Last September, my wife and I decided to take a vacation to the UK and spend a few days in London. A week or two before leaving we plotted out our days to make sure we could do all of the traditional touristy things - Big Ben, Eye of London, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Palace, etc.

Being a music fan, I also pulled up Pollstar to see if there were any good bands playing, and lo and behold I saw that one of my favorite indie acts, The Whispertown 2000, were playing at the London Luminaire. So we did all of the traditional touristy things AND went to see Whispertown bring their own jaunty flavor of Los Angeles alt-country tunes to the good people of London. And it rocked.

Check out a few of the choice tracks below and enjoy!

Live MP3 MP3s:
Restless
Erase The Lines
Pushing Oars

Labels: indie, live mp3s, london, luminaire, soundboard mp3s, whispertown2000

I'm a sucker for female singers that remind me of old school Jenny Lewis.. the early Rilo Kiley days. So, when I get promo emails with tag lines like "For fans of: A Fine Frenzy, Jenny Lewis, Joanna Newsom" and bios like "At 17 years old, Amber moved to Nevada to become a chainsaw sculptor. Three years later she decided to pursue her number one passion, trading her chainsaw for a guitar. She began touring and immediately people took notice of her unique approach of sculpting stories through song, working her way around and chipping away until the truest form inside beamed to life." I tend to break down and click on the link and listen for at least one song.



Lovely.

If I make it to SXSW this year, I'll definitely be going to see her.

Labels: amber rubarth

Here's the companion set to the Mike Doughty show from Poor David's Pub in Dallas, Texas on February 20th, 2010.

The lovely Christina Courtin opened the show, singing and playing the violin while her friend (and album contributor) Ryan Scott provided an acoustic guitar backing. For those of you who haven't heard of Christina, she's a New York based, Julliard graduate who has been called the next Norah Jones, though I personally think that she brings the best of Regina Spektor's oddities and mixes it with her own unique dreamyness.

Her self-titled debut album released last year on Nonesuch Records doesn't hint at potential greatness, rather it delivers it. Recorded with a mix of awesome musicians (including the incomparable Jon Brion), the album jumps back and forth amongst a mix of music stylings, including folk, pop, and smatterings of country, but even when you think it's on the verge of rocking out (see the last minute or so of Bundah) on her MySpace her delicate voice brings it back to a more gentle crescendo.

The live show was just as good as her record, while allowing her a little more space. More stripped down, the live setting seemed to let Christina let loose a bit more than the production perfect constraints of a studio recording and bounce back and forth between the quiet and louder moments. And though Christina didn't play any of the actual violin parts on her record, she pulled her violin out for the live show and played beautifully on every song.

Check out the show below, and buy her album here. She's currently on tour with Mike Doughty, and will then head back to Texas for NX35 in Denton, and SXSW in Austin. Be sure to check her out!

Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Green Jay
Bundah
Foreign Country
February
Lenore
Blue Collar Man
Outro

Tour Dates:
Feb 27 2010 Cave Creek Coffee Company & Wine Purveyor Cave Creek, Arizona
Mar 3 2010 Anthology San Diego, California
Mar 4 2010 The Troubador West Hollywood, California
Mar 5 2010 Soho Santa Barbara, California
Mar 6 2010 Slim’s San Francisco, California
Mar 7 2010 House Concert at The Roost Carmel, California
Mar 11 2010 NX35 Festival Denton, Texas
Mar 17 2010 SXSW, venue TBA Austin, Texas
Apr 7 2010 Joe’s Pub Happy Ending Music and Reading Series New York
Apr 7 2010 Sing SOS Autism Benefit @ The Bitter End New York

Labels: christina courtin, dallas, indie, live mp3s, poor davids pub, soundboard mp3s, tour dates

I've been waiting for, literally, years to see Mike Doughty (former leader singer of Soul Coughing) play a live show.

I had been moderately impressed by Soul Coughing, back in their hey-day in the mid to late 90s, but it wasn't until I heard Mike Doughty's 2005 solo record, Haughty Melodic, on Dave Matthew's ATO Records label that I became a true believer. On Haughty Melodic, Mike still employed his trademark partly sung, partly spoken word style of delivery, but now it was over unabashed pop as opposed the fusion of hip hop, jazz, rock and folk that defined Soul Coughing.

The follow up to Haughty Melodic, 2008 Golden Delicious cemented me as a huge fan, and I spent the better part of the last half of 2008 listening to that record on repeat. For some reason (or maybe I just missed it), there was no Texas shows for the Golden Delicious tour. In late 2009 Mike released Sad Man, Happy Man and announced a tour that actually included a veritable slew of Texas dates.

So, last night I got to see Mike Doughty play at the best "listening room" venue in Dallas, Poor David's Pub, and it was an absolutely fantastic experience. Rather than bringing a full band, Mike played his acoustic accompanied only by cello (and occasional electric guitar player) Andrew "Scrap" Livingston playing for a full hour and half. The set pulled from all of his solo records (everything mentioned above, along with choice cuts from his early releases, Skittish and Rockity Roll) as well as Soul Coughing hit, Circles. Keeping things interesting he even kept dropping in moments of hilarity by answering dozens of extremely random questions that audience members dropped into a "Question Jar" before the show began.

To wrap everything up, he had an excellent opening act, Christina Courtin and sold copies of a recording of the show, at the end of the evening.

He's on tour for the next month (dates below) - check out a few tracks from the show and be sure to check him out if he comes to your town.

Live MP3 MP3s:
27 Jennifers
Circles
I Hear The Bells
White Lexus

Tour Dates:
Tue 02/23/10 Santa Fe, NM Santa Fe Brewing Company
Wed 02/24/10 Albuquerque, NM The Cooperage
Fri 02/26/10 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
Sat 02/27/10 Cave Creek, AZ Cave Creek Coffee Co.
Wed 03/03/10 San Diego, CA Anthology
Thu 03/04/10 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour
Fri 03/05/10 Santa Barbara, CA Soho Restaurant & Music Club
Sat 03/06/10 San Francisco, CA Slim's
Sun 03/07/10 Santa Cruz, CA The Crepe Place
Tue 03/09/10 Eugene, OR WOW Hall
Wed 03/10/10 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Thu 03/11/10 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Fri 03/12/10 Seattle, WA The Triple Door
Sat 03/13/10 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret
Tue 03/16/10 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
Wed 03/17/10 Denver, CO The Walnut Room
Fri 03/19/10 Minneapolis, MN Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant
Sat 03/20/10 Minneapolis, MN Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant
Sat 03/27/10 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
Fri 04/23/10 Cambridge, MA Regattabar
Sat 04/24/10 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge

Labels: dallas, indie, live mp3s, mike doughty, poor davids pub, soundboard mp3s, tour dates

Dallas Comic Con is always an entertaining event, and they had some great actors attending this year - Charisma Carpenter (Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars), Adam West (Batman, Family Guy), Daniel Cudmore (X-Men II/III, Twilight: New Moon) and Sean Patrick Flanery (Young Indiana Jones, Powder, Boondock Saints I/II.)

As a huge Joss Whedon fan, I attended because of Charisma Carpenter, but I was seriously impressed by Sean Patrick Flanery. It was the first convention as a speaker and he turned out to be a hilarious and very open speaker, definitely the most fun Q&A of the event. He touched on all aspects of his career, with particular focus on Young Indy, the ongoing Boondock Saints phenomenon and future projects.

I had a chance to try out my new Flip UltraHD camera - and captured the entire Q&A. I've split the 33 minute session into 4 pieces to align with YouTube's 10-minute-clip policy. Enjoy!

Labels: dallas, dallas comic con, interview, richardson, sean patrick flanery

I don't think I'll be able to make it to SXSW this year, and I've got to say that I'm already a bit down about that. Every day I get more and more emails promoting artists who are going to be there, and it's not making me feel any better about it.

The good news is that the emails at least allow me to discover some amazing new bands - and Dan Black is one of those. A Brit who specializes in extremely poppy electornica, Dan is part of the so-called "wonky-pop" movement, i.e. seriously quirky but catchy, melodic tunes.

His (solo) debut record, UN, is available on iTunes now, and will have a physical release in the US next week. Check out the video for his single, Symphonies, below and I've attached a link for the free six song mixtape he put out a couple of months ago, called Weird Science, that mashes up all sorts of recognizable samples with lyrics from other well known songs, as sung by Dan Black. Trust me, download and enjoy.

Dan Black - Weird Science EP





Tour Dates:

Labels: dan black, studio mp3s, tour dates, video

I've been listening to some older shows recently, and I turned to one of my favorite Texas artists that I haven't heard much from lately, Abra Moore.

Long time readers will have seen various posts about Abra on Lullabyes, and you can click on the following links to hear those recordings from the March 2004 show, April 2004 show, 2006 show, and a 2007 show.

The first time I saw Abra was on the Strangest Places tour back in 1997 or 1998, but she dropped off the radar for a long time, until I found out she was coming to Houston in 2002, in support of an upcoming record (which never got released) called No Fear. It ended up being a great night, and I had the opportunity to capture the show.

I found out later that Abra wasn't really happy with the artistic direction her record company wanted her to take on No Fear, which was the reason it never came out - specifically that they had her record some songs written by other writers... bottom line was that she used some of the self-written tracks from No Fear on her next record, and ditched others. First Date was one of those tracks that never got officially released, but was played at this show.

Another memorable moment from the show was when she played Shining Star, a new track I hadn't heard before. The song builds and builds into an awesome crescendo, and I remember thinking that I didn't want to wait another 5 years to see Abra again.

Live MP3s MP3:
Ku'u Ome O Kahaluu
Shining Star
Pull Away
Let's Do It For Love
Trip On Love
Family Affair
Home
First Date
Four Leaf Clover
No Fear
Outro

Labels: abra moore, continental club, houston, indie, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s