What? You haven’t seen this fantastic Clash documentary? Well, pull up a chair, son (or… daughter).
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Saturday Matinee: Westway to the World
Tag: video
Love You Through The Storms: David C. Clements, The Longest Day in History
The Longest Day in History [free Bandcamp download!], an EP from David C. Clements (formerly Captain Cameron) and contains only two songs. But they are stunning beautiful songs.
The first song is called Hurricane, and it is full of lyrical gems. It’s also a six and a half minute showcase for Clements’ magnificently supple and expressive voice.
The second song, Not Sleeping, is tiny bit more uptempo than Hurricane but no less compelling. Here is a video of him singing it at at Love Lounge, recorded by Pigmint:
David C. Clements – Not Sleeping – Live at Love Lounge from Pigmint on Vimeo.
And then there’s also his cover of Lana Del Ray’s Video Games, originally recorded live on the BBC Radio Ulster program Across The Line. I have a lot of deeply complicated feelings about that song, but his rendition has sunk its claws into my brain-meats and I cannot stop listening to it.
Finally, here’s a video Bandwith Sessions made last November at the Halloween Hoedown at the Ulster Hall, where Clements performed as his former incarnation Captain Cameron. The song is called In December.
David C Clements / Live @The Ulster Hall, Belfast
Give: Shivering Timbers
Not that they need our help, but they’re going to get it anyway. The lovely and talented Shivering Timbers, out of Akron, Ohio, are raising funds for their next album. I just found out about this Kickstarter project yesterday, and I see that Sarah and Jayson have already surpassed their original fundraising goal (that would allow them to produce a basic version of their forthcoming album) and have even surpassed their second goal (that would fund high-quality mastering, a vinyl release or both), but there is still a third goal that you can participate in that would allow high-quality mastering, plus vinyl releases of the forthcoming album and of their debut album, We All Started in the Same Place.
Aside from getting to enjoy more of the Shivering Timbers’ unique and enchanting music, the Benns are also offering up some wonderful and personal items as rewards for pledging: Sarah’s 1950s Bacon & Day banjo, Jayson’s 1965 Kay Galaxie hollow-body electric guitar, a quilt made by Sarah’s grandmother, a day in the studio with the band and more. Wow.
For a listen to some songs from their first album and some new material – including songs from their recent Daytrotter session – please visit their website.
Shivering Timbers @ Kickstarter
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Van Halen
Okay, yes, I am.
About a week ago, apropos of nothing, I felt the urge to do a post about covers of Van Halen songs. There is just something about Van Halen that transcends aversions to spandex and sexism. I have a feeling it has something to do with David Lee Roth (I can still un-ironically enjoy “Hot for Teacher”, but I can’t listen to “Why Can’t This Be Love?” without wincing). Though I can no longer stomach most of the David Lee wannabees who so littered the wasteland of my youth, I am still charmed by Roth’s unapologetic showboating. And if you can’t rock out to “Panama”, you just don’t know why rocking out was created, my friend.
Here, I give you a few choice Van Halen covers, beginning with my favorite Van Halen cover: the Black Diamond Heavies doing up “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” and proving that you don’t need guitar to be badass. And feedback-y.
Next, the minutemen covering… “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”. Hey, bite me, it’s the minutemen. And since it’s the minutemen, it will only take a minute of your time. Less than a minute, actually.
Next up, San Francisco swingsters from hell Lee Press-on and the Nails add big, beautiful horns to the horny “Hot for Teacher”.
And to round us out, “Jump” as covered by… Aztec Camera!? Like I said: Van Halen transcends boundaries.
In a moment of serendipitous timing, a few days after gathering this list of covers, Rick Saunders dished the info that Van Halen was featuring a new single on their website. Check out “Tattoo”.
Van Halen – Tattoo from Van Halen on Vimeo.
Band I Really Like: The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats started making music in 1991. I learned about them considerably later, and they quickly became one of my favorite sources of what I can only call “dark dry bitter hilarious self-laceration you can sing along to.”
Today I bring you four videos – an introduction, of you haven’t met them before, a celebration if you have.
Woke Up New from Get Lonely, directed by Rian Johnson, who also directed the truly excellent Brick:
The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
No Children, from Tallahassee; please note how the audience here is, in fact, singing along with great verve. Also, I really, really love this song, because it is kind of mean and awful and yet so perfectly describes a particular post-break-up feeling that there have been times I wanted to call someone and just play it down the phone at them at top volume. (I didn’t.)
http://youtu.be/JPy_fiv3sAw
Autoclave, from Heretic Pride; if I was going to make myself a warning label, it would include, among other things, the lyrics to this song:
http://youtu.be/RZ-2kbculaI
Sax Rohmer #1, also from Heretic Pride, because “I am coming home/to you/with my own blood in my mouth” gets me every time:
"Sax Rohmer #1" by The Mountain Goats
Video: Right Angles, by Xander Demos
This is Xander Demos. He’s from Pittsburgh, and he’s here to shred:
Xander Demos Right Angles McNaught Shred
Video: Black Nails, by Pictureplane
Pictureplane has some black nails. He also has some trippy visuals, which I would really like to see on a much larger screen so I can better grasp the meta-commentary of the bits of concert footage that flicker in and out. And I’m digging on his dance beats, too.
Basically, all y’all should watch this because it is weird and pretty and I like it.
"Black Nails" by Pictureplane
Credits:
Directed by Travis Egedy
Editing / Animation by Milton Melvin Croissant III
Filmed in Kazan, Russia by Dmitry Gordeev and Alina Valitova
More Deep Space Doom Funk from Phantom Tails
Check out some new heavy, fuzzy synthfunk from one of our awesome discoveries of last year, Phantom Tails.
You can listen to and purchase the album, The Armageddon Experience, here, and if you’re in the Twin Cities, you can see them live on the following dates:
Jan 12 @ Hell’s Kitchen w/Fort Wilson Riot & Hevy Syrup
Jan 20 @ Turf Club w/ Sleeping in the Aviary
Feb 10 @ Triple Rock w/ SexCat & Umami
JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound at the Beachland Tavern, Cleveland, OH, 12.1.11
Hey, kids! Trying to get back on the pony after a tumultuous time, so here’s my criminally-overdue review of an incredible show.
I was in love and angry that night I headed down to the Beachland to see JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. In Cleveland, we know a lot about being in love and angry. It’s a way of life, from how we feel about our sports teams to how we feel about the way our local government treats our city to the personal stories that play out on every street, every day. And there are many ways to deal with this way of being – some constructive, some violent, some destructive in subtle ways.
JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound saw to it that I worked it out through physical abandon. What I’m saying is, dudes’ll make you dance.
It’s clear from the get-go that JCBUS come with the strong intent to grab the crowd and move it. Echoing charismatic performers who have come before, the Uptown Sound started the show by playing an intstrumental groove, a little appetizer to give a taste of what was coming. Then over the boogie, keyboardist Andy Rosenstein prepped the crowd before he announced the man, who had been sequestered in the back until his grand entrance. Resplendent in white dinner jacket, black slacks and Janelle Monáe ‘do, Brooks set about engaging the crowd without hesitation and with no lack of confidence, though free of ego. I know I can make you dance, his demeanor projected, but I know you can leave, too, so I’m glad you’re here, and if you give me a chance, I know you’ll like what I’ve got for you.
With this attitude, it didn’t take long for Brooks to have the room (with a decent number of people on hand for a weeknight show in the Tavern) on his side. And like a lover who lives for giving pleasure, JCBUS weren’t going to let up once they hit that spot that made the crowd go, “Oh yes!” Pulling out a playlist that drew heavily from their latest album Want More (“Everything Will be Fine”, “Bad News”, “Sister Ray Charles”, etc.), a tune or two from earlier albums (“Baltimore is the New Brooklyn”, “The Beat of Our Own Drum”) and a couple of sing-along-with-me-now covers (“Tainted Love”, “I am Trying to Break Your Heart”), each song seemed to build upon the intensity of the previous one. Just when you thought they had blown their load by blowing the doors off the place with one song, they took the roof down with the next song. By the end of their heartily-demanded encore, there wasn’t a metaphorical beam or rafter left standing.
And while they had torn the place down, I felt built up. Many of the songs seemed to speak directly to my situation at the time, and moving my ass and stomping my feet to the fine-edged soul of JCBUS had a cathartic effect. “Things are shitty,” the music seemed to agree with me, “and the future doesn’t look too bright, but you’ve been through heavier trials than this before. You’ll come out the other side intact… and until then, don’t forget that booze and drugs are fun!”
In a year of great shows, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound was one of the best I attended. If you have the chance, I cannot urge you strongly enough to check out this genuinely fun and entertaining show from this tight, hot group.
I don’t have photos or video of the night due to technical difficulties (damn battery-hog camera), but check out the video below of a different show (and more here) for a taste.
Feature photo by Nate Burrell, courtesy of KDHX
Video: Wounded Lion vs. Alan Jackson
This is the video for Wounded Lion‘s song Roman Values, from their new record IVXLCDM:
Wounded Lion - Roman Values
I came across it when I was prodding the intertubes in search of more information about Wounded Lion – I saw them open for White Fence / The Fresh & Onlys / Thee Oh Sees on New Years and they were a highlight of an excellent show (pictures later!) – and when I came across this gem I HAD to share.
This is another one of their videos, for a song called Friendly?, which is from the same record. They made this one in POWERPOINT. I am doing a small gleeful dance, because BEST USE OF POWERPOINT EVER.
Wounded Lion - Friendly?
Meanwhile, this is the original 1992 video for Chattahoochee, by Alan Jackson. Or, rather, here is the same video as the first one above, with the “right” song playing over the visuals:
Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee
Y’all, I loved this song back when it was new, though I don’t think I had ever seen the video before, as at the time I tended to only listen to country on the radio while I was in the car. (Cranking up the country station was and is my (not-so) guilty pleasure when driving alone.) Watching it now I have the following thoughts:
1) Nice Baywatch bathing suit there in the first minute.
2) He really is water-skiing in a cowboy hat and boots. I may never stop giggling.
3) Also appreciating the ripped jeans AND the neon on the life vest. It sure was the ’90s.
4) But why is he wearing a Cowboys jersey? Georgia had a football team in 1992, right? [Atlanta Falcons: YES THEY DID. WE’VE BEEN HERE SINCE 1965!]
5) Damn it, this song is going to be stuck in my head for days.
6) Kind of amused that my thought process on viewing the Wounded Lion version was “Is that Alan Jackson?” and then “Alan Jackson + muddy river = That has to be Chattahoochee.”