Return of the Monday Morning B-side

One of my most popular features when I first started this blog was the Monday Morning B-Side (you can read the introductory post for the feature here). Last year I stopped doing it because I got kinda burned out on it. Well, that and my new job didn't allow me the luxury of writing the posts at work. I got quite a few emails lamenting the loss, and honestly I meant to fire it back up a lot sooner, but... well, I'm lazy. But I figure that after a year, I've had enough of a break that I can start squeezing a few minutes into my weekend to do a post for Monday mornings.

To get things started again, I'm going to do a month long series of acoustic versions. And since listening to this track last week was what got me started thinking about doing this again, it's an appropriate place to start. The original recording of this song (from Here's Where The Strings Come In), is probably my favorite Superchunk tune. It was originally released on the Hyper Enough single, and is now available on the Cup of Sand rarities album.

Superchunk - "Detroit Has a Skyline (Acoustic Version)" (mp3)

Get Down Friday

The Story of My Friday, Part 2: The Second Part

If you had told me on Friday afternoon that the turnaround to what had been a fairly crappy day would be watching a couple of shirtless, pasty dudes jump around by the pool at Opryland Hotel, I'd have thought you were high. But it turns out that is exactly what happened.

The first sign that my Friday was about to get better was about 6:15, when I left work earlier than I thought I'd be able to. That meant I had just enough time to go home, change clothes, and head out to Poolapalooza, the free concert series/pool party that Opryland Hotel is hosting this summer. If you're from around these parts, you know that Opryland isn't usually a destination for seeing local rock acts, but they had a great lineup Friday evening, so I figured I'll try anything once. It turns out the Gaylord folks have put together a really fun event. Kudos to them.

I got there just after The Nobility had kicked things off. Despite the fact that they play a fairly jaunty brand of pop music, they seemed to have a hard time connecting with the crowd. Whether it was their self-depreciating wit or the fact that rock concerts just aren't meant to happen when it's still daylight, people definitely seemed more interested in the pool than the band for most of their set.

By the time De Novo Dahl took the stage just after 8, they had the benefit of twilight, so the atmosphere was much more conducive to a rock show. I'm not sure if anyone else in attendance was trying to fight off the blues that evening, but if they were, DND were just what the doctor ordered. Sometime during the 1-2 punch of "Shout" and their cover of Rod Stewart's "Young Turks," I'd completely forgotten that the better part of my day had pretty much sucked. By the end of their set, they'd managed to draw a diverse crowd of curious locals, chlorine soaked tourists and conventioneers. It made for a surprisingly great start to the weekend.

De Novo Dahl - "Shout" (mp3) from Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound
The Nobility - "Halleluiah Chorus" (mp3) from The Mezzanine

Photo by Lance Conzett. The rest of his pics from Friday night can be seen here.

Letdown Friday

The Story of My Friday, Part 1: The First Part

Yesterday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. The combination of long hours, missed deadlines, and unresolved vendor issues (all work related), along with car problems and a depressing realisation (both non-work related) made for pretty much a total bummer of a day. I could go into detail, but trust me, it's boring and you don't want to hear about it. I only mention it because this song was definitely the theme for the day... at least the first eighteen hours of it (you can read part two of this frankly not-very-exciting tale... tomorrow).

The Church - "Disappointment (Demo)" (mp3)

This is from a collection of demos done for the Gold Afternoon Fix album. With blessings from The Church themselves, you can get the rest of the songs here. For the story of how these made their way into public hands, and a breakdown of the differences between the demos and the final versions, hit up The Church Discography website.

And Everybody Just Danced

The Saturday Knights - Mingle

My CD collection is somewhere around five or six thousand albums, so it's kind of embarrassing that I'd guess that less than 20 of those fall into the hip hop genre. This is especially shameful because a few years ago my job title included the words "Hip Hop Buyer." Granted, this was in the days when Master P and his No Limit posse ruled the charts, so it was hard to get excited about most of the crap I was selling, but still... Urban music is woefully underrepresented around my apartment, and sometimes this makes me feel very, very white. On the other hand, I have seen Biz Markie spin, and I once witnessed a Shaq freestyle in person (it wasn't nearly as entertaining as the video making the rounds this week), and not everyone can say that.

I bring this up because over the past couple of weeks, I've found an album that has shaken me out of my lazy hip hop deprived doldrums. Mingle, the debut album from Seattle's The Saturday Knights, is the kind of record that even people who aren't huge rap fans can get excited about. The first two songs, "45" and "Count It Off," are so ridiculously fun that it was three days before I laid off the repeat button and got into the rest of the album. Once I did, I discovered eleven more gems that touch on rock, funk, pop, soul and even surf. "Dog Park" has a kind of late 80s/early 90s Madchester feel, while "Mutt" is pure garage rock thump. That kind of genre jumping is probably what you'd expect from an album who's guests include The Dap Kings, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, and The Muscle Shoals Horns. Lyrically, the rhymes provide a humorous take on subject matter nearly as varied as the music. Over the past couple of weeks, Mingle has become the go-to CD in my car, which probably isn't very good for my hearing. It's the kind of record that is almost impossible to listen to without cranking the volume.

The Saturday Knights - "45" (mp3)
The Saturday Knights - "Dog Park" (mp3)

To hear the album in its entirety, check out My Old Kentucky Blog and the KEXP Blog, who are each hosting half the album for a streaming listening party.

Widescreen Sound

Mono In VCF - Mono In VCF

There are some things that when put in a certain combination I'm just a total sucker for. Putting a chick singer over dense, dreamy music is one of those things I can't resist. The first time I heard Mono In VCF, the combination of Kim Miller's gorgeous vocals and the band's slightly shoegazer-esque sound immediately had me hooked. Upon hearing their album in its entirety for the first time a few weeks ago, I realized that while they do share a "wall of sound" approach with the shoegazer movement, it's are really closer to late 60's orchestral pop... definitely more Spiritualized than Slowdive. The fact that Poppy Family founder Terry Jacks appears on two tracks is a pretty good indication of where this band's head is at. Several songs have a vibe like what a Cocteau Twins album might sound like if Robin Guthrie had used an orchestra instead of layers of chorused guitar, and "In Los Angeles" sounds like an updated take on a Nancy & Lee duet. It's an incredibly lush album, the kind that sounds equally good on headphones in a darkened room or blaring from stereo speakers. The fact that it's the band's debut makes it all the more impressive.

Mono In VCF - "Masha" (mp3)

Song Of The Day

This song has been stuck in my head since about 9:15 this morning, for reasons that will go mostly unmentioned, except to say that a reading of the lyrics would be fairly literal. Unfortunately I didn't have this album loaded on my ipod (that has now been corrected), so I could only hear it in my head until about fifteen minutes ago.

The Stone Roses - "She Bangs The Drums" (mp3) from The Stone Roses

This is the most awesome song on one of the greatest debut albums ever. About a year ago I was searching around youtube, and stumbled on videos of both John Squire and Ian Brown performing it on recent solo tours. They're both... well, terrible. How did two tuneless wonders create one of the most perfect pop singles ever? Were Reni's backing vocals that important?

Heaven Tonight

Last week Cortney Tidwell held round one of her mini residency at The Basement, and if you didn't make it out, you missed a night of music that can only be described as magical. She and the band pulled out all the stops during an hour long set that mixed up new material from their forthcoming album Son and Moon, along with a few older songs that had been gussied up with a fresh coat of paint. The evening featured guest appearances aplenty (at one point there were ten people on stage), including duets with Lambchop's Kurt Wagner on "Society" from Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up, and a gorgeous take on Don William's classic "I Believe In You." Combined with standout sets from Altered Statesman and Lone Official, it made for just a stunning evening.

She will be doing round two of the residency tomorrow (Wednesday, June 18), this time joined by The Privates and Stone Jack Jones. Even if it's only half as good as last week was, it will still be an utterly amazing show.

UPDATE: Someone should have told me that mp3 link below was busted. It's fixed now.

Cortney Tidwell - "Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Alternate Version)" (mp3) original version from Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up

If you absolutely, postively can't make it (like say you live in Europe), make sure you hit up her myspace profile, where she is currently previewing "Palace" from the forthcoming album.

Concerts with Dad

Part of the reason I'm such a huge music fan is because of my parents. While neither of them are as fanatical about it as I am, they both had pretty good taste, and we always listened to a wide variety of stuff in our house. I certainly didn't get my love of jazz from either of them, but they took me and my sister to the symphony at least once a year, and during college I saw a lot of shows at the Station Inn with them. I can also trace my love for Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Jim Croce back to their old record collection.

Since I graduated college, I'd guess that I've seen at least two concerts a year with my dad. So in honor of Father's Day, I thought I'd list the top five concerts I've ever seen with him. And since this post is dad-centric, I'm only including shows that were purely father-son outings (sorry Mom, and step-mom).

1. A Bluegrass Tribute to Courtney Johnson, Ryman Auditorium, 1996. After original New Grass Revival banjoist Courtney Johnson died, a benefit concert was held for his family. It might be the most incredible collection of talent I've ever seen in one night. In addition to a NGR reunion, the evening also featured performances from Ricky Skaggs, John Hartford, Jerry Douglas, The Del McCoury Band, Vassar Clements, Doc Watson, and about a dozen other performers. The performers all took turns playing with each other, and it was simply one of the most amazing nights of music I've ever heard.

2. The Rolling Stones, Gaylord Entertainment Center, 2002. When I heard the Stones were playing a show two days before my dad's 60th birthday, I thought I had won the awesome present lottery. I figured the GEC wasn't that big, so even a couple of cheap seats (which were still 80 bucks each, plus fees) would be decent. When I went onto Ticketmaster's website the morning tix went on sale, I found out the cheap seats were actually BEHIND the stage. I wasn't going to pay 160 bucks to stare at Charlie Watt's back all night, and since I had already decided that I HAD to do this for his birthday, I bit the bullet and bought mid-level seats for for $125 a pop. It's still the most I've ever paid for a concert, but it was totally worth it. Not only did they tear the roof off the joint, but seeing my dad borderline headbanging during "Satisfaction" was completely priceless.

The Rolling Stones - "You Got Me Rocking" (mp3) from No Security

3. Eric Clapton, Starwood Ampitheater, 1990. I almost left this one off the list, purely because I'd already written about it here. But if my dad were making this list, he'd probably put it at number one.

4. The Village People, Municipal Auditorium, 1996. We went because we had to. I mean, seriously, if you had the chance to see The Village People, you'd go too. They were playing as part of Summer Lights, and either a lot of other people also felt that it was a must-see event, or everyone was just trying to get out of the rain. The thing I remember most about it was the construction worker telling the crowd before "YMCA" that the correct way to make an M was with your elbows in the air, and that he didn't want to see any "dipped hands monkeyshit."

5. Bob Dylan w/ Steve Earle and the Dukes, Starwood Ampitheater, 1989. Sometimes concerts are memorable for how bad they are. Steve Earle opened with an amazing set to what was then his hometown crowd. It was the first time I'd ever seen an opening act get an encore. And then Mr. Zimmerman came out. I suppose if you were a hardcore Dylan fan, you might have appreciated the fact that his set was comprised almost entirely of really obscure material. But combine that with the fact that that he had almost zero interaction with the crowd (I don't remember him saying a single word between songs), and there wasn't a lot for a more a casual fan to grab onto. I saw Dylan again ten years later at Municipal Auditorium and it was amazing. I'm pretty sure my Dad has sworn him off completely. He says if it hadn't been for G.E. Smith, who was playing guitar with him at the time, the evening would have been a total waste.

A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening

How to get your weekend off to a great start in two easy steps...

1. Watch your hometown team kick the crap out of the Red Sox. Granted, after winning 8-0 Friday night, they went on to lose the next two games in the series. But at this point in the Mariners' craptastic season, I'm happy for any win I can get.

2. See a great show. After watching the rare M's victory Friday, I made my way to the 5 Spot, and accidentally timed my arrival perfectly to have exactly enough time to get a beer before Jennifer Nicely got the evening started. If you're seeing her for the first time, it's probably a bit disjarring. You close your eyes and you'd swear the ghost of Billie Holliday was on stage... then you open them and it's this skinny white girl. Altered Statesmen were up next with a fabulous set of their trademark chilled out psychedelic soul. Rounding out the night was Millionaire Magicians. Having previously only seen frontman Jerry Campbell's previous band Spider Virus, I was surprised to be treated to set of unabashed pop songs, complete with gang vocal sing alongs. It was one of those nights that reminded you that it's really pretty ridiculous how many talented people there are in Nashville, and how lucky you are to get to experience it constantly.

Altered Statesmen - "Lightning Rod" (mp3) from Altered Statesmen

Altered Statesmen will be playing the first evening of Courtney Tidwell's mini-residency at The Basement this Wednesday, June 11, along with Lone Official and a solo set from Lambchop's Kurt Wagner. This will probably be the best show in Nashville this month, and if you miss it, you'll be kicking yourself when everyone else is talking about it on Thursday.