WIN! The new White Stripes documentary

CORRECTION: Fuel/Friends gets to give away the White Stripes’ new DVD of Under Great White Northern Lights and the companion live CD. My deep apologies for the confusion between me and the PR people (but hey, it’s still a cool prize, for free).

Under Great White Northern Lights was filmed to capture moments from Jack & Meg’s summer 2007 tour across Canada, from the big city venues to the smalltown bowling alleys. This tour (in support of Icky Thump) represented their last live performances for a good two years, until they recently resurfaced on Conan.

TO WIN: Leave me a comment telling me about either your favorite White Stripes concert moment or your favorite White Stripes song, and why. I will pick one winner before I board a plane to SXSW next Wednesday.

And speaking of White Stripes and SXSW in the same breath, how awesome does this look? I’ll be there, and try to not wear my Third Man Records shirt to the store that day. Last year at SXSW, in another one of those surreal moments that thankfully seem to pepper my life lately, I had tapas with the director of this film, Emmett Malloy, and we chatted about the making of this documentary. It feels full circle that I’ll probably get to finally see a screening of it at SXSW this year. Wahoo!

put on your blue lipstick and i’ll put on my venus boots

One of my favorite songs on Langhorne Slim’s last outing Be Set Free was the rambling, jangly romanticism of “Say Yes” — specifically where he pleads, “Put on your blue lipstick and I’ll put on my venus boots, and we’re in California but it might as well be the moon. Say yes, say yes, say yes…”

I couldn’t resist that request from him, even if I’m not exactly sure what it means. I’d say yes.

Go send the song in a fancy little Valentine’s Day card to someone you’ve taken a shine to. I’m seeing Langhorne on Wednesday night at the Hi-Dive, and I have a prize pack to give away to a lucky Denver reader:

LANGHORNE LOVES YOU: SAY YES PRIZE PACK
- One vinyl copy of Be Set Free
- One signed Langhorne Slim canvas bag
- A pair of tickets to his show Wednesday night at the Hi-Dive

Leave me an amenable, yes kind-of comment and we’ll sort things out Tuesday night.

Say Yes – Langhorne Slim (do it!)

He is touring all over to about 40 cities between now and April so seriously, you got lots of chances to agree with him, and I think you’ll find him and his music…mighty agreeable.

The haunting melancholy of AA Bondy

Today dawned steely grey and covered in snow. While it was nice to get a slow start, I feel a touch of the seasonal blues, unexpectedly.

It’s the right kind of day for the sad, slow beauty of AA Bondy.

I fell in love with Bondy’s music last year and almost named his When The Devil’s Loose (2009, Fat Possum) one of my top albums of the year. Bondy wrote of it, evocatively, “To me [the album] sounds like a radio washed ashore after a shipwreck.” The songs are subtle on the album, but it is really something to hear what they become live.

HearYa Sessions recently had Bondy and his backing band into the studio, and I was amazed by the way “Slow Parade” becomes an electric beast at the end. It starts like morphine and ends like ten-foot waves crashing.

Slow Parade – AA Bondy

Drag your shadow down the street
is it you I was to meet?
with your saints there on a chain
Waiting on another rain

And I’m going down
where the waves will surround
to the roll and the pound of the wild, wild sea
singin sweet to me…

Also, be sure to listen to the HearYa version of “Mightiest of Guns.” That minute-long slowburn introduction here puts a lump in my throat.

CONTEST FOR THE DENVER KIDS:
Come see AA Bondy tonight at the Hi-Dive! I have four tickets to give away, so please email me ASAP if you’d like to attend! Willy Mason and A(aron) Tom Collins open.

AA BONDY TOUR DATES
28 Jan – Hi-Dive, Denver, CO
29 Jan – Jackpot, Lawrence, KS
30 Jan – Maintenance Shop, Ames, IA
1 Feb – High Noon Saloon, Madison, WI
2 Feb – Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI
3 Feb – Mohawk Place, Buffalo, NY
4 Feb – Valentine’s Downstairs, Albany, NY
5 Feb – T.T. The Bear’s, Boston, MA
6 Feb – Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY

Fanfarlo shimmers and spins :: “Just let the comets lead the way”

We need to talk about Fanfarlo. Seriously.

Despite listening to this album almost nonstop for the last few months, you and I haven’t yet delved into the full-scale conversation that their debut album Reservoir so clearly deserves. One of my favorite releases of 2009, this British/Swedish 6-piece has crafted a joyously shimmering album that arches and soars, and thumps compellingly through the speakers.

Reservoir was recorded late last year at Peter Katis’ Tarquin Studios (whose producer’s hand has also lent texture to some of my favorite albums lately, by bands like The National and Frightened Rabbit – “using all the colors“). Combining their youth and enthusiasm with Katis’ seasoned treatment gives us a gorgeous result.

Fanfarlo’s songs use a hugely expressive palette of instruments, heavy on the shiny trumpets, the dazzling saws and accordion, perforated at all the right places with pounding bass drums and quirky time-shifts in the beat. One of my favorite songs on the album is the flawlessly crafted “Comets” that waveringly coalesces at the beginning and end, like the deepening twilight and the stars appearing, wrung tightly with an almost tangible melancholy. “Harold T. Wilkins” is absolutely the best driving and yelling song all year, maybe all decade (“they’re trying to say – SAY!! they’re trying to say — SAY!!”). It feels good all the way down to your toes. The whole album dazzles the ears, and sounds just as delicious on a quiet Saturday morning as it does on a Friday night.

There is a large dose of Arcade Fire’s jubilance, but with a greater effervescence (like a sheer wash of fluorescent color dripping down) and it is uncanny how the swoops and lilts of Simon Balthazar’s voice evoke a young David Byrne. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Ghosts – Fanfarlo
Harold T Wilkins – Fanfarlo

And just in case their well-placed affinity for the song structures of Neutral Milk Hotel isn’t apparent enough, check their recent terrific cover of “In An Aeroplane Over the Sea.”

WIN TICKETS! I have a grip of tickets to give away to Fanfarlo’s Denver show, this Friday the 13th at Moe’s, to celebrate the launch of their national tour. It’s one of the most hotly-anticipated shows of my year. Please email me if you would like to win a pair, and I will let you know by Wednesday night if you can get your dancing shoes on, or bowling shoes, as it may be. There are lanes next door and if you’re brave enough, we’ll play (when we’re done singing along).

FANFARLO FALL TOUR DATES
Nov 9 – Schubas Tavern – Chicago, IL
Nov 11 – Triple Rock Social Club – Minneapolis, MN
Nov 13 – Moe’s BBQ – Englewood (Denver), CO
Nov 14 – The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 16 – Knitting Factory – Boise, ID
Nov 17 – Crocodile Cafe – Seattle, WA
Nov 18 – The Media Club – British Columbia
Nov 19 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
Nov 20 – Great Basin Brewing Co. – Sparks, NV
Nov 22 – Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA
Nov 23 – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA
Nov 24 – The Casbah – San Diego, CA
Nov 27 – Muddy Waters – Santa Barbara, CA
Nov 29 – Club Congress – Tucson, AZ
Nov 30 – Sante Fe Brewing Co – Santa Fe, NM
Dec 2 – The Independent – Austin, TX
Dec 3 – The Loft – Dallas, TX
Dec 4 – Walter’s On Washington – Houston, TX
Dec 6 – The Bottletree – Birmingham, AL
Dec 9 – Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD
Dec 10 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
Dec 11 – IOTA – Arlington, VA
Dec 12 – Brillobox – Pittsburgh, PA
Dec 14 – Majestic Cafe – Detroit, MI
Dec 15 – El Mocambo – Toronto
Dec 16 – Il Motore – Montreal
Dec 17 – T.T. The Bear’s – Cambridge, MA
Dec 18 – Webster Hall – New York, NY

if you’ve got something to say, say it to me now

Irish songwriter Glen Hansard took the crowd outside Fingerprints by surprise last week, as they waited in line for his appearance inside with Marketa Irglova (of The Swell Season, and the movie Once):

Doesn’t that just give you the best kind of visceral reaction in your gut-parts? Sometimes I wish we could always live inside wonderful moments just like that, where people sing out what they mean, and mean the things they sing. Glen is an artist of the first-class.

That night their set included tracks from the new album Strict Joy (out tomorrow on Anti- Records), the Once soundtrack, Leave (The Frames), Tim Buckley’s Buzzin’ Fly (Jeff Buckley was once Glen’s roadie, ‘member?), and “New Partner” by Will Oldham. Those who were there say it was truly magical.

Say It To Me Now – The Frames
(from Hansard’s 1996 album Fitzcarraldo; a version was later on the Once Soundtrack)

In conjunction with the fine folks at Fingerprints, I have one autographed poster from that event to give away. It’s only signed by Glen (“Marketa wasn’t feeling great, so after the performance and almost two hours of meeting fans we set her free for the nap that was calling so loudly”).

Leave me a comment if you’d like to be entered for the poster — and go see Swell Season on tour this fall, eh?

SWELL SEASON FALL TOUR DATES
11/01 Milwaukee, WI – The Pabst
11/02 Indianapolis, IN – Clownes Theatre
11/03 Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
11/04 Montreal, QC – Olympia
11/06 Boston, MA – Berklee Performing Arts Centre
11/07 Providence, RI – Lupo’s
11/08 Philadelphia, PA – Merriam
11/09 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
11/12 New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
11/13 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11/14 Dallas, TX – Palladium
11/15 Austin, TX – The Paramount
11/17 Mesa, AZ – Mesa Arts
11/18 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
11/19 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern (WITH JOSH RITTER)
11/20 Oakland, CA – The Paramount
11/22 Seattle,WA – The Paramount
11/24 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
11/25 Vancouver, BC – Centre For the Performing Arts
11/27 Boise, ID – Egyptian
11/28 Salt Lake City, UT – Jeanne Wagner Theatre
11/29 Denver, CO – The Ogden
11/30 Kansas City, MO – Uptown
12/03 Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theater
12/04 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
12/05 Minneapolis, MN – The State Theatre
01/19 NYC, NY – Radio City Music Hall (WITH JOSH RITTER)

Win a Lucero poster (hey darling … do you gamble?)

Gravelly-voiced, unrelentingly rocking Memphis band Lucero engenders the most rabid of fans, and for good reason. Their songs pulse hot and true with the heart of rock and roll (yes, Huey, it is still beating).

Lucero comes through Denver on Tuesday night on their “Ramblin Roadshow & Memphis Revue” tour, in support of their sixth studio album 1372 Overton Park. The album is their major-label debut, and was produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem). After a series of near misses, I think this time I will finally make it to be baptized into the cult. The show is rumored to be daunting in its intensity, but I hope mostly it won’t hurt.

To celebrate with us, talented Denver poster artist Alan Peters (Jupiter Visual) has offered a pair of posters to Fuel/Friends readers. The posters are three-color screenprints, 13″x20″ on kraft brown enviro-cardstock. They’re pretty damn cool.

TO WIN: The new album is named after the Memphis loft where the band used to live and make music, but also enviable: in the ’70s, 1372 Overton Park was a karate dojo where local resident Elvis Presley, among others, took lessons. Tell me a story in the comments about a place you used to live. I’ll pick two winners on Monday night before I go to bed.

Nichols is one of the finest writers we have of music to accompany bitter disillusionment and heartbreak, but Lucero’s best songs also burst forth with a sort of irrepressible hope — here, in the shiny Memphis horns.

1372 Overton Park is out now; see you Tuesday at the show.

“So what if all my heroes are the losing kind?
We ended up with nothing, but we put up a fight.

Well come on little darlin’, can’t you cut us all some slack?
‘Cause the winners they all took off babe, and they’re never coming back…”

What Are You Willing To Lose? – Lucero
(from the new album)

Hey Darling, Do You Gamble? – Ben Nichols of Lucero, solo
(great song with a Townes Van Zandt backstory, from this earlier post)

PS: This Lucero song is still one of my favorites from them — or from anyone for that matter. It’s made it onto near every mix CD I’ve made for the past 3 years.

LUCERO FALL 2009 TOUR DATES
Oct 23 – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN *
Oct 26 – Aggie Theatre – Ft. Collins, CO †
Oct 27 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO †
Oct 29 – The Crocodile – Seattle, WA †
Oct 30 – Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR †
Nov 1 – Mezzanine – San Francisco, CA †
Nov 4 – The Casbah – San Diego, CA †
Nov 5 – The Clubhouse – Tempe, AZ †
Nov 7 – Longhorn Saloon – Ft. Worth, TX #
Nov 8 – Fun Fun Fun Fest – Austin, TX #
Nov 9 – Meridian – Houston, TX #
Nov 10 – Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL #
Nov 12 – Club Downunder @ FL State Univ. – Tallahassee, FL #
Nov 13 – Czar – Tampa, FL #
Nov 14 – Lizzie McCormick Stage – Orlando, FL #
Nov 15 – Café Eleven – St. Augustine, FL #
Nov 17 – Visulite Theatre – Charlotte, NC #
Nov 18 – 40 Watt Club – Athens, GA #
Nov 19 – Valarium – Knoxville, TN #
Nov 20 – Orange Peel – Asheville, NC #
Nov 21 – Headliners – Louisville, KY #

* with Amy LaVere and Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm
† with Jack Oblivian and John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives
# with Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm and The City Champs

Win a Yellow Bird Project indie rock coloring book!

If you haven’t spent any time around little people lately (kids, not midgets) perhaps you’ve forgotten how deeply calming it is to pick up a marker or a crayon and just spend some time coloring.

Your friends at the most excellent Yellow Bird Project have not forgotten this truth, and in the spirit of creating more awesomeness in this world, they’ve put together an Indie Rock Coloring Book that is suitable for kiddos or creative grown-ups.

Color in the whimsy of Andrew Bird’s whistling, or shade in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s crazy carnival — we’ve got a couple to give away.

The YBP are the folks that have all our favorite musicans design original artwork for t-shirts (I have and love The National shirt — and you should check out the new Ra Ra Riot one!) with all the funds going to charity. This new coloring book is no different, with all the proceeds going to good causes. I met these fellas at Outside Lands in SF this year, and they are making some positive change in the world despite being younguns. Idealism works sometimes.

ENTER TO WIN THE INDIE ROCK COLORING BOOK!

A Field of Birds (YBP theme) – The Tallest Man On Earth

And oh, yeah. They have a theme song written by Swedish folk-wunderkind Tallest Man On Earth (!!). I *so* want a theme song.

Win tickets to Sunday’s Monolith from The Grates

Why is lead singer Patience (yes, that’s her real name) of Australian band The Grates so excited up there? It could be because she has 2 tickets to Sunday’s Monolith Festival to giveaway to YOU, as well as a copy of their new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

Email me a story about a time when patience was important to you, or why we need Patience, or something rad about Australia (other than that my little brother is moving there, omg news of the family last night)! I will pick a winner at noon tomorrow, that’s 12pm Mountain Standard Time, Friday. Include your full name with your email entry, k?

The Grates play the Monolith kickoff party tomorrow night, and at the festival Sunday at 2pm. I saw them at SXSW (which is actually what that picture up top is from) and they were a blast.

Burn Bridges – The Grates

Teeth Lost, Hearts Won is out Tuesday, Sept 15th. It was produced by Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) and features guest appearances by Kori Gardner of Mates of State (vocals on “Milk Eyes“) and Tim Fite (vocals on “Not Today”).

(New contest!) It might get loud.

To get you all riled up and excited like I am for the opening of the new film It Might Get Loud (opening in coastal NY/LA theaters Friday), I have a sweet poster signed by director Davis Guggenheim to give away.

I got little goosebumps of excitement when I saw this trailer, and I might have even uttered a profanity (sorry Mom).

Blue Orchid – White Stripes

From the clips I’ve seen, this movie draws me in because all three guitar players (Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page) truly, humbly love music and feel called to express part of themselves through the guitar. I love watching what flits across their faces as they watch each other play — the hint of a kid-like smile at seeing their idols at work.

The movie also seems to delve into how it can be almost like another language, this guitar playing — one that I can understand the meaning of when heard in the street, but I failed grammar class and could never speak a lick of it myself. As White says, “We’re all attempting to share something with another human being.” The Communication major in me thought that angle was pretty cool, and I can’t wait to hear more.

TO WIN THE POSTER: Leave me a comment saying which one of the three guitarists you are most interested to see and hear from and watch in this film, and why. I’ll pick a winner on Friday! (and sorry but you must be a U.S. resident to win)

In one of the press clips of the film that I got to screen, Jack White talks about how he came into making music through a Detroit co-worker (Brian Muldoon) at an upholstery apprenticeship he did in high school. The band they formed was fittingly called The Upholsterers, and their first 7″ was Makers of High Grade Suites (2000).

Even in these blisteringly raw tracks, you can hear the rumblings of what was to come from Jack White:

Apple Of My Eye – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)
I Ain’t Superstitious – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)
Pain – The Upholsterers (Jack White & Brian Muldoon)

The documentary also shows the making of a U2 single (I saw clips of The Edge out at a beach home, noodling), has original music from Page, and yields a new song written on the spot by Jack White for the film (his Fly Farm Blues single is out today on Third Man Records).

It might get loud, indeed.

New David Gray: “Fugitive” (and win tickets to see him tomorrow!)

My love for David Gray is vast and deep, the astounding way he can turn a lyric (these, for example are some of my favorite) or birth a simple piano melody to make my heart ache. His show in 2006 at the Colorado Convention Center still remains a top one for me.

Gray has just previewed a new track from his eighth full-length studio release, Draw The Line (due out Sept 22 on Mercer Street/Downtown Records).

The album has eleven new songs, two of which are duets with great female vocalists: Jolie Holland (on “Kathleen”) and Annie Lennox (”Full Steam Ahead”). I especially love Jolie Holland’s voice (of the Be Good Tanyas), and in an interview with Spinner, Gray said, “I’m a huge Jolie Holland fan. She’s absolutely fantastic and there’s not many people who manage to be so natural and unselfconscious. Her voice is just so warm. It reminds me of Cat Stevens in the best possible way.” Not a bad compliment, at all.

COLORADO READERS! Friday night’s eTown taping with David Gray (yes, that’s tomorrow) has long been sold out, but Fuel/Friends has a pair of passes to give away to the first person who emails me and tells me their favorite David Gray lyric and why.

Easy peasy, and you’re welcome. It’s gonna be a marvelous show.

For those of you who don’t win (or aren’t in Colorado) be sure to check out the list of fall tour dates elsewhere, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.

DAVID GRAY FALL TOUR
Oct 23 – Boston, MA, Wang Theatre
Oct 24 – New York, NY, WAMU Theater
Oct 26 – Toronto, Canada, Massey Hall
Oct 27 – Upper Darby, PA, Tower Theatre
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL, Chicago Auditorium Theatre
Oct 30 – Minneapolis, MN, Orpheum Theatre
Nov 1 – Denver, CO, Paramount Theatre
Nov 2 – Salt Lake City, UT, Kingsbury Hall
Nov 4 – Portland, OR, Arlene Schnizer Concert Hall
Nov 7 – Oakland, CA, Paramount Theatre
Nov 9 – Los Angeles, CA, Orpheum Theatre