last week, in atlanta: sleater-kinney at the variety playhouse - great show, they played most of their new album, and some older stuff... they rocked, of course - they're excellent musicians, the set was tight, they clearly enjoy what they do, and seemed like totally cool, down to earth people, with none of the indie-rockstar pretention you get from some (even lesser-known) bands. i've heard people say that sleater-kinney may be the best rock band going right now, and tonight, i'm prepared to believe it. the whole experience only served to strengthen my long-standing crush on singer/guitarist carrie brownstein, who is just incredibly ... sexy, for lack of a better term. she does that girl guitarist thing with her hips, and she plays, sings and speaks in a way that just seems so smart and self-assured. *sigh*
11:51 AM   {l} {c}

anybody wanna bid on belle & sebastian's car?
11:22 AM   {l} {c}

ouch! good goddamn, that's cold... cold, i tell you. knocks some chinks in my armor, i'll tell you that much. but it's refreshing to see somebody unafraid to tell it like it is.
5:41 PM   {l} {c}

aesop rock, labor days
granted, hip hop isn't exactly an area of expertise with me, but i know a little about the underground scene, and i know what i like. that being said, this is one of the best hip hop albums i own. aesop rock has a steady flow, intelligible, intelligent lyrics, all on top of some really elegant music - not just beats, but understated, interesting melodies.

blackalicious, broken arrow - some great songs - some sweet samples, and gift of gab is unstoppable - but mixed in is a bit too much of a nu-soul vibe for me.

sage francis, personal journals this is painfully personal stuff, but it's carried off well. sage francis is clearly a gifted mc, with some really impressive delivery. definitely has the anticon thing going, lots of guest mcs and greek chorus-like shouted harmonies.
5:30 AM   {l} {c}

wilco, yankee hotel foxtrot -
i wasn't very happy with the wilco concert i went to last fall, because it was packed with frat boys and teeny-boppers who had never even heard of uncle tupelo... but strangely, it's the fact this album has something for everybody that makes it so great. it's classic pop: great melodies, great, slightly offbeat lyrics, catchy tunes - it's just lots of fun, but it's not sugar-coated, it's not watered down, it's complex and it's nuanced, and it's solid and consistent. and maybe, just maybe, that could be its fault - a little too consistent at times, jeff tweedy's voice a little too reedy at times, to where it all begins to blend together and almost fade into the background. almost.

of montreal, coquelicot asleep in the poppies: a variety of whimsical verse -
this is a very, very strange album. first, the sound is vintage, perfect sergeant peppers' era beatles; second, it's the most bizarrest sort of concept album. i can't quite tell how seriously to take it: is it horribly derivative, or is it an eerily good tribute? i'm not sure it's not art, but it is confusing - oh, yeah, and strange.

gomez, in our gun -an ok album, but nowhere even near the level of their first two efforts. gomez' blue-eyed, white boy blues vocals and poppy harmonies went much better with the more guitarry sound of liquid skin than they do over the amateurish electronic beats and beeps that are evident here.

kings of convenience, quiet is the new loud -
this album tends to be criticized for being too soft and quiet and gentle. i've heard it described as making simon and garfunkel sound like slayer. and to a certain extent, it does. and to a certain extent - actually a pretty good extent - that can be a really good thing. i don't know about you, but i need some quiet music every now and then, and the songs are pleasant and catchy and not depressing. very nice. and that's enough sometimes.

kings of convenience, versus - same album, re-mixed. most of the songs would benefit from a nice beat behind them, though unfortunately not enough of them are given that kind of support - there are lots of interesting effects, but some of them overwhelm or detract from the quietness of the original tracks... overall not too different from quiet - when it's better it's much better, when it's not, it's just different, really.
10:43 AM   {l} {c}

tom waits is finally getting some real attention! a big salon feature, and an npr fresh air interview.
8:26 PM   {l} {c}

so i intended to write my own reviews of the new tom waits cds - and i still may - but i just read the pitchfork review, and all i can say is that it is absolutely-fucking-precisely-right-on. go read it. then go buy the damn things, if you haven't already.
11:08 AM   {l} {c}

so... finally getting around to posting my burn, baby, burn! cd cover art and song listing. one thing i would like to point out, by way of giving credit where it's due, is that the photograph on the cover (top, here) was taken a few years back by one of my best friends on the planet and certainly the best photographer with whom i am personally acquainted, enrique espinosa, of fort worth, texas. you should check out his website and buy some of his photos. he's that good. i didn't ask his permission first, so i'm hoping this acknowledgement will suffice to let him know how much i appreciate his work.

oh, and the picture of the road on the inside cover (bottom) is one i took on 1-55 between new orleans and memphis, sometime during college. plus a little photoshop motion-blurring action... there were so many songs i wanted to put on this disc, and couldn't fit... but i think i came up with a pretty good selection - it kind of moves from really bright, fun indiepop songs to some bright, fun alt.country songs to some slow, thoughtful alt.country songs to a kind of an odd, but pretty ending. it seems to have gone over quite well. if you did burn,baby,burn and want to trade, lemme know, and we'll arrange something.

and in case you can't read, or, well, supposing you can but you wanted to block-and-copy it, or something, here's that tracklist again:

1. eels - mr. e's beautiful blues
2. beulah - a good man is easy to kill
3. rufus wainwright - instant pleasure
4. the shins - new slang
5. garrison starr - superhero
6. dance hall crashers - cricket
7. jump, little children - vertigo
8. four tet - everything is alright
9. andrew bird's bowl of fire - 2 way action
10. son volt - windfall
11. blue mountain - soul sister
12. neko case - set out running
13. old 97s - indefinitely
14. edith frost - cars and parties
15. the magnetic fields - papa was a rodeo
16. jay farrar - barstow
17. gillian welch - everything is free
18. sarah harmer - lodestar
19. aphex twin - girl/boy song
20. tom waits - long way home
7:34 PM   {l} {c}

holy crap! when did good european bands decide that new orleans was a good place to stop on tour? damn. i'm not complaining:

spiritualized:
04-17 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues

super furry animals:
05-01 New Orleans, LA - Shim Sham

i'll be at both if it kills me.
2:47 PM   {l} {c}

is nothing sacred? looper in a xerox commercial?
9:34 PM   {l} {c}

some sites that should have comments, don't. as such, i'll say it here and hope it's seen: good to see that cory has recently begun to appreciate the wide world of alt.country. yee-haw! now go get all those back issues of no depression.
2:41 AM   {l} {c}

i'll be at the breeders show at the shim-sham on saturday. will you?

i'm excited. i mean, kim deal was in the pixies! it'll be kind of like seeing preston school of industry because scott kannberg was in pavement. except, well, p.s.i. sucked, and i went to that show to see the shins anyway. maybe it's more like going to see eric clapton, who was in cream. you love the old stuff, but that's not the only reason to go...
1:03 PM   {l} {c}

concrete blonde just released a new album today. how i didn't know this was happening until now, i'm not sure... after eight years, a retrospective 'best of' collection, and that weird "cb & los illegales" disc, johnette napolitano is back with her dark, beautiful voice in the setting it was made for, all three original members... from my first quick run through the disc, they've picked up practically where they left off. i can't wait to hear more.
3:37 PM   {l} {c}

better. late. than. never: my 2001 top ten albums.

10. ryan adams, gold
9. andrew bird's bowl of fire, the swimming hour
8. radiohead, amnesiac
7. lucinda williams, essence
6. branvan3000, discosis
5. old97's, satellite rides
4. the strokes, is this it
3. the shins, oh, inverted world
2. jay farrar, sebastopol
1. gillian welch, time the revelator

honorable mentions:
11. rainer maria, a better version of me
12. the white stripes, white blood cells
13. the frames, for the birds
14. bjork, vespertine
15. rufus wainwright, poses
16. sparklehorse, it's a wonderful world
17. spiritualized, let it all come down
18. mercury rev, all is dream
19. stephen malkmus, stephen malkmus
20. bob dylan, love and theft
21. the avalanches, since i left you
4:21 PM   {l} {c}

coming soon... my very own top 20 of 2001... i'm working on it. until then, check out pitchfork's list.
9:53 AM   {l} {c}

amazon has posted their 'best of' lists for 2001, and as usual in the music category, there's a wide gulf between the discerning editors' list and the customer's list, obviously created by that insipid flock of TRL-loving sheep known as the listening public.
among the editors' top 20: dylan; the white stripes; bjork; sparklehorse, it's a wonderful life; califone; the shins; gbv; rufus wainwright; the strokes; radiohead; and paul burch.
among the customers' top 20: dave matthews; u2; dido; david grey; train; john mellencamp; britney; alicia keyes; the moulin rouge strk; and jewel.
it's a good thing i'm a music snob, or i might be pissed that creed only made it to # 69.
5:35 PM   {l} {c}

a few more that are on my heavy rotation list right now:

the frames, for the birds: is it sacriligeous to utter the words, "better than radiohead"? maybe it's a bit premature, but the frames may fit that description, if not now, by their next album... i'm in awe of this disc. they're irish, and were recommended to me by my friend stephen, who lives in belfast and has seen these guys live several times. on his recommendation i bought the import, hear unheard, and it's wonderful, kind of the way "the bends" was wonderful, in that you could just tell that the next album could be perfect... steve albini produced it, so the production is a +, the instrumental melodies are as intense and beautiful in some parts as mogwai; the vocals at times as buoyant and mysterious as thom yorke's; but they never seem derivative or imitative. you have to hear it. my favorite song at the moment is "headlong".

branvan 3000, discosis: possibly the last album released on grand royal records before they went under last month, and oh. my. god. it's the new definition of danceable, eclectic soul music, even resurrecting curtis mayfield for a track. it's like a big mix of jamiroquai plus the beastie boys plus curtis mayfield plus maybe a little buster poindexter, a bunch of new wave, and a good bit of world music courtesy of eek-a-mouse, and maybe some juliana hatfield, and maybe lush, and, and, aw hell, there's too much here to mention, and it all just works... it's like the magnetic fields' 69 love songs, or the avalanches album, where there's just too much going on to explain, with different vocals and samples and sounds all over the place, layered and chopped and added and multiplied and it's just fucking amazing. and you can't help movin'... "speed" is a standout, though it's the kind of album you have to listen to from start to finish...

spiritualized, let it all come down: i got the l.e. packaging, which looks kind of like a hot lunch styrofoam container, with an indented plaster mold. it's pretty cool. and the music is good too. big spiritualized sound, orchestras and stuff, and of course j.spaceman being whiny and morose...
4:18 PM   {l} {c}

lots of good new music lately that i've been meaning to mention here, but it's taken me a while to get around to it. sorry. anyway...
lemesee, let's just go down the list, shall we? it'll give you a good idea of what's on my mp3 player right now, too.

radiohead, i might be wrong: great, if at seven songs, a bit short. they're surprisingly adept at translating their recorded music to the live setting - you'd think that with all the effects and samples and electronics they'd either be crap or just have to reduce everything to an acoustic setting, but they pull it off quite well. "idioteque" is the standout, i think.

beulah, the coast is never clear: my current pure-pop addiction. from the first track, "hello, resolven" it's just sweet, catchy retro-pop hooks one after another. it's not great music by any means, but it's fun. pleasant vocal harmonies, strings, horns, bells, tambourine. and occasionally charmingly wry lyrics, e.g., "when they drilled holes in your scull / and screwed that halo to your head / did you think you could fly?"

natalie merchant, motherland: she definitely pushes her boundaries here more than on her first two discs, to mixed success. she experiments with several different sounds, and at times this exposes the limits of her vocals - but it's really a credit to her that she's trying new things. she's still natalie, and my favorites are the songs where that's all she tries to be, like "henry darger."

metrovavan, retrofitting: it's like looper, without stuart david's magical spoken word stories. which is exactly what it is, because scott twynholm is the other half of looper. about the first half of this disc is spectacular, especially "french lessons", but then it kind of descends into background type, low-key, slow beats and bleeps. nice enough. how do you pronounce "metrovavan"?

kasey chambers, barricades and brickwalls: i bought this import at the virgin records in times square. couldn't wait for the domestic release, she's the best alt.country singer ever to come out of the australian outback. i love her voice, though it's similar to the point of being indistingishable from garrison starr's, if you know who she is, which is odd considering kasey's an aussie and garrision's from memphis... a really solid follow up to the captain. and with lucinda williams, matthew ryan, and buddy & julie miller on board, how could it be bad? the title track rocks.

the langley schools music project, innocence & despair: they're not virtuosos or prodigies, these kids, but they're really trying. music is ultimately about the emotion, isn't it? and it's just beautiful, in all its little imperfections and nuances. though those cymbals might have been a bit close to the mic, because they can be painful when you hear them... my favorite right now is the eagles' "desperado", which sung solo by a little girl who just nails it, in that cute little kid voice, with some amazing phrasing...

12:50 PM   {l} {c}

i'm going to start a project here that might take a little while. i'm going to try to list every music concert, gig or show i've been to. maybe i won't have specific dates (but if i find the ticket stubs, i'll put the date) and i certainly won't remember all of them. this should be interesting, it's something i've thought of doing for some time, and blogging it will make it easier for me to add things as i remember them (or as they occur) no matter where i am. if you went to a show with me that's not listed, remind me! anyway, here goes:

1984 - oakridge boys/ ???? (1984 world's fair)
7/4/?? - beach boys (4th of july on the mall in dc)
1988 - living colour/ rolling stones, steel wheels tour (superdome)
1991 - my life with the thrillkillkult/ siouxie and the banshees (n.o. municipal auditorium)
1992 - eric clapton (uno arena)
1992 - chicago (saenger)
1992 - pearl jam, lush, jesus & mary chain,
soundgarden, porno for pyros (lollapalooza '92, uno arena grounds)
1993 - jellyfish (tipitinas)
1993 - phish (orpheum theatre, memphis)
1993 - cowboy mouth (hob)
1994 - **** (rhodes rites of spring '94)
1994 - nine inch nails, downward spiral tour- (memphis auditorium)
1994 - dead milkmen, dick is coming tour (antenna)
1994 - concrete blonde (new daisy)
1994 - black crowes (?memphis)
1994 - ween, chocolate & cheese tour (antenna)
1994 - blind melon/ rolling stones, voodoo lounge tour (liberty bowl)
1995 - the eagles, hell freezes over tour (superdome)
1995 - dewey redman (tubingen, germany)
1995 - **** (rhodes rites of spring '95)
1996 - r.l. burnside (new daisy)
1996 - del amitri (hob)
1996 - harry connick jr. (orpheum theatre, nola)
1996 - man... or astro-man/ stubborn all-stars/ poi dog pondering/
garrison starr/ jackopierce (rhodes rites of spring '96)
1996 - the toasters (tipitinas)
1997 - cowboy mouth (rhodes college)
1997 - joshua redman (new daisy)
1997 - cowboy mouth (new daisy)
1997 - henry rollins spoken word, public insomniac tour (hob)
1997 - matthew sweet/ suzanne vega/ emmylou harris/ taj mahal
michael hedges/ marcia ball (b'ham city stages)
1997 - **** (rhodes rites of spring '97)
1997 - kc & the sunshine band/ the doobie brothers (endymion extravaganza, superdome)
1997 - the subdudes/ van morrison (memphis in may '97)
1997 - cowboy mouth/ creedence clearwater revived (jeff fest '97, lafreniere park)
1998 - ween, the mollusk tour (hob)
1998 - dr. john (endymion extravaganza, superdome)
1998 - run dmc, archers of loaf (rhodes rites of spring '98)
1999 - son volt (tipitinas)
1999 - cowboy mouth (c.a.c.no)
1999 - r.l. burnside (hob)
1999 - sonny rollins (hob)
spr/00 - dr. john (tulane graduation)
sum/00 - solex (mermaid)
sum/00 - andrew bird's bowl of fire/ neko case (mermaid)
fall/00 - r.l. burnside, c'mon in tour (tipitinas)
10/??00 - cypress hill, (voodoo fest 2000)
11/??/00 - willie nelson/ dixie chicks (no arena)
11/??/00 - victoria williams/ marc olsen (tipitinas)
12/??/00 - low (hob parish)
12/??/00 - blue mountain (mermaid)
4/??/01 - henry rollins spoken word, rollins in the wry tour (hob)
4/??/01 - lucinda williams/ dave matthews band (no jazz fest)
5/??/01 - eric clapton (no arena)
6/??/01 - calexico (shim-sham)
6/??/01 - elton john/ billy joel (no arena)
8/??/01 - harry connick jr/ellis,wynton,branford,delfayo&jason marsalis (uno arena)
8/??/01 - mogwai (howlin' wolf)
9/??/01 - american analog set (mermaid)
9/??/01 - edith frost (mermaid)
9/??/01 - the white stripes (shim-sham)
10/??/01 - old 97's, cracker (hurricane fest)
10/??/01 - old 97's (hob)
10/??/01 - wilco (hob)
10/??/01 - ron sexsmith/ lucinda williams (hob)
10/30/01 - black mountain/ blackfire (ark)
10/??/01 - the strokes (howlin' wolf)
11/05/01 - cowboy mouth (hob)
11/15/01 - the shins/ preston school of industry (hob parish)
11/30/01 - the hellbenders/ riverboat gamblers (mermaid)
3/8/02 - kelly hogan (matador)
4/??/02 - alex chilton (matador)

* local new orleans acts seen so many times i can't even imagine counting - all that, new orleans klezmer all stars, royal fingerbowl, rebirth brass band, soul rebels brass band, lil' rascals brass band, kermit ruffins & the barbeque swingers. as you can tell, i've also seen local favorites cowboy mouth an ungodly number of times, but i'm actually trying to remember all of those...
3:28 PM   {l} {c}

just went and saw the shins tonight at the house of blues 'parish'. they were pretty good - not what i expected really, and sadly it took them half of their set - up to and including 'new slang' - to warm up to the show. for the few songs after that, they had really kicked it in, and sounded great.more on that later, when i'm not about to fall asleep. oh, and the preston school of industry was there too.

also. got the new handsome family cd, 'twilight.' not my favorite work of theirs, in fact i'm pretty disappointed. the don't seem to have broken much new ground - they sound like a caricature, or a bad imitation, of themselves. some songs verge on easy listening, none break any new ground, even with the addition of the occasional drum machine. ick. the handsome family with drum machines. what's wrong with this picture? more on this later too.
3:18 AM   {l} {c}

I have a day to look forward to. April 9, 2002. alice and red drum (woyzcek).

I've had the songs from aliceon a bootleg cd for a couple of years now, since right around mule variations. but it's always gratifying to have the bona fide, tom-approved real thing (and i can't wait to see the cover art) in your hand. oh, the joy of hearing tom recite jabberwocky. my two favorite tastes that taste great together: tom waits, and alice in wonderland. the coincidence of which two concepts is maybe the best proof of the existence of the divine that i've yet encountered.
3:04 PM   {l} {c}

is it just me, or do boards of canada tread perilously close, at times, to new age music? is that ray lynch i hear? or is it enigma? don't get me wrong, i love my celestial soda pop and sadeness part 1 as much as the next guy, but there's a time and a place, you know?
12:19 AM   {l} {c}

on a whim tonight, kind of unexpectedly, i put on a costume (my x-wing fighter get-up, so as not to put any unnecessary wear on the wild things suit) and went with simeon to see a small local band called "black mountain" play at a small local multi-purpose art space venue called "the ark" which (a-r-k) stands for something but i forget what. black mountain is a couple of guys who work at the comic store where sim gets his weekly fix, and another guy. it's an interesting set up, drums and two bass (basses?) and one of the bass players (the not-comic shop guy) clogs. as percussion. they play no frills, thick, dark, and melodic, but unmistakably metal, rooted in the best traditions of slayer and megadeath and updated for today. with clogging, which i can't say enough good about. (every band should have a clogger for percussion, it's just such a neat sound. ok, maybe not every band. blink 182 wouldn't benefit much from a clogger. but then there's not much will help blink 182.) these guys are still very rough and amateurish, but they're on to something. pretty much the only band i could think of that's similar is the fucking champs, who are much more polished and tuneful... but you'd have to image they sounded something like this at first, except with two guitars instead of two bass (basses, whatever!) and without the clogging. which also looked damn cool. i wish i could dance like that. i wish i could dance.

they opened for - and stole the show from - a trio of navajo punkers by the name of "black fire" who are basically just a very underground, very native american, rage against the machine (before zack delarocha left). except they're better, not because of their music, which was simple, hard, feedback-laden screaming punk rock (plus a small bit of navajo chanting thrown in for variety) and would have been serious mosh pit music back in the day, or even tonight if there had been more than twelve people in the room, all of us old enough to have the "pits are for kids! i'm too old to slam." mentality. no, they're as good or better than rage because these guys had real live righteous anger, which is something i admire a great deal, and it's always inspiring to see. people who have the courage of their convictions turn me on. you could hear the pain and frustration and anger in the music and even in the introductions between songs, you could tell how much this meant to them, getting their message out. very earnest, well intentioned, angry angry angry navajo punkers. oh, and a girl bass player, who was kinda cute but did lots of annoying slinking about and fake karate kick bass-playing stuff, which i could've done without.

during the set break, there was an amazing belly dancer, who performed for about fifteen minutes, and it was absolutely beautiful. even though she wore a gasmask the whole time. for the first time, i think, i saw belly dancing that was as graceful as ballet, and more intricate, and more sensual. very evocative, and with the gas mask, even communicative of a message. i'm not usually one for dance performances, but this was spectacular.

then simeon and i went to moonlight cafe for guinnesses and hummus, served by a very cute waitress, no less. all in all a great night, simple but enjoyable.
2:58 AM   {l} {c}

okay. so i saw the strokes tonight at the howlin' wolf. for several days now, i've been kind of nervous about having to recant what i said about the strokes last week - but i don't, at least not completely. they are a good band, and they play good punk-edged, solid rock and roll, but there's not much that's original or new or innovative about them. they imitate their influences expertly - in fact at points they channel them - and the raw earnestness and confidence and grit that comes through makes them different from most other indie (or mainstream) bands today. but it's not their grit, it belongs to mick jagger and iggy pop. this show made me feel as if i was in a scene from a movie about early eighties punk bands, or that i was witnessing the closest thing i'll ever see to iggy pop fronting the stooges in 1982. but the strokes are not the stooges, and julian casablancas ain't iggy pop, no way no how. he is a rock personality though, like jack white of the white stripes is - but of a different sort. jack white proved himself to be the rockstar primadonna-perfectionist-asshole type, while casablancas is the rockstar lifestyle-living-innocent-waste type. which is to say he was trashed the whole set, but not so trashed he didn't hit give a great performance. he hit every mark he set. but was he fuuuucked-up. and somehow still able to channel the raw emotion into his vocals, despite his chemical detachment. he was so stoned, in fact, that there was something almost childishly innocent about him, as if you just had to forgive him for not knowing better. oh, and also notable was that something of a pit formed in the front of the crowd, which i was magnetically attracted to, despite not having been in a real pit since i don't know when. but just seeing all those thrashing bodies, i had to be in the middle of it. and i was, and it was good. but it wasn't the first time i've been in a pit, and it was not the best by far, though i enjoyed being in the thick of it - which is my final analysis on the strokes. they're not the first time the world has heard their sound; they're great, yes, but not the best; and i had a good time tonight. which, really, might be all that matters.

and i haven't even told you about 80's night at the shim-sham yet.
4:16 AM   {l} {c}

i'm listening to a new cd, that came out today. it's probably one of the best discs i've heard all year - it's sort of experimental, it's kind of a bold, off-the-wall kind of thing, and it pushes the boundaries of the artist's style. and the band is bad-ass, really technically great musicians. and, not that it matters, but the lead singer went to my high school, and used to be good friends with my cousin douglas.

it's called, "songs i heard" and it's by harry connick jr.

true dat. what's that? too eclectic for you? go ahead, subtract whatever cool points you want. completely new arrangements of some songs from childrens movies - i couldn't help but get it - i've always liked his version of "the bare necessities" from the 'simply mad about the mouse' disney disc - so harry connick jr. doing the oompa-loompa song? had to hear it. (it's darker than you'd expect) and to hear "ding dong the witch is dead" as a jazzy dirge and "spoonful of sugar" as a new orleans second-line march, it's amazing. it's good jazz by any standard, and his totally re-worked, big band jazz arrangements of these songs are almost all winners. i don't think this album is meant for the faint of heart, romantic-comedy lovin' housewife type harry connick jr. fan - he's always had the experimental side to him, and those, in my opinion, have been his best albums, whether or not they've worked completely - his concept album 'star turtle' and 'she' come to mind. he's more than he seems. and this is good stuff.

still don't believe me? even the onion av club agrees. and besides, harry connick jr. singing "edelweiss"? on a mix cd? c'mon, the girls'll melt. right, girls? hmmm... have to test that theory, if i ever get the chance again...
12:47 AM   {l} {c}

there, bought my tickets.. i'm going. to see the strokes at the howlin' wolf, on thursday. we'll see if they live up to the hype live.
2:34 PM   {l} {c}

so i've been meaning to get to this for a couple of days now. you see, i listen to lots of music, and i like to keep up with new artists and new releases, and i'm generally aware of the trends and the next-big-things. so, i've been aware of the strokes for a few months now, to some extent - aware at least that they've been generating a similar hype to that of the white stripes earlier this summer. but i hadn't heard much - a few mp3s - and was kind of looking forward to their album coming out. but now that it has, and i've listened to most of it at record store listening stations, on a couple of occasions, i've come to the conclusion that i don't really like the strokes. the press says, droolingly, that they have a more refined, more professional sound than the white stripes, but are along similar rock and roll lines, and there are inevitable comparisons to the stooges and television. well, on a couple of listens, here's my take: no way. nothing about this album seems to grab me. they're technically proficient, i'm sure, and it is a cleaner sound than the white stripes, but i like jack white's raw delivery and the sort of amateurish charm that lets them get away with it - and the quirky mixture of elements that you know are all derivative, but you're not always sure from what - was that a blues riff or a rock lick? sure, the strokes seem to be a good, solid, real rock band, but they're no stones or who or anybody else, and don't even come close - and they don't seem to have the variety of influence that the stripes do. they have a good sound, but it's not original, and it's not as good as the bands they're trying to channel. so. if this is the pinnacle of indie rock, what gives? why glorify and annoint second rate 70's rock imitators, like the strokes, over some of today's real innovators? i don't get it.

which is not to say i won't get the album. i'm still considering it, because you never know, it may grow on me. maybe all i need is to see them live to be converted, as i was with the white stripes...
1:56 AM   {l} {c}

ron sexsmith & lucinda williams - 10/3/2001 - house of blues, nola

first off, this was a brilliant pairing - i don't know who decided that ron sexsmith should open for lucinda, but two better singer/songwriters would be hard to find.

ron sexsmith is... plain to look at, maybe, and he has the shy, reserved, almost formal demeanor of a boy who grew up outside of the 'in crowd' - not the extrovert, not the type you'd expect to see up on a stage, not a rock star. but there he is, on stage, and when he starts to sing, you can see the confidence in his eyes - and you know that he belongs there, and all eyes are on him. the man has a beautiful voice, and an ability to write beautiful songs. and despite being soft-spoken, he's a good performer - not a rock star, but a step up from a folk singer - maybe a folk star? i tend to think of him in a class with rufus wainwright and freedy johnson, same sort of thing - but i wonder how they are live... (i'll be seeing freedy live around halloween, hopefully...) anyway, he played a good set -- quite long for an opener -, with songs from each of his albums, perhaps a bit weighted towards blue boy, his latest... but sadly he didn't play either of my personal favorites, "one grey morning" or "idiot boy". anyway. good show, and i'd have paid as much just to see him...

lucinda williams is a thing all to herself, however... strangely, though, this show started off a little detached - a little cold, as if she was just going through the motions. but after a little while, maybe 3 or 4 songs, she hit her stride with the 'hometown' crowd, and there was no turning back...
2:46 PM   {l} {c}

so i said i'd post a real review. here it is. i wrote this as part of an application to be a reviewer for pitchfork but it's probably safe to say i didn't get the gig, since i haven't heard anything and the submissions closed nearly a week ago. that being the case, i don't feel bad posting it here - and i don't think it's too bad, as music reviews go, especially for my first attempt in years...

REVIEW: Jay Farrar - Sebastopol

Sebastopol, California, is a town named after a fistfight. It was such a bloody, marathon beat-down that it reminded the small town’s early inhabitants of the news reports they’d recently read of the long-lasting British siege of the Russian port of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. And so, in a one of those strange, dark twists of logic peculiar to rural America, they named their town after a bar brawl.

It's difficult to listen to Sebastopol, the first solo album by Son Volt founder Jay Farrar, and not feel that he must have had the tale of that fistfight in mind when he was making this record -- it treads a similarly peculiar, rural and distinctly American path, with a logic all its own - evocative of the oddities and imperfections of small towns and backroads. In his solo work as with his band efforts, Farrar has continued to evolve a sound that’s distinctly his own. Down-tempo and rural, by turns stripped down and intricately layered, and held together by his distinctive nasal intonation - high lonesome yet raw with a down-but-not-out emotional honesty.

This may be the first time he’s recorded under his own name, but then, Jay Farrar has never been afraid to follow his own muse. As founder (with Jeff Tweedy, now of Wilco, for those young’uns out there ) of seminal alt.country outfit Uncle Tupelo, Farrar created a sound that was steeped in traditional country but with the electric, urgent hooks of punk rock -- doesn’t sound too original now, but in 1989 it was revolutionary, and their first album, No Depression, gave its genre a name. But when he felt his sound was going one way and Uncle Tupelo another, he just left -- that simple -- and built Son Volt around his vision, giving the world 1995’s Trace -- quite possibly the defining album of the alt.country sound, and Windfall, its anthem. Son Volt continued to evolve from there, experimenting in much more intricate, layered compositions and sometimes getting their songs tangled or lost in the arrangements.

Here, Farrar strikes a pleasant balance, with enough instrumentation to keep things interesting and arrangements which give his unique lyrics and vocals plenty of elbow room. On Sebastopol, Farrar goes beyond the typical slide guitar (expertly wielded in this case by Kelly Joe Phelps) and adds the unusal twang of a sitar to the mix, and manages to make it sound more like Indiana than India. “Feel Free,” the album’s first track, begins with an odd electric tootle, but the song settles into such a simple rhythm you soon find yourself wondering if you imagined it. But it was there, and serves as a shot across the bow that there’’s more texture here than in the ordinary line up of sounds and instruments.

“Voodoo Candle”, “Damn Shame”, and “Feed Kill Chain” are as hook-laden and memorable as Farrar’s no-hurry delivery gets, the kind of songs you find on replay in your head on quiet roadtrips.

"Prelude (Make It Alright)" is a tease, building up a promising rhythm out of the aforementioned sitar, some lo-fi drums, and what could be maracas, but abruptly cuts off, giving way to the simple acoustic strumming of Dead Promises

The standout track on this album is clearly “Barstow” -- a Farrar classic if ever there was one. A slow, catchy waltz, complete with hauntingly beautiful vocal support from alt.country ‘it’ girl Gillian Welch and lap steel by David Rawlings, it’s a weird tale which might be about a post-apocalypse excavation of small-town America. It reads like something out of a magical realist or science fiction novel, but sounds like lonesome, classic country.

Which reminds me -- one of Farrar’s most endearing qualities has always been his craft with unusual lyrics, a skill in full effect here -- he casually uses words seemingly out of phase with songs of the roadtrip nature such as these, and lines like “Anyone caught speaking Esperanto / is thought crazy or headed for jail”, “woke up in another test market / with a new headache filter in place”, and even “parabolic louver lighting / really gotta have some.”

And so Sebastopol, as his first solo project, confirms what Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt fans have known for a long time -- Jay Farrar is a musical auteur whose singular talent is to weave the strange and incongruous seamlessly into the forlorn country landscapes of life in rural America - and to show that they were already there in the first place.
2:01 PM   {l} {c}

jay farrar - sebastopol
ryan adams - gold

not very often do the lead singers of two of your favorite bands come out with solo albums on the same day. but today is apparently just such a blue moon, and from what i've heard of both albums so far - which is just a few songs on the way home - they're both proof positive that the songwriter doth the band make - they sound, respectively, as good or better than son volt and whiskeytown... let me give these both a few more listens, and i'll get some better reviews up. but so far, so good.
4:59 PM   {l} {c}

the shins- oh, inverted world

i'm liking this album more and more - i immediately liked a couple of songs, but the whole experience has taken a little time to grow on me. it's shimmery, harmonic pop - belle and sebastian covering the beach boys' pet sounds, with some sergeant pepper's era beatles in there, with the catchyness of the bluetones or the beautiful south and something quirky around the edges that reminds me of some of the more straightforward tunes on earlier ween discs. i like it. i can't hardly understand the words, but i like it.

update: i'm officially obsessed with track 6, New Slang (when you notice the stripes) - it's the kind of song that grows on you until finally you're playing it over and over again, trying to get all the lyrics straight (which are brilliant in this case) and hearing new things every time... "..and if you'd have took to me like a gull takes to the wind, i'd have jumped from my trees and i'd a danced like the king of the eyesores, and the rest of our lives would've fared well..."
1:25 PM   {l} {c}

well, well, well... i don't play any instruments, and i can't read a note of the stuff, but i do listen to a lot of music. as a matter of fact, it's a pretty big deal with me, and takes up a good bit of my weblog, and so i figured it might even merit its own little section. why? hell if i know. there's no reason i can think of that anyone else would want to know my opinions about the music i listen to or the shows i go to - but i enjoy writing them, and it'll be a good record of what music i've seen and heard lately, so why not? i think first, i'll try and collect some of the music related bits from my weblog archives, so i have a little headstart. then i'll get to last night.
8:43 PM   {l} {c}