June 1, 2008

The Raconteurs deafen Washington D.C. (what?)

Two of the strongest recommendations I received of places I needed to see while I was in Washington DC last week were The 9:30 Club and The Black Cat. The latter was partially accomplished on Friday night when I found myself at the downstairs part of the club, Red Room. No live music at The Black Cat that night, but Red Room has the best jukebox I’ve ever seen in a venue. I spent many dollars.

The 9:30 opportunity presented itself earlier in the week, when after the conference meet & greet, I found myself with not much to do around 7:30pm. Never one to sit when I could listen to something good, I cabbed it over to the sold-out show at The 9:30 and bought a ticket off some guy standing outside looking vaguely lost and somewhat interested in selling the ticket he clutched in his hand. I think he’d been stood up. I wanted to apologize on behalf of whomever’d done it, but gave him a few crisp bills instead and was on my way into the mysteriously completely unmarked door.

After missing most of the Black Lips’ set, I got a spot up near to the front in a location so close to the speakers that my clothes literally vibrated with each thrum of the bass and kick of the drum. After their fedora’d roadie crew set the stage, The Raconteurs sauntered on a bit before 10pm. The last time I’d seen them was in the overwhelmingly huge chaos of Coachella, but in this concentrated and intimate setting their music scorched and flayed each of us. The riffs were excoriatingly raw but tight, their songs were all blues grit and swagger, and they looked like they were having quite a bit of fun.

WATCH: STEADY AS SHE GOES


LISTEN:
The Raconteurs Live at the 9:30 Club (May 27, 2008)

SETLIST
Consolers of the Lonely
Hold Up
Level
Keep It Clean
Top Yourself
Switch and the Spur
You Don’t Understand Me
Rich Kid Blues
Yellow Sun (rockin’ version)
Attention
Steady As She Goes
Blue Veins

ENCORE
Shades of Black
Intimate Secretary
The Stones Will Shout
Salute Your Solution
Carolina Drama

[you can stream it on NPR]

March 25, 2008

New Raconteurs video: “Salute Your Solution”

Just taunting the Web Sheriff (or should I say WEB SHERIFF) to try and leave me comment #3 about The Raconteurs (I deleted the other two — no, seriously, happy Easter), it’s one more post about The Raconteurs.

This rad new video was composed of 2500 still shots taken and assembled by rock photographer extraordinaire, Autumn de Wilde:

March 22, 2008

Steady as I go to see the Raconteurs

Jack White and Brendan Benson’s side project/other band The Raconteurs have announced a limited run of tour dates next month, including one in San Francisco on April 23, right before Coachella. Same night as the reunited Verve’s first U.S. show in ten years. King-Solomon-like choices must be made.

The new Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely was recorded earlier this month, and in a superhuman feat of record mixery and pressing, it will be released this Tuesday [on Third Man/XL/Warner Brothers]. In celebration of all the coming gratification, I’ve been listening to some scorchingly good live Raconteurs — let’s share.

THE RACONTEURS
LIVE AT THE APOLLO IN MANCHESTER
October 15, 2006
Level
Hands
Five On The Five
(on the new album)
Together
Christian Life
(Louvin Brothers cover)
Bang Bang (Sonny Bono cover)
Store Bought Bones
Yellow Sun
Blue Veins Intro Jam
Blue Veins
Intimate Secretary
Steady As She Goes
Broken Boy Soldier

BONUS LIVE COVERS:
Headin’ For The Texas Border (Flamin’ Groovies cover, live in Brixton 2006)
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover, live at Lollapalooza 2006)
It Ain’t Easy (David Bowie cover, live at Lollapalooza 2006)
[Bowie mp3 fixed; if you snag the zip, get this single track too]

ZIP: RACONTEURS LIVE

*****************************************
THE RACONTEURS ON RACON-TOUR
Birds of Avalon opening

Apr 20 – Commodore Ballroom/Vancouver, BC
Apr 21 – Neumo’s/Seattle, WA
Apr 22 – Wonder Ballroom/Portland, OR
Apr 23 – Bimbo’s 365/San Francisco
Apr 26 – The Joint/Las Vegas, NV
Apr 28 – The Fillmore/Denver, CO
Apr 29 – Uptown Theatre/Kansas City, MO
May 1 – House of Blues/Dallas, TX
May 2 – Stubbs BBQ/Austin, TX
May 3 – Stubbs BBQ/Austin, TX

UK/Europe dates to be announced in the near future.

PS – First comment on this pic is still making me laugh.

January 31, 2006

Define: raconteur

Thanks to Connor and Nathaniel, I now know that a raconteur is “one who excels in telling stories and anecdotes,” and it is also the joint musical effort bringing together Mr. Jack White and Mr. Brendan Benson (along with Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler) for a little bit o’ musica. The Raconteurs’ 7″ single was released today (well, technically yesterday) in the UK/Europe, and hits stateside on March 7.

Side A: “Steady, As She Goes” – The Raconteurs
Side B: “Store Bought Bones” – The Raconteurs

And I agree with iGIF that The Raconteurs’ website is one of the most glorious things I have seen lately, since my first computer was in like 1983, a TI-99 for Christmas with a screen just as lo-tech as their site.

And since we are vaguely, loosely, talking about the White Stripes, let me also throw this cover out there. It sucks (maybe because I just like the original so much) but I suppose it is all in good fun, and interesting, so it gets blogged.

Seven Nation Army” – Damien Rice & Vyvienne Long

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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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