What I Am Listening To: Silver Ships - Songs From a Room That Never Moves

Silver Ships is a brain child of Chazz Bessette. Chazz is a child of analog and has an amazing ear for tone and quality. He applied all his knowledge in the production of this new album: Songs From a Room That Never Moves, He diligently worked with vintage gear to acquire a sound that is phenomenal. He embraced an era of music that was strong with arrangement and musical layering, and applied modern interpretation to come up with unique style that will warm your musical heart. This is a carefully crafted collection of songs that are reminiscent, but highly original with great guitar riffs played with beautiful tone. Catch this band while you can, Soon they will be too big too see up close and intimate. Here is their Official Video

Silver Ships Blog

Silver Ships Bandcamp

What I am Listening To: The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger - Midnight Sun

Remember the days when bands were not afraid to sound unique. When you could buy an album and it would sound nothing like the last album you bought. Okay so this album harkens to many 60s sounds and begs to resurrect papa Lennon; but Sean Ono and Charlotte Kemp provide enough originality to make you feel like you found something new and refreshing. There is tons of ear candy and catchy hooks in this to make you want to listen with headphones over and over. I look forward to seeing them return to Austin.

here is a song from their performance at SXSW 2014

What I am Listening To: The Bluebird Specials - Songs From the Country Estate

The Bluebird Specials like to keep things musically pure and recording this in Wild Bill's living room with an old school Peavey PA has managed to keep the essence of their live sound in this recording. The magic of this trio is that they spend much of their time together which has allowed them to dial in some incredible harmonies. With a bass, acoustic guitar, and mandolin, these ladies seem to keep the air full of music. The variety of songs take you through a roller coaster of life experiences. Out of the gate, Lost Boy is a dramatic start to what can be called a tipsy whimsical journey peering into a window of their lives. The Bluebird Specials are some of the hardest working musicians I have meet in the Austin music scene. This is an excellent start for anyone who wants to get to know them... musically that is.

Gear Review: Third Man Records Bumble Buzz Pedal

Jack White's record label, Third Man Records, is branching out in all directions. Adding to his product line is the Bumble Buzz effects pedal. I wouldn't call it a guitar pedal because his demo video has a bass guitar and a fiddle running through it. This pedal is heavy in fuzz and clip. There are no knobs to adjust so it is truly a one trick pony. The name is true to its tone as it has a buzz type fuzz with a slight warmth. it is then heavily gated to cut the hum and feedback that is not necessarily desired. the gating almost gives a stutter effect which adds to the "Jack White"-ness. There is also a harmonic effect that limits the output to two maybe three strings of the guitar. I have found running an overdrive or EQ pedal after this adds new tone features to the sound output that can help control frequencies and eliminate some unwanted overtones.  I don't mind listening to this pedal straight into an amp as it has an amazing amount of character, and sits nicely in a mix of bass and drums.

(The standard model is black. To get the yellow version of the pedal you have to become a Vault Member)

What I am Listening To: Seth Kauffman - Research

I tend to download every bit of music available for free when I see it. As with most audiophiles, I got much of it thanks to the MP3 revolution and the massive file sharing movement. These days, there is so much free music that I don't put the effort into "sharing" music anymore. Google Play is the store you get all Google purchases through, including music. I noticed that every week Google had free music to download. In my random downloading of every bit of free music, I grabbed this album. Then it got buried in my digital collection. I miss the days of an album I got sitting around staring at me, calling me to play it. Today I have to stumble upon it when my music collection is playing on random. As I was searching through my music I rediscovered this album by Seth Kauffman from 2008, called Research. At first listen, this sounds like a garage band recording done on the fly. But on close listen, you hear cool arrangements of unexpected tones filtered through super lo-fi processing. This adds a pleasant nostalgic grit to the piece that puts you in the musicians head and takes you on a ride through uncharted mucky funk, bitey bossanova, and rusty reggae. I really enjoy this album and the vibe it creates. In a time when everything is being produced to perfection, producing to imperfection is becoming hip and I like it.

What I am Listening To: Squirrel Nut Zippers - Christmas Caravan

It's that time of year: holiday music. If you are looking for something other than what you have heard for decades, this is a nice change. It takes the the swing sounds of Squirrel Nut Zippers and add some holiday cheer and sentimental mood. I wear this one out during the holidays and even sneak a listen in the summer. How can you go wrong with Christmas music that makes you want to get up and dance.

What I am Listening To: Gerald Friend - Radio Friendly

Not to be confused with the serial rapist and kidnapper. Gerald Friend is a Austin Native who has played in several bands over the decades of all flavors of music.  Gerald Friend continues to write great songs influenced by his wide range of tastes. This collection of songs was produced and engineered by Brian Beattie of Glass Eye. Gerald takes us on an emotional ride through all sorts of feelings starting with "Happy Crappy" and ending with the "Second Saddest Song Ever" (I wonder what the first is). Gerald also rips through some Blues chops in "Who am I" and "White Boy Blues". His cover of "Walking on the Moon" is like no other as it is played on bed springs stretched over a chair. What is truly Austin is his song "What Would Jesus Do?" that was inspired by a brief conversation with Leslie Cochran one day on Congress and should be an Austin anthem. This album is tricky to find but if you ask me, I can hook you up. "Que Sera Sera"