Recent Posts from I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — I first came across Lake Clear, New York artist JBM (Jesse Marchant) via his Daytrotter session, where the acoustic finger-picking of “Years/Cleo’s Song” immediately sounded to me like something that should be artfully placed in a Woodshed Films/... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — The Sufjan-influenced Welcome Wagon create songs that sound more like a jubilant Easter sunrise service than Brooklyn in January. This song is burnished brass, banjo and handclaps, and everyone singing along at the end. “Skip about like calves, c... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Today dawned steely grey and covered in snow. While it was nice to get a slow start, I feel a touch of the seasonal blues, unexpectedly. It’s the right kind of day for the sad, slow beauty of AA Bondy. I fell in love with Bondy’s music last year... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Man, would Steve Jobs just go ahead and officially take over the universe already? I don’t even have an iPhone, my years-old iPod is so full it hasn’t been synced in months (sanc?), and mostly I just like to surreptitiously touch my friends’ i-dev... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — This song is spare and haunting, a massive voice in an empty room, and I have been listening to it on endless repeat lately. Folks have been urging me for months now to listen to Lissie, the girl from Rock Island, Illinois with a voice much more ... read more »

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I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — I spent most of this afternoon streaming the full new album from Patty Griffin, one I’ve been waiting to hear since I sat in the very sanctuary where it all happened. Downtown Church was recorded in one of the oldest churches in Nashville that on... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — …Winter’s over, be my darling been a long time coming but now snow is gone. Josh Ritter is one of the most important songwriters of our generation, consistently producing breathtaking songs that are rife with symbolism, rich with meaning, and bri... read more »

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I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — When I was in Nashville last month, I stumbled upon Brendan Benson and Cory Chisel playing an afternoon set to a packed crowd at Grimey’s record store (surely one of the coolest music meccas on the planet). There was free beer (Magic Hat?) being h... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Hot on the heels of my NPR chat, I recently stopped by Danger Radio studios in a top-secret location in Denver to record a show with Tyler “Danger” Jacobson and Jake Ryan. In between playing songs we’re digging, listen to me get feisty and flushe... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Frightened Rabbit’s 2008 album Midnight Organ Fight remains one of the most beautifully gut-wrenching albums I know of, and I fell for it hard that year. In his thick Scottish brogue, Scott Hutchison unflinchingly details the brutal end of a rela... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — One snowy Sunday night in October, I sat at my kitchen table after tucking my little one into bed and realized that Glen Phillips of Toad The Wet Sprocket was playing at that very moment right up the road with his new band Works Progress Administ... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Speaking of Jim James (or Yim Yames, as he seems to be going by fulltime these days), the My Morning Jacket frontman is producing the newest record from classically-trained cellist Ben Sollee and hushed folkie Daniel Martin Moore. The collaborati... read more »

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I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — In 2007, one of my top twenty favorite songs of the whole year was a tune called “Electricity + Drums” from a Kentucky band named The Apparitions. I think a random reader recommendation pointed me over to their website, and within the first secon... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — I overlooked this band in 2009, I think because I was confused by their wisp-of-a-name that hardly exists at all, but just flits like a butterfly — and an album title that reads like it should be a small notation in script on the side of an old t... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — …and I forgot to listen! I did the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day, and I do believe that diving into the 35° Boulder Reservoir may have frozen my brain. In any case, my conversation with David Dye is streaming online now (so I can finally hea... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — Well, Joe Pug just did it to me again. I’ve been feeling a little dessicated these last few days, and not much like writing about music (happens to the best of us). And then I heard this new song “Unsophisticated Heart” via my effervescent friend... read more »

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS — …This year is gonna be ours. Last Year – Akron/Family [the first sunset of 2010, over Denver] read more »