South by Southwest Festival

I love NPR.org! Not only because they are one of the only real news sources left on the planet, but because their music section kicks booty. This week is the annual South by Southwest festival taking place in Austin, TX and it always features many of the best music artists around. Well thanks to NPR, I have been able to feel like I am there this week. The site has streamed and archived many of the shows for your listening pleasure. Check it out and listen to some great shows by the likes of My Morning Jacket, REM, Kaki King, Yo La Tengo, Bon Iver, and Vampire Weekend. Have fun!

Click to access the complete listing of the shows here!

Leonard Cohen

So I scanned though my Tivo'd copy of the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies last night. Thank goodness for the fast forward button! I have watched many of these induction ceremonies, and every year I am struck by how dull and non-Rock and Roll they are. The Grammy awards seem like a drug-fueled orgy compared to these. It didn't help that this year's inductees were kind of bland anyway (The Ventures, The Dave Clark Five, John Cougar Melencamp, Leonard Cohen, Madonna). The big draw obviously was Madonna who I have long been a huge fan of. However, she didn't perform which meant we had to listen to her talk for 30 minutes. Iggy & The Stooges played two of her songs instead which sounds cool, but it sure wasn't. These days Iggy looks like he needs a walker and as cool as he sounds doing his own stuff, he should never attempt to sing Madonna. I'm all for punk, but it has to sound good to the ears on some level.

The point of this post is to mention 2008 nominee Leonard Cohen. Cohen has long been on my "artists I need to check out" list. The only material I really knew by him is the song "Hallelujah". If that was the only song the guy ever wrote, he would be a legend. I think everyone but me has covered it and Damien Rice did a great job with it at the ceremonies.


After a shaky Lou Reed introduction, Leonard Cohen got up and gave one of the best speeches I have ever seen. The guy is one cool motherfucker, that's for sure. The speech is mostly Cohen reciting the lyrics to his song "Tower of Song". It was enough to get me to want to hear every lyric this guy has written. See it for yourself and congratulations Leonard. I'm sure you deserve the honer, whether anyone knows it or not...

Electronic Mix Tape #1

One of my favorite things to do in the world used to be making mix tapes. Yes children, in the old days there were these things called tapes and you could record different songs on them. They had two sides and each held about 45 minutes of music. And when you made the tapes, you actually had to listen to each song in real time as it recorded. It was a perfect way to share with others your thoughts and feelings through music.

Nowadays, the art of the mix tape is as dead as buying records in your favorite local music store. Well I sure can't send you all tapes, but through the magic of the Internets I can share an electronic mix tape on these pages. I hope to do this every week and I hope you enjoy them. These are nothing more than songs I love, but to me they mean a lot.

I always like to first listen to mixes without looking at a track list. If you are curious, the lists will posted below.

SIDE A:


SIDE B:

Side A:
1. The Stooges-Search and Destroy
2. Richie Havens-Tombstone Blues
3. Jackson Browne-Your Bright Baby Blues
4. Drive-By Truckers-The Righteous Path
5. Joni Mitchell-Amelia
6. The Raveonettes-Dead Sound
7. Joseph Arthur-In the Sun
8. Gram Parsons-Six Days on the Road
9. Mike Doughty-I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancin
10. Steve Earle-Steve's Hammer(for Pete)

Side B:
11. The Waterboys-The Whole of the Moon
12. Relatively Clean Rivers-Journey Through The Valley Of O
13. Bob Marley and The Wailers-Positive Vibration
14. Bruce Springsteen-Long Walk Home
15. Patti Smith-Boy in the Bubble
16. Los Lobos-The Road to Gila Bend
17. The Rolling Stones-Food to Cry
18. The Kinks-I'm Not Like Everybody Else
19. Radiohead-Weird Fishes Arpeggi
20. Sly and the Family Stone-Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa

If You're True

Still high from seeing Bob Mould last night (see below), I give you a song. This is called "If You're True" and its an outtake from what is still Mould's best solo album, "Workbook". I've always loved the tune and still can't believe it was left off the record. Enjoy.

Bob Mould-If You're True (1989 Outtake)

A Good Idea

So I had a rare night out last night and I couldn't have spent it any better. I went with some great friends to the hilariously titled Shank Hall in Milwaukee to see one of my musical heroes; Bob Mould. I have worshiped at the alter of Bob ever since hearing Husker Du's 1987 opus, "Warehouse:Stories and Songs". That album remains one of my all time favorites and I have followed Mould's career ever since.

Touring on the heals of the fantastic new release "District Line", Mould appeared with a killer four piece band that my ears are still ringing from. The show opened with an electrifying one-two blast of the first 2 tracks from Sugar's "Copper Blue". Going into the show, I would have been thrilled to hear any songs from that album, but Mould treated us to 4 of them throughout the night. The show featured a great mix of tracks from his solo discs, Sugar, and a seven song Husker Du explosion at the end (including Divide and Conquer, Celebrated Summer, Chartered Trips, Could You Be the One, Makes No Sense at All, and Hardly Getting Over It). But this was no nostalgia show. The five tracks played from the new CD sounded perfectly in place with Mould's best work, and that includes the Husker Du material. What stuck me most is how passionate Mould sounds after all these years. He was screaming those Husker Du songs as if the wounds that spawned them still hurt like hell. Go see him if you have the chance!

Listen to six new tracks here.

Bob Mould 2008 Tour Dates:
03/07/08 Chicago, IL @ Metro
03/08/08 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
03/09/08 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
03/10/08 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club Theatre
03/12/08 Boston, MA @ The Paradise
03/13/08 New York, NY @ The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
03/14/08 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
03/15/08 Washington DC @ 9:30 Club
03/17/08 Charlotte, NC @ The Visulite Theatre
03/18/08 Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
03/20/08 Austin, TX @ Antone's
03/22/08 Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
03/24/08 San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
03/25/08 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater
03/26/08 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
03/28/08 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
03/29/08 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
03/30/08 Vancouver, BC @ Richards on Richards

Where Have I Been?

Every once and a while an established band comes into your world and you think, "how have I never heard of these guys before"? Today I had that thought while listening to the excellent new CD by the Drive By Truckers.

That is not to say I haven't been reading about the Drive By Truckers since they released their supposed 2001 double CD masterpiece, "The Southern Rock Opera". That disc topped many year-end lists, but something about the descriptions of the music and their name kept me away. What a shame for me! After cranking their brilliant 2008 release "Brighter Than Creation's Dark" a few times now, I am on a mission to seek out the rest of their material.

Their sounds is roots-based rock along the lines of "Exile on Main Street" Rolling Stones so if twang ain't your thing, you may want to stay away. The band's main appeal to me is that they have three unique singer-songwriters in Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, and new member Shonna Tucker, so the tunes all sound varied. Lyrically, each song feels like I am living a snapshot of Southern characters who are dealing with the typical issues of life (death, love, war, religion, crystal meth). But however heavy the lyrical content may get, the songs never sound heavy handed or depressing. These guys can rock your socks off or rock you to sleep depending on the tune and the lyrics are all top notch. If I am not the only one left who hasn't heard them, do yourselves a favor and give the new songs a listen over at their MySpace page. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.myspace.com/drivebytruckers

Also, check out this killer 3 hour show from 2006 archived on the NPR website.

In Town

OK, I'm back from the warm sunny skies of Florida to the cold grey weather of Wisconsin. When the plane came out of the clouds in Wisconsin giving us all a landscape of total grey and white, all the passengers let out a collective groan. It was quite comical. It does feel good to be home despite the weather. Ocala, Florida is this bizarre mix of "Golden Girls" meets "Boyz in the Hood" with a Nascar chaser. I felt like a total fish out of water. At least I know how to handle the white-bread world of Wisconsin, as bland as it tends to be.

I was in Florida taking care of a loved one. Because of that, I was able to watch a lot of movies and bad TV. The highlight of my viewing was most definitely watching Woody Allen's 1989 masterpiece "Crimes and Misdemeanors". I have long been a big fan of Allen's work and I know I saw the film back when it was first released, but I don't remember it leaving much of an impression on me. The thing is, I was only 19 years old in 1989 and not mentally ready for the themes Woody explores during the movie. Those themes would be; fidelity, importance of family, religion, murder, consequences of actions, good over evil, nostalgia, and love. These are familiar themes to any fan of Allen's films, but as far as I'm concerned this film explores them better than any of his others. This is one of Allen's draumadies, so it is hilarious in parts but the drama is what really hooked me in.

The plot is sort of separated into two segments, with Woody at the center of one and the amazing Martin Landau at the center of the other. I will not give away any plot points, but I have to say that I was more emotional during the final 2 minutes of this film than any I can remember. Woody always tends to be a "glass half empty" kind of guy but this movie explores how people can get that way. More importantly, he touches on the potential light at the end of the tunnel that we all use to see each day through. Perhaps it was my circumstance last week with facing my Dad's mortality, but this movie pushed all the right buttons for me and really made me question how and why we live our lives the way we do. If you have never seen it, go to your local library now and check it out. It may actually change your life.