Mp3s: Albert Hammond Jr. in Boston
Posted on May 9, 2007 at 6:25 am | No Comments
I hope it’s not too much of a back-handed compliment to say that Albert Hammond Jr. surprised the hell out of me. I’ve been a pretty passive Strokes fan, having listened to their albums but never liking quite enough songs to add them to my collection, and never having gone out of my way to see them live. And while I wasn’t overly anxious to hear what their guitarist would sound like on his own, I was at least curious to check out his first solo album, “Yours To Keep”, when it came out in the UK last year. I didn’t get a taste until I came across the first singles (“101 and “Everyone Gets A Star“) on satellite radio, and was struck enough by them to look forward to his opening set for Bloc Party when they came through town in late March.
And I really, really liked it. It’s fairly unavoidable to make comparisons to his other band, but I found the songs more instantly catchy, more dynamic, and was struck by how solid a singer Hammond Jr. is, especially considering his guitar-only role in the Strokes. He’s also put together one seriously talented backing band, who added an energy to the material that already sounds pretty rockin’ on the disc (which I picked up after it’s domestic release in March). Bonus points for the Frank Black and Guided By Voices covers, as well as sharing a new song called “In My Room“.
Here are the Mp3s of the set, during which you might here a commotion as some fool tries to storm the stage… and gets his ass handed to him by the ‘event staff’ before he even comes close. Ejection accomplished. Considering the ticket price for a Bloc Party show nowadays, I can’t imagine that was money well-spent…
Live at the Orpheum
in Boston, Massachusetts
on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
01. Everyone Gets A Star
02. In Transit
03. Old Black Dawning (Frank Black cover)
04. Bright Young Thing
05. In My Room (new)
06. 101
07. Holiday
08. Scared
09. Postal Blowfish (GBV cover)
10. Hard to Live (In the City)
Some added A.H.Jr. linkage…
His MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and his Scratchie Records label page. Mp3s: “101” (live on Conan O’Brien); “In Transit“ (from “Yours To Keep”). Stream: Four songs on MySpace. Video: There are two different clips for “101”, with one that’s mostly studio footage from the recording of the album, and another directed by Patrick Daughters that follows AHJ’s sad, suited ghost. As usual, many more live clips can be found with a YouTube search. Event site Hey Let’s Go has re-christened itself as Going.com, and they’re putting on some free concerts to mark the new branding. One of them is with Albert and his band, and takes place tomorrow, Thursday, May 10th, at the Hiro Ballroom in NYC. To RSVP for the free show, head here. You may have to sign up for the site first to view that page. Albert Hammond Jr. will return to the road for a month-long headlining tour that starts May 20th in San Francisco, and winds up in NYC on June 18th. Boston’s own The Dead Trees will offer their support for the entire tour, but unfortunately the closest they’re coming to our area is a Northampton show on June 13th. There are some open dates near the end of the trip, so perhaps a Boston stop will show up at some point. Guilty pleasure alert: Can’t resist sharing my favorite Strokes song, which exists thanks to the mash-up skills of The Freelance Hellraiser. It’s the collision of the Strokes’ “Hard To Explain” with Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle“. Mp3: Freelance Hellraiser – “A Stroke of Genie-Us“. Listen to all ‘Nac-hosted tracks on the Hype Machine.
the post-script… If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just say let me know (contact info in the ‘nac faq). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Mp3s are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
Monday Miscellany
Posted on May 7, 2007 at 3:09 pm | No Comments
And so another week of office work begins, while the spring sun shines brightly outside my window. Subjects below include Buffalo Tom, Built to Spill, Tara Jane ONeil, Chris Brokaw, The New Year, Bottomless Pit, Team Dresch, Colin Clary, Chikata Violenta, Age Rings, Normandy, Mary Timony, Elliott Smith, Peter Parker, and my return to the DJ booth…
Buffalo Tom has scheduled a Boston show on Saturday, July 14th to mark the release of their long-awaited next album, “Three Easy Pieces”, which arrives earlier that week. It’s gonna be at the Paradise, and with one hell of an opening act on board: The Moving Targets. I had to miss their reunion show awhile back, so getting to see MT and BT on the same stage will be a total treat.
Listen to a couple preview tracks off Buffalo Tom’s “Three Easy Pieces” at their MySpage page, or grab an Mp3 of the title track at Stereogum. Listen to some Moving Targets at their MySpace page as well. Get tickets to the July 14th show here, or much cheaper at the Paradise box office (and take note: Livenation says doors at 4pm, show at 5pm. I’m all for early shows, but that seems… odd). Other cities on Buffalo Tom’s brief meet-our-new-album tour include Toronto, NYC, San Francisco, and Hollywood. Details here.
Pre-sale tickets for Built to Spill’s upcoming tour went on sale a couple weeks back, and the Boston allotment disappeared quickly. The rest went on sale a couple days ago for the Thursday, July 5th show at Avalon, so head to Ticket#$%#$$ for yours (and don’t be fooled by the “Currently Not On Sale” text… they lie). As much as I dig Doug Martsch & Co., my days of spending over $25 per ticket may well be over.
Great new video featurette on the Touch & Go Records site last week, this one spotlighting Tara Jane ONeil’s appearance at the 25th Anniversary fest last fall. Along with interview bits, they’ve got TJO playing a song with Boston’s own Chris Brokaw guesting on guitar. You can catch Chris playing with Geoff Farina at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge next Wednesday, May 9th.
And as I was typing this post, this week’s brand new T&G 25th video magically appeared on their site, and for one of my hands-down faves: The New Year (for those keeping score, that’s back-to-back Brokaw vids). Check out their clip, which has Bubba & Matt Kadane chatting while their band performs “Half A Day“, and then an uninterrupted live version of “Gasoline“. And heads up for any West Coasters: The New Year is headed your way for some shows next month.
Bottomless Pit, the post-Silkworm project of Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen with bassist Brian Orchard (27) and drummer Chris Manfrin (Seam), will soon release their first official recordings (a limited tour CD-R EP came out last year). The majestically-titled “Hammer Of The Gods” will be arriving in a no-less-majestic format: A double twelve-inch. Two slabs of wax, with two songs on each side, spinning at 45 rpm. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 8 songs in all, and for the turntable-challenged, every double-12″ will include a compact disc with all 8 tracks. Hot damn, I say. Not sure on an exact release date or track listing (or label, for that matter), but this says that pre-orders will be taken “as soon as the master is approved”. Approve away, gentlemen. I’ve got an itchy finger on my mouse, and a paypal account ready to go.
Possible tracks that will appear on Bottomless Pit’s “Hammer Of The Gods”? Well, there were the four songs from the out-of-print tour EP (“The Cardinal Movements“, “Dead Man’s Blues“, “Dogtag”, & “Human Out of Me“, which can all be heard here), three other new tracks they’ve shared recently (“Leave the Light On“, “Repossession“, “Winterwind“, all now on MySpace), and a couple other songs that have been in their live sets (“State I’m In” and “Lily White“). Well, whatever it contains, I’m prolly gonna love it.
So when I wish for something, I need to be a little more specific. When Portland, Oregon’s Team Dresch started playing shows again after a long absence, I silently pleaded “please come East, please come East”, and finally, they’re doing just that; but, alas, not to Boston. They’re doing five dates on our coast next month, with stops in North Carolina, DC, Philly, NYC, and Brooklyn. My June is too crazy for me to plan a trip to NY, so I’m gonna miss out… but if everyone could do me a favor and pack those shows so they’re forced to tour more, I’d appreciate it. Team Dresch mini-tour details here.
When my pal Colin Clary isn’t playing in the Smittens or fronting the Magogs, he’s releasing solo records, and his next one is out soon on Asaurus Records. It’s called “Apocalypse Yow!” (an unsurprising title for those of us close to Colin), and you can download an mp3 of a preview track right here…
A few new things I’m really digging lately…
Chikata Violenta – The Broken Social Scene connection got me to listen to ’em, the songs keep me listening to ’em. Download an Mp3 at P4K. Read more and grab another song at TRRTS. Boston’s own Age Rings‘ live WOXY Session during SxSW, thanks to the Futurist. NYC band Normandy’s songs on MySpace. You can download the tracks that appear on their “Time I’ve Wasted” EP there. I like ’em enough that I may just have to get myself a tangible copy of that sucker.
Hey, Kill Rock Stars: You are the awesome. Well, you’ve always been the awesome, but as of last Thursday, you are the even-awesomer. Because you sent me my pre-orders of the new Mary Timony Band disc and Elliott Smith‘s “New Moon” double-disc five days before the street date. And you made my weekend.
Read a new interview with Mary Timony at VenusZine. And Aversion has the details on a new Elliott Smith book that’ll be coming out this fall. Yes, despite the mild pangs of posthumous exploitation that such a book triggers in me, I’ll always be compelled to buy every last thing related to the guy. Unavoidable, really.
So I (and a bajillion other people) caught Spider-Man 3 over the weekend with the aforementioned Mr. Clary, Amie, and my sis and bro-in-law… and damn if I wasn’t a little disappointed. I mean, there were certainly some wow-inducing action sequences, and the story did an ok job of weaving together the three villains, but man, were there some bad directorial choices in there. (Highlight text for spoilers:) Singing & dancing? An uber-cheezy street-strutting shopping trip!? The Twist?!? Those sudden tonal shifts took me right outta the film, something that never happened once during Spider-Man 2 (which on most days I still rate as the best comic book film yet). And while I’m big on suspension of disbelief during superhero flicks, chalking up a couple of moments to pure coincidence (a small meteor landing, undetected, near Peter & MJ; Eddie Brock randomly being at the same church as Peter at the same crucial moment) was just a little too far for me to stretch. Chop 20 minutes off, tighten up the tale, and I may have been blown away instead of just entertained. And thanks to a few actualized comic-fanboy moments (Parker vs. li’l Osbourne, the Venom/Sandman team-up, the churchbell scene), I did. Question, though… why introduce Gwen Stacey if you’re not going to have the Gobby kill her off? With both Norm & Harry dead, that moment will never come. And why not have Dr. Connors discover that soundwaves can hurt the outer-space goo, so that the audience isn’t left wondering what that bell was doing to it in the church? Ok, ok, enough geeky nitpicking from me. (end spoiler action). With all that box office loot, there will be a Spidey 4, and I’m guessing we’ll finally see Doc Connors get all scaly, green, and of forked-tongue. And the other villain (please, keep it at two)? Go, go Electro-power.
And just so I don’t end this post on such a nerd-tastic subject, I’ll mention something on the cooler end of the spectrum: I’ve been invited back to River Gods in Cambridge to DJ again as part of the third official Tourfilter DJ Night on Thursday, May 17th. I had such a blast the first time, was so psyched with my song selection, and I’m determined to top myself. I’ll be playing only bands performing in the Boston area within the next month, so if you’ve got any requests by the artists listed in my left-hand column there, lay them on me and I’ll do my darnedest to fit ’em in. I’ve got the opening slot, so make sure you’re there by 9 o’clock on the 17th to catch my whole set.
Tonight: Gibbard. Bazan. Popcorn. Beer. All in one place. Hell of a swell way to start the week.