Elijah Drop Your Gun by Mieka Pauley

Afew months ago I borrowed the "10 Tracks" concept from my fellow contributor BC, and brought you all some music by one of my favorite artists, Mieka Pauley, a singer/songwriter/hot chick with a guitar from my hometown, the indie music mecca Boston Massachusetts, and to follow that up, I'm proud to bring you her latest album "Elijah Drop Your Gun" a title taken from the song "Run" which is as stated my last time out with her, is a personal favorite of mine. This time though, Mieka's taken a different turn form her down to earth basement studio style thats gained her critical acclaim and awards for so many years. This is a more stylistic and radio geared Mieka Pauley sound, and though I do miss the style I've come to love over these many years of watching her live, listening to her albums and downloading live shows, I don't overly mind the musical risks she's taking on this album. Plus every good artist knows that its a smart thing to change up their style just abit every few years anyway as to keep from getting stale or stagnant in their genre. So though afew songs probably shouldn't have been changed, over all this album is solid, incredibly done and takes Mieka's music to another level all together, which brings her just abit closer to finally being the success she deserves to be.

The album starts out with a new more rockish version of "All Of The Same Mistakes" which transitions well from a slow sad blues song into a somewhat angry chick rocker style which actually brings the song out more. the second song is "Be Like the Man" which is a pretty nice little southern rock style song, you wouldn't think Mieka's voice would lend well to a song thats music sounds like something akin to "Bad To The Bone" but it does, it really comes through when she starts bringing out the more angry tone to her voice near the end then drops back to her normal tone, this is followed by "Secret" which becomes a very upbeat but still sexy song over its simplistic guitar style of before, I love this song's transformation really. The next song is "Bravely" which goes from a somewhat uninteresting song into a very beautiful bit of music written over lyrics that make more sense with the new arrangement, love when a song makes me see it in a new light like that. The next song is 9:45, one of her newer songs I've not exactly heard enough of it to really judge any of its versions, but i'd assume its about getting up and running away in the middle of the night, if thats so the music on the studio version works so well with it as that, its the kind of thing you'd hear in a movie when a woman's trying to get away from an abusive relationship. The next one is "Devil's Got My Secret" not alot was changed for this, a piano is more pronounced and secondary guitars, but honestly, this song is so beautiful that anything they do to it is just amazing, it really is. Followed by "Fate Day By Day" which has become sort of a signature song for Mieka, its updated well but i'm still more in love with the latest live version of it, just so great.. the next one is "Stronger" another of her signature tracks, I rather enjoy this one's new take, the crashing guitars fit the chorus so well not much was done other then that to it from its original form, but still a very nice listen. The next song is "Run" the track which the album's name comes from, and though i love the bluesy "hunter" feel of the original version of the song, I am slowly gaining love for this more pop friendly version that just seems so, different, i understand what she's doing with the song and all, but, dunno just doesn't seem to fit 100% for me, but thats ok opened mindedness is key to life. the last two songs, "Left To God" and "Draped In Blue" though great songs live, seem so much more deep and meaningful in their new forms, no idea why but they just speak so much more, truly beautiful songs they are.

All and all as long as you aren't one of those closed minded "it must always be the same" kind of music fans and aren't open to new takes or ideas then this album isn't for you if you're a fan of Mieka's work before now. BUT, if you are open minded and willing to watch as a great artist comes into her own voice and her own musical space, then this album will be great for you, its not too pop for us not mainstream lovers and its not too indie that mainstream people will go "eww this isn't top 40 so it sucks" though really no one cares what anyone that thinks that way thinks anyway.. I would say this is the kind of album that everyone should atleast give a listen too, you might love it, you might like it, you might hate it, but its still something you could give a listen too just so you know..

here are some sample tracks and a video

All Of The Same Mistakes

Run



and the video for "Secret"

Artist: Mieka Pauley
Myspace: Here
Homepage: here
Album: Elijah Drop Your Gun
Year: 2007
Genre: Indie/Rock/Blues/Pop
Download: Elijah Drop Your Gun by Mieka Pauley

By: Just A Simple Poet

Woke Myself Up by Julie Doiron

I first heard about Julie Doiron as a featured musican on an album by one of my favorite bands, The Tragically Hip. I liked her and thought I would like to hear more from her, so just to give her a try, I picked up her latest album, "Woke Myself Up". And though I can't say this is my favorite album, I can tell you that it is infact, a good listen and something that in time does grow on you. I'm not sure if its Julie's bubblegum like delivery over well played "chick with guitar" style backings, or that she seems to be having fun wile doing her songs, or that she seems to write songs that seem realistic and down to earth and fuse them with a great many styles. I will say though, before I get into this, my only real complaint is that the album seems to have many short songs and the album itself suffers of short disc syndrome because of this. (Short disc syndrome is a term I coined for an album thats under 40 or so minutes total and is said to be a "full album")

Julie does blend styles well, each of her songs is done in a different genre all driven by a masterfully played guitar base. She crosses genres from bubblegum pop to blues, to rock, to a 1800s style traveling gypsy fire side dance anthem, to an accoustic adult contemperary song, to just about everywhere else one can go with a guitar. She really does a good job mixing all of these as she does and not sticking to any one genre for more then a song or sometimes two. "I left town" also has her cats meowing in the background at some points like an odd yet lovely idea for a chorus. Truely well done.

"No More" is actually about as close to "radio friendly pop" this album gets though, I will admit this, but then again, we're not really about radio friendly or mainstream around here, so that makes it ok. The track itself is great though, its got a beat that will keep the people that just have it on for background sound from getting bored with it, and the harmonics and lyrics will keep everyone else going as well. "Don't Wanna Be Liked By You" is second for radio friendliness, which I think is kind of why I think they were placed back to back, the beat sounds like a mix of "secret agent man" and "walking on the sun", very infectious and very easy to drive over the speed limit too.

The other tracks on the disc are just this great audio journey though the world of guitar based canadian infused music. As I said earlyer though, the only downside really is that its short, the songs average about 3 minutes or so, and there aren't very many of them, only about 10 or so, but still, by no means does this make the album suffer as a whole. I enjoyed it and intend to attain the rest of her collection whenever I can see possable to do so. I highly recommend this disc.


Artist: Julie Doiron
Album: Woke Myself Up
Genre: Slowcore, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Female Vocalist

Woke Myself Up by Julie Doiron

By: BC

Morning Train by Danial Lemma

Danial Lemma is hard to pin down, you wouldn't think a man that looks like Bob Marley would be able to sing like Marvin Gaye, let alone actually be good at sounding like Marvin. And though I am a fan of the late great Mr. Gaye, that is not my real reason for liking Danial, though that does play a never minor part in it. Danial has this way about him, he writes some incredable songs and he can play some flawless guitar, its really something lovely to find these days.

Sure, most would dismiss him as just an artist singing 1970s style soul music, but it goes way past that, Danial's content is as modern as can be, and his voice just compliments the music he writes so beautifully that I am amazed he's not been played on the radio. I guess being realitively known in his native sweden means he's not gonna make it stateside yet, though I wish he would, hell I'll buy anything by this guy. Its all a wonderufl mix of soul, jazz, blues, funk and rock, I love when you can't pin an artist down, and more so, when you can't pin down an artist that masters every genre they mix together, its just so amazing when done right. As a musican myself I know how hard that is. Though admittedly, i'm not on this guy's level.

Some of the must listen too tracks are "Run Tell John" a lovely murder ballad about getting ready to put right something that went wrong long before and prepairing incase they don't come home from it, this one stold out to me early because of how the vocals come through so clearly, and you wish them luck and want them to come back, if you close your eyes, you can see them saying their good byes and everything. "Morning Train" is a great track too about a somewhat doomed romance, the lyrics might not be the best, but the vocals and the arrangement make up for the lack there. "I used to love you" is really an uplifting song about looking back at a love and remembering just what it is that brought her to him in the first place, "You Won't See Me" is song about death that makes you happy and sad. "Loneliness" would have been a great album ender, though its not, the track simply moves me.

I doubt anyone that gives this a listen will be let down, mostly because there are so little uplifting albums made outside of the mainstream these days, not that I mind a sad album or 12, its just nice to find someone so down to earth and so uplifting at the same time. It really does remind of the likes of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathoway and the like, definately give it a look.


Artist: Danial Lemma
Album: Morning Train
Genre: Neo-Soul, Accoustic, Pop

Morning Train by Danial Lemma

By: BC

Math and Physics Club by Math and Physics Club

For some reason as of late, I've really become endeared with what i call "throwback acts", Math and Physics Club is definately that, sort of hailback to the early british invasion era of the 1960s with a very uncanny simularity to Herman's Hermits most notably, and in their self titled debut, Matha nd Physics Club have really shown that though music has progressed and moved past the british invasion, its good to go back and kind of hang out with it now and then.

The album itself consists mostly well crafted and beautifully arranged love songs and 1960s style bubblegum pop, its really interesting how a basement band small time project like this band can actually incorperate such modern terms and ideas and mesh them with a sound that timestamped an era in the way it did. I've always been a big fan of that sort of work, new light on an old school sound. Course, I'm a big Peter Noone fan, so I would love a throwback to his sound.

Afew notable tracks, "Darling Please Come Home" is a lovely lead off track that has a masterfully played guitar as the driving force of the track, it sounds like it was done on one of those old 58 Gibson guitars that rocked so harshly. "I Know What I want" is a lovely song about not giving up on a love that means more then the singer realized, its great, "April Showers" is a pretty little song that sounds abit like someone from acrossed the pond singing a happy Simon and Garfunkel track from the early days before they went all overly political and serious (not that I mind simon and garfunkel that way mind you..), its a pretty love track about curling up under a big umbrella in the rain. "Holidays and Saturdays" is a sort of an internet love song, its nicely done and well writen. "La La La Lisa" is a musicans love song, writen about a woman in another band and they're right, there is just something about a woman with a bass guitar...

The rest of the album is the same sort of work, its just a delightfull trip back in time to the era when people knew how to write a song, and knew how to play instruments, like actually play, not repeat the same three chords over and over again at an annoyingly breakneck speed wile someone screams over them, and when value was placed over just mindless agression of corperate marketing plans. I don't think anyone will be let down by this if you open your mind and give it an honest listen.


Artist: Math and Physics Club
Album: Matha nd Physics Club
Genre: Indie Pop, Retro Pop, British Invasion

Math and Physics Club (self titled album)


By: BC

Knives Don't Have Your Back by Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton

Its hard to really pin down Emily Haines into one genre, thats not uncommon in the out of the mainstream music market honestly, and though it would be easy to dismiss her and her band the Soft Skeleton as another good group lost in the shuffle of your average college radio station, I would like, if you would, to stop and take a look, and I hope you won't be disappointed. Emily Haines started out as a member of a band called metric, and eventually went on to great The Soft Skeleton, I've tired to find her old band's work, but its rather hard and seemed like alot of work just to write three lines or so about the differences, so with that said, onto the focus at hand.

I find that Knives Don't Have Your Back is strange, it sounds almost like something made in a high school music class but in its simple and low-fi feel, its just so beautiful, its melodic, lyrically complex and raw enough to hit deep down inside now and then. Its great that way. Emily's voice sounds like an uneasy, nervious teenager thats trying as best as she can to not crack under the pressure of being on stage at some high school talent show. Its that down to earth open and flawed voice that really makes you love her by the end of this.

"Our Hell" is an interesting lead off track that is rather misleading, its a song about her life and those around her and how really, their life isn't that bad. "Doctor Blind" is my favorite track on this disc, its so sweeping and majestic, I get the idea of playing in a field with someone special and just relaxing, truely beautiful. "Crowd Surf off a Cliff" is a great piano track with a spooky echo effect that haunts you as you listen, its great that way. "Detactive Daughter" is a song about nicely made track with a lovely mix of guitar, piano and rythums, its sort of a bluesish song with a very strange meaning, "The Lottery" is a very sexually changed song about a one night stand "sexual suicide" she calls it, a very strange track, but yet, addictive. "The Maid needs a Maid" is of all things, a song about a lesbian attraction to a singer, its full of innocent yet sexually charged innuendo, its abit odd, but for the oddness of it, I love it. "Mostly Waving" is a strange song that seems to make me think at one time someone tried to get Emily to conform and put being pretty for the frat boys over her music and her self respect, not my favorite lyrically but I love the mid/late 70s feel to the music of it. "Reading in Bed" is a very sad song that looks as if Emily is giving a deep look inside herself and her life asking "why are your songs so sad?" to herself, the backing music in this is amazing. "Nothing and Nowhere" is a very depressing look at big city life and how sad it can seem for those that just live day to day. "The Last Page" is a very sad song looking back at a past love, its really a haunting track in its beauty. "Winning" is a track about opening up and the prosess back to some form of normality, you can almost hear Emily crying on this one, its really kind of cool in that tearfull finale to the album type of way.

I find myself at the end of the album wanting more, like, waiting for a second disc to start up and continue this trip inside Emily's mind, and by proxy inside myself, it really makes me want to go out and buy more, I just wish I could find her old band because i'm gonna need something like that to keep my fix till she makes something else. Its a true find.

Knives Don't Have Your Back by Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton

Artist: Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton
Album: Knives Don't Have Your Back
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Indie Pop, Female Vocalist, Harmonics


By: BC

Kate Klim: A First Look

In my line of work I meet alot of up and coming artists, its actually the better part of my job I think, keeps me alittle ahead of the wave and keeps me real. One of those artist I've gotten to meet was a woman by the name of Kate Klim, and if I may, I would like to talk about her for just afew minutes. Plus she fits in well with my weakness for female vocalists and female singer/songwriters... but thats a whole other thing.

I met Kate after a show she did in her current hometown of Boston Massachusettes just about 2 years ago, and is a joy to talk too, very funny, very open to people speaking of her music, and very easy on the eyes if you ask me. I only spoke to her for afew minutes but i could tell she had that something that was going to make her a star someday, a very Tori Amos/Vanessa Carlton/Amy Lee girl with a piano and a voice so frail and vulnerable, as well as eligant and beautiful. I've compiled 7 songs of hers i've been able to track down through various internet sources to show you just what I mean.

"breath me in" is a very lovingly crafted and sad song about a lover and looking back at their trubulent and unstable relationship, of how everytime she wants to leave and end things, with a touch, she returns to where they were.

"Give Me a Sign" is beautifully made song of longing for more from someone who has her entrauled with the very idea of them, but she is waiting for some sort of a sign that they feel the same for her, some of Kate's greatest bridges in this one, "give me a sign, give a fighting change, I want this way to bad to change my mind, and this is our song, and i've waited all night to dance, but darlin I'm running out of borrowed time."

"I Choose Me" is an upbeat guitar laced song that makes you tap your feet even if you don't realise you are, its about looking back at childhood and thinking how things have changed and how instead of a young love, she choses to be herself and to live her life. This is one of Kate's more upbeat and uplifting tracks, and one of her few non-piano driven ones, a very nice stand out.

"Heaven Help Me" is a very open song of love and how she is trying not to fall for someone because she knows deep down just how bad it will be for her, she goes on about trying to fight it inside but she just can't. This is the very first song that Kate played infront of a crowd at a professional singer its said.

"Jacob" is about Kate looking back at the first boy she's ever loved, how they grew up together and how she would follow him where ever he would go and her looking back and wondering what he's up to now that they're older and have drifted appart because of his moving away. Its a happy and somewhat bittersweet song about how innocent love is when we are young and how meaningfull it can be when you look back at it years alter.

"Nothing" is a small song that is a sad song about sitting alone and missing someone she loves with all that she has inside of her, this is where the best line she has ever writen in it "anyone can say I love you, only I can say I miss you.", though its very short, its a very deep and meaningfully tocuhing song, your heart literally breaks as you listen to it.

"Something" seems to be a continuation of "Nothing" just with the line "something" and afew other lines added, i'm not really sure what the deal is with that, but it still has that same heartbreaking feel as "Nothing" I think maybe she ment to put them out as two different versions of the same song, but I can't seem to find any actual backing up of this to be sure.

I find that though most would lable Kate as depressing or emo, she isn't, she is reaching out through her saddness and other feelings and trying to touch on places that many are scared to admit we have for various reasons, that part of ourselves that is flair and scared and vulernable, those places we try to protect from others, Kate puts them out for display and shows us all that its ok to do so and to feel these things.

I'd highly recommend her to anyone thats up for something soulsearching, deep and will hit just abit close to home.

Artist: Kate Klim
Album: N/A
Genre: Singer/Songwriter, Indie Pop, Female Vocalist

Kate Klim: A FIrst Look


by: BC