My apologies for the delay in this week's live music post... between the much-improved weather, lots of movies at the just-finished 2007 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and general work business, well, ain't got time to blog. So this could be both late and brief, but no less worthwhile...
Of the many, many times I've seen The Essex Green on stage, I can say with all honesty that their January set opening for Camera Obscura at the Paradise was the finest one yet. The song selection, the individual performances, the sound mix, and the band's overall tightness really came together that night... it was a total thrill to see my friends firing on all pop cylinders up there. Must be all those hours on the road in support of last year's excellent "Cannibal Sea"; it's brought out the best of everything they've always been.
While the 13-song setlist of course leaned heavily on that latest EG album, the remaining 5 tracks were nice surprises: Two from 2003's "The Long Goodbye" ("The Late Great Cassiopia" & "Chartiers"), along with a couple that EG's Sasha Bell wrote and sang on the self-titled 2003 Ladybug Transistoralbum (as you may know, the Ladybugs share a couple members with the Green), and an impressive cover of The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Older Guys".
Video: It surprises me to realize that in their eight-year history, there's never been an official Essex Green video (do correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe with the next album? For now, there's quite a few EG live clips on YouTube.
Speaking of all those related bands, Vermont blog Latitude 44.2 North wrote up a couple of lengthy posts about the EG/6GL/Guppyboy family tree (part 1 / part 2). Now that L44.2N has merged with fellow VT blog False 45th, maybe we'll see part 3 appear there? Nudge, nudge. Perhaps the eventual appearance of new Sixth Great Lake recordings (word is that some are in the works) will prompt the next chapter.
As I mentioned above, another band closely tied with the Essex Green is the Ladybug Transistor, who will be releasing their new album, "Can't Wait Another Day", on Merge in a month. The Ladybugs currently share both Jeff Baron on guitar & Julia Rydholm on bass, and also counted Sasha Bell in common before she recently left the band. The first song from "Can't Wait Another Day" has officially hit the 'net, and here it is...
If you're a fan or friend of the Ladybugs or the Green, you've by now likely heard the truly sad news that the world lost Ladybug drummer San Fadyl last week. It's hard to even wrap your head around the sudden absence of someone who was so obviously loved by those who knew him, someone who leaves behind his wife and 2-month old baby, who made music such an integral part of his life. He wasn't just a huge fan of music, but someone whose spirit and creativity both with and without a drum kit garnered him many fans of his own.
Many of those fans and friends are paying tribute to San in the comments of this memorial page that the band set up, former Ladybug Jennifer Baron has been sharing pictures, and Merge's Mac McCaughan shared his thoughts as well.
the postscript... If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (contact info in the 'nac faq). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Tracks are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
