Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), always the affable frontman, poses this question for thought. Haw without hemming? Never looked at it that way, Jeff. This is a great solo show taped by The Flat Response at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado in August of 2006.
And then, since I was buying a plane ticket today to Chicago (beginning of April!), I clearly had to have suitable listening. This is by far the prettiest ‘lil version of “Via Chicago” that I have ever heard, from a Jeff Tweedy/Jay Bennett show at the Old Town School of Folk Music Festival on July 25, 1999.
Last time we caught up with NYC’s Murder Mystery they had just released their debut album Are You Ready For The Heartache Cause Here It Comes, which was produced by JP Bowersock (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, The Strokes). Their sound very pleasingly melds classic pop jangle and reverb surf guitars with a modern weight.
They’ve got a free new single and remix for download – “The World” was self-produced, and mixed by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Lou Reed). This remix below (by SF’s Bad Mammal) is something I like even better – the slinky retro mood of The Raveonettes meets the crisp sheen of Magnetic Fields.
From Billboard: “Former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, Hanson’s Taylor Hanson and Fountains Of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger have formed a new band, Tinted Windows.
The group has recorded its debut album at Stratosphere Sound Studios in New York, which Schlesinger and Iha co-own with Ivy‘s Andy Chase. The set is expected this spring on a label to be announced. Tinted Windows will play its first major show at Billboard’s South by Southwest showcase, to be held March 20 at Pangaea in Austin, Texas.”
The new U2 album No Line On The Horizon leaked wide last night, and on first listen it’s filled with appropriately epic guitar riffs, and Bonoisms about love that sound very important when sung in upper register.
Also, the song “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” totally contains the triumphant riff that everyone knows from “Faithfully” by Journey. So much so that it makes me want to drink Czech liquor and sing karaoke with arms around friends; the Journey effect. Srsly.
Cincinnati band Pomegranates radiate with a prismatic color. Click over to their MySpace (do it!) and look at all those gorgeous colors — the same ones I hear in their music; the chimey yellow piano top-notes, the rich burgundy undertones, the strong current of aquamarine melody through the middle. It’s brilliant.
I previously wrote that Pomegranates create “delightfully energetic pop-harmony music… Like that weird-looking fruit, they burst open with some serious richness, all purpley red and sweet shimmery.” They also rocked it at Monolith – a huge, shiny, gorgeous live set.
Their sophomore album Everybody, Come Outside! is due April 14th on Lujo Records, and in addition to this new song below, you can snag a few other older mp3s on their label site. (Also — I loved their previous album cover, and this one maybe even more).
POMEGRANATES TOUR DATES
2/18 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
2/19 New York, NY @ Crash Mansion
2/20 New York, NY @ Cake Shop
2/21 Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House
2/22 Cambridge, MA @ Cake Shop
2/23 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
2/24 Arlington, VA @ IOTA
2/25 Charlottesville, VA @ iS Venue
2/26 Fredericksburg, VA @ The Third Floor
2/27 Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight
3/12 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
3/13 Covington, IN @ Southgate House
3/14 Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
3/15 St. Louis, MO @ Bluebird
3/16 Columbia, MO @ Mojo’s
3/17 SXSW Austin, TX @ Beauty Bar – Fanatic Promotion/Art Disaster Party
3/21 Hot Springs, AR @ Valley of The Vapors
One of my absolute favorite albums lately (like, front to back, over and over, in the car, trying to keep it down for my co-workers, air drumming in my kitchen) is Thao Nguyen‘s We Brave Bee Stings And All (2008, Kill Rock Stars).
It’s been a long time since I’ve found an artist that strikes as perfect a blend of fearless female honesty, introspectively clever lyrics, winsome melodies, and thoroughly interesting and unexpected percussion. I’m a sucker for the cool drumbeats, the ones that make me wanna clap my hands and tap along on my laptop (even as I try to write this post).
This might be my favorite song on the album, mostly because of the awesome way the drums edge their way into the room at 0:28, and then proceed to own the whole tune:
While Thao will be at SXSW (which I just registered for today) I also have good news! Thao’s back on tour with her band, The Get Down Stay Down, and (and!) Samantha Crain (artist behind one of my favorite EPs last year).
Come el Seis de Mayo, I might die a tiny death of happiness.
THAO NGUYEN TOUR DATES
Feb 26 – Noise Pop – Swedish American Music Hall (solo) San Francisco, CA
Feb 27 – The Coffee House (solo) Davis, CA
Mar 18 – SXSW KRS Day Party-Club DeVille Austin, TX
Mar 19 – NPR Day Show -The Parish Austin, TX
Mar 19 – Hotel Café Showcase – The Parish Austin, TX
Mar 20 – KUT Showcase – Momo’s Austin, TX
Apr 17 – Black Cat Washington DC
Apr 18 – Duke Coffee House Durham, NC #
Apr 19 – Village Tavern Mt. Pleasant, SC #
Apr 20 – EARL Atlanta, GA #
Apr 21 – Club Downunder-Florida State Tallahassee, FL #
Apr 23 – The Parish Austin, TX #
Apr 24 – Lola’s Ft. Worth, TX #
Apr 25 – The Foundation Lubbock, TX #
Apr 26 – The Sub-College of Santa Fe Santa Fe, NM #
Apr 28 – The Loft-UCSD San Diego, CA #
Apr 29 – The Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, CA #
Apr 30 – Independent San Francisco, CA #
May 1 – Mississippi Studios Portland, OR #
May 2 – Chop Suey Seattle, WA #
May 4 – Neurolux Boise, ID #
May 5 – Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT #
May 6 – Hi Dive Denver, CO #
May 9 – Empty Bottle Chicago, IL #
May 10 – Beachland Tavern Cleveland, OH #
May 12 – Iron Horse Northampton, MA #
May 14 – Bowery Ballroom New York, NY #
May 15 – First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA #
May 16 – The Boot Norfolk, VA #
This weekend I was finishing my taxes and getting it back from The Man, whilst listening to Radiohead to make the undertaking a bit less tedious.
The recording of their live set from last August echoed through my kitchen, the show where I saw em for the first time at the Outside Lands Festival in foggy San Francisco. Photographing the band from that close (under a dazzling collection of cathedral-like lights) and the superb setlist makes me smile every time I think of it.
2008 was the first year of the Outside Lands Festival, and it was a bit of a clusterfuck at times. The sound went out twice during Radiohead’s set, in one of the most surreal moments I’ve had at a concert. Imagine the most sublime wall of sound you’ve felt in years, vibrating all around you — and then complete silence. I watched the band furiously playing on, while all around us the absence of music felt thick like cotton. I joke that for a second I thought it finally happened, I finally went permanently and irreversibly deaf from all the concerting.
After the first burst of silence, Thom jokes about someone putting beer in the plug; when it happens again two songs later, a wave of discontent ripples through the crowd but then we all rose up to sing at the top of our lungs (in an excellent concert moment that still kinda warms me):
“You are all I need…you’re all I need. I’m in the middle of your picture, lying in the reeds…”
I was packed there into the masses singing along in the fog, thin sweater wrapped tight around me under the cypress trees.
[thanks to the original taper! I took all them pics, and love 'em, especially that abstract one with the heart, taken as I looked at the crowd behind me during Radiohead's set. Yep.]
“I wanted to sing… to say something that hasn’t been said.”
– Bill Withers
On a quiet Sunday night, few things sounds as good as the earnest soulfulness of Bill Withers. Tonight I’ve enjoyed hearing Withers talk about his late arrival into the music scene, his take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards fame, his quiet love of privacy, and his musical groundings — interspersed with so many of his songs that I haven’t heard in too long:
This podcast via Legacy Podcasts; jet over and listen to Part 2 here. The Earbender Legacy Podcast Black History Month series salutes Bill Withers and other great African-American artists all month, with 28 pieces in 28 days.
Rub your eyes and nurse your Valentine’s Day hangover with two mixes from When You Awake, full of songs that “represent that warm feeling you get when you wake up in your lover’s arms” (which makes me think of this, but hey).
Bands like Vetiver, Bowerbirds, Hymns, Dr. Dog and Langhorne Slim all selected tunes for the compilations, as well as some of your favorite bloggers. Check out their choices and two full mixes here.
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.
Name: Heather Browne
