2008-12-11

Finally, Pavement (two shows +more)

I've been lazy about posting, but it's about the two year anniversary for this little old blog, and the fourth in Pavement's line of reissues has just come out, so the (slacker) stars have aligned. I won't blabber on too much about Pavement or their music, but I will simply say this: they were the coolest, and I was lucky enough to be there to see a good deal of it - from seeing them open for Sonic Youth in '92 to following them on around for all four Texas shows on their last tour in '99 (that's my pic of Malkmus in Houston '99 below). The T-shirt pictured here is a super-rare one from the '97 Brighten the Corners tour, with a Westie-designed tour map on the back. I've met Stephen Malkmus several times, and I'll say unequivocally that he sometimes gets a rap for being an asshole for no good reason. There's a bit of aloofness to his cool, but he's just a plain nice guy (on top of being the coolest motherfucker on the planet). Add the enthusiasm of percussionist/keyboardist/shouter Bob Nastovich, the slack hip swagger of either drummer (Gary Young on the first record, Steve Westie/Westie after that), the aw-shucks manner of bassist Mark Ibold (who is also talented enough to play alongside Sonic Youth) and the always right-on second guitar work of Spiral Stairs (who wrote a handful of Pavement tunes which I must admit never measure up to Malkmus's), and you have one of my favorite bands (and obsessions) of all time. Does anybody remember the old Pavement-Powered website (with tons of music and shows to download)? That was me.



Brighten The Corners begins the polarizing point for many Pavement fans, what some consider the beginning of the downward ride to the end, coming right off the heels of the mercurial fan-favorite Wowee Zowee - but I really think the greatness of Pavement's first three albums are the only thing that overshadow the songs on the last two, especially compared with virtually everything else in indie rock of the time (and even today). I remember Rolling Stone reviewing it at the time and declaring Pavment had finally become a "proper" band. There is a real musical sophistication that begins with Brighten The Corners, and except for a few moments like the rocking single "Stereo" it's overall a much mellower affair than their previous work. The songs seem more deliberated and have more exploratory proggish melodies






And like the rest of the Pavement reissues, this one's full of not only B-sides long cherished by hard-core fans, but plenty that even they haven't heard. For me, that gold nugget would be "Nigel". My friend Brian will instantly recognize it as the lick I play at least a third of the time I pick up a guitar (mine with Malkmus's sig is below). For years, I knew of only two live versions ever played, but something about that (C to Am to) F to G# progression was always just one of the coolest things I ever heard for some reason - I could never get over it. And finally, after nearly ten years of playing my version roughly based on a live version, I get to hear the definitive Pavement studio-recorded version, and it's brilliant:


Pavement "Nigel"

Pavement "Nigel" (live, circa 1997) (not on BTC reissue - Sorry about the bitrate)


Pavement "No Tan Lines" (originally on the Shady Lane single)



And there are 14 live radio tracks on the second disc of the expanded Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition (along with 6 completely unreleased songs, 62-page booklet, B-sides and other goodies), but unfortunately not a full concert like only the first Slanted and Enchanted reissue has had (a concert on vinyl had been available with some preorders which I'm kicking myself for missong out on). To remedy that, here is one of my absolute favorite Pavement concerts from this period. It is definitely one of the more laid-back Pavment shows I've heard, and ends with a hilarious great improv Malkmus wrote for a girl named Amanda. This was the first Pavement boot on cassette I ever received, and the first I painstakingly converted to digital in '00 when my friend Chris first got his ProTools setup. A couple years ago I found a digital version direct from the master, which was a lot clearer than my previous copies but still lacking some punch, so once again I did some limiting/EQing and whatnot. Please enjoy (don't forget you can use DownloadThemAll for ease if you're a Firefox user - see the right sidebar)















Included in the Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition is both songs Pavement performed on the cartoon Space Ghost: Coast To Coast on the Cartoon Network, without the Space Ghost interspersed in the music. Not included in the following video is Space Ghost introducing Pavement as "The Beatles", but the video really helps make it. Poor Goldie.






And for Brian, I'm sorry my blog neglect leaves you sad - here's a short set I came across recently from '92 which has some favorite old gems and which should soothe your hurt butt. Previous copies had "Loretta's Scars" as track 3, but clearly at the end of "She Believes" Malkmus announces "Loretta's Scars" coming, so I fixed that, and if you have this recording you'll notice the obviousness. Other songs and bits are clipped, however, this is just what was broadcast on French radio. Googling for info on this, I found a copy of it in somebody's boot collection with apparently twice as many songs, if anybody knows of anybody who has more of this, please email me - as well if anybody knows what the last song on the Missoula show above is, let me know. Gotta love Bob Nastovish's intro to "No Life Singed Her" on this one, even if you like your job:




2008 has been a so-so year for new music, making the Brighten The Corners 2-CD reissue a perfect stocking stuffer for the musically discriminating person on your holiday list. Buy it direct from Matador Records for 14 bucks.

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2008-08-25

Brown And Purple Mix

I've been working on this one for a bit. It's got a couple of newer tracks, several 80's tracks (I've been on a kick for finding lost 80's gems I haven't heard), a little "old-school rock-n-roll", and other stuff. It's not too long, about 40 minutes. You're already here, might as well download it - but wait until you can listen to the whole thing at once. And turn it up a little.

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2008-08-01

Is There Life On Mars?

Yesterday NASA's Phoenix (official UofA page / NASA page) lander confirmed the existence of water on Mars. They were pretty sure it was there when they saw on camera what appeared to be chunks of ice disappearing, but yesterday the Phoenix was finally able to get a good scoop of soil inside itself, and the TEGA equipment analyzed the samples and "tasted" the water, and confirmed it. Scientists have long concluded where there's water there's life, so it may only be a short time before we have the evidence of the first lifeform discovered outside Earth. The Mars Science Laboratory (rover) will be launched in the Fall of 2009 to further study the composition of Mars.

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2008-07-30

A Mix





I made a mix for some peeps and thought I might as well share it here, a few songs from previous FP posts, but who really notices... it's a nice 'un:




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2008-07-22

Atlas Sound Live in Lisbon

Say that you're Bradford Cox [myspace]. You've already released one of the albums in the year with solo project Atlas Sound's debut full-length Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, your band Deerhunter's newest Microcastle (another triumph) is in the can and now you're asked to open up for your musical heroes Animal Collective in Europe. So, what does the prolific frontman do? Take it easy and play the new Atlas Sound album with the new band he got together who are probably just now really gelling with the material? Nahhhh. He drops the solo band, packs up the sampler used by said heroes, and emulates them in the same venues they're about to play. Atlas Sound is more gentle and airy than Deerhunter, and Cox's sound had already drawn comparisons to Panda Bear and Animal Collective, but the aping that takes place (in this set at least) here is astounding for one reason: he makes it his own and makes it work. There are times in this set when his voice and guitar and sounds are whooshing through the Roland SP-404 sampler (I confirmed it w/ flickr pics, it's the glue to Animal Collective's sound) and assorted effects pedals, and if you didn't know better you couldn't be blamed for thinking it was a Panda Bear solo set. And this is no easy feat - I don't know how much Cox used a 404 before this tour, I know he's well used to samplers, but Panda Bear has talked about having to completely relearn how to write songs after getting one (it's also the lynchpin to El Guincho's AC-similar sound). To add an extra unknown to the musical equation, AC's Avey Tare wrote on the blog entry for his micromix: ""Bradford and i have been writing lines for each other to sing in the sets on this tour. Puts a little trickery into the improvized parts of our set ill say." And then, just as Panda Bear's Ma Fama session last year ended with an untitled song-of-the-year, Cox does it, too. And not just that one, but five of these seven songs are either brand new or improvisations that the Deerhunter forum hadn't even heard yet, clearly showing Cox's sheer determination to stretch himself as an artist, and leaving me wholly impressed. And as soon as this small tour was over, without a break he was on the road with Deerhunter promoting Microcastles.

HUGE thanks to the guy who recorded this show, Stutter at Dime. He also recorded the Animal Collective set afterwards, which can be found in its lossless flac entirety here at the Live Music Archive. I won't get into the mp3/flac debate, but he originally didn't want these sets shared in mp3, but was convinced otherwise by my persuasive writing. He's got DPA microphones which are small stereo mics, small enough to wear which may have been what he was doing. Occassionally you may hear like a panning phase/whoosh on the overall sound, that's probably small body movements, or the air conditioner at the venue he hated so much, (edit: confirmed it was the air conditioning in the venue - the AC mixing with the AC) but it's weird how perfectly it fits into the overall sound. They're about 400 bucks, but damn, I think these mics might be what I'm going to look into getting. As soon as the lottery hits. Thanks, Stutter, and to smur89 for the Bradford pic in Dublin from the same European tour.

And out of respect to Stutter's great recording and thanks that he's shared it, I'm including a flac download for this one. If you plan on burning this to CD and aren't familiar with flac, now's a good time to start. Flac is basically compressed CD quality, but without the audio lossage that comes with mp3. Download Trader's Little Helper to convert ("decode") flac into CD quality wav, or there are several free apps that play or convert flac (VLC is always good for playing anything on any platform), google it. And if you want more free live lossless music and don't know where to turn, look here. Thanks again, stutter.





Atlas Sound
2008-05-28
Lisbon, Portugal, Lux Fragil

DOWNLOAD FLACS




_______________________________________

mp3:




Atlas Sound
2008-05-28
Lisbon, Portugal, Lux Fragil

new song 1
new song 2
new song 3
Cold As Ice
On Guard
new song 4
new song 5





if you're not a fan and just curious, start with the last song.


Be sure the Deerhunter blog is in your bookmarks, it's everything you'd think a musician's blog should be: a few frank thoughts and lots of great music. LOTS of music, as in "here's a vocal sample I recorded I thought you'd like"... "here's a free EP"... "here's another free EP of things I miss at home while i'm on tour"... "here's a couple of my dad's favorite songs that I recorded for him"... Every track may not hit a bullseye, but enough do, and I have mothing but the upmost admiration for any artist so willing to share with fans the nooks and crannies of their exploration, warts and all, especially somebody who has a way with playful, primal melody like Bradford Cox does. And besides Avey's, don't miss Geo's and Panda's mixtapes done for the Deerhunter blog while they bused around Europe together (oh to be a fly on that bus, listening to vocal harmonies being traded back and forth), and all the other great music.

Buy Atlas Sound's debut Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel direct from the label, Kranky, on CD and 2xLP

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2008-07-09

Black Kids Cover Estelle

While tearing through the UK, the Black Kids stopped by Jo Whiley's BBC radio show earlier today and performed this cover of English R&B star Estelle:

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2008-07-07

New Animal Collective


(The best quality version of) A new song, and an all-round excellent quality AC boot, courtesy Dime user stutter. Get an account at Dime (check white bittorrent how-to link on sidebar if you're unfamiliar with torrenting) to listen to this entire concert in its full flac lossless slendor - one of the nicest AC boots I've ever heard, thank you, stutter. And thanks to Redheadwalking for the Panda photo from May 19, 2008, in Dublin.


Animal Collective
May 28, 2008, Lisbon, Portugal


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2008-06-28

New Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman has a new record out, Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild, and there's no other way to put it: he's grown up (and that's not a bad thing). I guess you can only keep playing "Ice Cream Man" for so long, and Richman clearly doesn't want to rest on his laurels or trademark bubblegum-folk sound. He hasn't lost his simplicity entirely, but his newer music is more sophisticated than even many long-time fans expected. There's a few deeper themes than he usually writes about here, especially the last track, "As My Mother Lay Lying", but his common themes of love, life, and dead artists ("No One Was Like Vermeer") are still present, and it's musically that he's really grown the most. His songs are still sweet and breezy and charming, but there's a certain element of European troubadour about them now. The songs wear a pencil-thin moustache and often strum and pick with a definite Spanish (classical guitar) style, there are lyrics in both French and Spanish, and the sparseness of the music (just him plus Tommy Larkins on drums, sometimes some bass) helps easily conjure the image of Jonathan leaning against a white-washed wall at sunset while playing and singing these songs. His guitar chords and scale exploration are as jazzy as they've ever been, but it's never too much, just enough to keep the songs interesting. There's even some distorted guitar lead over one of the Spanish-rhythm strummers, a repeat performance of "When We Refuse To Suffer", sounding like a dare which somehow, of course, works. Every song is a winner, this is the perfect summer album and without a doubt one of the tops of the year.










The label Vapor Records simply links to Amazon for purchase, so head over there at once. The superb Jonathan fansite Jojoblog also has news of a Jonathan Richman multilingual album commissioned by the owner of a French fashion company who is a die-hard Richman fan, and just this month released solely through them: http://www.apc.fr. Jojoblog also links to a Jonathan Richman tribute due out soon. And thanks to Diamond Geyser for the photo at the top of Jonathan last month, there's several other good ones at the link, too.

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2008-06-27

Two New New York Post-Everything Albums



Dan Friel, electronic twiddler extraordinaire of Parts & Labor, has a new solo record out. On his previous solo album there were some remnants of Parts & Labor, most noticeably the guitar, and though his usually high-pitched warble tweaking does have a recognizable sound found on everything he does, here he's clearly trying to stretch it out even further into his own realm of DIY futuristic explorations. And cognizant of the fact that not everything in a post-apocalyptic soundtrack should rock, he includes some slower numbers that paint an eeire Mad Max picture of slow swirling dust clouds vanishing into digital pixelation. Those tracks help push open new fields of more drone-y stuff for Friel, so that his trademark flickering-beat grooves (that sometimes sound like mouth harps) and swirling melodies don't get stuck in a rut. But as these two tracks show, the upbeat Friel electro-freakouts sound as fresh as ever.









And checking out Dan Friel's myspace, I noticed he was playing a gig with guitar-god Marc Ribot next month, a Ribot project I hadn't heard called Ceramic Dog. It's his new trio [with bassist Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Secret Chiefs 3) and drummer Ches Smith (Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu], what he calls his first rock band since high school, and as it turns out they have a brand new album out too, and I've got to say, even more than the Friel: "Holy shit." Like the Friel, there's a couple of slower numbers, but here they stretch out to epic proportions, including the spoken "When We Were Young And We Were Freaks" which sounds like it could be a Jad Fair song. There's more rollicking fun than introspection, but all the tracks have a sense of adventure musically, even when using gimmicks they are obviously trying to expand the boundaries of their art, using the familiar musical notions only as a springboard for their explorations. I hear the Sonny Sharrock influence when Ribot shreds, like on last year's release, in fact if Sonny Sharrock were alive this probably wouldn't be too far off what he would be doing. There are explosions of wailing, bursts of scales and squeals, Ribot bouncing his own melodic ideas off of one another (overdubs? I'd like to hear this live!), the whole band pumping furiously and jumping rhythms and excursions in genre-bending similar to Mr. Bungle, some fat electro-beats that could have come straight from a Trans Am album and other kitchy electro-funk Zappa-ish parts, and a Doors cover that has to be heard to be believed. It's a rare musical treat that simultaneously explores and boogies.








Dan Friel's myspace says he's opening the early show at the Knitting Factory for the Ceramic Dog record release on July 25. The Ceramic Dog myspace, however, doesn't list that date, and in fact puts them in Amsterdam on July 24. So unless they're flying to NY and playing the same day, I don't know for sure.

Get Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - Party Intellectual,straight from the label, Pi Recordings (with other mp3s) and Dan Friel's Ghost Town straight from Important Records (mp3/viynl/CD, several more free mp3s there, too) And both labels look like great places to explore for other artists, too.

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