Author Archives: mike

B-Sides in the Bins #9 – Cedar Rapids, IA & eBay 3/24/07

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I really wasn’t expecting to do any shopping today. Due to my daughter’s car needing to be dropped off at Tires Plus for a strange banging noise and my wife wanting to do some clothes shopping at Lindale I found myself with some time so I hit CDWarehouse.

I walked in and immediately spotted the spine of the new Low CD Drums and Guns in a stack of used CD’s on the counter. While I hadn’t planned to pick this album up, I couldn’t pass on a new release! I verified that it was for sale and asked to have it put aside and started over to the $1 CD’s and made my way through the LP crates and then through the CD’s.

Before I checked out I spent some time talking to John Fisher who owns the store. A great guy to talk to and is pretty passionate about music and music retail. We talked a lot about sales on the Internet versus the brick-and-mortar retail. He is well aware of what his competition is. He is located next to a Best Buy and his prices will typically compete with Best Buy on new releases. He can also place special orders, which Best Buy has no interest in doing. His perspective on his very low vinyl prices is that he needs to compete with eBay on the “non-collector” vinyl. He is also competing with HalfPrice Books who gets their inventory fortified by their other locations. I have to say that I was surprised about the turnover he had in his vinyl so it will continue to be a stop for me. John is also brokering his inventory through Djangos Music which is pretty smart. He said that he has moved a lot of inventory that he wouldn’t normally move just due to the limited audience in Cedar Rapids for the more obscure items. Times are really tough for the independent music seller so it is good to see someone still willing to figure out how to stay viable! Stop by there if you get a chance.

Drums and Guns – Low (CD Sub Pop SPCD 736, 2007) ($7.99) This CD came out this Tuesday. Evidently the previous owner didn’t appreciate the new direction Low is taking on their eighth album and second for Sub Pop. Low has been around for quite a long time in Indie terms with their first release in 1994. Low is known for their slow tempo style sometimes called “Slowcore” and this album is continuing this style albeit with more distortion on the guitars and more sound effects. This album leaked on the Internet early in January and I had those mp3’s. At the time I thought that what was leaked must have been a demo due to the really strange mixing of the vocals mostly in the right channel but this CD has that, too. I need to spend more time with it, but I think it is a grower. I should get the rest of the Low catalog.

Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (2 CD Warner Bros, R2 73882, 2004) ($9.99) Another great find today! This one has been on my Amazon and lala.com want lists for a while. This is a BMG pressing of the CD, which I would normally pass over but it is in Mint condition. This is probably the sixth copy of Rumours I have owned on CD in my life. When I got my first CD player back in the late 80’s Rumours was one of the first CD’s I purchased. (other titles bought that first day were Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits, Hot Rocks 1964-1971 by The Rolling Stones, and Graceland by Paul Simon). I’ve lost three copies to other people– ex-girlfriends mostly. When I was around nine or ten I got a stereo from my parents with an 9-track and had a mix of Rumours and the self-titled prior release that Dad made for the car that I listened to constantly. Dad had an 8-track recorder and used to dub copies of the 8-tracks he bought. This album has been with me my whole life it seems and around for important events. When my wife and I got married in 2000 our invitations had lyrics from the beautiful Christine McVie-penned “Songbird” and Sherry and I had our first dance as a couple at our reception to it. This release has the appended “Silver Springs” that was originally the b-side to “Go Your Own Way.” The controversy surrounding this song has been documented in other places, but this song was another song about the breakup of Buckingham and Nicks. It was pulled from the Rumours tracklist because it was too long and the band preferred “I Don’t Want To Know.” This song resurfaced for the out-of-print The Chain boxset. If I remember right, Mick Fleetwood really pushed for this song to be included in the boxset at Stevie’s initial hesitance. The song was brought back as a single for the reunion album The Dance. The popularity of this song influenced its inclusion in the DVD-A release of Rumours in 2002, and then for this 2004 release. Sonically, I don’t think that this release is much of an improvement over the other pressings of this album on CD. The second disc of bonus tracks and demos serves mostly as an interesting view into the creation of this album and not really something you’d spend a lot of time listening to.

In The Sun – Archer Prewitt (CD Carrot Top SAKI 015, 1997) ($7.99) Another surprise find for me. I’ve had this one on my want list for a long time. This was the missing CD in my Prewitt collection. Archer Prewitt, for those of you who aren’t familiar is a core member of The Sea and Cake. Prewitt’s music is similar to The Sea and Cake, but differs from Sam Prekop’s solo works. Sam has a whispery vocal approach and tends towards a jazzy feel. Prewitt sounds like early breezy Seventies pop. I hadn’t heard any of the tracks off this album before today, but fits right in with his other albums. The Sea and Cake feels more like a Prekop vehicle and Prewitt takes a backseat in that band in my opinion, but he seems very comfortable in his role in the center stage on his own songs.

Afoot – Let’s Active (Vinyl EP I.R.S. SP70505, 1983) ($1.99) Let’s Active was the band fronted by 80’s college rock uber-producer Mitch Easter who I’ve mentioned on here before. According to Mitch, Afoot was an experiment of sorts. I.R.S. let Mitch record and release a record of his own after the success of the first two R.E.M. albums he produced with Don Dixon. This EP had a hit in “Every Word Means No” and even had a video on MTV. This will sit comfortably with my Game Theory vinyl. Mixed by Scott Litt who would later produce six of the best R.E.M. albums from Document through New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

90125 – Yes (LP ATCO 90125-1, 1983) ($1.99) It’s interesting to note that this album was released the same year as Afoot. They seem years apart. Sadly this album hasn’t aged as well as Afoot, however. All of those really nasty “orchestra hit” synthesizer patches and compressed and gated drums peg this album squarely as an early 80’s pop album. Still, this is one of my favorites. Probably the only album in history that is named after its catalog number. I had purchased this album on cassette in 1983 or 1984 largely due to the singles that this record spawned and the videos that were shown on USA’s “Night Flight” and WTBS’s “Night Tracks” shows (no MTV in Bellevue, IA back then!). This album follows the critically-panned Drama album that had the Buggles members Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes on vocals and keyboards. Drama was the only Yes album without the distinctive vocals of Anderson. Horn and Downes left after the Drama tour. Chris Squire and Alan white formed another band with guitarist Travor Rabin called Cinema which eventually Jon Anderson joined which allowed them to honestly call the band Yes. Most of the pop-geared single tracks were penned by Rabin and most of the vision of the record comes from him. Production was handled by Trevor Horn, who by this time had produced some significant albums on the ZTT label including Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Art of Noise and lent a similar big sound to 90125.

Freedom – Neil Young (LP Reprise 25899-1, 1989) ($1.99) This LP has a cover that has a large patch where the printing has torn off, but the front looks good and the vinyl is good. Freedom marks the triumphant return-to-form for Neil on Reprise after his “lost” period on Geffen. Freedom started life as another album titled Times Square which was to be a louder album in a more Crazy Horse vein. Apparently the label didn’t hear a single so Neil went back to the drawing board and selected the best tracks from the Times Square sessions and added three new songs including the smash “Rockin’ In The Free World” in electric and acoustic versions the way Rust Never Sleeps had “Hey Hey, My My” and “My My, Hey Hey.” Many consider Freedom to be a complimentary release to Rust. A number of the tracks pulled from Times Square ended up on a Japanese/Australian EP called Eldorado. I got a copy of Eldorado from a Japanese student who brought one back with him after a break. I consider Freedom to be one of Neil’s finest moments on record.

Aerocalexico – Calexico (CD Our Soil Our Strength, 2001) ($9.99 + $2.50 Shipping) I got this as a Buy-It-Now this week. I’m very happy about this one as it is the last of the Calexico tour-only CD’s I needed. This one is probably one of the best of the series. I think it is great that Calexico pulls these collections together and makes them available to the fans. Some standout/notable tracks are “Pretty White Horses,” the Christmas track “Gift X-Change” and the instrumental track to “Humana” which was the “collaboration” with Goldfrapp on the “Human” remix from Felt Mountain Revamped album. This is still available from the Calexico site for $16

Things I didn’t buy: Franz Ferdinand’s debut CD in special packaging and included a bonus disc, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome on LP. They were playing a CD by Dressy Bessy that was pretty interesting– it was their 2002 release Sound Go Round. I’d heard mention of them but wasn’t familiar with them. Worth checking out I think. You can hear tracks at their Myspace page.

On R.E.M. in the Hall of Fame

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R.E.M.
R.E.M. is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week. In some respects this is the band that was once my favorite band sealing their fate as a classic rock band. Yesterday on the Onion A/V site Steve Hyden wrote an article about the “Incredible Shrinking Legacy” of R.E.M.— how over time R.E.M. became less of a band able to make music anyone cares about. If you have a couple of minutes you should read the article and the following comments from folks arguing like theologians over the Apocrypha.

As I look up at my framed handbill of the October 31, 1987 show from Palmer Auditorium in Davenport, I realize that Steve is saying something that I’ve slowly come to terms with over the years– that R.E.M. isn’t making music that interests me any longer, and apparently a lot of people feel the same way. Unlike Steve, I haven’t gone to the extreme of selling off my R.E.M. collection, nor have I completely dismissed their importance as a band that nearly single-handedly brought college rock to the colleges (debt to U2 here, too)– making the campuses safe for every band from Soul Asylum to Camper Van Beethoven and– (gads!) Hootie and the Blowfish and Counting Crows.

So, I think their induction marks a significant passing of the torch. As I listen to the music from bands that are the age that R.E.M. was at their peak (the peak defined by college rock historians as 1981-1995) the “alternative” landscape is much different and the influences that feed today’s music is different that it was then. R.E.M. came from Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Television, Byrds, and Big Star. Today’s bands are influenced by R.E.M., U2, as well as other contemporaries. It’s the passing of the torch and, while it makes me sad that the music that defined my teens and early twenties is history at best– it is what needs to happen for music to move on. Should R.E.M. have quit after Bill Berry quit the band? I agree that the band hasn’t made records that so define an age as Reckoning and Fables have, they are still cranking out albums and seem to really be trying and following their particular creative paths. In the meantime, I’ll keep watching and listening to see if they do something groundbreaking again.

B-Sides in the Bins #8 – Cedar Rapids, IA 3/11/07

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Happy Daylight Savings! Today I needed to get my oil changed which usually entails leaving my car at the oil change place and figuring out what to do for a couple of hours. I decided to go visit the used CD stores in the area. I ended up at Half Price Books and got some good deals. Really, Half Price Books has some of the best vinyl selection in Cedar Rapids. Ratz Records downtown has the most vinyl, but Half Price has the best quality selection in town.

Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (2 LP Warner Brothers 2HS 3350, 1979) ($5.98) Tusk in so many ways is one of my desert island discs. My dad bought this when it came out on cassette. Since this is a double album it came on what would be a 90-minute cassette. This ultimately means that the tape is thinner and more susceptible to failure. We bought two copies of this tape as we wore them out. The second copy wore out and I used a cassette repair kit from Radio Shack to fix it. Looking back I’m amazed that they had cassette repair kits! The plastic liner would wear out from the hubs so I cracked the tape open and moved the tape and spools over to a new case and liner. I bought this on CD when it came out and was punished with a shortened version. Back in the day they could only make 78 minute CD’s and so Warners made Tusk with an edit of “Sara” which is crazy since that was one of the singles. Or, maybe they got the edit from that… Brilliant record which was considered to be extravagant noodling from a band losing its direction or allowing Lindsey too much creative control. In hindsight, this is the White Album of my generation. According to the sleeve, this was $15.98 MSRP!! My copy is super clean. I need to get that remastered 2-disc version one of these days. I’m still looking for clean versions of the other Buckingham-era LP’s. My childhood pressed into shiny black plastic. I also own the Camper Van Beethoven “tribute” to Tusk which is recommended as well.

“Heaven or Las Vegas (edit)” b/w “Dials” and “Heaven Or Las Vegas (album version)” – Cocteau Twins (12″ Capitol/4AD SPRO-79427, 1990) ($1.98) This one was mistakenly stuck in the Rap section with all of the other lonely Rap white label promos. I really didn’t need this as I have the “Dials” track as a CD promo and as part of the extra disc in the maroon Cocteau Twins box set released by Capitol in the early 90’s. For $1.98 I couldn’t pass it up. Maybe this needs to be eBay fodder for someone who is a completist. The cover has major spine injury and someone wrote on it– this is a promo so some radio station had it in its library. The vinyl is very clean. The Heaven or Las Vegas album is pretty much the pinnacle of the Cocteau Twins catalog in my opinion. I saw them that tour in Chicago at the Metro with my friend Urban who turned me on to them that previous year. That album was one of my “makeout” favorites from that year.

Idle Moments – Grant Green (CD Blue Note 7243 4 99003 2 5, 1999) ($3.00) This one was in the “Clearance” section of the CD’s. Part of the “Rudy Van Gelder Edition” remasters of the formidable Blue Note back catalog. Originally released in 1963 as Blue Note BLP 4154. I have decided that I’m going to purchase whatever Blue Note CD’s I stumble across. Grant Green is an amazing jazz guitarist and probably considered the earliest of the groove jazz players. I first became aware of Grant Green due to his inclusion in the Blue Note Grooves compilation from the 90’s. Lots of Blue Note titles were pillaged for the Acid Jazz movement and Blue Note countered with releases of the more popular tracks. Blue Note also sponsored an Acid Jazz sampling effort in US3 which also used Grant Green’s “Sookie Sookie” in its first album. This is a nice, mellow album with two superb renditions of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s “Django.” This release includes two outtakes that are extended versions of “Jean De Fleur” and “Django.” Very cool find. One funny note about this release is that it still has the price sticker from the Record Collector who includes the date it was bought as used. Some time after 5/2004 it was sold for $12.00.

“The Stratocaster Chronicles – Celebrating 50 Years of the Fender Strat” – Tom Wheeler (book Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-634-05678-6, 2004) ($19.98) The original MSRP on this one was $50. Hardcover coffeetable book on the history of the Fender Stratocaster with a forward by Eric Clapton. Includes a CD with samples of the Strat in action as well as interviews with Leo Fender and others. A Fender fan myself, I couldn’t pass up this title. Thank God for Half-Price Books. Nice pretty pictures of the guitar that changed the face of music.

Tortoise 2007 US Summer Tour Dates

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A couple of weeks on the heels of the Bonnaroo announcement Tortoise has planned another nineteen dates starting the day before in Columbus, OH at OSU and wrapping up on July 8th at Webster Hall in NYC. This was previously reported in Pitchfork but there have been more dates added since and more could be added. Notably missing are non-North American dates, so I would expect more to come. These dates have been adding to the Thrill Jockey Tour page little by little over the last couple of weeks. The rumor is that Tortoise has been recording a new album so maybe we’ll hear new songs. Thrill Jockey hasn’t mentioned a new Tortoise album for this year.

Of note for me anyway is the show at the Cedar Cultural Center on June 30th in Minneapolis as this is likely the show I will hit. Tickets go on sale at Noon on Friday, March 23rd for $18. I haven’t been to this venue yet, but it is a theater venue which will be nice.

The other notable date on here is the WXPN World Cafe Live show on July 6th at 7:30PM. The tickets for this are $16 and standing room only. I think that XPN broadcasts these shows.

Thu Jun 14
Columbus, OH
Wexner Center (Ohio State University)

Fri Jun 15
Manchester, TN
Bonnaroo Music Festival

Sat Jun 16
Lawrence, KS
The Granada Theatre
w/ Hot Chip

Mon Jun 18
Denver, CO
Bluebird Theatre

Tue Jun 19
Salt Lake City, UT
Urban Lounge

Wed Jun 20
Phoenix, AZ
Rhythm Room

Thu Jun 21
Los Angeles, CA
El Rey Theatre

Fri Jun 22
San Francisco, CA
The Independent

Sat Jun 23
San Francisco, CA
The Independent

Mon Jun 25
Portland, OR
Aladdin Theater

Tue Jun 26
Seattle, WA
Neumos

Sat Jun 30
Minneapolis, MN
Cedar Cultural Center

Sun Jul 1
Chicago, IL
The Metro

Mon Jul 2
Ann Arbor, MI
The Blind Pig

Tue Jul 3
Toronto, ON
Lee’s Palace

Thu Jul 5
Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Art (Early Show)

Thu Jul 5
Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Art (Late Show)

Fri Jul 6
Philadelphia, PA
World Cafe

Sat Jul 7
Washington, DC
Black Cat

Sun Jul 8
New York, NY
Webster Hall
w/ Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) with Steve Reid

B-Sides in the Bins #7 – Iowa City, IA 2/22/07

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My wife and I were back down in Iowa City for a doctor’s appointment, so I got to visit the Record Collector. Here’s what I picked up.

Meadow – Richard Buckner (CD Merge Records MRG279, 2006) ($12.00) I wanted to pick this up so I could become acquainted with his music before the Monday night show at the Picador that– if the blizzard subsides– Sherry and I are planning to go to with some other friends that are Six Parts Seven fans. I’m planning to review that show. This album is apparently one of two that Buckner has recorded in a more rock vein. This album employs members of Guided by Voices, Cobra Verde, and the Mekons as the backing band. The album is boozy rocking affair sounding like equal parts Replacements and Wilco.

“Town” from Meadow

I finally bought the 1996 12″ Tortoise remix series. I had been bidding on incomplete sets on eBay that were getting up over $10 apiece. I’d seen some of these in the bins at the Collector previously. This particular set was dropped from $8.00 to $6.00 apiece in January so I was pretty happy to get a deal on these. I already have all of these remixes on the 1998 US release of Remixes, but it is cool to get the vinyl. I guess I’m going to collect all of the vinyl I can. You may notice that although these were released as a set, there is a missing “12.2” apparently Thrill Jockey snuck a 12″ in the middle called “Beware Soul Snatchers” from a short-lived band called Rome.

Djed – Tortoise (12″ Thrill Jockey 12.1, 1996) ($6.00) This is the second pairing of Mo’Wax and Tortoise as this has an UNKLE remix of Djed “Bruise Blood Mix”– the other being the inclusion of a “A Source of Uncertainty” on the Mo’Wax compilation Headz 2 which is a remix of “Why We Fight.” I’ve never been able to ascertain whether this was a DJ Shadow or Tim Goldsworthy remix as they were both part of Lavelle’s project UNKLE. Shadow certainly did the UNKLE remix of “Where It’s At” by Beck, and he joined in 1995 so its possible. The flipside of the UNKLE remix is “Tjed” a remix by John McEntire from Tortoise. The McEntire track is much more of a deconstruction than the UNKLE version is.

Music for Workgroups, the Oval Remixes – Tortoise (12″ Thrill Jockey 12.3, 1996) ($6.00) The two tracks on this release are “Bubble Economy” and “Learning Curve” and are alternately credited as remixes by Markus Popp who does work under the monikers of Oval and Microstoria. According to this interview with Popp, these tracks are not remixes of particular tracks like the other Millions 12″ releases. He said that he doesn’t treat his works as particular tracks but as “data.” So he asked Tortoise to give him as much sound data as possible and they sent him two CD’s worth! It was from this material that he created the two tracks here. I gather from the interview that this is inaccurately credited as an Oval track as it doesn’t have Sebastian Oschatz on it.

Rivers – Tortoise (12″ Thrill Jockey 12.4, 1996) ($6.00) The first remix of “Along the Banks of Rivers” is “Galapagos (Version One)” from Drum ‘n’ Bass/Jungle producer duo Springheel Jack. I really like this track. I always assumed they called this track “Galapagos” due to the giant tortoises (get it?). However, there seems to be two more versions of “Galapagos” on other releases from Springheel Jack that don’t to my ear sound like they are related in any way. The flip is “Reference Resistence Gate” by the frighteningly prolific Jim O’Rourke. His take on the track takes some of the lighter chiming parts of “Rivers” and delivers a stuttering drum beat over the atmospherics.

The Taut and Tame – Tortoise (12″ Thrill Jockey 12.5, 1996) ($6.00) The first remix is of “The Taut and Tame” by Warp artist Luke Vibert. The flipside is a remix of “Wait” which was a song that Jeff Parker brought to Tortoise. The remix is done by former Tortoise member Bundy K. Brown.

Until next time…

Keller Williams – Dream (review)

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Keller Williams - Dream (2007)

In 2000 I saw Phish play the Target Center in Minneapolis. I was relatively late to the game when it came to Phish and the Jam scene in general. I hung out with guys in high school and college who were Grateful Dead fans so I was pretty familiar with their music. I have cousins who spent time following the Dead while Jerry was alive as well. It wasn’t until Farmhouse that I paid attention to any of the jambands. I don’t even remember how I heard Farmhouse but I really liked it. I managed to get some complimentary tickets to the show through a vendor who had access to Box Seat tickets. Unfortunately, they couldn’t confirm that they had tickets until after they went on sale, so I had purchased a couple of tickets just in case.

When we arrived at the show my first goal was to sell the tickets I had purchased, so we walked across the street to the “lot scene.” After talking to a number of people with fingers in the air indicating the number of tickets they wanted I found that most people wanted “miracles” — and one person accused me of scalping because I wanted face value for the tickets without Ticketmaster and venue charges. Eventually I did find someone who wanted the tickets and were willing to pay for them. We saw the regular group of fans who follow the band selling their wares, cans of beer, “heady gooballs,” or veggie burritos. I saw a security guard at the venue pick up a bag of pot and chase down the unlucky soul to give it back to them along with the comment that he’d be upset if that had happened to him! Different rules were in force that night.

We watched from our perch above the audience eating typical catered faire of Swedish meatballs, fried chicken strips and BBQ sauce, nachos and any number of alcoholic beverages including Ameretto of which we drank a lot and dubbed “liquid candy.” In a dark box next to us was one lone kid watching the show but seeming to really enjoy himself. We felt bad for him and invited him to our box to share our food at the dismay of our host.

Our host spent part of the show telling our box crasher that he needed to get serious with his life and plan for the future. Clearly that wasn’t on the agenda for him that night. I thought it was a great show. We got to experience a “silent jam” in the middle of “Divided Sky” complete with a shower of glow sticks which was pretty impressive from our vantage point. The kid took me aside and with a hopeful look on his face asked me if I was a “kind brother.” At the time I didn’t know what he meant, but probably he was looking for recreational pharmaceuticals.

Keller Williams spent a number of years following the Dead on tour before he started his music career. Keller is best known for his live show where he employs digital sample loops of live instruments he plays. He stops at each instrument he wants, plays a segment, samples it and layers each additional instrument on. He is literally a one-man band. His acoustic guitar style is similar to Dave Matthews or Ani DiFranco with hammer-on percussive strumming. His albums up to this point have showcased his live style.

Keller’s new album is titled Dream as it was his “dream” album to make– working with a number of artists who have influenced him and supported him through his career. Jam scene veterans such as Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten from the Flecktones, Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, John Scofield, Steve Kimock, and the String Cheese Incident whose label SCI Fidelity released this album. Also on the album are a couple of artists who very directly influence Keller like 8-string guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and Martin Sexton who has a penchant for imitating instruments as Keller does. Of course coordinating the efforts of all of these typically busy people took a lot of time which caused this album to take three years to make. The earliest recording for this record is the alternative rock parody “Play This” which kicks the album off and is the first “single” and is easily the catchiest song of the record. Even though the song was recorded back in 2004 it’s message “speed it up– put some fuzz on it” about the shallow style typical of today’s Top 40 is still pertinent today.

Overall Dream is light, positive and has the slight tongue-in-cheek attitude that I associate with jamband music today. Keller is an accomplished instrumentalist seeming able to play just about any instrument and demonstrates this on this album as well as his live shows. Reading the liner notes and listening to the podcast edition of his radio show special on this album it is clear that he is as much a fan as a member of the jamband community that includes the guests on this album. Maybe you could consider this a love note back to the fans and the artists that participate in the scene that made him the artist he is today. He seems happy to be doing what he is doing and it shows with this album at every layer.

Some standout tracks on Dream are the previously mentioned “Play This,” “Cadillac” the collaboration with Weir and its questionable religious position– Jesus, Buddah, Hare Krisha and Santa all riding around in a ’59 Caddy, “Cookies” is an amazing instrumental track titled after Keller’s nickname for his wife, “Rainy Day” is a fun jazzy track, and “Restraint” which is a current favorite of mine on the album. According to the liner notes “Restraint” wasn’t supposed to be on the album, but it is his wife’s favorite. The first time I heard it, I relistened to it four times. Something about the ringing riff and the simple idea of wanting love at an inconvenient time that many should be able to identify with.

Listening to Dream gave me an opportunity to look back at the Phish concert and the period of time that I spent back then observing the jamband scene. I don’t tend to follow a lot of these bands as I feel like an outsider to the culture and I haven’t been able to really separate the music from the scene. The fact that I watched the Phish show from box seats rather than down in the crowd illustrates that pretty well I guess. This album seems to celebrate this music and shows the virtuosity of these musicians as its own testiment and Keller is the “kind brother” bringing me back to take the second look.

Here is a link to a “Hoooka” at Indie911.com which is a Flash-based player that has the video for “Play This” as well as full tracks of the Dream album. Unfortunately (or not) WordPress doesn’t allow me to embed this player.

Keller Williams featuring Michael Franti - Dream Order Dream from iTunes and get a bonus track “Multisyllabic”

Tortoise to Play Bonnaroo

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As reported in Billboard this morning, Tortoise will be joining the lineup of bands to play the 2007 Bonnaroo festival which takes place June 14-17 in Manchester, Tennessee. I hope that this means that there will be a recording available at the Live Bonnaroo site. The prices are typically $9.99 for 128Kbps mp3s and $12.99 for lossless FLACs of complete shows.

Update: Tortoise will be playing on June 16th. I had forgotten this, but Tortoise had played Bonnaroo back on June 13, 2003 on “That Tent.” Here is the setlist information on that show from setlist.org and some great pictures taken by Kerry Barbato.

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 23rd at Noon Eastern time via the Bonnaroo site.

Mitch Easter Releases First New Album in 18 Years

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This week marks the release of Dynamico, Mitch Easter’s first solo album and first album release since the last Let’s Active record on the now defunct I.R.S. Records in 1988. Well, unless you count the re-release of Cypress and Afoot as one CD in 1989. Mitch has been filling the last years doing the occasional tribute album and mostly producing and filling in guitar duties in his wife’s band Shalini.

This release is exciting to me as I’ve been a fan of Mitch’s work in Let’s Active as well as the albums he produced for R.E.M. and Game Theory with Don Dixon at the legendary Drive-In Studio which he owns. These bands mark the beginnings of my interest in “alternative” or college rock and pretty much shapes my aesthetic for rock music today.

Dynamico’s home is the up-and-coming 125 Records which is also the new home of other related releases by Scott Miller’s Loud Family, and Don Dixon. I’m happy to see that this little label is catering to this segment of pop. Mitch is kicking off a tour along with his wife’s band starting this month. Right now there are only a few dates. I hope these will fill in. In an interesting move, Mitch is taking requests for Let’s Active songs to be played at the show. So, the first half of the show will be from the Let’s Active catalog and the rest of the set will be from the new album.

The album is available exclusively from 125 Records until March when it will be available from finer retailers near you and regular online places.

Check out two tracks from Dynamico:

Sudden Crown Drop
Time Warping

B-Sides in the Bins – #6 – Cedar Rapids, IA 1/26/07

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I had been contacted by Allen from the Six Parts Seven as a result of adding them as a “friend” on MySpace regarding their upcoming tour opening for and backing Merge artist Richard Buckner which will be rolling through Iowa, stopping in Des Moines and Iowa City. A couple of years ago a friend of mine turned me on to the Six Parts Seven (helpfully abbreviated 6P7 by all of the cool kids) and for a bit I was catching up on them and had considered seeing them when they hit Des Moines back then. Somehow I missed that they had a new album that came out on Tuesday. So, I called up one of the few remaining dedicated record stores in Cedar Rapids which is a CD Warehouse, they had the 6P7 new album Casually Smashed To Pieces. I had them hold it for me and I made a trip over there. I picked up some other titles while I was there. They have a small collection of used vinyl, and they have their used and new titles mixed together with a dedicated $1 section, which sometimes has good stuff.

Casually Smashed to Pieces – Six Parts Seven (CD Suicide Squeeze S-052, 2007) ($12.99). Only one copy in stock. First listen is pretty good. I think that Six Part Seven can be safely categorized as an instrumental post-rock group. Stay tuned for a record review and probably a review of their live show at the Picador in Iowa City on 2/26. According to their MySpace page they are also going to do a Daytrotter Session on the 25th, so we can look forward to mp3 goodies from that.

Get a special MP3 EP from Six Parts Seven which includes two tracks from their new album.

999 Levels of Undo – Steve Fisk (CD SubPop SPCD460, 2001) ($1.00) One from the bargain bin! Steve Fisk is possibly best known for his work in the instrumental group Pell Mell. He joined the band when they moved to SubPop as a keyboardist. Steve has had a pretty substantial solo career in electronic music and also does production work regularly. This album has one track with Pell Mell bass player Greg Freeman credited with “relocated fractal bass applications” titled “Amateur European.” Mostly an electronic album, but has Kim Thayil from Soundgarden on a couple of tracks as well. In place of a standard CD booklet, there are separate unbound pages with re-interpretations of the bizarre cover art by other artists on one side and song information on the other. Interesting album, but mostly because I collect Pell Mell-related releases.

Mad Love – Linda Ronstadt (LP Asylum SE-510, 1980) ($1.99) One from the crates of used LP’s that this store carries. Mad Love was an attempt for Ronstadt to ride the wave of late Seventies/early Eighties popularity of “edgy” woman artists like Pat Benatar, Debbie Harry and others. I bought this one because it was one of my favorite tapes that Dad bought at the time. I used to listen to this one non-stop. At the time I would have been twelve. The album had three charting singles from it at the time: “How Do I Make You” (#10 on US Pop Charts), “Hurt So Bad” (#8 on US Pop Charts), and “I Can’t Let Go” (#31 on US Pop Charts) (Wikipedia entry on Linda Ronstadt). My favorite song on the album was her cover of Neil Young’s “Look Out For My Love.” At the time I didn’t know that this was a Neil Young song– nor would I even know who Neil Young was!

This album has a number of interesting details. It is produced by Peter Asher from folk act Peter and Gordon who went on to produce albums from James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman and 10,000 Maniacs. The album itself is made up of cover songs. In addition to the aforementioned Neil Young cover, it includes songs from L.A. New Wave/Power Pop group the Cretones, whose guitarist and principal lyricist and vocalist Mark Goldenberg provides guitar and background vocals for the entire album. There are three covers of Elvis Costello songs that he publically expressed his distaste for. The sessionmen on this album list like a who’s who for L.A. at the time: Russ Kunkel on the drums along with Danny Kortchmar who were part of “The Section” and seemed to be on everyone’s album at the time. On background vocals was Kunkel’s late wife Nicolette Larson– who incidentally took a cover of the Neil Young song “Lotta Love” up the charts in 1979. Still a favorite record of mine.

Stuff in the bins I didn’t buy for $1. Just Say Yo and Just Say Mao which are really great samplers of the Sire catalog from the early Nineties. Very cool remixes and other odd tracks from bands like Depeche Mode, Book of Love, The Smiths, etc. I might still go get them as lala.com fodder. Cool Down Time from Dan Zanes. This is the first solo record from former Del Fuegos frontman. Great record, sounds like the Del Fuegos for obvious reasons. Produced by Mitch Froom who did the Fuegos records. I haven’t been too interested in his children’s records that they sell at Starbucks. I guess they are supposed to be parent-friendly. Also possibly good lala.com fodder.

Los Lobos – The Town and the City (review)

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When I read the interview in Paste Magazine September 2006 issue with Los Lobos where they said that their new album The Town and the City was a return to the experimenting they started with 1992’s Kiko I was interested in hearing it. The last Los Lobos record I had purchased was their 1998 release Colossal Head, which I still pull out probably once a year.

Kiko, Colossal Head, and This Time (released in 1999) are all co-produced by Mitch Froom and Tchad Blake and are considered their “experimental trilogy.” These albums employ odd rhythms and production techniques also found in the side-project group The Latin Playboys that included Louis Perez, David Hildalgo from Los Lobos as well as Froom and Blake.

Tchad Blake was pulled into the project to provide mixing duties which gives The Town and the City a feel familar to the trilogy and the Latin Playboys.

In a similar fashion to the trilogy albums, The Town and the City fell together almost on its own. Per the video podcast freely downloadable from the band’s website, the album started with instrumental tracks that Hidalgo recorded at home that moved the album into the theme that it has. The instrumental that would become “The Valley” moved Perez to write lyrics that he describes as fitting the theme of “place” that this album has. Indeed, all of the tracks in one way or another deal with the idea of place or home that the narrators have. Louie Perez comments in “Writing” episodes of the podcasts that the majority of the songs are written in the first person, which is unique to this album. In fact, he wanted to make sure that the songs had words that fit David’s voice.

The podcast that I mention above is part of a 5-part video podcast available from the band website and is a series dedicated to the making of The Town and the City featuring interviews with Louie Perez, David Hidalgo, and Steve Berlin primarily. I think that the video podcasts are a perfect compliment to the album and I recommend downloading these and watching them. I think they serve as a nice roadmap to the album and demostrates how excited the band is regarding this release. I hope this signals the beginnings of more artists and labels taking this approach of “bonus” material available. My only disappointment is that they didn’t include the podcast on the CD itself as it is an audio plus data CD. The CD includes a script that basically launches the band’s website in your browser. I will have to back these up to a CD-R or something for posterity.

One thing that I haven’t seen much discussion about in the reviews of The Town and the City is the album artwork provided by Jaime Hernandez of the graphic novel “Love and Rockets” fame. Similar to Los Lobos, Hernandez’s work is from the Hispanic-American perspective. Since the album is so tied to the sense of Hispanic culture and growing up in East L.A. having the packaging done by Hernandez provides a nice synergy to the album. According to the video podcast episode on the artwork, the art used in the album booklet is similar to the interstitial artwork that Hernandez uses in his novels– pictures of scenes with little to no people and dialog. In the video Perez mentions that he pitched an idea to do a graphic novel of The Town and the City as a future project. I sincerely hope they can find time in their collective schedules to pull that off.

The theme of the album is surrounded in a sense of place and although it has that common thread, each of the songs can stand on its own. Stylistically, The Town and the City fits with the other “experimental” Los Lobos albums in that it is all over the map– bluesy numbers like “Hold On” and “If You Were Only Here Tonight”, salsa-fueled numbers like “Chuco’s Cumbia,” and “No Puedo Mas,” to straight up rockers like the radio-bound “The Road to Gila Bend.” Los Lobos draws its influence from all over and this album shows it. Apparently the album had a different feel to it until they added “Gila Bend” and “Free Up” which are more light and uplifting than the other tracks. In the podcast Steve Berlin says that it gave some variation to the record– a dark-to-light and fast-to-slow progression of songs.

Los Lobos is an underrated band. They are a hard-working and seemingly constant touring machine drawing from a very extensive back catalog dating back to 1978. They are most known for their cover of “La Bamba” and possibly this is the albatross from their good intention to draw attention to another cross-culture influence in Richie Valens. Because Los Lobos is considered by most to be more of an AOR band, I think that the experimental nature of the band is missed. The only Los Lobos albums I owned before this album were Kiko and Colossal Head and I didn’t dig much deeper. Since I’ve heard this album I went back and picked up This Time and The Neighborhood.

Los Lobos Official Website

Podcasts for The Town and the City

Download The Road to Gila Bend.

Download The Town.

Los Lobos - The Town and the City Purchase The Town and the City on iTunes