Fantastic song from their new album Intuit. The video, directed by Stefan Nadelman, is even better.

Ramona Falls is the solo work of Brent Knopf, one third of Menomena; Nadelman previously worked with Knopf on the similarly dark and fantastic video for ‘Evil Bee’ (from Menomena’s Friend or Foe album) which you can see here.

Mp3: Ramona Falls – “I Say Fever”

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Wow!  I’m not generally a huge fan of Carly Simon, or rather I don’t have anything against her music but I never really listen to her either.  But this is a cool coup for Daytrotter.  I mean, amazing really.  Carly Simon isn’t some marginally famous indie band.  She even played “You’re So Vain” during her session. She was joined by Ben Taylor for the session, which was recorded on Martha’s Vineyard.

I just picked up the new Ramona Falls album Intuit (out now via Barsuk Records), which is the solo side project from Menomena member Brent Knopf.  If you like Menomena, then Brent’s solo project is like a familiar slice of bread but instead of whole wheat you’re getting whole grains.  And like nine of them.  Here he is talking about the recording process while laying down tracks for “Going Once, Going Twice.”

Ramona Falls (named after a hiking trail along Mt. Hood) had several great musicians pitch in during the recording process, including members of The Helio Sequence, Mirah, Loch Lomond, 31 Knots, Talkdemonic, Nice Nice, Tracker, Datr, Dear Reader, 3 Leg Torso, and Matt Sheehy.

The most interesting aspect for any art is the creative process.  How the art gets done.  I think a lot of people have this idea that music, etc. exists in a vacuum waiting to be discovered and set free, as opposed to crafted, shaped, built and sculpted.

See the song being built, hear it played live, download the studio track.

Mp3: Ramona Falls – “Going Once, Going Twice”

Brooklyn’s White Rabbits were the breakout band in 2007 here at Oyster headquarters.  And so when their newly-released album It’s Frightening dropped in May we were taken off guard.

Not because we weren’t expecting it, but because producer Britt Daniel (Spoon frontman) managed to capture the drumtastic-excellence of their live show. The thumping piano, so prevalent on the first album, has taken a backseat to the drums.

You see, White Rabbits bring the thunder to their live show with dueling drum kits, in fact the drums are so overwhelming and forceful that that’s all I remember from seeing them live.  And nowhere on their debut album was the percussive attack so front and center.

All that’s changed on the new album, which is chaotic, unrelenting and leaps and bounds better than their first album (which is so good it’s still in heavy rotation two years later), evidenced by the first single “Percussion Gun,” which the band played for Letterman the other night.

White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”

It’s Frightening is out now on TBD Records; you can stream the full album on their MySpace page.

I’m planning on catching them in Boston in early June and then again when they swing back to Portland later in the month.  And so should you when they come to your city.

WHITE RABBITS TOUR DATES
5/21 – Bowery Ballroom – New York NY
5/30 – Grog Shop – Cleveland OH
5/31 – Do Division Fest – Chicago IL
6/01 – Summit – Columbus OH
6/02 – Rock N Roll Hotel – Washington DC
6/04 – Middle East – Boston MA
6/05 – Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia PA
6/06 – Brillobox – Pittsburgh PA
6/09 – Mojos – Columbia SC
6/10 – Firebird – St Louis MO
6/11 – Bonnaroo – Manchester TN
6/14 – Emo’s – Austin TX
6/16 – Club Congress – Tuscon AZ
6/17 – Casbah – San Diego CA
6/18 – Troubadour – Los Angeles CA
6/20 – Independent – San Francisco CA
6/22 – Crocodile Cafe – Seattle WA
6/23 – Doug Fir – Portland OR
6/24 – Neurolux – Boise ID
6/25 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake UT
6/26 – Bluebird – Denver, CO
6/27 – Slowdown JR – Omaha NE
6/29 – 400 Bar – Minneapolis MN
6/30 – High Noon – Madison WI
7/1 – Empty Bottle Chicago IL
7/02 – Pike Room – Pontiac WI
8/1 – All Points West Festival – Liberty State Park NJ

Patrick Watson just released a video for “Fireweed” off of his latest release Wooden Arms. I was stunned by the simple imagery of a man walking alone and then turning into an illustration. And in a way, it’s pretty fitting for his new album.  One of the best for 2009.

There’s an amazing Yahoo! video shoot of Patrick Watson performing in a pinata shop in LA. One of the songs even features his new megaphone suit that I was trying to tell you about the other day when he played in Portland.

“We wanted to create folk science fiction music, like in The Twilight Zone, where there’s a normal situation with a twist,” Watson recently explained to Yahoo!. “There should be an innocence to it, a sense of a humble, grounded story with a subtle twist.”

And that’s pretty much the best description of his ethereal psych-folk-pop that I would be able to come up with.  Of course, I didn’t come up with it, he did.  But the quote perfectly encapsulates how his music is at once familiar and nothing like you’ve heard.

Here he is with his bandmates performing “Big Bird Small Cage.” It’s one of the standout tracks from the new album.

After watching them perform in the pinata shop, I hope Vincent Moon gets them to do a Blogoteque takeaway show sometime in the near future.

Patrick Watson – “Fireweed”

Have you ever wanted 100 different versions of “Stairway to Heaven” from the likes of Guster, Dolly Parton, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, Heart, etc.?

Well, if you did, now’s your chance.

M. Ward’s latest album Hold Time has been slowly growing on me as I let the songs slip over me.  It’s going to be a perfect summer backporch kind of affair – a little more subdued than his previous efforts.

And due to his cover of “Rave On” I’ve spent the past month or so digging back into my Buddy Holly albums and rekindled that love affair.  So, regardless there’s that. It took no time at all to realize I much prefer the Buddy Holly version of this song.  M. Ward’s feels too syrupy, too low key.  With Holly you get a coiled beast bursting at the seams – full of youthful energy and emotional confusion.

M. Ward (feat. Zooey Deschanel) – “Rave On”

Buddy Holly and The Crickets – “Rave On”

Portland’s The Thermals will release their new album Now We Can See on April 7.

It’s one of my most anticipated releases of the year.  The trio, we’re hoping, makes the leap and takes their place as the preeminent hard pop band in the vein of Ted Leo.

Muzzle of Bees sat down with singer Hutch Harris for five questions. It’s  a good quick interview, as is often the case with MOB’s Five Questions series.

The Thermals – “Now We Can See”

Justin over at Aquarium Drunkard is always doing cool stuff. Besides running one of the dopest (wow I just went 1994 on you) music sights, there’s also, the record label, the book he’s written, and the 826LA lecture this week, etc. To top all of that Justin’s managed in his spare time to gather a bunch of his favorite artists from his neighborhood to record a free album covering Paul McCartney’s 1971 solo album RAM.

The result will be free to download today, with a donation requested for No More Landmines. Yay, everybody wins!  Except for those who’ve already stepping on a landmine.  But that’s neither here nor there.

Many of the songs have already begun popping up on several must read music sites including: Fuel Friends, My Old Kentucky Blog, Gorilla vs Bear, Some Velvet Blog, etc.

Justin writes:

Los Angeles: huge, sprawling, and eclectic, has been likened to microcosm of the country as whole — truly a melting pot of various cultures, ethnicities, tastes and influences. So is her music. With various scenes and sub-scenes, rarely has there been a defining “sound” that marks the overall zeitgeist of what is happening in the city at any one time. In 2008 I set out to create a compilation of a dozen or so L.A. based artists that I felt were creating something both unique and diverse. After some thought I decided that there needed to be a running theme, something to tie the artists together into a cohesive whole, a common bond.

As records tend to do, a revisited appreciation of Paul McCartney’s 1971 solo album, RAM, had begun to see a resurgence of sorts within a number of local Eastside artists, coming up in conversations and on the turntables of various house parties.

The theme was found. Over the course of the second half of 2008 eleven Angeleno artists individually went in to various studios, rehearsal spaces and apartments to record their take on what is my favorite, and arguably, McCartney’s best solo work…. the end result is RAM On L.A.

I find this interesting because I’ve never actually listened to Sir Macca’s Ram. Now is as good as time as any, I suppose.  The bands included on the album are: The Parson Red Heads, Broken West, Frankel, Travel By Sea, Le Switch and Earlimart.

Parson Red Heads – “Ram On”
Broken West – “Eat at Home”

Are overdubs going to be the remix/mashup of 2K9?  It’s doubtful because so many of the ones on the site are just terrible.  The creators are taking various elements of the songs and simply laying them on top of one another.  Sometimes you get lucky though, like this overdub between Radiohead’s “15 Step” and jazz maestro Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

It’s an amazing synergy between the two.   The textures blend nicely between the saxophone and piano of “Take 5″ with the vocals, the snapping rhythms of the drums, bassline, and other noises from “15 Step.”

Radiohead & Dave Brubeck – “Five Step”

The Scottish band has a new album coming out April 21 and I couldn’t be more excited.  The group will be hitting up SXSW on what will likely turn into a small American tour (or won’t) — so be on the lookout for them in Austin.

Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career”

The title track for their new album is a bit darker, a bit dialed down for them.  It’s not so tweepop, in the vein of Belle and Sebastian, but still a great slice of pop with a slight layer of fuzz running underneath it.

Eric Johnson has always been a hard musician to pin down, whether it was the early country-psych-pop incarnation of his band The Fruit Bats or disappearing into his role as fifth member of Portland’s The Shins and sometimes member of San Francisco’s Vetiver.

Even his decision to put The Fruit Bats on hold in early 2006 seemed like a curious one – a momentum killer for a band that finally locked down a steady four-piece lineup and released an amazing nature/romantic tinged third album. Just when he decided to shelve the band, music fans realized they were one of the most compelling pop-rock groups combining great lyrics, tightly written songs and excellent musicianship.  Essentially they became The Shins, without the benefit of Zac Braff’s sloppy wet kiss.

There’s no indication as to why he wanted to put The Fruit Bats back together at this point in time.  Three years is a long time in the now and gone world of internet media. But if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he built up some financial security playing with The Shins and missed his own creative outlet. He’s too good a songwriter and singer to be playing rhythm guitar for another band.

“I almost retired the Fruit Bats name, because this is such a different concept,” he told the Willamette Week. “But we decided not to. We couldn’t think of another band name, anyway.”

The different concept, a newly retooled lineup, rolled into the Mission Theater with a half-dozen new songs, several old favorites and proof that the most interesting aspect of The Fruit Bats hasn’t yet happened yet.  MORE »

Amazon has about 500 free Mp3s to download, many you might already have, but there’s lots of good stuff by The Gaslight Anthem, Blue Giant, Apples in Steroe, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, My Morning Jacket, The Black Lips, etc.  Dig in!