Mp3 of the Week: Live PJ Harvey / Crow at Vermonstress
Posted on September 8, 2004 at 8:59 am | No Comments
This week’s mp3 comes from PJ Harvey’s recent appearance on The Tonight Show, a live version of “The Letter“, from Uh Huh Her.
I’ve also made some more headway getting the whole 1992 Sub Pop Records Vermonstress Festival converted from soundboard-cassette to mp3, and the latest installment is by request: The full set from the Australian band Crow, who I actually know very little about…. I can’t even seem to dig up any info on the web. I got an email from someone asking about the recording, so here’s the all seven songs. Enjoy.
Updated 9/14: Crow fan Craig, who inspired me to get their set encoded and posted, wrote this little background blurb on the band for me to share…
“Crow were one of many Australian bands who stayed firmly on the outside of the Australian music scene, firmly putting ‘art’ before ‘music’, creating an entity that were always part ramshackle, part genius. As a live entity they were always engaging. Singer Peter Fenton had a towering, charismatic presence often at odds with the other vocalist/songwriter Peter Archer.
Their first tour of America coincided with the recording of their debut album (‘My Kind of Pain’) with Steve Albini, most of the material appearing here (with the exception of the epic ‘The Charley Horses’). The band practically fall apart during these sessions, often at odds with Albini and themselves, yet managed to fashion together an album that won critical appeal on release. Highly regarded and well-respected on the Sydney live scene, Crow recorded two further albums before the mundanity of hitting your head against the wall became too much in 1999. Singer Peter Fenton pursued acting and still performs as a solo artist, having recently put out an album entitled ‘In the Lovers Arms’ this year.”
Thanks, Craig. Appreciate the info, and the song titles, too.
You’ll notice I’ve also pulled all the Vermonstress links onto one page, something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. Sets so far include Codeine, Come, Drop Nineteens, Velocity Girl, and Six Finger Satellite. Next up for conversion: Beat Happening and Pond.
Explore the Musical Space…
Posted on September 7, 2004 at 1:59 pm | No Comments
Got that new Walking Concert disc in my headphones, making the day go down real easy. Standout songs… Studio Space (clockin’ in at one forty-six, aww yeah), The Animals (so rockin), Hands Up! (Not about arm-stretched enthusiasm, but an ih-home robbery), Audrey (so poppy), Calypso Slide (so smoooove), hell, most of the songs are keepers. Go out n’ get it.
is fillin’ up the kitchen,
but they’re not helpin’…
no warm plastic superhero treatment”
– walking concert, “hands up!”
Amie, my own little shining light, won us two free tickets to see a special acoustic Snow Patrol set at ZuZu next Monday. Just sixty people. How cool is that? Gonna try to record that sucker, I am I am.
Between this Walking Concert disc, the new Twilight Singers covers cd, Rilo Kiley’s stellar “More Adventurous”, and the heartbreaking final Elliott Smith album, my ears are running on overload. So, so sonically spoiled.
I’m having a real tough time listening to the Elliott Smith record… it’s like spending time with a ghost, maybe reading too much into lyrics that probably mean exactly what they say. So painful. “From a Basement on the Hill” is an amazing collection of songs, but then again he rarely wrote anything I disliked, so that’s no surprise. But the added, nearly unbearable, weight that his loss adds to it… well, if you’re an Elliott fan, you get it. If you’re not, I sound like a melodramatic sap. Either way, I’m so glad we’re all getting to hear this… and I’m gonna miss him, and a lost lifetime of his new work, like hell.
The album will be released on October 19th. Until then, visit Some Songs, a newish repository of Elliott’s live performances.
Rilo Kiley‘s website has been relaunched with the release of the new record, and they’ve put their kinda-cute new “It’s a Hit” video up there to mark the occasion. Reminds me, I still have to get tickets to their October 5th show here in Boston… it seemed so far away, now, not so much. Oh, and look, live acoustic performance (audio & video) on KCRW here.
And yet another thing I have to buy tickets to… The Twilight Singers are coming back, hitting the Middle East on October 15th. Another sell-out, fer sure. But their live show makes the late-night squeeze worth suffering through. Now that’s entertainment.
Tickets, tickets, and more tickets… the Boston Film Festival just put all of theirs on-sale through Fandango (which I usually shy away from on principal… stoopid ads. Rahhrrr!). I’ve already picked up a couple to see Silver City. John Sayles and Chris Cooper last teamed up on Lone Star, and that’s one of my favorite films… no way I’m missing another one of their team ups. Cooper plays Dickie Pillager, fictional Colorado gubernatorial candidate. Gotta love fake promotional websites… there’s even a MeetUp link. Aces.
PopFest! New England 2004 has just posted a list confirmed bands, if not a complete schedule, and it’s lookin’ pretty good. My Favorite, Baskervilles, The Smittens, The Consultants, Shumai, Pants Yell!, superfallingstars, Colin Clary & the Magogs, The A.V. Club, Spanish for Hitchiking, Snoozer, Cannonball Jane, The Metric Mile, Brasilia, and My Teenage Stride. And that’s just half of the lineup expected for the early November Northampton, MA fest. I’m just hoping it won’t only be a celebration of pop music, but of a brand new president. Wouldn’t that be somethin?