Monthly Archives: June 2012

“Vinyl has been and always will be a major presence in the Hammond household.”

“Stemming from my childhood, the sounds of ’60s/’70s soul and rock were heard on a daily basis, thanks to Charles Hammond Sr. (my dad) whose musical favorites I naturally took on as my own. Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathway, Al Green, The Isley Brothers, Santana, Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night, The Stylistics, EWF (Earth, Wind, & Fire), and Tower of Power (just to name a few) maintained a regular presence on my dad’s BSR 2540W. It is to his credit that to this day I can’t do a live show without including at least a song or two from this era.

As his vinyl collection began to find its way into our basement storage crates, so did I. Despite the fact that I did not come from a typical musical family, it was absorbing the sounds heard on these records that served as my musical foundation.

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It’s our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the brand new tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices want you to be hearing. We post, you download.

Kitten – Cut It Out
Echo Lake – Wild Peace
Poolside – Slow Down
Seatraffic – Crimes
Tiger! Tiger! – Cut Them Where They Bleed
Trebuchet – Fast Asleep
Baby – Giddyup
Ape School – Marijuana’s on the Phone
The Orwells – Mallrats (La La La)
Dead Leaf Echo – Act of Truth

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK: Kitten – Cut It Out

Saint Motel – Benny Goodman
Apache Dropout – Candy Bar
The Trews – One By One
Tidelands – The New Black
Erika Spring – Hidden
Zulu Winter – Bitter Moon
Amanda Mair – House
Ozarks – Pyramids of Love
Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
James Apollo – It’s The Days

40 more FREE TRACKS after the jump!

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

An astrologer once told me upon reading my “chart,” I would spend much of my life roaming alone at night. For me it was never a secret, the night has always been a friend.

These past months, on many a night, I have driven LA boulevards listening to the making of a record—an extraordinary album by Sean Rowe, an artist I work with. Last week Sean debuted a single from this very special release. The song “Bring Back The Night” is a calling, and the muse for this week’s Idelic Hour.

It’s a fact that all the great songwriters have at least one “cut” about the night. Thank you Sean for bringing back these “nights” for me. I’m not sure what your song title means but when I was checking up on some of the songs for this week’s playlist, I stumbled on this quote for the song “Nightfall” by The Incredible String Band:

“The hangman is death and the beautiful daughter is what comes after. Or you might say that the hangman is the past twenty years of our life and the beautiful daughter is now, what we are able to do after all these years. Or you can make up your own meaning – your interpretation is probably just as good as ours.”

I love this.

By the way, Sean Rowe’s album is called The Salesman and The Shark. I wonder what that means?

The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Sean Rowe – Bring Back The Night

Maybe I’m just a sucker for a woman who writes songs about historical people and events with political undertones, but this is one vinyl giveaway that I’m particularly excited about.

We’re giving away a copy of the brand new album Generals from The Mynabirds that was released not but a few weeks ago—and it can be all yours!

Inspired by photographer Richard Avedon’s portrait The Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution, The Mynabirds’ Generals follows a constant theme of what it means to live and breathe revolution, whether internally or in the literal sense. There are explorations of what it means to be a daughter in “Wolf Mother,” what it means to be American in “Karma Debt,” and simply what it means to be a revolutionary, as in the title track.

Somehow or another, Laura Burhenn was able to reference Sartre for a pop chorus in “Body of Work,” as a nod to the existentialist idea that “freedom is what you do with what has been done to you.” In part, Generals is a not only a concept album, but a protest against fighting, lethargy, and above all, apathy.

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In tandem with the release of The Mynabirds’ brand new LP Generals, front woman Laura Burhenn has embarked on an ambitious portrait project entitled “The New Revolutionists,” the purpose of which is to “pay tribute to the vast web of women who do various types of important work: artists, community organizers, doctors, mothers, women who embrace their lives and work to help and empower those around them. It is an awareness campaign for non-profits, women and works of art that empower.”

The week we’re turning TVD over to Laura to delve a bit deeper into the lives and inspirations of five of the many revolutionary American women the project serves to spotlight who are making a difference in their own communities across America. —Ed.

“I met Nicole (aka Nico) Childrey and Rebecca Marie Miller separately, but around the same time — approximately 2004 or 2005, I’d say. Nicole was playing drums in a New York-based band called Come Down; they were playing on a stage at ARTOMATIC. I met Rebecca in the bathroom before her old band (Brave the Day) and my old solo band shared a stage in Baltimore at a venue that has since closed; as we changed into our dresses and boots and applied eyeliner in the mirror together, I knew we were gonna be friends for life. Same with Nico after I’d spent some quality time with her. Sometimes you just know.

Anyway, as we all traversed through various bands and tours and big life moments, our paths crossed again and again. And now I’m so incredibly proud to call them both bandmates in the Mynabirds. They are both ridiculously talented musicians — Nico plays so tight in the pocket, it feels like perfectly worn-in jeans that fit your soul to a T (if that makes sense); Rebecca’s voice is one of my favorite in the world, her solo songs will make you weak in the knees.

But besides that, they’re bold and kind-hearted ladies who are hilarious, generous, adventurous, and somehow still pretty easy-going despite the trials and tribulations of tour life. When they’re not on the road with the ‘birds, they’re busy ladies: Nicole is a freelance music journalist and runs the website East Nashville, With Love; Rebecca is busy working on a solo record and contributes to so many other bands as well. I thought it’d be fun to turn to questions on them, let you get to know them both a little better. Here goes…”

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