Author Archives: mike

Upcoming Show: Chicago Soul Group Eli Jones at Mahoney’s, Cedar Rapids 12/7/08

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Eli Jones is an eight-piece band from Chicago that delivers tight accomplished Soul and R&B that draws equally from the annals of classic R&B and Soul of Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin or Stax as it does from the contemporary renewed interest in authentic Soul and R&B delivered by Alicia Keys, John Legend or Joss Stone. The seven-piece Eli Jones band led by the tasty guitar tone of Brendan O’Connell deftly supports the vocal powerhouse of Stefanie Berecz.

The band started in 2005 as a trio and added horns and Berecz arriving at their current lineup in 2007. They released their first studio album Make It Right in November of 2007 and are planning to release their second album in the Summer of 2009. The band has been gigging steadily around the Midwest and played Mahoney’s in Cedar Rapids back in April to a receptive crowd.

The group is coming back to the area again next weekend playing The Busted Lift in Dubuque on Saturday, December 6th, and here in Cedar Rapids at Mahoney’s on Sunday, December 7th. I’m not sure about the cover at the Busted Lift, but the Mahoney’s show is FREE! I can’t think of a better way to wrap up a weekend than some soulful, funky R&B, really. You can always watch “Desperate Housewives” online or Tivo it.

Click Here for the Facebook Event Page– let the band know you’re coming!

Click Here to visit Eli Jones’s website. They have four songs that you can stream.

Click Here to visit Eli Jones’s MySpace Page

Click Here to see the shows up on Archive.org

Click Here to listen to an amazing acoustic “Candlelight and Satin Sheets” from Alice FM in May. The song is taken to an intimate singer-songwriter performance.

Free Download: “Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT remix)” by Metric

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For a bit last year I was fascinated with MSTRKRFT and all of their remixes. MSTRKRFT is Jesse F. Keeler from Death From Above 1979 and Alex “Al-P” Puodziukas who produced DFA 1979’s You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine.

Some really great remixes came from this pair ahead of their first album The Looks. The Looks, in my opinion didn’t completely live up to the expectations set by their remixes. “Easy Love” was a great single, though. MSTRKRFT’s trademark 808 beats with dirty analog synths and bass guitar funneled through distortion deliver a party in every mix in my opinon. Mixes to look for include their mixes of “Woman” by Wolfmother (you might recognize the original version in Guitar Hero II), “Listen Up” by The Gossip, their brilliant remixes of “Two More Years” by Bloc Party and “Got Love to Kill” by Juliette & the Licks.” I stumbled over their hilarious remix of “Love in this Club” by Usher. They reproduce the piano ending of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos in it!

The fine folks at RCRD LBL, which is sort of a self-described “network of ad supported online record labels and blogs” have re-served up a MSTRKRFT remix of Toronto indie band Metric’s “Monster Hospital.” The original track, which you can hear served up on their MySpace page is kind of a punky guitar song that sounds a bit like Sonic Youth to me. MSTRKRFT flips the song on it’s side and refocuses on the chorus and even changes the overall tone with a neat stripped-down electric piano and vocals. The rest of the song is nearly a complete re-imagining of the song in a different key.

Worth the download if you want some dancy disco electro.

Click Here to go to the RCRD_LBL “Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT)” page.

Click Here to go to the MSTRKRFT Wikipedia Article that has a complete list of the remixes they’ve done.

You could look here to see if there are MSTRKRFT tracks to download…

New Order ‘Collector Editions’ Reissues Subpar; Rhino Issues Reissues…

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New Order Buttons

I’m a pretty big New Order fan– I was turned onto them in college via the essential Substance 2 CD set of “hits.” Through the 90’s I collected all of the albums and as many of the remixes and singles as I could get my hands on– I even have the quickly-deleted Run2 12″ that had the contested John Denver sample in it. I saw New Order in 1989 at the World Theater in Chicago in a lineup with Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes, which was pretty exciting at the time.(Note: Apparently it was June 30, 1989)

In 1997 through a newsgroup or something I found out about a 3 CD collection of mp3’s being put out by a fan out of Quebec that had every album, every single from every country, bootlegs and included the side projects of the members (Electronic, Revenge, and The Other Two). I paid too much for it in retrospect because they are only 128Kbps rips– but in 1997 there wasn’t a better way to get something like this.

I was pretty excited to hear that usually-perfect Rhino Records was going to do a set of re-issues of the first five New Order albums (Movement, Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-Life, Brotherhood, and Technique) with second discs of bonus remixes and b-sides similar to the Cure sets they did a few years back.

Unfortunately, it seems that Rhino might not have done enough quality control on these releases when they were released in the UK and the US releases, which are based on the UK versions are plagued with the same issues. A  look at the comments by Amazon reviewer Paul “Slop” from Orange County gives a very detailed breakdown of the issues on the releases including errors in the liner notes and artifacts from what would seem to be direct vinyl transfers with no cleanup. It also seems to extend into the original album tracks as well– on “Sunrise” from Low-Life there is a right-channel drop in volume, and “586” from Power suffers from “an abrupt ending.”

Rhino Records is doing the right thing by offering exchanges for the bad pressings. In their press release on the situation they state that they are in the process of correcting the problems, but note that the age and condition of the original source tapes the sound quality may vary. They only state that the bonus material has the issue, I hope that they also fix the issues with the albums, too. There will be a future statement when the issues are resolved which will include the process for exchanging the CD’s.

The bad deal here is that the botched discs are everywhere and I couldn’t find any online retailers that mention the situation– this includes Amazon who still offers them for sale. I hope that Rhino will clearly distinguish the new “fixed” pressings so that the consumers don’t end up with the bad pressings unknowingly! Beware eBay on these as well, I’d say.

I haven’t purchased these yet, so when the new pressings come out and I’ve figured out how to safely get the fixed ones, I’ll post something here for the constant readers.

Click Here for the exhaustive list of flaws from neworderonline.com

Time is Running Out on the PepsiStuff / amazonmp3 Promotion

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I got an e-mail yesterday from Amazon letting me know that I only have until 12/31/2008 to take advantage of the fairly decent PepsiStuff promotion, where you can spend 5 PepsiStuff points for one song download.

I guess I wasn’t aware that this promotion had an “end date” but, I guess it couldn’t go on indefinitely. I’m not really a Pepsi drinker– I’m more of a Coca-Cola guy– but there is a guy at work who drinks gallons of it a week, so he gives me his caps which is generous, although I feel like I’m contributing to his eventual kidney failure or diabetes or something.

At any rate, make sure you get your points spent before the time runs out!

Overheard on TV : Tina Dico “No Time To Sleep” on Grey’s Anatomy

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One thing that has improved with time and technology is my ability to research songs in real-time. As annoying as it might be for my wife, I can generally bust out whatever smartphone device I have and do a quick google search. Since I got the iPhone 3G, this has improved dramatically. I can still craft a decent search– usually involving lyrics from the song and the word “lyrics” and the results come back with what I’m looking for. With the iPhone I also have the killer app “Shazam” which allows my phone to sample an overheard song and search using a digital signature to determine what the song is.

Last night during Grey’s Anatomy (episode title “Dream A Little Dream of Me pt 2” there was a song played during the middle of the show– during the surgery “rescue” and the montage I think– with the repeated lyrics “ain’t no time to go to sleep” which google informed me was “No Time To Sleep” by Tina Dico.

Dico had been featured on Grey’s earlier with her song “One” off of her 2005 album Red during Season 2. Confusingly, Tina Dico goes by her given name Tina Dickow in her home country of Denmark and apparently in other areas of Europe, but uses “Dico” for the U.S. “No Time To Sleep” is the lead track from her 3 EP box set called A Beginning, A Detour, An Open Ending which has been released in Europe already on Sony as “Tina Dickow”, but will be released in the US on January 9th on Defend Music. These three EP’s had previously been available for sale at her live shows.

It is a pretty great song and I especially love how she bends the pronounciation during the “Ain’t no time to go to sleep” lyric. Her MySpace page has tracks from the new release, including “No Time To Sleep.”

Here is a cool performance of “No Time To Sleep” from a Danish TV show on YouTube:

New Arbouretum Album Song of the Pearl Due 3/10/09

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Yesterday via the Arbouretum blog Dave Heumann announced that the next Arbouretum album to be titled Song of the Pearl is recorded and will be released 3/10/2009 Although it doesn’t say, it will likely be released on Thrill Jockey as 2007’s brilliant Rites of Uncovering and the 2008 split LP with labelmates Pontiak Kale was.

In a recent e-mail with Dave, he said that he’d be touring through the Midwest in Spring ’09, so I’m hoping he ends up close to me. I’m sure he’ll play Chicago, but a stop in Madison or Iowa would be welcomed.

Here is the tracklist:

1. False Spring
2. Another Hiding Place
3. Down by the Fall Line
4. Song of the Pearl
5. Thin Dominion
6. Infinite Corridors
7. The Midnight Cry
8. Tomorrow is a Long Time

I’ll post more information as I get details on this release.

Here is a recent show from Arbouretum from November 7th in Baltimore at the Talking Head taped by none other than the Baltimore Taper. Other than “Flood of Floods” from Kale, these song are from Song of the Pearl so you can get a listen here first!

Upcoming Show: New Beat Society w/ The Uniphonics at the Yacht Club 12/18/08

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It was with surprise that I read the e-mail blast from Iowa City Yacht Club which said that New Beat Society was going to be playing a reunion show. I was also surprised to find out that Kathy Ruestow– one of the soul sirens from The Diplomettes was the vocalist for New Beat Society! The even more embarrassing part is that the whole-house mp3 player has been playing three mp3’s from the band for a couple of years, now, and I never put it together that her very distinctive voice was in both bands…

Anyway, I’m pretty excited to see this show. New Beat Society brings the slinky jazz-funk that recalls some of my favorite Acid Jazz from the mid-90’s.

The opening act is the Uniphonics which is a HipHop MC with live jazz/funk band– also very Acid Jazz. The couple of tracks on their MySpace page proves that they are a very complimentary opening act and worth showing up early for.

The show starts at 9PM and the cover is a measly $7. What are you waiting for?

Click Here for New Beat Society’s MySpace Page

Click Here for The Uniphonics MySpace Page

Free Download: “Made to Measure” and teaser for Umphrey’s McGee’s Mantis

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Since I’m watching the developments on the new Umphrey’s McGee album closely, ya’ll get to benefit by getting updates. It seems that January 20th is a long way off, so the UM camp has figured out that they are going to need to keep the fire going by throwing out little tastes of the album and bonus goodies to the fans.

Yesterday it was announced that the monster Chicago FM station XRT would be playing the first track from Mantis— “Made to Measure” as part of their new music Thursday today.

Additionally, a one-minute audio “teaser” was posted to The Floor today (the band’s blog). It has snippets of a couple of songs in it. Click Here to listen.

And, if that wasn’t enough– everyone who has pre-ordered Mantis will be given instructions on Friday on how to download an mp3 of “Made to Measure” for free!

B-Sides in the Bins #37 – Cedar Rapids Best Buy 11/11/08

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The Police - Certifiable Vinyl

The Police – Certifiable : Live in Buenos Aires (3 LP, Cherrytree/A&M Records B0011945-01, 2008) ($24.99) You’d think with all of the time that I spend reading about music, things like this wouldn’t take me by surprise. Thank goodness for the Sunday BestBuy flier which informed me that today there would be an exclusive Police Live CD/DVD of their live concert from Buenos Aires called Certifiable. The Police played there two nights, December 1 & 2, 2007. I can’t find anything that tells me which “especially hot night” (quote from the press release) it was. There would be a limited 180g 3 LP version of this album. Well, sort of limited, the flier said “a minimum of three per store” and according to this Wikipedia article, there are 962 stores. When I called this morning, Cedar Rapids had five copies. When I got there a guy was there with a copy under his arm chatting with an employee about digging his turntable out for the first time in ten years recently and listening to Quadrophenia by the Who. The records weren’t on the shelves, so I had to ask this employee where the records were. He had to go to the warehouse to get it. This guy wanted to pull on my ear for a bit about how excited he was to listen to vinyl again after all these years.

The three records are in a massive gatefold with a collage of photos from the tour. In addition to the records, there is a single sheet with another collage of photos and a code for an mp3 download. The resulting download are 256Kbps mp3’s which is acceptible. The mp3’s are handled by same folks who do the downloads for the new Beck and the new Ryan Adams.

Click Here for the Police Certifiable Page

Click Here for the Best Buy Exclusive Certifiable Page

B-Sides in the Bins #36 – Cedar Rapids, Half-Price Books 11/7/08

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I needed to hit GNC for the last night of Gold Card Days for Sherry, so I stopped in at Half-Price Books. A fairly productive stop– found some essentials.

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (LP, Columbia JC 35318, 1978) ($2.98) Cool! Decent copies of the Springsteen catalog are tough to find. Next to The River, this is my favorite Springsteen record. slight cover wear, sleeve in tact as well as the lyric sheet. Vinyl impressively minty. I got into Springsteen pretty heavily after Born in the USA. I bought everything on cassette. Never bought any Springsteen on CD. So, it’s a bit strange to be picking this up on vinyl. I suppose Sony/BMG has already started pressing Bruce’s catalog in 180g vinyl. (apparently not?)

Bruce Springsteen – The River (2 LP, Columbia PC2 36854, 1980) ($3.98) My other big favorite from The Boss. I think The River is the blueprint for what would be the most-identifiable Springsteen sound with the hard-working E Street Band on board.  The River shows all the different sides to Springsteen from the out-and-out rocker of “Cadillac Ranch”  to the FM-ready “Hungry Heart” and the melancholy of “The River.” (I always wondered if the couple in the song “The River” actually drowned themselves?) Dad bought this on cassette back when it was new and I remember that we went through a couple of copies of it. It’s a little-known fact that 60-minute cassette and 90-minute cassettes use the same amount of tape. The 90’s are just stretched thinner than the 60’s. This needed to be done because otherwise the tape wouldn’t fit in the shell and be too heavy for most cassette decks. Unfortunately, this caused the double-length cassette to be prone to breaking. The River was a double-length album on cassette since it was 2 LP’s. The cover of this copy has some edge wear and sleeve wear which is very typical of copies of this album. Unfortunately, this wasn’t pressed as a gatefold, so both records are sandwiched precariously into one sleeve. The inside record sleeves which serve as the inside art are in tact as well as a slightly tear-stained lyric sheet. The vinyl is in great shape. I’ve seen some sealed copies of this show up on eBay, so this will be one I’ll want to upgrade.

Mickey Jupp – “Old Rock ‘N’ Roller” b/w “S.P.Y.” (7″ Stiff Records BUY-36, 1978)($0.98) I didn’t know who Mickey Jupp was before I picked this up. This single was notable in that it is on Stiff Records– one time home of British notables as Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe among others. Also it has the paper sleeve intact (“If it means Everything to Everyone… It Must be a Stiff” “Today’s Sound Today”). In addition to that, the A side was produced by Nick Lowe. I’m considering putting this out on eBay, but it is a pretty cool piece, so I may just keep it. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it, but it would appear to be from his Wiki article that his signing to Stiff Records was as a result of a resurgence of interest in “Pub Rock” in the 70’s.

Pieta Brown – Remember the Sun (CD, One Little Indian OLI782, 2007) ($5.98) I had this in mp3 but I wanted to own this on CD. This is a fantastic album, and certainly Pieta’s best so far in my opinion. Produced by Bo Ramsey and has that signature sound. I listen to this album quite a bit and is a good companion to Bo’s new album Fragile.

Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger (CD, Lost Highway B0009130-02, 2007) ($6.98) I have this on vinyl and mp3, but I couldn’t pass this up. Apparently Half-Price got in a bunch of sealed, new copies of Easy Tiger and are selling them for– wait for it– HALF PRICE! 😉 This is my favorite Ryan Adams album, but Cardinology is catching up quickly.