Umbrella Tree | No Country For New Nashville

No Country’s Best Nashville Records of 2012

News, Record Reviews December 27, 2012 5 Comments
Posted by: No Country

Yesterday, we threw out our two cents with our favorite “National Records” of 2012, and today it’s all about Nashville. Check out our picks for our best Nashville records of 2012 from the No Country team. Stick around and soon we’ll break down our individual staff picks for 2012 concerts. Yesterday, we posted full records through Spotify, and we hope you were able to check that out. With the exception of two, we have repeated that process today. The two holdouts have a player with our favorite track from the record. Leave a comment below to virtually high five a pick, or tell us what you think we missed. Enjoy!

**We incorrectly included The Features’ Wilderness in the previous version of this list. This album actually came out on July 26, 2011. We made an error because Spotify listed the album release date as 2012, though we should have done more research to confirm. Patrick Rodgers, music editor for the Nashville Scene, pointed this out to us. We appreciate his input and have removed that album from this list, even though it is a spectacular album.**

Top Nashville Records of 2012

#1 JEFF the Brotherhood – Hypnotic Nights

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/4HpKgCn5tVtKVVoVgX0YJX]

#2 Wild Cub – Youth

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/4T9jAZGMzl6tnkmm4IUgZV]

#3 Jack White – Blunderbuss

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/3TGXfvI2L9jF1PK06YtmQu]

#4 (tie) Paper Route – The Peace of Wild Things

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/3QFDJLNsupPopyeVp9Um5h]

#4 (tie) Pujol – United States of Being

#4 (tie) Umbrella Tree - To the Memory of a Once Great Man

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/3Fp8O0PpWws4Sc4sKl5sws]

#7 Taylor Swift – Red

#8 Ponychase - Ponychase

#9 Turbo Fruits - Butter

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/0CiiiHAVvqGoPpmZsJGZj1]

#10 (tie) Angel Snow – Angel Snow

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/1215858311/playlist/3020zyw844gq4SaxLMZzQs]

#10 (tie) Sugar & The Hi Lows – Sugar & The Hi Lows

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/1215858311/playlist/5MIMToBt7WjDHnPgI6YJzr]

Honorable Mentions

Various Artists – Live at Musicians Corner Vol. 1
Future Unlimited – EP
Madi Diaz – We Threw Our Hearts in the Fire
Diamond Rugs – Diamond Rugs
Ke$ha – Warrior
Will Hoge – Modern American Protest Music
All Them Witches – Our Mother Electricity
States – Room to Run
Old Crow Medicine Show – Carry Me Back
Mindy Smith – Mindy Smith
The Whigs – Enjoy the Company
Various Artists – An East Nashville Christmas
Moon Taxi- Cabaret
Justin Townes Earle- Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now
Bedroom – Vivid
Makeup and Vanity Set – 88:88
Matthew Perryman Jones – Land of the Living
The Kingston Springs – The Kingston Springs

[spotify http://open.spotify.com/user/nocountry/playlist/7Dve5Z9bUvxOBa1bTBiSY0]

Umbrella Tree Calls It Quits

News October 30, 2012 1 Comment
Posted by: No Country

I got a break up email yesterday from Nashville’s Umbrella Tree. After a year and half relationship full of new and exciting experiences, Umbrella Tree told me that they couldn’t do it anymore. While I am sure that I will go on just fine, I know already that I will miss them. There weren’t enough occassions for us to hang out. We had that sexy little flirtation back when they released their final record To The Memory Of A Once Great Man. It was a short, but fiery hot romance, and I will remember them all fondly. I know those of you that have spent more time in Nashville probably look at them as an old standby or a long term friend with benefits, but I just didn’t get to know the ups and downs. To say goodbye, they left us one final video, and, after you find some kleenex to dab your leaking eyes, you can watch the full 45 set from their vinyl release show at Exit/In to remember just how great it was. If you are the sentimental type, you can keep a little piece of this relationship to cherish by downloading the audio of this set here.

RIP Umbrella Tree. I hope you rise again as a zombie to take the streets of Nashville over again someday.

This Weekend In Nashville, August 17-19

Music Calendar August 17, 2012 0 Comments
Posted by: No Country

We’ve spent quite a bit of time getting you ready for this weekend already. Remember that whole East Nashville Underground wristband giveaway that we were running. Well, that’s over with, but there are still full-weekend, free-drinks included wristbands available for $20 at the door. I’m still blown away everytime I say that. It’s two nights of free drinks and bands for only $20. I dare you to beat that deal.

Anyway, per usual, I digress. You have some other real eye catching shows if you are looking for something else to do this weekend. Just get out and see some live music.

Friday

Our contributor, Andrew Johnson, wrote up that little ditty about Heypenny, Umbrella Tree, and Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes happening over at The High Watt. You know that is another highlighted opportunity for a mere $7. Things get started around the 9pm hour.

We also dropped a hint yesterday about The Jompson Brothers, The Cadillac Black, & A Thousand Horses over at 12th & Porter tonight. They were selling those two-day passes last night for $15, but, unless you got one of those, this ticket will cost you $12. 9pm first band.

And, last, but certainly not least, you have a solid lineup over at The Basement with Caitlin Rose, Andrew Combs, and Dirt Heavy. Things get started at 9pm, and tickets are $10.

Saturday

Saturday night you are looking at Archers of Loaf over at Mercy Lounge. It’s that 90′s indie rock dinosaur tour still banging strong through Nashville this summer. Remember Guided By Voices back in July? And Sebadoh just played Mercy earlier this week (I’m still tired). And Dinosaur Jr. is at Mercy on October 1st! Well, Archers of Loaf are in that same category of late 80s/early 90s lo-fi rock pioneers that have steamrolled through this ever burgeoning land of car commercial tunes. The only difference with Archers is that they are simply touring to support the reissue of their discography through Merge Records. Whatever man… none of you have seen them here since at least 1998 (damn I was young then!). You may think this is dad rock at this point, but I’ll tell you that both the Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh shows were loud and fun as hell. Of course, lot’s of my friends have kids, which means, I guess, I’m old enough to be a father.

Sunday

You still awake out there? At least, you don’t have to put on a day party today. You can rest up for Shonen Knife, White Mystery, & Heavy Cream at Exit/In starting at 8pm. Tickets for that puppy are 10 bones.

Also, I’ve heard a rumor about a free “Sunday School” event, that will be displaced to The End due to the show above, with Honey Locust, The Hardin Draw, and Copper Into Steel. I don’t see it up on the website at The End, but here is the facebook event page that says everything that I did above.

Heypenny, Umbrella Tree, Daniel Ellsworth And The Great Lakes at the High Watt Tonight

Music Calendar August 17, 2012 0 Comments
Posted by: Andrew Johnson

By Contributor Andrew Johnson

Tonight, Friday August 17, Heypenny, Umbrella Tree and Daniel Ellsworth And The Great Lakes take the stage at the High Watt. I will be in attendance. A few words about the bands:

Heypenny is about well-crafted busyness. Busyness of colors, lyrics, musical instrumentation, on stage antics, video dance moves and images, such as the music video for Purple Street. The video concept is simple, but the imagery propels the song. This isn’t the busyness of the workplace that we dread. We’re in awe of this happy-go-lucky style. Everything is in rhythmic order with design, like a metronome with panache. We dance to it, we enjoy it. We try to stop, but we can’t escape it. The catchy rhythm is riveting in our blood. Even a song with a slower droning rhythm like Angles and Arches finds its way into our central nervous system. You feel it, you start bobbing you head. You start moving your arms. All this is happening involuntarily, like you were hypnotized by a robot. But you enjoy it and you want some more. Check out the video for Purple Street below:

Umbrella Tree is of a different breed. One that beckons the listener to ride with it in a time machine, back to the end of the 18th century. You have a song like “The Watcher” on the latest vinyl release To the Memory of a Once Great Man, with its Western style acoustic guitar and moog synthesizer wailing in the background. Then you have an electro-pop song like “Josephine,” about Napoleon Bonaparte’s love and longing to be reunited with his first wife. On this record in particular, Umbrella Tree’s music paints history in the light of an intriguing story, and gives life to the historical context with their whimsical and delicate delivery. If a Napoleon Bonaparte fencing match reenactment takes place on stage, I just might pee my pants in excitement.

On their latest record, Civilized Man, Daniels Ellsworth and The Great Lakes have the pop hit equation down, but that doesn’t mean they sacrifice character on any particular song. In fact, it’s almost as if the songs have lives of their own. “Edison Light” decides to quickly pick up the pace and take a different direction halfway through. A Hawaiian-style steel guitar driven part quickly changes to an uptempo rock groove, and then reverts, adding horns. This keeps the listener guessing attentively and it’s almost as if Thomas Edison himself flicked a light switch in the middle of the song. “Bleeding Tongue” has its own set of tempo changes, and these work well to drive the mellow lyrics into the listener’s head like carved messages engraved on the top of a wooden picnic table. The video for “Bleeding Tongue” is below: