Review: The Cherry Orchard at The Blue Theater
EAST Interview: Nick Henning at Pump Project
Radio IST List: Dan Green of 4ms Pedals
Snapshots: Friendly Fires & XX @ Mohawk
Longhorns Around the Web
Sarah Jarosz - Song Up In Her Head (Sugar Hill)
At 18, Wimberley native Sarah Jarosz is already a veteran of the modern bluegrass and Americana scenes. She’s been riding the festival circuit since the age of 12, and listening to her debut album Song Up In Her Head, you get the sense that Jarosz is well on her way to developing into a serious force as a songwriter and performer. A testament to this is that, while somewhat uncommon for such a young artist, the record is comprised of 11 strong original songs that sit comfortably beside impeccably performed covers of tunes by Tom Waits and Colin Meloy. Jarosz’s other apparent influences include Tim O’Brien, Nickel Creek, and Gillian Welch, who is referenced in the first lyric of the album-opening title track, and who casts a long shadow over the disc. But while Jarosz’s influences may be easy to identify, it’s impossible to deny that she has an immense and still burgeoning individual talent. It’s evident not only in her musicianship -she’s an ace on the mandolin, banjo, piano, guitar, and as a singer is incredibly well poised- but also in her arranging and songwriting. She tackles topical subjects without seeming trite, her love songs are sweet and honest but avoid the cringe-inducing missteps one might expect from a high school-age writer, and her melodies feel familiar but are still unique enough to be memorable. Taken as a whole, Song Up In Her Head lacks any traces of contrivance: she’s managed to make an album that’s a straightforward synthesis of herself and her influences, and she’s done so while navigating adolescence, and working under the burden of history that’s shouldered by any artist attempting to carve out a niche in the bluegrass or Americana genres. It’s a rare and praiseworthy accomplishment, and bodes very well for her future as an artist.
Sarah Jarosz [Official] [MySpace]
At 18, Wimberley native Sarah Jarosz is already a veteran of the modern bluegrass and Americana scenes. She’s been riding the festival circuit since the age of 12, and listening to her debut album Song Up In Her Head, you get the sense that Jarosz is well on her way to developing into a serious force as a songwriter and performer. A testament to this is that, while somewhat uncommon for such a young artist, the record is comprised of 11 strong original songs that sit comfortably beside impeccably performed covers of tunes by Tom Waits and Colin Meloy. Jarosz’s other apparent influences include Tim O’Brien, Nickel Creek, and Gillian Welch, who is referenced in the first lyric of the album-opening title track, and who casts a long shadow over the disc. But while Jarosz’s influences may be easy to identify, it’s impossible to deny that she has an immense and still burgeoning individual talent. It’s evident not only in her musicianship -she’s an ace on the mandolin, banjo, piano, guitar, and as a singer is incredibly well poised- but also in her arranging and songwriting. She tackles topical subjects without seeming trite, her love songs are sweet and honest but avoid the cringe-inducing missteps one might expect from a high school-age writer, and her melodies feel familiar but are still unique enough to be memorable. Taken as a whole, Song Up In Her Head lacks any traces of contrivance: she’s managed to make an album that’s a straightforward synthesis of herself and her influences, and she’s done so while navigating adolescence, and working under the burden of history that’s shouldered by any artist attempting to carve out a niche in the bluegrass or Americana genres. It’s a rare and praiseworthy accomplishment, and bodes very well for her future as an artist.
Sarah Jarosz [Official] [MySpace]
Coma in Algiers - Your Heart Your Body (self-released)
Local quintet Coma in Algiers’ second album, Your Heart Your Body, is the product of a fairly small and decidedly primordial musical gene pool. This turns out to be a good thing. The band appropriates the stranger elements of No Wave, Rough Trade post-punk and California hardcore, and assembles them (though that term is applied loosely here) to create a record that is occasionally restrained, but more often a glorious screaming mess. Occupying a space on the continuum somewhere between The Fall and Flipper, CIA’s songs maintain their structure almost against the will of the band members, who seem determined to tear them apart with their teeth. The cathartic moments are so intuitive and forceful it’s as though the group reared back en masse and projectile vomited their music all over the studio. Again, this happens to be a good thing. Reverberating percussion crashes through guitar lines that are somehow both incisive and shambolic, icy synth lines snake their way around vocals that are alternately grunted and shrieked, and fuzzed-out bass thuds rhythmically throughout. If CIA’s MySpace page is to be believed, the band will personally deliver a copy of Your Heart Your Body to the doorstep of anyone who orders it directly. This certainly seems like the ideal method of procuring the record, although readers who take them up on the offer may want to take the preventative measure of covering furniture, pets, and small children in plastic.
Coma In Algiers [MySpace]
Local quintet Coma in Algiers’ second album, Your Heart Your Body, is the product of a fairly small and decidedly primordial musical gene pool. This turns out to be a good thing. The band appropriates the stranger elements of No Wave, Rough Trade post-punk and California hardcore, and assembles them (though that term is applied loosely here) to create a record that is occasionally restrained, but more often a glorious screaming mess. Occupying a space on the continuum somewhere between The Fall and Flipper, CIA’s songs maintain their structure almost against the will of the band members, who seem determined to tear them apart with their teeth. The cathartic moments are so intuitive and forceful it’s as though the group reared back en masse and projectile vomited their music all over the studio. Again, this happens to be a good thing. Reverberating percussion crashes through guitar lines that are somehow both incisive and shambolic, icy synth lines snake their way around vocals that are alternately grunted and shrieked, and fuzzed-out bass thuds rhythmically throughout. If CIA’s MySpace page is to be believed, the band will personally deliver a copy of Your Heart Your Body to the doorstep of anyone who orders it directly. This certainly seems like the ideal method of procuring the record, although readers who take them up on the offer may want to take the preventative measure of covering furniture, pets, and small children in plastic.
Coma In Algiers [MySpace]
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