Toofer Toosday - Finian McKean & Elvis Perkins

Today marks the official release of Finian McKean's Monsters of the Deep Woods on the Periodic Label. Many of you may not of heard of him, but that's okay. You will now. After living and leading an indie pop group, Push Kings, in L.A., Finian moved east to Brooklyn and started making a name for himself. In 2006 he released Shades are Drawn that was drowned in inner city angst and depression. Later he met up with drummer Patrick Brennan, and their music and live shows became a series of emotional folk/blues jams that sometimes amassed 40 tunes in all. From these excursions, Monsters Of The Deep Woods was born. Listening to the album brings a sense of dreary nightlife, dank souls, and ancient nostalgia. The last may be due to Finian's current PhD studies at Harvard's Sanskrit Department, where he is tapping into 4000 year old poetry. Many of you haven't heard the likes of Finian McKean, but, like I said before, you will now.

mp3: Finian McKean - It's Late --> website --> buy
mp3: Finian McKean - Got No Reason

Sometimes I get lost in all the music that is constantly swirling around this world. It makes it hard to find what you are really looking for. Maybe that's why it took me so long to find Elvis Perkins. Perkins has had a rough life. His father, Anthony Perkins, famous for playing the role of Norman Bates in the original thriller Psycho, died of AIDS in 1992. In 2001, his mother, a photographer named Berry Berenson, was on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. These tragedies fuel Perkins' emotional folk music. He sings from the heart. You can feel a darkness...a memory burning in his soul as he belts and sometimes whispers the lyrics over his beautifully crafted songs. I felt it before I knew of these incidents, but when I learned of them, it all fell into place. They say within death is life. This is true with Elvis Perkins' music. His debut album, Ash Wednesday, was released in 2007 on XL Recordings.

mp3: Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping --> website --> buy
mp3: Elvis Perkins - Without Love