Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

Official album art, courtesy of Wikipedia

First off, I have to apologize for my absence. Sorry guys. I've been deathly busy these past three weeks, that I haven't had an ounce of free time. There is a lot of backed up music sitting on my desktop as I write. So for those of you that haven't completely lost faith in me, I have some good news. Due to this extensive backlog, I will be doing Album of the Day features for this week. Yes, that's right, I will have five albums, starting today.

I don't think that there is much I can say about Heartless Bastards that their music doesn't say for itself. This is exactly the kind of band that the term Rock 'n' Roll was invented for. I can concatenate words like electric-folk-blues-rock, but it wouldn't mean that much when speaking about this band. Even though this band formed in 2003 (formally anyway) as a garage band in Cincinnati, they play the kind of Rock 'n' Roll that we haven't heard since the late 1970's.

Over the Rhine - Ohio

Official album art, courtesy of Google Image search

Back when lights didn't make the music, it all sounded like this. Today, this particular breed of folk lounge music is nearly extinct.

Even though this band has been around since before I was born, and this album was released when I still in junior high, the music is priceless. The music features that familiar relatability that comes from writing about life and universal experiences that are sure to bring you back to a more familiar, comfortable part of your life, whether you are 16, 25, or 60. The voice of lead singer Karin Bergquist captures your ears right from the first note, and leaves you waiting patiently for more during the instrumental parts, featuring a factor of repeatability that I would comfortably accept as the endless backtrack of my life.

Birdmonster - From the Mountain to the Sea

Official album art, courtesy of Bandcamp

It's probably not a surprise to those that regularly read this blog that I am in love with folk music. If you were ever wondering why that is, Birdmonster is that reason.

In no other area of music can you find so many unique and multifaceted band as folk music. For me, folk music brings out the roots of sound, and captures a feeling that transcends the boundaries of music and lyrics, to carry an emotion from one heart to another. As cheesy as this may sound, Birdmonster does just that.

Sitting in a dimly lit room, this album brings me back to a time when music was performed round a fire in a back yard, or on the front porch on a humid afternoon, rather than on a portable metal stage put up in some arena or ballroom, backed by guitar amplifiers and sound mixers. Don't get me wrong, music should definitely be a shared experience, but this band reminds us all why we need house shows, unfinished basements, and acoustic guitars.

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

Official album art

First off, I have to apologize for my absence this week. For the past two weeks, I have been either under a pile of work, or passed out from extreme sleep deprivation. This entry, in a way, comes directly out of that experience.

The desktop of my computer is covered with albums that I need to listen to, and I never seem to have time. This is one that has been on my desktop for a long time now. For past posts, it has been overlooked when time came to decide on an album. However, this week, the unique qualities of the music really stuck out in my lifestyle.

Under extreme sleep deprivation, sleep gets really hard for me, and even though I am tired, my mind won't let me fall asleep. This is when I turn to music, and find an amazing band such as The Low Anthem. This album always puts me in a trance state, in which my body feels asleep, but my mind stays lucid, and lost in the music. Even though I looked passed out, my mind heard every beautiful note of every song.

Roma di Luna - Casting the Bones

Official album art, courtesy of Google Image Search

I fall more and more in love with this band, the more I listen to them. Usually, I don't want to go too much into band history in these album reviews, but I think it's story time.

Roma di Luna was founded by a husband and wife duo, Alexei Casselle, a local Minneapolis rapper, and Channy Moon Casselle, a classically trained violinist. They started this band as a wedding gift to each other, and it quickly developed into a deep study of traditional folk music. They started out making money by busking on street corners, learning and playing dustbowl folk and gypsy songs.

Somewhere along the way, the magic started to happen. They started writing songs--mostly to each other. Their roots began to show through, with songs featuring both the traditional duende of gypsy folk music--the strong emotion portrayed by the singer, which makes gypsy music so strong and charismatic--as well as thematic elements noticeable in the music of Crescent Moon, Alexei's rapper moniker. They managed to fuse all of these elements into a unique style, with haunting vocals by Channey Moon, classical violin and folk guitar melodies, and sweet and subtle baselines to bring all of the music together.

The Tallest Man On Earth - Sometimes the Blues Is Just a Passing Bird EP

Official album art, courtesy of Google Image Search

I know that this is only an EP, but there is a reason I am featuring it this week. These five songs are pure poetry in sound waves. As I listen to them, I am reminded, with every syllable, why I am so in love with folk music.

The Tallest Man on Earth, the musical moniker of Kristian Matsson, pulls upon the very roots of folk music, drawing all the way back to the creator of the style. He pays attention to all of those little things that started a social movement through music all those years ago, and better yet, he makes it all seems so natural, like these songs washed up from the ocean, made from pure air and sea foam, drifting into his feet only to be projected by his vocal chords. And oh what vocal chords they are. Matsson has an unrefined, unsophisticated, unedited voice, that only carries through the experience of being alive. Accompanying all of this audible goodness are true poetic lyrics. Though they may not always fit the meter of the song, and at times, rhyming is a far-fetched concept, what really shines through is the beauty of the words.

As expected of folk music, most of Matsson's songs are accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar. However, in a rare occurrence, he has recorded The Dreamer accompanied by a heavily distorted electric, creating a rather nostalgic feel for the song. But don't just read about it, take a listen.