Drive By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
Guest post from friend of Ickmusic Cam in Toronto.
Drive-by Truckers (DBT) are mostly known for their great live shows and categorized in the ‘southern rock’ genre. Over the past few years, though, they haven’t exactly acted like your standard ‘southern rock’ band.
Last year they backed blues woman Bettye Lavette on her Scene of the Crime album, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category (the award went to Eric Clapton). This year, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (New West, 2008) received 4 stars, and much praise, from Rolling Stone, amongst many others, but is also featured on CMT. Their previous album, A Blessing and a Curse (2006), had elements of early 70s rock, showing influences like Faces & the Rolling Stones.
Happy Birthday Steve Kimock!
My man north of the border, Cam, is back for another post…. – Pete
Oct 5 – If you’re anywhere near Teaneck, New Jersey, head over to Mexicali Blues to catch Steve Kimock, George Porter Jr., Robert Walter, and John Morgan Kimock and celebrate Steve Kimock’s birthday.
Steve Kimock is one of the more versatile guitarists I’m familiar with. His long and ever evolving career has now spanned over three decades, and he has shared the stage with many “big names” as well as showing up to guest with lesser known entities.
Kimock grew up in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania region and moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s. After playing with folk-rock band the Goodman Brothers and several other bands, Steve co-founded Zero in 1984. The band had a lifespan of 16 years and played its brand of rock to both San Francisco and national audiences. Kimock was also the leader of the critically acclaimed band KVHW, featuring Steve on guitar, Zero band mate Bobby Vega on bass, Frank Zappa alumnus Ray White on 2nd guitar and vocals, and drummer Alan Hertz, more recently with Garaj Mahal.
More recently Steve has led the Steve Kimock Band (SKB), which, when not on hiatus, plays primarily original instrumental compositions in styles ranging from jazz to prog-rock. The only permanent musician in SKB, apart from Steve himself, is ex-Santana drummer extraordinaire Rodney Holmes.
Since 2006 the SKB has been on a hiatus which has allowed Steve to sit in with many bands spanning a range of genres, including Banyan, Everyone Orchestra, the Allman Brothers, Porter Baptiste and Stoltz, Dark Star Orchestra, Zilla, and Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – to name just a few.
A check today reveals that Steve will be touring with Ratdog later this month on a 14 show, 12-city tour including a date on Halloween. A typical Kimock performance, whether in one of his bands or sitting in with others, involves multiple guitars. Sometimes Steve will play one of his many electric guitars or dazzle fans with his slide work on his Lap Steel. The different guitars provide different sound and textures that vary the music. Steve is a huge “gearhead” and provides detailed answers to various questions from fans on the ‘Gear’ section of his website.
During his Bay Area years, Kimock periodically played with Grateful Dead related bands (even earning him the title of “… the best guitarist nobody ever heard of” from Jerry Garcia). Despite the fact that he rarely plays Dead material in his own band (in part to not to be viewed as derivative of the Dead scene) his career and persona have been intertwined with Grateful Dead related music – he has performed with Phil & Friends, The Other Ones, the aforementioned Rat Dog, and Dark Star Orchestra to name a few.
Music, tour dates, and the all-important page dedicated to Steve’s gear can be found at www.kimock.com.
Special thanks to my good friend Azer for his contribution to this post.
Zero – Gregg’s Eggs – 8/10/2007 at Gathering of the Vibes, Bridgeport, CT
Banyan – Full Show stream from 8/4/07 – Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver (Kimock on Guitar)
Check out the Steve Kimock Band’s latest, Eudemonic.
SK’s Official Site
Jason Isbell: An Album & Show Review
Hey everyone, this is Cam, another individual Pete has generously asked to periodically contribute to his blog. I’ve been holding off on this post for some time. Why?
a) I presumed that after the initial flurry of publicity there would be little coverage of Jason Isbell‘s debut album – Sirens of the Ditch – or his extensive tour with stellar opening acts Justin Townes Earle on many dates in July, and Centro-matic for much of August. I was wrong – both tour and CD are getting lots of coverage. Now this is a ‘just in case you haven’t seen it anywhere else’ post…
b) I wanted to see Jason & the 400 Unit live, and for that I had to wait until he came back to my town! Last time, I saw him open for Son Volt (which was great), but it’s different when you’re the headliner…
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the ‘buzz’ – a talented artist releases a long awaited high quality CD and supports it with a great live show and extensive tour.
Jason & the 400 Unit finally came back to Toronto on Tuesday. The venue was most suitable for a rock show; the aging but still going strong El Mocambo, known for now-legendary shows by Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Rolling Stones, U2, and Marilyn Monroe (yes that’s correct, in ’58 apparently!) amongst many others over the years.
Considering the ‘El Mo’ is best known as a college bar, it was quite busy for a weeknight in the middle of the summer when school is out. The band took to the stage around 10:30 or so. My friend asked which one was Jason, to which I replied that Jason was in the middle, in a plaid shirt. “The country-looking guy?!” he asked, a tad concerned. I nodded as Jason picked up one of his electric guitars, and kicked off “Grown”, one of the many tunes on the new album. As always, I thought of Pete, and by extension Ickmusic, as Jason sang the lines: “… are you still dancing to Purple Rain?” After the first few bars my friends were nodding enthusiastically, and by the end there was no more talk of country.
Jason & the 400 Unit followed up on the first tune with a cover of a great song called “The Assassin”, which Jason announced will be released in some capacity in a month or so. “The Assassin” was penned by Patterson Hood, Jason’s former band mate in the band Drive-by Truckers (DBT), whom he joined in late 2001 or so and left abruptly early this year. Sirens of the Ditch was recorded on the few, brief breaks he took from touring with DBT.
Even though the album features some of his old band mates, most of the songs sound unlike his contributions with the Truckers. My other friend, who’d seen Jason with DBT in the fall, remarked that solo Jason is more “controlled”; I agree and think this is in particular reflected on the album. I also think that it’s a sign that the band has practiced hard for the tour, and is in especially fine form.
As the night progressed, Jason switched to acoustic guitar and handed lead guitar duties over to Browan Lollar, who did a great job, and continued to impress the crowd. After a short “smoke break”, Jason returned on solo acoustic before – not a minute too soon – he picked up his electric guitar and the band rejoined him for the final set of songs. These included the first track from Sirens, “Brand New Kind Of Actress”, the smoke-infused blues burner “Hurricanes & Hand Grenades”, & the classic rocker “Try.” To top it all off, the final encore was Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak”, which left the crowd again howling for more.
The tour is still on – see Jason’s website for more information. The 400 Unit, Jason’s band, is comprised of Browan Lollar on guitar, Jimbo Hart on bass, and Ryan Tillery on drums. Son Volt keyboardist Derry deBorja has also joined them on this tour, allowing Jason more time to focus on his guitar playing and vocals.
Buy Sirens Of The Ditch.
Captain’s Dead has Jason’s April 18th show at Irving Plaza in NYC.
Climbing the Creaking Tree
Cameron, my friend from the Great White North, recommended today’s selection: Toronto’s Creaking Tree String Quartet. This is some interesting stuff. They explain on their web site:
This ensemble, made up of violinist John Showman, guitarist Brad Keller, mandolinist Andrew Collins and bassist Brian Kobayakawa, has a distinct sound that lives in the cracks between idioms. It’s acoustic roots music that combines intricate phrasing with imaginative rhythms. Too outside for bluegrass, but too driving for jazz; too free to be chamber music, but too structured for the avant-garde.
Their web site has a good number of downloads which I’ve been checking out for the last couple of weeks. My selection for you leans more toward bluegrass. I guess I’m lamenting the fact that I’m missing this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival. But I will be back in 2006. Oh yes, I will.
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