I really dug their performance on SNL the other night. If you haven’t seen it, here’s their first song:
The performance made me go right back and listen to their fantastic Daytrotter session again.
What a great time to be a music fan.
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Tags: Daytrotter, fleet foxes, SNL
I’m sort of consumed by the idea of the narrative in music. That is, it’s all connected, but these connections aren’t necessarily obvious. In fact, the best moments in musical discovery (as in most things) are sort of the aha moments when you become aware of a connection that doesn’t seem obvious, but, upon a second look, makes all the sense in the world.
Such is the moment I had during my recent ill-fated experiment with MySpace Music (see my Twitter feed for my list of gripes), before I could take it no more and fled MySpace music.
In this video, Bon Iver’s frontman, Justin Vernon, discusses his influences:
Bon Iver on the inspiration behind his music
Of course, he’s influenced by the great John Prine. And yet, I wouldn’t have immediately come to that recollection.
However, once he mentioned it, it became clear. To wit:
And here’s Bon Iver’s “Flume” from their staggering Daytrotter session:
boniver_daytrottersession_1
The narrative grows.
Tags: bon iver, Daytrotter, john prine, Wolfgang's Vault
I couldn’t be more delighted to report that Ms. Hersh’s astonishing Noe Valley Ministry performance is currently ranked high on the list of most played concerts in the last thirty days on Wolfgang’s Vault.
A quick look at the top twenty (the entire list ranks the top 100) shows that Ms. Hersh is in good company. It also shows that great music transcends genre and other artificial parameters. While Wolfgang’s Vault currently tilts heavily towards “classic rock,” additions of sessions from artists such as Ms. Hersh and, of course, Daytrotter sessions (Ms. Hersh is there too), show that the brand is expanding.
What’s as important is that even as Wolfgang’s Vault’s offerings grow more diverse, their listeners are clearly not discriminating based on genre. Of course Ms. Hersh’s work should sit next to that of Ray Charles and Bob Marley and Miles Davis (#28) and Talking Heads (#29). Music fans have long known this. It’s only those “arbiters of taste” (radio station pds/owners, journalists, retailers) who have seen fit to lump music into categories that are supposedly more easily digested/understood (rule #1: don’t underestimate your customers’ intelligence).
What has heretofore eluded these so-called arbiters is this: listeners have an overarching desire to create connections and narratives, and to place their music into their own taxonomies that have nothing to do with genre or classification, but are instead based on emotional responses to music.
This is why attempts to recommend music (Pandora or Apple’s Genius) based on a song’s features (its genre, its bpm…whatever) ultimately fail. While these grouping systems are novel and sort of OK for creating background music playlists, they can’t possibly succeed in any real way because (as far as I know) they can’t measure the emotional response listeners have to music, and then locate other music that gives the listener an equivalent emotional response. Too bad.
The greatest…call them folksonomies…come from users making their own — ostensibly random, but deeply non-random — connections based on nuance and subtlety and things not easily articulated or measured. The sound of love, for example.
Don’t believe me, give me another rationale for this list:
And now, enough talking. Listen:
[Disclosure: I proudly do some work for Wolfgang's Vault and Daytrotter]
Tags: Daytrotter, Kristin Hersh, Wolfgang's Vault
Maybe it’s the Vineyard, but, man, I’ve been deeply into, for lack of a better term (and, Dear Lord, please give me a better term), stoner rock this summer. I’m not talking about faux Stoner Rock like QOTSA (which seems more like mushrooms-laced-with-LSD-rock to me). Nah, what I mean is best summed up by the blissed out work you hear on David Crosby’s debut solo record, “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”
Sort of unceremoniously shit upon when initially released (Christgau gave it a D-; but do consider the time (1970), and what “The Dean” was digging at that point), it’s held up remarkably well, and, to my thinking, no IICORMN = no Devandra Banhart, no Fleet Foxes, no Joana Newsome (dig the harp on “Traction in the Rain”), maybe no Elephant 6, etc.
The record is particularly cool because it not only captures the bliss of the stoner vibe (“Laughing” – amazing use of dulcimer), but also the deep (justified?) paranoia of the times (check out “What Are Their Names”).
I can’t recommend it enough. And, lest you think I’ve gone all hippie on you, I was reminded to go back to this record by reading the excellent Sonic Youth biography, Goodbye 20th Century, in which Jim O’Rourke waxes eloquent on the album.
Try this out:
“Laughing”
04-laughing-lp-version
For more, check out this from one of several outstanding concerts on Wolfgang’s Vault from around the same era:
And, if you want to sort of follow the narrative to its (perhaps) logical conclusion, here’s a song from the Fleet Foxes Daytrotter session:
[Disclaimer, I'm delighted to work for Wolfgang's Vault and Daytrotter.]
Tags: david crosby, Daytrotter, fleet foxes, sonic youth, Wolfgang's Vault
Below is a screengrab of the votes so far for npr’s All Songs Considered best of ’08 so far poll:
Mad props to Daytrotter for having sessions for so many of these artists.
If you want to hear why people are voting for these songs, check out the following songs from each of the circled artists’ Daytrotter sessions:
Vampire Weekend
Fleet Foxes
[disclaimer: I do some work for Daytrotter]
Tags: Daytrotter, death cab for cutie, fleet foxes, npr, Vampire Weekend