Year: 2010

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The Poison Tree: My Only Friend

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Ah, here it is again, Thanksgiving in the States, another holiday about which people have Complicated Feelings. But let me boil it down to this: It’s a good day for being thankful. I’m thankful for the usual family-and-friends thing, but I’m also very thankful for music and for everyone who reads NTSIB. It’s been a crazy year with the inception of this blog, and so much of it has been crazy good.

As a little token of my appreciation, here’s a sweet little song for you by the Poison Tree, a.k.a. Steve Salett, with a little help from friends, including Dawn Landes.

The Poison Tree – My Only Friend

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Frames 20th Anniversary Tour

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Today, Jennifer shows us how far Glen Hansard has come from And And Fucking And. (I don’t have a long memory, I just happen to have re-watched The Commitments recently.)

You may be most familiar with Glen Hansard’s voice from his being half of The Swell Season, or perhaps from his appearing in and writing all the music for the movie Once, or, if you have a very long memory, from his smaller role in The Commitments. The Frames is his regular band, and this past Saturday night they made a stop at Terminal 5 as part of their 20th Anniversary Tour.

IMG_4179

Glen Hansard, singing Disappointed

The Frames, if you don’t know them, are from Dublin, but unlike other Irish bands such as the Saw Doctors or the Pogues, they mostly don’t have a “traditional” sound. I say “mostly” because they do have Colm Mac Con Iomaire and his magnificent mournful violin winding through their big fuzzy guitars like a dark, shimmering ribbon.

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Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Glen Hansard

I’ve actually been puzzling over how to describe them since the show, and “loud-soft-loud-hyperarticulate-howl-of-rage” would be accurate, but so would “spare, sharp, bittersweet and delicate romantic melodies.” For examples of these variations, see “Fake,” off of Burn the Maps and also “New Partner,” from The Roads Outgrown, respectively.

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Joe Doyle

And, some news for established Frames fans: during one of their many encores (there were at least three!), Joe Doyle sang a song they had composed that day, which if the lyrics are anything to go by will probably be called “You Can’t Hide Your Love”. Or maybe “You Can’t Hide Your Love (For Someone Else)” since it was something of an elegy for the end of a love affair. In any case I hope they record it soon because I would like to listen to it about a million more times.

— Jennifer

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Bits: Atlas Sound, Justin Townes Earle, The Wu-Tang Clan, Conrad Plymouth, The Black Keys

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  • Atlas Sound has released two free albums this week. Download Bedroom Databank Vol. 1 here and Bedroom Databank Vol. 2.

  • Justin Townes Earle has updated his tour schedule, including some European dates and a show at the Kent Stage on February 8 with Jessica Lea Mayfield.

  • The Wu-Tang Clan has announced a full tour.

  • Our friends and internet drinking buddies Conrad Plymouth have announced a series of Wisconsin and Minnesota live dates, including the Muzzle of Bees 6th Anniversary show.

  • It’s been 11 days since I’ve mentioned anything Black Keys-related, but our friends at Rubber City Review have afforded me the opportunity to do it again. They have joined the dark side and finally become a part of the Twitter stream, and to promote this new foray, they have a special contest to win a pair of tickets to the sold-out Black Keys New Year’s Eve show in Chicago.

This isn’t really news, but Gorilla Vs. Bear posted their favorite videos of 2010, and it gives me the opportunity to mention one of my favorite albums of 2010 as their #1 video is Gil Scott-Heron’s “Me and the Devil” from his gorgeous album I’m New Here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OET8SVAGELA?fs=1]

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Rebirth of the Cool: Trick Bag

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As I’ve copped to before, sometimes I discover great music through questionable sources. For example, my discovery trail to Earl King’s “Trick Bag” began in 1990 thanks to a cassette tape that featured one of the most ubiquitous songs of that era. But let’s start at the beginning…

Released in 1962, King’s original has a solid, loping, irresistible groove and an engaging story.

 

 

In 1964, Seattle band the Artesians took the song and added layers of noise and bombast with muscular organ and lots of hi-hat. I swear if you put your face close enough to the speaker when you listen to this version, you’ll feel your hair blown back. (Incidentally, if anyone has information on this band, please let me know. I’m having trouble turning up much on them.)

 

 

Now let’s leap to the ’90s. In 1990, Robert Palmer created a cultural phenomenon with his video for “Addicted to Love” – you know the one, with the heavily made-up, dead-eyed ladies in their little, black dresses. Despite the fact that everyone grew sick to death of that song, the album it came from, Riptide, was actually pretty good for its time and was loaded with some fairly non-conventional twists, including Palmer’s slightly disco-ish cover of “Trick Bag”.

 

 

Then in ’91, the guitar returned to save our souls, and in ’92, the Gories brought “Trick Bag” back to its roots, hitting somewhere between the sparse groove of the King original and the freak-out of the Artesians cover.

 

The Gories – Trick Bag

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Notable Shows in the Greater Cleveland Area + The Gories

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Shows worth checking out this week in and around Cleveland:

The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

  • Fri, Nov 19| 8:30 PM (7:30 PM door)
    Asylum Street Spankers
    Caravan of Thieves
    $18 adv / $20 dos
    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Fri, Nov 19| 9 PM (8 PM door)
    Whiskey Daredevils
    Lords of the Highway
    45 Spider
    $7
    Tavern | All Ages

  • Sun, Nov 21| 8 PM (7 PM door)
    Raquy & the Cavemen
    Durga Dance Company
    $10 adv / $12 dos
    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Sun, Nov 21| 8 PM (7 PM door)
    Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
    Misery Jackals
    $10
    Tavern | All Ages

  • Wed, Nov 24| 8:30 PM (8 PM door)
    The Floorwalkers (cd release)
    The Modern Electric
    Tom Evanchuck
    $8
    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Wed, Nov 24| 9 PM (7 PM door)
    This Way Out 5th Anniversary Show
    Afternoon Naps
    Clovers
    Dreadful Yawns
    (Bands start playing @ 9PM
    Free appetizers 7 PM to 9 PM)
    $5
    Tavern | All Ages

Grog Shop

  • Sat, Nov 20| 9 PM
    No Age
    Lucky Dragons
    Herzog
    $12 adv / $14 dos

  • Sun, Nov 21| 8 PM
    Free Energy
    Hollerado
    The Globes
    $8

Now That’s Class

  • Sat, Nov 20| 1 PM – 7 PM
    Bling Bling Bazaar
    (featuring vendors, DJ’s, food)
    Beardo Bandini
    Jukebox Value
    Muamin Collective
    Vigatron
    FREE

  • Sun, Nov 21| 9 PM
    Destroy Nate Allen
    Beckett & Friends
    Back to Bouvet
    19 Action News (cd release)
    Dan Polo
    $5 donation

Musica

  • Sat, Nov 20| 7 PM
    River City Extension
    The Modern Electric
    Shivering Timbers
    Tinamou
    $8

  • Sat, Nov 20| 10 PM
    Party of Helicopters
    Sun God
    New Body Type
    $5

  • Wed, Nov 24| 10 PM
    Cap C & Random X
    $5

The Kent Stage

  • Fri, Nov 19| 8 PM
    Kent State Folk Festival
    Loudon Wainwright
    Shawn Colvin
    $40 / $65

Happy Dog

  • Fri, Nov 19| 9 PM
    Benefit for Secondhand Mutts
    Misery Jackals
    Scoliosis Jones

The Gories are coming! The Gories are coming! I first encountered the gigantic and gigantically cool Mick Collins when his band the Dirtbombs opened for the Detroit Cobras at the Beachland Ballroom. The Dirtbombs blew that place up and made the Detroit Cobras seem flaccid in comparison. Now Mick Collins is back together with his old friends in the Gories, and they’ll be playing the Beachland on November 27.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvjIq0j6hjY?fs=1]

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Paolo Conte: [Imagine Something in Italian Here]

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It’s tough being a fan of singer/songwriter/pianist Paolo Conte if you don’t know much Italian. I first heard Conte’s music while working in a bookstore in northern California thanks to one of my spectacular co-workers playing Conte’s Best of… CD over the PA. I fell in love with the music – which, though I tend to shy away from direct artist comparisons, I have often described to people as “if Tom Waits sang French songs in Italian” – but it’s been difficult keeping up with him since.

You may well have heard Conte, too, as songs like “Come Di” and “Via Con Me” have been used in a couple of American films (like the Cleveland-set Welcome to Collinwood). His bi-lingual music is often upbeat and infectious but also ranges to the utterly beautiful. A lawyer as well as a musician (his family have been solicitors for generations), he is known to accompany himself by producing trumpet sounds with his mouth.

And it just so happens that he released a new album last month called Nelson (in honor of his dog).

Italian journal-makers Moleskine love Conte, too, and have produced a lovely special edition Nelson journal.

You can purchase Nelson on Amazon and iTunes Italy (though apparently not iTunes U.S.). And your guess is as good as mine on where to get the Moleskine journal.

Paolo Conte Official Website

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Video Round-Up

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This week, Jennifer makes NTSIB one of the few places on the internet where you will see the words “killer xylophone action” used together.

No shows this week, so I’m dipping into the video vault (aka YouTube) to highlight some music I’ve enjoyed recently:

Jail Weddings – I Just Thought You Were Someone I Knew

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR–xZltoAE?fs=1]

I have already enthused at y’all about their EP Inconvenient Dreams, which is a five-song slice of joy. Now I am here to be flappy and flaily about their latest full-length release, Love is Lawless, which is both delicious and dirty. As you will see from the video, there are a lot of them, and they harmonize beautifully while singing songs with titles like “What Did You Do With My Gun?” The track in this video is something of a bitter kiss-off to a cruel, inconstant lover, with some killer xylophone and fiddle action.

Tour status: They just wrapped up a West Coast run, but it looks like they’ll be playing at The Echo in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, along with The Black Apples, Dante vs Zombies, and My Pet Saddle.

Surfer Blood – Floating Vibes

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_RBxVpM_AI?fs=1]

A couple of weeks ago I had cause to get up at 5 in the morning to watch Subterranean a show on MTV wherein they actually play videos. (I know! On MTV! Has the world slipped off its axis?) The show is meant to be the reanimation of 120 Minutes, but it doesn’t quite get there, mainly because – at least in the episode I saw – the artist being interviewed between videos doesn’t seem to have much of a connection to what is being played. The videos themselves were actually quite interesting. I pulled this one out to share specifically because I like the “cable access tv” visual style they have going on, as well as their guitars.

Tour status: Currently running around Europe with Interpol, though they will be part of the Bruise Cruise to the Bahamas in February.

Christina Perri – “Jar of Hearts”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvnASKvi2H8?fs=1]

Perri recently rocketed up the charts and into a record deal almost literally overnight after this song was featured on So You Think You Can Dance Canada. I happen to like this version better than the “official” video because I think it being just her and the piano showcases the power of her voice. Also, this is the kind of song you play – loudly, repeatedly, and as often as necessary – to stop yourself from taking a bad boy/girlfriend back into your life.

Tour status: She’s making appearances at various Christmas-special style shows; check her listings to see if there is one near you!

— Jennifer

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Bits: Sub Pop’s Andy Kotowicz, Einstürzende Neubauten, Tom Waits and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Low Anthem, Raekwon

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  • On October 24 of this year, Sub Pop executive Andy Kotowicz was killed in a car accident, leaving behind a wife and young daughter. On December 4, the Showbox will host a benefit concert for the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation, featuring A-Frames/AFCGT, Fruit Bats, Mudhoney, Michael Yonkers, Pissed Jeans, Shabazz Palaces, Vetiver, and Wolf Eyes.

  • At 2:00 PM EST (if my calculations are correct) today, November 16, Arte will have a live webcast of Einstürzende Neubauten’s 30th anniversary show in Paris.

  • Beginning Friday, November 19, Preservation Hall will have for sale a special 78 of Tom Waits and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s recording of “Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing”, signed and numbered by Ben Jaffe. (Online sales begin November 20.)

  • The Low Anthem have announced that their new album Smart Flesh will be released on February 22.

  • November 13 would have been the inimitable Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s 42nd birthday. In memory, Raekwon has released the video “Ason Jones”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtGqCyiMOA?fs=1]

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Young Circles: I’ve Got Shit for Brains, and They’re Out of Stock

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You can’t go wrong when you start your album out with feedback, at least in my book. So, Young Circles had me at ‘SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH’ with the first song off their forthcoming debut EP Bones (out 1.11.11). But feedback will only get you so far, and Young Circles keep up (and expand on) the interest with some seriously heavy low-end, Britpop-style vocals and decidedly infectious grooves. And for a three-piece, these guys throw a lot at you in one song, sometimes flowing from sweet to jarring in seconds. There are layers of good things here.

“Sharp Teeth” is my favorite track off of Bones, with it’s clap-stomp rhythm and rap-chanting. Check it out, download it, love it.

Young Circles – Sharp Teeth

Young Circles Official Website

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Notable Shows in the Greater Cleveland Area

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Shows worth checking out this week in and around Cleveland:

The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

  • Fri, Nov 12| 9 PM (8 PM door)
    Beachland Co-Presents
    @ The House of Blues
    Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
    The Rebirth Brass Band
    $22
    |All Ages

  • Fri, Nov 12| 9 PM (8 PM door)
    The Schwartz Brothers
    $6
    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Sun, Nov 14| 8:30 PM (8 PM door)
    Spindrift
    Stereo Workers Union
    Mother Country Mad Men
    $7
    Tavern | All Ages

  • Mon, Nov 15| 8 PM (7 PM door)
    Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band
    Thieving Irons
    $18 adv / $20 dos
    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Wed, Nov 17| 8 PM (7 PM door)
    Band Aid with Doc Rock
    First Anniversary Ball
    Zach
    The Modern Electric
    JD Eicher & The Goodnights
    Kurt Scobie

    Free show with ticket
    (Pickup your ticket @ the Beachland!)

    Ballroom | All Ages

  • Thu, Nov 18| 8:30 PM (7:30 PM door)
    Members of Morphine & Jeremy Lyons
    Non Fiction
    $15
    Tavern | All Ages

Grog Shop

  • Sun, Nov 14| 9 PM
    Aloe Blacc
    The Grand Scheme
    Maya Jupiter
    MuAmin Collective
    $10 adv / $12 dos

  • Mon, Nov 15| 9 PM
    Fang Island
    Delicate Steve
    Chat Logs
    Simeon Soul Charger
    $10 adv / $12 dos

  • Tue, Nov 16| 9 PM
    Stalley
    Camp Lo
    Moriarty
    Brainsick
    DJ Terry Urban
    $10 adv / $12 dos

  • Thu, Nov 18| 7 PM (6 PM door)
    A Benefit for Chris Jordan’s Family
    Presented by the RedHeaded StepChildren Collective feat.
    Tino
    N 2 Deep
    Army Gang
    & More
    $10 adv / $15 dos

Now That’s Class

  • Fri, Nov 12| 9 PM
    Cheer-Accident
    Filmstrip
    Low Lamps
    Nate Scheible-Bob Drake-Andrew Klimek
    $5

  • Mon, Nov 15| 9 PM
    La Otracina
    Snuff Film
    Own Weather
    Main Street Gospel
    $5

The Kent Stage

  • Fri, Nov 12| 8 PM
    The Flatlanders
    $30 / $40

  • Wed, Nov 17| 8 PM
    Kent State Folk Festival
    Night of Brazilian Music featuring
    Luca Mundaca
    Moises Borger Trio
    Capoeira
    Samba Joia
    $10

  • Thu, Nov 18| 8 PM
    Kent State Folk Festival
    Jessica Lea Mayfield
    Tim Easton
    Frontier Ruckus
    $20

Palace Theatre

  • Sat, Nov 13| 7:30 PM
    Walking to New Orleans: The Music of Fats Domino and Dave Bartholemew
    Featuring
    Lloyd Price
    Dr. John & the Lower 911
    Irma Thomas
    The Rebirth Brass Band
    Robert Parker
    $30-$250

House of Blues

  • Sat, Nov 13| 8 PM (7 PM door)
    Michael Franti & Spearhead
    Bobby Long
    $25 adv / $27 dos / $35 balcony