The links have been updated, and our new MP3 (and Mac-friendly) stream is up and running for your listening pleasure. This stream is compatible with most media players, including Winamp, Windows Media Player, and iTunes.
Just click on the links to the right.
Enjoy!
As our progress continues, we have updated portions of the site, the most prominent being our Music section in the menu above. The page will list our weekly chart of new music we are currently adding/spinning heavily on the Llano Idea stream. Be sure to check back weekly for new additions and see where your favorite artists rank.
While we don’t have a traditional request line for listeners, per se, we are using a chat program called Pidgin, which we can use to talk with listeners using a variety of IM software and services, like the ever popular AIM. Our username is simple enough (llanoidea) and our AIM username is equally as foolproof (llanoidea@aim.com). We hope to add other chat programs to our Pidgin client (MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo) very soon.
Info for Mac users, and a new show with a risque name after the jump….
At the very least, Spencer Krug is a busy man. Between co-anchoring the widely successful Wolf Parade with fellow prolific musician Dan Boeckner, contributing to the Canadian supergroup Swan Lake, and captaining the Sunset Rubdown ship, Krug seems to have no interest in sleeping. As if a March release of the sophomore Swan Lake album Enemy Mine wasn’t enough to satiate his musical appetite, Krug is back on June 23 with Sunset Rubdown’s latest and D&D approved LP Dragonslayer.
Getting sucked in to the blogosphere whirlwind of Dragonslayer hype a little too early, I decided to take a break from hitting the F5 key on fan forum sites and tune into one of Krug’s earliest recordings under the name Sunset Rubdown: the charming 2006 self-titled EP. Consisting mostly of solo material (although some songs include appearances from future member Camilla Wynne Ingr), the EP provides insight into how Krug composes skeletons of songs. Unfortunately unlike early Arcade Fire material, none of the five songs on the EP have gotten the pleasure of becoming meatier with a full-band arrangement and have only been sparingly performed live. Regardless, the s/t is a great listen for anyone who enjoys Krug’s interesting compositions and uniquely inflected vocals.
Read more…
It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since The Knife smashed headfirst onto everyone’s radar with their fourth released LP Silent Shout. Combining interesting rhythm arrangements and unique percussion with dark dubstep-like undertones, Silent Shout was a complete 180 from their prior more dancehall-friendly LPs like Deep Cuts, thus providing the breakthrough album that have been described by some as revolutionary. Since then, the duo composed of siblings Karin and Olaf Dreijer has been maintaining their patently hermetic lifestyles, only stepping into the limelight for a remix here and a guest vocal spot there, much to the dismay of their swelling fan base. Well, it seems like Karin has had enough with the reclusion and has ventured out on her own, recording under the name Fever Ray. Her solo self-titled debut has much of the same characteristics as The Knife, but with some starkly noticeable differences.
Still present are the unique synth sounds based on samples of god-knows-what as well as the trademark darkly modulated vocals which are stepped down in frequency, turning a sprightly alto into a ghostly bass. However, K. Dreijer ups the creepy factor further by sliding up the pendulum weight on the metronome to produce tempos that slink along rather than move. If you are a fan of whole notes and beats-per-minute you can count on your fingers, then you’ll certainly love this album.
Read more…
It seems that most philanthropy done these days by the music community is either in the form of mega-benefit concerts or charity compilations. Since the former has been adequately exhausted due to Obama’s campaign trail, independent music listeners will have to settle for a handful of recently released albums featuring a jaw-dropping collection of musicians. The two such pieces that have caught my eye (and no doubt others’ as well) recently have been the Dark Was the Night two-disc set benefiting the Red Hot Organization in their fight against AIDS and the War Child Presents Heroes compilation helping children who live in war-torn regions.
Dark Was the Night is the brainchild of The National’s brother guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner whose aim is to use “music as a great vehicle to raise both money and awareness for AIDS.” With a who’s who list of popular “indie” artists that are sure to make any music hipster giddy with joy (Andrew Bird, Beirut, and Spoon to name a few) the album was destined to move a lot of copies with or without the added incentive of helping a good cause. As a much-heralded bonus, artists featured on Dark don’t contribute throwaway tracks and forgettable B-sides but rather songs which would fit nicely on any of their individual “proper” LPs.
Read more…
Due to a fortunate iTunes shuffle draw, I’ve been spinning The Mountain Goat’s 2002 LP All Hail West Texas non-stop for the past week and half. When it to comes to being a Mountain Goats fan, I lie somewhere between the casual listener and the strictly devout follower – that gray area which tends to yield impartial critiques. With that being said, All Hail West Texas is a damn good album that certainly deserves a dusting off the shelf and a good listen to every now and then.
The works of lead-singer and founder John Darnielle is about as dense as his legend. Starting from scratch in 1991 with just an acoustic guitar, a boombox to record into, and a car to tour to “exotic” destinations like Ohio, Darnielle has been able to amass a rabid fan base and a discography that can only be described as Dylan-esque. A turning point in a career chalk full of them, All Hail West Texas marks the last album recorded on Darnielle’s Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox – a style which probably originated from financial rather than stylistic reasons. Lo-fi even for lo-fi production standards, Darnielle’s extreme minimalist approach to making music is definitely a put-off for audiophiles who listen to nothing but FLAC files wired with Monster Cables through their high fidelity speakers. Equipped with only an acoustic guitar and a sole percussion loop on “Blues in Dallas”, the static of the homemade recordings further emphasize the intimate setting the sparse instrumentation helps create.
Read more…
On Dent May’s Myspace page, he lists influences Electric Light Orchestra, The Zombies, Prince, Daniel Johnston, The Bee Gees, and the Everly Brothers. Probably another artist he should have listed would be Jens Lekman. Add a ukulele and you’ve got the soothing tropic pop blueprint for Dent May, a Mississippi native causing quite a stir in the music world. While some may see his instrument choice as a gimmick, May has said that he simply picked it because it was easy to haul around from show to show. May and his band performed a notable gig at CMJ alongside Beach House, the bespectacled nerd riling the crowd up with dance-able numbers and catchy hooks throughout.
Being a music director for a radio station has its perks. Can anyone say “advance copies?” Simply put, I hear all the new cool (and uncool) stuff before most people do. It’s pretty rock ‘n’ roll, but it also comes with a price: people are constantly asking me what I’m listening to and what they should look out for in the near future. Since the shutdown of KTXT and the rebirth in the form of the Llano Idea, I’ve re-established contacts with many record labels and promoters in order to regain knowledge. I’ve been a bit behind on the times, but I’m catching up, and this post (with a Boondocks reference in the title that I’m a little too proud of) is a little sample of what I’ve stumbled across along the way.
The first band, Wovenhand, are coming to Lubbock March 6, in case you haven’t heard. Formerly of 16 Horsepower, David Eugene Edwards will bring his unique kicking Americana to the Hub City. The following sample from Ten Stones, a track called “Kicking Bird,” should solidify your attendance commitment.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Passion Pit, Crocodiles, Titus Andronicus, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after the jump.
Unless you’ve been hibernating this past winter or live in a remote region of the earth with no Internet access, odds are you are at least aware of a little band called Wavves. Hell, you should be since your favorite music blog in the world covered this one-man band a couple of weeks back. In an effort to promote his upcoming LP imaginatively entitled Wavvves (with the added ‘v’ for emphasis), Nathan Williams has hit the road, taking along drummer Ryan Ulsh for an extensive European tour before heading back stateside for SXSW.
As one of the lucky ones, I got to catch their live set in, of all places, a late-night café in Munich, Germany. Although German crowds aren’t particularly compatible with no-holds-barred, high-energy noise punk – where the term “letting loose” lies somewhere between “arms crossed observing” and “head nodding” – Wavves was able to break them out of their comfort zone with only the aid of driving drum beats and distorted guitar.
Instead of trying to recreate the cacophony of sounds associated with every Wavves song, Williams opted instead to sift his live music through a coarse audio strainer, leaving out the harshest of elements to better highlight the more melodic parts. Although noise punk purists would probably scoff at such a move, the clarity in sound made the vocals more distinguishable, allowing fans next to me to utter to each other “so THAT’S what he’s saying!”
Read more…
Copenhagen, Denmark, seems an unlikely place to come across good ol’ fashioned country western tunes. However, this past July I stumbled across a Danish artist that cured my West Texas homesickness with just a strum of his guitar. In a region better known for its electronic acts, CS Nielsen has been able to make a name for himself with powerful singing and intelligent songwriting reminiscent of past Americana greats such as Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. I caught up with CS recently to ask him a few questions concerning his unlikely choice of sound and whether he had any plans of making a pilgrimage stateside.
How did you first get exposed to traditional country music living in Denmark?
First of all, I’m a little uneasy about categories and genres. I’m not too sure my music fits the label ‘traditional country’ – maybe it’s not even country, possibly Americana or folk music. All I know is that I’m a huge fan of classic 20th Century Americana, from Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music” to Hank Williams, to Robert Johnson, to Louis Armstrong, to Woody Guthrie, to Bill Monroe, to Muddy Waters, to Billie Holliday, to Elvis Presley… I dig Appalachian ballads, Delta Blues, Tin Pan Alley standards, old jazz, hillbilly, gospel, bluegrass, rhythm & blues, rockabilly and certainly also country & western. I’m sure some or all of these influences are evident in my music, and if you hear me as traditional country more than any of the others, maybe it’s because that was my earliest influence.
Do you remember that first album that got you intrigued with country music — the one that made you think you wanted to do something like this?
I think my first introduction to hardcore country music was some old reel-to-reel tapes of my father’s that I got exposed to at a very early age. It was mainly Johnny Horton, Buck Owens, Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. As a small kid I didn’t understand a word of English, but I was totally captured by the drama and fatalism of it all. Marty Robbins’ gunfighter ballads, for example – that was frightening stuff! It wasn’t too long after that that I discovered Hank Williams, and I still remember the first time I heard “Alone and Forsaken” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”.
Read more…
![[popup]](http://www.thellanoidea.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/shout-stream/popup.png "[popup]")
