“I Love You, But Goodbye”, off Langhorne Slim‘s forthcoming junior release Be Set Free, continues Langhorne’s soulful gospel-style folk. Building from the most subtle of beginnings, the song grows to include powerfully emotive vocals backed by a hefty orchestrated instrumentation. In “I Love You, But Goodbye”, Slim fully realizes his already impressive ability to craft a powerful song; it may just be his most achieved track to date!

Be Set Free will be released by Kemado Records on September 29. Above photo courtesy Crackerfarm.

Langhorne Slim: I Love You, But Goodbye [mp3]

There’s something totally creepy about this video. Maybe it’s the epileptic intro, sure to send you into a seizure. Or maybe it’s the way the band seems to have been thrust into the 21st century from the mid 1800s pioneer days. Or maybe it’s the fact that they coddle skeletons and what appear to be quite realistic decaying corpses. Yeah, I think it’s probably that one.

O’Death (MySpace), as a band, is about as amazing as they come. Their sound, while hinting of centuries-old, powerful barroom folk is filled with wailing fiddles and wild percussion and rabid vocals. “Lowtide” is an easy crowd favorite. Had I seen this video last year, it would definitely have made my Best Videos of 2008…

O’Death: Lowtide [mp3]

O’Death – Lowtide from Kemado Records on Vimeo.

Oh how yee young’ins grow. Way back in my grad school days, I remember picking up a copy of Ballads Of Living And Dying, what I believe was Marissa Nadler‘s first LP, from the KZUU promo rack. At the time she was just another new artist in a sea of new artist albums. What intrigued me to pick up her album was the cover (like various people and animals to shiny things, I’m drawn to catchy album art).

Well, her third is titled Little Hells and comes out March 3rd on the growing wonder that is Kemado Records. The first single off that album is “River Of Dirt” and you can both download the song and watch the video below.

The theme here is the road, and she coos El Camino take me home several times during the choruses. Her voice is soft and leans romantic, filled with the spaciness of light reverb. The music backing it is folky, but features a prominent percussive beat. This is not the Nadler from Ballad, this is a much improved, seasoned artist, well-versed in song craft and lyricism.

Marissa Nadler: River Of Dirt [mp3]

Marissa Nadler – River of Dirt – Directed by Joana Linda from Kemado Records on Vimeo.

Written by Fense

Cracking the Digipak CD case on TK Webb’s (MySpace) Ancestor, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cover portrays giant wooden gates opening in the middle of either a desert dusk or dawn, and the sparse clouds are starkly white against the deep blue sky. The back shows a similar landscape—but without the doors—at night. In other words, the art is anthemic… Ancestor is anthemic!

Take “Year 33”, where guitars echo amidst a powerful vocal chorus. And look at the softly somber opening to its follow up in “God Bless The Little Angels” and its crescendo into epic guitar noise before it drops back into the spacey emptiness. It quickly becomes apparent that Webb is the master at writing heartfelt songs—no, heartfelt rock songs.

Joining Webb is ex-Love As Laughter musicians Brian Hale and Nic Gonzalez, and on bass a new name in Jordan Gable.

The greatness in the make-up of epic and anthemic rock is that it supersedes traditional rock in not only by beautifying it—in the sense that anthemic rock creates emotion, simply from enormous quantities of skilled guitar-work, explosive percussion, and masterful bass-lines—and moving volume from gigantic heights to un-impenetrable lows. That’s exactly what The Visions do on soft, bluesy tunes like “Patience And Fortitude” and the ear-splitting volume in “1000 Horns”.

Coda: Ancestor is out this week on Kemado Records and, if you’re here in Seattle, you can catch TK Webb performing at El Corazon on September 4 with Witchcraft.

TK Webb & The Visions: Teen Is Still Shaking [mp3]

Kemado Records [CD, 2008]

1. Teen Is Still Shaking
2. Year 33
3. God Bless The Little Angels
4. Closed Caption Slang
5. Patience & Fortitude
6. Shame
7. Hope You All Are Gone
8. Dreen Drone Death
9. 1000 Horns
10. Isle Of Grizzly White
11. Time To Go