Way I figure, the dawning of a new year is as good an excuse as any to look at some of the acts that are coming through town in the coming days, weeks and months.
The David Wax Museum is from Boston, but seems to play in town as often as many local acts. The band is first notable for their unbridled, contagious glee, and are the only band I know that flies the "Mexo-Americana" banner. That seems to have impressed the folks at All Songs Considered, over at NPR, who posted a new video for a song called "Born With a Broken Heart." Is there such a thing as having too much fun? Find out at The Southern next month.
"Born With A Broken Heart" from Anthem Multimedia on Vimeo.
In tomorrow’s Feedback column, I preview the local cellist Wes Swing’s debut album, Through a Fogged Glass. In it Swing probes a bunch of styles—prim orchestrals in the vein of Carl Orff’s music for kids, Coldplayesque vocal rock, austere acoustic pop a la the Kings of Convenience—the latter being the strongest. In particular, I’ve been enjoying the song "Dilate" (below), a slow-burner that rewards the attention you give it, but also works if you’re looking for a cool, wintry soundtrack for, say, fomenting romance.
Listen to Swing’s "Dilate" on his Bandcamp here.
Swing releases that album next week at the Jefferson Theater with Devon Sproule, who releases a new disc of her own, Live in London. What more needs to be said about Devon Sproule? When she takes the stage one gets the sense that she was born what she does: redeem a genre that often feels tired with a precocious, undeniably charming delivery. The new disc captures her at the peak of her performative powers, and on the continent in which she is said to be exceedingly beloved and famous.
Buy Live in London here, or at the Jefferson on Friday, January 7. Listen to "Julie" here.
In December 2008, Bettye LaVette seemed to sneak through the back door onto the stage the Kennedy Center Honors only to steal the show with a rendition of The Who’s "Love Reign O’er Me." Across the pond, Keith Richards himself wondered, "How did Bettye LaVette slip thru the net for so long?" Last year became LaVette’s year, when a collection of British rock classics, Interpretations, occasioned an appearance on the Tonight Show and a profile in the New Yorker. In her attempt to bring British popular song to its roots in American R&B—remember that Smokey Robinson was among John Lennon’s idols—LaVette probes radio regulars like "Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me," "Maybe I’m Amazed" and "Nights in White Satin" for starker depths than perhaps even their composers intended. Rarely has reimagining old pop sounded so essential.
LaVette’s version of The Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin." She’s at the Paramount Theater with Booker T. in February.
Anyone else coming through town that you’re excited about?