Entries Tagged 'Alt+Country' ↓

On the bus home tonight I decided to search YouTube for some Fleet Foxes videos to watch. Instead I ran across this cover of a Fleet Foxes song by a Swedish sister group called First Aid Kit. I rushed home and bought their album and they are blowing my mind. The just made the best of 2008 list for me. You can buy an MP3 download of their album off their YouTube profile page. It’s less than $7.

I love Long Winters shows, and this show was no exception. John Roderick comes on stage sporting long hair a few pounds heavier and sporting some excellent 70s cocaine smuggler shades. They kick into “Give me a moment” the lead track from “The Worst you can do is harm” and the place lights up. For the ride out solo John gets carried away and crashes into the drums, taking out the mics and falling backwards over the guitar amps. The band doesn’t skip a beat. Everyone hoots and hollers and waits for him to get back up. The band waits. We all wait. He kicks right back in. Damn this is a rock show.

They go through lots of past album material and Roderick explains that his Gibson Thunderbird, his “white hippie space guitar” is changing his ideas about music. This interaction with an audience is what most bands lack at shows. Alberta Cross who opens doesn’t say a word and Say Hi, barely says anything as well except to say thanks. The Winters are tight, they are funny and they are right with the crowd. Its a great show, even if they wont do any encores.

Alberta Cross opens the show and they make believers out of a lot of the crowd. They have a wonderful short set full of crunchy Fender Jaguar blues gospel. We went out and got their record the next day. If you have some money left in your pocket go and pick up their EP “The Thief and the Heartbreaker”. It does not disappoint. Better yet. See them if they are in your neck of the woods. Imagine Jim James from My Morning Jacket fronting the Black Crowes or maybe a gospel version of the The Shins and that might get you half way there. I can’t wait to hear more from them.

• Menomena – Friend and Foe
• Superdrag – Last Call for Vitriol
• Rogue Wave -  Asleep at Heaven’s Gate
• Nick Lowe – At My Age
• Augie March – Moo, You Bloody Choir
• The Magnetic Fields – The Charm of the Highway Strip

Some people would like to say that Ryan Adams best years are behind him but I would say that in his mid thirties and weening himself off alcohol and drugs, he is just hitting his stride.

After being vaulted in the spotlight with the Ethan Johns produced “Gold” which contained anthems like “New York New York” and “When the stars go blue”, which was later covered by the Corrs and Bono, some of the more hardcore Alt. Country folks wrote him off as moving beyond his roots. This was not helped by romances with Hollywood celebrities. Is it some sort of milestone in musicians careers to have at some time dated Winona Ryder? His immense output had most fans confused as to how many people were living inside his body and when exactly he got any sleep.The schizophrenic albums and use of the Cold Roses backing band aside, you cannot but marvel at the beauty of “Two”, “Everybody Knows” and “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.”, most co-written with Brad Pemberton. I don’t think a lot of people could get away with screaming “Guitar solo” before a huge solo on “Halloweenhead” and have it not feel contrived. People familiar with his recordings would not see anything different possible because of his style of working out the arrangements while recording and often giving instructions into the microphone, while the tape is rolling. Like the Monty Python voice from “Argument with David Rawlings concerning Morrissey” on Heartbreaker.I have heard some critics complain that some of the songs sound the same as earlier material from Demolition or Heartbreaker and I always think of CCR frontman John Fogerty getting sued by the people who owned his back catalog because his newer songs sounded to much like his old ones. Oh course they do! These are probable the same people who complained about the change in tone and production on “Love is Hell” and “Rock n Roll”. As with any artist, like it or not you are along for the ride. You may not appreciate everything but you might just find some gems that you didn’t think were there.When you stop to consider that this is his 9th studio album since the Whiskeytown days and that was only since 2000, you can start to get an idea of why they say this guy prolific. Just to drive home the point lets get some comparison.

• Radiohead – 7 studio albums since 1993
• U2 – 11 studio albums since 1980
• Led Zeppelin – 8 studio records in the 10 years from 1969 -1979

This guys is good and he’s getting better.

Hello Augie March, it is so very nice to meet you. I found out about you from the strictlybluegrass.com website and here I am three days later seeing you in the flesh in Golden Gate park. I bought your latest album, “Moo, You Bloody Choir” just as soon as I had found you and I can’t stop listening to it. Sounds like you’ve been listening to quite a bit of Wilco, Bob Dylan, and maybe some if his son Jacob (Wallflowers). I hear some Steely Dan and Geoff Lynn (Travelling Wilburies, ELO) in there and some Tom Petty too. I appreaciate all these influences in you. It reminds me just how much I love music. I thank you for that. Your drunken songs od messy life and love, at times sound lie parlor music, sometimes country ballads, sometimes rock and roll. Your piano, banjos, explosive drums, strings and classical guitar are crafted with loving care that inspires me and make me feel drunk with life. I’m hoping this new friendship of ours will last through the years. Keep up the good work.

A album is always the sum of its parts. Who recorded it, who produced it and most importantly who played on it. This is usually not a big issue with bands that have the same lineup, but with bands like Wilco this is always an extra variable in the mix. For an idea how complex this can get, look at the bandmember timeline matrix at wikipedia. We’re not talking Menudo like lineup changes but you get the idea.

With the “every record is different” speech out of the way, we can backtrack a little with this idea because most if not all of the songs come from the mind of Jeff Tweedy.
Continue reading →