ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 15, 2025
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THiS WEEK?!! (February 15, 2025)
Beirut, "Guericke's Unicorn" A Study Of Losses (Pompeii, Apr 18)
Our kind of music is really not known for the creativity and innovation of its videos, but here's an exception. As we mentioned in yesterday's post, Zach Condon's forthcoming Beirut record is the soundtrack to a Swedish circus. "Guericke's Unicorn" is as terrific as a Beirut song can be, with a lovely video to match. Per Condon: I had been pigeonholed for years as a whimsical circus waif, full of sepia-toned images of penny farthings and perhaps lion tamers with handlebar mustaches. It couldn't have been further from how I pictured the music I was making.
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Kristina Murray, "Watchin' the World Pass Me By" Little Blue (Normaltown, May 9)
We've known she'd make something of herself since her 2013 Unravelin' album. Finally signed to a big-ish label, Murray is more than ready for her proverbial close-up. With its tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation, this first single checks Elizabeth Cook boxes, and the accompanying video shows plenty of personality (as well as featuring fellow songwriter Sean Thompson in a recurring role). Murray calls it, a kissoff to the music business, the arbitrariness of success, and the sometimes strong desire to quit it all and move to the beach ...
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Bon Iver, "Everything Is Peaceful Love" SABLE, fABLE (Jagjaguwar, Apr 11)
This first glimpse into the forthcoming expanded edition of Justin Vernon's October SABLE, EP yields about as straightforward a song as we're bound to get from Bon Iver. Set to 80s-flavored programmed beats, "Everything" delivers a soulful soprano vocal from Vernon, as well as a curiously homespun video: It gives me what I want for this album, all in one video. The idea that happiness and joy are the highest form and the true buoyancy of survival, and even taking yourself less seriously could heal the world. Small dogs with funny eyebrows don't hurt either.
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Dead Gowns, "See People" It's Summer I Love You and I'm Surrounded By Snow (Mtn Laurel, Feb 14)
Genevieve Beaudoin released a demo of this single back in 2020, a take that lacked much of what works on this new recording. The pedal steel, the baritone guitar, the impossibly longing vocal all weave a beautifully haunting spell, reinforced by a moodily lit video. Dead Gowns doesn't always sound like this, but when they do, it's unbeatable.
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Them Coulee Boys, "As Long As You Let Me" No Fun In the Chrysalis (Some Fun, Feb 28)
On the third single from their forthcoming album this Wisconsin band succeeds in reaching well beyond their lively string band comfort zone, even adding momentary tubular bells. Group choruses and piano played with abandon - it all sounds like a hoot, even with the classic hangdog lyrics: Now I bang my chest / Where you used to lay your head / There's an indentation left where it once lay / I try to fill lit with the band / Alcohol, and my right hand / But nothing fills the hole just like you can / So please just stay.
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