Bradley’s Almanac

Sunday Random

Posted on February 20, 2005 at 1:04 pm | No Comments

A lazy sort of Sunday, time to play some catch-up and clear out a few bookmarks…

Couple of excellent musical guests on Last Call this past week, and here are the mp3s for ya… Kings of Convenience performing ‘I’d Rather Dance With You‘ and Matt Pond PA doing ‘Closest‘.

Brainwashed captured Low’s performance at the Somerville Theatre a couple weeks back on video, and combined it with some new Alan Sparhawk interview footage. Check out part one and part two here. Nice work, Jon.

Got a great package from Merge Records the other day, which included my early-order of the new Crooked Fingers disc ‘Dignity and Shame‘, and something I’d been meaning to pick up for a very long time, Annie Hayden’sThe Rub‘.

Ms. Hayden was one of the three songwriters in Spent, a longtime personal fave (their ‘Songs of Drinking and Rebellion‘ disc sits safely in my desert-island list), and I regretably missed out on this 2000 solo record of hers. Consider that fixed. Cool to find out that Spent’s John King recorded and mixed the thing, and that drummer Ed Radich played on it, too. Not only that, but the last song on the album, ‘Lovely to See‘, is even credited to everyone from the band. Oh, how I miss ’em, and this Annie album is hitting me just right.

And about that Crooked Fingers disc… I was one of the lucky ones to get that bonus ‘Red Devil Dawn Demos‘ collection thrown in for actin’ early, and it was so, so worth it. They say it’s an EP, but there’s 12 tracks, and while I’m not much of an autograph-coveting kinda guy, it was nice to see Eric Bachmann’s silver-sharpied scrawl across the cover. Even though those first fifty are gone, Merge says the band will be selling it on the road (Boston on March 29th), and it may show up in their online store again.

Since the Ivory Coast’s Jay Cox headed west from Boston to his new home in Seattle, I’ve been waiting for word that he’s back to making live music. Well, word has arrived with news that his band, The Sea Navy, opened up for Ted Leo in Seattle last week. Not only that, but the much-loved (by me, for sure) KEXP has added the self-released ‘Breathing in the Old World‘ to their playlist. Grab tracks from that album here.

Put pen to calendar: Chris Leo’s Vague Angels returns to Boston with a show at Great Scott in Allston as part of The Plan on March 7th. He’ll be playing with Ume, and you can read more about both of ’em at the Pretty Activity Records site.

Music trivialists take a gander: Band to Band is a six-degrees sort of site linking musicians through their bands and collaborations. At first it’s pretty mind-blowing, and you could waste a lot of time there, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that if you removed five particular albums, with like 20 people playing on each, that the entire thing would fall apart.

Also notable: This new Band News site, which promises to get news ‘direct from the sources’, and offers up categorized RSS feeds. Still, I can’t yet find a category that doesn’t offer up lots of news I care nothin’ about.

As a devourer of pretty much anything written by Robert B. Parker (the Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall books all included), I was mildly stunned to realize that the Tom Selleck TV movie that’s on tonight, ‘Stone Cold‘, is based on the Parker book of the same name. But y’know, thinking about it… Selleck is a pretty great choice to play Jesse Stone, an ex-big city cop whose alcoholism and failed marriage send him running to a small New England coastal town, where he heads up their tiny police department. Nice to see that Mimi Rogers is in it, too. Hope the adaptation does the book proud… TiVo will tell.

When I was a kid collecting comics (as opposed to the um, adult that still buys a few), I was hugely into Jon Sable, Freelance. Mike Grell wrote and drew what became one of my ‘gateway books’, a title not released by one of the ‘big two’ (Marvel or DC) that opened up a whole other world of independent comics publishers (Comico, First, Eclipse) and series (American Flagg, Badger, Jon Sable, Nexus, Grimjack, Somserset Holmes, the Elementals… I could go on and on).

Well, if some of my favorite bands can reunite and tour again, makes sense that one of my favorite comics can come back, too. Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodline is a six issue mini-series that starts in March, and is accompanied by long-awaited collections of the original series.

I’m enough of a fan to buy the mini-series (instead of waiting for the inevitable trade paperback collection), but I don’t think I’ve got it in me to meet Mr. Grell this afternoon when he appears (along with the great Jim Starlin) at this Boston comic convention. Maybe when I was 15, but not today…

My friend Heath, over at his Media Diet, has put up the second installment in his Forever, Vermont series of posts (part one here). In each, he digs through and reviews some old zines and comics from the early-to-mid nineties that came up up in the Burlington area, including work by James Kochalka, Colin Clary, & Jason Cooley. Hopefully the third installment won’t take as long as the second did to appear… I love that random dose of nostalgia (yeah, the stuff he’s writing about is from my own little collection).

Fans of HBO’s The Wire who are waiting for news of either a Season 4 or cancellation, here’s the latest. It’s a summary of the recent ‘Unraveling THE WIRE’ seminar at the Museum of Television & Radio on February 10th in New York City, and reveals this:

“David Simon, the Creator/Executive Producer of HBO�s acclaimed drama, THE WIRE, reports that he has had constructive discussions with Chris Albrecht and Caroline Strauss of HBO on the possible renewal of the program, but that no decision as yet has been made by the network. Mr. Simon said of the discussions that, �the ball is in my court�, and that he was developing a further presentation for HBO executives on where he wants to take THE WIRE over the next two seasons. Simon indicated he was happy to report his discussions with HBO were not about the program�s ratings or �numbers�, but acknowledged that THE WIRE has clearly not been a �break-out hit� for the cable network. Simon expressed his appreciation of the fact that his conversations with HBO were focused on story-line and not lightening up the program. He hopes and expects to be prepared to restart his discussions with HBO on the program’s future by the end of this month.”

That’s actually pretty promising news, especially if word that the decision is not ratings-based is true. My fingers remain crossed.

Heads up, bloggers: GeoURL is on the verge of a complete relaunch. Version 2.0 of this geographical-location tool was due to appear Friday, but should now be up ‘real soon’. Previous functionality listed the physical location of registered websites relative to your own, and I’m curious to see what the revamped one will show ya.

So Midway just made a deal to produce games based on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of shows. Oh My. The day I can drive a golf cart through Sealab, or fire lasers out of Frylock’s eyes, that’ll be a happy day indeed.

I caught a free screening of Constantine last week, and it falls squarely in the ‘not as bad as it could have been’ category, which isn’t saying all that much. I’m a fan of Hellblazer, the Vertigo series the movie was based on, but I’m not one of those that’d cry foul over the fact that Keanu Reeves isn’t British or blonde, so long as the essence of John Constantine remained. If the story, effects, and performances were solid, I’d leave happy. No such luck.

Sure, there were some neat effects, the supporting cast was pretty good, and the basic premise had potential… but it all felt like a wasted opportunity. It comes down to not buying Keanu at all, his inability to emote getting in the way of a part that really needed it. It’s like he got this idea in his head that “hey, it’s a hard-boiled pulp story, so I’ll act all wooden and serious!”, but none of it clicked. His dialogue just ended up cheesy and forced… not terribly written, but poorly delivered. The only thing that justifies ignoring the physical traits of an adapted character is the belief that the actor will make them irrelevant. Well, nice try, Neo.

I will admit, I sure did enjoy seeing the lead singer of Bush get punched in the face a whole bunch of times. Artistic payback, even if it wasn’t real.

So how did I never know that Iggy Pop appeared on Deep Space Nine? Even though I missed out on the sixth and seventh seasons, I figured I would’ve heard about it. Quite a little shock as I was watching ‘The Magnificent Ferengi‘ episode the other day…

Bless my TiVo, and SpikeTV for rebroadcasting the entire DS9 series in order, two episodes a day. It’s no surprise that Ronald D. Moore was writing and producing the excellent later seasons of the show, considering he’s the man behind the new Battlestar Galactica. There’s no better sci-fi on TV right now, and if you haven’t tried it just because the connection to the 70s original scares you off, you’re missing out on something great.

In internet-speed, this is old news by now, but just in case you missed it… the NYC-centric Gothamist has birthed a Boston offspring: Bostonist, natch.

Later tonight, with no blizzard in sight, it’s the rescheduled Ida show, with Thalia Zedek and Jodi Buonanno opening up. Pretty excited about that, I am…

… and on Wednesday I head down to DC with Colin for the Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary shows. So many great bands playing, and I’ve got the go-ahead to record the whole thing, so I’m hoping to post songs and pictures like crazy while I’m down there. Total old-school indie-geek action, and I’m so, so ready.

Speakin’ of which, you can now download the well-timed ‘Relax Brother, Relax: A Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Teenbeat Records‘, which has twenty artists covering songs by their favorite TB bands, including Colin doing some Eggs, and his band The Smittens on a True Love Always song. Hey, it ain’t just great, it’s free. How ’bout that?

Whew, that was a long post. Time to get the hell outta this basement…

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  • BOSTON-AREA LIVE SHOW ACTION
    Thursday, March 28th
    Thus Love
    Native Sun
    Robber Robber
    @ O'Brien's

    Thursday, March 28th
    Arlo Parks
    Chloe George
    @ the Royale

    Friday, March 29th
    Grouplove
    Bully
    @ Roadrunner

    Friday, March 29th
    The Rolling Stones
    @ Gillette

    Saturday, March 30th
    Ex-Hyena (release show!)
    The Shallows
    CMB (Casey Desmond/Jimmy Rossi Jr.)
    @ Deep Cuts

    Saturday, March 30th
    Guster
    Fruit Bats
    @ MGM Music Hall

    Saturday, March 30th
    The Cavedogs
    @ the Burren Back Room

    Monday, April 1st
    Adam Ant
    The English Beat
    @ the Wilbur

    Friday, April 5th
    Joe Pernice (solo)
    @ a Boston living room

    Friday, April 5th
    Richard Thompson
    @ the Cut, Gloucester

    Saturday, April 6th
    Choo Choo La Rouge
    Lupo Citta
    The Bret Tobias Set
    Jay Walsh
    @ the Midway Cafe

    Saturday, April 6th
    Land Of Talk
    @ Rockwood Music Hall

    Saturday, April 6th
    Destroyer (solo)
    Lightning Dust
    @ Brighton Music Hall

    Saturday, April 6th
    Choo Choo La Rouge
    Lupo Citta
    The Bret Tobias Set
    Jay Walsh (of the Douglas Fir)
    @ the Midway Cafe

    Saturday, April 6th
    Colin Hay (Men at Work)
    @ the Wilbur

    Monday, April 8th
    Swami & the Bed of Nails
    (John Reis of Hot Snakes/RFTC/etc)
    The Freqs
    @ Crystal Ballroom

    Tuesday, April 9th
    Moron's Morons
    Andy California
    Adult Learners
    G. Gordon Gritty
    @ O'Brien's

    Thursday, April 11th
    Trash Sun
    @ O'Brien's

    Thursday, April 11th
    Hotline TNT
    Cicada
    @ the Somerville Armory

    Saturday, April 13th
    Dead Gowns
    Kathy Snax
    Hannah Mohan
    Audrey & Karina
    @ the Loft, Somerville

    Saturday, April 13th
    DARK SPRING BOSTON FEST
    with Korine, House of Harm,
    Widow Rings, Allie Frost,
    Hemlock for Socrates,
    Midnight Psychic, the
    Spearmint Sea, and more
    @ the Middle East

    Sunday, April 14th
    Woods
    Avey Tare
    @ the Sinclair

    Monday, April 15th
    Matthew Sweet
    @ the Wilbur

    Wednesday, April 17th
    Metz
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Wednesday, April 17th
    Real Estate
    Marina Allen
    @ the Royale

    Friday, April 19th
    Quattracenta
    Thalia Zedek Band
    Rip Room
    @ the Midway Cafe

    Friday, April 19th
    Drop Nineteens
    Greg Mendez
    @ the Paradise

    Saturday, April 20th Doc Hopper
    "Aloha" LP 30th anniversary with
    Shades Apart,
    Matt Charrette & the Truer Sound,
    and The Keeper Class
    @ O'Brien's

    Wednesday, April 24th
    Teen Suicide
    awakebutstillinbed
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Friday, April 26th
    Waxahatchee
    Good Morning
    @ the Orpheum

    Friday & Saturday
    April 26th & 27th
    The Town & the City Festival
    @ various venues in Lowell, MA

    Saturday, April 27th
    Kal Marks
    Grocer
    Bedroom Eyes
    Main Era
    @ O'Brien's

    Saturday, April 27th
    Belle and Sebastian
    The Weather Station
    @ the Orpheum

    Sunday, April 28th
    Yot Club
    Boyscott
    @ Brighton Music Hall

    Tuesday, April 30th
    Adult Learners
    Perfectly Lethal
    Over Ends
    Free with food donation
    @ Notch Brewing Brighton

    Tuesday, April 30th
    Teenage Fanclub
    @ the Paradise

    Wednesday, May 1st
    Ty Segall
    @ the Royale

    Thursday, May 2nd
    Outer World
    @ Deep Cuts

    Thursday, May 2nd
    The Decemberists
    Ratboys
    @ Roadrunner

    Friday, May 3rd
    Ra Ra Riot
    @ the Royale

    Saturday, May 4th
    Slothrust
    Weakened Friends
    @ the Sinclair

    Saturday, May 4th
    Lisa Bastoni
    & Sean Staples
    @ the Rec Room, Belmont

    Saturday, May 4th
    The Lights Out
    Gretchen Shae & The Middle 8
    Brian K & The Parkway
    @ Faces Brewing

    Sunday, May 5th
    Sheer Mag
    Pile
    @ Crystal Ballroom

    Sunday, May 5th
    CSS
    @ the Sinclair

    Monday, May 6th
    Cloud Nothings
    Hurry
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Tuesday, May 7th
    Bad Religion
    Social Distortion
    (playing "Mommy's Little Monster")
    @ MGM Music Hall

    Wednesday, May 8th
    Todd Rundgren
    @ the Wilbur

    Wednesday, May 8th
    Chastity Belt
    @ the Sinclair

    Thursday, May 9th
    Cheekface
    Yungatita
    @ Brighton Music Hall

    Friday, May 10th
    Hot Water Music
    30 Year Anniversary Tour
    with Quicksand
    & Off With Their Heads
    @ the Royale

    Friday, May 10th
    Sarah Shook & the Disarmers
    @ the Cut, Gloucester

    Saturday, May 11th
    Bradley's Almanac (that's me) presents...
    SAVAK
    SAMUEL s.c.
    HEY I'M OUTSIDE
    PLAZA
    8pm @ O'Brien's

    Saturday, May 11th
    Ride
    @ Big Night Live

    Saturday, May 11th
    Hallelujah the Hills
    Colleen Green
    Mallcops
    @ Deep Cuts

    Sunday, May 12th
    Sunny Day Real Estate
    @ Big Night Live

    Monday, May 13th
    High On Fire
    Zeta
    High Command
    @ the Middle East
    Monday & Tuesday
    May 13th & May 14th
    Mannequin Pussy
    Soul Glo
    @ the Sinclair

    Tuesday, May 14th
    Swans
    @ the Paradise

    Wednesday, May 15th
    Wussy (duo show)
    @ an Allston living room

    Thursday, May 16th
    Helmet
    Cro-Mags
    @ the Middle East Downstairs

    Thursday, Friday, & Saturday
    May 16th, 17th, & 18th
    Jukebox the Ghost
    @ the Sinclair

    Friday, May 17th
    Lenny Kaye & Friends
    "A 50th Anniversary Celebration of
    Nuggets!: Classic Garage Rock Songs"
    featuring Jon Wurster, Bill Janovitz,
    Ted Leo, Josh Kantor, David Minehan,
    James Mastro, Ed Valauskas, Hugo Burnham,
    Clint Conley, Tanya Donelly, Duke Levine,
    Barrence Whitfield, Tony Goddess, Willie
    Alexander, and more to come
    @ the Cut, Gloucester

    Friday, May 17th
    Special Sapphic Pride Show
    Ruby Grove
    Galaxy Cake
    Miss Geo
    Linnea's Garden
    @ the Loft, Somerville

    Friday, May 17th
    Neil Young & Crazy Horse
    @ the Xfinity Center

    Friday, May 17th
    Buck Meek (of Big Thief)
    @ Crystal Ballroom

    Saturday, May 18th
    Eldridge Rodriguez
    @ Sonia

    Saturday, May 18th
    The Messthetics
    James Brandon Lewis
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Monday, May 20th
    Echo & the Bunnymen
    @ the House of Blues

    Tuesday, May 21st
    Another Michael
    Tenci
    @ the Rockwell

    Tuesday, May 28th
    Shannon & the Clams
    @ the Sinclair

    Tuesday, May 28th
    Brookline Booksmith presents...
    Kathleen Hanna
    "Rebel Girl" book tour
    @ the Wilbur

    Wednesday, May. 29th
    The Antlers &
    Okkervil River
    (solo & together tour)
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Wednesday, May 29th
    The Alarm
    Jay Aston's Gene Love Jezebel
    Belouis Some
    @ Brighton Music Hall

    Wednesday, May 29th
    Madness
    @ MGM Music Hall

    Thursday, May 30th
    Camera Obscura
    @ the Paradise

    Thursday, May 30th
    Nation Of Language
    @ the Royale

    Tuesday, June 4th
    Melt-Banana
    The Flying Luttenbachers
    babyaby_explores
    @ the Sinclair

    Tuesday, June 4th
    Joe Jackson
    @ the Wilbur

    Wednesday, June 5th
    Andy Summers (The Police)
    @ Cary Hall, Lexington

    Thursday, June 6th
    Jason Narducy & Alison Chesley
    duo/reunion show
    @ Q Division Studios, Cambridge

    Thursday, June 6th
    Reverend Horton Heat
    @ the Crystal Ballroom

    Friday, June 7th
    Joe Pera
    @ the Wilbur

    Monday, June 10th
    Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) @ Brighton Music Hall

    Monday, June 10th
    Bleachers
    Samia
    @ MGM Music Hall

    Thursday, June 13th
    Jon Langford & the Bright Shiners
    @ the Cut, Gloucester

    Thursday, June 13th
    Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties
    Future Teens
    Maura Weaver
    @ Brighton Music Hall

    Friday, June 14th
    Dylan Earl
    Tiger Saw
    Audrey & Karina
    & one more artist tba
    @ the Loft, Somerville

    Sunday, June 16th
    Pixies
    Modest Mouse
    Cat Power
    @ Xfinity Center

    Wednesday, June 19th
    Future Islands
    @ Roadrunner

    Thursday, June 20th
    Roger Daltrey
    KT Tunstall
    @ the Pavilion

    Friday, June 21st
    The Church
    The Afghan Whigs
    Ed Harcourt
    @ the Royale

    Friday, June 21st
    Blushing
    Airiel
    Bodywash
    @ Deep Cuts

    Saturday, June 22nd
    Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
    playing "Shake The Sheets"
    with guests
    Ekko Astral
    @ the Paradise

    Saturday, June 22nd
    Guided By Voices
    The Moles
    @ the Royale

    Tuesday, June 25th
    Jon Anderson (of Yes)
    playing “Yes Epics, Classics, and More”
    @ the Shubert Theatre

    Tuesday, June 25th
    Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
    Courtney Marie Andrews
    @ Roadrunner

    Wednesday, June 26th
    Blue Oyster Cult
    @ the Lynn Auditorium

    Friday, June 28th
    Dry Cleaning
    @ the Paradise

    Friday, June 28th
    A Day To Remember
    The Story So Far
    Four Year Strong
    Pain of Truth
    @ Suffolk Downs

    Friday, June 28th
    Janet Jackson
    Nelly
    @ TD Garden

    Saturday, June 29th
    Buffalo Tom
    @ Boarding House Park, Lowell

    Sunday, June 30th
    Les Savy Fav
    @ Somerville Armory