I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m off to see the A’s and Angels at Diablo Stadium in Tempe.
In the meantime, Wilco has made a new track, What Light, available from its forthcoming album Sky Blue Sky. At first listen, it feels like Jeff Tweedy and Co. are traveling back to a Being There-era sound, with just a hint of the mild twang of A.M.
I am so glad Richard Buckner has a beard again.
If any man’s face belongs behind a beard, it’s Buckner’s. For starters, he’s a large man. Not overweight or anything, just burly. And he’s got that voice – husky and full. (Though it sounds far less imposing in conversation, actually.) Judging by the picture (perhaps not the most flattering), his gray, unruly whiskers just fit a man whose music connotes all the sorrow and depression of a back-country dive bar. This, my friends, is the stuff beards are made of.
Everyone has their reasons to grow a beard. I let mine go a few years ago when I went on a fantasy football winning streak (probably not why Buckner grew his), and I haven’t shaved it since. Mine comes in a little brown, a little red and with a serious cowlick near my right upper jaw if I go awhile without trimming.
At this point, I’m hesitant to get rid of it. I remember once when I was young and my dad, whose mustache I simply recognized as an inherent part of his face, shaved. It sort of freaked me out.
Facial hair just belongs on some people. As My Morning Jacket’s Jim James told Filter for its fall issue, “Every man looks best with his God-given beard. God gave us beards for a reason. End of story.”
Richard Buckner, live on MPR’s the Current, 2/28/07:
Note: Thanks to Largehearted Boy for the reminder of this set.
Previously:
Richard Buckner on Friday Night Lights.
Richard Buckner and Jon Langford
Richard Buckner/Anders Parker.
I’m not really familiar with Live Sets, some live performance filmed and then broadcast by Yahoo! and sponsored ad nauseam by a certain car company.
If you’re patient enough to fight your way through the seemingly thousands of ads, you can catch a pretty decent performance by Nasty Nas, who blasts through eight songs, including the modern classic (in my mind) Made You Look.
Fair warning: Ads also pop up if you view photo slideshows. But we do learn one thing from the pictures: Nas’ DJ appears to use (gasp!) Serato Scratch Live. Nas is right: Hip-hop is dead!
Dios (Malos) — nee, Dios — has made a new, unmastered track available as they hit the road with the Spinto Band and the Changes.
The new album — no release date yet — appears to be named Life Between the Tides, if the album tag is to be believed after download. And this new track, In Control of the OJ, is pretty much everything we’ve come to expect from Dios: hazy, trippy, psychedelia-inspired pop.
On that note, Dios has one of the most scatterbrained, unorganized and, well, kinda compelling Web sites around. (I mean, really, what the hell? The weed must be pretty strong out there in Hawthorne, Calif.). Anyway, in “new news,” they are asking for suggestions on new band names … perhaps facetiously? Nobody knows.
The Spinto/Dios/Changes tour hits Phoenix on Monday at the Rhythm Room. Local favorites Asleep in the Sea also are on the bill. Advance tickets at Stinkweeds.
I’m sure you already know I’m a fan of Baby Dayliner. So to see not one but two new songs up there hopefully is an indication that a new album is in the works.
Are You Looking at the Same Stars? shows Baby Dayliner in all his pompadoured coolness. He’s a hopeless romantic here, looking back with regret and longing on a relationship that didn’t work.
“Sometimes you catch yourself in a moment/
when you think about that woman/
how good she was to you/
when you were down and out and giving up.”
Check out Baby Dayliner’s catalog at eMusic, including last year’s great Critics Pass Away.
It’s always a pleasant surprise to swing into a record store and find something new that you never even knew existed. That was the case yesterday, when I found Josh Ritter’s Live at the Record Exchange EP at Stinkweeds.
I’ve been pretty wrapped up with all things Ritter since I finally wisened up and became attached to Animal Years. This EP, as its name might suggest, is a live recording from the Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho. (On a side note, I’ve been to Boise; very cool city.)
The EP has six tracks, including the previously unreleased Bandits and a John Prine cover of Daddy’s Little Pumpkin. According to Pitchfork, the EP is available only from Ritter on tour or select independent music stores. Um, yeah, or Amazon. Of course, the Record Exchange has it, too.
Ritter also is making available to stream “backstage recordings” he’s performing with support acts from his current tour.
AT CIRCA 45: A live Guns N’ Roses B-side of It’s So Easy.
Good news and bad news.
First, the bad news: Apparently, the Richard Buckner show with Six Parts Seven has been canceled. Too bad because I was really looking forward to seeing Buckner perform with a full band.
Now, the good news: Silversun Pickups are playing May 4 with Elf Power at Clubhouse in Tempe. (Get tickets.)
Speaking of Silversun, Spinner has live footage on its 3×3 series (if you can get past the annoying credit card advertisement first).
And in absolutely unrelated news, here is the video for k-os’ Sunday Morning, which I previously wrote about here.
Sub Pop officially has made an mp3 available from Low’s upcoming new album Drums and Guns, which I wrote about last month and included a (short-lived) song. Anyway, it always looks so much cooler as a premiere on Pitchfork.
As it is, looks like the rest of Sub Pop’s roster can get the attention and resources being hogged by that other band. (If I have to see one more ironic photo of the Shins in swim trunks or life jackets, I may try hurting myself with a plastic knife.)
In the interest of time (and to prove, as always, that looking back on my own writing makes me cringe), I’ll show you what I wrote last month about Drums and Guns. This could be the first time I’m quoting myself:
“Low maintains its “slowcore” roots here, but this added layer of electronic assistance pushes the group into more a abstract place. Yet these ambient and almost incidental blips/bleeps (best appreciated on headphones) hardly clutter the sound; given Low’s minimal foundation, there certainly was room to add on without interfering with what they do best. Of course, Low likely threatens to turn off traditionalists with these new arrangements (if The Great Destroyer didn’t already), but, again, none of it feels excessive; the mood is still stark and haunting.”
A month later, I still feel the same (imagine that!) and this is my favorite release of this short year. In yo’ face, Mercer.
Thanks to Brooklyn Vegan (via Chart Attack), who reported that Edmonton’s Cadence Weapon, the man behind of one of my favorite hip-hop albums of last year, has signed to Epitaph.
Consider what Epitaph, a label rooted in punk, is doing here. The label roster now includes Cadence Weapon, Busdriver, DangerDoom, the Coup and Sage Francis. That’s an impressive group of underground hip-hop artists.
As for Cadence Weapon (born Rollie Pemberton), his stellar LP, Breaking Kayfabe, will see a U.S. release on March 13. Catch up with what I wrote about Cadence here.
And be sure to pour some out for the dearly departed Razorblade Runner, Pemberton’s one-time corner in the world of mp3 blogs.
If you can’t wait for March 13, eMusic has been hawking Breaking Kayfabe for the past year now.
Other than the drums, which I once played in middle school but pretty much quit in high school when I realized I’d have to wear some silly polyester uniform with a tall feathered hat at halftime of football games, the pedal steel guitar is my favorite instrument. There’s a certain emotion to it, an instrument that really seems to have a voice of its own.
Nobody plays it better than Jon Rauhouse, a man we’re proud to call an Arizonan. Besides being a member of Neko Case’s band, Rauhouse’s extensive credits include playing with Calexico (whose John Convertino and Joey Burns are part of his band), Giant Sand, Waco Brothers, John Langford, Kelly Hogan and Sally Timms. He’s also a member of Bloodshot Records’ Grievous Angels.
One of my favorite projects Rauhouse was involved with was Sleepwalker, a three-piece (with Jamal Ruhe and Darren Henley) from Tempe that put out a somewhat hastily recorded yet beautiful one album called The Man in the Moon. (Previous post.)
After extensive touring with Neko Case, Rauhouse returns with his third solo album, Steel Guitar Heart Attack, due for release March 13 on Bloodshot. Appearances from Neko, Timms and Hogan prove the reciprocal nature of musicians and their fondness of Rauhouse’s craft.
If it has a string, Rauhouse – affectionately known as “Uncle Jimmy” for reasons I don’t know – probably has played it: banjo, pedal steel, Hawaiian guitar, ukelele, you name it. He’s talented as a technical player but never loses focus of the mood and substance his style carries. On 2004’s Steel Guitar Rodeo, Rauhouse reinterpreted the Perry Mason theme song into something much more romantic and intriguing than a cheese-ball TV theme. Apparently, he does it again on Heart Attack, taking on the Andy Griffith theme on The Fishing Hole.
Ballad of the Black Chihuahua, the first single off Heart Attack, is layered in lush guitar work and boasts a Southwest flavor that captures the essence of this arid atmosphere.
I don’t see a pre-order link yet at Bloodshot for the record. But Rauhouse’s catalog is available at eMusic.
In a related matter, eMusic is offering a Bloodshot Records Honky-Tonk Compilation, which includes Rauhouse’s Grievous Angels, for free. Eleven tracks, all for free. Get it.