Whether it’s a band’s debut (thank you bandcamp!), leftovers from a previous album, or a taste of what’s to come, the EP serves a number of different purposes. A handful of our favorite artists released short albums in 2011, hit the jump to check out our favorites.
Those of us who pay even the smallest bit of attention to the goings on of the music business know that the world is changing. Digital music continues to turn the game on its head leaving record labels and album stores less important by the day. Perhaps we are on the verge of some grand solution, but right now things remain in flux. By offering free streaming to the masses, websites like Spotify, Rhapsody and Pandora allow fans access to their favorite tunes, while the Compact Disc watches in through the window with its nose pressed up against the glass. Oh what once was Mr. CD… With so much chaos and uncertainty, it is heartening to see our favorite bands and artists take the stage and perform their music where it matters most; live. In fact, one could argue that the live performance is the most important aspect of an artist’s repertoire. With the rise of bedroom haze makers, manufactured starlets and blatant copy cats, the act of playing your music to an audience is the great differentiator. After the jump check out the shows that impressed us at Sloane the most in 2011.
I’m seeing Georgia’s Futurebirds tonight in Jackson Hole and keeping my fingers crossed that they close their set with a rendition of Stevie Nicks’ “Wild Heart.” The track is featured on the band’s latest EP Via Flamina, available via their bandcamp page. The song is one of my favorite covers of the year. Download the tune below and catch the birds on tour this fall.
My Morning Jacket may have moved beyond the country/folk, southern rock of their early days, yet the influence of the dusty, reverb-soaked albums Tennessee Fire and At Dawn is still very much alive. Fleet Foxes definitely heard the comparisons when they stormed on the scene in 2008, but perhaps even more reverent are Athens, GA psych-rockers Futurebirds. The group’s label, Autumn Tone, has a dialed-in description of their sound:
Covered in kudzu and swathed in a blanket of humidity, Spanish moss, feedback and reverb exists Futurebirds. Here, at this intersection, we find a synthesis of the two extremes of Neil Young’s yin and yang. It’s at this crossroads, on this plane that Futurebirds meld the sweet, lilting, pedal steel and harmonies of the Stray Gators with the raucous, buzzing, distortion of Crazyhorse.
The cavernous harmonies and rollicking distorted-folk of Futurebirds have had me hooked the past few days, and I think after a few listens you’ll be on board too. This week, Autumn Tone released a remastered version of the band’s self-titled EP. Stream/download two tracks from the EP below, but make sure to show the southerners some love by purchasing the EP or their debut album, Hampton’s Lullaby, here.
“Megachills”:
“Dirty D” (via PMA):
Stream the track “Johnny Utah” (from Hampton’s Lullaby) after the jump.
