The ongoing retro trend of punk and metal labels releasing cassettes is the result of an influx of music fans who appreciate a more lo-fi approach and who favor analog’s warm sound over digital’s crispness.
As it turns out, a license for busking in Santa Fe costs $35 per calendar year. The license comes with a host of guidelines that include when buskers can play, where they can play and how long they can play there; it also specifies that there can be no amplification. All this raises somewhat existential questions.
House shows are usually pretty amazing experiences. Perhaps it’s because the bands that play them could care less about money and would much rather melt faces and blow minds.
Phil Elverum is a unique kind of shy. The artist, who began his musical project as The Microphones and has since switched to the moniker Mount Eerie, lets his emotions fly when he writes and performs songs, yet keeps his distance from the audience by closing his eyes through most of the set and singing as if he were in the room completely alone.
The group is a fresco, a mixed and matched selection of strings, brass, electric and acoustic instruments sweeping with ruddy choruses, that hold the audience's collective attention above the spectacle of witnessing such a large band at play. The live show and the band's recently released album confirms that relevant and soulful music is alive and well in Santa Fe.
