That Bon Iver can sure make me blush! At a recent show at Lee’s Place in Toronto he closed out the night with a cover of Sarah Siskind’s “Lovin’s For Fools” and damn if it doesn’t echo a little similarity/sound to the late great Jeff Buckley too! Take a listen:

Bon Iver – “Lovin’s For Fools” (Sarah Siskind cover)

Bon Iver + AA Bondy perform Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater on Thursday, August 14th for a $10 show. See you there.

Myspace: Bon Iver
Myspace: Sarah Siskind

“When I started, I moved down to this place called Crystal Beach, Texas where you need to take a ferry from Galveston across the bay to get to this little peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico,” recalls Carll. “It’s this isolated coastal community with a wild assortment of people either hiding out, hanging on or getting lost– a lot of drugs and drinking, a fair amount of violence, but at the same time a lot of really interesting people with great stories to tell. Folks in the bars there weren’t necessarily interested in what I had to say as a songwriter– they wanted to hear David Allan Coe and Merle Haggard, and other stuff they knew. So that’s what I did six nights a week for four years. I haven’t run into tougher crowds since. It was an initiation into becoming a performer.” — Hayes Carll

Over the weekend my good friend Mullins shared with me Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind, and I’m thankful. A Texan, equal parts country and troubadour, a wonderful discovery that’s lead to repeated listens. He’s paid his dues and earned himself a Lost Highway record deal.

Hayes Carll – “It’s a Shame”

Hayes Carll plays Cafe Montmartre in Madison on Sunday, November 2nd. Tickets are $10 and worth every cent.

Myspace: Hayes Carll

Find MP3′s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic

Don’t forget to stop by Strictly Discs tonight to be some of the very first ears to hear Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping. We’ll be pressing play at 7PM and will have some cool giveaways as well.

Skeletal Lamping will see its official release on October 7th via Polyvinyl.

Myspace: Of Montreal

Welcome to the latest installation of the 5 Questions with MoB feature–this time around I caught up with the cool cats of Gentleman Auction House, and instead of the standard 5 Q&A routine, we scored big with 5 Q’s and 35 A’s! Well, I guess that’s how this collaborative septet of indie pop rockers roll, with everyone contributing to the bigger picture . . .

Could you lend some information on the recording process of The Book of Matches EP? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned towards future recording sessions?

STEPHEN: Think about how much time it’ll take 7 people to record 12 songs.

RYAN: As for the recording process, I’ll try to avoid adding to the deluge of information you’re sure to get. I’ll say that we recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Washington D.C. and it was mixed and mastered at Silver Sonya Studios, also in Washington, D.C. We worked with the lovely Devin Ocampo, and Chad Clark, who did a stellar job. They deserve recognition for their excellent work.

STEVE: The first three songs on the EP are from the session we did at Silver Sonya Studios in D.C., the first two of which will be on Alphabet Graveyard. We weren’t even planning on putting an EP out until the AG release was pushed back and we felt like we needed something new to sell on tour. We spent a weekend scrambling to finish “Sunken Land”, which was a bare-bones demo that Eric had started, and “Parting Shot”, which we had started during the TRWHD sessions back in ’06. In the end we were really happy with how the disc turned out as a whole, being as it was such a last-minute idea. I also don’t really feel like there’s a significantly discernible disconnect in the production value between the Silver Sonya tracks and the ones we did ourselves, which is encouraging not only in the sense that the flow of the record isn’t interrupted, but that it also serves as an inspiration for us to view self-recording as a viable option again for future projects.

KILEY: I think with 7 of us in the band, its important for each of us to know what we are all playing in any song before we go in the studio and find out something doesn’t work.

ERIC E: Every recording project teaches you something, either through your successes or failures. I will forever amplify keyboards from here on out, despite how much quicker and “cleaner” it might be to plug right in. No more of that business. Also, pad thai is essential.

MIKE: I think that we all learned a lot through the recording process for TBOM/AG. As a whole it was an expensive yet essential way for us to find out what we could accomplish as a band if you removed all of the “microscopes” that a band uses when recording itself. We learned a lot about our roles in not only each individual song but also in the band as a whole, and at least to me, that education was invaluable.

ERIC H: This does not answer the question, but NPR did a report on this “avant-garde” clothier earlier today, and it would have been great to have been wearing this line in D.C. You can now look trendy AND be safe at the same time.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING THE INTERVIEW –> (more…)

Crosby, Stills & Nash follow The Avett Brothers as the most recent group to enlist legendary producer Rick Rubin’s touch. Today, Billboard.com reports that Crosby, Stills & Nash will record an entire album of only cover songs with “recording to start in early 2009 for a release later in the year.” More info here.

Reminder: David Crosby and Graham Nash perform a very intimate/special show at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theatre on Monday, November 3rd.

Discuss: What are some of your favorite CSNY releases? How about favorites from less membered incarnations? Favorite solo releases from Crosby, Stills, Nash? What records (by any artist) has Rubin made great, which ones has he ruined?

Find MP3′s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic

Many were looking forward to Alejandro Escovedo unleashing his Real Animal at this weekend’s Madison Roots Festival. Sadly, due to medical restrictions, Alejandro had to withdraw from his performance. We wish him a speedy recovery and since we’re on the subject, Alejandro’s got the video blog thing going. Check it out.

Thanks to Steve for the info!

Myspace: Alejandro Escovedo
MP3: Alejandro Escovedo – “Always A Friend”