First Listen: Tea Leaf Green
Recalling shades of perennial Ickmusic faves Band of Horses, Tom Petty, and Wilco, Bay Area band Tea Leaf Green landed in the inbox for a first listen of the first single from their new release Raise Up the Tent. Vivid and funky, the tune evokes the scents and sounds of summer. Produced by David Lowery (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, Counting Crows), if this is any indication of what’s on the rest of the record I can’t wait to hear it.
In the meantime check out the single with me.
Tea Leaf Green – Red Ribbons (MP3)
Buy Raise Up the Tent: Amazon | iTunes
Links: Official Site | on Last.fm | on MySpace
The Tea Leaf Green is currently spreading the love across the country and the tour dates are after the jump.
Extreme Returns
So what’s thirteen years, multiple musical ventures, bad blood and feuding between brothers? For the members of Extreme it appears that it’s not much more than a very long summer vacation. Now before you go judging or recalling their pigeonholing hit “More Than Words” know that this is an older, wiser and slightly disenfranchised Extreme. Not willing to join the reunion circuit, the band has recorded a new record (their fifth) and is headed out on tour starting next Tuesday.
You can check out the first single “Comfortably Dumb” from Extreme’s new record Saudades de Rock at Ultimate-Guitar.
Tour dates after the jump.
In Appreciation of Tom Petty’s Hard Promises
Not since my little spiel about side two of Tattoo You have I delved into my all-time favorite albums. Tom Petty has a wealth of amazing albums on his resume, and though Full Moon Fever almost takes top billing, I have to rank 1981’s Hard Promises as my favorite. It’s all about time and place and memories.
When this album came out in May of 1981, I was a 10-year-old kid, and had just discovered the beauty of the record store. Hard Promises and ZZ Top’s El Loco were the first two albums I remember buying on my own (with good ol’ Mom’s money, of course). Over the course of the summer of 1981, this album was played from start to finish in my room I don’t know how many times, and every song seeped into my impressionable musical vault.
“The Waiting” was the album’s biggest hit, reaching #1 on the new Billboard Rock Charts, and #19 on the Hot 100 Singles chart. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The album has the first Stevie Nicks/ Petty duet, “Insider”, the killer slow funky shuffle of “Nightwatchman”, the vivid storytelling of “Something Big”, and the list goes on.
Here’s how the album panned out…
Side one
- “The Waiting” (Tom Petty) – 3:58
- “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)” (Petty, Mike Campbell) – 4:22
- “Nightwatchman” (Petty, Campbell) – 3:59
- “Something Big” (Petty) – 4:44
- “Kings Road” (Petty) – 3:27
Side two
- “Letting You Go” (Petty) – 3:24
- “A Thing About You” (Petty) – 3:33
- “Insider” (Petty) – 4:23
- “The Criminal Kind” (Petty) – 4:00
- “You Can Still Change Your Mind” (Petty, Campbell) – 4:15
I remember reading an issue of Rolling Stone over the summer that featured Tom on the cover. It was on an airplane, we were off to vacation somewhere. In the article, Petty was describing his battle with MCA Records to keep the price at $8.98, rather than the $9.98 that MCA preferred (Steely Dan’s Gaucho and the Xanadu soundtrack had been the first two to be bumped up to the higher price). Petty went as far as to threaten MCA with naming the album Eight Ninety Eight, and after some wrangling, MCA relented and Petty got this wish. On the plane, I read the interview, and remember reading some F bombs, and feeling like I was getting away with something as my parents sat next to me. Rock n’ Roll!!
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)
Buy Hard Promises.
“Insider” video…
The Boxing Lesson’s Wild Streaks & Windy Days
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon spent almost 30 years on the Billboard charts, until just a couple years ago. With a sound that has so pervaded music and popular culture, it’s surprising that there aren’t a lot more bands like Austin’s The Boxing Lesson, who are not afraid – at all – to let the listener know where Waters, Gilmour, and company stand in their book.
Pink Floyd’s shadow looms large over their new record, Wild Streaks & Windy Days. But that’s not to say that TBL are a Pink Floyd knock off band. Plenty of tracks stray from the Pink: “Hanging With the Wrong Crowd” starts out like Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out”, then morphs into a neo-Zeppelin riff. “Brighter” is a hard driving chunk of power pop. “Dance with Meow”‘s cool drums and synths steer the tune into some futuristic sonic landscape.
But like I said, Pink Floyd may lurk in the shadows on certain tunes, but their presence is undeniable in songs like “Muerta”, the title track, “Lower”, and (obviously) “Dark Side of the Moog”.
The cover art sums it up well. With the omnipresent synths running their course through the album, the fuzzed-out power chords, and the ode to Floyd, the album takes the listener on a journey through the ether.
There will never be another Dark Side of the Moon, but it’s nice to hear it directly influence a band as we near the 2010’s.
The Boxing Lesson – Lower
Buy: Wild Streaks & Windy Days
Web Sites: Bandcamp
Gigs:
July 18 – Emo’s – Austin,TX w/ The Warlocks
July 24 – Doublewide – Dallas,TX (w/Mostly Bears)
July 26 – D-Fest (The Continental stage) – Tulsa,OK
Aug 17 – Emo’s – Austin,TX w/A Place to Bury Strangers
-Midwest Tour TBA Soon –
Sept 20 – Pecan Street Festival (Main Stage) – Austin,TXMiles at the Boston Jazz Workshop, 1973
Miles Davis @ the Boston Jazz Workshop
October 17, 19731. Ife (mp3)
2. Agharta Prelude (mp3)
3. Zimbabwe (mp3)
Thank you Dark Funk (where you can pick up more live Miles).
A Good Week for Tunes in Telluride: Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, Junior Brown, and Jonny Lang
Top Left: Steve Earle works his dobro hard for the Sheridan Opera House crowd.
Top Right: Jonny Lang brings the blues in Mountain Village.
Bottom Left: Junior Brown rocks his guitar / lap-steel hybrid in Mountain Village.
Bottom Right: I ponder life’s great questions with a Franziskaner in hand.Yes, folks, life was sweet last week. My wife and I plopped the kids into the truck and drove the 9 hours from the Phoenix area to the beautiful San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. We met up with my parents, my two brothers and their families for some 4th of July fun in Telluride, Colorado.
As you can see, the music gods were smiling on me during my vacation. Among the hiking, dining, and fly fishing (3 times, 1 brown trout, and a ton of fun) were these three great events that kept the Ickmusic vibe alive….
Go, Leave (and i’ll be back soon)
I’m still in vacation mode, so apologies for the scarcity in posts from yours truly. It’s been a great few days for music here in Telluride. This week, I saw Junior Brown, Steve Earle & Allison Moorer, and Jonny Lang and his great band. Brown and Lang were both f-r-e-e too… can’t beat that.
I’ll be back in full-on wild man post mode soon, but until then, listen to my personal highlight of Allison’s great set at Telluride’s Sheridan Opera House. Great tune, written by Kate McGarrigle (Rufus & Martha Wainwright’s mama), and as Allison mentioned, it just might tear your heard right out of your chest.
Get Well LeRoi!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQqjzt8RIrA 425 344]
Dave Matthews Band – Anyone Seen the Bridge > Spoon (2007-03-29 Chula Vista)On Sunday LeRoi Moore (saxophonist with the Dave Matthews Band) was seriously injured in an ATV accident on his farm in Charlottesville, Virginia. The band posted the following today:
LeRoi’s condition has been upgraded from serious to fair. We would like to thank everyone for the generous outpouring of well wishes and support that LeRoi has received. To send an email/ecard directly to LeRoi at the UVA hospital, please click here. Mail may also be sent to LeRoi at the following address: Post Office Box 1467, Charlottesville, VA 22902 or to fanmail@davematthewsband.com.
Our thoughts go out to wishing LeRoi a speedy and complete recovery.
Running to Aceyalone: Sound Gun
I’m finally in the routine of running again. My single favorite part about running is getting to focus on the quality tunes blasting through my iPod, powering me through those 30 minutes on the treadmill (hey, it’s 105+ out there, gotta go with the treadmill).
Nice moment today, courtesy of this tune from Aceyalone’s great album, Lightning Strikes. Do check it out. And add it to your playlist, just like I added it to my special “Run Motherf**er Run” playlist. Hop to it!
Aceyalone – Sound Gun
Buy: Lightning Strikes
Two from Rickie Lee
Howard Stern had a great interview this morning with Carly Simon. Howard drilled down into her icy relationship with ex-husband James Taylor. Their mutual son – Ben Taylor – was in the studio as well, which made for an interesting dynamic. Long story short, Howard and Ben are joining forces to talk some sense into JT and at least get the former couple talking again. Howard is a great shrink, I’m telling ya.
Hearing Carly Simon made me think of Rickie Lee Jones. Natural progression, right? I don’t know why, but I just associate one loosely with the other. Now let’s go back 15 years, shall we? I have exactly one Rickie Lee Jones album: Traffic From Paradise. It was her last record with Geffen, released in 1993. There’s some wonderful collaborations on the album with the likes of Leo Kottke, Brian Setzer, David Baerwald and Ickmusic hall of famer David Hidalgo. Kottke especially pervades the album, playing 6-string, 12-string, and slide acoustic guitar. Master of the session drummers (and drummer for the Traveling Wilburys) Jim Keltner pounds the skins.
Two songs stand out on the album for me. The first is the crushingly beautiful “Beat Angels”. The background vocalists you hear are Hidalgo, Setzer, and Syd Straw. Hidalgo is also on eight string electric guitar.
Rickie Lee Jones – Beat Angels
The second track is the Jones/Kottke-penned “Running From Mercy”. Providing backing vocals here are Lyle Lovett, Kottke, Teresa Tudury, Sal Bernardi, and John Leftwich. Another one that reaches down into the soul…
Rickie Lee Jones – Running From Mercy
Rickie is still going strong. Check out her tour dates along the East Coast this June and July, and check out her latest, The Sermon on Exposition Blvd.
