ARTIST TO WATCH: Michael Denvir
California songwriter Michael Denvir
Thanks go out to Weston, a user in the Folking Indie room at Turntable.fm, for turning me on to Michael Denvir, a California songwriter who reportedly has built a great deal of indie buzz in the region. His bandcamp page, under the nom-de-plume Beautiful Idiot Music, features four albums of sketches, demos and odds and ends which are all available for free! But where to start? I recommend the song “California Drought,” off his album “Bedroom Artist,” which skewers the music industry mercilessly, barely seeming dated despite being written eight years ago.
Not convinced? Check out “800 MPH” below on YouTube and tell me he’s not worth giving a deeper look. I dare you!
“Hear! Hear!” Turntable.fm Room: “The Group W Bench”
Gotta watch out for the people sitting on the "Group W Bench"
For those of you who are in the know, Turntable.fm is perhaps the coolest new streaming service on the internet, if only because not only can you be a tastemaker and impress yourself, now you can impress others by DJing songs for folks and getting immediate feedback. In that vein, I’ve decided to create a room for “Hear! Hear!” called “The Group W Bench” (named in honor of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” To join, you have to have a friend on Facebook, and in your case, that’s ME … if you’re an interested reader, friend me on Facebook and get in to the awesomeness!
I’ll play folk, rock, indie and other genres, with an eye for pop — in other words, exactly what you’ve come to expect from “Hear! Hear!” Feel free to join in and play your own stuff too, and I’ll mix in a lot of the artists I’m covering here, so you can expect a lot of great music. Enjoy!
FEATURED SONG: The Black Tent Revival – “Sundays Best”
Black Tent Revival
Score another point for the wonders of Turntable.fm! I found a great bluegrass picking duo while listening to music last night in a folk-oriented room, and I immediately knew these were guys more people needed to hear. Rick Bruckner and Jason Hummell met at an open mic night at the Royal Cafe in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, and they wrote and recorded their first single, “Sundays Best,” earlier this year under the name Black Tent Revival. They’re working independently to record a full album, which they hope to have out in 2012. View a live performance of the song below and feel free to respond with your take on the music. Clearly these two have plenty of raw talent — a full album of music this solid is definitely something I want to keep an ear out for.
And here’s a streaming-only version of the studio track! Enjoy …
July 14th launch planned for Spotify in the US
Spotify is finally coming Stateside!
As confirmed in the last hour by CNET and eOne Music PR representative Eric Alper on Twitter, Spotify is set to launch its American music streaming service tomorrow! The company has promised to deliver more details about the launch tomorrow at 8 a.m. ET.
I’m still living in the cell phone dark ages, with a phone that can’t even text properly, let alone listening to streaming cloud services. But I think this is a great step toward bringing Europe’s most popular streaming service to an American audience which clearly is clamoring for legal listening opportunities. What do you think? Are you ready to sign up for a monthly subscription providing you with unlimited music on your mobile phone?
