Steve's Internet Stuffs

Laura Rossi - The Battle Of The Somme

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:47:33 -0800

Here's something you don't often see on Bandcamp - an epic orchestral soundtrack to a film.

In this case, it's a film that came out in 1916, about the first British Offensive of the 1st World War.

It's amazing, well worth turning up loud and having a proper listen to. Laura Rossi's clearly a brilliant composer. Hopefully she'll have more stuff up on bandcamp soon!

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Miriam Jones - Solitary Songs

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:46:41 -0800

I've written a lot about Miriam Jones in the past. I even played on one of her albums. She's married to Jez Carr, with whom I made 'Conversations' in 2002.

She's amazing - I've just started listening to a pre-release copy of her forthcoming album, which won't be out for a little while (I think), but a lot of the songs are band versions of the songs she did as her 'Solitary Songs' project last year - one song a month, writing, playing and recording it all on her own.

These are some truly great songs. Helicopter is one of the best things I've heard in years. Most songwriters would kill to write one song that good. The rest of the album is remarkable too.

So go and buy this now, and get to know the songs before the new one appears, and you get to enjoy them all over again with a rocking band behind them...

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The Deep M.O / Yolanda Charles.

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 01:57:03 -0800

Forget any nonsense classification about 'women bassists', Yolanda Charles is arguably the finest funk bassist in the UK. A remarkable musician with an enviable track record, she took her time getting round to making her own music, but now with the Deep M.O. has a rockin' funk/soul band, with which she sings and plays bass, with her amazing husband Miles Bould on drums.

Here's their lovely funky EP:

If that wasn't enough, here are two vids of Yo playing a couple of older tunes (from the days when the Deep M.O were caleed MamaYo) completely solo. Lovelovelove these -

and

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Emmalee Crane - Crux

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:58:02 -0700

More ambient goodness found via twitter - I think, like Lowercase Noises, I found Emmalee because she was talking to Zoë Keating... Zoë's clearly become my go-to person for cool ambient stuff!

I don't know all that much about Emmalee, except that she's friendly on twitter and facebook and makes awesome music. And that's more than enough for me! I love the conciseness of her music - most ambient/drone based music seems to stretch out to 15 or 20 minutes a track, but Emmalee has a focus to her recordings that runs counter to that drawn out approach. It's the pop music of drone. Beautifully recorded, and full of interesting sounds. Enjoy:

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Hope And Social - April

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:44:13 -0700

Heres' a record I've been listening to a lot of lately. I first came across Hope And Social via their guitar player Rich Huxley (AKA Cliff Huxtable/@thehuxcapacitor) who I met through UnConvention in Salford. After a while I had a listen to his band, and on first listen to that album (the one before this) thought it was nice, well made indie rock... Over time, as I revisited the album and my knowledge of the band grew, the music also grew on me. A lot. I dug it. I heard subtle things in there. I love that it's pretty anthemic without falling into any of the banality of music written for stadiums. It's more Hothouse Flowers than it is U2...

Then this new album came out - it's even richer and more diverse than the earlier stuff and the story around what the band are up to gets more exciting and hilarious with every weird gig they organise.

Read more about them at http://hopeandsocial.com

And check out the album - it's 'pay what you think it's worth' - but as you can't afford that, just give 'em ten quid, and know you got a bargain ;)

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Two fabulous bassists to listen to...

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:57:29 -0700

Sorry to keep wittering on about it, but Bandcamp is fast becoming THE way I buy music. I've still got my eMusic account at the moment, but if I got rid of it, I don't think I'd be any worse off for new music...

With that in mind, here are two relatively recent releases by lovely bass players.

The first is Julie Slick's self-titled album. Julie's one of the most amazing 24 year old bassists I've ever heard. Much could be made of her youth, except that the maturity of her writing and playing makes the focus pointless. She's just a remarkable musician. Listen, then download it if you dig it as much as I do:

The second recording is by Steven Guerrero - his new EP is marvellous. It's just bass + drums, 3 lovely tracks. I've been listening to Steven for a long time, and really enjoy hearing his music grow over time (his debut album, also on Bandcamp is excellent too - check that out.)

Here's Theories Of Rocketry:

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blogging about music when I really should be novelling...

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:29:24 -0700

It's November, which means it's National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

I did it last year, and ended up with a novel that I'm deeply proud of. I love it. I've re-read it a number of times and it makes me laugh, and reminds me why I'm a musician. That other people seem to dig it too is a marvellous thing.

But November is also, for many, NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. So I'm going to do that too. Here. And I'm going to blog some new amazing music every day.

Starting with an album I bought off bandcamp today, after seeing a conversation between the artist and Zoe Keating on twitter. I don't think Zoe had actually recommended him, just said that she liked this twitter bio. I clicked through, was listening in seconds, and paid $10 for a 'pay what you think it's worth' download. Good stuff.

Here it is - he calls himself 'Lowercase Noises' and is a fabulous ambient guitarist, from New Mexico. This is going to get a LOT of stereo-time round here.

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"I am sitting in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination..."

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:01:08 -0700

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Danny Barnes - live in Portland.

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 08:40:00 -0700

I am, it must be said, a massive Danny Barnes fan. A big fan of the man's music, and the man himself.

I first heard him playing banjo with Bill Frisell on the album, 'The Willies' - I had no idea who he was, but it was my favourite banjo playing I'd ever heard.

Then at the end of last year, someone sent me a link to his blog post 'How To Make A Living Playing Music' - it is, to this day, the finest thing I've ever read on the subject. I point people to it almost every day.

Off the back of me spreading the word about that, I found him on twitter, and we started chatting, became facebook friends, and he bought some of my music too. Which lead to us meeting up in Cincinnati this past summer when we were both on tour and that was the town where we crossed. He's as awesome in person as he is online and on record.

I also started buying up his solo albums, and digging out a lot of (legitimate) live stuff on archive.org and youtube.

Danny's a deep guy. Big thinker. And the blend of bluegrass, country, rock, electronica and free improv that populates his music (with any of those elements being dominant at any one time) is utterly beguiling. It's playful, at times hilarious, smart and willfully unique. No-one else sounds like Danny Barnes.

Here's a gig of his from last week, recorded in Portland. It's awesome. I'm a fan.

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My fellow panellists - clever people! #uncon12 #unconvention12

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:40:02 -0700

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A music industry panel discussion... On a boat! #uncon12 #unconvention12

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:31:10 -0700

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signalsunderstests - mecca (awesome electronica)

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:06:07 -0700

I shared a bill with signalsundertests (Ricky Graham on guitar and John King on processing) at the Antwerp Live Looping Festival earlier in the year. They were excellent, so I was looking forward to hearing the album...

It's fabulous - just the kind of electronic music that works for me. Reminds me in some ways of David Torn's Splattercell project - the intersection of avant-guitar and electronics. There's enough that sounds like a guitar for you not to be left wondering what the hell's going on, but it's suitably far from the 'shredding over loops' approach to 'modern music' that plagues the computer experiments of so many guitar wizards. (For proof of Ricky's guitar-wizardry, have a rummage on youtube, there's some awesome shredding going on ;) )

Anyway, it's a really great record. The sound design is especially magical - stick it on on headphones, and concentrate. This is too good to be background music:

http://signalsundertests.bandcamp.com/album/mecca-released-on-30-09-10">mecca (released on 30/09/10) by signalsundertests

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Is This What Constitutes A Reissue In The Digital Age?

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:39:48 -0700

I've just redone the artwork for the first two 'Lessons Learned From An Aged Feline' albums (the 3rd one isn't yet online, for reasons of file quality... more on that some other time)

So, I guess that means I'm reissuing them, repackaged, for your delectation and delight.

Here they are:

http://music.stevelawson.net/album/lessons-learnt-from-an-aged-feline-pt-i">Lessons Learnt From An Aged Feline Pt I by Steve Lawson

http://music.stevelawson.net/album/lessons-learned-from-an-aged-feline-pt-ii">Lessons Learned From An Aged Feline, Pt II by Steve Lawson

In case you don't already know, The Aged Feline albums came as the bonus material with my 2nd, 3rd and 4th solo albums - in each case I recorded way more material than I needed. These two both came out on a VERY limited edition CD - the first 100 preorders got the CD - and we then not available for a few years til they got a digital only release.

Some people actually prefer these to the albums they came with - there are certainly some gems in there. On the whole, Vol 1 has a lot of big, ambient stuff and experimental weirdness. Vol II has a lot of pop tunes.

I hope you enjoy them - please feel free to download them and pay whatever you think they are worth.

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Gary Dunne - Simple Truth

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 03:51:19 -0700

Gary Dunne's an excellent singer/songwriter, who live does some cool looping things - he played at one of the early Recycle Collective shows (before the 3 musicians/3 sets format had become the norm) and was fantastic.

here's his latest album:

http://garydunne.bandcamp.com/album/simple-truth">Simple Truth by Gary Dunne

His previous album's also there, and is well worth a listen, particularly his 'Amerikan Folk Song', which is one of those tunes that you're SURE you've heard before, it's just too catchy not to have been a hit...

http://garydunne.bandcamp.com/track/amerikan-folk-song">Amerikan Folk Song by Gary Dunne

Both albums are a fiver, so well worth picking up both of 'em :)

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Mike Outram's Gorgeous Bikini

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:43:29 -0700

There, that heading should lead to some interesting Google traffic...

Bikini is, in fact, the name of the first tune to be released from Mike Outram's forthcoming solo album.

If you've been following my online stuffs for a while, you'll be all to familiar with my love of Mike's playing - he is without doubt one of the finest musicians I've ever heard, let alone played with, and the experience of recording our forthcoming duo album was wonderful. Never having played together before, we clicked faster than I think I ever have with anyone. Loads of great music still to come from that.

Anyway, here's Bikini - it's a quid if you want to download it. Listen, then give the man a quid. It's so beautiful.

http://theelectriccampfire.bandcamp.com/track/bikini">Bikini by Mike Outram

And if you haven't yet heard the unmastered duo choonz we've put up so far, here's those too:

Steve Lawson and Mike Outram by solobasssteve

Enjoy - then go and tell him how fabulous he is, on Twitter or Facebook.

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Sunna Gunnlaugs - The Dream

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 09:22:55 -0700

http://sunnagunnlaugs.bandcamp.com/album/the-dream">The Dream by Sunna Gunnlaugs

I've been a fan of Sunna's music for a year or so now, since first finding out about her through Twitter. I bought a few of her albums, and noticed a really interesting reaction from Lobelia whenever I put one on - she'd stop whatever she was doing and say, "who's that? it's awesome!"

Which pretty much sums up her music - this is her latest album, which she funded the recording of via Kickstarter, and which features her hugely talented husband Scott McLemore on drums. They have a remarkable synergy.

Feel free to listen here, and if you like it, buy it - $10US is about 6 or 7 squidz UK, so about the same as what you'd have put in if she was selling it pay-what-you-think-it's-worth anyway :)

(sorry for the lack of recommendations of late - will get back in the saddle, I promise :) )

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Lovely audience here for the music industry panel :)

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:46:33 -0700

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Ha! @warriorgrrl editing audioboos in Logic - #professionalism #tds10

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:53:53 -0700

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Amp types getting their tech on at #tds10

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:44:19 -0700

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Caffeinating before the #tds10 symposium starts

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:42:13 -0700

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