Hipster music fail

So I'm watching Saturday Night Live for the first time in ages and Ben Stiller, whom I generally enjoy, is doing an admirable job as host and I'm enjoying the Zoolander  gags and Weekend Update is pretty good and then the musical guest comes on. A band called Foster the People.  And I'm thinking, meh, a bunch of skinny white dudes in sorta asymetrical haircuts that look like they have very carefully cultivated the suburban casual milqtoast nerd-chic look. Guitar, bass, a couple of  eighties-sounding keyboards, in fact they have a very retro-new wave kinda sound,  very dense wash of echo-y repetitive riffs with incomprehensible lyrics sung in a slightly over-theatrical way. Not my cup of tea, but hey, I'm an old fart now and maybe this is what the kids are into when they aren't playing Xbox and wondering if we really have always been at war with Afghanistan. The band has a certain angsty, Human League, Radiohead kinda charm in a pretentious way. Then I notice the horn section is mic'ed and that they appear to be miming a keyboard line, hmmmmmm. Then I hear it, that high pitched honking whine of a soprano or maybe alto sax. The camera pans back and there he is, the biggest selling instrumental artist of the modern era, which is to say of all time - Kenneth Bruce Gorelick.
No, he has not been added as an ironical sampled aside to give the band ironical hipster cred, he is there, on stage blowing a smooth jazz solo that immediately makes me wonder if I have enough scented candles in the house? why do I suddenly want a mayonaise and wonderbread sandwich and a glass of luke-warm near-beer? Is my favorite colour taupe or beige? which floor of this office tower the accounting department is on and hey, how did I get in this elevator any way?
What the hell is this? Was Chuck Mangione all booked up? This stuff makes Ray Coniff and look edgy and hardcore.
That whirring sound I can hear is probably John Coltrane spinning in his grave.
Foster the People - the stench of boring suckitude is upon you!
Repent, and do an album of Sly and the Family Stone covers with Bootsy Collins before it is too late for you to be saved!
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Doors fans are born, not made

Christmas in the Woodshed

Radio Woodshed will be running special seasonal programming starting Dec. 23 straight through Christmas Day and into Boxing Day. And by special, I mean holiday music, comedy and stories ranging from David Sedaris' hilarious Santaland Diaries to stories from the Vinyl Cafe to Tim Curry reading "A Christmas Carol" and lots, lots more.

The holiday fun will kick off at 7 pm EST Dec. 23 with Tim Curry reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in its entire unabridged glory and continues in about a 16 hour loop with stories from O. Henry, Paul Auster, William Burroughs, Dylan Thomas, Lord Buckley and others roughly on the hour, interspersed with music from holiday music by Carly Simon, Neil Diamond, the Crash Test Dummies, Aretha Franklin, Bing Crosby, the Asylum Street Spankers, and Tom Waits among many others and comedy by John Cleese, the Arrogant Worms, the National Lampoon, Steve Martin and many, many more!

Just click the radio over on the right to tune in.

Special thanks to technowizard PB for fixing my Shoutcast connection from his iPod Touch while in the middle of dining out. Santa will be extra good to you this year.

The Tim Curry Christmas Carol will be rebroadcast again at 8 pm (EST) Xmas Eve and from noon on Xmas Day with lots of music and other stories long and short in-between.

best and worst holiday music

Inspired by a recent all-too-brief discussion on the Paul and Storm podcast, I'd like to pose the two part question "What is your favorite Christmas song and what Christmas song would you like to see eliminated from face of the planet?"

My favorites, surprisingly, are the actual honest-to-God religious carols. The top three being Silent Night, The Huron Carol and We Three Kings (especially as a jazz instrumental), although I am also partial to White Christmas and The Christmas Song, especially the Bing Crosby versions.

I realize that people's tastes vary, but it is an absolute truth that if you are over the age of ten and really like The Little Drummer Boy, it is quite possible you are a tone-deaf moron. When I snap someday and machine-gun a Christmas choir in a shopping mall, it will be because of the "Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum". "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" has also been known to bring out the Scrooge in me. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is just plain creepy. The Wham/George Michael seasonal crapfest "Last Christmas" is played 25 hours a day in every store and bar in Tokyo, which only one reason I hate it. Also, anything performed by sampling dogs or cats tends to make me cringe instantly and will result in my reporting you to the SPCA if you play it around me.

Put your choices in the comments.

so crazy it just might work

Kevin Smith wants to make a movie with Mitch Albom based on a Warren Zevon song about hockey that features the vocal styling of David Letterman.

Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song) - Warren Zevon

Yes, you heard me right. The guy that made all the "Clerks" stuff and "Zack&Miri Make a Porno," the sentimental, foul-mouthed, Gretzky-worshipping, idiot-savant of Smodcast and Silent Bob fame is planning to team up with the Detroit sportswriter that wrote the immensely successful  and immensely maudlin "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "Five People You Meet In Heaven" to make a hockey movie and he wants it to be an "awards movie."  The end result is either going to be pretty good ("Chariots of Fire" meets "Slap Shot" crossed with "The Sweater") or downright frightening  ("Youngblood" "The Mighty Ducks" and "Miracle" crossed with "Jersey Girl.")

"This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender"

Happy 90th birthday Pete Seeger - our Spiritual Leader of the Moment.

Seeger has long been one of my heroes and he was the first Spiritual Leader of the Moment back when I had my first webpage on Geocites over a dozen years ago.

This 1967 performance was Seeger's first appearance on television in years following his blacklisting in the 50's -- and they still censored him, chopping out his mid-set rendition of "Waistdeep in the Big Muddy" and sparking a controversy. He was invited back to perform the song, which did finally air, but the show was cancelled soon afterward, despite high ratings, and replaced with HeeHaw.






I've had the privilege of seeing Pete Seeger perform twice and as I've often said, I'm glad he's on our side. Give him five minutes in front of a crowd and he can make them do just about anything he wants. Thankfully, he has always used this power for good. While Woody Guthrie was a rambling, gambling, hard-travelling, hard-drinking guy who collected a handful of wives in his time and whose guitar "killed fascists", his travelling partner, Pete Seeger was a teetotalling, pacifist who married a Japanese girl during World War Two and did time briefly for refusing to name names to Joe McCarthy. The insigna on his banjo said "this machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."
As I reckon these things, he's probably one of the greatest living Americans. Happy Birthday Pete!






More interviews here, and knowing all his history, if this latest work of his doesn't bring a tear to your eye, then the problem is with you, not Seeger. For more music, tune into Radio Woodshed, where I'll be playing Pete Seeger stuff all day long.

Where do I sign up?

The Procedure, with Willem Dafoe & WIll Ferrell from Adam "Ghost Panther" McKay

"Stairway to Heaven" 24/7? Whooo!  But seriously, if they made these with a bluetooth connection to the ipod, I'd probably be on the waiting list now.

Leave your "Best song/worst song" to have stuck in your head forever in the comments.

For the record, I could live with this nonstop for the rest of my life. Everything is cooler when your personal soundtrack is by Miles Davis. 

This, on the other hand, would cause me to rip my own head off my body before lunchtime the first day.

Global jam session

Watch and then go learn how, no matter how cool you thought this was, it's even cooler than that.

Much of the money raised is going to support centers for Tibetan refugees in India and music and arts programs in South Africa, but even if none of the money was going to charity, this would still be a very, very cool idea.

Special thanks to Jackson Street Books for pointing this out.

The Revolution Will Be Streamed

ON SALE NOW

I know I blogged a bit about this before, but now that the MP3 album is finally available I thought I might tug on your sleeve about it one more time.

A killer collection of 14 tracks of folk, funk, rock, salsa, dance pop and country, The Revolution Will Be Streamed is a cooperative effort by musicians and political activists coordinated by me, with a lot of help from a lot of people. Don't take my word for the quality of the music - click that picture of the radio over there and listen, I'll be streaming the whole album for the next few days on Radio Woodshed. After that, you can go to the Amazon site and listen to free samples. And if my stream is down, you can go listen to the it at the General's joint (His inner Frenchman did the cover art).

All the money raised from the sale of the MP3s available now at Amazon.com (and in a few weeks at itunes) will go to support Netroots Nation in Second Life.

Netroots Nation is a group dedicated to pushing progressive causes and candidates in the United States. It grew out of the Daily Kos website and facilitates activism, political organizing and networking in the progressive community. They aren't the only reason Barack Obama was elected, but they were an important part of the campaign and Bill O'Reilly thinks they are worse than the Klu Klux Klan, which is a good enough reason to support them on its own. Thousands attend their convention each summer. Netroots Nation in Second Life makes it possible for hundreds more to attend the convention online by streaming the various speeches and workshops in Second Life. The massive Second Life effort run simultaneously with the real life event also affords the opportunity to do the sort of networking the convention is intended to foster.

Liner notes
As the famous anarchist "Red" Emma Goldman may or may not have said: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution"
There are few things more popular in Second Life than music and dancing. After all, in a virtual universe, we are all young and fit and we can all dance like the genetically cross-bred children of Martha Graham, Fred Astaire, Alvin Ailey, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and Gypsy Rose Lee. But while we dance, we talk, and as often as not, we talk politics.
And you can't dance without music, whether it's the hot salsa of Los Gatos, the sunny folk-funk of Richard Maynard-Langedijk, the brooding, country-flavored power-pop of Calliope's Radio or even the off-beat satirical stylings of Billy Bob Neck -- it's all here.
The proceeds from this album will go to aid Netroots Nation in Second Life in its efforts to support progressive politics through online activism, networking, advocacy and work on behalf of progressives running for elected office. We are grateful to the artists for the donation of the their inspiration, creativity and hard work. And to you, the listener for contributing to this worthy cause.
Special thanks to all the artists who contributed, Gen. J.C. Christian, Jillan McMillan, Jane2 McMahon, Rocky Torok, Michele Migrish, Jackson Street Books, and all the regulars at Cafe Wellstone, the Lonely Yak and the Red Zeppelin.
Check out the website:http://www.nninsl.org/

The Revolution Will Be Streamed
1. So Glad - Richard Maynard-Langedijk
2. My Strange Love - Brian Lillie and the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra
3. Super Evil - Spoon Spatula
4. Arianara - Los Gatos
5. Hank Paulson's Blues - The Black Tie Martini Club
6. Gimme a Job - the Extras
7. Jesus: The Anti-Rap - Billy Bob Neck
8. Endless Night - Richard Ainslie
9. Zumbro Valley - Zathras Afarensis
10. One More (Land of Beginning Again) - Katherine King Segal & Charlie Brown
11. Watcha Gonna Do? - Golgotha
12. Rachel's Song - Scott & Michelle Daiziel
13. Samba Do Sueno - Pete Siers & Los Gatos
14. Darker, Longer - Calliope's Radio

Who is on the album? Who are these wonderful, talented and generous people who have given their time and creativity (and royalties) up for good cause? I'm glad you asked.

Richard Maynard-Langedijk

This singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer, who has been a stalwart at the Hillside music festival, operates out of a fortified compound in Guelph, Ontario.

Brian Lillie and the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra

Brian Lillie is a folksinger from Ann Arbor, Michigan who has been playing guitar and writing songs for over 20 years. He has performed in everything from loud, weird rock bands to sufi-inspired dance groups, but his first love has always been simple, heart-felt acoustic music. Other works include Rowboats and Good Luck Fire Chief

Spoon Spatula

Better know in Second Life as Spoon Dastardly, the most dastardly spoon in Spoontown and King of all cutlery.“Super Evil” is about a terrified pedestrian walking through dark city streets while fruitlessly attempting to project the false image that he, himself, is dangerous. Written in Hollywood, CA, in 1994 as part of a collection of songs about Los Angeles.

Los Gatos

This Michigan-based Latin Jazz quartet has a pair of albums to its credit: "Cats Got Your Tongue" and "Insight". Los Gatos plays weekly at the Firefly jazz club in Ann Arbor as well as in numerous music festivals. They have been together since 1997. "Samba Do Sueño" was originally released on Insight and the previously unreleased "Arinañara" was recorded at the Michigan Jazz Festival in 2007. Check them on video here

Black Tie Martini Club

Lead by Second Lifer and podcaster extraordinaire Caleb Bullen. Sadly, the astounding podcast which can be found here or on itunes, is on semipermanent hiatus, though the management is still throwing fans an occasional bone. Thankfully, we still have the archives.

The Extras

Terrific Canadian band from back in the day, best known for their paean to contraceptives "Circular Impressions" -- more can be learned here and here.

Billy Bob Neck

A fine upstanding conservative Christian man who's Hour of Being Good is a beacon in the darkness for us all.

Richard Ainslie

A mysterious man of mysterious talents who intends to keep it that way.

Zathfras Afarensis

Network geek? Raconteur? Rootsy, eclectic Second LIfe DJ with a KT Tunstall fixation? Minnesota-born folk singer and occasional songwriter? Guilty, on all counts.

Katherin King Segal and Charlie Brown

Katherin King Segal is a singer-songwriter from New York who is now based in Los Angeles. She teamed up with veteran studio guitarist Charlie Brown for their 2006 album Land of Beginning Again. And she is very understanding (we hope) about rookie producers who spell her name wrong.

Golgotha

Goth-tinged rockers featuring Second Lifer NTropy Sellers, "I'm not sure who this band is but they have great shoes."

Scott and Michelle Dalziel

Amazing husband and wife team who are much in demand musically in both first and Second Life. The fresh and soulful sounds of Scott and Michelle's voices, combined with their high energy performance, memorable and meaningful songwriting, and instrumental finess, put them in a category all their own. Said to have more sound than two people should be allowed, they cannot be confined to acoustic the Rock or Folk genres, as they continue to branch out intoThey R&B, Jazz, roots, and Blues. The duo were Kerrville Folk Festival finalists in 2004 and 2007, and they were selected as a featured artist of the month in 2008 by Folk Alley, one of the leading genre radio stations. Their 2007 CD, Thinking Out Loud, hit #12 on the International Folk charts.

They are also very understanding and forgiving of rookie producers who spell their name wrong in liner notes (we hope).

Calliope's Radio

Formed in mid-2006, Calliope's Radio is the dazzling product of many musical backgrounds, stories and styles. With Dana Komer's soaring vocals fronting a dynamic band, Calliope's Radio recounts haunting, beautiful and instantly classic musical stories. These Kitchener-based musicians are capable of capturing the audience with everything from Joplin-esque and Sheryl Crow alt-rock infused hooks to aching country-steel ballads, reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies . Calliope's Radio is melody at its finest.

The General has more to say.

And for those of you among what my kids now call "Dad's cartoon friends" in Second Life - Fez Records (me) and NN in SL will be throwing a big release bash at the Netroot Nation Ballroom on Saturday, Feb. 7 from 7 pm until whenever - we will play the whole album, there will be DJs, including me, contests, prizes, dancing and plotting of revolution. Be there!

Speaking of protest music...

That there is the cover of the MP3 album I have spent the last month putting together. And man, is it suh-weet!  14 tracks of great music and all the money goes to Netroots Nation in Second Life. And I'll send a free copy to whoever is the 50,000 visitor to the blog, which should be sometime today -- if you think it's you, leave an email address in the comments so I can send you your prize. 

I'll be putting the album into heavy rotation on Radio Woodshed when it shows up for sale on Amazon.com as an MP3 download soon -- it should be on itunes in Canada and the US in February. In the meantime, here's the liner notes and song list:

As the famous anarchist "Red" Emma Goldman may or may not have said: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution"

There are few things more popular in Second Life than music and dancing. After all, in a virtual universe, we are all young and fit and we can all dance like the genetically cross-bred children of Martha Graham, Fred Astaire,  Alvin Ailey,  Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and Gypsy Rose Lee. But while we dance, we talk, and as often as not, we talk politics.

And you can't dance without music, whether it's the hot salsa of Los Gatos, the sunny folk-funk of Richard Maynard-Langedijk, the brooding, country-flavored power-pop of Calliope's Radio or even the off-beat satirical stylings of Billy Bob Neck -- it's all here.

The proceeds from this album will go to aid Netroots Nation in Second Life in its efforts to support progressive politics through online activism, networking, advocacy and work on behalf of progressives running for elected office. We are grateful to the artists for the donation of the their inspiration, creativity and hard work. And to you, the listener for contributing to this worthy cause.

Special thanks to all the artists who contributed, Gen. J.C. Christian, Jillan McMillan, Jane2 McMahon, Rocky Torok, Michele Migrish, Jackson Street Books, and all the regulars at Cafe Wellstone, the Lonely Yak and the Red Zeppelin.

Check out the website:http://www.nninsl.org/

The Revolution Will Be Streamed

1. So Glad - Richard Maynard-Langedijk

2. My Strange Love - Brian Lillie and the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra

3. Super Evil - Spoon Spatula

4. Arianara - Los Gatos

5. Hank Paulson's Blues - The Black Tie Martini Club

6. Gimme a Job - the Extras

7. Jesus: The Anti-Rap - Billy Bob Neck

8. Endless Night - Richard Ainslie

9. Zumbro Valley - Zathras Afarensis

10. One More (Land of Beginning Again) - Katherine King Segal & Charlie Brown

11. Watcha Gonna Do? - Golgotha

12. Rachel's Song - Scott & Michelle Daiziel

13. Samba Do Sueno - Pete Siers & Los Gatos

14. Darker, Longer - Calliope's Radio

Update: We have a winner and it's JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie!

The rest of you will have to make do with this video of the closing track for the time being, but the album should be available at Amazon within a few days and on itunes next month

"This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender"




Pete Seeger was born in 1919 and has been a lifelong political activist. He and Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly and Alan Lomax - all friends - pretty much invented American folk music. He was jailed in the 50's over his refusal to testify at the McCarthy Hearings. He put out his first studio album in 12 years a little while ago. Short of digging up Martin Luther King, I can't think of anyone better suited to preside over leading a half a million people in song on the Mall in Washington on the occasion of the inauguration of the first African American President.

Just look at that old rascal grin.

"In the square of the city, in the shadow of  a steeple,

by the relief office, I'd see my people,

As they stood there hungry, I stood there whistling,

This land was made for you and me

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;

The sign was painted, it said 'Private Property'

But on the other side, it didn't say nothing,

That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living, can ever stop me

As I go walking  that freedom highway

Nobody living can ever make me turn back

This land was made for you and me"

I noticed the HBO version of this was taken down at You'Tude within hours of being posted. Some thoughts on certain copyrights:

"This song is Copyrighted in the U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a durn. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
--Woody Guthrie

Radio woodshed is on the air

At least for Xmas day anyways. Tune your browser to http://janefinch.serverroom.us:4930/listen.pls  

or try 

http://janefinch.serverroom.us.4930/index.html 

and click "listen" in the bar at the top of the page and enjoy the best of seasonal podcasts and music -seasonal and otherwise- from a dramatization of "A Christmas Carol" from 9 in the morning on the East Coast of North America straight through to holiday storytime starting around 7 pm EST featuring stories from Dylan Thomas, Stuart Mclean's Vinyl Cafe,O. Henry, Paul Auster, Tom Waits, Dr. Seuss, Steve Martin, David Sedaris and others and lots of music. And no cursing or punk/heavy metal/free jazz during prime time, I promise.

Stay tuned for more in the new year, there could be a weekly show/podcast coming.

McCain needs more cowbell

From "You Are My Sunshine" to "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" campaign theme songs are a venerable part of presidential political campaigns. McCain/Palin '08 seem to be having some trouble finding someone who wants to be associated with the campaign.

Foo Fighters tell McCain to stop using song
NEW YORK (AP) — Yet another band is complaining about John McCain's use of their song to promote his campaign. This time, it's the Foo Fighters.
The rockers sent out a missive telling the Republican presidential candidate to stop using "My Hero." They said they learned it was being use through news reports.
"The saddest thing about this is that `My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential," the band said in a statement. "To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song."
The band noted it's not the first time McCain has been told to stop using a song. John Mellencamp, Heart and Jackson Browne have also complained — Browne even filed a lawsuit.

Maybe they should ask Jackson Browne if they can use "Running on Empty"

A little weekend entertainment

Most of this is not really safe for work, but what the hell are you doing working on the weekend and what the hell are you doing reading blogs at work?

Hick Hop by Wammo and the Asylum Street Spankers 

Wammo peformance poetry/rant: There is too much light in this bar.

More Asylum Street Spankers. Hard to believe their latest album is a fantastic kids album - or maybe not so hard to believe when you think about it.

I dunno where you work, but I wouldn't play this one in my office and we swear like longshoremen half the time. I'll also warn you that the song will stick in your head for weeks, causing you to giggle and hum during your commute, which can be a good way to get more room on those bench seats.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Swellagant and elegant

So far the CC challenge is going swimmingly, but then I've not browsed the other side of the aisle.

though I daresay Skadl has hit the nail on the head with what I consider to be the ideal anthem for the event.

"The mother, the father, the serpent, the priest. The foreman, the woman, the widow, the beast. "
One for Peter "Chainsaw" Hoffman, Mike Szombathy, and Freddy "Boom Boom" Washington
eventually technology and the internet catches up with what we do here




Not too sure about the foozeball, but he's right about the bass player



"smoking on a night train, chewing on a Jellyroll"
let's hear it for pasty-faced white boys like Mark McKinney and Danny Ackroyd

"I never heard anybody up on murder charge try to pin it on Pete Seeger"

I was thinking about a guy from my old stomping grounds in Port Dover named Doug Feaver aka the Grim City Cowboy. Those who know him that watch this will understand why.

In Your Ear - White Stripes, Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams
Kevin Wood /Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
WHITE STRIPES
Icky Thump
Wea Japan, 2,580 yen
Listening to the opening title track of Icky Thump, it is clear that Jack and Meg White have a firm grounding in the classics--classic rock, that is.

Backed by ex-wife Meg White's entirely adequate drumming, Jack White works his way through the classic rock guitar riff book, moving from Led Zeppelin to the Rolling Stones, with stylistic nods to progressive rock bands such as Genesis and Yes. There's even a synthesizer solo. And that's just the first song on the album. Later, the listener is treated to blues in a variety of styles on "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" and even a sort of retro-lounge on the duo's melodramatic cover of Patti Page's "Conquest."

"Effect and Cause" and "Rag and Bone" are light-hearted romps played for laughs. The latter, a shopping list of junk and where to find it, sounds more like a script for the inevitable video than an actual song, with Jack White even managing to rhyme "catacombs" with "microphones."

Musically, there is nothing groundbreaking here, nor are the lyrics especially deep. It may not be music for the ages, but the White Stripes are never short on weird energy and Jack White's classic rock homage reminds the listener of what made the classics great to begin with. This is a fun album that a lesser, poppier band would have reduced to a froth of jangly guitars light enough to float away. The heavy garage rock aesthetic of the White Stripes keeps it firmly grounded and encourages abuse of the volume dial.


BRIGHT EYES
Cassadaga Universal,
2,200 yen

Would somebody buy Conor Oberst a puppy or take him to see the White Stripes or something?

Somebody needs to cheer him up, because his doom-struck angst nearly spoils an otherwise great album of catchy Americana. Bright Eyes' Cassadaga, named for a tiny Florida town populated largely by psychics and spiritualists, is a pleasant rootsy ride through Middle America, with the best tracks, especially the lead-off single "Four Winds" and "Classic Cars" somewhat reminiscent of the best work of the Waterboys, despite Oberst's apocalyptic pronouncements.

Just as Oberst turns some of the album's hootenanny moments into "American Gothic--The Musical!", the opening track "Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)" is a decent song rendered almost unlistenable by the addition of what sounds like a medium babbling away over a Sturm-und-Drang orchestral overlay of the kind that came and went with Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother.

Luckily, the album's other dozen tracks are eminently listenable, even with Oberst's buzzkill overseriousness.





from an earlier effort:



RYAN ADAMS
Easy Tiger
Universal, 2,500 yen

The prolific Ryan Adams follows up his three 2006 releases with another dose of introspective ballads, folk-rock and lo-fi soul. Writing here with his band the Cardinals, Adams' songs continue to sound like the work of some alternate-universe better-voiced Neil Young that never met Crazy Horse. Adams and the band work their rock chops with "Halloweenhead," get all slinky and sinister on "Nobody Listens to Silence Like a Girl" and offer up an alt-country gem, "Pearls on a String," that is a sunny, all-too-brief, mandolin-driven slice of concrete-canyon cowboy heaven.

(The Daily Yomiuri, Jul. 21, 2007)

Long live the queen

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer



Her Majesty refuses to act her age.

Now nearly 80, an age when most people slow down if they haven't stopped altogether, Koko Taylor, the undisputed Queen of the Blues, still performs more than 100 shows a year.

She has just released a new record, aptly titled Old School, that some critics are calling her best work ever. Chatting over the phone from her home in Chicago, her regal poise notwithstanding, she sounds as energetic, playful and almost flirtatious as a woman a third her age.

This week, fresh from tour stops in Quebec and Albany, N.Y., she will be playing shows in Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo with fellow Chicagoan Lurrie Bell, the guitarist son of blues harp great Carey Bell. Their Japan tour culminates in the Japan Blues and Soul Carnival at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo in Tokyo's Hibiya Park. Then she's off to Spain to play another music festival at the end of the month.

"Well, I don't play Japan every day, but I've been there a couple of times and I always enjoy every moment of it," Taylor says . "The only difference is I can't speak their language, but the people there seem to understand me fine when I'm singing."

It's all a long way from the little town outside of Memphis where she was born and grew up.

Taylor is one of the last of the old school of blues musicians, people such as Muddy Waters, Magic Slim, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy, who grew up poor in the rural South before the civil rights movement and came to Chicago to find a new life and eventually a new career in music.

Taylor talks fondly about the trip north with her late husband, guitarist Robert "Pops" Taylor in 1951, famously arriving in the Windy City "with 35 cents in our pockets and a box of Ritz crackers" according to her official bio.

Her husband drove a truck and Koko found work as domestic servant for 5 dollars a day. It wasn't easy, but it was better than sharecropping with her family back on the farm. Recalls Taylor: "It was tough down there when I was young...we used to cut cotton...work on the farm...we didn't have nothing."

On Saturday nights, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor would make the rounds of the blues clubs on the South and West side of town. In the liner notes from Old School Taylor recalls: "We didn't go to no clubs playing that fancy music. Everywhere we went was a blues club. Nothing fancy, nothing beautiful. It was just a hole in the wall where a bunch of us was in there listening to the blues, dancing, drinking, talking loud, doing everything else. It wasn't a place you had to sit up and look pretty, be cute and use a certain language and say something a certain way."

It wasn't long before both Pops and Koko were sitting in with the bands and eventually Koko caught the attention of the legendary bluesman Willie Dixon, who helped her land a recording contract at Chess Records. She had her biggest hit in 1966 with Dixon's song "Wang Dang Doodle"--still her signature tune.

"We used to practice in [Willie Dixon's] basement...we'd play for hours, sometimes all night... with his wife bringing us down food," she remembers.

Taylor says the constant travel is a bit wearing after 40 years, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

"My favorite place in the world is where the people is there and enjoying what I do. It don't matter where you go, people is people and I love people."

She's performed almost everywhere, been on television and in movies, won Grammys and has more Blues Music Awards (25) than any other performer has ever won. Asked if she had any professional ambitions still left unfulfilled, she laughs.

"Nothing but to keep on singing the blues. I've gone too far to turn around now. I'm 79 years old--Why would I try to turn around now and try to do something new?"

Old School, released last month in Japan by P-Vine Records, shows the Queen in peak form. Even after all these years, her voice still has enough raw power to knock down a wall. While she admits it is a chore, she is still writing songs too, having penned five of the dozen tracks. Old School is hardcore blues that sounds like it could have been recorded back in her days at Chess. There are no jazz arrangements or pop orchestration to smooth the rough edges and sharp corners, just power, warmth and foot-stomping shake-your-moneymaker beats. Taylor's authoritative voice reaches out and grabs you and doesn't let go. Her passion and genuine joy in what she is doing shine through in every note.

"God has been good to me. I'm doing what I love to do most of all," she says, before summing up hercareer: "I just do what I do and hope people like it."

Long may she reign.


Koko Taylor will play the Japan Blues and Soul Carnival along with Lurrie Bell, Mitsuyoshi Azuma and the Swinging Boppers, Jun Nagami and others on July 22, 3:45 p.m. at Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo in Tokyo, (03) 5453-8899. Taylor will also play with Bell on July 18, 7 p.m. at Namba Hatch in Osaka, (06) 6362-7301; July 19, 7 p.m. at Bottom Line in Nagoya. (052) 741-1620; and without Bell on July 20, 7 p.m. at Duo Music Exchange in Shibuya, Tokyo. (03) 5453-8899; Bell will play on July 21, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Blues Alley in Meguro, Tokyo, (03) 5740-6041.

(The Daily Yomiuri Jul. 14, 2007)

Just say moe.

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

What do you get when you combine rock influences as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan and Gram Parsons, as played by five talented musicians with a passion for improvisation?
Less corporate radio pop and "moe." music.
Hot on the heels of the release of its critically acclaimed eighth studio album The Conch, moe., the band with the unusual orthography, brings its wide-ranging jams to Japan for a whirlwind four-stop tour that starts tonight in Yokohama.
"We are an improvising rock band that likes to write pop songs," writes moe. guitarist, singer and songwriter Chuck Garvey in an e-mail exchange with The Daily Yomiuri. "It is a mix of every possible influence, style and idea we like--channeled through three different songwriters and five (multi) instrumentalists exploring the unknown. It is schizophrenic, yet familiar. Psychedelic, yet defined and memorable. It's the sound of a really diverse, fun record collection played by your friends."
Garvey is one of the original members of the quintet that started off playing college parties in upstate New York in 1989 as Five Guys Named Moe (the title of an old Louis Jordan song). After brief stints as Haggis and the moe guitar army, the band finally settled on moe., complete with the period, in 1991.
The band released three albums on Sony subsidiary label 550 Music during the next few years as it worked to build an audience with a shifting lineup--the band had five different drummers in as many years and even Garvey left for a few months at one point. Finally moe. hit its stride in 1999 with the creation of its own record label and an appearance at Woodstock 1999.
The current group, together since then, comprises Garvey, founding bassist-singer-songwriter Rob Derhak, guitarist-singer-songwriter and sometime keyboard player Al Schnier, drummer Vinnie Amico and percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Jim Loughlin.
Moe. takes a collective approach, according to Garvey: "The dynamic of the five of us (and our crew and management) adds up to a great whole. To a certain extent, our decision-making process is highly flawed, yet very democratic and satisfying at times. As far as leadership, the ball (or 'Conch') gets passed around so that everyone gets time at the top, but no one has to carry the whole weight all the time either."
Writing and arranging are also influenced by the group's collective nature. Garvey, Derhak and Schnier bring their initial versions of songs forward to be molded by the group to one degree or another.
"We used to jam to come up with parts that complement each other, then arrange them into a song. Now that our writing skills have developed, it is more likely that we can 'hear' complementary parts and put them together on the fly. We also 'harvest' improvised sections of live performances--especially when they have become a very identifiable entity on their own--to use as songs or parts of a song in progress," Garvey says.
Derhak's description of The Conch (the title is taken from William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies) on the band's Web site bears out the close-knit, collective nature of the band's endeavors: "The Conch is a symbol of keeping things civil. We sort of took all these elements of us playing as if one of us has a conch and then it's taken away and it turns to chaos. That is very similar to our lives."
Moe. has evolved its own way of recording that combines painstaking studio work and the energetic live shows they have built their career on.
Like many jam bands, moe. has its own tribe of fanatical followers who see as many shows as possible--The Grateful Dead had deadheads; moe. has moe.rons.
Garvey and Schnier also have become icons in the rock guitar world and were named by The Rolling Stone's David Fricke as being among the top 20 "new guitar gods" in February, an experience Garvey described as both exciting and humbling. The duo are also featured in the June issue of Guitar World magazine.
Asked to compare and contrast their styles, Garvey writes: "Al's technique seems to be equal parts discipline, structure, noise and abandon...My technique is based around phrasing and melody up to a point, with white noise being an alternative to make a point. I think we occasionally operate as the left and right hands of a very accomplished chord/melody guitarist--'Two is better than One'!"
Moe. will play April 21, 6 p.m. at Bay Hall in Yokohama, (03) 3444-6751; April 22, 6 p.m. at Ax in Shibuya, Tokyo, (03) 3444-6751; April 24, 7 p.m. at Club Quattro in Nagoya, (052) 264-8211; April 25, 7 p.m. at Club Quattro in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, (06) 6535-5569.
The Daily Yomiuri, April 21