Mercy Music Player

Posted Fri November 5, 2010

Mercy Lounge announced today they’ve launched a new initiative along with State Farm Insurance to, ideally, expose some local artists to a wider audience through an exclusive mailing list that provides you with a monthly mixtape of new, downloadable, goods. The basic gist, you provide them with your email, they provide you with a password to 10-14 tracks of quality music; playable in your favorite browser or downloadable to your machine. It’s a bit weird to have State Farm Insurance so closely tied in with a bunch of local bands but it falls right in line with the Art vs Content debate that’s been going on for awhile now – the corporate entity associated with the music doesn’t matter so much as long as they aren’t directly influencing the art, right?

Regardless of that whole situation – it is a good way to keep up with local music. This month’s inaugural edition has music from the likes of How I Became the Bomb, And The Relatives, Diarrhea Planet, PUJOL and a host of others. Well worth the email swap.

BRENDAN BENSON

Posted Thu November 4, 2010

http://www.balconytv.com
BROUGHT TO YOU IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE RHYTHM BUILDING at MUSIC ROW in NASHVILLE TENNESSEE and THERECORDSHOPNASHVILLE.COM Late afternoon, Miami, and Iggy Pop and I were standing watching for a manatee that occasionally swims up along the river at the end of his garden. Pop was bare-chested in cerise trousers, talking about Brendan Benson. “Well you know Brendan,” he said, “you how Brendan is, how Brendan sounds…” and as he spoke he waved his hand, stirring the warm air. He was telling me why he had invited Benson to sing on a track on the Stooges’ 2007 album the Weirdness. “I wanted a sweet, clean, effortless American voice on that particular chorus,” he explained, as we looked down the river. “And Brendan had the voice.”
For Benson, The Raconteurs was not just an opportunity to play with close friends Jack White (The White Stripes) Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler (The Greenhornes) but also an chance to roll around in the rock, psychedelia and blues that had shaped his musical taste. He once told me how he fell in love with the Blues when he first heard Cream playing Rollin’ and Tumblin’ on the radio; how this led him to Howlin Wolf and to a guitar style that is “scuffed, scruffy, flappy.” “My stuff is all chords and melody,” he said. “And so playing with the Raconteurs is so liberating because, when you play the blues with other people, you’re all on common ground, you all know the same basics.”
The key to Benson’s talent has always rested there in the music itself. Through all of his songs ribbons a delight in melody. It was there in One Mississippi’s Bird’s Eye View, just as it is there in My Old, Familiar Friend’s Poised and Ready. For Benson, words themselves are musical instruments; feel it flutter through t he rhymes of Don’t Wanna Talk: “I hear you loud and clear/ But now I fear this ear/ I’m lending/ Is falling off/ And all is lost/ And it seems never-ending.” Benson’s musical approach is detailed, craftsmanlike, fastidious. Take for instance A Whole Lot Better from the My Old, Familiar Friend, in which harmonies, hand-claps, guitar are layered to produce a work of such heart-filled buoyancy, a work that culminates in the sweet, dove-tailing swoop of its refrain: “I fell in love with you/ And out of love with you/ And back in love with you/ All in the same day.” http://www.brendanbenson.com Tune in again to BalconyTV Nashville!!!

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Catching Up With: Ben Marcantel

Posted Wed November 3, 2010

You may not know it but if you’re the least bit involved with the local Nashville music scene you’ve probably encountered work in some capacity from Ben Marcantel. He is, quite honestly, one of the busiest and most prolific creators about town. So, I decided to have him catch me up on everything he’s had his hands involved with over the past year or so.. and he delivered. It’s a lengthy read but such is the nature of the beast when you’ve got your hands in as many projects as he does.

2010 has been an odd one, I started the year by getting three stitches in my ring finger after the fluorescent light fixture I was replacing at work fell through the ceiling and ripped my digit open, yum! Since that bloody brush with nearly passing out, I’ve taken the lack of flying cars etc. promised to us in this futuristic year of 2010, as a sign that much fun should be had. I’ve fashioned a timelinesque thingy to organize the numerous going-ons.

Late Winter/Early Spring: The Forrest Bride LP Cats with Wings, Hands off Cuba LP From Arrival to Survival, both released by the incomparable William Tyler via sebastian speaks. Later I did a stop motion short for the Hands off Cuba song, “Defibrillator” – Ryan Norris helped out when we were snowed in during the er blizzard; It was like the Shinning except we had all the booze and French synthwave we wanted. At this time Ryan and I began working on a film soundtrack for local film maker Jefferey Stanfill, shot on some serious soviet film gear and it includes a few notable locals – the film should be screened next year. I believe Mr. Stanfill is setting up a kickstarter account to complete funding for the transfer/processing of the film, worth checking out for fans of cinema.

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