Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - "Girl Called Alex" (Kurt Vile cover)

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper is currently recording her second, the follow up to my #1 album of 2013, and to satiate our need for the new album, she just posted a cover of Kurt Vile's "Girl Called Alex." I'm personally not all that into Kurt Vile, but this cover makes me want to give him another listen. It's a beautifully trippy version that makes me want her second album all that more. It's a bedroom recording, which hearkens back to her very first recordings.

Besides the Kurt Vile cover, you'll want to check out her entire SoundCloud page, which also includes covers of Emmylou Harris and Cher. Oh, and "Girl Called Alice" is available as a free download.

Green River Festival Preview

In it's 28th year, the Green River Festival is one of the best kept secrets in the New England concert scene. It doesn't have the name recognition of Lollapalooza or the Newport Folk Festival, but that fits Green River just fine. Western MA has long had a mysteriously great live music scene, combining national touring bands with a small town feel. The Green River Festival has long been the centerpiece of the scene.

This year will be no exception, and might just be the best line up Green River has seen yet. Saturday features Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Lucius, Puss n Boots (featuring Norah Jones), The Lone Bellow, Poor Old Shine, Grant-Lee Phillips, and more. Sunday is just ridiculous, with Josh Ritter & Royal City Band, Trampled By Turtles, Hurray for the Riff Raff, multi-national rapper Ana Tijoux, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (and you all know how I feel about her), The Deadly Gentlemen, and more. 

Plus, there's the added extra of hot air balloons. You can ride, or watch, hot air balloons while listening to amazing music. It's also unbelievably family friendly, with music and circus acts just for kids. Also, kids under 10 are free, which is pretty much unheard of nowadays.

The Green River Festival takes place July 12 and 13 on the campus of Greenfield Community College. For more information, check out their website, and you can buy tickets and parking passes here.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - "All I Really Want To Do"

We love covers here at If It's Too Loud..., and we also love Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. This works out fantastic since she has just released a free song on her Bandcamp, which is a cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do." This version of the song isn't Bob Dylan's version, but Cher's cover of the song which is either hipper or less hip, I'm not really sure. Aly Sparrow's version is unflinchingly faithful to Cher's version and might be this year's folk/disco anthem. Plus, it's free, which we also love here at If It's Too Loud...

Head on over to Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Bandcamp page to download the song for free. While you're there, you can also check out some of her earlier, self-produced work.

• 
  

Ken's Best Albums of 2013: #1: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

Not only is this the best album of 2013, it might be the best album released in the past 15-20 years. The fact that Jeff only listed Ripely Pine at #9 has made me stop speaking to him. It's by far the most unique and wonderfully unexpected album of this century. I had high expectations based on Aly Sparrow's previous, self-released work (which you can check out on her Bandcamp page). While some songs on Ripely Pine were previously released, this album completely reimagines and rearranges them into fully realized, brilliant offerings. It's like if someone handed you acoustic demos, and then a year later they became Pet Sounds. Yes, that may seem like absurdly high praise, but it's truly warranted. I've been making a joke that this album inspired Neutral Milk Hotel to reform. My favorite part is how every song just shocks you with complete tempo and stylistic changes, and usually multiple times. Just as you get used to a song and start to categorize it, it will just take a bizarre twist into another direction. Even the few songs that stay the same throughout surprise you since you stop expecting the ordinary. 

My only complaint about this album is that she's only 23.

For more information, including tour dates which you absolutely must attend, head on over to Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's website. You can also stream Ripely Pine below.

Jeff's Best Albums of 2013: #9: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

My #9 album this year is a favorite here at If It's Too Loud, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Ripely Pine.

This album is so good, so interesting, so utterly different than anything else that's been released this year that it was in definite consideration for the top spot for me. That it's ranking #9 on my list is not a condemnation of Ripely Pine but more a reflection of how consistent a lot of the releases were this year. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper has been recording and releasing music for a few years now, and the Portland, Maine native actually won a Boston Music Award in 2010 for best folk artist.

Ripely Pine is her first proper studio album following a number of home recording releases that were impressive in many ways. You only realize the true potential of what she's capable of with this album though, an album that trades off a more standard modern folk feel with some truly epic instrumentation and motifs. It's difficult to make songs over six minutes long seem immediate and fresh through their entire run time, but on songs like "You Are the Apple" and "Bird Balloons," she pulls it off quite easily.

And she's only 25.

I'm looking forward to whatever comes next, but, for now, we can enjoy what she's offered up this year. Along with "You Are the Apple" and "Bird Balloons," "Aubergine" and "Hair to the Ferris Wheel" are also standout tracks on what's truly a standout album. You can stream the album below:

Album Review - Lady Lamb the Beekeeper "Ripely Pine"

I’m actually glad I waited a few months before reviewing the first studio album from Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. We’ve all had the experience of losing our minds over a new album after a listen or two, only to have second thoughts and a little embarrassment over your initial freak out. However, that is not the case with Ripley Pine. I adore this album as much as I did when it first came out in February and still proclaim it to be the album of the decade.

At first I was disappointed to see that Ripely Pine had a few of the same songs as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper’s previous album, Mammoth Swoon. After listening, it was like Mammoth Swoon was the equivalent of being handed acoustic demos of Abbey Road and accepting it as a complete album, only to be sideswiped when the true album came out. The most fantastic thing about Ripely Pine is how surprising the arrangements are. There are complete tempo and style changes throughout just about every song, right up until you start to expect it, and then the stripped down acoustic “Florence Berlin” comes along just to make sure you know you have no idea. The album flows seamlessly from banjo songs like “Regarding Ascending the Stairs” to the more orchestral “You Are the Apple” into the almost straightforward rock of “Mezzanine.” My personal favorite track, “Crane Your Neck,” seems like a solo acoustic female singer/songwriter track that we’ve all heard roughly a million times before (not that it wouldn’t be a completely fantastic version of one if that’s all it was), until right around the four minute mark, when it becomes a danceable indie rock track. And then it switches two more times after that. It’s a truly original album I haven’t been this excited about since the first time I heard In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Yes, I know that is indie rock heresy, but I will stand behind it.

Please check out Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's website, Facebook, and please check out her current tour dates and the official video for "The Nothing Part II" below.

6.11          THREE LINKS                                  DALLAS, TX

6.12          MOHAWK                                       AUSTIN, TX 

6.14          PUB ROCK                                      SCOTTSDALE, AZ

6.15          BOOTLEG                                       LOS ANGELES, CA

6.16          RICKSHAW STOP                             SAN FRANCISCO, CA

6.18          THE CROCODILE                             SEATTLE, WA

6.19          MEDIA CLUB                                   VANCOUVER, BC

6.20          BUNK BAR                                      PORTLAND, OR

6.21          VISUAL ARTS COLLECTIVE                BOISE, ID

6.23          HI-DIVE                                          DENVER, CO

6.25          CZAR BAR                                      KANSAS CITY, MO

6.26         GABE'S                                           IOWA CITY, IA

6.27         THE EMPTY BOTTLE                         CHICAGO, IL

7.23         BEACHLAND BALLROOM                    CLEVELAND, OH

7.24         THE HAUNT                                     ITHACA, NY     

7.26         OTTOBAR                                        BALTIMORE, MD 

7.27         MR. SMALLS                                     MILLVALE, PA  

8.09         KAHBANG FESTIVAL                          BANGOR, ME

8.19         MOJO'S                                           COLUMBIA, MO

8.20         DELUXE @ OLD NATIONAL                 INDIANAPOLIS, IN

8.21         THE MAJESTIC                                 DETROIT, MI

8.22         TAFT BALLROOM                              CINCINATTI, OH

8.23         EXIT/IN                                          NASHVILLE, TN

8.30         LODESTAR FESTIVAL                        CAMBRIDGE, UK

9.06         HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FEST                 RALEIGH, NC