photo – Josh Goleman - Cat Martino + Sufjan Stevens 

“Brian Mctear with the other Weathervane cohorts have really created this template, you know, allowing artists to come in and really explore and play…I feel lucky.” – Cat Martino

As music sees it’s way through some necessary growing pains, authentic music communities are emerging as a way to support the new infrastructure of music, or as Shaking Through’s Brian McTear puts it, a “music ecosystem”. Weathervane – the non profit collective that nourishes the Shaking Through project started a few years ago with an idea to cultivate a community with musicians in their earliest phase – by giving them a platform through which they could see their own potential. Giving artists two days to work with a full crew in a real studio to make one song come to life. The result is stunning. A beautifully captured video that follows the process and growth of an artist that might just need a little love. I’ve been a huge fan of this project and always find incredible bands as new sessions roll in. To date, Shaking Through has arguably launched some of the careers of indie music’s most promising acts. Their most notable, and also their first, is Sharon Van Etten, as well as others like Twin Sister, Family Band and Faces on Film, not to mention their most recent session that premiered today, Cat Martino ft. Sufjan Stevens and Chris Powell from Man Man. I got the opportunity to that to Brian about the organization and the importance of institutions like Weathervane to keep artists engaged and encouraged. Continue Reading »

In the Moonlight – Blithe Field from Mike Mytnick on Vimeo.

Check out the newest video from Blithe Field‘s In the Moonlight off his upcoming LP Warm Blood that came out April 12th via Poulpe Mort Records. I was reading through the press release sent to me (which I almost never do) just to get some background and I think whoever wrote it put it so lovely, “Blithe Field puts forward the white voice of childhood and the misty layers of a late afternoon drawing out. The songs are brief, there’s the urgency of great dreams but also of doing well. “Warm Blood” is a collection of folding travel hymns to take away, landscapes visible to one’s eyes shut that make you wanna stretch out and stare. At the ceiling, the sky, both together. There’s the bitterness but also the sugary – and perhaps a bit ingenuous – taste of a first kiss.”

That’s more flattery than laziness. Watch the video above and order the record here.