radio rips

Colin Meloy on NPR, part II

10 Comments

Before the music, let me say this: I made an honest mistake for Monday’s post in not linking to NPR, which was then misconstrued in a comment as a slight to the NPR staff and its hard work. That was not the case. I quickly updated the post and also sent an apology to All Songs Considered.

We should all be thankful that NPR and artists, such as Colin Meloy, have made these shows on the Live Concert Series available for download; it’s a great service for fans. In no way, did I intentionally mean to undermine the diligent work of NPR and All Songs Considered. Their site is a tremendous resource for music fans; I can personally – and highly – recommend the ASC podcast.

My sole intention of splitting this NPR show (and others like it) is for the sake of convenience. It’s difficult to maneuver through an hour-plus file; it’s somewhat like a cassette tape – rewinding and fast-forwarding. I like to skip tracks sometimes, and I assume others do, too. However, I encourage you to visit NPR’s Live Concert Series page to download the concerts in their entirety. More specifically, the download of Colin Meloy’s concert can be found here.

I would like to thank All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen for pointing out my mistake. Who knew such an influential member of the media was reading my blog?

Hope everyone enjoys this.

Colin Meloy, NPR Live Concert Series, 1/28/06:

10. Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right
11. Barbara Allen (Shirley Collins cover)
12. Apology Song
13. California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade
14. Red Right Ankle
15. Blues Runs the Game (Jackson Frank cover)
16. Bandit Queen

Briefly …

I’ve not been able to log in to MySpace for like two months, even though I’m using my correct e-mail address and password. Their technical support is lacking; automated messages are about all I’ve gotten. Wondering if I just need to create a new page. Anyone encountered this problem?? I’m having MySpace withdrawals …

radio rips

Colin Meloy on NPR, part I

15 Comments

Joel Didriksen for www.kingpinphoto.com

So, I have nothing to say about the Decemberists or Colin Meloy that hasn’t been said already. I will admit that my fondness for them wasn’t immediate. There’s definitely a certain amount of concentration required when taking in their literature/prose disguised as songwriting. Yet that’s come to be what I most appreciate.

Like reading a good book, the stories and history wrapped in the writing make listening more than a passive exercise. To me, Meloy doesn’t come off so much pretentious as he does the outcast drama kid from high school who was determined to make good on his talents and interests. And damn it if Engine Driver isn’t becoming one of my favorite songs.

Most chatter was snipped from these songs. Tomorrow’s post will have seven more tracks. (Sorry, cutting up and uploading 16 tracks in one shot was too much of a pain.)

[UPDATE: Bob Boilen, host of NPR’s excellent All Songs Considered, left a comment about an egregious oversight on my part. I failed to link back to NPR, which I did a couple of days ago. All apologies. You can find Colin Meloy’s concert in its entirety here. The Live Concert Series page is here.]

Colin Meloy, NPR Live Concert Series, 1/28/06:
1. Devil’s Elbow
2. We Both Go Down Together
3. Engine Driver
4. The Gymnast, High Above the Ground
5. Baby song (about his impending fatherhood)
6. Shankhill Butchers (new)
7. Tristan and Iseult (from his ex-band Tarkio)
8. Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
9. Shiny

general

Sunday Grab Bag: Pete Yorn live promo

7 Comments


I know my wife thinks I’m insane for hitting the record shops once (twice?) a week. Definitely there are times when I know I’ve combed over just about everything there is to see. Until I stumble upon a gem, like this four-song Pete Yorn live promo CD from 2001 (for $3.99!).

Yeah, you can buy his double-CD Live from New Jersey. But this sweet little promo – recorded at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles, June 14, 2001 – has him briefly covering Springsteen (Dancin’ in the Dark) and the Smiths (Panic). In the immortal words of Champ Kind: “Whammy!”

Do yourselves a favor and grab these. Not sure how long I’ll keep them up.

Pete Yorn: Live, promo CD:

1. Dancin’ in the Dark/Murray
2. For Nancy (‘Cos it Already Is)
3. Strange Condition
4. Panic/Life on a Chain

hip-hop

Giant Panda “Fly School Reunion”

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Always on the hunt for hip-hop on the positive tip, I recently picked up Giant Panda’s Fly School Reunion. I had good feeling before listening just because the LA-based trio is on Tres Records, along with one of my favorites, People Under the Stairs.

Fly School, the group’s first full-length album, proved my instincts correct. Without being overzealous in my defense of “backpack” rap, the album nails everything I love about a good hip-hop album: the lyrical interplay is seamless, production is consistent and the beats maintain a good-time vibe from start to finish.

Not to mention, Giant Panda is a walking example of social harmony, even if it wasn’t their intention. The trio is diverse (black, white and Japanese), which makes a track like Racist – a sarcastic yet sadly necessary statement on racial stereotypes – all the more sincere.

Giant Panda | Diggin’ in the Tapes
Giant Panda | Racist

Also …

  • Question: Did everyone download Colin Meloy’s concert from NPR? I will consider splitting it up into separate mp3s if there’s a big enough demand (leave it in the comments).
  • The Big Takeover makes note of a promising trend: purchase albums on vinyl and receive a coupon to download it digitally for free. The fantastic Merge Records has made this deal available on the Clientele’s Strange Geometry and Robert Pollard’s From a Compound Eye.
  • Be sure to check out two new additions to the blog roll: Black Balloon and the newly launched Cable and Tweed.
  • You’ve gotta be kidding: An iPod owner in Louisiana is suing Apple, alleging the mp3 player has the potential to cause hearing loss. Story here.
arizona

Feb. 23: Secret Life of Painters and iSpin

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I’ve got some excellent news, especially for anyone reading this from Arizona. Our local pals, Secret Life of Painters, have invited Royce and I to debut a night that I had only just started concocting in my head last week: iSpin.

In essence, it’s an iPod DJ night. People are invited to bring their iPods (or other mp3 players) to rock a 12- or 15-minute set of songs of their choosing. (Anyone without an mp3 player is welcome to use the one I will be providing for the evening.) If you got skills, there will be a mixer to fade in and out of songs.

It’s democracy for the digital age. We’re inviting anyone to show off their musical elitism in front of all to hear. Our hope is to build this into a bi-weekly or monthly gig with prizes (iTunes or eMusic gifts perhaps?) for the best sets.

We’re scratching out a design for a logo and a Web site, where we’ll post the playlists and even make some mp3s available played from those sets. For now, here are the preliminary details:

Feb. 23, 8 pm-ish at The Paper Heart. Secret Life of Painters are headlining the night then will hand it over to the MP3Js. More to come as details flow in. So if you live in Arizona, spread the word!

Major thanks to SLP. Get a taste below:

Secret Life of Painters | Fast Black Rats
Secret Life of Painters | Magnets and Energy

radio rips

More Tom Vek: on KEXP

2 Comments


So, this is sort of a fallback post; I’m nursing a pretty killer cold and I think this is the first day, um, ever, I’ve not picked up my iPod.

That said, these Tom Vek tracks were going to get posted sooner or later. So how about sooner? This set is a lot shorter than his KCRW appearance. But the audio quality (it’s all about bit rates, baby) is much better. Plus, he plays Nothing But Green Lights, which is probably my favorite track off We Have Sound. (Buy it at eMusic.)

Tom Vek on KEXP, 11/18/05:
1. The Lower the Sun
2. Nothing But Green Lights
3. If I Had Changed My Mind
[update!: Peter over at tmwsiy* has kindly offered us the Kaos Remix by James Fucking Friedman (that’s his name) of Nothing But Green Lights. Go and thank him; while you’re at it, you can enter to win the new Prodigy box set.]

Tom Vek | Nothing But Green Lights (Kaos Mix)

general

The Halo Benders

6 Comments


The anticipation for the release of the new Built to Spill album, You In Reverse, has me dusting off all things Doug Martsch lately. That means a few spins for the Halo Benders’ The Rebels Not In.

The Halo Benders was a side project – though three albums seems like more of a commitment than a side project – for Martsch and K Records owner/artist Calvin Johnson. I can almost guarantee, with 99.98887 percent certainty, that you will never hear more disparate vocal pitches than the pairing of these two, and, yet, it works.

Martsch’s high whine is matched in its extremity on the opposite spectrum by Johnson’s beyond-baritone talky style. It’s not quite anything like Built to Spill, which forced me to concentrate a little bit more when listening.

Speaking of Built to Spill, You In Reverse will be released April 11, but my inside sources (OK, I’m on the BtS mailing list) tell me it will be available digitally Feb. 7. That’s, like, next week. Meanwhile, we continue to wait for an update – for about five years now – to BuilttoSpill.com.

The Halo Benders | Lonesome Sundown
The Halo Benders | Love Travels Faster

hip-hop

Blueprint “1988”

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Local concert promoter Charlie Levy of Stateside Presents has just booked a slew of great upcoming shows for the Phoenix area, including Reubens Accomplice, The Elected, Band of Horses, The Life and Times, TV on the Radio and Devendra Banhart. Also in the mix is a hip-hop gem: Soul Position, featuring RJD2 and Blueprint.

I’ve yet to see RJD2, who is a busy boy of late, and Blueprint has dominated my iPod with his 2005 release 1988. If it wasn’t obvious by his style, Blueprint says in his liner notes: “The year 1988 gave birth to a lot of classic hip-hop records, so I named this album 1988 to pay tribute to those artists and records.”

He’s right, too: N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton; Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions… ; Eric B. and Rakim, Follow the Leader; Run-DMC, Tougher Than Leather … to name just a few.

Blueprint reminds me of a young LL Cool J: a little rough around the edges, but with a fearless flow that’s hard to ignore. And he avoids what, in my opinion, is a major plague in hip-hop: guest artists. Albums have become so watered down by this guest and that guest, it’s hard to tell whose LP it is. Blueprint limits it to two (including a great spot from Aesop Rock).

Blueprint | 1988
Blueprint | Fresh

live recording

Rob Dickinson, live in Scottsdale, Part II

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Of the 12 songs Rob Dickinson ended up playing, exactly half were Catherine Wheel tracks, including the great songs on this post: Crank, Black Metallic and Future Boy. The oft-repeated requests for Paranoia, a B-side to a Ma Solituda CD single, were left unfulfilled.

I did leave in some of the banter before Future Boy, when Dickinson is talking about sticking around for the meet and greet and wondering if anyone wants to get “some breasts signed or something like that. … Not that I do shit like that.” Good interplay with the audience.

If you missed it yesterday, Chromewaves has more Dickinson goodness. And thanks to Frank for the link.

Rob Dickinson, live at Anderson’s 5th Estate, 1/26/06:

8. Intelligent People
9. Crank*
10. Towering and Flowering
11. Black Metallic*
12. Future Boy* (encore, even if he never left the stage)

* – Catherine Wheel songs.