Songs You Need to Add to Your iPod Shuffle, Like Now...

I wanted to take this time to post a bunch of my favorite bands and list my favorite songs by those bands. As I have said in numerous posts, the whole purpose of this blog is to share the music I love with others who are looking for music outside of the mainstream realm.

My taste is not everyone's taste, and I am well aware of that. My favorite music is the alternative folk rock sound.  Regardless, I think if you are interested in independent music, you should at least research the following songs and give them a listen. You never know what you may end up jamming to.  So look these up, like now.

1. Deer Tick (duh): Twenty Miles; Ashamed; Easy; Art Isn't Real (City of Sin); Smith Hill; Baltimore Blues    No. 1; Diamond Rings 2007; Houston, TX; Dirty Dishes; Little White Lies; Long Time; Nevada; Dance of Love; Lalala; oh screw it, any and all songs by them

2. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Beat the Devil's Tattoo; Weapon of Choice; Ain't No Easy Way; Feel it Now; Whatever Happened to My Rock & Roll; Red Eyes & Tears

3. Delta Spirit: Trashcan; Tomorrow Goes Away, Duncan

4. Bobby Long: Left to Lie; Who Have You Been Loving; Two Years Old; In the Frost; Being a Mockingbird; Bounty of Mary Jane

5. The Civil Wars: Poison & Wine; Barton Hollow; Oh Henry; My Father's Father

6. Fruit Bats: Ruminant Band; When You Love Somebody, Born in the 70's

7. Everest: House of 9's; Rebel & Roses; Let Go; Angry Storm; Trees

8. Middle Brother: Daydreaming; Middle Brother; Me, Me, Me; Thanks for Nothing

9. Arctic Monkeys: Crying Lightning; Fake Tales of San Fransisco; Cigarette Smoke

10. Iron & Wine: Each Coming Night; Flightless Bird, American Mouth; Morning; Tree By The River

11. The Romany Rye: Long Way Down; Black Hair; Love Song; Back to LA

12. Dawes: When My Time Comes; That Western Skyline; Love is All I Am; Bedside Manner

13. The Weeks: Mississippi Rain; Buttons; Hold it Kid

14. Mumford & Sons: After the Storm; Awake My Soul; The Cave; Little Lion Man; Winter Winds, Roll Away Your Stone, Timshel, Sigh No More

15. Marcus Foster: Kiss is a Knife; Broken; You, My Love; Make it Easy; Fourteen Times; Crooked Sky; Way, Way, Way

16. Band of Horses: General Specific; Cigarettes, Wedding Bands; No One's Gonna Love You; Infinite Arms

17. The Kills: Sour Cherry; Cheap & Cheerful

18. Mountain Man: Animal Tracks

19. A Fine Frenzy: What I Wouldn't Do; Hope for the Hopeless; Happier; Ashes & Wine

20. The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You; Ballad of Love & Hate; Die, Die, Die; I'll Fly Away

21. Dr. Dog: 100 Years; Shadow People

22. Those Darlins: Wild One; Snaggle Tooth Mama; Night Jogger; Whole Damn Thing, Red Light Love

23. Laura Marling: Blackberry Stone; New Romantic; Ghosts; You're No God; Travel Light

24. Jamestown Revival: Looking for The Right Thing; The Revival; Ain't it a Shame

25. Rilo Kiley: Silver Lining; Moneymaker; Acid Tongue (Jenny Lewis - solo)

26. Eels: Fresh Blood; Novocaine For the Soul

27. Johnny Flynn: Brown Trout Blues; Tickle Me Pink; Cold Bread; Travel Light

28. Cage The Elephant: In One Ear; Backstabbin' Betty; Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, Right Before My Eyes

29. Tilly & The Wall: Pot, Kettle, Black; Rainbows in the Dark

30. Joshua James: Crash This Train; Winter Storm; Crooked Arrow

31. Haley Boner: Queen of Everything; Green-Eyed Boy; Big Star

32. The Black Keys: When the Lights Go Out; Lies; I'll Be Your Man; Howlin' for You; Tighten Up

33. Neko Case: In California; Favorite; Wayfaring Stranger

34. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife 3; Down By the Water; January Hymn; June Hymn; The Chimbley Sweep; We Both Go Down Together; All Arise; Rox in the Box; The Mariner's Revenge Song; The Rake's Song; Oceanside; Calamity Song

35. Monsters of Folk: Man Named Truth; Right Place

36. Kings of Leon: Back Down South, The Face, Revelry, Use Somebody, Notion, Arizona, The Immortals, Crawl, Closer, Pyro

37. The Head & The Heart: Lost in My Mind, Cats and Dogs, Heaven Go Easy on Me

The BEST $5 I Ever Spent!

A couple of weeks ago, we headed down to 12th & Porter (my new favorite little hole-in-the wall bar) to see three of my favorite little indie bands: The Weeks, The Romany Rye and Feedback Revival.  Grant's cousin's husband, Nathan, is in Feedback Revival, so we were excited to finally see them play. The cover charge was only $5, and can I say, it was the best 5 bucks I have ever spent.




All three sets were fantastic, but a little surprise was thrown in that I could never have expected, nor will I ever forget!



The Weeks

There wasn't a very big crowd, however, we decided to head upstairs and watch the show from the loft area because the acoustics are better there. We pleasantly discovered that we were the only ones up there...that is, until the surprise occurred. But I will get to that later. Anyhoo, Nathan joined us for the first two sets because Feedback Revival was going onstage last.



The first band up was The Weeks. I love them. They hail from Mississippi and their blend of alternative southern rock is out of this world. The sets for all three bands were pretty short, probably around 6-7 songs each. So I didn't get to hear my favorite song, Mississippi Rain, but they did play Buttons, my other favorite Weeks song. It was a great start to the evening. (Just a note...my camera SUCKS.)

Next up were The Romany Rye. They are a relatively new favorite of mine. I discovered them in the Rolling Stone Cover Contest I wrote about in a previous post. It took them just a little bit to grow on me, but once they did, I was hooked! In the article in Rolling Stone, it mentioned that Kings of Leon called The Romany Rye "the band to watch." I guess that's the truth...and that leads me to the ultimate surprise that took place that evening.

We were sitting along the edge of the loft, waiting for the set to begin when I heard footsteps on the stairs. I rolled my eyes because I had enjoyed having the loft all to ourselves until that point. I didn't even bother to look to see who it was. The band had just started and I was too involved in that. A few minutes later, as the other people began to edge closer to us for a better view of the show, I turned my head to see who it was. To my utter shock and amazement...it was Matthew and Jared Followill of freakin' KINGS OF LEON. They were seriously four feet from me. It was one of those moments that I was remaining calm on the outside, but inside I was screaming! Regretfully, as much I wanted to, and as much as I am kicking myself over it now, I didn't ask for a picture. I felt like they were just there enjoying a show, watching their friends play, and I wanted to allow them to do that. But since that will probably never happen again, I'm quite sick over it now. My cousin, Travis, joked with me that without photo documentation, it didn't happen. I assure you...it did!

The Romany Rye

So, The Romany Rye played their set. It was fantastic of course. They didn't play my two favorites, Black Hair and Long Way Down, but they did play one called Love Song, and I fell in love with it.  After they finished with their last song, the two Kings of Leon headed back down stairs, and Nathan went to join the other members of Feedback Revival on stage.

I had really liked FR ever since Alisha (Grant's cousin) had told us about them. But, like most bands, seeing them live is a whole other story. They really  know how to jam and I was just blown away by their stage presence. It was if they had been rocking that stage their whole lives. They did play my two favorties of theirs, Delta and Money. And of course, I love to see local bands really doing well. It was an amazing conclusion to a stellar night. I could not have gotten any more out of $5 if I wanted to!



Feedback Revival

If you were to ask me what one of my favorite things about being into indie music is that it's cheap. When you think about all the entertainment we got out of $5, it's almost ridiculous. I was fortunate enough to get to see Kings of Leon in concert last summer, and those tickets were in the neighborhood of $75 each, and those were for nosebleed seats! We saw Tom Petty last fall and paid over $150 per ticket! Now, don't get me wrong, I will gladly pay what I can afford to see such amazing talent. But it's nice to know that there are some of the most talented musicians in the world touring this country, and I can see them for 5 bucks. :)