Minutos Musicales: M. Ward

Estimados,
labor multidisciplicar hace este cantautor y guitarrista de Oregon, combinando diversos proyectos con un alto grado de calidad. Empezó su carrera en solitario allá por 1999 con la publicación de su primer disco "Duet for Guitars #2".

Ha tenido colaboraciones con múltiples artistas: Cat Power, Beth Orton, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket... e incluso se hizo una gira con REM y Bruce Springsteen en unas elecciones en los USA.

Pero quizá lo que más renombre le ha dado últimamente ha sido la formación del grupo 'She And Him' junto con la actriz Zooey Deschanel. Su album de debut "Volume One" se podría considerar uno de los mejor considerados en el pasado 2008 teniendo tal repercusión que incluso presentaron sus canciones junto a Yo La Tengo en el show de Conan O´Brien.

Hoy os presento su último trabajo, de nombre 'Hold Time'.... majestuoso, respetuoso, atemporal, reposado. Un disco para escuchar con tranquilidad, con tiempo suficiente para deleitarse con cada canción.
Un último apunte. La canción favorita del señor Ward es 'Amazing Grace'.... curioso, verdad?

"His solo debut Duet for Guitars #2 was released by Howe Gelb on his Ow Om record label. Ward's 2001 album, End of Amnesia, was put out by Future Farmer Records. A collection of live recordings, Live Music & The Voice of Strangers, was a self-released disc that was sold at his shows in 2001. His subsequent albums have been released on Merge Records.

He has guested on recordings by Cat Power, Beth Orton (with whom he co-wrote the title track to her album Comfort of Strangers), The Court & Spark, Bright Eyes (with whom he toured on the 2004 Vote For Change tour with R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen), Jenny Lewis (whose debut solo album Rabbit Fur Coat he co-produced), and My Morning Jacket.

In 2006, he contributed a song to, and helped produce the John Fahey tribute album I Am the Resurrection. He also appears on Norah Jones' album Not Too Late, performing backing vocals and guitar on "Sinkin' Soon", and toured as the opener and a member of her "Handsome Band" for the album in the spring of 2007. Also his cover of David Bowie's song "Let's Dance" is featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 New Zealand film Eagle vs Shark. Ward was previously a member of the band Rodriguez with Kyle Field of Little Wings. Their album Swing Like a Metronome was released in 2000 and produced by Jason Lytle of Grandaddy.

In 2004 Ward played guitar for Bright Eyes on a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. During the performance, Bright Eyes' singer Conor Oberst yelled out "M. Ward for President!" This prompted Newsweek to run an article on Ward and his next album Transistor Radio.

In 2006, he released Post-War, which was described by Vanity Fair in its August 2006 issue as thematic on the question "How will America heal once this craziness in Iraq is over?" Ward said in that article that he looked to the post-war music of the late 1940s and 50s. "I had the naive, simplistic idea that producers and writers and artists of the time helped in a minuscule way to change the mind-set of America". The album was released on Merge Records and features cameo performances by Howe Gelb, Jim James and Neko Case. From the music blog It's Hard To Find A Friend: "According to the Omaha City Weekly: ...Also with recording plans for the winter is Conor Oberst. Beginning in the new year, Oberst is slated to begin recording two new albums — one a solo record in Mexico (the album is self titled "Conor Oberst") with Jake Bellows playing a role and another with a new band being formed with M Ward". [1] In 2006, Ward recorded a duet with actress Zooey Deschanel, which collaboration resulted in the formation of the band She & Him[1]. The duo's album Volume One — which Ward produced — was released on Merge Records on March 18, 2008. Ward and Deschanel performed (along with Yo La Tengo) on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on April 22, 2008. Returning from She & Him duties, M. Ward has released his sixth solo studio album, Hold Time, on February 17th 2009."

Grupo: M. Ward
Disco: Hold Time
Año: 2009
Puntuación: 8/10
Web oficial: http://www.mwardmusic.com/ y http://www.myspace.com/mward
Canciones destacadas: For Beginers, Fisher Of Man, Jailbird, One Hundred Million Years, Rave On, Shangri-La y To Save Me.

Minutos Musicales: Stars

Estimados,
hoy llega hasta vuestros oidos una banda canadiense formada por Torquil Campbell (vocalista) y Chis Seligman (teclados). Actualmente están ubicados en Montreal aunque sus pasos empezaron en Toronto, luego en New York y finalmente recalaron en Montreal.

Su música ha sido catalogada como "beautiful, eloquent indie pop". Su sonido ha evolucionado de un pop-electrónico como el ofrecido en su primer album (Nightsongs) a una instrumentación más rockera en sus dos últimos albums, la cual se refleja en la incorporación del cantante y guitarra Amy Millan y el bajo Evan Cranley así como de Pat McGee en el disco "Set Yourself On Fire" (una auténtica obra maestra y referencia absoluta para un dj que se precie).

"The band's breakthrough single was "Ageless Beauty", from their 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire. Millan, Cranley and Campbell are also members of the indie band Broken Social Scene, with whom they currently share a record label, Arts & Crafts. Campbell is also an actor and has appeared on the television shows Sex and the City and Law & Order. Millan released a solo album in 2006. Several of the band's songs, such as "The Vanishing", "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", and "The Big Fight", have appeared on the Fox Network's The O.C. and CTV's Degrassi: The Next Generation. Their single "Ageless Beauty" was also featured in a promotional trailer for Vh1's So NoTORIous.

On their website, the band has noted that their name was chosen without prior knowledge of the short-lived project by Syd Barrett. They have cited a wide variety of musical likes and influences ranging from Berlioz to Outkast, citing among others Barrett, Paddy McAloon, New Order, The Smiths, Brian Wilson, Momus, and Broken Social Scene. They covered The Smiths' "This Charming Man" on 2001's Nightsongs and The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" in 2005. Other indie artists have been guest collaborators on many of their tracks, especially for an early period including the release of their first LP.

They recently surprised their fans by releasing their latest studio album (In Our Bedroom After the War), on July 10, 2007, a full two months ahead of its expected release date, onto iTunes. When Stars released In Our Bedroom After the War to online retailers weeks before the CD's actual release date to circumvent the album's inevitable leak, part of their reasoning touched on the increasingly blurry line between critics and listeners. The band believed indie-rock fans should be able to review and provide opinions of the band's albums similar in a way to the so-called critics, but soon realized that the outcome could be very far from their ideal expectation. Soon after the music site Pitchfork Media gave the new album a 7.4 out of 10, Torquil Campbell offered up a rant that not only tore into the music site and the reviewer but lamented the death of art and criticism, which as a result prompted much scoffing from some critics and bloggers, as well as approval from others. The band contributed a T-shirt design to the Yellow Bird Project. to raise money for Le Chainon, a women's shelter located in Montreal, Quebec."

Grupo: Stars
Disco: In Our Bedroom After The War
Año: 2007
Web oficial: http://www.arts-crafts.ca/stars/
Canciones destacadas: Midnight Coward, Take Me To The Riot y The Night Starts Here