Alt-country | Musicosity

Alt-country

Khancoban

Half noise, half folk - khancoban’s songs deploy in low-gravity and with a dash of grit. They are performed calmly, utilising calculated space and tension, exploding at key points that leave the band’s filament still burning in their wake. The name khancoban is a hijacked car from a country town in the Snowy Mountains … its AM radio spilling out tunes by the likes of Wilco, Kingsbury Manx, The Clientele and Calexico – bands both influential and with kindred music. This is a band of vast sound riddled with hideaway nooks. Now in your city, that stolen car is all khancoban’s own. Get in.

Artist Type: 

M. Ward

Stage name of Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter Matt Ward. Ward grew up in Newbury Park, CA and attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Ward was previously with the band Rodriguez, which included bassist Kyle Field (of Little Wings fame) and drummer Mike Funk. They recorded and released on cassette Box Plots and Cash Crops and then the album Swing Like a Metronome in 2000. Duet for Guitars #2 was released by Howe Gelb on his Ow Om record label. Ward's 2001 album, End of Amnesia, was put out by Future Farmer Records and his subsequent albums have been released on Merge Records.

Artist Type: 

Jason Collett

The best songs don’t just tell a story set to music – they capture a moment, encapsulate a feeling and draw in the listener, in a way that’s at once singularly personal and completely universal. When Toronto singer-songwriter Jason Collett was mulling over titles for his new album, the by-turns effervescent and elegiac Here’s To Being Here, he stumbled across a line in an anthology of poetry by his friend Emily Haines’ (Metric) late father Paul, a well-known avant-garde jazz poet.

Artist Type: 

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Will+Oldham" class="bbcode_artist">Will Oldham</a> (born 24 December 1970, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American <a href="http://www.last.fm/tag/singer-songwriter" class="bbcode_tag" rel="tag">singer-songwriter</a>, actor, and musician. His music is often (perhaps inappropriately) placed under the genre of "<a href="http://www.last.fm/tag/alt-country" class="bbcode_tag" rel="tag">alt-country</a>". Oldham has recorded under many names, including <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Palace" class="bbcode_artist">Palace</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Palace+Music" class="bbcode_artist">Palace Music</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Palace+Brothers" class="bbcode_artist">Palace Brothers</a>, and <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/+noredirect/Bonnie+Billy" class="bbcode_artist">Bonnie Billy</a>. He often plays and records with other musicians, including <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/David+Pajo" class="bbcode_artist">David Pajo</a> and his brothers Ned and Paul Oldham, but is generally the chief creator of the music.

Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell is an alt-country singer /songwriter /guitarist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Best known for his years with the Drive-By Truckers where he played with his then wife, bassist Shonna Tucker. Isbell - who joined the Truckers in 2001 - left the band in early 2007 around the same time as his divorce from Tucker was finalized. In addition to being a gifted songwriter, Isbell is regarded as an exceptional guitar player.

Artist Type: 

Real Estate

Real Estate is a band from Ridgewood, New Jersey, United States, now based in Brooklyn, N.Y. The band has roots in the Garden State and they’re led by singer/guitarist Martin Courtney and feature guitarist Matthew Mondanile (the latter known to some for his work in Ducktails, Predator Vision, and The Parasails) as well as Alex Bleeker on bass and Etienne Duguay (also of Predator Vision) on the drums.

Artist Type: 

This Frontier Needs Heroes

This Frontier Needs Heroes is the American Folk duo of brother-sister Brad and Jessica Lauretti. Listening to This Frontier Needs Heroes is like having Brad and Jessica play in your backyard while the sun comes up. They play intimate, striped down songs full of honest personal stories of love, loss and longing for a better world. Both poetic and rowdy, Brad and Jessica will make you laugh and cry with their raw powerful delivery and delicate harmonies.

Joel Plaskett

Joel Plaskett is a Canadian rock musician who has been a longtime favourite on campus radio charts throughout the country. He was a member of the Halifax based alternative rock band Thrush Hermit from its founding in 1992 until its breakup in late 1999. Joel was the lead singer and guitar player for the group. He was also the band's primary songwriter. After the breakup of Thrush Hermit, Plaskett embarked on a solo career.

Artist Type: