Ukulele Songs

Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs

If there isn't an old saying that states "a little ukulele goes a long way," there should be.

It's hard to say that you didn't know what to expect with this album... it's right there in the album's title, so I kind of feel stupid for complaining about it. I really liked Eddie Vedder's solo work on the soundtrack to Into the Wild, so I figured I'd give his first proper solo album a whirl. And it's not like it's bad or anything. Despite the fact that his career began an angry young singer from the Seattle grunge scene, his various solo material has proved that Vedder sounds equally great singing with acoustic backing. But after sixteen songs with pretty much nothing but ukulele as accompaniment, things start to get a little same-y. The credits indicate that he used at least six different kinds of ukuleles in recording the album, but that just doesn't give it the sonic variety that it really could have used. The appearance of cello on one song ("Longing To Belong") indicates the kind of subtle accompaniment variation that could have been accomplished by adding a few different instruments to the mix while still keeping the theme of the album. I just can't help but think I would have enjoyed this album more if there was some acoustic guitar or piano in the background.

That's not to say there aren't some good songs on here. The first half is front loaded with originals, including a new take on "Can't Keep" from Pearl Jams's Riot Act. Four of the last five songs are covers, and it's at that point that the album really starts to wear out it's wecome, despite the appearances of Chan Marshall (Cat Power) and Glen Hansard (The Frames/The Swell Season) on backing vocals. I keep wanting to compare it to the scene in Blue Valentine where Ryan Gossling serenades Michelle Williams. It's a great scene, but if Gossling would have been playing ukulele in every scene in the movie, it would have gotten old pretty quick. I feel like if Vedder had released in EP called Ukulele Songs instead of an album, I'd have liked it a lot more. Maybe when the songs pop up individually on shuffle on my iPod, I will.

Eddie Vedder - "Sleeping By Myself" (mp3) from Ukulele Songs

I Touch A Red Button

Considering their shared penchant for dark moods and strange images, it's almost surprising that Interpol and David Lynch have never collaborated before now. For this year's Coachella music festival, the band approached Lynch about providing visuals for one of their songs, and he provided them with the following short film to accompany their song "Lights" (which as I mentioned in my concert review from earlier this year is hands down my favorite song from their new album). The result is just as weird as the original video for the song, but with none of the creepy sexuality.



You can read a post where the band discusses the collaboration here.

Talk Talk Talk

The Psychedelic Furs
Mercy Lounge, Nashville, TN
Thursday, July 7, 2011

On Thursday afternoon, the Mercy Lounge sent out a tweet warning the rock o' clock-ers not to show up for The Psychedelic Furs show at 10 pm, because the band would be going on promptly at 8 pm. They weren't kidding. The Butler brothers and company took the stage just a few minutes after the advertised start time and immediately tore into "Dumb Waiters," the opening track from the evening's advertised performance of their sophomore album Talk Talk Talk. Although there was a decent sized crowd at the beginning of the show, the empty spaces steadily filled in throughout the first set, and anyone who showed up late missed out on their biggest hit, "Pretty In Pink," which occupies spot number two on the album's tracklisting. Like most acts on nostalgia themed tours these days, they performed the album front to back, so there weren't any surprises to start the show. Despite the fact that they had been playing the album in this manner for the past year or so, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. And if the crowd wasn't as familiar with the album tracks, they certainly didn't show it. The Furs got a enthusiastic response throughout the first set.

After a 15 minute break, the band returned to the stage one by one to the opening strains of "Sister Europe." The rest of the set was basically culled from All of This & Nothing, their 1988 "best of" album. After another 50 minutes and a two song encore it was over. And therein lies the rub. It's not that it wasn't a good show. The band was in top form, and apart from wearing glasses and looking a little looser in the neck area, Richard Butler looked and sounded as great as he did when I saw them at 328 Performance Hall in 1991. But I couldn't help feeling like the show would have been perfect if it was just ten minutes longer. I'm sure I wasn't the only person who left the venue lamenting that they didn't play "The Ghost In You," though I was probably the only one disappointed that they didn't do anything from Book of Days or World Outside, their final two studio albums. Maybe they know their audience better than I do. The room was full of forty- and fifty-somethings who obviously hadn't been to a club show in years (honestly, it felt nice to be in the lower end of the age demographic for a change). Most of the crowd seemed content to sing along to "Love My Way" and "Heartbreak Beat." Personally I would have killed to have heard "House," or "In My Head," or even their final big single "Until She Comes." Alas, it was not to be.

In a Nashville Cream interview, bassist Tim Butler hinted that the band was working on a new album, which would be their first in twenty years. Richard Butler proved on his solo album (Richard Butler) a few years back that he's can still write great songs, so here's to hoping that the next time the Furs tour, it's for something a little more vital than just a greatest hits tour.

The Psychedelic Furs - "Make It Mine" (mp3) from the Until She Comes single

U2, Music City... Magnificient

U2, with Florence + The Machine
Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville, TN
Saturday, July 2, 2011

When you have already seen a band four times, you have a pretty good idea what to expect when you see them again. And when that band is U2, you pretty much know that you're going to see a amazing show. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of concerts, and U2 occupies two spots the list on my top five favorite concerts ever (Murphy Center in Murfreesboro in 1987, and Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY in 2001). In fact, they only time I've seen them and it wasn't great was at the Liberty Bowl on the Pop Mart tour, and even that was a good show, it just wasn't spectacular. You can bash them for being self important, for excessive preachiness, or even for not making a truly great album in 20 years. While I may not agree with you, I can at least see your point on any of those issues. But the one thing no one can ever say about U2 is that they aren't a truly phenominal live act. The only other performer I've ever seen who has the ability to make an arena or a stadium feel as intimate as a club show is Bruce Springsteen.

Getting to the show was a nightmare. The lack of public parking on the Vanderbilt campus means you've got to hoof it to the stadium, and with the temperature in the mid-90s and the humidity in the same range, everyone was a hot, sweaty mess by the time they got to there. Vanderbilt Stadium has only four gates to allow entrance, which isn't a problem when you have the smallest stadium in the SEC and you still usually play to a half empty house on Saturdays in the fall. But when you have a sold out concert of 47,000 people, and one of those gates is effectively closed due to the backstage area, the bottleneck trying to get in is insufferable. It didn't get much better once you got inside, as the already narrow concourses were cluttered with beer stands (Vanderbilt usually doesn't allow alcohol sales on campus). So basically by the time I got to my seat, I was both utterly frustrated and practially soaking wet. Once I sat down, I found that the $110 ticket which the seating chart had led me to believe was on the side of the stage was actually a lot closer to the back. I kept thing how much better the setup would have been and LP Field,* and was beginning to think maybe I should have just stayed home and watched Live at Red Rocks.

My mood didn't get much better when Florence + The Machine took the stage. I hadn't heard a lot of them before Saturday night, and their set didn't make me want to hear much of them afterwords. It wasn't terrible or anything, but it definitely wasn't my bag. Despite the presence of a harp player, the music came off as pretty generic mainstream modern rock. Imagine a less bombastic version of Muse fronted by Stevie Nicks singing opera. I guess I am just not a fan of those kind of big voiced singers.

Considering the start the evening had gotten off to, I was legitimately concerned that the night might be beyond repair. But when U2 took to the stage, it was like suddenly being transported to another place... a cooler, dryer, happier place. It's not like it suddenly cooled off, but the heat definitely didn't seem so bad. They kicked things off with a four song blast from Achtung Baby before going all the way back to their debut album for "I Will Follow." And with them really working the 360 degree stage, the seats really didn't seem so bad after all. Over the course of two and a half hours, they played probably the coolest setlist I've ever seen them do. Sure all the concert staples were there, but sprinkled in between their greatest hits were a lot of songs that I didn't expect to hear, "Zooropa" and "Miss Sarajevo" among them. Hell, I had forgotten that "Scarlet" from October even existed! "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" reminded fans that there was once a time when Bono and The Edge could do songs for a superhero project without it being a unmitigated disaster. They even gave new life to songs I was never crazy about in the first place. "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" and "Discoteque" are definitely not two of my favorite tunes, but I've got to admit that the remixed medly of the two sounded great.

Given that this tour has been going on for two years (there were only nine shows left after Nashville), much has already been written of their massive stage, nicknamed "the claw." It was truly an impressive set up, even before giant circular video screen descended and expanded during "Zooropa." For a lot of bands, the gimmicks are needed because that's what makes the show. But with U2, the setting merely enhances what is already going to be great concert (as mentioned earlier, my favorite two shows of theirs were arena shows without all the bells and whistles).

I think the thing that really made this such a great show was the sense of spontaneity that you usually don't get from a production like this, and even that despite their reputation I had never seen like this at a U2 show before. At the end of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Bono whispered into The Edge's ear, and they segued into "The Wanderer" as an impromptu tribute to Johnny Cash. But the real magical moment of the show came at the very end. After playing "Moment Of Surrender" and taking their final bows, Bono started talking to a fan in the front row as the rest of the band made their way off stage. You heard him ask "What do you want to play?" and a minute later security was helping the guy onstage as Bono asked a roadie to bring him his guitar. The whole scene was was surreal... it was truly odd and you couldn't really believe it was happening. As everyone found out the next day, the guy was blind, hence all the help he needed getting on stage and getting the guitar strapped on. Once Bono and the crew got him all set up and he professed how nervous he was, he started strumming the chords to "All I Want Is You" with Bono singing along. After the second verse, the rest of the band started coming in one by one, with The Edge playing piano. It was one of those goosebump inducing moments that you very rarely get, especially in a spectacle filled stadium show. And it's exactly why for my money, U2 is without a doubt the best live band I have ever seen.

U2 - "The Fly (Lounge Fly Mix)" (mp3) from The Fly single

*Apparently LP Field was the band's first choice of venue to hold the concert, but the Tennessee Titans weren't interested. The CMA Festival (held the first weekend in June) has it in their contract that no other concerts can be held at LP Field in the thirty days before or after their event without their permission, but it turns out that the Titans never bothered to ask them. Perhaps the fact that U2 has had to pay to resod basically every field with natural grass that they've played had (Vanderbilt included) had something to do with that.

photo courtesy of Blue Shoe Nashville