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Trick-or-Treat?

Published by David October 31st, 2006 in Random and Meta-Chatter. 0 Comments

Is today April Fool’s Day or I am I just getting Tricks rather than Treats on Halloween? Two things arrived in my in-box this morning that have me slightly upset, well the first has me near tears. Yo La Tengo has announced they will not be playing any dates during Hanukkah at Maxwell’s this year. This is the event I look forward to all year and I have declined a couple other concerts that are coming up so I don’t overload myself.

From the band:

Hey everybody,
In answer to the most FA’d Q of the last few months, we have reluctantly decided not to play the eight nights of Hanukkah this year at Maxwell’s. We have concluded that our touring schedule is such we just wouldn’t be able to put together a lineup as Hanukkahriffic as years past. Was the refusal of the cast of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” to take part the last straw? Really, is there anything to gain in assessing blame?
But yes, it was.
Georgia, Ira and James

The second doesn’t affect me but it will affect anyone new to this site and visitors to blogs across the globe that point out an excellent place to buy music which we feature. eMusic has announced it will be decreasing the amount of downloads for new subscribers, but it doesn’t change if your currently a member. The prices of the plans are not changing but the amount of downloads is decreasing. With the Basic plan the 40 downloads a month now go down to 30 at $9.99 (around 34 cents a track). The Plus plan which had 65 downloads a month goes down to 50 for $14.99 (around 30 cents a track). And the Premium plan which had 90 downloads goes down to 75 a month at $19.99. That’s around 27 cents a track which is still a great deal but I know it’s going to get a lot of people very upset. There is a discount when you purchase a 2-year 90 download per month at $359.82. If you are a member and you do not have the Premium Plan this is the time to do it because after November 21st you won’t be able to go up anymore.

So I am going to be nice and not trick you, here are a couple Halloween treats for you:
Night Time Reaper Garage rock from the Apes from Washington D.C. playing this Thursday opening for the Slits at Maxwell’s. A speedy punk song about Frankenstein’s Car by The Spectremen.

A Halloween 2006 DIY Almost Free MP3 Mix

Published by David October 30th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Singles and Album. 1 Comment

Calling All Fiends album coverSo your trying to make a Halloween mix for this weekend’s bash, or you went to one this weekend and the music bombed (I mean how many times can possibly listen to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”) and you have it in you to fix that for next year. So let’s fill that puppy or should I say three-headed dog with some strange, unique music your friends never heard that you can seize for free or very cheap.

The creators of Oddio Overplay an eclectic database of DIY, free, legal and obscure sounds, have put together a collection of “frightening, damaging and disturbing music” they call Calling All Fiends, that will help intensify that perfect Halloween mix. The on-line collection is divided up into three beastly sections. The first sixteen songs are Cinematic and Soundscapes based and some would be perfect to play as hair-raising background music for a Haunted House. The second and third groups are Rock and Dance and Fiendish Songs. I suggest throwing the following spine-chilling cuts from the series. A frantic robotic-like techno track by Click Click Click (not to be confused with Chk Chk Chk) entitled “Romance Keys”. The DVDs lead by 6 year old David G, dispense the scary tale of the “Big Orange Monster”, think They Might Be Giants but lead by a kid. A northerner’s tale of “Southern Gothic” is sung/spoken by Bureaucratica, AKA Matt Love of multiple DIY bands. Sink your fangs into horrifying hypnotic mixes of synthesized sounds such as “Trickertreat” by Lenkei a graphic designer based out of of New York City and “the Pit” by The Threshold People. Also check out Martinibomb and the Coconut Monkeyrocket’s monstrous remix of the Munsters Theme they call “Munster Beat”, it will entice you to get your ghoulish groove on, so I suggest putting this on right up front.

You have to pay for this next one, but if you do it through eMusic it will be well worth it, at least for one play each year during Halloween season. The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative released “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?”, a novelty parody of “Do They Know it’s Christmas” last year as a charity-benefit song where all proceeds go to UNICEF. The NAHPI consists of Arcade Fire, Beck, Buck 65, David Cross, Devendra Banhart, Elvira, Peaches, Postal Service, Redd Kross, Rilo Kiley, Roky Erickson, Sonic Youth, Sparks, Wolf Parade among others.

YANP posted a cover version of Ministry’s “Every Day is Halloween” by the MiamI based band The Postmarks which will work up next with Steve Wynn’s live solo version of Dream Syndicate’s Halloween recorded last year on the 30th in Germany. I found a bunch that are just on MySpace, so the bit-rate is pretty poor but if that doesn’t bother you check out the Oklahoma based band Evangelicals who just put a new song, appropriately titled “The Halloween Song”. It has the aura of a Bright Eyes song with light strange eerie noises with vocals applied in a jauntily fashion. Also check out this one by Calabrese it’s rockin’ tune that will add some fright to the night if yu can figure out how to download it.

DC mash-up artist SOLCOFN (AKA Phil) has put together Son of Monster Mash Up a collection of devilishly delicious mashes done by DJs including my fav mash up artist DJBC. Barrage your victims with Cheekyboy’s “Halloween with Morrissey”, Mr Fab and His Bag O’ Heads’ “Skeleton Crew on the Graveyard Shift” and “Haunted House of Mash ups” by DJBC. So that should help you get started composing a Ghastly G(h)oulash of Halloween treats for the ears.

The Lovely Sparrows - Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint

Published by David October 20th, 2006 in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006. 0 Comments

The Lovely SparrowsAustin’s The Lovely Sparrows, produce sweet soulful harmonies backed by breezy acoustical guitars, combined with a multitude of various instruments on their latest five track EP Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint. This is their second release, the first being a 7″ released earlier this year. They have a similar sound to fellow Austinites American Analog Set, as well as influential mixture of The Kinks and Big Star in a similar fashion to way The Shins set up their compositions but more carefree. Lead singer and songwriter, Shawn Jones provides illuminated narration to the bands open and airy landscape. The setting is soft around the edges, like a fluffy cloud mixed with mini bursts of tiny explosions of percussion.

All of the songs are blended together rather inconspicuously and release an overall soothing impression. Upbeat finger-snaps and hand-claps nestled together with a harmonious jangling guitar strum and the robust patter of the percussion construct the third track “The War Has Seen the Best of Me”. In turn it is followed by “Attention Disorder Kid” which openly critiques how our nation is drugging our children and turning them into drones: “Attention disorder kid, they want to replace with you robots. All things not cool, come round, come round. You’ll hear them say settled down, settle down”. The piece is slightly scattered and has it ups-and-downs (as well it should) and concludes by seamlessly blending into the first 45 seconds of the final track “Let’s Watch the Tourists”. We watch the tourists as they shuffle along with another mixture of clatter and clanging, loosely meshed together as it closes the 20 minute collection rather nicely. But guess what, my two favorites are the first two tracks “Chemicals Change” and “Your Flowers Will Bloom” as they are both a bit more polished and shine ever so brightly. This EP sets up a promising future for The Lovely Sparrows that I am looking forward to hear.

Freebies
A high quality version of the lead off track Chemicals Change. Pick up the EP at eMusic or iTunes or order the actual CD from Abandoned Love Records.

Demetri Martin - These Are Jokes

Published by David October 13th, 2006 in Random, Album and 2006. 1 Comment

DemetriThis is a true story: A couple months as I was returning home from a long day at the office, as I pulled in my driveway I was snatched out of my car, blind-folded, dragged into another vehicle and then flown in some type of small aircraft for what felt like hours but was most likely 30 minutes. After the plane had landed I was brought into a large warehouse, with numerous rows of cardboard boxes. I was told to sit down on a very cold aluminum chair as two shadowy figures pulled my blindfold off, then sat across from and said, “We want you to write for Candied Pop!” Startled and extremely confused, I shouted back, “What in tarnation is Candied Pop?” Yes, I used the word tarnation, because I was amused that I was surrounded by boxes and boxes of cigarettes. After what felt like hours, but was probably more likely thirty seconds, I agreed to join these two strangers, who later turned out to be James and Scott, in the their unique, wordy and worldly conquest against, well I am still unsure about all the details. I do recall something along the lines of, “We want to read your reviews, postings, bloggings, stories, fantasies, what-have-you, anything about music.” Yes, that was it, their exact words. I remember now, I am good at that and hardly ever make things up. Shortly later as they released me one of them, probably the tall one said, “Okay you’re free to go but we don’t want to see or hear about any funny stuff, you got that?” So I suspected that I had to keep to the deal and only dish out my thoughts and ramblings which were solely relating to music. Until I see this post, about a Norm MacDonald album, by Scott, you know one of those shadowy figures. Oh I guess good ol’ Norm is making music now, I think to myself. I read on; this isn’t music, this is… “funny stuff”. Heck, I can do anything I want here, I bet I can write what I had for dinner last night and they won’t even notice. So here I am, submitting my thoughts on Demetri Martin’s album These Are Jokes.

If you’re a Daily Show viewer you probably seen Demetri Martin pop up in bits such as his spotlight on youth culture called “Trend-Setting”. Martin is 33 years old but with his mop-top haircut and his youthful threads he looks and acts more like he’s 23. He has been compared by many to the comedian Steven Wright, because of his quick one-line jokes and dry sense of humor. But Martin’s jokes have an intellectual cleverness to them as he’s not disengaged from his audience. The fact that he is a Yale graduate does not come off as surprising since his jokes are cerebral and more in tuned with what is actually going in society. These Are Jokes opens with an old lady claiming to be Demetri’s grandma. She politely welcomes us to the CD as Demetri breaks in with a slow, scruffy rap, “Hey, Hi, Hello. One Time I did a show. On stage with the mike-ra-phone. No get ready, These Are Jokes”. All accompanied by strange theatrical music that reminds me of little known band called Turtletoes. For the most part the album is entire performance recorded earlier this year in Chicago. The jokes rarely get offensive, I think he drops the F-bomb once or twice throughout the entire recording and he only subtly dwells into drugs and sex.

When Martin dishes out one liners and builds upon these short jokes, he makes it easy for mental images to materialize. “Swimming is a confusing sport,” (a little pause you think he’s going no where with this) “Sometimes you do it for fun, but other times you do it to not die.” (the punch-line is made, lots of laughs, but then he continues with) “When I am swimming sometimes I don’t which one it is. You have to go by the outfit. Pants! Uh oh” The visual image of Demetri wallowing around in a body of water, with a slightly nervous look on his face emerges. “Bathing Suit, Okay!” With a simple “Okay” he expresses that he’s content that he’s alive with a completely unbothered approach” “Naked, We’ll see” (a giant smirk leaks out that will lead nowhere with the ladies). Some of his jokes work as short as they are “If I had a bookstore I would make the mystery section really hard to find”. Others he takes what appear to be random thoughts and elaborates upon them to expresses how we would see them in our own world. “Whenever I have a drink with a tiny umbrella in it, I take it out and save it. Then I wait for a rainy day and I break it out”. That alone gets a lot laughs but then he stretches it out a little longer; “When I see people on the street and say how’s it going? Pretty crappy weather. Also watch out there’s a wizard back there. Yeah this was large and I was Korean. He was pretty mad” which produces a mass attack of laughter.

Demetri doesn’t just tell his jokes but for a lot of the set he incorporates music into the act, playing guitar, keyboards and the occasional singing. In “the Remix”, he takes all of his well known one-liners and remixes them with a glockenspiel and keyboard. In “Personal Information Waltz” Martin mixes his quick one-line jokes as SNL’s Will Forte screams out some Ohs, Whoas, and Yeahs and bunch of other crazy noises like he’s some kind strung out homeless man who used to be a R&B singer. What is actually appealing about the track ins that Martin is laughing along which connects him with the audience. The album ends with three strange “songs” that were not a part of the live recording. Again his grandma pops back for a visit (and possibly his mother), where he proclaims his love for grapes in “The Grapes Song”. He chants like Frank Black on “The Wisdom Song” and the CD concludes with his grandmother telling a strange tale about a man named Johnny, backed by his simple guitar strumming.

In some sort of promotion for Windows Vista, Demetri has a site called Clearification which will feature seven short films, (only one is up right now). The short film shows a little different side to Demetri’s comedy as it is more situational rather than observational. The band Film School provides the instrumental guitar pluckings and the fantastic design of the site, created by Michael Gillette has the feel that it was created by a very artistic teenager. Available in the download section are a couple of short jokes and the edited version of Film School song “11:11″. You can obviously find a lot of short videos on YouTube as well. Pick up the entire album, These Are Jokes on eMusic or iTunes. Now I have to go watch my back and make sure I am not being followed again, I don’t want to get bullied into joining some beatnik poetry club.

Yo La Tengo - Landmark Loew’s Theater, Jersey City, NJ 09-29-06

Published by David October 5th, 2006 in Meta-Chatter, Review and Concert. 0 Comments

Yo La PosterI have been a fan of Yo La Tengo before I actually heard their music when Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley used to DJ at Maxwell’s during Feelies shows back in the mid-eighties. At the time and until they broke up, The Feelies were my favorite live band. As they, spun their collection of waxed goodies, material I am sure they studied day in-day out, I was given musical history lessons. They too, learned a lot as they sat behind the mixing boards observing one of the first generation of bands that would perpetuate the sound of the Velvets and Television. Eventually Ira and Georgia stopped DJing to concentrate on their own band. I had always considered Yo La Tengo as little siblings of the Feelies because of the connection, just as I had considered Luna a second cousin since Stanley Demeski was their first drummer. When James McNew came on board he was considered by most including Ira and Georgia as temporary replacement. Years later while watching him with the band I finally realized that his job became full-time when he first joined. Over the years, Yo La Tengo has blossomed magnificently and have superseded what many bands seek to do. While maintaining a relatively low profile, they have successfully established a large fan-base throughout the world, released numerous fantastic albums one after another and are now regarded as indie rock gods and goddess.

Over the course of twenty plus years and in the couple different cities where I have seen YLT play live, I find it strange that I personally have never seen them in a seated theater venue. To me most concerts should not be seen sitting down. Live music needs an interaction between the fans to become truly dynamic and that doesn’t always happen when the audience is seated or can only move around so much between the seats if they stand. There have been a few exceptions for me over the years, which after I had declared some of the best shows I have seen, such as Tom Waits, John Cale and Leonard Cohen. Although I was not hesitant to attend the night’s show becuase of this fact, I went in with this prenotion. The Landmark Loew’s Theater built in 1929 isn’t exactly the greatest home for concerts, due to the fact it was built to amplify movies and not live music. Located in downtown Jersey City, this beautiful theater is engrossed with ornate details from floor to ceiling and omits a slight musty odor but reeks with history. Owning to this fact the entire night’s performance was layered with a little bit of distorted sound due to the poor amplification. At times it seemed liked it was not loud enough although I was only sitting in the sixth row. Most of the audience remain seated throughout the entire performance, but their still was head bobbing and swaying. I didn’t actually mind sitting down throughout the night and by evening’s end was glad I did.

We missed the openers Why? but I check them out on their MySpace site and they seemed pretty good; sort of like They Might Be Giants. All I have to ask is, Hey guys could you have found a name for your band that is more elusive? We did catch the act in between the two bands, Rolling Thunder, the premier roller blading duo of New Jersey. They have a very short act that is amazing, a little short, but extraordinary and exceptionally stupid and that’s the joke!

Ira, Georgia and James McNew walked out and did some strange tunings that could have been made by jazz improv masters performing at Lincoln Center as they warm up before the performance. Imagine Miles Davis, Sun Ra along with Jimi Hendirx for 53 seconds of nothingness, but they quickly turned that bottle of sound into one of their more accessible, pop friendly songs “Sugarcube”. Throughout the night they played nine songs from their latest album I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass as well a nice mixture of older songs and a couple covers. As usual the band rotated positions on stage throughout the evening, with Ira on left side of the stage and James on the right for the first couple songs. Part of YLT’s show is they like to switch positions and instruments throughout a show, the multiple role play became more apparent on the larger stage as if it was choreographed by crazed magicians and they were the puppets.

For their second song they set down an infectious groove with one of the new songs “Pass the Hatchet I Think I’m Goodkind”. Continuing with the trance they built, they blended into “Flying Lesson” from Electr-O-Pura, a hypnotic song, illustrating lucid dreaming. A couple other high and low shifts as they moved forward into the bouncy “Mr. Tough”, their latest pop friendly tune which encourages you to get off your feet and make a scene on the dance floor or just pick them up if you happen to be sitting down like we were. The song mentions Toddaphonic Time which is Todd Abramson’s show on WFMU who is also the one of the owners of Maxwell’s and the promoter of the evening’s show. The name alone “Mr. Tough”, reminds me of the children book series Mr. Men by Roger Hargreaves that came out in the seventies. They abruptly finish with a false ending which tricked most of the audience into clapping and quickly ended with a couple more beats.

One of the evening’s high-points, as usual is when James sang “Stockholm Syndrome” which has become one of the standout tracks over the years since it came out on their landmark album “I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One”. They slammed us into a foot stomping, and believe it or not, a little speedier version of “Watch Out For Me Ronnie” that pays respect to Sixties garage rock such as the Sonics. My new favorite song off the new album is the monumental, escalating chamber of sound which tells “The Story Of Yo La Tango” (note the misspelling), and may very well be the definitive song of their career. Both Ira and James manipulate their instruments like they are tiny toys as Georgia bangs along using primitive tools. Just as things seem to fall out of place they grab a hold of everything and dispense a new organized chemistry of sound.

Yo La Tengo is a band that loves to jam but no one would ever call a jam band, because they’re just too damn smart. They also have a great sense of humor and are never reluctant to bring it out. For encores they played two songs from New Wave Hot Dogs which always brings back fond memories, “Did I Tell You” and “Lewis”. They also careened into a roaring version of the Stones “Rocks Off”. Ira thanked everyone for coming out to their only New York appearance, I hope until December when they come back to Hoboken for Hanukkah concerts at Maxwell’s.

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Setlist
01 Sugarcube, 02 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind, 03 Flying Lesson, 04 The Weakest Part, 05 Sometimes I Don’t Get You, 06 Winter A-Go-Go, 07 Mr Tough, 08 Beanbag Chair, 09 I Feel Like Going Home, 10 Stockholm Syndrome, 11 I Should Have Known Better, 12 Watch Out For Me Ronnie, 13 Tom Courtenay, 14 The Story of Yo La Tango, 15 I Heard You Looking, Encore One: 16 Oklahoma USA (by The Kinks), 17 Lewis, 18 Rocks Off (by The Rolling Stones) Encore Two: 19 Cast A Shadow (by Beat Happening), 20 Did I Tell You.

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Drive-By Truckers & Bobby Bare Jr.

Published by David September 29th, 2006 in Meta-Chatter and Concert. 4 Comments

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A week has passed and I am just about recovered from my mini-tour with the Drive-By Truckers and Bobby Bare, Junior. Okay, I didn’t tour with them, but I did venture out three nights in a row and rocked along with them in New York City, Philadelphia and Hoboken, Thursday through Saturday night. On Sunday morning I was wiped out and was relaxing for a few minutes and listening to Boot Liquor radio through iTunes as I heard the song “7 Nights to Rock, 7 Nights to Roll”, which Bruce has covered many times but I never actually heard the original. It goes like this: “I got seven nights to rock, I got seven nights to roll, Seven nights, I’m gonna have a whirl, Seven nights with a different girl” Alright sans the part about the different girl, change seven to three and I felt like that was my song for the weekend.

On Thursday night The Truckers played Webster Hall in NYC with Bobby Bare, Jr as their opening act, who we unfortunately missed because of the early start time. We decided, (I’ll admit, it was my call) that it would be wiser to eat than to rock. So we chowed down some fantastic Po-boys at Acme on Great Jones. As we walked into Webster Hall a little after 9:00, DBT were already on stage and in the middle of their first song “Lookout Mountain”. Not 30 seconds in, a friend who came along, who never saw them before said to me, “Hey they sound like the Charlie Daniels Band” which is a comparison that no one who has spent more than a minute listening to the lyrics, would realize is completely untrue. Ever since I have been seeing the Truckers, now going on seven times or eight times I realized they are the real deal. This is not a nostalgia or a gimmick, they perform songs they want to sing about and answer to nobody but themselves. They’re not afraid to speak out about what’s wrong with our society such as our government. This is why and how their fan base has grown over the years but with a slow ease. At first glance (and listen) they do seem like some an ordinary ass-kicking Southern rock band. That is just part of the palette they use, to express in their songs that not only glorify southern folklore, deal with the plight of the working-class, but are call-outs to everyone no matter what part of the Mason-Dixon line we reside on. The night’s full set list is up at the DBT fan site Nine Bullets.

On Friday I headed down to Philadelphia to see the show again at the Theater of Living Arts. My wife, Lori came along this time for a night out and for her first Trucker’s show. We met our friends Joe and Nancy, who also traveled from Jersey, at the New Wave Cafe for a drink and we quickly headed over to Dimitri’s, which usually has long lines for a nice but speedy dinner before the show. We made it to TLA on time as Bobby and the band had just got on stage. Their set consisted of mixture of old and brand new songs from all his albums with his band the Young Criminals Starvation League, basically a rotating cast of stellar musicians. Every tour I see him on, he has a different line-up with great support artists backing him. This time around the band was Richie Kirkpatrick from Ghostfinger, Corey Younts on keyboards and Van on drums. Bobby knows how to light up on stage, he commands it the way you would imagine a seasoned rocker from Tennessee would. His recorded music may be classified as alt-country, or folk-rock but live he is unclassifiable because of the depth he extends himself and the band.

Drive-By Truckers put on another fantastic show, that was lot different from the night before, in that it was more of Jason Isabel night than a Patterson Hood one. Although each member clearly lets their personality and talent manifest on stage they respect each other and don’t try to outshine one another. These guys (and gal) just love playing and they rock hard. Although DBT didn’t completely win my wife over she enjoyed their show but felt like BBJ kicked major ass on stage. While we were in the hotel, I read a little blurb that R.E.M. had reunited Bill Berry for a benefit, the week earlier in Athens, GA. Not till I got home did I find out that Patterson Hood and Brad Morgan also performed, because they still reside in Athens. There are bunch of photos and also clips on You Tube.

On Saturday morning we had to leave Philly early to make it to Joe’s surprise party where Bobby Bare, Jr. himself was coming to make an appearance. Months ago, Nancy managed to get Bobby to play the party. She explained to his manager that the party would consist of mostly friends and family not a large group of fans. She also told him the story about how when we saw Bobby earlier in June at Maxwell’s, that we didn’t bother seeing the main act The Bottle Rockets, but hung out with the Young Criminals instead. He thought that was cool, so he asked Bobby if he’d be interested and he agreed to play a set acoustically for her. As the surprise of the party itself was still lingering, Joe was walking around talking to his guests, he never noticed that there was a little stage set up in the corner. Bobby arrived about 2 hours after the party started and Joe was stunned as Nancy and I walked him towards Joe. Although there were over hundred people at the party, the set was small and intimate, without the band. He was little hesitant to sing his songs straight through and took most of the cuss words out, because there were small children there. Before he started we told him, they wouldn’t pick up on it and most of them were running around the yard anyway. He’s a very quiet guy who doesn’t like to talk too much and the stage is his forum. He always plays barefoot, will turn down a Pabst for a Stella and will turn that down for, of course a Maker’s and Coke. For an hour he played songs from the first three YCSL albums and then sang Happy Birthday with Joe’s mom, who Like Bobby is also from Tennessee. Don’t ask for video clips because I kinda blew it and didn’t set up the camera before hand.

I left the party around 8:30 and made it down to see him again at Maxwell’s in Hoboken by 11:00. I met another friend also named Joe from the party there. The Young Criminals became Ghostfinger for the opening band, with Van and Corey making their first appearances with the band. I missed them but talked to Richie later and he said their gig went pretty well for their first time as a band together. The Films were on stage when I walked in around 11:00 and they were great. Three vocalists with the main lead singer in the middle as the other two singers chanted along with him in that updated Cars/Clash sound that is going around a lot lately. Bobby came on stage around 11:40 and played a similar set to what he played on Friday night, but to a much smaller crowd which seems to get him more excited. By 1 AM I was wiped out and was glad we didn’t have to wait 5 minutes for an encore as Bobby has a routine that I have seen him do once before, but I have never seen any other act do. Rather than walking off stage he asks the audience to pretend he has and imagine they are in the back room with with all of Nashville’s greats sipping drinks as the roar of the crowd must draw them back to the stage. Before I left I thanked Bobby for coming to Joe’s party and picked up a copy of the his CD, The Longest Meow which I have already read a couple glowing reviews. Next, I am off to see Yo La Tengo tonight in Jersey City.

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C.R. Avery - Chainsmoking Blues
The Be Good Tanyas - Scattered Leaves

Published by David September 22nd, 2006 in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006. 0 Comments

cover.jpgLike Tom Waits and Bob Dylan, C.R. Avery’s music is built upon his lyricism with a heavy focus on poetry and performed with a gravelly vocal delivery but with a lot less years of oral torture. The Ontario born artist is known for his slam poetry, which he infuses into his songs along with his human beat-box, harmonica, guitar and piano. Now based out of Vancouver, CR has been competing in slam poetry contests since the late nineties and is a member of a Vancouver slam poetry team. He is also a member of Tons of Fun University and The Fugitives both featuring members who are multi-instrumentalist, rapping poets. I would compare CR’s mixed-bag of hip-hop and jumbled genres to the sounds of another young Canadian hip-hop, multi-genre artist, Ridley Bent as well as Buck 65. Although the beats are influenced by hip-hop, his poetry originates more from Ginsberg and Kerouac than Jay Z or G Love.

I recently, accidently downloaded his latest release Chainsmoking Blues from eMusic after it was released as an exclusive. One track was offered for free and I clicked the “download all” button. I noticed in a review on the site, another member did the same thing, so I guess it’s a common occurrence at eMu which sometimes turns out to be a fortunate mistake. I am not going to get Richard Scarry on you and claim it was “The Best Mistake Ever!” but I after testing the newly purchased tracks I was satisfied and now a couple months later this album is rapidly building up the numbers in my playlists.

“East Van Business Plan” opens the album simply with three guitar chords that at first seem like a Seventie’s pop number. Once the catchy harmonica, beat-box hits the tune is put into drive and raps about leaving his home country, traveling on the road and hanging in San Francisco. A friend on RYM made me aware that The Be Good Tanyas provide the excellent background vocals to a few of the album’s tracks such as the “Door By The River” and “When I’m Gone” a sad and dreary piece featuring CR’s scruffy, torn voice backed by their beautiful vocals. “Commercial Drive” is the album’s most accessible number, although it lacks the poetic substance contained in the other songs it’s the one that is the most shout-out fun.

Through his lyrics, CR dispatches names and artists he admires such as The Suicide Kings, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and on his song “News Travel Fast” (mislabeled as Train Whistle on eMusic) he refers to R.E.M., Leonard Cohen, KRS One and Dylan through the lyric “Napoleon in Rags”. CR also pays tribute to “Bill Hicks” the comedian who was not afraid to speak his voiced by suggesting “What this world needs now is another Bill Hicks” since he passed away in 1994. Like Hicks, CR is not afraid about touchy subject matters in his lyrics letting loose challenging lyrics such as this verse from “Door By The River”

They say act like your Roman peers when in Rome
but ain’t that the trouble with hip-hoping gang-bangers these days
originality can single handily make that stop
like a free clinic is doing abortions with clothes hangers

There are a bunch of Freebies for the grabbing. Three from the album available from his official site Disclosure, Door By The River, News Travels Fast and one non-album track Postcard From New York. The album’s final track, “Pocketknife” is also availble free on eMusic; it’s a chilling spoken-word ode which the narrator tells a tale of teaching his young daughter in very harsh terms to challenge authority at all costs. To get a feel of his live act and who CR is check out this five minute video on You Tube featuring a playful interview and short, but vivacious live performance clips from a street festival in Vancouver. CR can also be found on two tracks on the album Vagabond Lullabies by Po Girl, which features Trish Klein of the Be Good Tanyas. Also available on his My Space Site is “Eye Of the Storm” which features (I am guessing) Samantha Parton of the Good Tanyas again providing sweet soulful harmonies.

Scattered Leaves CoverSpeaking of the The Be Good Tanyas they have a new release that just came out; albeit a short three song EP which most likely is a preview of their upcoming album due out this October. The title track “Scattered Leaves” and final track “Back Back Train” are twangy, backwoods numbers that dispense a sense of mystery but will make you wanna pitch a tent in the middle of the woods and wait till the rest of the album is released. Nuzzled in between the two is the slumbering lullaby “Song for R.” You can pick up Scattered Leaves at eMusic or on iTunes.

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