Friday, November 30, 2007

week's end playlist & porta xmas action


on repeat this week:

Chuck Prophet - Soap and Water between Green On Red, who i saw at the old old Cat's Cradle back in the mid-80's and 2002's No Other Love, i lost track of Chuck Prophet, but i'm glad i stumbled back upon him because his voice & songs are great, this is the newest.
Ken Vandermark 5 - A Discontinuous Line this was recorded back in 2005 but i'm always playing catch up with Vandermark since he makes so many records in so many formations. Kessler / Daisy rhythm section nailing it as usual.
Robert Wyatt - Comicopera Wyatt's records feel timeless even when they sound deliberately dated (like Old Rottenhat), and this new album on Domino is typically beautiful, sad, happy, lots of things at once.
Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series 1-3 seeing Todd Haynes' fantastic film I'm Not There this week has driven me to lots of Dylan listening. the movie, while long, i think is really great, though in the theater i did find myself thinking, "if i wasn't already fascinated by Dylan what would i be making of this movie?" The soundtrack is really good as well; Sufjan takes all the desolation out of "Ring Them Bells", while other versions seem unnecessarily faithful, but with more hits than misses, an unusual ratio on a tribute-style comp like that, it's worth a listen.

and after a bit of a child-induced layoff, i'll be playing a few songs at Trekky Records' annual "Christmas At The Cradle" show, a benefit for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Lots of NC artists getting together and kicking out some Winter jams...here's some details, with more to come:

Date: December 19, 2007
Time: Doors: 7PM, Show: 7:30PM
Venue: Cat's Cradle
Tickets: $7 advance/$10 day of

Friday, November 16, 2007

The Week In Rock



what a couple weeks of music...Caetano was goofy, beautiful, and great & played a funny guitar that only he could get away with. but the heavy hitters came along this week:

Monday we were in DC for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and while Backstreets has the setlist and review, i'll just say that after seeing Bruce a few times now, this was maybe the most energized and flat-out rocking that i've seen him. The band was on fire, with highlights for me being Jackson Cage, Ties That Bind, Gypsy Biker, She's the One and Thunder Road. I've seen Thunder Road done as a rote hit that Bruce and the band seem like they're trying to get through it, but Bruce actually stepped away from the mic for everyone to sing along with the "show a little faith" lines, and cheesy as those moments may sound, it seemed genuine and just fun. No "rarities" to speak of, but when the E Street Band is killing it, it really doesn't matter what the setlist is. Hoping for some Carolina action in the Spring...

Last night in the considerably more intimate BYO environs of the Duke Coffeehouse we had the pleasure of a visit from David Kilgour and the Heavy 8's, plus a fine opening set from Gorky's frontman Euros Child. Superchunk was supposed to do a tour with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci back in 2001, but Gorky's pulled out after 9/11 so i'd never seen him live and his trio is great. Kilgour, of course, is operating on his own plane as usual and sounded awesome in voice and guitar, and the first time i'd seen him with these Heavy 8's. Someone remarked to me at the end of one gem featuring another Kilgour perfect guitar solo "that song could have gone on for an hour and it would have been fine with me"...i second that for most all of his songs. Amazing.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Caetano On The Way


been listening to a bunch of Caetano Veloso records this week in anticipation of his visit to Chapel Hill tomorrow night for a performance at Memorial Hall...i never would have thought we'd have this Brazilian legend in town and in fact i'll believe it when we're in our seats and he's on the stage. his new record Ce is spikily rockish and good, though of course i'm hoping for some old tunes as well...my first exposure to Veloso and Tropicalia in general came when we were playing in Nashville at some point and staying at Lambchop-er Jonathan Marx's house. he played me the nuttiest Caetano record there is -- 1972's Araca Azul -- and it blew me away, though i wasn't sure what exactly i was listening to! the only CD i could find (this is pre- Dusty Groove) was A Arte De Caetano Veloso which is a pretty great overview but my favorite i think is
the one called Caetano Veloso with the white cover, it's a total masterpiece. Can't wait for the live experience...

in other news, Your Carolina Hurricanes are on a roll this season and dispatched of the Washington Capitals with a 5-0 shutout behind Cam Ward and Cory Stillman's first period hat trick! it drives me nuts that these games are not ALL televised in our area -- VS somehow thinks that a hockey fan in Carolina is going to tune into whatever game they have on that night even if it's not the Hurricanes...lame. Not that i don't love the voice of Chuck Kaiton! speaking of the voice of the 'Canes, this is fun...