SILVER MOON SHINE

Kevin Kendle's After Christmas Gift

2012-01-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

A couple years back I was weaning myself from my usual post-Holiday splurging blues... from all that sugar, the endless libations, the mystical high I always yearn to attain (yes, I always get a little down after December comes and goes - funny how a couple of weeks of time transforms the stark landscape from glittering wonderland into bleak tundra). So I was searching through Emusic for a little midwinter pick-me-up and came across Kevin Kendle's Winter.

I was immediately struck by how nicely the music fit the songs titles and conjured a meditative mood that really helped me ease into the new year and embrace the small offerings of beauty that winter truly offers. I find myself returning to the CD each January and actually look forward to it.

Later that same year I checked out Kendle's Autumn release and was equally enthralled. It is described as a haunting atmospheric album that evokes images of ethereal, magical landscapes of the season of mists and I enthusiastically agree.

Now Kendle has a new CD coming out in 2012 that sounds very intriguing:
The Leaves of Paradise: a collaboration with the Joao Santos. Check out the incredible digital landscape images at the Kevin Kendle web site!

If you enjoy meditative electronic music or spacey new age and need a little shot in the arm to pick up your spirits, I recommend the music of Kevin Kendle! Now pass me a cup of hot chocolate...

Kevin Kendle Amazon Store

2011: The Year That Was

2012-01-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

New music releases I enjoyed the most:

Hammock Longest Year
Doug Powell The Apprentice's Sorcerer
Ron Sexsmith Long Player Late Bloomer
Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What
The Sea And The Cake The Moonlight Butterfly
Bon Iver Bon Iver
Daryl Hall Laughing Down Crying
Jonathan Wilson Gentle Spirit

Other artists whose albums I listened to but they didn't really knock my socks off:

Joseph Arthur, Fow, Rundgren, Waits, Buva, Neon Indian, Kate Bush, Fleet Foxes. Rundgren needs to get back to basics... Waits needs to flee them.

Probably the recording I listened to most last year was:

Eden Ahbez Eden's Island

My soundtrack of the summer from hell!!!

Odds and Sods (mostly Sods):

Songs from 2011 you must download now!

The Copper Top Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat / Burden of Tomorrow Tallest Man on Earth / Beachcombing Typewriter / Perfect Day Cassettes Won't Listen / Hold That Thought Nik Freitas / Soft Washed Out / Dancing Barefoot Todd Rundgren

Best Shows I Saw (aka Only Shows I Saw):

Steely Dan at the Starlight Theater in KC
Ben Folds with the OKC Philharmonic and Paul Simon both at the beautiful Civic Center Music Hall within a few days of each other.

Made Me Quite Merry: Carla Bley Carla's Christmas Carols

A band I'd like to check out more in 2012: Balmorhea

Personal MVP of 2011:

Would have to be Paul Simon. I've spent a lifetime fending off the guy but there's no denying it now... he's one talented sob. His album was great and the impromptu show he gave us in the lobby of the Civic Center while the sound system was being fixed was magical. Showed he had stamina, versatility and most importantly... heart.

Silver Moon's Orange Glow: BOO!

2011-10-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

In honor of tonight's OKC Ghouls Gone Wild parade I've compiled some Halloween picks:
http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/imix/silver-moons-orange-glow-boo!/id476603699

The Gleaming Armament of Genatalia - Chrsitmas on Mars - The Flaming Lips
--- no March of a 1,000 Skeletons this year at the Ghouls Gone Wild OKC parade and that's really too bad... this is the theme music.

Manu Christi - Music for "Blood" - Stan Rdigway & Pietra Wexstun
--- this is really creepy... a little bit goes a long way.

Bonfires On The Heath - The Clientele
--- it can't be Halloween without something burning somewhere, right?

Halloween Spooks - Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
--- an old favorite... odd, silly yet captures the spirit!

Monsters of the Id - Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads - Stan Ridgway
--- the really scary things lie within (as Stan well knows).

Lockjaw - A Capella - Todd Rundgren
--- Todd's always good for a laugh. I wouldn't lie.

Edgar Allan Poe - All The Things You Are - Reynold Philipsek
--- a little gypsy jazz on a dark spooky night.

The Raven - Lou Reed
--- spoken word piece that follows Reynold very nicely.

Frank's Wild Years - swordfishtrombone - Tom Waits
--- had to include some Tom somewhere... dig the Halloween imagery at the end and just imagine its October 31st.

Halloween 2009 - Songs for the New Depression - Loudon Wainwright III
--- no double dip yet but late 2008 was damn scary... Woody woulda liked this one.

The Cask - The Raven - Lou Reed
--- another spoken word piece with nice musical enhancement featuring the distinctive voice of that funny-lookin' little guy, Steve Buscemi.

Great Pumpkin Waltz - Vince Guaraldi Trio
--- a little cliched perhaps but its time to wind down and chill.

Pumpkin Man - Superheterodyne - Rock E. Rollins
--- is it really already all over? This soulful little piece bids adieu to spooks, falling leaves and October.

Do you know who I am?....

Daryl Hall - Laughing Down Crying

2011-10-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Daryl Hall's new album is damn catchy. I can't seem to get these songs out of my head. The guy has always had a knack for writing great songs and he knows how to sing them. Alot of people I know like to dismiss Hall as just a pop song writer but that's only because he had so much success with Hall & Oates back in the 80s. You can't blame the man for producing hit after catchy hit. The truth is he's always surrounded himself with incredible musicians including Robert Fripp (check out Sacred Songs), Todd Rundgren (War Babies for starters), G.E. Smith (he was the H&O lead guitarist during their incredible 80s run), the late great T Bone Wolk and even the underrated John Oates. On top of that he's always had an experimental side to his work (see Fripp & Rundgren). Soulful pop, sing-along ballads, melodious rock - Laughing Down Crying has it all.

available from the Silver Moon aShop

The Best Songs of 2011 (so far...)

2011-08-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Recommended for immediate downloading from your favorite vendor:

The Movement of Cherry Blossom Shadows - Le Concorde

Come A Rain - Kevin Welch

Not Too Late - Freebass

Burden of Tomorrow - The Tallest Man On Earth

You Say It Too - Buva

Magic Lantern - Doug Powell

Drinking Beer On The Roof - The Handsome Family

Like New Year's Day - Matthew Ryan & Hammock

Mr. Let's Find Out - The Caribbean

The Magic Place - Julianna Barwick

Late Bloomer - Ron Sexsmith

Kiss Like Your Kiss - Lucinda Williams

Love And Hard Times - Paul Simon

Up On The North Shore - The Sea And Cake

Someone You'd Admire - Fleet Foxes

Always Like The Son - Release The Sunbird

Perfect Day - Cassettes Won't Listen

The Copper Top - Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat

Towers - Bon Iver

Horses - Joseph Arthur

Cemetery Guns - Fountains of Wayne

NOTE: many of these can be downloaded for free at

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/category/free-mp3s/

Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer

2011-03-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ron Sexsmith writes songs that get into your head and once they do they tend to stay there. His tender vocal stylings underscore his very insightful mature lyrics. His new release Long Player Late Bloomer is perhaps his most sonically accomplished and is filled with plenty of catchy pop sing-a-longs and his typically heartfelt acoustic ballads. As a relative newcomer to Sexsmith I have not heard his complete catalog but from what I have heard I surely believe this guy is an artist who deserves to be heard. Available from the Silver Moon aStore.

Below are a Silver Moon Baker's Dozen of great Ron Sexsmith tracks to download NOW from your favorite online vendor:

~ Maybe This Christmas ~ Not Too Big ~ Thumbelina Farewell

~ Keep It In Mind ~ Brandy Alexander ~ Not About To Lose

~ For The Driver ~ Wishing Wells ~ Jazz At The Bookstore

~ Hands of Time ~ Spiritude ~ I'll Believe It When I See It

~ Michael And His Dad

Doug Powell - The Apprentice's Sorcerer

2011-02-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

Somehow Doug Powell's latest release slipped past me until I stumbled upon it about a week ago on emusic. Released fittingly back on Halloween 2010 The Apprentice's Sorcerer is a concept album that turns the world of magic and belief upside down while scrutinizing the essence of light and its impact on what is and is not revealed. It's easy to interpret these songs as an extension of Powell's ongoing spiritual quest as they probe the concepts of belief, deception and ultimately faith. He's become quite the wizard in the studio as the production is top-notch and the songs sound dynamic, provocative and crystal clear. Most of the tunes are hyperactive toe-tappers but Doug squeezes in a couple of touching ballads that really shine in contrast. The album ends with The Professor's Nightmare which features a spoken-word intro by a Stephen Hawking-like drone whose computerized voice creates a synthetic non-human approach to the spirit world yet morphs into a lively piano solo that seemingly incorporates all of humanity's passion and potential and, perhaps, even a bit of its madness. And then suddenly, it's over: all matter has at long last fallen apart along the edges and God has left the building.

Or has He simply emerged from another door?

Available from CD Baby.

New Music from Buva

2011-01-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

Buva has released his third full-length CD Not Scary! Friendly which is available from CD Baby. Reminiscient of 70s era Beach Boys with a modern sheen and his typical dynamic arrangements.

Utopian Dreams

2011-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

The following is a not so impartial review of Utopian Dreams, the new release of an old live-in-the-studio recording by Moogy & the Rhythm Kings, Long Island, March 1972.

The set opens with the rollicking locomotive grind of Midnite Train. Next up is the funky Tonite I Wanna Love Me A Stranger that sports a cool Dr. John vibe. The soulful confessional Dust In The Wind follows which is without question one of Moogy’s best-known and beloved compositions. The instrumental Heaven On Earth is a jazzy delight, reminiscent of some of that era’s better prog-bop tracks. Woulda fit in nicely in Mickey Rourke’s Barfly flick. The great Ralph Schuckett takes center stage for the next two tunes, the street-wise shuffle of Gimme That Bread and the bittersweet ballad Welcome To My House that’s sure to be a fan favorite, especially in light of the fact that 38 years after the actual performance most of us Boomers can relate to the beautifully expressed sentiment. Just a wonderful song. The following four are all Moogy standards (I Can Love / Cryin’ In The Sunshine / Kilpatrick’s Defeat / The Man At Ease) delivered with typical soulful flare and tight arrangements. I’m A Ram is an all-out rock-funk jam with plenty of electric piano and organ solos. Makin’ The Rounds At Midnite is a self-professed hunk of funk with a tip of the hat to Jerry Lee. The set concludes with Raised On An Island which starts off with a distinct Siomos drum beat, then John Siegler falls in on bass, then Schuckett on organ, and finally Moogy offers his “humble lick on the piano.”

“We’re gonna rock and roll all day, we’re gonna rock and roll my friend,
We’re gonna rock and roll all night, then we’ll rock all over again!”

It turned out to be more than just a Utopian Dream, it laid the foundation for one of the most respected and creative musical forces of the era – a few years later the mother ship landed and out popped Todd with his spacey guitar and Utopia became a reality. And now thirty-eight years later the founding father is still rockin’ – Keep On Rockin’ Moogy!

Utopian Dreams is brought to you by Moogy Klingman and Silver Moon Music and is available for purchase from the Silver Moon web site. NOTE: the performances are grand, the sound quality not exactly pristine. My suggestion is to dial down the bass, bump up the treble, crank the V and enjoy with a Newcastle Brown or three.

Tom Getter Slack - Looking Glass

2011-01-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

One of the nice things about having released a few CDs on my Medicine Park label is that I've had the priviledge to make some musical friends along the way. One of those is a fellow from Pittsburg named Tom Getter Slack who recently sent me his new CD Looking Glass. Wow - this is really a very nice effort best described as melodic, peaceful, even sweet. There are a couple of instrumentals tossed in but most songs are concise introspective vignettes. Available from CD Baby for only $8.99. Recommended!

Top Picks for 2010

2011-01-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Some of these might have actually been officially released before 2010 but these are the ones I listened to the most. All are available at the Silver Moon aStore.

BEN FOLDS & NICK HORNBY - Lonely Avenue

CROWDED HOUSE - Intriguer

HAMMOCK - Chasing After Shadows

THE HOLD STEADY - Heaven Is Whenever

JEN OLIVE - Warm Robot

LAST DAYS - Safety Of The North

LAURA VEIRS - July Flame

LYLE WORKMAN - Harmonic Crusader

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - The Life of the World to Come

PETER MULVEY - Letters From a Flying Machine

SETH SWIRSKY - Watercolor Day

SPOOKEY RUBEN - Mechanical Royalty

TOM PETTY - Mojo

THE WEEPIES - Be My Thrill

WILLIAM BRITTELLE - Television Landscape

The Flaming Lips 2011 Freak Out !!

2010-12-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't made my plans yet but this is very tempting:

Reynold Philipsek - Vienna Blues

2010-12-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Some nice holiday cheer from Reynold Philipsek:

Keep Moogy In Your Thoughts and Prayers

2010-12-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

Moogy Klingman wrote some of the more memorable songs from the 70s including Bette Midler's signature "(You Gotta Have) Friends" (with Buzzy Linhart) and the bluesy confessional "Dust In The Wind" which leads off side 4 of Todd Rundgren's magnum opus "Something/Anything."

Moogy has served as Bette's musical director and was the executive producer of the "Music From Free Creek" super-session that featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Keith Emerson and many others.

Moogy provided the musical foundation for Todd Rundgren's Utopia with his own group Moogy & the Rhythm Kings and was a very large influence over the first two Utopia recordings.

Moogy played live with frickin' Lou Reed and that's a show worth risking the perils of time travel (you know, wormhole navigation and molecular regeneration) to go back and see!

Moogy jammed with Jimi!

Moogy was kind enough to write and record two wonderful songs for our Medicine Park projects.

Moogy wrote and recorded a plethora of funky, soulful, spiritual, rollicking rock and roll tunes in the 70s and has continued to write and perform in New York City to this very day.

And now Moogy is involved in a very serious health battle and needs our support.

"Moogy wants to play a solo so let's give him a chance."

Please send your thoughts, prayers and positive vibrations to Moogy Klingman. Thank you.

Moogy Klingman CDs can be bought at Moogy Music.

Last Days - The Safety of the North

2010-04-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

One of my recent discoveries is the electronic musical unit known as Last Days. Their musical world is one of moody dark passages that border sometimes on the bleak but that suits me just fine as given my disposition I am usually rendered calm and introspective upon listening. The vast majority of their work is instrumental and thus the titling of each song suggests some kind of inspiration or feeling that they are attempting to conjure. Even the name of the musical entity seems to bring a sober reckoning to the table.

the city failed / may your days be gold / new house / fracture / thoughts of alice / run home / life support / your silence is the loudest sound / this is not an ending / the fields remember my father /
missing photos / nothing stay the same, nothing ends / you are stars / blue and white flowers / onwards

Available the Silver Moon aStore.

Adam Marsland says Hello Cleveland, Goodbye Cruel World of Commercial Music?

2010-02-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

It appears that Adam Marsland has finally had it with trying to please the fickle music-buying public by actually recording and releasing thoughtful and appealing music for it's blissful mass consumption. At least that's my perception of an e-mail I received from Adam in late 2009 revealing that on a lark his touring band wrote and recorded his last (ever?) studio CD over one day last autumn while still out on tour. What's more, only 500 copies of the disc were manufactured and are now being sold directly from his web site.

The resulting Hello Cleveland is a caustic poison-soaked musical postcard filled with a bunch of two-minute Ramones-like blitzkriegs with acidic lyrics to boot (see The Worst Thing That I Ever Did, A Town Called Asshole, Fuck Nihilism) and yet sprinkled with enough tasty embellishment and sing-along vocals to keep it all fresh and downright catchy. There are plenty of tunes that offer a nice contrast to the up-yours sonic blast such as the accordion foot-stomper Jolly Joe, the mellow instrumental whimsy of Flight of the Stinkbug (although I miss the juvenile fart noise that I would have tagged on at the very end fittingly marking the subject's inevitable demise) and the appropriate closer, Batesville Casket Company, a moody acoustic dirge that pretty much sums it all up rather nicely. With Hello Cleveland it's almost seems as if Marsland is daring anyone to listen, as if the opportunity to create an uproar in some heartland high school library in the near future it just too tempting to pass up. Hell, if things really get stirred up it might even land him on the front page of Yahoo for a few hours with some headline like Oklahoma School Board Ponders Blasphemous Disc...

Well, it doesn't take a psychological wunderkind to read between the lines. The man appears frustrated, disappointed, tired. And the result is a joyful outburst of pure angst-propelled rock and roll. It's therapeutic, insightful, and comically rotten.

After re-dedicating himself to a professional musician's life a few years back Marsland started fresh by releasing a very nice anthology (Daylight Kissing Night) and at a bargain price in hopes of introducing himself to a wider audience and as a way to consolidate the past while creating a solid foundation for the future. Next he wrote and recorded a double CD set (Go West) filled with a dizzying array of styles and moods that sounded both mature and contemporary. Released in the summer of 2009 I can only assume that the resulting sales were not equal to the effort invested nor the quality of the resulting product. And yet all the while the Dave Matthews party wagon still rolls on! Imagine that?

Marsland's problem appears to be that he's too honest, too uncompromising and maybe even too talented for that aforementioned blissful mass consumption. It might be said that the worst thing that he ever did, as far gaining popularity, was tell the truth.

Obviously I would suggest that after reading this you (whoever you are) immediately click on the below links and acquire some Adam Marsland music. Pick up Hello Cleveland if still available and maybe take a stab at Daylight Kissing Night. And if you've got it in you, then by all means, Go West.

note: Daylight Kissing Night is also available from Silver Moon Music for $5.95.

please ring bell
{ding}

Bearsville Box Set Available from Japan

2010-01-31T15:10:00.000-08:00

A Bearsville box set was released in Japan last December featuring SHM remastering. Naturally, the 4-CD set includes plenty of Todd Rundgren material --- solo, Utopia, and a plethora of productions like The American Dream, Great Speckled Bird, Jesse Winchester, Sparks (or Halfnelson as they were known back then), M Frog Labat, Felix Cavaliere and others. No real rarities but it does include the Roger Powell Pipeline '78 single. CD Japan lists it currently at around $105.00 plus air mail shipping of about $15.00. Air mail shipping usually takes 4 to 12 days but sometimes can take longer. Complete track listing is available at the CD Japan link provided below.

**Bearsville SHM 4-CD Box Set**

Thom Brennan - Silver

2010-01-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Thom Brennan Silver

Meditative electronica for the winter season. It's easy to get lost in these smooth aural washes that mingle with the pulsating ebbs and flows turning the cold gray landscape into a beguiling silvery vista.

~~ Thom Brennan music available at CD Baby

Peter Mulvey - Notes From Elsewhere

2008-08-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hearing a live Pete Mulvey set on XM's The Loft was enough to catch my fancy. The singer-songwriter sounded smart and engaging so I downloaded his new Notes From Elsewhere from Emusic the other day.

Now this is great stuff! Just acoustic guitar and strong voice but soon enough you'll be providing your own percussion with either a rhythmic knee-slap or a tappin' toe. Intelligent, catchy, and the guy plays some wicked guitar. Highly recommended!

Kingsley Gets Whacked!

2008-08-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

Ten minutes into The Wackness I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. In fact, a couple of good ol' boys a few rows in front of me must have wondered the same thing because they abruptly got up and fled. Oh, I was well aware that this was to be nimble offbeat fare not meant for everyone but I always want to at least like the main characters regardless of the depths to their neuroses... and as we all know, those neuroses can be either charmingly entertaining or downright repulsive.

Ben Kingsley stars as a bong-toting psychiatrist longing to be both stoned and loved. One of his patients, a dope-peddling high school graduate who just so happens to be falling for Doctor Ben's cute and popular stepdaughter, offeres payment for his sessions with his potent aromatic wares. Now this poor kid, who seems to be drawn into his vocation by both the need to generate a little extra cash and to squelch his lonely boredom, turns out to be the most mature person in the flick. Sure, he is confused and ultimately gets badly used, but at least he feels something real, unlike the other adults in the movie who have resigned themselves to the daily grind of forever trying to catch up financially or, in the doctor's sad case, putting up with a wife who seemingly has run out of the ability to give love or to even care.

Hey - I warmed up to it. Especially when Kingsley implores the young lad in a no-bullshit plenty-of-bong session, "go out and get laid - get your heart broken," and within that short mid-movie pitch of dialogue the key ending scene is set up.

And as for the always pivotal "wading-into-the-dark-and-bleak-surf" scene where a supremely whacked Kingsley finally gives himself up to the whims of the undercurrents, well, it's always interesting to see where the writer and thus the story will go from there, especially once the young and innocent bystander rushes in himself to save the beaten man. Will Kingsley end up swallowed by the sea, will he in fact somehow survive and struggle to shore only to see that our young rescuer has cruelly been swept away (cue Tom Waits' The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today)? Or will both perish - or could both whipped souls somehow survive? It could go any of four ways and thus the mood of the departing audience is thereby determined.

I left in a happy mood, satisfied, understanding that it's always good to feel some thing, even if it is raw hurt, because maybe the depth of your bad feeling provides the catalyst for tomorrow's hope.