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.
Mp3s: The Essex Green in Boston
Posted on May 2, 2007 at 12:58 pm | No Comments
My apologies for the delay in this week’s live music post… between the much-improved weather, lots of movies at the just-finished 2007 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and general work business, well, ain’t got time to blog. So this could be both late and brief, but no less worthwhile…
Of the many, many times I’ve seen The Essex Green on stage, I can say with all honesty that their January set opening for Camera Obscura at the Paradise was the finest one yet. The song selection, the individual performances, the sound mix, and the band’s overall tightness really came together that night… it was a total thrill to see my friends firing on all pop cylinders up there. Must be all those hours on the road in support of last year’s excellent “Cannibal Sea”; it’s brought out the best of everything they’ve always been.
While the 13-song setlist of course leaned heavily on that latest EG album, the remaining 5 tracks were nice surprises: Two from 2003’s “The Long Goodbye” (“The Late Great Cassiopia” & “Chartiers“), along with a couple that EG’s Sasha Bell wrote and sang on the self-titled 2003 Ladybug Transistor album (as you may know, the Ladybugs share a couple members with the Green), and an impressive cover of The Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Older Guys“.
Here’s the set for you…
Live at The Paradise
in Boston, Mass.
on Saturday, January 27th, 2007
01. This Isn’t Farmlife
02. Don’t Know Why (You Stay)
03. Chartiers
04. Snakes in the Grass
05. The Late Great Cassiopia
06. The Places You’ll Call Home (LT)
07. The Pride
08. Hangin’ on the Line (LT)
09. Rue de Lis
10. Sin City
11. Elsinor
12. Older Guys (Flying Burrito Brothers)
13. Cardinal Points
Some Essex Green links…
Their official site, MySpace page, Wikipedia entry, and their Merge Records page. Available Essex Green Mp3s: ““Don’t Know Why (You Stay)” & “Rue De Lis”
(from “Cannibal Sea”)“The Late Great Cassiopia”,
“Old Dominion”, & “Our Lady In Havana”
(from “The Long Goodbye”)“Mendocino”
(from the Merge “Old Enough To Know Better” compilation)“Everything Is Green””
(from “Everything Is Green”)“Chester”
(from their self-titled 1999 debut EP”)Related Band Mp3s: I could spend half a day writing about all of the Essex Green-related projects, but instead I’ll just link some Mp3s and allow you to dig deeper through some links below: The Sixth Great Lake – “Everybody Loves To Be Loved” & “Duck Pond”, The Finishing School – “Destination Girl”, & Guppyboy – “Affection”. Download many other Guppyboy Mp3s here. Video: It surprises me to realize that in their eight-year history, there’s never been an official Essex Green video (do correct me if I’m wrong). Maybe with the next album? For now, there’s quite a few EG live clips on YouTube. Speaking of all those related bands, Vermont blog Latitude 44.2 North wrote up a couple of lengthy posts about the EG/6GL/Guppyboy family tree (part 1 / part 2). Now that L44.2N has merged with fellow VT blog False 45th, maybe we’ll see part 3 appear there? Nudge, nudge. Perhaps the eventual appearance of new Sixth Great Lake recordings (word is that some are in the works) will prompt the next chapter. As I mentioned above, another band closely tied with the Essex Green is the Ladybug Transistor, who will be releasing their new album, “Can’t Wait Another Day”, on Merge in a month. The Ladybugs currently share both Jeff Baron on guitar & Julia Rydholm on bass, and also counted Sasha Bell in common before she recently left the band. The first song from “Can’t Wait Another Day” has officially hit the ‘net, and here it is… The Plan & Fenway Recordings are bringing The Ladybug Transistor to Allston’s Great Scott on Saturday, May 26th with labelmates the Rosebuds. Hopefully they’ll be bringing some pre-release copies of the album with ’em.
If you’re a fan or friend of the Ladybugs or the Green, you’ve by now likely heard the truly sad news that the world lost Ladybug drummer San Fadyl last week. It’s hard to even wrap your head around the sudden absence of someone who was so obviously loved by those who knew him, someone who leaves behind his wife and 2-month old baby, who made music such an integral part of his life. He wasn’t just a huge fan of music, but someone whose spirit and creativity both with and without a drum kit garnered him many fans of his own. Many of those fans and friends are paying tribute to San in the comments of this memorial page that the band set up, former Ladybug Jennifer Baron has been sharing pictures, and Merge’s Mac McCaughan shared his thoughts as well.
the postscript… If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (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. Tracks are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.