Tag: video

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Saturday Matinee: Rock and Roll Singer

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I had an itch to listen to Gene Vincent last night, then woke up this morning to find that, hey, it’s the anniversary of Vincent’s birth today. The intense rock ‘n’ roller would have been 77 today. This documentary, Rock and Roll Singer, filmed for the BBC, covers the first four days of a 1969 tour, beginning in England.

 

 

It was recently announced that a number of backing bands would this year be following their lead men into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among them, Vincent’s Blue Caps. Here’s Gene and his Blue Caps performing the slinky “Baby Blue”, I believe from the 1958 film Hot Rod Gang. (This clip typifies what HiLobrow has to say today about Vincent’s appeal. Yow.)

 

 

And here’s another performance from 1958, this time of Vincent’s most enduring song, the incomparable “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, played on the Town Hall Party television show.

 

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Drew Smith: Smoke and Mirrors

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Canadian musician Drew Smith first showed up on NTSIB when we shared his enchanting video for “Love Teeth”. Here we have him again with this lovely, “outsourced” video for “Smoke and Mirrors”.

 

 

Both “Smoke and Mirrors” and “Love Teeth” appear on Smith’s album The Secret Languages, which you will likely read more about here very soon.

 

Drew Smith Official Website

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The Ridges at the Beachland Tavern, Cleveland, OH, 2.3.11

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First, they grabbed the room’s attention by throwing everyone off a little. The Ridges mounted the stage in the Beachland Tavern… and then proceeded to file down through the thick crowd to the middle of the floor, where they formed a circle and played “Invented Love”, sans amplification. While the sound sometimes bounced off the walls and ceiling and sometimes was absorbed by the surrounding bodies, it did make people lean in and pay attention.

And that attention was held as the band again took to the stage to continue their set, chomping into the attention-grabbing “Not A Ghost” with abandon and electric energy, but never dropping their well-honed edge. Indeed, this is the overall impression of the Ridges live: a band tight, well-practiced, but not staid. The passion and fire radiates from them with strike-force power. (I had goosebumps at one point that night, and even watching them again in the below video, Victor Rasgaitis’ howl just gave me goosebumps all over again.)

 

“Not a Ghost”, “When the Bell Tolls”, “Dawn of Night”

 

Their set hit all points of their EP except “The Insomniac’s Song” and added “When the Bell Tolls”, “Dawn of Night” (which feels like it may have a touch of Greg Dulli-influence), and “Jackson Pollock”. And even with the additions, it was just too damn short. My concert companion, Shan from Two Sisters and a Show, and I enthusiastically agreed that we wanted them to keep playing.

 

“War Bonds”

 

It’s been a pleasure to watch this band grow, and if they keep ascending the way they have in just the past year, it won’t be but a minute before they’re back in Cleveland and headlining the Ballroom.

 

video credit: kingofthecastle7

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Saturday Matinee: New Garage Explosion: In Love with These Times

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A nice little documentary on modern garage rock featuring Jay Reatard, the Dirtbombs, Davila 666, and Hunx and his Punx, among others. It contains performance and interview footage of Reatard filmed just three months before his death on January 13, 2010.

 

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Songs from Satan

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To follow up yesterday’s review of Nick Tosches’ rollicking good time, Save the Last Dance for Satan, we present a selection of songs mentioned in the book. Hold tight, because the first one’s a doozie.

 

“Gila Monster” – Joe Johnson

 

“Sally, Go ‘Round the Roses” – The Jaynetts

 

“All Right, OK, You Win” – Ella Johnson

 

“Big Mary’s House” – The Solitaires

 

“All in My Mind” – Maxine Brown

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Happy 2nd Birthday, NTSIB

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Technically my second anniversary of starting to write here is a couple of months from now, but I’m chiming in to say: Happy Birthday, little blog! And also congratulations, Jessica H.! I hope you didn’t get too squashed in that Panic! pit – I totally read your story and nodded in rueful recognition, because, well, yes, that’s a Panic! show in a nutshell. (Well, maybe not the fistfights.)

And the thing is: that’s kind of why I love them. Because that pit is a hot sweaty shrieking mess, but they are shrieking with joy. And there’s nothing else like the moment when the house lights go down, the stage lights come up, they step into their places, the first notes ring out, and the pit goes off like a rocket. The screaming makes me wince, too, but it also makes me grin, and probably scream along with them.

But the best part is really afterwards, when I find all of my girls and we wobble, laughing, into the night, to find food and rehydrate and recap for each other the experience we just shared and text people who weren’t there so they can also be brought up to speed.

In a way that’s kind of what music blogging, year two, has been about for me: making friends and being part of a community. So I, too, want to say thank you to all of y’all who stop in to read, whether it’s once or every day, and also to all of y’all who alert us to your musical activities. Here’s hoping our third year together will be the best year yet.

On a somewhat related note, my contribution to today’s festivities is My Chemical Romance’s latest video. It’s a collaboration between the band and a fan, and it’s for Kids from Yesterday, the latest and last single from Danger Days. I picked this one over a Panic! video because, well, all of my Panic! girls are also my My Chem girls, and this song is our song.

My Chemical Romance - The Kids From Yesterday [Official Music Video]

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Someone’s wall is about to get much more badass…

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Two years? Fucking two years? How did that happen?

Now This Sound Is Brave is two years old today. And year two was even more exhilirating, life-affecting and life-affirming than the first year. We have heard so much great music, seen so many righteous shows, talked to so many cool people and made some amazing friends. I could be here all day listing people who deserve our thanks, like the bands who share their work and sometimes their friendship with us, the good people who run and staff the venues where we see shows, the other blogs who have given us encouragement, the CXCW crew… There’s a whole damn lot of people, is what I’m saying.

But I do want to give individual thanks to four special individuals. First, to NTSIB’s beneficiary, the person who provided the idea in the first place, provides the access and provides the equipment that helps me keep this thing going, Duane. Next, to my intrepid co-blogger who gets giddy with me, makes me laugh and has more than pulled her weight lately, Jennifer. Then, to my wonderful friend, confidante, mentor and so many other things besides, Rick, whose encouragement, belief and helping hand have changed the whole game for me. And most of all, to YOU. You beautiful fucking people who come and read and check out the music and support the bands and support us. I fucking love you. Thank you for being here.

Okay, enough sentimental bullshit! I know there are five of you who are very eager to learn who won that droolacious Black Keys concert poster. That winner is: Jessica H! Jessica’s entry typifies the passion for music, and the passion for helping connect others with music (as a Black Keys fan whose co-blogger is a Panic! diehard, I could relate), that I hope we show here on the blog. Jessica, I’ll be in touch soon to find out where to send your prize (and, yes, I do want to see pictures of dog Dan Auerbach… oh, I do…).

For your enjoyment, the winning entry:

I remember my first not-Raffi concert vividly: my dad took me to see Ozzfest in Las Vegas. It was the first time I was cognizant of marijuana (“What are they rolling on their programs, dad?” “Oh, um, I don’t know, Jess.”) and it was the first time I felt the center of my chest vibrate, just as the concrete of Thomas & Mack was vibrating, from the incredibly loud music. Pantera played an extra long set (I didn’t know what a treat that was at the time) and I heard Black Sabbath play all the songs I’d listened to as a little kid with my dad. He shared a fond story of seeing Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult with my mom at the Ventura Fairgrounds in 1980 — it was so loud that they got noise complaints from miles behind the stage, so he said. And I saw Marilyn Manson who was my latest curiosity. The flesh-colored boobsuit? The Hilteresque podium and grandstanding? What did it mean? Why did he do it? It was so fascinating. But that’s not my favorite musical moment.

My favorite musical moment is probably my least favorite concert ever. I took my baby sister to her first concert: Panic at the Disco at a venue in San Diego. She’d been obsessing over them — my whole family knew all the lyrics to all of their songs because we heard Panic so much — and she was ECSTATIC to finally see them live. The venue was overcrowded — dangerously so — and it was hot. So fucking hot. The place was crawling with screaming adolescents. My sister kept wanting to get closer, closer to the stage and even though I saw security pulling crushed and crying little girls from against the railing by the stage, I acquiesced. My less-adventurous middle sister went to hang in the back so that left me, as chaperone, next to my baby sister who kept pushing forward. The crowd surged and swirled and I kept a firm grasp on my sister who was rocking a permanent grin. Since my adolescent Ozzfest, I’ve traveled the country to see amazing concerts, but I’ve never been so packed like a sardine at a concert ever. As the crowd swayed en masse, my sister and I commiserated about how soaking wet we and our clothes were. We realized that it wasn’t our own sweat — it was the sweat of the strangers pressed up against us. Yuck. Big smile. I saw fights and fists as people bumped into people. Feeling maternal (and unsafe) I asked my sister to go to the back with me but she pleaded no, please, Jessica, please, I want to be closer. Okay, okay. At one point she looked at me, I thought she was going to cry, I hope she was going to ask to move to the back, but instead she said, out breath, “Jessica? I forgot to wear a belt today and my pants are falling down and I can’t move my arms to reach down to pull them up. Will you pull up my pants?” So I elbowed my way down to pull up my sister’s jeans because the crowd was so tight that she literally couldn’t move her arms. That’s my favorite music memory: sharing my sister’s first concert with her because the mix of emotions that music elicits is to be shared. It might be a better memory than losing my virginity. Certainly more sweaty. Let me think about that.

As an aside, I’ve never really had a favorite band. Even when I was in elementary school and my friends screamed over New Kids on the Block, I was too cool for that. Those girls were stupid. I never had my own Panic at the Disco. I’ve loved Led Zeppelin, like everyone else (thanks, dad); I love Neil Young and Radiohead; and I had a pretty serious Talking Heads phase… But I don’t know if any of those are favorite musicians . . . Till the Black Keys. I’m an adult woman and the Black Keys are my favorite band. Like those girls in elementary school, I have a band I listen to pretty much every day; I have their full discography on vinyl that I’ve culled from various record label stores and music shops, despite my poverty; and I have a dog named Dan because he looks exactly like Dan Auerbach. The Black Keys introduced me to dirty, Fat Possum blues and I love them for that, too.

I can send you a picture of Dan Auerbach if you’d like but he’s wearing a cone of shame right because he just got castrated and he won’t stop licking his scrotum.

Love and thanks to the other entrants – Sam G, Ashleigh Jordan, Yoin Segundo and the esteemable Mr. Dave Polak. You rock hardcore.

 

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Video: Knock, Knock by Andrew Maze

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I feel like January has been kind of rough so far. Like perhaps we all need a nice bouncy pop song to chase away the still-heavy wintery darkness. Perhaps even a nice bouncy pop song that encourages us to climb mountains and visit Greenland? And comes with a delightful lyrics video?

Yes, I think so.  NTSIBBers, please join me in enjoying Knock, Knock by Andrew Maze, a singer/songwriter/producer from Moscow, Russia.

 

Andrew Maze - Knock Knock [Old Version]

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The Far West, Bitter Drunk and Cold

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NTSIBbers, if you haven’t already had the pleasure, please meet The Far West: Lee Briante (lead vocals / guitar), Robert Black (bass), Erik Kristiansen (pedal steel), Alan F. Rogers (drums) and Brian Bachman (guitar).

Collectively veterans of music scenes in places like Texas (all of it), New York (upstate and the lower East Side), Massachusetts (Boston and western Mass), Louisiana, the Gulf Coast (all of it), Alabama, and Sweden, they came together as a band in Los Angeles, CA early in 2010.

Their first record, Bitter Drunk and Cold, was recorded in less than a week at the American Legion Post 416 in Encinitas, California with the help of engineer/ producer Colin McLean, and released in 2011.

I was hooked from the first song – which happens to be the title track – and spent a week or two carrying it around with me in order to appreciate it properly. It’s good walking and thinking music; by which I mean, I would put it on as I was headed home after work and the next thing I knew 20 blocks had slipped by without my noticing.

These are some of the questions I had once I’d finished marinating in the tunes, and Lee Briante with the answers.

 

Did you name the band after the steamboat The Far West that was a supply vessel for Custer’s Last Stand? I happened to be reading The Last Stand, by Nathanial Philbrick this summer and saw several references to the ship, and I was just wondering.

We did not name the band for the steamboat, although it certainly is a great story and would be a great namesake. The Far West was decided on as we felt it captured a certain feeling of longing, searching as well as made reference to the frontier and the feelings linked to that.

 

Robert Black joined the band by answering a Craigslist post you made that was just a video of Waylon Jennings singing A Couple More Years. How did you pick that video to post as your band-mate wanted ad? Are you especially fond of that song?

I had been watching Hearts of Fire, the 80’s movie with Bob Dylan, late at nightand this scene interested me:

 

 

I looked up the Waylon Jennings version and it just seemed like the right amount of cryin’ in your beer & twang. The pedal steel by Ralph Mooney is beautiful and Waylon’s sweating and playing his heart out. At that time I wanted to build a bar band that would be playing songs like this at closing time. Shel Silverstein wrote A Couple More Years. In terms of songwriting, it’s just a perfect song that really captures something special.

 

I’m also curious about the title track of your record. I’m guessing it’s about Los Angeles? But I was thinking about it when I was there, last summer, how the place was so warm and sunny and yet felt so empty and still.

Bitter, Drunk & Cold is indeed about LA, my initial feelings after moving here from the east, a few of my personal experiences and the overall loneliness that a lot of folks that move here alone, not knowing anyone at all, and having certain expectations are bound to experience. Most people have come a long way to be here, in terms of miles, sacrifices and their own personal histories.

This makes LA a unique city in many ways. A transient city, with many folks coming and going, feelings of possibility and of absolute desolation are both abundant, oftentimes simultaneously. It can be the last stop for dreamers, putting it all on the table one last time, making one last push. That makes for a one of kind feeling here in LA, that love / hate dichotomy that you hear.

 

And I wanted to know more about recording at the American Legion Outpost. What made you decide to record there, and what was it like?

Our drummer Tony had a connection there, as well as his mother occasionally volunteering her time there, Tony had organized several all day musical jam sessions / BBQ’s there. The Far West had played a few of those, as well as several Friday & Saturday night performances.

The room itself has a great wealth of character, wood and tall ceilings, which added up to a room with great energy and sonic possibilities. These days a studio can be anywhere you can plug in microphones and equipment and when we asked the folks at the Legion if we could use the space as a studio they thought it was a fine idea.

They agreed to open the doors early so we could set up and work all day, as long as we didn’t mind working around them and customers when the opened the doors around 3pm. So over 4 or 5 days we set up and recorded all day, with deliveries coming and going, bar patrons tinkling glasses etc. Some of that noise can be heard on the album, but we wanted to record live, not in a sterile studio.

 

Finally, what’s next for you all? Tours? Videos? etc.

We continue to gig regularly in Southern California, write new songs and work on music. We are in the process of making a video or two, and are planning our return to the South-By-Southwest music festival in Austin this March. (Dates and times still TBA.)

 

And now for some video! First, the Waylon Jennings song that brought part of the band together:

 

http://youtu.be/dK9W_1TtYLs

 

And then two from The Far West themselves:

This is Where I Get Off, at the Redwood Bar:

The Far West - Where I Get Off (Live at Redwood Bar)

 

Town Called Lonesome, at the Hotel Cafe:

The Far West-Town Called Lonesome (Live Hotel Cafe)

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The Parlor Soldiers: Now I Wrestle Every Rhyme

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“You’re a little bi-polar,” he tells her, “and you get on my ass about drinking my liquor and smoking too much grass.”

She parries. “You know, you’re no Johnny Cash.”

“Woman, what’d you say?”

“I said, you ain’t the Man in Black, and I won’t be treated this way.”

But there is a wry, knowing edge in each of their voices that melts into affection by the end of their argument.

 

 

This argument is the third track, “Crazy”, from the Parlor Soldiers’ album When the Dust Settles, and showcases the essence of what makes their songs really work (and if you click up there, you can download “Crazy” for free). Backed by simple, slim but solid Americana-based arrangements, they are playful without coming off as if they are trying to hard to show how clever they are, and they are real without being precious. And their voices are so handsome that you want to date them both.

Forming in Fredericksburg, Virginia, after Alex Culbreth asked Karen Jonas to sing at some gigs with him, the two, each who had already established themselves as solo artists, added upright bass (played by Dan Dutton) to the mix and began writing and playing as the Parlor Soldiers.

“We spent several months coming up with different band names but none of them seemed to fit our style of music,” Culbreth told me. “We came up with The Parlor Soldiers after coming across a list of Civil War terms. It was a derogatory term meaning a soldier who was unfit for war, a poseur, or not a true soldier. We thought that it sounded good, liked the old-timey Civil War connection, and liked the fact that it was an insult.”

When the Dust Settles, which I’ve fallen a little more in love with at each listen, covers themes from giving an abuser his just desserts to being a woman with ramblin’ on her mind to being a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde duo driven to desperate ends by the economy and circumstance, with the singing, playing and songwriting shared evenly by Jonas and Culbreth. And the balance between those three elements is nearly perfect, never sacrificing their enticing musicality to showcase their smart lyrics, never working their chosen genre up into caricature and always singing strong and true.

 

 

 

And each time I listen to When the Dust Settles I want to hear those songs played live. You will, too, so take note of these tour dates.

Jan 25
Courtyard Marriott
Fredericksburg, VA

Jan 26
Kybecca Wine Bar
Fredericksburg, VA

Jan 27
The Dunes
Washington, DC

Feb 03
The Griffin Bookshop
Fredericksburg, VA

Feb 04
Northside Social Cafe & Wine Bar
Arlington, VA

Feb 08
Courtyard Marriott
Fredericksburg, VA

Feb 11
Colonial Tavern
Fredericksburg, VA

Feb 16
The Camel
Richmond, VA

Feb 17
Bar 4
Brooklyn, NY

Feb 18
Caffe Vivaldi
New York, NY

Feb 29
Strange Matter
Richmond, VA

Mar 13
Solly’s U Street Tavern
Washington, DC

Mar 31
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
Fredericksburg, VA

Apr 27
Hill Country Barbeque Market
Washington, DC

May 11
The Corner Store
Washington, DC

May 28
Brewer’s Alley
Frederick, MD

Sep 07
Ashland Coffee & Tea
Ashland, VA

Jan 25
Picker’s Supply Concert Hall
Fredericksburg, VA

 

The Parlor Soldiers @ Bandcamp

The Parlor Soldiers @ Facebook

The Parlor Soldiers @ ReverbNation