The Oedipus Project
Sharon Van Etten is appearing at Bonnaroo this weekend.
The music of this singer/songwriter from Brooklyn via Tennessee and New Jersey is included in a Spin free download of 20 Bonnaroo bands, along with the likes of My Morning Jacket, the Walkmen, Robert Plant and Twin Shadow.
The vulnerable beauty heard in “Don’t Do It” is from Van Etten’s 2010 album Epic.
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My Morning Jacket, the jam band with cred, release their sixth album at the end of May.
“Circuital” the opus that is the title track is a free download from the band’s website.
Clocking in a 7:16, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jim James shines with one of his best songs to date.
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Circuital by My Morning Jacket
No city in the country should have such bad luck as New Orleans. First Katrina and then the oil spill. Even though both can be traced to human incompetence and greed, tragedies such as these tend to be compartmentalized if not downright forgotten as they cease to be headline news. New Orleans five years later has still just barely recovered from the hurricane and the recent devastation to the wetlands and to the Gulf from oil and dispersants will be felt for years. Thankfully there are artists, such as Spike Lee (his documentaries When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise”) and numerous musicians who will not let us place New Orleans in the scrapheap of forgotten historical disasters. The album Dear New Orleans has just been released (produced by Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit organization that works with Future of Music Coalition for social change and artist activism) to benefit the region’s unique musical heritage and to protect and restore the environment. With 31 New Orleans-inspired tracks from a very diverse range of musicians from Mike Mills and Wayne Kramer to My Morning Jacket and OK Go, from Jill Sobule and Tom Morello to Steve Earle and Laura Veirs, these artists express their gratitude to the city and make certain that we will never forget. From that album here is song “NOLA” performed by Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen and a poem from 2nd Chief David Montana entitled “The Change of Heart Man”.
Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen-“NOLA”
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2nd Chief David Montana-“The Change of Heart Man”
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In my first Podcast “Dear God 2.0” by Monsters of Folk was included as one of the best of 2010 thus far. (Monsters of Folk is a modern-day supergroup consisting of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and M. Ward.) The Roots, one of the great American hip hop bands (and currently the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) brilliantly use the song as a basis for their own commentary on the current crisis of contemporary life. From The Roots new album How I Got Over, “Dear God 2.0” is the Song of the Day.
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“Dear God 2.0 (featuring Monsters of Folk)” by The Roots
Shel Silverstein was a man of many colours: cartoonist, author of children’s books, musician, poet, and songwriter. He penned “A Boy Named Sue” forJohnny Cash as well as “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” the hit by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. In June the album Twistable Turntable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein will be released featuring such artists as Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams and a couple of the Pixies. Here is the Black Francis with Joey Santiago of the Pixies covering “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” as the Song of the Day.
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“The Cover of the Rolling Stone” by Black Francis with Joey Santiago
