One of my favorite songs of the year off the fantastic Keep in Mind Frankenstein has just been released by Grand Archives. It’s a must watch/listen. Enjoy.

Buy: Grand Archives
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MP3: Grand Archives – “Oslo Novelist”
MP3: Grand Archives – “Silver Among the Gold”

While combing through some new releases on my desk I came to enjoy Tim Williams‘ Careful Love over the past few weeks. The album was written in the aftermath of Williams recovering from open-heart surgery and the reflections and hope of such an experience shine through on first listen. I talked to TIm about some albums that have been meaningful to him, including ones that helped him on his way to recovery.

Fionn Regan | The End of History
If there is one musician I would like to buy a beer for it would be Fionn Regan. His record The End of History made my time in the hospital following my heart surgery somewhat pleasant. I was hooked up to a million machines at the time and this record was the one thing that transported me to another place. I have listened to a ton of music in my twenty-some years on this earth and nothing has hit me the way this record does.

Guided By Voices | Bee Thousand
Bee Thousand takes me back to my days of recording with my friends in middle school on my trusty Tascam 4-Track. Whenever I listen to this record it helps to remind me that a good song doesn’t have to have a million different parts or have a million different words; it just has to sound good.

Red House Painters | Songs for a Blue Guitar
Mark Kozelek’s songs are so personal that sometimes it can be really uncomfortable to listen to. As much as I love music that is really strange and out there it’s nice to come back to something that is honest and beautiful. Mark has continued making great records post RHP’s with Sun Kil Moon and I am always the first person in line to buy them.

Six Parts Seven | Things Shaped In Passing
I have bought this record more times than any other one as I keeping giving my copy to my friends. “Things Shaped In Passing” is as close as I will ever get to doing yoga. As a musician you spend so much time working with words it’s nice to listen to something that doesn’t have any at all. Here it is my friends: Simple, clean, perfect.

Will Oldham | Western Music
I got into Will Oldham pretty late in the game and in reverse of how I was told one should. I started out by buying all of his obscure vinyl releases on Drag City (because they were cheaper at Kim’s on St. Marks) and then finally worked my way to his much revered “I See A Darkness.” Mr. Oldham’s name is thrown around a lot in the indie world as a influence to many bands that are making a living by ripping off his sound. I hope the start to give credit where credit is due.

MP3: Tim Williams – “I Hit Another Wall”

By Tyler Fassnacht

Ever since the sixth grade, Dinosaur Jr. has accompanied me through my music phases, whether it was classic rock, grunge, catchy pop rock or noise, Dinosaur Jr. was always able to fit in somehow. They always had enough of an edge and strong enough hooks to draw in a variety of music fans and that along with J Mascis’ guitar prowess cemented these guys as gods of guitar driven indie-rock. When I found out the band reunited some years back, I promised myself that I would see them in concert eventually, and two post-reunion albums later, they announced a show at the Majestic.

Opening the evening was Dino bass player, Lou Barlow, playing with the Missing Men as a backing band. He played mostly tracks off of his recently released solo record Goodnight Unknown. The songs swayed from folk-y heartfelt songs, to fast tempo rock, all with surprisingly good transitions. I am a pretty big Sebadoh fan (Lou Barlow’s post Dino group) so seeing him play his own style of music was really nice.

Dinosaur Jr. came out to wild cheers from a mostly packed house and they immediately jumped into their songs. Guitarist J Mascis was backed up by several stacks of Marshall amps, that all towered above him. The sound that the band made was ferocious. Not since I saw Rush have I witnessed such a band worthy of the power trio label, because any more members would have just been overkill. The band played a set list splitting at the seams with old hits and favorites. Songs that stood out were “Little Fury Things”, “Feel the Pain”, “the Wagon” and “Freak Scene” to just name a few. They played several tracks from their excellent new album, Farm that they are currently touring behind. For almost the entire show J Mascis played with his eyes closed while ripping through solos and he didn’t open his mouth to do anything but sing, in fact even when his band mates asked him questions, he just shrugged or shook his head. Having never seen them before, I wasn’t sure if this was normal behavior, but it had no effect on the music, so I didn’t mind. The crowd was fairly mellow for almost the entire show, until some drunk guy finally started an impending mosh pit during “Freak Scene”, the band’s second to last song. After about an hour and a half of playing the band thanked the crowd and left. Nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary happened for a rock show, but I still walked away feeling that I witnessed something special because there are very few bands that have been doing what Dinosaur Jr. does so well for so long.

Buy: Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
MP3: Dinosaur Jr. – “I Want You To Know”

Radio Milwaukee has a stream/download of Sunday’s Bon Iver show at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. What a great night for a great cause. Thanks again for all of your generous donations to this site in support of AIDS Walk Wisconsin.

Download/Listen: Bon Iver – Riverside Theater, Milwaukee (10/11/09)

Also: Bon Iver – Simple Man (Live at Haldern)

John Mueller of Volcano Choir just directed his twitter followers to some secret/unreleased material up at the Volcano Choir website. Go there to hear new stuff like “Way Off,” “Saloon Doors,” “Saddle Horse,” and “Poor People.” Lots of laughter and piano. Volcano Choir is the collaboration of Justin Vernon and Milwaukee’s own Collections of Colonies of Bees. Their first album, Unmap, is available now via Jagjaguwar

Buy: Volcano Choir – Unmap
MP3: Volcano Choir – “Island, IS”

Looking for the right band to help close out the aughts and ring in 2010? Spoon + Jay Reatard will play Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater on Thursday, December 31st.

Tickets: $55
On Sale: Friday, October 23rd

MP3: Spoon – “I Turn My Camera On”
MP3: Spoon – “The Way We Get By”
MP3: Spoon – “This Book Is A Movie”

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