John Murry - "The Ballad of the Pajama Kid"

Postable, embeddable mp3:

CORB LUND PLANS FEBRUARY U.S. TOUR, SCORES HIGH ON COUNTRY MUSIC CRITICS' POLL

BEST OF 2012 ACCOLADES ACCOMPANY OPENING SLOT FOR DIERKS BENTLEY & MIRANDA LAMBERT

Corb Lund – the descendent of four generations of Albertan ranchers and former punk/metal player – is planning a U.S. run of dates in February with his longtime band The Hurtin' Albertans. In the Nashville Scene's 13th Annual Country Music Critics' Poll, Corb Lund is the #10 male vocalist and 'Cabin Fever' is the #20 best album of 2012.

Others have agreed. 'Cabin Fever' (New West) was named to year-end best lists by 29-95 (Houston Chronicle) and No Depression and caught the number one spot on The Oregonian's list. American Songwriter named "September" one of its top 50 songs of 2012.

Meanwhile, Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley confirmed that Corb Lund will open a date April 12 in Springfield, MO.

Goth girls to survivalists, bovines to bibles, antique pistols to vintage motorcycles: Lund’s songcraft creates vivid images and character sketches with hard-worn western language. Raves have run in the NY Times, NPR All Things Considered, Paste, and elsewhere.

CORB LUND U.S. TOUR DATES

Feb. 6, 2013    Atlanta, GA             Smith’s Olde Bar                -
Feb. 7, 2013    Chattanooga, TN         Rhythm and Brews                -
Feb. 8, 2013    Knoxville, TN   Barley’s                -
Feb. 9, 2013    Nashville, TN           Exit/In                 -
Feb. 12, 2013   Charlotte, NC           The Evening Muse                -
Feb. 13, 2013   Greenville, SC  The Handlebar           -
Feb. 14, 2013   Raleigh, NC             Berkeley Cafe           -
Feb. 15, 2013   Roanoke, VA             Kirk Avenue Music Hall          -
Feb. 16, 2013   Asheville, NC           Emerald Lounge          -
Feb. 20, 2013   Wilmington, DE  World Café Live at The Queen            -
Feb. 21, 2013   New York, NY    Joe’s Pub               -
Feb. 22, 2013   Washington, DC  Hill Country BBQ                -
Feb. 24, 2013   Charleston, WV  Mountain Stage, Culture Center Theater

"DELIGHTFUL" (PITCHFORK) NEW CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' OUT THIS WEEK ON 429 RECORDS AS BAND TAPES NPR WORLD CAFÉ AND NPR MOUNTAIN STAGE THIS WEEK

429 Records released indie rock pioneers Camper Van Beethoven's new album 'La Costa Perdida' this week, which has earned raves from press and bloggers. In addition, the band is taping NPR's World Café today and NPR's Mountain Stage on Sunday and has added new tour dates (at bottom). Here's what we're reading:

"Delightful… It does illustrate how unique this band still is, 30 years after it formed. And it truly is a kick to hear CVB ply its craft with road-tested assurance and subtly virtuosic musicianship."

– Steve Hyden, Pitchfork Media, January 17, 2013

"For 30 years and counting, Camper Van Beethoven have existed in a parallel-universe borderland, coming across like a punk band perpetually on a Balkan bluegrass bender. But they finally bring it all back home to their native California on 10th album, La Costa Perdida, recalling '60s-vintage West Coast pop filtered through their timeless, idiosyncratic prism."

– David Menconi, SPIN, January 14, 2013

"I'm so happy the band is back."

– Whitney Matheson, USA Today.com, January 18, 2013

"The new album’s lead single, 'Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out' [is] a swirling, Eastern-flavored psychedelic jam."

– Michael Nelson, Stereogum, January 10, 2013

"A uniquely skewed, bong-tastic surrealism… There's Americana, Mexican music, ska, fiddles both mournful and manic."

– Thomas Connor, Chicago Sun-Times, January 19, 2013

"Camper Van Beethoven still remain [sic] easy to love."

– Matt Melis, Consequence of Sound, January 21, 2013

"If the frigid air of winter is getting to you, rather than crank up the heat, throw on La Costa Perdida. It will wipe away all your seasonal depression."

– Steve Bonanno, Boston's Weekly Dig, January 7, 2013

"Engaging."

– Chuck Campbell, Scripps Howard Newswire/Knoxville News-Sentinel, January 15, 2013

"[The] writing glimmers in thick San Francisco Bay fog… Enter these redwoods at your own risk, and prepare to be bewitched."

– Tris McCall, Newark Star-Ledger, January 4, 2013

"Sure to satisfy… It’s an album unmoored in quiet, often fascinating ways."

– Matthew Fiander, PopMatters, January 21, 2013

"Northern California Girls" (radio edit) lyric video.

Postable, embeddable "Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out" mp3.

CVB Tour dates:

Wed Jan 23 - Sky City – Augusta, GA

Thu Jan 24 - 40-Watt Club - Athens GA

Fri Jan 25 - The Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC

Sat Jan 26 - The Earl – Atlanta, GA

Sun Jan 27 - Mountain Stage - Charleston WV

Thu Feb 14 - Burnsville PAC - Minneapolis MN (w/ Cracker)

Sat Feb 16 - Rickshaw Stop - San Francisco CA

Sun Feb 17 - Hopmonk - Novato, Novato, CA

Mon Feb 18 - Odd Fellows Hall - Davis CA

Thurs Feb 21 – Hollywood, CA – House of Blues (w/ Leftover Salmon)

Fri Feb 22 - Tractor Tavern - Seattle WA

Sat Feb 23 - Mississippi Studios - Portland OR

FOLLOWING WNYC SOUNDCHECK APPEARANCE, YEAR-END BEST ACCOLADES, CORB LUND & THE HURTIN' ALBERTANS MAKE JOE'S PUB DEBUT FEB 21

Corb Lund – the Albertan cowboy songwriter who used to play punk and metal – will make his debut at Joe's Pub February 21 along with his longtime band The Hurtin' Albertans. Lund appeared on WNYC's Soundcheck on December 10.

'Cabin Fever' (New West) was named to year-end best lists by 29-95 (Houston Chronicle) and No Depression and caught the number one spot on The Oregonian's list. American Songwriter named "September" one of its top 50 songs of 2012. He just finished of a December tour with Hayes Carll, who appears on the 'Cabin Fever' song "Bible on the Dash" and spoke with the Austin American-Statesman about his inspirations and the role of humor in song.

'Cabin Fever' cemented Lund as one of the best songwriters in North America and one of its most commanding performers, hitting number four on the Americana radio chart and number one on the Canadian Top 200.

WHO: Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans

WHAT: Full band concert & first Joe's Pub appearance

WHEN: 9:30pm, Thursday, February 21

WHERE: Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC, 212-539-8778

TICKETS: $15 at JoesPub.com or Joe's Pub box office

FOR JOHN MURRY, DUELING BASSES, A BOWED GUITAR, BELLS, VIBES, ORGAN, AND GUILT CONJURE "CALIFORNIA"

"California," the intense, guilt-ridden John Murry song for which buzzy British blog The Line of Best Fit premiered the music video, started taking its final shape only when two scratch bass parts meant as an either/or proposition fit together as one.

Here's the embeddable music video.

The song appears on 'The Graceless Age,' out April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. in the US. The album was among the best of 2012 in the UK from UNCUT Magazine, the BBC, and elsewhere.

The master built on basslines from an old Jerry Jones longhorn semi-hollowbody bass (of which Murry cryptically says "has a hell of a story of it's own, involving bank robberies and exploding dye packs and prison time"). Murry says, "I think that, of all the songs on The Graceless Age, it exemplifies what Tim [Mooney, co-producer] and I did together best. We'd built an entire song off of an out-of-tune bass, which accidentally helps give it that kinda drone-y, hypnotic quality. When we went to play everything else we did, like bells, vibes, and organ, Tim and I would have to pitch shift everything. It became a method, almost, limiting us to certain instruments and forcing us to experiment with messing with various organic instruments' sounds to create the sounds we'd normally get from specific instruments."

Murry says, "We stole the handclaps from another session we'd been working on for another band and then built the drum loop. Then we overdubbed the percussion. I played a bunch of weird guitar using an actual bow, an ebow, and a brass slide and wah to imitate the sustain of an ebow, and we reversed it on tape and made it warble by varying the speed, then recorded it again as it was being varied. We got the vocals done. It happened so quickly." Later, Sean Coleman overdubbed a piano part, which had to pitch-shifted from a piano that was slightly flat.

The writing came to Murry all at once. He recalls, "I was becoming addicted to narcotics – I'd begun abusing Percocet and Percodan and Vicodin and the like – and wrote it in a 30 minute wave of time; the kind of time I think Tom Waits is describing when he talks about songs 'coming through the window if you leave it open.'"

Contrary to the song's refrain ("I swear it ain't you; It's California I can't stand)," Murry confesses, "It's a bit of self-deception. California, as a State, isn't to blame for what happened. I am."

MIRANDA LAMBERT IS A "TOTAL FAN" OF CORB LUND, INVITES HIM TO OPEN A SHOW

Miranda Lambert has Tweeted about Corb Lund, saying that she's a "total fan." Now, she has asked him to open a date for her and for Dierks Bentley, which will be April 12 in Springfield, MO at the JQH Arena in Springfield, MO. Here's her Tweet with a photo of Corb and Miranda together.

'Cabin Fever' (New West) was named to year-end best lists by 29-95 (Houston Chronicle) and No Depression and caught the number one spot on The Oregonian's list. American Songwriter named "September" one of its top 50 songs of 2012. He just finished of a December tour with Hayes Carll, who appears on the 'Cabin Fever' song "Bible on the Dash" and spoke with the Austin American-Statesman about his inspirations and the role of humor in song.

Lund appeared on WNYC's Soundcheck on December 10.

New tour dates

'Cabin Fever' cemented Lund as one of the best songwriters in Canada and one of its most commanding performers, hitting number four on the Americana radio chart and number one on the Canadian Top 200.

STEREOGUM DEBUTS MP3 FROM NEW CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN ALBUM 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' AS SPIN HAS FULL STREAM

DAVID LOWERY PROVIDES SPOTIFY WITH COMMENTARY AS "NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GIRLS" SINGLE RELEASES

HOW BAD ACID, A BIRD TRAPPED IN A HOUSE IN NORTHERN CA, AND VIPER-BITES IN SWEDEN INSPIRED "TOO HIGH FOR THE LOVE-IN"

Indie rock originators Camper Van Beethoven's new album 'La Costa Perdida' is out next week and Stereogum has debuted the first downloadable mp3, which Michael Nelson calls "a swirling, Eastern-flavored psychedelic jam."

SPIN has posted a full-album stream and Q&A with David Lowery. David Menconi writes, "They finally bring it all back home to their native California on 10th album, recalling '60s-vintage West Coast pop filtered through their timeless, idiosyncratic prism."

Meanwhile, Spotify has the "Northern California Girls (radio edit)" single and "Too High For The Love-In" alongside David Lowery's commentary on both tracks. He explains how a bad acid trip, a bird trapped in a house in northern California, a venom bite in Sweden, and an insatiable desire for a sandwich came together in writing the latter.

Members of REM, Pavement, Built To Spill, The Decemberists, and Divine Fits toasted the band on its 30^th anniversary.

Embeddable "Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out" mp3.

"Northern California Girls (radio edit)" lyric video.

CVB tour dates