Still feelin’ nice and Luce

You may remember Luce, who I raved about earlier this year. It is in your best interest to take note that they’ve got a slew of tour dates beginning tomorrow night, thoroughly entertaining my California friends and then going all summer long across the country until they end up in my neck of the woods. Yay! If you get a chance, go see these guys live. Really great music out of San Francisco (represent!). As I wrote before, Luce makes catchy, clean, sharp, melodic guitar rock, with just the right blend of ebullient brass & harmony. Luce cites Lennon & McCartney as influences, and it’s hard to feel blue while you listen to this stuff.

I think my favorite track on their 2005 release Neverending is “The Sweetest Smile,” which I have been listening to in the sunshine when I go running lately (because it is an outdoor, sunny type of song, even though I think he sings about aliens). I am stoked to see that eMusic has both of their releases for purchase here, because now you have no excuse (oh no! why did eMusic classify them as “emo”? What does that even mean?! Disregard.). Definitely one to look into.

LUCE TOUR DATES
4/1/06 Great Basin Brewing Co., Reno, NV.
4/5/06 The Attic, Santa Cruz, CA
4/7/06 University Of Alaska, Anchorage, AK
4/14/06 The Mystic Theatre, Petaluma, CA
4/21/06 Little Fox, Redwood City, CA
4/22/06 Little Fox, Redwood City, CA
4/29/06 Sweetwater Saloon, Mill Valley, CA
5/5/06 The Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS
5/6/06 Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO
5/8/06 Underground City Tavern, Springfield, IL
5/11/06 Majestic Theater, Madison, WI
5/13/06 Ten Bells, Grand Rapids, MI
5/14/06 Mickey Finn’s Pub, Toledo, OH
5/16/06 Wilbert’s, Cleveland, OH
5/17/06 Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
5/18/06 Dogwood Festival, Phoenixville, PA
5/20/06 Harper’s Ferry, Boston, MA
5/23/06 Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA
5/24/06 Jammin’ Java, Vienna, VA
6/27/06 Mitchell Park Bowl, Palo Alto, CA
6/30/06 Dutch Flat Hotel, Dutch Flat, CA
7/14/06 Concerts In The Park, Greensburg, PA
7/19/06 New Town After Hours, Williamsburg. VA
8/5/06 Quixote’s True Blue, Denver, CO
8/9/06 Steve’s Guitars, Carbondale, CO
8/11/06 Arnold Hall Ballroom, Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO
9/8/06 Downtown, Pullman, WA

And here is a lovely little song from their Media Vault on their website:

Good Day (acoustic) – Luce

What a great song to stroll into the weekend with. And if you are an Air Force cadet and go to the show in Colorado Springs, come say hi to me, I might be working the merch booth!

Tim Buckley video: Song To The Siren, Monkees TV Show 1968

After 16 years, new ones from the ‘Mats

Replacements Reunite For New Songs
(Info from Billboard.com, Pioneer Press, and Pitchfork)

The web was abuzz earlier this week after a mysterious photo circulating on the Internet sparked rumors that the Replacements had reunited to record new material.

The picture, which was posted Monday on the gossip site Buddyhead.com, shows Replacements drummer Chris Mars, bassist Tommy Stinson and vocalist/guitarist Paul Westerberg posing in a recording studio with session drummer Josh Freese. By mid-day Tuesday, it had been removed from Buddyhead.com as well as from a Westerberg fan site.

However, as of today ‘Mats fans everywhere are doing the happy dance after it was confirmed that Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars reunited to record two new songs for an upcoming retrospective, Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements. Due June 13 via Rhino Records, the set will feature “Message to the Boys” and “Pool & Dive,” the band’s first new recordings in 16 years.

Session drummer Josh Freese was behind the kit for the new recordings, while Mars, who in recent years has foregone music for an art career, contributed backing vocals. The songs were written by Westerberg and were recorded at producer Ed Ackerson’s Flowers studio in Minneapolis. Currently it is unclear if any further activity is brewing within the Replacements’ camp.

Westerberg said in 2005 that he still reflects fondly on the Replacements’ early days, especially “when we were riding in the van and we ripped the seats out and would just listen to tapes and listen to Black Flag. [We would] sort of slam dance and stuff around in the back of the van and be drinking hard liquor at noon and it was just, you know, carefree times. We didn’t give a damn.”

Meanwhile, sources say the long-awaited Replacements boxed set is still in the planning stages and will not be out until 2007 at the earliest. Rhino is also working on expanded editions of the Replacements’ albums, but no release date has yet been announced for those packages either.

Here is the track list for Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?:

01. Takin a Ride
02. Shiftless When Idle
03. Kids Don’t Follow
04. Color Me Impressed
05. Within Your Reach
06. I Will Dare
07. Answering Machine
08. Unsatisfied
09. Here Comes a Regular
10. Kiss Me on the Bus
11. Bastards of Young
12. Left of the Dial
13. Alex Chilton
14. Skyway
15. Can’t Hardly Wait
16. Achin’ to Be
17. I’ll Be You
18. Merry Go Round
19. Message to the Boys *
20. Pool & Dive *

On a related note, Jerry Yeti has recorded an interesting observation about the Replacements. And the zip files of Westerberg and Replacements rarities that I posted a few weeks ago are still live links for the taking.

Stereophonics: Fire burning in their chests

Cymru am byth. My people hearken from Wales way back, and although I have not been there (yet), something inside compels me to listen to the Stereophonics, arguably Wales’ best-known export of recent years (not counting Tom Jones, whose tan kind of scares me).

Stereophonics formed in 1992, with the three original members (Kelly Jones, Richard Jones, and Stuart Cable) growing up together in the small Welsh village of Cwmaman. They were originally known as Tragic Love Company, a name inspired by three of their favorite bands Tragically Hip, Mother Love Bone and Bad Company (that is awesome). One of the first groups signed to Richard Branson’s fledgling V2 Records label, the Stereophonics have released five studio albums in the last 10 years, with the four most recent all going to the top of the UK charts, including their first #1 single – “Dakota” – off their 2005 release Language. Sex. Violence. Other?.

The gravelly-voiced melodic rockers are coming out with a new live album on April 21 called Live From Dakota. The 2-disc set will feature:

CD1
1. Superman 2. Doorman 3. A Thousand Trees 4. Devil 5. Mr Writer 6. Pedalpusher 7. Deadhead 8. Maybe Tomorrow 9. The Bartender and the Thief 10. Local Boy in the Photograph

CD2
1. Hurry Up and Wait 2. Madame Helga 3. Vegas Two Times 4. Carrot Cake and Wine 5. I’m Alright (You Gotta Go There To Come Back) 6. Jayne 7. Too Many Sandwiches 8. Traffic 9. Just Looking 10. Dakota

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt as comfortable onstage as I have done recently,” says frontman Kelly Jones (on their MySpace page). “We’ve got a lot more confidence than we’ve ever had before too. Getting back to playing as a three piece onstage – as opposed to having extra musicians there – has really worked, it’s what we were originally and we feel stronger for going back to it. We’ve been really fucking energized too.”

“We’ve got that raw feel back too,” adds bassist Richard Jones. “Even just when we were rehearsing it felt really energetic, gritty and in-your-face. As soon as we started playing with [new drummer] Javier [Weyler] it felt so natural. We felt like a unit onstage – it was like the old gang mentality. It was just the three of us and we knew we all had to pull together. The shows last year were among the best we’ve ever played. The energy and excitement was similar to when we first started playing big shows. We have the same fire burning in our chests now as we did then.”

Kelly adds, “We wanted to do a live album because it feels like a celebration of the year we’ve had and also of the ten years that this band has been going. It is hard to re-create the buzz of being at a gig — when you’re out, you’re tanked up and having a good time with your mates. Hopefully this is as close to being at one of our gigs as you can get.”

For a little preview of their blistering live vibe in recent days, here is the urgent & rocking 4-song set they did at the Live 8 concert in London (July 2, 2005, pictured above):

“Bartender and the Thief” (live) – Stereophonics

“Dakota” (live) – Stereophonics

“Maybe Tomorrow” (live) – Stereophonics

“Local Boy in the Photograph” (live) – Stereophonics

Onion News: Two Hipsters Angrily Call Each Other ‘Hipster’

From that bastion of hilarity, The Onion:

Two Hipsters Angrily Call Each Other ‘Hipster’
AUSTIN, TX—An argument between local hipsters Dan Walters and Brian Guterman has devolved to the point where each is angrily calling the other “hipster,” those close to the pair reported Monday. “Hey, hipster! Here’s 12 bucks—why don’t you go get yourself a bucket of PBRs at the Gold Mine?” Walters, 22, is said to have told Guterman, 22, invoking the name of a local bar known for its “poseur” clientele. “Whatever you say, scenester,” Guterman allegedly replied. “Don’t you have a Death Cab For Cutie show to be at right now?” Acquaintances of Guterman and Walters trace the long-running conflict back to high school, when they reportedly threw pencils at each other and argued about who was more “emo.”

Addendum: Read the HILARIOUS Onion story (37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster) that someone posted in the comments by clicking on the “6 comments” link right below this. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve read all month:

The tax man cometh

Okay, so if you are an American and you ended up owing Uncle Sam on your taxes this year (or if you are procrastinating filing because you fear you owe taxes), you might want to stop reading now because this will only make it smart more. Pouring lemon juice on a papercut, baby.

Through some overly-eager withholding, I have just discovered that we will pleasantly be getting back like $2700 from our various federal and state taxes this year. You know what that means? Same thing it meant last year: New iPod for Heather! It’s my commission for doing all the grunt work filing the dang paperwork (well, Turbo-Taxing it).

I am getting a spiffy new 60GB iPod because my 30GB has runneth over. I get butterflies in my stomach looking at all the sexy gigabytes available on the Apple Store website. Does that mean I have crossed the line into uber-nerd?

I like the personalization thing (free), so I need some suggestions on what to etch in the back. What do you all have on yours? I am leaning towards a variation on this most excellent Pearl Jam lyric:

Turn the jukebox up he said
Dancing in irreverence
Play C-3
Let the song protest

I am thinking the first and last lines of it. What else should I consider?

In a tribute to the taxman (I know, I know, I need to adjust my withholding because otherwise it is just an interest-free loan to the goverment, yada yada yada), here is a demo version of a Weezer song from their 2002 Maladroit album (one that didn’t make the cut). Nice and poppy, with trademark Weezer “doo-doo-doot“s:

“Mr. Taxman” – Weezer

Jeopardy soundtrack

As I sit here and wait for the online Jeopardy test to begin (03:31 remaining until test time), what, pray tell, is my soundtrack?

Oh, YOU KNOW IT:

“Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Yo, His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti
He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting…

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo,”

I am compelled. Thanks Eminem.

UPDATE: It was brutal and bloody. We’ll just have to wait and see if I am as smart as I think I am, they don’t give you a score or anything. What playful American invented the mobile? Who would know “Calder”?? I totally blanked on Gabriel Garcia Marquez, even though he is one of my favorite authors. And a question about Renoir threw me because they gave the English translation of the painting name instead of the French, which is what I learned (sniff). That business is harder than it looks on TV! (but to my delight it even played the Jeopardy music in the browser window)

Counting Crows 1993: “This is the beginning of our first tour, ever, so we’re kinda kicked about that”

In those late days of junior high and early into high school, I used to babysit for a cool lady neighbor that worked at one of San Francisco’s fine music venues and always seemed to have an inside line on great music that was unknown to me. I remember she had an impressive stash of concert recordings and mix tapes — and in retrospect probably made a big influence on my early music-hoarding and seeking behaviors.  I would come to her house armed with a stash of blank cassette tapes and I would dub all her good music onto them after her daughter was safely tucked into bed. It was musical Christmas every other Friday night.

I got so many wonderful sounds from her, one of my favorites being a soundboard recording of a very early Counting Crows show at the historic Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, from 8/27/93. [update:  In a twist of fate, years later living in Colorado, I've now randomly met the soundboard guy who recorded this show and the DJ who announced the intro. I love how funny life can be, and how good music can knit us in surprising ways over the years].

I absolutely wore out the tape, listening to it so many times that I know the entire set and all the dialogue by heart. Then cassette tapes went by the wayside in my life and now I think I’ve lost the original retro dub. I’ve spent many hours trolling the web looking for these songs. Then reader Jeff turns out to have this very show on mp3 and just sent it to me and made my month. In listening to it again for the first time in years, my ears are so extremely happy.

This show is vivid, energetic snapshot of the nascent Crows standing on the edge of a stardom that they maybe didn’t fully grasp was on its way. As the announcer says, “This band is so new, even I haven’t heard of them yet…” and calls them an “up and coming new hot band” in the Bay Area. It is about three weeks before August & Everything After was released. As Adam Duritz charmingly says, “Uh, we’re Counting Crows and this is the beginning of our first tour, EVER . . . so we’re kinda kicked about that.” The whole thing feels so fresh and real.

The set is full of enthusiasm, affability, and some excellent-quality renditions of rare songs that I love wholeheartedly but that Counting Crows have never recorded or released anywhere that I know of. Both of these unreleased songs “Open All Night” and “Margery Dreams Of Horses” have those wending storylines and thoughtful lyrics that I love Counting Crows for.

Take the first – “Open All Night.” It is a simple story of a liminal evening spent in the company of a stranger in a far-off town, one of those nights that can feel so big in the moment. “She said ‘I was born the year the rockets landed / circa 1969 and I got stranded” – what a terrific lyric. I, too, would drink all night inside this particular story, swim around in someone else’s story for a while. It’s an explosive song that feels like we’ve always known it.

The second, “Margery Dreams of Horses,” feels like a lost piece of Counting Crows narrative, with characters that will appear and have appeared in other Counting Crows songs written both before and after this point (Anna, Margery). It plunks us down in the middle of a narrative of waking up in Kentucky “where the wedding was about to end.” There’s a closure and a sadness in this song, a bleeding that won’t be stanched even as there is the relief of that one who has hurt you finally pulling the knife out, taking the blade, and walking away. And really — “It’s best to kill the ones who matter / render blind the ones who see.” I shiver a little every time he sings that; this is a great, lost gem of a song that I wish they would revisit on a record.

In between his sweet interjections about how tiring the altitude is, Adam also comments at this show that his favorite song on this first record of theirs is “Perfect Blue Buildings” (an opalescent, unspoiled, perfect jewel in my book also) because, as he says, “It will never be a single.” Plus, the Van Morrison “Caravan” cover is a joyful explosion that seems like they’re having a lot of fun. As Adam says, “This is our favorite song, period, and . . . we didn’t write it. But I wish we did.”

ENJOY, my friends. You are in for a huge treat.

Counting Crows
Live at the Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
August 27, 1993

Intro
Round Here
Open All Night (unreleased)
Rain King
Time and Time Again
Margery Dreams Of Horses (unreleased)
Anna Begins
Perfect Blue Buildings
Caravan (Van Morrison)
Murder of One
Sullivan Street

DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE SHOW AS A ZIP FILE HERE

Jeff Buckley channels Lady Day: Strange Fruit

Lovely reader Lisa, who is like my little Jeff Buckley drug-dealer appearing randomly with small packages of goodness to slip to me, sent me along the version he did of Strange Fruit that many of you were asking about after my recent post.

Lisa says, “I believe it was Billie that inspired Jeff’s mournful, cutting, anguished version. This, in 1994, from a young ‘white boy’ from Southern California. He certainly could inhabit a song, couldn’t he?”

[expired] Strange Fruit – Jeff Buckley
KCRW Man on the Moon, Jan 1994

Also, please anticipate that I will be entering into an even larger Jeff Buckley jag than usual, as I just bought the superb Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley (by David Browne, no relation) today. I just finished the introduction and already got a bit emotional in the bookstore. So this could be messy, but beautiful. Such is life.

World Music Wednesday

Aaaah, coffee. The beverage of the gods and the required kickstart for my days.

A nice atmospheric soundtrack to your morning java respite is the lovely Putumayo compilation entitled Music From The Coffee Lands: an aromatic blend representing Peru, Kenya, Hawaii, Uganda, Mexico, Colombia, Zimbabwe, and more. Sounds like . . .

Below The Bassline – by Jamaican jazzmaster Ernest Ranglin

Kothbiro – by Kenyan lyre (nyatiti) player Ayub Ogada. Haunting.

Soltarlo – jazzy acapella scatting and layered vocal “percussion” from Colombian singer/songwriter Claudia Gómez

The slack-key Hawaiian guitar piece by James “Bla” Pahinui and the feisty “Guajira Bonita” track by Julian Avalos & Afro-Andes that opens the CD are both also favorites of mine. Check this one out.

To learn more about where your favorite drink comes from, and to buy fair trade blends, check out Cafédirect.