Month: November 2012

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Feel Bad for You, November 2012

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It’s that time again, kids. The Feel Bad for You mix for November is live!

“Hidely-ho neighbors! We’ve back, and feeling bad for November. Your favorite bloggers, twitters, hurricane survivors, pinko commie liberals, and conspiracy theorist wingnuts present this month’s mix. Thanks to Hoosier Buddy for the artwork – he took the photo while standing in the ocean near La Jolla, California. Feel bad for those of us standing in snow (or worse).”

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Feel Bad for You, November 2012

1. Title: Done Got Old
Artist: Heartless Bastards
Album: Stairs and Elevators (2005)
Submitted By: Rockstar Aimz
Comment: I just turned 40. This is my new theme song.

2. Title: Outrageous
Artist: Paul Simon
Album: Surprise (2006)
Submitted By: @philnorman
Comments: It’s outrageous a man like me can stand here and complain.

3. Title: Sadie
Artist: Hound Dog Taylor
Album: Natural Boogie (1974)
Submitted By: Truersound
Comments: just three guys laying the groove down, no big deal

4. Title: A Horse Called Music
Artist: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
Album: Heroes (2012)
Submitted By: Gorrck
Comments: The original of this song is almost too clean and pure beauty. This has some rough edges but retains the beauty of the song.

5. Title: Beat Surrender
Artist: The Jam
Album: Direction Reaction Creation (1997)
Submitted By: Simon
Comments: Thirty years ago this month the ‘best fucking band in the world’ released their final single and were on the road for their farewell Beat Surrender tour – what else could I choose this month – more on the blog later this month.

6. Title: Blackberries
Artist: Boca Chica
Album (year): Transform Into Beasts (2007)
Submitted By: BoogieStudio22
Comments: I can’t remember how I stumbled upon Boca Chica, but I’ve had them on my ‘buy’ list for a while. I finally picked up one of their earlier albums and have been enjoying it this week. I had a tough time choosing a song for this month’s FBFY, but I keep going back to this one, so here you go.

7. Title: California Dreamin’
Artist: Barry McGuire
Album: Dunhill LP 50005 (1965)
Submitted By: tincanman
Comments: Sounds like someone taking the piss (UK saying), but this is the original. The Mamas & Papas were in the studio at the same time, so supplied the backing vocals. The Cave-like harshness over the sappy sweet harmonies make it almost punky … or is it because McGuire can’t hold a tune?

8. Title: Everybody Knows
Artist: Allen Thompson Band
Album: Salvation In The Ground (2012)
Submitted By: Bryan Childs (ninebullets.net)
Comments: “Everybody Knows” isn’t a comfortable song. It doesn’t really have a groove and you’ll never dance to it, but like The Eagles “Desperado,” you might find yourself wanting to hold up a lighter while it’s playing. The track eschews “a catchy tune” and goes for the “honesty so brutal you can’t help but sit down and pay attention” lyrics…

9. Title: Separation Anxiety
Artist: Mutts
Album: Separation Anxiety (2012)
Submitted By: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: I figured there could hardly be a more fitting contribution to a mixtape that encourages drunken commentary than this shambling, drunken, everybody-sing-now ditty from Chicago’s Mutts.

10. Title: Jamie
Artist: Weezer
Album: DGC Rarities, Volume 1 (1994)
Submitted By: Ryan (Verbow @ Altcountrytab.ca)
Comments: Been on a Weezer kick lately. This is a fine track that didn’t make the Blue Album – just a sweet slice of power poppy goodness. It also comes with a cool story – it was recorded by a friend of the band for his college final – he got a B on it. Nice. Also reminds me of a girl I knew named Suzanne – I keed I keed, a girl named Jamie. Swoon. Good times.

11. Title: Two Riders
Artist: Bohannons
Album: Unaka Rising (2012)
Submitted By: TheOtherBrit
Comments: While the bulk of Atlanta was down the street at the democrats’ bar watching the election results, the Bohannons were putting on a scalp-peeling show for less than a dozen people that rivaled the show I saw for a near sold out crowd in their home-town Chattanooga. This album doesn’t do their live show justice (which is one of the best I’ve seen in years), but for $5 from thisisamericanmusic.com it’s gonna be one of your favorite albums this year.

12. Title: Snake Song
Artist: David Olney with Sergio Garcia
Album: Unreleased – Live at Grimey’s (2012)
Submitted By: toomuchcountry
Comments: Back in February, author Brian Atkinson made an in-store appearance at Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville to promote “I’ll Be Here In The Morning”, his book about Townes van Zandt. Grimey added to the promotion of Brian’s book by inviting incredible talents such as Will Kimbrough and the legendary Steve Young to sing covers of Townes’ songs or their songs that may have been somehow influenced by him. The striking highlight for me, however, was David Olney’s cover of Snake Song featuring jaw-dropping guitar work by Sergio Webb. My video of the performance is also on YouTube (as well as the performances by Kimbrough and Young).

13. Title: Oxblood
Artist: The Donkeys
Album: Born With Stripes (2011)
Submitted By: hoosier buddy
Comments: Like your second trip to the kissing booth, this song is as thrilling as it is comfortable. With echoes of Marc Bolan, Ray Davies, and the Commotions (minus Lloyd Cole), the alt-country psychedelia whangs and burbles along. The musical question, “could there be a relationship here?”, applies as much to the listener as it does to the girl who says she’s “got friends in from out of town.”

14. Title: Reefer
Artist: Harlan Pepper
Album: Young and Old (2012)
Submitted By: @popa2unes
Comments: I spent most of the week trying to weed out a song to submit, and then Colorado and Washington State made this old stoner a very happy hippie.

15. Title: Joe
Artist: The Pollies
Album: Where the Lies Begin (2012)
Submitted By: Trailer

16. Title: Fields of June
Artist: Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo (featuring Frank Turner)
Album: Field of June single (2012)
Submitted By: scratchedsoul
Comments: I don’t know much about Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo but Frank Turner tweets about them a lot. Now he’s singing with her and it’s obvious why he likes her. She was part of the Revival Tour in Europe this year.

17. Title: Calm Me Down
Artist: Port O’Brien
Album: Threadbare (2010)
Submitted By: annieTUFF
Comments: Lately this has been my “ease me into the morning while driving” song.

18. Title: Rotten Alabama
Artist: Ramsay Midwood
Album: Larry Buys A Lighter (2011)
Submitted by: Corey Flegel (This Is American Music)
Comments: Ramsay is a Texas legend in my eyes. Every record he’s put out is stellar. If you’re ever in Austin…

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Video: The Pixies, Dig For Fire / Allison and Here Comes Your Man

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The Pixies are one of the bands that I can put on shuffle and listen to for a morning, or even all day. I don’t think there’s a single track that makes me stop and mutter oh, not now.

I have picked this particular set of songs today because they are three of my favorites. Here Comes Your Man was the #1 most played song in my iTunes for several years, until it got (accidentally) dethroned by a Vienna Teng song, and on a Pixies-only playlist, Allison and Dig for Fire are right behind it at two and three, respectively.

The first video is the “official” video, from 1990. The music holds up; the visuals are endearingly dated. Especially the part where they’re playing in an empty stadium. Some of you may not remember but that was a time when there were a lot of videos made in empty stadiums.

 

 
The second one is a live video shot during their 2011 tour, which I picked over the “official” video because the official video is weirdly terrible and not in an entertaining way.
 

 
If you’d like to hear more, there are free live downloads – including one from Coachella 2011! – and much more in the blog posts on their website.

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Empires: Garage Hymns

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I’ve been writing about a lot of dreamy electronic music and chill folk rock lately, but now I’m ready to push the pendulum the other way.

Luckily, I have some Empires – scrappy little band of my heart, North American division – to listen to. Garage Hymns is their latest record, out earlier this year, and it is just what I need to clear out the cobwebs.

Some sample tunes, with annotations:
 
Can’t Steal Your Heart Away: A perfect evocation of a particular kind of party, specifically, the kind that ends with people playing Bad Decision Bingo. And so wryly observed that it fills me with longing for nights that end with fries drenched in cheddar cheese and mornings that start with strong tea.
 

 
Night Is Young: This one will always evoke the lights of Times Square blinking while I study for the bar, for me, but there’s other things in there, too. Like, I live here in this rambling, sometimes beautiful sometimes disgusting 19th century city because every day is anything can happen day. Maybe I’ll pass the bar on the second try. Maybe someday I’ll get to spend a summer in France drifting between music festivals and eating French carnival food. The night is young!
 

Surrenderer: This is the one I put on in the morning when I need a little push to get moving.
 

 
Hard Times: Choosing between this one and We Lost Magic was difficult, but this tune finally won because as much as I like songs that double as squares on Bad Decision Bingo cards, I’m twice as fond of songs about finding people who love you even when (or perhaps because) you’ve got a bad habit of backflipping yourself into the slipstream and calling your dismount as you come down.
 

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A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Christian D.

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Christian D. by Jon Blacker

 

It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

 

After a hiatus, we are happy to have Christian D bringing the read/listen/drink series back into circulation. We were introduced to Christian through his performance this year at Couch by Couchwest… when I may or may not have flung my panties at the screen.

 

 

As lead of Christian D and the Hangovers, Christian lays down dark rockabilly with smolder and swagger, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the mood.

 

 

You can download some free songs at the various Christian D and the Hangovers outposts, listed at the end of this post, and they’re having a Bandcamp sale on digital downloads from now until Christmas.

 

 

Aside from being one sexy rock ‘n’ roll motherfucker, Christian is also a nice and thoughtful man whom I’ve had the pleasure of having some good conversations with on Twitter. So now I’m happy to hand the reins over to Mr. Christian D.

 

Good Read:
It seems like I read three things mainly, science fiction, music biographies and sprawling novels with convoluted stories of shady characters. Here’s something that combines all three: Bruce Sterling’s Zeitgeist.

Sleazy pop promoter Leggy Starlitz takes a rip-off Spice Girls-style band through Moslem Cyprus in an attempt to make it rich and pass unscathed through the Y2K scare, with his strange pre-teen daughter in tow.

There’s tech geekery, music biz fuckery, pop star deaths, a Turkish warlord and tonnes of weird con jobs going on. If I described it any more, or tried to lay out the plot, I’d probably wreck it for you. So to sum it up, it’s fascinating and entertaining with weird tangential goings on.

 

Good Listen:
I do listen to a lot of new stuff, but return to my personal classics constantly. There’s not a week that passes where I don’t listen to some Elvis, Stooges, the Cramps and Tom Waits. Another big one for me is Nick Cave. I still remember the first time I heard him, ear pressed against the speaker of a cheap radio, lighthouse flashing on my wall, as The Birthday Party’s Release the Bats tore down my conception of rock and roll.

From the early Bad Seeds period my current favourite is Your Funeral… My Trial, which seems to sum up his career to that point, and point the way to the future. From tender love songs, to crazed lusty gothic blues, this is a record I return to time and time again. It’s a dark obsessive tour through love, sex and death.

 

 

Good Drink:
While in literature and music I appreciate a certain complexity, in drinking I usually want simplicity. Most of the time I’m a beer drinker. My current favourite is Rolling Rock. It’s cheap and tasty.

Another thing I drink often is my take on Irish coffee. No need to bother with cream, whipped or not, or sugaring the rim. Make a strong cup of coffee. Add Scotch – you now have a Scots Coffee. It’ll get you through the night.

 

Christian D and the Hangovers Official Website

Christian D and the Hangovers @ Bandcamp

Christian D and the Hangovers @ ReverbNation

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Video: The All-American Rejects, Heartbeat Slowing Down

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And for Tuesday, the lyric video for Heartbeat Slowing Down, the most recent single from The All-American Rejects‘ fourth record Kids In the Street.

I like this video because I have a weakness for lyric videos, but also because of the way the lyrics are presented: hand-written by Tyson Ritter himself. I’m particularly fond of the shot of him writing out one verse on torn hotel note-paper, and the way the camera lingers on the tense curve of his fingers.

The lyrics also appear written on torn scraps of paper, large posters, pillowcases, arms of other members of All-American Rejects, and other surfaces, which is a simple but clear visual metaphor supporting the “messy breakups” theme of the song.

Heartbreak isn’t tidy. Sometimes it gets on other people. Sometimes there are rageful things you wish you could font size +7 at people, because maybe if you write it large enough, they’ll finally hear you. Sometimes you there are things you font size +7 at yourself, in hopes perhaps this time you’ll learn.
 

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The Wind-up Birds: The Mild Awards

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The Mild Awards by the Wind-up Birds

 

Time to put my favorite discovery of 2012 on your radars again. The Wind-up Birds have a new single out (note to other bands: you see? Two songs is a single, not an EP): “The Mild Awards” b/w “Some Gimmicks for You”. The two songs together form a set piece, commenting on the carefully calculated path toward mediocrity that so many artists seem to take in pursuit of attention and validation. Oh yeah, and the songs sound great, “The Mild Awards” punctuated with grand horns while “Some Gimmicks for You” employs some new wave pop keys.

Not to mention the video put together for “The Mild Awards” which had me not just LOLing but actually laughing out loud.

 

 

Pick up the single through the Wind-up Birds’ Bandcamp site in either digital download or limited-edition 7″ vinyl (you know you want cover puppy Royston in your collection).

 

The Wind-up Birds Official Website

The Wind-up Birds @ Bandcamp

The Wind-up Birds @ Twitter

The Wind-up Birds @ Facebook

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Video: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Fishin’ in the Dark

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I put this song on my prom mix tape in 1992, sandwiched between Miracle (Bon Jovi) and Veronica (Elvis Costello). All of which kind of sums up me, age seventeen, pretty neatly.

Also in the mix: A lot of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Red Hot Chili Peppers, leavened by Edie Brickell, Bruce Springsteen, Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Queen, The Spin Doctors, Richard Marx, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, most baffling to me now, The Beach Boys.

All I can say is, I’m surprised there’s only one country song on the tape.

 

 
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band official website

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Wickerbird, The Crow Mother

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And now, from the wild woods of Washington State, is Wickerbird (Blake Cowan) with The Crow Mother.

I’ve been listening to it all weekend and it is just lovely. If dreamy, soothing folk music with rich harmonies and an undercurrent of melancholy is your thing, you are going to want to listen to these songs.

Some examples:
 

 

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Link Session: Hurricane Sandy Relief Edition

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I’ve seen a lot of music and music-related hurricane relief efforts in my various feeds in the last week; I’ve gathered a bunch of them here for quick reference.

  • Web Aid is a benefit album assembled at lightening speed and featuring a wide variety of electronic music artists, including Staten Island native Udachi, Kicks n’ Licks, Disco Fries and Mic the Drums. Their goal is to raise at least $5,000 for the Carl V. Bini Fund.

    [Ed note: The Bini Fund is based on Staten Island, New York City’s smallest borough, and as all of you have probably seen on the news, they took quite a beating. What the news may not have mentioned is that Staten Island is also home to many, many of the first responders – police, fire, sanitation, etc – who were out in the howling wind and rain taking care of the rest of the city, and will be up to their necks in the wreckage for weeks and months to come.]

  • Portions of the proceeds for the NYC premiere of the Bobby Bare Jr. documentary Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, will be donated to the relief efforts; email the filmmakers for more information.
  • Bayside, who are collectively Manhattan/Long Island/Queens natives, have benefit shirts available; proceeds to the Greater New York Red Cross.
  • Taking Back Sunday, collectively from Long Island, have adjusted their current Tell All Your Friends tour to include some benefit shows. Proceeds will go to the Toms River Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund (New Jersey) and also relief efforts in Long Beach, NY.
  • Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) will be donating all of the profits from his upcoming solo show at the Fonda Theater in LA to the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Fund. He’s also added some special ticket packages.
  • Bands on a Budget, Humble Humans and CoWerks, all Jersey Shore businesses, have joined together to create the Restore the Shore campaign and create benefit shirts/hoodies. Proceeds are currently going the Red Cross but other beneficiaries/partners are in the works. They are temporarily sold out of merchandise but there is a waiting list!
  • Un-Flood BK Music is taking donations to help rebuild studios and practice spaces destroyed by the storm, including Translator Audio.
  • And finally, Candidate is offering a free copy of their new record to anyone who has contributed to hurricane relief who sends them an email with the subject line “I donated.” They solemnly swear no spam shall be forthcoming, only delicious music.
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Postcards from the Pit: Father John Misty / La Sera / Jeffertitti’s Nile, Bowery Ballroom, 10/24/12

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My post-show summary of Jeffertitti’s Nile was that they were loud and swirly, but pretty, and on reflection I think that sums them up pretty well. Their songs were almost entirely instrumental, and, were, well, psychadelic kaledeiscopes of notes. And yes, that is Father John Misty you see perched behind their drums; he was sitting in with them for the tour.

 
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The second opener was La Sera. They started out kind of sweet and twee and then somewhere around song two or three abruptly kicked into gear, sprouted some harder edges and jumped several notches on my approval matrix. They also got bonus points for a partial cover / interpolation of an Elvis Presley song, because there really should be more punk/rockabilly Elvis covers.

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And then Father John Misty (J. Tillman) re-appeared, having apparently briefly decamped to Tom Petty Fest and found it wanting. Here’s what I’m going to tell you about his set: what you hear on the record is what you hear live.

He did some jazz-hands and a lot of shimmy-shake and hit all of those notes in achingly beautiful style, with occasional breaks for snarking on the Tom Petty Fest and other miscellaneous rambling. It was obnoxious and beautiful and hilarious and I can’t wait to do it again at Webster Hall when he comes back in January.

Other notes: Jeffertitti Moon returned the sitting-in favor and played guitar during Tillman’s set.
 

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