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"

What I am Listening To: Alan Lomax Archive

The Alan Lomax Archive has been made available online for listening. It has been cleaned up and sounds awesome. You can hear "Poor Lazarus" as heard in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" on the Mississippi Prison Recordings amongst other great chants to pass the slave work day. Vera Hall singing "Stagolee". Big Bill Broozy singing blues in Paris. Music from around the world. Or if you can't decide what to listen to, just listen to the playlist. But you must hear "Old Joe Clark" from the 1966 Newport Folk Festival
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Old Joe Clark

What I Am Listening To: Jack White - Blunderbuss

Jack White has stepped up with a solo album after playing many years with the White Stripes and then following with Raconteurs and Dead Weather. His record label: Third Man Records, has kept him very busy, but the songmaster still managed to crank out an album which has a strong odor of Nashville. silky smooth tunes, old school 50's style blues, soul searching with pedal steel. It's all very entertaining and rich with analog tones that are pleasing to the ear. You have done well on your first outing alone, please let me know if there is a secret gig after ACL this year. I will be there for sure.

What I am listening to: The Civil Wars - Barton Hallow

Joy Williams and John Paul White met at a songwriting camp in 2008. Since then, their performances have gained attention of the world. They have toured with Adele, and played at almost every big event in 2011 when this album came out. This album won Grammys for best Country duo and best folk album. I caught their very brief performance and was stunned at how great they played together. I finally picked up the album and these two have great songwriting chemistry. With the help of Producer Charlie Peacock, The Civil wars have created a stunning album with so much ear candy it's hard to take it all in at once. All the delicate nuances have been picked up as if the players are circled around the listener. Please enjoy.

What I am Listening To: The Life Aquatic

Wes Anderson fans know this quirky movie about Steve Zissou, an aquatic explorer who is reunited with his estranged son and together they search for the shark that killed Steve's his best friend. The soundtrack drew me in with numerous David Bowie songs done by Bowie and Seu Jorge. Seu Jorge is the Portugese speaking guitarist that appears at the end of many of the scenes playing Bowie. Somehow to me, Bowie in Portugese is awesome. What surprised me is the original music is composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. Mark has become an established composer after years being the front man for DEVO. His original songs are well written and fit the scenes perfectly.  Mark's website has some portfolio work and a really cool interface: Mark Mothersbaugh

Gear Review: ModTone Aqua Chorus II

I recently received the ModTone Aqua Chorus II hoping it would replace my Danelectro FAB pedal. The flier stated that it has vintage chorus sound and great leslie effect. I hooked it up to my Fender Blues JR II playing my Silvertone 63. I was hoping for a really wet and wacky sound, but all I got was a very soft, gentle chorus effect. No matter how far the I turned the knobs, it would reciprocate with a gentle chorus or rotating leslie. I believe this is because the pedal only offers two knobs: Rate and Depth. No mix or tone knobs limit its capabilities. That said, the sound is fine for a simple chorus: safe and normal. If that's all you want, I am not sure why you wouldn't just pickup the Boss Chorus which can probably be found used anywhere on the planet for cheap, and it has stereo and more controls; but if you must have "boutique" this one is a good one to go with. It keeps it simple. Sometimes that is nice.