Here’s a little update from our friends at The Untitled Bobby Bare Jr. Documentary headquarters:
Cover your home with the first official film poster! Bobby Bare Jr. rocks your walls!
Want to see more? Go to www.untitledbobbybarejrdocumentary.com
Now that the news of the Black Keys move to Nashville has been officially announced, I can christen mr. Gnome as my favorite-local-band-that-is-still-local*… though, as seems to be the way of things, this will probably precipitate Nicole Barille and Sam Meister’s move to distant lands. I’d like to apologize to all the other mr. Gnome fans in advance.
But until then, we have the chance to enjoy them here at home this Saturday when they headline a show at the Beachland Ballroom with another band of local awesomeness, HotChaCha, and Soft Speaker from Chicago. Our friend Nate Burrell was kind enough to share some beautiful photos with us of mr. Gnome’s recent show in St. Louis, Missouri.
And here’s some footage from their recent show in Tucson, Arizona:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DZlRqrZvK8?fs=1]
mr. Gnome Official Website
HotChaCha @ Exit Stencil Recordings
Soft Speaker Official Website
The Beachland Ballroom
*For the record, I begrudge the Black Keys not one bit for their move, am glad they stayed in Ohio as long as they did and am really happy for them and excited for all the opportunities they have now.
photo copyright Nate Burrell – taken for KDHX Media
This week, Jennifer illustrates one of the great swaths of music where her taste and mine definitely do not overlap by putting together a compendium of favorite Christmas tunes, both profound and profane.
(I’m sick to death of Christmas music [and hate “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” with a passion]… but I love Dean Martin’s defining rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.)
There are a lot of things I genuinely love about the winter holiday season: my city dressed in her shiniest lights; the tiny, tiny children dancing in the Nutcracker who can’t really dance yet and just wave at their parents; and Christmas music.
Yes, really. Not all of it, mind you; I have something of an allergy to any and all renditions of Santa Baby and Baby, It’s Cold Outside, as well as most of the wretched sappy seasonal dreck on the radio. The following is a round-up of my favorite seasonal tunes, presented in no particular order, and interspersed with festive seasonal pictures from northern Manhattan.
All I Want for Christmas Is You, My Chemical Romance: Or, as my sister and I like to call it, All I Want for Christmas Is (Your Liver) . I am not quite sure how he managed it, but somehow Gerard Way made this song menacing, the kind of thing you would listen to while contemplating how to have someone (over) for holiday dinner with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Needless to say, I love it and listen to it year-round.
Angels We Have Heard On High, The Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant, Family Force 5 : The sweet Georgia crunk version of this song; includes breakbeats and the line put your wings in the air like you just don’t care. I don’t really have to say anything else, do I?
Christmas Drag, The Brobecks: Have the elves failed to bring you the object of your affections again? Then this is the song for you. It’s another one I listen to year-round because I just like it as a song, mostly for the thudding guitars. The Brobecks’ non-Christmas music is ALSO delicious; check it out if you like intelligent pop tunes.
St. Stephens Day Murders, from Bells of Dublin, The Chieftains/Elvis Costello: I was baffled by this song the first time I heard it, partially because I had no idea what St. Stephen’s Day had to do with anything, and partially because Elvis Costello mumbles. But really if you have ever had About Enough Family For One Day, Thank You, you too will sing along as he growls through and it’s nice for the kids when you finally get rid of them (RID OF THEM) in the St. Stephen’s Day Murders.
Carol of the Bells, from X Christmas, August Burns Red : I was a little bit wary of the whole collection at first, because hardcore Christmas carols, that sounds like it could be unfortunate. I plunged in, though, and this track, an instrumental version of this song, immediately became one of my favorite pieces of music, just for pure listening pleasure. There are shredding guitars and power-driving hardcore drums – you will want to bang your head – and they slam through the song with stunning and exacting precision, not wasting a single note.
Fairytale of New York, The Pogues: A classic, and for good reason. Shane McGowan and Kristy MacColl capture the two sides of New York in midwinter: the wind does go right through you, but the bells do also ring out. It’s what’s running through my head when I’m thinking cranky thoughts about That Stupid Tree in Rockefeller Center, and also when I’m navigating hushed, snowy streets.
Do You Hear What I Hear?, Bob Dylan: I’ve already told you about his version of Adeste Fidelis, which continues to be a thing of beauty and a joy forever. This is another track off the Christmas record he released last year, and is just delicious. There is nothing sappy or overwrought about his delivery, it’s just him and his scratched up voice, singing the song. It’s like a refreshing glass of cold water after too much over-sweet eggnog.
Oh Holy Night, from Christmas With Weezer, Weezer: I have four different versions of this song – The Chieftains, Harry Connick, Jr,, Sufijan Stevens, and this one – and Weezer’s version is currently my favorite. The guitars are pure Weezer, alternating between delicate picking and a big fuzzy roar, and Rivers Cuomo soars over them, giving the song both some real punch and a whole new life, in the process.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Elmo and Patsy Shropshire: The Greaseman, a DJ at DC 101 back in the Dark Ages when I was in high school, used to kick off every Christmas season with this song, and to this day it just doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve heard it on the radio. Or, as happened last year, heard someone singing it in the elevator in the subway.
And finally, some notable compilations and collections:
Excelsis: The Box Set , from Projekt: Three CDs of gothic/darkwave interpretations of traditional carols and songs. I bought the first one all the way back in 1995, and then lost it along the way. I was hunting for a digital download when I discovered they made two more, and decided to get all three. (They’re on sale!) They’re both mellow and delicately beautiful, and good to have on as quiet company for other tasks.
Songs for Christmas , Sufijan Stevens: There are five, count them, FIVE cds in this set. That is a lot of Christmas music, even for me, but if you dig his voice (I do) and his indie sensibility, it’s one-stop shopping for soothing respite from Top 40 irritations.
Xmas 11, by The Yobs, the seasonal alter ego of The Boys. They have several Christmas records; I just happened to stumble over this particular one in a record store on Bleeker Street in 1999. It is a collection of the most brilliant perversions of Christmas songs ever recorded. I would quote lyrics, but they’re unsuitable for a family newspaper blog. You can get a general idea here, start with “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”, and I’m really totally serious, these are NOT SAFE FOR WORK and you should send small children and anyone with delicate sensibilities out of the room. You may also have to consciously remind yourself not to sing their version of Guantanamera out loud in public.
The terms “gritty”, “raw” and “real” have been used so many times to describe blues musicians throughout the decades that it almost seem insulting to use them now, but when a 90-year-old (according to Alive Records, anyway – seems like he ages a year every three months) man playing a fuzzed-out guitar sings about putting his foot in your ass, terms like that are bound to come up. One of Fat Possum Records’ roster of “the last of the hill country bluesmen” out of northern Mississippi (which also included late greats Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside), Ford is said to have first picked up a guitar at age 58, and he’s not ready to put it down yet. (And despite lyrics about breaking arms and kicking asses, he’s reported to be a sweet guy and a real charmer.)
January 11, 2011, will see the release of Ford’s eighth album, Taledragger, with backing band GravelRoad, on Alive Records (on color vinyl [limited to 900 copies], 180 gram vinyl [limited to 100 copies and available exclusively by mailorder through Alive Records], as well as CD and digital formats). Have yourself a little preview:
T-Model Ford – Comin’ Back Home
Ford is out on the Juke Joints & Dive Bars of the South tour right now. Check him out if you are able.
12.10 Hi-Tone Cafe / Memphis, TN
12.11 JJ’s Bohemia / Chattanooga, TN
additional dates to be announced
Photo: Robert Matheu
Yeah, you read that right. I’ll just say this is completely Jennifer’s thing and leave it at that.
The first time I saw My Chemical Romance was at Madison Square Garden, for the last show of their last tour. It was the first time I had ever been on the floor for a stadium show, and I remember at one point I turned to my sister and said Oh my god, we are really here and this is really happening.
On Friday night I had that same brief stunned moment of holy crap, this is not a dream about halfway through the evening, when Dr. Death Defying (aka Steve Righ?, or Steven Montano, of Mindless Self Indulgence) walked out onto the stage at Roseland and started doing the intro to Na Na Na. I was three rows back from the barrier, jammed up in the epicenter of the soon to be screaming, pogoing children, and I could feel the energy building in the crowd as they joined in, a little breathless but growing stronger with each word. Then Gerard Way walked out into the lights and the whole place went berserk.
It was an amazing show, y’all. They did a fairly even mix of their older work and songs from Danger Days, which is the new record, though my heart particularly lifted when they kicked into I’m Not Okay because I will love that song always and forever. Pulling out other highlights is kind of impossible, because it was like we all came home, and they were there waiting for us so we could sing and dance together, clapping and stomping and howling over the dueling guitars. Even I, decrepit as I am, joined in the pogoing for Planetary (GO!) and Desolation Row. Afterwards I walked out sweaty and sore and excited to do it all over again in April and May when they come back on a proper tour.
Anyway, taking pictures during all of this was . . . a challenge. A lot of them are, as I like to say, “atmospheric”, by which I mean, you’ll get more of an idea of the lights and smoke and color than their actual faces. But I did get a few good ones. The following are a selection of my favorite images:
Gerard Way, during “Cancer”, and probably my favorite shot of the evening:
Gerard Way again, during the encore; “It’s fake fur!” he informed us, after putting it on. Also, it is really difficult to take a performance picture of Gerard Way in which he is not striking a campy pose.
My other favorite from the evening is Mikey Way and his sparkly bass:
I was on the other side of the stage from Frank Iero, and lost amid a sea of arms, so I didn’t get very many good pictures. I honestly couldn’t see him half the time. But this one I like:
And finally Ray Toro, who wins the “this picture is totally blown out, but I kind of love it anyway” prize this week:
And in conclusion, one of the Way brothers that I just like for the appropriately post-apocalyptic atmosphere:
Other notes: The first opening band was the radio station “house band,” and they were so boring and awful I would have preferred to listen to twenty minutes of Creed. Scott Stapp may be a bombastic disaster but at least he isn’t dull. The second band was The Gaslight Anthem, who have recently released their third record, and are much better now that they’ve stopped shoehorning Springsteen references into all of their lyrics.
Obviously, I love me some music. And I love me some music documentaries. I’ll even watch docs about bands I don’t really dig because I find the behind-the-scenes peeks and the glimpses into the more mundane aspects of the lives of musicians so interesting.
So, how much more entertaining would a music doc be if it was about a character like Bobby Bare, Jr.? Well, you’ll get to find out as this doc – currently called The Untitled Bobby Bare Jr. Documentary – is being made now, and NTSIB is teaming up with the filmmakers to bring you information and updates on the project.
Stay tuned for more updates down the line.
The folks at Crash Avenue seem like a good bunch, and they’re dedicating their monthly compilation to the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation. Here’s what they have to say:
We were greatly saddened by the untimely passing of Sub Pop’s Andy Kotowicz. Yet, I think I can speak for all of us when we say we’re also inspired by the heroism of Seattle business owner Kenny Johnson, who raced to the scene to save Andy’s young daughter, and made a valiant effort to save Andy as well. While we only knew Andy for a brief moment, we can say without hesitation that the gang at Sub Pop are some of the most down-to-earth, awesome people to work with – all the more remarkable when considering the size and influence of the label.
After five compilations showcasing some of our favorite discoveries (as well as friends’ musical endeavors) and ripping on our blog friends a bit with love and reverence, the Crash Avenue Comp Series has quickly become an exciting monthly program, and as such, it seems only right that we use what we’ve built here to help Andy’s family. Starting with our December release, you can download the full compilation with a Radiohead name-your-own-price structure, with all proceeds going to the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation. You can find out more here.
You can download the comp here. The Cheyenne Marie Mize cover of PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water” is suitably cool.
Shows worth checking out this week in and around Cleveland:
The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
We attempted to do a round-up of Dan Auerbach-produced acts, but that’s an exercise in futility because, as the subject line of that post states, dude never stops. This Sunday at the Beachland Tavern, there will be a record release show for another Dan Auerbach producing job – that of Shivering Timbers’ new album We All Started In The Same Place. Check out their slinky arrangement of “Crooked Old Man”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIh4y51iV2Y?fs=1]
