Thursday Music Miscellany
Posted on November 15, 2007 at 11:20 am | No Comments
Some variousness on this gray, rainy Thursday. First, some timely tidbits…
Yes, both Yo La Tengo shows here in Boston tonight at the MFA are sold out, but if you’ve got tickets, make sure you show up early enough to catch opener Chris Brokaw… his solo stuff should sound fantastic in that room. His sets tonight come just a few days after he shared the stage with his old Come bandmate Thalia Zedek and members of her band, bass player Winston Bramen and drummer Daniel Coughlin, at the Middle East’s 20th Anniversary show last Saturday. Attendees were treated to live performances of a couple Come songs to mark the occasion: “Hurricane” off their next-to-last album, 1996’s “Near Life Experience”, and “Submerge” from their amazing full-length debut, “11:11”. The set was filmed, and word is we’ll be seeing that reunion on YouTube eventually.
If you’re on the internet today at 5pm EST (that’s 2pm Cali-time): Comedian, animated rat, comic book booster, and music fan of discriminating taste Mr. Patton Oswalt will take over Steve Jones’ DJ slot, Jonesy’s Jukebox, at indie 103.1 on Thursday at 2pm PST. Stream it there. Patton’s fill-in comes in the wake of a Hobbit and Dwight Schrute, who played songs of their choosing earlier this week. Monaghan played old-school Manchester stuff (nice!), but hopefully no Driveshaft.
Film School‘s homecoming show in Los Angeles tonight is being filmed to be incorporated into Eric Green’s in-progress shoegaze documentary, “Beautiful Noise” (fyi, I’ll be sharing up a live set from FS at some point soon… their recent show here in Boston floored me). Think Eric could have guessed that My Bloody Valentine would be reuniting as he was working on his film? Talk about timely…
And on the subject of “Beautiful Noise”, Medicine‘s Brad Laner has fittingly been tagged to provide the score, as his band is the only American one to be featured in the “first wave” section of the film. Laner has just released a solo album titled “Neighbor Singing” under his own name, on the Hometapes label. Here’s a song from it…
There’s another Mp3 linked over here titled “June Gloom“.
As I mentioned briefly yesterday, Caleb, the gent behind the Hard To Find A Friend music blog, has pulled together one hell of a benefit compilation, and it was made available earlier this week. “Peace On Earth” is a holiday-themed collection of songs from the likes of the Long Winters, Chris Walla of DCFC, TW Walsh of the Soft Drugs, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Rosie Thomas, American Music Club, Via Audio, Great Lake Swimmers, and a bunch more. The eighteen-song digital download is just 7 bucks, and all proceeds are being donated to the wonderful Toys for Tots organization, which provides presents for underprivileged kids at Christmas. While not every single song is holiday-themed, every one is exclusive to the compilation, and having bought one myself, I can attest to it being worth the cash, independent of the worthy cause. Buy it here, only at HtFaF. Here’s the official “try before you buy” track…
Outta nowhere, Versus reunited for a little birthday party show last weekend in NYC, playing a full set for the lucky 50 or so who where there, and especially for birthday boy Matt Datesman (ace drummer for True Love Always and Flin Flon). Ah, to be one of the fortunate few. We can virtually share the experience with YouTube footage of a bunch of the songs: “Lose That Dress“, “Shangri-La“, “You’ll Be Sorry“, “We Got The Missiles“, “Morning Glory“, “Forest Fire“, “Jealous“, and “Dumb Fun“. F’in “Forest Fire“! I’m truly hoping this get-together is a sign of things to come, as the band is also opening for Yo La Tengo in NYC on December 4th. It’d be nice to see them back for awhile.
Ida fans, and others: Make sure you pick up the new Fall 2007 issue of Esopus magazine (#9), which includes a compact disc entitled “Dreams”. The disc features 11 artists (including Ida, White Whale, and Dirty Projectors) performing songs inspired by dreams submitted by Esopus readers. Pick up the magazine at finer bookstores listed here, or stream segments of all the tracks here. For those in the Boston area, Trident Booksellers on Newbury had a few copies left when I grabbed mine yesterday. FYI, Ida’s contribution is titled “Moon Flower“, and will not be appearing on their upcoming full length, “Lovers Prayers”.
On a completely non-music related note, it sure was a good week for new comics, was it not? A new Ex Machina trade paperback, the last (and long awaited) Queen & Country collection for awhile, and the gorgeously designed new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen hardcover, “The Black Dossier”. It’s going to take me awhile to get through that one… so much text! But that’s far from a complaint… I’ll take all the text I can get from Alan Moore.
Long as I’m talking comics: I’ve never been to the Toronto-based comics shop The Beguiling, but that didn’t stop me from buying this James Jean (of Fables cover fame) poster commemorating their 20th anniversary. Just beautiful.
Ending on a musical note: Plan ahead for Thursday night, November 29th, as I’ll be returning to the DJ booth at River Gods in Cambridge for another Tourfilter DJ Night. But more on that as it gets closer…
[Live MP3s] David Bazan in Cambridge, MA
Posted on November 14, 2007 at 6:06 am | No Comments
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.”
Aud: “How much did you pay for it?”
DB: “I paid 80 dollars.” (he bought the discbox)
Aud: “That’s too much!” (crowd laughs)
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…
Live at TT the Bears
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on Saturday, October 27th, 2007
[Download the set in one zip file]
* new song
01. Transcontinental
02. Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives
03. Cold Beer & Cigarettes
04. No Name Yet * (written with Jason Martin)
05. Weeds in the Wheat *
06. Hot Girls
07. Q&A #1
08. Harmless Sparks *
09. Please, Baby Please *
10. Q&A #2
11. Selling Advertising
12. When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run
13. Heavy Breath(er) *
14. Q&A #3
15. Curse Your Branches *
16. Options
17. I Do
18. American Flags *
19. Q&A #4
20. Band With Managers
21. thanks (banter)
22. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
Some Bazan linkage…
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.