Straight From The Horse’s Mouth: Sean Moeller’s Daytrotter Picks for 5/18/15

It’s another Monday and that means that we’re looking back on all of the wonderful new musical treats we tossed out there into the world last week. We’ll kick our recap off with one of the most special new talents we’ve come across in a long while.

We’ll kick our recap off with one of the most special new talents we’ve come across in a long while.

Liza Anne

Miss Liza Anne holds our heart and you’d been well to let her do the same with yours. I don’t know how we got so lucky, but two weeks ago Liza Anne decided to come here to Davenport and spend almost a week with us. She’s one of those rare people who you want to spend every week with. She could be singing or not singing and you’d be elated to just have her around—for meals, for conversation, for wine, for swooning over John Moreland or Taylor Goldsmith lyrics. She spent her 21st birthday with us here this winter and the day before that she recorded this session—her first with a band—and it’s literally everything. Her soul is deep and wide. It’s got chipped paint around its trimming and the floorboards of it are lightened and worn. She’s like no other. Listen to Liza Anne’s session here.

The Velcro Lewis Group

These guys remind me of the way Chicago looks in Blues Brothers. The streets are dirty and the people are dirty. It’s all a hustle and everything’s as gritty as can be. We’re talking about barely getting by, about being persistently pursuing the pleasures of the flesh, just because those are usually the cheapest and, if you’re lucky, you don’t need a job to pay for them. The Velcro Lewis Group reminds us that we’re all only human after all and we might as well just go for it—all the skin, all the liquor and all of the dark hours where all the sins tend to lurk. It will all make for a good story someday. Check out The Velcro Lewis Group’s session here.

Beacon

This Brooklyn duo of Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett gives us the sinking and titillating sensation that we might all be in on an elaborate voyeur-type evening where we’re looking in through hazy windows, through the cracked curtains and just taking in another life, observing it in its quiet, unwatched intensity. Listen to Beacon’s session here.

Siv Jakobsen

With each passing listen, we find ourselves falling deeper and deeper with Siv Jakobsen. She’s got a touch with the leaden linings of clouds that lets her sadness and vulnerability pass right through us, just as a ghost would. She’s got a flair for tacking shadows onto us in a way that makes them feel like they’re just our dogs on leashes and we’re taking them out and around the block, caring for them as we should. Listen to Siv Kakobsen’s session here.

AM Stryker

The way that we get ourselves into the shit is always different, but it tends to be that the way that we get ourselves out of it strikes pretty similarly. We look in, at the fortitude we have locked down, bolted to the bottom of our guts and we pull it out, letting it take over and move our mouth and limbs. We rub our hands over its fire and just draw on the sweetnesses that we’ve derived over the years—all of the people that have helped to get us through in the past and we call on them again. AM Stryker’s music is testament to this, when we’re feeling cold. Listen to AM Stryker’s session here.

Scars On 45

Parts of “Crazy For You” remind me of Chicago’s “You’re The Inspiration” and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. The English band from Bradford is more so than ever before traversing that old soft rock, AM radio format of the past and it’s filled with huge hooks and golden sunshine. Check out Scars on 45’s session here.

Phantom Farmer

Easily one of the best last minute bookings we’ve ever made. We had an 11th hour cancellation for our studio—Big Light—in Nashville and our engineer, Logan Matheny, suggested these fellows and they hit like a ton of bricks. “Glutton For Punishment” reminds me of Roy Orbison, if he were trying to get down with Father John Misty, or something like that. Listen to Phantom Farmer here.

Here are some of my best new discoveries this past week: RALPH, Rocko Wheeler, The Harmaleighs, Night Dials, The Speedbumps, Andrew Duhon, Sloes, Franki Love, Levi Parham, Pseudoubt, Tomo Nakayama, Mothers, Lucy Dacus, LYLOH, Throw Vision, Thee MVPs, Meadowlark, Kafka Tamura, Awna Teixeira, and Dustin Lovelis. Now get out there and have yourself a week!