It's a wonderful life, this life of music
From the category archives:
So we all know that I haven’t been blogging for a while. In an attempt to make amends, I’m going to post a series of short “Things you missed while I wasn’t blogging” posts that recaps what I’ve been up to/listening to in the last while. Enjoy this peace offering.
Things you missed while I wasn’t [...]
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God. It’s already December the 15th as I write this (not sure when I will get to publish the post) [Ed’s note: only half a month later. Not bad. I’ll just use the excuse that I was waiting until 2009 was over, to give every possible chance to every album in the decade. Yeah, that’s [...]
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So, a while back I was contacted by Sabrina Robertson, who sent me an email saying, “Hey, I think you might dig these guys…”.
First off, I can’t tell you how many emails like these I get. I’m not even one of the “big guys” when it comes to music blogging, so I can only imagine [...]
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God, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I went to a gig… I think my last one was Ryan Adams at the beginning of the year, and here we are in November already. The good news is, my lapse in attending gigs was broken by an absolute kicker of a night, watching Pearl [...]
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So, I’ve held off on posting about this album for a while… when I first heard Mumford and Sons, there was this crazy rush of excitement (“thank god, finally a 2009 sound worth raving about!”) that I thought might colour an album review. So I’ve purposefully sat with this album now for the past week, [...]
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So, if you’re a fan of my Facebook page (and if you aren’t, what are you waiting for? Go on, visit the link and fan the page. I’ll wait. No rush. Back? Good. Ahem… where was I?)… oh yes, so if you’re a fan of my Facebook page, you would have already heard me sing [...]
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I don’t quite know how I’ve let this go until now without a post. Mumford and Sons was a band I’d heard mentioned in quite a few places online, but for some reason I’d never bothered to track down much of their stuff. That was, at least, until Song, By Toad (easily one of my [...]
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There is no better day than today, a Monday, to play this song for you. Below, Dave Smallen’s “I Think It’s Getting Better”.
You know, I can count on one hand the songs this year that have made me feel just as damn happy as this song has. And I think that maybe… just maybe… Dave’s [...]
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The music blogging gig is a weird thing… you can go months without hearing anything that inspires you, and then all of a sudden a whole host of tunes reach out and smack you across the face in a course of a week.
This has been one of those weeks.
Today, following a link posted in [...]
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You know, sometimes I’m not the best music blogger in the world. I let emails slip through the cracks. I let this blog take a back seat to my day time job, and to every day life. While that pretty much qualifies me for “a normal person with his priorities right”, it sometimes means my [...]
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Juzzie Smith – The One Man Band that will blow you away
Juzzie Smith is one of those happy coincidental discoveries. It just so happened that, while my mother was out in Australia visiting us on holiday, we took her up the Sunshine Coast for the weekend. While up there, we decided to take a trip [...]
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My love for Joe Pug is no secret. If there is one artist who I have ever featured on this blog that I would like to see succeed, it’s Joe. Joe’s “Nation of Heat” EP was passed around my friends and family and random people I accosted on the street like no other, and it [...]
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Malcolm Middleton
It’s no secret that Malcolm Middleton is one of my favourite Scottish songwriters. And I don’t use “Scottish” there as a qualification, or an attempt to pigenhole Malcolm. I use it as a badge of honour… I see it as a compliment of the highest order to be seen to lead such a talented [...]
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Jeremy Enigk (image credit: Mark Swanson)
Jeremy Enigk has always been an artist that has fascinated me. Not only because of his work with the highly touted Sunny Day Real Estate, but also because his solo debut, “The Return of the Frog Queen” from 1996 was an album that challenged my perception of what pop music [...]
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Donerail (Image Credit: Trask Bedortha)
Donerail (pronounced Dawn-er-rale) are a Portland band that make me smile. Much like a past Burgoblog favourite, High On Stress, Donerail play that kind of Replacements-like rock ‘n roll that never fails to bring a smile to my face.
Donerail’s latest album, “Destiny and Dishonor“, was recorded live over the course of [...]
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The other day I got that kind of email that music bloggers love to get… an email from an artist’s management saying, “Hey… you know, I’ve noticed from your blog posts that you like xyz… and I think you might like some of my client’s stuff. Want to check it out?”… and you actually do [...]
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So, apologies for the decline in posts around these parts lately. It’s been a hectic few months. Actually, scratch that… it’s been a hectic year, and posting sometimes fell by the wayside. So you know it had to be something special to bring me out of that unintentional hiatus, right?
Well, it is. Something special, I [...]
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The Deep Dark Woods
“I’ve been waiting here for days, tryin’ to catch a break. But the way i’m living, it’s gonna cause my heart to ache” ~ The Deep Dark Woods.
Ok, ok… so Cap beat me to posting about these guys, so I’m simply going to point you towards his post rather than regurgitate any [...]
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Alex Dezen (image credit: Heather Conley)
So everyone’s still talking about The Damnwells‘ latest release, “One Last Century”, which was released through Paste Magazine (for free) on Tuesday. And why wouldn’t they still be talking about it? It is, quite simply, one of those albums. An album that was written just for you.
Alex Dezen has always [...]
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Little Birdy
Maybe it’s just because I’m having some personal issues right now, but this new single from Little Birdy, “Brother”, from their upcoming album, “Confetti” is one of the most soul-rending songs I’ve ever heard.
The track also features Australian music legend, Paul Kelly on harmonica and backing vocals.
This song is killing me, right now.
Listen. Love. [...]
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I recently came across this session on the always fabulous LaundroMatinee site, and simply had to post it. Anyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time will know my love for Joe Pug (after all, I included him in my “Best Of 2008” post, and called him the artist I “most wanted to [...]
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(Side Note: Apologies for the weird formatting issues in the below post. I’m posting this from the road, and my laptop seems to be acting up a bit. When I’m back at my regular computer next week, I’ll try and fix it up. For now, I hope you can put up with the changing fonts [...]
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For some reason, if you’d asked me last week whether I had posted about William Fitzsimmons on this blog before, I would have sworn blind that I had discussed his 2006 album “Goodnight” sometime in 2007. However, I recently received his 2008 album, “The Sparrow & The Crow“, and was preparing a post when I [...]
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So this past Saturday, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals appeared on BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary show… and man, what a treat we were in for.
It was a short and sweet slot, with only 2 interview segments, and two songs, but those two songs were pure magic. The first was the always-stunning “Fix It” (by [...]
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So as I mentioned in a past post, Brett Dennen and Amiestreet have teamed up to make the world a better place with some charity. It’s unfortunate that this happened while I was away on holiday, as by the time you read this post, you will only have a few hours left to get in [...]
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I’m quite late to the party on these guys, having first read about The Sand Band way back in August on that awesomeness of music blogs, Some Velvet Blog. I filed away the band for listening at a later date, and it somehow slipped between the cracks… until now.
The Sand Band
I’m not sure if it’s [...]
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Short note today… but just wanted to let everyone know that The Avett Brothers have released their new video for single “Murder in The City” (featured in this post back here)… and it’s a killer video (no pun intended).
Beautifully filmed, like the song itself, the video is full of quiet moments. Watch it below.
Beautiful…
And here, [...]
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So, a few weeks ago, Diana from MADMUSE got in touch with me to let me know that they were sending me a pre-release copy of Bill Madden’s new album, “Child of the Same God”. (Sidenote: I love it when overseas agencies don’t mind paying the international postage and send original copies all the way [...]
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Ok… so this isn’t so much a post as an announcement to all Bon Iver fans. Bon Iver (now more than just Justin Vernon, as pointed out here… now a full band) recently contributed to the Myspace Transmissions series; and they’re now offering the entire EP (four songs) for free download. For fans, this is [...]
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Ed’s Note: The following is a guest post from Rachel Morris, a regular reader here on Burgo’s Blog. This is something I’m hoping to make a regular feature on Burgo’s Blog. Too often I get emails from people who write with such beauty about music they’re into, but who feel like they don’t have a [...]
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Ryan Adams & The Cardinals on tour… standing on the shoulders of giants.
You know, by all accounts, it’s been a different Ryan Adams that has posted on Foggy lately. Having been on tour with Oasis for the last while, it seems like Ryan’s… well… maturing. And healthier than he’s been in a while.
And I don’t [...]
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As another week draws to a close, and I head down the coast (and offline) for the weekend, I thought I would throw up a quick music roundup of those songs that have been spinning incessantly on my iTunes this week. So here you go…
Motel Motel – Mexico
Motel Motel… these guys deserve to be bigger.
Listen [...]
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Joseph Arthur (self-portrait)
Once upon a time, Joseph Arthur was one of my favourite artists, right up there with Ryan Adams. But then, something happened. I don’t know what it was, and I’m not pointing any fingers here… after all, it might just have been the case that we were growing apart. People do that, you [...]
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… And yes, I know exactly what a huge statement that is to make. But I’m making it anyway. Only a band that excited me this much could have brought me out of my semi-hiding on this blog. I heard them, and I simply had to get out a post straight away.
God, I’ve missed that [...]
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Unfortunately, and in keeping with the general lack of time around these parts lately, this post might need to be a bit short. But on Friday night, I saw one of my top 5 shows that I’ve ever seen at the Tivoli… Death Cab for Cutie. And what a set it was.
An Horse kicked off [...]
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Here’s me, not one post earlier, saying that things were going to be quite around here for the next week or two. Yet here I am, putting up a second post today! Truth is, I’ve had an unexpected opening in my schedule, and with a spare hour before my next meeting now, I thought I [...]
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It’s been a while, I know… but hey, as some would say, “Shit got real“, you know? And, unfortunately, blogging has had to take a second seat lately. Hopefully, this won’t be the case for too much longer… but for the next week, at least, things will continue to be pretty quiet around here.
That said, [...]
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Under The Radar is a column inspired by material sent in by the readers of Burgo’s Blog, alerting me to music that I may not have otherwise heard. If you’d like to let me know about some of your favourite tunes that I may not know about, then drop a line to the email address [...]
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Wow. It has been one hectic week, and at this stage it doesn’t look like there’s any sign of easing up. Which is disappointing, as it means blogging has had to take a back seat, and I’ve received some cracking pitches recently from some great bands flying Under The Radar. Hopefully (!), I’ll be able [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here on Burgo’s Blog. For today’s show, I’ve decided to post one of the most requested sets from my readers: Radiohead, performing live at the BBC Radio Theatre, on April 1, 2008.
Long-time readers of this blog might remember that when Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” finally arrived, I was… well, [...]
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This is just a short note to let you all know that there’s a new Tallest Man On Earth song out – see my last post on this dude here – titled “A Field of Birds”… and it’s a killer tune.
The song’s been released as a theme song for the site, Yellow Bird Project; a [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For today’s post – and largely due to the fact that I’ve just watched “August Rush” again – I thought I would post something slightly different; a 2004 show, where guitar virtuoso Kaki King performed, lived at the Ironhorse.
Now, I’m pretty sure this show [...]
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It’s been a while since I put a Tuesday Trio up on this blog, and seeing as I was going through some of the messages to have landed in my inbox lately that have alerted me to new music, I thought: Why not? So, for today’s tunes, we’ll be looking at tracks from The Avett [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For this week’s post, I decided to revisit a past Live Music Friday post, from April, where I featured The National live on the Radio Inter Black Sessions. In that post, I mentioned that they had followed up from that show with another show [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Thanks to all the regular readers who were patient while I took my week off from posting… it was much needed, and I think it did me a world of good.
For this week’s Live Music Friday, I decided to post a show from 2005, [...]
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I think I might regret this, but I’ve decided to take this week off from posting here. It’s probably not the best timing for a decision like this; especially considering the fact that one of my favourite music bloggers – Captain Obvious – was only the other day gracious enough to mention me in one [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Today, we’ll be featuring someone a little closer to my (adoptive) home… Australian musician, Xavier Rudd.
One of my favourite shows of 2007 was an Xavier Rudd gig on the Gold Coast… in fact, I even put up a post about it, although that post [...]
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