Our crack, cutting edge marketing staff has figured out a new-fangled social networking thingy. Have mercy on our (beyond) latent attempts to shamelessly plug the TNOP Blog by becoming one of our fans on Facebook. Just type in "The Night Owl Presents" and our page should appear. We think.
Consider it your good deed of the day. That is all.
The sad, drawn-out story of Sly Stone continues, once again in the public eye. You can read all about the latest "concert" disaster at the Coachella Festival if you want via AudioFile or Pop & Hiss. Or you can simply realize how prescient author Greil Marcus was all the way back in 1975, when he wrote about the the artist in the aftermath of the groundbreaking There's A Riot Goin' On in "Sly Stone: The Myth of Staggerlee" (an essay that was part of his fine collection titled Mystery Train):
Sly clearly could not push Riot much farther, not without releasing a whole album of silence; and not, perhaps, without losing the audience he had worked to win. Fresh, the album that did follow, in 1973, showed Sly clicking his heels for Richard Avedon's camera, and the songs did their best to keep up with the title and the cover. "There's a mickie in the tastin' of disaster," was the first line of Fresh --- Sly's instinctive phrase of Nietzche's belief that he who gazes into the abyss will find the abyss looking back; that he who looks too long at monsters may well become one.
The Local: It's great to see that you haven't lost hope of having that one big radio hit.
Joey Ramone: Well, I think we're the greatest rock 'n roll band in the world. I mean, it's very frustrating at times. We're the only band that kept the guts, and kept the excitement, and kept the belief, you know. We never side-tracked.
Time for TNOP to check the teletype and let you know what's new in the world of music . . .
Controversial music impresario Malcolm McLaren passed away this past week at age 64, a victim of cancer. McLaren unleashed The Sex Pistols on the world and also managed The New York Dolls at one time. His son Joe Corre and film director Julien Temple look back for guardian.co.uk.
The entire Lollapalooza lineup has been announced and Jim DeRogatis ranks the main acts for your consideration and discussion. Lolla 2010 takes place in Chicago's Grant Park on August 6, 7 & 8.
Congrats to the Drifting Cowboy. Hank Williams has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. You read that right.
Coco returns! Conan O'Brien ends his time in the wilderness when he starts a new talk show on cable network TBS in November. It will originate from Los Angeles and get a half-hour jump start on Letterman and the other guy. We look forward to the musical guests as well.
Thom Yorke's new band, Atoms For Peace, is on the road for a limited tour. Here are a couple of reviews from the New York and Chicago shows.
Jakob Dylan's new long-player, Women and Country, is garnering plenty of positive buzz. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the album features Neko Case and Kelly Hogan. Edna Gunderson of USA Today reports.
It's always a treat to hear Josh Ritter live. He delivers a fine Daytrotter session posted for the first time today.
Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings are back with a great new LP. In anticipation of their appearance at the Apollo Theater at the end of the month, The Village Voice gives us an update on the group's timeless sound.
This Saturday, 17 April, is World Record Store Day, so support your local shop. Some of the special 7" singles to be released in 1,000 independent stores in 18 countries include the first release in seven years from Blur, as well as music from Bat For Lashes, Hot Chip, Lilly Allen and The Beatles.
Yeah, boooooooy-eeeeeeee! On the 20th anniversary of its release, David Stubbs of The Quietus remembers Public Enemy's seminal Fear of A Black Planet.
Good news for John Prine fans (count us strongly among them): a new live album arrives in May. Plus, an all-star cast is being compiled for a tribute album. Crawdaddy! reports that My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst, Justin Vernon, The Avett Brothers and Josh Ritter will be among the contributors.
A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the latest Beck "Record Club" project: INXS' Kick. make sure you check out the next two songs in the collection recorded by Mr. Hansen, St. Vincent and Os Mutantes: "Devil Inside" and the turned on its head "New Sensation" (with Annie Clark and Liars' Chris Stevens sharing lead vocals). [Both links via Twenty-Four Bit]
Don't forget to take the time to check out Wilco's "Country Disappeared" from Montreal, taped especially for La Blogotheque.
Well, we here at The Night Owl Presents have to admit that the more we listen to Titus Andronicus' second album, The Monitor, the more we're digging it. Never thought that a hybrid of Springsteen and punk would be a sentence we'd write. Take a sample listen from the band's 25 minute session recently at Minneapolis' The Current.
On this date in 1961, the Patron Saint of TNOP made his New York City debut at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. In six months, Bob Dylan would come to the attention of the general public when Robert Shelton would review a show of Dylan's at the same venue for the New York Times. The former Robert Zimmerman would perform tunes written by Woody Guthrie, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly, then later start to work in some of his own efforts, including "Song For Woody" and "Talkin' New York."
Who Do You Love Directed by Jerry Zaks
Starring Alessandro Nivola, Jon Abrahams, Chi McBride, Keb' Mo, Robert Randolph
International Film Circuit, 2008
Opening nationwide in the U.S. on 9 April, this fictionalized account of Chicago record executive Leonard Chess and his brother Phil was delayed in release because of its similarity to 2008's Cadillac Records.Chess Records, of course, first brought the world now famous rhythm and blues artists Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley.
When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors Directed by Tom DiCillo
Narrated by Johnny Depp
Abramorama, 2009
Indie film director Tom DiCillo takes on Jim Morrison and his mates in a documentary which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival last year. The movie opens in New York City and Los Angeles this weekend, and you can click here to find other venues at which to view the doc.
[On occasion, our far flung correspondents attend and review shows. Here's another installment.]
In 2007, LCDSoundsystemstarted thelatest electronica wave in rock with Sound of Silver. The following year, MGMT's CD Oracular Spectacular was released to critical acclaim.
Then it was Passion Pit's turn to push the genre. The Boston outfit made numerous "best of" 2009 lists with Manners.
Enough of a buzz about the band has been created that their appearance in Milwaukee on Saturday night was moved to a larger venue, the Riverside Theater, and was broadcast live on local FM radio. And aside from a few hiccups, Passion Pit delivered a strong and emotional performance for the packed crowd, which stood from the set's opener "I've Got Your Number" until the obligatory closer, the underground hit "Sleepyhead."
The quintet consistently delivered danceable melodies and anthemic choruses, almost all drawn from Manners. Michael Angelakos is certainly an unlikely front man; but his childlike falsetto vocals and dance (?) moves reminiscent of Michael Stipe and fellow Bostonian Peter Wolf came across as genuinely sincere to this reviewer. The other four band members, surrounded by booming rhythm and synths, could fit into the cast of The Big Bang Theory. The sound filled the hall and created a sea of standing dancers from row one to the back of the highest balcony, literally making the building shake and sway with happiness.
Sure, some things didn't work, like the rote cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams." While it fit the scheme of singalong chorus, it was nothing special. And the mix was muddy at times, with the drums and bass getting lost among the sea of synthesizers.
It seems clear to this observer that Passion Pit is a logical descendant of New Order, Heaven 17 and The Human League. And while that time span may make it hard to fit in with the demographic the Bostonians cater to, it took no imagination to observe the pure joy that the band brought to the crowd during its exciting version of "Little Secrets."
So go ahead and dance. Yeah, it's 24 Hour Party People, alright. But for the 21st century.
SET LIST I've Got Your Number Make Light Better Things The Reeling Moth's Wings Swimming In The Flood To Kingdom Come Let Your Love Grow Tall Folds In Your Hands Smile Upon Me Little Secrets [ENCORE] Eyes As Candles Dreams Sleepyhead
[Ed. note: Here's the latest entry from our UK correspondent, Mr. Miles Gallagher.]
Every now and then, it happens: a band reaches out and grabs you. In my recent case it is an American band - a Philadelphia quintet via Minneapolis - called Free Energy, of all things. Bass, drums, guitar, no synth. And a producer of their upcoming debut album not known for his love of guitar, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem).
I've been lazering the bits of their tracks the last few days. Following is a primer:
"I hope to refine music, study it, try to find some area that I can unlock. I don't quite know how to explain it but it's there. These can't be the only notes in the world, there's got to be other notes some place, in some dimension, between the cracks on the piano keys."
well as music from Bat For Lashes, Hot Chip, Lilly Allen and The Beatles.
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