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Sunday 28 June 2009

Springsteen - Glastonbury


Well The Boss was just incredible. Sadly the BBC coverage was not up to his standards! Most of the middle of the set was not broadcast, maybe they will catch up on i[layer but I doubt it. They were kidding on they were broadcasting the set live and that is clearly not the case as even some of the encore tracks were omitted from the "live" broadcast. 12 songs in total to be aired by my reckoning.

No worry it was an awesome set and the reaction has been incredible.

In the UK highlights here...you may not be able to access this outside the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lkq00/Glastonbury_2009_Day_2_Highlights_Part_Two

Here is the full set list

Not Broadcast:
1.Coma Girl (by Joe Strummer)

Broadcast:
2.Badlands
3.Prove It All Night
4.My Lucky Day
5.Outlaw Pete
6.Out In The Street
7.Working On A Dream

Not Broadcast:
8.Seeds
9.Johnny 99
10.Ghost of Tom Joad
11.Raise Your Hand
12.Because The Night
13.No Surrender (with The Gaslight Anthem)

Broadcast:
14.Waitin' On A Sunny Day
15.The Promised Land
16.The River

Not Broadcast:
17.Radio Nowhere
18.Lonesome Day
19.The Rising

Broadcast:
20.Born To Run

Not Broadcast:
21.Hard Times

Broadcast:
22.Thunder Road

Not broadcast:
23.Land Of Hope And Dreams

Broadcast:
24.American Land
25.Glory Days
26.Dancing In The Dark

Thursday 25 June 2009

Forgotten Album Friday #4, Lou Reed - The Blue Mask


For even a casual listener of Lou Reed this is a simply stunning album with moments of raw power and a jagged edgy sound to match lyrics which are visceral and personal. It comes at the end of a really fallow period for Lou Reed and he had been dropped by Arista. His somehat infamous advert for Honda Scooters got him the funds to get an incredible band together with Robert Quine (Richard Hell & The Voidoids), Fernando Saunders and Fred Maher providing fantastic backing with no overdubs. The result was his best album since Berlin and was not equalled until New York. Rober Quine later played on Lloyd Coles first solo album which Fred Maher produced following the latters stint on Drums to the follow up Legendary Hearts.

Key tracks:

My House
The Blue Mask
Average Guy
Waves of Fear
The Day John Kennedy Died

Ray Lamontange and Josh Ritter

It has just been announced that Josh Ritter will be supporting Ray Lamontange on rays upcoming tour including a date in Edinburgh on September. In my opinion those roles should be reversed but if you are going along do not miss the support act!

here is a clip of Josh performing with Glen Hansard guesting and then the video for Girl In the War.



Wednesday 24 June 2009

Eno and Byrne - Everything that happens will happen today

I have finally managed to get a copy of this CD today after a fruitless search for the vinyl edition. On a quick run through the album is excellent and highly recommended to fans of David Byrne in particular.

Even better news is that you can listen to the album here:

Now removed but check his web site.

And some live tracks here:

Now removed but check his web site.

Sunday 21 June 2009

Bruce Springsteen - My Fathers House

The quality of the video is terrible, the quality of the intro and performance are legendary.

Saturday 20 June 2009

Beck Covers Velvet Underground

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.



Beck has covered the Velvet Underground classic "Sunday Morning" as part of his new Record Club Project.

You can download an mp3 here:

http://files.earmilk.com/upload/mp3/Sunday%20Morning%20Cover.mp3

Thanks to earmilk for the pointer.

Friday 19 June 2009

Forgotten Album Friday #3, Justin Currie - What Is Love For



This is not so much a forgotten album as one that did not really got noticed in the first place despite tremendous critical acclaim. The album is moody, melancholy, wonderfully produced sounding lush yet sparse at the same time.

Justin Currie's masterpiece. There is not a bad track on this album, and a couple of real crackers left off it!

Key Tracks:

What Is Love For
Goldust
Where Did I Go
No Surrender

and how on earth was this a b side - Let It Be Me

Wednesday 17 June 2009

God Help The Girl

As I posted a couple of weeks ago this new project of Stuart Murdoch looks very interesting indeed and here are some previews of the tracks which I hope you will enjoy:

Monday 15 June 2009

David Byrne Edinburgh Playhouse

Tickets on sale now, 8th August show, brilliant.

If Bruce Is Good Enoough for Strummer!!


From the Guardian:

"In the mid-90s, Strummer was asked for his thoughts on Springsteen for a TV project. The answer came in the form of the fax revealed here: "Bruce is great ... if you don't agree with that, you're a pretentious Martian from Venus"! The respect was mutual; Springsteen was quick to pay tribute when Strummer died in December 2002 , describing him as "one of the greatest rockers of all time" .

Whats is nice about the wee note is that the block printing Joe uses is exactly the same as the lyric insert on London Calling.

Friday 12 June 2009

Jeff Buckley -

Lots of Jeff Buckley things happening, I guess as it is the 15th Anniversary of Grace coming up! There is as you probably know yet another version of Grace coming out this time live versions from TV performannces "Grace around the World - deluxe edition", due any day I think in the UK. The press release tells us:

Executive produced by Mary Guibert (Buckley's mother), GRACE AROUND THE WORLD focuses on previously unreleased live performances circa 1994-95, in concert and television locales ranging from the U.S. and UK, to Germany, Japan and France (where Buckley was the #1 best-selling international catalog artist in 2008). Accompanying the 108-minute GRACE AROUND THE WORLD DVD will be an audio CD counterpart.

A special limited-edition deluxe package of GRACE AROUND THE WORLD will also contain the one-hour documentary DVD, Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley, thus totaling 169 minutes (nearly three hours) of Jeff Buckley footage for his fans. In advance of this summer's 15th anniversary of the release of Grace, Buckley's landmark debut album (August 1994.

Also a film biopic is in the offing:

The producers of Mystery White Boy, the Jeff Buckley biopic that was announced in 2006 and has been progressing slowly since, have named Jared Leto, James Franco, James Marsden and Robert Pattinson as contenders for the lead, according to Australian newspaper, Courier-Mail.
Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, who for years had refused proposals for a biopic about her late son's life, hand-picked a team to move forward with the film in '06. Michelle Sy, who had recently produced the J.M. Barrie biopic Finding Neverland, was Guibert's first recruit. Together, Guibert and Sy enlisted young screenwriter Brian Jun (Steel City) to write a script and were expecting a draft that fall.

Public details about the film's progress have since been kept under wraps, but it now seems that the plans Guibert made three years ago have been revised. Screenwriter Ryan Jaffe (The Rocker) has replaced Jun, and IMDb now anticipates a 2010 release for Mystery White Boy.

Otherwise, the mystery of Buckley lives on. So much of Buckley's allure is wrapped up in the unknown, from the sweet haunting of his unfinished discography to the persistent secrets of his 1997 drowning, that it is only fitting that most details about the film remain obscured.

Forgotten Album Friday #2 Lone Justice - Lone Justice



For me this is the album where the Country / Country rock, call it whatever you will, started. The album was released in 1985 when you may recall the diet was a pretty standard one of soft rock and synth pop. If you think of the artists that were present at Live aid you will pretty much get the idea.

This album was raw, edgy and has elements of straight rock, country, country folk etc etc. Since this album Maria McKee has of course gained a rightful reputation as a great songwriter although she has sole writing credit on only one song. The lead single was Ways to be Wicked written by Tom Petty and there were contributions from Little Steven and Bryan McLean as well.

If you like her solo material try this - I don't think she beat it.

Key tracks

Ways To Be Wicked
Dont Toss Us away
You Are The Light
Sweet Sweet Baby (I'm falling)

here is a clip from the OGWT

Thursday 11 June 2009

not a music post - outstanding speech by steve Jobs

Sorry I simply could not resist, what a marvelous speech by Steve Jobs, take the 15 minutes!

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Springsteen Performs Fade Away In Stockholm

Amazing performance if you consider that this is unrehearsed and had not been played by the E Street band since 1981. Ropey quality and Bruce needs to work ion the intro!

Monday 8 June 2009

Gasoline Heart


When I was in Florida this band were getting a big push and I see on their web page they are actually from Orlando so that explains it!

I think they are quite good with a bit of Keith Richards, Tom Petty influences in there (possibly!)

The band is now offering a free download of Cucumber Riot, a collection of both new and old songs. According to Paste Magazine, the album is “a compilation of four songs from their first record, three songs from their most recent EP and three songs from their upcoming LP, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be, due out June 23 on P is for Panda.”

You can get it here:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/register_and_download/gasoline_heart

Sunday 7 June 2009

Steve Earle Live Dates

Steve Earle has announced 2 UK gigs (so far) Glasgow and Aberdeen, as far as I can make out these are solo acoustic sets.

Friday 5 June 2009

Forgotten Album Friday #1 Ryan Adans Demolition



I am not going to make much comment on these - search them out and listen again and take something from these albums that you may have left behind! This week a patchy but at times brilliant release from patchy but mostly brilliant artist.

Key tracks:

Nuclear

You Will Always Be The Same

Chin UP, Cheer Up

The Good vs The Bad!

The Bad



The Good in fact wonderful!

Thursday 4 June 2009

Dark Was The Night


I have just ordered this great looking 2CD set from the Red Hot Charity series, produced by by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, it features exclusive tracks by lots of great artists including David Byrne, The Decemberists, Bon Iver, Stuart Murdoch and many others. Of course as it is for charity....cannot go wrong.

Tracklisting:

"THIS DISC"
"Knotty Pine" - Dirty Projectors and David Byrne – 2:23 (mp3)
"'Cello Song" (Nick Drake) - The Books featuring José González – 3:54
"Train Song" (Vashti Bunyan) - Feist and Ben Gibbard – 3:02
"Brackett, WI" - Bon Iver – 4:03
"Deep Blue Sea" - Grizzly Bear – 3:46
"So Far Around the Bend" - The National and Nico Muhly – 3:43
"Tightrope" - Yeasayer – 3:18
"Feeling Good" (Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse) - My Brightest Diamond – 3:54
"Dark Was the Night" (Blind Willie Johnson) - Kronos Quartet – 3:51
"I Was Young When I Left Home" (Bob Dylan) - Antony Hegarty with Bryce Dessner – 4:55
"Big Red Machine" - Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner – 4:39
"Sleepless" - The Decemberists – 7:54
"Die" - Iron & Wine – 1:07
"Service Bell" - Grizzly Bear and Feist – 2:23
"You Are the Blood" (Castanets) - Sufjan Stevens – 10:14

"THAT DISC"
"Well-Alright" - Spoon – 2:46
"Lenin" - Arcade Fire – 4:06
"Mimizan" - Beirut – 2:43
"El Caporal" - My Morning Jacket – 3:33
"Inspiration Information" (Shuggie Otis) - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – 4:06
"With a Girl Like You" (The Troggs) - Dave Sitek – 3:27
"Blood Pt. 2" (Castanets) - Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti) – 3:36
"Hey, Snow White" (Destroyer) - The New Pornographers – 4:26
"Gentle Hour" (Snapper) - Yo La Tengo – 5:31
"Another Saturday" - Stuart Murdoch – 2:56
"Happiness" - Riceboy Sleeps – 8:37
"Amazing Grace" - Cat Power with Dirty Delta Blues – 3:34
"The Giant of Illinois" (The Handsome Family) - Andrew Bird – 4:45
"Lua" (Bright Eyes) - Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch – 5:54
"When the Road Runs Out" - Blonde Redhead with Devastations – 3:28
"Love Vs. Porn" - Kevin Drew – 3:57

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Fleetwood Mac Dates


I see Fleetwood Mac are playing some UK dates! It could be magical and wonderful.....or terrible! I am hoping the former and will certainly be trying to get some tickets.

If for no other reason than this was the poster on my teenage bedroom wall, bought in Chris Records!



http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid9217788001?bctid=690836296

The dates that they have been playing in the US have had pretty decent reviews.

October 2009

22 Glasgow SECC
27 Manchester MEN
30 London Wembley Arena

November

02 Sheffield Arena
03 Birmingham NIA

Tickets go on-sale this Friday, June 5, I hope to get mine tomorrow!

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Ryan Adams Last Gig

You will probably all be aware that Ryan Adams has stated his intention to bow out from music....in his blog post he said

“love is being accepted for who you are. love is taking care of yourself and caring for others and dreaming out loud when it matters. not chasing rainbows. not hoping for some eventual collective sigh of approval which will never come. how did i ever think in those terms? i always knew better. thank goodness i know now how to be honest with myself.”

Well we will see and you can decide for yourself if he is at a loss with this stunning download of the final gig at March 20 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia:

http://www.archive.org/download/ryanadams2009-03-20.140sbdmatrix.flacf16/ryanadams2009-03-20.140sbdmatrix.flacf16_vbr_mp3.zip

Obviously I do not condone bootlegs! Here is what you would get if you did such a thing!

Set 1:

Magick
Let it Ride
Two
Everybody Knows
Beautiful Sorta
Mockingbird
Dear Chicago
Blue Hotel
Cold Roses
Natural Ghost
Easy Plateau
Bartering Lines
Band Intros
Fix It
Magnolia Mountain
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Peaceful Valley
Freeway to the Canyon

Set 2:

When the Stars Go Blue
Sink Ships
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Grand Island
Evening Joke
I See Monsters
Come Pick Me Up
Rescue Blues
Wonderwall
Goodnight Rose

Elvis Perkins


Check out this great pic from Elvis Perkins whose second album, Elvis Perkins in Dearland is currently getting great reviews and a reasonable amount of airplay!

http://www.imeem.com/xlrecordings/video/PaAOnZyw/elvis-perkins-in-dearland-hours-last-stand-gold-room-sessi/

Monday 1 June 2009

Broken Records

Vic Galloway on BBC Radio Scotland had a session with a band who I know very little about, they were called Broken Records and he described them as a cross between Arcade Fire and The Waterboys - a bit of a billing to live up to! Once he has a link on his site I will try and post it but my first thoughts were reasonably good, the first track was excellent certainly though I was feeling a wee bit Charlie Daniels Band with the second track!



The debut album is out fairly soon I think. I post a couple of their clips to give you the flavour: