SONG: New A.A. Bondy

Hey all! I'm back from my trek across Europe and all I can say is I'm tired, happy, and enjoying the ability to make bacon and eggs in the morning if I want to. Ah America.

On the music side of things, I am utterly and completely out of the loop. And that's a good thing. It's refreshing to step back every now and then, re-focus a bit, get outside the hype. I listened to almost no music over the past month, and when I did it was mostly old favorites - a lot of Bob Dylan and Mason Jennings. Well I guess that's a lie - I listened to tons of music on the trip, it just wasn't on my ipod. I heard everything from an Alleluia Band from Malawi to a Wagnerian opera in Vienna, to street performers playing Ave Maria in Munich. All of it was either free or cheap, and all of it was tremendous.

Well now I'm back and I'm not even going to worry about what I missed (my Google Reader was pretty overwhelming, so I just clicked "Mark all as read"). Two great bits of news though - I was so excited to learn that Grand Archives are set to release their follow-up to our favorite record of 2008 (Logan's got that covered HERE). I was also so excited to find that one of my most favorite artists of late, Mr. A.A. Bondy, also has a new record coming out at the end of summer, called When The Devil's Loose. I've got the title track below to get you all excited.

It's good to be back.

mp3: A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose
from the album When The Devil's Loose (out Sept. 1st)

ARTIST: A.A. Bondy

So I've kind of mentioned it before, but I'll be moving to Indianapolis at the end of June to start dental school in July - so these are my last few months here in Utah. Any of our readers from Indiana? I hear the music scene is pretty great, so assuming I have any time in between my dental classes, I'm excited to be a part of it.

I'm sad to be leaving Utah, not least because of all the amazing concerts coming here this summer. The other day I noticed that A.A. Bondy will be coming to the Urban Lounge on June 23rd, which just smarts (we'll be missing him by days). If you have the chance, please see this guy play. He released one of the best albums I missed in 2007 - but I've been making up for it in spades over the last several months. It's called American Hearts and it's one of the best gritty folk records I've heard in awhile - with plenty of harmonica and electric guitar over some exceptionally pretty acoustic ballads. Listen and love below.

Also, his Daytrotter session is one of the very best I've ever heard. Listen to it HERE.

A.A. Bondy - Black Rain, Black Rain
from the album American Hearts (Amazon/iTunes)


A.A. Bondy - Killed Myself When I Was Young
from the album American Hearts (Amazon/iTunes)

VIDEO: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

I really want to see this.



Did that make you choke up? Just a little bit maybe? It did me. Anyway, you can check out their official site here, and if you're lucky you might just be near one of the very limited showings. Considering that the last music documentary I saw screening at Sundance has actually become one of my all-time favorite movies, I have a really good feeling about this one.

And here's a song that's totally unrelated, but it's playing on my iTunes and I really must share. It's the last song from A.A. Bondy's fantastic Daytrotter session. You can get the whole thing here. Enjoy.

A.A. Bondy - The Mightiest of Guns
from his Daytrotter Session