Becoming A Jackal

From the very first seconds of Becoming a Jackal, he’s got you. A faint drone of organ, joined by eerie strings and a cascade of piano that collectively casts a Hitchcock movie shadow before a hushed voice asks, “Have you got just a minute? / Are you easily led? / Let me show the backroom / Where I saw the dead / Dancing like children on a midsummer morn / And they asked me to join” – and then the music obliges by with a similar spectral sweep. ‘I Saw the Dead’ is not just the album intro of 2010 to date but also a magnificent intro to the vivid narratives, gripping poetry and melodic depth of Conor J. O’Brien – or as he likes to call himself and his cohorts, Villagers.

Young in face but intense around the eyes, O’Brien will probably never run out of insights and incidents, so you can be sure that Villagers will be around for the long term. Which suits him just fine. “I don’t want this ever to be the finished product, but to be constantly changing, moving and growing. I can hear so much more.”

 

You should also catch the Villagers' NPR Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR headquarters. Watch here: http://n.pr/cwk2ij

To America

Honeytrap

Having knuckled down throughout the harsh winter of 2009 in the depths of a Tottenham Hale warehouse next to London's main frozen kebab meat distributor, the band emerged in 2010 with 12 unique songs packed with humour, melancholy, sex, and surrealism. As if reacting to the plastic nature of the fake meat fortressing their studio, Petrushka showcases an ambition that stretches far beyond standard British indie parochialism.

This is the official video to Honeytrap's new single "To America" taken from album Petrushka that will be released September 2010.

Video by Kathryn Rosa Miller

To listen to another song from the band...take a jump.

Listen Sister, Don’t Date a Hipster

The ladies of Ménage à Twang

Ménage à Twang is a Brooklyn-based, all-girl, comic country trio that blends lovely three part harmonies with razor sharp wit, acoustic guitars with an anti-depressant pill bottle shaker, and camp irony with a genuine love for folk music. In the spirit of trios gone before—notably the Dolly, Emmy Lou, and Linda collaboration, the Dixie Chicks, and, of course, Destiny’s Child— the Ménage’s debut album, available at www.cdbaby.com/menageatwang, delivers songs that address the unique challenges that fabulous ladies face when navigating big city life. Whether they are lamenting a soul-sucking day job, cursing their tiny shared studio apartment, celebrating a successful one night stand, or calling friends out on their secret conservative side, Ménage’s songs will move you. Or make you want to move out of the metropolitan area.

Ménage à Twang is made up of Emily Moore, a published poet and high school teacher, Jessica Del Vecchio, a feminist scholar and former music biz dayjobber, and Rachel Levy, a television producer, photographer and bad-ass baker.

Thanks to our faithful reader arugala who brought this to our attention!

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/menageatwang#ixzz0vlZfBhJJ