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She’s the oft-misunderstood, oft-hyperbolized neo-folk darling who defies categorization due to her unconventional instrumentation (harp), more unconventional voice (squeaky) and still more unconventional disregard for standard pop/rock song structure and subject matter. Her first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was a compendium of short songs about yarn, seashells, devotion, regret, and imagination. Her second album, Ys, was a five-song collection where the shortest track clocked in at 7:17 and the longest at 16:53, each of them reveling in a rich orchestral background produced by Townes Van Zandt, each of them long enough to fully develop Newsom’s poetic ideas, against a landscape of leafless trees, talking circus animals, and astronomy lessons.

Now we get Have One On Me, billed as a triple album (available in LP and CD), out today on the label that’s been with her from the start, Drag City. Earlier this month, three tracks were prereleased on the Drag City site, and they were awesome (“‘81,” “Good Intentions Paving Company,” and “Kingfisher”). I especially loved “Good Intentions Paving Company” for its soulful edge, with the trademark piano riffs, backing vocals and organ of a previous era.

I’ve had a while to come to grips with the fact that Joanna Newsom is going to be super famous, now. I’m OK with that, though I’m not looking forward to the expanding criticism she’ll face for things like her visibility in the fashion industry or her famous comedian boyfriend. When people come across a young, prodigious musician early in her career, they tend to make her in the image they want, and they want her to stay twee and nubile and childlike. Joanna Newsom doesn’t owe us anything.

You can listen to Have One on Me in its entirety on NPR Music. It’s not usually my style, but in Ms. Newsom’s case, I’m waiting until I have the artifact in my hand, after a trip to my neighbourhood record store.

>>> dragcity.com

Cross-posted to stylusmagazine.ca

Bits from my Tumblr and the rest of the web.

1. SEAN’S ANTIQUE WEATHER CLOCK

My pal Sean is known for his interest in clock mods. In the past, he’s modded a thrift store alarm clock to be controlled by a joystick. This time, he’s taking an antique weather clock and hooking it up to the freakin’ internet. Oh yes. Check it out!

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2. ONE GRAND HOME TAKES ON THE BEHEMOTH

Thanks to Racialicious, I was recently introduced to One Grand Home (Subtitle: Reflections on sophisticated, affordable home design and the ethics and politics of decor) and have been appreciating Alexis’s analyses of the classism and racism that tend to rear their ugly heads in the art/craft/design blogosphere. On Monday, the target was design megablog Apartment Therapy, with an illustrated breakdown of its many incidents of race- and class-fail and the way that the blogs editors refuse to acknowledge or address these issues.

3. THE EXCELLENCE OF TUNE-YARDS, IN VIDEO FORM

Lizzyville posted a link to dublab’s video of Tune-Yards performing the song “Fiya.” The video itself is understated — just Merrill Garbus playing and singing in front of a backdrop of soft blue lights — but that’s probably what makes it so wonderful.

tUnE-YaRdS “Fiya” from dublab on Vimeo.

Tune-Yards, if you don’t know, was one of the best things in music in 2009 and undoubtedly will continue to be in 2010 and beyond (it was the soundtrack and partially the inspiration for my first Video Scrapbook back in April). Experience it on MySpace.

(One more parenthetical: I refuse, simply refuse, to render the name in tOgGLe CaPs as Merrill Garbus wants us to. I will honour many different ways of styling proper names — all caps (HEALTH) or lowercase (crys cole), but I simply will not acknowledge that anyone over the age of 14 would choose to render their name in toGgLe cAps. SoRRy.)

4. THIS WEEK IN FAT FASHION (A.K.A. FATSHION)

New blog discovery this week: Christina’s Musings of a Fatshionista (Tagline: Fashuns for the Fat & Fancy). This week, she posted some scans of a high fashion shoot by Velvet d’Amour. The model in the shoot is, of course, plus-sized (no — she’s actually fat. In model terms, “plus-size” can mean anything from a size 4-8, so let’s give this gorgeous woman credit for her actual adipose tissue!).

5. GABBY SIDIBE CONTINUES BEING AWESOME, LOOKS AMAZING WHILE DOING IT

The star of Precious is profiled and photographed in Harper’s Bazaar, and that article is profiled in People (funny how that works). She looks gorgeous, and she drops a couple of great quotes, one wise, one hilarious:

[W]hile Gabourey can pose for the camera like any seasoned pro, her confidence didn’t come as easily as it may seem. “It came late, too late in my life,” she recalls of changing her attitude. “One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl.”

“I hate yoga so much. Like if yoga was a person, I’d stab them”

Well, not today today, but a couple days ago.

I was going through the mail at work, as is my prerogative. Moments like this one make me relish that prerogative.

I came across an unusually pristine bubble mailer — we get tons (not literally, because they are quite lightweight, so perhaps I should say VOLUMES) of bubble mailers, and few are as clean and unrumpled as this one. Perhaps Beth at Indoor Recess has some special bubble mailer powers?

Anyway, then I noticed the stamps. They were unusually relevant to my interests:

Outer space AND and dragonflies. (Specifically, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Aeshna canadensis.)

So, was there any question that I’d find something unbearably wonderful inside the envelope?

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Post about Friday’s Ohbijou show at the Lo Pub up on my music/radio show blog, The Book of Right-On.

At the halfway point in the last month of summer, here’s a mix of my personal summer soundtrack, or at the least selections from it. Some of the list is obvious, some isn’t; but if there’s one thread through the majority of the tracks, it’s vocals – prominence of and excellence therein. There’s also one instrumental track, but that’s more about my current love affair with the guitar than anything.

GRIZZLY BEAR – TWO WEEKS

When it came out in June, Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest debuted in the Billboard Top 10. Deal with that for a minute. There are always mixed feelings when an indie band breaks through, and it doesn’t really matter how we feel, because nothing will change the fact that the piano chord riff rules and the vocals that harken back to ’60s pop are amazing.

Download “Two Weeks” [MP3]

MIRAH – GENEROSITY

This song is not perfect to my ears. It has me at the beginning but kind of meanders as it continues and loses me, but not to an extent where I can’t still enjoy the soaring strings and aching precision of Mirah Zeitlyn’s voice.

Download “Generosity” [MP3]

NOUVELLE VAGUE – THE AMERICAN

This Simple Minds cover is fantastic. Dirty acoustic guitar and incredible vocals once again prove that this pop project is impossible to ignore.

Dowload “The American” [MP3}

DIRTY PROJECTORS - STILLNESS IS THE MOVE

I'm a sucker for vocals and that's where this group ultimately excels. This song closed their set when they opened for TV on the Radio in May, and I liked it a lot for the same reasons others hated it - the invocation of Mariah Carey-esque vocals. I don't know if you could call me an all-out MC fan, but I certainly do enjoy her from time to time and honestly, listening to this song makes me dream about a situation in which la MC would step away from the auto-tuner and get back to her vocal acrobatic roots.

Download "Stillness is the Move" [MP3]

ZWICKER – WHO YOU ARE (FEAT. HEIDI HAPPY)

From their all-in-all wonderful disc Songs of Lucid Dreamers, Swiss duo Zwicker did well in recruiting Heidi Happy for vocals on two tracks, including this one. Nice, nice, very nice!

Download “Who You Are” [MP3]

CHIC GAMINE – SHAKE OFF YOUR WORRIES

I think I’ve been taking for granted just how enormously talented this quartet is. Four vocalists, one drummer, and a focus and pop precision that the band’s forerunner, Madrigaia, seemed to lack at times. At any rate, this band is much cooler than Madrigaia, and this track is something you should listen to.

Download “Shake Off Your Worries” [MP3]

GENTLEMAN REG – WE’RE IN A THUNDERSTORM

This might make it onto the list for its name alone, because it’s an excellent descriptor for the summer we’ve been having here in Winnipeg. Rain, rain, all the time. And the relentless, disco-y acoustic flavour of this track is good for a sunny day or a rainy one.

Download “We’re in a Thunderstorm” [MP3]

INGRID GATIN – TIN HEART

If I were the sort who made predictions about up-and-comers and other esoteric concepts with regard to the music scene and the local one in particular, I’d definitely point to Ingrid Gatin. That’s why I profiled her for Stylus Magazine this month; that’s why I link you now to this track, which lacks polish but makes up for it with wonderful vocals and harmonies.

Download “Tin Heart” [MP3]

VOLCANOLESS IN CANADA – LONDON IN LOVE (THE BIRD’S NEST)

This track is one of my favourite discoveries of the summer, largely because I wouldn’t have found it at all if I hadn’t been corresponding with the folks at the Brandon Music and Art Festival, where this Saskatoon band performed. Once again, what really takes this track over the top are the vocals. I couldn’t resist making this the soundtrack to my July Video Scrapbook, where it also triggered the obsession of my friend Damian, who was curious when he saw me refer to it as “Prairie folk-rock,” which he equated with Spirit of the West. And to be fair, the first several bars of the song are a poor advertisement for what follows. But then Mitch Lysak starts to legitimately wail, his soaring vocals flying over some compelling guitar rhythms and when he sings, “Your face tonight, in Canada; oh, Canada,” you’re all in.

Download “London in Love” [MP3]

YEARS – ARE YOU UNLOVED

Years is the solo project of Do Make Say Think’s Ohad Benchetrit. It reminds me a lot of early Do Make stuff, but even less muddied by noise and orchestral stuff. At its heart, it’s engaging, beautiful guitar music.

Download “Are You Unloved” [for free at Years' MySpace]

Cross-posted to The Book of Right-On

(cross-posted from The Book of Right-On)

Julia Ryckman

Better late than never getting these pics up!

Last summer, local musician/producer Mike Petkau began an ambitious project; for 16 Wednesdays in a row, he gathered groups of three musicians, usually from different generic backgrounds, in a recording studio where they wrote and recorded an all-new track in one night. Into the wee hours of the morning, Petkau stayed up mixing the track so he could release it to the internet the following morning. (My original post on the subject.)

Last month word came out that Killbeat Music would be distributing the limited-run CD printing of the project, which comes in a happily-coloured orange-and-green, individually-numbered cardboard case.

The CD release was held, quite timely-like, in the newly reopened West End Cultural Centre, closed for nearly a year for massive renovations. It was my first time in the new WECC, so allow me to say a few words on the subject — IT IS AWESOME. (Now a few more words.) The biggest achievement of the new design is that when you walk into the new auditorium, located in an all-new building attached on to the old one (the old auditorium now is a lobby/multi-purpose-room/bar/washrooms), it feels the same as the old one. It has the same dark, cozy feel, and while the stage is larger and lower and there’s a (super-cool) catwalk balcony in a u-shape at the back of the room, the same old tables and chairs are arranged in a familiar manner and you still feel like you’re at the West End. That is amazing and hats off to everyone who pulled this massive project off.

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