Cinematic, spacious, and poetic, the songs of Laughingstock pull you in with layered textures while celebrating the victories, defeats, and spirituality of everyday life. “Like Texas” is a quiet little epic metaphor for America’s largest contradiction.
“Like Texas“ (play/download mp3)
Buy the album as CD or MP3s at Amazon
Allo, kittins. Your Superfan has been away. Absent. AWOL. Remiss. But I have returned, to make a few more posts to finish up another year of this labor of love. This is one for all you lo-fi dissonance lovers. Enjoy with crandberry sauce. Phoning it in from the ranch, amongst the relations. It’s good to be home.
Benjamin Shaw
“How to Test the Depth of a Well” (download mp3)
from “There’s Always Hope, There’s Always Cabernet”
“How To Test The Depth Of A Well” (play)
(Audio Antihero)
More, dammit
I favor song titles that make you have to listen. “Moan All Night” for example. Either a sexy all night sex song, or a doom-ridden introspective flu nightmare. It’s somewhere in between, as it turns out. Tom Waits meets a renegade troupe of gypsies on the outskirts of reality, where they drink absinthe and slowly suck each others’ fingers. I’m pretty sure.
Noah And The MegaFauna
“Moan All Night” (download mp3)
from “Anthems For A Stateless Nation”
“Moan All Night” (play)
(Silence Breaks)
More!
Fred McDowell played the blues. He once famously stated, “I do not play no rock and roll.” And when the Rolling Stones covered his “You Got To Move,” they played it uncharacteristically straight up, hardly changing the feel of it. Before he was known as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Alan Lomax visited Fred McDowell and recorded him doing his thing. You want to talk about raw authenticity? This is a solo performance, caught in the location where it was conceived, in monophonic analog reel to reel tape with no effects. Recently mastered up and released to the Digiwebs by Global Jukebox. This is pure treasure.
Fred McDowell
“Fred McDowell’s Blues” (download mp3)
from “Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings”
“Fred McDowell’s Blues” (play)
(Global Jukebox)
More On This Album
You’re not in Kansas anymore. You’re not even in the midwest. These Gnomes done hath crawled off the lawn. They are gone, baby, gone. Carried off by a Sea Of Bees. Fly, be free.
Sea of Bees
“Gnomes” (download mp3)
from “Gnomes b/w Don’t Fear the Reaper”
“Gnomes” (play)
(Crossbill Records)
More!
