Lift To Experience - The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads

In 2001, Lift To Experience released what we at In(High)Fidelity like to call a Stone-Cold Classic: an album that transcends time and place; an album that we listen to just as much now as we did when it was first released. Joshua T. Pearson, the group’s singer/songwriter/guitarist, is about to release his first solo album since the band’s untimely demise, so we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on one of our all-time favorite albums.
Championed by John Peel, Lift To Experience were a three-piece band from Texas. Their one and only album is an epic song cycle built around the idea that Armageddon is on its way and God has called upon three Texas boys to lead his people to the Promised Land. In the hands of Pearson – the son of a preacher – the band addresses the religious themes in a manner that is both poetic and bad-ass – the music drenched in beautiful squalls of guitar,waves of feedback and hard-hitting drums.
There is an air of mystery about The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads that has only grown in the years since the disintegration of the band - not long after the release of the album - and Pearson’s retreat from the spotlight. Perhaps it is the Catholic guilt that I carry around that draws me back to this album again and again, however I’m more inclined to think it is just because it is an amazing album.

Listen to Lift To Experience: Down Came The Angels (The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads)
JOSH T.PEARSON (LIFT TO EXPERIENCE) - down came the angels by rocktympans

Sharon Van Etten - Epic (2010)

A girl in Tennessee wants to write music and sing songs but her boyfriend is unsupportive of said girl’s creative endeavors (very unsupportive). Girl leaves boyfriend, writes songs about the end of a relationship; heartbreak and sorrow abound. Girl records songs and releases her first album – a plaintive affair which combines girls beautiful vocals with a lone acoustic guitar. People begin to take note.
Girl begins to heal from aforementioned heartbreak (as much as one can heal from heartbreak, I suppose) and writes a new batch of songs. This time she is not singing about her boyfriend as much as stepping out from an oppressive relationship into a world full of possibility (though a world still fraught with relationship struggles); a little wiser and a little stronger than before.
Instead of just a guitar, the girl works with a producer who augments her songs with more sounds: some drums, some slide guitar, multi-tracked vocals and a little echo here and there. The album is a departure from the earlier work – albeit a slight one – and the girl playfully calls the seven song mini-album Epic. Her voice is powerful and fragile all at once. Her songs are excellent and stay with you long after the final note has been played. The girl’s name is Sharon Van Etten.

Listen to Sharon Van Etten: Don't Do It (from the album Epic)
Sharon Van Etten - Don't Do It by skipsterus

Common Market - The Winter's End EP (Hyena Records, 2008)

With few exceptions, the state of modern-era commercial hip hop is a very sad one. "Bling" is most certainly not in, as the average man and woman on the street is more concerned with where their next rent check is coming from, as opposed to how many diamonds (see: cubic zirconia) they can fit onto one ring. The "fairytale-nightmare" of thug-life has come to a crashing halt.
Luckily, the underground is ready to surface. In fact, dynamic acts such as Aesop Rock, EL-P, Blue Scholars, and the mighty Common Market have been keeping hip hop alive - albeit under the radar.
Tobacco Road, Common Market's 2008 masterpiece was an amazing leap forward from their strong debut album - and has been on high rotation at In(High)Fidelity since it hit the streets last September. Tracks such as Trouble Is, 40 Acres and Nina Sing, highlight Common Market's aim to raise people's consciousness and at the same time raise their hands.
While Common Market - DJ Sabzi on the ones-and-twos / RA Scion rocking the mic - never shy away from weighty topics, The Winter's End EP (a digital only release), seeks to bring to a close the themes on Tobacco Road; to welcome in Spring in the Northern Hemisphere; and to also give Common Market fans something to sink their teeth into before another full-length drops.
Common Market is hip-hop for fans of good music. Their creativity and the message they carry with it appear to be growing sronger and stronger with every release.

Check Out: http://www.myspace.com/commonmarket

Record Strore Day Rundown

As you may be aware, your trusty scribe has been know to lend his pen to other publications whenever the mood strikes. Check out Ben's latest piece for The Rundown, where he talks up the glory that is Record Store Day. Click here!