Let's Get Live!

A couple weeks ago I saw Band of Horses live. Despite my previous review of their latest album, they have not lost touch with what makes them unique. Ben Bridwell was as excited as they crowd and the music felt like it! They put on an inspired show that left me smiling for days! Prior to that show, the best band I'd seen in person was Spoon. Certainly, both of those bands are among the country's best offerings at the moment. There's nothing like live music!

Damien

I've said it once, but it's worth repeating. His name recalls those of mega-pop-stars. But, his music is far more dynamic than radio-friendly bubblegum tunes. That said, some of it would fit in fine on the radio.

Damien Jurado's music is a blast from the past and a breath of fresh air at the same time. He taps into something that makes his music immediate. He should be standard issue.

His music is touching, purposeful, authentic and pure. Along with a handful of other modern artists, he has rekindled the hope I found in music in my teenage years.

I started with his 4th full-length from 2002, I Break Chairs and was instantly hooked. I followed with a record that is the polar opposite. The gorgeous, quiet And Now That I'm In Your Shadow from 2006.

Perhaps my favorite record by Damien Jurado is the 1999 album Rehearsals for Departure. This album starts with a folky classic called 'Ohio' that tells the story of a girl far away from home going through an emotional train ride. There are no throw-away tracks on this album. It's kind of hard to believe Jurado was just getting started when he put this one out. It sounds like the work of a folk legend. Jurado is highly recommended!

The King Is Alive!

The Decemberists new album The King is Dead is their most exciting offering in years!

Immediately as the harmonica and drums kick in on 'Don't Carry It All' the album is off to a happy start. It is followed by an even more uplifting, early-80s-R.E.M.-esque, jangle-pop classic called 'Calamity Song' that finds this now seasoned band going back to its roots.

The eighth song, 'June Hymn', is reminiscent of the 60s New York coffeehouse scene. It moves through rootsy, lilting, sweet lyrics and music and leaves a glow that only Colin Meloy's voice is capapble of affecting.

There are only ten relatively short songs. They take you on a nice ride through a range of feel-good songs. In many ways, this is two things at once: an early Decemberists album and a brand new path.

I enjoy it immensely. They have proven once again that they can travel well in any direction they want!

Let Him Roll

In 1975, a guy named Guy made a record that does everything I think American music should do. It causes pain, inspires introspection, investigates the depth of the human heart, examines the American experience, records the lives of common men and, perhaps most importantly, doesn't pull any punches.

Old No. 1 is a masterpiece to put it succinctly. But, it's more than that. It's an essential part of the American musical canon. If you don't know it and you like country music, then you don't know country music yet. If you do know it, then you know what I mean.

Blue Note

I spent the weekend listening to my old Blue Note Records. Greats like Ike Quebec, Grant Green, Sonny Clark and Bud Powell. I guess the first question is the most important: Has history forgotten these incredible musicians? If so, that is a national tragedy! Jazz music, particularly Bebop, was arguably the most inventive and timeless music ever recorded. It is something we should all be familiar with.

There were many others. Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Turrentine, Wayne Shorter, Donald Byrd, Joe Henderson... These are just the folks on Blue Note. Though Miles Davis and John Coltrane had records on Blue Note, they were recorded primarily by Columbia and Impulse respectively.

Not only did Blue Note Records have unrivaled musicians playing wildly innovative and enduring music, but the artwork on each record is equally enthralling. The photographs, mostly taken by founder Francis Wolff and artistically tweaked by Esquire magazine's Reid Miles, capture these great artists in the moment and give us a sneak-peak into their lives.

Bebop is some of the most important music in our nation's history and Blue Note Records capture some of the best of it. If this is all news to you... I ask that you seek out some of these great figures in the rich, ineffable tapestry that is American music!

Welfare Music

I'm currently addicted to a song called 'Welfare Music' by The Bottle Rockets. This album is not the greatest country-rock album in the world, but is certainly good enough to get into. It kicks off with this absolutely great country rocker! It's well worth the price listed here!

Not Farrar Off!

I've been thinking long and hard about this. Jay Farrar is the best singer/songwriter of my generation. Wilco & Jeff Tweedy are the more well-known spin-off of Uncle Tupelo, but to me there is no comparison.

Son Volt has made great music for fifteen years. Farrar has done solo and side projects, most notably Gob Iron with Anders Parker.  For decades now, he has consistently keyed into the pain and sorrow of the world around him without making it mopey and drab.

His music is insightful, introspective, colorful and most importantly (in an industry dominated by selfish, boasting, inane, ready-made garbage) culturally necessary.

He gives me faith that there are people out there that can sift through the fluff and make an honest contribution to music - the most American of art forms!

Red House Painters

Lately, my mellow/introspective side has been stuck on Red House Painters. Essentially, a vehicle for singer/songwriter Mark Kozelek, this music is perfect for zoning out and learning something about music at the same time.

Kozelek seems to find the perfect blend of musical inspiration and avant-garde individuality. His songs range from 3-13 minutes, but rarely do the long ones seem drawn out.

Thoughtful, introspective and even silly at times. Red House Painters...

You will buy it! I know you will.

The Wedding Present

The Wedding Present. Seamonsters. Leeds. 1991.

How did I miss this back then?

Freak Scene

For some reason, "the voice of my generation" became Kurt Cobain. First things first... Nirvana's music wasn't awful. But, Nirvana's music definitely wasn't amazing either! It falls short of the groundbreaking, soul-stopping musical mastery that Rolling Stone and Spin writers would have us believe it possesses.

Sure, I listened to it growing up and so did thousands of other "lost" youth of the day. But, I also listened to Mudhoney, Helmet, Pixies, Superchunk, Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr, Jawbox, Alice in Chains, The Afghan Whigs and countless other angst-ridden, grungy bands of the late 80s and early 90s!

Yesterday, I was driving home after happy hour with my wife and put an old compilation I made into the cd player. The first song was the absolute would-be-anthem 'Freak Scene' by Dinosaur Jr from their 1988 album Bug. This song shreds through three and a half minutes and delivers a heartfelt angst-ridden punch that few bands could ever hope to reproduce today!

However, that song and that album and that band were never noticed by the majority of young people. Neither was Superchunk or their 1990 teen-angst classic 'Slack Motherfucker'.  The same is true of Mudhoney's 1989 offering 'You Got It'. And even though they achieved sincere stardom with 'Under the Bridge', the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik had many much better songs than that (The Power of Equality)!

My point is this... stop letting overpaid hipster tools tell you who is and who isn't a pivotal band or a defining voice in music! This is our time and this is our music! Open your ears and listen!

Just a bit outside!

If you'd asked me about Band of Horses before April 1st of this year I would have said "their music is a perfect blend of melodic, hypnotic juvenility. It's addictive. I love it!" With their latest release, Infinite Arms, that may no longer be the case... I'm not impressed. Many of the songs are overproduced.

Despite the fact that the album's producer is long-time Built to Spill collaborator Phil Ek, it lacks the maturity of recent BTS albums. When Built to Spill 'grew up', they made some of the most compelling music of the past decade. I want to like this album. I want to think that they are maturing and this is a new, stronger sound. But, I just don't think it is. It misses the target too often.

This is NOT the work of an underground sensation hitting the big leagues in the vein of Death Cab for Cutie and their record Plans. The album almost seems forced. Very little has stayed the same. Gone are the echoey vocals. Gone are the haunting near-slowcore ballads. Gone are the shimmering layered guitars. Gone is the creativity. This record better become the high-selling VH-1 instant classic that it sounds as though it was intended to be! Otherwise, one of the most promising new bands of the decade may have gone and left us!

Forgotten 90s Gem

During middle school I signed myself up for BMG's 12 for the price of 1 deal. Actually, I did it several times at once using my sister's name and my dad. Also, I would cancel after I paid and then do it again. Anyway, after I had gotten everything they had to offer that I knew I wanted I began choosing things at random.

I had heard of this band called Quicksand, but didn't know much about them. I had heard that they sounded a bit like Helmet. That would turn out not to be true exactly, but I liked it!

So, I got the record Manic Compression. It starts out rolling and seemed to pick up right in the middle of a story and even though I didn't know how the story started I understood what was happening. This record was full of energy and was just what I was looking for...

I played it for some friends who promptly went out and bought Quicksand's earlier record, Slip. These records were not necessarily prophetic. But, they had an undeniable presence. They were confident and competent and I liked the fact that no one else knew who they were! Somehow, these guys escaped notice; possibly because of timing. Regardless, they have been forgotten and, as this record is shockingly cheap, anyone interested in harder rock ought to hit re-wind and dig 'em up!

Blackitolism

I think I was a junior in high school when my friend Kyle introduced me to Digable Planets. I remember looking at the album cover and it was a huge hair pick. The record was called Blowout Comb. The music was like no other hip-hop I had ever heard. Of course, I already knew the jazzy beats of A Tribe Called Quest and others, but this was different. This was vastly superior to anything I had ever heard before or since!

A handful of groups rode the jazz vibe in the late 80s and early 90s, but I have never heard anyone as laid back as this. Of particular interest to me is the song '9th Wonder (Blackitolism)'. In my estimation, it is in the top 5 all-time greatest hip-hop songs ever recorded!

Truly, if you want to hear the kings (and queen) of jazzy hip-hop then you need to dig Digable Planets!

Perhaps some of their charm and power comes from the fact that they only made two albums. They burst on the scene with a fresh, cohesive sound and within a few years they were gone. If you dig the sound of Blowout Comb dig their first album: Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space). Criminally neglected hip-hop masterpieces!

B-Boys in the Burbs?

I don't get it. Why do suburban kids LOVE hip-hop? Is it because it portrays a lifestyle they know nothing about? Is it the "machoness" of it? Is it the style or language of the performers? Does the substantial rise in popularity of a now 40+ year-old genre have a greater cultural significance? Or am I overreacting?

Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain... affluent suburban kids, a large percentage of which are white, LOVE hip-hop! It seems like the more inane, boastful, violent, misogynistic or homophobic the music is the more it sells. This bothers me because I am a fan of hip-hop.

Though there is still pretty good stuff coming out these days (Blackalicious, Jurassic 5, Immortal Technique, etc) it is WAY underground! In the 80s and early 90s there was plenty of thoughtful and artistic mainstream hip-hop. The stuff kids consider to be real hip-hop today is the stuff I take issue with. The Billboard's list of top rap songs is loaded with offensive, obnoxious and ostentatious 'music'. I challenge anyone to read the lyrics to the songs on this list monthly. They rarely move out of the realm of macho violence...

My first tape was RUN-DMC's Raising Hell. This is the one that ends with 'Proud To Be Black'. I was about eight years old. Even if the word fuck wasn't in the song twice I would have gotten its importance. I remember asking my mom who Harriet Tubman and Jesse Owens were because of this song. I graduated to Young MC and Eric B. & Rakim and Slick Rick. Then in middle school I had Tribe and De La Soul tapes. High school brought The Fugees and Digable Planets. There were others, but my point is the lyrics in a random song by one of these groups are vastly different than the Top 40 today.

Sure, Young MC got famous with a song about picking up a girl, but his video didn't show him swiping a credit card through her ass crack! Slick Rick had songs about the ladies too, but despite their somewhat macho lyrics they fell short of being full-on vulgar.

Ok. A very long story cut very short... the white-controlled music industry creates, hypes, markets and distributes shockingly awful 'music' with socially dangerous themes! The suburban white kids who make up the majority of the market are fed consistently reinforced negative stereotypes of black men and women. The genre of hip-hop is a stunning musical revelation with endless possibilities. It is a shame that the thoughtful stuff gets sidelined and that the young black artists that create it have their music dubbed as 'backpacker' hip-hop or 'hippie-hop'!

Jurado

Sometime last year my wife and I visited friends in Seattle. I made a (very) quick stop at an independent record shop called Easy Street Records in the Queen Anne district. In an effort to not leave my wife stranded in the car for hours, which I could have easily done, I motored over to the 'Used' section and began rifling through things. I was a a man on a mission and I suppose I had a few things on my mind that I was on the lookout for, but generally speaking I was just looking for a diamond in the rough... and I was looking quickly!

Somehow I started in the middle of the section and the first heading I saw was 'J'. So, I started flipping through looking for June of '44, the first band to come to mind. After many bad albums by bad bands, I came across a visually inviting and colorful record by Damien Jurado. I didn't know his stuff well, but had heard one song on KEXP and really dug it. The record, from 2002, was called I Break Chairs. Sub-Pop released it, so I figured there was a good chance of it being a solid record. As it was $6.99, it was in my price range and I headed for the register.

This was actually our last stop before the drive home and Mr. Jurado's record was to be the first thing we heard as we headed back south. From the anthemic ringing of the first guitar lick on the song "Paper Wings" I knew I had made a good choice!

Damien has a gruff, commanding, immediate voice that still manages to be trustworthy and inviting. I was in love with the record and listened to it twice all the way through before my wife got sleepy and I put on something much mellower.

My next encounter with Jurado's music was with an altogether different album from 2006 called And Now That I'm In Your Shadow. The quietness of this record was not something I had considered Jurado apt to venture into. However, he pulls it off with 1960s coffeshop mastery! The record is mostly him and his guitar telling earnest, mature confessional stories.  Another great record from a totally different angle!

At this point I was hooked on Damien Jurado's breadth and depth. So, last week I went backwards in his catalog and bought his second full-length from 1999 called Rehearsals for Departure. This is another relatively quiet album. It was at this early stage in his career that folks began to compare his lyrics and delivery to the likes of Dylan, Woody and others. And, while I don't see that connection, I definitely enjoy his music enough to recommend it to anyone! He is a great artist with plenty to say!

The American Analog Set

Until very recently, I had never listened to The American Analog Set, but had heard their name in conversations about lo-fi music. As usual, I was in my favorite record shop looking for new stuff to listen to and came across one of their records called Know By Heart. Generally, I like to get into a new band by starting with their first record, but this time the price was right ($4) so I just went for it. My decision was made easier by the title of the first track: "Punk as Fuck".  I actually laughed out loud because I knew they were on the mellow side. It seemed that the song must be some kind of inside joke and I was ready to get in on it!

I guess another thing that contributed to my leap into the world of The American Analog Set was the fact that I knew they came from Austin, Texas. Austin has been churning out really good bands for over a decade now including Spoon, The Black Angels and Explosions in the Sky.

Anyway, this album is just the right blend of dream-pop drone and elegant lo-fi. I have had it about two weeks and have probably listened to it about eleven times straight through. I am currently on the lookout for their other records. This one has plenty of sarcasm and wit. Plenty of ambience. Just plenty! Good record. Pick it up!

That's NOT Indie Rock!

Dear American teenagers,

Just because a band has successfully imitated Death Cab For Cutie's sound that does NOT mean they are Indie Rock. In the same way that imitating Nirvana in the 90s didn't make a band "grunge". And what is the fascination with the word "emo"? Do any of you even know what the word means? I can't stand the labels people insist on putting on bands. In my teens, the term "alternative" started floating around. What's wrong with just calling something what it is? Is it good or bad? Seriously... what is "alternative" music supposed to be an alternative to? The garbage on the radio? What about "alternative" radio stations? I don't get it. Either it's good music or it isn't. STOP LABELING! Indie music used to mean something that was independently produced. Could be hip-hop or could sound like The Shins... STOP LABELING!

Who is That Kid on the Bale of Hay?

Last week an American musical legend came to Portland and I missed him! John Prine is the type of artist that leaves a permanent mark on your soul. You remember where you were when you first heard a John Prine song! I remember where I was when I first heard OF John Prine!

I had just moved to Portland (about a decade ago) and was bellied up to a bar that no longer graces the corner of SW 1st and Oak Streets. There was hardly anyone there but the pathetic gamblers in the smoky Keno room: the shifty, middle-aged white guy with a very obvious toupée, an old Asian woman who was perpetually angry, an overweight white guy that drank endless refills of diet Coke and a youngish Latino guy who was positive that he was gonna hit the jackpot "any day now". These folks were there every night and so were my buddy Patrick and I... long story.

The only thing that made this night different was that a business man with a well-trimmed goatee and an English accent came and sat at the bar next to us. He wasn't particularly memorable for any other reason than that he was clearly not from Portland. We soon found out that he was in town from Denver and had been living in the states for about fifteen years. He was married and had some kids in Denver, but worked in Portland quite a bit.

Midway through a conversation of run-of-the-mill niceties a Dylan song came on the jukebox. Patrick and I both began humming and singing along. That's when the conversation shifted into a musical conversation. Everyone agreed that they enjoyed Dylan's music, but before the conversation ended the song did. The following song was a Stones song. The Brit, Tony, quickly lambasted them. He laughed, saying "only a true wanker could spend one decade slagging off the Queen and another keeping up appearances being knighted and all! He was right, of course!

This comment made the conversation much more interesting. It moved back towards the creativity, power and impact of Dylan. Again, he agreed, but said that John Prine was better in his opinion. Who? Patrick and I looked at each other in complete puzzlement. He charged us with tracking down some Prine albums and getting to know his music because, he promised, if we liked Dylan we would like Prine.

I never saw the man again, but I also never forgot the conversation. I immediately began looking for his stuff. I am somewhat ashamed that it took a Brit to show me one of the most talented American artists of all time. The first album I came across was, luckily, Prine's 1971 debut.

Look at him sitting there on a bale of hay with his gi-tar! I didn't even have to think about buying this album! I could tell right away that there was something I was supposed to hear. He was only twenty-five, but I would spend countless lonely nights listening to this record in the dark trying to pick his twenty-five year-old brain... WOW! This record is unbeatable! With songs like: "Hello In There", "Sam Stone", "Paradise", "Far From Me", and "Angel From Montgomery" the American musical landscape was changed forever. These songs could have been the dying reflections of a war-weary, heart-broken soldier, but instead they were the musings of a mere whippersnapper!

The only thing on par with John Prine's first album is John Prine's second album! He followed up one of the most auspicious debuts in history with an equally heart-stopping effort from 1972, Diamonds in the Rough. This album featured amazing songs like: "Souvenirs", "Late John Garfield Blues", "Sour Grapes", "Billy the Bum", "Take the Star Out of the Window", "The Great Compromise" and "Rocky Mountain Time". I am NOT exaggerating when I say that these songs are among the most distinctive, pensive, emotive, harrowing, heartfelt examples of American music.

Sweet Revenge (1973) followed Diamonds in the Rough and was also a record that demanded attention. If you don't know John Prine's name or his work, I beg you to go find his music. He is a national treasure and criminally unsung!

Dear Average American...

Dear Average American who listens to the radio while driving... I feel truly sorry for you! I just drove a 10' Uhaul truck 325 miles across northern Oregon and listened to the radio the entire way. Uhauls do not come with cd players, so that was my only option! I should have realized when I heard a rare Alice in Chains classic as the first song on the first station to come through in the morning that the rest of the drive would be fruitless. In my experience, the radio offers one or the other: a great song to start or a great song to finish. Everything in between is generally garbage! All the predictable songs came through and NOTHING else! In other words, I heard 'Radar Love', 'Don't Stop Believin' and 'Give A Little Bit' as well as the other recycled, obvious and obligatory garbage. The American radio system is like Amtrak... a hell of an idea with a lot of potential, but maddeningly insufficient!

Sunday Shopping List

If you hear all of your favorite songs on the radio then disregard this post. If you are always on the lookout for great new music then go shopping!

1. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast - 2009
2. Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy - 2009
3. Son Volt - American Central Dust - 2009
4. The Walkmen - You & Me - 2008
5. Fleet Foxes - 2008

These are NOT in any kind of order. They are just damn good records from the previous year or so!