Different Gear, Still Speeding

Beady Eye - Different Gear Still Speeding

I always thought that Oasis without Noel Gallagher would suck. Turns out that's not the case at all. I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising. As the band went on, Noel began ceding the songwriting duties, to the point that on their last three albums half the songs were attributed to other band members. It was said that Beady Eye considered carrying on under the Oasis banner without him, but changing monikers was probably a good move. Though it hardly frees them from their history of being one of England's biggest bands of all time, it does allow them to put a new spin on things.

Their debut album really isn't a huge departure from their old band's catalog. It's a similar concept... catchy ass pop songs born from the DNA of sixties and seventies rock. That said, there is a new energy throughout the album that Oasis frankly hadn't had in years. It does suffer from some of the same weaknesses. For instance, the lyrics sometimes border on banal. But there is no doubt that Liam and the boys are having a lot of fun, especially on tracks like then anthemic "Bring The Light." And when they do evoke the sounds of their heroes, it's less of a ripoff and more of a homage. For instance, "Beatles And Stones" manages to evoke the early sixties singles of both bands without directly ripping off either. Different Gear Still Speeding manages to be familiar and fresh at the same time. Frankly, they couldn't have picked a more perfect album title.

Record Store Day 2011

Over the last four years, Record Store Day has grown from a valiant effort to get people to support their local mom and pop, brick and mortar music retailers into a veritable Christmas in April for music geeks. The list of RSD exclusive releases has grown to almost 300 titles this year, and the parties surrounding the event have become must-attend events whether you're a huge music fan or not (and really, who isn't???).

Here in Nashville, you've got five places you can get your indie on... Grimey's, The Groove, Third Man, and both location of The Great Escape. I was going to post a breakdown of all the scheduled live performances and specials, but Nashville Cream has done a much better job that I would have, so I'll direct you over there for specifics, and I'll just hit the highlights.

Grimey's - Nashville's finest record store was throwing the equivalent of Record Store Day parties before there even was an official RSD, so most locals already know what to expect. Undoubtedly the first stop for all serious local vinyl nerds, Grimeys gets started at 10 am, and will have the RSD exclusive releases stocked in the back parking lot. Expect big crowds, live music starting at noon, DJs throughout the day, a sidewalk sale, giveaways, movie screenings in The Basement, food, booze, and an afternoon signing by Matt and Kim. So yeah, nothing to see here.

The Groove - Though I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses the sweet Five Points location, the boys will make the short walk to the corner of Calvin and Gallatin Rd worth your while starting at 10 am. Along with 15% off everything in the store (RSD releases excluded), they have a full slate of local bands performing, deep discounted vinyl and CDs outside, giveaways, food and booze.

Third Man Records - The house that Jack White built hosts what is undoubtedly Nashville's biggest event on Saturday... a live LP recording by the the Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis. Though the concert requires a paid admission, anyone who swings by Third Man on Saturday will be able to pre-order the album (which is set to be released in just a months time) in it's limited edition black and blue pressing. Though no other live appearances at the store have been announced, I'd imagine that anyone who showed up there expecting to see something special wouldn't be disappointed. It's probably also your best bet to score the four RSD releases that Third Man is putting out... brand new singles from Karen Ellison and the new Danger Mouse project ROME, as well as reissues of the first two White Stripes singles. TMR's festivities start at 11:30 am.

Great Escape - Though neither location will feature any live music, they will have 20% off all used music, sales on new product and giveaways. They'll also be your first chance to score the exclusive RSD releases, as both stores open at 9 am.

If you don't live in Nashville, you can hit up the official Record Store Day website to find out where your nearest participating indie record store is, as well as peruse the official list of the RSD exclusive releases. My personal wish list includes...

Foo Fighters - Medium Rare (a vinyl only collection of all the various covers they've released over the years, including two brand new tracks)

Green Day/Husker Du "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" split 7" (Green Day covers my all time favorite Huskers song, with the original on the b-side)

Various Artists - Sing For Your Meat (a Guided By Voices tribute featuring Superdrag, Lou Barlow, Thurston Moore, Elf Power, and others)

Time Machine

Rush
Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
Sunday, April 3, 2011

Sunday night I managed to do something that my teenaged self could only dream about. I had a date for a Rush concert.

And I wasn't the only one. It seemed like there were a whole lot of wives and girlfriends getting their prog rock cherry broken by Canada's finest power trio. This was my sixth Rush concert, and I've never seen so many chicks at one of their shows (the band even made a joke about it in one of the video vignettes that bookended their set). Evidently between I Love You, Man and last year's fantastic documentary of the band, interest in the band by the finer sex is apparently at an all time high. We met some friends for dinner before the show, and our friend Anna said the same thing that my wife thought... that she had little knowledge or interest in Rush before watching Beyond the Lighted Stage.

Billed as the Time Machine tour, the concert came with the promise that you'd be treated to a steady steam of their greatest hits. So after opening with "The Spirit Of Radio," I was surprised by how much of their first set was filled with songs that seemed to be late period albums... till it dawned on me that "Time Stand Still" and "Marathon" both came from albums that were released when I was in high school. Still, of the eleven songs played in the first set, only three predated what many fans derogatorily refer to as "the synth years." After closing the first act of the evening with "Subdivisions," the band took the intermission that has been a standard part of their opening act-less shows for the past decade.

The second set started the same way the first did, with a video introduction that featured the band in costume (and Alex Lifeson nearly unrecognizable in a fat suit), telling "the real history of Rash." And with a video count off by their pint-sized doppelgangers, "Tom Sawyer" kicked off the evening's advertised performance of 1981's classic Moving Pictures album in its entirety. Though it was cool to hear "The Camera Eye" performed live, picking this album to perform was basically a marketing gimmick. Any given Rush concert in the last 30 years already featured the entire first side of the album as concert staples, and both "Witch Hunt" and "Vital Signs" were performed regularly during the 80s. That shouldn't be considered a complaint, just an observation. I will never get sick of hearing the opening riff to "Limelight" barrelling through arena speakers, and the video of drummer Neil Peart pantomiming Lifeson's guitar solo during "Tom Sawyer" was hilarious.

After previewing their forthcoming album Clockwork Angels with the brand new song "Caravan" (one of two new songs recorded in Nashville last spring that they performed) the second set headed down the home stretch with Peart's always impressive drum solo, "Closer To The Heart," and the opening suite from 2112, before closing with the best Rush song of the last decade, Snakes & Arrows' "Far Cry." The encore featured the epic instrumental "La Villa Strangiato" and a reggae-fied version of "Working Man," and the show came to a final end with a hilarious video that Paul Rudd and Jason Segal fans might want to check out.

Rush - "Circumstances (Live)" (mp3) live in Tuscon, November 20, 1978

photo courtesy of American Songwriter

Oh Canada

I think I've always had a big of a soft spot for the Great White North. It was the first foreign country I ever visited. Over the years a lot of my favorites bands have been from there. And because I grew up just an hour and a half drive up I-5 from the border, I'm very familiar with their currency. As a kid it seemed cool to have money from another country, until the first time you hit up a vending machine only to find you can't get that candy bar you wanted because one of your quarters turned out to be Canadian.

Over the next week, my wife and I will be taking in two of Canada's finest exports... Rush and NHL hockey. Tonight we're going to see the holy triumvirate of rock, and then we have tickets to the last two Predators home games. I haven't bought a new Rush album in well over a decade, but they're performing Moving Pictures in its entirety, so I'm pretty excited about seeing "The Camera Eye" live for the first time. And the Preds are in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, so it should be a great atmosphere.

So with our social calendar dominated by all things Canuck, it seemed only appropriate to post the following video, Neil Peart's version of the second Canadian national anthem, the Hockey Night theme.