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Lydia Loveless: Being Good is Killing Me Inside

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You’re sitting in a dive bar, looking up into the neon beer signs. It’s one of those joints half full of the lonely and the tired and a few troublemakers. You overhear someone talking from a few bar stools down, a woman telling a stranger her story. While you don’t normally eavesdrop, she keeps saying things that sound like they could have come from your own mouth. Things to do with too many empty bottles littering the floor, things to do with a certain moral ambivalence and an ease with that ambivalence, things to do with isolation and fear. All these things delivered in a voice of world-weary defiance.

You turn to look down the bar and see the speaker of your truths. There you find a small, pale girl who can’t be more than 23. What the hell?

This is Lydia Loveless, a 21-year-old native of Columbus, Ohio, who plays her songs of late nights at the bar and next-day regrets – or a lack of regret – while planting one foot firmly in country and the other foot firmly in rock. Her new album Indestructible Machine is out today on Bloodshot Records. Listen to and download “Can’t Change Me”.

 

Lydia Loveless – Can’t Change Me

 

Lydia Loveless @ Bloodshot Records

Lydia Loveless @ Facebook

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Feel Bad For You, September 2011

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Time for the September installment of the Feel Bad For You mix, lovingly compiled by a miscreant bunch of music makers, music pushers and music lovers. Free for you to stream or download, out of the kindness of our little, black hearts.

 

 

Download

 

Title: Astronomy
Artist: Blue Oyster Cult
Album: Secret Treaties (1974)
Submitted by: Shooter Jennings
Comments: Part of one of the most expansive and confusing concept albums ever written which involves Aliens, Dark Mirrors and Lesbians (supposedly)

Title: Stick With Me
Artist: Nicki Bluhm
Album: Driftwood (2011)
Submitted by: noteethleroy
Comments: This one has gotten under my skin lately, to me it brings back memories of the classic duets I grew up on.

Title: Red on the Head
Artist: Jonny Corndawg
Album: Down On The Bikini Line (2011)
Submitted by: toomuchcountry
Comments: As the calendar turns to September, what comes to mind? State fairs. And with state fairs, what comes to mind? Corn dogs, right? Well, maybe. I first heard Jonny Corndawg in 2009 when he opened for the legendary Billy Joe Shaver at Nashville’s Exit-In. In the two years since, I’ve learned he is a leather worker, an avid runner, a gypsy-like touring machine, and an artist with a brand new release with some pretty witty – even bordering on juvenile – lyrics. Right in my wheelhouse.

Title: Matador
Artist: Brontide
Album: San Souci (2011)
Submitted by: Erschen
Comments: Interesting instrumental rock. Kind of all over the place.

Title: Keep On Letting Me Down
Artist: Mic Harrison And The High Score
Album: Great Commotion (2010)
Submitted by: annieTUFF
Comments: I might be a little partial to this band…. But, I truly love this song, it was my instant favorite from this album (“Great Commotion” ), and I think it stands as one of my top songs from Mic and The High Score.

Title: Space Guitar
Artist: Johnny “Guitar” Watson
Album: single (1954)
Submitted by: Bowood
Comments: This record influenced everyone from Dick Dale to Jimi Hendrix . Watson later made records that influenced 70′s funk and 80′s rap. Great performer and singer. Quite a character too.

Title : Stars Fell
Artist : Lauderdale
Album : Moving On (2011)
Submitted by : Corey Flegel (TIAM)
Comments : My favorite song I’ve heard this year…Yeah, I’m biased and I don’t care. Go get it here if you want : www.thisisamericanmusic.com

Title: Orphan Girl
Artist: Emmylou Harris
Album: Wrecking Ball (1995)
Submitted by: Phil Norman | @philnorman
Comments: A Gillian Welch tune, sung by Emmylou, produced by Daniel Lanois. One of my all-time favorite albums.

Title: Roamin’ and Ramblin’ Blues
Artist: David “Honeyboy” Edwards
Album: Alan Lomax Field Recording, 1942, taken from Delta Bluesman (1992), Earwig/Indigo Records
Submitted by: Brad Kelley
Comments: This one was easy. Honeyboy Edwards died August 29, 2011, at the age of 96. He traveled and performed with Robert Johnson during the 1930s. He moved to Chicago and performed nearly 100 shows a year until 2008, but continued to play concerts until earlier this year. This guy is the real thing, and his death is the end of an era. He knew and played with everyone in that first generation of Delta Blues. (This might look like two mp3s, but the first is just a brief introduction by the folklorist Alan Lomax.)
Addenum: The Asswipe who manages this mixtape is a fuckhead and keeps you from hearing a historically significant audio recording introduction to this song, which is only 28 sec and it’s just talking and technically not a SONG, so you’ll never get to hear it because he’s a dick.

Title: Eula Mae
Artist: The Whiskey Gentry
Album: Please Make Welcome (2011)
Submitted by: Bryan Childs (ninebullets.net)
Comments: Band out of Atlanta I really dig.

Title: The World Is Yours
Artist: The Hangdogs
Album: Beware Of The Dog (2000)
Submitted by: Truersound
Comments: been in a conspiritorial anti-gov mood lately, and this song follows that trail nicely

Title: Blue Suicide
Artist: Coma Cinema
Album: Blue Suicide (2011)
Submitted by: Lord Summerisle
Comments: Just discovered this band in August only to find that they are calling it quits at the end of this year. All of their stuff is available for free download at http://comacinema.org/sounds.html

Title: Burning up the Wind
Artist: Frank Bang and the Secret Stash
Album: Wonder Woman (2011)
Submitted by: @popa2unes
Comments: Chicago based, unsigned Kick Arse Rock n Blues band – Frank “Bang” Blinkal – Vocals/Guitar Bob Spelbring – Drums/Vocals Josh Hyland – Bass/ vocals – Tony MacQuaid – Guitar/Vocals and by the way, ifin ya like em 3 downloads available on their Reverbnation or Facebook page

Title: September Song
Artist: Lou Reed
Album: Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1994)
Submitted by: @mikeorren
Comments: It’s September. Kurt Weill was German. Lou Reed is back, doing an album about a German character, with Metallica. So, all logic screams that this is the only song to submit this month.

Title: Hurricane Season
Artist: Trombone Shorty
Album: Backatown (2010)
Submitted by: Gorrck
Comments: Gorrck’s Axiom: Carrying a trombone simultaneously increases *AND* decreases your risk of being detained by law enforcement authorities.

Title: Six Pack
Artist: Prison Book Club
Album: self titled (2011)
Submitted by: TheOtherBrit
Comments: I love this album and this band.

Title: Solar Broken Home
Artist: Stephen W. Terrell
Album: Picnic Time for Potatoheads
Submitted by: Adam Sheets

Title: Verse Chorus Verse (aka In His Hands)
Artist: Nirvana
Album: With the Lights Out (2004)
Submitted by: Verbow
This month marks 20 years since the release of Nevermind. In 1991, I was an 11 year old with horrible taste in music (MC Hammer anyone?). One day I stopped on MTV while the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit was on, and I was hooked from there on out. More than anything, Nirvana was a gateway to a whole new world of music that I continue to explore to this day. Is Nevermind my favorite album of all time? No, but its one that I still enjoy and still takes me back to that time like no other. Since everyone knows most of those songs by heart, I thought this outtake from the Nevermind sessions would be a good selection. Enjoy.

Title: Benito’s Dust
Artist: Dolorean
Album: 7″ Split with Holy Sons (2004)
Submitted by: Slowcoustic
Comments: Just your standard hard luck song to rip your guts out.

Title: Noisy Song
Artist: The Cute Lepers
Album: Adventure Time (2011)
Submitted by: Simon
Comments: Retro pop-punk from Seattle

Title: Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
Artist: The [REDACTED]
Album: The [REDACTED] (1968)
Submitted by: Mario Garcia (@marioegarcia, @imperialrooster)
Comments: I’ve been obsessed with this song over the last few days so it seemed like a good one to submit. It’s one of the best songs ever and a top 5 for me from The [REDACTED]. Great riff, great energy, great lyrics. I just hope its inclusion doesn’t get this blog shut down

Title: Gentleman
Artist: The Afghan Whigs
Album: Gentlemen (1993)
Submitted by: April @ Now This Sound Is Brave
Comments: The Afghan Whigs formed in 1986, disbanded in 2001 and remain my favorite band. Gentlemen is a practically perfect album. “Gentleman” is a practically perfect song. Rough, depraved, menacing… perfect.

Title: Bonnie and Clyde
Artist: Little Lisa Dixie
Album: Little Lisa Dixie (2011)
Submitted by: BoogieStudio22
Comments: An artist I stumbled onto quite some time ago. Just learned she put out an album in March 2011. Nice debut.

Title: Alone In This Together
Artist: Star Anna
Album: (2011)
Submitted by: Cowbelle www.morecowbelle.net
Comments: A six-minute song is a little obnoxious but worth every second.

Title: Ghost on the Canvas
Artist: Glen Campbell
Album: Ghost on the Canvas (2011)
Submitted by: Rockstar Aimz
Comments: How bad-ass is it that Campbell selects a song written by Paul Westerberg.

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Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions per Minute

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Many remember the 1980s as a time when style was deemed more important than substance (and all the unfavorable connotations that could imply), but Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions per Minute, a new book by Cleveland, Ohio, writer and music/pop culture historian Matthew Chojnacki, shows how the style of the ’80s was often carefully orchestrated to reflect the substance as the bold art on the sleeves of 7″ records was put to work selling a single song among hundreds of other songs on record store shelves.

Inspired by his own enormous collection of 7″ and 12″ records, Chojnacki has compiled over 250 7″ covers from the ’80s and included stories, insights and interesting comparison of the ephemeral trappings that did more than just protect the vinyl discs inside. With an afterword by ’80s style icon Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Put the Needle on the Record spotlights covers of everyone from Luther Vandross to Def Leppard to the Smiths in a stylish hardcover format and includes information gleaned from interviews with some 125 musicians and cover artists.

A couple of my favorite examples from the book include entries on Kate Bush and Def Leppard.

 

 

Designer John Carder Bush (also Kate’s brother) on “Army Dreamers”: “Have you ever noticed that a lot of the traditional anti-war songs, the ones that have come from soldiers’ experience, often have perky little tunes that almost deflect you from the cold reality of the words, and, somehow, this makes their message far more chilling? ‘Army Dreamers’ is one of those kinds of songs. The cover is an attempt to recreate a ‘40s soldiers’ pin-up girl, an integral part of that dreamy madness that attracts young men to the trappings of war. It’s also worth remembering that the wonderful video to the song was hardly seen because it was considered as too violent— such an innocent time!”

 

 

An impressive seven hit singles were released from Def Leppard’s Hysteria. Each of the single sleeves comprised a portion of the album’s cover art. The two final puzzle pieces were sold in a limited edition U.K. box set for “Love Bites.”

H y s t e r i a designer Andie Airfix: “Those were the days when record companies stretched the limits of seven- and twelve-inch single formats. Since Mercury Records had confidence in the success of so many singles from the album, they immediately agreed to the puzzle concept.”

The pieces: “Hysteria” (row one, center), “Love Bites” (row one, right), “Armageddon It” (row two, left), “Animal” (row two, center), “Women” (row two, right), “Pour Some Sugar on Me” (row three, center), and “Rocket” (row three, right).

Airfix vividly remembers the band’s reaction to her artwork, “the band saw my preparatory sketch and absolutely loved it. They wanted to retain a powerful image in line with hard rock, but also to modernize it and avoid the clichés. The head was intended to express dark fears associated with the psychotic state of hysteria. The computer background was
one of the first computer-generated graphics. Believe it or not, the image was a black-andwhite drawing, fed into a computer, colored very primitively, and then output as an 8 x 10 transparency—essentially a screen shot (hence the screen texture).”

Learn more about Put the Needle on the Record, available September 28, see some sample pages and pre-order the book at Matthew Chojnacki’s website.

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The Jim Jones Revue: Got Me So Messed Up, but I’m Feeling Fine

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Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s given to you. Rock ‘n’ roll, I give you the Jim Jones Revue because you have been missing rock from your roll for far too long.

Although the British band have only been around since 2008 and have just released their third album, Burning Your House Down, stateside – and the second album, Here to Save Your Soul, was a compilation of singles and previously unreleased songs – the Jim Jones Revue already has a more-than-solid reputation as a dependably superior band. I’d been hearing the buzz myself for a long while but didn’t focus in on them until John Wesley Myers (Black Diamond Heavies, James Leg) recommended them. It didn’t take long after that – about 4 minutes, the length of “Foghorn” – for me to fall in love.

The Jim Jones Revue’s rabid, rough, rapid-fire boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll is like a cleansing fire, Jones’ voice scouring you like industrial-strength steel wool while the piano/guitar attack rains down on you. Then, for good measure, the rhythm section kicks you in the head from behind. Example? Here’s JJR’s performance of “High Horse” from The Late Show with David Letterman this past Tuesday:

 

 

Now, it would be nearly impossible for most bands to capture that kind of energy in the studio. The Jim Jones Revue makes it sound like second nature. Beginning to end, Burning Your House Down is the most throttling blitz of pure rock ‘n’ roll id I’ve heard in at least a decade. It is sexy, raging, exultant, and not a damn second of it is phoned in.

Short of setting a match to you, there’s really no way to convey to you how much Burning Your House Down fires me up (no pun intended). Just go buy the album and experience the inferno for yourself.

Then if you’re luckier than me and have a gig within driving distance, check the Jim Jones Revue out live and see how much hotter it gets.

9/8/2011 – Los Angeles, CA – Echo
9/10/2011 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
9/11/2011 – Allston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
9/12/2011 – Montreal, QC – Casa del Popolo
9/13/2011 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
9/14/2011 – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s Tavern
9/16/2011 – Philadelphia, PA – The Blockley Pourhouse
9/17/2011 – Washington D.C. – Black Cat
9/18/2011 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s

The Jim Jones Revue Official Website

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Ones to Watch: Will Hanson

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Every once in a while a new (or at least new-to-me) musical act settles into my collection as if they have been there forever, rather than just for a week or a month. Les Wampas was one such act, and Will Hanson is another.

Moving a Body (12/26 Records), Hanson’s first solo effort – he was formerly a member of Proxy – came out in late August, and while I have only been listening to the whole thing for a week or so, every time his voice floats up on shuffle, I feel like I’m visiting with an old friend.

Originally based in London, Hanson recently moved to Glasgow, Scotland to record his (mostly) dark and sometimes dreamy, sometimes noisy tunes with producers Jamie Savage (Chemikal Underground) and Oli Bayston (Keith, Howls) at Chemikal Underground. His work with them was funded by Creative Scotland, and Mr. Hanson has additional Scottish connections via his 6 piece Glasgow based band.

Here they all are performing one of my favorite tracks, The Bats:

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Husky Burnette: Facedown in the Dirt

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I think of myself less as a “music blogger” than as a music pusher (cue Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman”), and Husky Burnette deals in just the kind of illicit substances I like best: a rough voice, a dirty groove and a foot-stomping beat. Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they seem to grow ’em like that, Burnette’s music is, as Rick Saunders once put it, “hunched, sweatin’, swaggerin’ and all up on ya.”

Coming from the same lineage that brought us Johnny and Dorsey Burnette (you may know Johnny as the singer of “You’re Sixteen”) and having put some time in with folks like Roger Alan Wade, Husky is doing his own thing now, playing his blues and working it hard. His latest album Facedown in the Dirt is out now and it’s full of thumpin’ and bumpin’ and even a little grindin’.

 


 

Check out some righteous footage of one of Burnette’s recent gigs down in America’s sweaty penis (i.e., Florida), rockin’ a fiery rendition of “Stagger Lee”, accompanied by Philip Westfall on banjo cello and Rick Saunders beating the skins. Because that’s how ya do it.

 

 

Husky Burnette Official Website

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Daytrotter Barnstormer 5, Akron, OH, 8.31.11

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“We’re in a barn. Shit.” – Dean Povinsky, Wildlife

Having grown up in the country (not too far from the site where the Daytrotter Barnstormer 5 tour set down in Akron), I’m not unfamiliar with hearing live music in barns – though in my childhood experiences, the bands were usually a sidenote to a pig roasting on a spit or people getting drunk at a company picnic. Don’t get me wrong: there were people getting drunk at the beautiful Conrad Botzum Farmstead Barn Wednesday night, but the main event was clearly the music.

The show started promptly at 6:30 PM, the sun still out, shining in through the open barn door and windows. A group of photogenic young men dressed all in black with matching teal armbands (“We chose black for our uniforms,” keyboard player Tim Daugulis commented later. “What a great idea.” “Oh yeah: daylight,” singer/guitarist Dean Povinsky added) drew people into the barn from the deck and surrounding grounds with their energetic set. This was Wildlife. Belting out passionate vocals and rocking hard, half the band’s black uniforms were sweat-soaked by the third song. I liked Wildlife immediately and even got goosebumps during an a cappella break toward the end of the last song of their set.

Next up was Princeton, an L.A. band led by twin brothers Matt and Jesse Kivel. Their synth-heavy mellow dance music was not my thing, but they had a friendly presence, and the woman in striped jeans to my right danced ecstatically through most of the set.

Doug Paisley was probably the artist on the bill who most fit people’s idea of music you might usually hear emanating from a barn. Looking like the lovechild of Thurston Moore and John Doe, Paisley is a sweet guitarist with a comfortable, weathered voice. In his songs, he is a storyteller, but he joked about trying to keep quiet between songs because stage banter didn’t seem to work for him. “I don’t like telling the same jokes every night,” he said. “I think you should keep things fresh. That may be my problem.” Either way, he had a barnful of people quietly transfixed by the end of his set.

(In a slightly mistimed moment of serendipity, a bat flew high over Paisley’s head a couple of songs after he played “Bat Song”.)

For the seventh inning stretch, White Rabbits brought their spirited Brit-style pop-rock to make the barn bounce. They brought out a crop of new songs that still managed to engage the crowd, though it was with their last couple of songs, more familiar tunes, that really brought punch to their set.

I have gushed about Hacienda on this blog before, and this is going to be more of the same. I tell everyone that they are one of my favorite live bands for a very good reason. These guys always serve up a loose soul groove while still being a very tight unit, and there aren’t many bands who make me dance more at shows. The Villanueva brothers and cousin Dante brought out a bunch of new songs from their third album, recently recorded at Dan Auerbach’s relocated Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, my favorite being “You Just Don’t Know” with its superior soul groove. And while the new songs were great, it was in the more familiar tunes where they really laid it down. They ended their set with a spectacular version of their Everly Brothers cover “You’re My Girl” that featured an extended groove-jam intro and left the crowd hollering for more. They proceeded to top themselves with an encore of “Mama’s Cookin'” that could have set the barn aflame had it gotten any hotter.

All in all, a great evening in a great setting. I’d like to extend my personal thanks to Sean Moeller and the Daytrotter crew for bringing this great tour to Ohio this time around.

 

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Austin Lucas at Blue Moon Café, Shepherdstown, WV, 8.26.11

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Happy to have another guest post from the lovely and talented Michelle Evans (Dear Ben Nichols, The Vinyl District: Washington, D.C.), this time a live review of Austin Lucas and the Bold Party.

 

 

I discovered Austin Lucas a couple years ago, but I had yet to see him live. When I heard he was going to be at the intimately set Blue Moon Café in Shepherdstown, WV, with his brilliantly talented back-up band The Bold Party and opening acts Matt Kline (of The Fox Hunt) and Marcellus Hall (from Brooklyn), I packed up my ’89 Honda Accord (with pop-up headlights!) for a road-trip north to see some awesome music (oh, and my sister too).

I am very much a voice and lyrics person. I often say that if I can’t understand what someone is singing, I’m not likely to be very interested in what the singer has to say (although there are, of course, exceptions). While initially drawn by the overall tone and sorrowful beauty of Lucas’ voice, I came to find bluegrass, country (the real kind), mountain, and Old Time influences in his music – some of my favorite genres. But that’s not all I found. On his new full-length album, A New Home in the Old World, Lucas has employed the use of electric guitar, as can be heard on one of my new favorite songs by him, “Thunder Rail.” Some of my other favorite songs he performed that night included “Somebody Loves You,” “Go West” (below), and “Wash My Sins Away” (also below), all of which can be found on both Somebody Loves You and Live from the White Water Tavern.

Austin Lucas is by and large one of the alt-country genre’s unsung heroes. He not only has a beautiful, soulful voice that propels along a story, but a knack for constructing and writing songs that are both emotive and smart.

Recently coming off a tour with Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown, Austin Lucas is currently headlining a tour with The Bold Party as well as touring as support for the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. If Lucas is performing within a few hours radius of where you live, see him (and definitely see him with The Bold Party, if you can). It won’t be long before he’ll move from intimate saloon settings to theaters, and you’ll regret not seeing him when.

 

Austin Lucas - Go West @ The BlueMoon Saloone 08/26/11

 

Austin Lucas - Wash My Sins Away @ The BlueMoon Saloone 08/26/11

 

Austin Lucas - Wild Boar @ The BlueMoon Saloone 08/26/11

 

Austin Lucas Official Website

Austin Lucas @ Reverb Nation

Austin Lucas @ Facebook

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Postcards from the Pit: Woods

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The evening I saw them, Woods was the last band of a four-band show at the Bowery Ballroom. They shared the bill with Widowspeak (ethereal on top, solid and dark on the bottom, very good); White Fence (high quality surf punk, even better when I wasn’t being moshed into a wall); and Ducktails (he has a new record out). I had gone out mainly to see White Fence;  by the time Woods came on it was late, it was also Saturday, so I resolved to hang out at least for a little while – two or three songs, maybe – and see if I liked them.

Readers, I loved them. Woods are delightful, and I stayed for their whole set. Many of their tunes were sweet, delicate indie-pop confections, but woven carefully between the hand-clapping sing-along songs were darker, more psychedelic instrumental numbers that functioned as the aural equivalent of a palate cleanser.

I enjoyed every minute of their time of the stage, and I strongly encourage you to get a-hold of their new record, Sun and Shade. I have had it on my iPod more or less since the show, and their songs never fail to lighten my mood when they float up on shuffle. And given that in the time since the show major events in my life have included a water/gas main break in my neighborhood, an earthquake, a hurricane, and part of my bathroom ceiling falling down, my mood has most assuredly needed lightening on a fairly regular basis.

Sample tune:

WOODS- Pushing Onlys by WOODSIST

In conclusion, here are a few pictures I took at the show I went to:

Widowspeak:

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White Fence:

IMG_0668

IMG_0680

Ducktails:

IMG_0701

Woods:

IMG_0723

IMG_0726

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Comrade Plymouth: Bodies of Bones and Breasts and Unmapped Chambers of Hearts

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Being moved to tears by live music is one thing – the confluence of proximity and energy can be powerful – but have you ever been moved to tears by something you heard on the radio? I had that singular experience once, not long after I had hosted Christopher Porterfield and Nick Berg for a night as they passed through Cleveland on their way to shows with Strand of Oaks and Yellow Ostrich in New York City. I tuned in to a little low-end-of-the-dial folk show to hear them play, as Conrad Plymouth, a little in-studio set with Timothy Showalter (a.k.a. Strand of Oaks). I expected it to be fun to hear my friends on the radio, and I expected it to be lovely, but I didn’t expect, as they played “Fergus Falls”, a song I’d listened to so many times, to be made weepy.

This is their gift, to reach right into your chest, gently pull out your heart and show you all the amazing things inside you. Inside humans. On Comrade Plymouth, Christopher Porterfield’s new solo record, he does it again. To paraphrase writer Raymond Chandler’s description of colleague Dashiell Hammett, Porterfield writes lyrics that seem never to have been written before. They don’t beg or shout to be heard, but you will stop to listen.

Have a listen to a couple of my favorite tracks:

 

 

 

Comrade Plymouth is available now via Conrad Plymouth’s Bandcamp on a name-your-own-price basis.

Conrad Plymouth Official Website