I'm back! The blog's not dead, I've just been busy with an out-of-state move and I have not had much free time to scour the web for interesting music. I did, however, listen to AccuRadio the other day and discovered the L.A.-based band Darker My Love. They've been compared to the Grateful Dead, and I can also detect a hint of The Rolling Stones when I listen to the tracks on their latest album, Alive As You Are. Here's an acoustic performance of "Backseat" I am really digging:
Honestly, I am not in cahoots with HSN to get you to purchase Jewel's latest album from them. I recently watched an episode of GAC "Origins" where Jewel discusses her album Sweet and Wildand performs acoustic versions of some of the songs (recordings of which are also available on the CD itself). I've always wanted to like Jewel, but I was never terribly impressed by her material up to this point (maybe the melodies were too mellow, or the singing too breathy - I don't really know what it was). So while the clips from "Origins" are not available online, the ones from this HSN special are, and I have included a few of the best ones below. Suffice it to say I was completely blown away by these acoustic performances, and the songs have been swirling around in my brain for the past week or so. I've already purchased this CD - if you decide to do the same, I think you will agree that this is probably her best songwriting so far. And if you purchase it from HSN, I wonder if they might cut me in on a little commission?
Update: my original videos were removed, so I uploaded some new, non-HSN ones. I found a good (though oddly-edited) video of an acoustic performance of "Ten," and I also included the music video for "No Good in Goodbye."
London quartet Mumford & Sons performing "The Cave" in a book store in London. (I wanted to post the clip of their recent performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but it was removed from YouTube. You can watch the full episode, though, on Hulu.)
. Here's an acoustic performance of "Backseat" I am really digging:
