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Scion CD Sampler – Volume 19 : Daptone Remixed (review)

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Scion CD Sampler - Volume 19It seems that 2007 was a year of a resurgence in interest of old-school Soul, Funk and R&B. Maybe it was the unexpected passing of Funk Brother #1 James Brown that caused people to look back at the music he influenced. We also saw the 50th Anniversary of Stax Records and the renewed interest that brought.

This year I reviewed two albums that honored the legacy of this style. On SciFidelity there was the Greyboy Allstars, and the Galactic album’s Nawlins-funk-meets-Indie-Rap. I also discovered the sometime Wu-Tang backing band the El Michels Affair on one of my Bins trips.

This year also saw the noveau-R&B release from gap-toothed, tattooed and beehive coiffed Amy Winehouse. Her producer Mark Ronson– aka the Wedding DJ to the Stars also released an album using the same backing band as the Winehouse record– the fantastic Dap-Kings from New York City for his covers album Version.

It’s the Dap-Kings who serve as the houseband for the temple of retro cool Daptone Records and serve primarily as the band for the amazing soul-diva Sharon Jones, whose 100 Days, 100 Nights is in constant rotation in my car. She’s been in a long tour since summer which included a stop at jamband festival Langerado where she brought the house down and has been selling out venues since.

Daptone is a record collector’s dream. All of their releases are on vinyl, CD and download– so take your pick! They are believers in the 7″ single, too and have quite a catalog of those to chose from. By the way, they have just brought some of the out-of-print 7-inches back into print, so run over there to get your hands on them!

Although I don’t picture a Scion Xb as being the appropriate car to pick Sharon Jones up for a date in– I tend to think of a gold 1969 Cadillac DeVille, really– the little brother division of Toyota has an appreciation for the singular vision of Soul that Sharon and her labelmates on Daptone keep.

Scion has apparently been producing sampler CD’s for a while— most of them about underground hip-hop it seems utilizing the most noted remixers and artists to compile them over their 19 CD run. I’ve been pretty impressed with Scion’s position as an affordable tuner car that attempts to identify with their consumer by providing an identity for the car and its fans/owners. These promotional sampler CD’s are available at Scion sponsored events, which would presumably include Hot Import Nights and maybe the Chicago Auto Show. The tracks are also available via iTunes and Rhapsody. In a really nice move, the production of the music was footed by Scion and all of the proceeds of the digital sales will go directly to Daptone! As cool as that is, I was a bit disappointed that only the Remixed CD and not the Originals was included for digital distribution– so I made an iMix in iTunes compiling the original tracks so you guys can get those, too. See the links below.

Volume 19 of the Scion Sampler series titled Daptone Records Remixed in its CD format is a 2-CD compilation of Daptone artists like Jones, The Budos Band, The Daktaris and the Sugarman Three. The first CD is the Remixes. Nine Daptone tracks manipulated by the likes of Mark Ronson, DJ Spinna, Hank Shocklee, Mad Professor, and Kenny Dope— all noted producers that bring their special flava to these vintage tracks. The second CD is a disc of the original tracks– a very nice touch. It gives you the ability to hear the songs in their original arrangements and places the remixes in the appropriate context. I have to say that the remixers really didn’t do anything dramatic to the tracks in most cases which shows the respect that they had for the songs. Really, the remixes are very nice compliments to the original tracks. Man, a really cool thing would be for Daptone to release 12″ vinyl with the original track on one side with it’s remix on the flip! It’s pretty clear that Daptone recognizes the larger-than-life personality and voice of Sharon Jones as the spokesperson for the label as every other song on this compilation is hers.

The remix of The Budos Band’s “Chicago Falcon” takes the instrumental track and adds Rap MC Wale over the top in a pretty straightforward old school-style sampling of the original track. This remix is done by Mark Ronson who’s partnership with the Dap-Kings I mentioned earlier.

The remix of Jones and the Dap-Kings “Keep On Looking” by Kenny Dope starts with an appropriate sample of Sharon singing “Break it down, break it down” followed by a break before bringing the song back in with a bumped up drum and bass beat. This is one of my favorite remixes on this record.

Appropriately enough, dub mastermind Mad Professor converts the afrobeat “Eltsugh Ibal Lasiti” by the Daktaris into a massive dub track maintaining the guitars and horns as the staples behind the beat. A really fun track that would be great to drop in a mix of reggae.

“Standing in Your Love” is a fun vintage-styled R&B duet between Sharon Jones and Lee Fields where two estranged lovers have to come to terms over a situation involving a stolen car. The “Sweet Nothing Mix” by Queens-native MC Cool Calm Pete transforms the song into a bitter kiss off.

Neal Sugarman is the sax player and leader of the Sugarman Three as well as the founder of Daptone Records. “Take It As It Come” featuring Charles Bradley is one of the label’s classic platters and its driving funk pays tribute to James Brown. Afrodisiac Soundsystem takes the instrumentals and samples them back to a staccato beat and dub stabs of sax and layers Charles’s vocals back over it showing how much of the song’s funk really comes from his delivery of the vocals.

“How Long Do I Have To Wait” by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings from their album Naturally always reminds me of the classic 1967 hit from Brenton Wood “Gimme Little Sign.” The remix by Ticklah aka Victor Axelrod brings the song to its knees in ska time. Victor is a member of the Easy Star All-Stars who put out the fantastic tribute record Dub Side of the Moon from 2003 as well as the Radiodread tribute. Victor is also a member of Antibalas whose 2007 release Security got a post-rock makeover from John McEntire. The vinyl version of their album Who Is This America? is on Daptone records.

Next up is another track from the fantastic Budos Band— the smoky “T.I.B.W.F” and its Ray Manzarek sounding keyboard. The remix is done by none other than Timebomb Squad founding member Hank Shocklee. He extends the song another minute and gives it a loping beat focusing on the horns and guitar. He breaks the song down in the middle and helpfully explains “This is A Remix.”

Sharon comes back exclaiming that her “Man is A Mean Man” with its fast tempo shuffling beat. DJ Spinna samples the drums and pulls them out of the left channel and shifts them front-and-center giving it a more “funky drummer” feel and helping anchor this song in a more dance-friendly form and extending the song out past six minutes. Spinna accomplished this by adding a break-down section pulling in vocals and instruments in pieces. DJ Spinna does one of my favorite remixes from the Quannum catalog. He does a great remix of Lyrics Born’s track with the Poets of Rhythm “I Changed My Mind.” By the way, I noticed that the Poets who were discovered by Lyrics Born moved from Quannum to Daptone!

The final track is the Bull Jun remix of the Sugarman Three and Co’s “Bosco’s Blues” that has Large Professor rapping over the last half of the song. His call out to Daptone and the listeners is a nice way to wrap up, I think. This is the first mix on the record to include scratching, which is odd.

For a cross-marking item like this I am impressed with the quality– it wasn’t thrown together like an afterthought. All of the tracks are quality efforts from the producers and really has some details that make this a real gem! I did my best to provide what I think are important details about this release. Unfortunately, there isn’t much for liner notes to this record other than the press release and the two paragraphs in the CD version.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Scion Sampler, Vol. 19 - Daptone Records Remixed
Click Here to Order the Daptone Remixes from iTunes

Daptone Originals iMix icon to Order the Daptone Originals iMix from iTunes

Lyrics Born Live in Minneapolis 10/25/07

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Lyrics Born on Stage

As kind of a belated-birthday present to me, Sherry and I went to Minneapolis to see Lyrics Born live at The Foundation. It was almost a year to the date from last year’s show. This show was pretty much halfway through the Auto Reverse Tour. One pleasant difference from last year’s show was that the temperature was much milder so hanging outside waiting for the venue to open wasn’t as bad.

The Foundation made some changes since last year’s show. They added a stage and DJ Booth opposite of where the band performed. This stage took up a lot of the old dance floor. I guess that where the band was set up isn’t really a stage. You can see in some of the pictures below that the band is pretty much at the same level as the crowd who is behind a metal fence. As much as I like to see acts at the Foundation, it’s a bit odd and difficult to get a good view of the band without being up against the barrier. We learned something from last year’s show– order bottle service! This gives you a dedicated place to sit and you have a guaranteed waitress. Bottle service for hard liquor is a lot more expensive than wine– which is what we ordered. We got a Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz, which happily was pretty good and is available cheaply at our favorite grocery store. The waitress sat us up on the stage opposite the band on a plush leather couch all by ourselves. The VIP area and access to this stage were roped off, so we were only sharing the area with the VIP folks and some other photographers.

LB and P-Dub

There was no opening act, so the Foundation DJ who plays most of the Saturday shows (I guess) spun a really nice set of hiphop, triphop, Quannum/Solesides and some 80’s r&b. A nice set that was a crowd pleaser and a good warm-up to LB and Crew. While that was going on, I got to meet Justin Berger who currently manages Lyrics Born’s website and MySpace page in addition to documenting the tour in progress by videotaping and creating the LBTV content. Justin is a really cool guy and hung out with us on the “stage” filming the whole show with a mini-DV cam.

Joyo Velarde

The show was in a lot of respects very similar to last year’s show and the same as the Overnite Encore CD. The band lineup was different from last time– The ever-present Joy was still there, as well as Uber-funker Uriah Duffy on bass and B’Nai Rebelfront on guitars. Mike Blankenship (aka Cap’n Patches according to on LBTV episode) replaced Kat Ounao on keys and P-Dub replaced Darius Minaee. This band was just as tight as last year’s lineup.

Uriah Duffy wows the girls in the front row.

Ultimately, I thought the show was great– the interplay between Joy and LB is great and a real crowd-pleaser especially during the “Love Me So Bad” duet. Uriah Duffy provides some great showmanship during his bass solos. The new songs that we heard from this show– “2 Hott 2 Cold” and “Hot 2 Deff”– both fit in with the older songs. The songs from Later That Day at this point are considered “classics” after having been toured constantly since the album’s release in 2003. I was pleased to hear th e new tracks brought out as it gave us some different moments in the show. Some of the “skits” were the same as last time and the album like the crowd teaser before “Callin’ Out” where LB threatens to go home. He does it well and gets the crowd going, but I hope to see some different stuff next time. I’m sure that Lyrics Born is already thinking about how he’s going to tour after the new album drops in March of ’08. The move from a samples and turntables show to a live band show was a huge deal at the time and I really think takes his show to the next level performance-wise. I hope he continues with this idea into the next tour.

I thought a really nice shoutout/props to Minneapolis was that during one of the early songs in the set (maybe “Stop Complaining?”) the band broke it down and they all started doing “The Bird” popularized by Prince proteges Morris Day and the Time seen in the movie “Purple Rain.” Very cool, although I don’t know how many people in the audience were old enough to remember The Time!

LB and Joy during

Here is the setlist from this show:

1. Hello
2. Shake It Off
3. I Like It, I Love It
4. Stop Complaining / Jam
5. Aim for the Flickering Flame
CAN YOU FEEL It (intro into pack up remix)
6. Pack Up Remix / Rich Boy (2nd verse had a Rich Boy sample added in to the song)
7. Knock Knock
8. 2 Hott 2 Cold *new song
9. Hot 2 Deff *new song
BAND INTROS
10. Callin’ Out
11. I Changed My Mind
12. Bad Dreams
13. Love Me So Bad
14. Do That There

Visit Lyrics Born’s MySpace Page to hear a live version of “Hot 2 Deff” with guest Chali 2na from the forthcoming Everywhere at Once dropping March 18, 2008 on Anti- Records.

Here is my flickr Photoset of the show with extra shots.

Here are pictures taken by BBGunBilly hosted on the Foundation website.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Live in Iowa City 10/1/07

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Ryan Adams

Following the controversial Minneapolis show on September 27th, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this show. In fact, there were rumors that this show was canceled even on the day of the show. I verified that he’d played the following two nights in Madison and Chicago and that he’d been playing encores for those shows. This was the first time I’ve seen Ryan Adams live and the first time at the IMU Main Room.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

The IMU Main Room venue is like a big ballroom from the 1920’s. According to the IMU site the “Main Lounge” was in use in 1927. Big arched ceilings with a sizable stage. A very nice place to see a show like this. The seating was general admission and the ushers made sure every seat was occupied. I don’t think the show sold out, but it was very full by the time the show started. Before the band took the stage a guy in a vintage Army-style helmet came out and read from a piece of paper that the band would start at quarter after the hour, and stated, “The first rule is there are no rules,” and then explained that the stage would be very dark and that the band plans a varied setlist from night to night and shouting song titles out would be a way to get that song removed from the set. I saw the results of this later when a lady shouted out “Stars Go Blue!” and Ryan asked if there were any other songs we didn’t want to hear! It sounded like he was joking, and probably the set didn’t include that song anyway.

I was pretty surprised at how vocal the audience was considering the announcement by the Army Helmet guy and the fact that people were pretty much sequestered to their general seats. At one point a guy ran up from the back of the auditorium to the front of the stage with his cellphone camera and took pictures at which point security came up and took him back– presumably to his seat.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the performance. The performance was partially astounding music and partially Ryan providing loose, disarming, and often funny non-sequiturs. He arrived on stage wearing an “I (heart) I.C.” where the heart was replaced with a pot leaf. He frequently mentioned that he wanted a cigarette– and that he had just quit smoking that day. He seemed concerned that he might not be able to play if he wasn’t smoking! At one point he confessed that he loved puppies and wanted to smother himself in them. He also told a funny story about visiting the namesake location in the Don Henley song “Sunset Grill” and how it was a fly-infested dump and how he was confused about how Henley could have drawn inspiration from it. He likened it to writing a song about Denny’s at which point he improvised a song about Denny’s. Pretty funny!

Ryan and Strat

The music performance was an intense passionate experience. I was floored by the Cardinals– I didn’t expect them to be the fit they were. They played with a polish that can only come from the extensive touring that they do. Their vocal harmonies blend perfectly with Ryan’s. I was particularly stunned by the harmonies in “Dear John.”

The setlist– as expected– had quite a few tracks from Easy Tiger, but also a big selection from Cold Roses. I really have started to love “Let It Ride.” The next night I heard it in the movie “Lucky You” with Drew Barrymore which was a cool coincidence.

The encore was my favorite part of the show. The band was in really good form and Ryan was in good spirits even without cigarettes and they delivered an extended jam on Rip Off, Easy Plateau and Bartering LInes.
Ryan Adams

Since the show I’ve spent more time with Ryan’s catalog. I probably should have done that before the show to prepare for it, but I feel that having heard the live show I have a better understanding of the songs. I think that the Cardinals as a backing band really come in to their own in the live setting– much more than I was giving them credit for listening to the studio releases with them. Ryan is a perfectionist and I think somewhat misunderstood by the press. Some of the comments that are quoted out of context make him sound more “unstable” than he really is. He wants to deliver the best show he can, and that requires sticking to setlists and having PA’s that function. I look forward to his next releases and the opportunity to see them live again.

Setlist (from Answeringbell.com)

Goodnight Rose
Cold Roses
Beautiful Sorta
Two
Dear John (Ryan on Hammond)
Games
Everybody Knows
The Rescue Blues
Peaceful Valley
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Wild Flowers
Shakedown On 9th Street
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Off Broadway
Nightbirds (Ryan on Hammond)
The Sun Also Sets
Let It Ride
Magnolia Mountain

Encore:
Rip Off
Easy Plateau >
Bartering Lines

Update (6/20/11) You can listen to a matrix recording of the show at archive.org! CLICK HERE.

Galactic – From the Corner to the Block (review)

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From the Corner to the BlockGalactic is an instrumental jazz and funk band in the vein of another New Orleans-resident band The Meters. The band started in 1994 and until 2004 had a vocalist named Theryl DeClouet. Although they also pulled in other notable vocalists and musicians especially in their live sets.

From the Corner to the Block is the first record without DeClouet and the first on the increasingly-interesting Epitaph subsidiary label Anti-. Anti- is also the home of Americana artists like Joe Henry, Bettye LaVette, Neko Case, old-school country acts like Porter Waggoner and Merle Haggard, uncharacterizable guys like Nick Cave and his projects and Tom Waits, alt-whatever acts like Spoon (in the UK anyway, its on Merge in the US). It’s the increasing stable of HipHop atists that is really surprising, however– Anti- has had Blackalicious since their last album, as well as the controversial Coup, and now Lyrics Born will be releasing his anticipated follow-up to the groundbreaking Later That Day titled Everywhere at Once on Anti- in February 2008.

So, it might not be very surprising that the collection of MC’s Galactic is backing on their new release draws heavily on ‘Yay Area artists and friends of the former Quannum acts Blackalicious and Lyrics Born. The Gift of Gab who provides the growling “The Corner” is the MC from Blackalicious is also one of the MC’s of The Mighty Underdogs. The upcoming release Dropping Science Fiction by the Mighty Underdogs will include Quannum labelmate Lateef the Truth Speaker, who contributes a thumping “No Way” to the Galactic album. Vursatyl from Quannum act the Lifesavas is on here, too, with a track with harmonies that remind me of classic War. Chali 2na who is the former MC from Jurassic 5 lays his signature baritone on “Think Back” a song of “Mental Landmarks.” LB provides a characteristically anthemic shouter in the same vein as his contribution “Let Me In, Let Me Out” on Tommy Guerro’s 2006 release From the Soil to the Soul.

There has always been this flirtation of hiphop and rock/funk. We’ve seen lots of examples of this over the years– notably Philly band The Roots and I suppose the late-90’s Beastie Boys albums Ill Communication and Check Your Head where they dabbled in live instruments and B3. According to Ben Ellman who provides sax and harmonica to the Galactic mix the band hadn’t set out to make a strictly hiphop album. They consider the album to be a funk album that happens to feature hip-hop vocals. I guess it is all symantics in the end, as this album does a fantastic job of melding the two genres. Some of the credit is due to engineer Count who worked on DJ Shadow’s last album The Outsider which also included some live instruments.

I’ve been listening to this album for a couple of weeks and have noticed how well it stands up for repeated listenings. My observation is that the vocalists on this album work well as their style works well with live instrumentation. These are MC’s with real musical aptitude. Lyrics Born has been touring with a live band for over two years and he signed German Uber-funkers The Poets of Rhythm to Quannum and used them on “I Changed My Mind” which has been a live staple. Chali 2na used to be part of Ozomatli and worked with Dave Matthews Band on Jurassic 5’s last album. Boots Riley from the Coup whose “Hustle Up” track is either a call to party or a call to fight worked with members of P-funk, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, and Jesse Johnson on their Anti- release Pick A Bigger Weapon.

In between this very impressive stable of MC’s we get a couple of way-too-abbreviated Galactic instrumental interludes, but we also get the very funky collaboration with turntable genius Z-Trip. Z takes a lot of flack for including rawk in his sets, but clearly demonstrates he knows his way around the “one.”

As I was watching the MTV 2007 VMA’s last night it’s clear to me that most of the hiphop that is on popular radio has lost its soul. This soul which comes from understanding the legacy of funk and R&B of Motown, Stax, and the funk of the JB’s. From the Corner to the Block was intended to modernize the New Orleans sound. Welcome to the new Mardi Gras sound.

Listen to “Think Back” with Chali 2na

Listen to “What You Need” with Lyrics Born

Purchase From the Corner to the Block from Amazon.com

Galactic - From the Corner to the Block Purchase From the Corner to the Block from iTunes

Galactic’s MySpace Page with a couple of tracks and tour dates

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – This Is Somewhere (review)

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This Is SomewhereApparently Grace Potter is early enough in the arc of her career that she doesn’t get blatantly pissed off when presented with the natural comparisons about her band’s sound. When you are relatively new in the scene comparisons are the only useful way to explain to others what the band sounds like. A lot of the reviews and interviews drag the band across comparisons that run from (a young) Linda Ronstadt to Janis Joplin to Bonnie Raitt and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Black Crowes.

On their third album and first major-label release Grace and the Nocturnals are kicking it 1973-style. While Neil Young proclaimed that Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, this group claims the opposite in This is Somewhere. Somewhere seems to be the accomplished classic sound that the band effortlessly evokes.

The band appears to have fallen into the jamband genre– they opened for Trey Anastasio, they are from Burlington, Vermont (onetime home of Phish) and are going to be touring opening for Gov’t Mule through October. However, on This is Somewhere the band has put together a concise, consistent album of ballads, stomping soulful rockers, driving funky rolling piano-fueled songs, Faces-era dirty slide blues and a gospel tune that I think has a wider appeal than the summer festival crowds. I’ve had the promo for this album for over two weeks and have listened to it I’m sure over a dozen times. I found the album stands up to repeated listenings and manages to provide some nice head-bobbing hooks. I really like this album and am looking forward to seeing Grace and Co. live. I’m already downloading some of the shows out on Archive.org (see link below).

Some standout songs on This Is Somewhere are the subtle protest song “Ah Mary,” the stomping, sexy call for love “Stop the Bus,” “Mr. Columbus” which reminds me of the Heartbreakers– particularly the main guitar lick, “Falling or Flying,” and “Big White Gate.” The last two I listed are the last two tracks on the album and provide a very powerful conclusion. “Falling or Flying” is a soulful, bluesy song of reflection and hope and probably my favorite song on the record.

To date the band has appeared on network TV shows in support of This Is Somewhere three times (Leno, Good Morning America, and Craig Ferguson) and Grace Potter provides a strong, pretty front to her band and I’m sure that this group is destined for more exposure. Her soulful belting voice and mini-cocktail dresses exposing her legs behind her Gibson Flying-V guitars leaves a pretty memorable impression. Interviews with Grace I’ve read portray an earthy, honest, and grounded band excited for this opportunity to take their careers to the next level.

On “Falling or Flying” Grace sings “so, play every show like it’s your last” and it seems like this band is taking their own advice.

Buy This Is Somewhere from Amazon.com

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - This Is Somewhere Buy This Is Somewhere from iTunes

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals MySpace Page

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals Official Website

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at archive.org Live Music Archive

Listen to “Ah Mary” from This is Somewhere

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at Indie911.com with a Hoooka

Tortoise Live in Minneapolis 6/30/07

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Tortoise Set List 6/30/07 Sherry and I managed to get three trips to Minneapolis in June– the first two trips were weddings of cousins of hers and the last trip was to see Tortoise at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. I hadn’t been to the Cedar before so I was interested to see what it was like. This would be the first time I have been able to take decent pictures of Tortoise– the last time I saw them was in 2005 in Madison with Daniel Lanois. My pictures from that show were taken with my Treo. This time I was able to bring in my new 10 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel XTi and my super-fast Canon EF 55mm f/1.8 lens that allowed me to take these accompanying shots without a flash. This lens is $75 and everyone should have one!

While the show was General Admission, I incorrectly assumed that it would have theatre-style seating the way the Barrimore in Madison did. The Cedar is laid out like a gymnasium. There were three sets of three rows of seats along the walls. Thankfully we showed up early enough that we could get seats, but they were on floor level with the standing crowd so sitting in the seats meant you couldn’t see the stage. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get very close to the stage for shots head on, so the best shots were from the left side of the stage.

The opening act was Make Believe. I hadn’t heard of them but they were apparently a touring version of the band Joan of Arc. Looking at some stuff online tonight, apparently the lead singer left the band the show after this one. Frankly, the band really had a problem with the lead singer as far as a number of folks that I talked to were concerned. The band was loud, angular, dissonant like Sonic Youth in their punkier days. The lead singer was really not too interested in being there based on the wandering between-song cracks and dialog with the audience. My wife said that she could deal with the band and that they were pretty good, but the singer didn’t seem to be in sync with them. I would agree. We’ll see what happens with Make Believe if they get a new singer.

Doug McCombs Tuning the Bass VIJeff Parker Tuning Up

After a quick break that had Tortoise setting themselves up– you have to respect a band that still lugs their gear– Tortoise hit the stage and performed what was the best show I’d seen in the four times I’ve seen them since 1998. I think that it helps that they have been touring most of these songs since 2005’s It’s All Around You. These songs and transitions have become very tight and Tortoise seemed very comfortable– they were even talking to the audience! Listening to my collection of live recordings of Tortoise dating back to their first gig in 1992 I very rarely hear much commentary from the band save an occasional “Thanks!”

Herndon and Parker on the Pad

After a funny exchange with the audience about this being an all-ages show and some cracks about how old the band is, they launched into a great “Magnet Pulls Through > Eden 2” followed by “Five Too Many” and “Ten-Day Interval.” The band had done this particular line up of songs earlier in the tour and someone online referred to this as the “number” set of songs.

Tortoise

The rest of the set contains many of the standard songs the band has been playing on tour drawing mainly from the last three albums– It’s All Around You, Standards, and TNT with the occasional song from the first two. That night the band seemed particularly inspired and energetic. I understand that Tortoise is already working on the next album and I hope that this burst of energy means that this album will be as strong as the last three.

Bitney, McEntire, Parker

I’m always astounded by the lock-step drumming that McEntire and Herndon execute on the songs where there are two drummers. It seems to require what would be heavy concentration– with McEntire’s “thousand-yard stare” that has been commented on. McEntire and Herndon provide their drumming prowess in Bumps with Dan Bitney which is a side project that has created a record of beats on the hiphip label Stones Throw.

The encore was a surprise as they did the equivalent of two encores! We were also treated to an “Omnichord” which is always a welcome sonic blast. During the encore, Dan told the audience that they would be covering “Sailing” by Christopher Cross or “Baker Street” as a tribute to songs played at weddings. Instead we were treated to a soaring finale of “Salt the Skies.”

Doug McCombs

A fantastic show that makes me anxious to hear what’s next for Tortoise.

During the teardown, I asked one of the guys helping for a copy of the setlist– that is the handwritten abbreviations at the top and left of this article. This one was taped to Doug McCombs’ pile of effects pedals.

I managed to connect with the taper of this show and I’m working with him on the setlist and edits. I will be seeding this as a torrent on bt.etree.org in the future.

Bad Religion – New Maps of Hell (review)

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New Maps of Hell by Bad ReligionBad Religion was one of those bands that I had heard of but never had the opportunity to hear prior to this release. New Maps of Hell marks the fourteenth release by Bad Religion in their 27-year history. Those 27 years have seen the band with a number of member changes– this version of Bad Religion is a superset of the vocalists, guitarists and bass player the band has had over the years. The core of the band is the three original members Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett “Mr. Brett” Gurewitz (guitars), and Jay Bentley (bass). Added to them is Greg Hetson (guitars) from the legendary Circle Jerks and Brian Baker (guitars) from Minor Threat. On drums for the last three albums is session player Brooks Wackerman who does a capable job catapulting the avalanche of guitars on this album. With a pedigree like this you would expect a textbook execution of punk and hardcore.

Except it really isn’t.

New Maps of Hell seems to me to be the refinement of– and possibly the development of– the punk and hardcore sound that the members of this band helped define in the ’80s and ’90’s. With a lot of help from Grammy-nominated producer Joe Barresi who worked on albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Tool and Weezer we have a very polished and consistent record– almost RADIO FRIENDLY. The album’s first single “Honest Goodbye” is being pushed to alternative markets already. That is a good midtempo rocker to bring the appeal to the masses with its anthemic lead vocals from Graffin and sunny almost Queen-like harmonies.

I’ve had the opportunity to listen to this album during my morning commute for a couple of weeks. Initially I was a bit put off by the fact that all of the songs have exactly the same production, but it is a grower and I found myself singing along with the choruses on most of the songs. Some standout tracks are “Honest Goodbye,” “Heroes & Martyrs,” “Dearly Beloved,” the rallying cry of “New Dark Ages,” “Lost Pilgrim.” “Before You Die” sounds like a song Green Day wishes they recorded.

The album’s lyrics, while not specifically political in nature, deliver a message of disappointment and disillusionment with the current state of Western society. It is this frustration that propels the tempo and mood of the album. A consistent snapshot of the Summer of 2007. Forty years after the Summer of Love we are living the same hangover that followed it.

In a recent interview with Mr. Brett by Billboard about New Maps he states that the original plan for the album was for it to be a two record affair with more variety of style and technique– a sort of White Album that would allow them to revisit their older sound. I think that would be a good next move the band. The album wraps up with “Fields of Mars”– a song with pianos in the opening and bridge that seem out-of-place on this album but that possibly hint where they might have gone.

Be sure to catch Bad Religion this summer as part of the Warped Tour which will be playing near you.

Click Here to listen to “Heroes and Martyrs” from New Maps of Hell.

Bad Religion’s MySpace Page with a number of tracks from New Maps

Bad Religion’s Official Web Page

Get New Maps of Hell from Amazon.com

Adam Franklin – Bolts of Melody (review)

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Bolts of Melody Adam Franklin is the former frontman for shoegazer/psychedelic group Swervedriver that existed from 1991-1999. Swervedriver recorded five albums before breaking up. Their first album Raise was on Creation Records in the UK which was also the home of My Bloody Valentine. Their first single “Son of Mustang Ford” which was a tribute of sorts to T-Rex gained them enough recognition that they were signed to A&M in the US. I saw the video for “Son” on MTV’s 120 Minutes and was moved to buy that album and the companion EP Reel to Real.

The story goes that Creation Records nearly went broke due to the obsessively-recorded Loveless by My Bloody Valentine so the record label was not able to spend any money promoting Swervedriver or their following albums Mezcal Head and Ejector Seat Reservation. Swervedriver was subsequently dropped from A&M after Raise and fell off the U.S. radar until they were picked up by Zero Hour in 1998 and they released their last album 99th Dream.

Since Swervedriver’s breakup in 1999, frontman Adam Franklin has been busying himself recording six releases under the name Toshack Highway.

Adam’s seventh release– and first under his name– is Bolts of Melody and will come out on June 26th on Hi-Speed Soul.

I feel the album picks up nicely where Swervedriver left off. It incorporates the many-layered chorus of guitars swirling around the melodies sustained by Adam’s distinct laid-back vocal styles. There is a more 60’s guitar pop feel with Adam wearing influences from garage bands and psychedelia groups. I’ve been listening to this regularly since I received the promo and it has been a good soundtrack for the Spring that I’m sure will continue through the Summer weeks.

Bolts includes some previously-released tracks from Toshack Highway including the two versions of “Birdsong” and “Theme from LSD” from the Birdsong EP and “Syd’s Eyes” from the single of the same name. I think that the Birdsong tracks fit on the album pretty well, but “Syd’s Eyes” seems to stick out a bit more than I like from a production and song style.

Adam will be touring in support of Bolts of Melody with a barrage of West Coast dates through the middle of July. I hope he’ll extend this run though the Midwest! I think a stop at the Picador may be in order. He is also working on a collaboration with Sam Fogarino from Interpol they are calling The Setting Suns. The Setting Suns album is planned for release this Fall.

Be sure to visit Swervedriver.com as they have a bunch of rare mp3’s from Swervedriver and Toshack Highway worth downloading.

Listen to “Sieze the Day” from Bolts of Melody.

Purchase Bolts of Melody from Amazon.

Adam Franklin Live Dates

07/02 New York, NY Mercury Lounge (Album release show)
07/13 Seattle, WA KEXP (In-studio)
07/14 Seattle, WA The Crocodile Cafe
07/14 Seattle, WA Sonic Boom Records (In-store)
07/15 Portland, OR The Doug Fir
07/15 Portland, OR Jackpot Records (In-store)
07/16 San Francisco, CA Cafe du Nord
07/17 Los Angeles, CA The Echo
07/18 San Diego, CA The Casbah
07/18 M-Theory Music (In-store)

B-Sides in the Bins #11 – Cedar Rapids 5/14/07

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Prestige Jazz – Various (CD Starbucks Entertainment/Concord Records FSP-1504-2/CDS-055, 2007)($13.95) Okay, I’m a sucker. When I’m on the road for work I drink Starbucks Coffee. When I’m standing in line waiting for my ventelattefrappecappuchino I look at the CD’s conveniently placed next to where I have to wait for my order. Usually I don’t see anything that I haven’t heard before or I would be particularly interested in. When I was in Austin last month I stumbled across a title that I initially resisted temptation over. However, the urge became too strong and I found it in Cedar Rapids. The CD is called “Prestige Jazz” and is a compilation of 50’s and 60’s jazz artists from the venerable Prestige label which during its heyday was as big a deal as Blue Note.

“Prestige Jazz” is a compilation of songs from the likes of The Modern Jazz Quartet, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy and Sonny Rollins and is one of the first releases on the controversial Starbucks Entertainment label. You may have heard about Starbucks Entertainment in the press recently as it will be releasing Paul McCartney’s next album.

The packaging is really smart– white with the familiar 1960’s Prestige logo on it– it drew my eye immediately from between the other CD’s. Nice pop-artish graphics and beautiful photographs of the artists from the Michael Ochs Archives. Each song has a little paragraph talking about the song and the artist. Certainly a great primer for Jazz neophytes.

The release is sort of a cross promotional deal as it is a compilation of the recent remastering that the Prestige titles are going through by Rudy Van Gelder who recorded some of the great Jazz albums from that period. Of the songs I’d only heard “Django” by The Modern Jazz Quartet and “Like Someone In Love” by John Coltrane before. A nice addition to my small-but-growing Prestige collection and gives me ideas for other titles to look for. A good Jazz compilation when you need a jazz mix as well.

Looking at the website, it looks like they have a Riverside comp as well… another ventiwhitechocolatemochawithwhip please…

2005 Fender American Stratocaster Hard Tail (review)

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2005 Strat HardTail A couple of weekends ago I was out to lunch with my friend Erik and decided to visit the Cedar Rapids Music-Go-Round to see if they had anything interesting in stock. Over lunch we were discussing the amazing finds that he and our friend Andrew had in that store.

Admittedly Music-Go-Round can be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to really great finds at a good price. Quite a bit of their stock caters to the beginner or low-budget musicians– the guy who really wants a Gibson Les Paul, but only has the funds for the LTD version of it (a good version for the price, BTW). When we got there they had quite a few Fenders hanging on the wall– a couple of Mexicans– but they had two American Stratocasters as well. One was a 2001 Hot Rod Red with tremolo and rosewood fretboard and the other was the 2005 black and white Hard Tail with maple neck that I ended up purchasing.

The salesman plugged me into a used Fender Blues Junior Combo Amp to try the guitars out. A good choice as the Blues Jr is partially tube and would be fairly well-matched to the classic Strat sound. After playing both guitars and conferring with Erik and calling Andrew on his cell I settled on the Hard Tail for a couple of reasons– one is that I really didn’t want a tremolo even though I could choose to block it (like Eric Clapton!) and the other is that I really like the feel of a maple neck.

The guitar was in immaculate shape and came with all of its swing tags and paperwork as well as the standard-issue plastic case for $549. This guitar lists for $1327.99, but you can get a new one for around $950 at online retailers. So, I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

60th Anniversary Badge

Even though this guitar has a 2005 serial number (starting with “Z5”) it was sold as a 2006 model and has the Fender 60th Anniversary badge on the back of the headstock which is pretty cool. Another unique aspect of this guitar is that Fender discontinued the American Hard Tail in 2006. No new Hard Tails in ’07. I contacted Fender to confirm this as I see that most of the online retailers are still selling them even though the online catalog at fender.com doesn’t list it as current product. According to Fender the only way to get a Hard Tail guitar would be to order the Fender Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar which is Mexican or to order the Eric Clapton Signature Strat, which has a blocked tremolo. Custom Shop Showmaster guitars come with Hard Tail as well.

This American Stratocaster is one of the post-2000 configurations. According to The Stratocaster Chronicles by Tom Wheeler, in the Summer of 2000 Fender discontinued the “American Standard” which had been in existence for 13 years and replaced it with the current “American Series.” The American Series was a new start to the Stratocaster line pulling together a set of features from the entire history of the Strat to that point making arguably the best Strat yet.

These features included the unanimously-agreed-superior pre-CBS 4-bolt neck, the Micro Tilt adjustment, the advanced shielding from the Standard, the 5-way pickup selector switch that dated back to 1977, “no-load” tone control which at “10” kills the tone pot on the middle pickup making for a vintage Strat tone, “Delta Tone” pickups where the middle pickup is wired in reverse of the other two providing a humbucking effect on certain switch settings, a single string tree on the head adding to tuning stability and improving tone, “rolled” neck edges which adds to the pleasant neck feel, non-veneered “original contour” body based on the 1950’s Strats, staggered pickup polepieces like the 1950’s Strats, and routing to provide the ability to add humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions. This final change eliminated the contraversial “swimming pool” routing where the area behind the pickguard was just a big hole to accomodate different pickup configurations.

Over the 53 years of the Stratocaster’s existence it has been subject to constant change– some of it good, some of it not good. In the American Series we see the benefits of a company looking back on the history of its products to pull a feature set together that I think ultimately makes an instrument that both honors its past, innovates and– most importantly– is great to play.

>pp 246-250, “Chapter 9: The New Millennium,”The Stratocaster Chronicles: Celebrating 50 Years of the Fender Strat, Tom Wheeler, 2004

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

All Fender product names in this article are trademarks of Fender.

Check out the Fender Hard Tail Stratocasters at reverb.com!