Ed Vedder (didn’t play – see note) a small surprise solo set last night at The Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. I ate breakfast there the last time I was in Seattle (mostly I was being a musical stalker, but in my defense I was also hungry and they make really good omelettes).
Some interesting cover choices, especially the Nick Cave one (which they’ve not previously done that I am aware of) and the awesome “Don’t Wanna Grow Up.” I can’t wait to hear this boot –surely someone was taping it?
AMENDED: Someone with too much time on their hands seems to have made up this appearance, but I am leaving up the good mp3s and we can all close our eyes and pretend it happened anyway.
SETLIST Happy Birthday(to guitarist Mike McCready’s new baby girl) I Don’t Wanna Grow Up(Tom Waits/Ramones cover) You’re True Can’t Keep cover/improv/new song? Gone Hide Your Love Away(Beatles cover) cover/improv/new song?(tag: Modern Girl/Sleater-Kinney) Porch Where The Wild Roses Grow(Nick Cave cover, duet with unknown female singer)
BONUS EAR CANDY Here are some other live versions of a few of these great songs; this mp3 of “You’re True” is one of my very favorite PJ boot songs ever:
Last weekend I was very pleased with myself that I managed to be on time to a concert (for once) and catch the very first opening band because it was Gregory Alan Isakov — and he turned out to be the best of the three acts that night.
Originally from South Africa, raised in Philadelphia (and he did a hometown taping there Tuesday night for the World Cafe on NPR), and now living in Colorado, Gregory nonetheless transcends geographical boundaries with this tune that he calls “a love song to the Pacific Ocean.” It’s unassuming and wonderful — a shuffling jazzy beat, bold bass line, effervescent strumming . . . I close my eyes and I can literally almost see the ocean lapping at my toes when I hear this. Being the Pacific, the water’s cold, as usual.
This is from his 2007 EP, self-titled. Another version of it was also on his 2005 EP Songs For October. Gregory has several record release concerts coming up in June for his new album, including ones in Denver, SF, Portland, and the lovely North Bay town of Sausalito in California. He’s one of those singer-songwriter types, yeah, but his lyrics are noteworthy in their warmth and richly sweeping scope, with tones of dusky-twilight Americana like Jeffrey Foucault or Josh Ritter (although on this tune he kinda pulls a fantastic Sinatra).
I am half-wishing I had a reason to be in Phoenix tonight for the premiere of The Damnwells new movie Golden Days, and also for their late night concert which is buzzed to be an hours-long, energetic affair in the works.
They’ve announced a string of tour dates (hurrah!), but not in Colorado yet (boo). We’ve established my buddinglovefor them and I can’t wait to catch them live . . . someday.
May 10 – The Triple Door, Seattle, WA May 11 – Berbatis Pan, Portland, OR May 14 – Troubador, Los Angeles, CA May 15 – The Casbah, San Diego, CA May 16 – Plush, Tucson, AZ May 18 – The Granada Theater, Dallas, TX May 19 – The Parish, Austin, TX May 22 – WorkPlay, Birmingham, AL May 23 – Mercy Lounge, Nashville, TN May 24 – Smiths Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA May 25 – The Map Room, Charleston, SC May 26 – Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte, NC May 27 – Outer Banks Brewing Station, Kill Devil Hills, NC May 29 – The Jewish Mother, Virginia Beach, VA May 30 – The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA May 31 – Gramercy Theatre, New York, NY Jun 01 – Middle East (Downstairs), Cambridge, MA Jun 02 – Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA Jun 03 – Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA Jun 05 – Rex Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA Jun 06 – House of Blues – Cambridge Room, Cleveland, OH Jun 08 – Phoenix Hill Tavern, Louisville, KY Jun 09 – Abbey Pub, Chicago, IL
Okay, Feist is just wonderful in my book. A little crazy methinks, but in a creative and adventurous way. She carries the mantle now of making these surreal videos where everyone starts dancing in unison, this fantastic dream life, kind of the antithesis of Britney. You can watch everyone twirl in unison and not feel guilty.
Towards the end when everyone is crouched down swirling around her, it’s like you’ve got a tiny Feist in the washing machine. And incidentally, where does one get a suit like that? I can’t tell if it’s vinyl or sparkles or both.
“1234″ is off her addictively engaging The Reminder, out May 1 in the US, and the previous Monday (April 23) in Europe.
As if Sacramento blues-rocker wunderkindJackie Greene didn’t already remind me enough of Bob Dylan, this rapidfire montage video makes me half expect him to start tossing hand-lettered signs off to the side with each lyric. Nonetheless I like this new film clip a lot, seemingly part of a campaign to drum up some deserved attention for his 2006 album American Myth, which I really like.
Jackie sounds a little glum:
“I am either up really early, or really late. Honestly I can’t tell. Strange things are happening in my world, some of them not so wonderful, and some of them extremely exciting. I’m sure we all feel that way at times. Like we don’t know if we’re walking into a trap, or a surpirse party. It’s an odd feeling…
Last night (or tonight) I played with one of my favorite bands, The Mother Hips, here in San Francisco. They have a brand new record out called Kiss The Crystal Flake which is available now. It’s a fantastic record, one of their finest. To really experience the Hips, you must see them live.
We have a nice string of shows coming up that I hope folks will be good enough to show up to. I want to start performing some of the new songs that will hopefully wind up on our next release. Which by the way, will probably not be out for a long time. As impatient as I am, and it drives me fucking mad, it’s probably a good thing. American Myth has only been out for about 10 months now. Sadly, it’s pretty much dead. It’s difficult to realize that a record that I cared so much about gets so little attention, but I guess that’s the way it goes. Moving forward is the only motion that counts, I guess.
Tim Bluhm and I have been working on our Skinny Singers record. It’s coming along nicely and we hope you’ll enjoy it when it becomes available. The songs are different…quirky, sparse. Bluesy, funky. Two skinny dudes singing their skinny asses off…something like that.”
I almost want to say something like, “Buck up, camper” and give him a gentle punch on the shoulder. He’s got talent, and there are still those of us out here who appreciate that greatly. This video I shot of him performing last August (in a steaming ten-thousand degree club) is still one of the best live shots I’ve captured in recent memory – just full of life and a great, great song.
Those guys on the very high lifeguard chairs are Brooklyn alternative-rock trio Nada Surf, and they may be up there talking about how they’re fixin’ to re-release their 1996 five song EP Karmic, from their days before signing with Elektra. Out June 12 on Hi-Speed Soul Records, the EP will also include a bonus track, “Pressure Free,” previously only available on 7″.
From the press release, “Nada Surf has managed to survive the wonder of their one big hit [Popular], build an estimable army of loyal fans around the world, and thrive through the commitment to the craft of making pop music that’s indelible, warm, and uniquely their own.” Amen, I second that sentence. Nada Surf is currently in the studio working in their 5th full-length album out this fall.
I found this to be immensely entertaining this morning over on Bruce’s site. I’m glad I clicked “play” on the video (which, at first, I thought was a video of Fidel Castro rapping, but sounds like The Streets with some even-more-clever lyrics). Read the full lyrics and download the mp3 on Some Velvet Blog.
I only really “know” him as a string of quirky character roles in his various movies. So maybe it’s logical as I spin his throughly likeable new musical effort under the name Coconut Records that my always-visual mind pictures a parade of those guys performing these songs. Whether it’s a fleeting image of King Louis XVI (Marie Antoinette) sensitively strumming the guitar and pining away on “Summer Day,” or Max Fischer (Rushmore) jerkily dancing along to the irresistible title track, this is an album that’s just as off-kilter yet pleasingly authentic as the variety of movie roles he chooses.
Nighttiming (Young Baby Records, 2007) is eclectic and enjoyable, with a sound that reminds me of Pavement, The Format, Modest Mouse, and a dash of new-wave goodtimes.
Schwartzman blends some of the jangly California indie-pop of his previous work with Phantom Planet with his experience in composing film scores — I found surprising aural creativity throughout.
It was just released digitally, and will be out in proper CD form this summer. Highly recommended.
The other night I plunked down with some popcorn (we really wanted pizza but IT WAS SNOWING) and the DVD of That Thing You Do, Tom Hanks’ paean to the starry-eyed musical hit machine of the 1960s and one likeable group’s rollercoaster rise to stardom.
Mostly I thought to pick it up again because of the Scripture-quoting Chris Isaak cameo (blink and you miss it, but it always makes me smile) and the toe-tapping bubblegum tunes, but doing what I do now (for sport, this blogging business) I have to admit that I found the whole plotline about how the music industry “used to” work to be very interesting. Sure, all those staid mechanisms are still grinding along, but I was excited by all the avenues that exist for new music today. You no longer have to sign with a big glittery major label to have your work heard, or sit and hope that a major radio show plays your stuff as they did in this film (although they were pretty proactive in making their own records). I know the movie is all fictional, but hey — I think about these things.
I’ve always considered the title song “That Thing You Do” to be a bit of a guilty pleasure, although pleasurable as anything to drum along with, to with all the rat-tat-tat beats and sugar sweet harmonies. I’d never examined its musical pedigree before, but was thrilled to see that it was actually penned (along with two other songs from the movie) by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and sung by Mike Viola. Now I can feel just a bit better about its lineage — even though most of the other soundtrack songs were written by Tom Hanks. Really? He must be a serious music geek, there were definitely elements of that uberfandom in the film, like with Guy’s geek dream jam session with fictional jazz musician Del Paxton. You couldn’t help but feel all happy inside with that scene, and ponder who you would want to stumble upon your noodling in the studio and sit in to lay down some tape with you.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen this movie (last time I watched it I believe I still had a serious crush on Johnathan Schaech) so I forgot that it boasts one of the best movie pickup lines that you can watch in front of your grandma, penned in great quotable sense of old black and white movies:
“When was the last time you were decently kissed? I mean truly, truly good and kissed?”
It makes women of all ages swoon, in very PG way. I dug up a few tunes to enjoy from the manufactured imaginary world of girl groups and doo-wop quartets of yesteryear in the soundtrack.
Voyage Around The Moon – The Saturn 5 (I thought for sure Chris Isaak was playing on this jangly surf delight. I was wrong) Shrimp Shack – Cap’n Geech And The Shrimp Shack Shooters (“Good news guys. You get to keep the clothes.”) She Knows It – The Heardsmen That Thing You Do – The Wonders
CONCERT ALERT (for my Colorado brethren): Rocky Votolato at the Black Sheep tonight! Recommended artist, I’ll be there. Oakland, CA’s Street To Nowhere opens.
One of the big important early steps in starting a band is that all-important decision of what to call yourselves. Has to be something that will entice people to take a listen, but with just the right edge to it. If there is some hip in-joke connotation that could work too.
So here’s your first stop: the massive Wikipedia page devoted to Fictional Band Names in popular culture. From Hey That’s My Bike to Sonic Death Monkey to yes, even Fingerbang, they’re all here, waiting to be loved, discussed and revived. I found it immensely amusing.
Here’s what I am listening to this week:
Wasted Brandi Carlile The new sophomore full-length album from Brandi Carlile is out now on Columbia, and I like the direction she is heading. Her work with T Bone Burnett (Counting Crows, Roy Orbison, Gillian Welch) is so flawlessly treated that I can almost forgive him for his cut-of-meat moniker. The Story was recorded live, directly to 2″ tape in eleven days, and possesses a very immediate, raw, timeless, soulful quality – four words that pretty much sum up Brandi for me. This song is completely charming from the opening notes, and finds a nice experiment with piano, which I always love. ALSO: Obligatory Pearl Jam connection, if you can believe it — drummer for this album is Matt Chamberlain, early drummer for Pearl Jam, appears in the video for Alive. I was thrilled to hear that. Although Ten this ain’t, she does bring the rock on tunes like the wailing-howl of a title track.
Frontin’ The Neptunes (Pharrell feat. Jay-Z) You think you love your Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z for gettin’ your party on, but also laughed at Jamie Cullum’s frank and swingin’ treatment of this tune from Pharrell and Co. — then you need the original. I’d been meaning to seek this one out and finally did, off 2003′s The Neptunes Present . . . Clones. I’m reminded of how great the synthy, sexy, throwback sound of this hit single from Summer ’03 is, and I’m a step ahead because I already know all the lyrics thanks to Jamie. Well, except for maybe the bridge: “…like you were just another shorty I put the naughty on.” I’m workin’ on it.
Someday Soon Gin Blossoms My recent mention of the Empire Records movie (another one I know all too well, as in whole segments of dialogue, front-to-back) reminded me of the lead-off track from the fab soundtrack with the Gin Blossoms. Did you even catch that those guys released a new album last year after ten years? Called Major Lodge Victory, it sounds exactly like, well, circa-1995 Gin Blossoms. But they picked one sound and do it well, and I am finding myself loving this song for driving and harmonizing along. It’s got great “whoooooooos,” soaring guitar bits, and even a litle foray into the Cher-tastic world of Vocoder effects.
Fly Paper k-os This is my second mention of Trinidad-Canadian artist k-os (“chaos”), but I just got the full album Atlantis: Hymns for Disco (which is finally available stateside) and the eclectic blend of old-school beats, fresh hip hop, authentic island vibes is making it one hell of a party album that you really can’t sit still for. It’s thoroughly enjoyable all the way through. The only weakness is some fairly simplistic aphorisms-masquerading-as-lyrics (“I’m caught between a rock and a hard place” / “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it“), but I’m definitively not in it for the lyrics. As the song begins, the voice of an old-time radio announcer inquires, “Feeling stuck? Self-loathing? Shoegazing? – Try new supersonic Fly Paper . . .it’s catchy!” And indeed, this could be the perfect cure for the common indie kid feeling too mopey to shake it.
Free Love Freeway David Brent/Ricky Gervais with Noel Gallagher I was reminded of this little smarmy gem from a recent gorge on British Office courtesy of the library DVD I snagged. I was watching Season One (and I know this is anathema, but not feelin’ it as much as the American version, probably because the British version just lacks Jim Halpert. And Dwight. And Michael.) and this is a classic from the most painful staff meeting you never had to attend. Dig the priceless lyrics like “Free love on the freelove freeway, the love is free and the freeway’s long. I got some hot love on the hot love highway . . .” Now, exactly how Noel Gallagher got involved in the studio version of this is an enigma to me, but this pokes some mighty good fun at bad music.
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.
Ed Vedder (didn’t play – see note) a small surprise solo set last night at The Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. I ate breakfast there the last time I was in Seattle (mostly I was being a musical stalker, but in my defense I was also hungry and they make really good omelettes).
Name: Heather Browne
