Timber Timbre

As we settle into the fifth month of the interminable North Florida summer, I find myself dreaming of late autumn and winter. I’d abandon the sunshine, tropical drinks and flip flops in a heartbeat for long, cold nights huddled in front of a fire sipping a heavy, full-bodied red and listening to the haunting music of Timber Timbre…. I’ve still got a few months before that dream comes to fruition, but I’m definitely keen to tell you a bit about this artist who captures the aural sense of frigid isolation so beautifully.

Timber Timbre (a.k.a. Taylor Kirk) is a gothic folk-blues project from Toronto, Canada that I discovered while on holiday up there this past April. I was instantly struck by his ghostly vocals atop such sparse yet darkly atmospheric music. At the moment, there isn’t a great deal of information about this rather reclusive musician (yes, this will probably be a short post), but I’m willing to bet that’s going to change very soon!

Why I love him (and you should too)

Taylor Kirk studied film at the Ontario College of Art, and throughout university, he played in bands mostly as a drummer. Upon graduation, he discovered that he enjoyed writing songs more than making films. So he began his music career recording a series of lo-fi, acoustic songs in his bedroom in Toronto.

In 2006 Kirk released his first album, Cedar Shakes, under the name Timber Timbre. This stage name was a play on the sound quality of his beat-up guitar (timbre) and his father’s yelling “Timber!” when trees crashed on the family farm in rural Ontario.

For his self-titled third album, Timber Timbre once again recorded in his home studio. But this time he called on the help of other artists to fill in strings, banjo, accompanying vocals as well as a few screams. The album was finished at the Lincoln County Social Club with producer Chris Stringer (Rush, The D'Urbervilles, Ohbijou, David Wilcox) and released on indie label, Out of this Spark, in January 2009.

The result is an eight-song masterpiece where the transitions between songs are seamless. This is not an album to be broken apart and shuffled amidst 800 other songs on your iPod; it’s an album to be savored in its entirety from start to finish. And it’s obviously grabbing the attention of some industry heavy weights. Early this summer Timber Timbre signed a global record deal with the Arts & Crafts label (the Stills, Constantines and Broken Social Scene), and the CD was reissued on July 28, 2009. The album was also named as a long-list nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.

Over the summer Timber Timbre toured with the Great Lake Swimmers and Final Fantasy, and this autumn will see him headlining a handful of shows in the US. These shows are bound to be spellbinding especially if Taylor Kirk has his choice of venue. He has been known to choose specific venues that accentuate his atmospheric music.

Listen Up!

 

Discography: Timber Timbre (2009) * Medicinals (2007) * Cedar Shakes (2006)

Dawn Landes

I love the thrill of finding a new band that moves you so deeply you rush to find their entire catalogue and listen to it incessantly, wondering how life was complete without this wonderful music. If I’m lucky, this happens maybe one or twice a year. This year I was fortunate enough to fall in love with Kentucky-bred, Brooklyn-based Dawn Landes.

It all started back in March when a friend sent me the video for a quirky, blue-grass cover of Peter, Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks.” It featured a female singer switching between guitar and accordion conducting a backing band of “old folks”, who happened to be the WST (We Sorta Tried) Bluegrass Band from Austin, Texas. Charmed by her voice and the irony of this low-budget production, I visited her myspace page to hear more. What I discovered was an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and recording engineer whose music is a lovely blend of folky ballads, country-tinged rock, and electronic loops.

Why I love her….
Dawn Landes actually started out as an assistant and freelance engineer at various recording studios in New York City, where she’s worked with such respected artists as Phillip Glass, Ryan Adams, Joseph Arthur, the Earlies, and Josh Ritter (to whom she’s now married). And it was in these studios that she began recording and producing her own songs.

You’re probably starting to see a trend with my profiles – I’m a sucker for literate songwriters. And Dawn Landes is no exception. Her influences are both traditional and literary with her first song being a musical adaptation of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

As a Francophile, I was fascinated to learn that France has played a big part in Dawn’s musical career. She landed her first record deal with the little French label, Ocean Records, and her first CD, Dawn’s Music, was released in France in 2005. Since then she has divided her time between Paris and Brooklyn and has even started writing some songs in French. None of these songs have been released yet, but hopefully they’ll make it on one of her upcoming albums. To tide us over, there’s always Dawn’s cover of Francoise Hardy’s “Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles” that she frequently plays live. It was added to her set as a way to introduce guest drummer, Olivier de Chateaubourg, who apparently is a French count....

On a different note, Dawn Landes doesn’t have an official second album. Her apartment was burgled, and the robbers stole her laptop containing the completed second album. Instead of re-recording the lost album, she wrote the song “Bodyguard” about the robbery. And this song became the first track on Dawn’s critically-acclaimed third CD, Fireproof. For the record, Fireproof was recorded live to tape, a much more cumbersome medium for potential robbers.

And now for some trivia – Dawn’s cover of Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” was used for a Human Rights Campaign video supporting the repeal of Proposition 8. This cover is a hidden track on Fireproof if you’re looking for a copy.

Listen Up!
First up is the lovely “Twilight” from Fireproof.



And here is the utterly adorable “Straight Lines.”



Check her out!
Dawn Landes’ new album, Sweetheart Rodeo, will be released on September 7th in Europe and January 19th in the US. Lucky for us, a new album means more tour dates. Dawn will be hitting Europe this September with my all-time favorite band, Okkervil River, and Elvis Perkins. Then a US tour will follow this October.

Discography: Sweetheart Rodeo (2010) * Fireproof (2007) * Dawn’s Music (2005)

Welcome

It’s amazing how many times I hear fellow 30-somethings bemoan the fact that there is no good/interesting/original music out there nowadays. What a load of …. OK, I’ll say it - crap! This blog is dedicated to sharing some of the best indie talent out there as well as some websites that take the guesswork out of finding new music. As for the age appropriate bit, most of the musicians I’ll be profiling are in their 30s -- making it harder to make excuses like today’s music is for kids. So let’s jump right in with my first recommendation….

Holly Throsby

Holly Throsby is a 30-year old singer-songwriter from Sydney, Australia. If forced to categorize her music, I'd put her neatly in the folk-pop bin. I first discovered her back in the antipodean winter of 2005 when she was opening for New Buffalo (a.k.a. Sally Seltmann of Feist's "1234" fame). Now whenever I’m asked for Australian music recommendations – or any music recommendation for that matter – Holly’s at the top of my list.

Why I love her (and you should too)
First I’d have to say her lyrics. Holly holds a bachelors degree in English, and it definitely shows in her use of language. Her songs are sparse, image-laden, sorrowful yet quirky. And this song-writing prowess is what sets her apart from more mainstream contemporaries like Sarah Blasko and Missy Higgins.

With each album, Holly Throsby keeps getting stronger both as a song-writer and as a performer. Her most recent CD, A Loud Call, was recorded in Nashville, TN by Mark Nevers, and includes a number of special guests from Bonnie “Prince” Billy to various members of Lambchop and the Silver Jews.

Now a headlining act, Holly tours with her backing band, the Hello Tigers (Jens Birchall and Bree van Reyk.) Amongst the three of them, they play almost 10 instruments including guitar, cello, accordion, glockenspiel, and even a set of percussive chopsticks.

And for something totally random, you’ve gotta love a gal who can ride a unicycle!

Listen Up!
So have a listen to Holly Throsby for yourself. First up is the beautiful “To Begin With” from her critically acclaimed third album, A Loud Call. Shot in a Sydney park amongst dogs, birds, and claps of thunder, it’s the perfect backdrop to Holly’s bare songs and frail, breathy vocals.



And here's “We're Good People But Why Don't We Show It?” from her debut album, On Night. This was the first song she played that cold night in 2005, and it’s still one of my all time favorites.

Check her out!

This month it was announced that Holly scored funding as part of the International Pathway grants program. So she and Bree are taking the money and hitting the road this September/ October touring New Zealand, the UK and Europe. Updated tour dates can be found at http://www.myspace.com/hollythrosby.

Discography:

A Loud Call (2008) * Under the Town (2006) * On Night (2004)