I caught Liela Moss and The Duke Spiritand The Duke Spirit open up for the Silversun Pickups last week at SXSW. I’d never heard of or paid attention to them in the past. I was thoroughly impressed with their short set. Liela’s swagger and charisma was reminiscent of Alison Mosshart from The Kills. She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen playing the tambourine.

While I was buying some music mags this morning from Book Soup the clerk was rockin’ out to some familiar tunes. I asked her who she was listening to, she said “The Duke Spirit.” Sign from God? I doubt it, but it reminded me to post about the British rockers.

I prefer 2005’s Cuts Across the Land, though their current album Neptune has some solid tracks.

MP3: The Duke Spirit – You Really Wake Up the Love In Me

Download:
The Duke Spirit – Neptune (iTunes)
The Duke Spirit – Cuts Across the Land (iTunes)

Sam Beam
November 29th, 2007
KCRW – Morning Become Eclectic
Peace Beneath The City
Sodom South Georgia
Boy With A Coin
Resurrection Fern
Woman King
Trapeze Swinger
He Lays In The Reins (Calexico Cover)

Download:
Iron & Wine – The Shepherd's Dog (iTunes)

KCRW – Morning Becomes Eclectic (Click Here)

Wilco have announced the tracklisting for the their upcoming album. Feist will join the band on “You And I.” The release date is slated for June. More details to follow.

Tracklisting:
Deeper Down
Conscript
One Wing
Solitaire
Wilco (the song)
Country Disappeared
Everlasting
Bull Black Nova
Sonny Feeling
You And I

MP3: Wilco – Red Eyed and Blue (with Andrew Bird)

Download:
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky (iTunes)

Jessi Darlin @ Tap Room – SXSW 2009 (Photo – Rollo & Grady)

At BMI’s Pre-SXSW party, Those Darlins proudly announced “We’re virgins to South by Southwest, but we’re going to slut it up all week.” And, slut it up they did – musically – playing seven shows during the festival. The trio from Murfreesboro, Tennessee received positive press from The New York Times, Billboard, USA Today, The LA Times, Paste Magazine, The Chicago Tribune and The Dallas Observer, making them the most talked about band at SXSW.

I saw these ladies the week before SXSW opening up for Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Before the show, I listened to their EP and thought they were too “country” for my taste. But, after seeing them scorch through their set, I changed my mind about The Darlins. The Carter Family musical influence is obvious on their EP, but live, they could easily pass for cousins of The Avett Brothers.

Those Darlins are a marketers dream, but one of the bands most endearing qualities is their authenticity. Their self-titled debut album will be out on July 7.

Kelley Darlin – @ Tap Room – SXSW 2009 (Photo – Rollo & Grady)

Nikki Darlin @ Tap Room – SXSW 2009 (Photo – Rollo & Grady)

Download:
Those Darlins – EP (iTunes)

Those Darlins Tour Dates

London based Freestyle Records is one of the best funk and soul labels in the world. I like to think of them as a new-school version of Stax Records. Set up in late 2003 by the Jazz Cafe’s Adrian Gibson, Freestyle Records has rapidly amassed an impressive catalog of well-known musicians. Some of their featured artists include Fred Wesley, Me’shell Ndegeochello, Soulive, Chali 2Na (Jurassic 5) and Michael Franti (Spearhead).

If you dig deeper into their catalog you can find some serious Meters-style funk and Afrobeat music. My favorites are The Apples, The Bamboos, Lack Of Afro, Speedometer, Cookin’ On 3 Burners and Manteca. They have another fifty or so artists that I’m still exploring. Simply put, Freestyle has a treasure chest of funk.

The Bamboos

MP3: Lack of Afro – Mongrel Strut
MP3: Cookin’ On 3 Burners – Mango Skin
MP3: The Bamboos – Voodoo Doll
MP3: Manteca – Afro Funky
MP3: Speedometer – Meter’s Running
MP3: The Apples – Run This Town

The Apples

Download:
Lack of Afro – Press On (iTunes)
The Bamboos – Step It Up (iTunes)
Manteca – Ritmo y Sabor (iTunes)
Speedometer – Four Flights Up (iTunes)
The Apples – Buzzin' About (iTunes)
Cookin' On 3 Burners – Baked, Broiled and Fried (iTunes)

Freestyle Records Myspace Page (Click Here)

From The New York Times 3/26/2009:
“Blender magazine is ceasing publication with its April issue, its owner, the Alpha Media Group, announced on Thursday. The music and entertainment magazine’s Web site, blender.com, will continue.

“We went as far as we could in a difficult environment,” said an Alpha Media spokeswoman, Nora Haynes.

About 30 people will leave the company as a result of the magazine’s closing , she confirmed.

Alpha also is combining its magazine Maxim with Maxim.com, which means a few staff changes and, potentially, more layoffs. Joe Levy, the editor in chief of Blender, will become editor in chief of the newly combined Maxim and Maxim.com, while Jay Woodruff, formerly editor in chief of Maxim Digital, will become chief content officer of the operation.” Continue Reading NYtimes.com

Here are some photos that were taken from last night’s Angus and Julia Stone show at the House of Blues in Hollywood. The brother-sister duo from Sydney, Australia played a 45 minute set that included “The Beast”, “Mango Tree” and “Just Boy” from their debut album A Book Like This. If you missed the show, they will be back in town on April 23rd headlining the Troubadour. I definitely recommend checking these guys out.

Angus & Julia Stone
Live In Session On KCRW
March 9th, 2009
Hollywood
Silver Coin
Private Lawns
Mango Tree
The Beast
Wasted
Just a Boy
Here We Go Again

Download:
Angus & Julia Stone – A Book Like This (iTunes)
Angus & Julia Stone – Hollywood – EP (iTunes)

CNET News Reports:
“AT&T, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, confirmed on Tuesday the company is working with the recording industry to combat illegal file sharing.

In December, the RIAA, the lobbying group of the four largest recording companies, announced the group would no longer pursue an antipiracy strategy that focused on suing individuals, but rather would seek the help of broadband providers to stem the flow of pirated content. The RIAA said an undisclosed number of ISPs had agreed to cooperate but declined to name them. In January, CNET News reported that AT&T and Comcast were among the group.”
Continue Reading (Click Here)

Anthony Volodkin

The Hype Machine’s founder Anthony Volodkin recently posted some fascinating tidbits from his SXSW panel discussion with Paul Lamere, director of developer community at The Echo Nest.

Author – Anthony Volodkin:
WHAT IF THERE IS NO DISCOVERY ALGORITHM?
Current music recommendation systems have tons of serious issues: they don’t properly incorporate long tail content, fail in offering anything close to serendipity, and get even more confused by divisive content (see the ratings for Napoleon Dynamite on Amazon for an example). Smart people with good funding have been working to solve all of these issues, but the progress seems limited at best. What if we are working to solve the wrong problem?

WHERE ARE WE TODAY?
Pandora’s popular music characteristic-based method offers listeners a “give me more of the same” experience. Last.fm’s social listening analysis leads you from one popular act to another with limited opportunity to stumble into the unknown as a by-product of attempting to filter noise and satisfy the greatest number of people possible with recommendations. Echonest’s hybrid recommender incorporates audio analysis, blog content and traditional collaborative filtering techniques for a seemingly promising mix, but the results have yet to be fully available in a significant consumer offering. These approaches are valuable if audience size (Pandora’s millions of listeners) and business acquisition prices ($280M for Last.fm) are considered, but their cultural impact & influence pales in comparison with destinations producing editorial, such as Pitchfork, select music magazines and music blogs.

TASTE IS IRRATIONAL
These issues exist because the ultimate nature of human taste is irrational and depends on factors impossible to capture with computer systems. Interpersonal relationships, social pressures, locales, context in which music is encountered, meaning that individuals assign to a music encounter (has a girl you liked ever introduced you to music you just happened to also like?) all make a huge difference in how people respond. Much of this happens outside of the clean social graph of Facebook or the neatly recorded playback logs of music sites. All of these factors affect each individual differently at various stages of their lives, further complicating things.

ACCEPT IRRATIONALITY
The way to drive genuine discoveries without a significant reliance on collaborative filtering or recommendation algorithms is to intelligently select and present information that captures the context of a particular piece of music and creates meaning for the person interacting with the system. Use computer systems to connect people, spotlight individual voices, then have voices and social connections define what music everyone interacts with.
Continue Reading Article (Click Here)

“She’s the fairest of them all
She loves her Adderall
She’s kicking out the windows of your car”

The Felice Brothers are back from SXSW and offering a free download from their forthcoming album, Yonder Is The Clock. The record will be available on April 7th via Team Love.

Pre-order Yonder Is The Clock (click here).