Mogwai - Hawk And Dove

What to say about The Hawk Is Howling, the new Mogwai album? The first listening left me… cold. As days passed I felt a little bit more comfortable with it and now the record doesn’t leave my CD player! Looks like Mogwai return to their roots, the songwriting is more in a traditional Mogwai style, the one from the firsts CDs (Come On Die Young, for example). It’s less sophisticated than Rock Action, that I like very much, it’s not Zidane, but still very powerful. It’s a question of taste; you may like the "old" Mogwai or the more refined one or both, like me, or not at all.
Anyway, in The hawk Is Howling, there is enough good songs for them to put the fire on stage once again. Remember, Mogwai is a stage band above all, the sound is always awesome and it’s one of the loudest bands that I ever saw. There is a European Tour scheduled for October/November with a stop in Paris - yeah! Go but don’t forget your earplugs…
More on Leaky Sparrow: Live 2006 - Zidane the Movie - Zidane Soundtrack

Web: mogwai.co.uk
MySpace: myspace.com/mogwai
Label: matadorrecords.com

Mogwai - The Sun Smells Too Loud .mp3

Mogwai - Hunted By a Freak .mp3
Mogwai - Folk Death 95 .mp3 via Toolshed
Mogwai - Cody .mp3 via Vague Space

Lizz Durrett - Outside Our Gates

Lizz Durrett was one of my first posts in April 2006 and Mezzanine one of the best songs from that year. I’m quite happy to find Miss Durrett back with a new CD two years later.

Outside Our Gates is Vic Chesnutt niece latest album (September 9). Recorded this spring in Athens, GA, with the help of Eric Bachman, this record will stand along with Emily Jane White as – excuse my French! - one of my “coup de Coeur” from 2008.

Web: lizdurrett.com and MySpace: myspace.com/lizdurrett
Label: Warm Electronic Recordings

Liz Durrett - Wild As Them .mp3
Liz Durrett - The Mezzanine .mp3
Liz Durrett - Somewhere .mp3 from West Side Story, duet with Vic Chesnutt
Liz Durrett - November .mp3 Tom Waits cover
Liz Durrett - Far From Home .mp3

Avrocar - Against The Dying Of The Light

Beneath pseudonyms - Avrocar or July Skies - and album titles which doesn’t greatly inspire, Antony Harding has produced music to dream to, music to be elevated by. I already praised here the delicate, weightless world of his folk-oriented solo project called July Skies. Let me add to those of you who are fans of outer-space electronic melodies and ambient works that Antony Harding with the Birmingham based electronica group Avrocar delivered in April a new album filled with simplicity and serene beauty. It is called Against The Dying Of The Light. Some say that Avrocar had an influence on the evolution of Radiohead's sound…
You can hear exclusive previews of Against The Dying Of The Light at the Avrocar Zweimal MySpace page.

MySpace: Avrocar. Label and shop site: Make Mine Music

Avrocar - Our World Is Their Heaven .mp3
Avrocar - Against The Dying Of The Light .mp3

Bonus: Yellow6 - Long Saturday 2 .mp3

Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

This name is actually the band of songwriter Justin Vernon (Bon Iver a misspelling of the French words ‘bon hiver’ meaning “good winter”). Released in 2008 by Jagjaguwar / 4AD and recommended by a good friend, I must admit to being a bit, shall we say, hesitant to liking it at the beginning. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything quite like this (The Sea & Cake is perhaps in the neighborhood?) and I must admit that I’m always a bit reluctant to like any falsetto singer (although Neil Young has made a pretty good career with just such). This guys voice is up there in the rafters. I didn’t give up though and I’d recommend the same for you if this record is a bit off-putting at first. Repeated listening will reward you with a compellingly rich and sophisticated journey into the mind and heart of M. Vernon.

Layered voices and textures yet there is no plastic in the recordings. Funky warts, “mistakes” and always homespun, this acoustically oriented CD is painted in some of the Northwood colors where it was recorded. Silence (in other words, what is NOT played) I think figures prominently in the songs. The fact that it “…was recorded in the hunting cabin, northwestern Wisconsin November, December, January 2006, 2007” (copied from the CD liner notes) is remarkable. I love how “imperfect” this CD is and it’s absolutely the antithesis of all commercial radio fare (and for that matter in the majority of most singer/songwriter ‘every note matters’ blah-blah CD’s) the world over. This record really ‘works’ from beginning to end. And if you like your music challenging and would like to hear something ‘fresh’ then I say take a chance and buy this CD (recorded by Justin Vernon and mastered by Nick Peterson).
Actually I’m still not sure if I like the guys voice but I love For Emma, Forever Ago. Go figure…

Bookerfatz 2

MySpace: myspace.com/boniver - Web: boniver.org

Bon Iver - Skinny Love .mp3

Bonus: Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe .mp3
The Sea And Cake - Everyday .mp3

The Sea And Cake - Sound Vision .mp3

Shearwater Live @ Paris

“It’s the first time that we have two encores!” said to me Kimberly Burke (bass) few minutes after she left the stage with her comrades from Shearwater. She was so excited. As well as Howard Draper (drums) who was wondering why a small town called Paris very far from Austin Texas could enjoy music like the one that Shearwater delivered last Friday at La Maroquinerie. During one hour and two encores, the audience and the band decided that it will stay amongst the finest evenings of 2008. Sure it will. Shearwater confirmed on stage all the best that I thought about Rook few months ago (read here).

Web: shearwatermusic.com
MySpace: myspace.com/shearwater
Label: matadorrecords.com

Shearwater - Leviathan, Bound .mp3
Shearwater - Rooks .mp3
Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea .mp3 from Palo Santo

Bonus via Misra Records
Shearwater - St Mary’s Walk .mp3
Shearwater - Whipping Boy .mp3
Shearwater - I Can't Wait .mp3

Photo: Leaky Sparrow – Shearwater – La Maroquinerie, Paris – September 12, 2008. More pictures: flickr.com

Sun Kil Moon Live @ Paris

The Sun Kil Moon Tour webpage quietly advised us “No photos, video cameras or recording devices. Thank you.” Believe me, it's nothing but a very serious warning... I tried to take few pictures to share with you of Mark Kozelek on stage with his mates from Sun Kil Moon and was stopped immediately, without explanation. So much paranoia... Why? No problem, before the show, I took a quick picture of the band in a restaurant where I was having a snack with a friend. Here it is. Enjoy. Sorry Mark, you were not on stage... I guess you all noticed, only “Stillwater” and coffee on the table. Just like the show, the band, very sober!
I was very excited to see Mark Kozelek for the first time. It was maybe his first stop in Paris, as far as I remember. Kozelek is for me one of the major artists alive. I like his music so much, every song is like a mantra, magnetic and it put me in state of comfort and meditation. Ok, you may say that he has found a formula and used it song after song, but it works very well for hundreds of people like me, like those who almost filled the Maroquinerie last Tuesday (great choice, once again). It works so well that Mark Kozelek is able to release year after year high quality records that so many will give anything to do and to sell them as much as he does.
Of course, the band proposed songs from Sun Kil Moon period (7 from April) and I was a little bit sad not to hear some great tunes from the Red House Painters. Ok, we had Mistress and a magical moment with The River live with a full band (one my favorite RHP songs). Two last comments, first, the guys on stage didn't look to have much fun and Mark Kozelek is a little bit cold with the audience. Second, the CD Tour proposed for only 10 euros, shows Mark Kozelek alone on stage, it's called 7 Songs Belfast (Limited Edition).

Web: sunkilmoon.com
MySpace: myspace.com/sunkilmoon
Label: caldoverderecords.com

Red House Painters - Have You Forgotten .mp3
Red House Painters - Grace Cathedral Park .mp3
Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio .mp3
Mark Kozelek - Lazy .mp3
Mark Kozelek - All Mixed Up .mp3 via Pimps of Gore

Photo by Leaky Sparrow: Sun Kil Moon with Mark Kozelek (left) – La Maroquinerie, Paris – September 9, 2008

Summer Fishing - Part Two

Summer Fishing – Part One: here...

“Soaring above rural and urban genres comes an immediate, timeless sound shaped by American folk, indie, post-punk/no-wave, and modern rock. The Orphan Factory, a solo project from Northern Idaho, recalls the music of Elliott Smith, Okkervil River, Lou Reed, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Sparklehorse”. E.P. now available as a free Myspace download:
MySpace: myspace.com/theorphanfactory
The Orphan Factory - Chinese Water Torture .mp3 via Insomnia Radio

A new artist on Island Records named Laura Warshauer (were-shower). Her self titled album is releasing on Sept 23rd. "Laura Warshauer is a storyteller first and foremost. Through her music, she examines loss, love and life".
MySpace: myspace.com/laurawarshauer
Laura Warshauer - I Will Be Near You .mp3

“Sometimes light and spacious, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight, Women hint at the Velvet Underground, Swell Maps or This Heat; a lo-fi masterpiece cloaked in layers of vibrato and guitar wash.” Jagjaguwar has just announced the signing of Women, and will release the band's self-titled debut full length on October 7th, 2008.
MySpace: myspace.com/womenmusic
Women - Black Rice .mp3
Women - Group Transport Hall .mp3

Summer Fishing - Part One

I have the advantage, I must admit, to receive new music quit often those days through my email address. What I usually do is download the song(s) and burn a CD compilation. I must say that I am quite happy with the diversity and the high quality that is proposed to me. Thanks to you people and all the best... Here are some songs I’d like to share with you (to be continued).

Jon and Roy is an independent acoustic roots band from Victoria BC, Canada. Having reached their mid-twenties Jon Middleton, vocals/guitar/harmonica and Roy Vizer, drums/percussion, released their long-awaited, second collaboration, titled Another Noon, March 1st (Amazon, iTunes or directly here). A blend of folk, hip-hop and reggae with an island tinge.
MySpace: myspace.com/jonandroy
Jon and Roy - Another Noon .mp3
Jon and Roy - DT Stylee .mp3
Jon and Roy - Flight Down .mp3

Ed Laurie is a singer/songwriter from the UK whose baritone vocals and nylon-string guitar seem born from a Hemmingway story set in a smoky bar in Tunisia. Meanwhile In The Park, out September 23rd (Dangerbird Records ), is a work in the classical mode of the folk canon, but tinged with a flamenco of Spanish gypsies.
MySpace: myspace.com/edlaurie
Ed Laurie - Albert .mp3 via fingertipsmusic

Love Psychedelico is 100% pure pop-Rock’n’Roll, made in Japan. The band’s unique sound emerges from a fusion of rock with the infinite possibilities brought to music by the digital age.
MySpace: myspace.com/lovepsychedelicous

Standing Bird mp3 and Everybody Needs Somebody mp3 both songs from This Is Love Psychedelico (2008)

Ben Weaver - The Ax In The Oak

Difficult not to avoid to mention in a short article where a musician (Ben Weaver, for example) comes from (Minnesota and Oregon), where he recorded is last (6th) album (Chicago) after finding inspiration someplace in the world (Berlin) and to whom he sounds like (Eels, Bill Callahan…). So, you see, it’s simple and it's done.
More to the point, a little bit unusual and individual are the best ways to describe the Ben Weaver' sixth effort in 10 years, The Ax In The Oak (August, 2008). The sound of this record is beautiful and poetic. Concise literate tunes form the spinal column of the album, yet tinges of despair and total meanness surface just when you've been lulled into thinking this is another singer-songwriter. This warm, intimate production and the touching vocal delivery distinguish him from others.
To finish, if you listen for the first time to a record of Ben Weaver you won’t be surprised to learn that he was godfathered by people like Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey. Hats off, Mister Weaver!

Web: benweaver.net
MySpace: myspace.com/benweavermusic
Label: Bloodshot Records
Label (Europe): Glitterhouse Records

Ben Weaver - White Snow .mp3 from The Ax In The Oak
Ben Weaver - Alligators And Owls .mp3 from The Ax In The Oak