Emotionalism was released in May, and the Avett Brothers have released a number of records since 2000, so I'm very distraught realizing I'd never heard their music before. I was listening through my recent musical acquisitions and one song stuck out in its simplicity, "The Ballad of Love and Hate."In the song, Love and Hate are not abstract ideas but two people caught in a relationship that exists in despite of their opposing natures. What these natures are should be obvious. The song works because Love's name could be Lily and Hate's name could be Severus (the same goes with Sally and Harry, Hero and Claudio, the list goes on) and it would still make perfect sense. I've been doing a lot of HP re-reading lately, sorry. I'm not suggesting anything, I promise. Genre-wise, The Avett Brothers is low-key folk with bluegrass instrumentation.
"Hate keeps his head up and walks through the street.The Avett Brothers - The Ballad of Love and Hate [download or die]
Every stranger and drifter he greets.
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
with a serious look on his face."
The Avett Brothers - Die Die Die
Buy Emotionalism from Amazon.com
The Avett Brothers' Website/Myspace
You can catch the Pretty Girl EP over at the Late Greats (which is a joke, by the way, because so many of the Avett Brothers' songs have "Pretty Girl" in the title). It actually introduced me to this song, which I like because it reminds me of the 9-hour drive to from Virginia to Ohio and vice versa I often have the pleasure of taking:
"We drive for milesThe Avett Brothers - Letter to a Pretty Girl
Through corporate Ohio
Rest stops in West Virginia
Traffic in Washington DC'
Personal Update: My best friend from high school is visiting for the next few days, so posting will be sketchy, but it will probably still happen. Afterwards I'll be in DC for a week visiting friends, I'm hoping to catch a few concerts while I'm there.
Bonus: Jack Johnson - We Are Going To Be Friends (White Stripes cover)
Labels: artist profile, Avett Brothers, Country, folk, song piece
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be sure to see them live, they are even better
They're really amazing. I love Ballad of Love and Hate, but my friend (who introduced me to them) said that it was just a filler song. Glad I'm not alone in thinking it's great! They're truly talented guys.
Tell your friend that the Avett Bros have never written or recorded a filler song.
If you call Ballad of Love and Hate a "filler song", you are sadly missing something very special.
I found these guys by accident... the Mother Truckers were opening for them. They put on an unbelievalby good show (I was very skeptical about 3 guys with acoustic instruments following a high energy, electrified alt country band). Great performers, and possibly even better songwriters!
I just saw these guys at Merlefest '08. Such great energy.
They announced a new EP to be released in July 08 and the new songs are amazing.
Check out my account of the show for some downloads, as well as other great music on an Audio Blog with over 10 authors and tons of great music - AudioMuffin.com.
http://audiomuffin.com/my-heart-beats-like-a-kick-drum/
First saw the Avetts at a bluegrass show -- they were the headliners. After four bars, understood they weren't bluegrass. More like string band. Good vocals, instrumentally average, lots of ENERGY and sophisticated songwriting. But one set was enough for me.