Creature Breath – I Am Creature Breath

The debut album, I Am Creature Breath, by Creature Breath (Shawn Westendorf) is a wondrous adventure packed with swirling beautiful vocals, psychadelic folk instrumentation and lyrics inspired by love and spiritual exploration.

This album was originally written in Somerville, MA in a blue chair by her bedroom window. Over the past year she wrote a song a month. Many of the songs started with a guitar or kalimbo melody and the lyrics grew from the musical vibrations of the instrumentation. On October 1-3, 2011 many of the songs written over the past year were recorded in Brooklyn, NY @ SukiSound studios and produced by Heidi Harris. The instruments include acoustic/electric guitar, xylophone, clarinets, turtle whistle, kalimbo, bells and piano.

Here is a track-by-track review:

“Sun is Shining” greets its audience with a pretty guitar, xylophone melody and the sweet voice of Creature Breath. This song epitomizes the earthy, emotional, organic and psychadelic tones that flutter through out the album. Furthermore, Creature Breath pens lyrics of great depth; “The wind carries in the sweet scent of your Protector and drops of the dewey eves' nectar.”

“Quiver” was written on an African thumb piano, a Kalimbo, two weeks prior to being recorded. On this track multiple pretty voices wander within the thumb piano melody as ghostly electronics creep around in the background. One can catch a glimpse into the eyes of Creature Breath: “I'd swim cross the vastest ocean to know you deeply, love you deeply… You will find me in your dreamtime lost and lonely, lost and lonely.”

“Spiral Arms” is the rawest songs on the album as it is just Creature Breath strumming and singing away. This song highlights her excellent singer songwriter capabilities and her producer’s awesome backing vocals.

“Comfort Your Mother” Witch-like wandering vocals tip toe in the background. Strummed guitar provides the rhythm while the vocals screech: “I’ll bring your maker to meet you”…”I'll comfort your mother when you have gone.” Creature Breath states that this song came from a place she doesn’t know and that there was the influence of a spirit. If that’s not enough, there is turtle whistle on this track.


“Rebirthday Party” is an upbeat track that that talks of coming into new awareness of one’s self. The presence of a clarinet brings new textures to the album. The production skills shine on this track with two plus thoughtfully recorded and layered vocal parts soloing over each other in a spirited and awakening force.

“The Pull” is an orchestral vocal experiment with spooky electronic noises. Creature Breath’s love for the earth and her connection to its powers became evident. “Feel the pull of the Earth/Bringing you closer to Her/Fall to your death/Life awaits on your next breath”

“Praire” has a new wave feel to it due to a synthetic keyboard that meanders and provides the melody. The backing vocals sound like a bird cawing and the lyrics share the joys of love: “May I raise my voice so my heart can/Sing the songs of joy/The songs of your love and beauty

“Darlin”
This song opens with a heart melting piano, breaths with plucked acoustic strings and peaks with a flurry of impassioned vocals. The vocal solo at the 4:40 mark is epic, emotional and leaves the listener craving more. The lyrics evoke a feeling of a love craved being; "won't you come for me, darlin won't you comfort me.” I was fortunate enough to hear this song performed acoustically and after hearing the recording solidified my opinion that this is the finest track on the album.

This album can be downloaded via Band Camp:
http://creaturebreath.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-creature-breath.

You can become a fan of Creature Breath on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Creature-Breath/138622622906684?ref=ts&sk=wall

Red Hot Peppers - I'm With You

The new Red Hot Chili Peppers album I’m With You was released in the U.S. today!

With MTV dying and digital downloads dominating the CD market I thought it would be nice to send out the news of this phenomenal album to all of my friends and family!

I bought my copy at Turn It Up in Brattleboro this morning. You can buy yours at a local independent chain or online through the Red Hot Chili Peppers Web site and iTunes.

With the departure of long time guitarist John Frusciante a new fello named Josh Klinghoffer joined Flea, Anthony and Chad to record this new album.


During my first listen through the album there are funk riffs, boppin’ bass lines, heart felt lyrics, trumpets, ripping solos, funk stomp drum parts and some of the best vocals ever spouted by the band.

Highlight songs for me so far: "Monarchy of Roses", "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie" and "Goodbye Hooray"!

A full review will be coming once I digest a bit more!

The lead single “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” is a funk tune with a snazzy cowbell.

You can check out the video here. Pretty cool how they filmed in on top of a roof in L.A. and local folk got to jam out to it!

Tonight the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing the album in entirety LIVE and airing it across the globe in Cinemas in HD. 8/30 and 9/1 only! This is freakin’ cool…. Go to the Web Site and put in your zip code to find the nearest Cinema to you.

Seriously, go support a local record store and buy the album or just spend the $11 and download it from iTunes. Good rock records are hard to come by these days, don’t miss the boat!

The Kornguth's Annual Soapbox Derby

Attention residence of Southern VT, NH and Western MA!

I met a man named Daniel at Coffee Country in Brattleboro today.

He is repsonsible for putting together The Kornguth's Annual Soapbox Derby.


This is going to be the fourth annual and it is upcoming on Sunday September 11th!

Rules are here

Some photos from previous years.

This looks like a rad time and I highly recommend checking it out if you have the open Sunday.

Primus - Green Naugahyde

New Primus album out September 13th - Green Naugahyde

First single is "Tragedy's a Comin'"

Tour will consist of two sets of Primus each evening starting in September.

Claypool spoke with Spin Magazine recently and said this about the single....

"Lyrically, this is me focusing on eventual demise or at least the notion that big rain is coming and at some point I'm going to get pretty fucking wet," Claypool tells SPIN. "Who says lemmings can't dance as they go over the cliff?"

You can follow Primus on:

Twitter - @primus

Facebook - primusville

Tons of new songs on YouTube from shows over the spring and summer of 2011.

Prepare for Pain!

Factory Farming

Approximately three years ago I watched the movie Food Inc.

It opened my eyes to factory farming in the United States and the horrible acts of cruelty brought upon animals to feed the American addiction for fast food, meat, eggs and seafood.

In order to feed our addiction we have taken an age old tradition of farming and turned it into an assembly line like at the Chevy plant.

These animal assembly lines are riddled with sickness just to make sure we can eat $.59 burgers and get ground beef for $1.79 a pound!


In no way do I feel that we should torture animals for our holiday feasts. Nor do I feel that as Americans we should be consuming an animal that has been subjected to such a torturous life.

Consuming hate and sickness only breeds hate and sickness!

The following video clip is gross, compelling, sickening, twisted, eye opening, wild, weird, strange, grotesque and utterly offensive.

It is an illustration how much of our meat, eggs, dairy, seafood, poultry and pork is killed to reach your super market in the United States and around the world.

If you do not want to see where your McDonald's, Long John Silver's, Shaw's, Hannaford's, Big Y, Sam's Club, Albertson's, Kroger's, KFC and Costco food comes from then close your browser now.

If you would like to be humbled click the link here: http://www.meatvideo.com/


On a positive note...

In no way do I think eating meat is a bad thing. I think that it is an important part of my diet and I do enjoy it. I believe we as humans should pay a premium to enjoy animals as a part of our dinner. Not to mention we should honor them and ensure that they were raised and slaughtered responsibly. We should be buying form local farms, those that raise happy animals and treat them fairly.

I like many are guilty of the occasional Taco Bell run or fried chicken at a Celtics game and we can change this one day at a time.

In no way am I advocating for you to be Vegan. What I would like to advocate for is changing our eating habits one day at a time.

Here are some ideas on how to change your eating habits and end factory farming....

Grow a garden to eat fresh veggies more often as your main course.

Go to McDonald's or Wendy's once less a week.

Next time you need to buy steaks go to a COOP or a local farm and pay an extra three or four bucks to know your meat was raised happy. I guarantee you'll taste the difference, you did at my Wedding!

Raise chickens yourself.

If you cannot raise chickens do a quick Google search and find a local farm that sells eggs.

Buy Tofu or Tempeh, its good, seriously and its filling.

Watch meatvideo.com or Food Inc.

LP Shopping for My Wedding - Five Favorites

As I prepare for my wedding I have been shopping for LP's that will play a supportive role during the wedding festivities.

With the searching and purchasing I have been able to explore some new music and revisit old favorites. With that being said I thought I would share five albums that I have come across and wanted to share:


Bob Marley - Kaya

Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

Funkadelic- Standing On The Verge of Getting It On

Phish - Joy

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

Heavy Metal in Baghdad

One of the most impactful and inspiring movies that I have seen recently was Heavy Metal in Baghdad!

Suroosh Alvi directed the movie and is a Pakistani Canadaian living in Brooklyn.

The movie documents the band, Acrassicauda, living in Baghdad from 2003 to 2006 as twenty somethings in a metal band.

Supposedly they were the only heavy metal band in Baghdad during that time.

It is an amazing to see what kind of impact the America invasion and occupation of Iraq did to the ordinary people of Iraq.

Freedom is not something many of these gentlemen saw until they found refuge in Demascus, Syria.

They recently moved to the U.S. and released an album.

Check out the site, watch the movie, buy the book, buy the album!

Buckle up its an eye opening wild ride!

Little Bones - Summit of Happiness

Little Bones is a folk-psych-bluegrass-rock female quartet based out of Boston and Manhattan and has released their debut album: Summit of Happiness.

Their instruments are intriguing with violin, harmonica, guitar, Theremin, clarinet and percussion all playing a role. All four ladies sing. The vocals are choir-esque as their four voices dance between each other creating a dark, eerie, rich and beautiful tone.

Here is a run down of the tracks…

“Your Light” the album opener features a Neil young harmonica, a sing along chorus and a psychadelic violin.

“The Good Bone Diggers” has a boldly plucked acoustic guitar, dark vocals and a violin that wanders between pretty and screechy.

“Ishmael” pairs the acoustic guitar, harmonica and violin into one sweet little song in honor of the book Ishmael. It features a whistling solo and inquisitive lyrics…“So won’t you take these, my gifts to you/we built this house up from the ground/were gonna tear it down.”

“Love Your Honey” is a snazzy little ditty that was written in honor of Shawn’s herbal line of honey balm. Its good you should put in an order with the Honest Owl here.

“Strum” is an upbeat foot stomper with scratchy guitar, trashcan percussion, girly gigglin’ and fiddlin’. This is a fun country/bluegrass song, love to see this one live, strung out with a nice jam that lets the violin truly let loose!

“Skip the Stone” features a simple yet compelling, catchy and dark clarinet riff. The vocals prance around in a pretty yet sinister manner reminiscent of a group of women singing over a cauldron of a magical brew. This is by far my favorite track and rekindles my faith in the new age folk scene that is taking place.

“Rebirthday Party” opens with a plucked guitar part that melds into emotional Joanna Newsom esque vocal tones as the violin and clarinet amble in the background.

“Big Big Wave” has the rockiest guitar/harmonica/violin sections on the entire album and the words “big big wave is gonna fall/wash us all” is quite the catchy line."

‘Elephant Ears” is one of the prettier songs with a strummed acoustic guitar and all four ladies joining forces on the chorus.

“Symphony Sky” is a track that consists of only vocals and exemplifies their ability to be a four-lady choir. Nice and pretty way to end the album.


I highly recommend taking a long listen to this album, you won’t be disappointed.

Download at:
http://littlebones.bandcamp.com/album/summit-of-happiness

New Foo Fighters Album - Wasting Light

The new Foo Fighters album is called Wasting Light and is out now!

Their new single is "Rope".

The new film about the Foo Fighters sixteen year career called Back and Forth.

Dave Grohl, is back at making funny videos again for the Foo Fighters Song "White Limo"!

It features Lemmy from Motorhead!

-Jon