Baltimore’s Wye Oak, a member of the talented roster at Merge Records, was unable to find an unoccupied venue for a show in Phoenix on Friday, so the duo instead will play an in-store at Stinkweeds with touring partner Pomegranates.
The show will get under way around 7 p.m. with Phoenix’s Turn Back, O Man. A $5 donation goes to the bands.
Wye Oak is due to release its second album, The Knot, on July 21. Listen to/download the lead single, Take It In, below.
My wife was kind enough to record The Hold Steady’s appearance on Live from the Artists Den, a program on PBS that I’d never seen.
The band played to what looked like a fairly full house in the Old Emigrant Savings Bank Building in New York, a structure that has been granted landmark status by the city.
I was hoping to find embeddable video on the Artists Den site and, waddya know, there it was. Though the band’s rendition of Slapped Actress – my favorite song on Stay Positive – was tamer than I would have liked, this version of Constructive Summer gets a thumbs up.
Related:
Review: The Hold Steady, “A Positive Rage”
The Hold Steady, acoustic on KEXP
Favorite albums of 2008
With the unveiling of the Metro Light Rail in December 2008, the greater Phoenix area finally has a decent mass-transit system on which to host busker-esque performances by local musicians. (Sorry, buses just won’t do.)
Like the Black Cab Sessions, the folks behind the The Train Tracks capitalized on the novelty of public transportation in this city – The Arizona Republic has devoted an entire index to these futuristic people movers – by bringing you “raw and uncut performances from local artists.”
With 11 performances recorded, The Train Tracks is starting to (ahem) pick up some steam. (Aside: Would really love it if these videos were embeddable.) And on Friday, Miniature Tigers, one of Phoenix’s it bands (check the Daytrotter session), took their turn to play for the rush-hour crowd. I didn’t get to make it because of work, but my good friends Jay and Carrie were on hand to take some pictures of Charlie Brand and Co., the rest of which I’ve posted below the mp3.
FYI: The masked man is Rick Schaier, the band’s drummer and the brains behind Alvin Band, whose terrific song, Glowing Tree, was played by Miniature Tigers the last time I saw them.
Also, Miniature Tigers will be playing The Phix on May 15, part of a six-week tour with Kevin Devine.
I’ve seen Jane’s Addiction once in my life, and I swear I can’t remember much about it, a fact I’m not particularly proud of. I know it was at Arizona State’s University Activity Center (now Wells Fargo Arena) in Tempe and I’m almost positive Dinosaur Jr. opened the 1991 show, which puts me in eighth grade. A Jane’s fan site offers a few more details, including a jpeg of the handbill and a set list.
What I remember more than this show is listening to my Nothing’s Shocking cassette over and over, an album that no eighth grader has any right to attempt to comprehend. Even still, it stands as one of the most dense albums I own (maybe I should try drugs?) — and probably one of the best.
But what grabbed me was the enormity of the sound. I was an aspiring drummer (made it all the way to second chair in middle school marching band!) and Stephen Perkins was doing things that I was sure I needed six arms to replicate. (He’s still one of my favorite drummers.) And whatever drug-fueled lunacy lies beneath Perry Farrell’s lyrics, I still get an intense charge out of Mountain Song and Ocean Size from a purely sonic standpoint.
Though the band’s reunion doesn’t do much to excite me, the recently released Cabinet of Curiosities box set (three CDs, one DVD) seems intriguing. Below is a live version of Ocean Size, taken from the third disc, recorded in 1990.
After ignoring The Gaslight Anthem for practically all of 2008 for reasons unknown, I’m fully on the bandwagon and more than excited to see the Jersey band tonight at the Clubhouse in Tempe. (Day-of ticket prices are $15.)
Check the new-ish video for Great Expectations, the leadoff track from The ’59 Sound:
Also, the band – with singer Brian Fallon donning a Cold War Kids shirt – covered Pearl Jam’s State of Love and Trust at a show in Italy and pretty much nailed it (via):
After seeing Junior Boys on Sunday night at Rhythm Room, we are driving down to Tucson today to see The Kills at Club Congress. (The mini-marathon of concerts continues Tuesday night with The Gaslight Anthem at the Clubhouse in Tempe.)
I saw The Kills last year on their first trip out in support of Midnight Boom, a show that quashed some of my skepticism about using a laptop as a drummer. Though I still insist it probably restricts some creative impulses, Alison “VV” Mosshart has enough verve to make up for it.
Check out the video for U.R.A. Fever, one of my favorite songs of last year.
If there’s one song on Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix that can help wean me from my unhealthy obsession with 1901, it could be the leadoff track, Lisztomania.
Sadly, Phoenix’s North American tour dates do not include, um, Phoenix. Casey, take it away: “Come on! It’s your fucking name!” He’s got a point there.
Last year I posted a video of retro-soul instrumental group El Michels Affair performing Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ with Wu-Tang Clan.
The group has returned this year, prepping for next week’s release of Enter the 37th Chamber, an album in which El Michels Affair interprets 15 well-known Wu-Tang songs. You can see the tracklisting and order the CD at Fat Beats.
Great news: John Vanderslice is returning to Modified Arts on June 28 (via Stateside Presents). When we last saw JV at Modified in 2007, he was ordering pizza and taking a collection from the crowd for the delivery man, who walked out with at least a tip in excess of $100. He also played Nikki Oh Nikki outside in the parking lot with St. Vincent, which was, without a doubt, one of my greatest moments at Modified (or any show, for that matter).
This year’s show will come in support of his May 19 release Romanian Names, his first for the Dead Oceans label. No opener has been announced yet. Tickets are $12, and I might add, worth every penny. If memory serves, he and his band played for at least two hours and something like 20 songs. So long as Time Travel is Lonely remains in the set list, I’ll be a happy fella.
RELATED:
John Vanderslice/Magik*Magik Orchestra rehearsal
John Vanderslice: Time Travel is Lonely (with Spoon)
While Jimmy LaValle has kept busy as a member of the newish Adam Franklin/Sam Fogarino band Magnetic Morning, he appears ready to unleash a new record by The Album Leaf.
According to a MySpace blog post from December, a follow-up to 2006’s Into the Blue Again should hit our ears by fall 2009.
“We are going back to Bear Creek Studios to record our next record in February!! Sub Pop Records will again release it and it should be out Fall of 2009!! We’re excited and you should be to!! It will be the first record recorded with the full live band (everyone you’ve seen playing live since 2003) and not just Jimmy.”
It’s probably a safe bet to assume that Jimmy & Co. will be trotting out new material when they play July 22 at the 200-seat Farnsworth Studio Theater at Mesa Arts Center. Tickets ($15 plus venue fees) are on sale now.
I’ve not been inside this particular theater at Mesa Arts Center, but at 200-seat capacity, this has a chance to be a spectacularly intimate/exclusive sort of event (I see only four tour dates listed for The Album Leaf).
P.S. I’d like it noted that I made it through a post about The Album Leaf without using the term “soundscape.”