Leona Naess Monster

Leona Naess is a singer songwriter from London who is now living in New York and making a living by writing really great music. I was able to see her a few days ago when she opened for Ray Lamontagne.

She is either a bit nuts, or she was a bit drunk... or maybe she's just eccentric. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised when she began singing, and although her songs can follow a certain pattern at times, I think she is definitely blog worthy. From the stage she is a bit awkward, and at times you feel a bit uncomfortable, but then she starts singing again and all is well. Personally I think one of her band members is actually Matt Sharp pretending to be a bad drummer, but I could be wrong. She just released an album this summer, out on Verve Forecast Records, check it out (how can you not with the incredible review I just gave?). Truly, the music is good.

I also hear she was engaged to Ryan Adams, so that might explain the complete insanity ;)



This one I do not have a crush on,
Tim

Ray Lamontagne tonight and Elephant 6 orchestra at NPR

I know I'm a bit behind on this, but you have to give me a break. So I missed a blog post on Monday, sue me!

If you are unfamiliar with Elephant 6 you are either 1. under the age of 18, or 2. in need of a serious Neutral Milk Hotel injection. Either way, you can go to the all songs considered site today and download a recording of a live show of the Elephant 6 orchestra in Chicago on Oct. 21st.

Elephant 6 was a record label in the 90's that released albums for classic indie rock bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, The Apples in Stereo, and Beulah. It eventually came to an end after most of the bands stopped releasing music. However, it has left us with the Elephant 6 orchestra, a musical grab back consisting of some 15 musicians that once played for the many bands involved with Elephant 6 through the years (can anyone say Of Montreal?). The recording up at npr.org has the often reclusive Jeff Mangum of NMH which should be enough for many of you to stop reading now and go download it.

Also, tonight Ray Lamontagne will be at Saltair. If you're not already going, and you read this, and you have money, and your wife/mom/girlfriend/cousin (who knows?) will let you, you should go. Paul Jacobsen will be opening. He played at the cafe once upon a moon, when we still existed. It was one of my favorite shows we had there, small, intimate, great music, good friends, happy memories to be sure. I'm pretty excited.

I'll take some pictures tonight, however my camera situation is, well... bad. We'll see if they ever make it to the internet :)

With all humor aside, I honestly believe tonight has the potential of being on of those "stick in your memory, remember the smell, taste, sound, girl, perfect night" situations. You should honestly consider it.

Tim

Ray Lamontagne - New CD, same old beard

Ray Lamontagne's new CD "Gossip In The Grain" was released today. Stop reading this and run to the nearest cd store, or just click over to your itunes and buy it NOW!

Upon first listen (honestly, I'm not even done with the entire CD yet) I think it will be one of my top five albums of the year. It'll probably surpass Ray's last effort, "Till The sun Turns Black", in terms of an overall album when it's all said and done. The songs on Gossip seem much more put together, and dare I say a little more experimental? With a song like "I Still Care For You" that mixes Ray's acoustic strumming with droning guitars and busy jazz drumming, it makes you feel like he is taking his music to another level. However, soft simple songs like "Winter Birds" show you that a good voice and an acoustic guitar is all anyone really ever needs.

The song "Meg White" is not his best work, in fact, I think it's a pretty awful choice for a single, but you have to give him some credit for having the guts to write an entire song about the White Stripes drummer.

We all know I'm still honing the craft of making a well written album review, and we all know that my usual ending to a post is "it's good, trust me, just listen to it". I'll try to not to end with that this time. If you like Ray Lamontagne, even just slightly, I think you'll enjoy this album.

Current song - A Fall Through - Ray Lamontagne

(It's Genius, just listen to it)