All Everlys, All the time

My review of the really quite pretty collection of late-period Everly Brothers covers from Will Oldham and Dawn McCarthy went up today at Blurt...and I couldn't wait to let you know.

DAWN MCCARTHY AND BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
What the Brothers Sang
(Drag City)

What the Brothers Sang pays tribute to The Everly Brothers, who ushered close harmonies into rock and roll, recorded a prodigious string of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s and inspired the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel. The duo, brothers from Kentucky reared on Sacred Harp singing, largely invented what we now know as country rock. Neil Young, when introducing them at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1986, said that every band he'd ever been in had tried to duplicate the Everly Brothers harmonies and failed. Though their hits dried up in the late 1960s - and their personal lives became snarled in addiction, bad business decisions and one of rock ‘n roll's most long-lasting sibling feuds, their impact as artists has only increased. In the album, Bonnie Prince Billy and Dawn McCarthy cover some well-known songs ("So Sad", "Devoted to You") but mainly stick to less celebrated ones from the brothers' late 1960s singles and albums.

More

My year-end is up

Read all about it here. By the way, there's a button you can press to listen to music from my list while you're reading. It obviously doesn't work on dial-up (what does?) but if anyone wants to try it and tell me what it's like, that'd be cool.

Or, skip the words, and just check out the list:
1. Skull Defekts, Peer Amid (Thrill Jockey)
2. Psychic Paramount, II (Important)
3. David Kilgour, Left by Soft (Merge)
4. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine (Domino)
5. Dirtbombs, Party Store (In the Red)
6. Gem Club, Breakers (Hardly Art)
7. Mogwai, Hard Core Will Never Die But You Will (Sub Pop)
8. Sidi Toure, Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)
9. UV Race, Homo (In the Red)
10. Bonnie Prince Billy, Wolfroy Comes to Town (Drag City)
11. Veronica Falls, Veronica Falls (Slumberland)
12. Bats, Free All the Monsters (Flying Nun)
13. Sole and the Skyrider Band, Hello Cruel World (Fake Four)
14. Demdike Stare, Tryptych (Modern Love)
15. Get Help, The Good Green Earth (Midriff)
16. Arrica Rose and the Dot, Dot Dots, Let Alone Sea (PopRock)
17. Sam Phillips, Solid State (Littlebox)
18. Emperor X, Western Transport (Bar/None)
19. Ty Segall, Goodbye Bread (Drag City)
20. Bad Sports, Kings of the Weekend (Dirtnap)

Look my Bonnie Prince Billy review turned into a feature...

It's up at Blurt now...here.

I concluded..."These are subtle songs, sparely arranged and underplayed, murmured, sighed and spoken as much as they are sung. There are a few showy passages, but mostly Oldham whispers to you. He gives you space to lean in and listen. He allows time between the notes for you to ponder along with him, the transience of life, the cruelty of disappointment and the saving grace of music. Wolfroy Goes to Town haunts you quietly, in a private way that is, somehow, all the more devastating."

This is a remix of "Quail and Dumplings"