We’re less than a month away from the highly anticipated theatrical debut of Todd Haynes’ mostly authorized Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There. But many of us are probably just as interested in the film’s 34-song soundtrack, an album loaded with heavy hitters that comes out the day before Halloween.
Indie darling Stephen Malkmus joins the Million Dollar Bashers — John Medeski, Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, bass player Tony Garnier, and guitarist Smokey Hormel — for two tracks on the double disc: Ballad of a Thin Man and Maggie’s Farm. Pitchfork’s Forkcast is streaming the latter, and hot damn, it sounds fucking amazing (”fucking amazing” being a descriptor I picked up in J-school). Let’s all take a listen to Malkmus’ raucous version, which musically sounds eerily similar to a sped-up Grateful Dead’s take on the Lucious Bobby Dylan classic.
The midday doldrums usually set in around this time, and the only two things that pep me up are the non-dulcet tones of my employer’s biteless bark and a good show from the Sugarmegs streaming server. Let’s concentrate on the latter…
Today we’re featuring five great concerts from everyone’s favorite decade. And while most other blogs are tripping over themselves to tell you what’s the best of the new, these five will provide a nice taste of what we think are the best of what’s old. The recording quality’s hit or miss, but the music is all hit. All hit.
Does Rick Danko weasel his way into every nostalgic post on HT? Mayhaps.
Either we’re actively trying to set a webosphere record for Most Posts Featuring Bulletpoints In A Two-Day Span or we’re just pushing the envelope on how to look shoddy and feign professionalism simultaneously. Regardless — or irregardless, as the kidz say — we’ve rummaged through the always awesome Live Music Archive to bring you some solid noontime listening. Check out some good stuff…
All six come highly recommended by, well, me. But we’ve got a good mix of new and old, bands you know and bands you may not. This should keep youse busy.
With classy songs like Mister Richard Smoker, The HIV Song and Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain, casual fans of Ween could never guess the band holds some tenuous affiliation to the silly hippies from the Grateful Dead. Although, part of me can actually visualize that notorious cut-up Jerome Garcia singing “You can wash my balls with a warm wet rag” with a mischievously wry smile.
But Ween has certainly found ways to honor the Dead through the years, in their own Only Ween style of course. The duo penned a sweet, sincere ballad called So Long, Jerry that failed to make the 12 Golden Country Greats album, so it wound up as a B-side on the Piss Up A Rope single. Perfect combo.
Ween’s also performed righteous covers of the Dead’s Stella Blue, but again, while they stay true to the music, they do it on their terms. They’ve even sandwiched it between Booze Me Up And Get Me High and You Fucked Up, like they did at Ziggy’s in April 2001. The Stella Blue cover is as bona fide as can be, beautiful in its delivery and lacking in its irony — and it’s really damn good. It’s time to listen.
It’s impossible not to fall in love with Ms. Sharon Jones at first glance. She’s at once a struttin’ storyteller, a sassmouthed soulstress, and a sensational seductress, all backed by the tightest, most professional band of funk misfits on either side of the Mississip: the Dap-Kings. If love means making me sweat my awkward white tuchus off at every show, I’ve surely been lovestruck by this lovely lady.
The Dap Queen’s new album, 100 Days 100 Nights, hits store shelves on October 2nd, but you can stream it now courtesy of the [good folks] over at AOL. It’s a perfect study in soul, a more restrained and mature album than to what we’re accustomed, and I recommend canceling all your morning appointments to listen.
Ms. Jones and the Dap-Kings have also added a surprise New York show to her tour. We’ve known for months she’ll be tearing down the house at legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem on Saturday, October 6th, but she’ll also be performing at the Virgin Megastore four days in advance of that gig, on the evening that her album drops (BrooklynVegan’s giving away some tickets). Something tells me you’ll have to line up early on the 2nd to catch a glimpse of the female James Brown, but it’ll easily make your night, and maybe your month. Good God.
We made an impassioned plea at the bottom of Monday night’s One More Cup of Coffee post for video of the epic Meet Me In The Morning collaboration between Bob Dylan and Jack White at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville last week.
We’re still looking for such video, but a heads-up commenter points us in the direction of the fine folks at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, who’ve posted the audio of the folk-cum-rockin’ blues Blood On The Tracks tune, the first time this particular Dylan song hath ever been played live. Sweeeet. Thanks, Ted.
Growing up, my family only had three options for non-radio music in my father’s automobile: some homemade Doo-wop mix, Kool & the Gang’s Celebrate!, and Heart’s self-titled album. The last of these three options shot up to #1 on the Billboard 200 charts in these United States, but I’m not sure the 1985 offering was the Wilson sisters’ best effort. That album marked the duo’s shift into pop, and it effectively spelled the end of Ann and Nancy’s reign as Queens of Rock.
But early Heart actually kicks quite a large amount of ass, and the band’s first few albums pack a hard-rock punch that few female-led bands have accomplished since. Ann Wilson is a lyrical badass, with pipes to beat the band, and I’m fairly excited to check out her first solo album, Hope & Glory. Well, it’s not quite solo, with guests including her sister, Elton John, Winona Judd, Alison Krauss and others.
The lead track is a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, brought to my attention by our diligent researcher, Jon Hochstat. It’s equal parts cool and creepy — no, probably 75% creepy and 25% cool — backed by an avant-garde guitar at one point, but Wilson’s Plant-i-ness perhaps bests Bobby P. himself at this age. I love covers that take a little liberty with the original, and she’s clearly accomplished that here. Take a listen below, and let us know what you think…
I somehow got suckered into listening to Alberta Cross with the oldest trick in the book: My friend described the duo as an excellent musical combination of The Band and Band of Horses. Tell me someone sounds even remotely like The Band and I’ll at least wade into the shallow waters and test ‘em out.
I can’t say I agree with the description entirely, but I’m definitely intrigued by the band’s sound. Petter Ericson Stakee and Terry Wolfers manage to accomplish something rare and admirable on their debut album, The Thief and The Heartbreaker, which comes out next Tuesday (along with Kanye West’s, 50 Cent’s and Osama bin Laden’s latest albums): The seven-song, self-produced debut resurrects the sound of a bygone era while planting it firmly in the realm of today’s best music. It’s a fantastic exhibit of outsider art in the subgenre of dust-bowl Americana. So take a listen to their music and get yourself prepared for when these guys land on the Bonnaroo lineup next year…and kick ass there.
…though our route’s clearly not up through the quad to the gymnasium…
Just as we all love to raid the fridge at 2 am, we also love to raid the Internet Archive in the wee hours. There are so many good resources for live music on the world wide webway, and we’ve neglected our old standby for far too long. So last night I quickly rummaged through and grabbed a fivespot for youse to peruse while eating a nutritious lunch, and I suggest you get on it, post-haste.
Feel free to not be a lazy, selfish dickhead, ya know? Dig around in the Archive so you can post some songs for us in the comments…reciprocation and shit.
We like to dip our crooked toes into the SugarMegs waters from time to time, mainly to remind ourselves of how amazing a resource their streaming server can be. There ain’t a better place on the Albert Gore Information Superhighway to find what you’re looking for, and at the simple click of a mouse you too can stream any number of ridiculous shows from rock’s past. Today, we’ve cast our line and reeled in this five’r of guitar-driven concerts for your listening pleasure:
Forget about doing an actual work and just listen to this sweetness today…
