The soulful sound of music has been around for hundreds of the years. So now, five years into the second millennium, there is a chance that the current music of artists has all been heard before.
But will the music of 2006 bring us listeners something new to play repeatedly on our iPods?
This year, two independent artists you have only heard in those chic London coffee shops and since you were in your mother’s stomach when she was at Woodstock in ’69, will be releasing albums in 2006.
Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley will be discovering new ways of creating a unique sound when she teams up with southern folk singers, the Watson Twins. Their collaborative record “Rabbit Fur Coat,” hit stores Tuesday, said Malik Thorne, a buyer and promotions clerk at Boo Boo Records in San Luis Obispo.
The Watson Twins, Chandra and Leigh, have been working on their first solo record “Friend and Foe,” which was released yesterday.
Along with her fellow “indie-sound” female vocalist Lewis, Chan Marshall, known better in the music world as “Cat Power” released her new Memphis-inspired blues record “The Greatest” Tuesday through Matador Records, who hosts other known college-radio hit groups such as “Belle & Sebastian,” “The New Pornographers,” “Interpol” and “Yo La Tengo.” “The Greatest” was recorded with an old Memphis soul sound, thanks to a handful of session musicians who played on old Al Green albums.
“It will have a soulful taste to it I think,” Thorne said.
Thorne added that Tuesday was the first major release date of the year, so no matter what genre of music you like, you’re bound to find something fresh to add to your collection.
On the grunge side of the spectrum, Nirvana-era rockers Sonic Youth will be putting out a new album “some time in 2006,” according to the band’s Web site. On the popular underground blog Pitchfork(www.pitchforkmedia.com),writer Matt Amis posted, “As previously reported, for the first time since 2002, Sonic Youth will once again tour and record as a four-piece, minus multi-faceted multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke (who appears to have his sights set on a film career). And, as it turns out, the band has many (many) things in the pipeline for 2006.” According to the band’s Web site, in classic Sonic style, there is a handful of reissues, solo projects and side projects due out before 2007.
So for you rockers, 2006 will be a year of promising works from artists old and new.