I'm taking a hiatus from the blog for the rest of the week while I drive across country, from Washington, DC to Portland, Oregon—my new home. I thought I'd leave you with a track from my favorite Portland artist, M. Ward, who I'm seeing play with his fellow Monsters of Folk (Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and Mike Mogis) at Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall this October. Wish me luck!
"Work all day, keep the rhythm through the night / Work all night, keep the rhythm through the day/ Sell that soul, you'll be burning up right / Got no soul? Well that's fine all right," sing John Baldwin Gourley and his chorus of bandmates over a heavily reverberated bass drum, clacking drumsticks, acoustic guitar, xylophone, and a riffing banjo on The Majestic Majesty.
“Ask anyone in L.A. where the craziest people are, and they’ll say Laurel Canyon," Joni Mitchell said of the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles where she once took residence—a counterculture haven for like-minded musicians during the 1960s. It was in Mitchell's own home that then boyfriend Graham Nash first jammed and harmonized with David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
Bergen, Norway folk-pop duo the Kings of Convenience are set to release their third LP and first in five years—Declaration of Independence. The album, set for release October 20th, contains the hushed melodies and intricate acoustic guitar work of "Mrs. Cold." The sweetly addictive track is one of the band's most accessible and instantly gratifying compositions to date.
New York production duo the Soundmen—comprised of Scott Durday and Justin Jamison—have released a remix of the Drums track "Down By The Water." The song, a late 50s and 60s style soul song centered around the steadily plucked bass notes of a guitar, is treated here with dark and heavy synthesizers and a thunderous snare drum. You can hear the original at the Drums' Myspace. 
The Monsters of Folk—the all-star, Traveling Wilbury's-style affair featuring Jim Jams, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis I reported on last month—shuffle along on the spirited verse-trading rocker "Say Please," the first track from their self-titled debut due out September 22nd. My only question is, who decides who gets to do the soloing? I'm hoping James and Ward duel it out on a track: giant anthemic rock riffs against John Fahey-esque finger-picked licks.
Singing about a boy's inability to confess his love during a New Year's Eve party, Erika Hoffmann shares small hope-filled moments along the way ("Every time the phone rings it sounds like a song") but ultimately declares the opportunity lost ("Every night you fall asleep with your headphones on / Look for me and I'll be gone"). It's a bittersweet love song from Michigan's Saturday Looks Good To Me, but one that's played in celebratory fashion with its loud exclamatory riffs and 60s pop sensibilities.
In Peter Bogdanovich's excellent four-plus hour Tom Petty biopic Runnin' Down A Dream, the director features live footage of Petty and the Heartbreakers performing "Anything That's Rock and Roll" for BBC's Top of The Pops in 1977. With lyrics like "Rockin' pretty steady till the sky went light" and "We got to hip your mama that you got to live free," the song may not be a work of genius, but it sincerely captures the youthful embrace and craving for music and rebellion. Jacob Rubin put it best in the New Republic last year:His legacy will not be his innovative guitar parts or Byzantine lyrics, but his fearlessness to embrace cliché as a viable recourse of expression, an embrace that has always been the unapologetic heart of rock 'n' roll.Tom Petty -
Apparently 18 months is enough time for a band needs to write and record three albums. Following their successful debut and rollicking follow-up, DC-area collective These United States are set to return with Everything Touches Everything on September 1st. The band and its aptly-titled label United Interests are currently offering up the opening track, "I Want You To Keep Everything," as a free download. Muted and muffled guitar licks matched with a blazing steel string and feverish percussion don't signal a change away from the group's jangly and wordy roots-rock, but rather a bigger and more effective platform for it. (The cover art is by illustrator John Malloy)
I first heard Billy Swan's "I Can Help" in the great Gus Van Sant movie Paranoid Park. Set in Portland, Or., the movie centers around a teenage skateboarder, Alex, who accidentally kills a security guard. That being said, this song is no downer. And it appears in the film's most cinematographically brilliant moment: when Alex is walking alone down his high school's corridor. Swan's 1974 single is full of rockabilly rhythms, sailing guitar riffs, and reassuring lyrics that are simultaneously hilarious, soothing and, for lack of a better word, cool.
New York quartet The Drums are a wildly addictive group fascinated by the surf culture of the 1950s and the late 70s/early 80s Factory Records sound. Combining harmonies and whistling that could find a home in an early Beach Boys album with rhythms and bass lines popularized by Manchester bands like Joy Division and New Order, the Drums' music provides a welcome spin on two beloved eras. 
There are mixes for all sorts of occasions—birthdays, dance parties, halloween, the new year—but there's really only one season that deserves the many hours of song searching and shuffling: the summertime. Whether you're drinking a cool beer on the beach or by the pool, driving down the highway with your windows open, or sitting on a rocking chair on your porch, summer beckons for songs seemingly wide open with loose rhythms, casually picked guitars and melodies suited for humming or singing along to.
