Been a while, so today I’m posting more stuff than you probably even care to watch. But watch it! Do you like music with fiddles? Do you like movies about office work? Do you like movies about ill-intentioned bicycles? Then watch all these because we got the heavy duty stuff.
Here’s a short film I shot with my girlfriend called Woodwork. It stars Steven Page as a man earning an honest wage. Making his own way through life. American.
This ain’t music, but we’ve been dead around here for a while so I’ll post it anyway. I’ve been documenting local wrestling shows in my hometown for years now. I’ve got tons of pictures on my website that you can check out here and here.
I shot this video of a Rumble they had last month. It was interesting because there’s a Twist and one good guy turns on his partner. Lady in the crowd does not like that and she just yells and yells.
Technical problems to the left and to the right, a close call with an electrical fire, and the best house show we’ve seen on this internet website. Jon Russelburg started things off in the “quiet before the storm” vein with a short set of acoustic songs about dancing, Racquet Club caused a racket (oh!) with not-acoustic songs about fishes (sic), and Steven and the Ghosts sounded like a tornado fighting a train. I wasn’t sure if Steven’s guitar cut him off in traffic or what because it seemed like he was trying to choke it to death. Yes.
(Side note: I’m not too happy with how my video’s are looking these days as far as the quality goes. Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks dudes.)
Derik Hultquist came up from Nashville last month to sing us some songs. Dude looks like Cool Hand Luke and sings like (I have no idea, a good singer though). A couple of his songs remind me of Ryan Adams’ “In My Time of Need” off Heartbreaker. Not a lot to say, just make sure to check everything out. Hope to get some good stuff next year. Merry Christmas, y’all.
Next weekend we should be recording Derik Hultquist do a couple songs. Other than that, there hasn’t been a whole lot going on around here lately so I figured I’d toss up a couple of MP3s and videos I’ve been digging on to pass the time.
Jason Molina, unibrowed troubadour of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. fame, has a new group, Molina & Johnson. The Johnson in question is Will Johnson of a couple of bands I’ve never heard of: Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel. I’ve been a big fan of just about everything Molina’s put out so I was excited to see him putting out another record so soon after Magnolia Electric Co. released Josephine, which just came out in July (and is better than most anything else he’s released under MEC).
The first song, which I’ve posted below, is my favorite on the record, though it’s a bit of an outlier. “Twenty Cycles to the Ground” is borderline breezy with its organ, little guitar break, and drum kit (and a freaking tambourine too!). Johnson handles the singing on this one and his dusty voice suits it all perfectly. A song you’d like to listen to while driving over a bridge.
If you like that song or Molina in general, you should check out the Daytrotter session they did a couple weeks back. It’s got a version of “The Dark Don’t Hide It” that’ll make you sit back in your chair and think, “it sure don’t hide it.” The “Arrow In The Gale/Josephine” is nice as well.
I know we’ve all wondered what it would be like if David Gordon Green directed a music video of Jim James and Calexico covering Dylan and the Band’s “Goin’ to Acapulco.” This is what it would be like. It would be awesome and just about the best thing ever.
And to prove I’m not in love with white dudes here’s Rihanna lookin’ fly as heck.
Steven and a couple Ghosts picked, plucked, and strum (?) their way through all sorts of songs this past Friday night at Spencer’s. Gospel, murder ballads, tow boat songs. The big story of the night though was the return of the Prodigal Son (Jordan Perciful). He usually bodyslams ears with an electric guitar but Friday night was all about the Acoustics so he bodyslammed our ears with his dobro and mandolin instead. Brandon Ralph added some stand up bass and violin. Set was a little rough around the edges (no autotune yet) but that’s the way of the world. No MP3s this time, but Jenni took plenty of pictures and I got a couple videos so please feel free to peruse them (at your leisure).
(UPDATE: I finally got the MP3s uploaded. Check those out.)
Scroll on down a bit for MP3s, videos, and photos.
Looks like we’ve broken our own rule last Thursday by heading out of the Ghost House and doing a show at Spencer’s Coffeehouse. Such is life. I’ve always been a big fan of Spencer’s because their chai latte (I wear sweaters) tastes good in my mouth and they have an impeccable restroom, so it was a pleasure to do some recording in there.
I missed most of Enlou’s set, but what I caught reminded of a happier sounding Interpol if that dude from the Shout Out Louds sang for them. I don’t hear bands like this too often but I always dig their really precise rhythms and guitar-as-texture sound.
The Soil & the Sun almost sounded like the older brother, folk version of Enlou. Both have songs based around very exact rhythms but Enlou puts indie rock around them while Soil/Sun puts drawn out, sun-tanned folk songs on them. I was very pleasantly surprised by their set. All kinds of percussion going on. Banging on drums, tambourines, cans, and etc.
Stephen Gordon was somewhat the odd man out relative to the other bands on the bill. Mr. Gordon’s music is a much more straightforward, singer-songwriter-y, Americana type thing compared to the more indie-rock/folk sounds of the other bands. But variety is the flavor of life! A real solid set.
The headliner, Timbre, played with a backing band that featured Soil/Sun (and others). I’m not sure how to describe her sound, but it was very interesting/surreal to see Radiohead’s “Like Spinning Plates” played on a harp. More people need to play the harp.
Howdy folks. This is the first of hopefully many posts of songs, videos, and photos of the bands and people that find their way to Bowling Green, KY and deem us worthy of their music. Micah Tawlks and Judd & Maggie kicked things off for us last Thursday with a nice back-and-forth set. Check it all out because we’ve put in some work trying to make things as good as possible. Everything’s not quite as perfect as I’d like it to be, but soon enough it will be. Coming soon: 3D spinning skulls, autotune, etc! For now: acoustic guitars, crooning, female bass player, etc!
