Fender Baritone Jaguars and the Bass VI

Posted on January 1, 2007 by mike

In early December I picked up a new guitar from Bob’s Guitars in Cedar Falls. It is a Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom (025-9400-300). This is the second Fender Baritone I’ve owned. I traded a Jaguar Baritone Special HH (025-9300-306) that I also purchased from Bob’s in 2005 on it.

The current Fender Jaguar Baritone models are descendants of the legendary Bass VI that Fender manufactured from 1961-1975. A unique guitar, the Bass VI was inspired by the Danelectro 6-string bass introduced in 1956. Tuned E-e, the Bass VI bridged the gap between an electric bass and an electric guitar. The Bass VI was used notably by Robert Smith of the Cure and Jack Bruce of Cream. Since Cream was the prototype for a Power Trio, Bruce had to play the dual role of rhythm guitar and bass to Clapton’s lead guitar. I became interested in the Bass VI through some interviews I read with Doug McCombs from Tortoise where he talks about the Bass VI and how its distinctive tone impacts his playing. McComb’s side project Brokeback is influenced by and is a showcase of the Bass VI. A bass player myself, I was interested in an intstrument that would allow me to play six-string while taking advantage of my bass background. My bass style is influenced heavily by New Order’s Peter Hook who tended to use the upper registers of the bass for melody. I believe that Hook also played a Bass VI from time-to-time. So, I felt that a Bass VI-style guitar would be up my alley.

I started looking into getting a Bass VI last year, and was disappointed in how much it would cost to get an original vintage Bass VI. Most of them are going for upwards of $3000. In 1995 Fender introduced a 1962 Bass VI reissue. These reissues are going for as much as the originals on eBay. Due to the scarcity of these guitars– they never really took off originally, and I’m sure the 1995 reissues were also not very popular– some Bass VI fans got organized on the Internet and started a campaign to get Fender to bring the VI back.

The petition was successful. In 2004 and 2005 Fender introduced the two Jaguar Baritones currently in production– the Custom and the HH. Further, in 2006 they announced that a 1962 Bass VI reissue would be available from Custom Shop as a Limited Edition available only until 12/31.

In Spring of 2005 I started looking into the new Jaguar-based baritones. I did some calling around and it turned out that Bob’s in Cedar Falls was one of the few stores in the area carrying one. West Music in Cedar Rapids said that they didn’t carry one because they were “speculative” guitars– which I assumed to mean that Fender wasn’t sure if they were going to continue production of these. The model that Bob’s had was the black and chrome HH edition– “HH” means dual humbucking pickups. I visited the store and tried it out with a friend and bought it. I really liked the way it looked and played and it matched my black and white American Precision Bass. The Baritone Custom came in a more traditional sunburst color scheme with a tortoise pickguard.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough information available about the Jaguar Baritones when I bought the HH. I had assumed incorrectly that the two Baritones were different only in pickup configuration and color. The Baritone Special HH has a 27″ scale versus the Baritone Custom’s 28.5″ scale. The Special HH tunes to B-B (B, E, A, D, F#, B) whereas the Baritone Custom can be tuned in standard E-E (E, A, D, G, B, E)– just like the Bass VI. The Bass VI has a 30″ scale which allows it to be tuned an octave below a standard guitar. The Baritone Custom uses the same gauge strings as the Bass VI as well. Compare this to a standard Jaguar’s scale of 24″.

My remedial 6-string skills don’t include being able to transpose chords to accomodate the B-B tuning– although all of the chords I know “work.” I could have capoed the guitar for E, too. It wasn’t until this year when I was looking through the Fender catalog that I noticed that Fender had re-named the Baritone Custom as a “Bass VI Custom” and moved the guitar to the bass section. The Bass VI Custom has the same model number as the Baritone Custom did (025-9400-300). This was a smart move on Fender’s part as it drives the point home about the Custom’s Bass VI heritage as well as clear up any confusion about the product. The guitar was debatably incorrectly called a Baritone anyway as it wasn’t tuned to B-B.

When I went to Bob’s in December, they had the Custom with the original “Baritone Custom” labeling instead of the new “Bass VI Custom” labeling. This was only a minor disappointment, really, as the guitar is identical in every other respect. One of the complaints about the original Bass VI was that the tremelo made the guitar knock out of tune easily, so Fender addressed that in this guitar with a fixed bridge. The Baritone HH also has a fixed bridge. I was surprised how much difference the inch and a half makes in playability and tone between the HH and the Custom! While the HH was definately has a low-end growl to it– which is helped a lot with the humbucker pickups– the Custom sounds more like a bass. The string gauge contributes to that as well. The longer neck is a bit disorienting if you are expecting a regular guitar. One of the guys from Bob’s commented on that right away when he was tuning the guitar up for me.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this guitar. It is a bit like braving new territory for me as a guitarist. I’m spending a lot of time figuring out what sounds the best. Like a bass, the Custom sounds best single note playing like surf or western sounding. A lot of barre or power chords sound good in the upper registers of the guitar. I need to figure out what I’m going to do amp-wise. I can tell right now that reverb is a necessity.

Continue reading →

B-Sides in the Bins – #5 – Tower Records in San Jose, CA

Posted on December 18, 2006 by mike

If you’ve been reading any of the bigger blog sites like Stereogum or Idolator, you are probably aware that the Tower Records chain of music stores is closing and the end is in sight. In these last days the locations are having progressive sales. In the beginning, the sale prices weren’t that great since most of the titles at Tower were $15.99 and higher! I was in San Jose last week for business and I made it a point to hit a Tower while I was there. I visited the Tower Blossom Hill off Highway 85. According to the website, this location is infamous for a “surprise” appearance of Metallica in June of 1996.

I made it to the store some time after 8 PM on Thursday, December 14th. All CD’s in the store were at 70% off and DVD’s were at 60% off! Rap titles were $1.99 apiece. The store was very picked over, while there was some organization left in the original bins, there were additional bins scattered throughout the store that weren’t organized in any fashion– so it was cratedigging through those. The in-store audio was playing David and David’s Welcome to the Boomtown album which was appropriate in a kind of ironic way. One of my justifications for this run was to get some Christmas gifts, so I’ll be leaving a couple of things off in case the recipients are reading, however unlikely that might be.

Everything All The Time – Band of Horses (CD SubPop SPCD 690, 2006) (List $14.99, Paid $4.00) There were a bunch of copies of this one in the bins. Band of Horses was a big deal earlier this year, and I liked what I’d heard, so I picked this up.

‘Sno Angel Like You – Howe Gelb (CD Thrill Jockey Thrill 167, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) The only copy of this in the bin. I reviewed this CD last spring glowingly. I had borrowed this to review it and wanted to get a copy for myself.

Around – Tom Verlaine (CD Thrill Jockey Thril 174, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) I haven’t had a chance to hear this, yet. This is the instrumental album he released this year which is considered to be the follow up to Warm and Cool, which Thrill Jockey re-released this year.

Megaforce – 707 (CD MTM Classix 0681-99, 2004 – Italian Import) (List $31.99, Paid $9.60) This is a guilty pleasure, I guess and a surprise find. Megaforce was 707’s third album and included the theme song to the 1982 movie of the same name starring a very blonde Barry Bostwick. I was at some party my Sophomore year of high school with some Seniors who were playing this tape. I went to Musicland in Dubuque shortly afterwords and bought a cassette for myself. This was a tape that got a lot of play while riding around in my ’74 Firebird. 707 sounds like a cross between Journey and REO Speedwagon, which might be due to the fact that Kevin Cronin was a fan and got them signed to a label and Jonathan Cain helped write the song “Megaforce.” I’d been wanting to get this on CD for a while, but it quickly fell out of print. This is an Italian import and contains bonus tracks of additional “incidental” music from the movie. Recommended if you like motorcycles that fly.

…until we felt red – Kaki King (CD Velour Recordings VEL 0604, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) This was a CD that I had forgotten about until I saw the very distinctive cover. Kaki King is mostly known as an instrumental guitarist, but on this album she does some singing and adds a band. This album is produced by John McEntire who is from Tortoise and the Sea & Cake. As a result, this album sounds a lot like those bands. It also seems to have moments of shoegazing similar to the Pale Saints. Pitchfork gave this album a damning 4.7, somewhat unfairly. This sounds like an album from an artist trying to expand her sound. Very listenable.

Son – Juana Molina (CD Domino Recordings WIG176, 2006) (List: $16.99, Paid $5.10) I first read about Juana Molina in the July 2006 issue of “The Believer,” which was their annual music issue and came with a CD. In the magazine was a very interesting interview. The album is an eclectic mix of Argentinian pop and electronica according to the sticker on the sleeve. Juana says in the interview that she is very influenced by sounds around her. She evidently imitates birds and other animals in her music. I can’t wait to hear this one!

All-in-all a good haul. I could have left with much more, though. Other titles I saw but didn’t pick up included: Don Dixon’s new The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room, an SACD of The Black Orpheus by Vince Guaraldi (still kicking myself), the 2 CD Deluxe edition of Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend (multiple copies), Grant Green’s Greene Street, the expanded reissue of Spoon’s Telephono, *many* copies of the Flaming Lips’ At War With the Mystics, Japanese import slipcase edtions of Springsteen’s The River, and The Clash’s Sandinista, and many copies of the MSTRKRFT album.

If you get a chance to, you should hit a store. I read someplace that when a location closes, they have a 90% sale!

B-Sides in the Bins – #4 The Mugs US Tour by Brett Tieman

Posted on December 17, 2006 by mike

This week we have a special guest digger contributing to “B-Sides in the Bins!” Brett Tieman is the bass and guitarist for a four-piece band out of Brooklyn called The Mugs whose music can be described as coming from the same sonic place as and often draws comparisons to college rock bands like REM, The Smiths, and The Stone Roses. Brett contacted me before the Mugs departed on their first US Tour asking for advice on Midwestern record stores to visit. Brett sent me a copy of their first full-length album Paper Scissors Rock in 2005 on their own SkinnyFat Records. It’s been a part of my regular rotation of CD’s since I got it and it is a good change of pace from the regular diet of indie rock. The Mugs are going back into the studio shortly to record the follow up. Visit their MySpace page to sample songs from Paper Scissors Rock.

Special Coorespondent Brett, The Mugs (of Brooklyn, NY)

In July, the four of us Mugs decided that after four years of playing almost solely inside NYC, it was time to treat ourselves to a little tour of the States. Since we all juggle the band with our day jobs, we were only able to allot 3 weeks (9/28-10/22) for the journey. And, since we are our own label, we had minimal resources to commit to the project (ie: no booking agent, no publicist). While Ryan (drums) set about booking the tour (it took a month to set 15 dates), I decided to surf the web and find some folks along our path to invite out to the shows. After perusing (literally) hundreds of indie rock blogs touting the next big thing (though I do love live show writeups), I came across Mike’s account of his shopping trip to Spaceboy Music in Philadelphia. I loved it. Being a record junky myself, it was a very enjoyable read; something I understood and could relate to. I spend my hard-earned dollars on very few things: rent, food, booze, my wife, the band, and records. Despite the fact that I was (am) broke, I knew these things would not change on the trip so I decided to take inspiration from Mike and organize a record store tour along side the serious business of delivering rock and roll.

Basically, I gave myself a $100 music budget for the tour. This fit well with my shopping style; I typically hit bargain bins. Random vinyl is so cheap it worked out pretty well. You can get a vague sense of my tastes here. I have a pretty large rock collection on disc so I’m not necessarily a strict jazz head- I just find that jazz is more fun to buy on record. I definitely make my selections based on the cover art.

Stop #1 – Bart’s CD Cellar & Record Shop (Boulder, CO)
www.bartscdcellar.com/vinyl.html

This is the perfect college/small town shop. Great inventory. It’s located in the heart of Boulder’s shopping commons. The ground floor is predominately CD’s. I scanned their ample selection and the prices (~$14.99 for new though I think they had cheaper used discs) and decided to head directly upstairs to the vinyl “attic.”

It was early on a Wednesday so it was just me and the clerk. As I picked through their very excellent and well-organized selection (there is a photo in the link above), he lazily played some Zappa on the house stereo. I spent an hour sifting through the different sections (they have a very large and intriguing soundtrack section), sampled a few tracks on the test turntables, and picked up the following:

Grace Jones – Nightclubbing
McCoy Tyner – Atlantis
Dollar Brand – Capetown Fringe [#3, I buy this record every time I see a copy]
Dollar Brand – Memories
Donald Byrd & 125th St. NYC – Donald Byrd & 125th St. NYC
Total: $30

Last minute decision: Since this was the first stop, I put back B-52’s self-titled debut and Eddy Grant’s Killer on the Rampage to keep costs below $30.

Hindsight: After visiting a few more stores, I realized that they had a very reasonably-priced reggae section. I find most record stores really inflate their reggae prices. Should have put back the Donald Byrd album; not so good despite it being a collaboration with Isaac Hayes.

AMEX? Yes. This place is all convenience.

Stop #2 Amoeba (Haight/Ashbury – San Fran, CA)
http://www.amoebamusic.com/

This is a pretty famous store so I won’t describe it in too much detail. I spent about an hour and half combing through trying to find the right combination of selection and value.

Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts (conducted by Lalo Schifrin)
Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining (CD)
Gary Burton/Steve Swallow – Hello Hotel
Gary Burton – A Genuine Tong
Leonard Feather Presents Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records Vol. 1 (20’s) & 2 (30’s)
George Lewis – Memorial Album
Total: $20

Last minute decision: I opted against getting the entire Dire Straits collection on vinyl despite it being one of the few record shopping missions with which I began the tour. I guess I expected their albums to be cheaper.

Hindsight: The Burton albums were definitely inspired by the artwork and album titles. They’re solid, but probably won’t get too much playing time at home. The Jazz Suite, however, is a great Sunday morning record. I saw it a few times at the other stores I visited, and it always seems to be cheap. Recommended.

AMEX? No. Probably for the best.

Stop #3 – Bop Street Records (Ballard – Seattle, WA)

http://www.wahmee.com/bopstreet.html
http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/articles/2006/05/17/news/local_news/news01.prt

This place is a trip. I found it on a blog (forget which) and knew I had to visit. Why? Radiohead dubbed it the greatest record store on the planet. One of the features to the place is the wall of fame on which noteworthy patrons sign their names. Thom Yorke wrote “My credit card got ill here.” Colin wrote “Radiohead got very dirty here.” So, is it the greatest record store on the planet? It very well might be: it’s huge and has a massive selection (over 700,000 records). We asked, Dave, the owner if he organized it himself. He laughed and said that he has about 3-4 people whose job it is to put everything in its right place.

Ryan’s father Joe used our gigs as an excuse to visit Seattle. He is a garrulous lover of rock and immediately engaged Dave in conversation. I missed the majority of the conversation, but I heard a lot of laughter. Apparently after they covered a mutual love for classic rock, Joe informed Dave that we were in a band. I’m generally shy about that fact in record stores, but I’m glad Joe was there to break the ice. Long story short, Dave eventually turned off ‘Eat a Peach’ and began playing our album over the store. He had it nice and loud too. I think I would describe the experience of hearing our music blasting at an international record mecca as “fucking awesome.” It went well. He decided to check out our show later that night at Sunset Tavern which was a very short walk from the store. Oh yeah, we got to sign the wall (but not next to Radiohead).

Meanwhile, before he played our album: I had a hard time shopping at Bop Street because of the sheer volume of choices. In record shopping, I don’t do well so many options. My eyes started to glaze over and my credit card started tapping on my shoulder: DON’T DO IT. I only had $50 left in my budget and a week of tour to go. After a time-foldingly short hour, I took my stack of records and decided to find out how much I was about to spend (none of the records have price tags). Dave flipped through the selection while providing assessments and commentary. Bop Street is not the cheapest store. Deflated by the appraisal, I retreated to the listening booth to sharpen up the selections. After separating the wheat from the chafe, I proceeded to check out fairly exhausted from searching. This is great home-town record store, but a difficult one to pass through. I could easily spend a full day rifling through the bins and shelves. When I returned to the check out, Dave observed good naturedly that I “put back the expensive ones.”

I paid and went to the basement to check on Ryan. The basement is just ridiculous (photo in the links above). Ryan had a huge stack picked out. The moral: the more you buy at Bop Street, the better the per record value. Dave will definitely discount bulk purchases. In fact, I should mention he gave me Bohannon for free since it’s not a very coveted or rare record.

Now, onto the best part: Dave came to the show and hung out all night practically since one of his employees played a few bands after us in the excellent Iceage Cobra. He enjoyed our set well enough and was very kind and congratulatory. He even bought me a drink. But the best part, and one of the highlights of the whole tour, he went back to the store and returned bearing gifts for Ryan and myself: two records (“the expensive ones”) which we had opted against at the last minute: a mint Grateful Dead Europe ’72 (one of my top 10 favorites) for Ryan and a mint Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street. I was absolutely floored and had my faith in the benevolence of mankind restored. Such a simple, but grand gesture.

Bohannon – Too Hot to Hold
Upchurch & Tennyson – Upchurch/Tennyson
Phil Woods & his European Rhythm Machine – Live at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival
Charles Tolliver (w/Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Joe Chambers) – Paper Man
Total: $40 (all vinyl)

Bonus: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street

Last minute decision:Returning Exile on Main Street

Hindsight: Ballard kicks ass. Seattle kicks ass. KEXP kicks ass. Bop Street Records kicks ass. Sunset Tavern kicks ass. Dave kicks ass. Exile on Main Street kicks ass. Touring kicks ass.

AMEX? No (thank god).

Stop #4 – Jazz Mart (Chicago, IL)
http://jazzmart.com/

Chicago was the last stop on our tour so I was feeling pretty broke when we rolled into town. We did have a full day off so I felt compelled to hit up at least one store. I went with Mike’s suggestion and set out for Jazz Mart. It’s a nice, large well-organized store. Since I was questing for vinyl, I skipped through the pricier CD section. Ryan’s budget was a little more resilient so he set about perusing the discs. Their vinyl section is interesting: They have a decent-sized used record section and a large new vinyl reissue section (organized both by label and by artist). Brand new factory-sealed jazz vinyl reissues are great, but they didn’t fit my $10 budget. I was pretty shopped out after the 3 weeks, so I was fine digging up some randoms in the used bin. Meanwhile, Ryan kept chiming in and how amazing the selection is. So:

Joanne Brackeen – Snooze
Claude Goaty w/Gerard Calvi – Chansons de Paris
The Buddy Tate Celebrity Club Orchestra – Unbroken
Total: $10 (all vinyl)

Last minute decision: Deciding the get a drink at the pub we passed on the way to the store.

Hindsight: Jazz Mart advertises itself as the world’s largest jazz & blues store and delivers (though I didn’t see hardly any blues on vinyl). It is a great resource for people looking to fill in the gaps in their collections. Nice vibe, clean, friendly place. Good recommendation by Mike.

AMEX? Not sure. I tendered genuine US currency.

So, start a band, go on tour, support the independent record stores of America. Hope you enjoyed.

What’s Missing from the Taxon?

Posted on December 1, 2006 by mike

One of the great releases this year is the Tortoise boxset of singles and other non-album releases called A Lazarus Taxon. I’ve been a fan of Tortoise since just before TNT came out in 1998. A guy I used to work with was into a lot of the same bands I was, and recommended that I listen to Tortoise and The Sea and Cake. He lent me Tortoise’s eponymous debut CD. It was that CD and TNT that would be released later that summer that clinched Tortoise as a band that I wanted to follow. At the time, I hadn’t heard anything like them and the bookish progressive nature of the instrumentals opened the world of what is sometimes called Post Rock to me. It was exciting to discover what seemed to be a new genre of rock, and I spent a lot of time that summer looking into the bands that fell into that category– The Sea and Cake, Fridge, Couch, To Rococo Rot, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and others.

One of the difficulties I encountered was that by the time I wanted to start getting all of their releases a bunch of non-album stuff went out of print. Over time I managed to pick up some of the older releases and made sure that I bought anything new that came out.

So, when I heard that Tortoise was going to have a box set with the rare and import-only tracks I was really happy! The first rumor about this release was that Tortoise was going to re-release the impossibly rare Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters. Then it was announced that this would be the centerpiece to a larger boxset.

Pitchfork gave this release a glowing 9.2. Some of the other reviews I read at the time of the release said that this was a good primer for people who wanted to know about Tortoise. This release is kind of the sibling to the Stereolab box set Oscillations from the Anti-Sun, which is also an odds ‘n’ sods collection with a DVD. While this release is a blessing for anyone who wants to collect Tortoise– it is missing some tracks. For those completists out there, I’m going to do a rundown of the missing tracks. I’ve been keeping track as I’m going to make a CD of these “outtakes” for myself. This is somewhat inspired by a posting of mp3’s that showed up in Usenet News called “An Unofficial Lazarus Companion” that also wasn’t complete!

“Mosquito” (US 7″ Torsion Music, B17-003-7″, 1993) The first release from Tortoise. Tortoise’s original moniker was “Mosquito” which is where this track gets its name. This track is now a bonus track on the Japanese re-release of their eponymous debut.

“Gooseneck” (US 7″ Torsion Music, B17-003-7″, 1993) One of the other tracks on the debut single. Today this shows up on the Japanese A Digest Compendium of the Tortoise’s World. “Onions Wrapped In Rubber” from this single was eventually released on the first album.

“Lonesome Sound” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) The first release on Thrill Jockey. This is a cover of a Freakwater song. Tortoise vocals grace this song. This song also showed up on something called “Brainblo” which was evidently a collection of three 7″ singles. This record was briefly back in print during the 1998 TNT tour.

“Reservoir” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) Also on the “Lonesome Sound” 7″. Available on the Japanese Digest release.

“Sheets” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 006, 1993) Also on the “Lonesome Sound” 7″. Not available anywhere else.

“Madison Ave.” (US 7″ Thrill Jockey, thrill 057, 1998) The single this is from is also referred to as “Tour 1998.” The flipside of this single is remix of this song “Madison Area” and shows up on the Taxon box.

“D’s Winter Crazy Dub” (US 12″ Thrill Jockey, 12.10, 1998) This was yet another release from 1998– sort of a companion release to the Autechre remixes of “Ten-Day Interval” from TNT. Derrick Carter remixes “In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men.” Possibly this was left off because in retrospect it isn’t as good as the prior remixes.

“D’s Winter Outtake” (US 12″ Thrill Jockey, 12.10, 1998) The flipside to the Derrick Carter remix.

“In A Thimble” (Hefty014, Hefty Records, 1999) This song was recorded for the soundtrack to “Reach the Rock” which is an album of mostly songs from John McEntire as well as Sea and Cake and Bundy K. Brown.

“Beautiful Love” (US CD Hollywood 2061-62471, 2004) This was a song recorded for the documentary about the late Bob Moog titled “Moog.” An interesting song– sounds very different from other Tortoise releases.

Remixed (US CD Thrill Jockey, 12.9, 1998) Originally a Japanese release in 1996, this is a compilation of the 4 12″ releases of tracks from Millions. In 1998 the rest of the world was treated to a limited tour-only release. At that time the Japanese version was re-released with the Autechre remix “Adverse Camber” added as a bonus. These tracks were possibly not included as they were released as one album? Tracks:

“Djed (Bruise Blood mix by U.N.K.L.E.)”, “Tjed (remix by John McEntire)”, “Bubble Economy (remix by Marcus Popp)”, “Learning Curve (remix by Marcus Popp)”, “Galapagos [version one] (remix by Springheel Jack)“, “Reference Resistance Gate (remix by Jim O’Rourke)”, “Taut & Tame (remix by Luke Vibert)”, “Find the One (remix by Bundy K. Brown)”

“Omnichord” (unreleased) I include this song on the list since it has been played on tour since the release of It’s All Around You. Evidently an outtake song. According to reports on the trts.com board at the time, this song may show up later as a b-side or bonus track. Tortoise recorded this on their “Morning Becomes Eclectic” set back in November of 2005.

Quite a list of songs– enough to have made another CD or two for the set! But, what fun would that have been?

Omnichord Live on KCRW

Get The Lazarus Taxon from iTunes

Sources:

My collection of Tortoise releases

The Brainwashed Tortoise Page– the most complete discography out there for Tortoise.

Official Tortoise Page

B-Sides in the Bins – #3 eBay Edition

Posted on November 26, 2006 by mike

Here are some things that have come in recently from eBay.

The first auction I won was a bargain! I got It’s All Around You and Standards from Tortoise on vinyl and the debut release from Brokeback which was a 7″ called “Brokeback Returns to the Orange Grove”— all in unplayed condition for $16.00 with shipping! I’m going to start trying to get the Tortoise catalog on vinyl.

The next auction was for a new Calexico and Beirut split single on the UK label City Slang as part of their very limited “Mini Slang” singles collection. Side A is a cover of the Clash song “The Guns of Brixton” by Calexico that sounds like the same version that was recently released as an iTunes-only EP. Calexico added this cover to their recent tour– typically as a segue from “Crystal Frontier.” Side AA is “Interior of a Dutch House” by Beirut. According to the label it is from the album Pompeii which must be the name of his next album although I can’t find any other reference to it. This track used to be available for download from the Beirut website and has since been taken down. I got this for the Buy It Now price of US$7.83 with shipping. There are still copies of this available on eBay– get them while they are still available.

The third auction was for a CD of the Black Sessions that Tortoise did in 1998 during the TNT tour. The Black Sessions are like a French version of the Peel Sessions on BBC. The band comes in and records a show specifically for broadcast. There is a bunch of controversy about these releases done by Sangatte Records and whether they are a bootleg or an official release. The catalog number is SANG 021 CD, but I found a Moloko Black Sessions with exactly the same catalog number and with a 2006 release. So, who knows? I paid $27.00 with shipping.

The last auction was for a tour-only Calexico CD called Scraping which was made for their 2002 tour. Scraping is made up of live tracks mostly from their January 2002 show in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall and one song from the Roskilde Festival in 2000 and two tracks from the Temple of Music and Arts in 2001. I paid $12.90 with shipping for it. Since this release is still available from the official Calexico site, my goal here was to pay less than the $16.00. I also bid on a copy of the Aerocalexico tour-only release, but lost it– this is the last one I need to get to have a full collection of these great tour-only releases. I think it’s great that Calexico caters to their fans with these releases.

Click Here to get the great Calexico iTunes EP (for US iTunes Customers).

Click here to get the Calexico EP if you are in the EU.

B-Sides in the Bins – #2 – Iowa City 11/10/06

Posted on November 24, 2006 by mike

Hello, and welcome to another episode of B-Sides in the Bins where the author deals with the eternal battle of collecting records versus managing a personal budget.

My wife had a doctor’s appointment in Iowa City that Friday, so I took the opportunity to make a run to the Record Collector. It was pouring down rain so that was kind of a bummer, but I set out to make the best of it. I had an hour’s worth of change for the parking meter.

The Record Collector has a prominent used CD table in the middle of the store, so that is usually where I start, and then move to the racks around the sides where the new CD’s and vinyl are. A small haul this time, but some gems, I think.

Aphrodisiac – Andre Williams with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (CD Pravda PR 6383, 2006) ($7.00) This was in the “Recent” section of the used bin. I hadn’t had a chance to hear this record, yet. I know that the guys in the Diplomats have been playing shows with Andre recently. A pretty fun CD, really. Reminds me a lot of RL Burnside. Andre evidently has the distinction of being the earliest recorded rapper with his hit single “Bacon Fat.” He’s had a career that spans 50 years in recording, writing and producing. It’s great that he’s still recording at 70.

“Do You Remember?” b/w “Prove It To Me” – Andre Williams and the Diplomats of Solid Sound ( 7″ VampiSoul 45032, 2006) ($4.00) I had actually not noticed the Andre Williams CD in the bins until I found this 7″ in the singles section of the store. I really like this VampiSoul collection. The Diplomats released a single last year on that label. The label calls it their “jukebox series” so I guess that means they don’t need to have cool sleeve art. No matter it is still cool to get these singles. These two tracks are on the Aphrodisiac CD, no rare b-side, here– too bad. It might have been cool to even get a 2006 version of Andre’s “Bacon Fat” with the Diplomats backing him.

“Hayloft Stomp” b/w “Can Your Frug Do The Boogaloo” – The Monroes split single with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (7″ Speed! Nebraska Records, Speed A-300, 2006) ($4.00) The boys in the Diplomats had been busy in 2006! More 7″ fun. I haven’t had a chance to throw this one on the turntable, yet. Nifty classic purple-on-silver screening on the label. The A side says “Punk!” and the B side says “Funk!”

Manna – Bread (LP Elektra EKS-74086, 1971) ($1.00) While the guys in Bread made their big hits with soft-rock songs like Manna’s “If”, and “Guitar Man, “Make It With You” and “Baby I’m-A Want You” they actually fancied themselves a more edgy rock band than AM Radio would ever have given them credit for. You can tell that the band has a rift in it as the big singles are the ballads penned by vocalist David Gates, and the more uptempo rock songs are written by the partnership of James Griffen and Robb Royer.

This was an album that got a lot of play at the Roeder house in 1972. We had just moved back to my mom and dad’s hometown and into a new house. Both sets of my grandparents lived there and I had a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins there. After a big gap in my dad’s record collection starting around when he was in college in the mid-60’s, he started buying records again and this was one of the first ones he got. This record reminds me of those times and in retrospect it was a new life for our family and a more optimistic time. The track “If” really is still as schmaltzy as it has been– but the great tunes on this record are the uptempo tracks “Let Your Love Go,” “Take Comfort,” and “Truckin’ (not the Grateful Dead song).” Beautiful harmonies layer through the soaring “Too Much Love.” This album was out of print for a long time. In the early 90’s there was a Japanese release on CD. I bought a copy for myself and one for my dad as a gift– complete with OBI strip. In 1995 Elektra released the entire Bread catalog including Manna and it has since fallen back out of print in the US. Apparently a new pressing of Manna occurred in the UK in August.

Download “Let Your Love Go” from Manna

Days to Come – Bonobo (2 CD Ninja Tune ZENCD119, 2006) ($15.00) This was playing in the store and I really liked it. I paid full price for it! I’d heard of Bonobo, but really hadn’t heard anything from him. I would categorize this album as Drum and Bass or maybe Trip Hop. Not to sound all-1997 or anything. The album reminds me of Roni Size and Reprazent’s landmark Newforms album or Morcheeba. The vocals of Bajka have have that lazy, lispy quality that Bahamadia brought to Newforms and a little like Skye the original singer for Morcheeba. I knew that my wife would really like this one, so I picked it up. One of the reviewers on Amazon says that this release– while great– will fall through the cracks of the releases of 2006. I certainly hadn’t heard much about it.

Download Nightlite (featuring Bajka) from Days To Come

What I put back : Pyramids by Pit Er Pat– brand new release, I hadn’t had a chance to hear anything from this, so I held off. In retrospect, I should have grabbed this one. Sherry and I saw Pit Er Pat open for Tortoise on their Minneapolis stop in 2004. Sherry thought the lead singer sounded like Bjork. The couple of tracks I sampled on the Thrill Jockey site sounded like they have matured. Songs and Other Things from Tom Verlaine– another relatively new release on Thrill Jockey. He released two new albums this year– one with vocals and one without. This one is the vocal release.

B-Sides in the Bins – #1 – Minneapolis 11/3/06

Posted on November 16, 2006 by mike

I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of my music purchases, and where I found them as a kind of diary. A friend of mine from the early days of endtroducing.com and The InFlux Mailing list John Book used to post to his website his record purchases from thrift stores and garage sales around the Greater Pasco, WA area. John’s deep and extensive knowledge of music always made for an interesting read. It is from this that I take my inspiration for these articles. I would like to have guest contributors to this section of my site, and have been talking to a couple of people who might be interested.

As you may have read below, my wife and I were in Minneapolis for the Lyrics Born/Cut Chemist show around 11/2. The next morning after the show, Sherry seemed to have come down with the flu and we ended up cancelling our plans with her sister and aunt. We hung out in the very small hotel room at the Millennium for most of the day. Sherry told me I didn’t need to stick around with her and suggested that I should go out for a while. So, I decided that I’d visit the Cheapos in Uptown. I’d been there for a couple of minutes a while back, but ran out of time before I could really dig. My favorite Cheapo’s location is usually the one on Snelling in St. Paul. That one works for us because there is a Whole Foods in that area as well, so we can do something for Sherry, too. She likes to go to the Electric Fetus more than Cheapo’s because they have other things besides records.

This Cheapo’s is set up pretty similarly to the other locations in the Twin Cities. It has an Applause in the basement, which is all vinyl. I didn’t have time this trip to go down there, but I will plan to go next time. My favorite thing about Cheapos is the way they arrange the last week’s worth of Used CD’s by the day of the week that they arrived. I always start there before looking into their other bins that have new and used mingled together by genre and artist. This was a good run for me as I picked up some new stuff that I’d been meaning to get.

Songbird – Willie Nelson ($9.99): Wow! This one was released on that Tuesday! (10/31). This is Willie’s new album produced and performed by Ryan Adams with his band the Cardinals with which he recorded his trilogy of albums last year. Pitchfork didn’t know what to do with this one. I believe that the review called Adams’ production “gloppy.” But, they gave it a 7.4. I think it is well-known that Pitchfork doesn’t like Ryan Adams so probably Willie was penalized a bit due to association. The album is a good listen all the way though. This album is the best that I’ve heard Willie’s voice sound in a long time. I like the choice of the Christine McVie song from Rumours “Songbird,” and I like Gram Parson’s “$1000 Wedding” as well. I question– as the reviewer from Pitchfork does– whether the world needed another cover of “Hallelujah” but it is done with care. “Amazing Grace” is a good wrap-up choice, too.

The Outsider – DJ Shadow ($9.99): Another relatively new release. I’m finally deciding to buy this one to give it a fair shake. I will probably post a review much later. If you’ve been following my blog for long, you are probably aware of my past with DJ Shadow and might be surprised I hadn’t purchased this one, yet. Frankly, I missed the $9.99 sale at Best Buy when it was released and what I’d heard of the album at that point I wasn’t sure I liked. BTW: There were no less than three copies of this CD in pristine condition in the bins this week. If you haven’t purchased this yet, take a look for it used if you are interested.

The Audience Is Listening – Cut Chemist ($8.99) : Another one I missed for $9.99 at Best Buy when it was released. This copy is a stamped promo. A very good effort. It amazes me that Mr. Macfadden waited this long for his first solo record. He has been a mainstay in the Bay Area HipHop scene and has participated in some very notable collaborations over the years: “The Number Song Remix,” Brainfreeze, Product Placement, his own “Lesson 4,” Ozomatli’s first album, Jurassic 5. My favorite tracks are “The Garden,” “What’s the Altitude,” and “The Audience Is Listening Theme Song.” The first two have been singles, and the last one is the new iPod commercial with the guy “painting” with the light of an iPod. A fun album that demonstrates the production and turntable skills of Cut Chemist and doesn’t take itself very seriously. That last part might be the advice I’d give DJ Shadow. Sometimes records need to be fun to listen to.

4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up – The Gift of Gab ($8.99) : This is one that I’d wanted to pick up for a while. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of The Gift of Gab without Chief Xcel on production, but this album is great! Vitamin D and Jake One take turns producing tracks for Gab, and turn out a fantastic record. I really like what the Quannum “old school” is turning out these days. As they approach their Forties, they seem to be improving. While The Gift of Gab isn’t braving new ground on thie record, his familiar flow and rhyme work on this record.

I hadn’t planned on buying so much HipHop on this trip– or so much Quannum-related for that matter, but I was pretty happy for the haul. At one point in the browsing, I had so much stuff in my hands that I needed to go grab a shopping basket because my back was getting sore! I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money– I gave myself a budget not to exceed $50.

What I put back The Red House Painters 2 CD Retrospective, and Mark Kozelek’s tribute to AC/DC What’s Next To The Moon, The Gorillaz Demon Days (for some reason I haven’t bought this yet– there were many copies of this one), Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere (I’m waiting on the expanded edition of this one), Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels (waiting on buying the Deluxe Edition), General Public’s All The Rage, mint copies of the reissues of AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock and Back In Black.

Title I would have bought if I didn’t already own it: Tortoise Standards

New titles to become bin fodder include the new one from Courtney Love (many copies!), DJ Shadow’s The Outsider, anything Coldplay (I still haven’t picked up X&Y, but I could have had many copies of that), Tom Petty’s Highway Companion (there must have been five mint copies of this one), either album from Jet sadly. Scissor Sisters. Phish is hitting the used bins. I saw lots of titles that you wouldn’t have seen three or four years ago during the peak of their popularity.

Stay tuned for another action-packed episode of B-Sides In The Bins!

Lyrics Born Karaoke Contest!

Posted on November 15, 2006 by mike

Lyrics Born Karaoke Contest

…and while we’re on the subject of Lyrics Born, today his website announced a karaoke contest for Callin’ Out. Download the instrumental track for Callin’ Out, read the lyrics and make a version of you bustin’ a rhyme over it. Winners get free tickets to a Lyrics Born show of their choice, autographed copy of Overnite Encore, a teeshirt and poster as well as guaranteed Internet Fame! Contest ends December 15th.
More details on his MySpace pages.

Listen to the original version here

Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist Live in Minneapolis 11/2/06

Posted on November 14, 2006 by mike

Lyrics Born Flyer Sherry and I took off work on Thursday so we could hit the road and make it to Minneapolis with enough time to get ready for the Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist concert at the recently reopened club now known as Foundation. The club had been recently renovated as The Level, and prior to that it had been closed after many years known as The Rogue. Sherry used to frequent the club during The Rogue days, so she was pretty interested to see how they changed it.

The information I had about the show said “10PM” which I interpreted to mean the time the show started as opposed to what time the doors were to open. Sherry wisely suggested that we take a cab from the Millennium where we were staying. We saw Lyrics Born and Joyo walking out of the hotel as we were checking in. They said that they sleep on the bus and were using a room for the day– which I didn’t know one could do! We got to the club around 9PM and were informed that the doors were at 10PM. It was cold that night so we didn’t want to stick around outside the club. We walked over to the nearby Lodge Bar for $2 draws and well drinks and kill time.

We came back over at 10:45 and hung out outside waiting for the doors. Sherry talked to the guys watching the door about the renovation. When the door opened, they let us in first– ahead of the line that had formed after we arrived. We walked around the place looking for a good place to perch for the show. Sherry said that one of the big changes was taking down a bunch of red velvet drapery that covered the walls. They also raised the dance floor. We think the place looks good.

After checking most of the vantage points in the place, we picked a really good spot next to the sound board overlooking the dance floor. I went to the bar to set up bottle service on some wine. I picked a 2003 Louis M. Martin Sonoma County Cabernet.

The first act up was Edan and Dagha. I hadn’t heard Edan before. I did some looking on the Internet and found his website. Some reviewers said that he was psychedelic hip-hop, which might be how I would describe Beck most of the time. His gear was set up on the floor in front of the DJ booth. One notable thing about Edan is he is both MC and DJ which is pretty impressive. Like the reviews I had been reading state, he is heavily influenced by old school Hip Hop. They had a small but interested crowd around them. Very interesting and ragged show. He pulled out an acoustic guitar a couple of times and had a kazoo at one point.

Towards the middle of his set, he played some obscure stringed version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and they handed out white daisys, which we saw people carrying around most of the night. Sherry and I agreed that they were pretty entertaining. I’m going to check out some of his music later.

My plan was to take pictures at the show without using a flash– which could have been accomplished if there would have been more stage lighting. The pictures I have for Edan and Cut Chemist’s sets are not very good as a result. During Lyrics Born’s set I started using a flash. Those pictures turned out better, but are over exposed in my opinion.

Cut Chemist took the stage next after Edan carted his gear away. Cut Chemist’s set was set to some improvisational video editing done by “Tom” on an Apple Powerbook. Cut Chemist and Tom performed in the middle of two big video screens. There was no stage lighting during this. I think this was a pretty cool effect. I think it was DJ Shadow that said on many occasions that having people watch him perform instead of dancing always bothered him. The set was a continuous mix of songs off of The Audience Is Listening like “What’s the Altitude” and “The Garden” and the new iPod commercial song “The Audience Is Listening Theme.” Other tracks mixed in included “The Number Song” remix he did for DJ Shadow. During this song, Edan came out and rapped which was pretty cool.

At the end of the set, Cut grabbed a DV Cam and during the thank yous and crediting the people who helped he filmed himself and the audience– getting the names of the places that some people were from. He also thanked Vitamin D, who spent the set sitting next to us as he was working on sound. I hadn’t heard of him before. Sherry asked him why he called himself “Vitamin D” and he replied that it was because sunshine has Vitamin D. Vitamin D did quite a bit of the production on The Gift of Gab’s solo album 4th Dimension Rocketships Going Up. After the segments were taped, Cut Chemist came back out on stage and started doing a turntable/video set scratching the video captures he just took over what seemed to be the beat to “Chemical Calisthenics.” That is the first time I’d seen anything like that, and the crowd really responded to it! I’d like to get a boot from one of these shows.

It was during Cut Chemist’s set that a guy came up and asked me if I was taking pictures as a hobby or if I was professional. I explained that I was shooting for my blogsite. He said that his name was Rob and that he was the promoter for this show and that this show was a kind of homecoming for him. He said that earlier in the week he was concerned about a low turnout, but that the show ended up turning out well. He asked me for a business card, and I ended up making one with a Sharpie on the back of another card for a barber shop that I found. Later in the night, Jim the house sound guy told us that he thought it was cool that Rob let us stay in the V.I.P. area! We were hanging out all night in the V.I.P. area and didn’t even know it! Rob, if you read this– thanks!

Next up was Lyrics Born and Band. I was really happy to see that he was continuing with the live band on this tour. The band had the always-amazing Joyo Velarde on vocal duties, B’Nai Rebelfront on guitars, and Darius Minaee– who were all on the new Overnite Encore album released on Tuesday of that week. The band also included Uriah Duffy on bass and Kat Ounao on keyboards.

During the first part of LB’s set, I walked around the very crowded floor to try to get some shots. There really wasn’t a stage to speak of, just a rope cordoning off where the band was. As a result all of my pictures are at crowd level. For that reason, Foundation isn’t a great club to see a band in. I’d suggest that they get a stage that they can install and remove as needed.

The Lyrics Born live set pretty much echoed the Overnite Encore album in song choices and down to the false start intro to “Callin’ Out”, but the fact that they had been performing these songs so long really gave the songs some polish. He also introduced some new songs– two from Overnite and a new song called “Differences” that might be on his next album which was a testimony about the differences between the ladies and the guys with some of the standard observations about women taking too long to get ready. The song works really well as it is kind of a “June and Johnny” duet and has a great piano break. I can’t wait for the new album to come out.

I brought Sherry down to the floor so that she could get closer to the stage. At first she seemed skeptical but had a good time. We only had a couple of people between us and the stage. LB and Joyo work really well together and the live band really adds to the energy of the show. LB delivered his standard message of love and peace that I don’t think can be delivered enough these days. The whole crowd was moving and dancing. One comment my wife made earlier in the night was that she didn’t feel that enough people were “shaking it.” I have to agree with her. The Cut Chemist should have been a floor filler– with dancers, anyway. And LB really brought the funk.

For the encore, LB and band did “Hello” and Cut Chemist joined on turntables for a rousing end to the night. After the show we stood in line at the merchandise counter so I could get a couple of CDs and Sherry got a really good picture taken with him. We wished that Joyo would have been out at the counter, too. I picked up a copy of Overnite Encore and Season Two of The Lyrics Born Variety Show, that you can only get on tour at this time.

We had a great time that night and will certainly be out to see LB on tour for his new album next year.

Download “Lady Don’t Tek No” (mp3)
from “Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born Live!”
by Lyrics Born
Quannum Projects

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Napster

Ray Blue Live at CSPS in Cedar Rapids 10/20/06

Posted on November 11, 2006 by mike

When I received the e-mail from CSPS offering free tickets to see jazz saxophone player Ray Blue as part of the Legion Arts’ 15th birthday, I jumped at the chance. Sherry and I had seen Ray Blue a couple of years ago with some friends at a Liars Holographic Theatre performance. Liars is a “fake” radio show somewhat in the spirit of Prairie Home Companion with skits and music. The night we saw Ray Blue, it was a special show where the cast got to perform original songs in addition to the skits.

Although Ray Blue was born in Virginia and was raised in New York and currently lives between New York City and Berlin he spends a significant amount of time in Eastern Iowa. This is apparently due to his time spent here studying to get his Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work at the University of Iowa. In addition to the performances at the churches and schools, he also talks on social issues.

The show at CSPS was a record release show for his new album Transvision on the German Neu Klang record label. In addition to the Cedar Rapids show, he would go on to play Munich, Berlin and dates in France. Ray is a critically acclaimed jazz musician and we are very fortunate to have him visit as often as he does. The ensemble who played with Ray were known as “Cross-Continental Spirit” and shared some members with the band of the same name who played on the album. The band included his regular collaborator David Daoud Williams on percussion, Calvin Hill on bass, Sharp Radway on piano, and Gregg Servance on drums. The Transvision album and Cross-Continental Spirit are a project in a classic quartet style with percussion and is a tribute to friendships.

Ray came out dressed in a very regal green outfit in an African or Eastern style. I was surprised a bit as most of the pictures show him in a trademarked blue suit that we’d seen him wearing at the Liars show. Nonetheless, it’s a style he can pull off and complimented his golden sax. The rest of the group was dressed more subdued. The lighting was minimal but lit the performers during their solos and also lit the backdrop from time to time to dramatic effect. CSPS is an art gallery in addition to the cozy performance space. The sound guys did a great job filling the room and kept the levels very comfortable. I forget what a great space CSPS is to see shows. The best-kept secret in Cedar Rapids indeed! Unfortunately there wasn’t very many people there– maybe twenty or so, and I wonder how many got free tickets? The group played a second show on Saturday night. I hope that show had more of a turnout.

The show pulled all of the songs from the Transvision album and also pulled a couple of other songs– a standard cover of “In A Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington that Ray put on his album Always With A Purpose. Ray demonstrated his jaw-dropping circular breathing technique a couple of times. He is able to hold a note while inhaling at the same time. It seems like he can hold the note indefinately!

The first set was a bit more subdued and felt a bit like a warmup. But, the second set had a lot more energy and I could tell the band had gotten its groove. Sherry and I left the show that night amazed. I felt like maybe this show was like experiencing Miles Davis or John Coltrane back in the Fifties and Sixties playing the Jazz clubs in New York. I picked up the new CD, and it is able to stand up next to my Coltrane CD’s in my regular Jazz rotation.

Ray Blue will be back in Iowa in February of 2007 for another couple Liars shows, and according to their website the first show is already sold out.

Visit here for clips from Ray’s albums including Transvision.

Time to play b-sides

Mike Roeder muses over things musical

Author Archives: mike