The Daily News Asks TNOP For The Dope

If your bus from downtown doesn't stop until 82nd Street uptown, TNOP's got some news to keep you company and while away the time . . .

A double CD of a 1966 Otis Redding show at Hollywood's Whisky-A-Go-Go, Otis Redding - Live On The Sunset Strip, was released this week. Pop & Hiss brings us a great story on the gigs, taped over four nights, using a noted eye-witness as its main source: Ry Cooder, who was playing guitar at the time for the warm-up act, Taj Mahal. "It was unbelievable," recalled Cooder. "He'd get up, stomp his foot, wave his arm, grab a microphone and sing with such searing intensity, I thought, this man's going to have a heart attack if he keeps this up. He's not going to make it. But it was good -- a great R&B show, the likes of which I'd never seen."

Step right up! Mr. Tom Waits edits the 200th issue of Mojo, on newstands in the UK soon. Wait a couple of weeks for it to show at your favorite bookstore in the US. Features in the July edition include Waits' interview of Harry Belafonte, a 15-song CD selected and sequenced by the singer and the magazine's guide to all of the Waits album catalog.

U2 had to cancel as the headliner at the massive Glastonbury Festival on opening night, 25 June. But The Guardian reports that Gorillaz have stepped into the breach. Speaking on behalf of 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel Hobbs, Damon Albern said, "it was us or The Beatles, and they split up years ago."

The new Arcade Fire 12" will be released in the next couple of days. Nialler9 has posted both songs, "The Suburbs" and "Month of May" for you to sample in full.

The Cute Beatle visits The White House next week, feted by a number of noted musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jack White and Emmylou Harris. Click Track gives us a Macca song wish list. TNOP agrees wholeheartedly that "We Can Work It Out" is the hands-down choice for The Wonderous One.

Drew Olson of OnMilwaukee.com speaks with Kurt Neumann of the BoDeans and provides a historical timeline of the underrated band. TNOP still fondly remembers the shows in the early 1980s at The Landing at Humboldt & North.

OK. So you are in your cap and gown at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and thinking what boring commencement speaker am I going to have to suffer through? And out walks . . . Patti Smith! And she not only is funny, entertaining, name-dropping and emotional, but sings a couple of songs too! And how can't you love this send-off into the world: "be happy, take care of your teeth, always let your conscience be your guide. well, i wish you god and good luck." The Awl gives great video and The Smoking Bop Gun provides the transcript.

TNOP UK music correspondent and all-around bon vivant Miles Gallagher has been talking up Rock Island, Illinois singer-songwriter Lissie Maurus over the past couple of weeks. Now a great new video of a live performance with Ellie Goulding at the Brighton Great Escape has surfaced. Enjoy Lissie's composition "Everywhere I Go" (via TwentyFour Bit).

Here's a great excuse to escape to a great city: NXNE takes place 14-20 June in Toronto. Billed as "650 Bands - 7 Days - 40 Films - 50 Venues" the festival music headliners include Iggy & The Stooges, De La Soul and The Ravonettes and screens Don Letts' documentary on the late Joe Strummer.

Band of Horses, touring behind their third LP, Infinite Arms, played Los Angeles' Roxy on Tuesday night. Spinner was there.

Hot Press reports that the new Ra Ra Riot album called The Orchard will be released in both the US and Ireland/UK on 24 August.

Damn! They beat us to it. All Songs Considered solicits nominations for best opening tracks on an album. The blog is at 450 suggestions and counting.

To coincide with the 1974 release of Brian Eno's Here Come The Warm Jets (which, by the way, contained the classic track "The Paw-Paw Negro Blow Torch"), a pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde was sent by NME to interview the ex-Roxy Music chameleon. He answered the door to his London flat in a red satin kimono and black satin dress pants. Ah, those were the days . . .

TNOP told you. Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid has garnered rave reviews from Pitchfork, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Tribune, among many others. Greg Kot interviews the exciting young singer in Turn It Up.

The Telegraph profiles the legendary Booker T. Jones.

Well, our stop's coming up. Before we step off into the hustle and bustle of the big city, slip on your earbuds and listen to Stevie Wonder sing maybe the best Beatles' cover ever.

The Live Vault: Daytrotter Barnstormer 3

28 April 2010
Turner Hall, Milwaukee

[On occasion, our far-flung correspondents attend and review shows. Here's another installment.]

The web site Daytrotter has become popular with music fans for creating a unique format that has since been imitated, but never duplicated, in various forms. Based out of barnlike studio in Rock Island, Illinois, a town on the banks of the Mississippi River, Daytrotter's recording studio has been host to many popular and upcoming independent bands.

Now, for the third consecutive year, Daytrotter has put together a mini-caravan of acts to perform in the Midwest in what it dubs as its "Barnstormer 3." TNOP recently caught the second of five shows at Turner Hall, joined by our UK correspondent, Miles Gallagher.

Free Energy

Free Energy, a openly proud rawk 'n roll quintet from Philadelphia (but hatched in Minneapolis) took the stage as we entered Turner Hall, an old German gymnastics building converted by some imaginative music entrepreneurs. Miles wrote an Ascending column in these pages last month on the band, emphasizing their promise on the live stage. He confided to me his disappointment in their freshman CD Stuck On Nothing - despite production by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem - concluding that Free Energy's studio recording had "been slow by half a beat." After a listen to the record, I knew what he meant; and apparently the public did, too, as the release fell flat with listeners, despite an appearance on Letterman and a media push from the likes of Paste and Rolling Stone.

With a retro look that could have landed them the band lead in Almost Famous, Free Energy powered through their set with plenty of fun and hooks to spare. Echoes of T. Rex, Thin Lizzy and The Stones perked up the crowd. Lead singer Paul Sprangers delivered time and again, adapting a Joey Ramone stance and leaving the stage antics to his more than able guitarist, Scott Wells.

"We're breaking out this time," Sprangers sings on the tune that bears the band's name. And with the freedom to hone their craft on an intimate stage, power pop confections like "Bang Pop" have both Miles and I bobbing our heads in unison. Although they pay homage to the above mentioned bands - and a few more - Free Energy fills a void that seems to have been missing in rock lately.

Missouri singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff comes next, and immediately seems out of place. Fiddling endlessly with mic checks and then not even introducing himself or his band, the crowd first deflates during a couple of (albeit lovely) three-part harmony numbers without musical accompaniment. The band is certainly proficient but frankly rather lifeless as it continues its set of Americana. Then "Laughing" and "You Should Have Seen The Other Guy" provide shots in the arm and their finale (a straight cop of a Bon Iver harmony) draws the biggest reaction from the crowd. Rateliff will be opening for The Tallest Man On Earth in the coming weeks; TNOP is confident that his act will translate better on that bill.

If this had been coined an old-fashioned "Battle of the Bands," San Diego's Delta Spirit would have skipped away with the crown on this particular evening. "Bushwick Blues" is a great opener. Drummer Brandon Young serves notice right off the bat that he means business behind the skins, bashing the snare with such intensity that he breaks a stick (which would occur more than once in this truncated set). His partner in rhythm, bassist Jon Jameson, also kills throughout. Guitarists Matt Vasquez and Sean Walker play off each other nicely. Although this act obviously has roots in Americana as well, Delta Spirit has got soul. During "Ransom Man," Miles yells in my ear what a great bottom sound the group has. Vasquez is comfortable at the mic, singing with eased emotion whether Delta Spirit is playing a ballad or boogie woogie. The group's second album, History From Below (Rounder) drops 8 June. TNOP can't wait.

Ra Ra Riot

Rounding out the night was Ra Ra Riot, probably the most recognizable name on the bill. The Syracuse band has a cool factor that flows from the fact that their sound isn't immediately derivative of any genre in particular. In a refreshing (and admittedly ironic) twist, cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller "take the place" of seemingly ubiquitous synthesizers. While vocalist Wes Miles noodles with a keyboard every once in awhile, his noteworthy range makes the listener stand up and notice, particularly on songs like "Dying Is Fine" and "Ghost Under Rocks." Bassist Mathieu Santos drives the beat of Ra Ra Riot; again, in a rock juxtaposition, Milo Bonacci's guitar is usually complimentary rather than up front. Along with the steady drumming of Gabriel Duquette, it all adds up to a fresh cocktail of rhythm that leans on Celtic and African influences.