Song of the Day

Archive for the ‘Country’ Category

Lissie’s from Rock Island Illinois, which is part of the Quad Cities, four cities that all straddle the Mississippi consisting of Bettendorf and Davenport Iowa along with Moline Illinois. It’s sort of the like the Kansas City of Iowa and Illinois, but that has nothing to do with music I guess. Although I’m proud to say I grew up just a 30 minute drive from there in Muscatine Iowa, so it’s interesting to see another person from the heartland getting the music out.

Lissie’s made big waves recently ever since the release of her debut EP “Why You Running” in 2009. Her real name is Elisabeth Maurus and she’s already got her name published in a lot of places. But I thought it’d be right to feature her here on my Song of the Day blog.

Her music has an extremely genuine, it’s all about the music vibe. She her voice, although perhaps seemingly rough at first listen becomes powerful and dexterous the more you listen. Her vocal chords are like a mix of Sia and Janis Joplin. I believe she’s about to make a dent in the alternative rock scene like a baseball bat to a birthday cake, but perhaps less messy and without hurting anyone’s feelings. Ok that’s a horrible analogy.

But Lissie has a softer side, one that shines bright with that good ‘ole midwestern folk feel backed by superior songwriting and complex vocal harmonies. Take a look below at another one of her songs that I really enjoy, “Little Lov’n”.

To hear more songs like this on my Song of the Day blog, click on the related links in the link cloud on the right side of the page.

Very cool music video and excellent song. I wonder if the whales listened to music if this would be their anthem for their relationships with humans.

Here’s a double whammy. By a great new band that I just found. It’s hard to overstate the power this indie band has to produce good music. They have a combination of energy and heart the likes of which are rarely seen, not by being energetic enough to yell loudly or bang on things quickly or fiercely. I’m referring rather to having the ability to create a depth and range of soundscapes, to possess the capacity to produce music that can create an enormous variety and emotions while maintaining a mastery of their craft amidst that variety. They aren’t really breaking outside of their genre of acoustic indie folk alternative music, but they are orchestrating songs so well it’s like they belong in a movie in which the soundtrack alone is powerful enough to create all the imagery, story, and drama you need. Maybe I’m being too optimistic, maybe their music is just the kind of thing that I like personally, go ahead and let me know what you think. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this band. I’m excited about them!

Also, their album covers are not to miss! Check them out along with more of their music videos at the Rogue Valley official website.

Well as mysteries reveal themselves and as the tonalities, landscapes and emotions change slightly as new bands form organically in the misty musicological amorphous sludge that is the beating heart of the sea of inspiration from which we derive our musical genius, I’ve just recently discovered that the singer of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, actually was also the front man for the band Reindeer Section, and has now moved to creating an album with an assembled group of individuals whom they call Tired Pony. Tired Pony, having just produced the album The Place We Ran From features this song “Dead American Writers” as you see in the music video above. Before anyone had heard much of Snow Patrol, I remember them being a great indie band that I’d discovered by following the “Customers who bought this album also liked” links on Amazon.com (which is another great way to discover and find new indie music by the way).

This new album from Tired Pony is supposedly moving in a slightly different genre direction than Snow Patrol and Reindeer Section towards a country influenced alternative rock that should hopefully bring appreciation to the hearts of square dancers, horseback riders, and probably a million and a half mid-westerners across the Great Basin who may have never square danced or ridden a horse but who listen to country music every day. I appreciate their efforts and this song is worthy of good praise. Although, I wonder what the term “country” brings to mind to people living in Lightbody’s native land of Scotland.

I particularly like the music video, for it’s complete lack of traditional “this video will help us promote our band by making them look cool or by making them seem like a big name” types of sentiments. Instead it gives the impression of boredom with traditional music videology and music label marketing teams. Maybe it took a marketing team to come up with the concept for the video, but either way it runs counter to the hyped enthusiastic feel-good commercialism that is supposed to make you want to buy the album so you can be transported into some kind of alternate reality where things are somehow preferable to your every day life.

So good for them! And thus, behold, your indie, alternative country music Song of the Day. Ta da!