The positive buzz behind Brooklyn (via Cincinnati) band The National keeps gathering steam. In addition to the release of their new CD High Violet this week, the group divulged that it will be working with noted rock documentarian D. A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back and Monterey Pop).
Wilco - TNOP's Best Band In America At The Moment (admittedly, they've held the title belt for a number of years now) - once again showed off their live prowess on last night's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The boys' selection was "Deeper Down" from Wilco (The Album).
Wilco starts the European leg of its latest tour on 21 May in Helsinki. U.S. dates resume at the end of July.
=================================================== I know claiming Bob Marley as Irish might be a little difficult here tonight, but bear with me. Jamaica and Ireland have lots in common... Naomi Campbell, Chris Blackwell, a fondness for little green leaves... the weed... religion... the philosophy of procrastination (don't put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after)... unless of course it's freedom. We are both islands, we're both colonies - JAMAICA IRELAND - ... the common yoke... the struggle for identity, the struggle for independence... the vulnerable and uncertain future that is left behind when the jackboot of empire has finally retreated.... roots... the getting up, the standing up - and the hard bit - the staying up. In such a struggle, an often violent struggle, the voice of Bob Marley was a voice of reason so when I heard Bob Marley first I not only felt it, I felt I understood it. It was 1976 in Dublin, we were listening to punk...it was The Clash who brought him home to us, that and E.C.'s cover of 'I Shot the Sheriff'. Bob Marley and the Wailers had love songs you could admit listening to, songs of hurt...hard but healing... Tuff Gong politics without rhetoric, songs of freedom where that word meant something again, new hymns to a dancing God, redemption songs, a sexy revolution where Jah is Jehovah on street level not over his people ... with His people not just stylin... jamming' the lion of Judah down the line of Judah from Ethiopia where it all began for the rastamen, where everything began...well maybe. I spent some time in Ethiopia with my wife Ali and everywhere we went we saw Bob Marley's face... wise, royal, Solomon and the queen of Sheba on every street corner, there he was, dressed to hustle God... 'let my people go' an ancient plea...prayers catching fire in Mozambique, Nigeria, The Lebanon, Alabama, Detroit, NEW YORK CITY, Notting Hill, Belfast... a king in dreads... a third and first world super star. Mental slavery ends where imagination begins... here was this new music rocking out of the shantytowns, born from calypso and raised on the chilled out r 'n' b, beamed in from New Orleans... lolling lopping rhythms... telling it like it is, like it was, like it ever shall be...skanking mon! Ska, Bluebeat, Rocksteady, Reggae, dub and now ragga... and all of this from a man who drove 3 BMWs, BMW!? BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS!!! (that was his excuse!) rock and roll loves its juvenilia, its caricatures, its cartoons, the protest singer, the gospel singer, the popstar, the sex god and of course... your more mature messiah types?! we love extremes and we're expected to choose... the mud of the blues or the oxygen of gospel, the 'hellhound on our trail' or the 'band of angels'. Marley didn't choose or didn't walk down the middle, he raced to the edges embracing all extremes and creating a oneness. He wanted everything at the same time and was every thing at the same time... prophet, soul rebel, rasta man, herbsman, wild man, a natural mystic man, ladies man, island man, soccer man, family man, Rita's man, showman, shaman, human, JAMAICAN.
---Bono, "Induction Song" (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Special Awards Ceremony, 1994)
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR TV TIMES AND/OR REPEAT SHOWINGS; ALSO CONSULT WEBSITES AND YouTube
TONIGHT, 10 May The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS) - Wilco Last Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) - Green Day; Taj Mahal
TUESDAY, 11 May The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) - MGMT The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson - Jonsi Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Keith Urban; Mike McCready Lopez Tonight (TBS) - Ozomatli
WEDNESDAY, 12 May The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) - Macy Gray Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Queen Latifah; Sheryl Crow; Chuck Leavell
THURSDAY, 13 May The Late Show with David Letterman - The National The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - Jakob Dylan Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Phish; Dr. John The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) - The Hold Steady
TNOP's intrepid Jazz & Pop correspondent Miles Gallagher recently tracked down this elusive footage of Miles Davis jamming on stage with Prince on New Year's Eve back in 1987. With the help of our French interpreter (tip of the hat to MER), here's the description accompanying the video:
Historic concert in Minneapolis makes for a princely new year in 1987. Miles loved Prince and vice-versa. We talked about it, we dreamt it, we heard the jam sessions on the bootlegs which were quickly taken out of circulation. Four years ago Prince Rogers Nelson was talking about releasing the tapes, but nothing came of it. Here we see it -- and hear it -- finally this meeting at the summit with Miles Davis and Prince. For the appearance, go directly to the 56th minute.
The rest of the filmed concert is vintage Prince, so of course it's worth checking out. The performance is a direct line to the dynamic soul revue of James Brown & His Famous Flames in the 1960s.
[Ed. note: Regular readers of this blog know that Bob Dylan is affectionately referred to as the "Patron Saint" of TNOP. This weekly feature sifts through the thousands of cover versions of Dylan songs and provides you with our favorites, as well as a quick memory to our first exposure to the Dylan original.]
Some of the best stories in rock and roll are about the artists that go against the grain of what seems to be pervasive in the musical world at the moment. And so it was that Jack White and his "sister" Meg unleashed their raw, garage band assault on the blues at the beginning of the new century. It was contrary to in-your-face rap and the growing impersonal electronic noodling on the rock landscape.
It should not be surprising, then, that Jack White would form a musical bond over the years with another famous contrarian, Bob Dylan. The native Detroiter's choice here (from 2001, when the duo was just starting to draw international attention) is "Isis," a chorus free song written by Dylan and Jacques Levy from Desire. (The White Stripes' debut album included "One More Cup of Coffee," also from Desire.) White's vocal urgency here is definitely traced to the feverish delivery of Dylan on his performances of the song during the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975.
The White Stripes have also been known to pull out covers of "Outlaw Blues" and "Love Sick" in concert. In addition, the debut album of White's side project, The Dead Weather, includes a version of Street Legal's "New Pony."
Dylan himself has often tipped his hat to The White Stripes: in addition to joint live appearances (see below), the band's songs have been included on Theme Time Radio Hour. Jack has also popped up as a guest on the show; and Meg was mentioned as a female drummer in the episode "Musical Instruments."
It comes as no surprise that Jack White has supposedly been quoted that he is the progeny of his biological father, spiritual father (God) and musical father (Bob Dylan).
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First off, a side note. There's no doubt I was drawn to "Isis" this week simply because of its reference to "the fifth day of May" - Cinco de Mayo. But "Isis" is also one of my personal Dylan favorites.
Like many in their teens, when Desire came out in the beginning of January 1976 there was great anticipation. To me, there was still a newness about Dylan; I certainly was on an on-going discovery of the bulk of the vital 1960s output. But in the midst of the singer-songwriter revolution in the early 1970s, Blood On The Tracks was a watershed to those my age, from a melody as well as lyrical standpoint.
Dylan had been in the pages of Rolling Stone pontificating about the innocence of boxer Rubin Carter and a single tracking the athlete's plight, "Hurricane," had made quite a splash. He would also play some benefit concerts (that presumably cleared no profit) on behalf of Carter, who had been convicted of murder (and would be exonerated in 1985). This was the first time that I had really witnessed Dylan entering into the public fray. But, not surprisingly, reaction to his strident stance on the former middle-weight champ's innocence was decidedly mixed.
Now the majority of that band had assembled in New York City to record a new set of Dylan tunes, and the title Desire was stamped on the album. So placing the 33 1/3 disc on the turntable, carefully placing the needle on track two, I held my breath for the first new shot of Bob. A simple rolling piano riff played by Dylan introduced me to "Isis." And off I went into a land that seemed drawn from one of those old John Ford westerns. The fable unravels in verse after verse - there is no chorus - and is dominated by the violin of Scarlet Rivera. The tale of a mysterious stranger and the lure of buried treasure is countered by the narrator's love of an equally mysterious woman. And Dylan gives the narrator's wife the name of the ancient Egyptian deity Isis, the goddess of magic and light.
As luck would have it, one of my teachers was writing his doctoral thesis on Isis, and this fact made me more drawn to the song. Not that I could understand all the nuances.
In his liner notes to Desire, Dylan writes: I have a brother or two and a whole lot of karma to burn . . . Isis and the moon shine on me. At that stage of my life, no light of understanding was shining on me as to why Dylan was throwing in, for example, a Middle East pyramid into "Isis," a story presumably set in Mexico or America's Wild West, and anchored by a clearly Celtic harmony. But hell if it didn't leave me more intrigued.
[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.
The Akron, Ohio sonic assault duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, known as The Black Keys, release their sixth full-length LP on 18 May. Entitled Brothers, it is the follow up to 2008's lauded Attack & Release. This go-round was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and is self-produced, save for the first single release, "Tighten Up," which finds DJ Danger Mouse at the controls.
And if you haven't caught The Black Keys live, do yourself a favor and catch them this summer on tour. In addition to opening for Kings of Leon on a handful of dates, the boys headline at some pretty great venues around the country, joined by The Morning Benders, Nicole Atkins or The Whigs.
From the New York Times front page story by John Kifner:
Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.
The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.
Frederick P. Wenger, the Assistant Adjutant General, said the troops had opened fire after they were shot at by a sniper.
"They were understanding orders to take cover and return any fire," he said.
This reporter, who was with the group of students, did not see any indication of sniper fire, nor was the sound of any gunfire audible before the Guard volley. Students, conceding that rocks had been thrown, heatedly denied that there was any sniper.
================================================== The dead: Allison Krause, 19 (shot from 110 yards away) William Schroeder, 19 (130 yards) Jeffery Miller, 20 (90 yards) Sandra Scheuer, 20 (130 yards)
It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. David Crosby cried after this take. ---Neil Young, liner notes to Decade on his song "Ohio"
Well, so was I. And T. Rex was one of the reasons.
It is easy to be enamoured by the Marc Bolan story that has been weaved by journalists for the 35 years since his death in an automobile accident on a southwest London street in 1977: Mod to psychedelic to Nancy boy to glam rocker to failed substance abuser.
But in 1971, Bolan had one goal in mind: conquer the American charts. His gambit was to update and use the skills of past masters that he had admired since his teenage years: the straight ahead rock and roll beat of idols Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. And the simple strategem of Elvis Presley: sex sells.
The initial salvo by his band T. Rex was the summertime smash single "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." The muscular three chord monty wove circles around this young listener; backed by a driving sax and anthemic chorus, Bolan purred You got a hubcapped, diamond starred halo/You're dirty, sweet and you're my girl. What else did a 12 year old boy in Midwest America need in order to feel a semblance of rebelliousness?
So, "meanwhile," as Bolan sang on the fadeout of that number 1 tune, "I'm still thinking," so were The Night Owl and a buddy of his, riding endlessly around the neighborhood on two-wheeelers with banana seats and high handle bars. More specifically, where did this T. Rex come from and where to find more of the same?
The answer came in September with the release of the long-player Electric Warrior. My friend knew a guy from the public school whose brother had secured a copy of the album. It was smuggled out of the older sibling's room and shuttled over to my parents' hi-fi. Fortuitously, I had a new portable AM/FM radio with built in cassette player. Most importantly, that cassette player had a glorious key: RECORD. Although the best sound would come from recording directly off the radio via a blank tape, I had convinced my father to buy me a cheap microphone that I could plug into the side jack on the contraption.
Strategically placing the microphone between the two speakers, and flipping the switch to "on," thus was born one of the worst recordings of Electric Warrior in the annals of bootlegging rock and roll.
But it was my copy. And I literally wore that cheap Memorex tape out. That slowed down Bo Diddley chug-a-lug of the opening cut "Mambo Sun" set the stage for a record of get up off your seat and turn-it-up. "Jeepster" - a cut likening his girl to a Jaguar - and "Rip Off" breezed with the driving, carefree rhythm of the young who naturally believe themselves to be immortal. Even the slower ones had a measure of cool to them: the count-off of "Lean Woman Blues" (One . . . Two . . . Buckle my shoe!) and swagger of "Life's A Gas" (It really doesn't matter at all/Life's a gas/I hope it's gonna last).
Lester Bangs said something to the effect that "what they tried to do with David Bowie was create another Marc Bolan." Like alot of his musings, I leave it to disciples like Jim DeRogatis to draw back the covers on a statement like that. But to me, Electric Warrior was the type of album that Bangs probably admired; because true rock and roll chooses you, whether it's in your car or alone in your room listening on your headphones. And this album is always gloriously decadent and one you can turn up. And really, can you expect much more?
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