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Video: The Pixies, Dig For Fire / Allison and Here Comes Your Man

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The Pixies are one of the bands that I can put on shuffle and listen to for a morning, or even all day. I don’t think there’s a single track that makes me stop and mutter oh, not now.

I have picked this particular set of songs today because they are three of my favorites. Here Comes Your Man was the #1 most played song in my iTunes for several years, until it got (accidentally) dethroned by a Vienna Teng song, and on a Pixies-only playlist, Allison and Dig for Fire are right behind it at two and three, respectively.

The first video is the “official” video, from 1990. The music holds up; the visuals are endearingly dated. Especially the part where they’re playing in an empty stadium. Some of you may not remember but that was a time when there were a lot of videos made in empty stadiums.

 

 
The second one is a live video shot during their 2011 tour, which I picked over the “official” video because the official video is weirdly terrible and not in an entertaining way.
 

 
If you’d like to hear more, there are free live downloads – including one from Coachella 2011! – and much more in the blog posts on their website.

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Empires: Garage Hymns

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I’ve been writing about a lot of dreamy electronic music and chill folk rock lately, but now I’m ready to push the pendulum the other way.

Luckily, I have some Empires – scrappy little band of my heart, North American division – to listen to. Garage Hymns is their latest record, out earlier this year, and it is just what I need to clear out the cobwebs.

Some sample tunes, with annotations:
 
Can’t Steal Your Heart Away: A perfect evocation of a particular kind of party, specifically, the kind that ends with people playing Bad Decision Bingo. And so wryly observed that it fills me with longing for nights that end with fries drenched in cheddar cheese and mornings that start with strong tea.
 

 
Night Is Young: This one will always evoke the lights of Times Square blinking while I study for the bar, for me, but there’s other things in there, too. Like, I live here in this rambling, sometimes beautiful sometimes disgusting 19th century city because every day is anything can happen day. Maybe I’ll pass the bar on the second try. Maybe someday I’ll get to spend a summer in France drifting between music festivals and eating French carnival food. The night is young!
 

Surrenderer: This is the one I put on in the morning when I need a little push to get moving.
 

 
Hard Times: Choosing between this one and We Lost Magic was difficult, but this tune finally won because as much as I like songs that double as squares on Bad Decision Bingo cards, I’m twice as fond of songs about finding people who love you even when (or perhaps because) you’ve got a bad habit of backflipping yourself into the slipstream and calling your dismount as you come down.
 

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A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: Christian D.

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Christian D. by Jon Blacker

 

It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

 

After a hiatus, we are happy to have Christian D bringing the read/listen/drink series back into circulation. We were introduced to Christian through his performance this year at Couch by Couchwest… when I may or may not have flung my panties at the screen.

 

 

As lead of Christian D and the Hangovers, Christian lays down dark rockabilly with smolder and swagger, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the mood.

 

 

You can download some free songs at the various Christian D and the Hangovers outposts, listed at the end of this post, and they’re having a Bandcamp sale on digital downloads from now until Christmas.

 

 

Aside from being one sexy rock ‘n’ roll motherfucker, Christian is also a nice and thoughtful man whom I’ve had the pleasure of having some good conversations with on Twitter. So now I’m happy to hand the reins over to Mr. Christian D.

 

Good Read:
It seems like I read three things mainly, science fiction, music biographies and sprawling novels with convoluted stories of shady characters. Here’s something that combines all three: Bruce Sterling’s Zeitgeist.

Sleazy pop promoter Leggy Starlitz takes a rip-off Spice Girls-style band through Moslem Cyprus in an attempt to make it rich and pass unscathed through the Y2K scare, with his strange pre-teen daughter in tow.

There’s tech geekery, music biz fuckery, pop star deaths, a Turkish warlord and tonnes of weird con jobs going on. If I described it any more, or tried to lay out the plot, I’d probably wreck it for you. So to sum it up, it’s fascinating and entertaining with weird tangential goings on.

 

Good Listen:
I do listen to a lot of new stuff, but return to my personal classics constantly. There’s not a week that passes where I don’t listen to some Elvis, Stooges, the Cramps and Tom Waits. Another big one for me is Nick Cave. I still remember the first time I heard him, ear pressed against the speaker of a cheap radio, lighthouse flashing on my wall, as The Birthday Party’s Release the Bats tore down my conception of rock and roll.

From the early Bad Seeds period my current favourite is Your Funeral… My Trial, which seems to sum up his career to that point, and point the way to the future. From tender love songs, to crazed lusty gothic blues, this is a record I return to time and time again. It’s a dark obsessive tour through love, sex and death.

 

 

Good Drink:
While in literature and music I appreciate a certain complexity, in drinking I usually want simplicity. Most of the time I’m a beer drinker. My current favourite is Rolling Rock. It’s cheap and tasty.

Another thing I drink often is my take on Irish coffee. No need to bother with cream, whipped or not, or sugaring the rim. Make a strong cup of coffee. Add Scotch – you now have a Scots Coffee. It’ll get you through the night.

 

Christian D and the Hangovers Official Website

Christian D and the Hangovers @ Bandcamp

Christian D and the Hangovers @ ReverbNation

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Video: The All-American Rejects, Heartbeat Slowing Down

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And for Tuesday, the lyric video for Heartbeat Slowing Down, the most recent single from The All-American Rejects‘ fourth record Kids In the Street.

I like this video because I have a weakness for lyric videos, but also because of the way the lyrics are presented: hand-written by Tyson Ritter himself. I’m particularly fond of the shot of him writing out one verse on torn hotel note-paper, and the way the camera lingers on the tense curve of his fingers.

The lyrics also appear written on torn scraps of paper, large posters, pillowcases, arms of other members of All-American Rejects, and other surfaces, which is a simple but clear visual metaphor supporting the “messy breakups” theme of the song.

Heartbreak isn’t tidy. Sometimes it gets on other people. Sometimes there are rageful things you wish you could font size +7 at people, because maybe if you write it large enough, they’ll finally hear you. Sometimes you there are things you font size +7 at yourself, in hopes perhaps this time you’ll learn.
 

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The Wind-up Birds: The Mild Awards

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The Mild Awards by the Wind-up Birds

 

Time to put my favorite discovery of 2012 on your radars again. The Wind-up Birds have a new single out (note to other bands: you see? Two songs is a single, not an EP): “The Mild Awards” b/w “Some Gimmicks for You”. The two songs together form a set piece, commenting on the carefully calculated path toward mediocrity that so many artists seem to take in pursuit of attention and validation. Oh yeah, and the songs sound great, “The Mild Awards” punctuated with grand horns while “Some Gimmicks for You” employs some new wave pop keys.

Not to mention the video put together for “The Mild Awards” which had me not just LOLing but actually laughing out loud.

 

 

Pick up the single through the Wind-up Birds’ Bandcamp site in either digital download or limited-edition 7″ vinyl (you know you want cover puppy Royston in your collection).

 

The Wind-up Birds Official Website

The Wind-up Birds @ Bandcamp

The Wind-up Birds @ Twitter

The Wind-up Birds @ Facebook

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Video: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Fishin’ in the Dark

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I put this song on my prom mix tape in 1992, sandwiched between Miracle (Bon Jovi) and Veronica (Elvis Costello). All of which kind of sums up me, age seventeen, pretty neatly.

Also in the mix: A lot of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Red Hot Chili Peppers, leavened by Edie Brickell, Bruce Springsteen, Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Queen, The Spin Doctors, Richard Marx, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, most baffling to me now, The Beach Boys.

All I can say is, I’m surprised there’s only one country song on the tape.

 

 
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band official website

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Wickerbird, The Crow Mother

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And now, from the wild woods of Washington State, is Wickerbird (Blake Cowan) with The Crow Mother.

I’ve been listening to it all weekend and it is just lovely. If dreamy, soothing folk music with rich harmonies and an undercurrent of melancholy is your thing, you are going to want to listen to these songs.

Some examples:
 

 

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Link Session: Hurricane Sandy Relief Edition

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I’ve seen a lot of music and music-related hurricane relief efforts in my various feeds in the last week; I’ve gathered a bunch of them here for quick reference.

  • Web Aid is a benefit album assembled at lightening speed and featuring a wide variety of electronic music artists, including Staten Island native Udachi, Kicks n’ Licks, Disco Fries and Mic the Drums. Their goal is to raise at least $5,000 for the Carl V. Bini Fund.

    [Ed note: The Bini Fund is based on Staten Island, New York City’s smallest borough, and as all of you have probably seen on the news, they took quite a beating. What the news may not have mentioned is that Staten Island is also home to many, many of the first responders – police, fire, sanitation, etc – who were out in the howling wind and rain taking care of the rest of the city, and will be up to their necks in the wreckage for weeks and months to come.]

  • Portions of the proceeds for the NYC premiere of the Bobby Bare Jr. documentary Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, will be donated to the relief efforts; email the filmmakers for more information.
  • Bayside, who are collectively Manhattan/Long Island/Queens natives, have benefit shirts available; proceeds to the Greater New York Red Cross.
  • Taking Back Sunday, collectively from Long Island, have adjusted their current Tell All Your Friends tour to include some benefit shows. Proceeds will go to the Toms River Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund (New Jersey) and also relief efforts in Long Beach, NY.
  • Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) will be donating all of the profits from his upcoming solo show at the Fonda Theater in LA to the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Fund. He’s also added some special ticket packages.
  • Bands on a Budget, Humble Humans and CoWerks, all Jersey Shore businesses, have joined together to create the Restore the Shore campaign and create benefit shirts/hoodies. Proceeds are currently going the Red Cross but other beneficiaries/partners are in the works. They are temporarily sold out of merchandise but there is a waiting list!
  • Un-Flood BK Music is taking donations to help rebuild studios and practice spaces destroyed by the storm, including Translator Audio.
  • And finally, Candidate is offering a free copy of their new record to anyone who has contributed to hurricane relief who sends them an email with the subject line “I donated.” They solemnly swear no spam shall be forthcoming, only delicious music.
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Postcards from the Pit: Father John Misty / La Sera / Jeffertitti’s Nile, Bowery Ballroom, 10/24/12

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My post-show summary of Jeffertitti’s Nile was that they were loud and swirly, but pretty, and on reflection I think that sums them up pretty well. Their songs were almost entirely instrumental, and, were, well, psychadelic kaledeiscopes of notes. And yes, that is Father John Misty you see perched behind their drums; he was sitting in with them for the tour.

 
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The second opener was La Sera. They started out kind of sweet and twee and then somewhere around song two or three abruptly kicked into gear, sprouted some harder edges and jumped several notches on my approval matrix. They also got bonus points for a partial cover / interpolation of an Elvis Presley song, because there really should be more punk/rockabilly Elvis covers.

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And then Father John Misty (J. Tillman) re-appeared, having apparently briefly decamped to Tom Petty Fest and found it wanting. Here’s what I’m going to tell you about his set: what you hear on the record is what you hear live.

He did some jazz-hands and a lot of shimmy-shake and hit all of those notes in achingly beautiful style, with occasional breaks for snarking on the Tom Petty Fest and other miscellaneous rambling. It was obnoxious and beautiful and hilarious and I can’t wait to do it again at Webster Hall when he comes back in January.

Other notes: Jeffertitti Moon returned the sitting-in favor and played guitar during Tillman’s set.
 

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Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost): NYC Premiere

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Don't Follow Me (I'm Lost) Bobby Bare Jr documentary poster

 

As people continue to salvage their homes and lives, life in New York continues on. (You may slow New York down, but you will not stop it.) And this Sunday, November 11, the Bobby Bare, Jr., documentary Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) will be seeing its NYC premiere as a part of the DOC NYC festival.

The film will be screening at 9:30 p.m. on November 11 at the IFC Center and will include a Q & A with Bobby Bare, Jr., and director/producer/director of photography William Miller. You can purchase tickets here.

There will be an additional screening at the IFC Center on Thursday, November 15 at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are available here. Bobby Bare, Jr., will not be at this second screening, but he will be playing a show down the way at the Mercury Lounge. (Note: the show is a separate ticket.)

A portion of the proceeds for the Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) screening will go to Sandy disaster relief. For more details, e-mail bbjrdoc@gmail.com

 

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) Official Website

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) @ Twitter

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) @ Facebook