Last week, the Brooklyn-born Neil Diamond took the stage at Madison Square Garden for four days, and if you think the 67-year-old rock star is past his prime, you need to take a closer look.
Besides playing a bopping 2-hour set that had more hits than a classic rock radio station, Diamond has revitalized his career with his two latest albums.
So I was debating whether or not to put this up, because it's mildly embarrassing how late to the game I am on this one, but I just had my mind blown. Listen:
It's "Vic Acid," by Squarepusher, from 1997. I have no idea why its having such an effect on me, but ... whoa.
I heard it in this video explaining the history of the "Amen break," a drum beat heavily used in music for nearly 50 years (referenced in this post). It's 18 minutes of a guy speaking in near monotone, but it's really interesting, if you're a dork.
Anyway, that's what I'm on today.
eh.www.amNY.com
PS The above-referenced audiodocumentary is by Nate Harrison. You can see more of his work here.
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I saw Gnarls Barkley last night at Irving Plaza, and it was a fantastic show. I'll have a full write up for you later, but I wanted to share my celebrity sighting: Woody Harrelson was there! I never see famous people (mostly because I'm oblivious), so that was exciting.
Anyway, Brooklyn Vegan has more photos of the night, and I'll be back later with my review. It was good.
eh.www.amNY.com
(Preservation Hall Jazz Band via Getty)
And I thought that New York was a music town. After spending a week in New Orleans, I have reassessed my parameters. We were there for JazzFest, but even just walking down the street, you could hear live music everywhere.
We spent the bulk of our time in the French Quarter, where along with countless cover bands playing bar favorites at every club, many restaurants had performers jazzing out to accompany their patrons' gustatory explorations. We dined at Crescent City Brewhouse one night, where a small combo played standards like "Autumn Leaves" and the slowest version of "Watermelon Man". I didn't get the name of the band, but I can tell you that the baked brie is delicious.
Also along Bourbon Street, there's a live karaoke place. Depending on the level of talent/drunkenness in the room, that can make for an interesting experience.
Uptown, we took Frenchmen Street by storm. It's a cool little alley of jazz clubs. D.B.A. (which is related to the one here on First Ave) had the best cover/available space ratio, so we plunked down there for the night. If we were splurging, we would have hit up Snug Harbor, which is where everyone told us to go, but it was $20 to get in and we're poor. Meanwhile, at $5-to-get-in D.B.A. we took in a really cool keyboard-based group. They were really good (and their drummer was pretty cute), and I think I wrote their name down somewhere, so more info may be forthcoming.
The other thing everyone told us to do was Rock N Bowl at the Mid City Bowling Lanes. This time we did pony up the $20 for their Zydeco spectacular. While we bowled (I bowled a strike, by the way! Just the one, though. Otherwise I did miserably.), like, a billion different bands plied their washboards and accordions for our listening pleasure. My favorite was Sunpie Barnes.
This man is enormous!
And that was pretty much the highlights of the week. There's a lot we didn't get to see, but we're going back. Someday.
If this report seems a little sketchy, that's because it is. I was on vacation fools! I didn't take notes. Except for our day at JazzFest, on which you'll receive a full report tomorrow.
eh.www.amNY.com
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I got a last minute invite to see Spinto Band last Thursday, which I jumped at, because these guys are superfun live. The last time I saw them, they went on at 2 a.m. and they were the seventh band I had seen that evening. But they still rocked it.
A quick nod to the Epochs, who opened; you were serviceable and minor key-ish.
Spinto Band took the stage and my friend CD marveled that there were "so many dudes" on the stage. They're a six-piece with the energy and stage presence of a twelve-piece and a median age, evidently, of 14. Seriously, these kids are young.
From the get go, hand claps and all, these kids are jazzed to be performing. They're playful and vibrant onstage, and everyone is moving just about all of the time. The lead guitarist in particular has a funny technique wherein he does the Pete Townsend windmill, but moves his arm only below the elbow. "Demented Buddy Holly," is how my friend describes him. The bassist (who is also one of the main vocalists!) also makes the craziest faces.
A few songs in, they break into "Brown Boxes," a kazoo classic and one of my favorites. The herky jerky robot movements of the band perfectly fit their quirky, off-kilter sound. They play a lot of their newer songs (there's a new album coming out soon-like), which are just as frantic and peppy as their old stuff. The mood coming from the stage is so joyous all night, even when the subjects they're happily chirping about veer into the dark.
Early on in the night, there isn't a whole lot of banter, but the band gets chattier as the night goes on. At one point, we take a moment of silence for Brooklyn Lager. Apparently, while Bowery Ballroom had the local beer on tap the night before, they had run out Thursday night, and replaced it with Blue Point Toasted Ale. Which I must say is as tasty.
Wait a minute. Are these kids old enough to drink?
Back to the show. The extended beer talk was to fill up time while guitarist Nick Krill (the very same "demented Buddy Holly" referenced above) tuned up his mandolin for "Oh Mandy." My buddy CD raised the possibility that Oh Mandy = mandolin, which I had never thought of before, but I like it, so I'm going to accept it as truth.
What I love about the Spinto Band is their really interesting, tight harmonies, which give off a gleeful feeling of psychosis. And they toss it all off effortlessly in their live show, belying the fact that they must practice, like, ten hours a day to be able to play that tightly and make it look effortless.
They end their set with, and I'm quoting directly from my notes here, "that one song that I can never remember the name of with the fast part but I love it." In other words, "Direct to Helmet," which is quite clearly the first line of the song.
eh.www.amNY.com
Actually, that's a lie. I absolutely hate football and I despise the Super Bowl. No, I don't even want to watch it for the commercials -- an argument that always sounded specious to me; people are trying to sell me things enough in my life, I don't need to seek out extra advertising.
But other people seem to be really into it. Everyone's been talking about it for the past two weeks. And before the event completely passes me by, I guess I should try to join the conversation.
So, didja see that halftime show last night? Tom Petty. Wow.
In case you missed it ...
Actually, not terrible. Tom Petty is not my favorite, but he's a solid rocker. Sticking to the crowd favorite, arena rockers he did a bang-up job. He wasn't Prince, but he wasn't Janet and JTim either.
But, like, what's the deal with the halftime show? Back when I actually used to watch the game, I didn't remember it being such a big deal. A rock star performance surely would have held my 12-year-old attention. So I did some research.
Or, rather, I looked on Wikipedia. Which had some interesting stats. Since the beginning, the halftime show was generally performed by a university marching band, and only started booking marquee acts each year since the '90s (when I was 12, Gloria Estefan performed, although that also was the year that FOX aired that special episode of "In Living Color," and we may have watched that instead). Michael Jackson in 1993 was recruited for his star power, in response to flagging interest in the halftime show in the years prior. Before that, there were occasional big names, interspersed with marching bands and other smaller acts; Carol Channing was the first in 1970. She would appear again two years later with Ella Fitzgerald in a "Salute to Louis Armstrong." That actually sounds kind of cool — and an odd choice to go with a football game.
Anyway, more discussion of halftimes past here and here.
eh.www.amNY.com
So, as you may or may not have noticed, I haven't been updating the past few days. I was busy having music-related fun on vacation, and I'll tell you all about it ... tomorrow. So just sit tight and rock out with The Go Gos.
eh.www.amNY.com
I skipped most of the Emmys last night, but my buddy Jon tipped me off to this bit starring my man Kanye AND my man Rainn Wilson. Awesome. (Also, I think I would kick ass at "The Singing Bee" or whichever show Wayne Brady actually hosts.)
From what I did see of the awards show, it seemed to be an altogether more coherent and entertaining affair than the VMAs. But this is not a TV blog...
eh.www.amNY.com
Friday was the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and as I've discussed before, I do love the album, but I'm a little ambivalent about all the boomer nostalgia.
But in the latest installment of the All Songs Considered podcast Bob Boilen discusses his first discovery of the album in a lovely little snippet (that I cannot find online, sorry). He talks so lovingly of the first time he heard "Sgt. Pepper" that accusing him of navel-gazing would just be mean.
He also brings up an interesting point: At the time, the airwaves were dominated by 45s, and to hear the Beatles' magnum opus, you'd have to seek out the album and purchase it for yourself. You wouldn't hear it on the radio.
The album qua album has not always been the rock standard. And while it's a shame that in an age dominated by one-hit-MP3-wonders the art of crafting an entire album has been lost, it may not be gone for good. The way we interact with media is constantly changing (just think, in 1998, when you had your first AOL screen name, would you ever have imagined podcasts?), and surely some other artist will come along with a new, mind-blowing paradigm for how to experience their work.
(He also pointed out that albums were available in mono or stereo — mono was $1 cheaper — and I'm sure the rock snob audiophile is not a recent invention, but it seems that people are quite volubly picky about digital compression these days, when the gulf between mono and stereo is vast compared to the difference between AAC and MP3.)
It's incredibly dorky, but I wasn't alive then, and I appreciate knowing the history and context in which Sgt. P was released.
—eh, www.amny.com
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs shot a video in Brooklyn last night. Miss Modern Age has more.
—eh, www.amNY.com
(via flickr)
Gothamist went, Brooklyn Vegan went. I did not go, to my regret.
Washington Height's United Palace, recently reborn as a Bowery Presents music venue, looks like an awesome place to catch a show, and they've got some really cool acts coming up: Isley Brothers, Modest Mouse, Bjork, Arcade Fire...
-eh, www.amNY.com
New York Magazine is enticing you to become a subscriber by throwing a concert/karaoke extravaganza! Not only will psych-pop outfit Of Montreal be playing a set, they'll also be functioning as a backing band for the karaoke stylings of Y-O-U. Also in attendance, Michael Showalter and Flosstradamus.
Sounds like a fun night, right? Well, if you want to go, you're going to have to be a little sneaky. Though the tickets went on sale Friday, they're already sold out. That's the (annoyingly) cutthroat world of the NYC music scene. Damn hipsters. So get out there and work those connections...
-- EH, ww.amNY.com
The Lashes
More from Emily Zemler in Austin:
Long Island soaring indie rockers As Tall As Lions, experimental post-punk band Circa Survive and UK buzz band The Horrors were the highlights of Alternative Press’ day party at the aptly named Emos, which took over two outdoor stages and one indoor stage. The crowd was unusually young for SXSW, filled with black eyeliner, hot pink shirts and band hoodies. The Horrors’ raucous performance on the smaller of the outdoor stages had fans and non-fans alike crowded outside the fence in droves after the venue got too full to admit anyone else. Luckily no wine bottles were thrown by singer Faris Rotter like at his NYC show a few weeks ago…
More after the jump...
Here, have some Pogues:
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
Emily Zemler reports from Austin:
SXSW keynote speaker Pete Townshend is the man about town this year, offering no actual performances himself, but sending Who fans dashing madly about Austin looking for his next guest spot. Friday saw Pete joining Scottish buzz band the Fratellis on stage at Stubb’s for SPIN Magazine’s annual SXSW day party. Townshend thankfully spiced up a frankly dreary set that sent the scattered audience members dashing to the front of the venue with cameras held high when he came out for the band’s last two numbers.
More after the jump ...
While we're stuck up here with the snow and the cold, our intrepid reporter Emily Zemler is down in Austin, soaking up the indie rock. Here's what she had to say:
Between waiting in line to pick-up my festival badge, running into someone I know/have met/have never met but looks really familiar on every street corner in Austin and trying to determine whether all the tall, skinny guys in tight black pants are actually in bands or whether that’s just the look this year, I managed to see a few bands yesterday…
Punk rockers Against Me! headlined the Shirts For a Cure party at Spiro’s, blowing the minds of the very crowded room in typical fashion. Funnily enough most of the crowd was made up of members of other bands, most of whom were not shy about knowing all the words to every song they played. Rumor has it Against Me!’s new record, off which they played two intriguing-sounding songs, will be out this summer.
More after the jump...
Apparently, Sufjan Stevens played a secret show at Union Hall last night. Which actually probably was pretty fun for the "30 or so people" who were there, according to a Gothamist commenter.
Sometimes I think that Sufjan is playing a big joke on us all, and in 10 years we'll look back and think, "Really? State-themed big band music that sounds like something from a well-produced middle school play? Is that what we were listening to?" But despite some of his cloying qualities, the kid has some good music.
An oldie, but a goodie: "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)"
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
A marriage of two of my favorite things: indie rock and cartoons. Back before Cartoon Network became wall-to-wall "Family Guy," they had some interesting and weird things on. This video, they would sometimes play between commercial breaks.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
American Songbook: Calexico at The Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Feb. 8.
(credit: atease)
Thursday night was not looking good. I was on my third day of a severe cold, and I had already had three beers by the time the show started (one was chugged in the lobby as the show was starting; they didn't tell us when we bought them that we couldn't bring them inside). Needless to say, I was more prepared for a 12-hour nap than a concert.
All that changed when we stepped inside the theater. This is supposed to be a concert review, but the room itself is worth a mention. The Allen Room has a modified jazz club setting, with two rows of tables set up in the front, and amphitheater style seating beyond that, which gives the room an intimate feel even though it can seat a moderate amount of people. The real dazzling feature, however, is the wall behind the performers, which is a two or three story glass window looking out onto Columbus Circle. Pictures cannot do it justice (and photography is generally not allowed), so if you have the chance to go see something there, go see something there.
On to the music, after the jump.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
Their website hasn't been updated in ages, there are no plans for touring anytime soon (especially since Janet Weiss just signed on as full-time drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks), but Quasi's 2006 album, "When the Going Gets Dark," is awesome. And the going definitely has gotten dark. It would be putting it mildly to say that Weiss and her partner in crime Sam Coomes are dismayed by the current state of affairs. The album is full of tension and dissonance. Coomes sings like he's either pleading for his life or has already given up. Droning, heavy bass and angry piano keep the music driving forward. It's a dreary but kick ass soundtrack for an apocalypse.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
TPC is actually a young Toronto quartet with a lot of energy and almost no police training. They made a small splash last spring with their first New York appearance at the Mercury Lounge. Since then, they've been tapped by SXSW as a band with potential.
Hear for yourself: "Nature of the Experiment"
They play at the Plug Awards at Irving Plaza, Feb 10. Unfortunately for those not so quick on the draw, the show is sold out, but they will be releasing 50 tickets at the door, starting at 7pm. If you don't feel like chancing it, the band will be back for a gig with Cold War Kids, April 6 & 7.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
Everyone knows "Down Under" ("where women glow and men plunder") and "Who Can it Be Now," but you just don't hear that much Men at Work these days.
Unless, of course, you just had the weekend that I had. My friend is currently obsessed with the MAW song "Overkill," and he was either singing it or demanding that it be played at every opportunity all weekend. And it actually is a fantastically catchy song.
Lead singer Colin Hay (who has his own solo career), performed the song in the season 2 premiere of "Scrubs" way back in 2002.
So nothing about this entry is new, but I heard this song a lot this weekend, and I thought that everybody else should too.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
For many people, The Cardigans conjure up "Lovefool," the silly little girls who loved that song because it was in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet," and not much else. The song was even the basis of a (great!) joke on "The Office" earlier this season. The character Andy even asks, "Whatever happened to those guys?"
Well, discerning music fans know that "those guys" are actually awesome, and they just released their latest album in the states in September, "Super Extra Gravity." For those of you who bought the import in 2005, this is old news. But for those of you who never got past "Lovefool," check out the new album. Here's a taste:
"Godspell"
And if you just can't get it out of your head, "Lovefool" video after the jump.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
Friday night, I went to see One Ring Zero at Barbes. They're a local group that I've been a fan of for a while, ever since I stumbled onto their "author project" album, "As Smart as We Are," which features songs with lyrics by just about all of my favorite authors. (They also have a newer album featuring their own lyrics, "Wake Them Up," which is also quite good.)
The band's sound is quirky and literary, although it always seemed to me like an act that wouldn't catch on outside of their Brooklyn home. It occurred to me this Friday that I was probably dead wrong (and a bit of a snob).
Read why after the jump.
Back in 1998, you couldn't get Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" out of your head. It was catchy and punky, but something about it said "one hit wonder." The band broke up in 2000, after the release of their sophomore album, "King James Version," And faded into music history.
Except that they didn't. In 2005, the band reunited (Harvey Danger isn't an actual person, you goof) and released "Little by Little..."
And why am I telling you this now? The album came out more than a year ago and the band's not currently touring. Well, I just heard the track "Cream and Bastards Rise" for the first time, and I instantly liked it, which is really rare. So I thought I'd share it. Enjoy.
