iTunes Free Music of the Week

They're still getting the songs up this week, and currently, it's looking like meager helpings this time around:

Ambush - Rage Ambush (As of posting, still $.99)
Become Who You Are - Maintstay

There's another one listed, The May Fire, but it's not ready yet.

09-11-01

The Rising - Bruce Springsteen

Concert Review: The Alternate Routes and Paolo Nutini

I went out to the Higher Ground to catch The Alternate Routes and Paolo Nutini as they played a couple of good sets of music up here. The Alternate Routes have been up here in Vermont before, and I was able to see them at their free concert back in July. Paolo Nutini, I'd heard of, as he's been on the radio with his two singles.

The Alternate Routes opened, and played a fairly good set this time around. It was a bit of an improvement over their July performance, and it was a bit of a shorter set, and they had concentrated on their better songs. Consequencely, their songs were pretty fast, which brought the crowd into full gear by the middle of their set until their finale. They once again used their toolbox & microphone combination during Fourtune Teller (I really hope that this makes it into their next album, whenever that is.) and they got the crowd singing along for My Old Lady. They pulled out an incredible amoung of energy for their time on stage. They're still a new band, and had a couple of moments where they stumbled a little. They talked a little much between songs, but they've really started playing much better together as a group. Above all, it looked like they were having fun.

Set List:
- Shelly
- Time Is A Runaway
- California
- Going Home With You
- Roxanne (Tease, The Police)
- Fortune Teller (Toolbox)
- Aftermath
- Ordinary
- My Old Lady

Paolo Nutini is an artist that I don't know a whole lot about, andreally didn't have a whole lot of time to research them. I've listenedto New Shoes a number of times, and was fairly surprised at how raspy hesounded, as if he's been on tour for a long time. He was also a bithunched over and seemed shy on stage in front of everyone, and took acouple of songs to really get a good flow going. They really kicked inwhen they got Trouble So High, a cover song, where the reggae sound really complimented his vocal work.

It took a while to get used to his voice, but it's different, and worked pretty well with his songs. The faster songs worked the best with him, such as New Shoes, Last Request and Trouble So High, as well as a couple of others. He also did a number of covers - 3 - which seemed like quite a bit compared to other concerts that I've gone to. By the end, it looked like he was beginning to enjoy himself, and the crowd certainly seemed to be enjoying the act - he was the main focus of the night, and the crowd got into his music much faster than they did with the Alternate Routes.

Set List
- Alloway Groove
- New Shoes
- Rewind
- These Streets
- Autumn
- Natural Blues (Moby Cover)
- Millions Faces
- 55 to 1 (New Song)
- Everybody's Talking (Harry Nielssen Cover)
- Last Request
- Rainbows
- Jenny, Don't Be Hasty
Encore
- Alloway Groove (Second Part)
- I Wan'na Be Like You (Louis Prima & Phil Harris Cover - From the Jungle Book)
- Funky Cigarette

Both performers did very well on stage. The Alternate Routes seems to be improving their act, at least since I'd last seen them in July, and they performed a really good, if a short, set. They demonstrated a considerable amount of energy and really seemed to enjoy their time on stage.
Paolo Nutini seemed to be a bit more shy in front of the crowd, but played a fun set that really got the crowd going, which was fun to watch, with a good blend of fast and slow songs.
In both cases, they both played their radio singles early in the sets, which surprised me, but it seemed to work nicely. They built up to a finale with their faster songs and settled into some of the deeper tracks from their albums over course of the sets.
A couple of people asked me what I was doing while I was writing down the set lists, which was interesting. I handed out this address to a couple of people, and if you're reading this, thanks for your interest and hope that you found this okay. I also talked with a husband and wife who were there with their daughter, and they seemed to enjoy their time there.

I'll get more pictures online at some point later today.

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Iron Man!

Paramount pictures just released the first trailer with good footage of the upcoming Iron Man movie, and damn, I'm excited to see that film. I'm a huge comic book fan, and Iron Man has always been a favorite of mine, along with Spiderman.

This may, shellhead is finally getting the big picture treatment, and it looks like they're doing a really good job with this version - good cast, really good CGI and action. I can't wait for May.

View the trailer here.

Iron Man (Black Sabbath Cover) - Four Tet

Iron Man - Black Sabbath

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New Artist: Sara Bareilles

I just came across this artist earlier today while randomly going through iTunes. Sara Bareilles, who's recently released her first album, entitled Little Voice. I haven't listened to the whole album yet, but Love Song and Fairytale are two songs that really stand out, although there's a couple of others that really sound good on that album.

I always try to compare artists to one another. Interestingly, I can think of a couple of female artists that sort of fit her style, but the artist who seems to fit with her really well is Josh Ritter. I'm sure that there's some others out there, but I'm happy with that fit. She's got a fantastic voice, ranging from rock to blues and does some really cool piano work to follow along.

Earlier in June, she made a splash when her first song, Love Song, was released as an iTunes free song of the week (This is why I watch that list) and it propelled her album to some really spectacular sales over the next couple months.

Love Song - Sara Bareilles
Fairytales - Sara Bareilles

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New Artist - Ferraby Lionheart

I first heard about this guy a while ago, with his song Vermont Avenue through another music blog. Lionheart is out of L.A., and has released his first album, Catch the Brass Ring, which would seem to be the start of a fantastic acoustic/folk career. Previously the front man of a band called Telecast, he's since gone solo, where he released his own self titled EP, earlier in 2007. Earlier this week, Catch the Brass Ring was released. This guy's got an interesting sound, something between Amos Lee and Rufus Wainwright. There's some fantastic musical work here, with a nice rich sound, with some good percussion work and some really good guitar stuff. This guy's a good one to keep an eye on.

Video for Crack in Time:

Vermont Avenue - Ferraby Lionheart (Highly Recommended)
Before We're Dead - Ferraby Lionheart

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Artist Comparison: Ray LaMontagne / Iron & Wine

Remember how I said I like acoustic guitar / folk / rock ? Well, over the past couple years, I've come to like two artists in paticular. They're Ray LaMontagne and Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam). Both are known for their fantastic acoustic guitar work, and both, to quote the movie Hot Fuzz, have a great big bushy beard!All humor aside, these two musicians have quite a bit in common. Their voices are fairly similar, a sort of high, off-rasp that is really complimented by their fantastic guitar work.

Forever My Friend - Ray LaMontagne

Woman King - Iron & Wine

Forever My Friend and Woman King both show the faster sides of these two musicians. It's got similar guitar and percussion work behind the vocals and employ a similar meter for each one. (It's not exactly the same, but close). The differences come in with the lyrics, as the content of both are quite different. The similarities here are superficial in nature.
The similiarities between Iron & Wine's cover of the Postal Service's fantastic Such Great Heights and LaMontagne's Be Here Now are much closer, this time, with subject matter - they've at least hit the same genre - Love. Such Great Heights is a love song, and it's a fanastic adaptation from Iron & Wine, really capturing the delicate nature of the lyrics. Be Here Now does just the same thing - like Such Great Heights, it uses delicate guitar work and vocals to get the song across brilliantly.

Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine

Be Here Now - Ray LaMontagne

How cool would it be to see these two do a duet? Ray LaMontagne has already done one with Damien Rice, a cover of To Love Somebody, which came out really nicely. Both artists have done various covers of other songs as well - LaMontagne has done that one, but also a good cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, while Iron & Wine has covered not only Such Great Heights, but also the Rolling Stone's Wild Horses. In each case, they've both gone and made the song their own, changing the speed and overall sound of the song to suit their needs. And in each case, it's a fantastic cover. Those are the only ones that I currently have, but I'm sure that there's some other good ones out there.

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