before the frost...until the freeze

The Black Crowes recorded this double album of new material live at Levon Helm's barn and came away with the rugged realization of their years of rootsy rock revivalism.  Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson had gone through numerous changes since they started the band while in high school.   Their debut album 'Shake Your Money Maker' was a huge hit in 1990 and the number one followup 'The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion' in 1992 secured their place on classic rock radio playlists.  In the intervening years, their fortunes waxed and waned as they went through lineup changes and scraped albums (check out 'The Lost Crowes'), eventually going on hiatus from 2002 until 2005.  A new lineup regained public favor with 'Warpaint' and then 'Warpaint Live' before deciding to record their next album in front of an audience of loyal fans.  

Chris Robinson reveeals:  “What we, in our infinite wisdom, failed to realise; but we’re probably getting better at it, is that the only way we truly are ever copacetic, and can communicate, is when we’re doing that [points towards their rehearsal room] because the second we’re not doing that, it starts to get very tedious and awkward. That’s why, now, he lives in Connecticut, and I live in California. He stays in the front of the bus; I’m in the back. It’s not out of any animosity. I love him, and I would hope he’d say the same, but [laughing ruefully] we do not get on...Bad stuff happens.  What I had to learn was, that I’m only responsible for my perception of things. The world’s not out to get you. That’s not the way it works...We’ve always felt that being an individual and being a musician – you can’t put a price on that. You can’t tell us what to do. We just are that way.”


Christopher Robinson on vocals, harmonica, and guitars;  Richard Robinson on guitars, sitar, and vocals;  Steve Gorman on drums and percussion;   Sven Pipien on bass and vocals;  Luther Dickinson on guitars and mandolin;  Adam MacDougall on keyboards and vocals;  with    Larry Campbell on banjo, fiddle, and pedal steel;  and Joe Magistro on percussion.   The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Paul Stacey with engineers Justin Guip and Chris Edwards.  Initially released as the single album 'Before the Frost' with 'Until the Freeze' being made available online to people who bought the compact disk.  'Before the Frost...Until the Freeze' was made available as a double album only on vinyl, but with a different running order.  A DVD of part of the performance was released as 'Cabin Fever'.  

'Before the Frost...Until the Freeze' ventured to ninety-two in France, fifty-one in the Netherlands, and forty-seven in the UK; while in the US, they reached twelve on the Billboard 200 album chart, six on the Rock chart, and number two on the Indie album chart.  







http://www.blackcrowes.com/











"Aimless Peacock"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc2h9dYdyAw





"Good Morning Captain"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6AJgW9zKI






"Appaloosa"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD8id7ekt40





"I Ain't Hiding"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-rGDSUe1EQ





"What Is Home"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cd6ymo6Whs





"Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ooCI3yXhU





"Oh Sweet Nuthin'" {Velvet Underground cover}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9-BCix4io





"The Dolphins" {Fred Neil cover}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXYafcio9oI














'Before the Frost...Until the Freeze' 
full album:

http://www.blackcrowes.com/discography/album/before-the-frost-until-the-freeze/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-vtOOQHSGSAYer36wkFVEXwyfoMlRn3X



All tracks written by Chris and Rich Robinson, except where noted.



Before the Frost... 
"Good Morning Captain" – 3:24
"Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)" – 7:47
"Appaloosa" – 3:35
"A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound" – 4:23
"I Ain't Hiding" (C. Robinson) – 5:57
"Kept My Soul" – 5:23
"What Is Home?" (R. Robinson) – 5:13
"Houston Don't Dream About Me" – 5:05
"Make Glad" – 4:18
"And the Band Played On..." – 4:12
"The Last Place That Love Lives" (C. Robinson) – 4:57





...Until the Freeze 
"Aimless Peacock" – 6:40
"The Shady Grove" – 4:42
"The Garden Gate" – 4:21
"Greenhorn" – 7:12
"Shine Along" – 4:47
"Roll Old Jeremiah" (C. Robinson) – 4:40
"Lady of Avenue A" – 5:20
"So Many Times" (Chris Hillman, Stephen Stills) – 4:53
"Fork in the River" (C. Robinson) – 4:11

xx

The xx gave it all on the first date with the moody murmured minimalism of this crystalised collision.    The group began at the Elliott School in Putney, England as the boy-girl duo of childhood friends Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim.  They started out playing with a drum track; but when they asked fellow student Jamie Smith to use his DJ skills to improve their backing track, he ended up joining them. Another student Baria Qureshi joined on keyboards and the band came up with their name.  It wasn't until they'd left school that they met up with Young Turks label founder Caius Pawson, who became their manager and signed them.  Their eponymous debut was produced by Smith at XL Studios, North Kensington, London, England taking the homemade recordings that Sim and Croft made at night on their laptops and adding effects and beats.  With Romy Madley Croft on vocals and guitar;  Oliver Sim on vocals and bass;  Jamie Smith on beats, mixing, MPC, and production;  and Baria Qureshi on guitar and keyboards, 'xx' took over five months to finish.  

Smith admits:    "I was just discovering going out and DJing; I didn't really know that much about the technical things and what makes people dance. "

Madley-Croft muses:    "We bear everything in the music. And that's why we need to let it speak for itself rather than putting ourselves out there. It's in the artwork, too: You see the X, not a picture of us. We're happy to not be the face of it.  Oliver and I grew up together and then we met Jamie in secondary school. We've been together every day, most days, for a while, so it's not odd when we're together on tour. It's just how it is. I think being friends really helped us in making music as well. We can really speak our minds honestly. With someone new, they might do something, and we'd be like, "That's really good," but maybe we don't actually like it, and then we're listening back, like, "I wish we'd said something." That would never happen with us because we'd be like, "Wait, wait, wait-- I don't think that's right. Let's talk about it." We all love the music equally, and it's very much collaborative ... It always felt very comfortable and natural to be sort of sharing and collaging our lyrics.  We don't really have to explain to each other what we're singing about, because I already have such an emotional attachment to things Oliver is singing. It's in the same way that, with your favourite songs, you don't really want to know what the artist is writing about, because then you can put them into your own life, like, 'Oh, this is my song.' ... We made this record for ourselves - to try to make music that all of us would like." 

Sim says:   "This album was done with no expectations.  No one knew who we were. When I was writing the songs, I didn't think anyone other than Romy or James would ever actually hear them. Now I know so many people will…I might feel I have to be a bit more private ... We started writing the first album when we were 15 years old. I listen back to it and think, 'Are you really that dramatic?' I was writing from a different place, I was looking at other people's relationships and making my own stories. It was honest because it was still my feelings, just not necessarily my experiences." 


'xx' became an international underground sensation, pulsing to ninety-two in the US;  ninety-one in Canada;  seventy-three in Spain; fifty-four in Germany;  fifty-three in Switzerland; forty-one in Greece;  forty in Australia; thirty-nine in Sweden; thirty-five in France; thirty-two in Denmark; twenty-nine in the Netherlands; twenty-three in Norway;  fourteen in Ireland; thirteen in New Zealand; twelve in China; ten in Finland; nine on the US independent albums chart; five in Belgium; four in Scotland; three in the UK; and number one on the French digital album chart, on the Irish independent album chart, and on the UK indie albums chart.  In 2010, the album won the Mercury Prize.






http://thexx.info/








Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xil3NmwzOwU

extended
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gxNW2Ulpwk





VCR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI2eO_mNM88




Crystalised
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pib8eYDSFEI





Islands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PElhV8z7I60





Basic Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZVGqqf3gg







'xx'
full album:  

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Xx/3417497

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL88675B9234FDDFFA




All lyrics written by Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, except where noted. All music composed by Madley Croft, Sim, Jamie Smith and Baria Qureshi, except where noted.


1. "Intro"   2:07
2. "VCR"   2:57
3. "Crystalised"   3:21
4. "Islands"   2:40
5. "Heart Skipped a Beat"   4:02
6. "Fantasy" (lyrics by Sim) 2:38
7. "Shelter" (lyrics by Croft; music by Croft, Sim and Smith) 4:30
8. "Basic Space"   3:08
9. "Infinity"   5:13
10. "Night Time"   3:36
11. "Stars"   4:22

lungs

Florence + the Machine constructed the gothic grandeur of this sweeping stormy sensation with five different producers in eight different studios.  Florence Welch formed the group with Isabella "Machine" Summers while they were at school:   "The name Florence And The Machine started off as a private joke that got out of hand. I made music with my friend, who we called Isabella Machine to which I was Florence Robot. When I was about an hour away from my first gig, I still didn’t have a name, so I thought 'Okay, I’ll be Florence Robot Is A Machine', before realising that name was so long it’d drive me mad. I quite like the fact it’s not organic and pretty, but quite industrial – that juxtaposition of hard and soft."


She dropped out of art college to focus on music and secured a deal with independent Moshi Moshi Records and then to Island Records.   'Lungs' was recorded at The Garden, Miloco, The Pool, The Synagogue, Strongroom 33, Space Cave, The Smokehouse, and The Diary Studios with Paul Epworth, James Ford, Charlie Hugall,  Stephen Mackey, and Eg White and features Florence Welch on vocals, additional drums, percussion, backing vocals, and art direction;  Rob Ackroyd on guitar and bass;  Christopher Lloyd Hayden on drums;  Tom Monger on harp;  and Isabella Summers on additional drums, percussion, additional production, and piano;    with Leo Abrahams and Tim McCall  on guitar;  Mete Burch Bator on bass;  Sally Herbert on string arrangements and violin;  Ian Burdge and Charlie Henry on cello;  Everton Nelson on violin;  Bruce White on viola;  James Ford on additional piano, production; bass, mixing, drums, and organ;  Charlie Hugall on additional drums, percussion, production,and additional bass;  Stephen Mackey on bass, production, and mixing;  Duncan "Pixie" Mills on Hammond organ;  Martin Slattery on drums;  and Victoria Akintola and LaDonna Harley-Peters on backing vocals.   Welch says:   "It was like I wanted to make something that was beautiful and dark at the same time – also I wanted to make something epic, something that had an intensity to it. I did just want to make something massive...My main influence is being a completely inept musician.  I think the whole album is about learning to make music bit by bit, going from instinct rather than from any training ... I don’t ever think I’m not sane! And I wouldn’t ever not want to be excited. If my thoughts were less prone to tangents, maybe I wouldn’t write songs. Or sing...Death is timeless.  Death. Life. Love. Faith. Everything else is transient. But thinking about death makes you closer to life. It’s life I’m attracted to, the soul of things...I hate the idea of hurting someone, of letting people down, or myself down. When I’m tired I feel like the most rubbish person ever...You want to have something to believe in. And be unbridled by cynicism. My generation are really hard on each other. A real sense of tearing each other apart, especially in those [gossip] magazines and TV and reality shows. Just out to vilify people. That frightens me. There needs to be acceptance of each other. People are scared, searching for purpose, taking their fears out on each other...I’m just an emotional creature. But I am interested in being free. And how you get there. I want to make people feel something good. It’s essential. You should lift people.”


'Lungs' charted around the globe, going to number one hundred and seventeen in France;  ninety-three in Spain;  seventy-three in Austria;  fifty-four in Switzerland;  forty-one in Germany;  thirty-seven in Denmark and the Netherlands; thirty-six in Norway; twenty in Canada; seventeen in Croatia; sixteen in Greece; fourteen in the US; eight in Portugal;  three in Australia, Beligium, New Zealand, and on the the US rock album chart; two in Ireland and on the US alternative album chart; and number one in Poland and the UK.  It has sold over three million copies worldwide.  




http://florenceandthemachine.net/







Dog Days Are Over
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU



Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming so you better run

Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can't you hear the horses
'Cause here they come

And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had
And what was left after that too, oh.

Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back
Struck from a great height
By someone who should know better than that

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come

Run fast for your mother and fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your loving behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run





Kiss With a Fist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmxVCM39j4





Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6kBNLTvaU




Drumming Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boo2Zm69fhY





Cosmic Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIeUlvHAiM





Hurricane Drunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFA8-MNGVi4




You've Got the Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZhN65vq9E

'Lungs' 
full album:



1 Dog Days Are Over   (Isabella Summers / Florence Welch)  4:13
2 Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)   (Paul Epworth / Florence Welch)  3:52
3 I'm Not Calling You a Liar  (Summers / Welch)  3:05
4 Howl  (Epworth / Welch)  3:34
5 Kiss with a Fist  (Welch / Matt Allchin)  2:04
6 Girl with One Eye  (Allchin / David Ashby / James McCool)  3:39 
7 Drumming Song  (James Ford / Crispin Hunt / Welch) 3:44
8 Between Two Lungs   (Summers / Welch) 4:09
9 Cosmic Love   (Summers / Welch)  4:16  
10 My Boy Builds Coffins  (Christopher Lloyd Hayden / Rob Ackroyd / Welch) 2:57
11 Hurricane Drunk  (Welch / Eg White)  3:13
12 Blinding  (Epworth / Welch )  4:40
13 You've Got the Love  (John Bellamy Arnecia Michelle Harris Anthony B. Stephens)  2:49

up from below

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros took their healing hallelujah gypsy train into town and found a soulful salvation of the magical mystery kind.  Frontman Alexander Ebert formed the group after leaving the hard partying scene of his previous band Ima Robot, spending a year in self-imposed exile, and taking on the pseudonym of Edward Sharpe.  Ebert explains:  

“He was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind, but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love ... I don’t want to put too much weight on it, because in some ways it’s just a name that I came up with. But I guess if I look deeper, I do feel like I had lost my identity in general. I really didn’t know what was going on or who I was anymore. Adopting another name helped me open up an avenue to get back...I’m not yet sure if I really care about names; but I went from defining myself as against things to defining myself as for things. I think that’s the boldest stroke that I can paint as the difference. And it’s been a profound change for me ... I got the name [Edward Sharpe] from a story I was writing about a savior sort of guy, a little boy actually, but I just got the name from it. Other than that, I started the MySpace page Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and that’s about as much as it has to do with it, as far as I know. Maybe more will be revealed in the future. But I always wanted to be a superhero, still do, and I guess there’s that relationship there... I guess I’m trying to develop into all I can be, the best that I can be: Which I still feel like I’m quite a ways off from. When I was a kid, I was trying to climb walls and I thought I would eventually be able to have the powers of Spider-Man and that sort of thing. But also I think Jesus was a superhero, too, at least the way I saw it. Because I didn’t go to church all the time or anything but I was exposed to that sort of through coloring books and stuff...I didn’t set out to do it but I’ve always... I would definitely be lying if I said the figure… The sort of story and effect that Jesus had on me as a kid definitely kept going and inspired me a lot. It’s an amazing story, maybe the greatest story ever. They do call it The Greatest Story Ever Told or whatever. It definitely had an effect on me just by being around it. The idea of it working its way into songs I think is pretty natural in some ways to me and just the idea of bringing up Jesus, not Christianity, but Jesus is powerful because of all the things that is said that he said and stood for, and all these things that are antithetical to Christianity from what I can tell. It’s an interesting conversation to be had. And I think it’s also a powerful, in some ways, trick to use, to have that conversation started and be able to say what you actually mean by it."

Ebert met Jade Castrinos outside of Little Pedro’s in downtown Los Angeles and they began writing songs together, becoming involved in the arts collective The Masses.  Gradually their little group expanded to eleven people as friends and acquaintances joined the party.  'Up From Below' was recorded over a year and a half at the Laurel Canyon home studio of Nicolo Aglietti.  The sessions featured Alex Ebert on vocals, guitar, percussion, and piano;   Christian Letts on guitar and vocals;   Christopher “Crash” Richard on backing vocals;   Jade Castrinos on vocals, percussion, and keyboard;   Josh Collazo on drums, percussion, and vocals;   Mark Noseworthy on guitar and vocals;   Mitchell Yoshida on piano and vocals;   Nora Kirkpatrick on accordion and vocals;   Orpheo McCord on percussion and vocals;   Seth Ford-Young on bass and vocals;   and Stewart Cole on percussion, keyboards, tenor ukulele, and vocals;    with Nicolo Aglietti on engineering, guitar, keyboards, mixing, production, and vocals;   Kevin Augunas and Aaron Older on engineering, mixing, and production;   Aaron Embry on keyboards and vocals;   and  Christian Letts on guitar and vocals.  'Up From Below' went to number eighty-six in Australia and seventy-six in the US.  






edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com






"Home" became the song that put the band on the map and the radio.  The catchy duet between Alex and Jade charted around the world at fifty-two in Sweden, fifty in the UK, forty-six in Spain, forty-five in Belgium, forty in Australia, twenty-seven in the Netherlands, eighteen on the US alternative chart, and number seven in France.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4306i99LMXo


Alabama, Arkansas
I do love my ma and pa
Not that way that I do love you

Holy moley, me oh my
You're the apple of my eye
Girl, I've never loved one like you

Man, oh man, you're my best friend
I scream it to the nothingness
There ain't nothing that I need

Well, hot and heavy, pumpkin pie
Chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
Ain't nothing please me more than you

Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you

La, la, la, la, take me home
Mommy, I'm coming home

I'll follow you into the park
Through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I never loved one like you

Moats and boats and waterfalls
Alleyways and pay phone calls
I've been everywhere with you

That's true, laugh until we think we'll die
Barefoot on a summer night
Never could be sweeter than with you

And in the streets you run a-free
Like it's only you and me
Geez, you're something to see

Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you

La, la, la, la, take me home
Daddy, I'm coming home

Jade? 

Alexander...

Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?

I sure do, you came jumping out after me

Well, you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you out to the hospital, you remember that?

Yes, I do, 

Well, there's something I never told you about that night

What didn't you tell me?

While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was going to be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you until just now

Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home, let me go home
Home is where I'm alone with you

Home, let me come home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Ah, home, yes I am home
Home is when I'm alone with you

Alabama, Arkansas
I do love my ma and pa
Moats and boats and waterfalls
Alleyways and pay phone calls

Ah, home, let me go home
Home is wherever I'm with you
Ah, home, let me go home
Home is where I'm alone with you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb9jY8yAxgs





"Desert Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buQpcpQqdKo







Janglin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE1qfEVDjNw




"40 Day Dream"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8sa6qiHx7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn-Rp2InGdA









'Up From Below' full album:



1. "40 Day Dream"   3:54
2. "Janglin"   3:50
3. "Up from Below" (Nico Aglietti,Tay Strathairn, Ebert) 4:10
4. "Carries On"   4:31
5. "Jade" (Christian Letts, Ebert) 3:44
6. "Home" (Jade Castrinos, Ebert) 5:06
7. "Desert Song"   4:30
8. "Black Water"   3:51
9. "Come in Please" (Aglietti, Ebert) 5:07
10. "Simplest Love"   2:53
11. "Kisses Over Babylon"   5:16
12. "Brother" (Aglietti, Ebert) 3:57
13. "Om Nashi Me"   6:16