Mark Lanegan. Enough Said.

Mark Lanegan doesn’t get enough attention, as far as I’m concerned. So, for your Friday enjoyment, here’s a selection of some of my favorite Lanegan-led songs. Warning: knee-melting may occur.

 

Mark Lanegan – “Methamphetamine Blues”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Isobell Campbell and Mark Lanegan – “Back Burner”


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Soulsavers, featuring Mark Lanegan – “Revival”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

The Twilight Singers with Mark Lanegan – “Live with Me/Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Mark Lanegan Band – “I’ll Take Care of You”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Mark Lanegan – “Man in the Long Black Coat”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Isobell Campbell and Mark Lanegan – “Come on Over (Turn Me On)”


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Mark Lanegan … Continue reading

Bits: The Imperial Rooster, Bang Bang Boogaloo, Modest Mouse & Big Boi, Craig Wedren, The Twilight Singers, Wolfgang’s Vault

  • The Imperial Rooster will be playing at El Farol in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 10 at 6 PM MST and the set will be broadcast live on Radio Free Santa Fe. Tune in locally at 98.1 or via the Radio Free Santa Fe website.
  • New York label Bang Bang Boogaloo has put together a killer compilation of unsigned New York bands called New York Rock & Roll 1. You can listen to and download it for free on their website.
  • Big Boi revealed, via Twitter, that he’s working on an album with Modest Mouse. “Been camped out in the Lab with Modest Mouse all week, workin on the new mouse LP, coolest cats ever. Long Live The Funk.” Cannot wait to hear the results of that collaboration.
  • Both Craig Wedren and the Twilight Singers are offering new songs for free download. Wedren’s “Cupid” is a Shudder to Think-era tune re-purposed for his upcoming solo album, WAND. The Twilight Singers’ “Don’t Call” is a non-album track, as well as being a Desire cover.
  • Wolfgang’s Vault has added a video section to their mammoth live … Continue reading

Bits: Pinetop Perkins, The Dead Milkmen, Arthur, The Twilight Singers, CXCW

  • Blues piano great Pinetop Perkins has passed away at the age of 97. Perkins played with Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Muddy Waters, was the oldest Grammy winner and toured until the end.
  • The Dead Milkmen have released their first album of new material in 16 years. You can listen to song samples and download The King in Yellow at their website.
  • Arthur is dead, long live Arthur. While music and culture mag Arthur has gone on “indefinite hiatus”, they have begun archiving their back issues online. While it’s a work-in-progress, there’s already a lot to dive into.
  • The Twilight Singers will be hitting up Letterman on April 26.
  • Even though Couch by Couch West is over, one of the advantages it has over SXSW is that you can still experience all the music – and see the hipper-than-humans dog and cat contingent – on the CXCW Tumblr. And you should. Great performances from Conrad Plymouth, Doc Dailey, Tim Lee 3, Two Cow Garage, The Imperial Rooster, Neko Case (that’s right – Neko Case. In bed. You didn’t get that at South By) and so many more talented … Continue reading

Bits: Nicole Atkins, The Meat Puppets, The Twilight Singers, The Black Keys, A Place to Bury Strangers

  • Nicole Atkins will be playing a live acoustic session and chatting on livestream Wednesday, 1.19, at 1:30 PM ET/10:30 AM PT.
  • The Meat Puppets will be releasing their new album, Lollipop, in April, Paste reports. Their line-up now includes Shandon Sahm, son of Texan multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm, on drums.
  • The Twilight Singers’ upcoming album, Dynamite Steps, is available for pre-order at Sub Pop. The pre-order entitles you to stream the album online immediately, and if you pre-order by 2.15, you’ll receive two non-album tracks.
  • Though they’ve had to cancel their Australia/New Zealand tour and part of their European tour, the Black Keys juggernaut rolls on with an appearance on Austin City Limits airing 1.22 on PBS, in a split episode with Sonic Youth. (The Keys’ appearance was taped about three months ago. I am very excited about this, having hoped for a Keys ACL for a long time now.)
  • A Place to Bury Strangers will hit the road again this spring, including SXSW gigs where they will premiere material from their forthcoming, as-yet-untitled album. These guys are amazing live.

    THU 3/10 – ATLANTA, GA – Masquerade*

    FRI 3/11 – DURHAM, NC … Continue reading

Bits: Hell and Half of Georgia, the Low Anthem, Conrad Plymouth, the Twilight Singers, Mark Sandman

  • Shows! Hell and Half of Georgia will be playing a free show in Long Beach, California tomorrow, 12.29.10. On the other side of the country on the same day, the Avett Brothers, the Low Anthem and Bombadil will be playing a benefit show in Carrboro, North Carolina – tickets go on sale at 10:00 AM EST today, 12.28.10. (The Avett/Anthem/Bombadil benefit show sold out within the first hour.) Conrad Plymouth will play a New Year’s Eve show with Ian Olvera and the Sleepwalkers and Laarks at Linneman’s in Milkwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • The Twilight Singers have made another track, “On the Corner”, from the upcoming album Dynamite Steps available for free download.
  • And the news I’m personally most excited about right now is the impending release of Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story. The singer/bass player/avant-instrumentalist for Morphine was and is a huge influence on me, and I’m very much looking forward to this documentary, which will be hitting the festival circuit in 2011. Check out the trailer below, and find more video clips at the Gatling Pictures website.

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman … Continue reading

Bits: The Twilight Singers, Pulp, Ghostface Killah, J Mascis, Patterson Hood, Twain

  • The Twilight Singers will be releasing their new album, Dynamite Steps, on February 15. Guests on the album include some of the usual suspects – Ani DeFranco, Petra Haden, Joseph Arthur and, of course, Mark Lanegan – as well as Nick McCabe of the Verve.
  • The original Pulp line-up is reuniting for the first time since 1996. They have a couple of European fests booked for next year with additional plans likely.
  • Rap Radar has the first single, “Together Baby”, off Ghostface Killah’s forthcoming album Apollo Kids up for you.
  • J Mascis will be releasing an acoustic album called Several Shades of Why on March 15.
  • Special treat: Cuckoobird has posted a special Patterson Hood solo show that took place at the end of last month. Patterson Hood is several kinds of awesome.
  • The Low Anthem are on the road with Emmylou Harris. During a break, Mat Davidson played a surprise Twain show in Brooklyn. Watch Mat and all his hair below.

Twain “I’ll Be Fooled Again” from Possum Den Productions on Vimeo.

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Craig Wedren/Greg Dulli at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, OH, 10.16.10

Craig Wedren

Given my long-standing love for Greg Dulli (generally referred to in my world by his proper name: Greg fucking Dulli), it was a given that I would jump on tickets to this special acoustic show, Dulli’s first solo tour. When it was announced that Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think would be opening, my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. In the later 1990s, before bands began breaking up and band members died, my holy triumvirate of music was topped by the Afghan Whigs with Morphine and Shudder to Think anchoring the other corners. I was fortunate enough to see each of these bands play before tides turned, and I cherish the memory of those shows. To be able to check in with the frontmen of two of those bands in one night was a special treat.

Wedren looked exactly as I remembered seeing him back in 1997 when Shudder to Think toured in support of 50,000 B.C.: fresh, lean and handsome with a spectacular smile and a sparkle in his eye. Mixing his solo … Continue reading

Bits: The Twilight Singers, Infantree, Devo, The Mississippi Sheiks, Matador at 21

  • The first taste of the new Twilight Singers album is available. Get a free download of “Blackbird and the Fox” here.
  • My Old Kentucky Blog premiered the video for Infantree’s “Slaughter House” today. Check it out. MOKB may be on the fence about the song, but we love it.
  • Devo will be heading out on a tiny, little tour at the end of the month, so hope you Devotees are ready to travel.
  • (Additionally, you can get ready for Halloween by purchasing a Devo costume from their webstore. Yeah, that’s… I don’t know what to make of that.)
  • If you are a casual blues fan, you may not have heard of the Mississippi Sheiks – you may not even realize there were blues bands back in the 1930s since all the focus is usually on the man-with-a-guitar bluesmen of the time – but you’ll likely know their songs as covered by other artists. No Depression is running a contest to win a Things About Comin’ My Way: A Tribute to the Music of the Mississippi Sheiks DVD, CD, poster and T-shirt. Contributors include Van Dyke … Continue reading

Die, Sloopy, Die: The Afghan Whigs

I find myself drawn to the music of Ohio artists. It could be some innate loyalty to or a sharing of basic ideas with my fellow Ohioans. Or it could be that Ohio turns out more excellent music per capita than the rest of the world. I may be biased, but I’m going with option B.

Die, Sloopy, Die is a tribute to great Ohio bands of the past and present. The name is an anti-tribute to our official state rock song “Hang On, Sloopy” by the McCoys because, while it is awesome that we were the first state to declare an official state rock song (and, so far, we are one of only two states to do so, Oklahoma having declared the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” their official state song), we chose one of the lamest songs it was possible for us to choose.


The Afghan Whigs

“Ladies, let me tell you about … Continue reading

Rebirth of the Cool: Wolf Like Me

Moving forward in time for this edition of Rebirth of the Cool, our origin song of the day is “Wolf Like Me” by the incredible TV on the Radio. This was one of the first TVOTR songs I heard (along with “Providence” and “Dry Drunk Emperor”) when a savvy friend recommended them to me back in 2007. It was love at first listen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apAqPlcQVqo]

(Sidenote: Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for bringing the feel of an intimate concert hall into the studio, thus encouraging better performances.)

Local H – whose cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” helps me feel less guilty about liking that song – took a crack at “Wolf”. They imbue the song with their characteristic immediacy and bring the emotional center of the song from the hips up to the chest.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aBl3bnRv3g]

Then along came Dulli. Greg Dulli has long been a purveyor of fascinating, gorgeous, twisted covers, from Paul K. and the Weathermen’s “Amphetamines and Coffee” to “The Temple” from Jesus Christ Superstar to Al Green’s “Beware” to Prince’s “When Doves Cry” to all sorts of others in between. His take, with the Twilight Singers, of “Wolf” strips it down to its raw core.

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