melodic turn, relive those hooks in your head and the memories that come tumbling back. Jimmy Webb knows all about the emotional power of a vintage classic -- he's written some of the best including modern standards like "Galveston", "MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman" and "All I Know." We're reminded of his legendary songcraft skills on Just Across the River, the recently released collection of prime Webb compositions masterfully reworked by the singer/songwriter and a stellar duet guest list of contributors -- most notably from fellow writers who obviously know their way around an iconic song or two.

Recorded in Nashville with producer Fred Mollin, a superb band and some inspired arrangements, River allows Webb to share the spotlight with an A-list group of singers and players including Mark Knopfler ("The Highwayman"), Jackson Browne ("P.F. Sloane"), Billy Joel and Jerry Douglas ("Wichita Lineman"), Linda Ronstadt ("All I Know") and Vince Gill ("Oklahoma Nights"). One special highlight is "Galveston" featuring a duet with Lucinda Williams -- listen below. "From the very first song, first take, first note this record seemed blessed," says Webb. "I hope everyone else feels what we did as we listened to the first rough mixes. And then as each piece fell into place, a fully realized, conceptual work of art emerged." Highly recommended. Check out the video EPK after the jump and catch his appearance on Letterman Monday night (July 26),

Artist Site

Jimmy Webb - "Galveston" (with Lucinda Williams) (from the album Just Across the River)

Jimmy Webb - Just Across the River Sampler (with excerpts from "Wichita Lineman", "P.F. Sloane" and "All I Know")

Click to read more ...

Your feelings about the music of L.A.'s Juliette Commagere may be, in some small way, tied to your initial thoughts of the oversized plumage atop her head in a recent press shot (see below) and album cover. Dramatic? Pretentious? Artsy? In many respects, Commagere's new October 26 album The Procession (Manimal) has all of those various elements and then some. But if you let your guard down just a bit, chances are you - like us - will get drawn into the dark, moody depths of Commagere's eclectic, plugged-in art/pop. Much like Natasha Khan's superior '09 Bat for Lashes album Two Suns (right down to the colorful headdress), The Procession aims for similar tribal, rhythmic pop and electronica edges, a modern take on the art-rock explorations of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Bjork and David Bowie. It's also a logical step forward from her promising '08 debut Queens Die Proudly.

Fortunately, Commagere balances the chilly, minor chord sonic seriousness of tracks such as "Eaten From the Inside" and "Hovering in the Wings" with the warmer rhythmic pop touch of the squiggly, percolating "Impact", a song that wouldn't be out of place on a Bird and the Bee album, or the 80's-styled synth anthem "How I Look for You". One of the reasons The Procession works is Commagere's voice, an instrument capable of the most lovely textures and expressive shades as on the warmer, blissed-out ballads "Plantsong" (featuring Jon Hassell) and "Glass". Despite a few excesses -- some tracks drift into the 7 to 8 minute range -- The Procession, at its best, challenges and provokes...and then rewards with a welcome melodic turn or unexpected vocal pleasure.

Myspace

Juliette Commagere - "Impact" (from the album The Procession)

Juliette Commagere - "Eats From the Inside" (from the album The Procession)

Click to read more ...

Winner of "Best Music Video" at the 2010 Leo Awards, "Road Regrets" from Vancouver singer/songwriter Dan Mangan's quite wonderful (and aptly titled) album Nice, Nice, Very Nice (August 10, Arts and Crafts) is a visual delight -- and simply a great song. More on Mangan and Nice from DC here.

Myspace  Artist Site

Dan Mangan - "Road Regrets" (from the album Nice, Nice, Very Nice)

Click to read more ...

Atlantic/Pacific is the Brooklyn duo of Garrett Klahn and John Herguth, two Brooklyn indie scene vets who began writing together 2008 in Klahn's apartment and then, guitars in hand, took their new songs on the road to U.S. and European clubs and festivals. A self-made debut EP Autumn Edition Volume 1 dropped last fall to solid reviews and the pair found then found themselves ensconced in the studio again, this time with producer and multi-instrumentalist (and self-described "phantom third member") Ian Love in tow to help them hone their songs and flesh out -- with a subtle touch -- their sound. Atlantic/Pacific's full-length debut Meet Your New Love is set for release October 26 via No Sleep Records.

After cutting their teeth on the fuller rock productions of their prior bands, Klahn and Herguth step back and then sideways to explore a more intimate sound on Meet Your New Love. Preview track "Patterns" is like a less mannered, steroid laced version of Kings of Convenience with a bristling edge of driving energy and a tender-hooked melody more 80's Prefab Sprout than post-emo grit. "Some Weary Valentine" is dreamy art/pop of the highest order, an amalgam of pulsing bass rhythms, acoustic jangle, dense, hymn-like keys and exquisite piano shadings forming a seamless backdrop to hushed, harmonied vocals that fill the spaces like errant wafts of smoke. Lovely.

Myspace  Facebook

Atlantic/Pacific - "Some Weary Valentine" (from the album Meet Your New Love)

Atlantic Pacific - "Patterns" (from the album Meet Your New Love)

Click to read more ...

London-based alt-rockers The Boxer Rebellion made history last year as their digital-only album Union - named 2009's 'Alternative Album of the Year" by iTunes - became the first album from an unsigned band to crack Billboard's Top 100 albums without the benefit of a physical release. Finally arriving August 24 on CD, Union wears it's influences on its sepia shaded sleeve but the album has both the stark melodic chops and visionary scope to allow us to submerge in the grandiosity of it all. It is, says the BBC, "that rare beast – an indie record with huge commercial potential, crammed with arena-filling melodies, that also wriggles with complexities and revels in brooding atmospheres."

Often mentioned in the same breath as fellow Brit bands Radiohead, Interpol, Coldplay and The Verve, The Boxer Rebellion -- formed in London by Tennessee native Nathan Nicholson and Australian Todd Howe -- released their debut album Exits in 2005. Shortly after, their went bankrupt and the band has been without a label since, becoming something of a poster child for the new D.I.Y. music industry mantra with their success. The long-awaited physical release in the States is also timed for a raised awareness level via inclusion of two songs -- and on-screen performances -- in the Drew Barrymore/Justin Long rom-com flick Going the Distance being released August 27. The Boxer Rebellion recently wrapped their the recording of their third album with producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Laura Marling).

The Boxer Rebellion - "Soviets" (from the album Union)

The Boxer Rebellion - "Evacuate" (from the album Union)

Click to read more ...

Sometimes you need coaxing. A second or third listen. A little research -- "just who is this, anyway?" Not this time. We'll let you do the linking if you'd like. Just know this: Agnes Obel is a Danish singer/songwriter with something interesting to say in an interesting way. Period. This is the video for the title track of her recently released EP Riverside. More details as she readies her debut full-length Philharmonics this fall. For now: engage.

Myspace  Artist Site

Click to read more ...

Over the course of three fine albums, husband and wife duo of Debbie and Stu Hanna -- aka Megson -- have established themselves at the forefront of the new traditionalist British folk movement, updating vintage U.K. classics and creating their own original songs. The sound is refined and polished but with a fresh and invigorating energy, a respectful nod to the past aligned with a modern feel that often puts their sound just to the right of Damien Rice's acoustic work with Lisa Hannigan. Mandolin, penny-whistle and accordion sit comfortably next to the busking guitar edges and the occasional upbeat, heel-stomping rhythm.

New album The Longshot -- released in the U.K. in May -- is conceptual in scope with the trials, tribulations and random joyous moment of the British working class forming a theme that, while not overtly political, still packs an emotional punch. The beauty of Megson's brilliant old/new dichotomy can be found in "The Cabman", an inspired reworking of an 18th century Victorian folk lament that becomes a brisk strumfest of clipped mandolin and guitar, Stu's lead singing blending nicely with harmonium and finger-drummed percussion. There are also the tender, often sorrowful ballads such as "The Old Miner" with Debbie's crystalline, forlorn vocals riding a dramatic progression of lush acoustic chords in what has quickly become one of our favorite songs of 2010. Highly recommended.

Myspace  Artist Site

Megson - "The Old Miner" (from the album The Longshot)

Megson - "The Cabman" (from the album The Longshot)

Click to read more ...

First, forget about the fact that neo-folk troubadour Isaac Russell is eighteen. Or that he's from Provo, Utah. Or that he wrote and recorded his first album Elizabeth -- dedicated to his late mother, cancer stricken at the time -- when he was all of fifteen years old. It would just be too easy to write about Russell using the word "precocious" and "gifted" or play up his story and background, but that would make the angle more about him and less about the exceptionally promising music that he's been creating -- something a much larger audience will certainly get a chance to hear later this year with his as-yet-untitled major label debut via Columbia.

Produced by A-list soundman Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Ben Folds), Russell's new songs reflect his influences -- Bob Dylan, Elliot Smith, Ryan Adams, to name a few -- but it becomes clear pretty quickly that Russell has both his own voice and a batch of solid, thoughtful songs that belie his teen status. "House of Cards", a gently rambling folk/blues melody with a spacious sound and ornamental touches of pedal steel and harmonica while the chiming, John Mayer-ish "Lighthouse" brings Russell's wordplay skills and a nicely turned chorus hook into sharp focus. Stay tuned for release date details.

Myspace    Artist Site

Isaac Russell - "Lighthouse"

Isaac Russell - "House of Cards"

Click to read more ...