Jen Robinson

Trampled by Turtles - Victory (Live at KDHX St. Louis)  

Fun fact: Trampled by Turtles is from Duluth, MN, which is also the hometown of slowcore vets Low. These bands don’t have a lot in common, but it’s easy to see how a place like Duluth could inspire them both. I’ve been there. It’s cold.

Craig Finn - Rented Room

I went to college and lived in the midwest from the mid-nineties to 2007, which means I’m a fan of The Hold Steady. Craig Finn is an amazing story teller and, over the years, so many of his characters have felt so real to me - the friend who hangs around with hoodrats, high school kids partying in the woods, girls who will leave you in the dust for the next exciting thing to come along. The Hold Steady nailed post-adolescent uncertainty and angst and wrote some fine tunes in the process.

Ten years later, I think we are all more certain and have less angst, but Craig Finn is still telling amazing stories. His debut solo album drops tomorrow, and I like what I’ve heard so far. Listen closely to this one. There’s a lot of story here in not many words.

Also - Craig’s on Tumblr!

Stream Leonard Cohen’s new album Old Ideas on NPR

Robyn Hitchcock - Goodnight Oslo

We saw Robyn Hitchcock play McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica last night. McCabe’s is the best venue in LA. They reconfigure the main room of the shop with about 150 folding chairs nestled closely between walls hung with guitars, banjos, cellos, dobros, and a few odd strings I can’t identify. The worst seat in the house is about 30 feet from the stage.  

Robyn has played McCabe’s twice before and joked that we were all probably at the previous two shows as well. He told stories, took requests, and chatted with the audience. The guy next to us requested “Ghost Ship” and Robyn obliged, calling it a rock n roll sea shanty that he dedicated to Colin Meloy. Ha. Grant Lee Phillips joined him for a couple closing tunes including one of my favorites, “I Feel Beautiful.”

“Goodnight Oslo” was a popular request and he didn’t let us down. Great show.

UPDATE: So, it turns out, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings — two of my FAVORITE artists — showed up to special guest with Robyn Hitchcock for the late show last night. Uber disappointed I missed it.  :(

Yellow Ostrich - Whale

Alex Schaaf’s Yellow Ostrich dropped a glorious new track yesterday. Full of harmonies and layers, the tracks on his last album, The Mistress, were incredibly uneven, bouncing from genre to genre. But they’re no less fun for it. His new full length, Strange Land, drops in March on Barsuk. See also his lovely covers of Sharon Van Etten, RAA, Joanna Newsom, The National, Beach House, and the Tallest Man on Earth here and here. 

Yellow Ostrich on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Willie Nelson - The Scientist (Coldplay cover)

Happy Friday! 

Bruce Springsteen - We Take Care Of Our Own

The world welcomed this new tune from The Boss last night. Vintage Jersey rock n roll. Behold!

This will be on Springsteen’s new album, Wrecking Ball, scheduled to drop March 6.

Dirty Three - Rising Below

New track from Australian instrumentalists Dirty Three.  The band is Mick Turner (guitar), Jim White (drums) and Warren Ellis (violin), who is also a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I love the way a Dirty Three track builds and the musicians feed off each other. I haven’t seen them live, but suspect that no two shows are alike - something that is awesome and all too rare in popular music today. This is from the forthcoming album, Toward The Low Sun. 

The Big Pink - Stay Gold

The Big Pink released their second album, Future This, last week on 4AD. This is the lead single and it’s currently free on iTunes! I was madly in love with their 2009 release, A Brief History of Love, and have been looking forward to the follow up. Jury is out for now. More soon.

Hank Williams - I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Hank Williams was already a legend when he died at just 29. His style has been called “white man’s blues” which sounds to me like a mix of country/western, blues and honky tonk. Hank Sr. appears on nearly every major “Best of All Time” list out there and is a member of the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. This is, of course, one of his best known songs. 

Wouldn’t you love to know what he’d think of Hank III? 

Bill Callahan - I’m New Here

markrichardson:

Been listening to the LP version of this a lot this week on the subway in my new town. “No matter how far wrong you’ve gone/ You can always turn around” is a line that could save a life. I hope it’s true. Guess more people probably know Gil Scott-Heron’s version at this point—they are equally great in my mind.

Shearwater - Breaking The Yearlings

Since posting Animal Life, a new tune from Shearwater’s forthcoming, I’ve gotten more and more excited for this album. Here’s another new track. Not quite as anthemic as Animal Life, but I dig it. 

Trampled By Turtles - Where Is My Mind (Pixies cover)

I wonder how many times I’ve posted Where Is My Mind… Maybe I’ll make a bedroom cover video next. In the meantime, this one combines 3 of my favorite things: cover songs, Pixies and bluegrass. 

If you too like Americana and aren’t hip to Trampled By Turtles, give this Minnesota band a listen. They have a few tracks for free download at http://trampledbyturtles.com/ and they’re on Spotify.  

Happy Friday!

Shearwater - Animal Life

Newly signed to Sub Pop,  Shearwater is back with their 8th LP, Animal Joy. Call it indie, progressive, Baroque… however you label it, these melodies are big and lush with a touch of 80s sheen — hear it there on the last verse? Jonathan Meiburg’s vocals are characteristically restrained and exquisitely well crafted. This lead track bodes well for the rest of the album. Due February 14. 

Leonard Cohen - Darkness 

This is the second new track from the forthcoming album that Leonard Cohen has released. Like organ? You’re in luck. Listen also to Show Me The Place. 

Ben Sollee - Bend

Ben Sollee’s amazing album, Learning to Bend, is streaming on Soundcloud. 

shared from exfm

Zammuto - Crabbing - F U C-3PO

Nick Zammuto of The Books has a brand new EP from his brand new project on presale. I’m not 100% sure Zammuto is going to scratch my itch for new material from The Books, but it’s good. Stream all three tracks on Soundcloud. 

Townes Van Zandt - To Live Is To Fly

I almost always listen to country or bluegrass on Sunday mornings, so I’m going to start a new weekly post: Country Music Sunday.

Townes is a Texas Country standard. He enjoyed no commercial success during his lifetime but has been cited as an influence by a long list of noteworthy artists including Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Bright Eyes, KOL and more. Steve Earle, who was a close friend and student of Van Zandt, released a tribute album of covers a few years ago. “To Live Is To Fly” is a classic.

Lana Del Rey - National Anthem

I’m not sure if this is great or dreadful. It’s no Video Games, but I can’t resist a refrain like “Tell me I’m your national anthem.” LDR continues to be a catchy caricature of herself. 

Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples - The Weight (The Band cover)

Beautiful. Happy Friday! 

lauraemily:millionsmillions:

This is a good thing for your ears. Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples rehearse “The Weight” backstage at Chicago’s Civic Opera House.

Paul Graham on the death of Hollywood and SOPA

I take a less contentious tone on disrupting the entertainment industry, but Paul makes a good point. 

dankantor:

Yesterday Facebook got into the “Listen With” game by announcing a new feature that allows people to click a button and listen to what their friends are listening to along with them. I haven’t tried it yet but it does look pretty nice.

Of course, as soon as they announced it, everyone cried “they are stealing from Turntable.fm”. Techcrunch even ran a followup post where Billy Chasen the founder of Turntable.fm said he was flattered Facebook was copying them.

Here’s the thing: Facebook is not copying Turntable. Not only are the features pretty different, but the idea of listening with friends is as old as, I don’t know, say, music.

As listening moved online, one of the promises of that was the idea that we could now network our stereos and listen to music with other people regardless of physical location. I’ll argue that no one has nailed it yet but clearly we are getting close. I believe the way to do it right is to study how, why and when people listen to music and then shape these tools to support that behavior. We (exfm) have some interesting ideas around how to do this, but are not ready to roll anything substantial out yet. Judging from the comments on those TC posts, it looks like there are a bunch of sites out there trying as well.

So to sum up, no Facebook is not copying Turntable.fm. Listening with friends online is a pretty old idea (see my 2004 grad school project Awaire). A bunch of sites are also doing this (see Tomahawk). And in my opinion nobody has gotten it right yet. Oh and if you really want to Listen With in exfm, ok fine, you can do that right here.

Meme mixing on vcmemes. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Just finished reading. Wow.

Business school 101.

teachingliteracy:world-shaker: thedailywhat: Endless Origami

Sam and I rode motorcycles from SF down Highway 1 through Big Sur to Paso Robles this weekend. Rebecca and Sam’s wife drove the gear truck down to meet us for the weekend. It was an unreal experience. It had been a while since I rode a big bike and we did some really technical riding along Skyline Blvd, so I spent a lot of the first day being freaked out. But once we settled in, it was the ride of a lifetime.  More photos here. 

Sam’s brother is a hot shot winemaker, so we got the family treatment and spit-on-the-floor barrel-tasting experience in Paso. It’s a nice way to travel if you have the in. 

Next up: San Diego to Cabo. Life is good, folks. 

Part of tonight’s costume.

This was at MoMA PS1 last year and it was amazing. 

architizer:

An art installation simulating the inside of a swimming pool in Kanazawa Japan

Should we buy this house?

It is as awesome as it looks.

fuckyeahhiking:redmorninglight:

untitled by jumundim on Flickr.

Hey there!  Pardon the absence while I do something I’ve been threatening for years: I’m in the process of spinning the music part of my blog off into it’s own thing.  The music blog will be Chewable Vitamins at http://chewable-vitamins.com.  My personal thoughts and witty observations will continue to be at blog.jenrobinson.fm  but as you may have noticed, the past content has gone with the new name.  

If you know and like me, please follow both.  If you were only here for the music, keep doing what you’re doing. Things shouldn’t change too much.