The fifth stop on David Bazan's 3-week tour with All Smiles, which officially wrapped up last night, brought him to TT the Bears in Cambridge, MA as the third game of the Sox-dominated World Series unfolded on TV at the other side of the bar. He shared the bill not only with All Smiles (aka Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy), but with his friend, former bandmate, and returned Boston-area resident TW Walsh (but more on him and the live debut of his Soft Drugs in my next post), as well as opener and birthday-boy Drew O'Doherty.
It's been well over a year since the initial release of DB's last EP, "Fewer Moving Parts", so he's got a whole bunch of new songs ready to share (which should appear on his first Barsuk full-length, titled "David Bazan's Black Cloud", out sometime next year). And share he did, with no less than seven new ones and a knockout cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (which will also likely make its way onto the next disc). The first of the new ones he played was co-written with Starflyer 59's Jason Martin, and as of this performance didn't have an official title. We also got a couple of the EP tracks, a Headphones number, some older Pedro the Lion songs, and David's usually-interesting in-set question & answer sessions.
As you may know, David's a Radiohead fan (Mp3: "Let Down" (live)), and here's what he had to say during one of the Q&A's about the release of "In Rainbows"...
Audience: "What do you think of the new Radiohead?"
DB: "Oh, I like the new Radiohead record pretty well. I like some of their other songs better than the songs on this record, but it's a pretty compelling record, I think. I don't love the drummer. He seems like a great dude, and I thought he had worked all this stuff out on the last record, but apparently not."
DB: "It depends on the value that you place on music. Having heard the White Album the way that I have, and knowing how much it means to me, if someone told me that the only way I could listen to that record ever again is to save up and pay $1000 for it... do you think I would? Fuck yeah, I would. I'd sell amplifiers, and guitars... it's an important thing for me to be able to listen to that record...
...thankfully I can just download it for free."
He also talks about Pitchfork's reaction to his song "Selling Advertising" ("They were very mad. They were frustrated, they had a lot of issues with the song, not the least of which is that Ryan Schreiber is not Jewish. I was like 'no fucking doy.'... not as smart as I thought they were."). He speaks of leaving Jade Tree for Barsuk, a bit about politics, mentions that he's not releasing a Christmas 7" this year, says there will be a second Headphones record in a couple years, and addresses when "Black Cloud" will come out ("May, I think, maybe June... or July... or August").
Whenever it does arrive, it can't come soon enough, as this new stuff ranks up with some of his best work under the PTL banner. Plans are that the album will be a fully fleshed-out affair, with David playing all the instruments, and that he'll put together a touring band to deliver the songs to audiences once it's out. For now, the songs only exist in demo form, and further recording may even start between now and when Bazan hits the road again for a two-week West Coast-ish tour with J. Tillman on December 2nd. Full dates after these Mp3s of his full Cambridge set...
Video: Nothing official, really, but there's always the trusty David Bazan YouTube search. And allow me to direct you to this clip of another brand spankin' new song recorded just a couple days ago in Nashville. It's killer.
Sunday, 12/02 in Spokane, WA @ Empyrean Monday, 12/03 in Boise, ID @ Neurolux Tuesday, 12/04 in Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue Wednesday, 12/05 in Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive Thursday, 12/06 in Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad Friday, 12/07 in Tuscon, AZ @ Solar Culture Saturday, 12/08 in San Diego, CA @ Casbah Monday, 12/10 in Pomona, CA @ Glass House Tuesday, 12/11 in Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland Wednesday, 12/12 in San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill Thursday, 12/13 in Eugene, OR @ Indigo District Friday, 12/14 in Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Saturday, 12/15 in Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe
the fine print... If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the 'nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
