Spitball Army

For some reason, I have been listening to a lot of Joseph Arthur’s music lately.  It’s just hitting me in the right way at this time in my life – perhaps it’s the relaxed flow of it that is appealing to me.  Anyway, it is taking up a significant percentage of my listening time right now.  I thought I’d share some of it with you.  The video clips below are new discoveries to me, though I was familiar with the music Joseph is playing in them.

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“Evidence”
This was my introduction to the music of Joseph Arthur. I heard this song on a Starbucks compilation CD (so I was responsible for 50% of that store’s music sales for that day).

“Electrical Storm”
This live performance is purported to be the first play of “Electrical Storm” before an audience. The venue is Le Bataclan in Paris, and took place on November 2nd of 2005. Joseph is playing solo. Sadly, the clip terminates at about the 2½ minute mark.

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“Electrical Storm”
This is the version that made it onto Nuclear Daydream in 2006. It’s very beautiful, eerie and moody as both the song and the album titles suggest.

“Slide Away”
Joseph gets his freak on during this October 2006 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. “Slide Away” is also from Nuclear Daydream. A groovy combination of Prince, Mick Jagger and hippie chic, and you can tell that the band could have easily dug its heels in and played for 20 more minutes.

“Black Lexus”
Here’s another performance video, taken from KEXP in Seattle’s Live at the Triple Door series. Features another song from Nuclear Daydream, with the added bonus of some interview footage with Joseph at the end.

Joseph Arthur has just released the first of four EPs scheduled for this year.  Titled Could We Survive, it contains six songs, all terrific and strong on melody.  After the EP schedule ends in June, there is rumored to be an additional full album release in the Fall.  Yippee!