I Watch The Cars Go Back And Forth

Whenever my band has a gig, I always check out the other bands online if I havent already heard them. It's nice to be able to describe them to my friends, and if nothing else, it gives me a conversation starter when I meet the bands before the show. Tuesday night we played at the 5 Spot in East Nashville with Cars Can Be Blue, a two-piece, boy/girl, guitar and drums combo from Athens, GA. I listened to the four songs they've got up on their myspace page, and they were all kinda cute funny pop songs. Not really my cup of tea, but it'd make for a pleasant enough 40 minute set.

So they start playing, and it's pretty much what I expected. But after a couple of songs, I started to realize that their myspace page really didnt prepare me for them at all. Musically the songs were all the same quirky bubblegum tunes I had heard online, but the lyrics started getting naughty. Around the time they played "She Needs It," their ode to booty calls, the audience's giggles had turn to full on laughter. By the time they got to this song, I was literally crying from laughing so hard...

(WARNING - If you are the easily offended type, you shouldn't listen to this. I mean, look at the title. Also, you might not want to blast it if you are at work)

Cars Can Be Blue - "Retarded Retard" (mp3) from All The Stuff We Do

At the end of their set, my sides were sore. I honestly cannot remember the last time I laughed that hard. They were silly and sophomoric and potty mouthed... and hilarious.

post title by Robyn Hitchcock

Motor Away

Last month I lost the only car I ever loved... or more accurately, the only car that ever loved me back. Saturns are great, but unfortunately they dont stand a chance when sandwiched between two Jeep Cherokees. The lasting legacy of the accident, other than learning that physical therapy really really sucks, is that for the for the first time in my life I have a car with a CD player.

I know... its ridiculous that someone who is as nutty about music as I am was able to survive 19 years of driving without a CD player in his car(s). But somehow I managed to subsist on a steady diet of mix tapes, the wonderful (but all too brief) two year period when Nashville had a truly great commercial alternative station (Thunder 94), and the occasional decent college DJ (our local college station was really hit or miss several years ago, I'm happy to say its a lot better now). But I'm definately happier now that my library of 5000 or so CDs can be listened to somewhere other than home or work.

Apart from the immediate gratification of being able to rip the plastic off a CD and listen to it thirty seconds after you buy it, my favorite thing about finally having a car CD player is the repeat button. A lot of times when I hear a song that I love, I want to hear it again. Right then. Sometimes three or four (or ten) times in a row. I'm pretty sure my officemate doesnt appreciate me doing that at work, and at home it involves either running over to the stereo, or trying to find the remote. In the car, the button is two feet in front of you. And I've taken advantage of that several times since I got my new wheels. So here are a couple of songs that have got the repeat treatment over the past couple weeks.

Cinerama - "Two Girls" (mp3) from Torino
Tanya Donelly - "The Bright Light" (mp3) from Lovesongs for Underdogs (out of print)
Ted Leo + Pharmacists - "Me and Mia" (mp3) from Shake The Sheets

post title by Guided By Voices

I Have A Paintbrush In My Hand To Color A Triangle

Venus Hum - The Colors In The Wheel

Venus Hum celebrated the release of their third full length album with a show Friday nite at the Mercy Lounge here in Nashville. For a band where two-thirds of the members are trapped behind banks of synthesizers, computers, and other miscellaneous electronic gadgetry, I'm always amazed at how good their shows are. Part of that is due to making up for their lack of ability to move with an always impressive visual display, although the eye candy Friday nite seemed on a smaller scale than their previous shows (probably due to the smaller stage). But most of the credit for how enjoyable their shows are can be given to singer Annette Strean. She's charming and captivating and has a voice that even angels would kill for.

Their new album has been billed as more organic, but that's really a relative term. You'd be hard-pressed to find a review that doesn't mention how the lead track "Turn Me Around" was built solely upon acoustic guitar (you can watch a video of Tony Miracle demonstrating that process on youtube). They may have used real instruments instead of synthesizers for their source sounds, but by the time Miracle and Kip Kubin finished twiddling knobs, most listeners wouldn't know it. This approach does give the album a warmer sound though, and the emphasis on strong songwriting that helped them appeal to more than just electronic music fans in still here. Strean seems to be have tempered some of the Bjork-isms that were evident in her past vocals, at times sounds like The Sunday's Harriette Wheeler fronting an electro-pop band. Her lyrics aren't as relentlessly upbeat as they have been in the past, but they never approach anything close to being a downer. The songs cover a lot more stylistic range this time out, ranging from the funky pop of "Pink Champagne" (which I swear could be a Sign O' The Times era Prince track) to the percolating electronic lullaby "Go To Sleep." That range may turn off some of their more narrow focused dance music fans, but for the rest of us, it makes for a great forty-five minute trip.

Venus Hum - "Yes And No" (mp3)

You can listen to the entire album, and also see a live video of "Pink Champagne," here (site requires that you have Flash 9 installed).

This one is actually from their second album, Big Beautiful Sky, but I'm linking to it anyway because it's my favorite song of theirs. The fact thats it's about my second home has a lot to do with that (I've spent more time in the Big Sky State than anyplace I haven't actually lived).

Venus Hum - "Montana" (mp3)

post title by G.T.O's

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box

Sunday afternoon I went to Grimey's for the for the Lambchop in-store and brunch... free music and quiche and mimosas... hurray! It was fantastic. And tasty. And hot. But most of all it was crowded. Grimey's isnt that big of a place, and I went from one end of the store to the other and halfway back again before I found the friend I was meeting. I think half of Nashville was there, and then some.

The band played about five tracks from their new CD Damaged, and though they were short a couple members, they did a great job. The new album is supposed to be a lot more personal, although honestly the new stuff doesnt seem that much different from their previous work to me. I have to admit though, as much as I tend to be into lyrics, I've never really paid that much attention to Kurt Wagner's prose. For me, Lambchop is all about the atmosphere created by Kurt's half-spoken vocals and finger-picked guitar, and the waves of sound created by his normally large parcel of bandmates (this was the first time I've seen Lambchop with fewer than 8 people onstage). City Slang, their UK label, has set up a website for Damaged where you listen to a couple of tracks, watch videos of Kurt talking about the making of the record, and generally find out anything you'd want to know about the album. Or you can check out the leadoff track courtesy of Merge...

Lambchop - "Paperback Bible" (mp3)

After the crowd cleared out I had a chance to go through the used bins for the first time in forever, and ended up coming home with...

The Bloodthirsty Lovers - The Delicate Seam (2004)
Sometimes music can be a small world. I really dug Those Bastard Souls 1999 album Debt & Departure, and when I saw The Bloodthirsty Lovers open up for Guided By Voices in 2002, I had no idea they were another project from former Grifters and Those Bastard Souls frontman Dave Shouse. It was one of the rare times that I was so impressed by an opening act that I bought their CD on the way out the door. Their self titled debut was originally a self released CDR, though it was picked up by French Kiss in 2003. This second album has a bit more of a band feel, with more emphasis on the guitar than the synths. You can stream the album in its entirety here. You can also grab this unreleased track from their website...

The Bloodthirsty Lovers - "Second Coming" (mp3)

Departure Lounge - Too Late To Die Young (2002)
I became familiar with Departure Lounge through their work on Robyn Hitchcock's 1996 album Moss Elixir. The promo for their 2000 US debut Out Of There came across my desk when I worked at Virgin, and it quickly became regular listening when my mood called for mellow quasi-psychedelic pop. When I moved back here in 2001, they were just starting a bi-weekly residency at East Nashville's Slow Bar, where they would try out new songs, play offbeat covers, and invite up special guests from various local bands. It was always a great time, and it was one of the things that convinced me that moving back to Nashville was the right decision. My first impression of this CD is that its not quite as good as their first one; they seemed to have concentrated more on the production than the songs. But it gave me a nice sense of deja vu hearing songs that were a kind of soundtrack to re-establishing Nashville as my home base.

Broadcast - Extended Play (2000)
Broadcast's Extended Play Two was another promo I scored at Virgin that became regular listening at home. I thought they were the perfect blend of My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab, and I always meant to pick up something else by them. I only took me six years, but I finally did.

post title by Radiohead

Softly As I Leave You

Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways

I'm not sure an album has ever hit me the way this one has. I've been incredibly affected by individual songs, and I've had albums that could change my mood over the course of 45-ish minutes, but listening to this for the first time was different. It grabbed me from the very first song, and I literally could not move until it was over. It is that powerful. Even if he werent basically singing his own eulogy, this would be an amazing album. But the fact that he recorded his vocals mainly in the months between the passing of his wife and his own death adds an almost overwhelming gravity to the performances.

Unlike the four previous Rick Rubin produced albums, there are no covers of any "modern rock" songs on this collection. Thematically, the songs concern faith, love, loss, redemption and death. But despite the heavy subject matter, its comes off as reflective rather than depressing. Throughout his American albums, he's been brilliant at reinterpretting other's songs and bringing new meaning to them, and his take on Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" is perhaps the best example of this yet. It makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I listen to it.

Apart from the stomp-and-clap accompaniment on "God's Gonna Cut You Down," the album is completely free of percussion. In fact, except for some occasional piano and organ, Cash's vocals are framed almost entirely by guitar. But its not as sparse as American Recordings (Cash and Rubin's first collaboration). Rubin has done a great job of creating beautifully textured arrangements that perfectly fit Cash's often fragile but always poignant performances. Johnny never heard the arrangements (most of backing tracks were recorded after his death), but I cant imagine he'd be anything less than thrilled with the way they turned out.

Cash was without a doubt one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music. In fact, the only two male singers I would put up there with him are Frank Sinatra and Hank Williams. A Hundred Highways easily stands among the best work he's ever done. I dont think there has ever been a more perfect and appropriate coda to the career of a musical icon.

Listen to "God's Gonna Cut You Down" and "Like The 309" in streaming audio on myspace, or check out song clips and interviews with Cash and Rubin on Lost Highway's American V podcast. If you can get past the cheesy narration, its a good listen.

post title by Frank Sinatra

Hot August Night

The Church, with Rob Dickinson
Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
Sunday, August 6, 2006

The Church has been my favorite band pretty much since the day I bought Starfish my senior year of high school. I remember driving home from Cat's Records in Brentwood, popping the cassette into the stereo, and the chiming guitar intro of "Destination" filling up the car. From that moment on I was hooked. My love for delay-soaked guitar found absolute perfection in the interwoven guitars of Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper. It is to this day my all time favorite album.

This was the fifth time I've seen them, and the first time I've ever been apprehensive about it. This trek was being billed as "a wholly acoustic tour," and it was their effects-ridden guitars as much as Steve Kilbey's sublime baritone delivery and surreal lyrics that created the atmospheric sound I fell in love with. I enjoyed their 2004 acoustic album El Momento Descuidado, but I wondered if they'd be able to create the otherworldly magic I'd experienced at their previous shows without their usual bag of electronic tricks.

The answer turned out to be a resounding yes. This tour marked their 25th anniversary, the setlist ran the entire gamut of their career, from their 1981 single "The Unguarded Moment" through their 2006 album Uninvited, Like The Clouds. They managed to ward off the sameness that can sometimes creep into acoustic shows by switching up instruments early and often. Drummer Tim Powles also played piano (often playing tamborine & shakers at the same time). Koppes bounced back and forth between guitar and piano, as well as adding mandolin and harmonica to the mix. Kilbey and Willson-Piper switched off on guitar and bass duties, and the later even took a turn on the drums during "Sealine." The varied approach worked wonders, and they managed to create the same ethereal magic that their shows have always been known for.

The emotional high water mark of the show was without a doubt their take on "Providence," a song Kilbey wrote with Go-Betweens founder Grant McLennan for their 1991 side project Jack Frost. Kilbey has often cited it as one of the best songs he's ever written, and it made for a beautiful tribute to the recently departed McLennan. The show's sonic high spots were the encores of "Invisible" and "Constant In Opal." Joined onstage on opener Rob Dickinson, they somehow managed to match the chaotic intesity of their usual closer "Tantalized," but without the amplification and effects.

Former Catherine Wheel frontman Dickinson started off the night with a set culled mostly from last year's solo debut Fresh Wine For The Horses, with a couple of CW classics thrown in for good measure ("Heal," "Crank" and "Black Metallic''). Armed with just an acoustic guitar and an occasional stomp on the distortion pedal, me manged to keep even casual fans (like me) interested throughout with engaging performances and between song antidotes from his childhood and CW days (it probably helps that fans of the Church and the Catherine Wheel are fairly well cross-polinated). It made for a great night of music from a couple of alt-rock's elder statesman.

The Church - "Unified Field" (mp3) from Uninvited, Like The Clouds

Read Steve Kilbey's thoughts on the gig on his blog, The Time Being. Photo courtesy of Virginia. See more of her photos from the tour on her flickr page.

post title by Neil Diamond

Page 300's MP3 Policy

Whenever possible, the audio files I link to are provided and hosted by the bands themselves, or their labels or promotion companies. But thats not always possible, and its hard to turn people on to music if they cant hear it. So occasionally I have to host my own. These files are provided for sampling purposes only, have a fairly low bit rate, and are only available for a limited period (generally about two weeks). If you are the copyright owner and would like your file removed, please email me at the link to the left ("drop a line")and I'll do it ASAP. Thanks.

We Both Know Why You're Here

There is a scene in High Fidelity (the book) where Rob realizes that he no longer knows all the bands that are playing in the London clubs (its the beginning of chapter 22; page 300 if you have the first edition hardcover). When I first read the book ten years ago, that scene didn't really stand out to me. I was in my mid-twenties and still at the height of my music geek-dom. I read Melody Maker and NME every week. Buying CD's was an almost daily activity. If one of my favorite bands was playing a show anywhere within a 6 hour radius of Nashvlile, I was there, regardless of what day of the week it was. Going to local shows was a weekly experience. Every other book I read was a music bio. I was the go-to guy for anyone who needed the answer to a musical trivia question at a bar.

Even when I hit 30, I was still a music god. I was the indie buyer for a huge record store in Las Vegas. If a customer had a question, ANY question, about a band or song, I knew the answer, whether we had the CD in stock, and its exact location in the store. With all the promos I was getting, my CD collection grew from ridiculously impressive to hideously obscene. I helped my promoter bandmates put on shows for touring indie bands.

Its amazing how quickly you can get out of the loop. It started when I moved back to Nashville in 2001. It might have been that I was distracted by living in a city with an NFL franchise. The fact that my finances no longer allowed me to make weekly trips to a record store was surely a factor. I no longer worked next to a bookstore where I could read music magazines every day on my lunch break. And within 6 months, I started getting the feeling that the hip parade had passed me by. When I re-read High Fidelity a couple years ago, that scene hit home like a runaway truck.

So I started taking steps to change that. I got high speed internet so I could listen to music online. I started swinging by the records stores at least every few weeks to check out the CD's on the listening stations. I made it a point to go to a show at least once a month. I read the occasional music blog. I'll never get back to the halcyon days of my twenties, but I'm to the point now where I'll know at least one of the bands on the marquee at the Exit/In. And when I'm talking music with my younger friends, I'll have heard OF the bands they are talking about, even if I haven't actually heard them.

So this site is another one of those baby steps. Its not a new music blog, or a concert review blog, or a CD review blog, though it will have a little bit of all that. It's a place for me to talk about music... whatever I'm listening to, or buying, or seeing live, or just thinking about... and hopefully help me continue to reconnect with my first love. I'm doing it mostly for me, but you can read it if you want to.

post title by The Church