If you are a fan of The Decemberists, then you will also be a fan of The Builders & The Butchers. They are one of the best contemporary bands that plays traditional-style folk music that I’ve ever heard. If that is too many qualifiers for you, then they are one of the best bands to drop in my inbox this year. You might even say this band was all it took for me to get working on this blog again, and you might not even be a filthy liar when you say it.

From Loch Lomond/Builders Split
Vampire Lake – (MP3, 9.5 MB)

From The Builders & The Butchers
Bottom Of The Lake – (MP3, 9.3 MB)

From Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well
Golden And Green – (MP3, 5.5 MB)

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Music freely available online is always appreciated, even moreso when it means I don’t have to resort to the morally ambiguous hosting of the music myself. There are some folks who believe this is the way of the future, and even though I always end up buying physical copies, the word of mouth potential for free distribution on the internet is amazing.

Now, these dudes ended up on my list while finally catching up on the catalog over at Quote Unquote Records. Folksy, punksy, dudes with heart! I feel so corny saying that. The music is excellent. The recording quality gets a little sketchy on some tracks, and they may get a bit noisier than you want to handle, but it all works out for me. I’m already jamming too many links in here, so just check out their myspace page for links to the various downloadables and such. They’ve got two full lengths and some live stuff available.

From A Rhythm in the Cages
No Lodging For the Mad – (MP3, 3.2 MB)
Dig Too Deep – (MP3, 1.7 MB)
Cuyuhoga Canal – (MP3, 3.5 MB)
Montana – (MP3, 4.6 MB)

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Alright, I’m back. For how long who knows, but here we go, bringing up the lovely Yula again, of Nanuchka, World/Inferno, et al). This time, she’s got a whole different assortment of folks, and though some of it is fairly familiar (Thumb Cinema mostly so, due to it already having been lent to World/Inferno for their last record, though it has certainly evolved into a fairly different song by now), there is a lot of craziness going on here, most notably from the opener, Back Off America, which was almost too crazy to get into, but has since endeared itself to me greatly.

The whole album is available at Woodland Records, which is quite nice of them, though they also provide a means to not only buy a physical copy, but to donate if you enjoy it. It’s fairly similar to what they’ve got going at Quote Unquote Records, which has a bunch more bands I need to get to on here one day.

From Victor
Back Off America – (MP3, 3.7 MB)
96 Yulix – (MP3, 5.3 MB)
Thumb Cinema – (MP3, 6.2 MB)
Magical Acoustic – (MP3, 3.4 MB)

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So, everyone’s favorite folk singer, Sharon Van Etten, is on tour, and if you don’t go see her, you will definitely be missing out. Here are the dates (and yes, I’m a bit late in posting this so some of these dates are not applicable anymore!) And before I forget, or in case you don’t feel like checking out the tour dates, she’s touring with both The Great Lake Swimmers and Rain Machine (the fellow from TV on the Radio’s solo group). So unless you’re like me and are lamenting the fact she’s not playing in your town, I command you to go see her. Or at least implore!

In case you haven’t heard any of her awesomeness, here’s the video of one of her many fantastic songs, For You.

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I wasn’t planning on writing anything on here, not so much from lack of music worth writing about as, well, laziness. However, listening to Alela Diane’s new album, To Be Still, I felt compelled to get on here and ramble a bit about it. I’d quickly become a fan of hers after her first album on a label, The Pirate’s Gospel, so I was happy just to learn she had another album to get. After listening to White As Diamonds, one of the standouts on her new album, I was also happy to learn that the album was good. If her folksiness and fantastic singing wasn’t enough for me, the violin playing (and that she lives in Portland now) is a sweet bonus. I’m not sure if I like her new one better than The Pirate’s Gospel, but it is a worthy successor.

From To Be Still
White As Diamonds – (MP3, 5.1 MB)

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While I’ve written about Rykarda Parasol before, that was just a little over two years ago, so hey, why not write about her again? To summarize what I wrote about her back then, 1) her name is incredibly easy to Google, and 2) unlike many folk musicians, both her voice and the music she creates are dynamic. I’m posting a song of hers I didn’t post back then, She’s Like Heroin. It’s really two songs in one, since it’s got a hidden track as well. Also, she says her new album will be recorded by May of this year, with a release sometime this year. So until then, enjoy the free music, you slackers!

From Our Hearts First Meet
Hannah Leah – (MP3, 4.6 MB)
Lullaby For Blacktail – (MP3, 3.4 MB)

From Here She Comes
She’s Like Heroin – (MP3, 7.9 MB)

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Timesbold is a folk band that hails from New York, so I guess we’re doubling up NY bands for now. Their singer, Jason Merritt, sounds a lot like the singer for Okkervil River, which is more confusing than anything else. I do not really feel like writing a whole lot of words today, but I will say that if you’ve liked my folk suggestions of the past, you will like this band. If you like Okkervil River’s singer and wished he had a side project that was decidedly more folky, you will like this band. These songs are all from their self-titled debut, but they’ve released an album this year, Ill Seen Ill Sung, that is also quite good. Oh, and I’m definitely going to do a best of ‘08 list this year. Is that enough hints for you?

From Timesbold
Gin I Win – (MP3, 4.8 MB)
EE Cummings – (MP3, 4.4 MB)

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Since it’s Election Day here in America, make sure to vote; after all, a democracy’s pretty pointless if people don’t vote. Now that I’ve discussed all the politics I plan to discuss on here for the next four years, let me introduce you to some actual music. Christopher Denny is a folk singer with a sound (and especially a voice) that harkens back to the folk days of yore, and pays no heed to this modern anti-folk claptrap. Which isn’t to say that anti-folk is an inferior genre, but it’s nice to hear music that values where it came from. It is equally nice to hear folk music with powerful vocals. My main qualm with Gypsy Into A Carpenter is that while his vocals are undeniably strong, they’re also quite meandering. Time does not have any such issues, and as such is one of my favorite songs on his debut album, Age Old Hunger. Regardless, my criticisms may be soon forgotten, but this music will not.

From Age Old Hunger
Time – (MP3, 4.6 MB)
Gypsy Into A Carpenter – (MP3, 3.6 MB)

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If Hugh is the proverbial Master of laziness, then I would surely have to be the Apprentice. I do have an excuse though, so I guess that makes it ok. R-right? Furthermore, I don’t know if anyone actually listened to the music I posted, but hey, onwards we march.

Today I have for your delectable listening pleasure the dulcet tones of Ms. Zooey Deschanel, a.k.a. the She in She & Him. Having seen her in the totally awesome “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, the news that she also sang was enough to pluck away at my heartstrings! Or something like that. Zooey is joined by M. Ward (whom we haven’t written about for some reason!) to provide us all with some lovely folkey, country tunes. There’s even a Beatles cover in this album (I Should’ve Known Better), and it’s pretty darn good.

Oddly enough, I even have media for you all, and it’s not some dodgy Flash thing either. It’s an actual MP3! Along with this, I would go ahead and check out the aforementioned cover, as well as This is Not a Test, all of which can be found on their debut album, Volume One.

From Volume One:
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? – MP3, 5.7MB

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Once again, I am redefining the very, erm, definition of lazy. It’s not that there’s a lack of excellent music, either. Perhaps now that I’ve joined MOG, a music blog network, I will be more regularly shamed into writing something. Amber Lee & The Anomalies has what she terms “neo-folkloric accordion charm,” and I am not about to disagree! Her debut album, Estuaries, is indeed full of such charm. Songs like Not As The Crow Flies and It’s Me stretches the limit of upbeat accordion music. That does not mean it’s always happy music, of course; the music on Only The Girls reminds me of the darker moments of The Tiger Lillies’ album The Sea, and well, you just can’t expect songs called Whaler’s Wife or Beautiful Decay to be too cheerful. Her vocals keep anything from getting too dark, though. Listen to her song Time Master below, it’s the opening track of her album and one of my favorites.

From Estuaries
Time Master – (MP3, 3 MB)

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