I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Mason Jennings tour DVD Use Your Van recently, when it finally popped to the top of my Netflix queue. It’s a very interesting look at an independent travelling musician, the life on the road, with Mason in the studio and on the stage. I appreciated the tension he illuminated between major label and independent, time spent on the road vs writing music, financial means to record in the studio vs. freedom to do what you want creatively. Plus, the man is dang funny — the film made me laugh out loud on more than one occassion. Pay close attention to the fake setlist he is shown devising backstage towards the end, with song names like “Diamond-Studded Bracelet, The Ribbed Or The Right, and Twice Is Fun, Three Times Is An Illegitimate Child.”
The songs throughout the film pull from all his albums — plus there are some unreleased gems, like this one.
Recorded 2/13/2004 at the Use Your Voice CD release concert in MN, it’s an old-timey feeling piano waltz that makes me think of music boxes and cabaret, but tethered with Mason’s grounded, poetic lyrics. It made me smile widely. This particular mp3 is ripped from DVD, but check out a fan recording of the full show here; esp the Elliott Smith and Johnny Cash covers.
Time is short ’til my departure to San Francisco (okay, via Oakland) tomorrow afternoon for the six-day fiesta of Noise Pop, the Bay Area’s best independent music festival. Its proximity on the calendar to the pricey and crowded SXSW means that many of my music blogger friends are opting for Austin and not S.F.
I say: their loss.
Not that I wouldn’t love to go to SXSW (and should probably start saving my kopecks now for 2008), but Noise Pop is just the right size, high quality, varied, and not to be missed. I’ll be covering all the shows I attend for your musical enjoyment, and my distinct pleasure. Noise Pop kicks off tonight with a (filled to capacity) free show with Tapes ‘N Tapes, and features a boatload of other fantastic shows highlighting a thriving independent Bay Area music scene.
Jordan Kurland and Kevin Arnold are the two Bay Area music lovers behind the fest, celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. In February 1993 Arnold booked five bands into a small club and called the event Noise Pop. Since then, it’s grown exponentially, and this year features over 100 bands, parties, independent films, panels, art exhibits and more. How did we get here?
5 QUESTIONS WITH NOISE POP GURU JORDAN KURLAND
1) When you started/got involved with Noise Pop, what hopes did you have for it — did you ever think it would look the way it does now? How have those hopes crystallized or changed, looking back over 15 years?
I started working with Kevin on the festival in the fall of 1997 and we didn’t really have a game plan other than to keep things moving forward and try to rope in some bands that we loved and admired. We slowly became more ambitious: introducing the film festival and Educational Series in 2000, doing a second festival in Chicago in 2000 and 2001, etc.
Over the last seven years these ‘extra-curricular’ things have ebbed and flowed but we have had a goal of making the fest more of a celebration of independent art and culture. Now that we have some great folks working on the fest year round we are actually able to try to achieve this with things like art openings and the Noise Pop Expo.
2) Also looking back over the past 15 years, name one favorite/most memorable/fantastic show that just sticks out in your mind.
Can I cheat and name 3? The below are in no particular order:
-Bob Mould at Bimbo’s in 2000. Husker Du/Bob are undoubtedly, in our minds at least, the founding fathers of Noise Pop. Bob played a solo acoustic show (he was supposed to play some electric but the airlines lost his guitar in transit) and Kevin and I watched the show from the side of the stage . We were both extremely nervous when we approached him to sign a poster after the show.
-Creeper Lagoon/Grandaddy/Death Cab for Cutie at Great American Music Hall in 1999. This was back when Creeper Lagoon was considered the great hope of indie rock, Grandaddy’s first album was just getting noticed in the states (it already had some traction in the UK) and it was Death Cab’s second ever show in the Bay Area. It was exactly the type of balance we wish we could achieve with all the shows that we curate.
-Flaming Lips at Bimbos in 2006. The Lips had to cancel a show at Bimbo’s on us in 1999 and their manager, Scott Booker, always said they’d make it up to us. Well, the stars lined up last year and their new record was coming out the Tuesday after the festival and the timing made sense for everyone. It was just magical seeing the show which had been tailored to much bigger rooms at an 800 capacity club.
3) The Noise Pop website is so complete this year, with links and mp3s for all the bands. How do you think that technology has changed the independent music scene since the inception of Noise Pop?
It used to be that the only way to hear about the bands that played the festival was college radio, press, clerks at record stores, and word of mouth. The internet has completely transformed how people learn about and digest music and has given independent bands and labels an inexpensive or free way to reach millions of people. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, sites like Pitchfork have the ability to expose a band to more people in one day than a label like, let’s say, Absolutely Kosher, would be able to reach throughout a whole album cycle seven years ago.
I remember when it seemed unfathomable to think that Modest Mouse could sell 50,000 albums on Up Records in 1998 and now Joanna Newsom – a woman who plays harp and has no commercial radio airplay – has already sold that on her new album in less than six months.
Because I am an indie rock nerd or maybe just have too much time on my hands I often think about things like what if Neutral Milk Hotel was releasing “In An Aeroplane Over the Sea” today? It would probably rival the success of the Arcade Fire.
4) What is one thing that you’d like to add to the Noise Pop Festival in future years?
A Pavement reunion.
5) What are you personally most looking forward to at this year’s festival?
Hmmmm, that’s always such a hard a question and the answer varies from day to day. Right now, as I drink my morning coffee on the first day of the fest I would say I am most looking forward to getting some sleep next week
************************************************************ Amen, Jordan. Anyone who has spent time with me out at night knows that my motto usually is “We can sleep when we’re older.” For my Bay Area peeps, come on out to Noise Pop this week, have some fun, and support local independent culture. Your ears & brain will thank you.
Here is the schedule of what I am planning on seeing — and (!!) I just got added as a panelist to the Noise Pop Expo Sunday afternoon at the Swedish American Hall. Come listen to me pontificate about how to get your music reviewed in typical brilliant and enlightened form. Ha! I’m actually freaked out. So come cheer me on.
I’ve been sort of jamming with some gal friends in an acoustic mini-band for fun (and no, we didn’t name ourselves something dainty and/or involving unicorns or sparkly things). I wail on the djembe and we have a grand time — sounds very hippie but it’s not.
In any case, yesterday afternoon we were talking about how one gal just had her guitar swiped out of her car. The best I could come up with was a consolation which suggested that perhaps said thief thought that Takamine actually read, “Take-mine.”
Aaand . . . I crack myself up. I do apologize for that groaner.
On to the tunes for this week (better than the humor?):
F Train Girl The Attachments We’ll start things off today with an unassuming sonnet to a girl on a train (ah, the elusive ones are the best kinds) that sounds like something that could take me along the tracks, looking out the window at the passing countryside. The Attachments are four young guys from Berkeley (CA) who really just want to pay a bit of homage to the Beach Boys, spoon in bed, and write you haikus (see their MySpace). What could be wrong with that?
City Skies Dylan In The Movies I adore getting 7-inches in the mail (sounds dirty. it’s not.). Every once in a while amidst the pile of promo CDs, I get an actual vinyl 7″ to digest slowly and viscerally, and it truly makes my day to crouch near the record player and watch it spin, hear it crackle. American Laundromat Records is a little label with a 7″ series (they also released that fab High School Reunion CD of ’80s movie song covers by folks like Matthew Sweet and Frank Black). I’ve enjoyed the A & B sides of boththeir releases in this series thus far. Pressed in limited, hand-numbered quantities, this truly wonderful song from Boston’s Dylan In The Movies is the b-side from the newest one. The a-side is from John P. Strohm (Blake Babies, Antenna, Lemonheads) and the vinyl is available directly from ALR. It’s also on iTunes, which takes some of the fun out of it, but for those who don’t have a record player (yet). . .
Young Folks Peter Bjorn and John I vigilantly resisted this kitschy song from Swedish sensations Peter Bjorn and John until I heard it out in its natural habitat recently in a loud bar and I found myself irresistibly drawn to it, from the whistles that start things off to the harmonies and the skittery beat that made me shake my hips. I heartily enjoy whistling along to things, and songs like this are in short supply (other than, maybe, Zipadee-doodah and the theme to Andy Griffith). Don’t try to resist, just acquiesce to the blogosphere on this one. From their 2006 album Writer’s Block (Wichita/V2).
HFXNSHC (“Halifax, Nova Scotia Hardcore”) Sloan This song is apropos of nothing else off Sloan‘s recent album Never Hear The End Of It (on Yep Roc), which is a fine double disc that I think you may be hearing more about in the weeks to come from this blog. Its unrelenting thrumming-bass punk rock (squeezed into just over a minute) has been rocking my world these last few days. I’ll leave it at that for now, but hot dang. Who saw that one coming from Canadian power poppers?
Storia Di Un Corazon Jovanotti I feel like ending with some world music today, an irresistable Latin-tinged duet with Italian Jovanotti and Spaniard Pau Dones (of Jarabe de Palo) with a flirty samba/salsa beat and engaging call-and-response verse swapping. It’s from Jovanotti’s excellent 2002 album Il Quinto Mondo, and my absolute favorite snippet of it starts around 3:20. I think this may be the next piece I practice to on djembe, but it’s also suitable for dancing ’round the house, pretending like you know how to do Latin dances (and no, the Macarena doesn’t count).
I’ve been pulling some songs together for a possible Glastonbury retrospective and smiled when I found a live version of Nick Cave‘s “Ship Song.” I used to have a cover of this by Pearl Jam on a mix tape that I made in 1995 of all the scorching shows from that tour.
To my unbounded joy, I was able to find it also on mp3, from their summer show at Red Rocks — I love impromptu covers that have that innocence to them, and this . . . well, this is just an enchanting few minutes.
The song is pretty off-the-cuff (Eddie acknowledges at the end, “Well, we need to work that one out one out a little bit”), but it was the only time they ever played it live, and I bask in the wavering simplicity of this moment. Combine it with the wistful, almost mythical lyrics and it is a song I’ve gotta listen to on repeat.
SHIP SONG By Nick Cave Come sail your ships around me and burn your bridges down We make a little history, baby Every time you come around
Come loose your dogs around me And let your hair hang down You’re a mystery to me Every time you come around
We talked about it all night long Define our moral ground But when I crawl into your arms Everything comes tumbling down . . .
Saw Pete Yorn on Friday night for what I thought was fantastic show with a full band backing (and if you squint and cross your eyes, you can see me in the audience, just three blurry heads to the left of Joe Kennedy’s shoulder). Instead of the “acoustic” setting of the You and Me Tour last year, this was a loud and spirited affair with all the members of Minibar on stage (and at the end, the guy from Aqualung rattling his tambourine). This freed Pete up to do some heartwarmingly not-smooth dance moves while singing. We love you Pete.
Everyone was in fine spirits (and enjoying fine spirits), and Pete was animated and friendly. From the opening beats of ‘Black,’ the guys played a superb setlist, although it was shorter than I liked (having to sit through three opening bands. Yes, three). Highlights for me were a gospel-ly rockin’ version of ‘Golden Road’ that was very different from the Westerns EP, as well as a fun singalong cover of the Stones’ ‘Dead Flowers.’ I debated bringing my camera in and recording that for you since I knew he’s been adding it to the shows lately, but I decided to go bulkfree and not lug it. So here’s another few guys I like covering it instead…
Dead Flowers – Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams, Hank Williams III, and Keith Richards The encore ended with a soaring (as usual) version of Crystal Village that made everyone want to kind of drape their arms around their neighbor. Okay, well maybe only me. But those lyrics: “Take my hand, come with me, I see the lights so brightly, and we’ll fall as if we never really mattered. . .” It’s a fantastic song, rips off Wilco. That’s okay.
After the show, I talked for a few minutes with Pete, and the first thing he said (if I may lapse into a bit of restrained girlish squealing) is that he liked my blog, that I did a good job with it. So hoo-WAH! Straight from the horse’s mouth. Do catch this tour if you can — they’ve still lots of shows to go, and are sounding great.
Thanks to my astute listeners out there, now we know that not only does Noel Gallagher play lead guitar on the Ian Brown song “Keep What Ya Got” (which I love), but also that it is a re-working of a song that Noel wrote for the X-Files movie called “Teotihuacan.”
I just could not just leave Britney’s bald dome staring out at all you Friday night visitors, hence the hasty post on my way out the door. Arrivederci!
I know it’s rotten to jest at one who is so clearly falling apart. I know. But admit, it makes you laugh:
Thanks, Stereogum. I am migrating to the new Blogger so barring technical difficulties, I might have more good stuff up later today. Pete Yorn in Denver tonight!
According to the NME, former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown has recorded material with a 30-piece orchestra for his forthcoming 5th album The World Is Yours, a follow-up to 2004′s Solarized, which I quite enjoyed.
“I started thinking about which songs I’d used in February to April last year, then I started on writing the music and working with my producers Black Ox, working on it all July, August,” said Brown. “By October/November, I had a clear idea of what songs I wanted to do and then we went into the studio in December, so I’ve done a month now. I recorded with a 30-piece orchestra last week. It’s going to sound amazing!”
Brown has been working with bassists Andy Rourke (Smiths) and Paul Ryder (Happy Mondays) for the album, and has been “chasing” Paul McCartney to help out as well. It’s due out later this year.
Check out these two songs from Solarized which I love — a dense, stylish and fascinating album. Brown has long been interested in classical sounds incorporated into modern songs, as evidenced by the looped strings & clanging piano notes mixed with taut beats on tunes such as this one (from Solarized):
Man I love that song. I’ve always smiled at the tongue-in-cheek lyric about fame, “When your halo slips for good you’ll have to wear your hood.” Then this tune, “Sweet Fantastic” (which is indeed both), starts with a brass band bit that lapses into sleek downtempo goodness. It’s lovely and sexy.
Finally, check out the brand new instrumental from Ian Brown called “On Track” just added to his MySpace page, written for the Russian movie Paragraf 78. I have no idea how that collaboration came about, and clicking unknown links on the apocalyptic Russian page freaked me out (you likedownld virus? okay!), so I have nothing more to report on the movie itself.
I really, really like Jesse Malin‘s new album Glitter In The Gutter, coming out in the U.S. on March 20th on Adeline Records — it may be his strongest and most cohesive album yet. It’s exceptionally listenable, catchy and full of soaring hooks, but also with solid rock sensibilities, crushing lyrical turns, and some ace guest spots (Springsteen and Ryan Adams to name two). Not sure about the pink lettering on the cover, though. But I guess it’s true what they say, real men wear pink.
This exuberant recent show from Ireland is a must-listen, nicely previewing some of his new material and ripping through the back catalog, with two great covers. I’d love to see him live again – he’s so joyful in the middle of the music.
JESSE MALIN IN DUBLIN January 21, 2007 [FULL SHOW ZIPPED] * equals new song
The Glitter In The Gutter record release party is March 19th at the Bowery, for those of you lucky ducks in NYC. Definitely pick this album up when you can.
I realized just now that I have not yet made a decision for that Romeo & Juliet soundtrack contest (because I hate picking just one winner and not everyone else, so I put it off to see if one picks itself. Yes, I am a procrastinator, and it worked for me all through college). So I finally sat down and re-read through all of your fantastic entries (topic: favorite Shakespearean adaptations) and now have to add several of these movies mentioned into my list of ones to see.
As for a winner, I have to pick Paco. Get this, Paco teaches at my high school back in San Jose (Lynbrook Vikings, hats off to thee!) and uses both the Zeffirelli and Luhrmann versions of Romeo and Juliet to instruct the young minds of tomorrow. Maybe by awarding him this soundtrack stuffed with forefathers of good music, he can also use it in class and steer the kids away from the dangers of 50 Cent and/or Fall Out Boy. Prevention is the best medicine. Plus, let me repeat — a teacher at my high school reads my blog. That’s just too weird for me to wrap my mind around right now.
Several interesting movies that I need to see (or revisit) were mentioned: Looking For Richard (with Al Pacino), thanks Amy Scotland, PA (with Christopher Walken), thanks Maggie West Side Story, as an adaption of Romeo & Juliet (maybe I was so troubled by my parents, who love musicals, singing along with this one that I forgot to notice the story it was based on), thanks Sybil Othello (with Laurence Fishburn & Kenneth Branagh)
Steve mentioned the film adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; I have the book on my shelf, must re-read it. Steve also very nearly won by citing Strange Brew (eh?) as a loose Hamlet adaptation that he enjoys. Yes indeed.
And this, because I will use any excuse to listen to this great cover:
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.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Mason Jennings tour DVD Use Your Van recently, when it finally popped to the top of my Netflix queue. It’s a very interesting look at an independent travelling musician, the life on the road, with Mason in the studio and on the stage. I appreciated the tension he illuminated between major label and independent, time spent on the road vs writing music, financial means to record in the studio vs. freedom to do what you want creatively. Plus, the man is dang funny — the film made me laugh out loud on more than one occassion. Pay close attention to the fake setlist he is shown devising backstage towards the end, with song names like “Diamond-Studded Bracelet, The Ribbed Or The Right, and Twice Is Fun, Three Times Is An Illegitimate Child.”
The encore ended with a soaring (as usual) version of Crystal Village that made everyone want to kind of drape their arms around their neighbor. Okay, well maybe only me. But those lyrics: “Take my hand, come with me, I see the lights so brightly, and we’ll fall as if we never really mattered. . .” It’s a fantastic song, rips off Wilco. That’s okay.
Name: Heather Browne
