Here is some excellent music I have come across in the last week or so. Enjoy!
Neil Finn with Ed Vedder – Stuff and Nonsense This song is just stunningly beautiful, I love Vedder’s voice, always, and the way he harmonizes with Neil Finn on this live track from the St. James Theater in New Zealand. Simple piano backing, higher octaves from Vedder which are my favorite because of the wavering fragility of his voice. Yes, he has the scream, which we love, but the delicacy of this just gets me every time.
Eels – Living Life This song is from the cover CD The Late Great Daniel Johnston, which has many excellent tracks other than this one, including stuff by Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, Teenage Fanclub, and Tom Waits. Daniel Johnston is a quirky Texas-based songwriter who I was introduced to in my teens (oh, so long ago) with “Walking the Cow” (covered by T.V. on the Radio on this CD). Johnston has been called “one of the twentieth century’s great, maudlin pop musicians.”
Rogue Wave – Everyday Buddy Holly cover, but can’t you hardly tell? Love they way they make it their own, as a cover should be. If it sounds the same as the original, what is the point of recording it as a cover? Heard a lot of good things about Rogue Wave live, they are opening for Nada Surf on at least part of their upcoming tour.
Snowden – Time of the Season Layered funky beats all over this Zombies cover. Eminently listenable, even though I am not 100% in favor of the lead singer’s voice at all times. But check it out, shake that thang.
The Thorns – Long, Sweet Summer Night I love this “supergroup” which I just found out about, though the song is from 2003 or so – The Thorns are Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge, and Shawn Mullins. This song is out of season currently, but download it now, save it, and listen to it in the middle of a hot, sticky, August evening and thank me!
So last night I got to see Roger Clyne and Peacemakers again with Kristy and Seth in Boulder. It was an awesome show, he is a fabulous performer live. I think he puts more into it than almost any other live artist I have seen. He has talent coming out his ears, plus, he has such a good heart & demeanor and that comes through in the music and in his interactions with the audience. It makes it fun to be involved with, after all my years as a teen-angst-grunge-rocker where all my idols could barely chin up to face the audience, some even playing with their back to us. Hey!
The opener band was too twangy for me, though the lead singer gal had a great Alison Krauss/Dolly Parton-type voice. The opener freaked Kristy out a bit because she thought I had roped in her into coming to a country concert (ha!). We checked out the merch table, I almost got the RCPM flask with their logo and the slogan “En Tequila Es Verdad,” which made me chuckle, but reconsidered. When would I really use a flask? The last time I had need for one it was during that loopy Fellini film in the Castro in SF this summer when Amanda and I snuck in a little something to make the art noveau of Fellini’s cinematic world seem more bearable and funny
It is hard to explain what kind of music RCPM plays to Kristy or anyone else that I would want to invite along for the first time to see them live. Their tagline is something like Cowboy Punk/Rio Grande Rock, but that isn’t really apt. Some songs are straight rock’n'roll (Thrill, Counterclockwise), ones that are just rad to sing along to at the top of your hoarse lungs (Mexico, Banditos), some have a calypso/mexicano twinge (Mexican Moonshine, Mekong), nice ballads too (Switchblade, Wanted)….just goes on and on. Just buy Americano! and his stuff with the Refreshments and your life will be better. I promise.
You can download some other cool live Roger Clyne tracks on the Live Music Archive site – apparently there is a Roger Clyne fan in Colorado who dutifully tapes all the shows and posts em up. Hopefully he will follow suit with last night’s show.
Dude, I nearly wet myself when they ended with a *screaming* cover of Baba O’Reilly. It reminded me of the days when Pearl Jam used to end their shows with that. It was in-sane. Don’t cryyyy Don’t brace your eyes It’s only teeeeeenaaaage wasteland!! (drums) Sally take my hand We’ll travel south cross the land Put out the fire and don’t look past my shoulder…. (hey, wait…what is this song about???)
They also threw in a snippet of Add it Up by the Violent Femmes. That just rocks and it was unexpected for me. We all sang along at the top of our lungs, “I take one, one, one cuz you left me and two, two, two for my family….” One of the greatest, um, overdose songs of all time. (Is there such thing as a great overdose song?) – That makes two Violent Femmes covers in live shows for me in as many months (OK Go covered Prove My Love). I saw the Violent Femmes live once at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, back in the day. That was also a very good show.
SIDE NOTE/REFLECTION: Johnny Cash/Walk The Line. Man alive. That was a great movie. It makes me love the man even more, and understand a bit more of his struggles and how they informed his music. It made me think about the concept of music and performing, and getting what you think you want and finding out that it wasn’t what you wanted.
Cash thought he wanted to be a musician (and he did), but the process of becoming one splintered and shattered everything that he held dear, his first love/wife, his daughters, his health, his sanity at times. Listening to his duets with June Carter, watching the process of a new song coming together and taking life, the thought crossed my mind, wouldn’t that be awesome to do that? I would love to be a singer like that, I thought, express myself, entertain, create something beautiful. But then to watch the process of his entire life unraveling and the hell he created…which seems to be a recurrent theme among successful people during their ascent to the heights of stardom…it made me think about that whole process. Sometimes you think you want something, but when you look at who you really are, your inner motivations, listen to the way you tick and what is truly important to you, you realize that maybe that thing isn’t such a good idea after all. END REFLECTION.
Music link 1: There is an excellent bunch of mp3s you can download on Salon.com(along the left toolbar):
Music link 2: Also a nice collection of mp3s from the You Ain’t No Picasso music blog of indie tracks the blogger loves and recommends.
OOoooh, and an excellent Cat Power cover (she is so smoky) on the Gorilla vs. Bear blog that I am totally digging. I have heard several very good tracks off her new album, The Greatest, coming out in January 2006. She is the master of covers in my book (well, one of the masters)…
So, why am I creating a blog? I don’t even know if I can support that word, in keeping with how I generally tend to feel about hip new slang words that inevitably work their way into the mainstream media and then middle-aged people try to pick up and use and then I have to explain to them what they mean (“NO, dad, blog, not blob. Short for weblog…nevermind!”)
But I was thinking that there are things in my brain that need to come out in some form, to be shared with and loved by the general world, my friends in particular. Too many of you I don’t see often enough, or talk to, so welcome to my little e-world. There is stuff I think is interesting, funny, cool. I hope this can be a place to send friends to hear the latest song that is blowing my mind, or to read about my recent making a fool of myself, bands you should go see live when they are in your neck of the woods, or to hear a funny story that I want to pass along.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Too many of you I don’t see often enough, or talk to, so welcome to my little e-world. There is stuff I think is interesting, funny, cool. I hope this can be a place to send friends to hear the latest song that is blowing my mind, or to read about my recent making a fool of myself, bands you should go see live when they are in your neck of the woods, or to hear a funny story that I want to pass along.
Name: Heather Browne
