Great Propaganda Art and Video

Gotye feat. Kimbra

Our Country

Joe Henry put out a new album yesterday, so in honor.....

I saw Willie Mays
At a Scotsdale Home Depot
Looking at Garage Door Springs
At the far end of the 14th floor

His wife stood there beside him
She was quiet and they both were proud
I gave them room but was close enough
That I heard him when he said out loud

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was my country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

The sun is unforgiving and
There's nobody who would choose this town
But we've squandered so much of our good will
That there's nowhere else will have us now

We push in line at the picture show
For cool air and a chance to see
A vision of ourselves portrayed as
Younger and braver and humble and free.

This was our country
This was our song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was our country
This frightful and this angry land
But it's my right if the worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

I've started something I can't finish
And I barely leave the house it's true
I keep her out on my sores and joints
But I've guess I've had my blessings too

I've got my mother's pretty feet
And a factory keeps my house in shade
My children they've both been paroled
And we get back all the peace we've made

I feel safe so far from heaven
From towers and their ocean views
From here I see the future coming across
What soon will be beaches too

But that was him
I'm almost sure
The greatest centerfielder of all time
Stooped by the burden of endless dreams
His and yours and mine

He hooked each spring beneath his feet
He leaned over then he stood upright
Testing each against his weight
For one that had some play and some fight

He's just like us I want to tell him
And our needs are small enough
Something to slow our heavy door
Something to raise one up

This was my country
This was my song
Somewhere in the middle there
Though it started badly and it's ending wrong

This was God's country
This frightful and this angry land
But if it's his will
The worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

If it's his will
The worst of it might still
Somehow make me a better man

Youth Lagoon

Great new band on Fat Possum Records

Youth Lagoon - Montana from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

Album of the Year? Zola Jesus: Conatus

Three years ago teenager Nika Roza Danilova arrived upon the fringes of the pop-music world with a voice as big as her 4'11" frame is small, and a sound as exotic as her Wisconsin home seems Rockwellian. Clear from the beginning was that this young, dimunitive, mid-westerner is an unmistakeable force to be reckoned with.

At first encounter Ms. Danilova's Zola Jesus moniker alone carves out a place of iconoclasm and mythology in the pantheon of rock 'n roll history. Sonically, she matches that initial impression with a 21st century goth-electronic sound full of operatic drama, soaring vocals, and dissonance. Through the sounds and images of her first several releases Danilova has created a well-considered narrative of evolution for her goth-goddess image. Zola Jesus came to us a murky, dark and distorted voice of catharsis and decay portrayed that way consistently through imagery as well as her recordings. A slew of steady releases has allowed her to slowly lift the veil of obfuscation from her lyrics, persona, and sound. Holding constant the dramatic, gothy feel of her overall aesthetic, each release seems to bring her powerful voice and personality closer to the forefront of increasingly cleaner compositions.

Before even listening to the album there are two indications of Danilova's arrival upon a new phase of her career's evolution. Previously she has always been visually captured out of focus, in all dark colors, and even literally covered in sludge. However, Ms. Danilova appears on the cover of Conatus in front of a white backdrop, dressed in all white, even her usually-black hair bleached blonde, and in crystalline high-resolution. Then there's the album title Conatus, translated: the will to keep on, to move forward. It's quite a message to send fans of a gothy chanteuse, but there is nothing here to fear. There is continuity, visually in the veiling of her face, and sonically in the ever-present drama in her voice and atmospherics in production. The real changes lie in the translation of the album title. No longer a vessel of catharsis for a heart and mind weighed down by the inevitability of decay and loss, Zola Jesus is a celebrant of the beauty of chaos and that same process of decay. That perspective is evident in the quality of a more controlled chaos in production, increased elements of confidence and accomplishment in her already magnificent vocals, and the laying bare of the underlying pop-accessability that's always been lurking in her songs.

The album is streaming here, and will be officially released on September 26th, 2011.

Mike Egan show at Yard Dog + Timber Timbre

Mike Egan is a painter from Pittsburgh, PA. A former funeral director, his paintings are meditations on life, death and religion. The German Expressionists, stained glass windows, Halloween, Southern folk art, funeral homes, horror films, music, lowbrow art, outsider art and religious icons are some of the sources of inspiration he cites. Clearly, this is exactly my cup of tea. I'm sure you've also noticed with your eyeballs his pop art aesthetic that does well to balance out the otherwise creepy elements of his work.

I've been a fan for years and after missing his first show in Austin at Yard Dog I wasn't about to miss the opening of his newest show, The Death of 1977. On the drive to Yard Dog I happily realized I've had Timber Timbre's Creep on Creepin On stuck in the cd player (yes i still use those) for a good week and that it was the perfect soundtrack to a Mike Egan focused night. Yard Dog's proprietors agreed and Timber Timbre's skeletal compositions provided the aural backdrop to a great night of cheap beer and paintings of literal skeletons. The show continues at Yard Dog through October 9th.

Tinariwen - Tenere Taqhim Tossam (feat. TV on the Radio)