In what would seem to be an intersection of coincidences, a band out of New Jersey gaining a lot of indie-lovin’ blog praise will be playing a barn ballroom outside of my childhood home of Bellevue, IA.
Roadside Graves is a seven-piece band serving up a hearty stew of folk and rock with a heapin’ helpin’ of rootsy country with a pinch of Celtic reel to taste. Listening to their new album My Son’s Home on Autumn Tone, I’m impressed how this band packs all of these flavors in. But, as with any good stew, the longer it sits, the flavors mingle for every spoonful (hmm… it must be time to eat). Music blogs reach to define this band and include references like Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, Springsteen, John Prine, Son Volt– and certainly all of those influences are heard.
Mooney Hollow Barn is a music institution in Jackson County, IA. Built in the 1930’s, it was a farm until 1977 when it was converted into a place to have monthly barn dances. In the 1980’s Mooney Hollow Barn played host to many Nashville legends including Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Faron Young, Porter Wagoner, Kitty Wells, and Bill Anderson. Bill Anderson will be back to the Mooney Hollow stage 27 years after his first appearance on 9/19. In 2006 Kevin Petesch bought the barn reopened it after being closed for five years.
Last week the inaugural Daytrotter.com Barnstormer tour stopped in Mooney Hollow bringing with it a line up of some of Daytrotter’s favorite acts. It was this appearance that brought Mooney Hollow to the attention of Roadside Graves who were looking for an overnight stop on their tour between their Milwaukee and Chicago appearances (and I bet a Daytrotter session in Rock Island just south!).
Somehow the idea of this newer band standing on the Mooney Hollow stage playing their unique blend of country, rock and folk in the same place the old guard of Nashville greats is comforting. “Will the circle be unbroken,” indeed!
It would be worth the trip to see this amazing barn, and possibly check out the sights in this great little Mississippi River town.
Click Here to listen to “Far and Wide” by Roadside Graves from My Son’s Home
Click Here to listen to “Ruby” by Roadside Graves from My Son’s Home
Daytrotter.com— the purveyor of freely-downloadable mp3’s of sessions recorded by a wide-range of artists and bands– have decided that they want to take a handful of their favorite acts on a mini-tour through some Iowa towns with a stop in Madison (just because they love that place!). These shows are FREE and ALL AGES. All the bands are hoping for are some new fans, and possibly sell some merch.
It is a move which gets its tradition from the “Caravan of Stars”-type tours that happened during the 50’s and 60’s where bands would roll through a bunch of cities stopping of at ballrooms across the midwest– back when places like Melody Mill in Sageville, IA outside Dubuque would get bands like Johnny Cash, The Ventures, and the Everly Brothers. If the bands didn’t tour like that, these little towns and cities wouldn’t have been able to get this kind of entertainment.
Daytrotter reached out a couple of months ago looking for barns they could play in– I made a couple of suggestions, and one of the stops will be just outside my hometown of Bellevue, IA at Mooney Hollow Barn!
While exchanging e-mails with Sean from Daytrotter, he said that some of the impetus of this tour is to let people in Iowa know about Daytrotter. Certainly when I’m talking to folks I know about this they have no idea what Daytrotter is– even though the work that they do is world-reknowned and has been accurately suggested to be the successor to the BBC Peel Sessions!
I’ve said on more than one occasion that we Iowans should be proud of Daytrotter and its “little studio and website that could” success!
Hopefully, this will be successful enough that this becomes a yearly event!
The lineup of bands is pretty interesting and varies slightly for each of the five stops. However, San Diego band Local Natives will be performing at all of the shows. From this lineup, I was familiar only with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Paleo. Someone Still Loves You is a great indie pop band from Springfield, Mo that has done two Daytrotter sessions already (which is how I found out about them initially) and Paleo is known as the “song a day for a year” guy. So, it will be interesting to hear those acts in a live setting. Snowblink is a pretty dreamy type of music driven by the breathy vocals of Daniela Gesundheit.Snowblink has been compared to Cat Power, and I hear that. Catfish Haven is a surprising R&B powerhouse from the Windy City that reminds me of Mad Dogs and Englishmen-period Joe Cocker, frankly. I can’t wait to see them in a live setting! DAYUM! They’re going to be at the Bellevue stop, which is super-duper! Mac Lethal is an MC from Kansas City, MO. He has a great flow that reminds me a lot of Chief Xcel or Chali 2na.
So, a pretty wide swath of indie goodness represented. I’m going to hit the Bellevue stop and shoot some pix and provide some coverage. If you have the ability and are in the region, stop out to one of these shows!
SCHEDULE:
July 25
11 am — Davenport, Iowa: Morning performance at the Bix 7 road race course at the turnaround: 110 McClellan Blvd. (Performing — Local Natives) Local Natives Daytrotter Session
In what seems to be a gobsmackingly obvious move, the major labels in conjunction with digital music retailers like Zune Store, Amazon, Rhapsody and iTunes have announced “Digital 45s” on the 60th anniversary of the 7″ 45 record.
The big announcements are really in conjunction with Apple’s iTunes Store that they are calling “D45” and use that nifty logo pictured on the left. Digging through the press-releases shows that Warner Music Group is represented by Rhino which should represent the full compliment of WMG labels which includes Atlantic/Atco, Elektra/Asylum, Warner Brothers, Reprise and Sire– so this should bring a very wide and deep catalog and the first releases are already showing some promise.
EMI stepped up with a press-release as well although they don’t have a site dedicated to their Digital 45 initiative. EMI stable of labels include EMI, Apple, Capitol, Virgin, Blue Note, Manhattan– and interestingly, Caroline, Mute, Definitive Jux, and Astralwerks making for some potentially interesting releases.
The Concord Music group has titles released as well, but no press release. According to the Wikipedia article on Concord, UMG handles the physical distribution of Concord, but I don’t think that would apply here. Concord includes Fantasy’s labels– Fantasy, Stax/Volt and a number of jazz labels (Riverside, Prestige). There is a Sam & Dave Digital 45 of “Soul Man,” I hope this means we see some interesting Creedence Clearwater Revival releases– they were on Fantasy. There has been a long-standing Stax/Volt Singles box set with b-sides, but these Digital 45s would allow someone to pick and choose if they released the whole Stax catalog.
SonyBMG have brought some Digital 45’s as well, but I couldn’t find a press release on it. SonyBMG is a significant collection of labels as well with Sony, Epic, Columbia, RCA, Arista and all of their associated spinoff labels. One of the first Digital 45’s is a Michael Jackson single for “Billie Jean” b/w “Can’t Get Out of the Rain.”
A quick review of the online retailers shows a pretty impressive participation– iTunes, Amazon.com, Zune Music Marketplace, Rhapsody mp3 store, but eMusic seems to be the lone holdout– or shut out. Sony just signed an agreement with eMusic to be able to sell older titles, but apparently this doesn’t extend to Digital 45s, yet.
Comparing the offerings between the retailers shows that mostly everyone is adopting the $1.49 for 2 tracks, with the individual tracks at standard pricing of $0.99. Zune Marketplace has the 2 tracks at $1.69, with individual tracks at $0.99. The Sony titles seem to be priced differently– “Billie Jean” 2-track is $1.99 with “Billie Jean” at $1.29 and the b-side at $0.99. Right now it looks like iTunes is the only retailer who has the SonyBMG titles. I’m not sure what the future holds about this situation, since all of the retailers have other SonyBMG titles.
All of that detail aside, there are some pretty cool titles available already and based on an interview with Rhino Marketing Veep David Dorn by Billboard, they will be releasing “bundles” of Digital 45’s monthly, so there will be many more to come!
Some releases of interest to me:
Prince and the Revolution- “Kiss” b/w “Love or Money” (Warner Brothers) This is a single I own in 7″. Interestingly this was a B-Side left off of the 1993 3 CD compilation The Hits/The B-Sides, so its existence here is welcomed.
INXS – “What You Need” b/w “Sweet As Sin” (ATCO) During their heyday, INXS used their b-sides to provide songs that were a bit more experimental. “Sweet As Sin” is a two-steppish country tune. Not a bad track, but certainly didn’t fit on Listen Like Thieves. One of my favorite b-sides from INXS from this period is the jazzy instrumental “Begotten” and the really out-there “I’m Coming (Home)” from the “I Need You Tonight” single.
Erasure – “A Little Respect” b/w “Like Zsa Zsa Zsa Gabor” (Warner Brothers) Another great bubbly dance track from Erasure. Could have easily been on The Innocents, really.
The Cure – “Just Like Heaven” b/w “Breathe” (Elektra) The Cure is a veritable treasure trove of b-sides. This is most evidenced by the amazing 2004 Rhino/Fiction box set Join the Dots : B-sides and Rarities, 1978-2001. I had this on cassette single. According to one of the reviewers on iTunes, the “Just Like Heaven” mix is the mix by Bob Clearmountain used in the video.
Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons – “King Tut” b/w “Hoedown At Alice’s” (Warner Brothers) I have this 7″– in fact you can see it in the header picture on this blog. With Martin’s new 5-string banjo album The Crow out, it makes sense for this b-side to show up as it is a banjo workout by Martin.
The Cars – “Let’s Go” b/w “That’s It” (Elektra) The lead single from Candy-O in 1979 had the non-LP track “That’s It” with Benjamin Orr on lead. This track was included in the 1995 Just What I Needed : Cars Anthology.
What I would like to see for singles (which is really about the b-sides)
INXS – “Listen Like Thieves” b/w “Begotten” (Elektra) I mentioned this one above.
Terence Trent D’Arby – “Sign Your Name” b/w “Greasy Chicken (Sony) My brother Steve was a big fan of TTD when Introducing the Hardline came out. He had the cassette single to “Sign Your Name” with the really funky workout “Greasy Chicken” as the b-side.
Bruce Springsteen – “One Step Up” b/w “Roulette” (Columbia) The Boss is pretty famous for having some really great songs “in the can” that eventually showed up as b-sides to singles or elsewhere. “Roulette” is a great example of this. Recorded in the Spring of 1980, it is a galloping song about nuclear holocost that just never made it to an album. This song eventually showed up on the very cool Tracks boxset. In fact, you can download it now from Amazon.com and other places.
Men At Work – “Who Can It Be Now” b/w “Anyone For Tennis” (Columbia) Another favorite around the house. My brother had this 7″ and played the b-side all the time. For some reason Sony Legacy omitted this song from the bonus b-sides appended to their 2003 remaster. “Anyone For Tennis” is a quick-tempo slightly ska-ish track demonstrates how much Men at Work owed the Police.
The Rolling Stones – “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It)” b/w “Through The Lonely Nights” (Rolling Stones Records) When you’re a kid and your mom picks up records for you– you play the crap out of them. In my mind the flip side of the rocker “It’s Only Rock N’ Roll” is as notable as the A side. “Through The Lonely Nights” is a slinky, almost funky country rocker. Mick does his best American drawl. An absolutely gorgeous classic and largely ignored. This song was resurrected in a 2005 remaster done for a Starbucks compilation that is now out-of-print called Rarities 1971-2003. Really, I think that a box set of singles similar to the Singles Collection : London Years should be done for the post 1971 period.
Prince – All of the Warner singles! While it’s true that the 3 CD version of The Hits/The B-Sides is relatively available, they don’t seem to be available for digital download! So, this would be an inventive way to remedy this! Plus, there are still songs that didn’t make that 3rd disc– “Alexa de Paris” for one. In fact, maybe it’s time to reissue the Prince protegee bands’ singles as well!
Tortoise is in L.A. and they are busy. They play a sold out show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, but they are doing a couple promotional appearances ahead of the show. Yesterday Tortoise returned to the KCRW show “Morning Becomes Eclectic” to perform a 43 minute set and interview. The show included three songs from Beacons of Ancestorship, but also included two earlier songs that I haven’t heard on tour in a while!
Tortoise kicked things off with “High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In” followed by “Prepare Your Coffin” from Beacons, and then did “The Suspension Bridge At Iguazú Falls” from T.N.T. and “Djed” from Millions Now Living Will Never Die. The band wrapped things up with “Minors” from Beacons, which was unfortunately cut short. The interview with the band mostly surrounded how the band works together collaboratively on their music, which was cool.
Today (July 9th) Tortoise makes an in-store appearance at the Hollywood Amoeba Music location, which they will stream from their website. The show should start at 6PM Pacific Time (8 PM Central, 9 PM Eastern, etc.). Tortoise is also featured on Amoeba’s “Music We Like – Handpicked Titles for $10.98 or less” sale.
Click Here for the Amoeba.com information on the Tortoise In-Store Live Stream (At this point the stream has been taken down, but there are pictures from the session).
On the heels of a victorious two nights at the Rothbury Festival over the Independence Day weekend, the mighty men of Umphrey’s McGee will resume their typically packed Summer tour schedule which runs through September and includes three Iowa dates! Next week they play Des Moines at the Simon Estes Riverfront Amphiteater on Wednesday July 15th, and at the gorgeous Capitol Theatre in Davenport on Thursday July 16th. I’m planning on hitting the Davenport show.
Actually the states surrounding Iowa are served very well during this run as well with KC on July 17th, two nights at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin on July 18th and 19th followed by 10K Lakes. After a full-band break filled with side-band shows, and full band two-nighter in Urbana at the Canopy Club, we get Umphrey’s back in Council Bluffs, IA at the new Horseshoe Casino venue Whiskey Roadhouse.
In other cool Umphrey’s news– as part of the month of June bonus downloads that you can get with the purchase of the Mantis CD, the band provided a tribute to Michael Jackson in the form of three Michael Jackson covers mp3’s. The first mp3 was from Richmond, VA on 6/25/09 on the news of the passing of the King of Pop the band did a very straight version of “Billy Jean.” The second mp3 is a cover of “The Girl Is Mine” from their 11/3/06 Madison, WI show. The last track is a medley of snippets of Michael Jackson “teases” from the last weekend in June following his passing. More information from the band’s excellent blog, where you can listen to the track yourself!
BTW: All of the free post-release downloads are still available, so if you don’t have Mantis yet, it is well worth the purchase and is one of my favorite albums of 2009.
– doors: 6:00 pm
– show: 7:00 pm
– co-headlining with Matisyahu; with Matisyahu to play first, and Umphrey’s to start at 9:10 pm
– tickets are available through LiveNation.com
– doors: 7:30 pm
– show: 8:30 pm
– co-headlining with Matisyahu; with Umphrey’s to play first, and Matisyahu to play at 10:45 pm
– tickets are $28.50 and on sale through Ticketmaster.com
Rumsey Playfield – Central Park, New York, New York
– doors: 5:30 pm
– show: 6:15 pm
– co-headlining with Matisyahu; with Umphrey’s to play first, and Matisyahu to play at 8:30 pm
– tickets are $35.00 and are available through Ticketmaster.com; tickets will also be available at the Bowery Box Office with no service charge
– late-night set on the All Good Stage
– other bands include: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, RatDog, moe., STS9, Dark Star Orchestra, Les Claypool, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Tea Leaf Green, among others
– ticket information can be found through www.allgoodfestival.com/buytickets.htm
Non-Umphrey’s Show – 30db Marvin’s Mountaintop, Masontown, West Virginia
– 30db is Brendan along with Jeff Austin
– Golden Crane Stage
– other bands include: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, RatDog, moe., STS9, Dark Star Orchestra, Les Claypool, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Tea Leaf Green, among others
– ticket information can be found through www.allgoodfestival.com/buytickets.htm
– doors: 12:30 pm
– show: 2:30 pm
– one set, on the West Stage
– other bands include: Widespread Panic, the Black Crowes, and the Black Keys
– ticket information can be found through Ticketmaster.com
– doors: 5:30 pm
– show: 6:30 pm
– co-headlining with Matisyahu; with Matisyahu to play first, and Umphrey’s to play at 8:30 pm
– All Ages
– tickets are $25.00, $35.00, and $75.00 (VIP), and are available through crossroads.frontgatesolutions.com
262.642.4400
– doors: 6:00 pm
– show: 7:00 pm
– opening for the Dave Matthews Band
– tickets are available through LiveNation.com – note that Wednesday, June 10, is No Fee Wednesday through LivevNation when purchasing Lawn tickets
262.642.4400
– doors: 6:00 pm
– show: 7:00 pm
– opening for the Dave Matthews Band
– tickets are available through LiveNation.com – note that Wednesday, June 10, is No Fee Wednesday through LivevNation when purchasing Lawn tickets
– doors: 12:00 pm
– show: 6:00 pm
– Main Stage
– ticket information can be found through www.10klftickets.com
– everyone who purchases tickets here will automatically be entered in a contest for a pair of VIP upgrades
– please enter the promo code “MANTIS” for $10.00 off General Admission and $25.00 off VIP tickets
Non-Umphrey’s Show – North Indiana All Stars Soo Pass Ranch, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota
– doors: 12:00 pm
– show: 11:30 pm
– North Indiana All Stars are: Jake, Joel, and Kris, along with Willie Waldman (trumpet) and Tony Franklin (bass)
– Barn Stage
Non-Umphrey’s Show – The Omega Moos 1572 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60622
773.489.3160
– doors: 9:00 pm
– show: 10:00 pm
– The Omega Moos are Brendan and Ryan along with Darren Shearer and Jamie Shields of The New Deal
– with DJ Wyllys to open
– 21 and over
Non-Umphrey’s Show – Kris Myers Project 2105 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60616
312.949.0120
– show: 8:00 pm
– post-Lollapalooza show: Kris, along with Vijay Telisnayak on keys, John McLean on guitar and Bryan Doherty on bass
– with Consider the Source
– 21 and over
– admission is $8.00
– doors: 10:45 am
– show: 10:15 pm
– closing set on the Main Stage
– other bands include: Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Avett Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Railroad Earth, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Lotus, Tea Leaf Green, Cornmeal, and others
– ticket information can be found through http://www.mulberrymountainmusic.com/tickets.asp
970.482.4420
– doors: 7:00 pm
– show: 8:30 pm
– All Ages
– tickets are $28.00 in advance, $30.00 day of show, and are available through Umphrey’s Ticketing and through Ticketweb.com
– doors: 2:00 pm
– show: 3:00 pm
– with the Black Eyed Peas on Saturday; other artist include the Allman Brothers Band, Drive By Truckers, the Doobie Brothers, Citizen Cope, and Michael Franti
– tickets are available through www.jazzaspen.com
225.383.7018
– doors: 8:00 pm
– show: 9:00 pm
– 18 and over
– tickets will be $17.50 in advance, $20.00 day of show, and will be available pre-sale through Umphrey’s Ticketing Junly 10 at 12:00 pm
888.402.5837
– doors: 7:00 pm
– show: 8:00 pm
– with Telepath to open
– All Ages
– tickets will be $17.50 in advance, $20.00 day of show, and will be available pre-sale through Umphrey’s Ticketing July 10 at 12:00 pm
512.263.4146
– doors: 8:00 pm
– show: 9:00 pm
– with Telepath to open
– All Ages
– tickets will be $17.50 in advance, $20.00 day of show, and will be available pre-sale through Umphrey’s Ticketing July 10 at 12:00 pm
214.978.BLUE
– doors: 8:00 pm
– show: 9:00 pm
– with Telepath to open
– All Ages
– tickets will be $17.50 in advance, $20.00 day of show, and will be available pre-sale through Umphrey’s Ticketing July 10 at 12:00 pm
520.740.1000
– doors: 8:00 pm
– show: 9:00 pm
– All Ages
– tickets will be $17.50 in advance, $20.00 day of show, and will be available pre-sale through Umphrey’s Ticketing July 10 at 12:00 pm
Back in November, I reported on a really great limited-edition boxset tribute to Nesuhi Ertegun-– the younger brother to Atlantic Records label founder Ahmet, and VP of the Jazz division of Atlantic from 1955-1967. Titled Hommage a Nesuhi, it is limited to 3,000 numbered copies. It is a collection of songs he produced, artists he signed and music inspired by his tenure at the label. It was a collection of some amazing artists including Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, LaVern Baker and Hank Crawford.
While it appears that Rhino Handmade may still have some of the boxes available for sale from their website, on June 23rd, the label decided to make Hommage a Nesuhi available as a digital download from places like iTunes and Amazon.com.
To spread the word, Rhino has made available some online “listening parties” with a small sampling of tracks from the box set:
Listening Party Tracklist:
“Hard Times” by David “Fathead” Newman
“Doodlin'” by Ray Charles
“Empty Bed Blues” by LaVern Baker
“Day by Day” by Jimmy Scott
“Ain’t No Sunshine” by Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Click Here for the Listening Party where you can choose a format including QuickTime, Windows Media or Real Audio.
The album is available for download from
HOMMAGE À NESUHI
Track Listing
Some Atlantic Jazz
1. “Hard Times” – David “Fathead” Newman
2. “Summertime” – The Modern Jazz Quartet
3. “Stay With Me” – Yusef Lateef
4. “Listen Here” – Eddie Harris
5. “With These Hands” – Les McCann
6. “Sweet Sixteen Bars” – Ray Charles
7. “Your Mind Is On Vacation” – Mose Allison
8. “Martians Go Home” – Shorty Rogers & His Giants
9. I Miss You So” – Chris Connor
10. “The Golden Striker” – The Modern Jazz Quartet
11. “A Ladiesman” – Oscar Brown, Jr.
12. CMemphis Underground” – Herbie Mann
13. “Come Rain Or Come Shine” – Ray Charles
Shades Of Blue
1. “Cherry Red” – Big Joe Turner
2. “Doodlin’” – Ray Charles
3. “Deuces Wild” – Sonny Stitt
4. “Am I Blue” – Ray Charles
5. “In The Evening” – Yusef Lateef
6. “Empty Bed Blues” – LaVern Baker
7. “The Entertainer (Done In The Style Of The Blues)” – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
8. “What Will I Tell My Heart” – Hank Crawford
9. “Stop This World” – Mose Allison
10. “Cousin Mary” – John Coltrane
11. “I Wish You Love” – David “Fathead” Newman
12. “Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me” – Charles Mingus
13. “Like It Is” – Yusef Lateef
14. “Blues #3/Willow Weep For Me” – Ray Bryant
Live
1. “I’ve Got A Woman” – Ray Charles
2. “Bluesology” – The Modern Jazz Quartet
3. “After Hours” 0 Ray Bryant
4. “Comin’ Home Baby” – Herbie Mann
5. “If I Loved You” – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
6. “The Catbird Seat” – The Mitchell-Ruff Trio
7. “Compared To What” – Les McCann & Eddie Harris
8. “I’m Having Fun” – King Curtis & Champion Jack Dupree
9. “One Ton” – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
10. “Drown In My Own Tears” – Ray Charles
On The Edge
1. “Giant Steps” – John Coltrane
2. “Silver Cycles” – Eddie Harris
3. “My Favorite Things” – John Coltrane
4. “Ramblin’” – Ornette Coleman
5. “Vibrafinger” – Gary Burton
6. “Una Muy Bonita” – Ornette Coleman
7. “Hog Callin’ Blues” – Charles Mingus
8. “The Inflated Tear” – Roland Kirk
9. “Passions Of A Man” – Charles Mingus
10. “Day By Day” – Jimmy Scott
11. “In A Little Spanish Town (T’was On A Night Like This)” – Yusef Lateef
Some More Atlantic Jazz
1. “The Spirit-Feel” – Milt Jackson
2. “Love Theme From “The Sandpiper” (The Shadow Of Your Smile)” – Eddie Harris
3. “One No te Samba” – The Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida
4. “Naima” – John Coltrane
5. “Nubian Lady” – Yusef Lateef
6. “The Soul Of A Village – Part II” – Joe Zawinul
7. “Ain’t No Sunshine” – Rahsaan Roland Kirk
8. “Let Her Go” – Hubert Laws
9. “Sombrero Sam” – The Charles Lloyd Quartet
10. “The Story” – Hank Crawford
11. “Barbados” – Phineas Newborn, Jr.
12. “Nommo” – Max Roach
13. “Equinox” – John Coltrane
There is plague, said Tom Twp. ApLlewelyn in the organ loft reached for the bass stops. The white plague drifted through the church to the music of the savage voluntary. Parson and sinner stood beneath the reflections of the Holy Family, marking in each ginger halo the hair of blood. There was to one the voice of an arming God in the echo of each chord, and, to the other, the horse’s ha.
— “The Horse’s Ha” by Dylan Thomas
Things do seem to take place on this record in dark or darkening places, but that’s where all the interesting stuff happens, right?
— Janet Bean of the band The Horse’s Ha
While I was working on the review of Of The Cathmawr Yards— the debut album by The Horse’s Ha— I took the opportunity to read the namesake short story “The Horse’s Ha” by the Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas. “The Horse’s Ha” was included in the posthumous 1955 collection of short stories titled Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Stories. Most of the reporting about the albums release earlier in the year pointed out the Dylan Thomas short story about the fictional Cathmawr Yards cemetery where zombies lived.
The white horse in the story and its associated “raw-headed” rider represents a plague that spreads through the small Welsh village of Cathmawr Yards. The plague seemingly is causing the zombification of the residents. To be “Of The Cathmawr Yards” implies that one is undead.
What does all of this have to do with the album? At first listen, it isn’t really clear. The obscurity of the band’s name and the title of the album is matched to the obscure dark lyrics penned mostly by James Elkington whose other gig is with The Zincs and one song by Janet Bean of Freakwater and Eleventh Dream Day. The CD and white vinyl LP of Of The Cathmawr Yards provide the lyrics to the album, which, when taken out of the context of the music, are impressively poetic. It would take a lot of literary chutzpah to name your band and album after a Dylan Thomas work.
Dead wrong, dressed right for waltzes in starlight, the house is dry, the flowers grieve in their vase. –“Heiress”
There’s a whirring to a dwindling word, that fades in waves once it’s heard. Once it’s gone and you return to numb You’ll never retrieve, however you plumb. –“Plumb”
Prior to reading the short story, the repeated listens of the album presented a common thread to me. I reached out to Janet to verify that this was the case, and she said that the album has definite patterns of certain words used.
The quote from Janet about “dark and darkening places” at the beginning of this article does a good job of summing the album up for me. Taken in whole, the album is a series of vignettes taking place on a dimly-lit stage. These stories of conflict and the human condition are presented without context leaving the interpretation up to the listener. In the dramatic structure, these songs are entirely exposition and mood, but the payoff is in the presentation.
Of The Cathmawr Yards is a jazz and folk amalgam that borders on a pop sound that draws quick and pleasing comparisons to The Smiths and later Talk Talk. The instrumentation is a constant acoustic sound implementing smartly-brushed percussion as well as double bass and other strings to carry the Johnny Marr-ish clean electric guitar and the well-matched harmonies of Bean’s pretty soprano and Elkington’s soft baritone voices. This mixture reminds me also of the duet work of Richard and Linda Thompson on albums like their 1982 final work together Shoot Out The Lights. In fact, that could be considered a logical forebear of this album.
Unlike the rocky inter-personal relationship on record and off of Richard and Linda, James and Janet serve only as narrators of these songs, and it’s this almost-dreamy detachedness that provides a reserved tone to the album. A reserve that might not appeal to everyone or every situation. The album is best consumed in whole to appreciate the complete work. To my ears, this is flawless presentation with singular vision and purpose– a collection of verse set to polished music.
In the Dylan Thomas story “The Horse’s Ha,” Mr. Montgomery is presented with the irony of being the undertaker of the Cathmawr Yards, where his clientèle are undead. “Shall I measure the undead?” he asks aloud incredulously from within his own coffin– his boarded up home. It’s the feeling of being trapped in a particular situation and desire for change that is the unifying theme throughout both the short story and Of The Cathmawr Yards.
The “Cult of Personality” is back with its first new album in five years. For those who weren’t paying attention to Living Colour (and admittedly I wasn’t after 1993) the band reunited in 2000 after a five-year separation due to the old “creative differences.” In 2003 the band recorded their comeback Collideøscope for the now-defunct Sanctuary Records. On September 15, 2009 the band is releasing the follow-up album called Chair in the Doorway on their new home– Megaforce— a label known primarily for its Heavy Metal catalog which includes Anthrax, Metallica and Ministry as well as non-Metal acts like Warren Haynes and the Meat Puppets.
At the time of Living Colour’s debut 1988 album– the Grammy-winning Vivid– the band was considered very unconventional as most African American music groups in the US were either Hip Hop acts or R&B. In fact, I guess things haven’t changed much, which is ironic considering Rock and Roll’s beginnings. Even with the big steps in heavier rock made by Jimi Hendrix and to a lesser extent maybe bands like Thin Lizzy and Parliament Funkadelic the area of African American Rock Musicians is still pretty sparse. Even following the huge success of Vivid and its smash single “The Cult of Personality” the band was considered more of a curiosity than anything.
Curiosity or not, Living Colour’s success certainly paved the way for rockers like Lenny Kravitz and Rage Against the Machine as well as Body Count.
The band met in Prague in Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2009 to start writing the material that would become Chair in the Doorway. In a similar fashion to their previous albums, the songs run the gamut of styles ranging from heavy rock to blues and soul. “We feel like this is the best record we’ve made yet and couldn’t be mroe excited to be releasing it on the legendary Megaforce Records,” says guitarist Vernon Reid.
The band will be announcing plans for a world tour with dates to start in September.
Track Listing:
1. Burned Bridges
2. The Chair
3. DecaDance
4. Young Man
5. Method
6. Behind the Sun
7. Bless Those
8. Hard Times
9. Taught Me
10. Out of Mind
11. Not Tomorrow
Tortoise’s Beacons of Ancestorship— their sixth official studio album– arrives in stores and online on Tuesday, June 23rd. The release was available online for pre-order as CD, LP and mp3 and a special set of packages of the CD and LP release that included a folded poster of Beacons and a very limited brass belt buckle with the “TRTS” logo with the eye that was used on the hoodies. Apparently the buckles were only available to the first 75 preorders. The LP’s– which are 180g virgin vinyl which was mastered by Ray Janos at Stirling Sound— are sold out online, but thre should be copies available at your favorite indie record stores. It sounds like there will be a future re-repressing, too. At this moment there are still some CD+buckle packages left on the site. See the “artist’s rendering” below. I’m going to need to run to WalMart and get a belt with the snaps so I can rock this thing!
The Tortoise touring machine is getting ready to jam econo in support of the new album. They’ve been playing some sporadic shows already and are hitting some festivals, but the fall tour is already starting to shape up with some Midwestern dates starting in September and October.
Notably (for me anyway) Iowa is getting its first tour date in a very long time. The show is going to take place at the very cool Voices Warehouse Gallery in Dubuque, IA. It has a similar artsy space feel as CSPS in Cedar Rapids. I saw Bo Ramsey there in October of 2006. I called Tim McNamara who handles setting the shows up and there will be more information coming soon about tickets and the possibility of other opening acts. 10/3 ends up being the end of the season for the gallery and last year they had a number of acts playing. I’ll post an upcoming show article when I get more details.
I was at Best Buy for the release of the Iron and Wine collection of rare and b-sides called Around the Well. I had a $15 Reward Zone certificate. But, since the 2 CD release was $9.99 I needed to buy something else to bring it over the $15. I picked up Woman King by the Iron and Wine as well which was $7.99. Ever since I picked up the live Iron and Wine Record Store Day release, I’ve been trying to get caught up with Mr. Beam.
Since I was on that side of town anyway, I stopped in to Half Price Books to see if anything interesting was in the bins.
BestBuy Purchases:
Around the Well – Iron and Wine (2 CD, SubPop SPCD 808, 2009) ($9.99) Great collection and replaces the need to try to track down all of the singles, soundtracks (The “Twilight” soundtrack… “In Good Company”… yikes) as well as the iTunes Exclusives, which have now been pulled down, presumably because of this release. Lots of great songs on here– Sam Beam is so prolific that even his b-sides are quality tracks.
Woman King EP – Iron and Wine (CD, SubPop SPCD 665, 2005)($7.99) This is probably my favorite release next to 2007’s The Shepherd’s Dog. Every song on here is a keeper. Jim Becker from Califone is on this release which helps fill out the sound of the band.
Half Price Books Purchases:
The Bumper Crop – Pell Mell (LP, SST 158, 1987)($2.98) Holy crap! Certainly wasn’t expecting this in the bins. A corner-cut cut out. The bad cut job also caused a tear in the cover. You might know me in my other internet job as the guy who runs the official Pell Mell website so I collect things Pell Mell. The work for this album started in 1982 after the remaining members of Pell Mell moved to Berkeley, CA following the tour for their debut EP Rhyming Guitars. The songs for this release came from some outtakes recorded for the EP and some new material with new members Greg Freeman and Steve Fisk. This trio of Fisk, Freeman and Bob Beerman would form the basis for the remainder of Pell Mell’s career which ended after their 1997 album Star City. Pell Mell was influenced by the instrumental rock bands of the sixties and a lot of the instrumental rock bands around today (El Ten Eleven, The Six Parts Seven come to mind) owe Pell Mell for blazing the trail for them.
(self titled) – The Cars (LP, Elektra/Asylum 6E-135, 1978)($2.98)
Candy-O – The Cars (LP, Elektra/Asylum 5E-507, 1979)($2.98)
Panorama – The Cars (LP, Elektra/Asylum 5E-514, 1980)($2.98)
Shake It Up – The Cars (LP, Elektra/Asylum 5E-567, 1981($2.98)
Heartbeat City – The Cars (LP, Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch ST-E-60296-1, 1984)($2.98) This was a pretty impressive haul! Someone dumped their Cars collection apparently. All of the records were in fantastic shape with little to no cover wear. All inner sleeves were intact and the vinyl was pristine! There was actually two copies of Heartbeat City there, so I picked the best-looking one. The copy of Heartbeat City that was around my house when it came out was a cassette. The vinyl version was a very nice gatefold sleeve. The only records that were missing were the Greatest Hits and their last record Door to Door.
We also had Candy-O on cassette at the house. With its combination of pop and New Wave sensibilities coupled with the Alberto Vargas pinup cover it was an intriquing album. That was their second album, and it had the big singles “Let’s Go” and “It’s All I Can Do.” It seemed that the Cars were all over the radio and movie soundtracks. Some of the big hits from The Cars are still some of the great pop songs of all time. This selection of albums represents the peak of The Cars creative output. Just looking at the track list from 1985’s Greatest Hits album proves it: “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Good Times Roll”– all from The Cars; “Let’s Go” from Candy-O; “Touch and Go” from Panorama, “Since You’re Gone” and “Shake It Up” from Shake It Up; and “You Might Think,” “Drive,” “Heartbeat City” and “Magic” from Heartbeat City. Quite a run of singles!
Out of these, however, Panorama is probably the one that faired the worst. It only had one single– it was considered The Cars’ “experimental” album. I picked up an 8-Track version in some cutout bin a long time ago and listened to it maybe one time and dismissed it. I think that I’ll give it a fair shake now to see what I think.
In what seems to be a gobsmackingly obvious move, the major labels in conjunction with digital music retailers like Zune Store, Amazon, Rhapsody and iTunes have announced “Digital 45s” on the 60th anniversary of the 7″ 45 record.
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