Austin Bound
Off I go for my second Austin City Limits Music Festival experience in as many years. I’m just – ohh – a tad excited. Because I am an über-music-nerd, I’ll be snapping pics with my iPhone throughout the weekend, and uploading them to my Picasa photo site. More pics will be uploaded from my camera after I get back.
9/27 Update: Greeting from the Dell buuble like structure at the ACL festival. Yeah, so apparently, intense heat, snapping pics, and uploading by email seems to drain an iPhone battery quite quicky. So, I won’t be able to post as many pics as I want to my Picasa site from the festy. Now, where’s my supersized can o’ Heineken?
- Watch the Festival live on AT&T Blue Room.
- Check out the Official ACL web site.
- See my Picasa photo album, updated throughout the weekend.
Birthday Boss – Bruce at the Shrine
In 1990, Bruce signed up for two intimate shows at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium to benefit the Christic Institute, along with Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. This here is night two. On night one, he had premiered “Red Headed Woman”, “57 Channels”, “When The Lights Go Out” , and “Real World”. This night saw the debuts of “The Wish” and “Soul Driver”.
It’s pretty hard to describe in words how completely amazing this show is. Bruce is in optimal form. It’s interesting to note the differences between this acoustic show and the Ghost of Tom Joad tour 5 years later. Somewhere in between, Bruce picked up some twang (maybe all those Harley rides out West?). At any rate, I love both sides of the spectrum, but there’s something about this particular sound, this particular performance.
If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to name my favorite Springsteen song, “Brilliant Disguise” would be my reply. And this is the single best performance of the song I have ever heard. All of the heart-wrenching, soul searching doubt about love – bursting from Bruce and his guitar.
And each song is that high in caliber. Bruce pours his heart and soul into each lyric, and each strum of the guitar – something he does on a regular basis with his band. But it seems even more pronounced here. Maybe it’s the moment in time – just a year earlier he had disbanded the E Street Band and moved to L.A. And earlier in the year, he and Patty had their first child, Evan (an experience he details before “My Hometown”). It’s the Boss, coming out on his own. And he shines.
Happy 59th, Boss – I’m awfully glad you’re around.
Bruce Springsteen
Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles
November 17th, 1990Intro – “If You’re Moved to Clap Along, Please Don’t”
Brilliant Disguise (mp3)
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Intro – “The address was 39 and a half”
Mansion on the Hill
Intro – “We all live with our illusions”
Reason to Believe
Intro – “You gotta watch those redheads”
Red Headed Woman (mp3)
57 Channels (and Nothing On)
The Wish
Tougher Than The Rest
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Soul Driver
State TrooperIntro – “when that side of you is set loose”
Nebraska
When the Lights Go Out
Thunder Road
Intro – “I caught his first tear on the tip of my finger”
My Hometown
Real World
Highway 61 Revisited (w/ Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt)
Across the Borderline (w/ Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt)Live AC Bleepin’ DC
I realized something yesterday. Or actually I re-realized it. “Highway to Hell” is extremely gratifying to the soul when played at a very loud volume – which happened yesterday at work (earphones on, of course). I work in a techy environment where a lot of us often choose to plug into our tunes and get our work done. I’d love to have an electronic ticker up on the wall streaming all the the music playing at any one time around the office. It would make for an interesting study, wouldn’t it? Or am I really a geek? Don’t answer. Let’s move on.
So these are rough times in these United States – the financial world in turmoil, hurricanes, gun-toting Alaskan hockey moms, dead patches of grass in my front yard – it’s enough to make one wonder if we are indeed on the highway to hell (in a hand basket).
It’s live shows like this that can help get some of the aggressions out, and escape for a bit, if you will. We reach back here to 1979 when Bon Scott was still AC/DC’s lead singer. I won’t pretend to be an AC/DC aficionado, but I do know that I love ‘Back in Black‘, ‘Highway to Hell‘, and ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap‘ (great memories of listening to “Big Balls” as a guffawing 10-year old). Mr. Scott sadly left us in 1980, dying from acute alcohol poisoning after a night out in London town.
Enjoy every moment people. For it’s times like these when you need to go back to basics and Let There Be Rock!
AC/DC
Towson University
Towson, Maryland
October 16th, 1979Live Wire
Shot Down in Flames
Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be
Sin City
Problem Child
Bad Boy Boogie
She’s Got the Jack
Highway To Hell
High Voltage
Whole Lotta Rosie
Rocker
If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
Let There Be Rock================
Unless your head’s been under a rock, you’ve picked probably picked up on AC/DC’s media blitz to promote their new album and tour, called Black Ice…
- The album is available on ACDC.com and at Wal-Marts across this land beginning Oct. 20th (go the AC/DC.com route, mm-kay?).
- SIRIUS XM Radio “announced that legendary rock band AC/DC will host their own music channel on SIRIUS. The channel celebrates AC/DC’s iconic career and the upcoming release of Black Ice, the band’s first studio album in eight years. AC/DC Radio will be broadcast on SIRIUS channel 29 and debuted on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 6 pm ET, to run through January 15, 2009.”
- And you can check out the Tour Dates here (December 10th here in Phoenix).
Blues from the Rush Soundtrack
Must be in a Bluuuues kinda mood. I’ve had the soundtrack to the movie Rush since it came out in December 1991 (Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Gregg Allman as – what else – the drug dealer). Eric Clapton scored the movie, and contributed some extra songs too, most notably “Tears In Heaven“, written for his son Conor, who died tragically in March 1991 from falling out of his mother’s 53rd story apartment window in Manhattan. He was 4 years old.
Eric invited Buddy Guy to help out with this one – Willie Dixon’s “Don’t Know Which Way To Go”, an 11 minute immersion into everything that is great about the blues.
Buy on Amazon.
Clapton Joins the Bluesbreakers, Mind-Blowing Solos Ensue
This is from John Mayall’s 70th birthday gig a few years ago. Buddy Whittington (from the Bluesbreakers) and Eric Clapton do things to their Fender Stratocasters that mere mortals like us can only dream of. Amazing. And a trombone solo to boot!
I just finished Pattie Boyd’s autobiography, and I’m just cracking open Clapton’s. I knew that drugs and drink played a role in Eric’s life, but holy schmoly batman, that is excess!
Here is “Talk To Your Daughter”:
I Listen to What Laura Says, and You Should Too
What Laura Says. A band from my neck of the woods – Tempe, Arizona (where every day I miss my home around the corner from Casey Moore’s). Looking at their pic here, you may be quick to judge. “Oh, hippie music! Deadhead muckety muck, don’t want it!” Ah, but don’t be so quick to judge. Sure, they have a side that will appeal to the psychedelic / jamband set. But there’s also a side that taps into late era Beatles. A side that taps into the Beach Boys. Little Feat. Canned Heat. Ben Folds. Dr. Dog…
But let’s stop the comparisons. What Laura Says manages to mix together a veritable tasty stew of genres. This album has followed me around for many weeks now. I’m so happy to have discovered “one of those” albums where you unearth something fresh and new with each listen. One of those albums where one song’s fabric weaves into the next, so if you pop one song on your iTunes, it doesn’t seem right without it’s companions. An album that is wholly original, quirky, and unique.
The album is an adventure – changing tempos and styles. The gentle harmonies of “Couldn’t Lose Myself If I Tried” kicks off the album with a banjo accompaniment and a happy go lucky lilt. Before you know it you’re off on a piano-driven, hand-clapping pop tune. Then comes “Fashionably Moral”, a haunting nod to raunchy Delta blues with a speeding freight train interlude. The clean joyous harmonies of “Illustrated Manual”. And how to describe “Wish I Could Fly”? Gorgeous harmonies, a melody that will have you singing along before the song ends – “boy I wish I could fly-y-eye-y-eye” – and a most-satisfying percussion frenzy toward the end.
There’s “Dot Dot Dot”, which you could easily argue owes to the likes of Simon and Garfunkel or Kings of Convenience. There’s “Waves” – a lazy summer daydreaming love song, which, for me, delivers the best 1-2 punch of the album with the next song- “Get Better Soon” – a down home double backbeatin’ backwoods jam. “Don’t worry about me, it’s you that needs the help”, it starts (and just gets better).
Harmonies and melodies. Melodies and harmonies. Gah! I love this album!
And then I saw them live. Two words I uttered to myself as I got in the car to drive home from their CD release party at the Rhythm Room a couple weeks ago: “Holy.” and “Shit.” These guys blew my mind live – charismatic, quirky, having a good time, but very serious about delivering a quality set. They seem light years more mature than a young, upcoming band. Their live show is an experience – and if you’re in Texas, California or Vegas, you have a chance to catch them within the next couple of weeks…
So listen, I’m not blowing smoke up your ass because I’m gaga over a hometown band. These guys are the real deal, and I’d be gushing just as much if they were from Nome, Alaska.
————————
What Laura Says – Jasper Corrine – this is a non-album track that sounds like a George Harrison-penned outtake from the White Album. I include it here because I’m not posting anything from the record except for “July 23”, which has the band & label’s blessing – and which you can still hear here.
What Laura Says is: Danny Godbold, James Mulhern, Mitch Freedom, Jacob Woolsey, and Greg Muller
Cruise over to their MySpace and say hi. And make sure to listen to “Wish I Could Fly” and “Couldn’t Lose Myself If I Tried”, which they have streaming.
Thank you. Carry on.
How Keef Handles the Stage Crashers
Okay, granted that Noel Gallagher had no time to react to the idiot who bum rushed him [01:30 in] on stage a few nights ago in Toronto. But I must recommend to Noel and all performing musicians worldwide that they take preventive action, and watch this video.
Learn from the master. Here’s what happens when you try that business on Keef…
Looking Back: Cameo
I know I speak for all middle class suburban white males in their late thirties when I ask: “Where the hell is Larry Blackmon??“
Okay, well maybe not – but I do get nostalgic for the funky old days of Cameo from time to time. They were one of the first live acts I ever saw, back when I was 16 and 17 years old. Most know ’em only for “Word Up”, and maybe for songs like “Candy,” “Attack Me With Your Love,” or “Single Life.” All great tunes from great albums.
But fact is the boys had been around since the early to mid -70’s, when the Julliard-trained Blackmon formed the New York City Players. In ’76, they changed their name to Cameo and signed to Casablanca’s Chocolate City label.
Their debut, Cardiac Arrest, was released in ’77, and gave the world what they never lost: danceable, funky music with a heavy dose of quirkiness.
I’m all about the quirk.
Cardiac Arrest looks to be wayyy out of print, but you can find “Rigor Mortis” and other classics on the The Best of Cameo.
Hot Video Action
Take a look at this great title track to ’82’s “Alligator Woman”…
VIVA EL CAMEO!!!
Society’s Child
When I was in high school, I listened to a lot of chick singers. I would lay on my bedroom floor and listen to Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Sarah McClachlan, Suzanne Vega, Liz Phair and others and while writing terrible short stories about my angsty teenaged life. The chick singer phase continued into college, though to a much lesser extent (well, except for Tori, which I’m sure I’ll end up telling you about at some point).
One night after work about 10 years ago, I picked up a 3-disc compilation that Rolling Stone put out called The Rolling Stone Women in Rock Collection. On disc 2 of that set I discovered a song I’d never heard before, but loved immediately, “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian. Outside of that song, however, I never really bothered to seek out any other music by her.
(photo: janisian.com)
A couple of months ago, I was browsing around eMusic and I noticed that Janis’s Stars album was recommended for me. I took a listen and liked what I heard, so I downloaded it and a couple of others and enjoyed everything. It kind of baffled me that I hadn’t discovered her back in high school during my chick singer days. I guess better late than never, right?
Earlier this week, I attended a book signing for her recently-released autobiography, Society’s Child. She spoke for about 30 minutes, telling some stories from the book, did a 30-minute Q&A (I was actually quite proud that not a single stupid question was asked, which is never the norm when I attend Q&A’s), then did the signing. She was very nice and gracious and seemed genuinely happy to talk to her fans. Getting to meet artists in such a low-key, relaxed atmosphere is always a good thing, and I’m glad I went. I recommend you pick up her book and the accompanying CD she just released. And, of course, go see her if she’s going to be in a city near you.
Janis Ian – Society’s Child (mp3)
Janis Ian – At Seventeen (mp3)
Janis Ian – Stars (mp3)
Steve Earle. Letterman. Friday.
Hey Steve Earle fans, watch Letterman tomorrow night (Friday, Sept. 5th). Steve will perform a Warren Zevon tune, “Reconsider Me”, in tribute to the late great Zevon who passed away 5 years ago (Sept. 7th, 2003).
I didn’t know it until tonight, but Earle recorded the song (hear it on YouTube) with Texas band Reckless Kelly for a 2004 tribute album, ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon’…
