Before I go on about my own random blather, I’d like to point out a little bit of utter awesomeness to you. Brody, one of the lovely folks over at The 9513, has crowned the country music blogs with their Golden Age counterparts. We at HCT are stupidly thrilled to be compared to Townes in such a way—not just because our blog is named for a song written about Townes, but more specifically Brody seems to like the way we play. So go check out the post, check out all the other awesome blogs there and give Brody and his kin some love. Also I would like to say an extra thanks from the HCT cat, whose name is, in fact, Townes Van Cat (a stray that lives in the yard, how appropriate, eh?). [Aw, that’s sweet. Is it one of the feral cats?—Daisy]
Since we started the site, I’ve been saying I was gonna talk about Joel Plaskett, because I love him in an unreasonable sort of way usually seen in Cricket when confronted with skinny boys with tattoos, [Hee! It’s funny ‘cause it’s true.—Daisy] and because I am random and sketchy, I never got around to it.
Joel Plaskett is fairly famous in Canada. That’s not quite the same as being Big in Japan, but it might as well be for a non-border dwelling American audience (I am always shocked when people in the States know Canadian acts because most artists there never break through to the American mainstream, even big acts). He was in a band called Thrush Hermit that I always hated. So, I didn’t really want to give him a chance, but then, guess what? Yeah, I saw him live. [You’re so easy that way. Hmm, Mimi doesn’t like a band? Well, I’ll just take her to a live show then…—Cricket]
Is Mercury in Retrograde? Yeah, I could Google it, but really I don’t even want to know. In any case, technical difficulties abound. After much hoopla our podcasts are back up on iTunes. If you had subscribed to them there previously, you’ll need to go do that all over again (which you can conveniently do by clicking this handy link). If you were subscribed some other way, you’ll need to redirect to the new RSS feed URL (add this URL to your podcast software: http://hardcore-troubadours.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/18). If that’s all too technical for you, you can still get all of them right here.
Thankfully, with all technical difficulty insanity I’ve had lately, I’ve had this to amuse me:
Oh, Cory! You look so earnest and sincere. We all know the truth though, but we still love you. Really though, how young and nervous does he look?
Let’s get the basics, simple and easy, out of the way right up front, eh? If you like Wilco, The Jayhawks, the Old 97s, and/or Jason and the Scorchers then you will probably like Careless Hearts. If you are a boy rather than a girl, you might like them even more. [Why? Why boy? *lifts eyebrow*—Mimi] If that’s enough of a rec for you, then go buy it already, if you want to read my rambling love letter to the album, then read on, MacDuff. [The Crime Dog?—Mimi]
The self-titled debut CD from Careless Hearts is one of the few albums recently of a new band that has managed to remain on continuous repeat with me for a few weeks (with only a brief break to wallow in the new Lucinda Williams). I’d heard a few songs on their MySpace and liked it well enough. I wasn’t bowled over until I heard the whole album. Like going on a date and thinking that at least it didn’t suck, and then discovering on the second date that you have a real connection to this person that perhaps nervousness or disregard masked on your first meeting. [Sigh.—Mimi]
Posted in podcast - February 17th, 2007 at 6:43 pm by Cricket
We sat down on a cold, rainy afternoon to record a podcast (right click and “save as” to download) with Wes Charlton to talk about his new album, absinthe, music and canoeing. He sang us a few songs, we made him a few drinks. All in all a regular day’s work here at HCT HQ. This is the first podcast we’ve had real technical difficulties with. Sadly I couldn’t be bothered to check to make sure we had batteries that worked and neither of us was smart enough to remember that AC power was an option so we got cut off a couple times. But we managed to save all Wes’ gorgeous songs and funny stories and that’s what’s really important here, eh? Who cares if the editing makes us all sound slightly insane. We’d sound slightly insane anyway, right? Tracks here, among the conversation, include:
1. To Be Found
2. Pop Song 99
3. Red Eyes, Blues Lights
4. Change Will Come
5. Southern Comfort
6. Avenues (Whiskeytown)
7. I Ain’t Ever Satisfied (Steve Earle)
It’s no secret that I unrelentingly adore Lucinda Williams. She can pretty much do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. But then, I used to feel the same way about Allison Moorer and her last album left me feeling pretty uninspired, so the anticipation for the new Lucinda album has been killing me. The relief I feel over how much I love it is very nearly a physical sensation.
West is Miss Lucinda’s eighth studio album in over 25 years. Despite my extreme love for music and how much I always have to say about it, I don’t actually read very much about it. I avoid interviews and articles about my favorite musicians because I find they sometimes lessen my enjoyment of the music. [Or turn out to be Scientologists.—Mimi][And because most critics are haters.—Daisy] I sometimes can’t resist reading about Lucinda Williams, though, because there just isn’t enough of her. So, from what little I’ve read, I gather this long wait between albums has something to do with a rather exceptional level of perfectionism on her part when she writes and records. Which suits me fine if it means every album continues to be better than the last one. Indeed, if I were to rank her releases in order of my favorites it would nearly match the release order (I’d transpose Essence and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road). I started to write that West wasn’t yet my very favorite because it’s too new, but that’s a lie. It won me over completely on the first listen and every subsequent play has revealed it to be more layered, deep and cutting than any of her previous albums. [Oh, god, you are killing me already. Her voice is sort of annoying.—Mimi]
Have you ever wondered what we do when we aren’t sitting around writing about music? Would you believe that we’re both government agents working undercover in Nashville to protect the world from bad music? Yeah, it’s like Homeland Security but WAY cooler. Okay, no we don’t do that. [No one who ever met us would believe that.–Mimi] Actually Miss Mimi is a physicist and I’m a postal worker. Right, not exactly truth, though that may be the kind of lie where there’s a grain of truth. I guess you could say that about the secret agent thing. The real deal is that I am a high school teacher, at an all-boy Catholic school and Mimi raises alpacas and shears them to knit hippie sweater things out of their wool. [The physicist thing is not mutually exclusive with animal husbandry.–Mimi][I can totally see Mimi raising a pack of alpacas. They’re very soft. You teaching a bunch of impressionable Catholic boys, however, does not seem entirely on the up and up.—Daisy]
Before I go on about my own random blather, I’d like to point out a little bit of utter awesomeness to you. Brody, one of the lovely folks over at The 9513, has crowned the country music blogs with their Golden Age counterparts. We at HCT are stupidly thrilled to be compared to Townes in such a way—not just because our blog is named for a song written about Townes, but more specifically Brody seems to like the way we play. So go check out the post, check out all the other awesome blogs there and give Brody and his kin some love. Also I would like to say an extra thanks from the HCT cat, whose name is, in fact, Townes Van Cat (a stray that lives in the yard, how appropriate, eh?). [Aw, that’s sweet. Is it one of the feral cats?—Daisy]
RSS Feed