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.”
The Light in the Attic reissue of Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson has garnered some heady praise, including a 10.0 and Best New (Old?) Music status from Pitchfork.
I don’t claim to be at all familiar with Gainsbourg’s work, but when I listened to the album, the opening bass line to the first song, En Melody, was instantly recognizable: The Beatnuts, the criminally overlooked New York-based trio (now duo), sampled it on Superbad, which appears on their 1994 full-length debut Street Level.
The Beatnuts push the tempo on the sample, turning the provocative mood of the original into the perfect low-end foundation for one of the best tracks on Street Level (and possibly The Beatnuts’ catalog).
I’m sort of ashamed to admit that we didn’t make it in time for Loney Dear’s set when Emil Svanangen and his band opened for Andrew Bird on Feb. 14 in Tucson.
We caught a couple songs and I’ve since downloaded the 2009 release Dear John on Polyvinyl (get it at eMusic).
Svanangen recently recorded a Daytrotter session and it includes one of the Dear John standouts, I Was Only Going Out, a slow-building, layered bit of goodness with some expert whistling (no wonder Andrew Bird likes him).
Video for Airport Surroundings, the first song off Dear John:
Jason Woodbury returns! He’ll keep writing as long as I keep promising him beer. His band, Hands on Fire, opens the Vivian Girls/Ariel Pink show on Monday at Modified. You should go.
Live albums are a tricky thing. All my favorites are either very genre specific (Donny Hathaway Live, Sam Cooke at the Copa, Otis Redding – Live in Europe), or so studio doctored they they don’t really count. Needless to say, live albums so rarely live up to their expectation: to deliver in recorded form the energy and spirit of a live show.
The Hold Steady has a reputation as being a stellar live act, and they are. I first saw them in 2005 at Modified Arts not long after they’d released my favorite album of theirs, Separation Sunday. Guitarist Tad Kubler dropped his brand new Les Paul, and singer/dynamo Craig Finn showered everyone up front with saliva. The show was incredible, and each subsequent show I’ve seen of theirs (in bigger and bigger venues) has been, too.
Vagrant Records has just released A Positive Rage, the Steady’s first live album, documenting their successful jaunt hot off the release of their critically lauded Boys and Girls in America. The album is fine, but, as often is the nature of the beast, fails to encapsulate what makes the band such a joyful presence live. However, it’s especially nice to hear the band rock some oldies from their early days (Barfruit Blues) and one of their best songs, Ask Her for Adderall, which inexplicably got relegated to bonus-track status on their 2008 record Stay Positive. The album comes packed with great liner notes by Finn and includes an enjoyable, if totally congratulatory, DVD documenting the tour. It’s certainly a blast for Hold Steady fans, and might serve as a nice introduction to their live show, but the only way to really experience these guys is to go out to a gig, get sloppy drunk and sing a long like you’re in church.
I’ve been crazy busy with work this week, so I’m gonna take the lazy man’s route and just embed you some video here. This is the new one from Silversun Pickups called Panic Switch, the first single from the forthcoming album Swoon (due out April 14 on Dangerbird Records).
(Thanks to Crumbler for pointing it out.)
You can’t even say that Del the Funky Homosapien is “pulling a Radiohead” with his newest release, Funk Man. He’s simply telling you to take it, guilt-free. Don’t name your price. Your price is free.
The 13-track album is available in 320 kbps mp3 and a host of other formats (including FLAC and Apple lossless). Remember: Del is at Marquee Theatre with Mike Relm on April 11 (that would be this Saturday).
Here’s the video for the first single, Get It Right Now (via Weiss):
I’ve gone on and on and on already about Neko Case’s new one, Middle Cyclone. So why stop now?
Neko took her act to The Interface over at Spinner for an interview and a few songs.
Below is the first single, People Got a Lotta Nerve. And I don’t mean to offend, but does Neko really need a backup singer/harmonizer?
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LAST WEEK, I told you I was doing a guest spot on Arizona State’s The Blaze (1260 AM). I had a blast (thanks, Becky!), but I’m still hesitant to listen to myself on radio. Maybe one day soon.
In any event, here are the songs I played … tracks I hoped would be somewhat representative of the stuff I champion around here regularly.
1. Built to Spill, “The Plan”
2. The Broken West, “On the Bubble”
3. The Gaslight Anthem, “Great Expectations”
4. Elbow, “The Bones of You”
5. The National, “Looking for Astronauts”
6. Source Victoria, “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948”
7. Frightened Rabbit, “The Twist”
8. Q-Tip, “Gettin’ Up”
9. The Gray Kid, “Lonely Love”
10. The New Pornographers, “Myriad Harbour”
11. Travis, “Selfish Jean”
12. Gloritone, “Flying Kites”
13. Rush, “Tom Sawyer (DJ Z-Trip remix)”
Songs I brought but did not get time to play:
Her Space Holiday, “The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless”
Baby Dayliner, “Silent Places”
Band of Horses, “The Great Salt Lake”