Eclectic Grooves

As promised, here is my list of favorite records that barely missed the cut, compilations, reissues and ep's. I hope that you find some things on here that are to your liking. Happy New Year! Honorable Mentions 1) Bill Callahan- Dream River 2) Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears- Electric Slave 3) Day Ravies- Tussle 4) Jeffrey Novak- Lemon Kid 5) Magik Markers- Surrender to the Fantasy 6) Sebadoh- Defend Yourself 7) Steve Gunn- Time Off 8) The Liminanas- Costa Blanca 9) No Joy- Wait to Pleasure 10) Mike Donovan- Wot 11) The Shivas- Whiteout 12) Dirty Beaches- Drifter/Love is the Devil 13) Retribution Gospel Choir- 3 14) Follakzoid- II 15) Charlie Megira and the Modern Dance Club- Love Police 16) The Spyrals- Out of Sight 17) Mdou-Moctar- Afelan 18) Kurt Vile- Wakin' On a Pretty Daze 19) Julian Lynch- Lines 20) Girls Names- The New Life 21) Ghostface Killah- 12 Reasons to Die 23) Tape Deck Mountain- Sway 24) Akron Family- Sub Verses 25) Pond- Hobo ...

It's once again that time of year where I listen solely to records that I have bought or downloaded that were released in 2013. This year, it was going to be different. I already had been working on a list several months ago, and I had planned to have most of my post written a couple months before the year-end lists from magazines and music blogs were posted on the internet. By doing this, I could look through the other year-end lists to see if there were any records that slipped below my radar, and that warranted a spot on my list. Sadly, the universe had other plans for me. Starting in late September, I started to experience neck and back pain which didn't get better for 2-3 weeks. Then, I got a terrible cold that lasted over a month, leading into a period of fatigue that left me with no energy to do much of anything. Needless to say, my brain could barely function at the level necessary to do my job,  let alone to write reviews of my favorite albums of 2013. After late Oct...

The Halloween edition of the I Hear a New World Podcast is available to listen to here, and to listen/download at http://ihearanewworld.podomatic.com . Last night, while working diligently at finishing this mix before the weekend was over, I found myself struggling with the reality that I couldn't make this year's mix be everything to all people.    When my girlfriend inquired as to how things were going, I told her that I was having difficulties with trying to round it out with songs that were less scary and more suitable for a general audience. She smiled and said "I bet there are some people out there who would really appreciate a scary Halloween mix".  Thankfully,  my girlfriend was able to steer me in the right direction with her infinite wisdom. From here, all the pieces started to gradually fall into place.  I worked on narrowing the amount of songs from over forty...

With the Halloween season creeping up on me once again, I will be presenting a more concise overview of my last three nights of Music Fest NW 201 to focus my energy on compiling a new Halloween mix over the next week. My hope is to have this year's mix posted within a week of Halloween so that everyone will have a sufficient amount of time to enjoy it. Friday :  La Luz- 9:00 Since I had already seen Mt. Eerie with Bonnie Prince Billy on Thursday, La Luz was definitely the best choice for the 9:00 time slot. I heard a few songs from their Damp Face ep that was released last year, and I was completely sold on their twisted surf noir sound that seemed to draw from influences as diverse as  Brenda Lee, David Lynch and The Ventures. After arriving at Dante's, the band started promptly at 9:00, and proceeded to deliver a fantastic set filled with seductive ballads, surf instrumentals and garage rock rave-ups. Their set was concise at 35 minutes, but filled with enough memorabl...

Ideally this post would have been up shortly after Music Fest NW was over, but I have been fighting a cold for almost a month now. Due to this, I will be providing a much shorter breakdown of the shows to allow time for a new podcast and some new Halloween-themed posts. Wednesday Eyelids- 8:00 I decided to check out Eyelids at the Doug Fir Lounge, but due to a late start and a difficulty with finding a parking space, I arrived in the middle of their set. My initial feeling was that they were an adequate rock band who was lacking a strong, engaging stage presence. The highlight of their set was when they brought out a special guest to sing lead on a cover version of the Gun Club classic "Sex Beat". Lonnie Holley - 9:30 I arrived at the Crystal Ballroom about 15 minutes prior to Lonnie Holley's performance, and it already felt like a sweat box despite the fact that it wasn't even close to capacity. I think that I had fairly high expectations for his performan...

In my last post I had alluded to a forthcoming post detailing my experiences at MusicFest NW. While I would have liked to get this post up sooner, time and energy have not been on my side this past week. In fact, it's even an understatement to say that my experience at Music Fest was a whirlwind. After spending hours strategizing about which bands to see, planning travel time between the venues and speculating the  average waiting times for specific acts, I was finally ready to brave the streets of Portland for a fun-filled week of musical adventures.  Nevertheless, I restlessly tossed and turned the night prior to Music Fest, leaving me to start out the first night of Music Fest with much less energy than I had planned.  I wasn't going to let this stop me though. There was music to see, and even if I was starting out with an energy deficit, I was bound and determined to make the best of it.  Armed with only my wits, and my handy Music Fest NW 2013 app,...

Every year around the first week of September, thousands of fanatic music lovers hit the streets of Portland, anxiously scanning their Music Fest schedules to determine how to see the best cross-section of bands in a finite period of time. While Music Fest NW started out as a relatively small event featuring mostly local bands and a few assorted venues, it has radically expanded into a six day extravaganza showcased at practically every venue in Portland covering musicians from all over the country. This year, I was fortunate enough to win a free pass to Music Fest NW, thus allowing me the ability to cover the event in full on Eclectic Grooves. Considering the abundant scope of this event, I figured that I would provide a schedule of my picks for Music Fest NW to the readers who plan on attending it this year. The following is my suggested itinerary to get the most out of this year's festival. Those of you who dig the music regularly posted on Eclectic Grooves wil...