i know you wahn it

I am back, relaxed, from Timber! and working on getting the Pickwick Chapel Session ready to post, also wrestling out a think-piece about cynicism & music (of course I am) that may or may not ever see the light …but really all I want to do today is watch this video on repeat.

I want The Roots to be my backing band in everyday life. Everything would be so much better.

Blurred Lines (with The Roots and Jimmy Fallon) – Robin Thicke

Timber! all weekend

I am boarding my plane for Seattle, heading to the Timber! Outdoor Music Fest, and man am I looking forward to floating in the river and listening to some unbelievably well-picked artists.

Tickets are still available last time I checked (although it is close to selling out), should you feel a twinge of jealousy right now. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better indulgence.

www.timbermusicfest.com

just for a moment, true at first light

I am so taken by that mellifluous, honeyed VOICE.

PHOX is set to arrive on my doorstep in Colorado Springs to kick off their tour on Wednesday night — they are playing a free show that I’ve booked them at in the cool new urban renewal / revival space at Ivywild School, in the Principal’s Office Bar. Please come be delinquent! And be wowed.

This song, “Kingfisher,” is also available (like all of their music) for FREE on their bandcamp site.

Another chance to see them will be along with 417 other incredible bands at the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) this weekend, otherwise known as one of Colorado’s very best music weekends all year. I’ll be there!

Thursday’s house concert: David Wax Museum w/ Chimney Choir!

This week I find myself in a part of the world that’s just ri-goddamn-diculous, as my friend Sailor Jay would say. I whiled away this afternoon swimming and paddling in a kayak on Alice Lake, a little sapphire in the valley’s hand out in British Columbia. As I paddled, and listened to my paddle dripping water onto my legs and the waves lapping against the boat, I watched hundreds of little cerulean blue dragonflies flit and hover and sun themselves. I glided silently under where the mossy trees dip down to touch the water and make a natural cave of leaves.

The song that I started singing out loud for myself was “When You Are Still” by David Wax Museum (and not just because they are playing at my house on Thursday, nor to set up this post)…

I’m flying home from this intellectual summer-camp adventure on Thursday so that I can be back in time to host David Wax Museum for a Thursday night house concert at my place. You are invited.

This is a band that is wonderfully different from anyone I have hosted before, as their music blends this cool Appalachian-folk style with Mexican Son music. David Wax plays a traditional Mexican guitar called a jarana, while his musical partner Suz Slezak plays fiddle and a donkey jawbone called a quijada. This will be the first time that a band has experimented with animal bones in my house, sooooo….. come for that.

You’ve heard their music, at minimum, on several of my seasonal mixes — “Born With A Broken Heart” to start the springtime, “The Least I Can Do” in late lazy summer, and “When You Are Still” for the autumn. You should also definitely get my favorite full-length from them, Everything Is Saved. They shipped some ahead to my house, so get one Thursday.

Opening the night will be Denver’s own amazing Chimney Choir! In their own words, “Chimney Choir conjures colorful avant-pop by mixing old time acoustic instruments with droning synths, junk percussion and 3 part harmonies in a theatrical show.” I love junk percussion; Imma start saving cans now.

One last rad recording of them, so you know what we’re in for: I still love this line, “Some of us come with new hearts, most of us come with used hearts — baby, why do you look so sad?”

DAVID WAX MUSEUM HOUSE CONCERT
w/ Chimney Choir
Thursday at 7:30pm-ish

We suggest a generous donation for the bands, please, and you ought to BYOB.

The Replacements: a whole bunch of rarities & b-sides

So in case you were not around cool humans a few weeks ago, you might not have heard that The Replacements are reforming to play three shows this summer at the Riot Fest (!!!). I am not a rioty person, but I do love me some Paul Westerberg in all of his many forms, and this news came out of a wonderful left field to surprise most of us. Even though we don’t know who else is in the band this go around (other than Tommy Stinson, and, maybe, Prince) — IT’S THE REPLACEMENTS.

I was trying to explain The Replacements to my intern (again, with the intern. This kid is getting double his unpaid-work-hours money) and I used words like “sloppy but melodic” and “like, this visceral rawness with classic rock n’ roll underpinnings.” I used the word “punk” a few times; something about the Beatles; we talked about the dangers of alcohol overuse. I think we both went home from work that day better human beings, and now he has a new band to discover.

Back in 2006 I posted a pirate’s treasure trove of Replacements and Westerberg rarities and b-sides that a reader sent me. In honor of the Riot Fest news, and to announce the ticket giveaway I get to do for it, here they are again below, all re-upped.

TICKET GIVEAWAY! I have two pairs of 2-day passes to the Denver stop of Riot Fest to give away to Fuel/Friends readers. It’s happening September 21 and 22 on a farm-looking place outside of town; I’ll also be going and probably camping, which should be delightful.

TO ENTER TO WIN: leave a comment telling me why you should win a pair of tickets, and I will pick two winners in a week or so.

Now tunes. For you, and the intern.

PAUL WESTERBERG RARITIES

Dyslexic Heart (Singles soundtrack)
Waiting for Somebody (Singles soundtrack)
Seein’ Her (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Men Without Ties (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Dice Behind Your Shades (Festicle version, b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Can’t Hardly Wait (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad) (Marah cover here)
Left of the Dial (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Another Girl, Another Planet (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Answering Machine (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Daydream Believer (live, b-side British single?)
A Star is Bored (Melrose Place Soundtrack)
Backlash (w/ Joan Jett) (Notorious LP)
Let’s Do It (w/ Joan Jett) (Tank Girl Soundtrack)
Sunshine (Friends Soundtrack)
Stain Yer Blood (Friends Soundtrack)
Make Your Own Kind of Music (Eventually Bonus Track Japan)
I Want My Money Back (Grandpaboy Single)
Undone (Grandpaboy Single)
Wonderful Copenhagen (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
33rd of July (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
Nowhere Man (I Am Sam Soundtrack)
Be Bad For Me (Folker Bonus Track Europe)

WESTERBERG RARITIES AS ZIP FILE

REPLACEMENTS RARITIES

If Only You Were Lonely (b-side of I’m In Trouble)
Hey Good Lookin’ (b-side of I Will Dare)
20th Century Boy (T Rex cover) (Let It Be Outtake)
Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive (Let It Be Outtake)
Temptation Eyes (Let It Be Outtake)
Street Girl (Let It Be Outtake)
Nowhere Is My Home (Boink LP – England)
Bundle Up (PTMM Rehearsal, Jungle Rock w/ new lyrics)
Empty As Your Heart (aka PO Box) (PTMM Rehearsal)
Time Is Killing Us (PTMM Rehearsal)
Kick It In (PTMM Rehearsal)
Run For The Country (PTMM Rehearsal)
Going Out Of My Head (PTMM Rehearsal)
(“We’ll learn it tomorrow. Think of another one.”)
Trouble On The Way (PTMM Rehearsal)
Make This Your Home (PTMM Rehearsal)
Cool Water (PTMM Rehearsal)
Route 66 (b-side of Alex Chilton)
Tossin’ and Turnin’ (b-side of The Ledge)
Ought To Get Love (Don’t Tell A Soul Outtake)
Kissing In Action (All Shook Down Outtake)

REPLACEMENTS RARITIES AS A ZIP FILE

she was trembling as i held her hand / but we kept singing

Tonight, Colorado! Tonight I am hosting a Fuel/Friends House Concert with Some Say Leland from Austin, Texas at 8pm, and Isaac Pierce with Ten-Speed Music after that. Remember — Isaac’s marvelous perfect little EP was on my top albums list of last year; I have been in love with his way of seeing the world through music since the first time I heard “Warm Bruise.”

The show tonight is BYOB and BYOGDFTTB (“bring your own generous donation for the traveling bands”), and will be preceded by front porch happy-hour.

Here’s a sampler of what it will sound like tonight.

and

Warm Bruise – Isaac Pierce

…and, just in case you’re still making lame excuses about that other thing you have to do (and since it worked so well with Field Report), here is a picture of Isaac with a kitten.

See you at 7.

everything i do, i do in slow motion

I have a grad student working in my office with me this summer and at this point I am 99% sure he wants me to start playing something other than Phox, a seven-piece band from Madison, WI. He likes them plenty, but my unrelenting affinity for them is lately non-stop. But I’m the boss and I make the soundtrack choices — and this is a good choice. I’m teaching my intern about good choices in the workplace.

Phox creates malleable music: effervescent and smoky at the same time, with shimmery layers of creative instrumentation anchored by the stunning voice of Monica Martin. I CAN’T STOP LISTENING.

Slow Motion – Phox

I’d gotten some reader buzz in my emails about this band, and then learned that they are one of only three bands managed by ONTO Entertainment (the other two being chapel session alums The Lumineers and Hey Marseilles, so they’re in good company). I think Phox has the potential to blow up this year, and I would be happy to get this into everyone’s ears.

As a band, they are perfectly difficult to classify, and they’re dang smart. Look at how they answer this interview question:

What trend in music business should we be paying attention to?
“Synthesis. Don’t worry too much about EDM, or the Americana revival. Just look what’s in between the two. Not just an average of the two popular aesthetics, but the intuitive common ground which is developing the native tongue of our generation. Look for artists.”

You can download Phox’s Confetti EP for free here (so why aren’t you doing that yet? Go. I’ll wait).

I’m also thrilled to announce that we’re bringing them to Colorado Springs on July 17, playing the Ivywild School venue that I am now booking! Last night at Ivywild, at the first show we put together there (with Field Report), Chris Porterfield informed me of the existence of THIS song that is just so many shades of wonderfulness colliding that I can’t even….

Route 18 (Kiings remix, feat. Monica Martin of PHOX) – Field Report

That entire Warehouses Possessed by the City: A Wisconsin Remix EP is also available for free download. Go internet. You’re killin’ it today.

[image of Monica credit Lauren Lindley]

Field Report house concert recording (October 8, 2012)

Back in October, those Wisconsin-grown purveyors of carefully-crafted songs Field Report came through Colorado to record a chapel session and play a Fuel/Friends house show. I’ve been listening to an audience recording of that house show often because it gives such a marvelous, vibrant reflection of the intimacy that makes house concerts special — how raw and affectingly all their voices ring out together in the room, the banter with the folks who are there, the improvisation in the instrumentation.

Field Report returns to Colorado Springs tomorrow (Tuesday night) to play a FREE SHOW at the new rad Ivywild School project, where I will be booking music. Come on down to the Principal’s Office bar, have a Colorado-crafted spirit, and enjoy music like this.

Mike Clark opens, music at 8pm.

FUEL/FRIENDS HOUSE CONCERT: FIELD REPORT
October 8, 2012

ZIP: FIELD REPORT HOUSE SHOW Oct 8, 2012

Also, this is another reason to like Field Report: BECAUSE THEY LIKE PUPPIES. Resistance is futile.

what are you doing Sunday afternoon?

This Sunday, June 23, my Colorado readers should head over to Denver’s Larimer Lounge for the Radiation City / Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds Sunday BBQ!


If we’re going to collectively be on a vintage summery-music kick this month, then Radiation City fits in so very well to my chosen soundtrack. They totally killed it in the house show I did with them a few months ago – they’re smart and catchy and dreamy-charming all at once.

Check out their new album Animals In The Median, out on Tender Loving Empire Records, label home to Typhoon and Y La Bamba as well. Radiation City was named Portland’s #1 Best New Band last year by the Willamette Week.

LA Beach – Radiation City

And then of course we’ve established that Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds are making some of my favorite soul music these days. Mike’s Daytrotter session came out yesterday, and Sean nailed it when he wrote: “Colorado songwriter Mike Clark writes songs that sound sweeter than sour. They give off the feeling that his love is healthy, but it’s still so damned hungry. It’s blazing and demanding. He gives off that pacing the floor, screaming at the skies neediness vibe that the greatest of the old school soul and blues singers gave off, as if there was nothing else than some soft touch to be had. It was all there was. It was everything that was and is needed. They’ll be wayward until they fill that yearning. They’ll be wayward for a while.”

Damn.

The Dreamer (live on Daytrotter) – Mike Clark

From the Fuel/Friends Chapel Session:

Come onnnn, Sunday!!

TICKET GIVEAWAY! Fuel/Friends has three pairs of tickets to give away for this terrific show. Please leave a comment if you would like to be entered to win a pair and I will pick randomly on Saturday! I’m presenting the show along with Odell Brewery and Radio 1190. Radiation City plays at 6pm, and Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds at 8pm, but come spend the whole day (doors at noon). Here’s the Facebook event. I hope to see you there!

I guarantee that this will be the best way you can spend your Sunday, getting pleasantly day-drunk, eating smoked meats, and listening to these sweet sounds.

Full schedule: Sunday BBQ!
THE BLACK FEATHERS @ 2pm
CODENAME : CARTER @ 3pm
ScaTTer GaTHer @ 4pm
CONFLUENCE @ 5pm
RADIATION CITY 6pm
WE WERE COSMONAUTS @ 7pm
MIKE CLARK & THE SUGAR SOUNDS @ 8pm
WILD HIGH @ 9pm

$10.00 In Adv | $12.00 Day Of Show | 21+ | BUY TICKETS HERE

Sunburns Turning Into Tanlines :: The Fuel/Friends Summer 2013 Mix

Summer is a rarefied season that (more than any other time of year) summons up all sorts of vintage ghosts from other generations’ musical realms — namely, the ’50s and ’60s in American & British music, for me. There’s something in those old AM radio songs and staticky car stereo anthems that instantly dig up all my best summer memories and leave me ready to go make some more.

As the June heat reaches full capacity these days, for this year’s summer mix I mostly swore off the stuff that feels all shimmery-new, in favor of the new that feels old and well-steeped. These twenty songs all could have maybe come out on a vinyl single, and soundtracked a sock hop or a sweaty, soulful city nightclub in 1964. But almost all of them (with a couple exceptions) were made in the last few years by people not old enough to remember any of that first-hand.

Here’s to music that perennially sounds good on a hot summer night.

SUNBURNS TURNING INTO TANLINES:
THE FUEL/FRIENDS SUMMER 2013 MIX

Ganges A GoGo – Bombay The Hard Way
A kitschy funk-Bollywood explosion from Dan The Automator features drums from DJ Shadow — and you can practically see the technicolor masses dancing to this one. Count me as one of them.

Summer Girls – Mike Clark & The Sugar Sounds
This playful, slurry jam has been a no-brainer for inclusion since I first heard it in the middle of winter, on Mike’s delectable Round & Round album (one that should be on your stereos, in its entirety, all summer). Mike opened (and oh hey, named) last year’s summer mix as well, with “Smooth Sailin’.” Perhaps something in his joyful musical laments just suit the season. ALSO: Mike’s Daytrotter session that we stopped in Iowa to record a few months ago just went live this morning as well, with some really beautiful writing from Sean to match the songs. Bonanza!

Lady, You Shot Me – Har Mar Superstar
I had somehow stupidly pegged this band as some sort of J-pop collective. Why? Why did I miss out on this for so long? This new record, Bye Bye 17, is now #2 (after Mike’s) on my list of albums that you need for this summer. Pretty fly for a white guy (from Minnesota who looks like Ron Jeremy), as they say.

Can I Change My Mind – Tyrone Davis
One of the few authentic older songs on this mix, I just cannot ever ever get enough of how delicately sexy and perfect that febrile, bendy guitar lick is. Bad. Ass. All summer long.

Trying So Hard Not To Know – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
This song is one side of the hard-to-find Night Sweats 7″ that is floating around all the best Colorado record players. I have listened to this song roughly 86 times in the last month or so, after seeing them live and having my socks completely knocked off. Sweltering.

Better Days – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
“I’ve seen better days drippin’ down your face / we don’t have to talk, just dance.” Yes. This new song from Edward Sharpe is from their forthcoming S/T July record, which is already promising to be a much-anticipated soundtrack to my late summer months.

Plan Of The Man – The Ms
I swooned and fell for this band when they released Future Women way back in the 2006 early-days of this blog, crowned by this tightly wound power-pop gem of a song. As one reviewer wrote, “The M’s have found a canny chemistry out of seemingly simple parts (three-part harmonies plus a powerhouse drummer), and now, they’ve got swagger to spare.”

High School Lover – Cayucas
The bassline here makes my shoulders go up and down like this. Another wonnnnnnderful summery album, newly out on Secretly Canadian Records.

Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys) – Slang
Drew Grow and Janet Weiss cover a terrific assortment of songs in their joyous, airtight collaboration project Slang, mostly in and around the Pacific Northwest. These two are completely irresistible. Be sure to check out Drew Grow’s renamed band, Modern Kin, and Janet Weiss’s astounding new Drumgasm record.

You Put The Flame On It – Charles Bradley
This one’s a new song by an older dude who could have been part of the first wave of originals but instead worked as a cook and a James Brown impersonator called (you can’t make up a better backstory than this) “Black Velvet,” before being signed to Daptone Records. Everything about his newly-released sophomore record with Daptone –which my friend Andrew has on vinyl and it sounds just superb, spinning lazily– is fantastic.

That Old Black Hole – Dr. Dog
Even after listening to this song a lot for over a year, I still always see this guy in my mental movie, strutting down the street during the opening credits.

Brand New Key (Melanie cover) – Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down
In her perfectly strong singsong delivery, the rocking Thao aces this 1971 rollerskating jam, all loaded with vintage innuendo about his key fitting into her brand new roller skates, and how they should “get together and try it out to see.” God bless the Seventies.

Country Girl – Primal Scream
A prime Rolling Stones song that isn’t a Rolling Stones song, this one is all swagger from a 2006 record by Scottish rockers Primal Scream, with lines like “crazy women, mess your hair / wake up drunk and bleeding in some strange bed but yeah – what can a poor boy do?” A common complaint. Put this one on when you need to get pumped up to go out and be superawesome some night.

I Like To Move In The Night – Eagles of Death Metal
Gahhh another one that so very clearly rips off the Stones, and yet does it with such unabashed glee that you can’t help but enjoy it. Plus, you can’t take a band called Eagles Of Death Metal too seriously, now can you? This reminds me of the watertower/pool hall/gas station scenes from Dazed & Confused. Like that.

Say So – Allen Stone
This 26 year-old bespectacled white kid from Seattle keeps wowing me with his smooth Stevie-Wonder-like range and delight in the music he’s making. A superb piece about him on Grantland described him as sort of looking like a Fraggle Rock character, “but (he) has a better voice than pretty much anyone I’ve ever heard in my life.” So there’s that. Listen up for this fella.

Please Forgive My Heart (Bobby Womack) – Bahamas
Afie Jurvanen can do no wrong, in my opinion, and this Bobby Womack cover with his wonderful backup-singer ladies is no exception. I love/hate the ability of sweet soul songs like this to woo me, wherein our protagonist begs some woman to forgive his heart, because the problem doesn’t lie “anywhere in there,” but the fact is, “I’m a liar.” So we’re clear. Ooooh ooooh ooooh.

Saturday – Josh Rouse
Such sweet, sweet bluesy topnotes here, floating across the air on a slow Saturday — this is one of the more romantic songs I know, and I’ve been wanting to put it on a summer mix for years. From Rouse’s 2005 masterpiece album Nashville, this song also has one of my favorite opening lyrics: “I would swim across the ocean, I would lay down on a bed of nails / but I’ll spare you all the bullshit, I will spare you all the desperate details.” Whew.

Dry Land – Planes (Inaiah & Desi)
Inaiah Lujan and Desirae Garcia are core members of The Haunted Windchimes here in Southern Colorado, but their side project Planes finds them charmingly exploring tunes that would have sounded right at home on tour with Buddy Holly. This melody is a serious earworm, and they agreed to record it last week in their living room, just for me and you and this mix, after I absolutely could not stop whistling it for an entire week.

Post-War – M. Ward
This song has always sounded radiantly humid to me, like drowsily-buzzing bees and backporch cicadas and air that clings to your skin, with a slow dance shuffle across a worn-smooth wooden floor somewhere.

Not Dark Yet – Bob Dylan
One of the greatest summer night songs ever recorded. You can see the ceiling fan spinning lazily, ineffectually, overhead. It’s too hot to sleep; the heat is still rising off the sidewalk and the soft, tarry asphalt. Behind every beautiful thing, Dylan croaks, there’s been some kind of pain.

It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.

ZIP: SUNBURNS TURNING INTO TANLINES MIX

[thanks, as always, to the wonderful artistic partnership with Ryan Hollingsworth for that cover design artwork, and to Mike Clark for the perfect lyrics to name the mix. Go forth and summer, y’all.]