Tag: Preservation Hall Jazz Band

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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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The Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

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I was about 13 years old when I visited New Orleans. I was with my parents, visiting family in Alabama and Louisiana, and I was in the throes of a Harry Connick, Jr., fixation, so it was a well-timed visit. I remember that Connick’s father, then the District Attorney of New Orleans, was on the T.V. news due to allegations of corruption. I remember the cute bellhop at the Marie Antoinette Hotel. I remember a riverboat to Chalmette. I remember walking through Jackson Square in a light rain while a group of young boys played jazz on a street corner. I remember walking a few paces behind my parents because I didn’t want them to see me crying. New Orleans was so true to my daydreams of it that it overwhelmed me.

But the best memory I have of New Orleans was visiting Preservation Hall. Even though it’s just off of Bourbon Street, the Hall seems like its own universe in the midst of the lights, tourists and infamous debauchery that punctuates (or blankets, depending on what time of the year you’re there) Bourbon Street. It’s boards are worn, and it is narrow. The benches inside are hard and uncomfortable. … Continue reading