The fine folks in the Wendy & Lisa camp are giving away a remix of my favorite track on the new White Flags of Winter Chimneys album “Sweet Suite.” Done by the Philly DJ/Producer King Britt.
The 9:57 track reimagines the stripped-down, dreamy, slightly melancholy track that I think could have sat alongside tracks on Parade into a downtempo electro number. On the album, “Sweet Suite” has a bit of a reprise of “Balloon” as a way to tie off the album tidily. This remix spends no time in the reprise, but breaks down the main theme in a very different light.
The track was debuted on the 9/4 episode of Girl Bros. Radio at Luxuria Music at which point I found out that the track would be made available, and here it is! According to the e-mail that was sent out today this is part of a White Flags of Winter Chimneys Remix Album they are working on! Very, very cool! (vinyl, please!).
It’s week #2 of the Pax-Am reboot and we are treated with another digital single from Ryan Adams’s archives. This time we get a track that was dropped from early consideration for Cardinology and another track that surfaced a bit as a “foggy” video. The third track is another demo from Cardinology.
Side A is the track “Allumette” clocking in at 1:43 and according to the Ryan Adams scholars on the ryanadamsarchive.com site was listed on an early proposed tracklisting for Cardinology.
Apparently the song is in reference to the 1974 book by Tomi Ungerer titled Allumette; A Fable, with Due Respect to Hans Christian Andersen, the Grimm Brothers, and the Honorable Ambrose Bierce. The Ungerer book is a re-imagining of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Little Match Girl” where the girl this time lives and carries out her wish.
Side B is the track “What Color Is Rain” which showed up as a video on the old version of Ryan’s video blog, affectionately called “Foggy.”
Again we are treated to a home demo of Cardinology– this time “Go Easy.”
All three songs are 160Kbps mp3’s and there aren’t any FLAC’s or cover art.
As you might imagine this caused quite a stir on the boards since this release differred in content from the first single’s inclusion of FLAC’s. Another point that upset some was that these songs weren’t the same quality as the songs on the first single, which were ostensibly multitrack recordings that were mixed for release and these songs were sketches. But for $1.49 who should complain? All of these songs are unreleased and we’re lucky that these songs are seeing the light of day– AND Ryan is excited to release them!
Both “Allumette” and “What Color Is Rain” are relatvely short songs but sound like they might have been written about the same time– both using multitracked guitar picking and utilizing a similar drum track. According to Ryan’s retorts to the complaints he used GarageBand to record them.
Both songs are very pretty songs with Ryan singing in a soft but urgent voice. These are songs that would have fit comfortably on Easy Tiger.
Click Here to purchase Pax-Am Digital Single No. 2
Click Here to read my review of Pax-Am Digital Single No. 1
So it seems with all of the people he has worked with in the past that he can call in favors– and on this album the payback came in the form of help from Meshell Ndegeocello on bass (you might remember her duet with Mellencamp on a cover of “Wild Night” by Van Morrison), Marc Ford from the Black Crowes, Jon Foreman from Switchfoot, Zan Najor from the Greyboy Allstars and others.
Brother’s Keeper is Denson’s 12th release since 1992 (not including Greyboy Allstars releases) and it finds him in fine and funky form as evidenced by our free track “Shake It Out.” Said Denson about the new album, “I’m not one to live in the past. I am very much a forward thinker. [This record] is a continuation of my world view [and] a culmination of all my life’s work up until now.”
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe is on tour and will be at RIBCO in Rock Island Saturday, September 19th, followed by a Des Moines show on Sunday night at People’s.
Click Here to listen to or download “Shake It Out” from Brother’s Keeper by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe.
This week Daytrotter.com posted the details of the upcoming Barnstorm Tour– to be called “Daytrotter Barnstormier II” and will start Thursday, October 8th in Milwaukee, WI and wrap up on Tuesday, October 13th in Johnston, IA.
Via the @realdaytrotter twitter account and the weekly e-mails Sean Moeller (master of ceremonies, general cool guy) had been dribbling out details about the upcoming shows so very little of this is a surprise to those of us who watch Daytrotter goings on closely.
This tour, which is apparently “Barnstormier” than the July shows, happens to hit three of the same stops– the barn of the very cool Biehl’s in Maquoketa (now called Codfish Hollow), Mooney Hollow Barn in Green Island south of Bellevue and the Seacrest Octogonal Barn. Sean also added on two Wisconsin stops– the very cool Turner Hall Ballroom on 10/8 and the Treinen Farm in Lodi on 10/9. The tour wraps up on the 13th at the Simpson Farm outside Johnston, IA (Des Moines).
As with the previous shows, these will be free and all-ages– except for the Lodi, WI show where you will gain admission to the other attractions for a measly $5-$8. The bands and Daytrotter are just tryin to recoup expenses by selling posters, teeshirts, records and other stuff in addition to passing the hat.
The bands are a mix of new and some from the July run. Dawes is kind of the headliner– their sound is one that evokes the 70’s SoCal sound– slightly country rock with impeccable harmonies– think Eagles, CCR and CSN with a little Band thrown in. Christopher Denny has a unique sound that at times reminds me of Dylan’s Nashville Skyline period. The Suckers from Brooklyn sport an angular almost No-Wave pop sound and Milwaukee is bringing the guitar power pop. Listening to the Daytrotter sessions linked below, I’m getting pretty stoked for this run! On a couple of the shows we get Paleo and Snowblink from the first tour.
Here are the shows broken down with links to the bands’ Daytrotter sessions where you can find out more about them:
Bo is going to play another solo show with The Mystery Lights on Friday 10/23 at the Mill in Iowa City. Show starts at 8PM and the cover is $12. My birthday will be at Midnight, so this is a cool way to celebrate!
In other Bo news, boramsey.com got a retooling today– it seems to be the first one since I can remember dating back to the 1990’s! This one looks much cooler, and the tour date calendar (as well as other pages) can be subscribed with RSS so you don’t have to miss any shows! I subscribed mine in bloglines.com.
According to The Mill, the opening act is to be announced.
This week had the ‘Net a flutter with news of Ryan Adams’s re-launching his website and re-launching his Pax Americana (PaxAm) record label with a downloadable “Digital Single.” Pre-orders went up mid-week with a promise of the songs shipping on Friday, September 11th.
What you got for $1.49 was a .zip file with the advertised two songs “Lost and Found” and “Go Ahead and Rain” (which is mislabeled “Sunflower Rain”) in both FLAC (YAY!) and 128Kbps mp3’s plus a so-called “Free Jam” of the demo to the Cardinology song “Sink Ships” in 160Kbps mp3 format. Plus “cover art” (shown above) and what appears to be considered the label art.
“Lost and Found” is an official release of what had surfaced in November 2006 along with 11 albums of other unreleased songs under a bunch of pseudonyms including DJ Reggie, The Shit, WereWolph, Warren Peace, Rhoda Ro, Ghetto Birds and Sad Dracula. Most of the albums seemed like Ryan recording every possible inspiration– listenable or not. However, the most compelling of these releases seemed to fall under Sad Dracula and Warren Peace. “Lost and Found” was a song on Fasterpiece. The version released as part of this single doesn’t seem very much different from that track which would lead me to believe that this song was actually recorded for release.
According to threads on the ryanadamsarchive.com boards “Go Ahead and Rain” surfaced as a demo and video a while back. Ryan (posting as Wolfhunter) said that he had recorded four versions of “Go Ahead and Rain” including one which was considered for the Cardinology album. He says that Jamie (Candiloro?) plays drums on this take. Jamie Candiloro worked on the hotly-debated Rock N Roll album. He says that “Johnny T. (Yerington) played drums on ‘Oblivion’ and I played drums on the rest. ” Oblivion” is a track on Fasterpiece as well. So, probably we will see some kind of Sad Dracula release in the near future!
Ryan also says this:
Thanks for supporting Pax-Am. Though I know many of you have lot’s of tracks from over the years many don’t. The glitches and kinks are being figured out and soon enough it will be time for some bigger projects. Also with new work there will be a whole new slab of folks trying to tear down the whole thing but, fuck em- this is gonna be great, I am excited for all this shit yall never heard to come around AND I am happy to get some really badass stuff out there once and for all.
The plans for Pax-Am at the moment is to continue to release some of these “lost” albums and songs in digital and vinyl formats! There will also be other things for purchase like t-shirts. I think if any artist can make a go of this, it would be Ryan as he has the right formula– a rabid fanbase who will purchase just about anything and the fact that he’s very prolific would provide a lot of material to choose from.
I became a fan of Ryan’s because of Rock N Roll and the two Love is Hell EP’s. Rock N Roll was very much a departure from the Americana-leanings of his other releases and really the one that my wife prefers out of his catalog. I hadn’t really gotten into the three Cardinals releases from 2006 until I heard about the eleven albums he posted to his site. I found a suitable bit torrent from someone who snagged the tracks and made mp3’s of them. When I heard the Sad Dracula tracks, I was hooked– where had these songs been? These were more songs in the vein of Rock N Roll. Was this the Rock N Roll 2 that was rumored? Certainly based on what Ryan said on the board, these were the same session players.
Both tracks are of the same kind of guitar rock established on Rock N Roll. Kind of the slighty ramshackle, slightly unpolished guitar pop established by bands like The Replacements and their predecessor Big Star. I welcome more of these releases for sure!
I guess I prefer this approach of pumping stuff out on a number of releases– digital or vinyl rather than going the Neil Young Archives approach. Well, for a number of reasons– I would hate to wait 20 years for a compilation to come out of this stuff for one thing. But, also not making this a $300 purchase by releasing this a decade at a time makes it easier to budget.
Next Tuesday (9/14) is the long-awaited release date of David Sylvian’s newest effort. Titled Manafon, it will be released on his Samadhi Sound record label he formed after he left Virgin Records in 2003.
This departure from Virgin has given David one of the most productive and creative periods since his 80’s output. But, I think it was the situation surrounding the ostensible 1991 Japan reunion album Rain Tree Crow that started to stress the relationship between Sylvian and Virgin.
These session started with improvisations of the band and were later amended with Sylvian’s vocals and lyrics. Around the time of the release Sylvian was interviewed (I think Magnet Magazine) and he said that he was under a lot of pressure to release the album unfinished– he had wanted to add more production and texture to the work.
It is the improvisational work that dots the landscape of Sylvian’s career, and a place he frequently stops on his particular path of creation. Just as the initial session recordings for his departure album Blemish in 2003 were based on improvisational work done by Sylvian, Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz and structured into a suite of sorts, so then is Manafon. In fact, Sylvian describes Manafon from his website as a “sister piece to the Blemish album.” The essay on the Manafon site describes the album as such:
…Sylvian pursues “a completely modern kind of chamber music. Intimate, dynamic, emotive, democratic, economical.” In sessions in London, Vienna, and Tokyo, Sylvian assembled the world’s leading improvisers and innovators, artists who explore free improvisation, space-specific performance, and live electronics. From Evan Parker and Keith Rowe, to Fennesz and members of Polwechsel, to Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide, the musicians provide both a backdrop and a counterweight to his own vocal performances – which, minus one instrumental, are nakedly the center of each piece.
Indeed, when you listen to the samples of each of the tracks from the site, it is noticeably more a vocal work than instrumental. David’s voice still the gorgeous tenor it has always been, but the trademark lush and/or ambient production is non-existent apparently on Manafon.
In my article about Manafon from March of this year, I surmised that the album titled likely came from the Welsh village of the same name and mentioned the poet R.S. Thomas who studied the Welsh language while working as the rector. In the essay on the site it is confirmed that the track “Manafon” from the album is indeed about the Welsh poet– “There’s a man down in the valley who doesn’t speak his own tongue.”
Manafon will come in two forms: a standard CD release in a 6-panel digipak with the Ruud Van Empel artwork pictured above, and a Deluxe Edition which will have the same CD as the standar release, plus a DVD with a feature-length documentary titled “Amplified Gesture” and a 5.1 Surround (Dolby and DTS) version of Manafon.
If the bonus content of the Deluxe Edition weren’t enough, the CD and DVD will come with 2 hard back books in a rigid slipcase as well as a portrait print of Sylvian done by Atsushi Fukui. The first 2000 of this edition will be signed by Sylvian and Fukui.
Volume One of the two volume set is a “40 page full color printed, perfect bound book to accompany ‘Manafon’, featuring the complete lyrics from ‘Manafon’, accompanied by artwork from the artists Atsushi Fukui and Ruud Van Empel.”
Volume Two is “a 24 page full color printed, perfect bound book to accompany the documentary “Amplified Gesture”. With a foreword by Clive Bell, this book contains photos and biographies of all of the contributors to the documentary.” (quotes from the Manafon Editions Page)
The Deluxe Edition is simply breathtaking from the photo provided on the site. The edition is $85 plus shipping where applicable. While that may seem steep, consider what you are getting– CD and DVD plus two gorgeous books in a slipcover. It should sit proudly with any art book you may have in your collection.
The standard edition has a suggested price $15.99 and available either from Samadhi Sound or other retail outlets like Amazon- who has it for $12.99.
When I saw Bo Ramsey and the Mystery Lights at the Mill back in May, Pieta was kind of hanging back in the shadows of the dark bar and helping her sister sell some Bo Ramsey merchandise. After the show was over I took the opportunity to ask her about her record label situation. After being signed to One Little Indian for her last album, the brilliant Remember the Sun from 2007 the follow-up Flight TimeEP was released on T-Records, which incidentally is the label she used to release her 2003 EP I Never Told.
(BTW: This EP was impossibly out-of-print and apparently Pieta found another box of these recently and you can buy them on CDBaby— get one while you can!)
Her simple answer was that she was “in limbo.” It certainly occurred to me that aside from the extensive touring and appearances she was making over the last couple of years, that she still wasn’t getting the exposure she deserved for that album.
It was announced today via her MySpace page that she has now signed to Twin Cities folk label Red House Records— which is also the label home for Greg Brown and The Pines. So, it is kind of a family reunion of sorts! All they’d need to do is sign Bo Ramsey and it would be complete!
Also as part of this announcement, we find out that she has a new 7-track EP titled Shimmer coming out on November 10th on Red House and is produced by uber-producer Don Was, who has produced acclaimed albums from Bob Dylan (Under the Red Sky), Bonnie Raitt (Her Grammy-winningest run– 1989’s Nick of Time (3 Grammies), 1991’s Luck of the Draw (3 Grammies), 1994’s Longing In Their Hearts (2 Grammies)) and The Rolling Stones (their last notable output in my opinion– 1994’s Voodoo Lounge, 1995’s Stripped, and 1997’s Bridges to Babylon).
All of this seems to me to be a formula for success, frankly. Switching to a label that is more geared to handle her music, and hiring on a big-gun producer who has worked with artists like her. I hope that Bo Ramsey will still be a big part of this recording even if he isn’t at the helm for this one. He certainly knows his way around a Grammy-winner in the studio, too– just look at his work with Lucinda Williams!
When I started talking to Sean Moeller of Daytrotter.com (who signs his missives as “Mr. Daytrotter” amusingly) in May about his idea of “an RV Tour of Iowa Barns” I was both excited and a little worried, frankly.
Sean said that he wanted to give something back to Iowa– his home state– in addition to raising the awareness of the “recording studio with a website” that is Daytrotter.com to its neighbors.
Indeed, while music geeks like myself have been aware of the freely-downloadable mp3’s of the recording sessions done in the Rock Island-based studio– few others I interact with personally (i.e.: not Internet-based life) are aware of the musical bounty that is Daytrotter.com.
Daytrotter has been compared to the infamous BBC Radio One John Peel Session done for almost 40 years by the late DJ-cum-tastemaker where bands recorded special sessions due to musicians’ union rules which resulted in oftentimes better performances than were captured for their albums. Similarly (though not due to labor rules) Sean and his staff of merry recordists are credited with bringing great bands and artists to the attention of the music community at large by recording special sessions, too.
These sessions, usually lasting a couple of hours are a stripped-down, almost “Unplugged” affair where the acts are encouraged to use the equipment– largely vintage– that the studio has which includes an array of pianos, keyboards, mics, amps and drums.
Many of the bands I’ve talked to who have done sessions at Daytrotter compare the experience to what it might have been like to record at Sun Studios during its heyday. Come in, plug in and record the magic– very much a warts-n-all approach as there isn’t much editing or “do-overs.” In some cases it gives the bands an opportunithy to re-imagine a song already released, or try a new song or possibly a choice cover.
The studio is in a perfect location– Rock Island is near I-80 and any act touring the U.S. will likely be driving by. The bands who are invited to do a session tend to be of the D.I.Y. aesthetic anyway so the inspiration that sometimes comes with improvising a session tends to be captured, making every session a gem.
Sean told me that up until the Daytrotter Barnstormer Tour, he hadn’t done any promotion of Daytrotter to speak of. Certainly, Daytrotter sells itself– any blog who covers the acts that Daytrotter records has linked to them at one time or another.
The idea was a simple one– take a handful of acts who have recorded with Daytrotter and take them on a “Caravan of Stars”– type tour to the towns and cities of Iowa and surrounding states providing a free show to the people. It was not designed to be a massive revenue-generating event– just a way to give back. These free shows would largely be put on in the most iconic of Iowa structures– the barn.
While I relished the idea of a collection of hip bands selected by Daytrotter playing for free in quirky barn venues, I was concerned about the turnout or how the promotion would work. Of course I’d do what I could from playbsides.com and I was spreading the word every chance I got– but having been in bands in the 90’s and knowing a bunch of regional bands over the years I’m well aware of the fickle tendencies of small town audiences. There is an addage shared extensively about the success of a band in Iowa and how many cover songs they do. My hopes were that that hip indie-lovin’ crowd existed where they hadn’t 20 years ago. Plus, the bands he picked were largely unknown– I didn’t know any of them (except Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin) before the tour and I follow the site!
So, did the tour go as planned? Given the really short window Sean gave himself to pull bands, transportation and venues together it was an astonishing success! On July 6th Sean had all of the details sorted out to post to his site. It would run five days starting July 26th and have Local Natives– a Silverlake, CA band as the one constant act. The other acts would dovetail in and out of the lineup as their schedules allowed.
I managed to catch two of the shows– the one in my hometown at Mooney Hollow Barn, and the West Liberty, IA show at the Secrest Octagonal Barn.
Mooney Hollow Barn Show – Sunday, 7/26/09
The Bellevue show didn’t have the attendance that we would have hoped. Sean was hoping for at least 100 people per stop, and the promotion for the event locally wasn’t extensive. I had a carload of friends coming in from Cedar Rapids and I knew that my family was going to show. The Bellevue Herald that week had a front-page article on the show and I think there were a couple of other places, but it was a Sunday-night show so that is usually a tough night for a draw.
As many times as I had driven past Mooney Hollow Barn on Hwy 52 with its iconic silo with the fiddle painted on it, I’d never actually been in it. It is an amazing venue– a barn converted to a dancehall in the late 70’s it enjoyed a pretty constant flow of middle-tier country acts until it closed in the early 90’s. It holds about 600 people and has a poured concrete dancefloor with the venue logo on it. The stage is outfitted like the Grand Ol’ Opry and has posters of some of the acts that had played there over the years. It has a two bars and a kitchen, so you can get food there, too.
It was a great place to see these bands, and every one of them commented on how cool Mooney Hollow was. The crowd was receptive and excited to see the bands and showed the bands their appreciate. Beer was cheap, and the crowd was ready for the show.
The first band up with a new band out of Chicago called Stranger Waves. They were raw, punky pop and kicked things off in high-gear. They played a 45-minute set running through all of the songs on their EP that they just recorded. Humorously, they needed to bust out their laptop to burn CD’s to sell to folks, but I think they sold a few! This was the only stop on this tour they played, but I think they were going to play some Chicago shows with Catfish Haven after their Madison stop. Certainly a band to watch!
Next up was Paleo, who did a solo acoustic set that was astonishing. Super low-key, but the guy is a gifted songwriter. I thought that this must have been what it was like to see Dylan when he played the coffee shops in New York City at the beginning of this career. He took a break in the middle of his set to let a girl he was touring with named Natalie Jean (from Flagstaff, apparently) play a small set of songs. She did a couple of original songs and a cover from The Wizard of Oz. A pretty girl with a pretty voice– I can’t find anything about her anywhere. I gave her a business card, maybe she’ll reach out to me.
From San Francisco, originally from Canada is Daniela Gesundheit aka Snowblink who brought with her a small band. Her Gibson SG with vestigial deer antlers seemed to convey the earthy-yet ethereal sound of Snowblink. She used two mics– one with a more dry mix, and the second mic an avalanche of reverb. I still have a major crush on the song “Stand Where A Fruit Tree Drops The Things It Doesn’t Need” from her newest release Long Live. She encourages audience participation on percussion, and she handed out bells to the crowd, which was neat. She invited the crowd to jingle along.
Shifting gears again, we got the R&B tinged rock from Chicago’s Catfish Haven. This was when things got back on to the party groove. These guys set up, plugged in, and damn near burned the barn down with their set. I had been listening to their new album Devastator regularly to get ready for their show. Two standout tracks from that amazing album are “Set In Stone” and “Play the Fool” I played it that weekend for my family to get them in the mood for the show. I can’t say enough about this band– they are like an update of Motown act Rare Earth. Everyone was on the floor shaking ass, which is the way it should be. In the middle of the funky mahem they pulled out a cover of “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” by The Greg Kihn Band and I thought the roof was going to cave in!
Their set was done too early– they didn’t do “Play the Fool” and the crowd wanted to get more songs, but they stuck with the agreed timeslot and let Local Natives get set up. That is one of the impressive things about these shows– they get done pretty early, so even if it is a week night show, you get home at a decent time.
I was a little concerned about how Local Natives was going to follow the sheer rawk power displayed by Catfish Haven. Well, once the band got set up I didn’t worry any longer! Local Natives was the surprise of the evening for me (and pretty much everyone else). Two songs into their set, and I turned to my friend Al from Bellevue and said “WTF are we seeing!?!” I was astonished by how polished they were– spot-on harmonies and percussion-heavy arrangements. It was like seeing U2 before they got all PopMart and Blackberry– when they were hungry. The band performed with such commitment and emotion– I hadn’t seen a band perform like this in years. Their album Gorilla Manor has been delayed a couple of times, and it should be coming out in October. The set closer “Sun Hands” is nothing short of insanity on stage– raw emotion. They are playing a bunch of shows at Spaceland in LA this month before they tour Europe again. If you get a chance make sure you catch this band while the tickets are still cheap.
After Local Natives was done, people hung out for a while buying merch finishing beers. A bunch of us were seriously considering driving to Madison for the next night’s show. Thankfully, the 2-hour drive home sobered me up enough to just wait to hit the West Liberty show that Tuesday.
Secrest Octagonal Barn – Tuesday, 7/28/09
My wife and daughter didn’t make the Sunday show in Bellevue, but I convinced them to make the West Liberty show– it was less than an hour’s drive from Cedar Rapids so it was pretty easy to commit to. The only bummer for my wife was that she wanted to see Catfish Haven and their last show was in Madison the previous night. This show had Snowblink and Local Natives from Bellevue, and substituted Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Hip Hop MC Mac Lethal to the bill. I was vaguely familiar with SSLYBY through Daytrotter and only had a couple of minutes to listen to the Daytrotter session for Mac Lethal, but it sounded pretty good, and I knew that he was part of a group of MC’s that was getting some buzz.
The barn as described was an Octagonal barn and was a facility one could rent out, so it was set up for audiences, and the show ended up being in what would be considered the hay loft on the second floor.
The show was supposed to start at 6:30PM so we raced down there, and found out that things were running late and they hadn’t even set Snowblink up– who was the first act in this lineup.
My daughter was pretty happy to see Snowblink, and their sound is pretty much up her alley. The set was very similar to the Bellevue show which included a Snowblinkish version of “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, which was pretty cool. This time, however, they invited members of Local Natives to come on stage to help with percussionAfter the show, she went up and introduced herself to Daniela and they talked briefly about a possible show at Coe College in Cedar Rapids.
By the time Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin hit the stage there was a pretty large crowd, over the 100 desired, I think. They ripped through their set with good energy, I wasn’t as familiar with their songs, but I’d definitely see them again.
To shake things up, Sean put Local Natives up following SSLYBY leaving Mac Lethal as the last act of the night. I was really excited for Sherry and Rae and Rae’s friend Chelsea to hear Local Natives because I was so amazed by their live show.
They didn’t disappoint– in fact during their tribal percussion the floor started bouncing a bit unnervingly. I tried to reassure myself that this barn had been here since 1883 and withstood storms and the weight of hay for most of those years and a little bit of bouncing from a crowd of people wouldn’t be a challenge.
Their set was pretty similar to the Bellevue show and ended with “Sun Hands” which is an excellent way to end their set. I tried to capture the energy of that song in the picture above– the band is all over the stage for that song. I know that Local Natives made a bunch of new fans that night.
Next up was Mac Lethal. He was having to make do as a one-man show as his DJ/Producer was not able to make this show, so he commented about having to stop his set to switch songs. I think that he is a really skilled MC, but I got the definite idea he was a bit uncomfortable following these bands– certainly he wasn’t able to showcase the constant energy of his regular set having to mess around with his sampler. For whatever reason, his set had more negative tone to it than the other bands. He started his set talking about driving around lost that day and seeing a monkey doll hanging from a noose in a tree and dove into a tirade about that. Certainly, if he saw that it is pretty bad, and there is some of that in the in the sticks of Iowa. Not that I’m opposed to some pissed off MC’s, but the vibe of his set was markedly different than the rest of the show. He commented on the other acts performances being great a couple of times describing Local Natives show as effectively handing Jesus his pink slip, which I thought was pretty funny. One track I thought was pretty good was one called “Black Widow.” I need to spend some more time with his catalog and maybe see him in a different setting before I’d ever dismiss him as an artist.
I heard that the following night he collaborated with Local Natives– I would have loved to see that. I like MC’s fronting live bands, and I think the right combination can make for a powerful performance.
As I write this, Sean has started to “leak” the information about another Barnstormer run in October. Starting on October 8th and going to October 13th, the show will hit three of the barns from the July run– Maquoketa (10/10), Bellevue (10/11) and West Liberty (10/12). This is great news! The Biehls, who generously lent their barn in July had over 200 people at their show! We have enough time now, to really build the buzz for the Bellevue show, and I’m sure West Liberty will get the crowd from Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Iowa City again.
The bands confirmed so far is a band from California called Dawes, who recalls The Band, CSNY and a little CCR and has amazing harmonies to boot! Christopher Denny is a folksy balladeer who’s voice sounds a lot like Nashville Skyline-era Dylan. Another band committed is Milwaukee band Maritime who has a jangly UK pop influence like Smiths or the Alarm. Again, bands I’d never heard of, but already becoming a fan of. For repeat performers we get the dreamy, wonderful Snowblink (yay!) and Paleo. Apparently there will be other acts added as well.
Sean Moeller is one of those rare guys who just seems to know how to jump headlong into a project like the Daytrotter Barnstormer Tour and catch lightning in a bottle. He trusts that the people of state he grew up in will come out and support it. The buzz is growing, too.
So, if you have any possible way to get to Iowa to any of these shows– do it. If this run of shows is anything like July, it is something you will remember for a long time. Good people, great bands in barns.
Daytrotter Barnstormer 7/26/09 at Mooney Hollow Barn Slideshow
Daytrotter Barnstormer 7/28/09 at Secrest Barn Slideshow
By the time Cripple Crow was released, Devendra and his “Family” had established them at the top of the “Freak Folk” scene with four albums that continued to build his fanbase. Cripple Crow was followed by Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon in 2007. The album was met to mixed reviews and this time Pitchfork delivered a swift, stinging 6.5— again around the album length, but also suggesting that a limit of the number of genres undertaken on the album would have improved it.
Listening to Smokey now, there are some certain bright spots– notably the sprawling Traffic-nicking “Seahorse” as well as “Lover” which was borrowed for “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.” But, I would agree that there are some points that really could have used some work, and some of the tracks seem a bit like an inside joke.
With the upcoming release of What Will We Be, Devendra is bringing the same band from Smokey and moving from XL Recordings to Warner Brothers! Considering the D.I.Y. approach that Devendra had used for all of his previous albums, it’s interesting to see someone diverting from the Indie-self-release peers and shacking up at the home of Fleetwood Mac.
01 Can’t Help but Smiling
02 Angelika
03 Baby
04 Goin‘ Back
05 First Song for B
06 Last Song for B
07 Chin Chin & Muck Muck
08 16th & Valencia, Roxy Music
09 Rats
10 Maria Leonza
11 Brindo
12 Meet Me at Lookout Point
13 Walilamdzi
14 Foolin‘
It’s week #2 of the 
Karl Denson
Next Tuesday (9/14) is the long-awaited release date of 
When I saw Bo Ramsey and the Mystery Lights at the Mill back in May, Pieta was kind of hanging back in the shadows of the dark bar and helping her sister sell some Bo Ramsey merchandise. After the show was over I took the opportunity to ask her about her record label situation. After being signed to 
I first heard about 