I have no post today. I’ve got plenty of great music coming in, and it will be featured soon… but nothing is ready quite yet. So, I’m just going to let you enjoy one of the reasons I’m excited to be seeing Hacienda again when they open for the Greenhornes at the Beachland Ballroom tomorrow night, the band playing an instrumental cover of “Day Tripper”.
Empires, still the scrappy little band of my heart, has progressed to ROUND TWO of the Rolling Stone cover contest. That means it’s time to vote them into round three, which you can do here. Voting on this round lasts until APRIL 14. They’ve also uploaded two new songs created special for the contest, Night is Young and Hard Times, which you can also listen to at that link.
Meanwhile, here they are talking about how they became a band, “home video” style:
The Norway Rats are the all-stars of Pacific NorthWest folk-punk musicians: Casey Neill (vocals, guitar), Little Sue (vocals, acoustic guitar), Chet Lyster (guitar), Ezra Holbrook (drums), Hanz Araki (vocals, flute), Jesse Emerson (bass), and Jenny Conlee (piano, accordion), and Goodbye to the Rank and File, the first Norway Rats record to feature the complete line-up of the band all in the same place at the same time, is the West Coast-centered follow-up to the more New York-oriented Brooklyn Bridge (2007).
True confession: Two of the songs on this record - Guttered and Stonewall – were already old and familiar friends of mine, met some time ago on a podcast. I was nonetheless pleased to see them formally released into the wild, not least because now I can listen to them on their own whenever I want. I’m particularly fond of Guttered because it is really satisfying and/or comforting to listen to on cold, wet days, when it feels like you’re watching your life go by from the bottom of a hole. Or, to borrow from the lyrics, if you are wandering in a graveyard in the snow - in your mind or for real.
As for the rest, I have spent a couple of days listening (and humming random bits of melody to myself odd times) and pondering how to describe them. What I finally came up with was “Hymns (and Lovesongs) for The Vagabond Heart.” All of the songs are strong; my personal favorites (as of right this minute) are Idyll and When I Came To You. These two songs encapsulate the trials, travails and also sublime joys of wandering, and how the joys can be amplified by having someone to wander with, and the ache of the trials and travails eased by finding a place to to finally stop and be at home. Nightowl and the Skylark, based in part on Joe Strummer’s life, is also achingly beautiful.
But really the most important thing I can tell you about this record is: it is meant to be savored. Clear an hour in your schedule, turn off your phone, pour yourself a drink, find some sunlight to sit in, then sit back and listen to them sing some stories.
Here’s a taste of the treat you are in for:
Also important: they are still out on the road in the West, stopping in Albuquerque, NM tonight before progressing on to Arizona, Colorado and Utah during the rest of the week. They’ll also be playing some Pacific NorthWest shows in May; you can find all of the details at Casey Neill’s official website.
James Leg and Andrew Jody look like they belong in two different bands. Leg, long and lean with big boots, big rings and wallet chain, is the very picture of a Southern blues rocker while Jody, skinny in a striped shirt, sporting a mod haircut, looks like he would have fit comfortably in any number of ’70s garage bands. And, technically, they belong to a number of different bands, with Leg being one half of the Black Diamond Heavies as well as having been/being a member of the Immortal Lee County Killers and the Cut in the Hill Gang and Jody’s list of credits including The Long Gones, Oxford Cotton, Pearlene, Barrence Whitfield and The Savages and more. But when they come together, they form a synergistic unit, their energies equally matched.
Kicking off with an amped up cover of Junior Kimbrough’s “Sad Days and Lonely Nights”, Leg hit the keys and growled lustily into his mic while Jody’s attack on the drums was solidly timed as well as impressively creative. In an interview, Leg’s Black Diamond Heavies partner Van Campbell said he believed one could see the effects of the spiritual warfare Leg contended with as the son of a strict Baptist preacher working themselves out when Leg played, and it didn’t take long to see what Campbell meant. From the get-go, Leg’s right foot was stomping the floor while his long, dark hair flew in all directions, obscuring Leg’s face for almost the entire set.
While Leg remained pretty quiet between songs, when he called to the bar for a whiskey mid-set and was asked if Black Velvet was okay, someone in the audience began to sing the Alannah Myles song of the same name. Leg responded with, “Now don’t start that shit.”
Leg sprinkled tracks from his forthcoming album, Solitary Pleasure, throughout the set, following up the Kimbrough cover with the sexy “Do How You Wanna” and later including “Nobody’s Fault”, “No License (Song for the Caged Bird)”, “Drinking Too Much” (a Kill Devil Hills cover), “Georgia”, “Drowning in Fire” (which benefitted from an extended intro as Leg tried to recall the words to a song he hadn’t played since he recorded it), “Have to Get It On” and choosing his Link Wray cover, “Fire and Brimstone”, as an inspired closing number.
In between, Leg and Jody inserted a couple of Black Diamond Heavies songs, a couple of Jerry McCain covers (with one, “A Cutie Named Judy”, sung by Jody), and even when they supposedly brought the energy down for an awesome Jody-led cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'”, they were still more intense than many other high-energy bands at their high points. It was easy to get caught up in the ferocity, reminding me a couple of times of a conversation I had with Leg before the show about the similarity between religious fervor and the feeling produced by a good rock show. The intensity Leg and Jody were able to put out to what ended up being a relatively small crowd after the St. Patrick’s Day amateur drinkers set left the bar to puke and pass out made me wonder how much more fierce the show might have been had it taken place in a full room with a crowd giving as good as they got.
Here’s a short clip of “Georgia” to show you what I’m talking about.
This shit is not for the faint of heart.
That’s right, I’m going to do an Irish music post for St. Patrick’s Day. Bite me.
I’ve always loved traditional Irish music, and my favorite voice in that genre, by far, is that of Ronnie Drew. If you know this classic performance of “The Irish Rover” by the Pogues and the Dubliners, you know Ronnie Drew. He’s the handsome, white-haired gentleman who takes the first verse. (Please excuse the advertisement at the beginning.)
The Pogues & Dubliners – The Irish Rover by Renaud_lyon
Drew’s deep gravel was sublime on its own, but as a part of the Dubliners (who were originally known as the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group when they formed in 1962), his voice was a beautiful complement to the tenors of Luke Kelly and Ciarán Bourke, as can be heard in the chorus of “The Rocky Road to Dublin”, one of my all-time favorite songs.
Another example of how fine Drew’s voice was in harmony can be found in this lovely Gaelic tune, “Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile”, which translates to “Oh-ro, You’re Welcome Home”.
In January of 2008, U2, the Dubliners, KÃla and a who’s who of Irish music (including Shane MacGowan, Liam Ó MaonlaÃ, Glen Hansard, Sinéad O’Connor, Bob Geldof and more) recorded “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew” with the proceeds from sales of the single going to the Irish Cancer Society. The song ended up being a send off of sorts when Drew died the following August.
I could keep this up all day, inundating you with “Slow and Easy, “McAlpine’s Fusiliers”, “Seven Drunk Nights and so on, but I’ll end here with this clip of “The Auld Triangle” that marked Ciarán Bourke’s last appearance before his death in 1988.
This band’s information floated over our transom with the following e-note appended:
We wrote these songs in our living rooms
We recorded them
We moved to north london so it was easier
We didn’t always agree
but that’s ok
We made some art to go with the music
We made videos which took longer
We have all been in other bands – this is our favourite
Good Dangers is – Maxim, Gavin, Johny, Jenny & Howard
I listened to their songs and watched their video(s), and later, upon adding Abigail to my daily playlist (listen to it streaming at bandcamp), I found myself humming along and tapping my pencil to the beat while I worked. And then I took it upon myself to do some further investigation. Lead singer Gavin (top right) expanded as follows:
Naturally the first question is going to be: Which bands were you in before?
That’s a bit of a secret, we like mystery.
Where did you move to North London from?
We all studied and lived south of the river after going to Goldsmiths College, gradually we migrated north/east so we could write and play easily. It’s good times in that part of London.
Why did you name the new band “Good Dangers”?
The music has a tension about it. There’s a lot of risk in putting music out there and giving up a part of your life to do that. We wanted to capture that in the name. Or we just came up with cause it sounded good. Can’t remember.
The songs sound so light and airy, but your comment in your bio about disagreements makes it sound like getting there was hard. Was the songwriting difficult? How did you go about putting the pieces together?
Sometimes writing is painless, the songs write themselves. Other times we massively disagree. Great songs come out of both situations. You can never tell how it will play out. The only thing you can guarantee is that we will all have an opinion!
Are you all supposed to look dead in your press picture? If so, why?
No, although I agree we look a bit dead! There is something good about taking your clothes off and shutting your eyes, we can say that much.
I watched the video for Brasilia, and wow, there’s a lot to unpack there, visually. I saw a lot of footage I recognized as being disaster- or crisis-related, and a lot that seemed, at least in theory, to be harmless. What was all of that mixing about, and how does it related to the song? Also was it meant to evoke Brazil, the movie?
No relation to that fantastic movie. Making that video, I used footage from growing up in Australia shot on super 8 and a bunch of archive footage that I felt summed up the themes in the song. The song is about memories and their potency.
These last ones are for everyone. What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike?
Gavin: Anything from Van Morrison – Astral Weeks; Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusions II; Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream; Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker; Strokes – Is This It and Arcade Fire – Funeral.
Howard (bottom right / bass): Anything of ‘Nevermind’ (I love Drain You), when that was played at parties everyone used to go more nuts than anything else.
John (bottom left / drums, brother of Howard): The entire Strokes first album
Jenny (center / keys): Anything off the Jimmy Eat World self-titled album
Max (top left / guitars): Positively 4th Street – Bob Dylan. My Dad’s enthusiasm finally made sense on one long drive in Spain with the family.
What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)
Gavin: First proper show, [was the] Smashing Pumpkins [in] London. I managed to grab a broken guitar string off Billy’s guitar. I was 14.
Howard: George Benson somewhere in London with my folks. I think I was 5 years old, I spent the entire gig shoving cotton wool in my ears as it was so loud and his smooth tones really hurt.
John: The Strokes, 2003, Alexandra Palace.
Jenny: Billy Joel
Max: Echo and The Bunnymen, Royal Court, Liverpool, 1996
What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?
Gavin: First: Mc Hammer – Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em /Last: Wild Nothing – Gemini
Howard: I bought REM Automatic For the People because my cousin was really into them. I love that album. Last one I bought was the new Radiohead album.
John: Power Rangers theme song in 1994.
Jenny: Cyndi Lauper, True Colours and Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Max: Ain’t talkin bout dub – Apollo 440; Zola Jesus – Stridulum II
And finally, will you be playing any shows any time soon?
Gavin: We are playing at:
March 17: Old Queens Head, Islington, London
March 24: Hoxton Bar&Kitchen, Hoxton, London
April 12: Catch, Shoreditch, London
Happy Mardi Gras! Laissez les bons temps rouler, y’all.
I watched this video late last night and I’ve had the song in my head all day. I love the visuals, though, and the way they tell a familiar story in a way that’s understated and fresh. Mainly this makes me wish I had gone to more basement punk shows in high school, so that I could have the memory of drifting into a room full of friends, some of whom might have been playing the guitar, to dance and sing.
And, from Jennifer:
Please, NTSIBbers, go and vote for them here at Rolling Stone, and then feel free to pass the link around.
This is a video for “Hello Lover”, their latest single:
I’ve been fighting (and losing to) the flu for nearly a week now, and because of that, I very sadly missed Patrick Sweany’s recent CD release show for That Old Southern Drag at the Zephyr Pub in Kent, Ohio, this past Friday (if anyone who did attend the show would like to contribute a review and/or photos, please let me know – contact information can be found to the right), so we’re missing the final big event of Patrick Sweany Month here at NTSIB.
And as I’ve mostly been listening to comfort music (the Godfathers, the Parting Gifts, the Dirtbombs and the Black Keys… I may have a skewed sense of comfort) when I haven’t been laid up on the couch, watching old movies and making my own music (i.e., whining about being sick), there’s not been a lot of new music intake going on here at NTSIB HQ. And the closest I can get to a live performance right now is via television. So, I give you my favorte televised performance to date: the Afghan Whigs’ fierce cover of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”, performed at an MTV-hosted party for the film Beautiful Girls (the soundtrack for which Greg Dulli was an executive producer) in 1996.
And, submitted by the esteemable Brucini of the Black Keys Fan Lounge, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion pretty literally tearing it up while playing “2 Kindsa Love” into “Flavor” on an Australian Saturday morning show called Recovery in 1997.
Do you have a favorite sit-up-and-take-notice television performance? Comment!
