Tonight is the draft for the Burnt Toast Vinyl fantasy baseball league. There will be much trash talking. Willis inspired some weird rock/baseball combination team names such as Neutral Milk Dotels, NewBomb Turk Wendells, and the frightening Kieschnickelback. Make any sense to you? If so, you have my sympathies. Saxon Shore will be playing at MACRoCk in Harrisonburg, VA on Friday. I think I’ll be down to see the rock, hopefully see you there if you’re in the neighborhood. :::scott:::
Category: news
I love instrumental music because it can paint an image of environment that lyrically based songs are often too confined to do. Saxon Shore’s releases have been song oriented, less free form and sprawling or free-jazz inspired than some other instrumental acts. Because of this emphasis, the songs use more traditional melodic tools in a verse chorus verse structure, repeating and returning to themes within a single song. The band has been moving in more electronically influenced sound through some of their performances and tours. This sound is most completely realized in the Luck Will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing. Here, the traditional bass, guitar, drums band formula gives way to the inclusion of layers of synthesizers and keyboards and electronically derived rhythms. The result isn’t immediately recognizable as Saxon Shore, but the song structure and melodic arrangements begin to reveal that identity. The sound is darker and bleaker, relying on more ambient and soaring sounds, but still accomplishing the song oriented instrumentalism goals. The layers and layers of sounds heighten the listening experience as my mind translates buy ed pills aural to visual images. Luck will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing shows this…
I don’t often take the time to explain why I put out certain records. When I first heard demos from Mara Miller of Bosque Brown, her simple voice and lyrics immediately captured my attention. Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller is a beautiful record, so sparsely and warmly recorded by Eric Fisher that it makes Mara’s songs live and breathe. The songs are built from the foundation of Mara’s vocals and guitars, but have additional instrumentation such as violins, drums, background vocals from Damien Jurado, even accordion tastefully mixed to strengthen and support. When Mara cries out “I’m still afraid of the dark” on the 7th track, it captures more than just my ears’ attention and pulls on my heart and soul. I am with her and understand. The beautiful “I Think It Snowed” is maybe my favorite album on the record, recalling winter memories in the Midwest looking out from my bedroom window to see the ground dusted in a fresh blanket of snow or even this past winter to see the bleakness of the season brightened up in white. These beautiful melodies and images combine in a truly compelling record that transcends its honest simplicity. I am honored…