A killer live R.E.M. show from Hollywood, 2003

The induction of R.E.M. into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night got me all sentimental about just how deep my love flows for this band, which I have logged thousands of hours listening to since high school. Yet there are times when I still feel like I have only scratched the surface of their careers, knowing there are dozens of tunes from them that are so deserving of my love, but that I have not yet discovered. What a great predicament.

This is a fantastic soundboard-quality set from the Avalon in Hollywood, 2003. It was a two-disc promo distributed to radio stations, so now you can be as cool (and with ears as happy) as the big dogs. Features Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) and Scott McCaughey (Minus 5) as band additions for this set.

R.E.M. live in Hollywood
The Avalon, Oct 29 2003

Finest Worksong (what a way to start)
These Days (ooh yay! love this album)
The Wake-Up Bomb
So Fast, So Numb (“This is now, this is here, this is me, this is what I wanted you to see” — one of my favorite driving & singing songs)
Exhuming McCarthy
Animal
Sweetness Follows (“live your life filled with joy and wonder“; introduced by Stipe as “a beautiful song from 1991″ and it is indeed a masterpiece)
Bad Day
World Leader Pretend
Strange Currencies (a vastly underrated love song)
Losing My Religion (even after hearing this song so many times, don’t you just feel happy at those opening notes?)
At My Most Beautiful (another vastly underrated love song; “I read bad poetry into your machine, I save your messages just to hear your voice“)
She Just Wants To Be
Walk Unafraid (I loved Up)
Man On The Moon
Life And How To Live It
Welcome To The Occupation
Nightswimming (can’t even talk about how flawless this one is)
Final Straw
Permanent Vacation (unreleased)
Imitation Of Life (fantastic last song choice)

Springsteen tribute show planned at Carnegie Hall

Bruce Springsteen is set to get the tribute treatment from the musical community on April 5 at Carnegie Hall in New York. If you were lucky enough to click on the ticket sale website on January 31, then you may have already snagged yourself a pair of tickets (in what concert producer Michael Dorf is calling a “premature leak.” Those are always a bit embarassing). Tickets legitimately went on sale Monday (and seem to be sold out) with the proceeds benefitting the Music For Youth program, as with previous tributes to Dylan & Joni Mitchell.

The benefit show will feature appearances from Badly Drawn Boy, Pete Yorn, Steve Earle, Chris Isaak and Josh Ritter, among others. I can’t find any recordings of Isaak ever covering Springsteen (some fan correct me if I am wrong), and same for Ritter (although there is plenty of press likening him to Springsteen’s songwriting). But here’s some hints of what the night may sound like . . .

Thunder Road – Badly Drawn Boy

Dancing In The Dark –> Murray (live) – Pete Yorn

State Trooper (live) – Steve Earle

And if I may, how awesome would it be to see these humble suggestions added to the lineup?

Hungry Heart – Jesse Malin

For You – The Format

No Surrender (live 9/30/05) – Eddie Vedder
(yeah, I’ve posted this before, but it’s one of my absolute favorites)

Vedder to appear solo at Hawaii’s Kokua Festival with Jack Johnson and Matt Costa

Just announced: Eddie Vedder is confirmed to play solo as part of this year’s Kokua Festival at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu.

Joining organizer Jack Johnson, Matt Costa, and local Island favorites Ernie Cruz Jr. and The Girlas, the Fourth Annual Kokua Festival will be on Earth Day weekend — April 21 & 22.

Eddie is playing with the amazing Booooom Gaspar (a native Hawaiian and mostly full-time PJ band member lately) on keys. All proceeds go to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Jack and Kim Johnson to support environmental education programs in Hawaii.

Tickets will be available exclusively to Kokua Hawaii Foundation members starting February 6 (become a member to buy). Tickets to the general public will be available via Jack Johnson’s web site on February 10, via their Myspace on February 15, or via Ticket(bastard) starting Feb 17.

Oh, Hawaii, why do you taunt me so?!

Here’s a sample of the goodness we might be able to expect from Vedder; all of these live songs are just wonderful, some of my favorites.

Ed Vedder (solo), 2/26/2002
Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles
You’re True (first performance, beautiful ukulele ditty)
Can’t Keep
Broken Hearted (unreleased)
Thumbing My Way

Ed Vedder (solo), 3/15/2002
Royce Hall, UCLA
Goodbye (first performance, also on ukulele)

We’re gettin’ The Band back together, dude

Via Stereogum, news of a forthcoming tribute album to The Band called Endless Highway (Jan 2007) that I’ve been streaming all morning over at the 429 Records site, enjoying tunes like:

[Stream]
Ophelia – ALO
Look Out Cleveland – Jackie Greene
Rocking Chair – Death Cab For Cutie
Whispering Pines – Jakob Dylan
Life Is A Carnival – Trevor Hall

And you’ll get a version of this one with MMJ (but the album version ain’t got no Vedder)

It Makes No Difference – My Morning Jacket with Ed Vedder
(live in Pistoia, Italy – 9/20/06)

Cold War Kids release free covers EP

Up-and-coming and hard to classify, the Cold War Kids are one of the more interesting acts to surface this year. I wrote about their Robbers & Cowards album back in October and today I am pleased to learn that they also like to try their pipes on varied cover songs, which we all know I can’t resist.

Check out the free Benefit At The District EP with their versions of six wildly different songs. Here are three tunes from that EP, along with the original in two cases and some gratuitous Pearl Jam content. As usual.

As Fast As You Can – Cold War Kids (I think this is the most successful of the bunch, they pull off Fiona’s borderline crazy-but-beautiful sound surprisingly well)
As Fast As You Can – Fiona Apple

The Littlest Birds – Cold War Kids (this one is not good, at least not compared to the original which I adore. I’m posting their cover just so I can post this original, which is one of the best kid songs ever that doesn’t sound too hokey. Thanks Chris!)
The Littlest Birds – The Be Good Tanyas

Tonight You Belong To Me – Cold War Kids
Tonight You Belong To Me – Eddie Vedder and Janet Weiss (drummer from Sleater-Kinney) – Live 8/12/06 at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. This is an old song from the ’20s, covered by everyone, sweet and small and lovely.

Check out the Cold War Kids site for the other three covers (Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Dr. Dog).

Eddie Vedder & surfer Laird Hamilton on Iconoclasts this week

As previously mentioned here, this is the week that Ed Vedder will be featured in the Sundance Channel’s show Iconoclasts, which pairs him with another “leading innovator in their field,” surfer Laird Hamilton. The two will discuss their passions and share some waves.

PREVIEW (8 minutes) – nice placement of “Given To Fly” which just feels like a surfing song and a couple of songs from the new album, as well as Ed on uke:

I am still too cheap to have the Sundance Channel, but I have another surfing movie I can watch instead, thanks to Netflix.

Kings of Leon: Bonus Live Tracks

The more I listen to Kings of Leon, the more I come to think that they may be one of the best things to happen to family musical groups since The Partridge Family, or maybe Jack & Meg White. Consisting of three brothers and a cousin (all in their early 20s), this Tennessee rock band is making a name for themselves through a few quality releases and, most recently, a tour with Bob Dylan. They’ve got a loose Southern-garage rock feel to their music with a classy and restless edge.

Kings of Leon has worked with whiz-bang British producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller, Counting Crows, Ray LaMontagne) for all three of their releases: 2002′s Holy Roller Novocaine EP, 2003′s Youth & Young Manhood (which sounds like the title of a bad After-School Special), and the most recent Aha Shake Heartbreak (2005), which was recorded at Johns’ Three Crows Studio in Los Angeles, using The Beatles’ old Abbey Road mixing desk. Wahoo.

The Australian version of Aha Shake Heartbreak came with a bonus DVD of 5 live songs recorded in Belgium. Here are the audio rips of these energetic tracks. They play like they mean it:

“Taper Jean Girl” (live) – Kings of Leon
(YSI alternate link)

“The Bucket” (live) – Kings of Leon
(YSI alternate link)

“Soft” (live) – Kings of Leon
(YSI alternate link)

“Molly’s Chambers” (live) – Kings of Leon
(YSI alternate link)

“Four Kicks” (live) – Kings of Leon
(YSI alternate link)

And here’s a bonus just because I can:

“Slow Night, So Long” – Kings of Leon with Eddie Vedder
Live in Seattle, 4/25/05

A Glass And A Half In Every Heather

I tell ya people, this having an actual life that takes time away from my blogging is really a pain. That being said, I’ve been busy and it’s been a while since I’ve done a sort of Odds & Ends post, but there’s several good things rattling around in my brain today that I thought I’d share.

Plus it’s Blizzard 2006 here in Colorado so no work, no schools, no nothing except being a homebody all day. I was going to post a few great sets of music, but EZArchive seems to be migrating to a new system and may be unavailable for 24 hours. Bah.

Ûž The first diversion of the day is the Advertising Slogan Generator where you plug in your name and it makes you your very own slogan. Mine is above in the subject line, and it’s awesome. What’s yours? I keep hitting refresh and laughing out loud.

Ûž The charming Mr. Tim Young has assembled a fantastic Contrast Podcast #30: “A Song I Like By A Band I Don’t.” I had several discussions about my possible submissions last week when I was on vacation, but ultimately didn’t get my stuff together in time to submit anything. I had some good ideas, though (sure, sure).

Ûž I posted about the Brokedown Melody soundtrack last week, and got the news today that there are 2 song streams available (thanks “Craig”!) — one for the Eddie Vedder track (without the annoying AOL voiceovers every time he stops to take a breath) and the other for one of the 2 unreleased Jack Johnson tracks:

“Let It Be Sung” – Jack Johnson with Matt Costa & Zach Gill
STREAMS: [.asx] [.ram]

“Goodbye” – Eddie Vedder
STREAMS: [.asx] [.ram]

Ûž Fuel friend and fellow blogger Bruce makes XPN Radio in Philly one of the coolest stations on the air. They’ve got a few great live performances this week for your streaming pleasure:

-TODAY: (Oct. 26) at 2PM EST, Lindsay Buckingham interview and performance on World Cafe at www.xpn.org
-FRIDAY: (Oct. 27) at 12pm EST, it’s Sean Lennon live in concert on www.xpn.org and www.npr.org.

Ûž Speaking of streaming, the new Damien Rice album 9 is streaming in full at A-O-Hell (AOL). I have a little window open here and intend to listen to it very soon. I want to give it the full attention it deserves.

Ûž Chad over at Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands is a huge Elliott Smith fan, as anyone who has ever spent even a little bit of time with him likely knows. In observance of the Oct 21 anniversary of Elliott’s death, he has posted a lovely and heartfelt tribute piece. Recommended reading with soundtrack.

Ûž Howie Payne was that guy from The Stands (who put out a pair of kicking albums), and since they’ve broken up I have been keeping an eye on his solo MySpace page. Finally there are some new streaming songs from him, and they sound great — bluesy & rolling.

Ûž Everybody’s doing it: Robert Schneider (Apples in Stereo) is set to release a children’s album, according to You Ain’t No Picasso. Kids these days are going to grow up never having to listen to bad music, and that’s clearly the first step towards world peace.

Ûž A few of you astute and kind readers have sent me a recent Chris Cornell set from Sweden, with a fantastic blend of solo, Audioslave, and cover songs. J over at Sweet Oblivion has now saved me the time uploading it, he’s got it for ya. Nice set, how ’bout that Michael Jackson cover?

Ûž Aquarium Drunkard has ripped some vinyl audio for us from his much-beloved Bill Withers at Carnegie Hall LP, and it makes me love Withers (and A.D.) even more. Check out the warm snap, crackle and pop of these tracks.

Ûž Finally, Lore Sjöberg over at Wired.com has penned the funniest article I’ve read all week: MySpace, Now With Random Crap. He muses, “I don’t really know what to do with my 319 new online chums, compatriots and cronies . . . I think you just collect them, as they collect you. It is the 21st century, and we are all each other’s Hummel figurines. I think MySpace should take a hint from collectible figure games like HeroClix, and find a way to let you make your friends fight.”
Read the entire thing here.

New from Brushfire Records: Brokedown Melody soundtrack

Just got word from the folks at Brushfire Records (Jack Johnson’s label) that they are finally releasing the soundtrack from the 16mm surfing film A Brokedown Melody (2004). Johnson’s other surf films have had very interesting, well-put-together soundtracks (see the write-up of Sprout here) so I am looking forward to hearing this one as well.

Notable ’round these parts is the inclusion of a nice little ukulele ditty with Ed Vedder which, as I recall, played over the closing credits. A friend of mine once said I’d do backflips for this but I was never able to find a version of it until recently. And I’ll admit, I fairly did.

“Goodbye” – Ed Vedder
This version from 3-15-02 in Los Angeles, the first live performance

Here’s the full tracklisting of the album, which includes the usual suspects (Jack Johnson, Matt Costa) and some notably interesting inclusions (M. Ward, Kings of Convenience, The Beta Band):

01. The Cave – Culver City Dub Collective
02. Breakdown (film version) – Jack Johnson
03. Know How – Kings Of Convenience
04. We Need Love – Johnny Osbourne
05. Transfiguration No. 1 – M. Ward
06. Let It Be Sung – Jack Johnson/Matt Costa/Zach Gill
07. Goodbye – Eddie Vedder
08. Needles In My Eyes – The Beta Band
09. Heart (Things Never Shared) – Doug Martsch
10. The Road – Matt Costa
11. Vuelo Al Sur (Koop Remix) – Astor Piazzolla
12. Home – Jack Johnson

It’s available for pre-order now and comes out November 14, to coincide with the theatrical release of the film. Speculation is flying fast and furious that this would be the perfect song for Vedder to bust out at the Bridge School Benefit this weekend, which I am conveniently in-town to attend. I wouldn’t mind hearing this one live at all.

Take me out to the ballgame (but I wish it were the Giants)

Just a quick note as I dash out the door on this (rainy) Friday afternoon to go potentially freeze my butt off at a Rockies game up in Denver with my sister tonight. I’ve been looking for a reason to post up this mp3 of Eddie Vedder singing the old baseball classic, and jumped for joy when I realized today was the day:

“Take Me Out To The Ballgame” – Eddie Vedder
From 5-14-06 with a special Mother’s Day dedication for the mamas
(Link updated 9-26)

I really want to root, root, root for the home team now that I have relocated to Colorado, but I secretly miss the San Francisco Giants like nobody’s business. Whether it was the old cheapie bleacher seats my family used to regularly occupy when they played at Candlestick Park, or the beautiful sunny days spent at the new Pac Bell Park with some garlic fries, a cold beer, and the view of the Bay, all is well in my world when I am rooting for *my* home team.

Sigh.