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!

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.

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.

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...

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.

New Music Review

Kris Kristofferson

Closer to the Bone
New West Records

CD (Deluxe Edition)

It was only a couple weeks ago that I got wind of a new Kris Kristofferson album. As a matter of fact, I was completely oblivious to the fact the he put out an album called This Old Road in 2006. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't really given much thought to the man in quite some time. I thought of him as a legendary singer-songwriter who was essentially retired, but still acts in movies sometimes. That changed one afternoon when I was listening to WMLB on my ride home. I heard a song that for the first time in a while made me wonder: "this is great; what the fuck is it?" I was rather surprised to hear that it was new material from Mr. Kristofferson. Ever since that moment, I had been anxiously awaiting this release until yesterday afternoon, when I was finally able to pick it up.

And it didn't disappoint.

Closer to the Bone is, in many ways, a tremendous piece of work by an old master of his craft. Kris Kristofferson is one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, and he's only released new material sporadically for the last couple of decades. I don't know if this has been because he's lacked inspiration, if he felt a desire to self-edit, or he was just too busy making Blade movies. He hasn't made anything this good in quite a long time.

Ever since Rick Rubin struck gold with Johnny Cash in the 90's, it seems like every producer out there has been trying to do a stripped down record with an aging Country star. It's a classic example of throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Don Was isn't going to see anywhere near the record sales or critical acclaim that Rubin had with the man in black, but when this year is in the books, he may have been the man behind the board for the best album of 2009. He made one that sticks to the wall, and he played the bass on it, to boot.

Closer to the Bone opens with a titular track, and it's one of the best cuts on the disc. It features backing vocals by Stephen Bruton, longtime Kristofferson guitarist who passed away not long after recording finished, and multiple media outlets mistook it for an uncredited Bob Dylan. "Closer to the Bone" does a great job of setting the tone for the album that bears its name. It's raw, it's personal, it's musically minimalistic, and lyrically it's better than 99 per cent of recording artists could ever dream of being.

This record contains songs about love ("From Here to Forever", "The Wonder", "Starlight and Stone), songs about loss ("Hall of Angels", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"), songs about friends ("Good Morning John", "Let the Walls Come Down") and a very well written song about Sinead O'Connor ("Sister Sinead") of all people. My favorite on this record is "Tell Me One More Time"; a bluesy number with a hint of gospel influence to it and the best lyrics on the whole album:

Girl I guess I've been forgiven

I've acquired a taste for living

Just when I was close to giving up the ghost

That pretty much sums the whole record up. In many ways, this is an album about growing old, written by a man who's growing old. The only downside to this record, if it has one at all, is that there is only so much you can do with a 73 year old man's voice. Maybe the music and the melodies are simple because they needed to be. Whether or not that was the case, it seems to work just fine on this record, at least for my tastes.

Kris Kristofferson proved on this record that he's still better than most as a songwriter. And he may not have a youthful set of vocal pipes anymore, but he can still sing well enough to get the job done; that's probably because, unlike most singer-songwriters, he actually has something significant to say. If he wants to call it quits and never put anything else out, I would understand and respect that. But Closer to the Bone is definitely a record that has left me wanting more, and moments like that are hard to come by these days. I think we need all of the Kristofferson we can get, and we need it in the form of new albums of original material, not Blade sequels.

P.S. - I would highly recommend the Deluxe Edition of this CD, if you're able to get your hands on it. It comes with a bonus disc of a live concert from Dublin that occurred in 2008. It has a great rendition of "Sunday Mornin' Comin Down".

New Stuff!

I went to Criminal on my lunch hour and picked up the new Avett Brothers LP, a 7-inch that coincided with the release of that LP, and the deluxe CD version of Kris Kristofferson's new one, which includes a bonus disc of a live recording from Dublin last year. I'll start posting about this stuff ASAP.