Pickathon 2018

[Ojai Sam]

Milo - Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?! (2017)

Pickathon gives the full story of Milo, ne Rory Ferreira, in exhaustive detail here. The short take is that he was born on South Side Chicago, grew up in Milwaukee, moved to L.A. and now lives on a remote island off the coast of Maine (where his mom is the executive director of an anti-racism group), saying "We’re about five or six miles across the harbor from America and we just look at the continent.”

 

[Ojai Sam]

Glorietta

So far all we have of this new collaborative band is these two singles:

As they say in the biz, their album is scheduled to drop on August 24.

Pickathon sez:

The brainchild of Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit), Glorietta was born out of a desire to collaborate with friends that Vasquez has collected over the last ten years. Those friends; Noah Gundersen, Kelsey Wilson (Wild Child), David Ramirez, Adrian Quesada (Brownout, Black Pumas), and Jason Blum came together over the course of nine-day recording session in a rented house in Glorieta, NM – just outside of Santa Fe. “We chose Santa Fe because it was isolated enough to where it would feel like we were at camp” said Vasquez, “the only requirements were that the house had vaulted ceilings and a Jacuzzi.” The players were all connected in one-way or another, some of them old friends, some of them meeting for the first time when they arrived. The days were long with the tape running constantly as the players brought ideas for songs in various stages of completion to their new family of collaborators. Mid way through the sessions the group was joined by a guest appearance from Nathaniel Rateliff who drove straight through the night to join the party. The result is a their self-titled debut record; a beautiful mix of voices from six band leaders that fit perfectly together like a low-fidelity puzzle. Their self-titled album will be available everywhere in the summer of 2018.

These four songs cover a lot of territory, from good time rock to reflective coffee house. The album should be interesting.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Charley Crockett - Lonesome As A Shadow (2018)

No Depression sez:

A sharp-dressed man, with a well-trimmed beard, crooked cowboy hat and a weathered southern draw, Crockett commands a stage with ease. His music is straightforward and honky-tonk made. He cut his musical chops in the New Orleans streets and in and around Texas playing to anyone who will listen. A lot more people are about to get added to that list.

Crockett has been pumping out material since 2015, spanning 3 albums of original tunes and lot of classic deep cut country covers. His new record, Lonesome As A Shadow, is injected with a lot more southern soul. On his 4th record, recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, Crockett blends some newfound grooves in with the dusty country sound of Texas and his own traditional Cajun roots.

Whether it’s the straight honky-tonk tunes like Goin’ Back To Texas, or the RnB infused Ain’t Gotta Worry Child, Crockett has delivered some barn burning dance numbers. A song like Oh, So Shaky will get you cutting a rug no matter your preferred genre delineation.

on the Sam-O-Meter. Is this record eclectic or just unfocused? You decide.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Built To Spill - Untethered Moon (2015)

AMG sez:

Built to Spill probably should have named themselves Built to Last. Their 2015 album, Untethered Moon, is only their eighth, but they've been cranking out guitar-saturated indie rock for over two decades. Not only is their longevity (both as a band and as a Warner Bros. recording artist) remarkable, so is their consistency. The 2015 edition of the band sounds like the 2009 edition, which sounded like the 2001 edition, and so on back to 1993. The constants in their sound -- the intertwined guitars, Doug Martsch's yelping vocals, the Neil Young-inspired epic ballads, the feverish rockers -- are as constant as ever and anyone who dug the band at any point could drop right back in and instantly feel at home.

You folks are doubtless a lot more familiar with BTS than I am (hello, Unsom). The group is probably the best known act at Pickathon 2018. It pays tribute to the many-faceted Neil Young that they can make a career based solely on the Ragged Glory phase of his career. That's not a putdown, either. This is a well-crafted, highly enjoyable slice of guitar rock.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Ojai Sam]

DakhaBrakha - Light (2014)

Pickathon sez:

DakhaBrakha is a world music quartet from Kiev, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian “ethno-chaos” band, DakhaBrakha, create a world of unexpected new music.

The name DakhaBrakha is original, outstanding and authentic at the same time. It means “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.

I'm usually not much on multi-national mashups but this hard-to-describe record carries a lot of authenticity.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

DakhaBrakha - Light (2014)

Pickathon sez:

DakhaBrakha is a world music quartet from Kiev, Ukraine. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian “ethno-chaos” band, DakhaBrakha, create a world of unexpected new music.

The name DakhaBrakha is original, outstanding and authentic at the same time. It means “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.

I'm usually not much on multi-national mashups but this hard-to-describe record carries a lot of authenticity.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

Listening to this now, thanks.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Circuit des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo (2017)

Pickathon sez:

Vocalist, composer, and producer Haley Fohr has been Circuit des Yeux since she was eighteen years old. Born in the year of the Dragon in Indiana’s own “Star City” – that’s Lafayette IN – she released records regularly over the past decades; four full-length albums, along with several mini-albums and singles. Meanwhile, she has played shows everywhere, touring all the time. She has been based in Chicago since 2012.

I listen to a lot of fringe music, but for me her most recent album, described as "experimental Folk", is unaccessible to say the least. The Quietus likes it, saying:

Much has been made of this remarkable album's backstory: how it was inspired by a mysterious moment of physically debilitating epiphany in Haley Fohr's life which, among other things, left her seeing colours with a painful intensity for several months. This is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant: knowing the details won’t bring the listener any closer to understanding what Reaching For Indigo is “about”. More useful perhaps is the key line from the album's pivotal track: “Stick your head into a paper bag and see just what you find” - immerse yourself in this record and see what speaks to you.

Reaching For Indigo is rooted in the avant-garde music of half a century ago, but never feels retro. It's a modern record, made by a singer with an incredible four-octave baritone range who works as an artist as much as a musician, comfortable with digital technology and collaging techniques, never striving for a naturalistic, ‘live in the studio’ sound. The tropes of romantic art are self-consciously manipulated, but the artifice is made plain, and the finished work feels more real as a result.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Danny Barnes - Stove Up (2016)

The former front man of The Bad Livers delivers an album of mostly instrumental bluegrass, led by his banjo, as a tribute to the late Don Stover. Danny plays well but the songs are mostly familiar and his mercifully few vocals are pretty forgettable. There's lots better bluegrass out there for us to listen to.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Circuit des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo (2017)

Pickathon sez:

Vocalist, composer, and producer Haley Fohr has been Circuit des Yeux since she was eighteen years old. Born in the year of the Dragon in Indiana’s own “Star City” – that’s Lafayette IN – she released records regularly over the past decades; four full-length albums, along with several mini-albums and singles. Meanwhile, she has played shows everywhere, touring all the time. She has been based in Chicago since 2012.

I listen to a lot of fringe music, but for me her most recent album, described as "experimental Folk", is unaccessible to say the least. The Quietus likes it, saying:

Much has been made of this remarkable album's backstory: how it was inspired by a mysterious moment of physically debilitating epiphany in Haley Fohr's life which, among other things, left her seeing colours with a painful intensity for several months. This is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant: knowing the details won’t bring the listener any closer to understanding what Reaching For Indigo is “about”. More useful perhaps is the key line from the album's pivotal track: “Stick your head into a paper bag and see just what you find” - immerse yourself in this record and see what speaks to you.

Reaching For Indigo is rooted in the avant-garde music of half a century ago, but never feels retro. It's a modern record, made by a singer with an incredible four-octave baritone range who works as an artist as much as a musician, comfortable with digital technology and collaging techniques, never striving for a naturalistic, ‘live in the studio’ sound. The tropes of romantic art are self-consciously manipulated, but the artifice is made plain, and the finished work feels more real as a result.

Thanks Sam, this is interesting to listen to.

ETA: This is actually very good and may be of interest to @axolotl.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Shinyribs - I Got Your Medicine (2017)

I Got Your Medicine offers many parallels to Stove Up posted immediately above. Both Danny Barnes and Kevin Russell (aka Shinyribs) fronted adventurous bands for many years: The Bad Livers and The Gourds, respectively. Both artists moved on to produce albums with a retro flavor. But where Barnes turned in a skillful but bloodless genre exercise, Russell's foray into swamp pop overflows with joyous energy. Soulful horns and bouncy backing vocals from Sally Allen and Alice Spencer fuel a dozen helpings of pure gumbo. Well chosen covers like Ernie K-Doe's "A Certain Girl" and Ted Hawkins' "I Gave Up All I Had" rub shoulders with fresh originals such as "Tub Gut Stomp and Red Eyed Soul". The highlight has to be "I Don't Give A Shit", a sassy duet with Russell and Allen taking turns baiting each other. As Sha Na Na will tell you, it's hard to revive old musical styles without lapsing into parody, but Shinyribs pulls it off magnificently.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Kikagaku Moyo - House In The Tall Grass (2016)

Pickathon sez:

Kikagaku Moyo/幾何学模様 (Japanese for Geometric Patterns) is the musical union between five free spirits. Go Kurosawa (drums, Vocals) and Tomo Katsurada (Guitar, Vocals) formed the band in 2012 as a free artist’s collective. They met Kotsuguy (Bass) while he was recording noise from vending machines and Akira (Guitar) through their university. Ryu Kurosawa had been studying Sitar in India, upon returning home he found the perfect outlet for his practice.

Their latest release “House in the Tall Grass” (Guruguru Brain) was recorded in the winter of 2015/16 in Tokyo. Their delicate use of melody and soft vocal harmonies contrast seamlessly with fuzzed out sitar riffs and feedback. To Kikagaku Moyo a song is like a breath of wind through the leaves or a fish jumping from the water. Their music is a conversation—sometimes delicate and tender other times explosive, but always human and always changing.

on the Sam-O-Meter. Unfocused but it has its moments.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Michael Nau - Some Twist (2017)

Nau is a Maryland-based contemporary folkie. Reminds me a bit of the innumerable meandering home demos John Lennon recorded toward the end of his life.

Pop Matters sez:

For the second album released under his own name, Michael Nau distils some of the best elements of his works with Page France and Cotton Jones into a warmly organic mixture of low-key, sleepily pastoral chamber pop. Nothing here is rushed, instead unfolding like a long, lazy summer afternoon spent in the season’s warm embrace, nestled in the shadow of an ancient tree watching the clouds gently make their way across the pure blue sky. In fact, much of the album feels as though it were unfurling itself in slow motion, completely and utterly unconcerned with the passage of time; it’s as though each track were designed to simply float by, barely registering as anything more than merely pleasant from an aesthetic standpoint. Lacking any truly memorable melodies or hooks, Some Twist is instead the aural equivalent of those days spent idly, albeit enjoyably, watching life pass you by.

on the Sam-O-Meter. z-z-z-z-z-z-z.

 

[axolotl]

Kikagaku Moyo - House In The Tall Grass (2016)

Pickathon sez:

Kikagaku Moyo/幾何学模様 (Japanese for Geometric Patterns) is the musical union between five free spirits. Go Kurosawa (drums, Vocals) and Tomo Katsurada (Guitar, Vocals) formed the band in 2012 as a free artist’s collective. They met Kotsuguy (Bass) while he was recording noise from vending machines and Akira (Guitar) through their university. Ryu Kurosawa had been studying Sitar in India, upon returning home he found the perfect outlet for his practice.

Their latest release “House in the Tall Grass” (Guruguru Brain) was recorded in the winter of 2015/16 in Tokyo. Their delicate use of melody and soft vocal harmonies contrast seamlessly with fuzzed out sitar riffs and feedback. To Kikagaku Moyo a song is like a breath of wind through the leaves or a fish jumping from the water. Their music is a conversation—sometimes delicate and tender other times explosive, but always human and always changing.

on the Sam-O-Meter. Unfocused but it has its moments.

I think you're right, but it does have some nice moments.

 

[Ojai Sam]

John Craigie - Scarecrow (2018)
Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start A Garden (2018)

I’m posting these two albums together because I reacted to them very similarly. (Hint: neither one will appear on my “Best of 2018” list.)

John Craigie’s style reminds me of Dylan’s first records. He sings in an unvarnished voice accompanied by acoustic guitar and harmonica.

Haley Heynderickx comes from the early Joni Mitchell school of folk. Her reedy vocals lapse into the occasional falsetto enriched by double tracked harmonies riding on a bed of light semi-jazz.

Unfortunately, neither singer has the wit, insight, charm, or poetic sense of their role models. Their songs are self-absorbed, with Craigie focusing on how much he likes drugs and what a bummer it is when a relationship ends. Haley, as Pickathon puts it, strikes “a balance, then, between exposing and protecting herself on I Need to Start a Garden. Heynderickx vacillates between between powerlessness (opener “No Face”) and empowerment (lead single “Oom Sha La La”).”

on the Sam-O-Meter, one for each.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Overcoats - Young (2017)

AMG sez:

Young is the full-length debut of Overcoats, the singing and songwriting duo of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell. The most striking trait of their sound is the rich, lullaby-friendly timbres of both of their voices, which usually appear together, weaving in and out of unison and harmony. That's not their only attention-grabbing feature, though, as they surround those vocal harmonies with articulate arrangements that blend elements of glitchy indie electronica, pop, folk, and soul.

Many reviewers call Overcoats "electronic folk". I like this album a lot. The songs are full of little insights into relationship dynamics that become apparent on a second listen.

on the Sam-O-Meter.