Cave Singers

I saw the Cave Singers for the second time last night at the Rock & Roll Hotel. The band has added a bass player this time around, Morgan Henderson, who played with favorite Fleet Foxes. The show was rocking, and higher energy than I remember last time. I believe the set list will be up here, but they played lots of old and new favorites like At the Cut, Beach House, Dancing on our Graves, Canopy, Have to Pretend, Clever Creatures, Swim Club, Haller Lake, No Tomorrows, and All Land Crabs and Divinity Ghost, etc. Quite a few others. I was happy that nearly all of my favorites were played.  There's a great balance between the more energy ridden songs and the songs that you are playing out camping, outside while on a run or just jamming to on a car trip. Red Palace always lent an intimacy to these shows, but I was happy to see that the venue was packed and the crowd enjoyed it. There's been some criticism of the band for not exhibiting much growth between albums, but for a band that's barely six years old, they have released three solid album, and I certainly look forward to hearing them back in DC again soon! They set the bar for great roots folk-rock with a bit of country kicked in.

Super Tuesday

Josh Ritter released his latest today. "The Beast in Its Tracks" is almost an overtly personalized memoir of his divorce. Of course, he did meet someone new. This is a great anecdote:

He's already tested many of the songs live and says "New Lover" is probably his favorite right now to play live. It's a song about the demise of his marriage and the excitement of meeting someone new with the lyrics: "I've got a new lover now/I know that she's not mine/I only want to hold her/I don't need to read her mind/And she only looks like you when she's in a certain light."

"I have my own secret favorites that I love," Ritter said of his entire music catalog. "I never remember where I had been when I was writing a song. But I do remember those moments where I really feel like I got this thing right in my own mind, and I'm always proud of those moments -- more than any particular song."

I'm a huge fan of the Cave Singers, and I'm looking forward to seeing them at the Rock & Roll Hotel next month.  A few early reviews I spotted online are mediocre. But I don't hear these Fleet Foxes knockoffs they claim, and I really love the campfire, outdoors, roots folk of their albums. Just my preference. More once I listen to it a few more times!

New Cave Singers

I am a huge fan of the Cave Singers, and I'm excited to hear the first track off their forthcoming album. "Have to Pretend"  will be out March 5 on the new album "Naomi." 

According to KEXP:

The song we are able to share with you today, “Have to Pretend,” has a smoother, more groovin’ sound you might have heard from The Cave Singers before. On it, guitarist Derek Fudesco trades his usual strummin’ and pickin’ acoustic for a ringing, reverb-heavy electric guitar that drives the song in equal measure to percussionist Marty Lund’s unrelenting pounding on the kit and Henderson’s throbbing bass line. Perhaps most striking, though, is the chorus of Doo-wop “ooh-ah-woo-ooh’s” behind Peter Quirk’s resonant voice - The ‘Singers have never had such swagger!

With Shout Out Louds, Frightened Rabbit, and the Cave Singers all coming out with new material next year, 2013 should be a good one for music!