Capital City Radio

On June 15^th the award winning singer Sarah McLachlan released her first album in seven years, Laws of Illusion.  This new album reflects the obstacles she has faced since the release of her album Afterglow in 2003.

Between the years of these two album releases she has married, divorced, and raised two daughters. These experiences have enhanced her creativity and given her songs a new depth and complexity.

“I think when you go into a dark place for a while and you come out of it, the lightness you feel is…euphoric,” says McLachlan to an interviewer at Advocate.com in May 2010.

Many are familiar with her unique and compelling voice and her new album is not unlike listening to an old friend. This familiarity produces an even deeper understanding of Sarah’s profound sense of reality.

Her first single off of the album, “Loving you is Easy,” is already a sensation.

Sarah McLachlan – Loving You Is Easy

On June 27^th at 12am McLachlan can be seen performing on Austin City Limits in support of her greatest hits album Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan.

-Jessica Parker

What kid didn’t fall in love with the quirky, hilarious, and often moving poetry of Shel Silverstein? Whether from his collection of poems like Where the Sidewalk Ends or his touching short stories like The Giving Tree, his work was inspired and unique. But he had a fairly successful career as a songwriter as well, including one of my favorites, “A Boy Named Sue.” Yep, the one by Johnny Cash.

Silverstein had a substantial treasury of songs, which became hits for Cash(”25 Minutes to Go”), Loretta Lynne(”One’s on the Way”), and a whole host of other artists, not the least of which was Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. Silverstein penned most of the Dr. Hook hits.

Today, Sugar Hill Records has offered up Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to Shel Silverstein, a compilation album of some of Silverstein’s genius performed by indie acts, including My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Lucinda Williams, and Kris Kristofferson, just to name a few.  My particular favorite is Andrew Bird’s rendition of the title track, “The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns”.

Here’s the tracklist:

1: My Morning Jacket: “Lullabies, Legends and Lies”
2: Andrew Bird: “The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns”
3: John Prine: “This Guitar Is for Sale”
4: Dr. Dog: “The Unicorn”
5: Kris Kristofferson: “The Winner”
6: Sarah Jarosz With Black Prairie: “Queen of the Silver Dollar”
7: Bobby Bare, Jr. with Isabella Bare: “Daddy What If”
8: Black Francis with Joey Santiago: “The Cover of the Rolling Stone”
9: The Boxmasters: “Sylvia’s Mother”
10: Ray Price: “Me and Jimmie Rodgers”
11: Todd Snider: “A Boy Named Sue”
12: Lucinda Williams: “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
13: Bobby Bare: “The Living Legend”
14: Nanci Griffith: “The Giving Tree”
15: My Morning Jacket: “26 Second Song”

And to end, one of my favorite of Silverstein’s poems:

Teddy said it was a hat,
So I put it on.
Now Dad is saying,
“Where the heck’s
the toilet plunger gone?”

-Emma

Oberhofer is infectious. This one-man band from Brooklyn got his start in 2006 and since then has been producing rough, poppy home recordings and touring small clubs and venues in New York.

I can’t find downloadable or purchasable music of his anywhere. His nearly unpronounceable album title (o0Oo0Oo) makes it even harder. From the buzz around the interwebs, it seems as though others are having similar troubles. Even Pitchfork, the hipster music bastion, doesn’t have a single write-up on him. This still, grainy video is the best I can do for you. I urge you to look around for whatever you can find on him.  He’s definitely worth the detective work.

-Emmy, Capital Noise Intern

Civil Twilight's debut album cover

I have enjoyed the music of Civil Twilight for several years now but only recently, April 6 to be exact, did they finally release their self titled debut album to stores. It has been available on iTunes for a year or so, but the new album includes 3 previously unreleased songs.

Maybe it’s me, but there’s something special about owning an actual copy of a CD, which is why I’m excited about the release. Looking at the album’s booklet and simply being able to hold it in your hands will always win over the downloaded version in my book. Anyhow, back to the important stuff.

The band Civil Twilight hails from Cape Town, South Africa and is comprised of 3 members. Brothers Steven (vocals, keyboard, piano, bass guitar) and Andrew (guitar) McKellar who are joined by their friend Richard Wouters (drums, percussion) have been playing music since their teenage years . Their music takes on a very mellow and thought provoking feel. I always find myself not wanting the beautiful melodies to end. But as one song finishes a song of equal greatness follows. The opener, “Anybody Out There”, really captures the listener with pleading shouts from Steven, asking if anybody’s out there in times of loneliness.

The simplicity of the music is what really sets the band apart. The highlighted piano in many of their songs, such as in the beginning of “Letters From the Sky”, is so perfect and pure. The album also includes more upbeat tunes such as “Soldier”, but overall there is a quiet and somewhat sorrowful character behind each song that draws you right in. It’s a mysterious sound and you want to learn more.

Chances are not many of you, if any, have heard of Civil Twilight. But maybe you’re familiar with some of their songs? If you have heard any it’s most likely to have been either “Human”, which was featured on an episode of House, “Quiet In My Town”, which played during an episode of One Tree Hill, or “Save Yourself” which played during this week’s season premiere of The Hills. Other than these small song snippets in the background of shows, the band has yet to receive the exposure they deserve. However, they are movin’ on up! They are currently touring across the country and performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live this past Tuesday, April 27.

Civil Twilight on Jimmy Kimmel Live

So, if you’re looking for a laid back listen I highly suggest Civil Twilight. A+ to them!

- Laura Kelly (WOSU Intern)

This goes into my must-have category. I’m pretty sure that even if Peter Gabriel were covering the worst music in the world, it would become cool somehow.

Courtesy of NPR:

On paper, it’s a fool’s errand: Peter Gabriel, a 60-year-old icon with one of the most distinctively dusky voices in rock, gets down with the young folk by covering the songs of Arcade Fire, Radiohead and Bon Iver, alongside tributes to peers such as Neil Young, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Randy Newman and others. Scratch My Back ought to be the ultimate in inessential vanity projects — an album-length love letter to a star’s impeccably curated record collection — but it flat-out isn’t. Instead, it actually does what it’s supposed to do; namely, do right by both the singer and his source material.

- Scott

Vampire Weekend

Contra

XL Recordings

January 2010

Vampire Weekend’s sophomore act is overflowing with the global influences that made their first work the surprise of 2008. This time, however, Contra entered the Billboard Charts at number 1. Ezra Koenig and his former classmates from Columbia tackle a laundry list of exotic styles, incorporating calypso, ska, a slew of different African rhythms and, yes, Paul Simon. The Jewish Jersey boys can draw from such diverse sources because of a persistently intellectual method – from the lyrics (decidedly hyperliterate and obscure) to the musical composition (comprehensively preconceived). These traits are nothing new to Vampire Weekend fans, but the pacing and concentration of eccentricities are much more varied than in the self-titled debut.

At their best, the results are tight, inventive pop relics. “White Sky,” a whimsical epiphany about New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a bouncing melody of arpeggios straight from the arcade. A bonus quality that makes “White Sky” instantly lovable is that, unlike other Vampire Weekend tracks, its lyrics are actually decipherable. The narrator, walking past the Museum and then by the apartments nearby, imagines “your Wolford’s [leggings] in a ball upon the sink there.” The thought of living with a romantic interest, though framed in hipster terms, is quite resonant – especially in comparison to album opener “Horchata,” in which Koenig seems to conjure up the most exotic items he can think of.

The ethno-pop experimentation is occasionally pushed too far, particularly in Contra’s middle third. The trumpet chorus of “Run” verges on ridiculous, while “Cousins” is so erratic in just two and a half minutes that it never settles on the memorable quality of similar songs on Vampire Weekend. It is evident that the band was trying to recapture the conflagrant catchiness of first single “A-Punk,” but this proves to have been largely hit-or-miss.

Only when the band sticks to a streamlined, more honest approach does Contra achieve the catchiness that has made Vampire Weekend so successful. The band pass the four minute mark more often in the final third of the album; “Giving Up the Gun” and “Diplomat’s Son” both suggest must more patience in the creative process than the more sporadic tracks that precede them.

Contra is a strong album, though not quite as consistent as their first. In order for their next album to sound fresh, Vampire Weekend deserve plenty of time to patiently create a refined record rather than a hit-or-miss affair.

Rating: 8/10

-Bryan Gordon

Yep. This is what you think it is. The soundtrack to New Moon. Yes, THAT New Moon. The New Moon of “Twilight” fame.

Wait, wait, wait!!! I know what you’re going to say! And let me just say: “me too”! It’s ridiculous, it’s more than a little pathetic, it’s completely overrated. But the soundtrack…is actually really good!

Check it out: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Death Cab for Cutie, Muse, Editors, the Killers, Anya Marina…the list goes on!!

So, here’s my proposal: ignore the melodramatic teen angst, half-naked, glittery men, and crappy plot lines. (Ok, well, I’m keeping the half-naked, glittery men…) Remove the association of obsessive, emo tweens and just enjoy this soundtrack.

It’s really good. Honest!

And for good measure, and your reading pleasure:

-Emma

(also, Twilight fans, it’s all in good fun…please don’t hurt me…)

As you’ve been listening recently, you might have noticed a new artist in the rotation named Diane Birch, with her song, Nothing But A Miracle (you might have also caught a really great interview with Birch on Weekend Edition Sunday on WOSU last month). If you haven’t heard it yet, you’re missing out.

Bible Belt is Birch’s debut album, and it’s really worth every minute. Her voice is reminiscent of Carole King, Aretha Franklin, and Laura Nyro, depending on what track you’re listening to. The album traipses across genres from soul to jazz to rock to pop and gospel.

The first track, Fire Escape, starts the album off with a soulful lost-love ballad that’s familiar but exceptional, highlighted by her haunting acapella vocals in the first 30 seconds.

One of my favorites from the album is Rewind, a pop/rock/jazzy lamentation that, again, holds a seemingly familiar, formulaic tune, but catches a bit of the eclectic and modern form as it goes. Her voice picks up extra depth with some gravelly qualities, too.

Her last song, Magic View, feels like a Norah Jones- or Alicia Keyes-type (or perhaps it’s a bit like Roberta Flack?) jazz piano and strings mix. Her voice and the lyrics are reflective and beautiful, with an R&B feel just on the edges.

Diane Birch and Bible Belt are definitely worth a listen, and, if you’re anything like me, addition to your playlist.

-Emma