Jim White- "10 Miles to Go on a 9 Mile Road" Video (2001)

hmmm, this says it all for me, but I do want to thank everyone for your support. It does help...

~v

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter- Reckless Burning (2002) / Oh, My Girl (2004) MP3 & FLAC

"Pretty thing, I've got you, right where I used to be. We ride across this city, 
starting fires recklessly."

Jesse Sykes: "I met Phil Wandscher in 1998 in a dive bar back when Seattle still had dive bars (how I miss those times!). I think I knew instantly upon meeting him that my life would change forever- just a gut feeling I guess, but I was right!" At the time of this fortuitous meeting, Sykes had just seen both her music career and personal life take a dark turn, as Hominy, the band she had started with her then-husband Jim Sykes, quickly dissolved following the release of their eponymous debut album, and it wasn't long before their marriage suffered a similar fate. Wandscher was best known as one of the founding members of Whiskeytown, the brilliantly combustive Alt-Country band from Raleigh N.C. that also featured Ryan Adams, who, during a legendary 1997 meltdown at a show in Kansas City, fired the entire band, including Wandscher, telling the stunned crowd, "You've just saw the last fuckin' Whiskeytown show!" before proceeding to smash his guitar and storm off stage. Ousted from the band he had helped create, Wandscher, thoroughly disillusioned, drifted to Seattle and was working in a restaurant when he crossed paths with Jesse Sykes. Both nursing emotional wounds, a romance sparked immediately, but their musical partnership was something that evolved at a more measured pace. Sykes: "Phil was really reluctant to work with, well, his girlfriend [....] But it just kinda morphed anyway; it was inevitable. People will warn you, but I like working with someone you're in a relationship with. There's a greater level of intimacy and trust [....] and when you're sleeping with someone, it's actually a lot easier to say 'fuck you' or 'that's a shitty song.'" After initially gigging around Seattle as a duo, Sykes and Wandscher decided to assemble a full band, and, after doing so, quickly garnered enough critical praise for their languidly dark approach to psych-laced Americana that they were soon signed by indie label Devil in the Woods, allowing them to immediately set about recording their debut LP, Reckless Burning.

Jesse Sykes

 Sykes: "I like to refer to that time of my life as 'the reckless burning years.' It was less about making that record than it was learning how to just 'be.' Two estranged people going into lonely dark places- beautiful places. All we had was each other. We didn't even talk that much but somehow we just knew each other's story. That record was our story." Powerfully conveying the bitter pain and foggy, desolate spaces of emotional loss, Reckless Burning is clearly indebted to certain aspects of traditional Appalachian music, but the laconic darkness of Wandscher's noirish guitar-work and Sykes' bewitchingly distinctive alto subtly and quietly push the music into dreamy regions more commonly associated with psych-rock. Nowhere is this more evident than on the stunningly mournful title track, a song often compared to The Cowboy Junkies, but in truth, walks fifty paces further into unmitigated darkness than anything the Timmons siblings would be capable of committing to tape (okay, maybe with the exception of "Sweet Jane"). And while the song charts a slow descent into the numbness of emotional resignation, conveyed unforgettably through the lyrics and Sykes' world-weary vocals, it ends where such pain always ends, in abject ambiguity, as an equally dreamy rendition of "Goodnight Irene" brings "Reckless Burning" to its conclusion. Another standout track, "Don't Let Me Go," uses a slightly brighter country-influenced arrangement to counter-balance the song's dark emotional subject matter, weaving a subtle sense of irony into the song's overall tone. Sykes: "When I sat down and started playing some of the original songs that later became Reckless Burning, it just felt like he [Wandscher] was building the house that the songs lived in [....] He gave them the visual, cinematic aspect that they needed. He would create these little vignettes within the song- that other character answering back to my vocals [....] It's almost like I never had to articulate my vision to him; it became intact and fully realized as soon as he started playing on the songs. We're just hard wired into the same muse." As in the dream-state itself, Reckless Burning and its equally gorgeous follow-up, Oh, My Girl, take familiar elements and by re-arranging and re-imagining them, create something uncannily meaningful, a sound that charts the darkest interstices of the human heart while managing to feel both timeless and new.

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter- "Hushed by Devotion" / "Come to Mary" / "Your Own Kind" / "Wooden Roses" (2011) Live at KEXP- Full Performance

An amazing full performance from one of my favorite bands. A Jesse Sykes post is coming up next...

Paisley Underground Series #26: The Long Ryders- Native Sons (1984) / 10-5-60 (1983) MP3 & FLAC

"Well my daddy rode the train to take him to the factory where he slaved eatin' shit
to save my mama and me."

While Uncle Tupelo is commonly credited with spearheading the rise of the Alt-Country movement (referred to in some quarters as "No Depression") that flourished throughout the nineties, its true origins can be traced back to a number of Los Angeles-based cow-punk bands that inhabited the margins of the Paisley Underground scene during the early eighties. Bands such as Tex and The Horseheads, Blood on the Saddle, The Beat Farmers, Rank and File and many others helped pioneer the unique fusion of Country music and Punk that would profoundly inform bands like Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and Whiskeytown a decade later; however, no cow-punk band was more influential or as talented as The Long Ryders who integrated influences such as Gram Parsons, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield into a harder-edged Punk-tinged sound. The seeds for what eventually became The Long Ryders were sown in an uber-obscure and militantly retro Los Angeles garage-psych band called The Unclaimed, which Sid Griffin had joined in 1978 after tiring of the then-nascent Punk scene. However, Griffin soon felt trapped by the band's unwillingness to broaden their mid-sixties aesthetic and consequently left in late 1981 to form the nucleus of what would quickly evolve into The Long Ryders, which early on included Steve Wynn who soon left to form The Dream Syndicate. Fatefully, the band's formation coincided with the beginnings of the Los Angeles-based pysch-rock revival that eventually (and quite reductively) came to be known as the Paisley Underground, a scene that actually featured an eclectic mix of bands that were linked together more through strong friendships and an ethos of mutual support than any sense of a shared musical approach.

The Long Ryders in paisley period gear

Sid Griffin: "There was tremendous sharing in those days. At first everyone was on equal footing and then some bands became rather possessive and a bit more private but the Long Ryders were always looking at things from a socialist perspective. People shared amps, guitars, worked for other bands [...] Steve Wynn put out the early Green on Red album, I worked doing merch for several bands, Matt Piucci of Rain Parade became a kinda guitar roadie if you needed help like that and the Bangles sang back up on a lot of other people's records. Many of the bills of the day were three of these bands all at once. Perhaps Bangles, Dream Syndicate, Long Ryders, something like that." The early days of The Long Ryders featured several lineup changes, but their debut EP, 10-5-60, produced by former Sparks guitarist Earl Mankey, established the band as peerless exponents of the kind of country-infused Jangle-Pop The Byrds were doing in their post-Sweetheart of the Rodeo incarnation. Starting with the stellar Griffin-penned jangle rave-up "Join My Gang," a song that might actually be better than a good percentage of the material many claim it to be emulating, and also featuring the raucous title track, a Garage-Rock holdover from Griffin's days in The Unclaimed, 10-5-60 finds the band on the precipice of greatness.

Following the release of 10-5-60, the band's bass player, Des Brewer, jumped ship to resume his career as a longshoreman, which apparently appealed to him more than touring; as a result, Tom Stevens, who at the time was working at a record store, joined The Long Ryders, thus ushering in the band's classic line-up. Having recently signed to Frontier Records, the band entered the studio with producer Henry Lewy whose résumé included the first two Flying Burrito Brothers LPs, and the result, their first full LP, Native Sons, represents a step away from the occasionally literalistic approach of 10-5-60 and step towards something approximating what Gram Parsons once described as Cosmic American Music. Tom Stevens: "From the start, The Long Ryders were all about hybrids of pure American styles of music, as mostly defined by 60s bands, both rock and country. That all distilled through skilled songwriting into more of the classic style that you hear on Native Sons [....] I think at the time The Long Ryders were at the very height of their songwriting powers, and ability to naturally hybrid cool styles into a single form." From the opening track, "Final Wild Son," a snarling paisley update of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," to "Wreck of the 809," a psych-drenched version of R.E.M.-style Jangle-Pop, to the brilliant single, "I Had a Dream," a song that manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with the band's formidable influences (Griffin's vocals can't help but recall Gene Clark) and to lay out a sonic blueprint that would keep Jeff Tweedy busy for the better part of a decade, Native Sons stands as The Long Ryders' masterpiece, as their next album and major-label debut, State of Our Union, despite containing a number of stellar songs, would suffer a bit by comparison due to its overly-polished production. Drummer Greg Sowders: "we wanted to control our own art and it was just a very do-it-yourself attitude that we learned from the punks. But ultimately we thought punk rock in L.A.- I do kind of exclude X because they were very musical- but a lot of them really sucked [....] But that do-it-yourself attitude and the "we want to control everything ourselves and deal directly with the fans"- that's what we learned from the punks. Plus, we liked to play our songs kinda fast."

The Long Ryders- "I Had a Dream" Video (1984)

An absolutely scorching piece of Byrds-meet-Punk brilliance. Incidentally, this video (The Long Ryders' first by the way) was filmed in my hometown.

The Triffids- Treeless Plain (1983) MP3 & FLAC -For common01-

"Even people in love get hit by bullets."

During the late seventies and early eighties, there were few places as fertile as Australia when it came to innovative alternative music. While bands such as The Church and The Go-Betweens managed to experience brief flirtations with commercial success outside of their homeland, many other fine bands went virtually unnoticed, especially in the U.S. The Triffids more or less exemplified this unfortunate situation, despite having been one of the more interesting and singular bands to emerge from Australia during the eighties. Combining the darker inclinations of bands like The Velvet Underground and Television with the same American country-blues influences serving The Birthday Party as main muse, The Triffids were peerless at conveying a sense of stark desolation through the melodic structure of a pop song. Their debut LP, Treeless Plain, finds David McComb and co. still feeling their way toward their finest work, but there are, nevertheless, flashes of the brilliance to come peeking around every corner. For example, the album kicks things off with a stunner, "Red Pony"; with strings vaguely evoking the Middle-East and McComb's off-kilter croon, the song sounds something like Nick Cave fronting The Church. On "Hanging Shed," the band moves into darker territory in a way reminiscent of The Birthday Party, but then the song takes a surprising turn with a hooky chorus that manages to make the gloom all their own. While not The Triffids' best album, Treeless Plain is, nevertheless, an under-appreciated chapter in the discography of a vastly under-appreciated band.

Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter- "The Air Is Thin" Video (2007)

An absolutely incomparable voice that too few people have heard. Let's fix that...

The Flying Burrito Brothers- "Christine's Tune" (1969)

The holy grail of country-psych...

Paisley Underground Series, #3: The Long Ryders- State of Our Union (1985) MP3 & FLAC

"I was thinking about the late Tim Hardin (looking for Lewis and Clark)."

Integrating country music and psychedelia was nothing new in the early eighties; after all, the late sixties bore witness to the Gram-era Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Country Joe & The Fish to name but a few, and fifteen years later, the Paisley Underground scene followed suit in equally fine fashion. While there were a lot of bands attempting to resurrect the ghost of Gram Parsons, none came closer than The Long Ryders whose mix of cowpunk, country, Jangle-Pop, and Psychedelia set the stage in every conceivable way for the "No Depression" movement of the nineties. State of Our Union was the band's second full-length and first major label release. While there is a palpable production sheen cast over the proceedings, it ultimately lends this brilliant set of songs a certain punchiness that serves the music well. The album kicks off with a stone-cold classic in "Looking for Lewis and Clark," a powerful political anthem that sets out to punch a few holes in Reagan's "morning in America" myth. Another standout is "Here Comes That Train Again," a gorgeously spacious piece of Jangle-Pop that virtually embodies Gram Parson's vision of cosmic American cowboy music. State of Our Union is one of the most beautiful and enduring albums to emerge from the Paisley Underground scene as well as one of the most eloquently progressive albums of the eighties. Not to be missed.

Lambchop- Live at XX Merge (2010) MP3

"The link between profound and pain covers you like Sherwin Williams."

It's hard to believe that when they first appeared on the scene in the early nineties, Lambchop were considered a country band; of course, it didn't take long for this highly idiosyncratic, artistically brilliant, and ever-evolving collective to alienate the schlock-masters who have turned Nashville into a vapid quagmire of commercialism over the course of the past 30 years. While country is certainly a recognizable element in Lambchop's sonic pastiche, it is often twisted, reshaped, and interwoven with Jazz, Soul, and a nice helping of Indie guitar pop;  there simply isn't another band that sounds quite like these guys. And then there's the singular sound of Kurt Wagner's witty, droll, and seemingly elastic vocals, which can stretch from croaking baritone to soulful falsetto in the matter of a few seconds. Live at XX Merge crisply documents this perennially under-appreciated band taking the stage at Merge Record's 20th Anniversary bash, and by all accounts, they brought the house down. Running through a nice cross-section of songs from a discography ten albums deep, what is most striking in this set is how beautifully and seamlessly Lambchop integrate all the disparate parts into a sublime whole. Modern American music doesn't get any better than this.

Paula Frazer- A Place Where I Know: 4-Track Songs 1992-2002 (2003) MP3 & FLAC

"By some strange design I feign to believe that this image was mine."

While Paula Frazer's otherworldly Patsy Cline croon has gained her some attention over the years, her songwriting skills have long been overlooked. Part of this is due to the slightly heavy-handed production on Tarnation's two studio albums (this is even more the case on her solo albums), which tended to push her subtle melodies and evocative lyrics down in the mix. A Place Where I Know: 4-Track Songs 1992-2002 offers the chance to hear some of Frazer's best songs shorn of all the dusty bottom-of-a-well reverb of the studio recordings. What becomes evident after hearing many of these demos is that Frazer's voice and lyrical ability are more than up to the task of conveying a sense of tragic desolation on their own. While the recording quality of these demos varies a bit, this never gets in the way of the music, and in some cases, the tape hiss actually adds to the ethereal creepiness of the recordings.

Tarnation- Live (1996) (French Promo) MP3 & FLAC -For Chris-

"There is a restless weight upon me, in the shape of things to come."

Here's a rare Tarnation EP that was released in France as a promo in 1996 by 4AD. It is comprised of seven tracks recorded live in 1995 at Festival Fnac/Inrockuptibles, which makes this pretty desirable given that live recordings of this band (especially of 1995 vintage) are few and far between.

Tarnation- Mirador (1997) MP3 & FLAC

"What secrets lie behind an awful shade of blue?"

Yes, some of the dusty haze of Gentle Creatures has been lost to Mirador's more polished production; however, this only serves to bring Paula Frazer's breathtaking vocals into clearer focus, which, coupled with a more pronounced Country (as in Carter Family) influence in the songwriting, brings new vistas of dark desolation to Tarnation's sound. While the songwriting on Mirador is consistently excellent, special mention must be made of the cover of The Nightcrawlers' classic, "Little Black Egg." Great music for driving a barren desert at night.

Okkervil River- Stars Too Small to Use (1999) MP3 & FLAC

(my apologies for the crappy artwork scan)

"Relax, no song is written. It's nothing you thought of yourself. It's just a ghost, came unbidden to this house."

A garage recording in both the figurative the literal senses, Stars Too Small to Use contains the raw, often visceral, and intermittently beautiful early recordings of one of the great, underrated Indie bands of the noughties. It is quite interesting to hear Okkervil River in their formative period, sounding more "Alt" Country than they ever would again, while also echoing the acoustic slacker-Punk of early Violent Femmes. While this is nowhere near as essential as the amazing albums that followed it, there are, nevertheless, some shining gems waiting to be discovered. Chief among these is "The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion," which would be rerecorded two years later for their debut Jagjaguwar release. This song offers a prescient glimpse of the literate, shambolic beauty that would come to characterize their later work. Long out of print and a rare find in lossless.

Tarnation- Gentle Creatures (1995) MP3 & FLAC

"Where the gentle creatures roam, that is the place I call my home. You know I'll miss you when I'm gone, but I must be moving on."

Back in the mid-90s, a time when Alt. Country was not yet considered an anachronism and Indie chanteuse Neko Case was playing drums in a Punk band while going to art school, there was a band called Tarnation fronted by another ex-Punk drummer with a big country voice: Paula Frazer. Even more so than Case, Frazer is a torch singer, saturating every syllable with as much darkness and yearning as she can muster. The obvious touchstone here is Patsy Cline, and while Cline's iconic status is well-deserved, Frazer has a voice even Cline might have envied. Gentle Creatures is not for those who like their Alt. Country reverential (meaning traditional); this album was released on 4AD after all. You'll find no gentle acoustic ballads and sentimental odes to simpler times here; rather, Frazer's Gothic imagery and smoldering vocals coupled with spaghetti-western guitars and atmospheric production all coalesce into something truly "Alt." A forgotten classic by any standards.

NoahJohn- "Rabbit Is Asleep" Video (2001)

NoahJohn, a hidden gem of an Alt. Country band that tragically sank beneath the waves mid-"noughties," hailed from Madison, WI, a great music town by all accounts. Their sound is something like Gram Parsons fronting the Silver Jews playing songs inspired by the Velvet Underground. Stay tuned:



A bowed saw and a handlebar mustache- WTF?