Tag: video

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Black Diamond Heavies: One Night Only!

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Aw, hell yeah, this is a cool event, kiddies. On December 7, 2011, at 9 PM EST, Saving Country Music will be streaming the Black Diamond Heavies’ set from the 2009 Deep Blues Festival. BDH performed at the very first DBF, and not only does the 2009 set feature core members John Wesley Myers (a.k.a. James Leg, who will be playing live in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5 at Now That’s Class) and Van Campbell, but it also includes a reunion with original BDH member Mark “Porkchop” Holder and support from guru/roadie extraordinaire U.S. Justin and BDH buddy Andy Jody (whose long and illustrious resume includes Pearlene, James Leg’s solo album and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, to barely scratch the surface).

 

 

Be sure to trek on over to Saving Country Music ahead of time and download the live player plug-in beforehand so you’ll be ready when the fun gets going. And stock up on whiskey. It will be fucking awesome, I assure you.

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I Will Be Your Light Inside the Dark: New London Fire, The Dirt The Blood The Faith

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Periodically people ask me what kind of music I like. My default answer is “big drums and dirty bass lines,” but now that I’ve spent some (more) time listening to current offerings in the field of country/Americana I have to add “fiddle and pedal steel.” The Dirt The Blood The Faith, the third and latest (out on vinyl as of yesterday, also available on iTunes!) record from New London Fire, combines all four of my favorite elements.

I’m especially fond of the thudding at the heart of Until the Light Goes Out On Me (turn it up, it’ll rattle your bones in the best possible way), the sweet shimmer of high silvery sound that floats through Arizona, The Jungle, and Ain’t Wagin’ War, and the low, aggressive thrum that slowly expands to a roar in title track The Dirt The Blood The Faith.

New London Fire are: David Debiak, Jon Lam, and D. James Goodwin and they are, collectively, from both Asbury Park, NJ and Woodstock, NY. (D. James Goodwin also produced the record, in his studio in Woodstock.) It’s worth noting here that New London Fire has not always been an Americana band; they actually started out closer to the Britpop end of the spectrum. I did a quick skim through their back catalog, and I can tell you that while this record is technically a whole new direction, it doesn’t sound like that much of a bizarre left turn. It’s more a possibly abrupt but still logical evolution of form.

Old NLF fans, if you’re puzzled and/or concerned, be at ease. They’ve swapped out some instruments but the carefully crafted melodies and sing-along choruses are still there. Those of you who are new to their charms and are now squinting at your screens thinking Britpop??: this record is good. It’s more western than country, it has solid pop-rock underpinnings, and you should put it on and crank it up.

As evidence, I present two videos. The first one is for their first single, The Other Side of Town:

 

And the second, made in the studio, is for Rise:

 

 

Their other big upcoming project is collaborating with New York Times reporter and novelist Bassey Etim to produce a soundtrack for Etim’s multi-platform novel The God Project which will feature hip-hop infused remixes of songs from The Dirt The Blood The Faith. They are all going to be hitting the road together this winter. I’ll keep you posted as events develop!

Or, for more immediate news bulletins, you can subscribe to them on Facebook and Twitter.

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Rebirth of the Cool: …Baby, One More Time

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It’s been too long since we’ve had a Rebirth post, but I’m sure some of you have taken a look at the title and are already wincing in anticipation of this one. Let’s get the difficult part out of the way now.

 

 

I know, I know… Back in the early 2000s, while I was accumulating a collection of “Ring of Fire” covers, my boyfriend at the time, in his perverse nature, took to collecting “…Baby, One More Time” covers.

Hey, we’ve all made bad choices in partners, okay?

But there was one stand-out gem in this perplexing collection, that being the complete piss-take version by Mr. Bungle.

 

 

Speaking of perverse, I found this version by Frank’s progeny, Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa, over at Cover Me and actually find it… kind of… sexy… (This may have something to do with the fact that I wore out Dweezil’s My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama album when I was a teenager.)

 

 

Thus concludes this episode of Unfortunate Confession Theater.

 

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Saturday Matinee: Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks the World

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Featuring interviews with everyone from the inventor of the pedal to Buddy Guy to a lot of dudes you haven’t even heard about since hair metal went out of fashion the first time, this great documentary tracks the life and wide-reaching influence of the Cry Baby Wah-Wah guitar effect pedal, one of the most singular and iconic sounds of modern music, from its conception to the present time.

 

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Jimmy Dunlop on Vimeo.

 

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks the World Official Website

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King Mob: Make the Black Sun Rise

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I get a little nervous when I see the term “supergroup” thrown out. It’s been used so often in recent years that it’s become synonymous with “disappointment”. So, when I opened my e-mail and started reading about a “supergroup” caled King Mob, I was ready to delete and move on… until I saw the name Glen Matlock1. Then there was mention of Martin Chambers of the Pretenders. Alright, I’ll listen to that.

 

 

Hell, I’ll listen to that twice (actually, I lost count of the number of times I listened to it).

Rounding out King Mob are Chris Spedding, best known as a versatile session guitarist who has worked with Roxy Music, Harry Nilsson, Brian Eno, Tom Waits and on and on; Stephen W. Parsons (a.k.a. Snips), who was in the Sharks with Spedding and has composed music for films; Sixteen, a young guitarist who also has a psychosurf outfit called One Fathom Down.

King Mob’s album, Force 9, is out now, and if you’re living in the right place, you can get a free download of “Selene, Selene” (if you’re in the U.S., you’re S.O.L.). If you’re living in the right place, you can also see the band performing live at 229 the Venue in London this Thursday, November 17 (tickets available here).

If you’re not living in the right place, well, here’s another video as a consolation.

 

 

King Mob Official Website

King Mob @ Facebook

1 You know that band the Sex Pistols, yeah? You know that guy Sid Vicious, yeah? Well, before and after Sid, there was Glen.

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Give: Daniel Knox and John Atwood

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NTSIB friend and Couch by Couchwest (the internet-based answer to South by Southwest for the lazy and the poor) alumnus Daniel Knox and photographer John Atwood could use your help.

Atwood writes:

Songwriter/composer Daniel Knox and I were recently selected by the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation to be artists in residence this fall at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in Watermill, NY.

Through the course of the residency, Daniel will expand, develop, and complete a long-form piece of music written and arranged for piano, voice, horns, strings, and percussion, based on my photography.

The residency will culminate in a premiere performance of the final piece alongside an exhibition of the integral photographs at the 92YTribeca, New York, NY on 26 January 2012.

Your support will “help cover production expenses for the exhibition: framing, printing, and equipment rental, accompanying musicians, publicity materials and costs.”

Atwood’s photographs have graced the covers of Knox’s Disaster and Evryman for Himself albums, and this further step in their collaboration is an exciting one. Check out the Kickstarter video below, then visit the site to see how you can help.

 

 

John Atwood @ Flickr

Daniel Knox Official Website

 

Daniel Knox – Disaster from Daniel Knox on Vimeo.

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Saturday Matinee: The Future is Unwritten

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Apologies for the absence, my babies. I’ve been battling the flu from hell the past couple of weeks, but I’m ready to get back on top of things. So, here’s a tribute to the NTSIB patron saint, Joe Strummer, from filmmaker Julien Temple.

After watching this, I highly and enthusiastically recommend getting a hold of Dick Rude’s wonderful documentary of Joe’s last tour, Let’s Rock Again!. And if you’re in the mood for the absurd, Alex Cox’s Straight to Hell Returns is free to view on Hulu.

 

Joe Strummer – The Future Is Unwritten (Documental) from hardcorepunkarg7 on Vimeo.

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Buy A Gun or Go To Memphis: Gary Hunn and the wayward angels, Dust & Gin

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Readers, I have a confession: the person in charge of NTSIB’s ReviewShine account is me. And when I’m going through submissions I generally tend to scroll up to the top of the list, press play and then let it roll, as if it was the radio. When a songs pops up that gets my attention, then I’ll dig deeper and see if I like the whole record.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Buy a Gun or Go To Memphis by Gary Hunn and the wayward angels that made me stop and say “Who is that?” out loud to my computer:

 

http://youtu.be/HIM_t4H7HM4

 

I’m not sure if the question of “Death or Graceland?” has ever been posed in quite that way before, but in any case, I did go and listen to the rest of the record to see what other gems might be lurking. And there are several; I’m especially fond of Broken Lives are Mended Here and Breathe As You Go, but in general, if you like old-school honky tonk music with piano and pedal steel, this is a record for you.

The biggest surprises came when I went to find out where Hunn was from and what else he’d done. I had somewhat arbitrarily filed him under “Tennessee” because of both his accent, musical style, and the Graceland reference, but it turns out he’s actually from Magnetic Island, which is five miles offshore of the city of Townsville in Queensland, Australia. Furthermore, this is his first country record, though not his first musical venture; he has previously spent some time in the world of blues and garage rock.

If you like what you’ve heard so far, you can get Dust & Gin from Amazon, iTunes, or, if you prefer a hard copy, from Mr. Hunn himself. If you need additional enticement, here’s one more song for the road:

 

Gary Hunn - Broken Lives Are Mended Here

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Light Show Video: This is Halloween, Marilyn Manson

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I love this song. I especially and unironically love this particular version of it. Sometimes that Manson growl hits the spot. And the light show here, filmed last year in California according to the YouTube notes, is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

On that note, special warning to epileptics: you may want to skip this one, or listen to it with the visuals stashed safely behind another tab.

Everyone else: enjoy the d00m, gl00m, and amazing blinky lights.

Happy Halloween, y’all.

Halloween Light Show 2010 HD - This is Halloween ( Marilyn Manson )