REDUX: The Parson Red Heads

The Parson Red Heads - Infinitely more irenic than ironic, this nine-year-old Portland, OR band led by Evan Parsons (and wife Brette) is sort of a graceful, laid-back 70's Laurel Canyon version of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros...trimmed to a quartet and no longer dressed all in white (cool!) when on stage, the band's second project was produced by occasional band member Raymond Richards and mixed by the legendary Chris Stamey of The dB’s... // Release: Yearling Expanded Version (November 6) (Released a year ago and now out of print, the album is being reissued with six bonus tracks) // Sounds like: harmony-laden, tambourine-shakin', impossibly melodic folk/pop with a slight alt-country twang, TPRH excel at a kind of hipster-meets-hippie "up-with-people" (look it up, young'uns) vibe...New bonus track "Another Chance" is a jangly excursion into classic Byrds-ian territory...

The Parson Red Heads - "Another Chance" (from Yearling/Expanded Version) Free Download

The Parson Red Heads - "Seven Years Ago" (from Yearling)

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Watch: Communist Daughter - "Ghosts"

If there's any justice in this cruel world, Jonny Solomon's Communist Daughter and their outstanding July EP Lions and Lambs will be figuring into a more than a few year end "best of" lists in December. "Ghosts", recently premiering in video form, tells us why. This is three short euphoric minutes of song heaven all told in a rather strange tale of bandmembers bloody and bruised in the aftermath of a van accident. All very odd but you can't help but be pulled in and then transported on the dense rush of sound. Take the lesson from the video: buckle that seatbelt. More ComDot (as their facebook puts it) and Lions and Lambs via DC here.

Communist Daughter - "Ghosts" (from Lions & Lambs)

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RADAR: Grace Pettis

It's been three years since Grace Pettis, while still in college, released her self-titled debut album. And based on the songs on her forthcoming Two Birds (September 15), it might as well have been an eternity. As good -- and promising -- as those first songs were, Pettis' exceptional new work is the handiwork of a young woman who has clearly grown up. The daughter of noted songwriter Pierce Pettis, Grace grew up surrounded by the tunesmith trade, finding her own voice -- a lovely one at that -- and the ability to translate characters, narratives and emotion into memorable songs. There's a classic country-meets-pop feel to much of Two Birds, a nod to songs that could be wafting out of any number of Nashville clubs on any given Friday night. But Pettis boldly steps beyond the Music City borders into the dark and vast expanses outside the city's more confining limits, exploring meditative and melancholy mountain folk musings to the personal, deeply soulful and goose-bump inducing songcraft best heard in pin-drop silence. We think that Two Birds is easily one of the finest albums from a newcomer this year but don't just take our word on it: look for the five-star review in the October issue of U.K. Americana bible Maverick.

Grace Pettis - "You Are The Cowboy" (from Two Birds)

Grace Pettis - "Lighthouse" (from Two Birds)

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DC September 3 New Release Recap

While Cat Power's Casio-friendly Sun and Animal Collective's 'Modern Indie Rock 101' Centipede Hz seem to be sucking up all the oxygen in the hipster blogosphere today, we're going to steer you to a few new things that are of equal worthiness. For starters -- and for some surprising twists on the alt-pop frontier -- we suggest Azure Ray's new EP As Above So Below and Stars' The North, an album that proves that yes, you can actually work your feet and your brain simultaneously. Mark Knopfler's imposing (20 tracks!) Privateering doesn't seem quite such an undertaking when you actually take it song by song -- but American fans can only twiddle collective thumbs as they wait for a stateside release. No so for Tanita Tikaram, thankfully, who has had some spotty distribution for some her releases  but has found a happy U.S. home for her excellent new Can't Go Back. We also think you'll want to take a listen to some up and comers, most notably Des Moines' Parlours, L.A.'s Sweet Talk Radio and the re-emergence of Brooklyn's Wax Poetic, the outfit that helped launch Norah Jones a decade ago. Also on the DC list: The Sheepdogs, Angel Olson, Dave Stewart, Deerhoof, Matchbox 20, Sondre Lerche, Two Door Cinema Club and Two Gallants. More below...

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Watch: Gemma Hayes - "Shock to My System"

Irish songwriter Gemma Hayes recently performed a live-in-the-studio acoustic version of "Shock To My System" as part of the U.K. compilation disc The Naked Sessions Volume 1. The song, taken from her 2011 album Let It Break, was recorded at London's legendary RAK studio with no overdubs. Also of note: Hayes is also one of 30 female performers (including St. Vincent, Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt) contributing to the Half The Sky charity fighting the oppression of women and girls worldwide. Listen to and download (free) a new acoustic version of her song "Sorrow Be Gone" at the Half The Sky website and check out the full line up in this month's "30 Songs/30 Days" project.

 

Gemma Hayes - "Shock To My System" (from Let It Break)

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Mark Knopfler - Privateering

Mark Knopfler has been a solo artist for just about the same number of years that his bestselling band Dire Straits roamed the planet but the spectre of "Sultans of Swing" and "Brothers In Arms" still looms heavy over each and every Knopfler project. With the release of the diverse and transcendent new double-length Privateering (September 4, U.K.), perhaps greying critics and longtime fans (like us) will finally listen without pining for past glories. The hallmark sinewy guitar lines and increasingly gruff vocal style remain intact on the Privateering's 20 tracks and it would be an easy and apt assertion that nearly all of the various songs could have been right at home on any number of prior releases. But the sheer expansive stage of the new album allows Knopfler to go even further, narratively and instrumentally, down his favorite stylistic paths: penny-whistle U.K. folk, J.J. Cale-styled Americana and country roots, balladry that borders on the softly hymnal and, somewhat surprisingly, a slew of swinging, rough-edged blues. The result is an album steeped in both British and American tradition, artisan and artful, the 10,000+ hours of craft and the intelligent, visionary skill of a master songwriter. Watch the excellent EPK/interview below.

Mark Knopfler - "Corned Beef City" (from Privateering)

Mark Knopfler - "Go, Love" (from Privateering)

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