Mogwai - The Orange Peel 4/23/09

Looks like time to dig under the sofa cushions and pray for a decent tax return. Immediately after blowing a mint on tickets for two upcoming Wilco shows and one Old Crow Medicine Show, now The Orange Peel adds this show to their lineup. That is usually the way it works, good shows always pop up on the radar when you have just lost a nut on what you thought was already the best thing on the horizon.

At any rate, Mogwai is playing The Orange Peel on 4/23/09 with opening act The Twilight Sad. The only time I have seen Mogwai was opening for The Cure, so catching them as a headliner in a small venue should be sweet.

Tickets go on sale Feb. 27th at noon.

10,000 Feet High and Rising, pt. 2

As promised, here is Part 2. of the mix. Will be back on soon.

Comments on tracks is appreciated.

10,000 Feet and Rising pt. 1

Where's my Brawndo?!? I am ready to kick it X Games style as I head to Park City next week. And by X Games style I mean sitting on the sofa in front of a fire, cold beer in one hand, joystick in the other while rocking SSX on the PS2.

Alright in reality both scenarios listed above are bullshit, but nonetheless I will be hitting the slopes in Utah and trying to chase a buzz while drinking 3.2% Mormon beer.

Since I am going to try to make an effort not to touch my computer at all next week, I am going ahead and loading up two long mixes over the next couple of days. Both parts of this mix should provide the perfect soundtrack to six snowblind days in the land of polygamy and magic underpants, but will also work just as well in the '07.

Of the two, pt.1 is a much more mellow affair - think snow angels and dilaudid while pt. 2 is more like what the inside of your brain might taste like after huffing Krylon for a long weekend.

Band of Horses - The Orange Peel 3/16/2007

I was not able to attend this show, but have a handful of friends that made it and said it was amazing. After doing a little digging around I was able to find a recording of the show that was taped off of the sound board, so the quality is pretty nice.

If anyone out there knows the title of track 7, feel free to post it in the comments. I do not recognize it as either a BOH track or a cover. I hate being stumped, so anyone that can figure it out I owe a couple of shots.

Round and Round and Round and Round...

I saw The Wrestler over the weekend, and was completely underwhelmed. Make no mistake about it Mickey Rourke gives a nice performance, but honestly he was upstaged by Marisa Tomei's forty four year old rack. Overall I would say it was a good movie, but it felt like there was about an hour missing somewhere along the way - the same way Aronofsky left me feeling after The Fountain.

One of the best scenes in the movie featured The Ram calling Kurt Cobain a pussy and preaching the gospel of hair metal while giving Marisa Tomei a lap dance to Ratt's Round and Round.

After seeing that song, and Ratt for that matter, destroyed a few years back by a version of Ratt that replaced Stephen Pearcy with an assclown named Jizzy Pearl (that's right, Jizzy Pearl) the scene was a nice reminder that when Ratt was firing on all cylinders they could on a very limited scale hang with the big boys.

Here is the original Round and Round video that features a bizarre appearance by Mr. Television, Milton Berle (his nephew was the band's manager). Also included are a couple of decent covers of the song. One a folky cover by Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr's Lou Barlow, the other a bluegrass version by The Meat Purveyors.

Ashes of American Flags - 4/18/09

Great news for Wilco fans (as if I know any of those). Even though there have been no solid release dates for Wilco's newest disc (rumored to drop in 2009), they have a release date for their newest DVD, Ashes of American Flags, 4/18.

Also tour dates have been added for this spring, although on sale dates and support acts are still to be announced.

4/18 Knoxville, TN - The Tennessee Theatre
4/20 Athens, GA - The Classic Center
4/21 Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

What a difference a couple of weeks make. If I would have reviewed this disc when I first picked it up, I would have given it a much more glowing review than it deserves. Now that I have had a chance to let it sink in, I am a little disappointed with the total result. Make no mistake, I am an apologetic Lily Allen fan, and really wanted to love this disc after waiting for it for so long, but the love just isn’t there. I am not sure if the problem is in the fact that about 4 songs in, the sheen of overproduction starts to become overpowering, or if it is the semi-retarded audacity of the lyrics. That sounds like old man talk, but seriously, I think that if you want to sing a scathing indictment about the Bush presidency (“Fuck You”), it probably holds more weight when not following a song about your predilection for giving head and “sleeping in the wet patch” (“It’s Not Fair”). And that is a shame, because both songs are pretty great, just not in context of each other.

The other standout tracks here are “The Fear”, which manages to encapsulate the entire 13 years of doubt Axl Rose toiled with on Chinese Democracy into a three minute piece of sugary goodness, and the bonus track “Fag Hag”. The latter being one of the catchiest, and most embarrassing songs to get stuck in your head in ages, while Allen sings that “she can be your fag hag, and you can be her gay”, while agreeing that they are both “in their element when down on their knees” and sipping coffee or hitting museums. Yeats and PC it ain’t, but Allen nails it like a chick that is just 50lbs and a bad breakup away from hitting up the Castle on Friday nights.

While It’s Not Me, It’s You might not be as strong as I had hoped for, in the interim between her debut and this follow up, Allen has had a great run of covers from The Kaiser Chiefs to The Clash to E.L.O.

I am including a couple of the best tracks from It’s Not Me, and a handful of my favorite Allen covers.

Friday Afternoon Fish Fry pt. 2

This week’s mix is probably way larger and indulgent than necessary, but it has been 75 degrees all week and I though some back porch music was much needed. Keeping that in mind, the tracks skew toward alt-country, blues and bluegrass: the perfect blend for reaching righteous levels of insobriety and menace.

A quick breakdown of some of the highlights: Great Fleetwood Mac cover by Whiskeytown. The Kathleen Edwards track is my favorite of hers, off of her first album. Grandpa Jones doesn’t really need anything said other than “Hee-Haw”, and he is singing a bluegrass standard. The Gillian Welch track highlights a bass line looser than a truck stop waitress and greasier than her panties. The Dave Dudley track hints of novelty song, but seems to fit pretty well. Anyone that watches Lost will recognize the classic “Shotgun Willie” from an episode early in this season. “Barstool Mountain” is an oft overlooked gem by one of the truly scariest country artists of all time, Johnny Paycheck. The Banjo & Sullivan track is from the Devil’s Rejects soundtrack, and is actually performed by Jesse Dayton. Adrienne Young’s cover of “Brokedown Palace” is my favorite version of that song, next to the original. “Old Enough” features the Dr. Wilbur Larch ether soaked pairing of Ricky Skaggs and Jack White. And finally, if you can hang in til the end “Southside of Heaven” by Ryan Bingham is just about as perfect as a song can come.

Note: I have enabled comments on the site so that you do not have to have to register to leave them. If there are any tracks you really dig, post a note and I can add the tracks for download as opposed to the monster 2 hour mix. Also, if there are any bands you find that you want to hear more of, let me know.

So now to quote Muddy Waters, “bring me champagne when I am thirsty, bring me reefer when I want to get high”.

Enjoy:

Friday Afternoon Fish Fry pt.2 (link) now with streaming goodness

Tracks: Scroll through Box window for access to all 36 tracks

Death is for the Living

I haven't had time yet to put a proper posting of the new Vetiver disc and their upcoming show at the Grey Eagle with Larkin Grimm, but just in case anyone is pining away waiting for that, here is something to bide the time with. This song by Terrastock festival favorites Spires That in the Sunset Rise starts out warm and cozy like a bedtime story by the fire and then takes a chilling turn with touches of opiate nightmares thrown in to make sure nobody has dozed off.

Also, it's ok if you find yourself huddled behind the sofa in the fetal position, sucking your thumb at songs end.

Spires That in the Sunset Rise - Death is for the Living:

The Whitest Chick in America - Taylor Swift

I am going to have to go ahead and drop the title of "Whitest Chick in America" on Taylor Swift. That is not necessarily a slam by the way. As much as I do not want my blog card pulled, or my credibility shat on, I have to admit I am a little bit of a fan of the tear stained 19 year old. In a culture where the media is quick to nut all over vapid talent still births like Miley Cyrus, it is a little refreshing to see someone so young knock 'em out of the park while writing their own songs, playing in a genre geared for grandparents and bible thumpers and going platinum on an indie label all at the same time. Plus "Love Story" was one of the best tracks of 2008.

On the CMT series Crossroads, the gimmick is to take a rock act and have them interchange songs with a country artist. Sometimes this is brilliant, like the Ryan Adams & Elton John episode, or the Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello one. Other times it can backfire uglier than a Pontiac Lemans running on leaded like the shitstorm combo of Keith Urban and John Fogerty or the inexplicable Little Big Town (the country equivalent of Christoper Cross) and Lindsey Buckingham.

But I digress. The reason I am naming her the "Whitest Chick in America" is based on her performance of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" with Def Leppard. Call me crazy, but if you are going to be performing a song that budding strippers cut their teeth on, you might want to come with some moves a little hotter than Bender from Futurama. Seriously, Rick Allen's left arm has more life in it than Swift's hips. Do I have time for one more? It looks like she learned how to dance from Mick Mars. Oh yeah, it also sounds like shit.

Anyway, watch and cringe:

Weezy's World

Weezy's World. See what I did there? By avoiding the easy Wayne's World joke, I think I am entitled to a cloak of invisibilty for the weekend, or at the very least a DJ Nonnahs "Folio Fiend"mixtape.

Anyway with CBS covering the Grammy's, they have had Lil' Wayne working overtime on promotional stops. If you want to be stupefied this Friday afternoon, check out Katie Coruic giving Weezy the Barbara Walters treatment. And then if you need an underwhelming palate cleanser before you get back to work, check out his watered down presentation of the Top 10 list on Letterman from last night.

Couric Interview: pulled from YouTube. Thanks CBS!!
Top 10 List:

What Have We Learned pt. 1 - weekly mix

I had hoped to load a nice lengthy mix for the weekend, however my laptop died and in turn so did the mix.

However, I was able to throw a brief little somethin' somethin' together.

Pretty much standard fare here with a couple of highlights. Two new tracks from M. Ward (one featuring Zooey Deschanel), and probably the best single of 2008, "Graveyard Girl" by M83.

M83's previous discs have been dense electronic and droney affairs. This one swings for the fences with touches of New Order and swirling vocals. I can only hope "Graveyard Girl" is supposed to be tongue in cheek, but either way this should be the theme song for every goth prom from hence forth. Enjoy!!

Also note: I have enabled comments so you do not have to have a membership to post. Comments are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks. Now let's go get our shit on and see Patton Oswalt in Athens tonight.

What Have We Learned pt. 1 Mix (link)

Tracks:

In the Club - White Williams

Graveyard Girl - M83

Straight to Hell - Lilly Allen w/ Mick Jones

Never Had Nobody Like You - M. Ward

Mexico City - Jolie Holland

Car Jamming - The Clash

Electric Feel - MGMT

Jailbird - M. Ward

Pick Up the Change - Wilco

Look Around You - Music

I love me some Drinky Crow, Superjail and especially Tim and Eric, but Look Around You is my current favorite in the Adult Swim lineup. Look Around You originally aired on the BBC in 2002, and was recently picked up by Adult Swim. If you are a fan of Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, you should enjoy this.

Don Caballero - Grey Eagle tonight

Barring any miraculous snow day tomorrow, there is no way I am going to make it to this show tonight, but if anyone has a chance to get out in Asheville tonight, Don Caballero is going to rip shit up at the Grey Eagle tonight.

Along with The Liars, DC is probably the only holdout from the brief math rock revolution to still be remotely relevant. The only thing their new disc Punkgasm offers in the way of something new is vocals on a handful of tracks. Other than that it is just business as usual for this Pittsburgh trio. That being said with newcomers like Marnie Stern biting DC's finger tapping guitar style, it is still refreshing to hear old school flannel enthusiasts party like it is 1996.

DD/MM/YYYY opens up, and tix are $12.

Tracks:

Bulk Eye
Pour Yourself Into the Rug
Why Is the Couch Always Wet?
The Irrespective Dick Area
Shit Kids Galore
Loudest Shop Vac in the World