Thanks to their upcoming showcase dates at South By, I’m learning about Georgie James, a pop duo from Washington, DC for the first time.
Georgie James, a.k.a. John Davis and his singer-songwriter friend, Laura Burhenn, released “Places,” their first full length on Saddle Creek Records last Sept. Omaha’s Saddle Creek is home to Bright Eyes, The Faint, Cursive and Azure Ray among other indie notables.
Here’s a Georgie James offering from an earlier (by two weeks) EP: “Need Your Needs”
German, Dutch and British retirees looking for some southern sunny weather are finding it in Puglia, at the heel of the Italian boot.
According to The Wall Street Journal, one of the draws is the trulli — the cone-roofed structures that dot the countryside. The most basic trulli are one-room, round huts constructed of stacked, dry stones, which form walls and a simple vaulted cone roof. They date back to as early as the 14th century, and most housed peasants or livestock — or both.
The recent trulli boom is partly a continuation of the foreign-fueled real-estate speculation that began in Tuscany several decades ago, where so many British began buying second homes that it was given the nickname Chiantishire. As the values of country homes in Tuscany soared, the more adventurous wandered into nearby regions such as Umbria, and then farther south to the Marche and Abruzzo, buying up abandoned farmhouses or run-down villas. Puglia is the end of the line.
I didn’t think it possible for a modern day band to be any more Rolling Stones-like than Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers. But now that I’m listening to Detroit’s Deadstring Brothers, I’m not so sure.
Here’s a video from the label’s YouTube channel:
Speaking of the label, Deadstring Brothers will be playing Bloodshot Record’s SXSW showcase at Red Eyed Fly on Saturday, March 15th.
I picked up a free track, “Faster Than Cars Drive,” off their new self-titled album from the SXSW site. The band will be performing at the industry event in Austin on Wednesday, March 12th.
Their self-titled debut was recorded and produced by Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, Metric, The Gossip), at Bear Creek Studio in February 2007. The record was released October 30, 2007 to significant critical acclaim. iTunes featured it on their Indie page and Starbucks stores nationwide continue to play it daily.
Seattle’s Sound Magazine named Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden as “One of 10 Bands to Watch in 2008.”
Hill’s spitting fire in Ohio. The former First Lady doesn’t like people to criticize her. You’d think she’d be used to it by now, but maybe it’s not something one gets used to.
Since I’m an avid collector of EPs now, I want to tell you about one in particular that I’m liking. It’s called “iTunes Exclusive EP,” which is far from original, but do not let Sam Beam fool you. The music on this 2004 Sub Pop release is.
The EP contains four songs:
“No Moon”
“Sinning Hands”
“Friends They Are Jewels”
“Peng!” (a Stereolab cover)
“No Moon” and “Sinning Hands” were previously available only on a bonus 7″ single included with the first vinyl pressing of Our Endless Numbered Days. “Peng!” was previously included on a compilation that came with the 2nd issue of the amazing arts and culture magazine, Yeti. “Friends They Are Jewels,” Beam pulled from his unreleased archives.
DanRockett, MySpace friend and friend in real life, is playing one of LA’s most legendary stages tomorrow night. I wish I was in LA on biz, so I could swing by.
If you are in LA, Rockett’s set begins at 8pm sharp. The Troubadour is located at 9081 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.
“We will be starting our set with a brand new song called, ‘Ghosts of War'” says Rockett.
“I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald
According to The New York Times, The Great Gatsby is required reading at half the high schools in the country and resonates powerfully among urban adolescents, many of them first- and second-generation immigrants, who are striving to ascend in 21st-century America.
Thanks to this scholastic market, the books sells more than a half million copies a year.
The article looks at Jinzhao Wang, who has been studying Gatsby in her sophomore English class at the Boston Latin School. She says, “My green light is Harvard,” comparing her longing for an elite education to Jay Gatsby’s longing for Daisy Buchanan.
