1. Paleo - Swimming in Money
Paleo, the musical vehicle of one David Strackany, opens the album with a cautionary hymn of excess. Paleo has just finished his monstrous song-a-day-for-a-year project, downloadable in its
entirety at his website.
website | myspace
|
 |
2. Chris Bathgate - A Flash of Light Followed By
A native of Ann Arbor, MI, Chris Bathgate's apocalyptic vision is tempered with gorgeously plucked guitars and fierce distortion. He has just release a new full-length record,
A Cork Tale Wake, on Quite Scientific.
myspace
|
 |
3. Alina Simone - Gunshots
A stunningly-talented Ukranian-born songwriter, Alina Simone tells a story about decay and gentrification and the chaos inherent to change. Her debut full-length album, Placelessness, is coming out on 54º40' or Fight!
website | myspace
|
 |
4. Chauchat- Smokin' Paint
Chauchat has been releasing great albums for at least 8 years (many on Unread) and it's a privilege to get to include them on this compilation and hopefully expose some more folks to a band that's criminally unknown.
myspace
|
 |
5. Hayden - Message From London
I'm sure Hayden needs no introduction. The song he contributes here is simply fantastic - both a relationonship and a world in trouble. His long awaited follow-up to 2004's Elk Lake Serenade is due out in late Summer.
website | myspace
|
 |
6. Allyn Latorre - On the Banks of the River
The musical vehicle of visual artist Sonny Fields, this song is a haunting fairy tale, a renaissance poem wrapped in gothic folk garb.
myspace
|
 |
7. J. Tillman - Barter Blues
I'm not gonna lie - J. TIllman is one of my absolute favorite songwriters in the world. This track, featuring a hypnotic and lush production by Saxon Shore's Matt Doty, is a pretty big change from Tillman's more spare recordings, but is all the more incredible for it.
myspace
|
 |
8. Oweihops - Sad Little Drunks
aka Michael Metivier, this song by the Massachusetts songwriter is a gorgeous autumnal hymn complete with sweeping, sublime pedal steel.
myspace
|
 |
9. Sarah White - Part of the Story
Striking a balance somewhere between her early Jagjaguwar lo-fi releases and her newer melodic emphasis with the Pearls, this is sad, wonderful and all stripped-down to it's essence.
website | myspace
|
 |
10. Elephant Micah - Korean Sunset
If I have my way, history will look back at Elephant Micah as one of the greats of American songwriting. He's so good, it's like if The Highwaymen was comprised of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Jaosn Molina and Jeff Mangum. Yeah - he's that awesome. And this track is awesome too - mournful violin and
whirling distortion = bliss.
website | myspace
|
 |
11. Nic Garcia - Torn Up in the Machine
I've been smitten with Garcia's music since I first heard it years ago when I was just getting Yer Bird off the ground - it's dark, engrossing and emotionally exhausting in the best way possible.
website | myspace
|
 |
12. O'death - Angeline
This fantastic track from NYC's premier primitive-folk-punk-rock band has long been out of print and is just now seeing it's first wide relase on this compilation. There is no band more fitting to score the apocalypse, and this track would be the highlight to that soundtrack.
website |
myspace
|
 |
13. The Hotel Ghost - Lay Me Down
This young Canadian singer's music is some of the most powerful singing and composition I've heard. It's big words, but to me sounds akin to Billie Holiday composing dirges on a cathedral organ. This song, comprised of deathbed wishes is, fittingly, both startling and comforting
myspace
|
 |
14. Travel By Sea - Too Much Too Quickly
Seemingly both a warning and a promise, this song by the transatlantic duo is carved with distant, pounding drums and stark wordplay. Their second full length is scheduled to be out later this year on Autumn Tone.
website | myspace
|
 |
15. The Gunshy - No One Remembers The Drunk
An apocalyptic narrative by the lauded Pennsylvania writer, The Gunshy always craft intensely personal and feverish imagery. This is the diary of the collapse.
website | myspace
|
 |
16. Matthew Ryan - Gone For Good
Perhaps one of the most influential songwriters in my life, Matthew Ryan wrtites in a way that few can parallel. He was kind enough to lend this staggering track of loss. His new album, From a Late Night Highrise is available now.
website | myspace
|
 |
17. Hezekiah Jones - Mississippi Sea
A waltz from the near-future, the Philadelphia songwriter tells the story of the human
survivors in the year 2043.
website | myspace
|
 |
