Tortoise 2007 US Summer Tour Dates

Posted on March 10, 2007 by mike

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

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

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

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

Fri Jun 15
Manchester, TN
Bonnaroo Music Festival

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

Mon Jun 18
Denver, CO
Bluebird Theatre

Tue Jun 19
Salt Lake City, UT
Urban Lounge

Wed Jun 20
Phoenix, AZ
Rhythm Room

Thu Jun 21
Los Angeles, CA
El Rey Theatre

Fri Jun 22
San Francisco, CA
The Independent

Sat Jun 23
San Francisco, CA
The Independent

Mon Jun 25
Portland, OR
Aladdin Theater

Tue Jun 26
Seattle, WA
Neumos

Sat Jun 30
Minneapolis, MN
Cedar Cultural Center

Sun Jul 1
Chicago, IL
The Metro

Mon Jul 2
Ann Arbor, MI
The Blind Pig

Tue Jul 3
Toronto, ON
Lee’s Palace

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

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

Fri Jul 6
Philadelphia, PA
World Cafe

Sat Jul 7
Washington, DC
Black Cat

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

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

Posted on February 24, 2007 by mike

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

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

“Town” from Meadow

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time…

Keller Williams – Dream (review)

Posted on February 19, 2007 by mike

Keller Williams - Dream (2007)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Order Dream from iTunes and get a bonus track “Multisyllabic”
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Tortoise to Play Bonnaroo

Posted on February 14, 2007 by mike

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

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

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

Mitch Easter Releases First New Album in 18 Years

Posted on February 2, 2007 by mike

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

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

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

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

Check out two tracks from Dynamico:

Sudden Crown Drop
Time Warping

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

Posted on January 29, 2007 by mike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Los Lobos – The Town and the City (review)

Posted on January 28, 2007 by mike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Los Lobos Official Website

Podcasts for The Town and the City

Download The Road to Gila Bend.

Download The Town.

Purchase The Town and the City on iTunes

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Rare Calexico on iTunes

Posted on January 20, 2007 by mike

If you are a fan of Calexico, there are some things that you can only get on iTunes that I would recommend. Also, iTunes is a good way to get one track off of a compilation that you might not want to purchase the whole compilation to get.

I was out on iTunes this week as someone on the Yahoo Group Casadecalexico posted about a collaboration between Calexico and the Notwist on a compilation for the German label Hausmusik. While I was there I did some searching for other things Calexico and turned up some neat things. Click on the iTunes buttons to preview or get.

There is a free podcast of the show that Calexico did at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA in 2006.

Calexico: Live in Athens

Here is the Calexico and the Notwist collaboration I mentioned above titled “Careless.” I like this track a lot. Sort of a cut-up mix of Calexico.

“Careless” from You Can’t Always Listen to Hausmusik- But…

“Freunde” is another track from this compilation, this time collaborating with A Million Mercies. I’m not familiar with them, but you get to hear Calexico in German!

Calexico seems to be one of those bands that typically is drafted for tribute albums.

“I Send My Love To You” from the Will Oldham tribute album I Am A Cold Rock. I Am Dull Grass. A nice ballad. This album seems to be out of print according to the CDBaby site. I would recommend getting the whole album as it also has artists like The Iron and Wine, Mark Kozelek, Pinetop Seven, and The Court and Spark.

Here is the whole album for I Am A Cold Rock. I Am Dull Grass.

“Casey’s Last Ride” from Nothing Left to Lose: A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson. This is another cool tribute. Calexico is joined on this tribute by Califone, The Court and Spart, Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb and Grandaddy.

Here is the link for the full Nothing Left to Lose: A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson

“Wave” from Por Vida: A Tribute to Alejandro Escovedo. This compilation is pretty much a who’s who of the Americana/Alt-Country and others genre including Lucinda Williams, Lenny Kaye, Steve Earle, Sally Timms (Cowboy Junkies), Jennifer Warnes, John Cale, Los Lonely Boys, The Cowboy Junkies, Charlie Sexton, Howe Gelb, Ian Hunter, The Jayhawks, Sheila E., Chris Stamey, Son Volt, Rosie Flores, Charlie Musselwhite, M. Ward with Vic Chesnutt, the Minus 5, and Alejandro himself. Quite a cross-section of artists coming out on this one which shows what an underrated musician Alejandro really is.

Here is the link to purchase or sample the whole Por Vida album.

“Dance of Death” from the I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey album. On this album Calexico is joined by Davendra Banhart, the Fruit Bats, M. Ward, Grandaddy, Peter Case, and Howe Gelb. I guess Calexico must call Howe when they get these gigs!

The link for the whole I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey album.

“All The Pretty Horses” from At The Crossroads: A Benefit for Homeless Youth. This is also on the 2001 Tour-only CD Aerocalexico. A pretty lullabye but also a little dark it seems.

“Griptape Heart” from Graciously: A Gulf Relief Compilation. This song is also on the 2005/2006 tour-only CD The Book and The Canal. A great song with a slide guitar that reminds me of George Harrison. This compilation has Steve Wynn, Devotchka, Robyn Hitchcock, John Doe, and fellow Tucsonites Friends of Dean Martinez (whose first album included members of Calexico and Howe Gelb) and (surprise!) Howe Gelb. Howe’s song looks like it takes the “hand jive” rhythm across four songs: “I Want Candy,” “I Know What Boys Like,” “Who Do You Love,” and “Not Fade Away.” Kind of an 80’s meets 50’s thing. I may purchase that track! There was an article in the June/July 2006 issue of The Believer that followed the history of this famous rhythm. Apparently the hand-jive rhythm derives from a West African rhythm called the Juba Rhythm– which is a 3/2 syncopated rhythm made famously popular by Bo Diddley in 1955 on his “Bo Diddley” song, which was copied by everyone. (Source: “Schema: The Ends of Innocence”, Gustavo Turner, p36, The Believer, June/July 2006).

This is the link for the Graciously album.

“Gift X-Change” from Do You Think You Will Be Different When You’re Through which is another Hausmusik compilation. This track also is on the Aerocalexico CD. A Christmas song.

“La Del Ruso (Calexico Version)” from the Gotan Project remix album Inspiracion – Espiracion. The Gotan Project is a Paris-based Electronic Tango group, I guess. Calexico collaborates with the Gotan Project on this track.

iTunes is also a great way to pick tracks off of a soundtrack. Conveniently, iTunes carries the expensive soundtrack to the movie “Dead Man’s Shoes” which features four tracks from Calexico.

“Crooked Road and the Briar”

“Untitled II”

“Untitled III”

“Ritual Road Map”

“Cristal Frontier (Buscemi Remix)” from Belgian remixer Buscemi’s album Late Night Reworks a light clubby remix.

The last thing on this list is the incredible Live Session EP that you can only get on iTunes except for one track that I mentioned in an earlier post– the “Guns of Brixton” cover.

Calexico 4-track Live Session EP. Includes “Roka,” “Bisbee Blue,” “Guns of Brixton,” and “Return to Spring.” Well worth the $4.99.

I created an iMix on iTunes of the individual tracks– 18 of them including the Live Session EP. To purchase all of the tracks it would cost $17.82– not bad considering what it would cost to acquire all of the albums, and the fact that quite a bit of this is out-of-print. Note: This will only be available for one year.
Click Here for Rare Calexico on iTunes iMix

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.

Time to play b-sides

Mike Roeder muses over things musical

Category Archives: Music