Another Blog Carries The Weight.
Seriously. I know I suck. I’m sorry.
Go here. This makes me endless amounts of happy. I cannot trumpet my love for lo-fi anymore than this.
The 'Uncategorized' Tag Archive
Below you'll find all my writing tagged with the word Uncategorized. The posts are listed in chronological order. Click the post title to read more.
My Concert Forecast: Joe Ely (solo)
Joe Ely – Saturday, August 4th, 7:00pm – $35 – Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
photo from lubbockonline.
Some of you may already be aware of my obsession with the Austin, TX country scene – More specifically, the 1970s scene that put Austin where it is today. One of these pioneers is a man by the name of Joe Ely, formerly of the Flatlanders, and former employee of the Ringling Brother’s Circus. The man has skills, style, and has played with a wide variety of musicians from the Clash to Chuck Berry to Townes Van Zandt. According to his own FAQs, his first demo was recorded by Buddy Holly, a tape that has since been lost. Shame, shame.
Joe Ely writes story-style country and blues. His musical style is a cross between honky-tonk and hard Texas blues. He’s doesn’t write in the same way TVZ or Lightnin’ Hopkins did; he writes stories, which I think is more in the Texas tradition than anything else. He’s very similar to Robert Earl Keen, Jr. and Steve Earle, both who tend to tell an equal amount of boozing stories and moral-ridden life stories. With these musicians, being along for the ride is really what counts. “One more road,” indeed…
This is a solo show, so I don’t really know what to expect. In my mind the show resembles a country version of the Billy Bragg concert I saw in Winnipeg. I expect him to play acoustic guitar, but I’m really not sure what he’s going to do. Will be do some Flatlanders covers? Townes Van Zandt? Or all of his more recent solo stuff? It’s hard to say.
If you’re in the Boston area check him out tomorrow at Club Passim in Cambridge for $35. It’s almost as expensive as Lez Zeppelin at the Middle East ($20), but [a lot] cheaper than seeing the Police. All legends in their own right.
Flatlanders – Rose From The Mountain
Flatlanders – One Road More
Joe Ely – Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes
Joe Ely – Up A Tree
Joe Ely – Tennessee’s Not The State I’m In
Joe Ely – Boxcars
Joe Ely – Roll Again
Joe Ely – You’re Workin For The Man
**EDIT** This man plays country the way it should be played. Excellent guitar playing – switches from finger picking to flat picking to finger picking without picks. He’s got a style for each song he plays, and it’s obvious that he’s obsessed with the sound he has associated to each song. I’ve never been at a show where it’s actually been acceptable for the audience to yell out requests and then have the performer actually play them. I don’t think he even came with a set list. He even played two of my favorite Townes Van Zandt songs – White Freight Liner and Tecumseh Valley. See him live, if you haven’t already.
More of THE TEETH
After writing my last post on The Teeth, I was informed that I should also link to a certain YouTube video that was filmed by Pat, the genius who originally alerted me to the local greatness of The Teeth. Everyone in the video is friends with The Teeth (so I’m told), friends of the film company, or roommates of Pat, or all three of those. My details are a little shaky on the video are a little shaky, as they were passed to me second-hand. Please inform me if I’ve gotten anything terribly wrong.
Is it a good video? Yes. It definitely suits the style of the song, as well as the style of the band itself. It reminds me of rehearsing in my parent’s basement in high school, except I didn’t have a sweet Hartke stack to blast my bass through. We wouldn’t have had the luxury of even one dancing female fan either, which I attribute to the Spinal Tap adage “We’ve got armadillos in our trousers.” A laser-light show would have been a nice addition. Remember that for the next video.
Get. up. and. dance. You know you want to.
Presenting: The Teeth, “Yellow”
New To Me, Not To You: The Teeth
So, this band was recently introduced to me by a friend from Philadelphia – The Teeth. Thanks, Pat! I’ve been really listening to them a lot lately. Now, hopefully I’ll get to see them live soon.
Anyway, they are a combination of old Modest Mouse (a little more pop-sounding), but with that slightly-less-put-together sound. Their songs have a care-free attitude, and even though they’re not necessarily that loud, I’m sure they’d rock your socks off live. Oh yeah, and I’m pretty sure these guys are hilarious. Case in point:
the ’stache is awesome.
So, if you’re in the Boston area, do yourself a favor and see them at the Middle East on August 17th with Bishop Allen and Page France. It’s bound to be a good, happy, indie-pop show.
The Teeth – All The Girls In The World
The Teeth – Malnutrition
The Teeth – Molly Make Him Pay
The Teeth – The Coolest Kid In School
The Teeth – Oh, Bessy
Jobless No More.
Hey kids — I know that stu has been doing a great job keeping the wheels on this bus turning, but I wanted to let you know where I’ve been. I used to have the type of cool job where I could blog all day and nobody would be any the wiser. Then I was unemployed and stricken with serial laziness and a pursuit of testing the limits of the human bodies ability to process distilled chemicals.
I’ve started a new job. One that pulls in the reigns on my abundance of free time. At least at this point, it does not allow me the gobs of time it takes to craft 50-states style posts.
All is not lost however — this is just a transitional period. One could assume that in short order I will be back to your sweet sweet auditory bosoms with deep pockets and further knowledge of living in the grind. For now however, updates from myself may be irregular (seasoned readers should expect and SAVOR the fact that we prefer quality over quantity.)
Booya. Oh crap… boss is coming….. time to look busy again!
There But For The Grace Of God
This will be brief:
I just got the Willard Grant Conspiracy CD in the mail, There But For The Grace Of God (a short history of the Willard Grant Conspiracy) and DANG is it good. I mean, yeah… it is a compilation, but it had to be shipped from the UK and it has some unreleased/demo material on it. I love it. I want more.
Feast your ears:
Willard Grant Conspiracy – Dig A Hole
You’ll have to buy it yourself to hear the rest of the awesomeness that is the Willard Grant Conspiracy.
Oh, and stay tuned for later this week. I have a new (new to me) band to tell you about, several “Seven Steps to Townes Van Zandt” and a weird mishmash of chronologies to post. Hopefully I’ll get it all in before I have to head back to the midwest this weekend.
My Concert Forecast: Dispatch, Concert for Zimbabwe
So, a friend of mine bought tickets a few months ago and asked my girlfriend if we would like to tag along. I didn’t have much of a say in it, since it was already decided that we were going before I even heard about it. I don’t mind, life’s easier when other people make decisions for you. The concert: Dispatch, Concert for Zimbabwe.
Pro: I’ve never seen them before. Granted, they are a hippy-college-rock-jam-band, but I can appreciate some things in moderate doses, and what I already know about them is pretty decent. I wouldn’t have sold my soul to see them, but this has the prospect of being a very good show to see – especially since they broke up years ago.
Pro: It’s in New York, at Madison Square Garden. Not that I’ve heard really great things about seeing shows there, but I’ve also never been there, and I haven’t been back to New York since I was there in high school.
Pro: The music isn’t half bad, and they broke up in 2004, so this will be a treat.
Con: See my open letter to hippy dancers.
Con: At these big concerts I am inevitably stuck next to the guy that is on his cell phone for the entire concert,
“Dave!! How the fuck are ya? Guess where the fuck I am right now – FUCKING DISPATCH!!! Yes, it’s totally fucking rad. Here, listen … Fuckin-a-right! Bye!!”
I hate you so much. And for once, “hate” is not a strong enough word.
Con: Middle of New York. It’s expensive.
I’ll leave you with some mp3s of their last show in 2004 – Live at the Hatch Shell.
Dispatch – Elias
Dispatch – Carry You
Wish me luck, and hope I don’t punch the guy on the cell phone – for my sake, not his. I’m not a guy who wins fights. Although, how great would it be to be the guy who gets in a fight at a benefit concert? Yeah, pretty great.
My Concert Forecast: Brother Ali
Brother Ali continues to amaze me. I’ve written about my love for the Brother before, but he has unequivacally provided the most consistently progressive and dependable hip-hop releases of the last 5 years. His debut changed the scene. The hiatus that he took during the writing period of his new cd was more or less a dark time in independant hip-hop — very few releases inspired me or did much to advance the genre. His new album doesn’t only advance hip-hop, it blasts it to the moon. It’s bonkers. He absolutely kills the genre, wraps it’s bruised and bloody carcass around his shoulders, douses himself in lighter fluid, and then storms into a fireworks factory while breathing fire.
The guy is the definition of what every hip-hop artist should strive to be: patient, prolific, thoughtful, funny, large, and charismatic. He’s the most well rehearsed MC I’ve ever seen. His voice is what they will make hypnosis tapes out of in a post-hypnosis society of the future. I’ve seen him near a dozen times — I’m confident that he won’t dissapoint tonight in the First Avenue Main Room.
I would fully recommend that if you want to hear the interview and the full stream that you head over to the Current 89.3 and listen to the full stream. I’ve taken the liberty of editing them down to just the tracks for you, but I don’t want to be known as a poacher. They did the work, they orchestrated the whole thing.
My favorite muslim, albino, MC — Brother Ali brings the magic. Everytime.
Brother Ali Live from SXSW – Truth Is
Brother Ali Live from SXSW – Uncle Sam, God Damn
Also — is Hype Machine broken? I get nothing when I search for Brother Ali??
Let’s Head in the Other Direction for Once
So I fully consider myself part of the “Minneapolis/St. Paul” music scene. In fact, I even consider myself a resident of Minnesota even though I live in Western Wisconsin. I receive no news coverage from Wisconsin. I don’t shop in Wisconsin. I rarely have reason to drive further east than my house which is in fact less than one mile from the MN/WI border. I get a MN daily newspaper as do all of my neighbors. If I cared about sports (blegh) I’d surely care about MN sports because those are accessible to me in my living situation.
I’m 18 miles from St. Paul. 25 from minneapolis. There’s a good chance you’re further away from your “scene” but I’m not the guy in the glass house that throws stones so go ahead and frig off, Randy.
There are plenty of blogs from/about minneapolis. This one will continue to be. Though a recent financial crunch (unemployment) has kept me from going to as many shows as I once did, the goodship ss auralfitness will continue steaming chock full of minneapolis content.
Today, however, we travel east to the next nearest “scene.” Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Home to a sizable state college, it in turn envelops a modest music scene. It’s not that bad, either. It’s certainly not burning up Hype Machine, but it’s also not getting every Brooklyn blogger on earth to come down to their weekly shows and drink too much. It does occasionally get me to go down to their shows and drink too much, however.
You see, Brooklyn — Wisconsin is a place where you can go out (no matter your tolerance) and get absolutely falling down mentally retarded shit-faced for about $10. I know for fact that Eau Claire has a bar that on Thursday Nights (all night-long) you can roll a pair of dice and pay whatever comes up for a PITCHER of MIXED DRINK. Holy swash that will get you done right fawwwked up. In the meantime when I’m in NYC I pay eleven-teen-thousand for a Jim Beam and seven and end up talking to the hip flask most of the night.
Ok, so get me on the subject of booze and I’ll get distracted. Let’s get back on point: Bands from Eau Claire, Wisconsin have started to develop one of those cool regional sounds. I’m sure there are plenty of other nowherevilles in America that are producing a lowfi folkpop sound, but Eau Claire seems to be doing it surprisingly well for having such a small population. Nay, they are doing it surprisingly well. Give em’ a listen.
Bon Iver was the inspiration for this post. Featured on My Old Kentucky Blog just last week, I was reminded just how GOOD the sound coming just 60 miles to the east of me was reverberating. Justin Vernons voice sounds like a honey factory reverse cowgirled Mrs Butterworth. This music makes me smile and even though it comes from really damn near my home, it made me somehow feel even closer.
The Daredevil Christopher Wright (web) (myspace)
This could be a band construed as a Twin Cities band because they play regular gigs in the ‘tcs. Rest easy, though, sweethearts: they hail from Eau Claire, Wis. They sound like it. They sound like a small town. They sound unpretended (not a word, I know) and genuine. This sort of melodic low-fi is exactly the sort of sound that gets my butter churning.
The subtlety? The coziness? The beauty. It’s all working right here.
The Daredevil Christopher Wright – Head
The Daredevil Christopher Wright – Everything
This band has recently broken up. I don’t know a whole lot about them except that they’re on MySpace, by Eau Claire standards they were somewhat popular, and they did write above-average electro-pop. Listen to Jailbreak, below, and let me know if it doesn’t make your ears prick up with happiness. That’s just the way that I love you.
Amateur Love – Jailbreak
Amateur Love – Con a Sewer Cat
Meridene (website) (myspace)Meridene sounds like a band that came up out of the ground with this summers crop of turnips and potatoes. It’s an earthy sound that makes my feet want to meet with mud. Even though every band and their retarded step children have added a banjo and updated their bios to google-whack “Sufjan Stevens” — these guys produce a lightweight folk-pop that floats in the same cloud. I think my favorite part of this band is just how genuine the vocals sound. Like, fah reals!
Meridene – Roots Oh So Deep
Meridene – Oh! Lover
So do you have the patience to wait until tomorrow? (or maybe later today since I literally have NOTHING to do all day.) I’m fixing to continue this Eau Claire post tomorrow because the music so far is actually much better than I anticipated. Big ups, EC.
The 50 States, Washington: part 2
Just a continuation of our 50 states series. This week we will wrap up the big-tuna of the NW: Washington, but until the finale (part 3)… I give you part 2!
Birds of Prey – FilthFarm of Washington State
Megadeath – Washington is Next!
M. Ward – Four Hours in Washington
Etiquette – Bellevue
Blacklist – Nuke Seattle
Public Image, Ltd – Seattle
Duff McKagon – Seattle Head
Leonard Cohen – Tacoma Trailer
Alaska Cowboys – Herpes in Seattle
Boyz Nex’ Door – Tacoma Bridge Dance
Chateaux – Son of Seattle
John Lydon – Seattle
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