As you were probably busy watching history being made with our new President being sworn in – these two albums were quietly released that Tuesday.

Willie Breeding-Cheap Vodka Rain

Willie Breeding

WILLIE BREEDING
myspace.com/williebreedingmusic
Willie Breeding is a folk/country singer and songwriter from Brooklyn, New York. He just released his debut LP, Cheap Vodka Rain last said Tuesday, his only previous recording was for the EP called Grey Skies last December 2006.

Cheap Vodka Rain has a very Western/Country sound to it. Perhaps it’s Breeding’s songwriting style (they all tell some sort of story) or the steel-sounding guitar, but the album should belong to Country pop radio. If you don’t like any Country, you may want to avoid this one, but I suspect there’s enough good songwriting on the album that people with open minds wouldn’t mind checking out.

Anyway, the story behind the debut album was that it was recorded live over a two-day session (Oct 24-25, 2007) at the Excello Recordings, with backup band of friends and two members from Marah (whom he toured with for the promotion of his EP), which may have influenced his sound a little. And although I mentioned it only took two days, the recording did not sound rushed or rough at all. The final mix sounds like Breeding took his time to plan and let his band time to learn to play his songs.

Some of the highlights from the album includes:

“Bruises”: backup vocals by his sister, Erin Breeding. Includes the wonderful line: “Would it have killed to come down to kiss me? I was crying over you last night.“.
“Be Right Here”: The tone may sound a little sad, but this song sends out his message that he’ll still be right here waiting for you. I think this song could also be paired with his other song, “As Long”, which tells you that he’ll stay as long as she’ll have him.
“Cheap Vodka Rain”: I think this song would be summarize Breeding’s style of music. It’s pretty uplifting, but with just a tiny bit of sadness if you read too much into it.

Check him out on tour:01/26/09 Rockwood Music Hall Manhattan, NY
02/02/09 Iota Club & Cafe Arlington, Virginia
02/03/09 The M Room Philadelphia, PA
02/04/09 Nightlight Chapel Hill
02/05/09 Soapbox Lounge Wilmington, NC
02/06/09 Wherehouse Winston-Salem, NC
02/11/09 Exit In Nashville, Tennessee
02/13/09 Derby City Espresso Louisville, KY
02/22/09

The Living Room Manhattan, NY

Cheap Vodka Rain can be purchased via iTunes and amazon.

Modern Skirts – Soft Pedals

Modern Skirts

MODERN SKIRTS
modernskirts.com ♥ myspace.com

Since Modern Skirts’ debut album, Catalogue of Generous Men in 2005, the band’s won numerous praises (Athens Music Awards, Paste Magazine, National Public Radio, etc) – so ultimately the difficult sophomore album had to happen….. So it’s been three years, but the official release date for All Of Us In Our Night was last Tuesday (Jan 20^th).

The band’s been kept busy the last year, especially because of their R.E.M. connection (the band went on a two weeks European tour, supporting Athen’s most famous band.

While most of the album is pretty standard indie pop/rock, there are a good mix of moments of Beach Boys-esque backup singing (“Yugo”) and pianos & some faint brass instruments (“Radio Breaks”).

I think most people will be drawn to the Mike Mills (of R.E.M.) song, “Motorcade”. The song starts off acoustically, before the percussions and backup singing (also by Mills and music producer Geoff Melkonian). The song sounds like it could have been an REM song by the way of Pavement.

Although it’s an excellent song, that’s actually not my song pick – they have an even better one called “Soft Pedals”. Maybe it’s the loungey background music or the lyrics “give me a knife and a merry-go-round“, but there’s something really nice about this song that made me replay it again and again.

They are currently on tour!
01/29/09

Local 506 Chapel Hill, North Carolina

01/30/09

The Earl Atlanta, Georgia

01/31/09

40 Watt Club Athens, Georgia

02/06/09

Georgia Music Hall of Fame presents Modern Skirts at the Cox Capitol Theatre Macon, Georgia

02/17/09

Circle Bar New Orleans, Louisiana

03/05/09

Odgen Museum New Orleans, LA