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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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Postcards from the Pit: JJAMZ and Beast Patrol, the Studio at Webster Hall, 10/19/12

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One of these years I will get myself together and actually acquire a CMJ pass. This year was not that year. That said, while I only saw two CMJ sets, they were very good sets.

The event I attended was the CAA Showcase in the Studio at Webster Hall, and the first band was Beast Patrol, from Brooklyn. Beast Patrol are much heavier, aggressive, and face-melty live than they are recorded. Seriously, the music they have on-line is a shadow of their live show. They can shred.
 

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Sample track:
 
Disbeliever by beastpatrol
 

And then, switching genres at CMJ’s traditional breakneck speed, it was time for JJAMZ, of Los Angeles, who were their usual delightful power-poppy selves:
 

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Sample track via their latest video, which I love because it is a lyric video with French subtitles that uses mashed up footage from B-movies and anti-drug PSAs from the ’50s and ’60s:
 

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Late Night Listening: Glen Hansard, The Parting Glass

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A wonderful lullaby, here’s Glen Hansard singing the traditional Irish song “The Parting Glass”. Hansard has said he might like to record an album of traditional songs someday, and I hope he does. His strong, pure delivery makes me want to dig out my Dubliners album.

 

The Parting Glass (trad) performed by Glen Hansard from Conor Masterson on Vimeo.

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Video: The Rest, Hey! is for Horses [NSFW]

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There is really nothing that gets my attention like an email encouraging me to watch a video containing puppet fornication. That kind of thing is my Kryptonite.

The video is the first of nine which the band intends to make and features puppets and set design by Kori Pop and horses by Amber Edgar. It mixes puppetry with delicately lovely animation and is truly a work of art. It’s also not safe for work OR small children.

The song is Hey! is For Horses, and it is from SEESAW, by The Rest. SEESAW is the Record That Almost Wasn’t – everything that could go wrong, did – but happily for all of us, it is also The Little Record That Could, and has made it to the light of day.

The last time I wrote about The Rest, I described one of their songs as a “bubblebath of noise” which is still the best description I can give you for their sound.

The only thing I would add is that they have the ability to be bouncy and poppy, and also to roar and soar within the same song, like a great dragon opening his wings and lungs to express his love to his beloved.