Rocking the Seine with Calexico
Some fine Frenchman recorded Calexico at the Rock en Seine music festival in St. Cloude, France yesterday afternoon. Originally from Tucson, these boys bleed the sound of the southwest through their music… South-spaghetti-western, Mariachi mavens of the indie music world.
They kicked off the festival with this short but suh-weet set.
Calexico
Rock en Seine
Domaine National De St-Cloud, France
August 25th, 20061.
Frontera/Trigger
2.Lost In Space
3.Roka
4.Deep Down
5.Minas De Cobre
6.Not Even Stevie Nicks
7.Alone Again Or
8.Letter To Bowie Knife
9.Crystal Frontier- Calexico’s Official Site.
- Buy their music.
Grab Bag of New Stuff
Here’s a little cleaning out the ol’ closet project I’ve been meaning to get around to. We music / mp3 bloggers receive a lot of correspondence from bands, labels, promoters, etc. I try to
give everything a fair listen, but honestly, there aren’t enough hours in the day. That damn day job gets in the way, my friends.So here’s a few that have caught my attention over the last few months… take some time and give them a listen.
Hard Fi Remixes
I’m really glad I was turned on to Hard-Fi. They have that Brit-punk sensibility that I enjoy so much. Definitely check out their CD Stars of the CCTV. One thing the Brits love is their house music remixes. You know, bump bump bump bump… I flip on Radio One on Sirius every once in a while and the odds are good I’ll hear me some house beats. Is it still called house? Well, listen to these remixes of “Hard to Beat”, and correct me if there’s a better term.
Hard Fi “Hard to Beat” Remixes: Ashley Beadle (Real | WMP) ; Axwell Mix (Real | WMP) ; Minotaur Shock (Real | WMP); Hard to Beat Mix (Real | WMP)
Tobias Fröberg
How’s this for an intro. Tobias is “the sweetest carameliest 1974 summerlovin spoonful of Scandi candy that’ll sticky your lips all year.” Worth a listen for sure!
When the Night Turns Cold (mp3)
Love and Misery (mp3)For Those Who Know
FTWK is a psychedelic band from Austin, Texas, who released a self-titled EP that came out last year, and caught a lot of attention in Texas. Comparisons have been made to the Jesus and Mary Chain, New Order, Sonic Youth, and My Bloody Valentine. You can download the entire album for free at http://www.for-those-who-know.com and at http://www.myspace.com/forthosewhoknow.
The Majestic Twelve
From Wilmington, North Carolina, the Majestic Twelve are giving away their CD, ‘Schizophrenology’, on their web site. You can also hear them on http://www.myspace.com/themajestictwelve. Worth checking out, if only for “Condoleezza, Check My Posse.”
The Primms
Andy of the Primms sent a nice email recently. They’re a UK band recently transplanted to NYC (that’s them pictured above). They have a residency at Pianos coming up in September, “deafening the good people of the Lower East Side every Thursday at 10pm.” I really like what I’m hearing from these guys.
Official Site: http://www.sonicbids.com/theprimms
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/primmsHem
Ready for some laid back folksy sounds with real nice vocals courtesy of Sally Ellyson? Check out Brooklyn’s Hem.
He Came to Meet Me (Real | WMP)
Not California (Real | WMP)Official Site: http://www.hemmusic.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hemPinto
My man Andreas from Sweden wants you to hear his band, Pinto. The man likes Tom Petty, and you’ll hear it in Pinto’s music.
Never Leave (mp3)
MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/pintopintopinto
Offical Site: http://www.pinto.se/ (more free mp3 downloads)Well, that’s it for now. I’ll try to put more of these together more often, just to support the musicians out there. They’re doing their best to live that dream, so check them out….
Pete Droge, Part 2
I like it when this happens. You know when you hear a great song for the first time, a tune that just connects with you? Where you have the innate ability to know that you’ll be listening to the song 5-10-15 years down the road? And for me, in this digital world, the kind of song that goes straight to the CD burner so you can carry it around with you, listen in the car, etc?
I found that song of the moment yesterday. “Things Will Change and Go My Way”. Pete Droge. Song 6 on 2003’s Skywatching. Great tune, and a great album, and I can tell you this after owning the album for just over 24 hours.
I’ll be reviewing Pete’s new album, Under the Waves, very soon. For now, travel back 3 years in time and put your ears to this gem.
Pete Droge: Things Will Change and Go My Way (mp3) – buy Skywatching on eMusic, the United Musicians store, or from his web site.
In Appreciation of Pete Droge’s ‘Necktie Second’
Thanks in part to a friendship with Mike McReady of Pearl Jam, Pete Droge secured a contract with American Records in the early 90’s, and released a fantastic album called ‘Necktie Second’ in 1994. The single that really caught my attention back then was “Sunspot Stopwatch”. With clever lyrics, and obviously influenced by Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, the tune sucked me in to Mr. Droge’s world, and led me to the debut album, which is great from start to finish.
The song that made the biggest impact, “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)”, was featured on the soundtrack to Dumb and Dumber. It’s pretty much the most electric and uptempo song of the album. But it’s the more relaxed, acoustically oriented tracks that are my favorites: “Faith in You,” “Straylin Street,” “Fourth of July” and “Hardest Thing to Do.”
The album is produced by Pearl Jam buddy and producer extraordinaire Brendan O’Brien, who also produced Springsteen’s ‘The Rising’ (always a Boss connection!), as well as Soundgarden, Neil Young and Stone Temple Pilots.
Droge just released his fifth album, Under the Waves, last Tuesday. You can hear the album streaming on his web site or his Myspace page. I just picked up his fourth album, Skywatching, on eMusic, and am listening to it right now, and digging it immensely.
So take a listen to this great tune from Droge’s debut, and show the fella some love by checking out his links below.
Pete Droge: Sunspot Stopwatch – from Necktie Second.
Pete Droge Links: Official Site | His Substack (2024 update!)
Shriekback live at the Paradiso
It’s an 80’s triple assault! First Journey, then Prince’s ’88 aftershow, and now the circle is complete with a 1984 Amsterdam set by Shriekback. I posted a year ago about my fondness for their 1986 record ‘Big Night Music‘. This show comes a couple years before that release.
Made up primarily of Barry Andrews, Dave Allen, and Carl Marsh, this British group formed in 1982. Andrews was originally in XTC, and Allen came from Gang of Four. Put together Allen’s strong presence on the bass, Andrews’ synthesizer and whispered vocals, Marsh’s rhythm guitar and more melodic vocals, and a mix of cool drum programming and live percussion, and you have a funky, ethereal, and very unique sound.
Shriekback got together again in 2004 after a long hiatus and recorded their 2005 release, ‘Cormorant’. You can hear a couple tracks from every one of their albums on their web site. When this Amsterdam show took place in October of 1984, they had an EP and an album under their belt (‘Tench’ and ‘Jam Science’).
This is a short set, and I’m not sure if there was more to their set this evening or not, but it’s a neat glimpse into Shriekback’s world, circa 1984.
Shriekback
Live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
August 10, 19841. Flayling
2. Hand On My Heart
3. Feelers
4. Mothloop II
5. White Out
6. Suck
7. My Spine (Is The Bassline)Lineup:
Barry Andrews: keyboards, vocals
David Allen: bass, backing vocals
Carl Marsh: guitar, vocals
Martyn Barker: drums
Pedro Ortiz: percussion- Check out Shriekback’s web site and listen to tunes from all of their albums.
- Buy Shriekback music: Amazon US | Amazon UK
1988 Prince Aftershow at the Warfield
I sound like a broken record with my Prince posts, so let me sum it up:
Prince + after-hours performance + 1980’s output = Best Prince
Hmm, I guess I have to conjure up a Not So Best Prince formula.
I’ll try: Prince + Tony M. + “Jughead” = Not So Best Prince.
“Jughead”, from ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, is THE worst Prince song of all time. Totally unlistenable. Not far behind is the title track from ‘Graffiti Bridge’. LOTS of good tunes on the album (“Question of U”, “We Can Funk”, “Joy in Repetition”), but “Graffiti Bridge” itself is cringe-inducing for sure.For the Comments section below: What are your Best and Not So Best Prince formulas [formulae?]. Worst song?
But back to the best of Prince. The Lovesexy tour was my first live Prince experience (two shows at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Sept, ’88). This aftershow came a couple months later. After playing the Oakland Coliseum, Prince and his band zipped across the Bay Bridge and set up at the Warfield Theater.
That evening, the lucky Warfield audience caught great versions of “Positivity” (the closing song on ‘Lovesexy’), “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”, and the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” (and a lot more). Question for the Prince fans…. “Imagination” turns into a refrain of “Sitting in this cafe, waiting for my baby.” I’m wondering about this song, namely what it is. The age old trick of plugging lyrics into Google gets me nowhere! Does .. not .. compute.
Prince
Warfield Theatre
San Francisco, CA
November 10, 1988 (aftershow)Lineup:
Prince (everything)
Mico Weaver (guitar)
Levi Seacer (bass)
Sheila E. (drums, percussion)
Cat (eye candy)
Matt (Dr.) Fink (keys, synth)
Boni Boyer (keys, vox) [who sadly passed away in 1996 at age 38 due to a brain aneurysm]
Eric Leeds (sax)
Matt (Atlanta Bliss) Blistan (trumpet)1. Positivity
2. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker / Four (Madhouse)
3. Housequake > Take The A-Train
4. Housequake (ending)
5. Just My Imagination > Sitting In This Cafe (Waiting For My Baby)
6. I’ll Take You There > Take this Beat (from “I Wish U Heaven” 12″ version; it is hard to get funkier than this)
7. Cold Sweat
8. Prince Drum Solo > Sheila E. Percussion Solo
9. Lovesexy > It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night > Chain Of Fools > Beautiful Night1981 Flashback: Journey’s Escape
There were three albums I remember dominating my life in the very early 80’s. If you’re over the age of 35, it’s likely you had these too. They were: REO Speedwagon’s ‘Hi Infidelity’, Foreigner ‘4’, and Journey’s ‘Escape’. Are you with me? “Take it on the Run”, “Open Arms”, “Urgent”, “Don’t Stop Believin”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” – they are classic arena rock / pop staples of that era. These three albums are like the holy trinity of early 80’s rock albums and probably helped usher in the “power ballad”era.
So lo and behold, I see that Columbia/Legacy is re-issuing the entire Journey late 70’s / early 80’s catalog, and I hurriedly got my hands on ‘Escape’ (which is an expanded edition, with four bonus tracks). Ah reminiscing…. Okay, it was released in July of 1981, which makes me 11 years old when I was enjoying this album, so my memories of ‘Escape’ lean more toward cranking up the little stereo in my room rather than, say, parked on top of Lookout Point with a hottie and letting Steve Perry’s voice do some of the dirty work for me (Prince would end up performing that same function a few years later – a lot less subtly).
Hearing this album in its entirety again does what all good music does (or at least the music that’s important to you): it takes you back in time. It also makes you wonder how Journey can make it without Steve Perry. But they tour on and on. The current lineup includes two original members: Neil Schon (lead guitar) and Ross Valory (bass), and Jonathan Cain (keyboards), who has been with Journey since 1981. I won’t judge the latest lead singer, Steve Augeri, because I haven’t heard him, but my guess would be that his M.O. is to sound as close to the other Steve as possible. Where is Steve Perry, by the way?
So sit back and take in a track from Journey’s golden era, when the tuxedo-jacket-with-coattail clad Steve Perry ruled the microphone at center stage. Where feather-haired vixens lifted their 3-quarter sleeved concert shirts to the sky. Where dark bespectacled burners named Russ and Dirk passed quality concert spliffs back and forth, with oversized handled combs sticking out of their back pockets. A simpler time, my friends, a simpler time.
Journey:
Stone in Love(mp3)- Buy the reissued, remastered, expanded version of Escape.
- Journey’s Official Site | Tour Dates
- For a much more comprehensive look at the complete history of Journey, check out this post on Jefitoblog.
How to Grow a Woman From the Ground
So who’s heard of Nickel Creek? They’re a tight progressive bluegrass trio that have been together since the 90’s. Alison Krauss produced their self titled debut on Sugar Hill Records in 2000 (the same year I saw them at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival). Well, their talented 25-year old mandolin player, Chris Thile, has released a few solo albums of his own, with another one due out September 12th. Chris has been playing mandolin since the age of 5, and was working on his first solo album by the age of 12 (I’m feeling like an underachiever here!).
The new record, ‘How to Grow a Woman from the Ground’, features old tunes and new. Thile gives the traditional treatment to the Strokes (“Heart in a Cage”) and the White Stripes (“Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”), and also covers tunes by Jimmie Rodgers and Gillian Welch.
He brings in friends Chris Eldridge (guitarist and member of the Infamous Stringdusters), a couple members of Leftover Salmon – Greg Garrison (bass, vocals) and Noam Pikelny (banjo, vocals) – and fiddler Gabe Witcher.
It’s definitely recommended that you pick up this CD when it’s released next month. You can check out some tunes on Chris’ MySpace page (listen to his fingers FLY on “The Beekeeper”), and I’m going to play one for you here that steers right into beautifully written ballad territory. This tune wins me over to Chris’ side, showing that the man knows how to write a great song: lyrics that are simple, yet so poignant and powerful. Nice work Chris. Check it out.
Chris Thile:
You’re an Angel, and I’m Gonna Cry(mp3) – from the forthcoming release ‘How to Grow a Woman from the Ground’ (out Sept. 12)Chris Thile on: MySpace | Amazon | Sugar Hill Records
Highway Companion CD Contest
Who wants a brand spanking new copy of Tom Petty’s ‘Highway Companion?’
Leave a comment below with your best description of Tom Petty in 5 words or less (the man or his music). The most original, creative, and/or humorous wins a free copy. Make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you. Nobody will see it but me.
I’ll pick the winner on Monday evening. Good luck! (U.S. and Canada only, sorry world)…
POT SWEETENER: I’ll also throw in Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ set from this year’s Bonnaroo Festival.
Notting Hillbillies in Newcastle
Reading the paper this morning, I was informed that it’s Mark Knopfler’s 57th birthday today. I’ve been meaning to get this show posted, so what better opportunity than today? The Notting Hillbillies was Knopfler’s post-Dire Straits group that he formed with old friend Steve Phillips. They started playing gigs in 1986 and didn’t release their debut (and only) album until 1990. This gig is from 1993, after Dire Straits had released their final studio album in 1991 (‘On Every Street’). Their 1990 album, ‘Missing: Presumed Having a Good Time’, explores traditional country territories, and is a great listen (I particularly like “Blues, Stay Away From Me”).
So here they are performing Dire Straits & Hillbillies tunes in Newcastle during the summer of ’93.
THE NOTTING HILLBILLIES
Swan Hunter Shipyard
Newcastle, England
July 6th, 19931. Intro
2. Calling Elvis
3. So Far Away (Calypso version)
4. Your Own Sweet Way
5. Run Me Down
6. Why Worry
7. Railroad Worksong
8. Feel Like Going Home
9. Setting Me Up
10. Outro
