Tag: Bob Kennedy

Old Fellas new Music – Episode 4 notes

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New Music1 Comment
The Beaches

Playlist for this week:

Bob:

Janey Brown – Closer

Ellis Meek – Night Moon

Loon Choir – Lust & Divisions

Liam Deery – Unknown

Bravestation – Ray of Love

Paul:

The Beaches Lame

The Glorious Sons – Panic Attack

Art Bergmann – Your Second Amendment

Jesse Roper – Horizons

Shakey Graves – Unlucky Skin

Here is the link to the show on Spreaker

And here is the link to our ever-growing Spotify playlist

Lots of great music again this week. The most unique aspect for this show has to be the Brockville element. All of Bob’s songs have a connection to Brockville and Thousand Islands Secondary School.


You really need to listen to Bob’s stories here – each artist has a unique and interesting journey. I say it several times in the episode, but it is pretty incredible that all this talent is coming from a relatively small place in Ontario.

This is one of the mandates of the show, to feature and promote artists that don’t necessarily get much airplay on regular radio stations. Each of the Brockville artists could do really well on the CBC for sure! This also shows the connections a teacher can make to their students over their career. Pretty cool.

I started with the Beaches. I think their music is great, but in my comments I seem to have focused on their interesting connection to Elton John.

It was not to be a moment of fleeting infatuation on John’s part. Since then, the Rocket Man has proven a more than loyal supporter of the youthful east-end outfit. “T-Shirt” would also go on later in June to top his weekly Spotify playlist, Elton John: Loves — motto: “Loved by Elton, discovered for you” — where it remains in the mix to this day alongside tunes by the likes of Courtney Barnett, Little Dragon, Charlie Puth, Young Thug and, more recently, a new cut from Toronto folk-pop ensemble Great Lake Swimmers, “The Talking Wind.”

And when he came to Toronto to play a pair of dates on his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour at the Scotiabank Arena this past September, who turned up in his Instagram feed the next morning? Damn right it was the Beaches.”

Toronto Star November 2018

We also played Art Bergmann – Your Second Amendment, which at first I thought was a new artist for me, even though he has been awarded the Order of Canada for his musical accomplishments.

Then Bob reminded me of Hawaii

Art Bergmann and The Young Canadians

It’s humbling. And I want to know who did this to me,

Art Bergmann upon receiving the Order of Canada – for his “indelible contributions to the Canadian punk music scene, and for his thought-provoking discourse on social, gender and racial inequalities.

His latest album, Late Stage Empire Dementia, will be released May 21, 2021

His latest video for Your Second Amendment is really worth watching. It certainly explores America’s obsession with guns

Lyrics from Your Second Amendment

           I don’t know why you’re hitched to that post

           You know that office ain’t goin’ nowhere

           You know those guns weren’t heaven sent

           Beware of the men who are waiting there

           I don’t know how love can be saved

           But I know how we fail

           Say goodbye to your second

           God damn your second

           Goodbye to your second 

           Amendment

           Say goodbye…

I chose Jesse Roper from Victoria for his great voice. However, here is another video you should watch. I am not sure where the connection is to the song, but this is pretty fun.

He also performed ‘Horizons’ from Ciels Rooftop in James Bay, Victoria, BC. This looked like lots of fun to make.

My last song was is by Shakey Graves real name – Alejandro Rose-Garcia.

This one is a toss up. The album, Roll the Bones is actually a re-issue, so this release is actually Roll the Bones X – do re-issues count??

Not sure about this, but this is Shakey Graves from an earlier Youtube video where he is singing, playing guitar and two different drums. He concocted this assortment as a way to avoid the hassle of borrowing drum sets for his shows. Pretty amazing to watch all this.

Shakey Graves – Roll the Bones – Audiotree Live

There is actually a Shakey Graves Day in Austin, Texas on February 9th of every year – since 2012. On this occasion, he releases his music on a pay-what-you-can basis on Bandcamp. His latest album is a 2-CD set that was released in April. This is a CD I really want to get!

For next week, I think Bob will be focusing on Octoberfest at Beas, I think.

I want to focus on this Tweet I found that talks about the resurgence of World Music on CBC Frequencies.

More on this latter.

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Old Fellas new Music – our latest episode

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment

We have three episodes done now and you can still hear them all on Spreaker. There is now limited access on Spreaker due to copyright rules. If you can’t listen to an episode, please let me know and I will send you a link. The episodes will also be playing regularly on VoicEd Radio.

Bob Kennedy and I have been doing this show for three weeks. The basic idea is simple – 10 songs over one hour, all songs have to have been produced after 2015 – hence – New Music.

Here are Bob’s selections for this week.

I had to add the album cover for Minus Five – what magazine is this a parody of?

Rolling Coastal Blackout Fever – An Air Conditioned Man

Fontaines DC – Oh Such A Spring

Seaway – Lula on the Beach

Solange – Cranes in the Sky

Minus 5 – Davy Gets the Girl

You can hear all of Bob’s songs and much more on our Spotify playlist. If you listen to the podcast, you will find out so much more, for example, who is Solange’s famous sister?

What I find so much fun about all this is researching the stories for the songs. My first choice came fro a twitter suggestion by Errol Nazareth whose new show Frequencies on CBC Radio 2 is amazing.

Errol Nazareth describes Finley as the ‘real deal’ and goes on to say “One day, I’d like to see Mr. Finley at the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi.”

After listening to him and especially after watching his video for his newest release I totally agree!

from Under the Radar Magazine

Robert Finley, described by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach as “the greatest living soul singer,” has returned for a third studio album, Sharecropper’s Son. Co-written and produced by Auerbach, the album sees Finley follow his acclaimed 2017 record Goin’ Platinum! alongside studio legends and bluesmen, some of which have worked with everyone from Elvis Presley to Wilson Pickett. Finley has returned today with the video for his latest single, “Country Boy,” premiering with Under the Radar.

Under the Radar April 2021

You really need to watch this.

Louisiana-based musician @therobertfinley has shared the video for his latest single, “Country Boy,” premiering with Under the Radar. Finley’s new record, ‘Sharecropper’s Son (co-written and produced by @danauerbach) is out May 21st on Easy Eye Sound.

We also featured a young singer from Kitchener, JJ. Wilde – The Rush

Her video is very interesting and you can watch it here

This track is from her album, Ruthless released in April 2020. She has written over 500 songs and is 28 yrs old. Another single – Mercy is also terrific. The Rush was #1 on all 3 Canadian Rock Radio formats – JJ Wilde was the first woman to do this. She has also toured with bands like The Glorious Sons.

The lyrics to Rush are really interesting. Even though she is pretty hard hitting, the song has lots to do about not disappointing her mom with her risky lifestyle:

Woke up this morning, in panic

I had my red dress on again

Last night I came out I was so damn manic

Don’t even know where I went wrong

But I went wrong

And it’s times like these that I swear to god

I’m glad my mother can’t see me

And if she did, I don’t know how I would keep it together

I don’t know how I would keep it in

It’s the Rush, it’s the lust, you can’t trust

Kandle, the daughter of Neil Osborne from 54-40, was another new discovery. Stick Around and Find Out her fourth album features the track Happy Pills. It is a little dark, but if you listen to her explanation, it really is a song about regeneration and growth. Her voice is haunting which makes this song all the more evocative.

I was sitting around in the Hipposonic studio in Vancouver trying to finalize arrangements for recording when I picked up a guitar and wrote it, almost by accident, in about 10 minutes. I had been focusing so much on rockin’, Motown, power house songs that I kind of missed being a little bit folky.  At the time I was working on getting off of the medications that I’d been put on post breakdown and realized I wanted to reclaim and manage my life without them. “When did I start? And how do I stop? I caught my reflection, tied my stomach in knots”. 

You can read the full interview with Kandle here on American Songwriter.

Only some of her material like Honey Trap is out on video. This again is worth watching.

Another artist that was new to me (they are all new to me) is Phoebe Bridgers. She has great songs and really interesting lyrics. Bob mentioned the controversy about her smashing a guitar on Saturday Night Live that was news to me.

Now she is auctioning off this guitar which should make David Crosby happy. You can read more about the controversy here in Rolling Stone Magazine.

While I don’t have that video, I do have a New York Times interview that discusses her song writing. This is probably more interesting than smashing guitars.

This year at the Grammys she was up for Best New Artist, Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance (the latter two are for “Kyoto”).

Also the song Motion Sickness is really good!

All this is from a new music source for me – Under the Radar, a source I will continue to go back to in the weeks ahead.

And finally a video from one of Bob’s picks Valley.

Old Fellas New Music

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New Music1 Comment
our new logo – lots to talk about here!

This week, music from

Honest Heart Collective – North American Dream
Elwins – Take Me all the Way

Valley –There’s Still a Light in the House – see them below


Born Ruffians – Waylaid
US Girls – And Yet It Moves / Y Se Mueve

Not Our First Goat Rodeo – Yo Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile

Future Islands, Plastic Beach

July Talk – The News

What do two old fellas – Bob Kennedy and Paul McGuire listen to when they want new music? Each week we bring you some samplings of new music produced after 2015. There’s lots of great material out there and for an hour each week, we spin some tunes and talk about pretty cool stuff. All on VoicEd Radio!

our opening on Spreaker

Some notes on where to find us.

Our ever-growing Spotify playlist is here.

You can find us on Spreaker here

And episode 2 can be heard LIVE on VoicEd Radio at 8:00 pm on Saturdays.

We plan to add some fun notes, not complete, at the end of each week of looking for new music. This seems like a good place to leave some of what we have talked about and discovered over the past week.

After two weeks, Bob Kennedy and I have played eight songs that are all newer than 2015 – this is the main criteria for choosing a sone.

All of this is possible because of the continuing encouragement of Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radio. It has been a bit of a technical journey, putting two people together on radio from different locations with music chosen by both is quite the challenge!

So, this post is mainly about the music and stuff we talked about during the episode.

My first choice was US Girls

Meghan Remy

 

US Girls was my first choice. The song I chose was And Yet It Moves / Y Se Mueve, but it could have been

4 American Dollars – this is a great song too, very different style, really great sound. Hard to choose which one to play.

U.S. Girls is a Toronto-based band formed in 2007, consisting solely of American musician and record producer Meghan Remy. She had released music on a variety of independent record labels before signing to 4AD in 2015.[3]

Half Free, her first record for 4AD, was released the same year.[4] It garnered a Juno Award nomination for Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2016,[5] and was a shortlisted finalist for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize.[6]Remy collaborates with a number of Toronto-based musicians on both songwriting and music production.

notes from Wikipedia

My second choice is a beautiful piece of music by an ensemble that includes Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan and Chris Thile.

Their video is really worth watching to see how these great musicians play together.

The album – Not Our First Goat Rodeo, is their second project, following The Goat Rodeo Sessions.

A got Rodeo is an interesting term and I think you can see an example of this in the video. The term is an aviation term that means that 100 things need to go right to avoid disaster. This is beautiful playing and the video really shows why their releases are so popular.

The Los Angelas describes this best:

There can be little doubt that the greatest composer ever would have been unfazed hearing his music played by a trio of cello, mandolin and bass, as Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer did at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Wednesday night. Five years ago the three took part in what became known as “The Goat Rodeo Sessions,” unlikely musicians on unlikely instruments in concerts and on bestselling recordings that were part blues, part bluegrass and a smidgen of Bach. Although sometimes slang for hapless chaos, for everything that can go wrong going wrong, a goat rodeo can also imply that out of pandemonium can come something new.

Los Angeles Times May 5, 2017

The next track is Plastic Beach by Future Islands. The song has some really great lyrics by Samuel T. herring:

I spent a lifetime in the mirror

Picking apart, what I couldn’t change

Now I see, I see tomorrow

I see, I see tomorrow

I see, I see tomorrow

I see, I see tomorrow

I see, I see tomorrow

What you saw today

This is accompanied by some really striking vocals. You can see them best on stage with David Letterman in 2014. This incredible performance by Herring was a sensation several years ago. Watch it and you will see why.

We choose five songs each for an episode, but we never get beyond four. My last choice was July Talk, an incredible Toronto Band known for dynamic live shows. The dramatic play between vocalists Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay is incredible. Again, seeing is believing.

July talk has some amazing videos you really have to watch.

The band has a new album out and I chose one track, The news which is great, but unfortunately only features Leah Fay. I would suggest listening to Push + Pull or Guns + Ammunition. They have an interesting use of the + symbol, but you will have to listen to our broadcast to find out more about that!

More notes – Bob mentions a site for music that has been around for a long time, again, news to me, but I am adding this to one of the places I need to go now every week – Aquarium Drunkard – how could you not love a name like that!

Screen shot from Aquarium Drunkard

You will also hear a reference To Never Repeated, a Spotify playlist – you can find it here.

If you want to hear the whole show, you can find it here