Jan 31 2008
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NEWS, RANTS & SHOUTS
NEW CONTENT GALORE!!!
November 26, 2008
Things are tough right now for Ease’s Greg Locke. Working once again in music retail management, Locke is making just enough money to eat Ramen, pay the bills and buy a few albums from time to time. Luckily for this website, Locke has been picking up a lot of extra writing in order to help buy even more records; below you’ll find a number of new additions to the site.
Locke was offered a writing job with PopMatters, one of the Top 10 daily Webzines in the country. Due to his busy work and job hunt schedule, Locke had to pass on the position for the time being. That said, if you are in need of a writer, feel free to e-mail gregwlocke@gmail.com.
Lastly, if you’re a web designer looking for a new project, e-mail Locke at the above address.
NEW ALBUM REVIEWS: Belle and Sebastian’s The BBC Sessions
NEW FEATURE STORIES: Nine Inch Nails ::: Tom Morello ::: The Duke Spirit ::: The Hold Steady ::: Top 100 Albums Ever ::: Blitzen Trapper
COMING SOON: Pavement / Brighten the Corners (reissue) album review ::: Gomez / Bring It On (reissue) album reivew ::: Jenny Lewis / Acid Tongue album review ::: The Replacements / Pleased To Meet Me (reissue) ::: Tim Easton feature
EDTR’S CURRENT ROTATION: Ryland Bouchard’s Seeds ::: Deerhunter’s Microcastle ::: Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV ::: Thelonious Monk’s Solo Monk ::: Ryan Adams’ Cardinology ::: Mount Eerie’s Dawn (soon as we’re able to find a copy for sale)
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EDtR MOVES TO SEATTLE
October 22, 2008
On August 23, 2008 Greg and his girlfriend Carly packed up their stuff and drove 2,300 miles to Seattle, Washington, where they - and thus Ease Down the Road Online - now live. During this time Greg has continued writing on a freelance basis for both Whatzup and Nuvo, adding a third outlet, Tiny Mix Tapes. See the ABOUT section on this website for further details concerning TMT, or just click the link at the bottom of this entry.
Being that Greg has kept busy, many updates have been made to this site, including a couple of feature stories and some album reviews; see below for links and stay tuned for addition updates - including the long lost Josh Hall (Thunderhawk) interview and possibly some more interviews.
NEW ALBUM REVIEWS: Silver Jews’ Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea ::: Todd Snider’s Peace Queer ::: Lucinda Williams’ Little Honey ::: Mount Eerie’s No Flashlight ::: The Microphones’ Live in Japan ::: Mount Eerie’s Eleven Old Songs ::: Nagasi Ni Te’s Yosuga ::: Conor Oberst’s Conor Oberst ::: Thunderhawk’s Gravity Wins
NEW FEATURE STORIES: Silver Jews ::: Maxwell ::: Thunderhawk ::: Loudon Wainwright III
COMING SOON: Ryan Adams / Cardinology album review ::: Pavement / Brighten the Corners (reissue) album review ::: Gomez / Bring It On (reissue) album reivew ::: Jenny Lewis / Acid Tongue album review ::: The Replacements / Pleased To Meet Me (reissue) ::: Mount Eerie / Lost Wisdom album reivew ::: Women / Women album review ::: Tom Morello feature ::: Blitzen Trapper feature ::: Ted Leo feature ::: The Hold Steady feature
EDTR’S CURRENT ROTATION: The Notwist’s The Devil, You + Me ::: Heatmiser’s Mic City Sons ::: Final Fantasy’s He Poos Clouds ::: Can’s Future Days ::: Mount Eerie’s Lost Wisdom ::: Vivian Girls’ Vivian Girls ::: TV on the Radio’s Dear Science, ::: Bob Dylan’s Tell Tale Signs
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WESTERBERG, THE TEASE
July 21, 2008
Head over to Amazon now and download “49 minutes of new music from Paul Westerberg (The Replacements) for only 49 cents.” Actually, it’s only 45 minutes of music - but it is all new, and that’s what matters. As nice as it’d be to call ”49:00″ an album, what you get is one long track full of … well … ”music from Paul Westerberg.” There are full songs, there are long snippets of songs and there are short snippets of songs. It is, more or less, a whole bunch of stuff Paul sort of threw together, sometimes only a few seconds at a time. A tease.
Paul has often claimed in interviews over the years that he has countless songs sitting around that he recorded alone in his basement; “49:00″ is, if nothing else, proof of such. Tunes fade in and out, some good, others great and some through-the-roof amazing. No telling for sure yet what the point of this “release” is, but surely there is no reason not to go spend 49 of your hard earned cents on it. Hopefully, fingers crossed, official versions of these teasers will show up on some albums. All hail the mightly - and seemingly hard working - Westerberg!
All that said, if you don’t yet have Westerberg’s COME FEEL ME TREMBLE or MONO (released under Westerberg’s sometime Grandpaboy moniker) albums, do yourself a favor and pick ‘em up ASAP. They’re easily two of Ease Down the Road’s favorite albums of the current decade.
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FILLING THE CASTANETS TANK
June 25, 2008
Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Ray Raposa, helmsman for folk-minded indie rock outfit Castanets, recently announced his plans to release three new records, one of which will be a new batch of Raposa-penned originals, the band’s fourth.
While spending three weeks squating alone in an Overton, Nevada mom and pop motel room, Raposa recorded a very economical, isolated sounding 15-song album, titled City of Refuge, that he plans to release via his longtime label, Asthmatic Kitty, on October 7, 2008. Songwriter Jana Hunter, labelmate Sufjan Stevens and Sunn O))))’s Dawn Smithson all add guest vocals.
In addition to City of Refuge, Castanets will release an album full of Hank Williams covers and Dub Refuge, a remix album of, you guessed it, the songs on City of Refuge. Tracks on the new album run as follows: “Celestial Shore;” “High Plain 1;” “The Destroyer;” “Prettiest Chain;” “Refuge 1;” “The Quiet;” “Glory B;” “High Plain 3;” “I’ll Fly Away;” “The Hum;” “Savage;” “Shadow Valley;” “High Plain 2;” “Refuge 2;” and “After the Fall.”
