Steal This Track: Robin Walker and Tim Pourbaix
By eryc eyl | June 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Robin Walker will make sure you get your nickel's worth. Photo by Laurie White of White Light Images.
Everybody knows that Mondays suck, but Tuesdays? Tuesdays are the best! You’ve gotten over the shock of another weekend ending and you’re realizing that the next weekend is just four days away — three if you don’t count today!
Best of all, Tuesdays are for Steal This Track, Reverb’s obscenely generous weekly dose of free Colorado music.
This week, you get two treats: an exclusive recording from electric ukelele powerhouse Robin Walker and an unreleased track from melancholy minstrel Tim Pourbaix‘s forthcoming album. On your marks. Get set. Steal!
For most of my life, I’ve viewed the ukulele as a joke instrument. Popularized by people like Don Ho, Tiny Tim and my third grade music teacher, the four-stringed miniature always seemed like a silly substitute for a guitar. Now, however, the little lute’s renewed hipness is making me reconsider my prejudice. The kids in Brooklyn can’t get enough of the uke, Jake Shimabukoro wows audiences around the world, and locally, Danielle Ate the Sandwich is using the instrument for good, not evil.
But if anyone can truly convince me to embrace the ukulele, it’s singer-songwriter and one-woman band Robin Walker. Playing an electrified uke — through pedals and all — while playing a kick drum and crooning heartily, the young songstress pulls unprecedented sounds (and soul!) from the much-maligned axe.
But Walker’s music is about much more than her instrument. With a rich alto voice, stripped-bare lyrics and girl power spunk, the performer creates catchy, endearing and disarmingly sincere songs without veering too far into cutesy territory. Steal this Reverb exclusive recording of “Oiowa, a Hate Song for Iowa” and you’ll hear exactly what I mean.
Stream it:
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Steal it:
Robin Walker | Oiowa (right click to save to your computer)
If you like what you heard, check out the embarrassment of free stuff on Walker’s Soundcloud page, and be sure to catch her live. She’ll be playing June 30 at the 28th Street Tavern, July 8 at the Laughing Goat Coffeehouse and July 11 at Glob as part of Titwrench 2010.
Tim Pourbaix performing in Brooklyn. Photo by Jenny Morgan.
Tim Pourbaix might not play the ukulele, but he sure knows his way around its big brother, the acoustic guitar. Born and raised in Denver, the sad-sack singer-songwriter — also known for his stints in Bear vs. Larger Bear and Killfix — moved to Brooklyn about a year ago, but still calls Colorado home. In fact, he’ll be celebrating the release of his latest EP, “What’s This Gonna Cost,” right here in Denver, during the Denver Post’s Underground Music Showcase (which we refer to affectionately as The UMS).
“What’s This Gonna Cost” was recorded last winter in an unheated, illegally built studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Pourbaix recorded all of the EP’s six tracks live to analog tape in one day. Naked and immediate, the songs throb with raw emotion and an honesty that borders on confession. The absence of frills and any kind of studio magic allows the clarity and sincerity of Pourbaix’s writing to shine through. Four of the songs, including “Taking Form,” which you can — and should — steal below, were written on a guitar the writer found in girlfriend Jenny Morgan‘s closet.
Stream it:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Steal it:
Tim Pourbaix | Taking Form (right click to save to your computer)
If you dig it, keep an eye out for the digital release of “What’s This Gonna Cost,” coming to digital outlets everywhere on July 20 via Denver’s own Bocumast Records, and be sure to catch Pourbaix at the UMS.
Please note that downloads offered via Steal This Track are intended to whet your appetite, and are NOT CD-quality recordings. If you want those, please support the artists by buying their music and/or seeing them live.
If you’re a band or musician ready to expose your fresh sounds to the readers of Reverb, email your tracks to Eryc Eyl for consideration.
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out Steal This Track every Tuesday for local music you can HEAR, and the Mile High Makeout every Friday. Against his mother’s advice, Eryc has also been known to tweet.
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