The Warm Up with Marcus Foster

04/09/2012 By
The Warm Up with Marcus Foster [ 16:27 | 37.64 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sometimes when we invite people to come to Ardent to record an episode of our little podcast something magical happens. Such is the case of Marcus Foster. When he showed up at the studio we didn’t know a lot about him, and he didn’t know a lot about us. But sometime over the course of the day we fell in love with each other.

The UK-based musician has been on the road non-stop since SXSW, touring the US with his piano player Jack Standen and spreading the word about his album, Nameless Path, and his upcoming EP. We first heard him just a few weeks ago when he played The Jimmy Fallon Show.

Foster is signed to Communion Records, the Geffen imprint of Mumford & Sons‘ Ben Lovett. The musical comparisons made between him and  Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, and Van Morrison are very much deserved – especially when Pete Matthews, who was in Studio C producing another artist, passed by where we were recording and popped his head in just to say he was really digging what he heard from the hall.

Take a listen to hear what Matthews was raving about and to hear us chat about going to Stax, Foster recording his debut album in Wales and playing the piano used in the recording of Bohemian Rhapsody.

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Nice Playlist, Brah: Hey 2011 – Thanks for the Memories by Jenny Owen Youngs

01/05/2012 By

Songs – sweet heavenly sustenance. Here are a handful of tracks that got under my skin and kept me going this year. Click to Stream.

1. Azealia Banks (feat. Lazy Jay): 212
PERFECT SONG ALERT. Not sure how a song with no identifiable hook could ever be this addictive… but here it is. The bare-bones music video is pretty raw and necessary too. This girl is going to divide and conquer 2012.

2. Young Buffalo: Full Metal Whacket
Love this band – they are headed for greatness. Here’s a song from their EP Young Von Prettylips. This is tremendous amount of music to come out of just three people. Their reverb is my favorite of all possible reverbs. See them live and you’ll get to watch each player rotate through all the instruments.

3. Drake: Headlines
I don’t know how I accidentally fell completely in love with Drake… but some things are just unavoidable. I’m in deep with the whole of Take Care, but this track is particularly satisfying.

4. The Black Keys: Lonely Boy
Get ‘em, Patrick and Dan!!

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Nice Playlist, Brah: Trae Vedder’s of Death On Two Wheels “20 from ’11″

12/14/2011 By

Just 20 songs that I like from 2011. Click to Stream.

1. Deer Tick – “Main Street”
I first saw John McCauley at the Loveless Cafe in Franklin, TN and
I’ve been hooked ever since. One of my favorite music videos of the
year, who doesn’t like to see a band having fireworks shot at them???
One of my favorite Letterman performances of the year, who doesn’t
enjoy a band when they dress for the occasion and still slay the
people???

2. Harrison Hudson – “Cherish The One You Got”
This is like a newfangled edition of “Love The One You’re With” mixed with a little bit of that Eels song that was in Roadtrip. Quite possibly the best pop album of the year, there’s such an honest sentiment in his lyrics and voice, his sincerity makes you want the good guys to win all the time.

3. The Features – “How It Starts”
This is my favorite band to see at The Earl in Atlanta. That’s where
they usually play if they are on their own. They are one of the best
live bands around the southeast, and this is my favorite track off
their latest release.

[Read more...]

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The Warm Up with Jenny Owen Youngs

09/22/2011 By
The Warm Up with Jenny Owen Youngs [ 20:16 | 46.39 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In our fantasy, we are totally BFF with Jenny Owen Youngs. After all, we know her first two albums by heart and totally relate to her musical aesthetic. In this fantasy she would call us up on Friday night and ask us to come over to drink beer and listen to records before we went out for Palek Paneer and then went bowling. Yes, we’d have great big plans.

Luckily, our real life isn’t that far from our fantasy life and today we got to invite Youngs to take a tour of Stax with us and then come to Ardent and hang out and record a few songs. She brought along drummer Elliot Jacobson, who is not only a nice guy, but drums for a bunch of our other favorite musicians, like Ingrid Michaelson, Bess Rogers, Regina Spektor, and Jim Bianco and was recently voted #1 Up And Coming Drummer by Modern Drummer Magazine. And did we mention he is super nice?

All in all – it was a pretty great day. Check out our interview and then go see Jenny and Elliot play TONIGHT at The Levitt Shell at 7:30 FOR FREE!

Jenny Owen Youngs, singer/songwriter and natural history enthusiast, grew up in the woods of New Jersey and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. After self-releasing her first album Batten the Hatches in 2005, Youngs signed with Nettwerk Records, and went on to release two albums and three EPs through the Canadian indie label. She has toured extensively through the US, UK, and mainland Europe, both as headliner and support to artists such as Regina Spektor, Motion City Soundtrack, Aimee Mann, Kevin Devine, and Amanda Palmer. Her songs have been heard on Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Privileged, Life Unexpected, and in Victoria’s Secret stores the world over.

In late 2010 she launched a campaign to finance her next album via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and was pleasantly surprised when she was met with immense support from her fan base – to the tune of $38,000. She is currently counting her blessings while working to finish that record. Her spirit animals are Johnny Cash, Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Jack White.

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