Tuesday, July 25

John Common - Good to be Born

Today on C&T we have a guest post from my buddy Lance, a long-time friend who currently lives in beautiful Denver, Colorado. He'll be reporting in occassionally with info on the music scene out there in his neck of the woods. Thanks Lance!



Hey crew! Rich was hospitable enough to let me sequester his blog for a post, giving me the opportunity to introduce you to some of the great albums coming out of Denver.

My personal favorite for the year is Good To Be Born, the debut album from John Common. Hailing from an alt-country background with the band Rainville, John has now moved on to push the creative envelope with this exploratory record, a classic headphone album from start to finish.

The blending of traditional acoustic rock and electronic elements is incomparable to anything I've ever heard. Case in point: The album fades in with the relaxing sound of crickets chirping, but the nighttime creatures are slowly overcome by a layer of industrial effects, which in turn give way to a vehement rock ballad. And no, the sampling isn't yet another take on Radiohead; this is an immediately accessible pop CD from start to finish.

A quote from John Common sums up the attitude taken in recording the disc: “The only rule we had was that any obvious choices had to be challenged. And that meant hours of trying different things, looking for how the puzzle of each song might fit together in new ways."

Here are a couple tracks from Good to be Born:

John Common - Anyway
John Common - It's Out

Also, here are a couple non-album tracks I taped at a show last month:

Following Cynicism [live 6-29-2006]
Do You Know My Name[live 6-29-2006]

The disc is currently streaming (in its entirety) and for sale at Free School Records, and will be available in Tower Records and other retail outlets this fall. Also be sure to check out myspace.

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