Free mp3 Album Download Booming Lo-Fi Trash From Jack Logan

Booming Lo-fi TrashAlthough Jack Logan is taking a break from recording things for a while he’s managed to tide his fans over by providing two mp3 albums. The first one I reported on earlier this month was a live chestnut from his days in Liquor Cabinet. This week he provides us with an album of 4-track recordings he made “earlier this year” in his words titled whimsically enough Booming Lo-Fi Trash. While Randy Jackson might accuse Jack of being “pitchy”, Booming is 14 tracks of pure Lo-Fi Jack action, some tracks introspective, some tracks telling stories of the human condition with a dash of humor.

The cover art is classic Jack automobilia– Fifties custom with cheater slicks and tuck and roll decorated with a busty redhead perched on a valve cover of the V8.

Recommended if you like: Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, Mopar or racing for pinks.

Click Here to Download Booming Lo-Fi Trash from Sendspace

Click Here to visit Jack Logan’s CafePress Art Shop

Umphrey’s McGee Gives Back for NIU Memorial Fund and Free Show Download

As reported by their Facebook page and their website, Umphrey’s McGee–upon hearing of the tragedy that was the shootings at NIU in DeKalb, IL on February 14th decided to give back to the town that had been good to them over the years. All sales from UMLive, Umphrey’s McGee’s online store for live show downloads, poster sales and ticket sales on April 8th were donated to the NIU February 14th Memorial Fund. In an additional act of giving, Umphrey’s posted a fantastic-sounding matrix recording to Archive.org of their April 8th show at the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb that day. Mixed by sound man/band archivist Kevin Browning, the show includes one of the new songs added to their set “Rocker Part 2” as well as some fun teases. Certainly a great gesture on the band’s part. The recording is available in FLAC as well as OGG and VBR MP3. I’ve been listening to it on and off since I downloaded it, but it is a good show and a good picture of UM Live.

Umphrey’s McGee Live at the Egyptian Theatre at Archive.org

Calexico In The Studio for a September Album Release

From the Yahoo Group Casadecalexico, on March 8th it was reported by band archivist Jim Blackwood that Calexico have been in the studio working on the new album. On March 23rd it was reported on the board that Calexico’s European Booking Agency said that the release date for the new album in Europe– I suppose on City Slang— would be September 8, 2008.

Drowned in Sound reports that Calexico is set to headline the UK End of the Road Festival which takes place September 12th through the 14th and would be right on the heels of the album release.

As expected, discussions of a new Calexico brought the Garden Ruin dissenters to the fore. Some hope that Calexico’s next album will be less “rock” than Garden Ruin. I love all of the Calexico albums, but Garden Ruin is what brought them to my attention, so I don’t mind if the new release sounds a bit like it.

Click Here to visit Touch and Go’s Calexico where you can stream songs under “Featured Clips”.
Click Here for Rare Calexico on iTunes iMix icon

Jeff Parker Side Project A Cushicle Introducing The Freakadelic Sessions Released on Ropeadope Digital

Tortoise/Isotope 217/Chicago Underground/etc guitarist Jeff Parker announced this week from his MySpace page that the first of what is hopefully many releases from his improv jazz side project known as A Cushicle on Ropeadope Digital. Titled Introducing The Freakadelic Sessions, it is based on a live recording on 4/25/06 that is part of a recurring weekly series held on Tuesday nights with No Cover at the Asian Restaurant/Art Space Rodan

Jeff says

Ropeadope Digital has released the first in a series of sessions from the weekly gig I have had at Rodan for the past few years. The band is called A CUSHICLE. The release is called Introducing The Freakadelic Sessions. The musicians include: me (Jeff Parker) on guitar, Jason Ajemian on bass and Noritaka Tanaka on drums. We had a tremendous time playing together over the years and developed a truly unique way of improvising, and it is great to finally have something available for the world to hear.

The Freakadelic Sessions release is $7.99 for a 320Kbps mp3 download. CLICK HERE

Free Live Album from Jack Logan for Download

Jack Logan and Liquor CabinetFor the past couple of years Jack Logan has been posting mp3’s to his MySpace page. Jack is pretty well-known for being a “compulsive recorder” and seemingly every minute spent at an instrument is recorded.

This week Jack posted on his page that he found some live tapes of his 90’s band Liquor Cabinet in his “boxes of junk.” So, he decided to compile a live album of the two shows. Titled What’s in a Name?, it includes tracks from NYC in ’95 and Athens, GA in 1990.

I didn’t get to see Liquor Cabinet in its heyday, so this is apparently a pretty good representation of the lager-fueled punky combo according to the typically deprecating liner notes penned by Jack.

It is currently hosted on a free Sendspace account at http://www.sendspace.com/file/ljtv8v so get it while you can. Jack says that it may get posted at athensmusic.net later. Athensmusic.net is the cool site that hosted Jack’s Monday Night Recorders Singles Club back in 2004.

Click Here to visit the Monday Night Recorders Singles Club page and download more free Jack!

Rare Thrill Jockey Vinyl Discovered and Back In Stock

When I was at the Thrill Jockey 15th Anniversary shows back in December Bettina Richards told me that there was a cache of out-of-print Thrill Jockey vinyl that was discovered at their UK location. She said there was some Tortoise available among other titles.

Last Friday Thrill Jockey sent out an e-mail announcing that these titles are in stock and available for order. Some of these are impossibly rare and it’s pretty cool that they are back for a limited time. In addition to the vinyl, there are copies of Tortoise’s The Lazarus Taxon 3 CD / 1 DVD boxset that are priced lower than the original $19 price because they have some slight wear from shipping.

Don’t miss out on getting these, there won’t be another chance like this! The titles are limited to two per customer. The following titles are back:

Arbouretum – Rites of Uncovering – Arbouretum put on a great set at the Anniversary show. I reached out to David Heumann, who is also part of the great instrumental group Human Bell– to purchase a copy. The vinyl for Rites of Uncovering has been out of print for a bit with the only other vinyl in existence available from the band on tour.

Extra Golden – Ok-Oyot System – You’ve read some about Obama’s favorite Benga band on playbsides before. This is the group’s debut release on vinyl and a regular spin of mine from 2006.

Gray Market Goods – Soldier of Fortune / We Live in the Future– This is early Tortoise member Bundy K. Brown’s project from 2003. Apparently sample-based. I’ve not heard anything from it.

Daniel A.I.U. Higgs – Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot – 900 copies available from this solo release from Lungfish member Daniel A.I.U. Higgs.

Nobukazu Takemura – 10th This is one of the eclectic electronic artist’s more notable releases. This album includes “Fallslake” which Tortoise covered for the Plum box set (you can hear Tortoise’s version on their MySpace page currently). A Stereolab-sounding song, I think. update: this is now back out of print… SOLD OUT!

Chicago Underground Duo – In Praise of Shadows This is one I’m interested in picking up. Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor’s project.

Archer Prewitt – Three Archer Prewitt– from the venerable Sea and Cake’s third release, and debut on Thrill Jockey (his previous two LP efforts In The Sun and White Sky were released on Chicago label Carrot Top). Usually known as the silent partner in that band, he kicks his vocal talents to the fore and shows that his Anglophile pop whiles are as worthwhile a listen as Prekop, in my opinion.

Trans Champs – Double Exposure The Trans Champs are a combination of Thrill Jockey artists Trans Am and part of The Fucking Champs. This album was made via sharing tapes between the band.

Tortoise – It’s All Around You Wow, don’t miss out on this! It’s safe to say that this is the only Tortoise vinyl in print. Thrill Jockey is only asking a paltry $11 for this, and recent eBay auctions are creeping into the high $20’s. Update- Out of Stock!

While you’re putting your order together, don’t forget to pick up the amazing Plum 7″ box set— there’s only 50 left! The 15th Anniversary MegaMix by Trey Told ‘Em is still around, too.

Upcoming Show: Glen Phillips at the Hub in Cedar Falls, IA 4/16/08

Glen PhillipsGlen Phillips is the frontman for the 90’s alt-pop group Toad the Wet Sprocket. Since the group’s split in 1998, Glen has participated in the occasional Toad gig, but has recorded four albums– the most recent being 2006’s Mr. Lemons— and two EP’s.

Last night Glen kicked off a run of solo acoustic dates that wrap up at the end of May and include a substantial number of Midwestern dates and two in Iowa! I had a chance to see him last night at World Cafe Live in Philly and it was great! I’ll collect my thoughts on this show and post a review later. The majority of the songs come from his solo catalog but include the occasional Toad cover and an inspired cover song or two. Glen Phillips in a live solo setting is typically a pretty intimate engagement and well worth seeing.

If, like me you hadn’t been following Mr. Phillips’s solo career I recommend signing up for MyTracks if only for a month so you can download all of his solo albums and EP’s except for his 2004 effort on Lost Highway that unfortunately seems to be a sore point for him. MyTracks is a subscription download service like eMusic is. For $7.95 you can download as much as you want for a month. Unfortunately Glen Phillips likely the most recognizable artist in their growing catalog. I’ll check some other tracks out before I cancel. The live acoustic album SOhO Live is an exclusive to MyTracks. Recorded last Fall it is fairly representative of what his set is like. Another unfortunate thing about MyTracks in general is that all of the tracks are encoded at 128 Kbps. I guess with unlimited downloads one shouldn’t complain, but I might have paid more for at least SOhO Live to get a higher bitrate. The other albums are available for download at higher bitrates from Glen’s site. While you’re there take a listen to his new EP Secrets of the New Explorers— fantastic stuff!

Glen will be in Des Moines at The Temple Theatre on Monday, April 14th, followed by a show at The Hub Live on Wednesday March 16th. The Hub is a new venue to me, so it would be cool to see it– however, I’m out of town on the 16th. As I was informed last night at Glen’s show in Philadelphia by a friendly fan (thanks, Heather!), Toad the Wet Sprocket will be touring this summer and will be hitting Philly again– June 11th at the Trocadero as confirmed by their MySpace Page. My friend Andrew and I saw Calexico a couple of years ago at the Troc, and it is another fantastic Philly music venue in addition to World Cafe Live and TLA now rebranded “The Fillmore at TLA.”

Click Here to see all of the dates Glen is playing this summer.

Click Here to visit Glen’s Website
Click Here to visit Glen’s MySpace Page
Click Here to visit Toad the Wet Sprocket’s Website (which includes their live dates)
Click Here to visit Toad the Wet Sprocket’s MySpace Page

Bo Ramsey’s Fragile Released Ahead of Schedule

Bo Ramsey - FragilePreviously we announced that Bo Ramsey’s album recorded in 2007 would be released on April 8th in conjunction with some CD release shows. Since tomorrow is April 1st, I was getting ready to send an e-mail over to CDBaby to see if they were going to be ready to have the CD available for the 8th. I hit Bo’s site and imagine my surprise that the CD is available today!

For whatever reason, you can’t find the new Bo Ramsey album by doing a search of “Bo Ramsey” on the CDBaby site. But, this link works and I ordered my copy this morning! $14 plus $2.25 shipping.

Bo has two more shows on the calendar that are solo and solo with band. 4/5/08 in Minneapolis at the Cedar Cultural Center with Marty Christensen and The Englert in Iowa City on 4/26 with band. I hope we’ll get more opportunities to see Bo this summer.

Look for a review here in the near future. I have had the opportunity to hear this album in advance and my first thoughts are that this album is the logical progression from his blues cover album Stranger Blues and his best and most consistently timeless album yet.

Upcoming Show: Woven Hand at Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines 4/19/08

Back in 1996, when I was living in Minneapolis I was really into this band called 16 Horsepower. The alternative radio single “Black Soul Choir” was all over Rev105 and Sherry and I saw them play the Fine Line on 6/8/96 (according to the ticket stub I tucked into the CD sleeve of their first release on A&M Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes. At the time, I hadn’t heard anything like the hellfire and brimstone approach that lead singer David Eugene Edwards brought. The only band that had a similar sound was Miami Gun Club. These days, there are a few more bands that take the “graveyard folk” route like Devil Makes Three (previously reviewed here).

I found out from a friend of a friend that David Eugene Edwards is bringing his post-16 Horsepower band Woven Hand to Des Moines on April 19th at the hip Vaudeville Mews venue (that I still haven’t been to!). Woven Hand is still pretty similar to the sound of 16 Horsepower but it has a slightly updated sound. I’m catching up… Edwards seemed to command the stage when I saw him in 1996, so I can only assume he’ll put on a great show these days. Only $8!

Visit the Woven Hand MySpace Page
Visit the Woven Hand website
Visit the 16 Horsepower website

Listen to “Black Soul Choir” Live

B-Sides in the Bins #24 – Cedar Rapids 3/9/08

On Sunday my wife and daughter wanted to do some shopping at Lindale Mall before going to dinner at Biaggi’s so I dropped them off and went to Half Price Books to do some browsing. I picked up a couple of CD’s, coincidentally both related to the Jayhawks.

Gary Louris – Vagabonds (CD, Rykodisc RCD 10925, 2008)($7.98) Even though I’ve already purchased this on vinyl and mp3’s– when I saw this in the CD bin used I couldn’t pass it up. This release isn’t even that old, so I was surprised to see it. Plus, I didn’t have a 320Kbps rip for my iPod. This is certainly an early pronouncement, but Vagabonds is one of my top releases of 2008. There are purists out their who are decrying the too-polished feel of the production that Chris Robinson of the Crowes brought. I like the Early Seventies feel about it– some of the songs remind me of the cover songs that Foamfoot did at the Troubador in Los Angeles in 1994. Foamfoot was a band that Chris Robinson and Marc Ford from the Black Crowes put together with some other folks including Gary Louris. The bootleg I have has covers of songs by Free, Blind Faith, Marshall Tucker, the Small Faces, CSN and others. So, it doesn’t surprise me that this record has these influences since that was the music they played together. Really, the Black Crowes always sounded like a potpourri of these influences. Robinson’s involvement in Vagabonds started with his assistance producing the Gary Louris / Mark Olson record which should see the light of day later in 2008 after Mark and Gary have toured their current solo efforts.

Mark Olson and the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers – My Own Jo Ellen (CD, Hightone Records HCD8127, 2000) ($5.95) This is a cut-out of Mark’s 2000 release with his ex, Victoria Williams. A nice, loose affair with electric guitars. In some respects, I like this better than his new release. It needs some more “burn in time” before I can make a more formed opinion.