SLAMMED with music - a few standouts from the pile

Since I've been writing for Bullz Eye, my email address has been picked up by a bunch of publicists. I get so many press releases emailed to me that it's impossible to keep up with them all.

Sifting through the pile this morning, I went into quick-'n-dirty executive mode to make a dent at what I've missed recently. What I'm seeing is that lots of so-called "emo" pop-punk stuff comes my way. Don't get me wrong, it has value, but for the most part, the stuff from which it apparently descended, the decidedly non-pop D.C. hardcore of Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty, basically anything on Dischord Records, is more my cup of tea.

Take One Small Step for Landmines, for example. They're actually one of the better bands of this ilk, in that their recordings aren't maxed out with volume, and they don't look like they just spent $500 on a hairdo. Actually, the more I listen to this band, they kind of grow on me. But those sweet power-pop harmonies rubbing up against punked-up rock mix in my brain like oil and water. Blink 182 never did it for me either. I dig juvenilia, I dig punk rock, but not the way they mixed it with super-polished punk rock. It can be hard to explain exactly what excites me musically and what doesn't when just one quick listen can give me the answer in an instant, but I suppose it's just like choosing who to date or what to eat. You have a set of criteria that you go by, but on a moment's notice, your choices can confound others and even yourself when some unnamed quality you pick up on trumps all the rest.

Here are a couple other bands that I probably wouldn't go out of my way to cover in the face of the other assignments I have on deck, but still had me listening longer than the others sitting in my inbox. They're actually quite good, so see if they do it for you:

The Ting Tings:
British new wave/punk group, throwback to the late '70s early '80s. Just a drummer
and a frontwoman from the U.K. That crazy hooligan Calvin Harris remixed one of their songs too. From press release: "For the duo's recent limited edition UK single, 'Great DJ,' a Single of the Week in the NME, The Ting Tings recycled old 7" singles, inverted the covers and relabeled the sleeves with the band's name and song title using colored duct tape. Previous limited edition Ting Tings single campaigns have included a four city tour where the band invited the audience to decorate 100 blank 7" sleeves at each show. The lot decorated at each show were sold at the following gig." Sounds pretty awesome to me. Oh, to be a barhopping club goer in Manchester right about now!



Sleepercar:
Alt-country project spearheaded by At the Drive In alumnus Jim Ward. I never got into
the the Old 97's -- they should have been a band I liked, but they just never clicked with me. So by and large, the faster, punked-up Old 97's-influenced material on Sleepercar's West Texas doesn't do much for me. But when they slow it down, keep it mellow, and pull out the pedal steel, they give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I get from really good alt country. Add them to the growing list of bands giving Texas a good name.


There will be more, I'm sure...

I guess folks really are reading these reviews!

Of the five new reviews I will link and share below, I'd like to draw attention to one in particular:

I wrote Fallen from Grace: Music of Real Life Pop Criminals for Bullz Eye's "Mix Disc Monday" series, in which fifteen songs are tied together in a different theme every two weeks. It appears that a 25 year old "writer and pop culture junkie" from Brooklyn liked it enough to submit it to Digg, where, as of now, it has collected 92 "diggs" and seven comments. It is also, as of now, the Bullz Eye story with the fourth most diggs. If anything, I'd say this says a lot about the kinds of things people find fascinating. Bad behavior is always hot, I guess.

So, if you like it, digg it!

And, here's the rest of stuff you missed from the past couple of weeks, all from Bullz-Eye:

7/29: "The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer" DVD review
One of the best rock docs I've seen.

7/25: Joseph Arthur Vagabond Skies EP review
Prolific dude, discovered by Peter Gabriel, talented visual artist too. Greg Dulli approves, and so do I.

7/18: This Car Up Smile When You're Alone CD review
Decent debut from East Coast indie band.

7/18: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery: Keepnews Collection CD review "quick take"
Classic. Simple as that.

7/11: Return to Forver The Anthology CD review
Yet another compilation from another band that jumped on the reunion bandwagon...

Enjoy!

Steely Dan, the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 7/26/08

I hadn’t been to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley until this summer, even though I’ve lived in the Bay area four years now. Steely Dan’s set last Saturday was the third show at the Greek I’ve attended this summer, after Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and R.E.M. last month. This was also the third time I’ve seen Steely Dan – saw them also in 2003 and in 1994. They say three is a perfect number…

Anyway, what do you get at a Steely Dan show other than perfection? Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are renowned for creating perfect sounding records, and their concerts are no different. I suppose it can sound boring if you see them too many times, but going nine years or five years between shows keeps it fresh. In this instance, besides pristine sound, playing, arrangements, etc., we got a fun opener in the Joey DeFrancesco trio. He plays the Hammond B3 like nobody’s business, and since Jimmy Smith is gone, Joey’s the modern day torch bearer for the B3’s place in jazz. The set length was just right, the two keyboards and drums trio setting worked surprisingly well (the second keyboardist, Pat Bianchi, kept his volume just a bit lower than Joey’s and complemented him tastefully), and Joey’s tongue-in-cheek reworking of “Got My Mojo Workin’” left us in an upbeat mood, and ready for Becker and Fagen to go all crabby on us.

Actually, Becker himself proved to be a funny guy as well later in the evening.

Here’s how it went down:

The band, sans Becker and Fagen and the backup singers, started the set with a two-song, unedited instrumental medley, so we could have sung along if we liked, but I think I was the only one who attempted that. First up was Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, in a funky arrangement with the melody played on muted trumpet, and a sweet baritone sax solo. This led straight into The Fez, with a cool horn arrangement overtaking the song’s signature keyboard part, and some guitar and alto sax solos. A short drum solo bridged it over to The Royal Scam and a stately opening trumpet solo. It was at this point that out come Becker, Fagen, and two female singers with huge afros. They sounded awesome, and when they were introduced later in the evening, it became very clear why that was so.

Fagen looks like a balding old man who kind of enjoys being old, smirking his way through the years because he can still sing most of his songs in the same key that was comfortable for him when he was younger. Yay to that. Another drum solo fades the song down (are we sensing a pattern here?) and another segue into…

I Got The News. They were digging deep into their catalog early on, and they just kept on digging! Another drum segue and then…

Showbiz Kids, in a completely different arrangement, much improved over the studio version. A new theme was played to a lightweight James Brown beat, an extra chord was played for the ‘Show business kids makin’ movies of themselves’ line, and then another new chord was added for Becker’s guitar solo. The studio version of “Showbiz Kids” is one of the most boring and disappointing songs in the Steely Dan catalog (musically anyway; lyrics are another story); live, it’s totally redeemed. And after the song’s closing theme, the segue-fest finally ends so Fagen can speak to us. He cheekily proclaimed that “the Think Fast Steely Dan orchestra” would be “playing songs from various stages of our magnificent career,” and he actually wasn’t kidding on that count – every Steely Dan studio album was represented by at least one song (the first three albums and their two recent reunion albums) and as many as five (that honor went to Aja, not surprisingly).

When they played Everything You Did (in a reggae version for a new twist), the line in this jealous lover song that goes “I’m gonna a get a gun / shoot the mother down” reminded me of a story that my guitar teacher told me of a run-in with Becker in a parking lot in New York that sounded awfully similar to the story told in this song. Could it be…?

Two Against Nature was next, and it really breathed with real drums instead of whatever was done with the beat on the studio version. This is another song that I never really cared for in its studio version, but live, Fagen was in the groove, Becker’s solo swung too – it was yet another improvement, with an awesome ‘solo’ spot from the backup singers.

Hey Nineteen was the first hit that we heard in the set. Having seen Steely Dan in the Boston metro area the last two times, it was weird not hearing a huge applause for the “sweet things from Boston” lyric. But hearing Becker riffing on that bit about taking your beloved home and getting her drunk before the ‘Cuervo Gold’ bit was even funnier than when I heard it before. Maybe that’s because Fagen did it last time. Fagen is the voice of Steely Dan when he sings, but Becker just seems more like a naturally engaging storyteller when he speaks.

Godwhacker was the representation for 2003’s Everything Must Go. The breakdown each time on the ‘be very very quiet’ part was a clever touch, and the blues-derived changes set up the bari, tenor, trumpet trombone solos really well.

Fagen then pulled out the disco-fied The New Frontier from his first solo album, which was a good lead-in to the equally faux-funky Glamour Profession. Then came Gaucho in a different key, which seemed strange at first until Becker started singing it instead of Fagen.

At this point, the drum solo bookend pattern that was present at the beginning of the show gave way to a new one. Fagen played a dreamy electric piano solo that led into Home at Last. Then he laid back and let the backup singers take the lead on Parker’s Band. Charlie Parker was pictured on the screen behind the band, but incredibly, there was no sax solo at the end! How can you play a tribute to Charlie Parker and not have your band’s sax player blow a little solo on the alto? Small complaint overall, but still!

When Black Friday started, with its exaggerated shuffle beat, we knew the end was getting near. Fagen returned to his electric piano for another brief solo before the next song, Josie, which sounded like it might have been brought down a half step. Aja, however, was definitely in its original key, and was a high point of the evening.

“It sounds like the ‘60s!” said Becker, as that familiar Motown beat started up and the backup singers teased with a bit of the Supremes’ Love is Like an Itching in my Heart before Becker introduced the band over the band’s vamp. Why were those singers so good? Their names told me everything I needed to know: Cynthia Mizell and Tawatha Agee!! Cynthia sang alongside Lisa Fischer with the Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour of 1989-90. And Tawatha was the lead singer in Mtume from ’77 till ’86. I always loved her singing on those Mtume records, especially the very first one from ’77, Kiss This World Goodbye, with “Love Lock” and “The Closer I Get To You” (which James Mtume co-wrote with Reggie Lucas for Roberta Flack). But most folks probably recognize her as the lead voice on Mtume's biggest hit, "Juicy Fruit." Here's the video, but alas, no afro (it was the '80s, boo):



Peg and Kid Charlamagne closed the main set… and when they came back for the encore, it was a somber Third World Man that preceded Fagen’s last electric piano mini-solo of the evening. They took us out with Do It Again, and Becker and Fagen walked out to an instrumental as the band kept playing; strangely, the audience started walking out too, before the band even finished! Weirdness.

That’s right, no “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” no “Reeling in the Years,” no “Deacon Blues,” no “Bodhisattva.” It was a fan’s set, for sure, and a thoroughly satisfying one.

Stevie Wonder, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, 7/5/08

Stevie’s back on the road, and I was there last Saturday, at the Shoreline, this time with four others. As he did last year, he’s billing these shows as “A Wonder Summer’s Night” and he’s playing straight through the evening with no opening act. Huge band, lots of percussion, and this time he even brought his 6 year old son Kailand to play a little bit of drums towards the end of the evening. The kid was probably the only person in the entire venue who didn’t have a huge grin on his face. Did he not want to be there? Does he take drumming that seriously? Does he not like Stevie’s music? Was he mad at his dad? Who knows… the rest of us were very happy to be there.

Casually strolling out in the early evening light with daughter and backing vocalist Asiha Morris guiding him to his perch, Stevie opened the show with some positive remarks about Barack Obama and, when he got the band started, four songs in a row off Hotter Than July. Talk about digging deep! “As If You Read My Mind” and “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?” were two of the songs I least expected to hear, and like most of the night’s performances, they were note perfect. Even with this four pack, Innervisions was still the best represented album of the night, with five songs (“Visions,” “Living For the City,” “Golden Lady,” “Higher Ground” and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”).

The talk box came out again, as it did last year, after some fun call and response with the audience. This time he only used it for one fun cover tune – the Stylistics’ “People Make the World Go Round,” and it was a pretty complete version too.

Biggest surprise of the evening: a full performance, with band member solo spots, of Chick Corea’s “Spain” (as heard on the second Return to Forever album, Light as a Feather). [Though Lee Hildebrand's piece for the San Francisco Chronicle identified this tune as Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," in reality, Hildebrand only identified the intro to "Spain," which Corea lifted from Rodrigo's piece. The rest of the tune is Corea's].

Songs missed: would have been nice to hear something off A Time 2 Love. He actually announced “So What the Fuss” at the end of the night, but played “Superstition” instead and called it an evening. Not a bad trade-off, but still.

Most polite audience moment: the crowd actually hushed to listen to Aisha sing a jazzy rendition of “I’m Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life,” and good thing – she wasn’t always easy to hear. Good singing voice, definitely has her dad’s genes.

Most welcome diversion from the hits: we were treated to a new song called “Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl,” from the forthcoming album Through the Eyes of Wonder. There’s nothing like hearing a legend who refuses to rest on his laurels. Even though it wasn’t the most memorable tune (can’t remember the melody for the life of me), it certainly sounded catchy at the time and was modeled in classic Stevie fashion. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the album!

Most annoying abbreviation of a song: Stevie performed acceptably abbreviated versions of “Isn’t She Lovely” (I wonder if Aisha ever gets sick of hearing this song?) and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” (1 verse and two choruses do just fine), but when he stopped the band after his harmonica solo during “For Once in My Life” and declared “that’s enough of that,” man, that was nothing short of mean!

Bottom line: the man is still 100% dynamite, a national treasure. Go see him! If everybody could experience Stevie Wonder live, the makers of Prozac would surely go out of business.

Set list:

As If You Read My Mind
Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?
All I Do
Knocks Me Off My Feet
Audience jam/People Make The World Go Round
Higher Ground
Spain
Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing
Visions
Living For The City
Golden Lady
Creepin’
Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl
I’m Gonna Laugh You Out Of My Life (Aisha Morris)
Isn’t She Lovely (2 verses)
Ribbon In The Sky
Overjoyed
My Cherie Amour
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours
Sir Duke
I Wish
Do I Do
I Just Called To Say I Love You (1 verse, two choruses)
For Once In My Life (stopped after harmonica solo)
Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
Superstition

"A Day in the Life," Shakey style

Thanks to Isorski for tipping us off on this recent performance of "A Day in the Life" by Neil Young this past Sunday in Dublin, Ireland. See, the Beatles were full of it when they said that the Pepper material couldn't be done live by a small rock band. So what if you can't fit an orchestra on the stage? Who needs all that lot when you have guitar distortion? Neil shows us how it's done, and it's done quite beautifully. This video really made my evening:



Let's all hope he keeps this one in his set list when he makes his way back to the States...

The reviews just keep on coming...

More of what keeps me busy outside of the day job:

In the June edition of West Coast Performer, I have a review of the debut EP by Hot Challenge. The band plays the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco next Wednesday.

June 20 at Bullz Eye, two reviews ran:

A 'Quick Take' on Moreland & Arbuckle's 1861 (fine, tough, no-nonsense blues rock with the sound and purist attitude of the best practitioners from the late '60s and early '70s).

...and a full review of Radiohead's The Best Of. This album bears the lowest rating yet I've attached to a Bullz Eye review.

Also on June 20, Popdose's weekly Friday feature, a fun little game called Name That Tune, featured my input in the form of creating the answer key and acrostic puzzle for the purpose of giving away two copies of Dennis Wilson's just-reissued Pacific Ocean Blue as prizes to the first person to guess the puzzle song, as well as the person who guessed the last remaining song. This is one of my favorite Popdose features, so I was more than happy to contribute. Check it out every Friday. You might be surprised at how many songs you can actually guess from the one-second snippets (or how impossible it is some weeks).

...and finally, a review of the double disc 'Legacy Edition' of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue ran on June 27. Run out and grab this one while you can, before it goes out of print for another decade and a half! Amoeba Records sold out the week of the release...

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, 6/27/08

I almost didn't go to see Plant and Krauss. I had a late afternoon party to attend, for which I was a key component in both the planning and entertainment, so I couldn't exactly predict if I'd even be able to make it to Berkeley in time for the show. Plus it was sold out. But as luck would have it, I was able to not only get to the Greek just in time, I also scored what appeared to be the lone single ticket sold outside the venue by an unassuming old dude with white hair who parted with it at face value.

I had the welcoming screams of the Greek crowd and Plant & Krauss' opening number, "Rich Woman," as the soundtrack to my entrance and journey to my viewing location. Once I was settled, I saw on the stage a simple set-up with a total of seven musicians: Jay Bellerose on drums, Dennis Crouch on bass, Buddy Miller on guitar, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin, ukulele, guitar), bandleader/guitarist/vocalist T Bone Burnett, and of course, the show's two stars.

Thanks to Jon Cummings' Popdose Review of the Plant & Krauss show earlier in the week at L.A.'s Greek Theatre, I was kicking myself for not having followed my impulsive idea to fly down south for the show. Fortunately, my last-minute attendance at Berkeley was not among the kind of non-plussed crowd that Cummings experienced. They were pretty chill, but the group of three whose prime viewing space I crashed really seemed to be enjoying the mostly country-bluegrass-Americana set with tinges of gospel. The dudes behind me were really digging Krauss' good looks (as was I), though really, her stunning, pitch perfect vocals would have been enough to satisfy me. And when I say stunning, I mean I really felt paralyzed by the beauty of Krauss' voice on "Trampled Rose." I mean, WOW. And down below my perch, hippie girls were gingerly dancing to the more upbeat numbers in the set. I wasn't hearing any grumbling about the lack of Zep tunes or rock n' roll in general. This crowd seemed to know exactly what they were in for, and loved it.

Plant's presence at the show was maybe a bit less than I expected. I knew that Krauss had some solo space, which was great, but when T Bone sang a couple of songs without Plant or Krauss, that's when the extraneous conversation around me was at its peak. If anything, I attribute this portion of the show to Plant & Krauss' appreciation for the fact that T Bone himself is a modern day master of his craft, and if it weren't for his masterminding of the whole project, we wouldn't even been seeing this show. Or listening to the brilliant Raising Sand album, one of last year's best album releases overall in my humble opinion. Shame that the Zep reunion at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert overshadowed it completely in the press.

But back to the show... I haven't checked back against the record, but most if not all of Raising Sand was performed, along with some other covers and a few old nuggets from Plant's distant past that elicited the greatest response of the evening: a bluegrass rendition of "Black Dog," straight readings of "Black Country Woman" and "The Battle of Evermore" (with accompaniment from Krauss that, for my money, bettered Sandy Denny's performance on the original Zeppelin recording), and an awesome rustic recast of Plant's solo hit "In The Mood" done as a medley with the old English folk ballad "Matty Groves."

Even though Plant is clearly immersing himself in the music and going with the flow, he couldn't help but have the strongest stage presence due to his old rock god moves. He was shaking and dancing throughout the evening, having a ball and inspiring others who weren't planted in seats to do the same. He only occasionally let out some rockin' wails that recalled his past, notably on "Nothin'", which earned him some applause that was almost as loud as what the Zep tunes garnered.

I walked away having heard all my favorites from Raising Sand -- "Gone, Gone, Gone," "Killing the Blues," "Please Read the Letter," and "Your Long Journey" -- and feeling only mild disappointment. Why? Well, the show was so good, and I was so transfixed the entire evening, that I failed to engage the hot blond next to me. She was afraid to hop the fence at the edge of the lawn seating area to join her friends, and only joined them after I encouraged her to follow my lead. Man, if only the show sucked as much as some of the observations in Cummings' Popdose Review and comments on Shay Quillan's San Jose Mercury News blog suggest, I might have gotten my head together to ask for her number. Damn you Robert Plant! Damn you Alison Krauss! Come back soon, and try to suck just a little bit more next time.