The Bad Plus - side projects.

This isn't meant to be in anyway an exhaustive look at the recordings Reid Anderson, Dave King and Ethan Iverson have made away from The Bad Plus. It's just one track from each of them away from The Bad Plus that I think you'll enjoy.



Not Sentimental by Reid Anderson Quartet. From Reid Anderson's debut album from 1997, Dirty Show Tunes. This features Reid Anderson on contrabass, Ethan Iverson on piano, Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Jordi Rossy on drums.



Very Small Rock by Happy Apple. From Dave King's other trio, this band feature Dave King on percussion, Michael Lewis on saxophone, contrabass and keyboard and Erik Fratzke on fender bass and guitar. This track is from their 7th studio album Happy Apple Back on Top.



Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Ethan Iverson Trio. From Ethan Iverson's album of standards, Deconstruction Zone, released in 1998. This features essentially the same personnel as Dirty Show Tunes. With Ethan Iverson is on piano, Reid Anderson on contrabass and Jorge Rossy on drums, it's worth remembering that this and Not Sentimental were both recorded prior to The Bad Plus forming in 2000.

The Strokes - side projects

I've been thinking about another side project post for a week or two now, but hearing River of Brakelights by Julian Casablancas is what really decided me. This was supposed to have been posted on Wednesday but, obviously, it wasn't. Apologies for a nearly empty week.

As you've probably guessed this post is going to be about side projects various members of The Strokes have engaged in, and I've also put in some songs they've guested on.

First off, lead vocalist Julian Casablancas. It makes sense, at least to me, to start with him because his album is due to be released on 2nd November (in most of Europe anyway. If you're in North America you'll have to wait until the 3rd). I get paid just before the release date, I'm choosing not to believe that's a coincidence.

Anyway. His solo album is called Phrazes For The Young. Go here and visit the official site. You can pre-order the album here.

Here are a couple of tracks from the album to tide you over, although you've probably already heard them. If you haven't heard them before, well, they're probably not what you expect:

11th Dimension (I know I've posted this before but that had the last few seconds chopped off, this one hasn't.)

River of Brakelights

There's no other solo material released, but here are another couple of non-Strokes tracks he's been involved in:

My Drive Thru - Julian Casablancas, Santogold and Pharrell Williams. If you don't know already this was made for Converse as some sort of centenary celebration. I'm not a huge fan of the song, but it is really catchy and I've had it stuck in my head for days.

Sick, Sick, Sick - Queens Of The Stone Age feat. Julian Casablancas on backing vocals and guitar.

Rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr is the most prolific of The Strokes in terms of solo material. He's released two albums, Yours To Keep (buy)

Hard To Live In The City
Scared (linking in nicely this features Julian Casablancas on bass and backing vocals)
Postal Blowfish US bonus track.

and

¿Cómo Te Llama? (buy)

GfC.

Drummer Fabrizio Moretti's side project Little Joy sees him join up with Binki Shapiro and Rodrigo Amarante. He plays guitar and piano as well as his usual drums. So far only one, eponymous, album has been released. It's a perfect happy summer album. Or I assume so, we don't have summer's in Britain anymore. Anyway. It is a very enjoyable album (buy).

No One's Better Sake
Brand New Start

Little Joy also recorded a Daytrotter session which you can download here. Sadly it's only two songs, but they are two effortlessly enjoyable songs and they're free so it's hard to feel shortchanged.

He also plays drums on The Neon Neon song Dream Cars. Neon Neon are a side project of Gruff Rhys of SFA (it also features producer Boom Bip). See how neat it all is? And you thought these were just random fanboy rants.

Bassist Nikolai Fraiture recorded as Nickel Eye. Again, so far, just one album, The Time of the Assassins (buy). Like Little Joy it's a different sound from The Strokes, much folkier. Nikolai plays guitar and does lead vocals as well as playing the bass, the other band members being Joel Cadbury, Jamie McDonald and Brett Shaw.

It seems to divide opinions quite sharply, so listen to the tracks and make your own mind up:

Brandy Of The Damned
Back From Exile

There's also a Daytrotter session for you to check out here, with 4 songs from the album.

Lastly lead guitarist Nick Valensi. When Phrazes For The Young is released he'll be the only member of the Strokes without a side projet album released. He has however contributed to a couple of recordings. As well as playing on Little Joy's album he appears on these two tracks:

Better - Regina Spektor (guitar)
Shabop Shalom - Devendra Braveheart (guitar and backing vocals)

That's pretty much it. A long post, much longer than I intended. Thanks for sticking with me through to the end, I hope you enjoy the songs.

As a final treat here's The Strokes doing New York City Cops live, joined on stage by the king of side projects, Jack White:

New York City Cops - The Strokes feat. Jack White.

Some stuff I threw together

because I realised I hadn't posted anything since Covers for Sunday last week, and I want something posting before Covers for Sunday tomorrow.

Luckily I've had 3 songs I've been meaning to put in the blog for a while, so here we go.

Firstly, Say Please by Monsters of Folk.

Monsters of folk is Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis. That should really be all you need to know to go here and get all the songs.

For some reason I can't really get into My Morning Jacket. I don't dislike it, but I tend to find I'm skipping onto the next thing on my playlist. However, I'm a big fan of Jim James' solo folk music. I first came across it when I got a bootleg of him, M Ward and Conor Orberst. So when I heard rumours the three of them would be making a folk supergroup I wzas pretty pleased. Having heard 'Firstly Say Please' it's fair to say my expectations have been met.

As a bonus Jim James, under the name Yim Yames, recently released a 6 track EP of George Harrison covers. You can buy the digital download from his website and/or pre-order the CD and vinyl, which are released on August 4th. Here's a sample track from the EP Behind That Locked Door.

Next is I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers. The first post I ever made on this blog had an Avett Brothers mp3. Check that out, and then listen to this. It's on an EP and a single, both are orderable here.

Lastly, Boy 1904 by Jónsi & Alex. The theme of this blog has been, although I didn't plan it, songs that don't sound how you may expect them to sound. The Monsters of Folk and Yim Yames songs don't sound like My Morning Jacket and the Avett Brothers EP sounds different to most of their previous work. The same is true here. You may expect Jónsi & Alex to sound like Sigur Rós, but they don't. It's lovely, delicate music, so much so that it almost makes Sigur Rós sound kinda course by comparison. Almost. You can listen to the full album and buy it here.

That's it, see you tomorrow for more covers.