Here are the Low Anthem performing “Apothecary” in Grand Central Station for La Blogotheque’s Take Away Concert series:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9319392&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
The Low Anthem – Apothecary – A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
Cleveland rocks! You’ve heard it. Some of us have heard it for what seems like our entire lives. And we’re constantly being challenged to prove it. Jeff Finley thinks he has the definitive evidence. With the help of a number of other creatives in the northeastern Ohio area, he is organizing the Weapons of Mass Creation Festival this spring.
Touted as Cleveland’s answer to SXSW, WMC Fest will feature music, art and film from around the country with a concentration on creators from our region. NTSIB is, of course, most excited about the music aspect. Check out some of the youngsters who will be throwing down. They’re a bunch of promising punky and folky… uh… folks. NTSIB is currently most compelled by Saintseneca, a quartet from Columbus, Ohio, with lots of strings and a strong roots influence.
WMC Fest will center in the bustling (that’s right, I wrote “bustling”) Ohio City neighborhood on May 22 and 23. Tickets are affordable, and they’re even more affordable (i.e. free) if you volunteer or donate.
We’ve been watching some of the WMC Fest team (including Erin from fellow Cleveland music blog Dust Sleeve) organizing and promoting on Twitter, and their enthusiasm for this project is infectious. We’re looking forward to being a part of it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjWwQnnkhpE]
Not much to say today, but not a lot needs to be said when there’s new Black Keys to listen to. Messrs. Auerbach and Carney have made “Tighten Up” from the forthcoming Brothers album available for listening on their MySpace page. It’s good shit.
The Keys have already sold out their July 27th Summer Stage show in New York, but there are other swiftly-approaching dates that you may find yourself able to take advantage of, including a few European dates.
I need to find a better title for these Friday posts. Is “Fuck-off Friday” too off-putting?
Anyway, a little departure today, away from music. I just learned Marc Maron – who could probably be termed a “rock ‘n’ roll comedian” if one was into those kinds of goofy labels – is going to be appearing at the Grog Shop this Sunday. His Wikipedia entry would lead you to believe that his career didn’t really exist until the launch of Air America radio in 2004, but I’ve been digging Maron since the mid-1990s. He’s sharp, he’s cranky, he kills.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBTF4ZmmlTI]
Alex Chilton died yesterday.
As I suspect was the case with most music-lovers around my age, Chilton wove his way through my life in a non-direct fashion. My first brush with Chilton was through the 1967 hit he had with his young band the Box Tops, “The Letter”. When my father was a younger man, before my arrival, back when he was the sort of person who had friends in bands, he got up at a party and sang a song with his friend’s band – “The Letter”. Anyone who knows my father now would have a difficult time reconciling this fact with the gruff, curmudgeonly Italian-American they know. That is likely the very reason why the song always felt significant to me, that connection to a version of my father that was more like me. That, and it’s a good song. Chilton’s husky, soulful voice is commanding, and the modern sensibility of the song was always a captivating thing to hear in the midst of all the other songs played on the oldie goldies radio stations.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9mCp8SifM]
My next, very roundabout exposure to Chilton was the obvious one: the Replacements’ fantastic paean to the singer/songwriter, “Alex Chilton”. A practically perfect song in every way.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PPm1fozqU]
I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand who Chilton was until my third exposure, when Jeff Buckley took to covering Big Star’s “Kanga Roo” at his shows.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-7YvAC3j9g]
While I never became a fan of Big Star, I came to understand, appreciate and respect the influence the band had on so many of the artists I have loved. I was excited when I learned that Big Star were slated to play SXSW this year. They were set to take the stage in Austin this coming Saturday. Bad timing, Alex.
Thanks for being with us, Alex.
Bonus: Follow the link to view one of the weirdest band T.V. show appearances I’ve ever seen, the very young and awkward Box Tops on a teen dance show called “Disc-O-Teen”.
Here are a couple of artists for you to listen to now so you can get a headstart on being dismissive and saying, “They were better when…” once they get big.
Dead Pioneers
Dead Pioneers is a one-man show out of L.A. with a menacing Southern/Western gothic sound. The demos available for listening on the Dead Pioneers’ MySpace page, “Cyanide Moonshine” and “Headin’ That Way, Part 1”, feature wild hillbilly yelp vocals, jangling banjo, western guitar ambience and driving stomp-beats. Look out for the debut EP promised in this early part of 2010.
Conrad Plymouth
Prepping an album right now and taking the stage tomorrow night for Muzzle of Bee’s SXSW showcase, Conrad Plymouth are currently based out of Milwaukee. Like Dawes, Conrad Plymouth makes NTSIB eat their words about not liking earnest singer-songwriter types who write languid, guitar-centric tunes. Damn them. They’ve released an unmastered track for their forthcoming album for free download, and “Fergus Falls” is nothing short of beautiful.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWvNPiLkcLE]
Shows worth checking out this week in and around Cleveland:
The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
Did you all know Shane MacGowan is on Twitter now? Has a series of words strung together ever made less sense than what you just read?
I don’t expect he’ll stick with it long, especially since he and his partner Victoria have been trying to reply to every @ that comes their way and seemed a bit overwhelmed last night, so experience it while it’s fresh.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf69vIQL_u8]
The first thing to stop me short after entering the Beachland Ballroom Wednesday night was the rows of chairs. The second thing was all the grayhairs who were sitting in those chairs. And they all seemed to know each other. I began to wonder if I’d missed news of a venue change or had somehow arrived on the wrong night. It was only when the Hiram Rapids Stumblers took the stage that I was sure I was at the right place at the right time.
The Hiram Rapids Stumblers setlist
I totally dropped the ball on this one. Here are the songs I’m sure they did:
Hop On Lula
Baltimore Fire
Yeah. I know they did an Uncle Dave Macon song concerning a mule and a semi-original composition that set a Langston Hughes poem to music, and there were a couple of tunes about gals with similar names (Susannah and Susie Anna?), but that’s as detailed as I can get. If anyone can help me fill out the information there, just drop me a line.
The Stumblers are a decent band – a downhome string band whom I suspect were toting moonshine in that shiny, little flask that sat in front of Scott Huge – but they seemed to be suffering from a slight lack of confidence. Perhaps, like me, they were put a little off kilter by the audience composition for the night. They did manage to build up a good head of steam for “Hop On Lula” and the little story about Scott riding a mule backwards while naked in the middle of the night was more along the lines of what I was expecting from this bunch. I’d like to see these guys again in a more intimate setting, perhaps with more liquid courage involved.
Carolina Chocolate Drops setlist
Trouble in Your Mind
Cindy Gal
Your Baby Ain’t Sweet Like Mine
Will Adams Breakdown
Two-time Loser
Sandy Boys
Peace Behind the Bridge
There’s a Brown Skin Girl Down the Road Somewhere (adapted by Flemons for harmonica)
Lights in the Valley
Black Annie
Snowden’s Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)
Cornbread and Butterbeans
Hit ‘Em Up Style
Sourwood Mountain
Travelin’ Shoes [encore]
Introduced by a vibrant woman (whose name I have shamefullly forgotten) from the Roots of American Music organization who met Carolina Chocolate Drops at that fateful Black Banjo Gathering where the seeds for the formation of the band were first planted, it was clear from the start that CCDs were there to entertain and educate. With Dom Flemons as the Performer, Rhiannon Giddens as the Mouthpiece (with a strong touch of the Performer) and Justin Robinson as the Quiet One, CCDs tore through a set heavy with songs from their new album, Genuine Negro Jig, and sprinkled with stories of where the songs came from and how CCDs came to the songs. It didn’t take long until everyone in the place, including (especially?) the comfortably-seated grayhairs, were whooping and hollering their appreciation. While CCDs don’t change up the songs they play much between album and stage, hearing those songs played live brings a whole different dimension, and the energy of the band is inarguable. Robinson spends most of the show standing while Flemons and Giddens are seated, but there is no shortage of motion from those chairs, Flemons windmilling his dobro and double-foot stomping (causing his stylish hat to fall off more than once, prompting someone behind me to comment that he needed a “hat roadie”) and Giddens chair-dancing. They engage the audience immediately with a warm and friendly rapport and build on that rapport with songs spanning genres from traditional string-band music to blues to R&B; to the gorgeous three-part harmony of the a capella show-closer.
With an education-minded band like the Carolina Chocolate Drops, you even get book recommendations. I have added to my to-read list Way Up North in Dixie: A Black Family’s Claim to the Confederate Anthem by Howard L. Sacks, which tells the story of the Snowden family of Mount Vernon, Ohio, whom, it is argued, taught the Confederate-minded tune “Dixie” to the historically-accepted composer of the song, Dan Emmett. As you can gather, “Genuine Negro Jig” was also a Snowden family song.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops will be coming back around in May for the Oberlin Folk Festival at Oberlin College (where Giddens went to school), and NTSIB greatly encourages all you NEOers to make the drive out to see them.
Carolina Chocolate Drops Official Website
The Hiram Rapids Stumblers MySpace
Roots of American Music
Music Maker Relief Foundation
