Month: July 2011

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Deep Blues Focus: Old Gray Mule featuring CW Ayon, Cashman

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The Deep Blues Festival is tomorrow! I’m freaking excited. There will be great artists on stage, cool people in the audience, and it’s all going down at one of my favorite places in Cleveland. Come along and buy your favorite blogger a drink. And if your favorite blogger isn’t there, you can buy me a whiskey.

One more time, those details are: Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name:Old Gray Mule featuring CW AYON
Homebase: Austin, Texas/Las Cruces, New Mexico

 


Old Gray Mule with CW Ayon – My Girl

Old Gray Mule Official Website

CW Ayon @ Reverbnation

 

Name: Cashman
Homebase: Nashville, Tennessee

 


Cashman – Pistol Blues

Cashman @ Reverbnation

 

DBF Alumnus
T-Model Ford & GravelRoad

 


T-Model Ford & GravelRoad – Hip Shakin’ Woman – DBF08

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July Video Challenge: The Used, Pretty Handsome Awkward / Empty With You

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Reasons I love Pretty Handsome Awkward: 1) the percussive guitars and roaring drums and 2) it sounds like one-half of every rage-fueled break-up conversation ever, the one you probably shouldn’t have with the actual person you are leaving / has left you because you might sound a tiny bit unhinged, but good lord does it ever feel good to vent your spleen.

As it happens I heard it for the first time in the aftermath of a split. I wasn’t angry so much as numb, overwhelmed, and directionless, and in many ways it was like a big blinking arrow that said When In Doubt, Follow The Sound of the Electric Guitar. Not long afterward I fell face-first (back) into rock and roll and, well, suffice it to say, I feel a lot better now.

The Used have been a band since 2001; Pretty Handsome Awkward is from their third record, Lies for the Liars, released in 2007. They are currently label-less, but still working on their fifth record, which may possibly be out later this year.

Other things to know: Pretty Handsome Awkward coincided with singer Bert McCracken’s blond period, and when he is blond, he looks startlingly like Kurt Cobain. It can be a little bit dislocating, so, you know, brace yourselves. Also, embedding is (again) maddeningly forbidden, but you can watch it here.

Alternatively, you can watch this one for Empty with You, which is from their last record, Artwork, released in 2009. The guitars are just as killer, and McCracken looks like himself again!

The Used - Empty With You (Official)

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Deep Blues Focus: Mississippi Gabe Carter, The Misery Jackals

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Going in to the homestretch with a gentlemen how embraces the sound of the bluesmen from Bentonia, Mississippi, (which was the birthplace of my favorite blues musician, Skip James) and the other Ohio band on Saturday’s ticket. (And if you can listen to Pearlene without wanting to sigh or writhe around on the floor or something to that effect, then… well, you’re clearly not having as much fun as I am.)

Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Mississippi Gabe Carter
Homebase: Chicago, Illinois
Related artists: Duck Holmes

 


Mississippi Gabe Carter – Leavin’ – DBF09

Mississippi Gabe Carter @ MySpace

Rick Saunders’ interview with Mississippi Gabe Carter

 

Name: The Misery Jackals
Homebase: Akron, Ohio
Related artists: The Goddamn Gallows

 


The Misery Jackals – Trapper Jack

The Misery Jackals Official Website

 

DBF Alumnus
Pearlene

 


Pearlene – All Fears (Have Faces) – DBF08

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July Video Challenge: Metallica, Unforgiven / NIN, Head Like A Hole

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Creepy black and white imagery: check. James Hetfield and co. with all of their hair and the occasional ridiculous moustache: check.  Reminder of why so many hard rock stations had “Mandatory Metallica” bits: also check.

This is not the song that caused me to become a Metallica fan – that was One – but it is certainly among my favorite tracks. They would go on to name two more songs “Unforgiven” but this one, from their fifth record, entitled Metallica, aka The Black Album, is the one that I think of as Original and Best. Also, The Black Album was the one I used to put on almost every night to listen to as I was winding down to sleep.

And now i have just discovered that, in what I can only call as CLASSIC METALLICA MOVE, I can’t embed the damned thing to share with you. I promise the click-through to YouTube will be worth it, though.

Or you can watch a classic video from a band on the other end of the sharing spectrum: Nine Inch Nails. I was in to them before I was in to Metallica, and, because MTV used to play them back to back, I often used to mute the video for One while waiting, impatiently, for Head Like a Hole to come on. So have some skinny, angry, dreadlock-flinging Trent Reznor:

 

Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole

 

(And if you’d like to know why I caved to Metallica, well, you can blame that one on a boy. He sang Bon Jovi to me in science class and persuaded me to give James Hetfield and his not-so-merry crew a shot, so I stopped hitting the mute button and listened. Eventually I bought   . . . And Justice For All, and it was all downhill from there.

My other distinct Metallica memory is opening an issue of Circus magazine and flipping eagerly to their poster in the center only to find they had cut their hair. I think I made some sort of undignified noise and petted Kirk Hammett’s papery face with my finger tips. I still hung the poster up, though.)

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Deep Blues Focus: Ten Foot Polecats, Boom Chick

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Deep Blue Focus, part three, and halfway to showtime, folks. Check out Rick Saunders’ DBF11 profile for a little mo’ somethin’.

Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Ten Foot Polecats
Homebase: Boston, Massachusetts
Organizer

 


Ten Foot Polecats – Goin’ Crazy – DBF09

Ten Foot Polecats Official Website

 

Name: Boom Chick
Homebase: New York, New York

 


Boom Chick – The Ghost of Bo Diddley

Boom Chick Official Website

 

DBF Alumnus
Scott H. Biram

 


Scott H. Biram – Get Me Religion – DBF08

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The Dead Exs, Bowery Electric, 7/10/11

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IMG_9594

Last month, NTSIB friend @popa2unes reported on The Dead Exs record release party, and now I’m here to heartily second his ringing endorsement of the band. I got to see them this weekend, when they were back at the Bowery Electric for an early show. One of the highlights of the evening was that I was not the only one dancing this time.

The Dead Exs are David Pattillo (dp) on vocals and guitars and Wylie Wirth on drums, and their sound is a delicious blues-funk stew lightly seasoned with garage-rock flair.  If you get a chance to see them live, do it; their show is a raucus good time, messy and loud in all of the best ways, if sometimes unintentionally so. And by that I mean dp’s finger-slide made a break for freedom half-way through the evening, but it was swiftly recaptured and they went right back to rocking out.

As an example, here is Shut Up and Love Me, from their Bandcamp:
 

 

Here are a few more pictures from the evening:

 

IMG_9606
David Pattillo (dp)

IMG_9603Wylie Wirth

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July Video Challenge: Chris Gaines [Garth Brooks], Lost in You

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In 1999, Garth Brooks invented Chris Gaines from whole cloth, in order to explore genres outside of country. (There was also supposed to be a movie, but that didn’t quite work out.) One of the fruits of his labor was this video, a dreamy, melancholy piece, in which he is wholly unrecognizable as himself. The song did well, but faced with a baffled (and possibly somewhat concerned) public and a loss of momentum that came with the disintegration of the movie deal, Brooks let Gaines fade out of sight. The “real” Garth Brooks retired – temporarily – in 2000.

It is, if nothing else, an intriguing meditation on the idea of rock star as illusionist. As I was reading up on the affair to refresh my memory – all I had was the echo of baffled disbelief – any number of people have offered that his mistake was not in inventing a new persona but in revealing that the persona was, in fact, an invention.

 

http://youtu.be/n_zMEXOsNmU

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Deep Blues Focus: Scissormen, The Staving Chain, Molly Gene One Whoaman Band

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The second installment of our Deep Blues Focus series includes one of two Ohio bands on the bill and a one-woman band who has me pretty jacked up.

Remember: Deep Blues Festival, Beachland Ballroom, Saturday, July 16, doors at 4 PM.

 

Name: Molly Gene One Whoaman Band
Homebase: Kansas City, Missouri
Related artists: Bob Log III, The Reverend Deadeye, The Goddamn Gallows

 


Molly Gene One Whoaman Band – Bumble Bee

Molly Gene One Whoaman Band Official Website

 

Name: Scissormen
Homebase: Nashville, Tennessee
Organizer

 


Scissormen – Do Wrong Man – DBF08

Scissormen Official Website

 

Name: The Staving Chain
Homebase: Toledo, Ohio
Related artists: Henry & June, Johnny Walker (Soledad Brothers, Cut in the Hill Gang), Black Diamond Heavies, Mark Porkchop Holder

 


The Staving Chain – various

The Staving Chain @ Danger Limited Recording Company

The Staving Chain @ Facebook

 

DBF Alumnus
Patrick Sweany

 


The Patrick Sweany Band – After Awhile – DBF08

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Deep Blues Focus: Left Lane Cruiser, Mark Porkchop Holder, Javier & the Innocent Sons

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The Deep Blues Festival, an annual celebration of “outsider blues”, will be reborn this Saturday, July 16, at the Beachland Ballroom in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. The original incarnation of DBF – which featured some NTSIB favorites like Patrick Sweany, the Black Diamond Heavies, Scott H. Biram and T-Model Ford with GravelRoad – saw it’s end with an announcement from founder Chris Johnson in February of 2010. (Check out this interview with Johnson for a brief history of the fest.)

Unwilling to let DBF die, Ted Drozdowski of Scissormen and Jim Chilson of the Ten Foot Polecats took over the name and the spirit – with Chris Johnson’s blessing – and moved the fest from Minnesota to Ohio. And we are freaking excited about it.

In this week leading up to DBF11, we’re going to spotlight a few of this year’s artists each day, along with some DBF alumni.

 

Name: Left Lane Cruiser
Homebase: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Related artists: The Black Diamond Heavies, James Leg, Scott H. Biram

 


Left Lane Cruiser – Set Me Down – DBF08

Left Lane Cruiser @ Alive Records

Left Lane Cruiser @ MySpace

 

Name: Mark Porkchop Holder
Homebase: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Related artists: The Black Diamond Heavies

 


Mark Porkchop Holder – My Black Name – DBF09

Mark Porkchop Holder @ MySpace

 

Name: Javier & the Innocent Sons
Homebase: Minneapolis, Minnesota

 


Javier & the Innocent Sons – Poor Boy Blues

Javier & the Innocent Sons @ MySpace

 

DBF Alumnus
The Black Diamond Heavies

 


The Black Diamond Heavies with Mark Porkchop Holder, Andy Jody and U.S. Justin – Nutbush City Limits – DBF09

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July Video Challenge: Mark Ronson and The Business, INTL, The Bike Song

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Mark Ronson and The Business INTL, or at least the current iteration of the band, are set to have their last London show in a couple of weeks, when they play a Greenwich Summer Session. I’ve been flipping through some of the snippets of video – outtakes of recording sessions, and so on – that are floating around the Internet, and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy their music.

The video below is for The Bike Song, and is an excellent example of the way they combine feather-light synth-pop with hip-hop. Also, there are semi-sentient bicycles, which I believe adds some joy to any music video.

 

Mark Ronson, The Business Intl. - The Bike Song