Pickathon starts this Thursday. I am beyond excited. So many great folks I've never seen live - Mavis Staples, Bill Callahan, The Black Lillies - and so many I'm thrilled to see again - Breathe Owl Breathe, Michael Hurley, Kelly Joe Phelps.
Really been into this Black Lillies track of late:
Grant writing's a lot like academic paper-writing in that to get the bulk of the real writing done you've got to get yourself into a nice flow state for the words to come out. I rely heavily on music to get me there - pick a song, set it on repeat, get goin'. This weekend I've been all about this Aloe Blacc cut to get me going. Appropriate theme, eh, for trying to bring home some grant dollars?
p.s. Has anyone seen How to Make it in America?
Distracting myself from the specter of three 14-hour workdays this week by planning for upcoming concerts. Josh Ritter, Final Fantasy, and Portland's own Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside:
Love love love these guys.
Josh came to visit last weekend and we drove from Hood River to Eugene to Yachats to Corvallis to Maupin and back. Lots of open highway and long conversations and good friends along the way.
This week's been a hard return to reality. Today I would much rather be out on the highway with some Robert Earl Keen turned up loud. Got some plans in April to visit the Mojave, get in some desert highway time, some desert backcountry time - can't wait.
Happy St Patrick's Day, all.
Tell me you see the light
Tell me you know me
Make it come out alright
And wrap it in glory
For one Irish rover
Time lapse action! The entire set up and break down of Pickathon's main stage in just over 2 minutes. Super cool!
Also, if you look closely in this great crowd shot by an awesome Flickr user, you can spot me! (click it for a larger version, and I recommend checking out all of his shots - makes me want to break out the F3 and the last of my 35mm...)
Just over a week ago I left work early on a Friday afternoon bound for the one, the only Pickathon.
The short of it is that I spent two and a half days sweating my brains out and dancing to sweet sweet music on a dusty farm south of Portland and came away with a suntan, a hangover, and a renewed commitment to making good - great - things happen more often in my life.
The long of it, well... how about some disjointed thoughts?
There's this music festival. It has a well-deserved reputation as a rockin' little hipster-hippie-bougie-family-friendly convergence with amazing music and the most fantastically positive vibe. Nobody litters, almost nobody gets stupidly drunk and/or violent, and the drinking water and beer flows freely.
I run into a friend, of a sort. Someone I see mostly in my professional life, whom I'd always wanted to know better. We chit-chat, we ask these questions that seem a little silly for people who've known each other for 2 years.
Hobbies. We talk about hobbies, and I think, crap, what ARE my hobbies? I certainly have interests, pastimes, things I do: cooking gardening music hiking fishing etc etc. But when's the last time I devoted any measure of real time to any of those things? Much less the rest of my wanna-be hobbies: drawing painting art, playing music not just listening, going dancing, writing, real writing not twitter bullshit, those sorts of things. Has it really been 2 years since I picked up a piece of charcoal?
There's maybe a slight hint of flirtation. My world lights up. Possibilities and vivid new-life-trajectory narratives involving bountiful farming endeavors and riotous outdoor adventures flow forth in my head. Sure doesn't take much to send you down this path, you know?
I get my metaphorical shit together real quick-like because it's time for the square dance. Oh hell yes. Have you ever square danced under the stars with like 500 other sweaty delirious fabulous strangers? You must. The boy and I do a couple of nice dances, then he spins off and I lose him in the crowd, I spin around and I keep finding friends, near-strangers, people I haven't seen in ages - OHMYGODHILONGLOSTFRIEND!
So about that square dance: when ever else in your life are you going to dance with and hug and touch and get real close and personal in a totally pure happy way with a bunch of strangers? It is the wildest thing. I knew maybe 10 out of 500 people out there, but I touched and swung and laughed with dozens of them. Restorative, happy, wonderful - as silly as that sounds.
You can't really sleep in at a music festival when you're sleeping out underneath the great big sky. That sun comes up over the hills and the trees at 7 AM and that's all you're gonna get, darling. I do a little reading in front of the main stage and life is awfully fine. I think about the boy and wonder where he went, do a couple fruitless half-looking loops around the farm. Nope, not around, probably having an amazing time with some other friends somewhere else in some secret site. Where you clearly aren't, big loser.
Why is it so easy to be surrounded by so many thousands of people and feel so alone on such baseless assumptions?
It is now time for some Sam Quinn. Might as well displace some of that angst by mooning over a charismatic musician.
I return to my rad book. I return to some fucking amazing music. I traipse around the festival and I smile at people and enjoy the whole damn thing. The sun goes down. That boy's hanging out with some girl. I decide to pay attention to the music again. The music is awesome.
It's late but I AM NOT TIRED! I will not go to bed! I wanna stay up for the last! show! Friends all poop out or disappear, it's me and the strangers, all the warm sweaty strangers. Sam Quinn's up again. Horse Feathers too.
Oh hello boy! What, you were heading over to talk to who? Oh that girl? OK, sure, I'll come along and meet her. Hi girl! You're from Florida?! So am I! Why are you being so frosty, huh? Am I, like, getting in the way? It sure seems that way. Make some jokes at my expense, I am good humored, you go right ahead. What's that boy, you think I'm too straight-laced? Perhaps a little square? I think I need to go listen to some music now.
Moving on. This sucks. All of this sucks. If the boy thinks I'm square, does everyone think I'm square? Wait, whose fault is that?
Sometime in the night some people steal the festival golf carts and tear around the campsites in circles, banging drums, keeping all jillion of us awake. So much for that whole peace love and happiness thing.
Another early morning. A constitutional of black coffee and smiley googly eyes at the baby in our campsite. They call him Juju.
Do some reading as the music plays. Mindblowing trad tunes by this youngster from LA wearing highwater pants. Take a stroll. Catch some tunes in the barn. Play some cribbage with the boy and some other friends. Partake of free ice cream and beer because the friends are rad. Feel good. More music. More sunshine. More dust on my feet.
Some dancing and drinking and laughing back at camp as we pack up to call it a weekend. Thinking these people are great. Life is great. Filthy sweaty smelly tipsy laughing smiling watching the sunset and the stars and the night-lit stage. A late night drive back to Portland with all the windows down, smiling face turned to watch the lights go by.
Like many others, tonight I'm remembering just how great his music is, what a singular performer he was.
Doin' a little Blame it on the Boogie dance in memoriam, just like all those days on the leach field. Thinking hard on this: There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child.
UPDATE: Another good post on MJ, from Jill at Feministe.. and another one from my friend Brendon. They both say way more than I could.
The Everybodyfields' Sam Quinn has a new side project -
I'm particularly fond of the piano in Late the Other Night but pretty much all of this sounds stellar and this just might make me change my mind about Pickathon 2009.
File under 'Songs That Never Get Old':
The Weakerthans - One Great City
When I lived in Dublin, Road Records was one of my favorite shops. I spent a lot of time in the Dublin music scene, doing research and, well, enjoying the music, and Road was the place to go for local bands' music. I have several of their limited-edition splits that are just great.
But Road's closing, and here's why.
I'm as guilty as the next person of not always purchasing the music that I listen to and enjoy. I pass several outstanding record stores whenever I'm in Portland and I rarely go in. It's emusic or itunes when I buy anything at all - but I don't want these shops to die. I guess I'm not the only one. Do any of you still buy real CDs?
The Swell Season has some stellar new tunes they're playing live. Makes me really regret missing them when they've come to Portland.
I was Born to Hold You in These Arms
Low Rising
(a lot of Van the Man influence here, mm)
Forgot how good this one is.
Brian Eno puts this really well - it's a sentiment I've tried and failed to express for a long time.
Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness. And then there are what I would call "civilizational benefits." When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings -- to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.
As someone who spent over 12 years of my life singing each week in a choir, and another 4 years involved with the DOC, in which singing is integral, I can attest to this. There are so few ways to truly become a part of a positive group consciousness; singing is by far one of the best.
(via kottke)
Has it really been a year? A year since I last got swallowed whole by this or that emotionally damaged young man? A year since I played the "I bet I can fix it!" game? Yeah.
In a way, I have the least reason ever in my life to resonate with this song. I am seeing the most normal guy I've ever dated.
He's not:
Prone to drinking to the point of blackout
Obsessed with violent dark death metal
Given to disappearing from all contact for weeks at a time with no notice
Into reading aloud journal entries about his ex-fiance
Mentally and physically crippled by chronic pain and resulting masculinity loss
Perpetually melancholy
Or any other of the laundry list of pathetic bullshit attributes from that bunch of yahoos who make up my past. I can smell a nutcase from a mile away after all that - and this is just the tip of the iceberg. (Yes, I've dated a couple of good ones, too, who don't qualify as yahoos)
But it's hard - no, impossible - not to listen to this Everybodyfields song, Worth Keeping, and get a little nostalgia for the emotional crack that is dating damaged goods.
After you listen to that one, skip ahead to A Gun, catch that opening line, and, more importantly, the way it's sung:
Take me down /
Shine me up /
I'm your favorite coffee cup /
I want to pack up and hit the highway to Tennessee tomorrow and go save Sam from himself. Maybe this time it will work.
You can watch the video from Paste here, and really, you need to hear it.
(Sidenote: the "I bet I can fix it!" game is quite similar to "he may be an asshole, but he's MY asshole!" syndrome, seen most recently in discussion around why the hell a modern feminist woman might dig Mad Men's Don Draper. More on this soon, I hope.)
Dear Universe,
Why do I have such an absurd love for To The Dogs or Whoever?
I mean, really. I'm not complaining, 'cause this song makes me HAPPY, but sheesh. You'd have thought I would have gotten over it by now, but nope. Still into it.
From the depths of work weekend from hell, hour 23, thank the lord for good music.
--
So I'm not a total John Vanderslice devotee but the set he did for OPB Music this week is worth your time.
I'm particularly fond of the first and fourth tracks. Is it just me, or is Numbered Lithograph straight the hell out of 2003?
This is just about the only thing keeping me alive and well right now. On steady repeat.
(James Yorkston cover; I love that JY. Sadly, you can only buy it if you buy the giant box set of JY goodies. This does not jive well with my current desperate need to Own Less Stuff.)
Staring down the barrel of a terrifying deadline next week - and this comes after pulling off a 250 person fundraising dinner on Sunday and working through yesterday's painful dizzy stress hangover. Thank goodness N made me dinner. Must meet the deadline, then must turn around and make one more mobile market run, then one more community meal, then one more real work week. Will not get a full day off until October 4. And then the next day I fly to Philly for a conference. There's nothing to be done about it but barrel through and keep looking to the other side.
I wish I had a way to download this, because it's one of my favorite songs, and this is a stellar cover. Listen for the crickets.
It was a typical Eugene winter, chilly, dark and wet. I drove him around all night, bar to bar, watched him get drunk with all his friends. We didn't run into her, thankfully.
Next morning we were both haggard. He made some coffee in a dish towel, no filters in the house, and sat down to write in his journal.
I found this CD by the stereo and put it on.
The Destroyer Sessions - Ryan Adams, with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings
(recorded shortly before Heartbreaker)
It was the end of a long slow slide into disaster, a messed up ride, the final "I don't want to talk to you ever again" that slammed around and around in my head until I had to say it.
I'd thought I was past that, better than that, immune to heartbroken boys in need of something nobody can give. Nope. It feels like a long time ago now, and it doesn't really hurt anymore, but that album is always gonna be that time, I think.
I can't say that I like much of Pacific!, but there's this Lord Skywave mix of Sunset Boulevard that is so worth your time. Sounds like summer. The real thing, too - warm sticky nights and bright colors and glorious free time.
You can find it on hypem, or on a summertime mix if you've got one coming from me.
Man, do I miss warm sticky nights. We got a great lightning show last night, one of the few times all summer, and it was warm and humid out with that pre-storm scent of rain heavy in the air. It made me so homesick.
I BET YOU CAN SING ALL OF THESE
AND REMEMBER YOURSELF GETTING DOWN (or head bobbing) AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE IN YOUR BONGOS
It Came from the 90's - a Can You See the Sunset from the Southside? feature
I've been following this series with tremendous pleasure. Many of these songs are firmly entrenched in my brain but I'd never known their titles or artists - just those ubiquitous tunes.
The new My Morning Jacket: what do you think?
Why did The Dismemberment Plan have to break up?!
Played Rock Band for the first time last night. Turns out it's pretty fun to push buttons on a cheesy plastic guitar if there's drinks and dancing people and a dancing barking dog and songs you can sing along to and did I mention drinks?
Tonight'll be even better, though. Everybody and I mean everybody is coming into Portland to see the Avett Brothers. Eug, Florence, Lakeview, Newport, Da Locks, White Salmon, Hood Rivah... Rural Oregon's gonna roll deep. There better be dancing.
And then Mego rolls in this weekend. Just in time for sunshine and 70 degrees. Things are looking good.
Aside from all the rockin' good times there's some more interesting stuff going on in my head. Don't have the time to really get into it, which is a shame, because I need to, but maybe soon. The short of it is that I am ready to make some exciting changes around here.
Basia Bulat covers Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You in the End at Daytrotter.
Yeah, I got rick-roll'd..
But it's ok. Those 80's dance moves by the "twerpy, earnest, high-waistbanded" Rick Astley? AMAZING.
I'm really late to this game, but I've really been enjoying In the Aeroplane Over the Sea lately.
Hoping to catch Saul Williams next week:
The manic anger-energy in it is addictive.
---
It is the summer of 2002. I am cross-legged on the floor of Ben's dark bedroom and there are bruises covering the backs of my thighs from dam-jumping the day before. We have run out of conversation, or maybe we're just waiting for the night to cool down so we can go for a walk and hold hands in the park. A song comes on, Penny for a Thought, sandwiched between David Bowie and Propagandhi, spazzing the equalizer and catching my ear. It's the rhythm, or maybe it's the message, but something sticks, capping days of heady brew for a naive white girl who's just 18: anarchy, socialism, revolution, DIY, sewing clothes with dental floss, biking everywhere even when you have a car, art, love, slam poetry, actively tackling injustice with real tools and real organizing. A whole different reality.
which one is keeping it real, son?
who manufactured your steel, son?
hardcore, ancient elements at the earth's core
fuck it, I'ma keep speaking 'til my throat's sore
an emcee told a crowd of hundreds to put their hands in the air
an armed robber stepped to a bank and told everyone to put their hands in the air
a Christian minister gives his benediction while the congregation hold their hands in the air
love the image of the happy Buddha with his hands in the air
hands up and feel confused, define tomorrow
your belief system ain't louder than my car system
(Also need/want to buy his new album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.)
It's a twanged-out take; I like it. It's also another reminder that I need and want to read Love is a Mix Tape.
This is a great piece of work on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and its long, weird journey through 49072350 covers and 589073 TV shows and movies.
On Jeff Buckley's classic cover, which he argues (convincingly) came more from John Cale than from Cohen:
The effect was to flatten the song emotionally, to take out all the different Hallelujahs Cohen depicted and reduce them to one: the cold and broken, which appears here twice. Even the "you don't really care for music" dig sounds more wronged than cutting, and the sex is now the ecstasy of the brooding artiste, an image Cohen always seemed careful to subvert.This simplification resulted in a torrent of covers.
I happen to like the Cohen, Cale, and Buckley versions, albeit for different reasons. But Leonard's is the best. It always is.
(via kottke)
I'm a little embarrassed by how much I've been enjoying having Vampire Weekend on my Productivity Mix.
Fela Kuti is far more inspiring music for Getting Shit Done than The Everybodyfields.
I've also been doing pretty well with a mix of Burial, Spoon, Hayward Williams, and a couple tracks off the Mountain Goats' Heretic Pride. (Keeping in mind that I don't have my full library at work - just tracks that I download from Hypem or buy on eMusic)
Hmm.. maybe it's time for a productivity mix. Or at least a Top 5.
What do YOU listen to when you need to really be productive?
The songs of Heretic Pride, described by John Darnielle and illustrated by Jeff Lewis. Awesome.
How to Embrace a Swamp Creature: This is a song about sleeping with somebody with whom you've just parted ways and with whom you later tell yourself you had no intention of sleeping on that day when you "stopped by" to pick up your stuff, or to "just say hi", or whatever other excuse you feel like using. It's all good, y'all, you ain't gotta lie to me.
Pretty psyched for some new MG material here.
I've posted some of the Concerts A Emporter before, but these really continue to rock my world.
Jens Lekman - A Little Lost (Arthur Russell; check out the original too!)
Another - I can't embed this one, and the visuals aren't as bomber, but it's a gorgeous lo-fi rendition of Jens's Into Eternity.
It snowed a lot this weekend:
This was great because it meant I got to ski around town all weekend instead of driving. Also, my housemate was house-sitting for a co-worker who happens to have a dog and a cat and satellite TV, so when I wasn't skiing I was watching Food Network. And parts of Star Wars IV and V. And cooking. It was a good weekend.
The thing about snow in Hood River is that it promptly warms back up to 37, 40 degrees and starts raining again. So the snow melts and turns to slush and muck and makes a disgusting mess. Rain, clouds, and wintry mix for the next 10 days. YEAH.
Bad news: I missed a triple-header FREE SHOW in Portland - Bobby Bare Jr, Langhorne Slim, and The Long Winters - due to the snow and the fact that chains were required on the interstate (and thus speeds of about 25 mph the whole way).
Good news: Jens is coming back to Portland! In March! To a tiny venue! I am there! I am so there!
Song of the WEEK:
Dr. Dog - Heart it Races (Architecture in Helsinki cover)
The original's good too, but really, this is where it's at. Because it makes me think of summer and warm dusk and riding my bike no-handed past all those sweet funky onion fields. Mmm.
Neko's Twist the Knife.
You ever really listen to the first 30 seconds of that? Ooh damn.
Thanks to Nick for reminding me of Bon Iver's existence and launching Skinny Love into endless repeat on iTunes after several months' languishing on my hard drive. Damn that's a good song.
Speaking of self-consciously quirky under-40 white guys who play guitar, I also really dig Tom Brosseau's new album. Check out Committed to Memory on his myspace. I caught him in Portland a few weeks back and he cast a spell.
So my roommate gave me tickets to see a Celtic fiddler last night because she had a Raku pottery class to attend. And being a good freegan and dork I went and it was nice, you know, all the lovely harmonies in a very small room with good acoustics. Hanneke, who's in her 20's, had 2 young guys accompanying her - a cellist and a guitarist. After a couple rounds of jigs and reels and pretty straight-up trad sounds, the accompanists each got to play a song too.
The cellist sits down, shifts the mic, does a little warming up, makes some typical-sounding cello sounds as an introduction, clears his throat...
and sings the funniest awesomest love song for Clair Huxtable ever.
This recorded version on myspace can't begin to capture the fun. (the recording is low quality and it seems to be an earlier version) But. You owe it to yourself to listen anyway. It totally made my musical week.
The latest essay up at n+1, on why some ex-rocker doesn't much like rock, doesn't actually say much of anything new or innovative. But it's pretty funny nonetheless:
File under Dionysus the feelings a rock concert aims to induce: careless ecstasy and careless unity, dissolving in the careless crowd. Is Dionysus all-embracing, or is he instead all-consuming, all-digesting, reducing all to homogenous shit-stink? Why has no one mentioned that John Lennon’s “I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one” is a sentiment suitable for chanting at a Nuremberg rally?The solution to mass-market Dionysianism is the obvious corrective tilt toward the Apollonian. Apollo is the contrary principle of form, clarity, precision, and individuation. Sculpture is the art of saying No to the rest of the mountain.Apollo and Dionysus need one another, but only Apollo seems to understand this; Dionysus is busy vomiting into the toilet.
You need to hear the new Jens Lekman album.
That is all,
Sarah
Within the first two weeks of my move to the Gorge, I'll have the chance to see:
Loudon Wainwright III
Matt Pond PA
and
THE WEAKERTHANS
And that's just the ones I've happened across by chance. I wonder how many shows I'll be able to afford. How many for which I'll be willing to make the hour's drive. I didn't make it to nearly as many Boise shows as I planned this year... it's harder to motivate when you've got to drive an hour alone on a weeknight to sit or stand in a dark, smoky, loud space alone. But sometimes it's worth it if it's music you love. Also, you meet cool people.
(There's a bomber new track from the upcoming new MPPA album on their myspace; check it.)
UPDATE: ADD JENS LEKMAN TO THAT LIST! WOO!
Some stuff I haven't been able to turn off:
I'd just like to announce to the world that The Weakerthans have a new album coming out! In three months! It has been far, far too long. My friend Pam got to see them perform last night on a boat cruise outside of New York City. So jealous.
Reunion Tour is the title of the fourth studio album by The Weakerthans, scheduled for release on September 25th, 2007 in the USA and a day earlier in Canada. (BrooklynVegan)
Also. The new Interpol leaked and yeah it sounds a lot like previous Interpol records but I happen to like that sound. You know how sometimes you don't realize you've been missing something 'til you hear it again and BOOM it's suddenly the only thing you wanna hear? All day? Yeah.
UPDATE: Let me just add that WEEZER will have a new album coming out in early 2008. Oh yes. Bring it on, R-dawg.
Goddamn but the last week was a good one. I've been living out here in the Oregon high desert for nearly nine months now, and don't get me wrong - I've been enjoying the hell out of it. But a week's vacation spent in the company of some old college friends whilst road-tripping to San Francisco and living the good life, well, that's hard to beat. I've got some photos and stories for y'all soon, but until then, enjoy this old crunchy-loud-live Uncle Tupelo cover of Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, k?
I'm pretty psyched about the new The New Pornographers track that's leaked.
I don't usually do these things, but this morning I accidentally hit the 'shuffle' button in iTunes. So here's the first random 10 songs that I heard this lovely Friday morning:
1. Rahzel f. Erykah Badu - Southern Girl
(LOLOLOL) 2. Dr. Dre - Forgot About Dre
3. Matt Pond PA - No More (Again)
4. Devendra Banhart - We All Know
5. Robert Pollard - The Right Thing
6. The Fratellis - Flathead
7. Van Morrison - Rave On, John Donne
8. The Apples in Stereo - Go
9. The Jayhawks - Come to the River
10. The Rolling Stones - High and Dry
I'm gonna go ahead and jump onto this bandwagon, k?
Yeasayer - 2080 (link coming when I get home from work)
(Said the Gramophone)
(Myspace)
Thx to Seal for the tip.
One of my favorite music videos.
So tonight I spent most of the evening working on a drawing (you'll see it later) but then I made the magical discovery that YouTube has many of my all-time favorite music videos. Not just the ones with artistic and musical merit (ha!) but the ones I watched over and over on VH1 and MTV until they became so ingrained that upon seeing them I can still recognize every scene and recall how new and kinda... dangerous it all felt. I mean, I had a pretty sheltered childhood. "Push," anyone? All the drama about Rob Thomas's eyeliner and misogynistic lyrics? Ooh, or "Pink"? Steven Tyler's head in all sorts of strange places? That was good. And it reminded me of this... Holy shit do you remember 10-year old Macaulay all blinged out and dancing with Michael Jackson? I didn't.
Picarello hit the top of the escalator just after Bell began his final piece, a reprise of "Chaconne." In the video, you see Picarello stop dead in his tracks, locate the source of the music, and then retreat to the other end of the arcade. He takes up a position past the shoeshine stand, across from that lottery line, and he will not budge for the next nine minutes.
If one of the world's best living violinists played, free, incognito, in a subway station, would people stop to listen?
The Washington Post went and found out; the results are fascinating.
Let's say Kant is right. Let's accept that we can't look at what happened on January 12 and make any judgment whatever about people's sophistication or their ability to appreciate beauty. But what about their ability to appreciate life?
Props to Marc for passing this on - Willy Mason did a set on Morning Becomes Eclectic today and it's great. I wish I could have seen him live at Sam Bond's. He's young, mid-twenties I think, and he's got a loose-limbed, rambling, twang-but-not-too-twang sound that comes across better without all the production behind his new album.
Have a listen, eh?
Oh, and I just checked, he's younger than I am. Wow.
ALSO: Beninese diva Anjelique Kidjo did a stellar KCRW set this morning.
How to stay alert when you have to sit at a desk for 9 hours straight and wrangle a big mess of qualitative, anecdotal information into something resembling a quantitative risk assessment.
(Or: the peppiest, most melodious and motivating mp3s I have on my computer at work, thanks to the sweet sweet world of music blogs and intermittent flash-drive transfers from home. No, it's not in any sort of specific order other than how iTunes randomly mixed it.)
Andrew Bird - Heretics
David Kitt - Don't Fuck With Me
Fela Kuti - Shakara
Big Sir - The Pistol Chasers
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
T. Rex - Jeepster
Peter Bjorn & John - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
The Shins - Australia
Andrew Bird - Two Way Action
Wilco - Theologians
Michael Haves & Chris Thile - Air Mail Special
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - This is Us
Allen Toussaint - Last Train
Jon Brion - Knock Yourself Out
I've got a bet for a shortbread cookie from Sweet Life riding on my getting an entire section of the hazards plan drafted today (it's due at the beginning of next week), so I don't have much to say to y'all this morning.
I do, however, have 2 sweeeeet Tweedy vids to keep you entertained: solo acoustic versions of Theologians and, whoa man, Acuff-Rose. Well worth it.
Theologians:
Acuff-Rose:
Song of the evening: Uncle Tupelo, Steal the Crumbs
It's raining tonight, just the light, intermittent sprinkling that's all the high desert ever sees. I've got all my windows open despite the damp and cold - it smells like the beginning of spring out there.
Song of the day - Nico's cover of I'll Keep it With Mine.
The train leaves
At half past ten,
But it'll be back tomorrow,
Same time again.
The conductor he's weary,
He's still stuck on the line.
But if I can save you any time,
Come on, give it to me,
I'll keep it with mine.
Marc sent me a link to this and man oh man it's spectacular - Miles Davis and John Coltrane doing So What. Jazz is a love that I know mostly aurally - I've not attended many live performances, nor have I seen many video clips, so to have these visual close-ups of Davis is rather startling and renders a familiar piece fresh again. It's things like this that make me love YouTube - where else would you find this kind of footage? (Or, for that matter, the, um, pilot episode of The Wonder Years...)
Neil Young busking on the streets of Glasgow. I really like this.
The new Andrew Bird track that's floating around - it's GOOD. Real good.
I am not going to upload it for you because everybody and her brother in blogland is upping it. But I will give you a link to an elbo.ws search that will get you started.
Hey, do any of you Smiths lovers have any particularly great covers of There is a Light That Never Goes Out? I heard a Braid cover on some music blog (I forgot which one, oops) this morning and it just didn't do it for me. Same with the Loquat cover, I mean, it's alright, but... eh.
MOKB posted a bunch of covers but that was in May 2006 in the glory days of Ezarchive so obvs that won't cut it.
Also, is it a sign of creeping age and hippiedom that more and more of your favorite musicians are people who go by their real first and last names rather than affixing "The" to random words?
Pamela Cortland, we need to do a mix exchange stat.
I have to decide by tomorrow afternoon if I want to go to Coachella.
?!?!?!?!?
You pretty much can't listen to anything better on a Sunday afternoon.
Oh. Man.
Am I dreaming or is this really the lineup for Bonnaroo?
The Police (headline)
Bob Dylan (headline)
Pearl Jam (headline)
Tom Waits
Willie Nelson
Umphrey's McGee
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Modest Mouse
The Black Crowes
Ryan Adams
My Morning Jacket
Arcade Fire
Keller WilliamsBand
Hot Chip
America
TV on the Radio
Fountains of Wayne
Les Claypool
The Shins
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Toots and the Maytals
The Roots
The Decemberists
Of Montreal
Cat Power
Ozomatli
Perpetual Groove
Band of Horses
John Butler Trio
Nickel Creek
Medeski Martin and Wood
Lily Allen
Neko Case
Keiren Hedben (Four Tet) & Steve Reid
The Hold Steady
Earl Scuggs
Charlie Louvin
Man Man
Grizzly Bear
Konono #1
The Slip
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Uncle Earl
Annuals
Beirut
M. Ward
Cold War Kids
Girl Talk
(via IGIF)
So it turns out that The Shins are playing in Boise in February. At The Egyptian, which is this cool old theatre with, you guessed it, a rather baroque Egyptian decor.
I've been wanting to go for a while, and since I missed the Halloween Built to Spill show, I'm kinda thinking about forking over for The Shins. I've heard from several of you that they're not particularly exciting live, sounding pretty much like their albums, but at this point any excuse to go hear some live music sounds pretty good. Hm.
So Amanda at Pandagon's got a bit of a rant going about how Iggy Pop is too punk to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
It’s worse for me when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame admits someone I love than when they pass them over. The Insufferable Music Snob in me can’t take it. It’s like my beloved singer or band is going to catch lameness from the contact. It’s tarnishing. I means you were milquetoast enough to pass muster with the sniveling babies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that you are easy on the ears of people who probably wear their AA pins on their dinner jackets as conversation pieces.
Yeah, pretty much. The ol' R&RHoF gets a big yawn from me. Does anyone find it relevant? Does it matter? Why do we bother with various Halls of Fame? The Onion gets it right, as usual.
Mostly, though, it made me wonder: what does it say about Iggy Pop that I have one of his songs* as my cell ringtone?
* It's The Passenger. A very good ringtone. Thanks are due to R for getting me into it.
Last night I dreamt that Jens Lekman and I were saved from certain death by a friendly thief and a bag of diamonds stored in a human stomach. The thief drove us to safety in a carriage across this huge span bridge on a smoggy day toward some sprawling industrial city on the skyline. Jens was a good hugger and I was glad for his company.
Now, dude hasn't put out any new music or toured the US recently, so I haven't really thought about him in a while and I don't know why in the world he popped up last night. But it was a pretty crazy dream.
It prompted me to check out Jens' website, in case there were any psychic messages hidden there or something. Not really. Just the usual melancholy smalltalk, a bit of info on an upcoming album (!), and an intriguing-sounding mix CD on which I recognized not one song.
That doesn't happen too often. If any of you out there actually have any of the songs on that mix, I'd like to hear them.
You know what's a really really great song? The Austin City Limits live acoustic version of My Morning Jacket's Golden. It's transcendent.
You know who I am dying to see live? My Morning Jacket.
They're playing Portland next week - but it's a 7-hour drive on a weeknight and would cost me $30 plus two tanks of gas and two work days. No go. Argh.
MOKB linked to a great Ryan Adams live set yesterday - it's from October and the whole thing has a great laid-back, drawling vibe. There's a Jerry Garcia cover in there, and I'm happy that he's still doing Damn, Sam, I Love a Woman That Rains live. He may be crazy but the man can sing a fine tune.
You can download it here (MOKB via archive.org).
I'm off to Bend again for job training - can't wait. Friends, free food, useful skills, and a weekend at the hot springs at Summer Lake. Back on Sunday.
I was putting some music on my iPod for tomorrow's long drive and I found a playlist for the stuff I was listening to 4 years ago this time of year. Last of fall 2002.
To be honest, this combination kind of boggles my mind:
Jump, Little Children: Cathedrals
Ennio Morricone: The Mission
Doves: M62 Song
(Astute friends might know from whom that Ennio came. Think freshman fall friends. Think "preternaturally inclined toward melodramatic violin swells")
If you live in New York City you owe it to me to go see the Beer Fiddlers tonight. Because I can't go. And it's free. All you have to do is buy the musicians a beer.
And take some pictures for me.
11th St. Bar, in the East Village, NYC.
10:30 PM.
p.s. So it turns out there's a story behind the name the Beer Fiddlers -
Who were the Beer Fiddlers? They may best be described as the unauthorized, free-lance country musicians of Bach’s day and earlier who earned or supplemented their livelihood by offering services at simple weddings and funerals, or in inns and taverns (Bierstube) along the way. Their members most likely worked at other occupations during the day: as tailors, cobblers, butchers, bakers or brewers – or even as common laborers – and picked up their instruments at night in hopes of earning an extra farthing or two on the side.
They've also got some ties to Bach, interestingly enough: this rather long-winded piece suggests that Bach himself might have been descended from a bit of a Beer Fiddler - a zither player, to be precise!
Hey, is that Will Oldham doing backups on this track? Or does it just sound a lot like him?
Either way, I like this song a lot.
Madeline - To Hell and Back
(via Raven Sings the Blues)
A few YouTube and mySpace video finds from the weekend:
Fiona Apple does Tonight You Belong to Me with Jon Brion and Chris Thile and some other cool folks.
There's this Irish guy, Anto, and he's got a new album out under the name Armoured Bear. Here's the cutest video everrrrrrrrr for his dreamy indie pop song Imagination. My favorite part is when the whales come in singing and glowing.
I made this CD several weeks ago for Z. It was intended as an introduction of sorts into the places where folk and indie come together (aka some of my favorite songs by some of my favorite musicians), so some of you will already know all of these. Broad but not deep.
I like the way this one sounds in composite as a mix.
1 Paul Burch - Lovesick Blues Boy
2 Jolie Holland - Roll My Blues
3 Radim Zenkl - Mountain Ghost
4 Kings Of Convenience - Singing Softly To Me
5 The Album Leaf - Into the Sea
6 Shearwater - Mountain Laurel
7 Iron & Wine - Peng!
8 Wilco - More Like the Moon
9 Greg Brown - Laughing River
10 Built to Spill - Else
11 Whiskeytown - Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountain Angel
12 Kelly Joe Phelps - River Rat Jimmy
13 Califone - Michigan Girls
14 Brokeback - this is where we sleep
15 Songs: Ohia - Two blue lights
16 My Morning Jacket - Suspicious Minds
17 Peter and the Wolf - The Owl
18 Jacob Borshard - Vincent and Theo
19 Iron & Wine - Lion's Mane
20 Steve Earle - Halo 'Round The Moon
21 Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice on You
22 Will Oldham - All These Vicious Dogs
23 Robert Pollard - People are Leaving
Sorry this place hasn't been too exciting lately. I've banned myself from reading blogs until I get some things done but it hasn't helped. All it means is that I spend more time being frustrated with the mandolin. Well, and paying bills and finishing several backlogged mix CDs (yep, I said I was doing that a few weeks ago. Never finished 'em. Never finish anything, it seems).
How is it that there is so much going on in my head and so little of it translating into actual productive activity? Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but really, I have so much energy and so many ideas right now and the time just slips through my fingers. How is it 11 PM? I'm not ready for today to be over, there was so much I wanted to do.
By the way, I just cannot get enough of this Tom Brosseau song, Rose. Something about it just really, really works for me. I'm not even relating to it on a personal level (that is, I've not been nostalgically sighing over any old love lately) - it's just the mood, the way he owns that half-resigned, half-hopeful quiet space.
Just listened to Mole for the first time in over 2 years. Suddenly it is the end of April, 2004, the ground is still hard, the trees are still bare, and this is the only song I want to hear.
Out in the desert, we'll have no worries /
Out in the desert, just you and me
Out in the desert, we'll live care free
Takes me right back there.
(p.s. November mix file is up, linked in that post below)
Hey, so this is what November sounded like for me. Some new and some old, just the way I like it. Everything feels like it's sliding into winter; sometimes we get gorgeous bright sunny days and sometimes it's grey and damp but always the light is the light of late fall.
Chris Thile - Heart in a Cage (The Strokes)
Fionn Regan - Black Water Child
Joanna Newsom - Sawdust and Diamonds
Patty Griffin - Useless Desires
Califone - Our Kitten Sees Ghosts
Gillian Welch - Pocahontas (Neil Young, live)
Peter & the Wolf - The Highway
The Ghosts - Penny Falls
Tobias Froberg - When the Night Turns Cold
Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want
Bonnie Prince Billy - New Partner (Daytrotter session)
Langhorne Slim - Restless
I've never seen what Langhorne Slim looks like and I never want to. I imagine him as reedy and thin as his voice, a little greasy around the temples. A good handshake and eyes that get you every time. This is from his new EP.
Big Star - What's Going Ahn
Steve Earle - Halo 'Round the Moon (KGSR, live)
Ferraby Lionheart - A Crack in Time
Tom Brosseau - Dark Garage
Nad Navillus - So You Can Sleep Easier
Chris Thile - I'm Nowhere and You're Everything
James Yorkston - I Know My Love
---------------------
OK, so I really really wanted to put the Eddie Vedder and Janet Weiss Tonight You Belong to Me cover on here, but I don't have the mp3, just the YouTube video and an mp3 of the famous duet with Steve Martin and that other lady... but that one just didn't work like the E and J one did for me. So you can just pretend that it's on here.
And, while not on the mix, I got some pure straight hippie bliss this month too: live sets from Mutual Admiration Society, some rare Nickel Creek covers, a couple Dixie Chicks tracks, homemade mp3s of live Thile streams from BBC and Reg's, and two full sets from this time when Gillian Welch, Ani Difranco, and Greg Brown toured together. Yeah.
You can download November if you like. (it's up for real now! just took a while!)
Anybody know how I can rip streaming audio? Not from iTunes, that I can do.
We're talkin' Flash or radio here.
thx y'all.
For all of you who think you should have been born in Scotland, here's some music for your acoustic tastes:
James Yorkston.
He's a Scot from Fife who writes gorgeous moody-fall-day-on-the-moors songs that get inside you.
I found him through an acoustic set he did with Chris Thile for the BBC (hear that here).
But there's so much more!
Here, watch the video:
If you liked that, check out his website and his Myspace. And by all means check out the songs he did with Thile - oh so good!
Who ARE the people who fill out these surveys?
This was a list of potential performers to bring to Dartmouth:
At the event, only 300 students ended up ranking a survey that included Beck, the All-American Rejects, Secret Machines, Hot Hot Heat, 30 Seconds to Mars, the Raconteurs, Jurassic 5, the Black Crows and, of course, the Roots. By a close vote, the All-American Rejects beat the Roots, who were followed by Beck.
All-American Rejects?! Good Lord.
How come nobody told me about Daytrotter?
Man oh man!
I especially recommend the Langhorne Slim set. Also the Maritime and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin sets.
OK, so I've got a hunch. I think that the odds of me genuinely liking and becoming friends with the kind of person who finds the Decemberists to be nauseating, pretentious, or otherwise terrible are very, very slim.
I mean, that kind of person writes things like this:
You get the sense he scans encyclopedias for his cautionary chides, casually selecting tales famous as the boogeyman in their native lilt and fashioning them into cuddly Wes Anderson pirouettes, an indefensible, objectifying condescension born of bravado and ignorance. Meloy is so embarrassed to be from Helena—and America generally—that he wraps himself in pasts and cultures he could never understand, in an effort to co-opt their dramatic import.
Did you see the slam the Village Voice gave their performance in NYC? The above quote is from it. Except, see, it wasn't a slam on the band or its music or its live show as much as a spiteful attempt at being cooler than Colin Meloy. Stereogum linked it and started a firestorm in the comments between the lovers and the haters. And the haters all sounded so shriveled and mean.
Ott's words to Meloy:
I don't care if you're Slowdive or Sigue Sigue Sputnik: you will regret every minute you didn't spend laughing. Lighten up.
How 'bout you try taking your own advice, hmm, Mr. Ott?
(read the whole mess here)
Getting back to the point with which I started - sure, their sound, aesthetic, and hammy stage antics aren't everyone's cup of tea, and Meloy's definitely got the Anglophile thing going on a little, and they're not my favorite band in the whole world, but I do really enjoy them. I guess I just can't understand where this kind of sentiment comes from: "but when you have a frontman so oppressively irritating as Meloy, so wince-inducingly ironi-precious and egotistical, without any hint of genuine self-effacing humour (such as Morrissey's), it is difficult to pay due attention to anything else."
This person probably also hates the environment and is a political nihilist.
And smokes like a chimney.
UPDATE: OK so it turns out that one of my very good friends can't stand the Decemberists - and she's still awesome. She is also not the kind of person who would use the word "ironi-precious". And B says that Chris Ott is indeed a blowhard, but one who cares deeply about music. Glad to hear it - but he could definitely stand to take his own advice to lighten up.
So I haven't read Special Topics in Calamity Physics. But man, Gawker gets it right in making fun of Marisha Pessl's music taste.
From her bit with the Onion A. V. Club's Random Rules:
Atlantic Starr, "Always"
U2, "One"
Nick Drake, "Northern Sky"
Tom Petty, "Learning To Fly"
Kings Of Convenience, "Toxic Girl"
Bloc Party, "Blue Light (Engineers' Anti-Gravity Mix)"
Linkin Park, "Numb/Encore"
Louis XIV, "Finding Out True Love Is Blind"
Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Free Bird"
Some of those songs are pretty good, for sure. And everybody is allowed to have some Skynyrd. And I may or may not have a few Linkin Parks songs still in my iTunes from high school. But... still. It's really uninspiring.
And really, it's her comments about the songs that are the worst. This is the part that Gawker pointed out, on Nick Drake:
MP: I never knew who Nick Drake was until the Garden State soundtrack, and then I got his greatest hits, and I really like it. It's really restful and thoughtful, something so pure about his sound. It's good for when you're walking around New York listening to your iPod--nice to listen to instead of all the craziness happening around you. I don't know anything about him, though.The A.V. Club: He was a reclusive, depressive guy who died very young from a drug overdose.
MP: Really? You're kidding. He sounds so put-together.
Oh dear.
But really it's ok, because while Jenny Lewis had some better tunes come up on her list, she also sounded kinda silly in talking about them. And Matt Friedberger totally had that "She put the lime in the coconut" song come up on his shuffle.
I've been on a mix-making binge tonight: had a bit of a backlog of mixes owed, so I'm getting 'em done and mailed out tomorrow (well, hopefully tomorrow).
If I get to feeling ambitious, I'll post the playlists sometime soon, though not 'til the folks who are receiving them get them. Otherwise it'd spoil the surprise.
However, I will note:
- Going from Neko Case's Star Witness to George Strait's Amarillo by Morning makes for a stellar transition. Just sayin'.
- You can never, ever use Robert Pollard's People Are Leaving anywhere but the last track. Also, this song should be used sparingly in general.
- Every mix oughta have a little banjo.
I'm a child of December. Heck, so are many of my friends.
So when My Old Kentucky Blog wrote about a band that's opening for My Morning Jacket (one of my favorite bands in the world) that has a song called Children of December, I had to check it out.
...And I loved it!
Apparently they're Bostonians, been around for over a decade, have a rep for a jam band rocked-out vibe live, and are friends with Jim James. And they make catchy, harmonic, rambly, sweet music.
So do yourself a big favor and go check out The Slip on MOKB.
UPDATE: OK. A little digging around on the internets has made it clear that these guys have a definite jam band-style following. Trading live bootlegs, dorky nicknames for followers, etc. It's cool. I already admitted that I like them, so I can't take it back now. Also, I have totally been hanging out with a certain person who may or may not have a history of being real into the jam band scene.
Marc sent this video to me a couple of days ago and I love it:
(Janet Weiss and Eddie Vedder @ S-K's last show. M that is so cool that you were there!)
Hello from Z's place! He's at orchestra, I'm doing laundry and some thinking, and we found the best hot springs yet this weekend. Full update tomorrow.
OK, I just changed my vacation plans. I'ma be home in January to see Van my man! And the New Years tradition can continue with Liz! (though who knows what form it will take this year, given that so many people are gone from last year's croo...)
Off to Boise now for a weekend in the woods - and maybe some apple pie-baking too. Mmm, autumn.
I like Willie Nelson.
I like Ryan Adams.
Ryan producing a Willie album? Sounds pretty sweet to me.
I'll agree with the Aquarium Drunkard - you can tell within the first few seconds that this has Ryan Adams written all over it.. it's just got that vibe. But with Willie's vocals and mood. I think I like it.
Check out more discussion and grab a sample track from Aquarium Drunkard.
This pretty much ruins my day:
Van Morrison is playing in Florida on January 2. Just 3 days after I fly back out West. He has not played in Florida since I was 12 years old and went to see him with my dad and aunt. WHY OH WHY OH WHY.
He is also playing in Vegas the day after I fly back out. I arrive in Boise at 10 pm on the 29th. He plays the night of the 30th. It is an 11-hour drive from Ontario to Vegas. This is clearly feasible.
SIGH.
UPDATE: I am considering changing my plane tickets. It would mean taking an extra week off of work, but - like I said earlier, I have 34 days I can take off! Why not? Then I could be home for New Years (which would also be sweet since Liz and I have been doing New Years for YEARS)! And go see Van my man! And maybe go to the 'Glades with Meg!
Songs I have banned from my late-night playlists, sorry, now's not a good time:
Iron & Wine - Peng!
Elliott Smith - Some Song
Simon & Garfunkel - Kathy's Song
Some good songs from tonight's playlist:
Chris Thile - Set Me Up With One of Your Friends
Alela Diane - The Rifle
Ghosty - Rooms in the Dark
Gillian Welch - Black Star (Radiohead)
Yayahoni - True Love is Not Nice
Matt Bauer - Sea Lion Woman
Nico - These Days
Lately I have been all about Chris Thile's music. This is probably because I have been actually playing my mandolin. Unfortunately, by playing I mean "plucking awkwardly up and down the scales" - but hey, listening to pros gets one inspired, right?
I get updates on Myspace about shows he's doing and they are never anywhere I can be. I seriously want to schedule my (tentative, hopeful!) plans to visit New York around a chance to see me some Beer Fiddlers.
Here's a funny (and highly recommended) song - Set Me Up With One of Your Friends. Anybody wanna set me up?
And here's a cover of Radiohead's Morning Bell - I like this a lot.
And for you traditionalists, some more trad-y tunes and cuts from his new album, an hour's worth, starting 'round 8 minutes in.
Amanda at Pandagon takes a look at one of my favorite Dolly Parton songs, Jolene. She links to a great older video of Dolly performing the song in London and cracking some jokes about fighting the real Jolene - and there really was a smokin' redhead who tried to steal her husband once. But if you listen to the lyrics, it's not a catfight at all, it's much more interesting -
And all this is why I think joking about it as a fight is especially interesting. It’s no fight, but just a clear-headed if tense discussion between two women about where they stand in terms of their sexual assets and ability to score a man, but no fight. Not at all. If anything, there’s a weird sisterhood between even rivals who understand this much about each other, that they’re fighting the same battle and it creates a grim sisterhood where they can discuss these issues in cold, rational terms between themselves. And it’s that more than the same old story of heartbreak that makes the song gripping.
More interesting stuff at Pandagon, cause I'm catching up on my reading this morning: (this on the documentary Red State, which I haven't yet seen):
I want to extend a kudos to Michael for making a point to have diversity in the interviews. His interviews with black Southerners who routinely showed that they actually thought about the issues of homosexuality and abortion instead of just coughed up talking points was particularly interesting, because it subtly reinforced what the interview with Gill demonstrated, that this conservative surge is less about religion per se and more about white reactionaries pushing a political agenda by calling it religion. Michael also was able to uncover the gender gap (women who voted for Kerry and hid it, women who were unwilling to agree with their husbands about Teh Gheyz) and he showed that a lot of the good ol’ boy Republican voters are actually not socially conservative at all, and will take the liberal position on gays and abortion, but they’re mostly pro-military and probably still somewhat racist. Guys like this are the ones we can reach by pointing out, repeatedly, that BushCo couldn’t run a proper military to save their lives.
I've got a lot of thoughts on this but nothing coherent enough to post. I'll work on it.
And, speaking of Red States and country singers, turns out Tim McGraw is an old-school populist Southern Dem:
MCGRAW: It's innate in me to be a Democrat -- a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. That's just the way I feel. The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that's something we need to close down a little bit.Spoken like a true Southern populist -- although McGraw is right that not too many identify as such anymore, even though polls show it's one of the most promising ways for Democrats to make inroads in the region.
McGraw is hella influential in the country world. It's great to see him saying things like this.
I'd been ramping up to this Califone show for a while. Band I love, first show I'd see in Boise, first chance to check out the nearest nightlife, get out of nesting-homebody mode for a night, etc. So I went.
Top 5 Reasons Neurolux Rocks
5. Ample, free, close parking
4. Cheap & good beer on tap
3. Space for sitting and space for standing
2. $5 cover to see CALIFONE
1. Acoustics that don't require earplugs. Lemme repeat that. A sweet venue where you don't. need. earplugs. I never thought I'd see the day.
5 Unranked Thoughts on Califone
5. They ramble a lot more live, but mostly it works, except that some of the gentler sounds get lost.
4. Rutili looks a little bit like a young Woody Allen.
3. When the drunk girl screamed in between songs, a bellowy screechy terrible sound, you could see Rutili clench his jaw and pretend not to have noticed her. Later he refused to play Michigan Girls until she shut up. Finally, she shut up. Except some other drunk guys in the back started orgling.
2. They were remarkably good-natured about all the noise. Turns out Boise people have bad concert manners. There was no encore.
1. I think that if I go to see them live again it'll need to be somewhere where I know people won't be rude and loud. I talked to one of the guys after the show at the merch table (got a silkscreen poster, ya!) and he indicated some frustration with trying to play quiet music in a loud place. No kidding.
Top 5 Types of Cute Guys at the Show, By Appeal
5. Bald-and-spectacled, left early
4. Skinny barely-legals hunched into hoodies
3. Hipster types, but with friendlier faces
2. NATURAL HIPSTERS*
1. Gangly-and-friendly professional musician with sly friend in tow
* In case you were wondering:
Basically, Califone were excellent and the crowd sucked. Except, that is, for this nice guy who ended up sitting next to me as part of a slow shuffling and moving about in between sets - long after I'd pretty much given up on making any friends, actually.
I arrived pretty early to the show - that is, the time when the opener was scheduled to start. Silly me. I went up to the bar to get a beer and wait and caught a dark-haired, bearded guy out of the corner of my eye, sidling toward me. The bartender flipped two coasters our way, assuming I was either with the guy or about to be. I felt a little awkward, though, so I never caught the guy's eye and walked off with my drink to find a seat. At first I felt dumb for missing a chance to make conversation with someone, for behaving like a shy bumpkin instead of a confident newcomer. I didn't feel so bad a few minutes later when I glanced back and saw him leaning salaciously over some blonde. Ew. Besides, he decidedly resembled B. Grainier. Double ew.
I smiled at a few other people with whom I was able to make eye contact but didn't really get any conversation going with anyone. Most people were attending as couples or loud groups anyway. So I settled in to be quiet and just listen. A few minutes later I found myself chatting with an animated and friendly guy close to my age, new to the area like me, who'd come to the show on a whim and dragged his roommate along. We name-checked some bands, talked about Califone, cracked some jokes, and in general had a bit of fun conversation. Turns out he plays in the Boise Philharmonic. He was excited for us to hang out next time I'm in Boise, so I'm excited too - I've got someone to hang out in Boise with! The city is suddenly a thousand times less intimidating. (I mean, Boise's small, and very navigable, but there's just something about not having to explore it solo) I'll be back up there this weekend for the farmer's markets (and possibly a contradance), so hopefully we can meet up then. We'll see...
p.s. He says he can totally get me free tix to the orchestra's performances. Champion!
Aw, man, Of Montreal, did you really have to do this? I actually liked the original version of this song. Before it was an Outback Steakhouse commercial.
According to Brendon, this is old news. Not like that ever stops me. I am always behind on everything. Oh well.
8.7 and a really great review.
Pitchfork.. I know, I know.
But:
... if you're more interested in hearing ancient mountain and Delta traditions synthesized-- scratched up, muddied, and re-imagined for an America more reliant on machines than the grace of God-- curl up with Califone's Roots and Crowns, the Chicago collective's staggering homage to starts and finishes, computers and cornfields, dirty feet and throbbing foreheads.
Yes, yes yes. Califone - October 16, the Neurolux, Boise.
It's been raining for the past two days, not really pouring, just a lot of quiet gray, which means I've been getting into that kind of music. If it's raining where you are too, check these out:
(they're really different in mood - and Oldham trumps Bachmann easily, IMO, so maybe you should listen to Bachmann first.)
I've only heard one song by Eric Bachmann (aka Crooked Fingers), but I kinda like it. He's a North Carolina native and his newest album was recorded in a motel room on the Outer Banks. He's got a sparse but warm sound. Listen to: Carrboro Woman.
This is one of my favorite Will Oldham songs. It opens All the Real Girls. Listen to: All These Vicious Dogs. (There's another version called Even if Love, but I haven't heard it, I'm not sure if it's different or the same.)
Wow, I never knew that the Belle & Sebastian track Beautiful was written about contracting syphillis.
But really, when you look at the lyrics, it makes sense.
Idolator launched today - Gawker for the music world.
So far, I think they're on the right track.
What used to be a wildly unpredictable chorus of opinions has been solidified into a cabal, one that consists of a half-dozen or so self-empowered pasty white dudes daisy-chaining each others' opinions, all using an adjective-addled lexicon that's one part Lester Bangs, one part street-person crazy talk.
Seal, you weren't kidding.
The new Decemberists album is spectacular. You've just got to hear it.
Listen to The Crane Wife 1 and 2 here.
[ The Decemberists are one of a couple bands that helped to define my college years. Leslie Anne Levine was for bombing around campus on my bicycle, lost in the lovely macabre; Red Right Ankle and I Don't Mind, quiet songs with sharp edges, for walking home in the middle of the night to an empty house; and the shows! Wedged up front in the Lucky Lounge in Austin, Pam and I, and then again across the country up north in Burlington, a car full of friends, shouting along to Myla Goldberg in that tiny little club. The Decemberists haven't been hip in that on-the-bleeding-edge indie way for a while, so you won't win any super-cool points for listening, but I bet you'll like it anyway. ]
So the Pollstar listings for Boise shows are, well, pretty sparse. Portland and Eugene are way too far to drive for a show.
BUT
I looked today
and
is playing in Boise just a few weeks after I arrive, at this sweet joint. I am so very there.
So I'm a little behind in my music since getting back from out West - this is old news, but I HAD to make a note of it -
bluegrass
covers
of
modest
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When I went to a mini bluegrass show over at Craig's RV Park earlier this summer with Tia and David, I stopped on the way out to check out the merch table. There's a small bluegrass association down here, and they sell t-shirts and hats and the like. They also rent out bluegrass tapes and books to members. On the top of the rental stack was a beginner's mandolin VHS. Some pudgy blond kid was on the cover in a ridiculous Western shirt, and he looked as if he couldn't be more than 12. I thought to myself, Is this a kid's instruction video? Couldn't they have gotten a better model? Then I looked a little closer. It was CHRIS THILE! Lemme just tell you that Nickel Creek's mandolinist has DEFINITELY lost that baby fat.
But anyway, the point of that story was to note that it looks like Nickel Creek is on an indefinite hiatus:
After seven years of extensive touring in support of three records (seventeen years as a band), we've decided to take a break of indefinite length at the end of 2007 to preserve the environment we've sought so hard to create and to pursue other interests.
This blogger thinks it's Chris Thile's doing, and I tend to agree. Son is WAY talented, only 25, a complete hottie, and he's been popping out solo albums for years. I have most of them. (I also wish he wasn't married, but that's another story...) It's unfortunate that NC is disbanding, since there's really no one else doing what they do right now. Nickel Creek made their name with a kind of americana-folk-bluegrass that was supremely easy on the ears - not in an easy listening manner - and accessible to fans of folk, country, alt.country, and traditional bluegrass, in addition to regular mainstream music listeners (obvs not the hippest band on the block, but hey, I like 'em).
Chris's new solo stuff is definitely of a different vein - think of the strangest Nickel Creek songs and stretch them farther - revolutionary bluegrass, fast-picking twang with atonal fringes and drawled, jerked, sly vocals. Man. Seriously, this guy has got it goin' on. Apparently he also covers The White Stripes' Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground on this album, which I'm excited to hear, especially after they did so well in covering Spit on a Stranger on This Side.
Chris Thile's new one is How to Grow a Woman From the Ground and you can hear some tracks on Chris's Myspace.
OH WAIT!
He isn't married anymore! Turns out the whole album is loosely about his recent divorce. Oh man.
Until this week, I hadn't really thought about Jimmy Eat World in a long time. Man, me and JEW had some good times in high school, cruising around to the sounds of Bleed American and Clarity. But since then, well, they've fallen off the radar a bit.
But the other day I was jogging on my grandma's treadmill because it has a nice 10% incline (also known as the "wheeze and die" setting) and I dragged out this videotape to watch while on the 'mill that Katie, bless her soul, made me once of 6 pure, sweet hours of music videos from MTV2. In 2001. Oh, it's champion.
And who should be on there but Jimmy Eat World - in their video for The Middle.
That's the one where the kid walks into the party and everyone's all dancing around in their underwear and he's all wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, and he wanders around sadly through all the crazy people and at the very end he's about to give up and strip down to join the masses but then he sees a girl who's about to do the same and then they walk out together, happily clothed. It's wonderful. But anyway. It was nice to be reminded of good ol' JEW, and I promptly went home and listened to a few of their songs and returned to my regular summer rotation of Beirut and Of Montreal.
Imagine my surprise, then, to coincidentally find a few acoustic/rare JEW tracks on a music blog today. For y'all who like me have some nostalgic Jimmy love, check 'em out - man, it'll take you back. If you get a knee-jerk hate reaction to anything remotely resembling what may or may not be something like emo, don't click below.
By the way, the reason that CPMU posted these is that she discovered JEW frontman Jim's side project, Go Big Casino. They pretty much sound like Jimmy Eat World gone acoustic and mellow. Not quite awesome, but So Proud of You has a nice alt.country flavor.
John Roderick wins again. Dude is always spot-on and clever.
(J-Rod fronts The Long Winters. This is from a recent interview in which he was asked to explain his song lyrics)
Track 4: "Hindsight" - "I'm bailing water and bailing water 'cause I like the shape of the boat"JR: I'm afraid that this lyric is already perfectly self-explanatory. When I say it's self-explanatory I'm not trying to be difficult, it's just to me nothing could be clearer than a lyric like that. It's a lyric about the small-scale, almost charming, tendency we all have toward self-destruction. If we weren't humans, if we were able to judge like computers or Vulcans, the only logical criteria for a BOAT would be that it floats without leaking. How it looks couldn't be less relevant to how it functions. Our humanity is revealed by our love for lost causes, for three-legged dogs and rusted-out "classic" cars, and there's something pathetic about us for that reason. The same eye that loves art and music will plunge us into buying a house with a cracked foundation, while a perfectly solid, and cheaper, house next door is rejected for being not as "cute". I celebrate this quality in people; it's what makes us interesting, and lovable, and individual, even if it means that we're doomed, somewhat. Why be in a relationship with someone? For love, comfort, support and encouragement. How many of us are in relationships that provide none of those things, but which we fight for against all odds?