Weekend Picks - 03/25/11

This week finally brought us the new record by Richard Ashcroft...former front man of The Verve...all around awesome singer and songwriter. The Verve have been one of my favorite bands for over a decade, and the voice of Mr. Ashcroft is one of the main reasons I got into them. It's soulful...and I have heard more than one person say his vocal prowess is "sex" personified in voice. To each his/her own I guess...all I know is that his vocals are amazing...and this week he released his 4th solo album, "United Nations Of Sound". If you haven't heard his solo work I would recommend it...the song writing is more concise (in a "pop" sense) than his work with The Verve...but the instrumentation still sounds rich and multi-layered. What I am really saying is that his solo work is great...and you should be listening to it religiously. While Ashcroft was on rotation this week, I also broke out some records I hadn't listened to in a while. Shiner, Josh Rouse (a great songwriter), and Saves The Day (which brought me back to my younger days) all had repeated listens...and since I did a post on heavier music (riffs to be exact) I broke out "Oceanic" by Isis (massive, massive, and massive) and listened to the song "Firebreather" by Thrice around 100 times. It's a wide range of stuff this week but hopefully you, the listener, find it enjoyable. Good times...

Weekend Picks - 03/25/11

-Shiner - "The Egg"
-Josh Rouse - "Dressed Up Like Nebraska"
-Saves The Day - "Stay What You Are"
-Isis - "Oceanic"
-Richard Ashcroft - "United Nations Of Sound"
-Thrice - "The Alchemy Index (Volume 1)

Buy these records...thank me later.

Note: The link for Thrice is going to take you directly to them performing "Firebreather" live @ The House Of Blues. It's a great performance video...try not to rock out too hard in your cubicle.