Mp3s: Wedding Present in Cambridge, MA
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 2:11 pm | No Comments
So what else can I say about seeing the Wedding Present live? I’ve used plenty of words to express my undying love for ’em here on the ‘Nac, been fortunate enough to catch them each time they’ve hit the Boston area since their emergence from hibernation in 2004, and as live performers they never disappoint me. The quartet gets on stage, rocks out on a setlist full of great recent songs and old faves, says farewell, and off they go. No encores, no requests considered, all business. In fact, the only fault I could find is that lack of spontaneity — they’re almost too pro — but they make up for it with the songs themselves and the energy with which they deliver them. Gedge & co. are ever dependable.
Here’s their early-October set, once again downstairs at the Middle East in Cambridge (their venue of choice, it seems). Personal highlights were “Kennedy” kicking things off, “Palisades” (maybe my fave from their latest, “El Rey”), and the late-set one-two punch of “Dalliance” and “Dare“, which were played more passionately than ever.
As Gedge always makes himself very available for chatting before and after the show, I was able to ask him about something I’d heard — that the band re-recorded the entirety of their debut album, “George Best”, when they were in the studio with Steve Albini working on “El Rey” — and David confirmed that was indeed the case. “Just for fun”, he said, and that it was fairly easy to bang out, since the lineup had performed the album on a short UK tour last year to commemorate 20 years since its release. And while there are no solid plans to release those re-recordings, he said they’d likely pop up as b-sides or some such thing at some point.
When I mentioned that I wished I could have seen that anniversary tour, he shared this likely possibility — with 2009 marking 20 years since the release of 1989’s “Bizarro”, well, you can figure the rest out. Yes, it looks like we’ll probably be treated to some U.S. shows that will celebrate the occasion, and that has me thrilled. In fact, I’m truly hoping that the stars align, and the crew from All Tomorrow’s Parties invites the Weddoes to ATP NY 2009 next September. That’d get me out to the Catskills again for sure.
To the live tracks we go…
Live at the Middle East Downstairs
in Cambridge, MA
on Monday, October 6th, 2008
01. Kennedy
02. It’s For You
03. Gone
04. Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk
05. You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
06. Lovenest
07. Blue Eyes
08. Palisades
09. Snake Eyes
10. Sports Car
11. Spider-Man On Hollywood
12. Crawl
13. You Turn Me On
14. Interstate 5
15. My Favourite Dress
16. Model, Actress, Whatever
17. The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend
18. Dalliance
19. Dare
20. Boo Boo
Some Wedding Present links…
Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and Manifesto label page. Additional Audio: Nothing in the way of officially-sanctioned free mp3s, so you’ll just have to hit up MySpace for song streams. Video: A bounty of official videos and live clips via a Weddoes YouTube search. You’ll find two official videos from “El Rey” there — “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend” and “Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk“. Photos: All of my Flickr-hosted Wedding Present shots are here. Have a look at a full Wedding Present Flickr tag search as well. Upcoming tourdates: The Wedding Present has about a dozen dates left in 2008, mostly in the UK, but with a couple in Greece and the last in Turkey. Longer term plans include more UK dates in March along with a trip to Japan (and then hopefully we’ll get word about that “Bizarro” anniversary tour!). Listen to any and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s 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.
The Tuesday Fiver
Posted on December 2, 2008 at 2:06 pm | No Comments
December already. How’d that happen? I suppose this means I should start thinking about those pesky year-end lists. While I consider that task, here are some mostly Boston-centric things for your eyes and ears…
Buffalo Tom singer/guitarist Bill Janovitz has come up with a way to help him, and us, pass the cold winter months: By sharing a new home-recorded cover song every week. And his first selection has set the bar pretty damn high…
Not only do we get an ace ‘Mats cover right out of the gate, but a version of Tom Waits’ “Johnsburg, Illinois” recorded on a $10 guitar, which you can read about here and grab over here. Keep ’em comin’, Bill.
Bostonian and viola player extraordinaire David Michael Curry earned my extreme envy by being fortunate enough to see Come‘s one-off reunion show last month in, of all places, Spain. Come founders Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek were both invited to do solo sets at the Tanned Tin Festival in Castellon, and the organizer somehow convinced them to reunite Come for a set with drummer Daniel Coughlin and bassist Winston Braman (both former Come members and currently in Thalia’s band, along with David). DMC shared up a video clip of the reunited band performing the powerful “Saints Around My Neck“, and it just leaves me wanting more.
As much as I enjoyed my Thanksgiving getaway down to NYC/NJ (well, all except for the drive down, which stretched from 4 to 6 1/2 hours thanks to pre-turkey-day traffic), I truly regretted not being in town for the final show at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville. The dive holds a special place in my heart, not just because of the fine bands I’ve seen there, or the times I’ve sat behind my drum kit on that small stage, but because it’s within those very walls that Amie and I first met back in 2000. I took it for granted that we’d always be able to go there if we were feeling particularly nostalgic, and we did try to make a last visit before it closed, but couldn’t pull it together.
The Globe and the Phoenix wrote a bit about that last show, which I attended in spirit, if not in person. Sorry to see you go, dear ol’ Abbey.
Providence-based quartet Six Finger Satellite are back with some new/old recordings in the form of “Half Control”, an album of songs put down to tape just after the turn of the millennium and finally released through Load Records. The songs are only available as a download at the moment (via Last.fm, Boomkat, and Fina), but should be in physical form at the Load site at some point. Frontman J. Ryan spoke to the Providence Daily Dose about the release back in April…
“It was recorded in 2001 maybe? The lineup is Rick (Pelletier) on drums, Shawn Greenlee (from Landed and Pleasure Horse) on bass, Joel Kyack (of Landed and Megafuckers) on guitar and me on synth and vox.”
The album’s arrival, along with the availability of a ton of older and obscure tracks via MySpace, will help pass the time while we await the next album of all-new material, now in progress.
My thanks to writer Michael Prager, who deemed the ‘Nac worthy of inclusion in his Boston Globe Sunday Magazine article “Find. Join. Learn. Go. The World Wide Hub” (subtitled “Sixty-four websites on Boston life that you should know”). A nice surprise to end the long holiday weekend. While it was flattering to be alongside “Under 21 In Boston” and “Soho The Dog” in the “music” section of the write-up (two sites already long in my RSS reader), it’s too bad that the wealth of area music sites that have sprung up in the past few years were pared down to just a trio. Yeah, it’s easy to nitpick a list that narrows so many possibilities down to just 64, but music deserves more than just three. For more, check out the lengthy list of sites in my right-hand column. And I’m obligated to point out the criminal lack of Surviving Grady in the sports section. A daily must.
Lastly, a reminder (and I’ll probably mention it again before the week’s out): The Boston edition of the Bazaar Bizarre is this coming Sunday, December 7th from 12-7pm at a brand new location — downtown at the Castle on Arlington & Columbus. Many dozens of vendors selling super-cool, mostly handmade gifty stuff, along with various notable people (and, um, me) providing the soundtrack. Yes, I’m honored to once again be among the invited DJs, selecting an hours worth of songs starting around 1pm. Like last year, I’m putting together a playlist of my favorite tracks released in 2008, and it’s proving tough to narrow it down to a mere 60 minutes. Other DJs include writer/musician Michael Brodeur, Tourfilter’s Chris Marstall, music maven and DJ overseer Stacie Slotnick, and WMBR DJ Generoso Fierro, all linked together by Jon Bernhardt and his magical theremin. For a full list of vendors, check here, and keep an eye on the Bazaar Bizarre Boston Blog for updates.