Alice Russell

Interesting take on a great song.</br>

Mountain Stage

We made it to our first Mountain Stage last night and it was a "big time." The show was ostensibly headlined by Jakob Dylan & The Gold Mountain Rebels, but the undercard stole the show. Pictured from left to right are Krista Detor, Andy Davis, Hayes Carll, and Priscilla Ahn.

The show kicked off with Krista Detor, who was followed up by Andy Davis. Then came Priscilla Ahn who brought down the house with "The Boob Song" (not Mountain Stage version). Next up was Hayes Carll who just oozes Texas and was absolutely hysterical. There was nothing Jakob Dylan could have done to keep up, and although he was good he just didn't match the talent Larry Groce lined up for this show. These folks are all worth a careful listen.

Jimi Hendrix

LA Times: "THERE'S something about Jimi Hendrix's confident grin -- so ingenuous and inviting -- that disarms the observer and plays against stereotype, as do so many of the images in "Hendrix Revealed," a new exhibit of Hendrix photographs that opened May 29 and will continue nearly a month, the largest display of them ever mounted in the U.S.The website Celebrity Vault in Beverly Hills is hosting the collection in association with U.K.-based Raj Prem Fine Art Photography. The show appeared in London six months earlier and all the photos are for sale."

X

I recently got to see X at the 9:30 Club: One of the better shows I've seen in a long, long time. DCist does an amusing and spot-on recap of the show, especially with respect to Billy Zoom. Here's some vintage footage worth checking out. Buy this record if you don't have it.

The Black Keys

The Black Keys - Attack & Release (2008)

A band I got to see at Bonnaroo last year (or at least hear as you can see from the picture below which was taken during their set) that I've been meaning to track down and finally did. And I'm glad I did. Pitchfork describes their latest effort as follows:

The Black Keys seemed doomed to linger in the long, black-and-red shadow of the White Stripes. That's perhaps unfair: Akron's Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have perfected their own brand of Delta-tinged, garage minimalism. But after four albums, even they seemed to realize they had hit a creative wall. Luckily, in 2007, they were tapped by producer Danger Mouse for a collaboration with Ike Turner, though when he passed away last December, the project left the duo with a host of material. This became the foundation of their fifth and most adventurous album to date. Maneuvering between the King of Rhythm's joie de vivre and their crestfallen, crossroads-blues heritage, Attack and Release subtly expands the Black Keys sound.

The reviews have been pretty strong. Listen at MySpace and here's a recent NPR appearance on World Carfe.

Hanx

I just bumped into this site and it seems like it's well worth further exploration.

Arty Hill

Arty Hill - Bar of Gold (2008)
Apropos of nothing really, a friend recently described Oakland as the Baltimore of the West Coast. Arty's MySpace describes his music as "Bakersfield meets Baltimore." Not sure what all means but this is a really great album. In the liner notes, Jason Ringenberg lays down the gauntlet and dares you to find a better country record this year. Hard to argue.

He's out playing some shows and he puts on a good one. We recently saw him at the Austin Grill in Baltimore and will be checking him out again at the Johnstown Folk Festival.

Band Camp

From the NY Times:

More and more adults are leaving their BlackBerrys and briefcases behind to become swept up for a few days or weeks in the celebratory world of summer music camps. The programs range in disciplines from chamber music to rock, and many of them take place in bucolic, low-stress zones like the hills of Tennessee or the lake country of Interlochen, Mich. “When people do have a chance to have time off, they want to accomplish something, fulfill a passion they have,” said Nancy LaPook Diamond, president of NicheDirectories, which publishes GrownUpCamps.com. “In the last couple of weeks, we added two new music camps to our directory. There’s a tremendous trend toward enrichment programs in general.”

New Blogs

With the pending move to WV and starting a new job I've been woefully behind in posting, but I have been keeping up on things. A couple of new good reads to note are indieball and salad days music. Both definitely worth checking out.

Body of War

I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Pearl Jam fan (I'm more ambivalent than anything). But these two clips are definitely worth watching and the film looks like a must see: It's off the charts on Rotten Tomatoes.

Jimmy's Glasses

A guilty pleasure...


More here.

Pitchfork TV

Check out Pitchfork TV. It just launched.

Sun Kil Moon

Sun Kil Moon - April (2008)
Back from a little hiatus and going to start digging out from a backlog. Finally, placed an order and just got this one in the mail. It's good. It's an easy passive listen, but it's definitely going to take work to dig out the gold on this record.

The Village Voice, under the subtitle, "Sad-folk preacher delivers a really long sermon," describes Mark Kozolek (the driving force behind SKM) as "a stubborn gray. Amid the poppy reds of the New Pornographers, the quirky greens of Grizzly Bear, and the fervent purples of the Arcade Fire, he's the hoary bard of rainy mornings and smoky bars—the cloud over your Sunday picnic." The Austinist roughed it up a bit:

Speaking of RHP, April lifts off with a wink at their legacy. Opening with the chirpy "Lost Verses", Kozelek's voice sounds fresher, younger as it did on RHP's debut so long ago. Loping guitars chords multiply, and distant, reverb-laden voices sneak into the song's center, before a gritty exposition, rocking you out softly. You don't realize it, but you've just sat through a ten minute piece, yet, curiously, your Yes albums are safely packed away in the garage. Settled in, you prepare to enjoy the rest, but give us What's Next To the Moon's "Rock and Roll Singer" over riff copycat "The Light" any day. Jeez. It's only the second track on the album, and we're already beginning to dread that we'll be wishing for more covers by the end of the set. "Lucky Man" does it's best, god bless it. A strong track, yet ephemeral. April hits a strange stride in it's center with the minimalistic Heron Blue", showing off SKM's guitar multi-tracking mastery.

We loved the simple density of "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes" from the previous album, which "Moorestown" does a wonderful job of emulating and building upon, a comfortable intermission that had us at peace. A peace that went undisturbed through the inoffensive, rather bland second act. Multiple listens and we still couldn't develop a desire to hear snoozers "Like The River" or the sprawling, 10-minute long "Tonight in Bilbao" more than we had to for the purposes of journalism. The final track, "Blue Orchids," is another wonderful, Spanish guitar-heavy piece, again showing off Kozelek's nimble fingers. Steve Howe had better watch his back. But just like the diehard fans of the ex-Yesman that rushed to pick up copies of his solo work, all but the devoted should keep this disc at a distance and start at the beginning, lest they get the wrong idea about the Koz.

The other reviews have been much kinder. Judge for yourself with a listen on his MySpace page.

I saw him a couple of years ago at The Ram's Head in Annapolis, and although he was a little put off by the dinner theater setup he sounded amazing. He's on tour and definitely worth catching. Here's an NPR story worth checking out.

Archie Edwards

The good news: "The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization, is tasked with keeping the blues tradition alive -- more specifically, East coast acoustic folk blues. Archie's Barbershop, located in NE Washington, DC, functions as a museum, music hall and educational facility, as well as headquarters for the organization."

The bad news: Developers have bought the building and the barbershop is going to be razed.

More good news: The Saturday jams are moving to HR 57.

In typical fashion, I've learned of this late in the game. But not so late that I can't go check it out and that's the plan.

(Sorry for the infrequent posts - will be back in the game by early March - lots going on right now)

Half Acre Day

Half Acre Day - Fourteen Trips Around the Sun (2007)
I picked up this little gem after hearing them on KEXP. Out of the gates it's catchy to keep you listening, but there enough nuance to make it interesting. Seattle Sound notes that "[i]t seems from these songs and more that the guys in the band have a thing for the end times and nature. The odd thing is that everyone is obsessed with those things now, which makes this collection of expansive pop numbers, intertwined with steady danceable rhythms, melodic synthesizer melodies and bright brilliant harmonies accessible to non-conspiracy theorists." And the NW Music Blog writes that "[t]his album has the very real possibility of catcing on and making a dent in the mainstream. Overall it is brilliantly produced with entertaining lyrics, a good sense of humor, and catchy hooks that will help push their musical gospel in to the ages. And, if you’re looking for some sort of reference point on all this, just know even Archie McFee’s is pushing for them, and they know all." Listen at MySpace.

Worst Album Covers

Pitchfork puts together a list of the Worst Album Covers.

Welcome to the Jungle

From the AP:

State police say a teacher at Booth Free School barricaded herself inside a classroom Wednesday when she mistook someone singing a Guns N' Roses song over the public address system for a threat.

She was working after hours and thought no one else was in the building. Then she heard someone say over the loudspeaker that she was going to die.

Six troopers and three police dogs showed up and found three teenagers, one of them a custodian at the school, who had been playing with the public address system.

Police say one of them sang "Welcome to the Jungle" into the microphone. The song contains the lyrics "You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die."

Vote or Die

As hard as it is to believe, the end of the year is here which means the "best of" lists are on their way. Here is Sasha Frere-Jones's list:

1. Lil Wayne “The Carter III” (Universal)
2. Radiohead “In Rainbows” (Radiohead)
3. Battles “Mirrored” (Warp)
4. No Age “Weirdo Rippers” (Fat Cat)
5. LCD Soundsystem “Sound of Silver” (Capitol/DFA/EMI)
6. The Good, the Bad and The Queen (Honest Jons/EMI)
7. Feist “The Reminder” (Cherrytree/Interscope)
8. R. Kelly “Double Up” (Jive/Zomba)
9. “Skull Disco: Soundboy Punishments” (Skull Disco)
10. Spoon “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” (Merge)
11. M.I.A. “Kala” (XL/Interscope)
12. The Cool Kids (internet)
13. Tobias Thomas “Please Please Please” (Kompakt)
14. Tracey Thorn “Out Of The Woods” (Virgin)
15. Miranda Lambert “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (Sony BMG)
16. Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings “100 Days, 100 Nights” (Dap-Tone)
17. Prodigy “Return Of The Mac” (The Infamous/Koch)

Here are ballots for NPR's and KEXP's forthcoming lists. Vote or Die.

Dylan Movie Clip

2008 Plug Awards

The ballots for the 2008 Plug Independent Music Awards are up. The "album of the year" nominess are:

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge) (MySpace)
Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin (Sub Pop) (MySpace)
Battles - Mirrored (Warp) (MySpace)
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing) (MySpace)
El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux) (MySpace)
Justice - † (Downtown / Vice / Ed Banger)
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Polyvinyl) (MySpace)
Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released)
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone) (MySpace)
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) (MySpace)
The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet) (MySpace)

There are a ton of other categories, including "music festival of the year," and the lists are impressive. My vote would have to be for Bonnaroo since that's the only one on the list I went to. Incidentally, dates for the 7th Annual Bonnaroo were just annouced for June 12-15, 2008.

Amoeba Gift Guide

Amoeba Music recently published its annual gift guide. Something for everybody.

Black Cat Bouncers

Gridskipper, "The Urban Travel Guide," identifies "Washington's Worst Bouncers." And The Black Cat, not surprisingly, makes the list:

Why, oh why pick on the Black Cat? They're like the best place for music, and they have all these awesome bands. True, but their bouncers all suffer from rock star inferiority complex and bad tattoos. Guitarless… and sober, they take everything out on innocent you (everything = capitalist domination, rising rent, the parents who ignored them, their unfulfilling prom night, zits). Better to slink in and mouth-whisper "thank you" than to look the nightcrawling nerds in the eyes. If you want decent bouncers, go to 9:30 Club.

I think this is largely a symptom of the ridiculous system they've devised for selling tickets and stamping hands. Anybody who hands you a ticket and tells you to walk it two feet to the person with the stamp would seem like an asshole.

Some other great Washington lists worth checking out are DC's Best Jukeboxes, Cheap Drunk Brunch in DC, and The DC Punk Crawl.

Monitor Mix

Carrie Brownstein, sort of formerly of Sleater-Kinney, has started a blog on NPR. It's called Monitor Mix and is quite good. A friend sent me this post and it captures my current state perfectly:

Since I've gotten older, and probably for the last five years, my relationship trajectory with live shows goes something like this:
1. See listing in local paper or hear about a show from a friend.
2. Think about going to the show, maybe even put it on my calendar.
3. Start listening to the band's music in anticipation of the show.
4. When people ask me what I am doing that night, say that I am going to the show. I am not lying--in my mind, I am really going to the show.
5. Feel tired the day of show and check out what movies are playing.
6. The night of the show, look at the clock and think about what is happening at the show at that very moment.
7. Rent a movie.
8. Sometime in the next week, hear about the show from someone who went.
9. Tell myself I will see the band next time.
10. Find a new show to plan on seeing.

It's really sad to see your life laid out neatly in about 100 words.

Anna Netrebko

Suffice it to say that I'm no opera fan and know absolutely nothing about it. But this article about Anna Netrebko certainly piques my interest:

The paparazzi love her, so much so that she doesn’t dare make a restaurant reservation in her own name. (One that she likes, for some reason, is Beaverhausen.) In this country she has been featured in Vogue and Elle and on “60 Minutes.” In Europe, where cultural news frequently makes the front page, she is the subject of two unauthorized, not entirely reliable biographies and is written about all the time — seldom factually — in the tabloids and gossip columns. It is not true, for example, that she had an affair with Robbie Williams and bore his love child. On the other hand, the reports that she loves to party and to shop and can swear like a trooper in five or six languages are probably not inaccurate.

Good for her.

Devil Doll

Check her out. Official Site. MySpace.

Band of Horses

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin (2007)

Their sophomore record. Their debut was clearly one of the best of 2006. The reviews have been pretty strong for the most part. The Onion AV Club says, "Cease To Begin, doesn't deviate much from its excellent 2006 debut, 'Everything All The Time,' the record's relaxed, understated grace is distinctively Southern in its lack of self-consciousness." And the far more pretentious Pop Matters writes, "Cease to Begin, an album that is deceptively risky in its textured composition and laid-bare emotions. And those subtle risks payoff in a big way, making for one of the great rock records of 2007." I think that means it's a lot like their last record and it's quite good. Listen here at MySpace.

More clips here.

Band Camp

The LA Times does a couple of amusing pieces on Rock and Roll fantasy camp. Here and here.

iPod Repair

The NY Times recently ran this helpful article on do-it-yourself iPod repair:

A FEW months ago, Stephen Ironside, a student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, confronted a minor but modern tragedy: the iPod that filled his life with song stopped working.

The device was out of warranty, and Apple would not fix it free. So he left it in a drawer until he happened to read a blog posting on CrunchGear.com that described how he might fix it — with a small, folded piece of paper. Mr. Ironside celebrated by posting thanks on the blog: “I’ve been on CDs for months. You saved my life (and my iPod).”

The author of the blog post, Matt Hickey of Seattle, says that using paper as a shim to put pressure on the hard drive has worked on about 70 percent of the failed iPods he has encountered — even though he is not sure why it works.

Gadget-fixing is adapting to the modern era. Neighborhood repair shops are all but gone, and along with them the repairmen who could offer casual advice, even when that advice was whether it was worth repairing the device. But Web sites can help users find and share solutions that can save a device from the landfill. If the job is too tricky, a number of Internet-based firms offer highly specialized repairs via overnight mail.

Some sites like macfixit.com, fixmyxp.com and macosxhints.com are devoted to a single product, while others like avsforum.com sponsor debates on a big product area, in this case home theaters, televisions and stereos. People with laptops that have suddenly gone blank can turn to www.notebookforums.com or notebookreview.com, and there are even a few sites like www.highdefforum.com for fixing TVs.

Something to keep in mind.

The Blakes

The Blakes - Streets EP (2007)
Following up on their self-produced debut, The Blakes have released an EP with some re-mastered material and a couple of new songs. This is just good old-fashioned bare bones rock and roll. Listen at MySpace and note that they're now on tour. You can purchase directly from the band here. Here's a couple of clips worth checking out:

Air Guitar

Air Guitar Nation (2007)

Although I have zero musical aptitude, I can relate to rockin' the air guitar. This movie chronicles the beginnings of the US Air Guitar Championship and the Americans' arrival on to the "world stage." Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 84%. From the Producers' Notes:

In the late summer of 2002, Kriston Rucker and Cedric Devitt touched down in Helsinki, Finland and made their way by train to a small fishing village on the Baltic coast. Oulu, Finland has been the mecca of international air guitar since the World Air Guitar Championships began there in the early '90s. Kriston had read a story about the 2001 championships in the Wall Street Journal, and the two men set out to find out what it was all about. Rucker and Devitt were welcomed into the community of air guitarists and invited to attend the high altitude training camp that takes place every year on a remote island, some 10 feet above sea level.

There, they learned the rules of competition and the secrets of air guitar from the past masters:

• Air guitarists usually perform under a stage name.
• Each performance is one minute in duration.
• Every competition consists of two rounds: the individual, in which the competitor performs to a song of their choice, and the compulsory, in which every competitor performs to one song chosen by the organizers and is only revealed on that night.
• Judges score the performances on the 4.0 - 6.0 scale that was used in international figure skating until the recent spate of judging scandals.

Here's the trailer:

Pop it on your Netflix queue.

Buck Forty Nine

Buck Forty Nine - Back on the Market (2007) The first thing that struck me when I picked this up was that the cover was hand-painted and a full blown piece of art. The detail is amazing and it's clear a lot of work went into assembling each disc. The best part is that the music is as good as the cover. The album contains three covers that are both well-suited for the band and obscure enough to not distract from the song: Walking the Floor by the Ernest Tubb, Kind of Woman I Got by the Osborne Brothers, and Mind Your Own Business by Hank Williams. The remaining originals are pretty consistently catchy and clever and sound like they could have been written in the '50s. In short, the covers could pass as original material and vice versa. Give them a shot at MySpace and get your hands on a copy.

Jason Ringengerg

Jason belts out Route 66 after a Farmer Jason show:

Click here to book Farmer Jason.

Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (2007)

This just landed on my doorstep a few days ago and I've made it through the entire disc a few times, but it's definitely going to take some more active listening. Pitchfork, which rates it an 8.6, says:

Sam Beam's first two full-lengths under the name Iron & Wine were bare-bones, hushed affairs full of rich imagery, whispery falsettos, rhythmic finger-picking, and not much else. In the time since, Beam has gradually moved in other directions, expanding his palette on both the excellent Woman King EP-- which featured more percussion and fleshed-out arrangements-- and 2005's full-band collaboration with Calexico, In the Reins.

Beam has also toured with a group of musicians for some time now, so it makes sense that his new album would complete his gradual journey away from lo-fi home recordings. The album even teases you at its start-- it begins with a snatch of scratchy black-and-white guitar and percussion before jumping to Technicolor when the bass and drums dive in. The rest of opener "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car" is surprising as well, at once sleek and full of clattering Americana signifiers like steel guitar, acoustic slide guitar, and tack piano.

NPR broadcast their recent appearance at the 9:30 Club. For the time being anyway, he's streaming in the entire album at MySpace. FREE STUFF. Other reviews here (and definitely check out the reviews for Our Endless Numbered Days and The Creek Drank the Cradle on Metacritic as well).

Budget Rock

Here's the schedule for Oakland's 6th Budget Rock Festival:

Dreamt up one evening in the winter of 2001 by five disgruntled and bitter music fans, the original Budget Rock Showcase was initially conceived as a platform to bring THE LYRES to the 6 inch Parkside stage for their first Bay Area appearance in (what was it? like) 15 years (or something). That and to just generally celebrate mindless garage rock (particularly the Bay Area's superior firing power in said genre compared to the rest of the world). It was to be a one-off, three-day, two-night, all-expenses paid love-in for a handful of Thee Parkside's closest and dearest three-chord friends. That first year also flaunted one of COMETS ON FIRE's first SF shows, THE PHANTOM SURFERS, THEE FLYING DUTCHMEN, THE JEWWS, and loads more...look up the poster. Much to everyone's shock the resulting festival was not only not a complete and utter fiasco, it sold -out weeks in advance and drew fans from such exotic global locations as Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy and Groverston, Alabama. (A couple bruised up underage lads from Atlanta with no tickets to the sold out weekend even showed up on the Parkside doorstep and guilt-tripped us into letting them in..."No, we don't have ID...I mean we flew all the way here from Georgia, sooo..." When they stumbled away a few days later they did leave a few copies of their band's brand new record, the unbelievably kickass debut Black Lips 7")....Well, when the smoke finally cleared BudgetRock ended up as the calendar year's only truly successful West Coast garage festival. There were no long lines, no near riots, no bands-not-getting-paid and no broken promises; just twenty-five bands for twenty-five bucks rockin it like nobodys business.

Hailed by both musicians and the paying public as a full-blown success on message boards all over this great nation, a befuddled Parkside staff shrugged, collected their wits from the barroom floor and set out to give the people what they want; more BudgetRock. Budget Rock was held at the Parkside for 4 more years of the funnest/most exhausting weekend of the year, with memorable performances by CRIME, FLESHTONES, WOGGLES, MORLOCKS, FE FI FO FUMS, OKMONIKS, OMENS, local legends like ROY LONEY and THE LEGENDARY STARDUST COWBOY and all the dim stars in the local BudgetRock universe: HAROLD RAY LIVE IN CONCERT, SLA, HUSBANDS, ROCK N ROLL ADVENTURE KIDS, FLAKES...goodness the list just goes on and on and many of em are back this year, so read on.

In 2006 for Budget Rock V we moved from our traditional home at Thee Parkside in San Francisco to the Bay Area's ground zero for this kind of primo shit: Oakland's STORK CLUB and hosted headliners THE ORIGINAL SINS. The 2007 Budget Rock VI will again happen at the Stork. Set for October 25-28 we'll be replacing the world famous HOT DOG EATING CONTEST on Saturday afternoon with a COSTUME CONTEST hosted by new Bay Area Nobunny/Okmoniks main main JUSTIN. Food will be available out front by the Bay Area's tastiest TACO TRUCKS and there will of course be lots of able DJs.

Thursday, October 25
Hank IV
Digger & The Pussycats
Husbands
Les Hormones
Thee Cormans

Friday. October 26
Trashwomen
Gentleman Jesse & His Men
Rock n Roll Adventure Kids
Traditional Fools
Der Submarine Racers
Charlie & The Moonhearts

Saturday, October 27
Real Kids
The Pets
The Dutchess and the Duke
Harold Ray: Dead in Concert
Hex Dispensers
Haunted George
Tyvek
Coconut Coolouts
South Bay Surfers
Nice Smile

Sunday, October 28
Real Kids
Flakes
Bobbyteens
Okmoniks
Impediments
Captain 9¢s & the Knickerbocker Trio
Nobunny
Knights of the New Crusade
Touch-Me-Nots
Guilty Hearts

Babyshambles

A video for French Dog Blues from the Babyshambles' forthcoming album Shotter's Nation:

Peter Bjorn & John

Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block (2007)
I was introduced to these guys at this year's Virgin Festival and they far exceeded my expectations. I was familiar with some of the buzz, but really didn't follow it up. Here's what Stylus writes:

We can’t call this rock because it’s downright friendly. The songs’ body language is suggestive of that rare person who is simply and unequivocally nice. And we all know what nice rock sounds like. But true pop doesn’t ever do this—not only betraying a passion most of us are too embarrassed to show as pop, but beckoning us to explore and even exploit it. Writer’s Block has announced the renaissance of both pop music and love. The memorable compositions connote love’s predictability and worship it all down the winding path, from object to subject, and from ideal to actuality.

Pitchfork gives it an 8.5. Listen at MySpace. And this will get in your head...

You'll be whistling the rest of the day!

Shake the Shack

I've long been a sucker for rockabilly: Jason & The Scorchers, Wanda Jackson, Rosie Flores, etc. Accordingly, I wish I had a reason to be in Seattle next weekend for KEXP's 20th Annual Shake the Shack Rockabilly Ball on September 27-29 at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard, which is billed as the "longest running rockabilly festival in the United States, with a three day celebration. "

Shake the Shack is a weekly program on KEXP, which airs on Friday nights from 6-9 p.m. PST, but fortunately you can stream in the most recent show.

Here's the schedule (with links):

Thursday, 9/27/2007
Billy Joe & the Dusty 45's
The Roy Kay Trio
Marshall Scott Warner Band
Special All Star Band Tribute to Sun Records with special guests

Friday, 9/28/2007
The Cathouse Creepers
Omar & the Stringpoppers
Chuy & the Bobcats
18 Wheeler
Hillbilly Casino

Saturday, 9/29/2007
Johnny & the Blades
The Go-Getters
The Mezcal Brothers
The Honey Bees

The festivities also include the Shake the Shack Hot Rod Car Show at the Shanty Tavern, featuring live music from Billy Dwayne and the Creepers, The Killer Saints, The Black Crabs, Mama Tried and The 1, 2, 3, 4’s.

Otis Redding

A pretty good piece by CNN on the 40th anniversary of Otis Redding's death.

2007 Mercury Prize

The Mercury Prize was recently announced. "The Nationwide Mercury Prize exists soley to champion UK music by promoting the 12 Albums of the Year by British or Irish artists. All genres of music are eligible and all albums are treated equally. The Nationwide Mercury Prize is Europe's Number One Arts Prize in terms of media coverage and influence."

Here's their shortlist:

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (MySpace)

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (MySpace)

Basquiat Strings - Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford (MySpace)

Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold (MySpace)

Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English (MySpace)

Fionn Regan - The End of History (MySpace)

Jamie T - Panic Prevention (MySpace)

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future (MySpace)

Maps - We Can Create (MySpace)

New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom (MySpace)

The View - Hats Off to the Buskers (MySpace)

The Young Knives - Voice of Animals and Men (MySpace)

And the winner is...click here. The site also has a nice archive of past years. Spend some time on this site.

Crack-Addicted Squirrels?

I ran into this article concering Pete Doherty of Babyshambles (formerly of The Libertines) making his kitten smoke crack and saw this quote:

DOHERTY’S kitten is not the first animal with addiction problems. In 2005 The Sun told how squirrels in Brixton, South London, became hooked on crack cocaine hidden by addicts in gardens. Residents said the tufties had bloodshot eyes and were “digging desperately” in flower-beds. In the US, crack squirrels are a recognised problem in New York and Washington DC parks.

Explains a lot.

Li'l Cap'n Travis

Lil' Cap'n Travis - Twilight on Sometimes Island (2007)
I have absolutely no idea how I stumbled into these guys, but the album showed up in the mail one day. PayPal is so great. So far so good, but I definitely like them more when they're "twangy" and get away from sounding like The Thrills (a band I should probably give another chance). Here's the Dallas Observer's take on this Austin band's new album:

From the sound of "My Ship Is Coming In," a smooth-as-silt track near the end of Li'l Cap'n Travis' latest platter, you'd assume the Austin sextet is manning the helm of a yacht-rock revival. You wouldn't be quite right, but only because the band refuses to tie up in any particular genre. Twilight on Sometimes Island starts out with the overwhelming "Violeta, Diamond of the Everglades"—a song so buoyantly melodramatic, you can almost imagine Austin's filmmakers clambering over each other for the rights to play it in the background as one of their white, depressed protagonists has some kind of indie epiphany—and travels down LCT's familiar back roads of slacker country ("Cherry Chapstick" ), space country ("Regatta"), space rock ("Get Wise to Yourself") and straight-up psychedelia ("Drop of Golden Sun"). With its mix of good times, old times and high times, Twilight is the perfect hair of the dog after a night of drinking away lost loves and lazily chasing new ones.

Listen at MySpace. If you're a bit more visual, then this should endear you:

Rick Rubin

NY Times does an interesting piece on Rick Rubin.

Thee Emergency

Thee Emergency - Can You Dig It? (2006)
I think I picked this record up when I was picking over the carcass at Tower Records. I had heard them on KEXP and liked what I heard. This is a real high-energy record and they are clearly influenced by a host of punk bands, but it calms down at times and even has roots and blues moments. Here's what Sound on the Sound had to say about it:

By my calculations, if a record can make even the dorkiest, least musically talented white girl, break out in uncontrollable air guitar and drum solos, that record is FUCKING MONEY. Thee Emergency’s “Can You Dig It?” is that record. The album literally demands the listener to PLAY THIS RECORD LOUD–and one cannot help but oblige.

Hard to follow something like that. Listen at MySpace.

Life Imitating Art

The Mendoza Line

The Mendoza Line - Thirty Year Low (2007)
Thank god I'm not nearly as sad and depressed as the music I've been listening to as of late. I bumped into this album perusing the KEXP reviews:

The latest release from this Brooklyn-based band marks the end of the marriage and professional relationship of band co-leaders Tim Bracy and Shannon McArdle (though Bracy will continue to lead the Mendoza Line). Never afraid of being brutally honest, the two take turns reflecting on the disintegration with emotionally wrenching songs ranging from sad and wistful to angry and vicious. Also includes a 2nd CD of previously unreleased odds ‘n’ ends.

It's everything that Don Yates says it is. The other reviews have also been pretty consistent (e.g., Pitchfork, Stylus and Tiny Mix Tapes). Shannon McCardle has a beautiful voice, which is especially haunting on "Since I Came." There are even a few rockers. Listen here. Buy it here. And here's a Metacritic link to their previous disc, Full of Light and Full of Fire (2005).

Elvis Perkins

Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday (2007)
This is a pretty sleepy and depressing record, but compelling to listen to. It came into a little sharper focus after having just read his Wikipedia entry:

Elvis Perkins (born 1976) is a folk-rock singer-songwriter. He is the son of actor Anthony Perkins (an Academy-award nominated screen actor best known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho) and photographer Berry Berenson. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, and New York City. Perkins is a great-grandson of the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and a nephew of the actress Marisa Berenson. Perkins's melancholy songs reflect the personal tragedy he has experienced over the years. His father died of AIDS in 1992. His mother was on board a flight that was flown into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Pitchfork notes that "[w]ith Ash Wednesday, Elvis Perkins has emerged as an assured, fully-formed cosmopolitan able to merge readily recognizable influences with a sense of theatre too often missing from the legion of similarly-intentioned performers. LA-connected head start notwithstanding, Perkins proves that he's certainly done his homework, but more importantly, that he possesses the ability to create a standalone work that is something more than merely the sum of a few well-worn components." Give him a listen at MySpace. Here's a clip from Letterman: