Russian Red

1. 

"All the cigarettes that I have never smoked, and all the letters that I have never sent" is the refrain from Russian Red's opening track, "Cigarettes", one of the highlights from her debut album I love your glasses, which was released in June of this year here in the states. The song, a tune about regret, is just a taste of the beautifully crafted songs found throughout this album. Russian Red is the stage name of relatively unknown (at least here in the U.S) Spanish acoustic-folk singer Lourdes Hernandez (pronounced "ernandeth"), a 22 year old student from Madrid, Spain, who chose to sing in English rather than her native Castilian Spanish because she said that she felt that more people could recognize and relate to her music. Little information is available about Lourdes Hernandez online. But from what I could gather, she was a promising musical talent in Madrid, and Eureka records signed her to a record deal as fast as they could.
When I first heard her lustrous voice while listening to a friend's online playlist, I couldn't help but wonder where the singer was from. I thought she could possibly be from Appalachia or somewhere in the states. But after I searched online to see where she was from, I was fairly surprised when I learned that she was from Madrid, Spain. You'd be hard pressed to find a Spanish accent in her voice, which is why I thought she was from the states. Most of the songs on the album are rather slow and mellow, soothing and gentle, even. The music seems to showcase her haunting vocals rather than try and hide or minimize them, something so many artists do these days. At first listen, her voice has similarities with Californian folk songstress Joanna Newsom and Massachusetts singer Marissa Nadler. But after listening to a couple more songs from the album, the Newson and Nadler similarities seem to fade, and one realizes that there's a uniqueness to her voice that becomes apparent after a few plays.
I suspect that Russian Red won't be relatively unknown here in the states for long, for attractive young women with her talent don't stay unknown for long, which I believe will be the case with the 22 year old.

Russian Red is currently touring Spain in support of her debut album, I love your glasses.


You can check out her myspace here: www.myspace.com/russianready
And this is my favorite song off the album, "Cigarettes":

And this is the music video for her current single, "They don't believe":

Blind Pilot

I've now realized that the majority of my posts have been late at night.
I'm not sure what it is, but I seem to want to listen to music and type about it late at night.

Or maybe it's insomnia.

The world may never know.

Anyway, I was browsing the iTunes store earlier, and I came across the free single of the week. I didn't know much about Blind Pilot other than that they're an Acoustic/Indie/Folk duo, who consist of Israel Nebeker (guitar & Vocals) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums) from Portland, Oregon. So out of curiosity, and because I'm too cheap to buy it on my own, I downloaded their single, "Go on, say it". It took me a few plays to really warm up to the song, but it's pretty good. After the first couple of seconds into Israel Nebeker singing, it reminded me a bit of The Beatles. But after a bit, they go off into their own unique guitar strumming, lush strings-backed, brushed drumming path. And thereafter, they seemed to have more incommon with The Shins.
The band, who decided to paint (Dobrowski did the cover art for their album), write, and record their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound, in an Astoria Warehouse in 2006, are going to make a second attempt at completing a bike tour through Vancouver, B.C, down to Mexico beginning on August 16th. Their first attempt at a bike tour, which took place last year, came to a finish when their bikes were stolen in San Francisco, California. However, before then, you can catch them at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon opening for Aimee Mann on July 19th. Download their single, "Go On, Say it" on the iTunes music store before the week ends!
If you want to listen to it before deciding on whether you want to download it,
Here's their single: "Go On, say it"
Their myspace