Live Mp3s: David Bazan + his band in Cambridge, MA
Posted on January 10, 2010 at 10:47 pm | No Comments
In preamble, let’s examine David Bazan‘s 2009: Play dozens of intimate, solo acoustic, and very sold-out house shows in living rooms across the country. After wrestling with it for a few years, finish up and release “Curse Your Branches”, a genuinely revealing diary of his struggles with faith and alcohol – and the first full-length bearing his own name. While promoting said album through even-more-revealing interviews and acoustic performances, pull together and prepare a top-notch crew of talented friends for his first full-band tour since his days fronting Pedro the Lion. With funds provided from his loyal fanbase, buy a van so they can head out on the road. Embark on that tour and knock ’em dead. Head home to Seattle and his family for some much-deserved rest. Whew.
We here in the Boston area were fortunate to have David visit last year in both forms: An August solo acoustic house show in Beverly, MA (shared here), and just two months later, a club gig with his bandmates: Casey Foubert, Eric Elbogen, Andy Fitts, and Blake Wescott.
With the kind support of both his label and management, here is the sound of those five gentlemen knocking us dead on an October Tuesday night at Cambridge’s TT the Bears. See below for even more DB tourdates, including more solo shows and another long U.S. tour that starts in March…
Live at TT the Bears
in Cambridge, MA
on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
[download all the songs below in this .zip file]
01. Hard To Be
02. Please Baby Please
03. I Do
04. Bless This Mess
05. Magazine
06. Heavy Breath
07. Q&A #1
08. Cold Beer and Cigarettes
09. When We Fell
10. Lost My Shape
11. Curse Your Branches
12. Q&A #2
13. Fewer Broken Pieces
14. Bearing Witness
15. Keep Swinging
16. How I Remember
17. Q&A #3
18. I Never Wanted You
19. In Stitches
encore…
20. Priests and Paramedics
21. Harmless Sparks
Some David Bazan links…
His official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, Barsuk label page, and Undertow Music page. And if you’re more than a casual DB fan, spend some time on the PTL.org forum and marvel at the minutia and occasional attempts at ‘humor’. Buy: Pick up “Curse Your Branches” direct from either Undertow or Barsuk. I highly recommend getting the vinyl version, which was mastered specifically for wax, and sounds phenomenal. Visit the Undertow store for a whole bunch more Bazan-related merch. Additional Audio: Barsuk offers up an MP3 for “Bless This Mess” here on their CYB page. Download “Cold Beer and Cigarettes” from his first solo EP right here. David provided us with a ton of excellent audio while promoting the latest album, including live solo sessions for Daytrotter, The Current, and WNYC’s Soundcheck. Video: Hoo-boy. If you’re ready to dive into live DB video, you need to set aside some time. Despite the relative lack of official videos (the best of which is the “Alone At The Microphone” DVD), there are live clips galore. And by “galore“, I mean, “all over YouTube”. When you play in dozens of strangers’ living rooms over the course of a year, and play a couple months of excellent gigs, that shit is going to end up on the u-tubes, so start watching. Especially great is this very new video of David and Blake doing PTL classic “Bad Diary Days” at a house show just a few days back. And have a look at the ABC News Amplified feature on Dave, which also had them sharing a couple clips from one of the first full-band shows at Pianos in NYC. Here are direct links to their performances of “Hard To Be“ and “Bless This Mess”.
Photos: All of my Flickr-hosted DB snaps are here. And here’s a full DB Flickr tag search. Upcoming tourdates: Lots! 2010 sees David emerging from his holiday break with more acoustic living room sets and full band shows. Sadly, none are in the Boston area, but we’re a patient bunch, and we were spoiled last year. His solo appearances are on the West Coast, then all over Europe, and the full-band U.S. tour ends up hitting many of the spots he missed last year. Because he cares. See the entire itinerary here. As always, you can easily stream every ‘Nac-hosted MP3 through 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.
And while I’m at it, Happy Birthday to my mom. Who, at the very least, was responsible for me. And so much more. Thanks, Mom.
Boston Ticket Giveaway: Mission of Burma at the Paradise
Posted on January 6, 2010 at 8:05 pm | No Comments
And just as 2009 ends on the Almanac, so does 2010 begin… with a giveaway. Hey, I’m just trying to kill time while I work on my “faves of ’09” post. And you’re the beneficiary. Maybe.
So 2009 was a pretty damn good year for the men of Mission of Burma: They started with an amazing January live set at the Somerville Theatre (a benefit for the Arts at the Armory), spent much of the Spring in the studio laying down their their third post-reunion album, then released “The Sound The Speed The Light” to raves in early October. Throw in a dozen or so live dates around the country throughout the year, and that sounds like a relatively normal cycle for most successful bands. But there are a couple things that set these gents apart: Other so-called successful bands don’t take a 20-year break and return just as prolific (yes, the release of this album means they’ve officially put out more music since their rebirth than they did during their first phase), and most bands don’t have their hometown naming a freakin’ day after them. Top that, young upstarts.
Just as MoB kick-started our musical 2009 with a Boston-area live show, so they will again this year, this time with a two-night stand at the Paradise on Friday and Saturday, January 15th and 16th. Courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got a pair of guest list spots for the Saturday night show (with openers Bunnies) to hand out to a ‘Nac reader. The all-too-familiar drill: Send an email to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com, title it “MOB”, and get it to me before, oh, let’s say Wednesday the 13th at 12 noon. I’ll pick one random winner and let them know shortly thereafter that they’ll be on the following Saturday night’s list with a +1. Sho’ nuff.
Burma has a half dozen East Coast U.S. shows booked during the first couple months of the year, plus a few more in the mid-West later on, and will be playing at the first night of the Pavement-curated (and very sold-out) edition of All Tomorrow’s Parties over in Minehead, UK this May. Check the full list of scheduled MoB dates right here, grab tickets to either of the Paradise shows (or a discounted 2-day pass) over here, and pick up your own copy of the excellent “The Sound The Speed The Light” from Matador. In case you haven’t already heard it, here’s something from the album…
[MP3] Mission of Burma – “1,2,3,Partyy!“
[VIDEO] Mission of Burma – “1,2,3,Partyy!“