July 21, 2006

Another reason I should have sacrificed my left kidney in order to be in San Francisco these last few days

In addition to Pearl Jam playing one of the best setlists I’ve ever seen on Sunday night in my beloved San Francisco (as in, if I could have handpicked my favorite songs for a set, this would be a solid frontrunner), they unleashed this on Tuesday night. And I wasn’t there for either.

I KNEW I should have stowed away in that airplane wheelwell (since I couldn’t afford a plane ticket) after a KICKASS reader offered me a free ticket to one of the SF shows.

All Along The Watchtower – Pearl Jam
(written by Dylan, but how can you not associate Hendrix when you hear this version?)

Ed introduces this song by saying:
“. . . And I’m not sure why, but this feels like a San Francisco song. And, uh . . . I think we’re gonna play the shit out of it.”

(cue McCready, who finished the song with this) . . .

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May 17, 2006

Happy Hour with Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has revealed himself to be one cool mofo of a DJ, in addition to all the other things he does so well. On his new show with XM Radio, he does programs based around a theme. In addition to recent hours focused on mothers, cars, and weather, his most recent show was about drinking — in his own words: “The world of liquid libation, booze, sauce, hooch, white lightin’, firewater, hard stuff, pick-me-up, gin ‘n’ juice, moonshine, canned heat.” You get the idea.

Overall, the music he selected for this show has a nice old-timey twangy feel to it: reminiscent of old wooden bars, rubbed smooth by a thousand elbows, facing rows and rows of dusty bottles. You can almost hear the jukebox in the corner.

Bottoms up.

PLAYLIST:
“Ain’t Got The Money to Pay for this Drink” – George Zimmerman & The Thrills
“Wine, Wine, Wine” – The Electric Flag
“Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” – Loretta Lynn
“Daddy and the Wine” – Porter Wagoner
“I Drink” – Mary Gauthier
“Sloppy Drunk” – Jimmy Rogers
“I Ain’t Drunk” – Lonnie The Cat
“It Ain’t Far to the Bar” – Johnny Tyler & His Riders of the Rio Grande
“Rum and Coca-Cola” – Andrew Sisters
“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” – John Lee Hooker
“Bad Bad Whiskey” – Amos Milburn
“Who Will Buy the Wine” – Charlie Walker
“Buddy Stay off the Wine” – Betty Hall Jones
“Whiskey, You’re the Devil” – Clancy Bros and Tommy Makem

Plus excellent, informed, interesting, assorted commentary from Dylan (obviously) interspersed.

ZIP FILE OF DYLAN’S BROADCAST

The whole show is a fun romp – I love themes. Dylan’s show could be one of the best things I’ve heard lately. I will definitely drink to that.

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April 1, 2006

Cat Power: Queen of Covers


The goodness just keeps on coming from the lovely Chan Marshall.

I had not heard this cover ’til Chad posted it today over at Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands (and I’ll just assume it is his attempt at an April Fool’s joke to post James Blunt covering the Pixies).

The fervor with which I love Cat Power’s aching, smoldering versions of the songs she covers is unmatched. This is a total knockout:

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Dylan cover) – Cat Power

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March 14, 2006

Seeing David Gray’s spit and sweat

David Gray was amazing last night. My sister Kristy and I got to the lecture hall in the Denver Convention Center last night with our tickets in-hand. These were a birthday present from my sis last August, but then the show was canceled in October, so this was the rescheduled date. We walked in to the ushers, who ush us on our way, pointing to the front section. This was delightful, that they told us to keep moving closer. They keep ushing us forward ’til one blazered chap tells us that our seats are, indeed, in the FIRST ROW. Right in the center. Thank you Ticketmaster! I didn’t know Ticketmaster loved me so much. What a great late birthday present! I haven’t been in the first row of a huge show like that since Pearl Jam in 1995 in San Diego. We kept looking at each other and laughing in disbelief that we were so close!

David Gray absolutely gouges me; his beautiful playing on both piano and guitar, the way he pours his soul into he music (which you can really see up close – he feels it with his whole body), and that *voice,* both the lower register for the verses and then that sweet, affected, honest higher tenor for the emphasis and soaring parts. It was sheerly fabulous. I lack words (yet I keep trying).

And yep, that setlist includes both a Bob Dylan cover (One Too Many Mornings) AND a Tim Buckley cover immediately following (Song to the Siren, which was haunting in its ethereal beauty). I was in heaven. Ain’t No Love (read the lyrics on his site – gorgeous) and Lately were also both show-stopping, as well as one entitled Shine. And as many times as I’ve heard Please Forgive Me, it remains such an amazing song; it could be one of my top ten. I love the lyric, “feels like lightning runnin’ through my veins every time I look at you.”

I was really hoping for Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (possibly my favorite song he sings, although I was shocked – shocked! – recently to find out that it is a Soft Cell tune), but no such luck. It’s okay, I really couldn’t have absorbed any more.


AUDIO FROM THE NIGHT [via]:

Alive (new) – David Gray
One Too Many Mornings (Dylan cover) – David Gray
Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley) – David Gray
Far From Here (new song) – David Gray

VIDEO: Simon also took some video of the recent show in Cinci:

Video 1Video 2Video 3

By the way, these cell-phone pics are all I have to regale you with. Not the best quality, but kind of avant-garde artsy, no? I finally figured how to get them off my phone and it wasn’t as hard as I thought! They were just getting stuck in my spam filter.

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Oh, and speaking of good shows, if I were in the San Francisco Bay Area tonight, I would be tempted to head on out to Hotel Utah and enjoy me some Newcastle while partaking in a good show with two local band favorites. Santa Clara University’s own favorite good-time band The Otters are playing with 735 Institution at rad historic venue the Hotel Utah Saloon tonight at 9pm:

“Perhaps the most underrated SF institution, the Hotel Utah has outlasted DJ-bar mania, dive-bar revival and every other nightlife trend to hit the city. Since its doors opened in 1908, the hip factor has never been part of the Utah’s organic M.O. This classic saloon showcases 20th-century novelties like a walk-in wooden phone booth, old-fashioned, inner-lit streetlamps and hand-carved mahogany bar back. The Utah packs in a casual and virtually ageless crowd.”

It’s only $6, so if you are one of my readers from Santa Clara, Stanford, San Fran, Palo Alto, San Jose, Oakland, etc. etc. etc., head on over. The Otters are preparing a rockin’ little acoustic set with some original tunes, and I hear there may also be a sexy little number by the Rolling Stones thrown in the mix.

Ooh, bring on that harmonica.

March 11, 2006

Marathon Packs has Dylan circa 1962

Bob Dylan on Cynthia Gooding’s Radio Show 3/11/1962
(from the excellent Marathon Packs music blog: head on over!)

“Here we have a 20-year old Bob Dylan, who’d just made his way to Greenwich Village and had already created quite a name for himself, sitting for an extended interview with New York radio host Cynthia Gooding and playing several songs to boot.

Throughout the hour-long program, he’s affable if not a bit shy, denying the “folk” tag, which he obviously should have—part of Dylan’s genius was that he was able to transcend simple generic convention, even before they’d been carved in stone through popular discourse. It’s completely taken for granted these days that new artists don’t want to be pigeonholed into a specific category, but Dylan was the first to preface this sort of artistic independence as part of his public persona (of course, it was reactionary—goaded on by clueless media-types looking for a figurehead).

Gooding seems awestruck during most of the interview segments—early on, sounding amazed that “there was just one man doing all that” and referring to “The Death of Emmitt Till” as being “the greatest contemporary ballad I’ve ever heard”.

It’s an amazing document of pre-Columbia debut Dylan.”

Head on over to Marathon Packs to get the show:

Lonesome Whistle Blues
Conversation #1
Fixin’ To Die
Conversation #2
Tell Me Baby
Conversation #3
Conversation #4
The Death Of Emmett Till
Conversation #5
Standing on the Highway
Conversation #6
Long John
Conversation #7
Stealin’
Conversation #8
Conversation #9
Baby Please Don’t Go
Conversation #10

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Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

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