Author Archives: mike

Upcoming Show: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals with Brandi Shearer at The Redstone Room in Davenport 2/11/08

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Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are kicking off an early ’08 headlining tour with dates sponsored by Amoeba Records with Brandi Shearer in support. They will be making a stop in Davenport at the Redstone Room on Monday, February 11th. Tickets will be $13 in advance and go on sale today (12/26) and will be $15 at the door.

We’ve talked about Grace here before. I had a chance to see her open for Gov’t Mule in Des Moines, and she and her band put on a very powerful performance. They certainly held their own opening for the Mule. As much as I enjoyed the opportunity to see the legendary Gov’t Mule in concert, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that I wasn’t seeing more of Grace and her band. So, here is my chance to see her headlining a show! According to the e-mail I got from the folks at the River Music Experience the people who saw her last show at the Redstone Room said it was the best they’ve seen there.

I haven’t heard of Brandi Shearer before I got wind of this show. She is the first act signed to the new record label run by the Amoeba Music record stores. So, this tour with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals is being sponsored by Amoeba as a way to promote their new artist and her album Close to Dark. After listening to the free download mp3’s and the streaming audio samples I think this is a really good pairing. Brandi has a bluesy, smoky voice that compliments Grace’s. Grace has been known to come out and sing with the bands she’s toured with, so maybe we’ll see some of that with Brandi, too!

Amoeba is going to be giving away a zip file of mp3’s every couple of weeks to promote Brandi as well as the Gram Parsons catalog. Week one has two tracks from Brandi. One is a 128Kbps live track from Brandi covering Gram Parsons’ “Hickory Wind” as well as a 320Kbps version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” The Christmas mp3 is a nice one just Brandi and an acoustic guitar. The zip file also includes the first track “Close Up The Honky Tonks” in 128Kbps from the new Flying Burrito Brothers live album Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals with Brandi Shearer presented by Amoeba Music Tour Dates:

January 14th
Jack Rabbits
Jacksonville, FL
8:00PM doors

January 15th
Soul Kitchen
Mobile, AL
8:00PM doors

January 17th
WorkPlay Theater
Birmingham, AL
7:00PM doors

January 18th
3rd & Lindsley
Nashville, TN
8:00PM doors

January 19th
Smith’s Old Bar
Atlanta, GA
8:00PM doors

January 20th
Newby’s
Memphis, TN
7:00PM doors

January 22nd
House of Blues
New Orleans, LA
8:00PM doors

January 23rd
Stubb’s BBQ
Austin, TX
8:00PM doors

January 25th
Mongolion Brewery
Flagstaff, AZ
8:00PM doors

January 29th
Troubadour
West Hollywood, CA
8:00PM doors

January 30th
The Independent
San Francisco, CA
8:00PM doors

February 2nd
Media Club
Vancouver, BC
8:00PM doors

February 8th
Bluebird Theater
Denver, CO
8:00PM doors

February 9th
The Bottleneck
Lawrence, KS
8:00PM doors

February 10th
The Blue Note
Columbia, MO
8:00PM doors

February 11th
The Redstone Room
Davenport, IA
8:00PM doors

Click Here to get the first week mp3 download from Amoeba.

B-Sides in the Bins #19 – Chicago 12/15/07

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While I was in Chicago for the Thrill Jockey Anniversary shows, I managed to hit a record store. This time I made it to the notorious Reckless Records at 1532 N Milwaukee Avenue. This is one of three locations in Chicago. Overall, a pretty impressive store with a wide variety of new and used CD and vinyl as well as a pretty decent selection of vinyl singles. They also have a video section. The opinion of some that I have talked to is that the staff at Reckless are pretty snobby and generally aren’t very helpful. Thankfully, I didn’t experience anything like that. I didn’t have a lot of time to really dig, but I was looking for some specific things related to Thrill Jockey as well as Daptone Records. I didn’t see any Thrill Jockey that I needed in new or used. I found a Daptone 7-inch, though.

Booker T. & The M.G.’s – “Soul Limbo” b/w “Heads or Tails” (7″ Single, Stax STA-0001, 1968) ($2.99) I was pretty happy to stumble on this very mint copy of this. I think I’d like to collect all of the Booker T and the M.G.’s singles. According to this page, this single is the first release on Stax after their distribution deal with Atlantic ended– hence the “STA-0001” catalog number. Isaac Hayes on piano and cowbell, and Terry Manning on marimba.

The Budos Band – “The Proposition” b/w “Ghost Walk” (7″ single, Daptone DAP-1027, 2006) ($5.99) I think I’m going to start collecting these singles, too. Daptone is a quality label that puts out releases that cater to the collector. The Budos Band have two albums out. “The Proposition” is on The Budos Band II, that was released in August and “Ghost Walk” is off of their previous album titled simply The Budos Band.

Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (LP. Virgin/A&M SP 4928 , 1982) ($1.99) I think this was kind of the score-of-the-day aside from the vinyl Califone I picked up at the Thrill Jockey show that night. One of my favorite Simple Minds albums. This copy was in the cut-out bin at Reckless. The copy is pristine. There were actually two copies in the bin and the other was priced $2.99 and didn’t look any better than this copy. Some of the best Simple Minds songs are on this one: “Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)”, “Promised You A Miracle,” “Big Sleep,” and “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84).” All of these tracks were on the Live in the City of Light album that I listened to quite a bit when it came out. I have a poster hanging in the back garage at my mom’s of that live album. I have acquired a bunch of Simple Minds vinyl over the years– as I see some I pick it up.

I plan to try to hit that store again in the future. I was hoping to pick up some more vintage R&B– I flipped through their small section of it and didn’t see anything that caught my eye.

Everywhere At Once Tracklist Revealed

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Just announced today from Anti- is the tracklisting for Lyrics Born’s next solo album. Titled Everywhere At Once, the album is slated to drop March 18, 2008 and has guest appearances from RJD2 and Chali 2na (from Jurassic 5). It seems this album has been in the works a long time– when I saw LB last November in Minneapolis, he performed “Differences.” We know he is a perfectionist, so I’m certain it is worth the wait. During his “Auto Reverse” tour this Fall he has been performing “I Like It, I Love It,” and “Hott 2 Def.” He was also performing a song titled “2 Hott 2 Cold” which doesn’t seem to appear on the track list– maybe this will be a flipside to a single?

In the bonus tracks we see a remix of “Let Me In, Let Me Out” which is the slammin’ guitar-laden track Lyrics Born worked with Quannum artist Tommy Guerrero on his 2006 release From The Soil to the Soul. Maybe this will give that track the exposure it needs.

Track listing for Everywhere At Once:

1. Intro Tag
2. Don’t Change
3. Hott 2 Deff
4. Differences
5. Cakewalk
6. Shoe Hoes Anonymous(skit)
7. I’m A Phreak
8. I Like It, I Love it
9. The World Is Calling
10. Top Shelf
11. Is It The Skin I’m In?
12. Homeland Security(skit)
13. Do U Buy It?
14. Rules Were Meant To Be Broken (Remix)
15. Whispers
16. I Can’t Decide(Everywhere At Once)

Bonus Tracks:
17. Re-Intro
18. Let Me In, Let Me Out (Remix)

New Widespread Panic Single “Up All Night” Free mp3 Download

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Widespread Panic has a new album that will be out in Spring 2008. The as-yet-untitled album was recorded earlier this year and “Up All Night” is the first single released to radio and available as a juicy 320Kbps mp3 for the fans to download.

I’m not very familiar with Panic’s massive body of work– 15 CD’s and 5 DVDs since their inception in 1986! But, I was familiar with their Band tribute track “Chest Fever” which I liked a lot. “Up All Night” has the same familiar classic rock vibe as many of their other songs. Still, the song is worth a download.

Up All Night (right-click to save MP3)

Upcoming Show: Tortoise and Umphrey’s McGee 12/30/07 in Chicago

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In what seems to be an interesting and slightly headscratcher lineup, Tortoise will be opening for ChiTown Jamband Umphrey’s McGee on Sunday, 12/30/07 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. This show will be part of a three-night stint at the Aragon culminating in a very special 10th Anniversary New Year’s show.

I guess it might make some sense– both bands are “Chicago Bands Done OK” so they’d be playing for local crowds. And, although Tortoise fits in the Post Rock genre, they’ve been flirting with the jam scene a bit by playing Bonnaroo two years. Umphrey’s is a band that likes to toy with progrock and jazz so in some respects is a band in kindred spirit. It would be interesting to see if they collaborate on anything. Certainly both bands can improvise in a live setting.

Umphrey’s is giving away mp3’s of their show in Georgia on 10/14/07. I guess they weren’t able to use their live engineer to record it and clean it up for sale on their site so they are giving it away. It includes a new song-in-progress “Jazz Odyssey” and a cover of “Young Lust” by Pink Floyd. It comes in two zip files. Click Here for the post on their Facebook page which includes links to download.

Fender Frontline in Home #2 Arrived…

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I came home today to the new Fender Frontline in Home– the second issue! The cover and inside cover are promoting the new Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Strat and Twin with the line art logos for Crossroads Antigua which is a charity that supports a treatment center for chemically dependent people and their families. There will be 100 guitars with 50 matched to amps. These guitars are going to be handcrafted at the Custom Shop to Clapton’s specifications and each with the smiling sun logo that he designed. The guitar is $20000 and the guitar/amp combination will be $30000.

Other new and interesting items in this catalog include the Joe Strummer Tribute page. I got to see one of these up close in King of Prussia, PA at Sam Ash. While I really like the idea of this tribute guitar, I have a hard time justifying over $800 for a Mexican telecaster. Plus, it doesn’t look as good up close. It is one thing to be relic’d, but the matte black finish makes it look kind of fake. Just my opinion, of course!

This issue also includes the new California Series Sonoran SCE Custom Acoustics. These are kind of cool looking– coming in some vintage “surfy” colors with painted headstocks. I’d consider one of these. It certainly would look nice hanging next to my other Fenders since it has a CBS Strat-looking headstock on it.

Another free T-shirt!! Again, you need to do a “test drive” at an authorized Fender dealer. This time you don’t need to test drive something in the catalog– which is an improvement. Test drive any Fender product. Last time I went to Guitar Center and the only thing they had was the “VG” Stratocaster from the catalog. This T-Shirt looks much nicer than the last Test Drive– this one has a ’52-ish Telecaster leaning against a classic Twin amp with a simple Fender logo under it. Still on a black Tee. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend!

A focus on the Squier Artist Series with the Avril Lavigne Telecaster with the nifty Cheap Trickish black and white checkered pickguard. Basses from Pete Wentz, Mike Dirnt and Frank Bello. I guess it is cool to bring the Artist Series into the budget line. Also a Rockband ad showing the new Stratocaster controller for Rockband. That’s cool. Much cooler than the Rockstar SG’s.

New Super and Vibro Champ XD amps that are hybrid Tube with digital effects. Seems cool, but if you end up doing digital effects aren’t you killing why you have tubes to begin with? Plus, they say “tube powered” does that mean they use tubes in the power stage only and not part of the tone stack? I’m sure tube purists everywhere have made their decisions…

I see a new Mexican Telecaster called the Blackout Tele. A Standard Mexican Telecaster with maple neck, dressed in black with a three-layer black pickguard and 6-saddle bridge. Has a third chrome “lipstick” style pickup between the neck and bridge. Seems pretty unique and really sharp. I may need to try one of these to see what interesting sounds come with the extra pickup. The Power Teles have the extra single-coil, so maybe they sound like that.

If you haven’t signed up for Frontliine in Home– you should if you’re into Fender products. Click Here to find the signup page.

B-Sides in the Bins #18 – Cedar Rapids 11/07

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I made a couple of trips to HalfPriceBooks this month. One trip was because I had a 50% off One Item coupon and the second trip was because I had a bunch of books to sell. Nothing crazy rare, but some collection builders.

What I bought:

Hard Promises – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (LP, Backstreet BSR-5160, 1981) ($2.99) This was with the 50% coupon. I got the incredible “Running Down A Dream” documentary DVD/CD set for my birthday in October and it got me thinking I should try to get more Tom Petty vinyl. My daughter bought me Southern Accents last year for one of the gift-giving holidays so I already had a start. There were copies of Damn the Torpedos in the bin, too, but this was in better condition than those. This is the second of the three albums produced by Jimmy Iovine starting with Torpedos and ending with Long After Dark. A pretty good album that shows Petty at the peak of his 80’s game. Of course, “The Waiting” is still a classic, but other standout tracks are “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)” and “Insider.” “Insider” is a duet with Stevie Nicks and one of my favorite songs from Petty’s catalog. I especially like the live version on Pack Up the Plantation.

Go Insane – Lindsey Buckingham (LP, Elektra E1-60363, 1984) ($1.00) Unfortunately, this is a Columbia House repressing, but it is really clean and for a buck I can’t complain. It is missing the record sleeve (I think). It has a plain white sleeve. I would have expected other artwork or something. Go Insane was Lindsey’s second solo release. This record was met with mixed reviews due to it’s odd use of sampled sounds like splashes and metal clangs. When Fleetwood Mac reconvened for 1987’s Tango In The Night, Buckingham produced the record and gave it the same sampled textures. When this record came out I listened to it a lot on my Walkman I remember. My family was and are still big fans of Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham so when this record came out we bought it right away and it became part of family trips in the car stereo. The finale track– a celtic “D.W. Suite” is a tribute to the late Beach Boys drummer and vocalist Dennis Wilson. There is a sample of Ed Sullivan saying “Ladies and Gentlemen– The Beach Boys!” in it.

Gold – Ryan Adams (CD, Lost Highway P2 70256, 2001) ($5.98) Another one for the Ryan Adams collection. There isn’t much more I can add to what’s been said about Gold. It is probably the most consistent record in Adams’s catalog and likely most accessible. Brilliant and classic tracks like “New York, New York,” “Answering Bell,” “La Cienega Just Smiled,” “Rescue Blues,” and “When the Stars Go Blue” anchor the album and show Adams at the top of his songwriting.

Lyrics Born Live in Minneapolis 10/25/07

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Lyrics Born on Stage

As kind of a belated-birthday present to me, Sherry and I went to Minneapolis to see Lyrics Born live at The Foundation. It was almost a year to the date from last year’s show. This show was pretty much halfway through the Auto Reverse Tour. One pleasant difference from last year’s show was that the temperature was much milder so hanging outside waiting for the venue to open wasn’t as bad.

The Foundation made some changes since last year’s show. They added a stage and DJ Booth opposite of where the band performed. This stage took up a lot of the old dance floor. I guess that where the band was set up isn’t really a stage. You can see in some of the pictures below that the band is pretty much at the same level as the crowd who is behind a metal fence. As much as I like to see acts at the Foundation, it’s a bit odd and difficult to get a good view of the band without being up against the barrier. We learned something from last year’s show– order bottle service! This gives you a dedicated place to sit and you have a guaranteed waitress. Bottle service for hard liquor is a lot more expensive than wine– which is what we ordered. We got a Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz, which happily was pretty good and is available cheaply at our favorite grocery store. The waitress sat us up on the stage opposite the band on a plush leather couch all by ourselves. The VIP area and access to this stage were roped off, so we were only sharing the area with the VIP folks and some other photographers.

LB and P-Dub

There was no opening act, so the Foundation DJ who plays most of the Saturday shows (I guess) spun a really nice set of hiphop, triphop, Quannum/Solesides and some 80’s r&b. A nice set that was a crowd pleaser and a good warm-up to LB and Crew. While that was going on, I got to meet Justin Berger who currently manages Lyrics Born’s website and MySpace page in addition to documenting the tour in progress by videotaping and creating the LBTV content. Justin is a really cool guy and hung out with us on the “stage” filming the whole show with a mini-DV cam.

Joyo Velarde

The show was in a lot of respects very similar to last year’s show and the same as the Overnite Encore CD. The band lineup was different from last time– The ever-present Joy was still there, as well as Uber-funker Uriah Duffy on bass and B’Nai Rebelfront on guitars. Mike Blankenship (aka Cap’n Patches according to on LBTV episode) replaced Kat Ounao on keys and P-Dub replaced Darius Minaee. This band was just as tight as last year’s lineup.

Uriah Duffy wows the girls in the front row.

Ultimately, I thought the show was great– the interplay between Joy and LB is great and a real crowd-pleaser especially during the “Love Me So Bad” duet. Uriah Duffy provides some great showmanship during his bass solos. The new songs that we heard from this show– “2 Hott 2 Cold” and “Hot 2 Deff”– both fit in with the older songs. The songs from Later That Day at this point are considered “classics” after having been toured constantly since the album’s release in 2003. I was pleased to hear th e new tracks brought out as it gave us some different moments in the show. Some of the “skits” were the same as last time and the album like the crowd teaser before “Callin’ Out” where LB threatens to go home. He does it well and gets the crowd going, but I hope to see some different stuff next time. I’m sure that Lyrics Born is already thinking about how he’s going to tour after the new album drops in March of ’08. The move from a samples and turntables show to a live band show was a huge deal at the time and I really think takes his show to the next level performance-wise. I hope he continues with this idea into the next tour.

I thought a really nice shoutout/props to Minneapolis was that during one of the early songs in the set (maybe “Stop Complaining?”) the band broke it down and they all started doing “The Bird” popularized by Prince proteges Morris Day and the Time seen in the movie “Purple Rain.” Very cool, although I don’t know how many people in the audience were old enough to remember The Time!

LB and Joy during

Here is the setlist from this show:

1. Hello
2. Shake It Off
3. I Like It, I Love It
4. Stop Complaining / Jam
5. Aim for the Flickering Flame
CAN YOU FEEL It (intro into pack up remix)
6. Pack Up Remix / Rich Boy (2nd verse had a Rich Boy sample added in to the song)
7. Knock Knock
8. 2 Hott 2 Cold *new song
9. Hot 2 Deff *new song
BAND INTROS
10. Callin’ Out
11. I Changed My Mind
12. Bad Dreams
13. Love Me So Bad
14. Do That There

Visit Lyrics Born’s MySpace Page to hear a live version of “Hot 2 Deff” with guest Chali 2na from the forthcoming Everywhere at Once dropping March 18, 2008 on Anti- Records.

Here is my flickr Photoset of the show with extra shots.

Here are pictures taken by BBGunBilly hosted on the Foundation website.

Don’t Sleep on This– Thrill Jockey Online Exclusives: Plum, Mega Massive Mix, and Prekop Book

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As previously mentioned (here, here and here), Thrill Jockey has three items that any fan of the label needs in their collection– and they are mucho limited editions so you should jump on these while they are available. I checked, and as of today these are still available. I’m not going to tell you again!

Super Epic Thrill Jockey Mega Massive Mix by Trey Told ‘Em — This is a mega mix of almost all of the Thrill Jockey artists and is available to anyone who went to either of the 15th Anniversary shows in London on November 12th or coming up in Chicago on December 14th. However, they aren’t denying this to folks who can’t make it to either show so for a limited time you can order this directly from Thrill Jockey. Trey Told ‘Em is a project of Gregg Gillis aka blog-darlings Girl Talk and Frank Musarra from Hearts of Darkness. At $12 this is a deal! I’m sure it will be worth 5x that on eBay later. Available as a pre-order. Will ship after 12/18 following the Chicago show.

Plum 7 Inches Box Set — This is a set of ten 7″ singles of Thrill Jockey artists covering each other. These are 180mg records. Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Califone, Howe Gelb, Zincs, Pullman Pit Er Pat, David Byrne, Mouse on Mars, and the list goes on. Will not be available as a download or on CD. Available as a pre-order. Will ship after 12/4.

If you pre-order these together you get a $2 discount on the order. However, it will hold the shipment until 12/18 when the Mega Mix is released.

“Photographs” book by Sam Prekop – As mentioned earlier, this is a book of black and white photographs by Sam Prekop that he has had in exhibits. Nice hardback book published by Presspop Gallery and is available from Thrill Jockey mailorder. This book comes with a CD of instrumentals by Prekop that are inspired by the pictures. I ordered this one separate from the Box set and megamix last week so I have it. The CD is relatively short (20 minutes) and is comprised of mellow electronic music. Good stuff.

BTW: I am going to the Chicago Anniversary show. Apparently in addition to the surprise guests, there will be some “Rare Merchandise” available. I can see this is going to be an expensive trip! Maybe I can get TNT on vinyl for less than 50 freakin’ dollars!

“I’m Not There” Concert Streaming at Wolfgang’s Vault

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The curious biopic of Bob Dylan “I’m Not There” has spawned an incredible soundtrack packed with interpretations of Dylan’s catalog by an all-star lineup– one of the great releases of 2007. On November 7th, a number of the artists who performed on the album including Calexico, Joe Henry, Mark Lanegan, My Morning Jacket and others participated in a concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. One of the sponsors of the show was Wolfgang’s Vault who is hosting a streaming version of the show. You need to sign up for the site to listen, but it costs nothing other than some infrequent spam. While you’re there listen to some of the other shows. They are adding content all the time.

Wolfgang’s Vault is notable as the holder of the rights to the classic syndicated radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour as well as a vast collection of shows Bill Graham (aka Wolfgang) recorded at the Fillmores East and West. These shows are free to listen to from the Wolfgang’s Vault and some of them are available for purchase and download.

I sent the Vault an e-mail to see if this show will be available for purchase. I sure hope so! It is a great show. Calexico is on hand doing their instrumental “Billy (Main Theme)” which was an iTunes bonus track. Joe Henry performs with Calexico on “Senior” which was sung by Willie Nelson on the album. Calexico also does a great job backing Mark Lanegan on “Man in the Long Black Coat.

PERFORMERS (in order of appearance):
Marcus Carl Franklin
Calexico
Jim James
Joe Henry
Mark Lanegan
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Mira Billotte with Lee Ranaldo
The Million Dollar Bashers
Gomez
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks
Terry Adams
Yo La Tengo and Friends
My Morning Jacket
Mason Jennings
John Doe
Jimmy LaFave
Tift Merritt
Lee Ranaldo
J Mascis
The Roots

Click Here to visit the “I’m Not There” Concert at Wolfgang’s Vault.