New communique from Ryan Adams

Enjoy an (unverified) recent post from Ryan to his dot-com-motherf-ers the Ryan Adams Archive. It certainly sounds like Ryan to me — he writes about their time in the studio, the new album Easy Tiger, a fancy website under development with the witches, and a fall tour.

There’s also some discussion of ninja stars, “wizards lightning and lazers,” and Pitchfork. I love this man.

UPDATE FROM RYAN

hows yr summer?
early days here in Gotham. just checking in to say hello and pass along some info to you nice folks.
Gotta say that the new tunes are feelin real sweeeeet at rehearsal. We (the cardinals) have worked up an entirely new set list of never before heard tunes (with the new ET tunes) for our new set up, which is more or less based on the GD “reckoning” set up- (me and neal on acoustics- JG on a single steel, B on his awesome new compact drum kit percussion thing (its actually the size of a small boat considering he is 7 ft 16) SWolf on the hollybody and our friend producer and sepcialist Jamie on piano (really great vibe having Jamie rocking that with us- totally awesome having him in the fold). Jamie likes italian food and his turn on’s are sky-diving, undersea exploration and map collecting. he is an aquarius with some capricorn and virgo on his brother randy’s side.
Jon Graboff is to elitist to eat food at the street carnival near practice but whatever, the Dunkin Donuts there is sketchy and maybe poisoned my drink because i was too “over-excited” about going, so i stopped going. wha? jamie also poisons my stuff. (jerks) The fall tour should be a blast when that gets going what with all the tunes we will know due to learning to be almost two bands with two song lists that ore or less never borrow from each other. maybe we will open for ourselves. gross.
And also, considering the promo stuff done for ET will be more or less at the time it comes out, i’ll let you in on a few things here. S Crow sang on “Two”, yes and how awesome, i am a huge fan of her tunes and boy can she rock a bass, but it is not a duet. she sings w neal and i on the chorus. its all laid back and v three voices at once vibe. not that i wouldn’t sing a tune with her like that given the opportunity. i have always been lucky enough to be asked to jam with her when im around and shes kicking it live.
also, Picknosemedia listed “these girls” as “three girls” but the song is actually called “14 girls and Randys trans am” Randy wrote it.

p.s. we learned “how the god’s kill” by danzig acoustic. remind somebody to play that one if yr passin thru planet cardinal and happy 21s ferris. THE CARDINALS- ” NUMBER ONE PROFESSIONALSIM IS OUR MIDDLE NAME”"randy” tyra-mail
also be sure and check out 20/20 this winter. for those of you who think you have the finished 48 and S HNBK etc….wait til you hear how those records really sounded w o.d.s strings/ mixes/ missing tunes. you might like the actual finished product. plus those records between the released ones that never got leaked on the world wibe web. more on that later. right now its all about the tiger. YO. the TIGER.
LATER SK8ters

Monday Music Roundup

I promise I am really not obsessed with moustaches (far from it, although I do think I had a dream with Tom Selleck in it after last week’s post) but I feel obligated to share the results of the competition I mentioned previously over at Cinco de Moustache. The results are in and the photos alone are some of the most fun you can have at work without getting fired or the clap. Check them out.

I saw evidence with my own eyes of this new holiday, if you will, on Saturday night at Sancho’s after the KOL show. An entourage of (fake) moustachioed dudes were getting down in the middle of the bar to the irresistible pull of “(I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine,” which was my selection from the jukebox. When combined with the absurdity of the facial growth, their limber grooves were wholeheartedly the best thing I’ve seen in a long time, and made me hope for the continued “growth” of the Cinco de Mustache movement.

It makes any face just a little more special.

New music for this week:

Goodnight Rose (live on Henry Rollins Show) [pic]
Ryan Adams
A friend of mine feels that this is the best thing Ryan Adams has written in 5 years, and I gotta admit that there are moments here where I want to agree with that bold statement. This version of new tune “Goodnight Rose” is long and winding, jammy and filled with noodling and clocking in at 8+ minutes, which sometimes with Ryan can be a red flag for me. But something about the combination of the chord progression and the lyrics on, “If you get scared, hold my hand. Get out of that dress . . .” just pokes a blunt stick at my heart (and yeeeah, I can see how that suggestion would work to make me feel better, Ry). I would love to hear this song reinvented as quietly haunting, like the different versions I’ve heard of “Hard Way To Fall.” I’m crossing my fingers for how Easy Tiger pans out as a whole (note: Sheryl Crow adds vocals to two songs, which could be cool) and where he goes with it after all the quick-change versions of Ryan Adams we’ve gotten over the past decade.

I smile at the the charming addition here of the four-part acapella harmonies that Ryan and band add at the beginning, middle interval, and end – “Henry Rollins Show, Henry Rollins show, Henry Rollins Show….” If this rock-country musician thing doesn’t work out for Ryan, he could always join a barbershop quartet.

They’re Leaving Me Behind
Nick Drake
The folks over at Tsunami Records were much appreciated ’round these parts when they dropped this mp3 into my inbox last week, another sample track off the upcoming Family Tree album, a collection of early rarities and home recordings left unreleased by Nick Drake before his untimely death in 1974 (at the age of 26). What I’ve heard of the album so far isn’t going to radically shake-up what we already know about Drake and his lovely folksy fingerpicking output, but it’s great to hear some “fresh” sounds. Nick Drake always sounds to me like that gauzy, hazy layer of fog that burns off right before sunrise; there’s something so ephemeral and perfect in his music.

Roll On (feat Jenny Lewis)
Dntel
The new Dntel (aka Jimmy Tamborello, of The Postal Service acclaim) album Dumb Luck (Sub Pop) is a collage of densely fascinating electronica with a host of guest vocalists helping out along the way. Jenny Lewis’ contribution has a surprising bluegrass twist (with lyrics like “son of a gun”), with the subtle electronic layers adding interest to the song construction. It reminds me of the welcome breeze through an open window. The album also features Conor Oberst, Mystic Chords of Memory, and Grizzly Bear, among others. Up next (someday) for Tamborello is a new Postal Service album with Ben Gibbard that’s been in the works since last Spring.

Hold It In
Jukebox The Ghost
I’ve been hearing a bit of a buzz building behind Washington D.C.’s Jukebox The Ghost, whose herky jerky sound is a perfect complement to the warmer weather that I know in my heart of hearts will someday come to Colorado to stay for a spell. This reminds of stuff like The Futureheads or The Caesars, that is to say, it’s perfect for a future iPod commercial.

Rusty Cage (Soundgarden cover)
Johnny Cash
Although I still prefer the bloodcurdling ferocity of the original version of this Soundgarden song, which unforgettably opens their 1991 album Badmotorfinger, I have to appreciate Johnny Cash’s masterful take on it as well. Cash could take anything and loan it that dusty, apocalyptic, country-preacher feel, bringing up shaded nuances that you missed the first time it was done. And I have to say that as many times as I’ve listened to the original in the past 13 years, this cover was the first time I understand a good deal of the lyrics. This was originally released on 2005′s The Legend of Johnny Cash (the same album that gave us his cover of NIN’s Hurt).

And in case you need some paint stripping done today (Heather’s moment of specific interest in this song lies at 2:52, unreal):
Rusty Cage – Soundgarden

Kings of Leon make me taste blood

I saw Kings of Leon at a sold-out show last night at the Ogden, and it was possibly the best show I’ve seen so far this year.

In addition to a catalog of songs that grows and shimmers live, I was completely blown away and converted by the stage presence (and yes, swagger) of these brother/cousins who acted like they’d been doing this for decades. My pal in attendance pointed out the similar brooding demeanor of guitarist Matthew Followill to Keith Richards, and I have to say that I saw more than a little of Jagger’s panache in Caleb’s frontman posturing. This was very good. As a band they were tight, intense, and a real joy to witness doin’ their thing.

Although the show was short at 70 minutes (and left me with a strong hankering for more), the setlist was top-notch, heavy on the older stuff, with a crowd absolutely bursting with enthusiasm. This spilled over and manifested itself in shoving and attempts at moshing — leaving me with a head-butt to the mouth and the taste of my own blood.

But the ferocity of the music fully recharged my soul in that inarticulable way, and I cannot recommend this tour strongly enough. Any guys who are confident enough to write and sing a song like “Soft” deserve due notice in my book. Ha. This is a band that absolutely needs to be seen live to be fully appreciated. Sure, I’d heard their studio albums, but it really didn’t prepare me for the sheer . . . supernova of last night.

My Third House (b-side) – Kings of Leon

(A great recent b-side from the On Call CDS which actually has lyrics about Colorado so clearly there’s a theme here)

Opening band Snowden was . . . snowed in (and isn’t it ironic). They didn’t make it out of Wyoming, so local band Born In The Flood filled in and impressed me as well. All my Denver friends keep telling me to check them out, and their set last night convinced me to give their music a closer listen. Last night was time well-spent on all fronts.

KOL image credit

http://www.yellowbirdproject.com/

For all that we’ve gained, what have we lost?

Some of you may have seen this linked over on Stereogum, but it is definitely worth a read for the true music lover. It’s a post from last year by Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff that really made me think about the way I consume and appreciate music.

READ: On File-Sharing, by Will Sheff
Originally posted on http://jound.com/okkervil/

Here are the paragraphs that made my brain whir and click:

The internet – with its glut not only of information but of misinformation, and of information that is only slightly correct, or only slightly incorrect – fills me with this same weird mixture of happiness and depression. I sometimes feel drowned in information, deadened by it. How many hundreds of bored hours have you spent mechanically poring through web pages not knowing what you’re looking for, or knowing what you’re looking for but not feeling satisfied when you find it? You hunger but you’re not filled. Everything is freely available on the internet, and is accordingly made inestimably valuable and utterly value-less.

When I was a kid, I’d listen to the same records over and over and over again, as if I was under a spell. The record would end and I’d flip it over again, doing absolutely nothing, letting the music wash over me. My favorite record albums become like a totem for me, their big fat beautiful gatefolds worked as a shield against the loud, crashing, crushing world. I would have laid down my life and died in defense of a record like Tonight’s the Night or Astral Weeks. I felt that those records had, in some ways, saved my life. These days, with all the choice in the world, it’s hard for me find the attention span for a single album. I put my iPod on shuffle and skip impatiently to the next song before each one’s over. I don’t even know what I’m looking for.

Do read the rest of the reflection, and listen to over a dozen mp3s (not . . . full albums) of Okkervil River’s music on their website.

THOUGHTS
I wouldn’t trade the freedom to find and discover new music that the internet offers us now, but I definitely feel crushed by the miscellany and the weight of it all sometimes, with hardly a free moment to just sit and enjoy without the feeling the compulsion to shuffle and import and rip and rearrange.

I found myself near a foreign record player recently, surrounded by stacks of fantastically well-loved vinyl that fairly screamed of time well spent. Because of the slick and facile siren song of my iPod, where the only evidence of attention given is in the playcount on iTunes that ticks steadily upward as I add a song onto a new playlist with a press of a round white button, to some degree I feel that I lack that concentrated focus & discovery of deep beauty in my life right now.

Win twelve inches of a storm called Brian from the Arctic Monkeys

The Arctic Monkeys‘ favourite worst nightmare is finding one day that there is actually a band out there with a more awful name than theirs, when they thought they had the market cornered.

I’ve got a 12″ vinyl containing the catchy track Brianstorm (+3) to give away to one lucky reader that can tell me the name of a band even worse than theirs. It can be similarly Simian, correspondingly baffling re: geographical origins, or just plain bad.

Go.

BRIANSTORM 12″ TRACKLIST
(that album art totally makes me think of Captain E.O.)

1. If You Found This It’s Probably Too Late
2. Brianstorm (here’s a live version from Jimmy Kimmel)
3. Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend
4. What If You Were Right The First Time

PS – Contest runs a week.

These songs are not on the vinyl. I just like them.
Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys (I’m already thinkin’ summer mix)
Flourescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys
Take It Or Leave It (Strokes cover) – Arctic Monkeys

New from Stereophonics :: “Bank Holiday Monday”

Welsh rockers Stereophonics have a new album called Pull The Pin due out in the fall, and premiered their first song from it on May Day on BBC Radio 1. The single is called “Bank Holiday Monday” and will be available to download online on May 28th, which is indeed a bank holiday Monday in the UK (we don’t really get those in the U.S., not sure if I completely understand them but okay).

This is a radio rip I meticulously culled from some Russian site with lots of George Michael mp3s. Ordinarily I’d rip and edit it down myself (this mp3 has a lot of DJ chatter) but I am still out of commission with my laptop. If anyone wants to snip out some of the chatter and email me back an edited mp3, I’ll repost it with lots of gratitude and less singing along by DJ Chris Moyles.

This song is big and blistering right out of the cage from the opening “Whoooo!” and the relentless drums. I have no idea what Kelly is wailing on about in that fantastic rocker gravel other than “Mondaaaaaay….,” but I really like it. It makes me tingle.

Bank Holiday Monday (on BBC Radio 1) – Stereophonics

This follows the re-release back in March of their debut album, 1997′s Word Gets Around. That album was reissued for the ten year anniversary as a double disc with some Stereophonics b-sides from the mid/late ’90s, including a punk version of ‘She Takes Her Clothes Off,’ which was one of the band’s earliest known tracks.

On death & dying, and new Rocky Votolato :: Postcard From Kentucky

Yesterday I found a little dead bunny rabbit in my basement. Nope, he definitely wasn’t just sleeping as I had first hoped. I have no idea how he got in, but (shudder re: picking up dead animals).

It was a portent for the similarly troubling death yesterday of the screen on my laptop that houses all my everything. The computer works fine, just can’t see anything, and it’s cramping my style. I am waiting for an assessment from our resident teenager ubergeek neighbor friend to let me know the damage. Hopefully (for both our sakes) it will be functional again soon. I’m getting withdrawal shakes.

But I’m pleased in the interim to offer you an exclusive new listen of the first track off the new Rocky Votolato CD from Barsuk, due out June 19th. The album (Rocky’s 5th full-length) is called The Brag & Cuss, and this cut is truly lovely and bittersweet, with a night-driving-by-the-glow-of-the- dashboard-lights feel.

Postcard From Kentucky – Rocky Votolato

From the press release: “Most of the record was played by a full band, featuring James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens) on drums, Bill Herzog (Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter) on bass, Casey Foubert (Pedro the Lion) on electric guitar, banjo, mandolin and percussion, and Rick Steff (Cat Power, Hank Williams Jr.) on keyboards and accordion.” Good stuff.

Also, here is a video I shot last month when Votolato swung through town. This is another new song of his called “Lilly White.” There’s one loud and disarming fuzzy bit in the audio at the beginning, but then it should be pretty decent and you can get more of a feel of the new album sound. I like this direction.

The post in which Heather becomes Mom’s favorite daughter: The Taylor Hicks interview

The lights go out and the screams instantly reach fever pitch.
I am standing in the Paramount Theater in Denver.
I am with my mom.
I am at a Taylor Hicks concert.

How did I get here?

When the opportunity to talk with Taylor Hicks about music kind of fell directly into my lap (with an opportunity to take my mom to his show), I just couldn’t say no. One thing I’ve always thought about Taylor Hicks since the first time I saw him on American Idol is this: Despite of the avenue of an embarrassing pop reality show, this is a man who truly loves music, and who truly loves performing music. He feels it deep inside, and we both share a strong and abiding appreciation for soul greats like Otis Redding, Ray Charles, and Sam Cooke. At only 31, Hicks is a bit of an anomaly amongst folks in my generation. But in a good way.

A CONVERSATION WITH TAYLOR HICKS

HB: What role has music played for you throughout your life?

TH: I guess having an outlet of some sort – music was that outlet for me. Music replaced a lot of things that were missing in my life at that time. Luckily I was listening to Ray Charles and soul music, and that’s when I started replacing the things that were missing with that love of music, it balanced me out. Through singing and then playing the harmonica — it just kind of took off for me. I don’t know if it found me or I found it. The first record I ever heard in that genre was probably Otis Redding, then Ray Charles hit and I just kind of took off with Ray, studying everything I could get my hands on from him.

As a kid, you know, from the time I was . . . eleven, I remember feeling like I was going to keep good music around, or at least be one of the players involved in keeping good music around. And it wasn’t a selfish feeling, it was more selfless feeling, for the good of the music and people, maybe like a conducer, that’s what I’d like to be. Let good stuff flow through me, keeping it around, live – the way that the legends perform it.

Do you ever feel intimidated by that? That’s a pretty tall order.

Well, you’re always feeling the weight, you know, of trying to be the best artist you can be, so I think that’s just being an artist. I don’t think any artist is ever content, they want to describe the landscape, talk about it, and not be content with . . . not moving.

Your first two albums were undertaken from an assumedly low-budget, very independent standpoint. I’d like to know a little about the process for you of making the new album, working in a big studio, doing songs written by Rob Thomas, Marvin Gaye, some Ray Charles samples, a full band…. You must have felt a bit like a kid in a candy store.

Yeah, it was cool, learning how to be a recording artist in the truest sense. I think having all those tools definitely helped. You can paint the picture better with a better budget. Like, each song is a blank canvas, your instruments are your paintbrushes. You know? I didn’t have many paintbrushes to work with before. So that was cool.

But this album came really quick — it was under time constraints, so I couldn’t paint it completely, because you know, in 5 weeks we had to record it. So I had to record on instinct. When I do future albums, I’ll have more time. In the future I’ll need to take more time with my own art, my own songs, the songs of others, production, mixing, I wanna have more time to do all that. Have that time to create and be an artist. I think Fall, I will probably – I might be touring this record for the next year, but I think in the Fall I want to block some time out for writing.

I love Ray LaMontagne, and I thought it was great when you were talking about your choice to cover his song “Trouble” on American Idol and saying “my whole goal is to let people see about that music that’s real and not to let it slip.” But did you ever feel like you were speaking . . . a foreign language during the time you were on AI with tastes for “real” music?

To a certain degree, yeah. It was a very tough task. But I found that the love of performing, I mean that was my true gig. You listen to what’s popular now, pop radio, and . . . I really want to keep real music in the forefront. I’ve been touring that idea, I’ll be touring that idea forever.

I went to see Ray LaMontagne right when that Trouble album came out, about two years ago. I like him. I like his recorded music better. He’s obviously, it seems to me, a performer that doesn’t really like being there. But I think he can hide behind the confines of his own words and music in the studio and not have to face that, you know? That’s what I want for him – it’s tough when you see an artist go through . . . I don’t wanna say torture . . . but a similar thought process there.

If you could do a duet with any musician living or dead –just for sheer personal enjoyment and love of the music and not for any commercial purpose or audience– who would you choose?

[Long pause]
I would have to say Van Morrison probably, live. I would like to play live with Van. I studied his stuff, digested a lot of what he did on stage – and Otis Redding, those two live performers. If you’ve ever seen Otis live, see a lot of people haven’t seen that – it’s a lost art, what he did. He was a brilliant performer live. And of course Ray (Charles).

Finally, what’s been the coolest thing you’ve gotten to be a part of in these last two years?

Oh, going to Ray Charles’ studio. I was picked up on the same day that I was on the cover of People Magazine. That same day. You know, it was crazy. There’s not so many people that get to do that. I got to play on his piano. While I was there, I got to go down into his personal vault. Now, I’ve been interested in Ray Charles Live in Tokyo. We went down to his music vault, and everything he had was labeled in Braille, so nobody knew what it was — only him. The first thing that I picked up, I opened the box up and it was [the tapes for] Live in Tokyo by Ray Charles, and it freaked everybody out. It felt so right. It was really cool, that was a really cool experience. That validated me being there.

But . . . you know, surrealism has lost its luster with me, you know what I mean? Because I just take it for what it is and hopefully have one day to reflect on everything I’ve done, because I can’t right now. Maybe open the file up someday.

**************************************************************************
I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Taylor on stage later that night because he was so clearly living his dream with purpose and joy. Even if I may not listen to his latest album, I can so purely appreciate seeing someone who has accomplished exactly what they are passionate about doing in performing music for the (very enthusiastic) masses.

Taylor’s been eking out a living for 15 years performing as a live musician, honing his craft in dive bars and at frat parties, hoping to “make it” so that he could afford to pursue what he feels he is meant to do. It’s easy to make fun of American Idol, believe me I do it all the time (even the whole single season I closet-watched it), but it was harder for me to put aside the joking and just enjoy his soulful enthusiasm in leading the show. Which, I’ll have to admit . . . I ultimately did.

Some photos are mine, others are from this great collection.