The Sydney Dylan Soc webpage has been revamped. An interesting thing to note is that March 19th, 2012 is the 50th (!) anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan, the album.
A round up of stuff I've seen in the last few months.
Let's start with my friend JD Love's album launch supported by 49 Goodbyes in November at the Rose, Erskineville. JD is a bona fide rock star mix of Mose Allison meets Hank Williams. He has a new record out now called Two Days, the LP version of which was pressed at Abbey Road.
Here is JD with up and comer out of Melbourne Georgia Fields (also happens to be his daughter) in a particularly twang moment:
Opening for JD were 49 Goodbyes, and they are just great. They describe themselves as Gram and Emmylou except with two girls (and a guy on guitar). One of the leads is Emma Swift who has the excellent "In the Pines" Americana show on FBI Radio in Sydney every Tuesday night (you can listen online nationally.)
More of them later.
The next thing I went to see was Joe Pug and the Wagons at the Vanguard. I don't mind the Wagons or anything but I also wouldn't go far out of my way, but for Joe Pug I would ... willingly experience some inconvenience. He was only opening so it was a short set but divine as he always is. He came out in the encore of the Wagons (they have quite a following it was pretty packed for them) to do "Long Black Veil" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money", both of which I got videos of. I also got a photo. ;-)
Then, I went to see the mysterious Frank Fairfield at the Basement. But first, to my surprise 49 Goodbyes was the support act. Win. This is them doing "Wrecking Ball" (Emmylou Harris via Neil Young). 49 Goodbyes has an EP out, all the tracks are listenable to here. (I believe that is Emma's own YouTube page so it's artist-approved streaming.)
I went to Frank Fairfield with a friend who didn't know him (I have his albums -- which are on the great, eclectic Tompkins Square label -- but never seen him live) and we ended up having a deep not really sober conversation about Authenticity. We both basically hate the concept, so that helped. For Frank Fairfield is a creation of another age (turn of century - 20s folk tunes) and for sure "acts" the part, the clothes, the stage manner and such. I have mixed feelings about performers who attempt to "faithfully recreate" another era, the revivalists. There are some well known ones that leave me cold. I admit a lot of that comes down in the grey area of the Very Subjective. I love old time music, as should be obvious if you read this blog, but I also don't listen to music to get a high school play type presentation of The Cartoonish Past. (And I also feel uncomfortable with lifting cultural forms out of their context when that act is a form of white privilege blithely appropriating the culture of black or other colonised people. That's a much bigger issue .... ) I don't know, as I say a lot is very subjective but too much affectation is not conducive to good music, in my experience.
However, I really like Frank Fairfield. I think there is something just so resolutely anti-commercial about every thing he does that it can't be a marketing ploy (not that I object to artists using marketing, but you don't get to have it both ways). It is so studied, intense and internalised it kind of transcends the trend of revivalist retro. I think he's just basically weird, in the good sense, in the old weird America sense. I didn't even bother trying to get a video since he sits so far back from the microphone even to sing, there would be no point. I like that he makes the audience WORK to get their quota of hipster approved depression-era jollies, dammit.
Here is a short (1:22) video about him
He did consent to allowing the new fangled iPhoto-O-Matic 2000 to imprint his and his Civil War Moustache's visage on its devilishy digital mercury.
Then I guess the next thing was Hanggai, who are a Mongolian/Chinese band who play traditional Mongolian music with a distinct punk edge. They were also at the Basement and they were super amazing. The Basement was rocking and sweaty that night (and, vastly less Anglo than usual). I can't find anything on YouTube to really recreate that, most of the videos are from polite world music festivals. This one from Woodford last month is OK. Woodford has always had good music but the overall vibe of it always made me fear I'd have to smother a hippy within 20 minutes of being there and inviting the really quite evil anti-vaccination loon Meryl Dorey to speak this year really just turned me off it forever.
Anyway, Hanggai:
Hanggai get two videos because they are awesome. This is "Xiger, Xiger" (pronounced "Shigga Shigga") which is more traditional that the above but it gets stuck in my brain for days. I dare you not to get enthralled. I mean, check out Batubagen who is throat singing and playing the morin-khuur (Mongolian horse-headed "cello" type instrument). He'd sing, then another person would sing and I'd look around the band to see who the new singer was but ... it was Batubagen and that whole throat singing thing. And of course Ilchi , the bare-chested front man who IMHO joins a very select group of genuine, charismatic top tier front men. Amazing and ROCKING.
Then I went and saw Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard. They are a Cambodian/"Western" fusion in the manner of the much better known Dengue Fever ie dudes with guitars backing a Khmer female singer. CSP are based in Phonm Pehn, though. I enjoyed it although I thought that the guitars were mixed up WAY too high, drowning out the singer Srey Thy who is quite great. (I also thought some of the between song banter was a bit condescending towards her.) Her voice is more than worthy of singing those classic Ros Sereysothea songs.
I mean, what's the point? If this band was just the indie rock dudes, no one (no offence) would care, it is the Cambodian aspect that is the reason they have the gig. I can listen to dude guitars anywhere. Still, they had cute t-shirts for sale. Here is how they are meant to sound:
And that is that!
Direct link here. Only 13 songs so some major culling but it'll do.
And who'd have thought, after all
Something so simple as rock'n'roll would save us all?
Lucinda Williams - Blessed
This is not from the album, it's her song from the The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams project which I forgot to include on these lists anywhere else.
Dennis Coffey - self-titled FUNK. (super name dropping in this vid, but he's earned it)
The Decemberists -- The King is Dead
Middle Brother -- self-titled
Deer Tick -- Divine, Providence
Country Cajun Revival -- The Real Thing
And some of the rest that made life worth ploughing on.
Hayes Carll -- KMAG YOYO
Charles Bradley -- No Time for Dreaming Seeing him next March.
Tom Russell - Mesabi
Eddie Roberts & The Fire Eaters - Burn
The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow Current Americana It duo.
Lindi Ortega - Little Red Boots
The Sheepdogs -- Learn and Burn ROCK
Robert Ellis - Photographs This is a curious album in that a couple of songs are tears in my beer country and others are more low fi-y straight ahead folky. All good.
Cash Box Kings -- Holler & Stomp Not to be confused with Hayes Carll's "Stomp & Holler."
Jimmie Dale Gilmore & The Wronglers - Heirloom Songs The Wronglers include Warren Hellman bazillionaire investment banker dude who bankrolled Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Fran, and who died recently. I hope he provided for it 'cos I've always dreamed of going one day.
I snuck another into here which makes my top ten a top twelve.
Bei Bei and Shawn Lee -- Into the Wind
Another "world fusion" offering that works, this time with guzheng (Chinese stringed thingy) and doofy doofy beats.
Buddy Miller -- The Majestic Silver Strings 'Surple" still makes me laugh.
Lydia Loveless -- Indestructible Machine She's 21 or something ridonkulous.
The Sweetback Sisters -- Looking For a Fight The Sweetback Sisters are quite hilarious, as well as lovely to listen to. My favourite song on the album is "Too Many Experts" because it basically sums up the entire Internet. (this video is not that)
Brennen Leigh -- The Box Just super good country music, we still like that round here.
Tedeschi Trucks Band -- Revelator Susan and Derek, bluesing it all up in you.
These are my top ten eleven in two instalments. Dave Alvin is pretty clearly number one. Rest much of a muchness. I'll do another post or two with the other music I enjoyed most this year.
Dave Alvin -- Eleven Eleven
This record is on the short road to being one of those where I can say I know every word to every song. Perfect balance of styles and a host of memorable characters, sketched in bluesy economy, brought to life by Dave's rumbling baritone and propelled by many a memorable lick. Here's one of my favourite songs, "Johnny Ace is Dead."
Gillian Welch -- The Harrow & The Harvest
Do I need to explain? No? Super.
JuJu -- In Trance
JuJu is Justin Adams and Judeh Camara who play the electric guitar and the Gambian ritti (one string violin) respectively. Their previous album made my Favourites list last year, and their albums will I suspect keep making the list as long as they do them. It is approaching banal these days to talk about the connections between western rock n roll via the blues and African genres, but just sticking the two traditions together is not guaranteed to produce anything interesting. These guys make it work perfectly.
The Bo-Keys -- Got to Get Back
Memphis funk super group (including the only survivor of the plane crash that took Otis Redding). Just what it says on the box.
Frank Turner -- England Keep My Bones
Well now. I had never heard of this bloke until someone included him on an early Best Of list back in November and now here we are. A punkier Billy Bragg? A more sarcastic Springsteen? Well, whatever I like every song on this album. I like the hookyness of every track, I like the acapella ditties about 1066, I like the atheist singalongs, I like the name checking of Johnny, Dylan, Jerry Lee and Dostoyevsky.
Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers -- Starlight Hotel
Do I need to talk about the attitude, the voice, the band and the lyrics? Or do I just need to say that it has a song on it called "If I Can't Trust You With a Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?)"
December 2011! Time for some favourites from the year, I guess.
Starting with these ....
The Singing Mailman Delivers - John Prine Double CD of demos and live from 1970, a year before his first studio release. If you know Prine you'll find it worthwhile and if you don't it's actually a great place to start.
Late Late Party 1965-67 - Charles "Packy" Axton Anthology of cuts from the various bands of this Memphis sax player. Largely instrumental, just super funky in a smooth sort of way.
Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea's Shin Joong Hyun 1958-1974 - Shin Joong Hyun The "Godfather of Korean Rock", absorbing the music of the US troops, and adding elements of Korean music, jazz and soul until being "unpatriotic" got him banned from music.
Joe Pug and Randy Newman both put out live albums (and accompanying DVD in Randy's case) in the last few weeks, I hardly think I need to spruik them given how much of that I've done in this forum. I will however say, once again, Joe Pug's Live at Lincoln Hall is only $5 to download and is sensational.
Following a link on Twiiter from @crikey_earworm, Crikey's music blog, I came across Australian-only streaming service Songl. Lis the new r in the hipster net app naming stakes apparently. Not sure about the name, several times when I've plugged it into Google I've automatically typed "Songr." I must grow accustomed to our new L overlords.
Songl used to be called Anubis.fm which used to be bandit.fm, got that? I used bandit.fm a few times, and I would've continued using it except they dumped their subscription plan which is the only thing that made it useful for me compared to iTunes. It's probably wise to shelve trying to compete against Cupertino there and move to the currently unoccupied space of music streaming in Australia.
Earworm also mentioned JB Hi Fi has a streaming service now too but I haven't checked that one out yet (the colour scheme of the website is not the same as the shops thankfully.) Both have free trials on right now.
As the Spotify, Pandora etc rage has swept the world (where "world" means Europe and the USA), we have mostly been left out by geographical restrictions, although there undoubtably ways around those. Always eager to feed my music consumption compulsions, I checked out Songlr. Here are the answers I found to my most burning questions about the service.
Is it a hot mess to use?
Songlr is in some kind of pre-launch beta phase so to get a code to join you like their Facebook page, it was a painless process and only took a minute or so til I was in. The interface moves around smoothly and is basically easy to navigate right off the bat. I know some folks hate the white onblack style, but I didn't find it hard to read (red on black, now that's a killer. Yes, eMusic, I refer to you.)
The layout seems oriented more to individual tracks than albums. Adding stuff to my queue was simple, playback was flawless (I'm on ADSL2 in a metro area) and wasn't interrupted when I continued to surf around different pages.
There is also an iPhone (and Android) app, which I've downloaded but haven't used yet.
Is there anything you actually want to listen to?
I signed up for a 30 day free trial but from then, you pay. Which I would consider doing as long as it has enough that I want, which is not so obvious since Top 40 is not what I want. And yes the Top 40 type stuff is right up front (geez those Glee kiddies have certainly pumped out some product, eh?) which is fine, I can click past that as long as there's something for me to click to. I see 3 basic uses for a streaming service for me. To try before you buy, to investigate artists and genres I'm curious about or are gaps in my music mind map but I don't want to buy (and sampling on YouTube doesn't suffice) and because I want to hear something but it's easier to stream than actually go get the damn CD out of the rack in the other room. Less damning of my laziness, this last one also applies to streaming on a portable device. Have anything you want just there is appealing.
SO ANYWAY. It's owned by Sony and has the other majors and, it says, a "strong representation of independent labels." Still very little of what I normally buy - no Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers for Songl! I plugged in the last dozen or so things I've bought and it had none, except for The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Based on some quick searches they have Lost Highway (which is a subsidiary of one of the majors anyway) but no Bloodshot, Yep Roc, Rounder, New West or Signature Sounds - which cuts down on the new country/roots releases I seek out.
They did however have the first Frank Fairfield album, who coincidentally I'm seeing tonight at the Basement. That's pretty subterranean stuff.
But it may be unfair to judge it by niche tastes, the catalogue of mainstream acts both classic and contemporary is undoubtably impressive. They have Columbia so a search for "Johnny Cash" brings up 80 separate albums (even if I did count four different repackaging of San Quentin ...) They have everything Dylan has released officially. Ditto Leonard Cohen and Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Marvin Gaye. I queued up The Essential Jefferson Airplane as I explored, then the last album by recently deceased soul singer Howard Tate. They have Blue Note and Prestige so the jazz is outstanding (136 albums for Miles Davis!)
I found I couldn't get much of what I wanted from the "Genre Playlists" but search turned up the massive catalogue below the surface. The cost will be $9 and $12, both offering unlimited streaming but you pay for 320kpb over 128, to be able to stream on your phone and to cache songs.
It doesn't look like there's a way to buy a track you like, which is quite odd.
So if you want to stream Top 40 releases or have a healthy taste for the major labels' back catalogue (and don't already have it all), that could be OK. Overall it was an easy and useful experience and will probably stump up for it, at least intermittently when the need strikes.
Tickets for Byron players' side shows have started going on sale, and so the Easter bottleneck shuffle has begun.
I haven't experienced any great angst with my schedule the last couple of years but in 2012 Lucinda Williams and John Hiatt are playing Sydney the same night, Tuesday 3rd April. What to Do!!!???
Actually the dilemma was not a big one in the end. My devotion to both is equal, really I can't split them. I've seen both live in the last couple of years and neither seem likely to give up touring or recording in the foreseeable future. So it comes then down to the venue, and that is, as the young folk say, "a no brainer." John is playing the Metro and Lucinda the State. The Metro: smallish, general admission where you can get up the front with a bit of rock and roll in the air versus the State where your only option is to sit and clap politely. Lucinda's ads say "One Show Only" so that is sad but man I am looking forward to "Walk On", "Slow Turning", "Tennessee Plates" etc etc in that venue.
Speaking of no-brainers Justin Townes Earle is at the Factory the night after. Never miss him live.
Steve Earle is going solo at the Factory the following week, through an early offer I got some front row seats and Steve solo is still a worthwhile proposition despite my mostly indifference to his last decade of output.
Also at the Factory in March is Charles Bradley, the latest retro soul revelation from Daptone.
I gather Trombone Shorty is also playing at the Metro but tickets aren't on sale yet. I'll also check out Bettye Lavette and Nick Lowe sideshows to see if I can fit them in.
Before all that in January I'll be seeing the Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard and Hanggai at the Basement. Cambodian Space Project traverse the same general territory combining Khmer pop and western rock as the better known Dengue Fever. although CSP are actually based in Phnom Penh.
Hanggai play Mongolian folk music with electric guitars and a punk attitude. I find them quite enthralling.
Phew.
I went to see Joe Pug at the Vanguard the other night. Technically it was a Wagons show with Joe Pug opening but ... I went to see Joe Pug. He was only out here to do this opening gig so it was a bit disappointing to only get a short set but a short set is better than no set I guess. Below are videos of the encores. Opening for the opener was Faith Lee who I thought was very promising.
Long Black Veil
Lawyers, Guns & Money
PERFECT
Bonus:
It's a month since this event, my blogging mojo is gone but it was still constantly on my mind to get this out. The lag should absolutely not be put down to indifference. Indeed, one can check my twitter feed or last.fm record to see the intensity of my excitement re: Randy.
My anxious desire to see Randy live has evident since the early days of the Flop Eared Mule blog, for instance where I proclaimed he would be one of my "musical Mount Rushmores." (some other blasts from the past here and here and here)
And so here we are.
Randy was with the excellent Sydney Symphony (and equivalent state symphonies in Brissie and Melbourne) which was a suitably grand accompaniment for the occasion of his first visit here in almost 25 years. The Opera House venue showed us off to our best, too. On a further Sydney-chauvinist note I was pleased after several weeks of torrential rain and freezing (for us) Winter temps that his week in Sydney was sunshiny and winter-warm.
The setlist was as above (from the programme) both nights with the exception that "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" replaced "Kingfish."
No diss to "Simon Smith etc" (which actually was the almost certainly the first Randy Newman song I ever-though unknowingly-heard on a random vinyl 60s compilation when I was ~14) but I must say "Kingfish" is one of my top 10 Randy songs and I woulda loved to hear it. SO HERE IT IS ANYWAY:
I watched a Ken Burns doco on Huey Long - the subject of Kingfish - recently and it/he is truly fascinating. Oh, don't get me started on the issue of the limits of the state in a capitalist economy! In addition, I really like Levon Helm's cover of it, and I say that about very few covers of Randy. Very few would I listened to voluntarily at home, for pleasure. I like this one.
(Further segue: This reminds me that Randy Newman needs to be on Treme. As a devoted fan of the first two seasons I keep waiting but the closest they've got is a quote from "Rednecks" in second season about "LSU, go in dumb, come out dumb too." Since every other muso who even vaguely thought about ever using a rolling left hand piano line has got a gig it seems natural. As for what he would perform. The NOLA songs are obvious. "Louisiana 1927" is perhaps/hopefully TOO obvious. I'm thinking more "Dixie Flyer", "New Orleans Wins The War" or the above mentioned "Kingfish" which might lead the race as the "Standard Oil" business plays unironically into David Simon's politics and the end of the last season (spoiler) seemed to foreshadow the Deepwater spill. Or something, anything unrelated to New Orleans. I digress. But make it happen, someone!)
But still: Dixie Flyer makes it all OK.
And "Real Emotional Girl" !!
SO ANYWAY. Randy played some songs on piano with the SSO, played some songs on piano solo and conducted a couple of film scores. He joked, everyone laughed (including the orchestra), he got standing ovations. It was a lot of fun. He was very generous about the SSO and encouraged everyone to go see them. I would, probably, if you didn't have to flog off your kidney to afford it. Classical music is one of those things I vastly prefer live than on record; I like the visual quality of watching the orchestra, all the bows zipping up and back together or some beats apart, hearing a something and looking to see where it has come from. On the first night at interval I snuck up from way at the back to one of the boxes over the stage (after a decade or so of getting the rail at Dylan gigs, no Opera House usher is going to out seat-sneak me) - and this was a an excellent spot to get a panopticon view of the orchestra. (On the second night I was in the second row and got a tremendous view of the side of a Steinway & Sons. Learning the lesson when I see Allen Toussiant and the "Legends of New Orleans" show in the same room later this month I got one a bit further back and to the side on the floor.) I enjoyed the orchestral score part, even though my devotion rests on the singer-songwriter work - you can't not be moved by a full orchestra belting out The Natural theme in person, can you?
Spoiler!
As you can see from above, I was able to meet Randy after the show (actually, after both nights.) This was arranged through the official fan discussion list, they take names from there to go backstage after every show. Thanks to Susan from the list and Cathy, his manager for arranging it for me! The first night there were a Swedish couple he had met at a restaurant, the second night a couple who had flown up from Melbourne for the show but happened to run into Randy and his wife on Manly ferry that day. So not only does he generously let folks from the "fan club" come backstage via official channels but he also picks up strays for the door list as he goes about his day.
The first night it was me, the Swedes, Glenn A. Baker and some bloke Glenn A Baker brought with him. So it was a small group. G.A.B naturally started in with some anecdote involving his BFF Ray Charles and what Ray told him was the definition of soul. This went on for a while. I was just sort of standing there being a bit pathetic and staring. Randy on several occasions made a point of including me in the "conversation", asking me about what I thought. What a mensch. We had a brief chat, and of course the photo. Our chat was mainly about Faust - Glenn A. had brought it up first, natch -- and he asked me if there were any songs I wanted him to do that he didn't. I think I blurted out "Guilty" and "My Country." He said he would try. Of course he did neither but that is OK! The second night there were a bunch more people - I don't know where most of them came from - and I had already had my chance so I just lurked awkwardly in that special way I have and chatted a bit to manager Cathy and his helpmeet (he probably has a more official title) Beau, who were both super super lovely. So Randy was lovely, a very warm manner and super nice all round.
On the way home I thought I should have requested "I Want You To Hurt Like I Do" or "New Orleans Wins the War" (shockingly, not on YouTube.)
On the second night backstage some guy was pestering him about doing "Rednecks" (I gather he had yelled it out as a request at the Melbourne show) and Randy's like "yeah, no." Which is completely understandable but having seen the orchestra show I'd love to see a solo show, in a more intimate venue where he could stretch out a bit on the song list without necessarily having to satisfy the SSO crowd. He did end the second show saying he would be back, and it wouldn't take another 23 years -"I can't do anything that takes 23 years!" So I hope I might yet get to see that kind of gig, but even if not I am exceptionally grateful for these ones.
Coda: Earlier the week before Randy was on The Circle on Channel Ten. If you have ever wanted to see Ding Dong Drysdale hit on Randy Newman, all your Christmases have come at once.
Couple of good new Cajun releases I'm listening to.
Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys - Grand Isle Stalwart (he's part of Lil Band O Gold too but wasn't in the line up when they were out here last), plus CC Adcock on as producer for the familiar sounds plus an intense rocking-attitude.
There are a couple of songs (apparently, they're in French) about the Gulf oil spill, this being a major theme reinforced by the oily bird on the front cover. Embarrassingly, I didn't recognise it was an oiled-up bird until I read it in an interview; I just thought it was Artistic. My only disappointment was the version of "Non, je ne regrette rien" which I thought they could have done more Cajun-y thingswith; but again I read in an interview it was a deliberate attempt (even getting in vintage equipment) to recreate a 50s sound. So, what do I know.
Jesse Lége, Joel Savoy, and the Cajun Country Revival - The Right Combination
I am really loving this one, a mix of old guard (if you're surname is Savoy or Landry you're basically obliged to be a Cajun player I think) and the Calebd Klauder country band to create a loose and rollicking Cajun sound which emphasises the connections with Gulf Coast honky tonk. You can listen to some here; I really like that version of "Corrina."
(NB if you google them, there is another "Cajun Country Revival" which is a Creedence tribute band rom Queensland .... )
Randy gigs (if one can call symphony orchestra accompanied appearances at the Opera House gigs) next Friday and Saturday and I am much excited. I have a good (=expensive) ticket for one of the nights and a total cheapie up the back for the second. Here's Mr Newtownoer-Than-Thou Tim Freedman bagging Sydney in a Randy article for the Herald Sun. I hope he realises in the "Sydney-Melbourne is like LA-NYC" thing, Sydney is Los Angeles in that formula and, like that's where Randy is from? So like, we win. Shut up, Melbourne.
It will be interesting to gauge the vibe of the place, are they really ready for Randy or are they Sydney Symphony season ticket holders or Toy Story fans?
Also, if you ever wanted to see Denise Drysdale hit on Randy Newman, here is your chance:
Selections from The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz & Molam 1964 - 1975, The Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychadelic, Progressive Rock and Funk 1970-1978, Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia, Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 1, Dengue Fever Presents Sleepwalking Through the Mekong and Let's A Go-Go! Singapore and Southeast Asian Pop Scene 1964-69
iTunes (Australia) has the rather essential "Down Every Road 1962-1994" box set of 100 (one hundred) songs for $19.95.
Was going to put this in the previous post, but Big Mama should have a post all her damn own.
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