Bootleg Bin |
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|  | | Earlimart Video - Live from Amoeba |  | They packed the house, and now you can re-live the show. |  | | | | The Evolution of a Cover - Mott the Hoople |  | Ever wondered the process for designing a CD cover? | | | | | Local H videos from their record release |  | You may not have been there when they played in Chicago, but this is the next best thing! | | | |  | CD Pick of the Moment |  | | | Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers | | Academy-Award nominee Aimee Mann has released her seventh and newest release on her own SuperEgo Records. It is hapilly something of a return-to-form, not as timeless and classic as 'Bachelor No. 2,' but still rock-solid and definitely recommended for the fans out there. Get the special edition package while supplies last! | | | | Kim's Korner |
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It's not about the format, it's about the music. |
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Music & Melodrama |
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 | | | LaMontagne - The New Posterboy? | Who doesn’t love a sad guy with a guitar? Case in point: veterans Damien Rice and Elliott Smith, “new-comer” Glen Hansard, and my most current audio obsession, Ray LaMontagne, whose album Trouble, I’ve been playing on repeat for the last several weeks. Oh yeah, there is something about a tortured soul with a song to sing.
LaMontagne is the poster child of sorrowful, single guy, American Folk Music: with shaggy, dark hair constantly in his face and his never-changing, un-groomed beard, he exudes mystery and skepticism. A self-proclaimed “very private person,” he rarely interacts with crowds at live shows and often plays in the dark - how awesomely clandestine. And with his signature raspy voice, which he claims to get by singing from his gut, he says exactly what the rest of us are feeling. Could we ask for more? I would highly doubt it.
It doesn’t take much to become a die-hard Ray LaMontagne fan: a strum of his guitar, maybe two. If you listen long enough to hear him utter a heartfelt lyric (and I promise you will), you’ll be hooked - guaranteed. There is something in his gravelly voice that wreaks real emotion: an element all too non-existent in popular music, today. Good thing Ray knows what it takes to write real, thoughtful music. Songs like Forever My Friend, Barfly, or How Come feature hooks that you can sink your teeth into. And Jolene and Burn– two of my favorites - will do nothing short of rip your heart right out of your chest. Yes, LaMontagne is quite the master of pulling at your heart strings by pouring his out – pure genius.
Trouble (2004) and his second album Till the Sun Turns Black (2006) were mostly solo affairs, resulting in a collection of songs that will make you want to fall in love - just so you can fall back out, pick up a guitar, and sing your broken heart out. The newest of the three albums, Gossip in the Grain,which sees LaMontagne joined by members of his touring band, bassist Jennifer Condos and guitarist Eric Heywood (with Johns largely handling drum duties), fingers crossed, will dish out a tad more of the same – he’s just that good.
We can only hope that LaMontagne will deliver yet another bunch of brilliantly blue ditties, with Gossip in the Grain, due to hit the shelves on October 14th. Four years after his lyrical debut, LaMontagne explains, “It was time to open up a little bit more, not be quite so reserved in my choice of songs that I wanted to record." – If Grain is, as he suggests, even more “in touch” with the yearnings of the soul than its two predecessors, I think we’re all in for a hopefully melancholy time and I, for one, am waiting with baited breath.
Keep your ears open for You are the Best Thing from his newest set. In true LaMontagne fashion, his new single will undoubtedly have you putting your life on hold for three minutes and thirty seconds. And if you’re not soulfully singing along to your pumped up car radio, you just might find yourself swaying to this sweet, sweet tune. This time around, LaMontagne keeps things upbeat and hopeful, somewhat uncharacteristic for the moody singer/songwriter – although, I’d imagine we’ll find the familiar lovelorn tune or two that is his specialty.
There’s good reason why Vanity Fair dubbed him "a fresh reminder that the genuine artist is not yet an extinct species.” LaMontagne, craftsman that he is, seems to know exactly what he’s doing: “…Shrewd devil, you know very well that God pardons singers no matter what they do, because he can simply die for a song…” I think you’re right, Ray, as long as it’s one of yours.
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