Mike Willis, a Winner from Nashville

There’s much more to Music City than the country music and gospel industries, with plenty of artists operating just under the surface of mainstream success. Mike Willis isn’t an ‘indie’ artist in the music critic sense of the word, as his tunes are as commercially accessible as anything on country or pop radio, but he’s out there in the trenches playing wherever he can to get some recognition.

That includes a number of those songwriting/open mike competitions, which he’s won in places like Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta and here in Columbia at the White Mule earlier this year. Willis grabs an audience with a superb, understated fingerpicking guitar style and a sweet tenor voice that’s capable of delivering the intimate, personal emotions that he expresses in his songwriting. It’s standard girl/guy relationship stuff, but Willis employs turns of phrase that set him apart.

Curious? he has a new album coming out after the first of the year, but you can hear some of his previous work at http://www.mikewillismusic.com

Here’s a fan-filmed video of a recent performance at Nashville’s Listening Room venue, with Willis in the middle of a four-man songwriter’s round. You can hear the same song, “Made For You,” on the website, but this shows how he can put the tune across in person as well as in the studio.
If you’re in Columbia, Willis will be back at the White Mule on December 22nd.

Treadmill Trackstar’s New CD “I Belong To Me”

Treadmill Trackstar
I Belong To Me
Your Name (Here) Records

The last Treadmill Trackstar album was released in 1997, so for fans, a new one seems like the proverbial manna from heaven, or some kind of unlikely rip in the universe. Spurred in part by the band’s participation in a reunion event in 2007 and self-financed with lots of help from friends and private benefactors (hence the name of the ‘record label’ above), the result sounds less like a return than a completion of unfinished business.

Band leader Angelo Gianni was always a cynical romantic, if there can be such a thing, and his poetic side seemed to be constantly in flux with his cranky pessimism. Here, he seems more resigned to his fate on “I Belong To You.”

“I belong to you / Do with me what you want to do / Judge and grade and maybe push me through”

on “Hands Off,” however, he changes his mind:

“Take your hands off me / I rented myself / But now I belong to me /
Keep your hands off me / No longer a child / And I’m certain to cease you to be.”

Musically, Treadmill Trackstar always sounded a little out of their time, with Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins the closest sonic reference point that made sense. Here, Gianni takes that psychedelic post-grunge and paints broad sonic strokes that sound at times Beatlesque (“Euphoric”) and even Tom Petty-esque (“Check My Reaction”), but mostly unique. Heidi Carey’s cello isn’t as shockingly different as it was a decade ago, and it blends better with the mellower material that dominates the proceedings.

On one of those more sedate tunes, “Bus Went By,” one senses Gianni coming to grips with the lost opportunities and lost years that the past decade of living with something other than this band represent:

“Waiting around / The bus went by / Wating around to matter”

By the close of the song, he’s resigned to whatever fate he has made for himself, though as always he leaves things wide open to interpretation and personal internalization by the listener:

“Feed the meter / It’s just time / and time is free ‘til gone / Dig the century / and make your small mark in the ground / Climb down and lie / Down and lie”

Treadmill Trackstar’s discography will undoubtedly end up being a ‘small mark in the ground’ straddling the centuries, but this album will make a fitting cap for the time capsule buried there. As Gianni himself says on “Last Good Breath”:

“If for a second it all went away / seal up this package and call it a day.”

For a free song download, visit the band’s website here

Music Blogs You Haven’t Heard Of (or Read)

As if I didn’t have enough blogs to read already, the guys at the Hype Machine just posted a list of some very interesting music blogs, none of which I’d ever heard of…I found it from a trackback on a comment to their original post, where one of the bloggers on their list actually recommended THIS blog, a huge compliment. Check out the original blog post and read the comments here.

The Story Of “Veteran’s Day”

What better way to mark Veteran’s Day than with this song from the Austin, Texas band The Story Of, which sounds more than a little like classic Connells to these ears. It’s from their 2009 CD Until The Autumn; instead of a typical video focused on the band playing, this one pairs some riveting archival documentary footage with the song for a powerful presentation.

Left of the Dial

I’ve often credited my diverse musical taste to the years I spent in college volunteering at the university radio station—WUSC-FM 90.5 in Columbia, SC. It was there I discovered many of the bands and genres I still enjoy to this day. Every year for the school’s Homecoming weekend, they let alumni DJ’s like me get back on the airwaves for a few hours.

This past weekend I put together a set of songs from the late 1980’s era when I was a student DJ, and while it doesn’t show the tremendous diversity of programming that included reggae, punk, afropop, dance, hip-hop, and more, my playlist for the evening (Which I’ve listed below) does read like a preview of the then-nascent “alternative” music boom.

While some of these names may be familiar from their later work, many of them are as obscure now as they were then. Curious? Search the band names on Google, YouTube, and Myspace; there is a lot of material out there posted by others who remember this music as fondly as I do.

Tommy Keene, Places That Are Gone
Marshall Crenshaw, Mary Jean
Waxing Poetics, Walking on Thin Legs
The Broadcasters, Hole In My Heart
The Godfathers, Birth School Work Death

The Catheads, Power Love and Pizza
The Royal Court Of China, It’s All Changed

American Music Club, Firefly
The Silos, A Few Hundred Thank You’s
David Sylvian, Let The Happiness In
Billy Bragg, Must I Paint You A Picture

Big Pig, I Can’t Break Away
Stump, Charlton Heston
Fetchin Bones, A Fable

The Swimming Pool Q’s, Big Fat Tractor
Translator, Un-Alone
The Walkabouts, Jumping Off
Thin White Rope, Elsie Crashed the Party
The Dream Syndicate, Halloween

Green On Red, That’s What Dreams
Rain Parade, Mystic Green
The Wygals, Passion
Bobby Sutliff, Small Town Romance
Easterhouse, Nineteen Sixty-nine
The Waterboys, We Will Not Be Lovers

Close Lobsters, Too Bloody Stupid
The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Too Much Falling In Love
True Believers, The Rain Won’t Help You When it’s Over
The Del-Lords, The Cool and the Crazy
EIEIO, Andy Warhol’s Dead But I’m Not
Dash Rip Rock, Endeavor
The Reivers (Zeitgeist), Blue Eyes
The Saints, Music Goes Round My Head
Jennifer Warnes, Bird on a Wire
Marti Jones, The Real One
The Rainmakers, Spend It On Love
Paul Kelly, Before the Old Man Died
Dumptruck, Back Where We Belong
Died Pretty, As Must Have
Washington Squares, New Generation
Andy White, Things Start to Unwind
Syd Straw, Hard Times
Peter Case, Horse & Crow
Antiseen, Ruby Get Back to the Hills

Fluid, Fools Rule
The Buck Pets, Hammer Valentine
Splatcats, Surfin Hearse
Droogs, Jack Of Trades
Scruffy the Cat, My Baby She’s Allright

Wenesday Week, I Wonder What We Had
Brian Setzer, Three Guys
Uncle Green, Vulnerability
Wild Seeds, I’m Sorry (I Can’t Rock You All Night Long)
Sister Double Happiness, Sister Double Happiness

Get Some Classic Mojo, Free

Mojo Nixon, of “Elvis Is Everywhere” fame, has decided to put forth his own “Stimulus package,” and for once that’s not a tongue-in-cheek anatomical reference but a real deal for fans–For the next few weeks you can download Nixon’s entire back catalog for free here on Amazon.com.

(Disclaimer and a warning–if you’re not familiar with Nixon’s music, it can be offensive, vulgar, etc…not for kids, in other words.)

Unfamiliar with much of it other than the Elvis song parodies? My recommendation is to go directly to the very first album when Skid Roper was still playing with him, Mojo & Skid. It’s musically the rawest of the bunch and has “I’m In Love With Your Girlfriend” as well as a killer cover of an obscure Springsteen song, “The Big Payback.”

After that, get Frenzy, which is more of what later Nixon fans would find familiar, though listening now, he sounds positively prescient on songs such as “I Hate Banks.”

Thanks Mojo, for “keeping it up” all these years.

Happy Anniversary to Me

To this blog, actually, which began just over two years ago on September 24th, 2007 with the following message:

Music matters around here
Posted on September 24, 2007 by Kevin Oliver | Edit
and hopefully it matters to you, too, or you wouldn’t be reading this. In the posts that follow this initial foray into the blogosphere, I’ll be deconstructing the music scene as I experience it, from a local standpoint and into the effects of national and international trends. From the business of making music to those doing it just for the sheer enjoyment of the sounds they create, it’s all fair game.

Two years on, I’d say that I’ve fullfilled that mission and then some, and the hits on my posts (which have gone from hundreds per month to thousands) bear that out. To the musicians I’ve covered here, thanks for creating something worth writing about. To the rest of you, thanks for reading. Now, as they say on my favorite college radio station WUSC-FM 90.5 FM, back to the music.

Get Dizzy With Lunch Money For Free

Columbia, SC kid’s music band Lunch Money is reaching little ears all over the country, with appearances this year at Kidsapalooza, features on NPR, and an upcoming appearance at the Austin City Limits Festival. To celebrate their increased profile, they are offering a download of their entire new album Dizzy for nothing more than your email address.

Lunch Money’s upbeat acoustic rock is deceptively simple and utterly captivating, with singer Molly Ledford’s childlike perspective on songs such as “A Cookie As Big As My Head” sure to delight children young and old.

Go here for your free download of Dizzy

Peter Himmelman Launches a Curious World

There are plenty of children’s musicians out there who claim to make kid’s music that adults will love (or at least be able to tolerate), but Grammy-winning artist Peter Himmelman makes such intelligent children’s music that I’d have to say that it is adult music which kids will love. Just because he sings about kites and trampolines doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for this overgrown kid.

This Sunday, September 27th at 10 am (Central Time), Himmelman will expand his artistic reach with a web-casted kid’s variety show, Peter Himmelman’s Curious World, on http://www.landofnod.com.

The show promises to have a studio audience of children talking about questions they’re asked by other kids. Himmelman and his band will also perform in each of the ten weekly episodes set to run each Sunday morning through November 29th, and there will be skits and routines such as a talk with King Ferdinand the Turtle.

Himmelman’s latest album for children is My Trampoline, with songs about a turtle, a trampoline, a picky eater named Peter (which turns out to be altogether autobiographical), and how there are so few children named Steve. The reason this appeals to the adult population so well is that Himmelman plays virtually the same way on the kid’s albums as he does in the ones he periodically releases for the general adult market, and that sophisticated pop-rock style carries over well.

See for yourself how the two worlds of Peter Himmelman aren’t really that far apart. Here’s a live clip of “Only Innocent” from his weekly Furious World webcast (the adult version of Curious World)

And here’s a clip of the title track from My Trampoline:

Nick Hornby’s Higher Internet Fidelity

Today’s Guardian in the UK has a short interview with author Nick Hornby, whose High Fidelity is dear to this former music retailer’s heart. In the piece, Hornby discusses how things have changed for music consumers since 1995, mostly in terms of how easy it is to find new music on mp3 blogs, and briefly plugs his new book Juliet, Naked.

Nick Hornby in the Guardian