Califone

Just like A Sunny Day in Glasgow, I liked Califone more live than on their records. This isn't always the case for me, in fact I'm pretty frequently dissapointed live by bands whose records I really like, Pinback is a good recent example. But both of these bands were great live.

I thought Califone were going to be these 20-something indie rock dudes, but they were frumpy, 40-something midwestern guys, totally unpretentious, funny bantering with an audience that was clearly very into them. They'd be a decent band if it was just about the songs they write, but they really get into some cool experimental stuff, with different loops building together and they expertly move into and out of songs off of that stuff. Great show. Regrouping tonight and then back to the Bell House tomorrow night for the Walkmen.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow

I was taking leak at the Bell House last night when these two dudes started talking:

"Maybe we should pull some Axl Rose shit and go on way late."

"Or just say that there is no apple juice backstage and not go on at all."

They were clearly fucking around, I guessed they were from Sunny Day in Glasgow and we started talking a bit. I asked what the deal was with their name and apparently a few of them went to art school in Glasgow. I said my band has a song called "A Sunny Day in Portugal" and one of them (the tall bassist) said "We'll see you in court!!" Haha, but I told them it was kind of an ode to Panda Bear, and they said they're going to be sharing a bill with him Spain soon.

A buddy of mine might be doing some work for the Bell House so he got me and him comped for a few shows this week. Last night was SDinG, tonight is Califone, Thursday night is the Walkmen.

SDinG were really cool, actually even better than I expected and I like both their records. They have two chick singers, one of whom is this Asian chick who bounces around in a loose 50s style skirt and white keds; I kind of wanted to start dancing with her, she was fun. The other chick was cool too, also in a 50s skirt, and she played keyboards as well. In general I felt there was a pretty big gulf between their recordings and their live peformance. I guess that isn't all that uncommon but I had the feeling that they haven't been recorded right. They rock a lot harder than what you get on the recordings, which are fairly washed out and dreamy, cool but a little bit amorphous and maybe too vague. Live there is still a cool ambient thing happening but the girls' vocals work better together. The biggest difference to me was the drums; the drummer is pretty slamming but the records have way too much reverb/echo going on and that vitality is lost.

Anyway, the Bell House is cool because most of the bands that play there are pretty well-known but they just hang out afterwards, so I managed to semi-drunkenly share my opinion about their recording/live divide with a bunch of different band members. I'm sure that they will think deeply about my beer-soaked ramblings, in particular the keyboardist/singer, who was working their merch table ("LPs sold out"!) who seemed impressed that I was wearing a suit.

Relatively Clean Rivers

My man Record Mike tipped me off to this... is he on here? I don't think so. Check it out, "Relatively Clean Rivers":

"Former Beat Of The Earth leader Phil Pearlman assembled this band in the early seventies and eventually recorded this magnificent rural rock album in 1975. The Relatively Clean Rivers album stands with the very best albums of the era, possessing a purely American sound and walking confidently past the shadow of its previous incarnation. Amazingly well produced for a private pressing, it is the very antithesis of his earlier releases that could be classified as garage (at a stretch, perhaps - they are not without a certain tangible sophistication)."

Fans of Skip Spence etc. should run not walk to Captain Crawl and find this. Kind of a early Dead vibe at times, or CSN/Neil Young vibe. I love that borderline cheezy-but-still-good vibe. Give this one a shot and it will grow on you.

dc

trading music

One of the more interesting themes for me to follow on this blog is how technology is shaping how we interact with music. That recent post where the Web Sheriff actually infiltrated our ranks with his Big Brother tactics and sly but insidious appeals for those of us who wanted to check out the new Broken Bells album to actually pay full price for it is a good example.

Another change going on is how I trade music with people. Until very recently I regularly traded DVDs full of music with friends. DC & EJ on the regular, and I even did a mail trade with Gabino a few months ago. But now, with the proliferation of blogs and easy downloads, I can just post here about an album and provide a link, email a friend, or just mention a band and suggest they captaincrawl it (I spread the gospel of captaincrawl regularly, and I think I'd pay for a priority subscription that brings up only full albums and/or gets rid of those annoying commercials). This is cool and easy, but I'm already nostalgic for the 4 gig dump of totally new music, checking out what another person I respect is digging, bantering back and forth about it.

I've been living for a while with the idea that an album has become like a business card, and I check out a ton of music and if I like a band and hear that they're in NY I make a real effort to go out and see them. But lately I've considered spending money on music in new ways and I wonder if it's the beginning of new economies related to music as the standard record company model dies. I've paid for 30 day subscriptions to Rapidshare a few times to accelerate my download speed from blogs, and scored tons of music this way (though a lot of the file-sharing sites are totally free and work great, I think Rapidshare just was an early arriver on the scene and has a lot of that market). I've used yousendit a bit, and I now find myself considering a monthly subscription so I can just blast out albums to friends with a message, say hello to people I don't talk to that often but who might occur to me when I listen to a certain album, that kind of thing. I've even considered starting a blog like the many I troll regularly and post albums and a small description; unclear whether I can get in trouble doing it, so I just haven't pursued it. I'm trying to at least practice what I preach with my own music, Monastics (the band I'm in with EJ and DC) just put up a website and are giving our album away for free.

Oh, and BTW, if the Web Sheriff is out there and monitoring this, Broken Bells came to Music Hall of Williamsburg, I was all over that shit, trying to get tickets right away when they went on sale. And you know what? I couldn't get them, they sold out right away. I was all ready to buy a few tickets and bring friends, as per my promise to you, Danger Mouse and James Mercer. I think those guys are probably doing just fine, even if I didn't make their show and downloaded their album for free.

Autechre/Boduf Songs

New Autechre is awesome, I think probably their best, listening to it non-stop.

Been into Boduf Songs for a little while, "How Shadows Chase the Balance", has been a late night staple, finally got on captaincrawl and got "Lion Devours the Sun" and "the Strait Gait". Boduf Songs is an English guy named Matt Sweet, really dark, sparse, hushed vocals, very cool, "the strait gait" is a short, experimental album. Got a bottle of laphroig recently, it won't last long with late night sessions, just finished Out of Captivity listening a lot to these albums, helped put me in the dark Colombian jungle.

soul sunday afternoon

Searching for the right soul vibe for a sunny Sunday afternoon, listened to some Curtis Mayfield, some Delfonics, a bit of Sly & the Family Stone, but finally got on to Babies Making Babies, killer compilation put together by the drummer from the Roots, first track, Smokey Robinson, "Quiet Storm", that's what I was looking for------

Some interesting things here..

http://voodoowagon.blogspot.com

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

Just found out that Alex Chilton died of an apparent heart attack today in New Orleans. He was scheduled to do a Big Star show at SXSW this weekend.

I'm having a momentary flashback to Katrina, when his absence was flashing all over the internet for about 48 hours before he was pulled off the roof of his house. This, apparently, is "actual fact", as they say.

It's odd, almost as if there were something in the air: I found a bunch of old Chilton records online & have been listening to him heavily since late last week. Tonight as I made dinner, I was listening to a bootleg of a show he did in Bloomington in '84, cracking up to him doing an impersonation of Paul Schaffer doing an impersonation of Jerry Lee Lewis. He came to Bloomington several times, and there are tapes of every show (before anyone asks, I only have the one). In every show, you can hear some drunken idiot yelling for "Dateless Nights", a song he did with Tav Falco's Panther Burns. That drunken idiot was, of course, me. The first show, he just blows it off. The second show, he says "Did someone actually request 'Dateless Nights'?", shows his band the changes, and then struggles through a version. The third time, I was sitting up front, he got about halfway through the show and asked for requests. I said "Dateless Nights" barely above conversational level, and he wheels around and says "Ha! We're ready for you this time", and then ripped through an incredible version of the song.

I don't know anyone who is serious about his music that isn't down with something that Alex Chilton did, from the Box Tops to Big Star, to the overwrought and degenerate punk singer/songwriter shtick in the late 70's, to the rockabilly trash he did with Tav Falco, to the later Southern R & B that became the centerpiece of his 80's comeback. I once had a good friend and bandmate back in the 80's who derided me for listening to that "hack Beatles paisley pop shit", so I bet him that I could make him a tape of Chilton's stuff and he would become a fan. He listened to the tape nonstop for a month, and never made it past Like Flies On Sherbet on the first side. Ten years later, he was forcing the band to do a cover of "Alligator Man", and is a huge Chilton fan.

Chilton's best music was probably behind him, but when you set the bar that high, you can fall several notches and still be making vital music. About ten years ago, I happened to grab Set on the way out of Louisville straight through to Tucson. That record, a fairly inauspicious collection of covers all recorded in one night (and, according to Chilton, all first takes), not only became the soundtrack for that 30 hour drive, but something I have listened to over and over again through the years. It all comes down to soul . . . Chilton had it.

I was going to do a post here about Like Flies On Sherbet, but I think I'll step aside now. The tributes will be coming fast and furious any second. All I can say is . . . Alex, you will be missed. Very much.

????

Any of you vinyl dudes heard of this?, the inner-playing-with-glue-nerd-kid in me wants to try it

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Brilliant

Gabe staked us out a goldmine at Chasm Filler. There is a ton of crazy good stuff, and it's all over the freaking map. Everyone here should find plenty of music they like at this site. I spent the weekend with all kinds of sound from there: Alex Chilton's classic Like Flies on Sherbet, Big Black's Rich Man's 8 Track Tape, The Band's Music From Big Pink, Black Flag's My War, and of course those killer comps that Gabe highlighted.

One gem that I've been wondering about for a while is Alan Bishop's Ennio Morricone compilation, Crime and Dissonance. There's nothing like a guidebook to one of your musical heroes compiled by another of your musical heroes. Morricone is especially ripe for interesting collections, given the amount and breadth of his work . . . and from what I've heard so far, this is one killer comp.

Morricone is often cited as one of the greatest film music composers of all time, but I say we lose the "film music" part of the description and just call him one of the great composers of all time. I believe he stands with 20th century giants such as Ives, Cage, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Xenakis, Penderecki, Feldman, Gershwin, Ellington, etc. We know him best for his killer/kitschy spaghetti Western soundtracks, especially the "Theme to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Any one of those soundtracks is a great starting place: my favorite is Once Upon a Time in the West. If that were all you heard from him, though, you would only have a small idea of his true genius.

There also was a two volume compilation that came out in the early 90's as part of Virgin's film music series. That one was a little more diverse, but still fairly even tempered, as far as Morricone's music goes. The collection that really piqued my interest was La paura secondo Ennio Morricone ("The Fear According to Ennio Morricone"), an obscure limited (1000 copies) release on Intermezzo Records that I snagged at Louisville's Wild and Wooly video store. Featuring a lot of his horror and spy themes, this collection really shows the true range of Morricone's talent and daring.

There's a bit of overlap between La paura and Crime and Dissonance, which is all to the good. I haven't had the chance to get all the way through it yet, but so far it's even more stunning than La paura. Morricone is like a giant musical/cultural blender, but unlike the Carl Stalling cut up methods that people like John Zorn employ, Morricone forms his raw materials instead of just throwing them out on the floor. The results are myriad and amazing.

Do yourself a favor and dig this.

I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine.

Album by Girls

I'm curious what the reception is to this group. If described to me, I might say I wasn't interested, and I'm having a hard time defining why I like this album. Some of the elements may add up to being annoying, but I just find their music not annoying.

This song "God Damned" is one of my favs:


First song "Lust For Life" off the album is another, nice vid too:


This "Life in San Francisco" is off of their "Lust For Life" single, a little more of a playful song.

Girls - Life in San Francisco from WWALT on Vimeo.

D-Puppy

new releases........

way, way back in the day...... back in the early 00's, I always thought that "Liars" were the best of that crop of "dance punk" bands that were all the rage back then. They sort of had a Jesus Lizard thing going there for a while, but then they fired their drummer/bassist and got all weird and Sonic Youth-y on us. Long story short, I tried to be dutiful and stick by these guys, but their last few albums just seemed lame and uninspired.

But some of the reviews I read of their new album seemed pretty intriguing, so I listened to some of the trax on their MySpace page, and I have to admit, it actually sounds pretty fucking badass. So maybe I wrote them off prematurely or something. Anyone else listening to this new album? Thoughts on it? I know someone else posted about this album a while back, but thought it was worth a quick revisit

Another new release this week that has piqued my interest a bit is that new Gorillaz album. Curious to hear anyone's thoughts on that one as well.

over and out.

Three-fer

More bird-dogging for your downloading pleasure, who wouldn't want these Stones Throw Comps? This dudes whole blog is actually pretty good.

Animal Collective at the Guggenheim

Anybody hear about Animal Collective playing the Guggenheim? Or about about their movie ODDSAC? Would've loved to check that out, though nearly 3 hours might be kind of much unless you were on some heavy heavy shit........

Sparklehorse

We lost another great talent over the weekend.

"It's A Wonderful Life" is one of my all time favorites. Listening now. Fittingly ironic.

RIP Mark.

Quantic and his Combo Barbaro: Tradition in Transition

This 2009 release from Quantic is impressive. The tracks go from Latin jazz, "New Morning" to Indian singer Falu over a latin beat, "Albela". There is a heavy Colombian influence on many of the tracks. Malcolm Catto from Heliocentrics plays drums, Panamanian soul singer Kabir sings on 2 cuts. The Nidia Góngora track, "Un Canto A Mi Tierra" is by far the standout. "Undelivered Letter" has a great extended piano jam about 2 1/2 minutes in. Even if you aren't a huge Latin musica fan you might still dig this.
http://vimeo.com/5902643

BRMC - Baby 81

In anticipation of their new release next week (Beat The Devil's Tattoo), I thought I'd throw this gem up here to serve as a general Black Rebel Motorcycle Club post. If you haven't heard these guys, start here or give either their self-titled ("B.R.M.C") or "Take Them On, On Your Own" a listen... and let me know what you think.

BJM

I'll get in on the new "non-esoteric" backlash post trend...

I've been listening to Brian Jonestown Massacre "Tepid Peppermint Wasteland" CD(s) non-stop all week. Totally straight ahead but just great, feel good jams.

Stay liquid,

d-nice

GBV

i know a lot has already been said about Guided By Voices...but dammit, i've been listening to them a lot lately, and as we've all concurred, that's what this blog is all about. DIG.

To me, they're really the kings of lo-fi and I have a lot of respect for Bob Pollard's work ethic, not to mention his songwriting is top-notch. Generally, I think lyrics are stooopid (holla, DC!!) but I really dig GBV's lyrics. I missed these guys the first time around in the mid-'90s, I was caught up with Nirvana/Soundgarden/Primus/Rage Against The Machine/RHCP et al.


I guess everyone knows about "Bee Thousand" already.
I've also been checking out
"Alien Lanes"
"Devil Between My Toes"
"Propeller"
"Under The Bushes, Under The Stairs"

All of em are damn fine lo-fi rock recordings.

Bye.

Master Musicians Of Bukkake?

Admittedly not my area of expertise, a friend sent me a link to this Stoner Blog that looks pretty deep so I thought I'd pass it along. It seems like there are folks on here who dabble in this genre, if there are any must-haves on this thing I'd like to hear about it. Just grabbed the The second to last High On Fire thing I didn't have and there's a reissue of DC's fave Spine Of God? Who knew.