Live and Honest: Catching up…

A little (a lot) slack on the postings recently. Indeed. So, to bring you up to speed… a few live clips that have captured my imagination/attention/soul over the past few eons.

Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Live on Jools Holland)

La Roux – Quicksand (Acoustic)

Metric – Gimme Sympathy (Acoustic)

Live and Honest: Vienna Teng + Abra Moore

‘Live and Honest’ is a new little segment here on Dark Cafe Daze and is effectively the culmination of my many hours crawling online video sites for rare live videos of oft neglected artists.

Vienna Teng

“I’ve come home, even though I’ve never had so far to go…”

The first of these, this week, comes from Vienna Teng (birthname, Cynthia Yih Shih), a Taiwanese singer-songwriter and former software engineer for Cisco systems. Teng (thankfully) ended up with an independent record and has released four English-language albums, each highlighting her beautiful voice and poignant lyrical constructions (the way she writes and creates characters is up there with the best of them). The below clip is “Homecoming (Walter’s Song)” from her 2004 album Warm Strangers.

Abra Moore

“Don’t take it away from me, don’t take away the one love that matters…”

This week’s second clip comes from Californian (but largely Austin-based) folk-pop singer, Abra Moore, whose 2004 album Everything Changed was one of my favourites of that year. A delicate performer, her voice has obvious shades of Joanna Newsom in its fragility and sometimes challenging tone. Her lyrics, however, are raw, insightful examinations of human interaction, with the above album perhaps being one of the most affecting narratives of marriage and divorce in modern music. The below clip is a live performance of  “Family Affair” from that album, as well as the arresting studio version of “I Win”.

Dusting Off: Red Ghost – Brittle Times EP

Red Ghost (aka Rosa Agostino) is a Sydney-based artist who happened to put out one of 2007’s unheralded gems.

Largely guitar based, this lo-fi EP, Brittle Times, inhabits the same dark cloud as Cat Power and PJ Harvey. While not yet as wry a lyricist as either of the above, she nonetheless creates a distinct ‘I’m a little sad and a little angry but kinda too intelligent to wear it on my sleeve’ mood – chiefly thanks to some nice layering of her rather deadpan vocal delivery and the sparse instrumentation.

While seemingly off doing things with other bands at the moment, this was nonetheless a promising EP and it would, indeed, be a shame to not hear more solo material from here in the future. If anyone bumps into her, tell her we approve.

Keep updated with Red Ghost at her Myspace. Buying her EP from iTunes is also highly recommended.

One of us has changed: Ivy York

One of the stranger parts of my personality is my ability to know obscure facts about former pop stars.

Does everyone remember Aleesha Rome? No? See clip below.

What then, you might ask, is she doing with herself these days?

As expected, she is in a Bollywood-inspired indie-country London band called Ivy York. The interesting thing is – they put together lovely tunes, and have a single coming out in September.

Check them out: http://www.myspace.com/ivyyork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPTwg49aOT0

Album Review: Lisa Mitchell – Wonder

I’ll lay it bare from the outset: I do not have a history of love for Lisa Mitchell. Mark Holden was obsessed with her on that talent show but I, myself, didn’t quite get it.

Post-Idol, however, that slowly began to change. Her first EP, Said One to the Other, was nice enough – yet it was 2008’s Welcome to the Afternoon that made my ears perk up, showing an interesting blend of post-country (“See You When Get Here”) and Weepies-inspired folk-pop (“Neopolitan Dreams”) that wouldn’t be out of place on a Bravia television advertisement.

2009 brings us Mitchell’s debut long-play – which, to my surprise, I found myself purchasing late one night. The record store clerk perhaps should have been my first clue as to what to expect – “oh, it’s very nice” she said, somewhat non-commitedly. Another musically-inclined friend should have been the second – “oh, it’s very sweet”.

After the first listen, it was tempting to write this album off entirely. Sure, it still had “Neopolitan Dreams” and the slightly off-kilt lead single “Coin Laundry”, but there was nothing immediately striking about the rest of the material. Pleasant? Yes. Melodic? Indeed. Earth-shattering? Pass me the Nutella.

By the third listen, my thoughts have changed somewhat. While still lacking anything as musically exciting as “See You When You Get Here”, Wonder does contain a number of nice moments. “Jealous” has the unexpected swagger of a young Sheryl Crow (with some nice harmonica action to boot) while “Clean White Love” wouldn’t be out of place on an Old Man River album.

It is the slower, self-penned “Love Letter” that reveals Mitchell to be a surprisingly strong, highly personal songwriter and emotive performer. “Inside an old house, by the seaside, you can take off my blouse, but take it from me; I’m disorderly and you’d be off better writing someone else your love letter ’cause I’m always on the road“. It sums up what is most surprising (and impressive) about this album – the unexpected warmth and honesty it radiates.

With Julia Stone seemingly on hiatus, Mitchell may have just established herself as the benchmark in fragile, Australian folk-pop. Maybe Mark Holden was right after all.

Find out more at Lisa’s official website.

Music Video Thursday: Kate Miller-Heidke – The Last Day On Earth

The best song from Kate Miller-Heidke’s ‘Curiouser’ album now has a lovely (if not slightly heartwrenching) video. Forget any Neighbours preconceptions: this song was brilliant long before Steph Scully cried a lot. The “in my head…” lyrical refrain is one of the best of the year, too.

These R The Thoughts: Music Industry #1

A well respected colleague of mine, Mr Nick Crocker, published a piece today on The Punch regarding the state of the music industry. (It is well worth a read, so check it out here and leave your opinion).

I responded with a few thoughts of my own regarding music labels and the record industry. Read below, if you will.

The topic of music consumption is a tricky subject, especially for record labels and their attempts to display financially-tangible measurements to the finance guys on the floor above.

A large part of the flaw is that there are currently no finance-driven models of ‘new music’ consumption that approach anywhere near perfect. Take Youtube, for example. Record labels who partner with Youtube can make revenue from the number of streams generated by their material. The flipside: their content is then unable to be embedded outside of Youtube’s central website, which – in this age of blogging and social conversation – eliminates the central promotional channel for building an artist brand.

For record labels, there is also a lack of understanding on how to interprate these “new” measures of brand health. Traditionally, it was quite simple – you had physical sales as the key indicator, supported by promotional measures such as radio spins and publicity mentions. Obviously, the landscape has changed – now you have Myspace, Youtube, Spotify, Bebo, blogs, Twitter and countless other “measurements” to look at. Even if you have a social media specialist inhouse, who can can bring it all together, what does it actually mean?

Record companies tend to categorise their consumers on a sliding scale of brand engagement – from the artist “fanatics” (think Jess McGuire/Short Stack) through to the casual Austereo listener who will occasionally buy a track off iTunes or pick up an album for their children. Traditionally, the sale of a physical album generally suggested some level of commitment to a brand, from which, in turn, future business decisions could be based off (DVD releases, touring, album repackages, etc). But what of a Myspace stream? Is it a committed fan seeking out an artist Myspace as a source of greater interaction? Or is it a casual listener who, not willing to make a financial commitment to the product, simply seeks it out for free?

A site such as We Are Hunted is a significant step forward in terms of brand measurement, yet even it is something record labels are wary of – for obvious reasons, the methodology behind it is kept confidential. As such (as is the case with so much of the current climate) labels suddenly find themselves competing on a playing field that they don’t fully understand.

She’s Always A Woman: My five most important female-fronted tracks.

I have been meaning to cast my vote in the Hottest 100 Women poll (on Twitter and Facebook) for some time now, yet, as expected, have been stuck in periods of intense deliberation. My love of female musicianship (particularly lyrically and vocally) is well known, so to narrow this list down to something tangible is quite the daunting task.

Inspired by Tim Dunlop’s ability do it, I have decided to bite the proverbial bullet.

The following list is by no means concrete, exhaustive or entirely representative of my musical soul. Rather, it is five songs that have shaped me and continue to define who I am as both a person and a music-lover.

Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit (1939)

One of the most painful, important songs ever sung. I don’t listen to this song very often – how you could, really.

Joni Mitchell – A Case Of You (1971)

Choosing my favourite track from ‘Blue’, an album which I consider the defining highpoint of Joni’s career (and of music in general), was never going to be easy. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. Yet this song remains one of the most beautifully poignant, bittersweet love songs of our time.

This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren (1983)

Perhaps one of the greatest cover songs of the last few decades, this Tim Buckley cover is a stunning, emotionally vibrant piece of music.

PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke – This Mess We’re In (2000)

More than anything else, this track – from PJ’s Stories from the City… album, sums up a mood and a moment in time from my young adult years. The OST to my coming of age.

Patty Griffin – When It Don’t Come Easy (2004)

My favourite song from my favourite singer-songwriter. The song that will one day be my wedding song.

(ignore the shoddy fan made video – just listen)

Song-of-the-year contender: La Roux – Bulletproof

“Big in the UK” but yet to make a major splash here in Australia, this is the clip for La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’ – a glorious, 80s inspired pop cataclysm.

Manweek Wednesday: The Avett Brothers + Ray LaMontagne

In the spirit of #manweek today’s post brings two tracks from some of music’s finest (hirsute) singer-songwriters.

The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City

Ray LaMontagne - Crazy (yes, a Gnarls Barkley cover)

Find out more info about The Avett Brothers here - and introduce yourself to Ray here.

Sidnenote: Manweek is an initiative between ReachOut and youth radio station Triple J to get men to talk about male-centric issues. Find out more information here.