Tindersticks are an alternative band from Nottingham, England. Their sound is characterized by a synthesis of orchestral backing, lounge jazz, and soul; the lush orchestrations of multi-instrumentalist Dickon Hinchliffe and the smoky baritone of lead vocalist Stuart A. Staples are the band’s hallmarks. Tindersticks have employed electric guitars, as most rock bands have done, but augment their instrumentation with a wide array of instruments: Rhodes piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, violin, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bassoon, Hammond organ, and many more are prominently utilized in the music of Tindersticks. The band has a cult following in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, although the eclectic and unique sound Tindersticks possesses never made significant inroads in the mainstream. The band formed in late 1991, Staples, Boulter, Frazer, Macauley and Hinchcliffe having previously been members of Asphalt Ribbons. The final band line-up for the “old horse” mini-LP (1991) was: Stuart Staples (vocals) Dave Boulter (organ & accordion) Neil Fraser (guitar) Dickon Hinchliffe (Guitar & strings) Al Macauley (percussion & drums) John Thompson (bass). http://www.tindersticks.co.uk/ http://www.facebook.com/tindersticksofficial http://www.twitter.com/tindersticksUK http://www.myspace.com/tindersticksofficial
Richmond Fontaine is a four-piece alt country band based in Portland, OR. The band was formed in 1994 by guitarist / lead vocalist Willy Vlautin and bass player Dave Harding at the Portland Meadows horse race track. Known for Vlautin’s incredibly rich and evocative lyrics, several of Richmond Fontaine’s songs relate to horse racing specifically and gambling generally. This is largely an artifact of Vlautin’s upbringing in Reno, Nevada, a place that is heavily referenced in his lyrics, along with Portland, the U.S. Western states in general and occasionally Mexico. Vlautin is also an acclaimed novelist, having written two respected books, The Motel Life and Northline. As a fiction writer, he is often compared to Raymond Carver and Charles Bukowski while his lyrical style is inspired by the narrative style of Australian artist Paul Kelly. Musically, Richmond Fontaine have cited influences such as Gram Parsons,X (U.S. band), Green on Red and Dave Alvin and they are often regarded as part of the rock alt.country movement that includes bands such as Drive-By Truckers, Slobberbone, Grand Champeen, The Damnations and others. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Richmond-Fontaine
They call New Orleans a melting pot. When one thinks about it like that, it’s hardly surprising that this is where CALEXICO reconvened to record their seventh full-length album, ALGIERS. Joey Burns and John Convertino have long called upon an extended range of musical influences, blending them together so distinctly that the results have almost become a genre of their own. Nonetheless, the choice of New Orleans may still come as a surprise to many. CALEXICO are, after all, associated with a style that their name – borrowed from a small town of less than 40,000 inhabitants on the border between the US and Mexico – has always defined with an unusual precision. Their work has spoken of dusty deserts and the loners that inhabit them, mixing America’s country music heritage with that of a Latin persuasion. In other words, it isn’t obviously affiliated with the sounds that have made New Orleans one of the premiere tourist destinations in the US. What’s emerged as a result of this decision, however, is arguably the most exciting and accessible record CALEXICO have made. It’s a fact emphasised by the band’s decision to name the album in tribute to the neighbourhood where they worked: Algiers. The feel of ALGIERS is recognisably classic CALEXICO, but their style been revitalised and reborn by the experience of recording in the city. Its influence isn't necessarily sonically evident, but there’s a strange, powerful connection to the sounds that have always coloured their own, influences Burns has previously identified as including “Portugese fado, 50’s jazz, gypsy or romani music and its offshoots, 60’s surf and twang from Link Wray to country’s Duane Eddy, the spaghetti western epics of Ennio Morricone and dark indie rock singer songwriters.” So, some 22 years since they first met, Joey Burns and John Convertino – joined as ever by a cast of musicians from across the globe – add yet another successful musical adventure to their list. You might think that, after six studio albums and a suitcase of tour CDs, collaborations with the likes of Victoria Williams, Iron & Wine, Willie Nelson, Roger McGuinn and Nancy Sinatra, and soundtrack work to boot, there wasn’t much more they could achieve. But you’d be wrong. New Orleans clearly inspired them to make an album that sees them stretch out more effortlessly than ever but, while you can take the men out of CALEXICO, but you can’t take CALEXICO out of the men… http://www.anti.com/store http://www.casadecalexico.com/ http://twitter.com/casadecalexico http://www.facebook.com/calexico
The Walkabouts were founded in 1983 by Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson. Other members have been Michael Wells, Glenn Slater and Terri Moeller. Although the Walkabouts started in seattle, US their main base of popularity is Europe. Their blend of folk idioms and noisy experimental rock has won them lots of devoted fans; however, even with twelve studio albums and another 15 EPs, live albums and compilations released, they still remain below the radar of the public at large. The band draws inspiration from folk and country music, particularly Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young andJohnny Cash, but also from other types of artists and musical styles such as Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, french chanson and Jacques Brel. Their sound is typically rich, with string arrangements and keyboards in addition to the standard rock instruments. In reviews the band’s music is often described as melancholic or mellow, while Eckman’s lyrics, concerning such themes as human relations, loneliness and restlessness, are often emphasized as poetic. The Walkabouts have achieved commercial success and a strong fanbase in Europe, where they have done promotion and extensive touring since early 1990s. They have occasionally even made it high on the record charts in countries such as Greece and Norway. Carla Torgerson and Chris Eckman met in 1983 when they were both working at an Alaskan fish cannery as a summer break from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. In 1984 they moved to Seattle, and the band was born when they joined forces with Chris’ two younger brothers, drummer Grant and bassist Curt. http://www.thewalkabouts.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Walkabouts
Sometimes, listening to Exitmusic, it’s hard to tell whether the goosebumps you’re getting are from the parts that are chillingly beautiful and melodic or the ones that are aching and guttural or the ones that are creepily sparse and disembodied. The New York City duo – Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church -- doesn’t care when the chill runs down your spine, they just hope their music provokes some kind of primal feeling. Church explains, “It’s like what Aleksa sings at the end of ‘The Sea’: ‘And you turn your back to life… Oh, sorrow.’ We want our music to confront people in a gentle but powerful way, to make them feel something.” “To feel human again,” adds Palladino. “To remind people, and even us, to let yourself be vulnerable.” She says that when she’s writing a song, she knows it’s going well when she feels breathless, overwhelmed by what is stirring inside of her. “The songs themselves are slightly abstract, but where they’re coming from emotionally is always very clear to me.” Church and Palladino started writing together several years ago, when Church moved to New York following a year teaching English in Taiwan and India. “We had a funny dynamic musically, at first,” says Church, who grew up in Winnipeg. “I was listening to things that had elements sonically of what we’re doing now -- Radiohead’s Kid A, that second Sigur Ros album, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Warp Records electronic stuff. But all I had to work with at the time was an acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, Aleksa was recording all these really interesting, odd arrangements on her four-track that would be about a minute long and only have one movement in them, and it sounded more like what I was into than what I was doing.” Palladino, a New York native, had been writing and recording her own songs since she was in her early teens. She grew up in an artistic family; her grandparents are both painters and her mother is an acclaimed opera singer. Aleksa got her first guitar at age twelve and played it constantly. “When I got the four-track, I got really into layering sounds and playing with what, to me, were shapes. They were music, but they were shapes and angles. I was just committed to sketching, almost. I still wonder if I hadn’t started recording with Devon, if I ever would have finished a song.” The pair spent pretty much all of their time writing together, but things really began to take shape when they moved to Los Angeles a year later.. “We got a computer and recording software and really started to experiment with it and explore things together,” says Palladino. “That’s when it became a real project.” They self-released their first collection of songs, The Decline of the West, in 2008. Their sound at the time was described by critics as a union of post-punk and trip hop, with apocalyptic overtones. ‘Dark, brooding and beautiful,’ wrote the UK’s Supersweet Magazine. ‘Radiohead meets Portishead in a living nightmare. Genius then.’’ The couple married that year, exchanging vows at a scenic overlook on Mulholland Drive. They had moved to Los Angeles so that Palladino, who has been acting professionally since fourteen, could be available for work there. But when she was cast in Martin Scorcese’s HBO series Boardwalk Empire as bohemian artist Angela Darmody, Exitmusic were thrilled to be able to move back east. Since returning to New York in 2009, the band -- which currently performs as a four piece, with drummer Dru Prentiss and electronic musician Nicholas Shelestak -- has both honed and expanded their sound, as well as their recording technique. Striking a unique balance between darkness and light, their music builds on a foundation of rhythmic electronics and synthesizers, to arrive at a sound almost operatic in scope. The tracks on the band’s new EP, From Silence, explore themes of loss, both personal and universal, “the destruction of nature and the destruction of our own nature.” Recorded at home in Brooklyn over the course of the past several months, the EP marks Exitmusic’s Secretly Canadian debut.
