Old Hannah

Old Hannah is a folk band hailing from the hills of Connecticut. They play unassuming folk songs with a distinct Appalachian/New England flavor. While the duo may not be breaking any new ground, they do what they do well. The instrumentation is subtle and simple, the songwriting is poetically narrative and image-heavy, and the vocals (both female and male) are top notch.

Old Hannah have a four-song EP titled Bright World, released on Willimantic-based One Hundred Year Media, available as a purchasable CD or as a free download.

The music on the EP falls somewhere between Sam Amidon and Fionn Regan; male vocalist Tyler has a voice that is highly reminiscent of Sam Amidon, with a bit or The Tallest Man on Earth's Kristian Matsson. The female vocals sound a lot like Marissa Nadler or Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond.

Old Hannah's Myspace.

PW Elverum & Sun Sells Cool as Shit T-Shirts

This is somewhat of a poor-as-shite post, but bear with me if you could. PW Elverum & Sun, the label/printer/vendor run by Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, is printing and selling a series of t-shirts featuring the artwork of Norwegian illustrator Theodor Kittelsen. Kittelsen lived and worked in the late 1800's and early 1900's; his paintings, mostly of natural scenes and Norwegian fairy tales, have become immensely popular.

If you've ever seen a black metal album cover, you know what to expect.

Regardless, these shirts are really neat.

You can buy then here at the PW Elverum & Sun website, or at The Business if you live in Anacortes.

Mallory's Strange Homes

True to the DIY aesthetic to their core, Northampton folk-punk trio Mallory emblazoned their Myspace page with a message informing us that every time their page is visited Fox News Corp. and Rubert Murdoch make a little bit of ad revenue, and that we should avoid visiting their page as much as possible. While acknowledging that electronic correspondence is faster and easier, the band suggests and endorses a different way to contact them.

Send them letters.

Mallory's latest acoustic/punk endeavor, “Strange Homes,” was released digitally in late March. The band's sophmore effort, “Strange Homes” follows 2007's “Lights in the Quarry” LP. Despite being tracked professionally at Sand Hill Recordings, “Strange Homes” is just as comfortably lo-fi as the live-recorded “Lights in the Quarry.”

If there's one major difference between “Lights” and “Homes,” it is the absence of any severe politi-punk core. Never shy about their DIY and anarchist beliefs, Mallory's first album featured politically motivated rallying cries bearing titles such as “This Song Kills Cops,” and “The Red, White, and Blues.”

“Strange Homes” is a different creature. The attitude is there, as are the throaty yelps and jangling banjos, but the theme of the album is something more human and introspective. This is the story of being confused and dazed when one finds themselves slowly sliding into modernity and mundanity. Summed well in “Someone Else's Eden,” the band sings: “I woke up in someone else's dream/of concrete streets and lined up men in tailored suits/ shaking hands under the sunset of an eroded landscape.”

While Mallory's lyrics and philosophy has always been congruent with DIY punk culture, their music does more to embrace the “folk” in folk-punk. Acoustic guitars, banjos, and tambourines are plentiful; there isn't a single drum line to be found on the album. The vocals and rough and earthy, blending and harmonizing in a charmingly dissonant way with one another.

The two live-recorded tracks on the album, “These Bones are on Loan” and the surprising cover of Animal Collective's “Fireworks” present to us the disorienting and frantic Mallory that was prevalent on “Lights in the Quarry.” The first of the two is one of the album's best tracks, laying wistful and harmonious vocals over a strummed tune reminiscent of traditional Irish folk pieces.

Much of the album is Americana inspired with a gypsy-like tint. Standout track “This Tide,” penned by folk singer and band friend Mogli, begins with a slow cadence and builds to a desperate and fast-paced chorus. The theme of self-questioning runs throughout, when the chorus sings “I'm not as idealistic as I used to be/and I'm not sure anymore how I feel about anarchy.”

A satisfying follow-up to their outstanding first album, “Strange Homes” follows along the same path as it's predecessor while being careful not to tread too heavily in the same territory. While Mallory's musical style has not changed much (a blessing), their lyrical themes have moved on to explore new areas.

The band's webpage boldly states “No copyright! Music should be as free as us.” They are true to their word. Both “Lights in the Quarry” and “Strange Homes” are available as free digital downloads at malloryband.org, with a Paypal donation accessible for those who feel moved to contribute.

Refilling the Jug

The early 2000's can certainly be seen as the golden age of Omaha-based independent record label Saddle Creek, fostered on by the label's early hand in the emerging indie-folk/emo spectacle. Spurred on by Conor Oberst's Bright Eyes recordings and other similar acoustic waifs with warbling voices, Saddle Creek pressed the best of what was coming out of the American North and Midwest.

I remember walking into my hometown's one independent record store, stationed on the middle of Main Street, to buy a copy of “One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels” when it was released in 2004. Oberst had just released an ambitious dual-album, the dichotomous folk/electronic “I'm Wide Awake It's Morning/Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.”

Combined with 2002's “Lifted,” Bright Eyes had just finished a trio of highly acclaimed LP's. Combining with label-mates Neva Dinova, the two Omaha bands collaborated on a new six song EP, “One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels.”

Less of a traditional split and more of a mixed collaborative effort, “One Jug” featured a new band lineup fronted by Conor Oberst and Neva Dinova's Jake Bellows, along with members of other Saddle Creek notables such as Tilly and the Wall and Cursive.

Without much in the way of explanation, this rather overlooked EP was rereleased as a digital download in March, featuring four new tracks – two from each contributing band.

In a surprising move, Oberst has resurrected the Bright Eyes name for this project, after changing the name and configuration to his band to reflect his newfound artistic ambitions.

If the name is the same, the Conor Oberstof the rerelease is not the Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes' more bombastic days. The warbling and liquor-soaked “heart-on-sleeve” appeal is gone. The fact remains: Conor Oberst grew up, as did we, and in our wish for a nostalgic return to emo's golden days, he simply cannot provide in the same way he could five years ago.

The two Bright Eyes tracks on the EP are strong. “Happy Accident” stands on its merit as a mediocre pop-rock song. “I Know You” is far more on target, a poisonous song aimed at what could be an unfit, unwed mother. Decent as these songs may be, when placed next to original track “Black Comedy,” they come off as a somewhat hollow attempt at recapturing a fleeing feeling.

The two new Neva Dinova tracks on the rerelease are remarkably solid, considering the relative weakness of their 2008 LP “You May Already Be Dreaming.” The EP's introductory track, “Rollerskating,” is upbeat in a way that differs intensely from the usual barstool soliloquies penned by Bellows. “Someone's Love” treads on that more familiar territory, but does so in a way that outshines the material presented on “You May Already be Dreaming.”

The older, existing tracks on “One Jug” hold up well six-years after their initial release. Songs like “Poison” and “Spring Cleaning,” both crooned by Bellows with the latter being penned by Oberst, are undeniable highlights on the EP. Stepped in slide guitar reverb, Bellows is the voice of lonely night contemplation. Oberst's songs, “Black Comedy” and “I'll Be Your Friend” showcase the desperation and crooked social awkwardness that made the mid-career Bright Eyes albums so accessible and embracing.

Both Bellows and Oberst were some of the most innovative and skillful songwriters on Saddle Creek during the label's explosion in underground popularity, and while “One Jug” passed by without much notice, the split EP is an excellent testament to the early days of midwestern emo's successful flirtation with folk and alt-country.

New Paul Baribeau Songs

I'm not sure when this was released exactly, but it was some time during the later part of 2009; somewhere between June/July and the end of the year. Regardless, this six-song demo tape is the newest recorded material from Michigan's Paul Baribeau.

Signed to Chris Johnston's (Ghost Mice) Plan-It-X Records, Paul writes and sings honest, acoustic anti-folk/folk punk songs. Sounding like diary entries put set to the strum of a beaten guitar, the lyrical content rums the gambit from old girlfriends and lost love, to nostalgic reminiscence of days previous. It's all very neat, very DIY, and often saccharine and near-cutesy in their delivery. It's easy to think of Baribeau as a male Kimya Dawson equivalent, with an excellent beard.

Covering Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2":

Paul has two full length albums released (self-titled debut and its follow-up, entitled Grand Ledge) and a handful of other recorded material, including a split with Ghost Mice and an album of Bruce Springsteen covers recorded with Good Luck's Ginger Alford, aptly named The Darkness on the Edge of Your Town.

The six new songs on the demo display an admirable progression from the material on his self-titled debut LP; the songwriting is more mature, and the playing is tighter. I'm hoping that the appearance of the 2009 demo tape means another album is en route to us soon.

2009 Demo
Myspace
Plan-It-X

Mirah

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn is a singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon; she's released many albums on K Records, the anti-corporate home of the Pacific Northwest's most influential independent and uncerground acts. Mirah has collaborated extensively with The Black Cat Orchestra as well as The Microphones/Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, who also produced many of her recordings.

Mirah's music tends to run toward fuzzy lo-fi bedroom folk, an aesthetic mirrored by many of her label fellows.

Advisory Committee is her second album, released on K in 2001. It was the first album introduced to me via a friend's mixtape that featured the song "Monument."

Mirah - Advisory Committee

I Hate Myself

One of my favorite skramz bands, I Hate Myself, was a mid-late 90's hardcore emo band hailing from Gainesville, Florida. Their style was fairly indicative of other No Idea bands at the time; their vocals have a sort of post-hardcore tilt in their soft-loud dynamic, as opposed to other well-known early screamo acts from the time, like grind/powerviolence predecessors Orchid.

10 Songs, the band's second LP, is their most recognizable work. It was released by No Idea in 1997, and rereleased in September of 2000.

I Hate Myself - 10 Songs