Middle Brother records Daytrotter sessions

Middle Brother has a handful of cuts off their stellar self-titled LP up on Daytrotter today. The band recorded two 4-song sets with Sean Moeller. The first in January of 2010 at John Prince's Nashville Butcher Shoppe Studio with John McCauley and Taylor Goldsmith playing their freshly written material. The second session was recorded in Austin at this year's SXSW, the morning after McCauley's Deervana show. I'm sure he wasn't hungover at all.

Middle Brother - "Daydreaming"
Middle Brother - "Thanks For Nothing"

Help Kickstart Johnny Corndawg's Down On The Bikini Line

Nashville's Johnny Corndawg—whom you may have heard sing a verse on Middle Brother's "Middle Brother" song—plays a classic country and western style of music suffused with whip-smart but often out of left field and hilarious lyrics, as on the crooned "Silver Pantie Liners" or "The Life Of A Bear." He's an absolute one of a kind talent and he's gearing up to put out what he calls "the best thing I've ever done," Down On The Bikini Line. However, putting out an album is a costly task, so Corndawg is using Kickstarter to get the necessary funds together to release the record. If you dig "The Life Of A Bear" as much as I do, you can help out by simply pre-ordering the record digitally for $10, on CD for $20 or on vinyl for $30. If you need more convincing, watch Corndawg drunkenly serenade strangers in his Kickstarter video and grab his free session over at the Daytrotter studios.

Johnny Corndawg - "The Life Of A Bear" (from Down On The Bikini Line)
Johnny Corndawg - "Night Rider" (from Water Friends For?)

Mixtape: Coffee For Breakfast, Please

Kyle MacLachlan - "Diane, it's 8 AM..."

Hugh Masakela - "A Cheeka Laka Laka"

Tapes 'n Tapes - "One In The World"

Body Language - "Social Studies"

Donora - "I Think I Love You"

Dawes - "Hey Lover" --> "Blake Mills - "Hey Lover" --> Dawes - "Hey Lover"

Cotton Jones - "Lune Chatter"

The Replacements - "Kids Don't Follow Intro"

Natural Child - "Crack Mountain"

The Death Set - "Negative Thinking"

Gold Motel - "Slow Emergency"

Mary Wells - "You Beat Me To The Punch"

Jessica Lea Mayfield - "Words of Love" (Buddy Holly)

Raveonettes - "Red Tan"

New Animal - "Nightmares of Candy Yang & The Black Italian"

Paul Westerberg - "...we're very loud and spirited..."

Middle Brother - "Portland" (The Replacements)

Cass McCombs - "County Line"

Coffee For Breakfast, Please.mp3

Thanks to Root Strata Blog for the "Diane" recordings and The Voice Project for the Dawes cover. "Hooray Coffee" is a print by artist Nate Duval. Order from his awesome store here.

Invisible Children Presents The Silver Series at SXSW

Nada over at Friends With Both Arms has put together a four day street performance series at SXSW this year in honor of the 25th anniversary of the festival and the 25th year of the devastating war in East Africa. The Silver Series will feature 25 musicians and bands including Everybody Taste favorites Vandaveer, Jesse Woods, Lord Huron, Deer Tick and Middle Brother busking in the streets of Austin for the Invisible Children charity. The performances will take place in Republic Square Park, so please go and support a great cause. La Blogotheque will also be along for the ride capturing a few of the performances to video. It's entirely free, though any contribution you can make to the charity would be greatly appreciated. Check below for the entire schedule. If like me, you're unable to make it to SXSW this year, cover your eyes—you don't want to know how many great acts your missing.

Vandaveer - "Concerning Past & Future Conquests" (from Dig Down Deep)

Pitchfork's Anti-Folk Outlook: What's New vs What's Derivative

It's a sham that the evaluation of music is so closely associated with the taste and king making of “cool.” That certain aesthetics and cultural identities are so closely associated with certain types of alternative and independent music is absolutely inevitable, but when it comes to listening to music and evaluating it for its worth, it’s profoundly disappointing to learn certain bands and their albums are simply ignored because they lack identifiable factors of that niche brand of "cool" that is so rigorously developed and sold. I’m writing because one of the year’s best albums may not even be reviewed by what most consider the leading voice in online music criticism—and perhaps music criticism in general—and it’s a giant gaping hole in what’s touted as journalism.

Review: Middle Brother:: Middle Brother

Cream were dubbed the world's first supergroup; The Highwaymen were country’s; and then there was the Traveling Wilburys, perhaps the greatest of them all: a band comprised of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison. Harrison, one of the Fab Four, once admitted that he never knew what it felt like to play in a band until the Traveling Wilburys. Supergroups were once something to behold, but the magic and allure faded with bands like Velvet Revolver and Audioslave acting more as life rafts for aging rock stars than outlets born of creative desire. Monsters of Folk—three of folk rock’s brightest stars rekindling the magic of a shared tour—sounded so promising on paper, but the record came out flat and contrived. Save for the single "Say Yes," the album was three songwriters trading songs with no discernable input from one another.

Middle Brother - "Middle Brother"

If you're not sold on this Deer Tick/Dawes/Delta Spirit rollickin' roots-rock supergroup, you should be now. We've heard "Me, Me, Me" and the Replacements' cover "Portland" and now we have the song for which the group gets its name, "Middle Brother"—a furious Chucky Berry-inspired bit of rockabilly and soul that features a guest spot by Nashville's Jonny Corndawg. Do yourself a favor and pre-order this baby on some good old-fashioned vinyl.

Middle Brother - "Middle Brother" (from S/T)

Middle Brother - "Me, Me, Me"

Recently, the concept of a supergroup has offered nothing more than an overabundance of anticipation followed by a giant whopping let down (see Monsters of Folk, Them Crooked Vultures). However, the first track from Middle Brother—the pairing of rowdy roots-rock rabble rousers John McCauley (Deer Tick) and Matt Vasquez (Delta Spirit) with the harmony-glazed Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith—proves to be something else entirely: feverishly sweaty, inspired and most importantly, fun, rock and roll. The trio's debut record is due out March 1st on Partisan Records.

Middle Brother - "Me, Me, Me" (from Middle Brother)