joplin rice - spine adagio pt. II & the prince

joplin rice, a singer/songwriter and bedroom recorder out of lexington, kentucky, brings a lofi miasma of sorrow and lonesome fuzz on his latest album 'spine adagio pt. II & the prince'. unremittingly bleak but beautiful in the tradition of early nineties indie bedroom folk, this lonely homemade tower is what MFOA is all about. sometimes it sounds like the guitar is too sad to strum, other times walls of fuzz, rice's haunting, cry-breaking voice and impressionistic snare hits clatter and wail. i like this one.



name your price for it and a few other releases right here.

the cut purse rascals - demo

the cut purse rascals make great swingin' americana tunes with big, sing along choruses, earthy/history/story lyrics, a very tight rhythm section and tighter harmonies. They come from great britain and they honor their homeland in the story songs they spin, while the sound of their music owes a much greater debt to american country rockers from the 70's. the lead guitar playing is quite firey as well.
 

there is nothing available for sale or download right now, so you'll have to satisfy yourself streaming the above demo and the handful of other tunes available on soundcloud.

jake fulton - s/t

on his self produced debut album, san fransisco songwriter and producer jake fulton brings a platter of long-form, lyrically driven troubadour style ballads and folk stories. the subtle touches of production, all performed by fulton himself, work well with these complex tunes, delivered in a voice that ranges from a dylanesque nasally high point to a sweeter whisper.


grab the album digitally for four bucks right here.

louise cairns - home

big, carol king-esque 1970's tune-smith vibes prevail on 'home', the title track from scottish singer/songwriter and painist louise cairns' latest EP. starting quietly, the song builds on the combination of rumbling piano, keening violin, cymbals and cairns' sharp clear voice.



louise cairns' previous album is available for 5 british pounds on bandcamp.

michael wohl - eight pieces for solo guitar

as the title suggests, the latest release by seattle guitarist micheal wohl, 'eight pieces for solo guitar' is solidly along american primitive lines, in fact, it even includes his take on the signature john fahey number 'poor boy long way from home'. on this album wohl explores various tunings and moods, with nods to blues, zen guitar techniques and folk styles, all performed with an economic grace.

you can grab this album digitally or on cassette right here. below, check out a video of wohl ripping on the sam mcgee tune 'knoxville blues'.

marian mclaughlin - dérive

named after a situationist art making technique of letting a combination of chance and one's surroundings shape the form of one's art, marian mclaughlin's new album 'dérive' feels like an un-premeditated ramble and a tightly composed work at the same time. a dérive traditionally involves walking outside, and you don't know what you will see around the next corner as you follow mclaughlin down her weird path. mclaughlin's guitar playing flows like mercury, influenced by classical, folk, and spanish styles, and flourishes of production come and leave from the rooms her songs build, sometimes slinking off and other times getting up and slamming the door. a good and strange album.

get it right here as a digital release or on limited edition vinyl. below, check out a video for the tune 'before you leave'.

aaron tinjum and the tangents - yugoslavia (video)

singer/songwriter aaron tinjum is back with this video featuring an unplugged version of his maudlin tune 'yugoslavia' from his album 'mirrors in the dark'. the simple guitar and violin presentation works well for this tune.



learn more about aaron tinjum and grab 'mirrors in the dark' right here.

frank hurricane - quintorian blues

few musicians could likely claim to be as "MFOA" or as much after my own heart as frank hurricane/the hurricanes of love. with a reputation for coming on personally like a modern neal cassidy, an impossible to ignore, yeah, hurricane of positivity, music that's a swirl of stripped down but wild psyched out mountain folk, a little bit american primitive, a little bit 'freak folk', very lofi and crazy appealing. not to mention that he goes out and spreads his music in the woods of the appalachian trail, a length of dirt very close to my heart, and he has a side-length tune on his new double LP 'quintorian blues' called 'moses lake blues', which is named after a town i had the uh, experience of living in for like a year and a half. maybe cosmic forces brought the 'holy' tunes of frank hurricane to my ears, maybe it was billy of buck gooter with another hot tip. you can't stream 'quintorian blues', but you can order it from feeding tube records right here. for now stream this cool release, a split with NYC's invisible circle.

check out more about frank right here. listen to more here.

kramies - the wooden heart

ohio by way of the netherlands singer/songwriter kramies has already had some auspicious signs for his dreamy new release, 'the wooden heart', out now on hidden shoal recordings. with the help of folks like jason lytle and todd tobias, kramies, a veteran of making luscious folk pop the old fashioned way, in bedrooms, closets and basements on a four track, has created and extra thick stew of wide open soundscapes to surround his meditative tunes. here are a two songs to sample.





get 'the wooden heart' for $5 from hidden shoal recordings.

elephant child - kiss/pink sand

well liked virginia garage rockers elephant child blast us out with a long-time-coming new release in the form of this digital single, 'kiss b/w pink sand'. walking a tight line between psych, grunge and punk (this release putting me in mind of nirvana somehow being combined with the cramps...) these two tunes have a big sound and a big strut.

get it right here for $2.

dead professional - i'm not the one

for a man who creates such austere and simple music, one might accuse john harouff AKA dead professional of working at a somewhat glacial pace, releasing a song every several months while keeping up a modest performance schedule, opening up for a handful of notable acts. one might make that accusation, but the wait for a new jam is always worth it. a case-in-point is his latest self described 'stomper' 'i'm not the one'. indeed this song boasts a knack-esque kick drum stomp and power-pop hammer-on chord chops, with just enough distortion, and an artsy droned out 'solo'. lyrically it's a meditation of an age old rock'n'roll trope that's always worth revisiting; that of the guy who feels he is unworthy of his lover, or who is using that as an excuse to let her down easy, probably so he can go brood alone on a snowy rooftop or deserted night time street illuminated by shallow pools of lamplight or something.



as usual you can find all the dead professional info you want, including live dates and more songs to stream, right here. there also seems to be a collection of DP demos available digitally for 5 bucks at the bandcamp.

james haley - land of the free (video)

james haley of providence, RI, tackles the problem of income inequality and corporate oligarchy in america with this straight forward protest folk-rock jam. a bonus is the cool recording process video that shows him using his closet doors as percussion instruments.



you can grab this tune in the form of a digital single, b/w another haley original, 'renting american dreams', right here for $2.