Saturday, October 31, 2009

Social D - continued

I knew the show in Athens was going to be a tough one to top, but I was still looking forward to seeing the band again. I was also extraordinarily curious to see what a punk rock show would be like in Hilton Head. If Michael J. Fox is the only man with no Elvis in him, then Hilton Head Island, SC is the only city in the United States with no punk rock in it. But I knew Mike wouldn't let me down.

Shoreline Ballroom
Hilton Head Island, SC
10/25/09

Excepting two dates as Pearl Jam's opening act (more on this later), the Hilton Head gig was the last stop on Social Distortion's tour. The Shoreline Ballroom was a curious choice, but it turned out to be kind of interesting. There's nothing really remarkable about this place, but their beer was cheaper than at most of the stuffy bars in HHI, the room was big, and the sound was pretty decent. Because everything within the city limits of Hilton Head Island is damned impossible to find, and because this particular joint makes you drive a few miles away and take a shuttle to get there, I wound up missing all of MC Rut's set, and about half of the Stranger's.

Social D hit the stage right around 10, and they got down to business right away; they once again opened the set with "The Creeps", "Another State of Mind" and "Mommy's Little Monster". I don't care that this was the same way they opened the 40 Watt show. As a matter of fact, if they open every show for the rest of their existence with these three numbers, I don't think you're going to hear too many people complaining. They played mostly the same songs that they did in Athens, shuffling around the order a bit, and they omitted "Highway 101" from this set. I spent a good bit of the 40 Watt show in the pit (most bars in Athens only charge $3 for Jameson shots, this is not good for my well being), so this time around I was content to stand near the back, sip beer and just enjoy the show. In doing so, I was able to make a lot of observations about the band.

Jonny "2 Bags" Wickersham has got the coolest job in the world. He's Mike Ness' personal lead guitar player. I've now seen him play 6 times with Social Distortion and once with Ness' solo band. I think it's reached the point where it would be weird to see Ness on stage without him. He's also a great guitar player. The only person that ever looked more at home playing Les Paul Junior was Johnny Thunders.

I've seen Social D with a few different bass players, and I think I like Brent Harding the best out of all of them. The first time I saw him play with the band was at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA in early '08. They opened the show with a three song acoustic mini-set with Harding on the upright bass. I would love to see them do more of this. He was also in Ness' solo band when I saw them last year, and he plays the upright rather well. He does a solid job of holding down the bottom end, and he's an excellent backup singer. He's a very diverse player with a background that ranges from punk to bluegrass. I cannot describe what an asset this can be to the band, particularly when it comes to recording new material. I hope he sticks around for a while.

Adam "Atom" Willard (Angels & Airwaves) is behind the drum kit for the band now. He's just a straight up basher, and he's pretty damn good at it. He almost makes me forget about Charlie Quintana. Almost. The kid is good, though, and he didn't seem out of place up there.

All in all, the band delivered another solid set. And they proved they can put on a punk rock show wherever they damn well please. Fortunately, since I wasn't in the shit, so to speak, I was able to note the entire set list, in order.

"(I Just Wanna Give You) The Creeps"
"Another State of Mind"
"Mommy's Little Monster"
"Sick Boys"
"Don't Drag Me Down"
"Ring of Fire"
"Bad Luck"
"Reach for the Sky"
"Can't Take It with You"
"Ball and Chain"
"Bakersfield"
"Nickels and Dimes"
"Sometimes I Do"
encore
"Making Believe"
"99 to Life"
"Still Alive"
"Story of My Life"

Just take a minute and read that set list. It's really quite amazing what a repertoire Mr. Ness has been able to put together through the years. All three of the new songs are pretty good, by the way. "Still Alive" is a pretty straightforward Social D tune, and my least favorite of the three. "Bakersfield" is a great song which, unsurprisingly, draws heavily from the Bakersfield sound. I cannot wait to hear the studio version of this. Jonny 2 Bags can play the chicken pickin' style with the best of them. "Can't Take It with You" is the best new Social D song I've heard since Sex, Love and Rock n' Roll. It's got a heavy soul, you could even call it gospel, feel to it, and I would bet money it's going to achieve new classic status with fans when the next record comes out.

After the Hilton Head show, the band headed to Philadelphia to open two shows for Pearl Jam at the Spectrum. I'm not really a big PJ fan, but goddammit I wish I could have seen this:



That looks like the coolest thing to happen at the Spectrum since Rocky Balboa went the distance with Apollo Creed.

Mike Ness got to wrap up the best tour I've seen him do in a long time, and then he got to play two gigs in front of an enormous audience. I got to see one of my idols play twice within the span of 48 hours, and I get to cross 'watch punk rock concert on stuffy resort island' off my list of things to do before I die. Everybody won.

Friday, October 30, 2009

A Double Shot of Social D - part 1

It was around mid-July when I got the news that Social Distortion would be coming to the southeast. At this point, I realized two things:

A) Although Mike Ness did play a solo show at the Variety Playhouse last year, which I did attend, Social Distortion had not played in Atlanta since the fall of 2007.

B) I had not ventured across the Georgia state line since last Christmas.

Since they decided to skip Atlanta this time around (a rather bizarre development, being that they have sold out the Tabernacle at least the last four times they have played in Georgia), and upon realizing what a lame-ass I've been, I saw fit to make a road trip out of it and catch two shows.

40 Watt Club
Athens, GA
10/23/09






Apparently, Mike Ness would like to remind everyone that while Social Distortion may not have released what most people would call a true punk rock record since the 1983 classic Mommy's Little Monster, they are most definitely still a punk rock group. They established this by beginning their set at the 40 Watt Club with three songs off that album: "The Creeps", "Another State of Mind" and the titular track. It was like a left hook to the jaw right after the opening bell, and they refused to let up after that, tearing through 15 or 16 more songs in a set that lasted approximately 90 minutes. With the exception of three new songs, "Can't Take It With You", "Bakersfield" and "Still Alive", the rest of the set consisted almost entirely of crowd pleasing sing-alongs. I guess that must come fairly easy to those guys, as a good bit of the SxDx catalog would fall under that category. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell was heavily represented ("Bad Luck", "Sometimes I Do", "Making Believe", "99 to Life"), as was the eponymous release from 1990 ("Ball and Chain", "Sick Boys", "Ring of Fire", "Story of My Life"). Throw in a few newer classics from 2004's Sex, Love and Rock and Roll ("Reach for the Sky", "Highway 101", "Nickels and Dimes"), and the live staple "Don't Drag Me Down" and you have a raucous hour and a half long slugfest that didn't seem to leave a single person in the jam-packed 40 Watt Club feeling like he/she got cheated.

Being able to put together a 90 minute set of classic songs that everyone in attendance knows all of the words to is an impressive feat, indeed. What I find equally impressive is that Mike's got at least another 90 minutes worth of classic songs under his belt that the band didn't play. They didn't play any songs off of Prison Bound, nor did they play anything that predates Mommy's Little Monster ("1945", "Mass Hysteria"). They only played one song off of White Light, White Heat, White Trash (overall it's an uneven record, but "Dear Lover" and "I Was Wrong" are excellent live numbers), and while they did go heavy on the Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell and self-titled albums, they omitted some of my favorites from those two ("King of Fools", "When She Begins", "Born to Lose", "So Far Away", "Drug Train"). Yeah, that skinny junkie from the Another State of Mind film sure has come a long way in the last three decades.

It was also refreshing to check out Social D in a more intimate setting than is the norm. The 40 Watt is a stellar live music venue, and seeing the band play there was a refreshing change of pace from seeing them at the much larger Tabernacle. The Tabernacle shows are always fun, but they're also always claustrophobic and overloaded with the overly aggro Rockabilly kids. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of overly aggro Rockabilly kids at this show, just far less than there typically are at the Tab. I don't know why they decided to play a gig at the 40 Watt, but I sure am glad that I got to see it.

The two opening acts on the tour both took full advantage of their respective opportunities this night. Sacramento's Middle Class Rut (also known as MC Rut) are a guitar/drum 2 piece, but interestingly enough aren't out there trying to make lo-fi noise, which is a change of pace from what seemingly every other 2-piece is trying to pull off. They sound really good, as a matter of fact, and I would definitely pay to see them headline in a smaller club. The Strangers, from Los Angeles, went on second, and played the role of warmup band extremely well. Singer and rhythm guitarist David Stucken went out there and did his best Mike Ness. From the stance, to the swagger, to the Les Paul goldtop with P-90 pickups, he made no bones about who he's trying to sound like. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, either. This guy is pretty good at it. The Strangers are a pretty decent band and I would go see them again, as well.

In the end, of course, the show is all about Mike Ness. He has always been Social Distortion (he's been the only lasting member of the original band since the passing of Dennis Danell), and the band can only be as good as he allows them to be. And just like every other time I've seen him play, whether it be with Social Distortion or with his solo project, he delivered the goods. His singing, his guitar playing, his tough guy banter was on point. And maybe none of the things he does is all that hard; but then again if it's that easy, then why is nobody else able to do it anywhere near as well as he does? There is a reason why he's essentially outlasted all of his contemporaries, and the reason is because he's Mike Ness. He's still consistently selling out 1000-2000 capacity venues at $30-$40 a pop every time he tours; if a band like The Adolescents, T.S.O.L. or The Vandals is playing to more than a couple hundred people who laid out ten bucks a head, they're probably doing it on the Vans Warped Tour. Ness is a man who made one seminal hardcore punk album, Mommy's Little Monster, and then found a niche, call it cowpunk if you'd like, where he could really make his mark. And not only did he make his mark, he somehow he found a way to keep building on it. Social Distortion has been around for three decades now, and with a new album in the works for early 2010, they don't appear to be letting up anytime soon.

To paraphrase Jonathan Richman, Mike Ness was never called an asshole. Not like you. Not in New York. Ok, well he probably has been called an asshole quite a few times, but he's still a bad motherfucker and he can do whatever he wants, as far as I'm concerned. I'll keep drinking the Kool-Aid.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Updates

I've been super busy over the past couple weeks, as Rocktober has been in full effect, but I wanted to touch on a few things:

1) Social Distortion was fucking fabulous on this tour. I saw them at the 40 Watt in Athens on Friday, and at the Shoreline Ballroom in Hilton Head on Sunday. Expect a 2,000 word fluff piece about how awesome Mike Ness is within the next couple of days. It's coming.

2) Last Tuesday, I caught Art Brut at the Earl. Unfortunately, I was too busy getting ready to get out of town to write at length about it then, and now it's not fresh enough in my mind to recount. Suffice it to say that they were a tremendous live act. Eddie Argos is one of the best frontmen I've ever seen, and their set is pure fun. Don't pass up an opportunity to see them in a small club. You'll probably also be surprised at how many of their songs are familiar. I've never owned any of their stuff (that's going to change), and I knew at least half of the songs they played.

3) The soundtrack to the movie about Jack Kerouac, One Fast Move or I'm Gone, has been released. It's a collaboration between Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard. I might check it out, but I probably won't review it. I actually never read Kerouac, so I doubt I'll fully get it. Maybe if it was just a Farrar project, I would be more amped up about it.

4) Speaking of Farrar, since Son Volt was so badass at the Variety Playhouse back in September, I got a ticket to see them at the 40 Watt in November. This is going to be a great show in a great venue. Tickets are still available now, so you should make it happen.

5) I'm going to a party on Halloween night, but I may be looking for a late starting show after that's over. The leading candidates right now would be the Howlies at the Star Bar, or possibly the Modern Skirts at Smith's. If anything else decent is going on, I'm open to suggestion.

Let's look alive and finish Rocktober strong. It's been one for the ages.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

New Music Review

Lucero
1372 Overton Park
Universal Records
CD










When I call a band, or anything else for that matter, a one-trick pony, a lot of people are quick to assume that I mean it in a disparaging way. I actually think that in most instances, nothing could be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact, I think being a one trick pony can be a fabulous thing, provided the artist in question is really good at whatever that trick happens to be. You can't be any more one-dimensional than the Ramones were, and they will remain one of my favorite bands until the very end. Memphis alt-country-indie-americana-whatever-else-you-want-to-call-them-rockers Lucero are a one trick pony. And while I've never been that big of a fan, I always thought they were pretty decent and appreciated their output. It was never the most original sounding thing that I'd ever heard, but Ben Nichols has a really cool, gruff sounding voice, and the songs were edgy-sounding but still well crafted. I will forever call bullshit on Nichols' insistence that he had never heard Uncle Tupelo when Lucero started playing, but I may be taking that a little too personally because Tupelo is one of my favorite bands. Regardless, I still thought Lucero was pretty decent in their own right, and I was curious to hear what the major label debut would sound like. Unfortunately for Nichols and crew, on 1372 Overton Park, they sound more like an aging hooker turning a trick, than a show pony performing one.

When I first listened to this album, I couldn't put my finger on exactly where it failed. This was probably because it fails nearly everywhere, and I only have 10 digits. The songs are stale and unimaginative; the lyrics are tired and unimaginative, the arrangements are boring and unimaginative. Are you sensing a theme here? There is nothing on here that hasn't been done before, and rarely have I heard it executed this poorly. The entire effort reeks of a cologne I would call 'trying too hard'. I was taken aback by how bad it was, but then I discovered this little nugget of information about the producer, Ted Hutt: He was an original member of Flogging Molly. Then it all started to make sense. If you want to create a drab record that lacks imagination, who better to hire to record it than a band mate of a guy who made a living out of ripping off The Pogues, and then had the audacity to deny that he was influenced by them?

The production on this record is what stands out as the worst thing about it; Hutt did a miserable job. The bands greatest asset, Nichol's voice, sounds too nice and polished and completely goes to waste. Hutt tries to make the overall sound too big and too pretty, and I don't know why any reasonable person would have thought this was a good idea. If anything, it exposes the band's flaws as musicians. Several songs feature horn arrangements that sound completely out of place and artificial. Sure, Lucero is from Memphis, and that probably means listening to Stax stuff played a big role in their musical upbringing. That doesn't mean they should attempt to emulate it. All it does for this record is further take away any edge the band's sound used to have, rendering it completely dull. There is not one song on this album that I care to hear again, and if a different approach had been taken to its recording, it could have been a completely different story. Unfortunately, since this is the band's major label debut and they seem to be getting a push from Universal, it will probably sell fairly well, and they will continue to go in this direction. I remember something similar happening with Drive By Truckers; they were a great band, and then overnight they got really boring and started playing shows packed with dickhead frat boys. Now they've been at that point for so long that I almost forgot how much I liked them the first time I heard Pizza Deliverance. There's still time for Lucero to right the ship; unfortunately, I think they're going to wind up lost at sea.

If there is one positive to take from this album, it's that Ted Hutt could probably introduce Ben Nichols to his former bandmate, Dave King. And then Nichols could tell King about how he's not influenced by Uncle Tupelo, and King can tell Nichols about how he's not influenced by The Pogues, and they're probably the only two people in the world who would actually believe each other. They could be BFFs or perhaps soul mates. In fact, the thought of it is starting to conjure up images of Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks on SNL in the pathological liars sketches.

Yeah, Lucero is one trick pony. The real bummer is that after listening to 1372 Overton Park, you don't get a picture of how good they can actually be at that trick under the right set of circumstances.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Records

I spent last weekend celebrating, and then celebrating some more. I made it out to see a fantastic show at The Earl on Saturday night. I was entirely too loaded to analyze or do anything other than just enjoy it. Suffice it to say this: if you get the chance to see Brownout or Lloyd's Rocksteady Revue, buy the ticket and go. No questions asked and you can thank me later.

Brownout is a side project of several members of the marvelous Grupo Fantasma. Brownout is similar, but I would describe it as being more guitar-driven than Grupo. I would also say it more closely resembles Funk music than Grupo, but it's still very diverse and loads of fun. Your also more likely to catch this in a small venue, and it's just a lot of damn fun to watch nine guys with instruments packed onto a little stage.

Lloyd's Rocksteady Revue is led by Cadillac Jones frontman Jonathan Lloyd. It's a 9-piece or 12-piece (12 fuckin' people on stage at once!), depending on whether or not the backup singers are around at the time. The revue consists of a set of covers of classic Ska, Reggae, and Rocksteady stuff. It was nothing short of mindblowing. Just keep an eye out for it and go see it.

I attended a tremendous wedding on Sunday (and of course the bachelor party on Friday, and pre-wedding celebration on Saturday), and fortunately, I had the foresight to take Monday off. This of course led to an impromptu 'day-after-wedding' celebration between myself and a couple of the other folks who took Monday off. Needless to say, I wound up getting drunk and popping into a record store.


New York Dolls
in Too Much Too Soon
Mercury Records
LP









This is an easy album to forget about. The Dolls' eponymous record is one of the most amazing and influential recordings of all time. This one really isn't that far from it. Shadow Morton produced this one, and while doesn't quite do as good of a job with this as Todd Rundgren did with the first one, he throws every dirty studio trick in the book at you. You might think that doesn't sound appetizing, but it definitely works. If I were to draw a parallel, I would say the finished product is similar to what Phil Spector did with the Ramones on End of the Century. Too Much Too Soon is not as good as New York Dolls. But really, what is? If the first one is Babe Ruth, this one is Lou Gehrig; not quite as good, but still a hall-of-famer.


The Robustos
The New Authentic
Beatville Records
LP









The aforementioned show I attended on Saturday, Lloyd's Rocksteady Revue, left me wanting more. As far as what's on wax, this is the closest thing available to me. The bandleader for the Revue, Jonathan Lloyd, was in the Robustos, as were apparently a couple of other people who were on the stage. The Robustos started out as a ska band, but on this, their second album, they incorporated more elements of jazz and soul. The singer, Tonya Abernathy, has a wonderful voice with lots of soul. This band broke up ten years ago; five years before I even moved to Atlanta. I wish I could have seen this the first time around. But alas, the record will have to suffice, and it's a damn good one. Pick it up if you see it in a store somewhere.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Mojo Nixon Can Be Everywhere, Just like Elvis. And it's free.

Here is some pretty cool news. For the next three weeks or so, Amazon.com is allowing you to download virtually the entire Mojo Nixon catalog for the low, low price of nothing. Here is a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Mojo-Nixon/dp/B000QKA298/ref=amb_link_85627811_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=1VYBKMM919W3FCS28K61&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=493637111&pf_rd_i=mojo%20nixon

If you download the amazon downloader software, you can easily download the mp3 albums, or just pick and choose the songs you want. I cannot think of one good reason why anybody would not want to download his whole catalog.

Unfortunately, his collaboration with Jello Biafra, Prairie Home Invasion, is not included in the offer. I chalk that up to Jello's transformation into a money-grubbing douche, which occurred at some point after DK split up.

Go to Amazon.com and get your Mojo on!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

New Music Review

The Avett Brothers
I and Love and You
American Recordings
Double LP









I was very excited on September 29th, when I picked up the new Avett Brothers release, I and Love and You. With the building anticipation, it surely looked like the right band hooking up with the right producer (Rick Rubin) at exactly the right time. To say that indie rock is dominated by folk, or Americana or whatever you want to call it, is an overstatement, but the genre certainly has a high profile these days. It wasn't always that way. Sub Pop Records made their name by putting out nearly all of the seminal Grunge records in the late 80's and early 90's. As of now, there are a few exceptions, such as Pissed Jeans and the Gutter Twins, but for the most part the label has sold it's rock and roll soul to put out limp folksy recordings by bands such as Blitzen Trapper, Fruit Bats, and the shittiest band to ever get popular - Band of Horses.

Am I mad at Sub Pop about this? Of course not. Who can blame them? They found a niche and a bunch of dumbass American consumers. It's damned hard running an indie label (although Warner Bros. now owns a substantial stake) and you can't fault them for finding a way to sell records. In the immortal words of H.L. Mencken: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

Whenever something like this happens, when a typically tame musical genre becomes popular, there are certain advantages. I can think of two of them off the top of my head. The first is that it tends to start a revolution. Punk rock was a revolt against prog rock and arena rock. Grunge was a revolt against the hair bands. The other advantage is that it paves the way for the bands of the genre that are actually good at writing songs and playing the music. The Avett Brothers to be one of the few bright stars of this genre today.

The first thing about I and Love and You that stands out to me is the production. Rick Rubin is a tremendous producer, especially when working with artists like this, and this record is no exception. The sound on it is impeccable. When this album needs to sound raw, it sounds raw. When it needs to sound big, it sounds big. When it needs to sound pretty, it sounds pretty. Kudos to Rubin for another job well done.

The second thing about this record that stands out are the songs, and make no mistake, there are some damn good ones. The titular track is a beautiful piano-driven ballad that should absolutely become a hit. The other highlights include the catchy "And it Spread", and another piano-driven number, this time upbeat, "It Goes On and On". There are two fabulous Violent Femmes-ish rockers on here: "Slight Figure of Speech" and "Kick Drum Heart", both of which contain power-pop hooks that would make the fellows from The Nerves stand up and applaud. The band is extraordinarily tight, the melodies sweet, and the harmonies are dead on. The brothers also display a knack for being clever lyricists on this record, most notably on the song "Tin Man".

The third thing about I and Love and You that stands out, unfortunately, is that I don't really think it's going to stand out enough to make a splash. The songs are good, and the sound is good, but after listening to it, I walk away wondering why it wasn't better. It may be that the filler songs are unremarkable, or too similar to the better songs. I definitely don't feel like there are enough rockers, but that's a matter of personal preference, and I say that about almost everything. Don't get me wrong, there will be hit songs on this record, it will bring new fans to the band, and they will play bigger shows to larger crowds. But I don't foresee this being the springboard to (relative) superstardom that I thought it might.

I and Love and You is a very good record, and a step in the right direction. My hope is that they keep at it with Rick Rubin behind the boards, and that the next one is a excellent record. I look forward to seeing how the live arrangements of these songs work. While this album didn't meet my significant hopes for it, The Avett Brothers are definitely a band on the way up.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

It Might Get Loud

I went to the Plaza Theater over the weekend to see It Might Get Loud. This is a blog about music, not about movies; but since this is a movie about music, I wanted to touch on it briefly. This is a documentary film about the electric guitar, and it features Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. I thought it was quite good, for the gear porn if nothing else. Here is the DOCTalk preview of it:



Some thoughts about the principals featured in this film:

I've never been a hater of the White Stripes, but I've never really been a fan either. I like some of it, I dislike some of it, I just never really felt like I got it. Or maybe it was the legions of piss-poor imitators that spawned from it that made me indifferent. I can definitely say I have a newfound respect for Jack White after seeing this. I still don't consider myself a fan of the White Stripes or the Raconteurs, but he is a very hardworking cat and a real scholar of blues and rock.

I was a U2 fan when I was a kid, but that gradually started to change when The Joshua Tree came out. I was in Junior High then and it seemed like a huge fuss about something that I didn't think was even close to being as good as War or Unforgettable Fire. I enjoyed bits and pieces from Rattle and Hum, but a significant portion of that record is total dogshit. Achtung Baby, and everything after that is awful, as far as I'm concerned and I have no interest in listening to it. The Edge talks largely about guitar effects. I think he goes way overboard with them (his pedalboard is the size of a small Congolese village), but that's probably why he was selected, because effects are a big part of the landscape. He is a fine guitarist, and seems like a pretty cool guy; I just don't care for his band anymore.

Jimmy Page goes on to steal the show in this film, and that should come to the surprise of nobody. Granted, I almost never listen to Led Zeppelin anymore, but that's only because I listened to it so much as a teenager that I made myself sick of it. He is still the man. There is some pretty neat footage of him playing in a skiffle band as a 14-year old, and watching him air-guitar along to Link Wray's "Rumble" is probably the coolest thing I've seen all year.

It's a good flick. You should definitely check it out while it's still playing on the big screen.

Friday, October 2, 2009

New Music Review

Paul Westerberg
PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys
Digital Download EP










Back in July of 2008, Paul Westerberg surprised and excited his longtime fans by coming out with download-only album (or song, depending on your perspective) called 49:00 of your life. In my opinion, it was excellent, although a bit off the beaten path. If nothing else, it gave lots of hope to us die-hards that there would be more new material coming. And for a minute, there was. He released a companion piece called "5:05" to supplement 49:00, and then sporadically released a couple songs here and there for the duration of the year, including three songs released right around Christmas. This was the first real burst of creativity we had seen out of Paul since he badly injured his fretting hand in late 2006. We were optimistic that there would be more stuff on the horizons; albums (digital download or otherwise), shows, tv appearances, whatever.

We got nothing. There has been no news on the Westerberg front in all of 2009. Until now. Finally.

When I got wind that Westerberg had released a download-only EP through Amazon at the low, low price of $3.89, I immediately purchased it. PW & the Ghost Glove Cat Wing Joy Boys is a six song EP that most fans would probably describe as something that sounds a lot like the stuff he's released under the moniker of Grandpaboy. It's pretty lo-fi, rough, raw, and as usual, it's rather good. All six songs on this release are worth listening to. The best song on it, "Drop them Gloves" is a classic Stones/Faces-style blues rocker, and Paul has always been able to do that better than most. The worst song on it is the piano-driven "Love on the Wing", and even when that starts to get boring, the lyrics are too clever to make you want to hit the skip button. The other four songs are somewhere in between; mostly a cross between the later Grandpaboy sounds of Dead Man Shake and some of the better stuff of of Folker. I'm really glad to be in possession of a new Westerberg release. It's about fuckin' time.

One could only hope that Paul starts working on a new album soon and then go on tour to support it. One could also hope that this album would be released through conventional methods. Furthermore, one could really hope that Paul hires a band to back him in the studio, or at the very least hire a real drummer, because playing the drums is something that Paul does not do well, and you can generally count on that being the downside of these DIY basement recordings he puts out. One could hope. If that's not in the cards, I'll take all the stuff like this I can get. Ultimately, however, this just leaves me wanting more and wondering what if...

Thursday, October 1, 2009

New Music Review

The Avett Brothers
"Slight Figure of Speech" b/w "More of You
7" Single
American Recordings









This has been a huge week for music releases, and it's going to take me a few days to really absorb everything. I've been on the go quite a bit lately, so I'm fortunate that this week's stuff isn't all vinyl, or it would take me forever to get caught up. We've already covered the new Kris Kristofferson release, and the reason why I was able to get to that one first was because it's on CD, and I can listen to it at work or in the car. If Criminal had stocked the vinyl, there's no way I would have it finished. I downloaded the new download-only Paul Westerberg EP from Amazon, but I haven't fully absorbed it yet (I definitely love it, though). Hopefully I can have that sorted out by tomorrow.

The thing I really can't wait to do this week, however, is to put the new Avett Brothers 2-disc, 180 gram vinyl album I and Love and You on my turntable and give it a spin. I'm hell bent on doing this all in one sitting, and not one side at a time. Unfortunately for me, I haven't had that kind of time this week. Fortunately for me, when I purchased this double long player at Criminal on Tuesday, they also had a limited edition 7" for sale featuring "Slight Figure of Speech" from the record, and a non-album b-side called "More of You". I have been able to listen to this, and all it's doing is making me even antsier to listen to the LP.

I've heard two cuts from the LP on the radio over the last six weeks or so. One of them is the title track, and I can't recall the name of the other off the top of my head. They were both very nice, melodic tunes immaculately produced by Rick Rubin that prominently displayed their folksy musical heritage. That's all well and good, but I was terribly of afraid that the new release would perhaps turn its back on the other half of the Avetts roots, which is knee deep in punk rock. After listening to this 7", I fear this no more.

When they're at their best, the Avetts will make anyone turn his/her head. Their slower and softer numbers are filled with tight musicianship, extraordinarily catchy pop hooks, and structure that requires an impressive degree of musical literacy to compose. Their harder edged songs combine the best elements of No Depression-era Uncle Tupelo, and the first Violent Femmes album. These are all things that separate the Avetts from the AMERICAN'TA acts polluting the airwaves today (read: just about all of the limp-dick folk acts on Sub Pop).

"Slight Figure of Speech" sounds very much like the first songs I ever heard from this band that got my attention. It's upbeat, it's catchy and pleasing to the senses. At the same time, it's played hard and fast and aggressive, albeit in an acoustic guitar/upright bass kind of way. "More of You" is a slower number, and I defy you to listen to it three or four times and not have it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. If the reason why this song didn't make the final cut for I and Love and You is because it wasn't good enough, then let's just say I can't wait to hear the rest of it.

I'm at the point where I just cannot wait to hear this LP. The Avett Brothers seem to be a band on the verge of a major breakthrough, and Rick Rubin was undoubtedly the right producer to put them in such a position. I'd be failing if I didn't mention that we're at a point where we desperately need it. With stale folk-influenced bands from the Pacific Northwest like Fruit Bats, Blitzen Trapper, and especially Band of Horses increasing in popularity, the average consumers of American indie-rock have turned into mindless sheep. Sheep that apparently favor music that has no heart, no soul, no brains, and sure as shit doesn't have any balls.

If this single is any indicator, the Avett Brothers are still making music with balls. And not a moment too soon. This may be a sorely needed heart transplant for the dying musical genre that is Americana. If nothing else, it'll at least increase the amount of testosterone in the room and prove that you don't have to be a flailing little pussy to play folk music.