What can I say? I'm a sucker for the classics.
Looking...
Reading...
Renting...
Hearing...
Archiving...
Blogrolling...
Wishing...
Advent Intent
Forget everything they told you in Sunday School, the Five-Year-Old fills us in on the real deal:
SAntA + PReSitS = CHRiStmAS
Now, who's this "bebbyjeejus" guy they keep talking about?
In the Clearing Stands a Boxer
WXPN is asking for year-end top tens again (by midnight tonight). I wish I had the time and/or energy to write up a little about each of my choices, but work has been crazy lately and home hasn't been all that sane either.
Expect light posting up until the new year.
Here's my shortlist for Best Albums, it wasn't easy picking just ten this year:
ANDREW BIRD Armchair Apocrypha
AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
BIRDIE BUSCH Penny Arcade
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
FEIST The Reminder
GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
IRON & WINE The Shepherd's Dog
JOSE GONZALEZ In Our Nature
JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
MODEST MOUSE We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
NELLIE MCKAY Obligatory Villagers
NICK LOWE At My Age
PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
SEA WOLF Leaves in the River
SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
TEGAN AND SARA The Con
THE A-SIDES Silver Storms
THE AUTUMN DEFENSE The Autumn Defense
THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
THE NATIONAL Boxer
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Challengers
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
THE POSTMARKS The Postmarks
THE ROSEBUDS Night of the Furies
THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
WILCO Sky Blue Sky
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Magic
BAND OF HORSES Cease to Begin
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Sound of Silver
MARY GAUTHIER Between Daylight and Dark
RONDERLIN The Great Investigation
So, what ended up at the top of your pile this year?
All the Same, I'm Not Sure How Smart It Was to Make Yahoo Serious Your Education Minister
Former Midnight Oil rocker named Australia's environment minister
Australia is so much cooler than us (no "global warming" pun intended, honest).
The Current Chip Leader
Still too busy to blog regularly, but I didn't want the start of the Christmas cookie baking season to go by unacknowledged - especially not when my first batch looked this good, if I do say so myself (and they look even better in person - the photo makes them look darker and shinier than they really are).
Actually, I don't even have to say so myself - both the Missus and the Ten-Year-Old agree that these are the absolute best tollhouse cookies (a request by the Five-Year-Old) I've ever made. The Five-Year-Old really hasn't been around long enough to have a good enough sample size to have such a strong opinion but he, too, seemed to like this year's model just fine.
I usually hate making plain-old chocolate chip cookies because they never come out right - usually too crisp, always too flat. This time around I stuck my electronic thermometer into the butter before I started, to make sure it was around 68 degrees before mixing (a recent tip from America's Test Kitchen). I think that that, along with some attempted solutions from past years that I've accumulated - like a digital scale for more-accurate measuring and an oven thermometer for more-precise baking - did the trick. A lot of work, but mmm-mmm.
I also made the batter for my raspberry linzers (a request by the aforementioned Ten-Year-Old), oatmeal raisin (a request by me), and some cookie-cutter-ready sugar cookies (requested by no one, but I figure I could have the Five-Year-Old help me cut these). I'll bake all those up tomorrow night, hopefully.
Every Christmas I like to attempt a cookie that I haven't made before, so if you have any suggestions let me know.
[The title of this post tells you what I have found time for lately - watching poker shows. Lots and lots of poker shows (just ask the Missus). But that's a story for another post.]
Is Your Blog Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Wha? That can't be right. I mean, I write plenty of intelligent posts - like that one about the... um, or last month when I... or how about when I first started blogging and I had that one that...
Huh.
Ah, screw it, let's just watch this:
Bored Construction Workers Equal Fun - Watch more free videos
[Blog Readability Test via Idle Musings, which, despite being written for geniuses, I still manage to comprehend sometimes. Very cool (at least to the elementary school set) video via the Hardware Aisle.]
Measuring Rod
Number of World Series appearances:
Alex Rodriguez: 0
Me: 0
Salary:
Alex Rodriguez: $27 Million*, for the next ten years.
Me: Considerably less, for the foreseeable future.
Mark my words (and I've been saying these same words since the Texas Rangers agreed to pay him $22M a year back in 2001): no team with A-Rod on it will ever win the World Series. Ever. If the Yankees and their unlimited budget can't build a winner around this guy, than no one can.
I do like the idea of A-Rod staying with the Yankees - the less teams I have to hate, the better (I think I'm currently despising about twelve teams already - I'm a bitter, bitter man).
*Plus incentives**, because making $27.5 Mil a year isn't incentive enough to do your job.
**Sorry, not "incentives" - "historic-achievement bonuses." Whatever.
Bugs and Missus
It's never good when visitors keep seeing the same post every time they visit your blog, but it's even worse when it's your wife who's visiting and the post she keeps seeing is one that features a photo of another woman - another woman who is referred to in the title of said post as "cute." Whoops.
My most recent unplanned blogging semi-hiatus started with the usual weekend patio-building business, continued at work with the project that would not die (non-patio division) which was due in June but just keeps going and going and going (and sitting at the computer all day doesn't exactly make me want to pick up the laptop when I get home, you know?), and hit its stride with me getting sick. The weak and woozy kind of sick.
So it sucks being stuck in bed next to a pot ("just in case") all day, but it does give me a chance to make it up to the missus for that Nellie McKay picture she keeps having to see (and to finally get it off the top of my blog).
The missus has been super extra nice to me this week, starting with her coming and picking me up at work Tuesday morning when I felt like I would pass out and/or throw up (I'm pretty sure Ms. McKay never would've done that for me). I've done that whole fainting at work thing before, and it's not something I wanted to repeat. So the missus instantly understood, drove into the city (something she hates doing), and has put up with whiny sick me, which is a lot like the usual whiny me but even more so, if you can imagine that.
Oh, and she's also responsible for The Long Cut's current "about" photo (yes, that's a wine cooler I'm drinking, but it was just a joke, honest) and the photo used in the current banner! The woman does it all - and she's cute, too! Much, much cuter than Nellie. Unfortunately for you, the missus doesn't like having her face out there for all kinds of Internet weirdos to see (not that she thinks Long Cut readers are weirdos or anything), so you'll just have to take my word for this.
So how was that, hon?
Cute and Paste
First off, I want to thank everyone who gave their opinion on the name-your-own-price Paste magazine offer. The consensus was that somewhere between $5 and $10 was pretty reasonable, so I went about halfway between those two numbers and sent in my an amount equal to my birth date (you'll have to figure that one out on your own).
These posts of mine about the 'XPN free-at-noon concerts have lately been falling into the "better-late-than-never" timespan, especially when I have more than a week between the concerts.
Not last Friday, but the Friday before that - October 26 - I went out to 'XPN to see Nellie McKay for free. I mentioned McKay's latest album, Obligatory Villagers, in my most recent "weekly" RIYL post (which - whoops - was over a month ago!) and the disc has only grown on me more since than.
McKay's songwriting is so sharp that it's easy to forget just how talented a musician she is. In concert, though, it's hard to miss - especially if you happen to be sitting about three feet from her like I was. She walks out on stage carrying a big stack of music books looking like some demure high schooler at a recital - and than goes and plays like a piano virtuoso, all the while singing those sharp lyrics of hers.
And speaking of lyrics, as sweet and innocent as she may look, McKay's latest release has a well-deserved "explicit lyrics" warning sticker on it, and it applies to most of the disc's songs. Somehow, though, so made it thought the broadcast-live-on-NPR show without needing to be beeped (not that those God-hating, youth-corrupting, amoral, commie-pinko public radio hippies would have censored her anyway) which was kind of a shame, since my favorite songs from the new disc are also some of the saltiest. Oh, well, it was still a fun (but way too short) show.
A Sigh for Sore Eyes
Woo-Hoo! Now I've just got to finish the Anne Tyler book I've been reading while I was waiting for Russo's newest novel to come in.
[Have I ever mentioned just how much I love Russo's books? I'm pretty sure I have.]
Spunky Kingston
I can't say that last Friday's WXPN Free-at-Noon artist was someone on my must-see-live list, or even an artist whose music I think about that much, but the instant I found out that Toots and the Maytals were playing, I knew I had to be there.
You might not know it from how I look and dress, but I'm not a huge reggae fan. I've never fully got the whole Bob Marley adoration thing. I've tried. I've even tried Ziggy Marley. Nothing. I just don't think that reggae by itself is very interesting.
But mix it up with a little ska and rock and rhythm & blues and whatever else and now you've got my interest. This might sound lame, but my education in Jamaican music started with the Clash's punk-flavored interpretations and has worked backward from there, so I expect a little more than just the laid-back beats. Toots Hibbert and his band deliver much more than laid-back beats.
I can't say that Toots sounded great in concert, since the sound system seemed a bit weak down at the World Cafe Live (or at least from where I was standing), but he did put on quite a show. You would never guess that Mr. Hibbert is almost 62(!) years old. The guy moves around the stage like he's still in his twenties. He reminded me of a Jamaican (and, you know, still alive) James Brown, without the big ego. Without any ego at all, really.
Toots has a new disc out, but he played plenty of older hits - like "Funky Kingston" and "54-46, That's My Number." And he and the band played for a relatively long time for a free noontime concert - almost an hour.
My spot right next to the stage was great when I got to be one of the lucky few to shake Toots' hand as he wrapped up his set, but it wasn't that great a spot for taking pictures. For most of the concert Toots was blocked from my view by his backup singers (who were, oddly enough, placed up front) but he did come to the edge of the stage every once in a while so I did get a few shots, which I've posted over at Flickr. I just can't say I'm real happy with how they came out. As always, NPR has archived their broadcast of the show, which came out just fine.
Next week: Nellie McKay.
Novel Approach
Because I actually at this very moment have a book right next to me, I'm willing to advance a "new" book-related meme (though it's very close to one I did back in May, 2005), found via Karen.
Take the nearest book next to you and answer the following questions:
Title and Author:
Flower Children: A Novel by Maxine Swann
Is the book dedicated to anyone? If so, whom?
"For my mother and father and my siblings, Leda, Jake, and Kyle"
What is the first sentence?
"They're free to run anywhere they like whenever they like, so they do."
Turn to page 47. Please share the first sentence of the first full paragraph.
"We scoot through a city, stopping at stoplights."
Wow, that was pretty boring. Come to think of it, the meme I did back in 2005 was pretty boring, as well (and Karen was responsible for me doing that one, too. Hmmm...)
Flower Children is a pretty good book so far, though it's more of a novella than a novel. Actually, it's more like a bunch of related short stories than anything else. That would make sense, since the book started out as a short story (read part of it here) that was featured in the Best American Short Stories 1998 anthology.
Hey Ladies!
Between Starbucks and my office is the National Constitution Center, and while I can't say that the banners they hang outside the building are always noteworthy, they usually do get my attention.
The banners I now have to look at while I walk back with my venti dark roast (with a little room for the nonfat, s'il vous plaît) makes me long for the good old days when the worst the Center's banners would do was flip you the bird.
Take a look:
Guh. I don't know which one is scarier:
the current head of the East Wing (whose husband isn't exactly our Constitution's biggest supporter)...
... or everyone's favorite Diff'rent Strokes guest star.
Thankfully, the negative impact of those two are offset by the banners of two lovelier ladies:
the beautiful Ms. Bouvier Kennedy Onassis ...
and the ever enchanting Barbara Bush.
Just Because I'm Up To My Neck In Gravel Doesn't Mean I Should Be Taken For Granite
Hey there! Still here, still alive. The patio project is going well, if not a bit (a lot a bit) slower than expected. I keep meaning to post some in-process pictures (or - hold on the you hats - some video), but any photo post would have to include a few shots of the blood blisters the project has produced, and I don't think anyone wants to see that. Or at least I know the Missus never seems to want to see that.
So, no, I haven't been blogging lately. Or running. Or taking a lot of pictures. Or reading. Or attending free concerts.
Ah, but way back on September 21, before I missed two free-at-noon concerts (by some guys named Loudon Wainwright III and Steve Earle) I did get to see the A-Sides, pour libre.
I'm a big fan of the A-Sides, and not just because they're from Philly (though that's part of it, too). I like how the band takes the pure pop of the 60's and twists it into their own unique sound. Their new disc, Silver Storms, has a stronger, more trippy sound than their debut, and shows off both their musical knowledge and their musical ability. All of the songs on the disc end up morphing into a mix of guitars and drums that never sounds tacked-on or show-offy (that is too a word). In fact, while not every song works perfectly, the album as a whole flows very nicely from song to song.
So I was real excited to see them live and real surprised to see a small crowd waiting to get into the concert, which was a real shame. 'XPN is good to local bands, but the A-Sides still don't get much airplay. The small crowd (and the fact that it was a mid-day concert) seemed to take some of the spark away from the band. But it was still a pretty good show. NPR has it archived here, and I've got some pictures from it here.
This Friday it's funky Kingston's own Toots and the Maytals. I don't know if Toots has a new disc coming out or what, but I can't pass up seeing him live.
My Lovely Lumps
Boy, nothing kills your blogging output like having 12,000 pounds of gravel and sand dumped on your driveway.
... and it turns out it's gonna take still another half-ton of each to finish the base for our new/redone patio.
... and they're dumping 2,400 paving bricks on the driveway tomorrow (well, hopefully not dumping, but carefully placing).
Man, I'd sure hate to be the person who has to move all this stuff all the way around to the back of the house! You'd have to be crazy to move all this stuff yourself! Ha!
Wait a minute...
[Photo credit: the Missus.]
Rally Chap
Unlike (seemingly) half the people I know, I was not at the game Sunday when the Phillies finally made it back to the playoffs (but I plan on being there when they do it again in another fourteen years). I was, however, at the rally that was held for them at City Hall yesterday, and I have proof.
After several attempts to get a screenshot from the flash video of the rally, I finally gave up. But if you do watch the video of the rally (and you'll have to find it for yourself on the Phillies website, since there's no way to directly link to it), I'm the goofy guy in the orange shirt (hey, it's not like I've got a week's worth of red dress shirts hanging in my closet) behind the band, and I show up quite a bit in the first five minutes.
I, of course, forgot to bring my camera into work with me. A friend at work let me borrow his and it died after I took about three pictures. So, the only photographic proof I have for you of my attendance at the rally is from the front page of today's Inquirer. Yep, I'm on the front page of today's Philadelphia Inquirer. Above the fold, but without the helpful arrow.
I'm the guy with the big smile on my face.
Citizeness Kane
Time for Wiki Wednesday.
You know - you go to Wikipedia, you click on "random article," you report on the outcome.
Here's my random Wiki Wednesday find for this week:
Millicent Hearst, née Millicent Veronica Willson (July 16, 1882 – December 5, 1974), was the wife of media tycoon, William Randolph Hearst. Willson was a vaudeville performer in New York City whom Hearst admired, and they married in 1903. The couple had five sons, but began to drift apart in the mid-1920s, when Millicent tired of her husband's longtime affair with the actress Marion Davies. Although they remained legally married until William's death in 1951, Millicent established a separate life in New York as a prominent socialite and philanthropist, and only rarely visited her husband at his estate in California, often referred to as "Hearst Castle".
Hmmm, kind of reminds me of a movie I saw once.
RIYL71
Dang but there's a whole lot of cool new discs coming out this week!
Birdie Busch Penny Arcade It's a little strange having someone you often see down at your local farmers market show up on music blogs from all over the place, but local girl Birdie Busch's sophomore album certainly deserves the national attention. On Penny Arcade she's got a stronger voice singing in front of a much more complex sound than she did on her first album.
Birdie Busch - "Mystical" [mp3]
Erin McKeown Lafayette Remember last January, when I wrote about how great a show McKeown put on? No, of course you don't. But thanks to this new disc, now you can hear for yourself just how good she is live. The disc covers her entire young-but-already-much-varied musical career.
Iron & Wine The Shepherd's Dog Sam Beam - who pretty much is Iron & Wine - started out making the lowest of lo-fi music but he's always seemed willing to expand his reach by working with other artists, like the disc he made with Calexico a little while back for example. Calexico shows up on The Shephard's Dog and helps make it the least lo-fi-est of Beam's albums so far, and the best since his debut.
José González In Our Nature The quiet vocals and guitar strumming that make up the backbone of González's sound always pulls me into his music way more than something so seemingly uncomplicated has any right doing. More of the same on the new disc, which is streaming this week at MSN.
Matt Pond PA Last Light You have to admire a band that mixes rock with some old-time (as in late-80's/early 90's) pop and does it well, without resorting to the goofy hipster irony of bands like Weezer. But something about Last Light just isn't clicking with me. Musically it sounds perfect and the songs sound catchy, but it's just not catching with me. Maybe I need to listen to it a few more times. It's streaming this week over at AOL's Spinner.
Joni Mitchell Shine For the longest time, I hated Joni Mitchell. Hated. Would not listen to her at all. All because of "Little Yellow Taxi." Then I heard Blue and I completely forgave her for that one annoying song (though I'll never forgive her for letting the Counting Crows cover it). "Taxi" shows up on Joni's new disc, made over a bit and sounding somewhat more tolerable. Luckily, the rest of the album sounds closer to Blue (no, not as good as Blue, but I doubt anything she - or anybody - puts out will ever be that great again.) It's streaming at MSN.
Nellie McKay Obligatory Villagers Nellie McKay is that girl from college who looked all sweet and innocent until you talked to her and found out she had a mouth like a sailor and was as funny as hell. (I'm speaking theoretically, of course, since no girls at my college would dare speak to me). Villagers sounds great, is funny as hell, and should not be played in front of your children. Samples are at her website.
Sea Wolf Leaves in the River The late, great Elliot Smith used to get compared to the even later, even greater Nick Drake, and it would drive me crazy. Smith was good, but he was no Nick Drake. Now here comes Sea Wolf (mostly made up of Alex Brown Church) out of L.A. with their dreamy pop and they're being compared to both Smith and Drake. I still think the Drake comparison is a bit too much, but Church does remind me a lot of Smith's more upbeat stuff. His new disc is streaming this week over at Spinner, and the first single from it, "You're a Wolf" is one of my favorite songs of the year so far.
Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade On his last few albums, Earle has moved away from his biggest strength - his storytelling - and started making Songs With Important Messages For All To Hear (his last studio disc was titled The Revolution Starts Now, for Christ's sake). I've only listened to the new disc a couple times so far, but if the storytelling has returned I'm not hearing it yet - especially on the first single, the Indigo Girl-ish (and I mean that in a bad way) "City of Immigrants." Try and guess what that one's about. I'm sure I'll give the disc more listens, but this ain't Guitartown, that's for sure.
This week's list:
- IRON & WINE The Shepherd's Dog
- BIRDIE BUSCH Penny Arcade
- THE A-SIDES Silver Storms
- JOSE GONZALEZ In Our Nature
- JONI MITCHELL Shine
- NELLIE MCKAY Obligatory Villagers
- JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
- SEA WOLF Leaves in the River
- MATT POND PA Last Light
- ERIN MCKEOWN Lafayette
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- LYLE LOVETT It's Not Big It's Large
- MARK KNOPFLER Kill to Get Crimson
- JOE HENRY Civilians
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Challengers
- RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- STEVE EARLE Washington Square Serenade
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- THE GO! TEAM Proof of Youth
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- FEIST The Reminder
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
Dropping off the list this week:
- MICHELLE SHOCKED To Heaven U Ride
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
RIYL for the week beginning September 24, 2007. Backstory here.
Great Chicano Fire
My year-end top tens last December didn't include a "best concerts" category but there's no doubt that if they did, Alejandro Escovedo would have been pretty high on it. I saw him for the first time at an 'XPN free-at-noon back in June '06 and he just blew me, and the whole the room, away. Escovedo looks kind of meek and has written a whole bunch of beautiful, gentle songs, so it was kind of surprising to see him and his band rip into some serious rock and roll music.
Well, he was back in the area earlier this month to wrap up Camden County's free summer concert series at the Dell in nearby Haddon Heights, NJ. Even in a breezy and relaxed outdoor setting, Escovedo was still his usual intense self. Watching him move around the stage - sort of "visiting" (and jamming with) one of the band members any time he didn't need to be at the microphone - you got the idea that he wanted to pull the best performance possible from each of the people playing up there with him. And the musicians he tours with were up for the challenge. Even the violinist and cellist jammed pretty hard when they had to.
Escovedo played a bunch of songs he hadn't played back when I last saw him. One of his biggest songs, relatively speaking, is "Castanets." That song somehow ended up on Dubya's iPod, and for a while there Escovedo wouldn't play it live because of that. But now that Bush is on his way out (and the Austinite Escovedo isn't real happy about him coming back to Texas when he does finally leave the While House) the song is back on his playlist. He also dedicated the beautiful "Sensitive Boy" to his brother and did a couple of covers as an encore, ending with an incredible take on the Stone's "Beast of Burden" that you probably could have heard three towns over.
I had my camera with me and took some shots. Usually when I go to a free-at-noon concert I also link to the NPR archive of the show, but this show wasn't broadcast on 'XPN (though they were a sponsor). However, I did a little googling and found out that someone did indeed record the show and they've posted it to the live music section of the Internet Archive, and it sounds like it was recorded right off the soundboard. Go here to hear it - it's streaming and it's available for free download.
Houston: They Have A Problem
Bad Astros idea:
Their 1970's "Rainbow Guts" uniforms.
Even worse Astros idea:
Oy.
My advice for Astros fans: prepare for your team to be in a "rebuilding year" - for the next eight years or so.
RIYL70
Quickies!
The A-Sides Silver Storms The Philly band with the Kinks-flavored debut are back with a bigger and more varied sound on their second disc. Their myspace has a few songs streaming, as does their website. Plus, they're playing the Free-at-Noon concert this Friday, for which I could not be more excited.
The A-Sides "Cinematic" [mp3]
Lyle Lovett It's Not Big It's Large The title refers not to Lyle's hair, but to his longtime "Large Band" and on about half of this album the spotlight definitely belongs to the boisterous backing band. The other half of the songs are more sedate but work just as well, thanks to Lovett's very large songwriting skills. Lyle's got samples of each song on his website, but none of them is very big at all.
Mark Knopfler Kill to Get Crimson And speaking of songwriting, Knopfler has always been an excellent storyteller, but his post-Dire Straits move towards more traditional (as in 100-year-old traditional) folk music has put his songwriting skills front-and-center, and they just get better and better with each album. Then, of course, there's also his guitar-playing, which I doubt could get any better than it already is. MSN is streaming the new disc all this week.
This week's list:
- THE A-SIDES Silver Storms
- JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- LYLE LOVETT It's Not Big It's Large
- MARK KNOPFLER Kill to Get Crimson
- JOE HENRY Civilians
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Challengers
- RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- THE GO! TEAM Proof of Youth
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- FEIST The Reminder
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- MICHELLE SHOCKED To Heaven U Ride
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
Dropping off the list this week:
- GREG BROWN Yellow Dog
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
RIYL for the week beginning September 17, 2007. Backstory here.
RIYL69
Yeah, I'm cheating this week - but I totally agree with these reviewers, if that means anything.
Joe Henry Civilians
"Mr. Henry has been almost as artistically diverse and sophisticatedly ragged as Elvis Costello or Tom Waits, and Civilians is as populated with beautiful losers as his previous works. But it strives for straightforward clarity with deliberately understated musicianship. With help from players such as jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and pianist Van Dyke Parks, Mr. Henry gives the lounge-bar ballad 'I Will Write My Book,' the postmodern blues 'Time Is a Lion' and the polished anti-anthem 'Our Song' the honesty of a man whose heart and mind have finally negotiated a truce, however unsteady. A softly gorgeous disc that makes the name Joe Henry one to remember." - Dallas Morning News
Joe Henry - "Civilians" [mp3]
Joe Henry - "Time is a Lion" [mp3]
Joe Henry - "Our Song" [mp3]
The Go! Team Proof of Youth
"Proof of Youth not only picks up where their storied debut left off, it stocks even more happy-faced enthusiasm and body-moving exuberance than a dozen first-graders riding a serious sugar high. If tunes like 'Titanic Vandalism' and 'Universal Speech' don’t have you doing back-flips off of the top bunk, you might want to check your pulse." - Chicago Tribune
[Full album stream at AOL this week.]
This week's list:
- JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- JOE HENRY Civilians
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Challengers
- RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- THE GO! TEAM Proof of Youth
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- FEIST The Reminder
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- MICHELLE SHOCKED To Heaven U Ride
- GREG BROWN Yellow Dog
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
Dropping off the list this week:
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
RIYL for the week beginning September 10, 2007. Backstory here.
Can You Dig It? I Knew That You Could.
Oh, the digging, the digging... it just never stops.
Real quick though, I just wanted to point out that I've posted photos from both the August 24 Josh Ritter Free-at-Noon concert and the August 31 Uncle Earl Free-at-Noon concert over at my Flickr page.
I mentioned the Josh Ritter concert in a RIYL post a couple weeks ago, but I have to add that it was the best concert I've seen at 'XPN so far this year. Ritter's moved from folk troubadour to a more rocking sound and it's pretty obvious that he's having a ball with the new stuff (in a lot of my pictures it looks like his eyes are closed, but that was just from him smiling the whole friggin' concert). His songwriting skills are still as strong as they've ever been and the new songs sound fantastic.
Ritter mentioned during the concert that he played "The River" at a Carnegie Hall Springsteen tribute (and got to meet the Boss), so when he came back out on stage at our concert for a solo acoustic encore - while everyone else called for him to play "Kathleen" (his best-known song from his folk era) - I jokingly called out, "play the River!," which got a big laugh from the crowd. And then he actually played "The River!" How 'bout that? And just after Ritter solemnly sang the Springsteen line, "down to the river, my baby and I," a baby in the audience gave a perfectly-timed little cry. Damn kid showed me up.
NPR has the show (sans encore) archived here. My photos are here.
Uncle Earl is a four-piece (plus an extra touring member) bluegrass band. I have never heard them ever get air time on 'XPN (or anywhere else), but I'm always up for some good bluegrass. And this was good, authentic bluegrass music. It was old-timey, but it wasn't treated as some kind of dusty artifact. It was played with a lot of energy and made the place feel like some Kentucky honky-tonk bar (a honky-tonk bar filled with public-radio-loving yuppies, but still).
The four women who make up Uncle Earl all seem to come at bluegrass from different angles - Alison Krauss sweetness to good ol' boy girl rollickin' - but they all meshed together very well. An unexpected treat that was a lot of fun, and it'll probably be the only time I'll ever see clogs (as in "clog dancing") used as a musical instrument in concert.
Their myspace page is here, NPR's archive is here, my photos are here.
I still have some Alejandro Escovedo (who was 'XPN's best free show last year) concert photos to process from a Camden County park concert last week. He's still unbelievably good live. More on that concert when I get more time.
[Did you get the post title reference? I knew that you would.]
Soccer? Hell, It Killed Her!
I didn't have my camera with me for my first game ever coaching soccer, so you'll have to settle for a high-tech computer-generated simulation (and yes, I used this same joke last year for my first game coaching basketball):
In case you haven't guessed, we're the blue team.
Actually, in this league we don't even keep score. It didn't matter - the other team scored so many goals on us that I doubt these kindergartners would have been able to count that high anyway.
Oh, it's going to be a loooooong season.
RIYL68
In keeping with my new "blog less, dig more" credo, this week I offer you three quickie mentions of new discs from artists too cool to not write about. And a bonus sneak preview from perhaps the coolest artist of them all. I mean, c'mon, he's from Jersey - you can't get any cooler than that.
Greg Brown Yellow Dog You can't find a more laid-back-sounding folk singer than Greg Brown, but he's pretty pissed about plans to open a metallic-sulfide mine (sounds perfectly safe to me) in the Yellow Dog Watershed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He did a benefit back in 2005 and has now released this recording of that concert, with all proceeds going to the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve. Pretty cool. No free downloads, but you can watch a video with him playing "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" live over a slideshow of the Yellow Dog area.
Michelle Shocked To Heaven U Ride For a former critics' darling, Michelle Shocked doesn't get much press these days. Still, I do remember her being on Fresh Air a few years ago talking about how into gospel music she had become. Well, someone recorded a bootleg of a concert of hers from around that time and Shocked has just now released it. The woman can pretty much sing in whatever genre she chooses (punk, swing, folk), but she sounds really, really good here. She's even offering a free download from the disc at her website.
Michelle Shocked "Quality of Mercy" [mp3]
The New Pornographers Challengers I've been listening to this one quite a bit (it came out a couple weeks ago) and it sounds like AC and the band have managed to somehow top their last disc, 2005's excellent Twin Cinema. They've stretched out in all kinds of new directions on the new disc but don't worry, they're still bringing the catchy pop songs - they're just bringing them in a whole bunch of different ways this time around. Oh, and Long Cut favorite Neko Case is highlighted on a few songs, which is always a good thing. Always. They too offer a free download from the disc.
The New Pornographers "My Rights, Versus Yours" [mp3]
This post is already much longer than planned, but here's the promised preview - Springsteen's new video from his upcoming Magic album. And yes, it does sound like he lifted the intro straight from Tommy Twotone's "867-5309."
This week's list:
- THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Challengers
- JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
- RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- MICHELLE SHOCKED To Heaven U Ride
- GREG BROWN Yellow Dog
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
Dropping off the list this week:
- SON VOLT The Search
- G. LOVE A Year and a Night with G. Love and Special Sauce
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
RIYL for the week beginning September 3, 2007. Backstory here.
What's Irish And Makes Frequent Blogging Downright Near Impossible?
Paddy O' Expansion.
Should be done just in time for winter! Posting's gonna slow down a bit (even more than it has lately), but hopefully this project won't take up too much of my free time. The project after this one - replacing the kitchen cabinets (and kitchen floor... and kitchen lighting...) - now that one's going to take up all free time.
[Photo credit: the Missus.]
RIYL67
I skipped RIYL while I was down in DC last week, so I'm playing catch up with a couple discs that are already a week old. Of course, that means I'll still be catching up next week with the albums that came out this week.
Josh Ritter The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter Perhaps it's appropriate that Josh Ritter starts his new disc with a Dylanesque track. Dylan famously made waves when he went electric, and with this release Ritter has boldly made the move from troubadour to rocker. He hasn't grown a mullet or anything, but he's definitely shifted his music style (and by his ever-present smile at last week's free-at-noon concert - photos to come - I'd say he's very much enjoying the change). That first Dylan-like track is followed what sounds (for the most part) Rockpile-like to me (a lot of Nick Lowe, a little of Dave Edmunds). One of the best albums I've heard so far this year, and the best concert I've seen in a long time. [Myspace page]
Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight Like Josh Ritter, Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis knows about changing styles, too. Last year she successfully dipped into Loretta Lynn territory on her first solo disc, and now she's back with her band on a new disc that dabbles in a bunch of different genres. The power pop songs are strongest, but the albums got some soul on it, some folk, a little of that alt-country, and a whole lot of hand claps. It's even got a song ("Dejalo") that sounds a bit like Gloria-Estefan-does-indie-rock (with maybe a little Abba pseudo-salsa thrown in there) that somehow actually works. Maybe not one of the best of the year (the disc fades a bit towards the end) but still pretty darn good. [Myspace page]
This week's list:
- JOSH RITTER The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
- RILO KILEY Under the Blacklight
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- G. LOVE A Year and a Night with G. Love and Special Sauce
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- SON VOLT The Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- SUZANNE VEGA Beauty & Crime
RIYL for the week beginning August 27, 2007. Backstory here.
Three-peat: Code Red (Nose)
[Yet another re-post of one of my favorite posts, part of my retrograde reposting ruse. Today's look rearward is from January of 2005. January 30th, to be exact. That's 36 days after Christmas.]
"Donner, Donner, you alright? Speak to me, man!"
(This thing's been like this since, like, December 26th, and it's still there - on the other side of my town.)
Three-peat: I Get No Kick From The Inane
[Yet another re-post of one of my favorite posts, part of my three-years-of-blogging repeat-o-rama! This here one is from March of last year, and I'm pretty sure the MLS deal I mention in it is pretty much dead now.]
I know that this might be a bad time to bring up my little Division III alma mater, what with the big boys (and girls) of Division One playing their big bad b-ball tourney right now, but when you're a Prof you're a Prof all the way.
Major, major happenings at my old school. How do I know? Because I received an email today from my alumni association (their motto: damn you, Caller ID!) with this subject line:
Major Announcement at Rowan University
Holy Smokes! Major announcement? Last time there was a major announcement about Rowan it was still Glassboro State College, and it was to announce that some rich guy named Hank Rowan was donating $100 Million bucks to the school (one year after I graduated, of course).
As you may have heard, there’s more exciting news at Rowan University—and it’s big!
No I haven't heard! Christ, I've been up at Rutgers all week! What, what?!? What's the exciting news?
Below is a letter President Dr. Donald Farish sent to the campus community today. We thought it would interest you and provide you with insight into the latest news at Rowan.
The president is announcing it? Wait, let me sit down for this. Nope, I can't. Can't. Sit. Still. Just go ahead and tell me.
Dear University Community:
That's me!
If you have picked up a newspaper, watched television or listened to radio in the last several days, you know that once again there is a major development at Rowan University.
Major development? Now it's starting to sound like a murder investigation. That certainly would be big news, but exciting? I guess, if you're into that who CSI thing. Personally, I've never understood why that stuff is so popular but that's just me...
But just in case you haven't heard, I'm writing to tell you about the latest news at Rowan:
Oh, right. Sorry. The news. Go right ahead. I'm ready.
Our agreement with Major League Soccer to pursue constructing a stadium for a professional soccer team at our West Campus at the Rt. 55/Rt. 322 junction in Harrison Township and Glassboro.
Oooooookay, I'm not sure what soccer has to do with the big news, but continue.
MLS hopes to have a team playing just a mile from our main campus by 2009. We’re still in the preliminary stages, and nothing is cast in stone, but that’s a very gratifying (and a bit overwhelming) possibility.
Seriously? That is the big news? Major League Soccer? Not even guaranteed, just the possibility of Major League Soccer? Maybe. Could happen. Maybe yes, maybe no. Don't hold your breath.
Come on Dr. Farish, there's got to be more, right?
And there will be more.
Phew, I knew it. Okay, hit me.
We have started a search for a master developer to construct athletic fields for our athletes (and public and private schools and youth organizations), student housing, restaurants and retail outlets. The $800-million to $1-billion Rowan West project will be the largest mixed-use, commercial and residential project in Gloucester County. Best of all, tuition dollars will not be used to pay for the work.
Oh, hey, that's... great. I mean, who doesn't think that a college should be in the "mixed-use, commercial and residential project" business? Other than athletics, is there any other reason for a college to exist? Let me think about that... sports... retail outlets... restaurants... nope, I can't think of anything else a school is supposed to be doing. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something.
All right, so the next paragraph does show an education angle to the project.
The project will have a dramatic impact on the campus even beyond what I've already mentioned. We envision being able to create new programs, such as hospitality management, sports broadcasting and allied health. By freeing up money, the project will enable us to construct more academic buildings on our main campus. And we expect to be able to welcome more students to Rowan, a move that will help meet some of the burgeoning demand in New Jersey for a college degree.
But enough of that crap, let's get back to the sports.
When we started discussing expansion plans for Rowan a few years ago, we could only dream of an opportunity like this.
Really? You dreamt of a MLS franchise in South Jersey? Sometimes I have dreams about being back at college registration - naked and unable to sign up for any classes. Scary? Sure, but still a good bit better than dreaming about soccer.
Needless to say, we are thrilled with the possibilities this agreement means for us. We'll keep you posted as the project progresses.
Oh, please do.
[Before I get hate mail, let me just say that I kid 'cause I love. Go Profs!]
Three-peat: The Fairytale of New Jersey
[Another re-post of one of my favorite posts, part of my three-years-of-blogging repeat-o-rama!
This one was originally posted back in January, 2006.]
The boy and his dad, downashore, 1974.
This is the story of a boy. A boy who loved going downashore.
This love has been there since as long as the boy can remember, when his family used to rent a house in the Brant Beach section of Long Beach Island for a week every summer. The boy remembers that the house seemed to be surrounded by reeds. The boy celebrated many birthdays and showed off his kung-fu moves at that house. And the boy, thirty years later, still remembers how one summer there was a tire-flattened frog on the street his family walked on from the house to the beach. He can still picture that frog, surely preserved for way beyond that week by the heat coming from the steaming hot tar of the road. [Many, many years later, the frog was gone - and so was the house, knocked down and replaced with condos - not even a reed remained near the site.]
But soon the family switched rental houses and switched shore towns, too, now choosing to go to Ocean City, where the boy's aunt owned a house that was smack-dab in the middle of a church parking lot. 
Ocean City offered a boardwalk and the back wall of the church was perfect for throwing a rubber ball against. And holy cow, was it ever easy to get to mass on Sunday. In that church parking lot, the boy finally learned to ride a bike - at the belated age of eleven. The boy remembers that his family always seemed to have the house the week of baseball's All-Star game. Being a Rod Carew fan, the boy always rooted for the American League. Back then, the National League always seemed to win. [A few years later the church decided that their parking lot could use a few more spots, and the house was knocked down and paved over. An addition was erected on the back of the church, no longer making it an ideal surface for playing wall-ball.]
The boy and his mom, downashore, 1974.
During the boy's high school years the family returned to Long Beach Island - this time to the Surf City section, about ten miles north of their old LBI location. By this time the south end of the island had become the cool end, and the newly licensed boy drove down there almost every night. The boy spent very little time in the Surf City beach house, especially in his first-floor bedroom (next to the garage and more accurately called a basement, since most of the living area was on the second floor), which reeked of mold and mildew. [This nasty little house, of course, somehow still survives twenty years later.]
Then the boy went off and got married to a wonderful girl who loved going downashore even more than the boy. When they started taking their little family to the beach, they, trusting the boy's memories, chose Ocean City. They rented the first floor of an old three-story house, hemmed in by an apartment building and a too-close neighbor. Indoor sunlight was sparse, the washer and dryer were four blocks away, and central air was just a dream.
The owner of the tiny house they rented, a nice old man who lived on the third floor, told them stories of developers offering him large sums of money just so they could knock down his house to build high-priced fancy townhouses. He always turned them down. After a few years at this house, the owner decided to rent the house out to one renter for the whole season and the boy and girl had to find another house. [Last summer the boy and girl walked past that old house, only to find that it had finally been knocked down and replaced with those high-price townhouses. The boy and girl wondered if the old owner finally gave in to the developers or maybe he just passed away. They almost hoped it was the latter.]
But the boy and girl lucked out. They found a house that had just been redone (though not by knocking anything down) and was priced right. This house had a washer and dryer! And central air! And they loved the house. It was at this house that their one son took his first steps, and where he discovered something called "the Disney Channel." But soon these owners also rented out to one renter for the whole season, and the boy and girl went looking again.
Last year the boy and girl went on-line and found a summer house that seemed too good to be true - all the perks of the last house - plus a third bedroom! And a second bath! And a fireplace! For the same price! It seemed that a new owner was pricing the house low to lure people away from their existing rentals. But the boy and girl (and their two little boys) didn't need luring, and pounced on the house.
And now it's January and the boy and girl went to the magic website that would tell them how much the owners of that wonderful beach house would charge this summer and found out that the rent was going up $400 dollars this year. And the boy and girl said, "screw that."
Luckily, the house before this one, which really was pretty good and does have central air (though no fireplace), had not been knocked down and was even available once again. And for the week they wanted, too. And the price was $400 less than what those mean old ogres at the other house were demanding.
And so the boy said, "This is good. Tomorrow I shall place a call to the realtor and snag that bad boy."
And they all, hopefully, vacationed happily ever after.
The end.
Three For Free
Lots of free concerts lately!
A week ago Wednesday it was Kim Richey at the Dell in Haddon Heights, NJ. For some reason I was expecting a solo show but, as you can see from the photo, she brought a full band with her. For a hot and humid night Kim and the band played a pretty energetic show. Lots of new stuff from Chinese Boxes and a few older songs, too. Opening act Carsie Blanton was all smiles and girlish charm, a combination of sweet innocence and singsong vocals that fit her songwriting style perfectly. Carsie's got a myspace page (as does Kim Richey) and I've got some photos from the show at my flickr page.
Two days later, it was another Friday Free-at-Noon concert at WXPN, with Brooklyn's Joan as Policewoman opening up for Crowded House.
The nonsensically-named Joan as Policewoman (I'm pretty sure she's not a real policewoman) is singer-songwriter Joan Wasser backed by a drummer and bass player. Wasser sounds a bit like Cat Power with a punkier edge. She put on quite a show, with her gold lamé shirt and dramatic head flips. Not quite what the Crowded House crowd goes for, but I thought she sounded pretty good.
As is the custom during the two-act Free-at-Noon shows, the first act was interviewed while the roadies set the stage for the second act. This usually takes about three minutes, but for some reason Crowded House's guys took about ten. This caused a bit of confusion since the show was being broadcast live on NPR while the drawn-out interview with Joan Wasser was going in circles. When the band finally did come out they didn't seem like they were taking the show very seriously, but they were having a good time and soon enough the audience was laughing along with them and their slow set-up was pretty much forgotten (maybe not by the host of the show, who looked like she wanted to kill someone - probably someone from New Zealand). Neil Finn warned that he wasn't going to sing anything with high notes (so no "Don't Dream It's Over"), but the four songs they did play sounded just fine.
My Flickr set here, NPR archive here.
Today I was back at 'XPN for another two-fer free concert, this time it was Neko Case opening for Rufus Wainwright. I would have been happier with a full show of Neko, but Rufus was pretty good, too. Neko hasn't had a new album since last year's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and three of her four songs came from that disc, which was just fine by me. I just wish I got to hear her for more than than twelve minutes.
Rufus played three songs from his new disc, Release the Stars, and brought out his half-sister Lucy Roche (daughter of Suzzie Roche of the Roches) to help sing a pretty decent version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (I still don't think anyone does it better than Cohen himself). He came back out after the broadcast was over and played probably my favorite song of his, "California," as an encore.
Rufus and Neko had a strict no-photography rule in effect, so all I've got for you is the NPR archive of the show.
RIYL66
One I haven't had a chance to listen to very much and one that came out a couple months ago that I'm just getting into now.
Linda Thompson Versatile Heart I gave son Teddy and ex-husband Richard both the RIYL treatment this year, so why not Linda? While Richard has mostly moved away from his Fairport Convention-era English folk roots, Linda has stuck with them. On 2002's brilliant Fashionably Late, Linda somehow made very old-fashion-sounding music without sounding dated (I don't mean it no longer sounds "traditional," I mean it doesn't sound like it's been pulled out of a time capsule from 1972). From what I've heard of the new album, it sounds like she's done it again. AOL and MSN are both streaming it this week, and her myspace page has four of the new songs on it.
Nick Lowe At My Age I heard on WXPN that it was exactly 31 years ago today that Stiff Records had its first release - Nick Lowe's "And So It Goes" B/W "Heart of the City." That reminded me that I had neglected to add Mr. Lowe's new disc to the big list.
Lowe's voice sounds nothing like it did thirty-one years ago, and - like many other aging rockers (such as Steve Forbert) - as he gets older he seems to write more songs about getting older. While both his style (which has crept into the same Americana/country/blues sound that Mark Knopfler has adopted in his old age) and his song topics may have mellowed, his current sound fits the older him very well. And c'mon, he's still the Jesus of Cool - he just looks more like God than Jesus these days. Nick only has one new song streaming at his website, but NPR has an excellent interview that he did with Terry Gross archived here.
This week's list:
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- G. LOVE A Year and a Night with G. Love and Special Sauce
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- SUZANNE VEGA Beauty & Crime
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- SON VOLT The Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
RIYL for the week beginning August 13, 2007. Backstory here.
Sisters, Oh Mercy
It's late, the Phillies just lost, I needed to get an emergency pulpotomy this afternoon (which should hold me over until I can get a pulpectomy next week), I got about four hours of sleep last night because I had an icepack plastered to my face, and I just found out today that Boston blogs harder than Philly - so I'm going to keep this short:
Last Friday's WXPN Free-at-Noon concert featured Tegan & Sara, the Canadian twin sisters whose new album The Con gets better with each listening. They played to a full house ('XPN always calls it a "sell-out crowd," but I don't see how a free concert can "sell" out) and rocked hard and loud.
They played a lot of their new stuff and a couple of old songs and had plenty of pretty funny (and often pretty flaky) banter. NPR has the concert archived (though their website doesn't list everything they played), and I've got some photos from the show.
Tomorrow's free concert, another "sell-out," is Crowded House, with Joan as Police Woman opening, which should be pretty good. But next week's show - Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case - should be pretty great. I would suggest you get your free tickets for that one now, before they sell out run out.
Go Shorty, It Was Your Birthday A Few Days Ago
Let me tell you, that whole "and a pinch to grow an inch" thing is a load of malarkey.
Try it for yourself over at Newsweek.
[Via Verbatim (I'm 7 inches taller than the avg. Karen).]
RIYL65
Nothing that came out today is really doing anything for me (not even the new Okkervil River disc, and I've been reading all kinds of good things about that one). Now would probably be a good time to go back and hit a couple albums that I missed when they first came out earlier this year. Especially since both of them might very well be on my year-end top ten.
Julie Doiron Woke Myself Up Julie Doiron lives way way way out in the boondocks of the Great White North and there's a total of maybe eleven web pages on the whole Internet that mention her and her own website is about three albums out of date and her myspace page has a grand total of one song on it. Maybe I'm wrong, but she strikes me as the type of person who isn't real concerned about any of that publicity nonsense, she just wants to make good music and live a quiet life with her kids.
But it does make it real hard for anyone to find out about her, so I'll try to help her out here: Doiron has that type of voice that is so emotional and so authentic that it instantly connects with me and I find myself searching out everything she's ever recorded and penciling her in on that year-end best of. Beth Orton has that same voice, as does (the Cowboy Junkies') Margo Timmins, Michelle Shocked, Neko Case and Cat Power. Joni Mitchell, of course, owns the patent on that voice.
Not that Doiron sounds exactly like any of those women. Fellow Canuck Timmins comes closest, but Doiron's music is a mix of kitchen-table folk with higher-end production. She comes from the indie music world and isn't afraid to dip into a more current and upbeat sound every once in a while. The new album's songs ofter the perfect mix of loss and sadness and happier songs about her family. The first single (if you can call it that), "No More" is a great song, but it isn't the best example of what the disc really sounds like. It is, however, the only thing her record company has put out on the web (Amazon doesn't even have the usual thirty second song samples for her new disc).
Julie Doiron - "No More" [mp3]
Goldrush The Heart is the Place This is my first and (so far) only taste of Goldrush, so I'm not sure how accurate past comparisons to Neil Young (they are, after all, named Goldrush) and the Byrds were, but this new one's got a definite Flaming Lips vibe to it. They're not as trippy as the Lip's Wayne Coyne (who is?) and they're from Oxfordshire, not Oklahoma, but between the beautiful (and appropriately named) opening, "Aperture," and the joyous final chapter (no, really, it's called "a Joyous Final Chapter"), there's a flow to the songs that give the disc an almost concept-album feel. Strong from start to finish. They've got four songs rolling at myspace, and have offered up a free download as well.
Goldrush - "Every One of Us" [mp3]
Also, I'm adding Rosie Thomas' These Friends of Mine back onto the RIYL 30 (after only being off of it one week). She's another one of those authentic-sounding female singers I go gaga for, and I've started listening to her disc a lot again. Really don't be surprised to see that one end up high on my top ten in December.
This week's list:
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- G. LOVE A Year and a Night with G. Love and Special Sauce
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- SUZANNE VEGA Beauty & Crime
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
- SON VOLT The Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- IMMACULATE MACHINE Fables
- VOXTROT Voxtrot
- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Release the Stars
Glass Act
First, some unfinished business: when I did my "I know what you drank this summer" post last week (I didn't actually title it that, but now I'm kind of wishing I did), I forgot one brew. That right there should tell you what I thought of the beer.
It was Smuttynose Summer Weizen, and yeah, it was pretty forgettable. I'm not crazy about weizens - which are wheat beers that go really heavy on the wheat - but Smuttynose is a pretty reliable brewery, so I thought I'd give them a chance.
"The taste of the spices was way too harsh and overpowering, prevented the beer from being good to drink while chilling on the porch or while eating dinner." If that last sentence sounds familiar, it's because I wrote the exact same thing two years ago when I last gave a Smuttynose summer weizen a chance. D'oh. That's how forgettable this beer is - I had forgotten that I had already given it a chance. Either that or I'm just getting more forgettable in my old age. But it can't be that.
Now, what was I taking about again?
Oh, right, beer. Now some good news: I don't think I've mentioned it before, but late last year I signed up to be a "founding subscriber" to Beer Advocate magazine. The two brothers who have run the BA website for ten years were putting out a monthly magazine for beer snobs like myself and I signed up before the first issue was even printed (maybe before it was even written?).
I didn't know what to expect (theirs is the only monthly beer magazine out there), but it's a good looking magazine - heavy stock paper with great photography - and the writing is very good and gets better with each issue. It turns out that there are a lot of good writers out there who like to write about beer, and Beer Advocate seems to get them all to write for them.
Anyway, other than getting a calendar from them (which, surprisingly, is twelve months of washed-out photography on cheap paper), there hasn't been any benefit to being a "founding subscriber."
Then last month, out of the blue, Jim Koch over at Samuel Adams decided that he wanted us - the truest of true beer fans - to be the first to try out his newly-designed pint glasses. I first read about the offer on the BA blog, which said we would each get one of these glasses in the mail. But when the box came, there were two of them in there. Sweet!
Now, are the glasses - which supposedly were designed so Sam Adams brews can be enjoyed just the way Jim Koch intended - any better than the usual pint glass? Well, they do have all those features you're been waiting for, like "a neck-and-lip design that helps sustain the head of the beer, which enhances the release of signature Noble hop aromas found in Samuel Adams Boston Lager." All I know is that they look really awesome. And the pair of them are worth $15!
I haven't actually tried to release the signature Noble hop aromas found in Samuel Adams Boston Lager in them just yet (sounds kind of dangerous to me), but they work just fine with my Yuengling Traditional (pictured, above). But soon, Mr. Koch, I promise, I'll try them with one of your beers (but it ain't going to be that wine cooler you call Cherry Wheat, that's for sure).
Oh, and thanks!
Guitar And Driver
Last Friday's WXPN Free-at-Noon concert's headliner was actress-turned-musician Minnie Driver, but the stars of the show were musicians-turned-actors Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová (who perform as "the Swell Season").
Hansard, of the Irish band the Frames, and Czech singer and pianist Irglová are the stars of the new independent movie Once. Driver, of course, has been in major motion pictures like Grosse Point Blank and Good Will Hunting (as well as several other movies where the title isn't a play on words). She also, um, sings.
I don't want to be too harsh on Ms. Driver. She can sing, and she's not too too bad at it - other than a monotonous stab at Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster" she didn't embarrass herself. I just didn't leave the concert feeling like I just had to have her new disc. Judging by the long line at her table after the show, a lot of concert-goers did - though buying her disc also meant getting to meet a real-live Hollywood actress, so that could have had something to do with the unusually brisk sales. Driver was also quite charming during her mid-concert interview (though she needs to drop her totally-fake British accent).
Oddly enough, during Hansard and Irglová's interview they mentioned that the director of Once said he was looking for musicians who acted, not actors who sang (sorry, Minnie). If these two can act as well as they perform music, and it looks like they can, than the movie should do pretty well. Hansard wrote the film's songs (before being cast in the lead) and had already recorded an album with Irglová before doing the soundtrack. Irglová's soft harmonies nicely compliment Hansard's emotional, Cat Stevens-like vocals.
They also, apparently, have become a real-life couple since the playing a couple in their film - though that was kind of obvious in concert from the goo-goo eyes they were making at each other (actually, it was kind of sweet to see the way they were interacting - it's just that I'm a cynical old man, so I have to make fun of it).
I've got a bunch of pictures of the happy couple over at my Flickr page, but my view of Minnie was usually blocked by her band's equipment so I've only got a couple shots of her. NPR, as they do every week, has archived the concert at their website.
