Monthly Archives: October 2008

Brett Dennen – Hope for the Hopeless

Posted on by

Brett Dennen’s third album, ‘Hope for the Hopeless‘, is due out October 21 and will be followed by a 11 city mini tour, San Francisco included.  The mini-tour is a return to the smaller venues Brett began playing just five years ago. Dennen and his full band are preparing a larger headlining tour for early 2009. 

Take a listen to the track, ‘Make You Crazy’ featuring Femi Kuti and be sure to catch him at one of these stops.


November 3             Portland, OR             Doug Fir

November 5             Seattle, WA            Triple Door
November 6             San Francisco, CA            The Independent
November 7            Los Angeles, CA            Hotel Café

November 8            Los Angeles, CA            Hotel Café

November 10            Denver, CO            Walnut Room

November 11            Austin, TX            The Continental Club

November 13            Chicago, IL            Schubas

November 14            Annapolis, MD            Ramshead Onstage

November 15            Philadelphia, PA            Tin Angel

November 16            Boston, MA            Passim
November 18            New York, NY            Canal Room

Bookmark and Share

Brightblack Morning Light (BBML) – Motion to Rejoin

Posted on by

Artist: Brightblack Morning Light
Album: Motion to Rejoin
File Under: Freak Folk
Recommended if You Like: Devendra Banhardt, Joanna Newsom, Spiritualized
Featured Track: Oppressions Each

Brightblack Morning Light is headphone heaven mood music to me.  It’s trippy, hypnotic and spellbinding. ‘Motion to Rejoin’ is the third album they recorded from a secluded adobe in New Mexico.  And the tempo of the album seems to be indicative of the speed at which BBML’s world moves – slooooooow.

Check out this excerpt from BBML’s artist statement for insight into this eccentric duo:

Previous to this recording, while BBML toured Europe, singer Naybob Shineywater sang each show with an arrowhead in his mouth. Why? To let his own sung words & breathe touch this stone before european ears could hear them. 

“I was not singing for war, but to engage the spirit of the maker of the arrowhead itself, to offer up Peace, that his warrior effort find a new respect, and to help my own warrior spirit sing in Peace,” reveals Naybob.

After returning from the european tour, a chance to move in to an adobe on a secluded enchanted mesa came to Naybob. With only 4 solar panels, it matched his desire to live in a meager way while making the 2nd BBML LP. “Motion To Rejoin” is anti nuclear and coal, but also aligned with the phases of the sun. “With only 4 solar panels you are entirley dependent upon how much the sun is shining,” informs Naybob.

Oh yeah.  Pass the peace pipe, Naybob, and sign me up for your Cafe du Nord shows October 14 and 15.

Get this album free via eMusic’s 50 Free MP3 Promo

buy it at insound!

Bookmark and Share

My Bloody Eardrums

Posted on by

I saw My Bloody Valentine at the Concourse in San Francisco last night.  What an experience.  It was insane.  It was LOUD! The loudest show I’ve ever been to.  So loud I felt physically assaulted by the sound waves.  So loud that after jamming my wax ear plugs deeper and deeper into my ear all night I pulled out a little replica of my cochlea.  So loud that the only way to communicate with the friends standing right next to me was via text message.   And even then we had to use an array of hand signals for ‘look at phone’ because our bodies were buzzing so violently from the sound waves we couldn’t feel our phones vibrate.

It was so loud that I went into a panic-induced sweat for the first half of the 20 minute assault of feedback, noise and distortion during the song ‘You Made Me Realise’.  I hesitate to use the word song here.  Perhaps musical composition or social experiment would be more fitting.  It was interesting to look around and see how people dealt with it.  Some clutched their ears in horror, others looked ecstatic and peaceful.  I did notice much of the crowed seemed to have their heads bowed.  I guess these were the ‘shoegazers’.

Bookmark and Share