Elvis Perkins in Dearland sings sacred songs

Elvis Perkins in Dearland melds old folk flourishes with a very relevant modern soul. Perkins' gutting debut album last year was Ash Wednesday (XL Recordings), a chronicle of themes of love and loss in the most visceral and honest way. Many songs on the album deal with grief and stuggle, as his mom died on one of the 9/11 planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, and parts of this album were written after that occured. "While You Were Sleeping" seems to draw direct parallels to those events, that morning -- watch his solo street performance of it on La Blogotheque then stay on that page for the spirited "All The Night Without Love" in a gorgeous French mall.

Weeping Pilgrim - Elvis Perkins in Dearland

From MySpace: We are excited to announce that our recording of "Weeping Pilgrim" by JP Reese will be featured on Teach Me To Sing, a compilation of contemporary artists performing songs from the shape note hymn book, The Sacred Harp, due out in September through Awake My Soul Productions.

"Weeping Pilgrim" became somewhat of a live standard for us over the last year or so. And after meeting Matt Hinton, director of "Awake my Soul", the wonderful documentary on The Sacred Harp and curator of this project, at the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention we entered the clubhouse to put our rendition of the song down on tape. We hope you enjoy it...

This song is a traditional dirge of longing, of moving towards something down a dusty road of oppression. For a tune that totally could have been sung by Moses, it sounds pretty dang good.

all this life is ash wednesday

Even though I've never given up anything for Lent in my life, I obviously couldn't let this day pass without posting the great Elvis Perkins song (from the 2007 album of the same name) that pays tribute to it in rather stark form. Dude's seen a lot in his life, and you can hear it in the songs. Last year someone commented that they were trying to give up my blog for Lent, but the Monday Music Roundup cracked them and they buckled, they clicked. It's hard, I know. What are you giving up for Lent, if anything? Let me know so I can enjoy it on your behalf and write about it.

Ash Wednesday - Elvis Perkins

Also, speaking of not denying yourself the good fruits of this world, how about Pearl Jam headlining Bonnaroo with My Morning Jacket, Plant & Krauss, The Raconteurs and more? Tennessee beckons.

Monday Music Roundup

1) Go see Lars And The Real Girl

2) Christmas trees are freakin expensive. We bought the retarded one on the lot with a broken-off top. They wired a fake top on the tree so we'd have somewhere to put the angel from grade school. It looks majestic and the house smells heavenly, but even being the lame one, it still cost 50 smackers. Ouch.

3) This blogger wrote a really funny commentary on a 1977 JC Penney catalog, and you've probably had it forwarded to you at least six times, as I have. He's being ripped off all over the internet -- heck the community paper I read when I was in California even reprinted it with no attribution. Go read Johnny Virgil's original and laugh.

The picture to the right is captioned, "nothing showcases your everlasting love more than the commitment of matching bathing suits. That, and an appreciative blonde with a look on her face that says 'I love the way your junk fights against that fabric.'" With fashion like that, it's a miracle that anyone from our generation was ever even conceived.

Tunes for the week:

Even The Stars (live)
I Am Kloot
Who are Kloot, and why? I read about these guys over on Torr's site, and the band name was unfamiliar but I agree with him that this new live tune is brilliant. Hailing from Manchester, I Am Kloot has an expansive melodic Britpop feel --circa 1995 in the best way-- and remind me of folks like Ash or James. This feels swirling and important, earnest and memorable. Their 4th album is expected in early 2008 and will be called I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge. Looks like you can preview most of the tracks from it on their website.


Sweet Sophia
Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
When I finally popped in the CD from Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers that had been staring at me for months, this opening track made me stop what I was doing and take notice to those sparkling piano cadences and burnished alt-country vocals. My curiosity had initially been piqued when I saw that the album Glassjaw Boxer was produced by Mike Daly (Whiskeytown) and mixed by Dave Bryson (Counting Crows), plus Ryan Adams' Whiskeytown companion Caitlin Cary lends harmonies.


All The Night Without Love (Dearland Sessions)
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
I've heard rumblings about Elvis Perkins and his band Dearland because of friends who caught their act on tour opening for My Morning Jacket and Okkervil River, but had not listened much to him until this re-worked tune surfaced in my iTunes this week. The original appears on his 2007 album Ash Wednesday; this cut was recorded in LA with producer Chris Shaw (Bob Dylan, Weezer) and it adds a compelling, almost old-time Western feel to the original song. The comparisons in my mind run both to The Decemberists and even daring desert escapades, Apostle of Hustle style.

Aly, Walk With Me
The Raveonettes
From their newly released album Lust Lust Lust (Vice Records), Danish duo The Raveonettes have crafted a collection of songs that feel like a blend of Garbage, Sonic Youth, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Buddy Holly all at once. This should be in a David Lynch flick, absolutely. It's all sexy and melodic with dark undertones. Also check out the new video that just came out for "Dead Sound" off the same album. Watch it here.


All My Life (version 2)
Jeff Tweedy
Here's a little forgotten piece of television history ripped from cassette thanks to the Good/Bad/Unknown blog. Back in 1998, Jeff Tweedy was asked to pen a theme song for the Christina Applegate sitcom, then-titled All My Life. The show title was eventually changed to be called Jesse and these tunes were left on the cutting room floor. But Tweedy wrote two versions, short and sweet, and you can get the other one on that blog. Wow, better than the Full House theme song, even.


. . . And, heh, dig my cameo appearance in this short music video recap of my 10-year high school reunion. Yeah, superb.