Ticket Giveaway: Andrew Bird + Calexico in Boston this Friday
Posted on June 15, 2009 at 12:08 pm | No Comments
In four short days, a genuinely special double-bill will make its way to Boston when Andrew Bird and Calexico set up at the BoA Pavilion on our waterfront’s Fish Pier. As a fan of both, having seen each in far different settings and far away from Boston (Bird in a bar, under a tent, and in an old Vermont meeting house in ’03, Calexico in ’06 at the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary shindig in Chicago), I know the team-up will be anything but the standard guitar-based-indie-rock thang I see way too much of. While Bird’s inventive, violin-and-whistlin’-accented songs don’t share obvious commonalities with Calexico’s energetic, Arizona-mex stylings, they for some reason feel like they’d perfect live compliments to each other. Especially if we get a break in this gray weather and a warm dusk eases us into the Friday night show.
Want a pair of tickets? Well, of course you do. Send along an email to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com before this Thursday noon, entitle it “AB&C”, and let me know which town you live in. I’ll pick a random winner from all entries, letting them know on Thursday afternoon that their name will be on the guest list with a +1. An easy enough hoop to jump through, eh? So get jumpin’.
For tickets of your own, hit up Live Nation. As you write me your entry, stream some Andrew Bird at his MySpace page, including tracks from his latest, “Noble Beast”, or some Calexico at theirs. Bird is fresh off an appearance at Bonnaroo, recently chatted with WNYC’s Soundcheck about his “gateway albums”, and appears in an entirely un-serious interview piece called Touche at P4K. Damn, do I love that man’s whistlin’. Luke at Hip2BeSquare has a preview of the show as well.
Andrew Bird’s summer journey picks up again in July with some dates out West, a stop at Chicago’s Lollapalooza, and then a trip overseas. Check out his tour dates page for all the info. From Boston, Calexico cruises out to Minneapolis for a Saturday show with the Decemberists (who just played the Pavilion themselves), and spends the rest of the summer hitting festivals on the other side of the Atlantic. Their busy itinerary is here.
Mp3s: Radio Dept. at NYC Popfest
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 6:04 pm | No Comments
I was gearing up to write this intro for my recording of The Radio Dept. live at the NYC Popfest last month, then I re-read Chromewaves’ recap of the night and realized I (and you) would be much better served by sticking with his summary. So go read that and come back. Ok. Done? Alright then.
Like Frank, I traveled to Brooklyn specifically for the Swedish trio, fulfilling a longtime wish to watch them play, and like him, I’d agree that seeing them was simply about the songs, not about any on-stage energy (or any lack thereof). My compulsion to see them perform their heartfelt (and heartstring-tugging) music directly in front of me wasn’t going to be defeated by any possible deficiency of stage presence, or the absence of a drummer. In fact, the only stage presence I required was that they were standing on one. And they were, so I was happy.
New songs, old songs, b-sides, they played ’em. The 12-song set felt painfully short, but I’d be saying that even if it had lasted all night (although the army of post-show indie-pop dancers might have been slightly let down). I did spend 8 hours alone in my car for it, after all. The band played a couple songs that will no doubt be found on the eventual next album (“Clinging To A Scheme”), although the absence of new single “David” (out June 24th, downloadable below) was notable (they did perform a b-side, “Messy Enough“).
Here’s their set, and here’s hoping they return to our shores sometime in the next, oh, decade or so. More please.

Live at the Bell House
in Brooklyn, NY
as part of the NYC Popfest
on Saturday, May 16th, 2009
01. New Improved (new)
02. Freddie and the Trojan Horse
03. Pulling Our Weight
04. I Wanted You To Feel The Same
05. The Worst Taste In Music
06. 1995
07. Sprint Time (new)
08. Sleeping In
09. Where Damage Isn’t Already Done
10. Why Won’t You Talk About It?
11. Keen On Boys (new)
12. Messy Enough (new-ish)
Some Radio Dept. linkage…
The RadioDept.com website is invaluable, and in fact, you could have downloaded someone else’s recording of this set earlier if you’d been paying attention over there. Also hit their MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and Labrador label page. Additional Audio: As I mentioned their next single is “David“, and Labrador has made the track available for free.
Order the single from Labrador to get 3 extra tracks. Frank Chromewaves also has lots of RD Mp3s linked in his post, and the RadioDept.com downloads section has tons of studio and live material. Seriously, it’s the mother lode.
Video: Official videos and more over at the RadioDept.com video section, and a mess of live clips with a YouTube search. Photos: My few Flickr-hosted shots are here, but as with the words, you’re better off at Chromewaves for his excellent shots. And of course there’s many more on Flickr. Stream this entire set, and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s, over at the Hype Machine.

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.
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