The following is a Public Service Announcement from 3hive and Hearts of Palm UK.
Hearts of Palm UK offers a timely song this week about citizens and their right to vote, “Super Tuesday,” the (un)official anthem of (obviously) Super Tuesday, the day 24 states in our blessed union hold presidential primaries. Hearts of Palm UK are not British or Northern Irish, as the name would suggest; Erika and Ambi-D are a couple of Cali girls cranking out this peculiar indie-electro-pop. As a political science major in college, I secretly hope that they follow this up with a song discussing, dissecting, and explaining the results of Super Tuesday. Maybe they can even get invited to appear on Meet the Press. Anybody got Tim Russert’s email address?
Remember to vote!
After their sophomore album, Tones of Town, the band 
Colour Revolt are from Oxford, and though you might think from the way they’ve decided to spell that we’re talking about the Anglo-universal seat of education in Jolly Old, we’re actually talking about the other Old Oxford, as in “Ole” Oxford, as in Ole Miss. At first pass you might not hear the Deep South in the very fuzzy guitarry sound, which actually reminds me more of Girls Against Boys and Helmet than anything to come out of the southland of late. But listen to the lyrics and you’ll get a good dose of God. And, as we all know, there ain’t no God party like a Southern God party ‘coz a Southern God party got eternal damnation. Heyyyy. Hoooo.
“I can always tell when you’ve been a’drinkin'” — and so, Hayshaker had me from the first line of “Laurie’s Song.” Also known as the Rider family from Waycross, GA (along with a few friends), Hayshaker makes that boozy country rock you like to listen to when you’re totally supposed to be doing something else. Their recent EP, Black Holiday in Mexico City, offers up half a dozen and one tracks reflecting a variety of musical influences while firmly anchored in the twang of C.C. and Laurie Rider. “I can always tell when you’ve found trouble, ’cause soon that trouble comes to find me.” Yep, time to get back to work.
Due to recent relocations, I’m now the member of the 3Hive crew who’s keepin’ it real in the Dirrrty South. Yet, as it was in New York City with calling myself a “New Yorker,” I imagine it will take at least a few years before I’ll come close to calling myself a “Southernor.” And I imagine that for my friends, family, and neighbors down here, calling me a “Southernor” just ain’t gonna happen while I’m above ground. The Force runs deeply with Charlestonians. Anyhow, Barton Carroll is helping out the transition quite nicely. I’m not sure where he’s from, but Carroll is on the Birmingham, Alabama label Skybucket, and one of his songs posted here is “Brooklyn Girl, You’re Going to be My Bride,” which, even if it weren’t as optimistic and toe-tappable as it is, would have a special place in my heart because that’s the borough where my wife and I were when we got married. Thankfully, the melancholic “Pretty Girl’s Going to Ruin My Life (Again)” doesn’t have quite the same personal resonance. But with his Roy Orbison-esque falsetto and Buck Owens-esque lyrics like “Hair’s falling out and my back’s got a pain/ I been drinkin’ my Scotch in my truck in the rain/ I think it’s fine way to spend the day,” well, it does sound like a fine way spend the day—whether in New York, Charleston, or anywhere in-between.
Getting scooped is never a big deal at 3hive. For most of us, this job is a pleasant distraction from our real responsibilities: changing dirty diapers (Shan, maybe Sam, me), grading papers (Sean, me), hanging out with famous people (Lisa, sometimes Sam), being married to famous people (Jon) being Californian (Sean, Clay), and making huge bank (Sam). The only real competition comes from snapping up new tunes to post, and I always feel I miss out on the Swedes. Therefore, the posting of Pinto’s lo-fi pop is a kind of small victory for me. Whoo! This is from the band’s website: “Pinto is more or less a one man band but I have some friends around to keep me sane because Pinto is all about being sane… Say what?” (That “Say what?” was in the original text, I didn’t add it.)
Well hello Edie Brickell! I won’t even mention the title of her ubiquitous late eighties/early Nineties “New Bohemians” hits, hit lest one in particular gets stuck in your head for the rest of the week and haunt your dreams. (You know which one I am talking about.) Looping music in my mind notwithstanding, I was delighted to find this collaboration between Ms. Brickell and her hubby Paul Simon’s son. She’s always had a beautiful voice, thats for sure, and it seems that Mr. Simon (the younger, Harper) has added some of what appears to be his youthful dreaminess and angst to the mix. Shall we play the definition game? Eighties earnest meets Nineties earth pop meets the offspring of Simon & Garfunkel and then gets busy with the present day and hangs out a little with French lounge pop? Maybe/maybe not, but I heart.
Looks like I’m just in time to have missed the press onslaught, CD release, and U.S. tour (with The Locust) of San Diego’s Sleeping People. I missed their release show at the Belly Up with Pinback (Kenseth, their newest member, also plays in