“…I don’t think any one of those people have seen The Hold Steady. And that’s all I’ve got to say.”
The part of this trailer from 2:53 to 3:28 made my insides ignite, remembering how great indeed a Hold Steady show is. Loud, soaring, sweaty and redemptive. My new plan for SXSW is going to be just seeing these guys as many times as I can.
Hold Steady’s A Positive Rage is due out April 7th on Vagrant.
[via Stereogum]
Born in Borneo and now based in Kuala Lumpur, 23-year old Zee Avi is the first female artist signed to Brushfire Records/Monotone. She was discovered by Raconteurs drummer Patrick Keeler, who liked a video she posted of herself on YouTube enough to send it to his manager Ian Montone (White Stripes, Raconteurs, The Shins, Vampire Weekend). As Zee puts it, next thing she knew, she was on a plane to LA to record her engaging debut record, due out in May.
She’s small in stature, but her voice is a surprisingly powerful retro throwback to some of the female artists she cites as influences: Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. But backed with her acoustic guitar or ukulele, it’s Ella in a hammock, or Billie sipping mai tais — there’s a tropical breeze here that makes me want summer to hurry up already.
I’ll be interviewing Zee at SXSW, where she plays several parties (including Filter and Readymade). In the meantime, check out this drastically different cover she recorded of Interpol’s “Slow Hands.”
Slow Hands (acoustic Interpol cover) – Zee Avi
You should also click over and take a listen to her first single (“Bitter Heart”) on the KCRW SXSW page.
*ZEE AVI TOUR DATES*
Sunday March 15
Spaceland, Los Angeles
Thursday March 19 – 12:15pm, Filter SXSW Party
Also appearing: Annuals
*****Free Beer and BBQ from Noon to 1pm
Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W 4th St, Austin, TX
Friday March 20 – 6:30 am, KGSR Performance
Four Seasons Hotel Lobby
98 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, TX
Saturday March 21 – 12:00pm, Readymade Party
Also appearing: M. Ward and Great Northern
Halcyon Coffeehouse, 218 W 4th St, Austin, TX
Saturday March 21 – 10pm, SXSW Showcase
Aces Lounge, 22 E 6th St, Austin, TX
Tuesday March 24 – 8pm
Mercury Lounge, NYC
Friday March 27 – 7pm
Hotel Cafe, LA
[image by the rad Autumn de Wilde]
Oh, ouch. This new one from former Husker Du / Sugar frontman
Bob Mould slices like a papercut. A regretful, honest papercut diagonal across your heart.
“I always find the broken ones, what does this say about me?”
Im Sorry, Baby, But You Cant Stand In My Light Any More – Bob Mould
This song is now available digitally as a single, and is from the forthcoming Life And Times, due out April 7th on Anti- Records. There’s an interview here and a jealousy-inducing review of his recent Noise Pop show here.
BOB MOULD ON TOUR
Mar 11 R.E.M. Benefit Tribute at Carnegie Hall (SO RAD)
Mar 29 Old Town School of Folk – Chicago, Illinois
Mar 30 Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Apr 3 North Star Bar – Philadelphia, PA
Apr 5 Gravity Lounge – Charlottesville, Virginia
Apr 7 Birchmere – Alexandria, Virginia
Apr 8 Joe’s Pub – New York, New York
Apr 9 Joe’s Pub – New York, New York
Apr 18 Coachella – Indio, California
And PS – Since we’re on the topic of awesome things Bob Mould has done, which are legion, this is still my favorite of his songs (getting renewed play these last few years on my Love Is A Mix Tape mixtape):
Your Favorite Thing – Sugar
Something different for the Monday Music Roundup this week: Seven songs from the seven Colorado bands that we are presenting at SXSW for our first Mile-Hi Fidelity day party!
A bunch of my favorite Colorado people are getting together to throw y’all a nice little fiesta with some of the finest tunes being made in our state. We will also ply you with free drinks, and the famed Gigbot Photobooth will be there (free high-quality hipster Glamour Shots of you and all your friends!). We plan to rock it. Please do come by and say hello on Friday, and take a listen here today.
King Arthur – The Epilogues
Starting with a very enthusiastic countdown, this Epilogues track hints at the sound of the brother-fronted Denver band: dark but danceable, brooding but melodic.
Twice My Weight – Meese
Just saw the new Meese album performed live last week (my Denver Post photo essay here), and it sounds catchy as hell, all glitchy hooks and fraternal harmonies. As Julio says, “call me crazy, but I could see a number of songs off of their forthcoming album on one of those Gossip Girl (in a good way) type shows at the part when the main couple in the show are about to break things off, but they decide to give it another go by having an intense makeout sesh.”
Red Orange Yellow – The Photo Atlas
The Denver dance-punk phenoms The Photo Atlas released their debut album on the hip and happenin’ Stolen Transmission label, founded by the fascinating Sarah “Ultragrrl” Lewitinn. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them live; I look forward to pogoing around a bit on a Friday afternoon.
When I Was In The Fire – Young Coyotes
I don’t even know what I need to say about Young Coyotes that hasn’t already been proclaimed from the rooftops. Despite a personnel change and a new coyote in the fold, they still have the shout-out-loud exuberance, shimmery songs, and heart-thumping percussion that made me want to run away with them the first time I saw them, back at the Underground Music Showcase last summer.
Anthem – Born In The Flood
I saw Born In The Flood open for Kings of Leon two years back, and I was mightily impressed. You can hear why they were such a good match to share the stage with KOL here on this song– an anthem worth blasting loud, indeed. They also won our Denver Post Underground Music Showcase that summer, and keep getting better. En fuego!
Who’d Stop The Rain – Dressy Bessy
Part of the Elephant Six Collective, Dressy Bessy is fronted by a ferocious guitar-wielding female who reminds me of quietly-foxy Daphne on Scooby Doo (it’s the boots?). A Dressy Bessy show is bold, hollering, snappy fun from start to finish.
Hey Hope – Overcasters
Formed from members of half-a-dozen other Denver bands, The Overcasters have an otherworldly grip on the stage when they play, all haunting echo, reverb, and an undercurrent of elegant melody. We’ll end the day with their set, which one Denver music fan wrote is all “volume and beauty … in equal parts, oil lamp projecting trippy colours behind them. Your clothes vibrated, the rest of the world melted away and you were immersed in pure sound, a make-you-smile-for-hours great sound.”
We hope to make you smile for hours. See you next Friday.
*****
Also… since we’re talking about my favorite Young Coyotes, tomorrow they have two new EPs for sale! On March 10th, you can get both five-song EPs for digital download on Brother Bear Records.
The Basement EP consists of five tracks previously recorded in the band’s basement. The Exhale EP contains all new material recorded at Coupe Studios in Boulder, CO. Both EPs will be available for sale at all major online retailers and Basement will also be available for free download (!) on the band’s website. Sounds like:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
[Mile-Hi Fidelity poster by “Denver icon of rock” Jonathan Till]
Wednesday night while I was being wowed by Murder By Death (more on that in a minute), I had two friends separately attending the very sold-out M. Ward show at the Henry Fonda Music Box in Los Angeles. In between enthusiastic texts telling me about how awesome the show was, these two friends who hadn’t yet met tried to find each other to say hello, with me as an intermediary. “tell her i have close-cropped hair, a goatee, and a black jacket,” he helpfully supplied. “that is EVERY GUY HERE,” she replied. I found this amusing. They never found each other.
But Zooey Deschanel came out to both introduce the night and sing four songs with Ward, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings played near the end of the set, and opening band Delta Spirit also shared the stage. Talk about star-studded — it was a hootenanny.
UPDATE: “M. Ward’s management does not allow unauthorized fan recordings of his shows.” Files removed by request. That’s unfortunate.
M. WARD
MARCH 4th, 2009
MUSIC BOX @ HENRY FONDA THEATER
Hold Time
One Hundred Million Years
Paul’s Song
Lullaby & Exile
Chinese Translation
Epistemology
Requiem
Fisher of Men
Post-War
Poison Cup
O, Lonesome Me
Rag Medley
Zooey’s intro / You Really Got a Hold on Me
Change Is Hard (with Zooey)
Rave On (with Zooey)
Never Had Nobody Like You (with Zooey)
Fahey
Vincent O’Brien
Roll Over Beethoven (cover)
Big Boat
Encore Break
Gillian Welch / David Rawlings Intro
To Save Me
Magic Trick
[thanks to Philip for emailing me his taping of the show (!!),
photo by Andrew Youssef for Stereogum]
Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and my favorite Songbook, enjoys the occasional blog and keeps one of his own. This week he’s written about the table of book recommendations that he gets to populate for the ubiquitous British bookstore Waterstone’s throughout the month of March. Nick explains:
It can happen anywhere: a dinner table, a pub, a bus queue, a classroom, a bookshop. You have struck up a conversation with someone you don’t know, and you’re getting on OK, and then suddenly, without warning, you hear the five words that mean the relationship has no future beyond the time it takes to say them: “I think you’ll like it.” This phrase is presumptuous enough when used to refer to, say, a crisp flavour; if, however, you happen to be talking about books or films or music, then it is completely unforgivable, a social solecism on a par with bottom-pinching. You think I’ll like it, do you? Well, it has taken me over fifty years to get anywhere near an understanding of what I think I might like, and even then I get it wrong half the time, so what chance have you got? Every now and again I meet someone who is able to make shrewd and thoughtful recommendations within the first five years of our acquaintance, but for the most part, the people I listen to I’ve known for a couple of decades, a good chunk of which has been spent talking about the things we love and hate.
We are asked to believe, usually by critics, that the most important factor in our response to a book should be its objective quality – a good book is a good book – but we know that’s not true. Mood and taste are important, self-evidently, but mood and taste are formed by educational background, profession, health, amount of leisure time, marital status, state of marriage, gender (men don’t read much fiction, depressingly), age, age of children, relationships with children, and parents, and siblings, and, possibly, an unfortunate experience with Thomas Pynchon’s ‘V’ as an overambitious and pretentious teenager. All of these and thousands of others are governing factors, and many of them are wildly inconstant.
As it happens, I have been asked to choose forty-odd books for a writer’s table at Waterstone’s, and I think you’ll like them.
[snip]
With so many varied recommendations, I suppose I will like several of them. At least I look forward to the prospect of giving it a go; I’ve read woefully few of these selections but my nightstand can always use a few more books stacked atop it, longingly imploring me to get off the damn computer and pick one of them up already. I do so love to read. Today the weather outside has dipped back down into the 30s, as if to remind me that it ain’t quite Spring yet. Colder weather means a good day for this massive new fuzzy blanket I bought, a couch, and a good book.
Check out Nick’s book recommendations.
[header image actually belongs with this totally unrelated book]
A few weekends ago, my friend D was out in Colorado and together we decided to attempt to conquer the tasting rooms of several local breweries (Denver has the highest number of breweries per capita in the U.S., didja know?). I love me some hearty beers (like oh! that fantastic Cutthroat Porter), and dark amber ales. All in all that weekend, I think we tried 22 beers by my count.
Craft brewing appeals to me in the complex, rich flavors in all the different brews and the fiercely independent spirit of the great small operations we have here around town. It almost feels luxurious — much more so than a can of whatever pale mass-produced beer I drink when it’s on special for fifty cents. This film Beer Wars is coming to theatres on April 16th with a virtual live discussion hosted by Ben Stein.
It is, of course, a snapshot of whatever larger discussion you want to have about the little independent guys trying to make it against corporate behemoths. I plan to try and see it; I hope they serve beer.
Drinking Again – Haley Bonar
(okay, so the song’s about red wine, but I still love love to sing along with this one)
You people out East do not know what goodness awaits you next week, as my favorite Denver band Everything Absent Or Distorted takes to the road for an extremely rare tour.
As I wrote in my review for the Denver Post last time I saw ‘em, “I love to stand beneath their waves of massive, visceral sound that galvanizes the band and the audience as one. As I leaned against the stage as the final notes died away, catching my breath, I commented to a friend that EAOD performs the way that the best music feels: straight from their poetic, hot-blooded hearts. There’s no posturing, only gorgeous songs that flit from delicate and pensive to soaringly victorious, fist-pumping anthems.”
Aquariums – Everything Absent or Distorted
If you live in one of these cities, you simply must go. Simply must.
I will give you a nickel if it ain’t the most honest, gorgeous, brilliant performance of live music that you’ve seen in recent years.
EVERYTHING ABSENT OR DISTORTED SPRING MINI-TOUR
Mar 8 — Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
Mar 10 — Detroit, MI @ PJs Lagerhouse
Mar 11 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Garfield Artworks
Mar 12 — New York City, NY @ The Bowery Electric
Mar 14 — New York City, NY @ TBA
[photo credit the fabulous laurie scavo]
After the internet broke today from the sheer fabulousness of the news of a forthcoming Wilco/Feist collaboration, I was reminded of one of my favorite other Feist duets. An oldie but such a very-goodie:
Hangover Days (feat. Feist) – Jason Collett
Jason Collett has an extremely winning twang and howl to his voice, with those great storytelling lyrics. Feist couldn’t be lovelier, as usual.
Idols of Exile came out in 2005 on Arts & Crafts.
Best thing about this blog gig is when readers tape shows for you that you can’t be at. Hurrah!
CHRIS ISAAK
AMOEBA RECORDS, SAN FRANCISCO
March 2, 2009
Take My Heart (new)
You Don’t Cry Like I Do (new)
Mr. Lonely Man (new)
Forever Blue (never get tired of this)
ZIP: FULL SHOW OF ISAAK AT AMOEBA
The sound levels are a tad low, so turn it up — but a great 14-song set filled with new songs, covers, and some twists on classics. Isaak brings a girl up on stage to play maracas on “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing,” and comments on her scarf, playfully asking her if it’s cold in there. You can hear the smile in her voice as she replies, “Not anymore…”
Man. Isaak does it every time. No, seriously.
[thank you thank you JS!]
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 AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS is brought to you by Fuel/Friends LLC. Ownership of all audio and visual material displayed here remains with their creators and/or owners and is cited accordingly.. Illustrations by Luke Flowers. Design & Layout by Dayjob.
