John Darnielle has announced details of the forthcoming Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come, via the band’s website. The album, due for release on 6th October, takes its inspiration from entirely unheretical material.
New Sufjan Stevens album for October release
Sufjan Stevens is set to continue his mission to musically document the United States of America after a painfully long break from recording. This time, however, his subject is not an American State. It’s not even a town. It’s just a road.
Conor Oberst to retire ‘Bright Eyes’, takes Monsters of Folk on the road
Conor Oberst, the man behind the wonderful Bright Eyes and in front of the not-so-wonderful Mystic Valley Band, has announced he plans to retire the Bright Eyes name.
Supergroup Monsters of Folk, in which Conor plays with Bright Eyes chum Mike Mogis, folk legend M Ward and My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, are popping over to Europe in November, including a date in London on 17th.
Gideon Conn documentary on TV tonight
Manchester’s finest folk-hip-hop troubadour is to spread his sweetness on telly boxes all over the country tonight with a folkumentary on Channel M.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary is part of the series ‘Hitting Home’ produced by students at Salford University.
Album: She & Him – Volume One
She & Him are not a band willing to live by clichés. By all means, the first collaboration between a guitar-wielding bluesman and a Hollywood starlet should be equal parts dull and self-indulgent. Volume One breaks the formula effortlessly from the heartbreaking opening vocals by actress Zooey Deschanel, one half of a team completed by M. Ward. The key is the wide range of influences audible in every track – there is as much room on Volume One for the softer side of Motown as there is for the livelier side of Les Paul and Mary Ford. ‘Why Do You Let Me Stay Here’ takes its leaf out of the latter’s book, a charming and energetic track in which one can hear every ounce of joy that the band have squeezed out of putting together their album.
Album: Slow Club – Yeah So
Before this debut album arrived to review, I already had 12 Slow Club tracks on my iTunes, which gives some idea of how prolific they’ve been already. So here are 12 more (13 if you include the secret track), and, mostly, they’re a very welcome addition to the Slow Club cannon.