Mp3s: A Long, Live Weekend
Posted on August 4, 2005 at 2:19 pm | No Comments
My six day break sadly over, I’m back at work playing catch-up. My ears are still filled with the sounds of the two shows we played, thanks to the merch-table discs I snagged and the live recordings I’ve been editing down to share.
Picastro, The Broken River Prophet, and LOOK IT in Brooklyn on Saturday, A Northern Chorus and Sianspheric back here in town two days later. Charlene played both nights, and there wasn’t a let-down among the lineups.
I taped everyone on Saturday night at Williamsburg’s Trash Bar except Brian Bonz (they were last, and I was loading out), as well as a new sorta-super-groop called LOOK IT. They were up first, and I was too preoccupied setting up to tape it, which I regretted almost immediately. It was their very first show, and they’ve got a nifty pedigree: Cindy Wheeler of the Caulfield Sisters on guitar/vocals, Andrew Deustch (singer/guitarist of Home) on keyboards/vocals, unmistakable flutist Suzanne Thorpe from Mercury Rev, and Dave Janick from Company on drums. Seems this is a little side project for Cindy until the Caulfield Sisters return to action in September, so who knows if we’ll hear more from ’em.
Next up was The Broken River Prophet, and captain Adam Brilla’s (he also of Lockgroove) rotating cast of collaborators keeps helping take his songs to greater heights. I say this having been one of them, making me not just an ex-BRP member, but a current-BRP fan. As much as I miss playing on the songs, I’m infinitely glad I get to stand in the audience and simply enjoy ’em. Adam & Co. need to get some recorded output together right now… I cannot wait to hear the stuff get a studio treatment.
Until then, here’s the two songs that ended last Saturday’s set. I believe these are BRP’s first available recordings, aside from a demo over at their site…
(files removed on 10/1/05)
The Broken River Prophet – December Wolves (live)
(at the Trash Bar, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC 7/30/2005)The Broken River Prophet – Chemical Solitaire (live)
(at the Trash Bar, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC 7/30/2005)
Charlene played right after BRP, but the recording is, shall we say, less than stellar. While we played well, I thought, the mix to my little microphone was fairly funky. So I’ll spare you until later on this post…
Toronto’s Picastro was up next, and I was in the perfect mental place to take them in, coming down from our set. Sparse, mellow, occasionally off-kilter songs anchored by an acoustic guitar and the haunting voice of Liz Hysen. As hard as I’m trying to avoid using the words ‘Cat Power‘, and as sick as Liz probably is of hearing it, it’s kinda unavoidable. Here’s their entire mesmerizing set, and if you know the names of the two I don’t, lemme know in the comments…
Picastro
live at the Trash Bar
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC
Saturday, July 30th, 2005(files removed on 10/1/05)
01. No Contest
02. All Erase
03. Dramaman
04. Unknown Title 1
05. Unknown Title 2
06. I Can’t Fall Asleep
07. Sharks
After a Sunday drive back to Boston, and not enough sleep that night, it was over to the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for another show on Monday. Charlene was in the middle of a Canadian sonic sandwich, with A Northern Chorus opening up, and Sianspheric closing things out. This was the last night of a short east coast trip for those two bands, with ANC supporting their latest disc ‘Bitter Hands Resign‘, and Sianspheric offering up their brand-new DVD/CD release, ‘RGB‘.
I’ll save myself some writing, and just agree with what Frank over at Chromewaves had to say about seeing the two bands earlier this year: “Comparatively, if A Northern Chorus were the sonic equivalent of a gentle rainshower, Sianspheric were a tidal wave.“
So, first, the cello-colored rainshower…
A Northern Chorus
live at the Lizard Lounge
Cambridge, MA
Monday, August 1st, 2005(files removed on 10/1/05)
01. Prisoners Of Circumstance
02. Costa Del Sol
03. Subjects & Matter
04. Fragile Day
05. The Shepherd & The Chauffeur
06. Louder Than Love
The Lizard Lounge is so small that I was worried some of our Charlene songs would overwhelm… I mean, we’re not exactly an all-out rock band, but sometimes Matt’s guitar noise and my snare hits can threaten the ol’ eardrums. We actually had free plugs at the merch table just in case, and they hopefully saved some unprepared patrons a good ringing. (That said, we were like church mice compared to Sianspheric.)
It’s been a loooong time since the release of Charlene’s self-titled debut disc back in late 2002, so these two live tracks will hopefully ease the wait for the in-the-works follow-up…
Charlene – Ripoff (live)
(at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA 08/01/2005)(files removed on 10/1/05)
Charlene – The Way of Things (live)
(at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA 08/01/2005)
The studio version of ‘Ripoff‘ (which you can download here) appears on that debut (although you’ll notice the original’s drum machine is replaced with, um, the far-less-precise me), but ‘The Way of Things‘ is new and unrecorded. Hopefully you’ll hear a studio version of it, along with a whole bunch more, before too long.
If our set didn’t have people breaking out the earplugs, then Sianspheric’s sent them scrambling. Seriously, I had some hi-tech plugs in, and it was still loud as hell. But in the best way. The layers upon layers of guitar wash, the cymbals and buried vocals (try to make them out here… good luck), the rolling bass lines… it all combined perfectly. The influence of their foot-pedal forebearers abound: Echoes of Slowdive, MBV, Spacemen 3, the fuzz of Flying Saucer Attack… I was more than impressed with the aural assault.
Supposedly there was a massively deafening thunderstorm outside while the band played on, but honestly, there’s no way any of us would have known.
So here, for you, is their tidal wave. It’s an absolute miracle that it didn’t overload my little microphone…
Sianspheric
live at the Lizard Lounge
Cambridge, MA
Monday, August 1st, 2005(files removed on 10/1/05)
01. Audiophone
02. To Myself
03. No Space
04. The Skids
05. Tous Les Soirs
06. All On Standby
07. Rave On, Full On
08. The Stars Above
09. I Like The Ride
It inspired me enough to pick up that ‘RGB‘ CD/DVD, which just came out last week, and all of the songs from their set save one can be found on it. As I was starting to pull together this write-up, today’s Chromewaves post appeared in my RSS reader. Who’s it about? Why, Sianspheric, of course. Mystery & Misery also reviewed RGB a couple days back, too. So head over to those fine music blogs to read more.
More photos over at my flickr space. Big thanks to Petrina over at WZBC for putting together Monday’s show. A memorable night if ever there was one.
(A little Almanac reminder: Posted live tracks remain up for at least a couple weeks, sometimes longer, depending on server space. If any of the artists shared here have issues with the posting of their live recordings, just let me know. My email addy is over in the left column.)
A Matter of Degrees
Posted on July 28, 2005 at 3:22 pm | No Comments
Here I sit on the first day of a much-needed mini-vacation, already feeling reborn as the Boston temperature has dropped like 25 degrees from the humid hell of yesterday. Seems like it’s been a month since our air-conditioner’s had a rest, but y’know, I feel kinda silly whining about late-July heat, realizing other people were so much the worse for weather. And, y’know, it is summer after all.
Getting down to bizness, today’s post is gonna be another rapid-fire clearing of the decks, since as of this morning I’m on a glorious six-day work-break. I won’t totally be relaxing, since it includes a couple of rock shows (one down in NYC on Saturday, one back here on Monday), but I’ll definitely be avoiding the computer as much as I can. That said, I’m hoping for some correspondence catch-up, so if you’ve been waiting for an email answer from me, keep an eye out.
Warning: Much randomness follows…
The ‘official bootleg‘ Twilight Singers live DVD that the band has put out is freakin’ white-hot. Seriously, I got one of the first batch of 100, and it was worth every Paypal penny I spent on it. 21 songs, almost two hours long, and an encore that not only features Greg Dulli’s former Afghan Whigs bandmate John Curley on bass playing Whigs songs, but an appearance by former Scrawl vocalist Marcy Mays, who joins them to play ‘My Curse‘ off of ‘Gentlemen’. I swear, Bobby McIntyre, Twilight’s ascot-wearing drummer, is my freakin’ stick-wiedling hero. Plus, he’s Barry Gibb’s godson.
I digress. The reason I mention the DVD is because there are now more available from the band via ebay. Any self-respecting Whigs-Twilight-Dulli fan needs this sucker in their collection. Amazing audio quality, mutiple camera shots, a great performance.
Oh, and as one of those fans, I can’t wait to finally see ‘Ladies and Gentlemen‘, the Afghan Whigs documentary that is premiering this weekend at the Lite Brite Test Fest in their hometown of Cincinnati. I can only hope that means it’ll be playing elsewhere, or at least out on DVD soon. For an article on the docuementary, head here, and for a quick look at what each AW member is doing now, go here.
So I’ve heard the new Depeche Mode song, and it is… actually quite good. Brings the long-ago days of non-stop listening to ‘Violator‘ rushing right back. If you’re looking to hunt it down, start right here. I can’t think about Depeche without remembering hearing the bleep-bloops of ‘See You‘ over the PA system at Fenway Park during a Sox game last summer. Strangest culture-clash moment ever. ‘You know that it’s true…‘.
I was a Mineral and Gloria Record fan despite the fact that the vocals occasionally got on my nerves. The music made up for it, though, and I found enough else in there to love. Well, their singer/guitarist Chris Simpson is back with a solo moniker called Zookeeper, and he’s got a MySpace page (although, who doesn’t now?) with three demos on it. (courtesy unfinished)
OooooOOO… how can I get myself to Chicago in early November? Flower15, the 15th anniversary celebration for the wonderful Flower Booking company, is taking place at the Metro from Nov. 8th to the 12th, and the lineup is looking gooood. Ted Leo, American Analog Set, a reunited Promise Ring, The Essex Green, Maritime, Jimmy Eat World, and a bunch more. Gotta convince my boss I need to pay a visit to our Chicago office.
Speaking of Mr. Ted Leo, I believe I failed to point out this excellent article on him in the Newport Mercy, written by WMBR dj Tim Kelly.
As I mentioned, I got my Boston Sigur R�s tickets a couple weeks ago, and I can’t wait to see them play stuff from their upcoming album, ‘Takk’, which is out on September 12th. In the meantime, any bittorrent-types can check out this recent live show with a bunch of those new songs.
Nice little article on Nada Surf in Filter Magazine (link from largehearted boy). I so cannot wait to sit down with their upcoming disc, ‘The Weight is a Gift‘. The songs I’ve heard so far are hitting me just right.
I’m surely not the first blogger to tell you this, but stellar-indie-station KCRW is podcasting. So, um, stick that in your aggregator and smoke it. Or something.
Did someone say the word ‘podcast’? Wait, that was me. Here’s one that will be of interest to fans of writers Warren Ellis, John Rogers, or of really good sci-fi TV in general: Evil Genius Chronicles has posted a two-part podcast interview (one, two) with Mr. Rogers about the whole Global Frequency unaired-but-leaked-pilot situation. It’s a pretty interesting listen.
Using that as a segue into comic-booky stuff, the latest All The Rage rumor column reported that one of my favorite comics in recent years, The Losers, garnered the adaptation-interest of actor/director Peter Berg. Looks like it may be more rumor than fact, as Losers writer Andy Diggle used his brand new blog to put the kibosh on it. Sort of. And not on the movie, just Berg’s possible involvement. Bookmark Diggle’s blog, by the way. Well worth a regular visit.
Recent comic purchases of note: The second issue of Ellis’ Desolation Jones (loving it), the first issue of Joss Whedon’s Serenity comic (which will bridge the criminally-cancelled Firefly series to the upcoming Serenity film), and the new Frank Miller / Jim Lee All Star Batman & Robin book (soooo disappointing). It’s not Lee’s artwork, which is alright, it’s Miller’s now-cliche choppy writing style that’s bugging the hell out of me. The guy only has to come up with half as many words as most comic scribes, since everything gets repeated. Yes. Everything. Gets. Repeated. It. Just. Gets. Repeated. Everything. Like this. Kinda. Like. This. I just. Can’t. Take it. Plus, did we really need four pages of Vicki Vale in her undies?
Lots of cool comic-related news came out of this years San Diego Movie-Con Comic-Con, including the details of some work that writer/artist Brian Wood has coming out. One is the Vertigo series DMZ, in which a near-future Manhattan becomes a war-zone, and a 12-issue Oni series called Local, which will focus on “normal people in extraordinary, life changing situations. Each issue takes place in a different [real world] town, with that town playing as much of a role as the characters themselves.” Locations include Portland, OR, Richmond, VA, and our shared former stomping ground of Burlington, Vermont. Really looking forward to that one. For some artwork samples from Local, have a look over here.
Also at the Con, writer Brian K. Vaughan talked about the in-the-works film adaptations of his Ex Machina and Y the Last Man books. I hope Hollywood handles them well, and I’m glad to know that he’s working on the screenplays himself.
Following Joss Whedon down the TV-writer turns comic-writer road, it was also announced that “Oz” and “Homicide: Life on the Street” creator Tom Fontana will be writing an original Batman graphic novel. Won’t be out until fall 2006, but will hopefully be worth the wait.
If you’ve been reading the ‘Nac for any length of time, you know I’m a big fan of Surviving Grady, the best Red Sox blog out there. Check out this interview with S.G. blogger Tim ‘Red’ McCarney, conducted by Popimage’s Brian Domingos.
If you’re into Boston-based author Dennis Lehane, and have grown a bit impatient waiting for news of a follow up to 2003’s Shutter Island (which itself followed up 2001’s Mystic River), you can tide yourself over with an 18-page short story called ‘Until Gwen‘ in the 2005 edition of ‘New Stories From The South‘. Yes, a Boston-raised writer in a collection of Dixieland tales. Read an article about the book here (bugmenot login here).
The wait for his next book hopefully won’t be much longer, as this past Monday Lehane read excerpts from the novel at Boston’s Fanueil Hall, and later at a Dorchester library. Regrettable, I didn’t find out about it until after the fact, so if anyone reading this was there, I’d love to hear how it was.
Daily Show fans who are looking forward to Stephen Colbert’s upcoming solo-show, ‘The Colbert Report‘, should check out this write-up in the New Yorker. Can’t wait.
I realized I never got a chance to write about how great Freaks & Geeks creator Paul Feig’s appearance at the Coolidge a few weeks back was. After hearing him read some (seriously embarrassing) material from his new book, ‘Superstud’, I enjoyed reading it even more. Some bits of info from the Q&A session…
He’ll soon be working on a movie adaptation of the novel ‘Star Girl‘ by Jerry Spinelli. After his book tour, he was heading back to LA to direct the season premiere of ‘Arrested Development‘. He’s hoping to find time to write a series of young adult sci-fi comedy books. He read an unreleased chapter called ‘The Big Red Shoe Diaries‘ that may be in his next book, but you can actually find it online right here. Great stuff, even better in person. Speaking of his next book, he plans on making it the third in a trilogy, with the first (Kick Me) about his time in school, the second (Superstud) about past relationships, and the next about his work experiences. At his talk in New York, he told the crowd about a new show he’s working on called “Nice Guys“, about normal nice people in their 20s looking for love. Meaning, of course, it’ll probably never get made.
As I sit here finishing up this post, Matt is over at the Boston waterfront finishing up the freakin’ Mass. Bar Exam. Years of law school, and weeks of prep-classes and it all comes down to this. Send your extra brain cells his way, he’s probably just about out of ’em. And as long as you’re at it, send some good luck vibes his way as he searches for a law-type job. The man’s got some loans to pay. Although, maybe Mary can sell enough super-cool crafty stuff to cover ’em.
Alright, the weather’s way too nice to sit here any longer, so I’m out. If you end up coming to see Charlene on Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Trash Bar (with Picastro and Broken River Prophet), or maybe on Monday at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge (with SIANspheric and A Northern Chorus), make sure you say hello to the guy behind the drums.