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Yeah, I know…

Date: Tuesday, 04 Mar 2008 00:39

Yer Bird’s on Facebook - lots of videos and streaming tracks and the like - it’s here.

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Yer Bird and SXSW

Date: Wednesday, 20 Feb 2008 21:29

Hey gang - Yer Bird won’t be making it to SXSW (wouldn’t you rather we spent all that money on a new record?) but for those of you going, many of your Yer Bird-related favorites will be there, so here’s some shows that will be fantastic that you shouldn’t miss:

J. Tillman
Alina Simone
Chris Bathgate
O’Death
Frontier Ruckus
Also, one of the most kick-ass Mexican rock bands is playing, Mockinpott, so you absolutely see them, too. They have an excellent free digital EP you can download here.

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Matthew Ryan

Date: Friday, 04 Jan 2008 14:57

Two of my all-time favorite records, Matthew Ryan’s home recording albums Dissent From the Living Room and Hopeless to Hopeful are being hosted with his blessing at the Ear Candies blog for free - go get them.

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Some new artists to love in 2008

Date: Wednesday, 02 Jan 2008 20:38

Yer Bird is still developing our upcoming overhauled website - it’s coming later this year and is going to have more great music available than I can tell you about. It’s going to be sweet. In the meantime, here’s some new guys from MySpace that I’ve been enjoying lately that I’m sure you guys’ll dig.

Tad Wagner - myspace | website
Pretty melodic folk from one of the members of the Film Guerro label (Norfolk & Western, Holy Sons, Tracker) bands, Buellton.
recommended track: Silver Bird

Tiny Echoes - myspace
Minimalist folk - my favorite! - from Northern Ireland. He’s got a full record, The Underground Storm, up for free.
recommended tracks: The Same, Broken

The Mountain Apple Epidemic - myspace
Gothic Nick-Cave-y soundscapes and dark mumblings and a clear 16 Horsepower influence - it’s pretty awesome.
recommended tracks: A Golden Veil, Fenced in Heavens (sweet lord this track kicks ass)

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Thomas Denver Jonsson

Date: Thursday, 06 Dec 2007 18:05

I don’t know that I’ve mentioned enough how excellent Thomas Denver Jonsson is. Those how know his work surely don’t need to be told, but he’s a huge talent just waiting to be discovered - heavy doses of solo Tom Petty and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere Neil Young combined with a good bit of Damien Jurado storytelling. His new record only further cements this lofty praise - the brand new The Lake Acts Like an Ocean is brimming with the results of a perfected craft from a consummate songwriter.
Website | MySpace
Thomas Denver Jonsson - What I Dream
Thomas Denver Jonsson - The Border
Thomas Denver Jonsson - Silver Boy

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Dan Collins

Date: Monday, 26 Nov 2007 17:18

A gorgeous cover of Hezekiah Jones’ ‘How You Feel about Traveling’

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Plone and SongBird

Date: Tuesday, 06 Nov 2007 22:57

Hey all - big things going on in the Yer Bird underground here, and I KNOW that there hasn’t been enough music posted here, but once this project gets off the ground we’ll be throwing more awesome music at you than you can handle..

However, before that happens I need to get some support from some people - right now I’m looking for find someone or someones who are interested in working with Yer Bird and myself on creating a project in Plone and perhaps integrating it with the verge-of-awesomeness Mozilla project, SongBird.

So, if anyone has any interest in discussing this, please contact Morgan at yerbird@yerbird.com.

Thanks!

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Frontier Ruckus

Date: Tuesday, 18 Sep 2007 18:30

I’ve been reluctant to promote these guys too much because I want to hide them from other labels snagging them, but they are just so good! If you can picture Jeff Mangum having his friends over and hanging out playing on the porch at a farmhouse, you’d be getting in the right direction. The songs are instantly memorable, the lyrics are swirlingly dense with rich language and the instrumentation is somewhere between subtle and epic, depending on the mood, I’ve found. Anyway - it’s great and they have several albums worth of demos up on their website for you to download.

They also have a fantastic EP, I Am the Water You Are Pumping, that you should try to track down if possible, as it’s absolutely fantastic. I don’t do as much on this blog as I used to, but a lot of that is because I don’t have my mind blown by new stuff that often - this is certainly worth taking note of.

Frontier Ruckus - Dark Autumn Hour (my favorite folk song of 07!)
Frontier Ruckus - Adirondack Amish Holler

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Travel By Sea

Date: Tuesday, 17 Jul 2007 01:53

You surely remember these guys from the Yer Bird comp, right? They did the awesome ‘Too Much Too Quickly’ which was a highlight amongst many highlights. Well, they are finishing up their new album, Days of My Escape, which should be out in a couple of months, but Autumn Tone just rereleased their stellar debut album Shadows Rise so can finally get your hands on it. Sweet!

here’s some tracks:
Travel By Sea - Consequence (LTS)
Travel By Sea - Complete Shakeup

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

The Spinning Leaves

Date: Wednesday, 04 Jul 2007 19:35

Hey gang - long time no see. Yer Bird is busy as always - The J. Tillman record and the Folk Music for the End of the World comp have been selling briskly and the graphic design side of things has been real busy, too. There’s about a dozen - no shit - releases in the works for the next 2 years. It’s going to be something if I can ever get enough cash to keep the good ship Yer Bird afloat.

Anyway, last week Yer Bird and Hezekiah Jones presented a pair of shows on the East Coast featuring some good friends and artists featured on the comp. Besides the guys I already knew were awesome (O’Death, Chris Bathgate, Hezekiah Jones, Hoots and Hellmouth) I was blown away by some of the other bands on the bills - particularly the stunning The Spinning Leaves. Their song Bridges for Free is jaw-dropping, reminiscent of Desolation Row-Dylan and Return of the Grievous Angel-Gram Parsons with Emmylou. Besides this juggernaut of awesomeness, the song Marigolds is fantastic and a little Vetiver-y, Sad Maggie’s a melodic marvel and Transistor Radio is gorgeous pop ditty with Barbara Gettes on lead vocals.

Anyway, check it out:

The Spinning Leaves - Bridges for Free
The Spinning Leaves - Marigolds
The Spinning Leaves - Sad Maggie
Check out more stuff (particularly Transistor Radio) on their two myspace1 | myspace2 pages

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Music, finally…

Date: Thursday, 12 Apr 2007 19:48

Yeah, I know - too much talking, not enough music - isn’t this a music blog?
Well, ok - here’s some stuff to tide ya’ll over until I can some more time to work on this - I think I need guest writers to keep up any sort of regularity. Anyway, here’s some of the awesomeness I’ve been enjoying this week:

The Twelve Canons
I just stumbled upon these guys the other week - it’s like Nick Cave at some unholy church ceremony freaked on hallucinogens and trying to crawl up the walls. That means it’s awesome.
The Twelve Canons - My Home is Fine
The Twelve Canons - When He is Full

The Strugglers
The excellent dudes from Grumpy Bear sent me some discs, and some of them included tracks from The Strugglers - I’d liken it to the missing link between Will Oldham and Bill Callahan (or Hayden doing a Michael Stipe impression?) and good bit more depressing - in other words: perfect! In fact, it’s so good I kind of suspect that everyone else already knows about them and I’m just really late to the game. I had to turn off ‘You Win’ when I was at the day job, as there are knives close at hand. They have an awesome cover of Everybody’s Talkin’ on the free Tract at 50 comp, btw.
The Strugglers - The Disappeared
The Strugglers - You Win

Tiger Saw
These guys are always great, and their new record is also most excellent (also on Tract)! There’s a free live show up with them and Yer Bird fave Sarah White here. You guys shold spen some time on the Monkeyclaus site - there’s tons of hidden live goodies on there.
Tiger Saw - If I am to Drown Tonight
Tiger Saw - Catalina

J. Tillman
the new J. Tillman record just came out right here on Yer Bird - I’m a huge fan and this is a big honor, so here’s some tracks from that awesome record, Cancer and Delirium:
J. Tillman - When I Light Your Darkened Door
J. Tillman - Evans and Falls

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Tips for artists promoting their music

Date: Friday, 16 Mar 2007 21:07

Now, I don’t mean this in a negative way towards anyone whose ever sent me anything - I’ve listened to all of it and enjoyed the vast majority of it, but having been running a record label for a couple of years and doing this blog when I can squeeze in some time, there’s a couple of things that I thought would be helpful for all you artists out there trying to make this internet thing work.

1. Tag your mp3s correctly
It is essential that you learn how id3 tagging works - it’s really easy and can be done painlessly in iTunes. I download tons of songs from band websites to listen to later and receive tons more in my email, so when I open an mp3 and it doesn’t have the song title or artist name tagged I have absolutely no idea where it came from and even if I love it, it’s unlikely I’ll remember what or who it is. It’s also handy if the file name is something obvious and without spaces (which show up as %20) like this: Hezekiah_Jones-Agnes_of_the_World.mp3

2. Don’t send promos to people who don’t care
Especially if you’re mailing physical CD’s - that’s just a bad use of your money. If you’re in a nu-metal band you probably shouldn’t be promo-ing your music to a label and blog that specializes in quirky folk music. If you’re doing quirky, depressing, avant garde folk music, please mail ‘em my way! It doesn’t take much work to see if the blog or label is possibly interested in the kind of music you perform, and saves everyone a lot of time. And, if you’re a band like B.I.T.E., it will save you a ton of drunken mocking at your glamour-shots tough-guy band photos. On a similar note…

3. Don’t hire a PR firm
Many PR firms just have a list of label addresses and send out the copies of your record that you paid for to labels that will have no interest in your style of music. They are a rip-off.

4. Don’t expect a response
Running a small record label by yourself involves hours everyday writing emails, and sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks to listen to all the music sent to me and the original email gets lost in the shuffle. If I responded to everyone who sent me stuff I’d never get to the emails that were needed to keep things running. I, at least, do listen to every mp3 sent and check out every myspace link that comes my way, and I often enjoy them, but I just can’t write back. Also, a label as small as mine can only afford a couple of releases every year and even then it’s usually at a loss. You have to remember that for me to offer to put out your record I have to not only like it enough to buy it, but I have to like enough to buy 1000 copies of it. Putting out an album costs way more than any car I’ve ever owned.

5. Don’t write for a follow-up…
…unless you really mean it. When people take the time to ask for a follow-up email I try to let them know politely how I felt about the music they sent and sometimes they get really snippy with me for not loving it or feeling that it’s not right for the label. If you don’t really want to know, please don’t get mad me - that’s a bummer.

6. Understand what kind of label you are looking for
Sometimes I receive press kits that cost more to manufacture than I could possibly afford to spend on the album itself (like ones that features music video DVDs or lavish posters and stickers) - if you can afford all that, more power to you, but a small label (a micro-indie, if you will) is obviously not what you’re really looking for.

7. Don’t press the album yourself
Every now and then I receive a promo kit that contains the already pressed and packaged album. I don’t know what to do with these - that’s a really large part of what a small label offers. If you’ve already had manufactured 500 or 1000 copies, there’s not much more a small indie can do with your record even if it’s awesome. You’d be better off just sending it to the same review sites and blogs and magazines that I would. Plus, I would want to have the label logo and catalog number on anything I was releasing. Obviously, this doesn’t apply if you’re sending a finished copy of a previous self-released album but want to discuss working together on a new album.

Anyway - I’m not trying to be bitchy or anything, but those are some things that I see all the time and avoiding them could save everyone a lot of time, and save your band a lot of money and effort and disappointment. I certainly don’t mean to discourage anyone sending anyone anything - everyone loves to hear new music!

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Lameness

Date: Monday, 12 Mar 2007 20:45

Hey all - sorry for the slowness around here - I’ve been pretty active on the Yer Bird Forum lately, and been really busy with the 2 new Yer Bird releases - an awesome comp featuring new tracks from many of the artists you’ve heard on here and the new album, Cancer & Delirium, by greatest depressing folk singer ever J. Tillman!! More details and such soon!

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Yes, it’s another podcast.

Date: Tuesday, 30 Jan 2007 20:46

well, why not, right?

Yer Bird Podcast 1 (42:09, 57.9MB):

Link 1 - http://download.yousendit.com/ACEAF43300471982

Features new-for-2007 tracks - some you’ve certainly heard, others you hopefully haven’t - by Black Diamond Heavies, Grinderman, Alina Simone, The Arcade Fire, Julie Doiron, Clap Your Hands, Jesse Sykes, The Shins and Marissa Nadler. In that order. Dig it.

Edit! Tags fixed!

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

What Capitalism Was

Date: Friday, 05 Jan 2007 04:44

OK, I’ll admit it. Sometimes I get drunk and troll the p2p networks and download stuff I’ve never heard of that catches my attention for whatever reason. That stuff then finds its way into iTunes and comes up later and I’m like ‘What the Hell is this crap?’ and delete it. However, magically appearing on my harddrive is an album by a guy calling himself What Capitalism Was - the mp3s tag the 23-track album as ‘Find It Hold It LP’ - and it is awesome. Being a responsible blogger (uh…??) I have spent the last ~~hour~~ week researching it online, and… EDIT! Ok, I managed to track down the fella who recorded this great music and, though I still don’t know much, he is a real guy. What I learned was this: His name is John Catfish and he plays in a band called Super Daughter, who have 2 albums on cdbaby, and he’s in central Virginia - which is where I’m at - in fact, 15 minutes from me, and played their last show 3 blocks from my apartment. Right under my nose! What a gorgeous small fucking world.

It sounds a bit like Mount Eerie, and maybe if Paul Simon went through a big Daniel Johnston/Mountain Goats phase (with a time machine in his 20s)? It kind of sounds Justin Vollmar, too. Beautiful stuff. Here’s some tracks:

What Capitalism Was - Dream at a Quarter to Nine
What Capitalism Was - I’ll Try To
What Capitalism Was - Lazy Sunday Memory

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Obligatory Best of 2006 post!

Date: Wednesday, 20 Dec 2006 22:17

Hey gang - thanks for sticking with me all year! I know the posts haven’t been as frequent in the second half of the year, but the time spent on other projects I’m sure will be most pleasing to you as it all comes together in a new donation-based album download site, a fantastic compilation coming in early 2007, and a couple other things still in the works.

So, like all good music blogs, here is my Top 50 Albums of 2006 list - many of these will be familiar to regular Yer Blog readers, but I certainly hope that there’s some here that are new to you (especially if the only 06 Lists you saw were the pathetic Rolling stone list and the woefully predictable Pitchfork list!). There is a fancier version of the list with pictures and links and such on my RYM page, incidentally.

1 Throatsleep - Chris Bathgate
2 And Now That I’m in Your Shadow - Damien Jurado
3 Long May You Run, J. Tillman - J. Tillman
4 Head Home - O’death
5 The Letting Go - Bonnie “Prince” Billy
6 Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go - Jason Molina
7 Shut Up I Am Dreaming - Sunset Rubdown
8 Embarrassment of Riches - Elephant Micah
9 From a Late Night Highrise - Matthew Ryan
10 Ys - Joanna Newsom
11 The Desperate Ones - Nic Garcia
12 Post-War - M. Ward
13 Skelliconnection - Chad Van Gaalen
14 Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
15 Minor Works - J. Tillman
16 Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case
17 Hezekiah Says You’re A-Ok - Hezekiah Jones
18 Fading Trails - Magnolia Electric Co.
19 Colour Green - Sibylle Baier
20 I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo
21 The Greatest - Cat Power
22 The Great Migration - Bronze Nazareth
23 Drum’s Not Dead - Liars
24 Nux Vomica - The Veils
25 On Leaving - Nina Nastasia
26 Etiquette - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
27 Yellow House - Grizzly Bear
28 The Animal Years - Josh Ritter
29 The Magnolia State - Andrew Bryant
30 White Light - Sarah White
31 Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell - Jedi Mind Tricks
32 The Drift - Scott Walker
33 My Home, It Shall No Longer Be the Sea - The Gunshy
34 Upon Thousands - Chauchat
35 Fishscale - Ghostface Killah
36 Lion Devours the Sun - Boduf Songs
37 Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards - Tom Waits
38 An Appendix of Whaling Terms - More Animals of the Arctic
39 Audition - P.O.S.
40 Ribbons Of War - The Extraordinaires
41 Passover - The Black Angels
42 To Find Me Gone - Vetiver
43 Double Death - Coachwhips
44 The Brave and the Bold - Tortoise & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
45 Palo Santo - Shearwater
46 Sunset Rubdown - Sunset Rubdown
47 My Life in Rooms - Barzin
48 A Detailed Account of Three Dreams - Chris Bathgate
49 Pick a Bigger Weapon - The Coup
50 Priest, Thief + Wizard - Blame One

Still reading? Ok, I guess that’s worth something! I have a 3 disc mix of some of my favorite songs of 2006 posted on the Yer Bird Forum - check it out here. Oh, it’s hosted on Sendspace, so if it runs out of bandwidth, just try again tomorrow.

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Port O’Brien

Date: Tuesday, 12 Dec 2006 19:56

It’s pretty rare that I’m sent an mp3 that I want to post here on the blog, much less a song that totally blows my mind in the can’t-stop-listening-to-it way. However, I’ve been really busy and waited a little bit to get it up here, and lo, the dreaded Pitchfork beat me to it with a glowing write-up of the track. Well, whatever… better late than never, right? Port O’brien’s ‘I Woke Up Today’ is stunning. It comes together perfectly like the climactic Hallelujah chorus of a choir made up Akron/Family, O’Death and The Arcade Fire. They have a new EP available and and older full-length, and you can check out more at their website and myspace. Also, please come discuss the songs and the band here.

Port O’Brien - I Woke Up Today
Port O’Brien - Tree Bones

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Yer Bird Forum

Date: Monday, 27 Nov 2006 19:47

It’s not up on the main page yet, but for those interested in a place to discuss the music talked about here and other neat stuff, I’ve set up a Yer Bird forum here:

www.yerbird.com/forum

please visit and post something!

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "Uncategorized"

Philly

Date: Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 22:24

So, Yer Bird is planning a migration to Philadelphia in the spring because, basically, Charlottesville is lame. Also, super-genius-folk-god Hezekiah Jones is up there, so that’s pretty cool. I long for bars not crippled by Prohibition-era food/alcohol ratios - bars with jukeboxes!, cheesesteaks, and a place where there are actually bands that are awesome. The long, boring shadow of Dave Matthews looms over Charlottesville’s tired jam/jazz college/yuppie scene and you could count the number of bands worth seeing here on one hand (although that hand would include the ever-inspiring Sarah White who’s new and fucking awesome album can be yours here.). So, since it’s a quiet Saturday afternoon and I should be working on the huge new label site design!!! I’m instead browsing Philadelphia bands on MySpace and fantasizing about finding an awesome warehouse apartment. Who wants to pore over the PayPal Website Payments Standard Integration Guide, anyway? So, I thought I’d share some links to some of the sweet bands I’ve stumbled across - I hope none of them split up before May, because the Yer Bird boys will be there with Yuenglings in hand:

Bear Attack - www.myspace.com/thebearattack
Noisey garage-punk-rock with animal costumes - how could you go wrong? I particularly liked “Bear on a Bike.”

Big Shave - www.myspace.com/bigshaves
Creepy harmonies, big guitar solos and early Kinks-isms with a healthy splash of New York Dolls bass and drums. I am going to go see these guys as soon as I get to town. I recommend “All That I Can.”

I, Robeatnik - www.myspace.com/robeatnik
He describes it as “kinda punkpsychrock or martian wedding music” which I can’t really argue with. It’s badass.

Jon Guez - www.myspace.com/jonguez
This guy should probably have his own Yer Blog entry - spacey, lilting arrangement with a a delivery somewhere between David Lowery and Bill Callahan. Kind of reminds me of that Chad VanGaalen guy (who’s Skelliconnection I love - more on that in a future, obligatory best of 2006 post)

Hell, that’s just flipping through the artists tagged with ‘Garage’ - I can’t wait to dig through ‘folk’…

Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

Jason Molina

Date: Tuesday, 07 Nov 2006 23:08

I have a creepy Molina-worship closet a la Carrie. There will be some blood-bathing, ritual dancing to these new tracks later this evening:

Jason Molina - Astrabel
Jason Molina - Marsh Fire

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Author: "LongDarkBlues" Tags: "new music"

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