A Lot from a Little – Little Trouble Kids’ Haunted Hearts

Who else remembers building a bridge out of toothpicks and glue in middle school shop class? A few days of hard work usually came crashing down after your teacher methodically added a couple pounds. If only you had more time, more glue, more toothpicks, or some actual lumber. Then one kid in the class manages to get his bridge to hold all of the weights at your instructor’s disposal. Haunted Hearts by Little Trouble Kids is that overachieving kid.

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Butte, MT – Robert Sarazin Blake

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love writing for a music blog. This time it was Robert Sarazin Blake under the proverbial lights playing his music for all you to hear. I was embarrassingly unfamiliar with Mr. Blake. Kent came to me and said he had a good candidate for a Dig Session so I proceeded immediately to the interwebs where I did my best to become acquainted with his cannon. His recorded music is great, but his live performance was wonderful.

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Rocky Road to Dublin – The Dubliners

One of my favorite vocalists of all time makes an appearance on this special Saint Patrick’s day edition of Shake The Monday Blues. He is another name in the long list of musicians that have gone long before their time. Luke Kelly could sing like no other, and on this St. Patrick’s Day morning he is in my headphones. I hope you enjoy it. Happy Saint Patrick’s day Lúc Ó Ceallaigh, I’m sure he’s celebrating somewhere.

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Bosch’s Butt Music – When History, the Internet, and Metal Collide

The Internet is a strange and glorious place. A few weeks ago blew up with the transcription of music written on a man’s butt in the depiction of hell in Hieronymus Bosch’s painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Well, at least in our circle of musician and history buff friends it did. It made it’s way around Tumblr, Gawker, Buzzfeed, and the music history student responsible for the original transcription, and the choral adaptation of the piece were featured on Anderson Cooper’s Ridiculist. Within a few days of the news, our own Kent Heberling took it upon himself to create an orchestral metal version of the tune, because what else would you do with a sinner’s hymn written on a man’s butt in a renaissance depiction of hell?

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All Good Things – Mexico

One of my favorite things about playing shows is meeting the other bands on the bill. The day I met John Petty from All Good Things was a great day. He played a phenomenal set late into the night (early into the next morning). As I loaded my equipment out the bar door into my car the snow was falling and I found myself humming a tune. Mexico.

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The Peaks and Valley’s of Pittsburgh’s Action Camp

Because I spend most of my day at a computer, I spend a lot of time wondering what to listen to next. Despite the infinite world of Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, and my own library, I still get stuck in ruts of listening to the same stuff over and over. Thus, when I get wind of something new coming along, it’s an absolute delight to take some time with fresh sounds. This last week, that new thing was Pittsburgh’s dark electro-pop duo, Action Camp‘s forthcoming LP, PA. While that last sentence may have read like a bad business presentation with too many acronyms, it’s because the LP is simply titled and written about their home state. As Ivan, a long-time Pennsylvania native, will tell you, it’s a gorgeous but occasionally depressing state, and the tone and subject matter of the LP reflects that perfectly. With songs about various infamous disasters such as the Centralia Mine Fire and the Johnstown Flood, and recurring themes about earth and industry, it’s a delightfully dark experience.

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Milwaukee by Calamity Janes and the Fratney Street Band

I’ve recently come to a realization: the Milwaukee music scene is incredible, and we who live here are all horribly spoiled. Case in point, the Calamity Janes and the Fratney Street Band. Mixing heart-melting vocal harmonies and tight instrumentation into pure auditory joy.

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The Big Easy Express: Scenes and Songs

One of my favorite features on this blog has always been Scenes And Songs. I am happy to finally be able to contribute something to back to it. The 2012 documentary film Big Easy Express chronicles three of the most popular indie / folk / bluegrass bands of the moment: Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford and Sons, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The scene I have chosen is the opening sequence.

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