Found this youtube video of unsigned artist Kiersten covering Bon Iver….led me to many other great covers of songs I love and her iTunes EPs.

For more vids check out her youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/kierstenmh

Enjoy

40 Day Dream (Live)

Former Ima Robot frontman shows us what The Polyphonic Spree would sound like if it took a music class from Arcade Fire.

Their debut album Up From Below is out now.

Fruit Bats is an American folk rock band originally from Chicago, but now based in Seattle. They can be smooshed in the alt-folk/americana/alt-country genre if such smooshings are permissible. Think Blitzen Trapper and Fleet Foxes…kinda…I guess.

From Wikipedia ~ Fruit Bats were formed in 1999 by guitarist, pianist and singer Eric Johnson, the band’s main songwriter and only constant member. Originally part of short-lived Chicago group I Rowboat, Johnson and two of his fellow Rowboat members, guitarist Dan Strack and drummer Brian Belval, created Fruit Bats as a side-project.

When I Rowboat split up, Fruit Bats became Johnson’s main focus. Spurred on by Califone/Perishable Records honchos Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella, the group recorded their first album, Echolocation, released in 2001.

After tours with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Modest Mouse and The Shins, Fruit Bats signed with Sub Pop in late summer 2002, recording their second album, 2003s Mouthfuls.

The group released their third album, Spelled in Bones, in 2005. Their fourth album The Ruminant Band was released on August 4, 2009.

When I first heard this song earlier this year on YRock I really liked it. The band and song name brings back memories of a dutch oven I once invoked in the wee hours of the morning after a long night of chicken wing eating and beer drinking.
The shame is that VH1 now has their hands on this video and sadly, they now run the risk of becoming the next Fray. At least we can enjoy it for now.

From Wikipedia.com – The band was formed in 2006 by Mikel Jollett. During a one-week period in March 2006 while working on a novel, Jollett learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer, he also experienced a break-up and was diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease which led Jollet to develop two cosmetic conditions: Alopecia areata and Vitiligo. Spurred by these events in his personal life, Jollett turned from writing prose to writing songs as he realized he was composing an album instead of a novel.

Jollett met drummer Taylor in the summer of 2006 and the two established an immediate rapport. After working on original material together for four months as a two-piece, Jollett asked classically-trained violinist Bulbrook and bassist Harmon to join the band. A situation that Jollett enjoys re-telling with relish, Harmon initially refused. With a background in orchestral and chamber music, Bulbrook since taught herself to play viola and keyboard, while Harmon holds a jazz degree in upright bass performance from the California Institute of the Arts and taught in East Los Angeles as part of the school’s Community Arts Partnership. Jollett had met Chen several years earlier, when both lived in San Francisco. Chen was at first asked to join as a keyboardist, but revealed to Jollett that he in fact, played guitar and filled the role as lead guitarist.

To supplement his fiction writing, Jollett had earned income as a freelance writer, contributing to organizations such as NPR, Los Angeles Times, Filter Magazine and Men’s Health. Since the creation of the band, he has continued to write only fiction. Jollett’s short story “The Crack,” was published in the Summer 2008 McSweeney’s issue 27 sandwiched between short stories by Liz Mandrell and Stephen King.

The band takes its name from the postmodern novel White Noise, by Don DeLillo, which won the National Book Award in 1985. In the book, a chemical spill from a railcar releases a poisonous cloud, dubbed by the military as an “airborne toxic event.” This serves as a metaphorical device for the novel’s themes of mortality and media consumption, as the protagonist Jack Gladney is forced to confront the prospect of his own death.

Grab the torrent here

This is a live BBC version of Winter Hill by the Doves off the album Kingdom of Rust which came out in April 2009. Doves are an English indie rock band, originating from Wilmslow. The band comprises brothers Jez Williams (guitar, vocals) and Andy Williams (drums, vocals), and Jimi Goodwin (bass, vocals, guitar). The members started working seriously together after meeting at The Haçienda in Manchester.Doves’ unofficial fourth member is Martin Rebelski, who plays keyboards.