I woke up at 4:15 this morning, quarter of an hour before my phone started vibrating and chirping to remind me to get up for my early flight to Austin. I am saturated with the thrill of these coming days of marvelous musical maelstrom. I also cannot get this song out of my head, namely this RAC mix I can’t stop listening to. It’s relayered and cleaned up so shiny and pretty. Makes me love this song even more.

Home (RAC mix) – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes create one of the most enthusiastically (and awesomely spacey, and jubilant) live sets you will see. I find it amusing that lead dude is not named Edward Sharpe.

The band is off in Australia these days, not Austin, so I won’t be seeing them in the next few days, but I’ll bet there’s someone nearly as impressive live, just waiting for me to find them in the coming days. Recommendations?

Let’s go.

[my photo above from Monolith 2009, in a wildly fantastic show]

So. Despite my general disdain for television, I kinda might have sorta gotten addicted to Friday Night Lights. It happens, on occasion, when an exceptionally good show crosses my path, and even moreso when it has an ace soundtrack. At the urging of several friends with really good musical taste, I began gorging myself on the first three seasons on DVD right around Thanksgiving and I’m just catching up. The best I can explain, in its finest moments, this show feels like a Springsteen song in small towns and the fires of youth, all come to life in Texas.

The soundtrack is impressive. I’ve had to watch each episode with my laptop nearby because I do an excessive amount of lyrical-snippet Googling and message board trolling (nerd!) to find all the deep cuts and covers and quirky songs the music directors have chosen. Whoever they are, I love them. If you’ve never watched the show (I thought it was lame for years) take a gander at the soundtracking and you might change your mind. The songs fit perfectly, and then once you start watching, you and I can have conversations about Tim Riggins. Trust me.

Since I enjoy making mixes for occasions, heading to SXSW tomorrow (via aereo this year, sadly, not roadtripping like that one amazing time last year) makes this new mix sound even more satisfying. These are all songs that have been played on the first three seasons of the show. If you happen to be driving down to Texas this week, do me a solid and burn this to enjoy on the way.

CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE (FNL/TEXAS MIX)
Your Hand In Mine (with strings) – Explosions In The Sky
Everything I Do (Miss You) – Whiskeytown
Read My Mind (Like Rebel Diamonds Mix) – The Killers
Devil Town (Daniel Johnson cover) – Bright Eyes
Permission – American Catapult
Either Way – Wilco
To Build A Home – The Cinematic Orchestra
Dead Man’s Will – Iron & Wine/Calexico
Decline-O-Meter – The Gourds
I Made A Resolution – Seawolf
Devil In Me – 22-20s
Eyes – Rogue Wave
If It’s The Beaches – The Avett Brothers
Eyes Wider Than Before – Scott Matthews
I Will Dare – The Replacements
Starlite, No. 1 – Mojave 3
Storm – Jose Gonzalez
Morning Hollow – Sparklehorse
Remember Me As A Time Of Day – Explosions In The Sky

ZIP: CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE MIX

(Image credit David Kozlowski).

In the past week, I have listened to this record on loop at least three or four times through daily, and I am falling more and more for it each time. Mimicking Birds is a trio from Portland, recently signed to Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace label.

Speaking of Brock, there’s more than a hint of early Modest Mouse in these songs, with what I’d describe as an aquatic unsettling feeling that ripples through the album. It feels subversive, but subtle. It reminds me a bit of my other current obsession, the eclectic Electric President, with some of the warmth of Blind Pilot and the mercurial warble of Devendra Banhart.

Click the play arrow below to stream the entire new self-titled debut album (just out last week). Track #3 “Burning Stars” is the top-notch track for free download here with email address, and other standout tracks for me include #7 “Remnants and Pictures” and #11 “Under and In Rocks.” I cannot stop listening.

(I fidgeted with the code some to turn off the auto-play function, so you can also access the same player on the Glacial Pace site, if’n I hopelessly messed something up)

Terrible Love (live on Fallon) – The National

I’m also gobsmacked by the album art, which sort of reminds me of this image. High Violet is out May 11 on 4AD.

CORRECTION: Fuel/Friends gets to give away the White Stripes’ new DVD of Under Great White Northern Lights and the companion live CD. My deep apologies for the confusion between me and the PR people (but hey, it’s still a cool prize, for free).

Under Great White Northern Lights was filmed to capture moments from Jack & Meg’s summer 2007 tour across Canada, from the big city venues to the smalltown bowling alleys. This tour (in support of Icky Thump) represented their last live performances for a good two years, until they recently resurfaced on Conan.

TO WIN: Leave me a comment telling me about either your favorite White Stripes concert moment or your favorite White Stripes song, and why. I will pick one winner before I board a plane to SXSW next Wednesday.

And speaking of White Stripes and SXSW in the same breath, how awesome does this look? I’ll be there, and try to not wear my Third Man Records shirt to the store that day. Last year at SXSW, in another one of those surreal moments that thankfully seem to pepper my life lately, I had tapas with the director of this film, Emmett Malloy, and we chatted about the making of this documentary. It feels full circle that I’ll probably get to finally see a screening of it at SXSW this year. Wahoo!

My little brother has been trying for about a dozen songs now to best me by sending me something marvelous that I’ve never heard. He’s far away living in Sydney with his Aussie girlfriend now, and I miss him terribly, so I was thrilled to let him win this latest incarnation of Stump The Sister.

Joseph Arthur’s duet with R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe wended its way halfway around the world from Down Under to the Rocky Mountain State, and the more I’ve listened to it, the more it’s grown on me and put roots down into me. Joseph has been recommended to me before several times, and I’ve long said that Michael Stipe has my favorite male vocalist voice of anyone, so his addition to this already-beautiful song is welcomed.

In The Sun – Joseph Arthur & Michael Stipe

The moment around 2:30 where Stipe muses, “I don’t know anymore what it’s for, I’m not even sure if there is anyone / that’s in the sun…,” I can feel the paralyzing indecision.

Joseph’s voice is gravelly and raspy, but somehow soothed, as if with honey and whiskey. It reminds me alternately of Ray LaMontagne and the Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones on the wails. I love this song.

From the 2006 iTunes exclusive In The Sun EP; he released about a jillion EPs and albums in 2008.

Last weekend I shuffled into a smalltown venue I’d never been to, on the streets of hippie enclave Manitou Springs (my neighbor to the west) to see Laura Veirs play and sing in a hometown show. I knew nothing about the opening bands, but was immediately smitten when lone Nelson Kempf from Old Believers came out on stage, kicked his looping beats into effect, and starting strumming and playing this:

It’s With You Now (Red River cover) – The Old Believers

His version was different in every way from this 7″ vinyl version with the full band (and female lead vocals). Not only were we treated to the purity of him alone, his earnest voice, and an acoustic guitar, but he led us all in a singalong (bold move for a first song from an opening band, but it worked. Completely). We sang along “all the love, all the love….” in time with that bass line, and I swooned for the lyrics. Everything suddenly felt very warm and very right.

When the rest of the members came out on stage to join him, the music they crafted for us was reminiscent of a cross between Apostle of Hustle and Josh Ritter. If it sounds like fun, that’s because it absolutely was, and I am now actively seeking what else I can find about this small band.

Granny’s Song – Old Believers

Their full-length Eight Golden Greats came out in ‘08, new one rumored to be in the works. Old Believersand Red River are both part of the Brave Records label out of Portland, and both are charming my speakers currently.

Denver musician Nathaniel Rateliff (formerly of the well-loved Born In The Flood) and his band The Wheel have completed their debut record In Memory of Loss on Rounder, under the production hand of Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter). It’s exciting for me to see these friends getting some of the attention that I’ve long thought they deserved. I’ve seen ‘em play in little clubs and on patios and at our hectic festivals, and Nathaniel’s voice always commands people stop, and listen, and feel what he is singing.

Hear the full new version of “Early Spring Till” over on the Vanity Fair profile, and download it for free on Nathaniel’s website. Vanity Fair? Holy crap, go go Denver music!

The Vanity Fair piece says, “his tenor voice and gospel-inspired harmonies are fit only for a silent cathedral.” My own version of this cathedral they envision would be when I saw The Wheel on the Meadowlark patio late last summer, and underneath the canopy of twinkling lights in the late August evening they levied a heavy, reverent silence over the normally talkative hipster crowd. Everyone –everyone– was listening then, and now, you’ll soon have a chance too.

These songs are now so much more fleshed out and filled in, but still leave a space for Nathaniel’s distinctive voice to reverberate. “Early Spring Till” is much changed, but still with that soaring chorus that always makes my day feel a little more bearable. Are you tired? Do you feel wrung out? Have you fallen from where glory sprouts? At least Nathaniel understands.

This remains one of their most commanding songs, among many strong contenders:

Early Spring Till (demo version) – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel

In Memory of Loss is out April 27th on Rounder Records.

Nathaniel is playing several SXSW shows next week (next week!!), including our Mile-Hi Fidelity Party party this year. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel are playing along with Houses, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, Pirate Signal, TAUNTAUN — all some of my favorite Denver bands. You should absolutely come.

THE WHEEL IS EVERYWHERE THIS SPRING
*with the Low Anthem
# with Megafaun
% with Ra Ra Riot & Delta Spirit
@ with The Tallest Man on Earth
Mar 17 – Lamberts – C3 Party @ SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 17 – Ale House – official SXSW showcase 9pm, Austin, TX
Mar 18 – Hotel San Jose – High Road Party @ SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 19 – Habana Calle 6 – Mile Hi-Fidelity @ SXSW, Austin, TX
Apr 2 – The State Room, Salt Lake City, UT *
Apr 3 – Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO *
Apr 4 – The Slowdown, Omaha, NE *
Apr 5 – Huckleberry’s Pizza, Rock Island, IL *
Apr 6 – Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL *
Apr 7 – The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI *
Apr 9 – Vaudville Mews, Des Moines, IA
Apr 10 – The Waiting Room, Omaha, NE #
Apr 27 – Barnstormer III, West Liberty, IA %
Apr 28 – Barnstormer III, Milwaukee, WI %
Apr 29 – Barnstormer III, Lake Geneva, WI %
Apr 30 – Barnstormer III, Champaign, IL %
May 1 – Barnstormer III, Maquoketa, IA %
May 21 – The Mill, Iowa City, Iowa @
May 22 – Carleton College, Northfield, MN @
May 23 – Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN @
May 25 – Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, WI @
May 26 – The Dome House, Bloomington, IN @
May 27 – The Brass Rail, Fort Wayne, IN @

(top pic from my Wheel/Bon Iver set from last summer)

There is a new photography book detailing the touring and creative lives of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, captured by multi-talented band guitarist Neal Casal. It’s called A View Of Other Windows and I don’t have it yet, so can’t speak to the quality beyond what I’ve seen of Neal to know that he has a knack for capturing small moments, which I love.

I was, however, taken by the little b-side song “Memory Lane” used to soundtrack the trailer for the book. It was released on the special UK/Ireland versions of Cardinology, and perhaps selected here because of its line about “pictures taken by someone else…”

Memory Lane (UK bonus track) – Ryan Adams

I studied in Florence ten years ago, and still parlo a bit of the italiano (although not as well these days as I would desire) and I love being called a “ragazza americana” once again.