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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Video: The ATX hip-hop underground, alive and well
I dropped by the Victory Grill on Friday night for the ‘Freedom Summer: Hip-hop for Justice’ showcase presented by PODER and the local chapters of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention and the ACLU. With the popular music airwaves dominated by gangsta tales, materialism and sexual bravado, it was downright refreshing to find a whole host of talented young rappers tackling issues of social justice and true-life struggles. Blacklisted Individuals were particularly inspiring. Those boys spit fire.
And the ever-soulful Element7D also came correct.
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Dead Milkmen to headline a day of Fun Fun Fun 2008
Update: The blog titans at Gorilla vs. Bear, also tipped us off, and Transmission Entertianment confirmed, that Deerhoof and Dan Deacon are also locked in for the fest.
The comedic punk band Dead Milkmen will play a special reunion show to headline one day of the the 2008 Fun Fun Fun fest, organizer Graham Williams said Sunday.
Known for such humorous songs as “Bitchin’ Camaro” and “Punk Rock Girl,” the Philadelphia-based Milkmen were active from 1983 to 1995.
The original line-up of guitarist/singer Joe Genaro, drummer Dean Sabatino and keyboard player Rodney Linderman is slated to perform with bassist Dandrew Stevens, who replaces original bassist Dave Schulthise, who took his own life in 2004.
Williams said the full-line up for Fun Fun Fun, which will take place Nov. 8 and 9 at Waterloo Park, would be announced in August.
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Review: George Michael in Dallas
Melanie Burford DALLAS MORNING NEWS
In what he explicitly described as a payback concert — one to thank fans who have “stuck by me” through a quarter-century that has offered its share of pop-star scandal — George Michael happily embraced his hits Sunday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Anyone whose knowledge of those hits was vague (husbands of thirtysomething female fans, say) could occasionally rely on the video display that served as both the arena-high backdrop and stage floor, unfurling eye-candy digi-displays in a cascade that spilled over the footlights. There, old Wham! videos accompanied vintage numbers “I’m Your Man” and “Everything She Wants,” while more recent material got rainbow-colored abstractions straight from the iTunes visualizer.
The singer was a little heavier than we remember him and wasn’t up to the high notes on tunes like “One More Try” (he blamed an over-air-conditioned hall for the limited vocal range), but did a fine job of stoking the crowd and wasn’t shy about alluding to his new status as a transplanted Dallasite.
He even breezed through a faux-hillbilly ditty he claimed was the first song he ever wrote, at the age of 8, and had never been performed before in public.
Notably absent from the set list was the “Faith” highlight “I Want Your Sex,” but that clearly didn’t represent any post-scandal shyness about the matter: Not only did he celebrate California’s recent gay-marriage moves and offer the straight men in the crowd some video cheesecake footage of Dita Von Teese, Michael actually donned a policeman’s uniform for “Outside” — a song that flaunts the open-air eroticism that earned him unwanted attention from L.A.’s finest about a decade ago.
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Review: Nels Cline Singers at Stubb’s indoors
Wilco fans may have thought Stubb’s indoor stage listing — “Nels Cline Singers featuring Nels Cline of Wilco” — represented a chance to experience Jeff Tweedy’s music without a throng.
If so, they scratched their heads during opener “A Mug Like Mine,” 10 conceptual minutes of improvised sound and echoed noise.
“Sky Blue Sky” this wasn’t.
Tweedy admired Cline with the Geraldine Fibbers, and in 2004 offered Wilco’s lead axe slot. The LA-bred stringer has since supplied the Chicago institution with angular melodies and avant-jazz stylings.
Yet with his ironically named instrumental three-piece (featuring drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Devon Hoff), Cline explores jazz wrapped in a rock blanket. Or rock warped by jazz. If folks thought they’d be home early this Sunday eve, Cline advised: “Fuggetaboutit — we’re doing two sets!”
Cline & Company’s music is hard to define, which is a good thing. There’s less demarcation between songs, rather a shift of hue, amplitude and/or texture. The results both challenge and reward. A smattering of treated guitar with diagrammatical bass and looped static might presage amped-up chamber jazz (“Blues, Two”). The mostly male, full crowd might then be treated to some pointalistic funk. Later, the transcendental “The Angel of Angels.”
A veteran of over 100 albums, the avant savant drew mainly from the Singers’ three platters, plus unreleased numbers (Thelonious Monk’s “Jackieing” and the alternately tuned strumfest “Thurston County”), and special works (“Dedication,” from the Andrew Hill tribute New Monastery). Cline’s abstract shredding could peel your hat off, but his thumbed jazz phrasing could probably open a bottle of scotch by itself.
Blond and boyish at 52, Cline is lanky, but his king crab hands permit him to fret chords others dream of. His singular style blends Thurston Moore, Jim Hall, Adrian Belew and whacked-out stomp boxes. Or picture Cline’s solo in Wilco’s “Impossible Germany” pulled apart, cut-and-pasted, and recontextualized by a trio. No singer needed.
Read an interview with Nels Cline in our colleague Matthew Odam’s blog.
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I bet they both love “The Fountainhead”
Rush, not Rush, to play Colbert.
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Live chat With Statesman pop critic Joe Gross at 2 p.m. July 17
Check out our weekly live chat about music (Austin music, Texas music and otherwise) at 2p.m. July 17.
Kickoff topics include the Lil Wayne show, new albums from the Hold Steady, Nas, Endless Boogie and more and upcoming shows we’re looking forward to (Marked Men! Maneja Beto! Bands whose names don’t necessarily start with M!)
And again, these topics are mere jumping off points.
Chats take place from then on in every Thursday at 2 p.m.
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Farm Aid comes to New England
This year’s Farm Aid concert, featuring Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews and others to be named later, will take place Sept. 20 at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass. This marks the first time the benefit will take place in New England, where the Farm Aid organization is based.
“We are proud to bring our annual Farm Aid concert to a region that has such strong agricultural roots …,” Farm Aid president Willie Nelson said Tuesday in a statement. Whole Foods and Horizon Organic are the major sponsors.
Tickets go on sale July 28 at 9 a.m. on www.ticketmaster.com or by calling (866) 448-7849.
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CD review: The Hold Steady
VAGRANT RECORDS
The Hold Steady
‘Stay Positive’
(Vagrant)
Fans have asked the same question after every Hold Steady album since their second, “Separation Sunday”: Exactly where can they go from here with this Springsteen thing?
Can they find a still purer state of Brooce-ness, edging ever close to actually living inside “Born to Run” or “Rosalita”? They’re the sons of the guys trying to relive “Glory Days,” living by “The River,” listening to the Replacements and smoking in the church parking lot after Mass. As H.S. head guy Craig Finn once said, “Tramps like us/ and we like tramps.” Boy howdy, do they.
Some things never change: They still have a way with an opening line. “Me and my friends are like the drums on ‘Lust for Life’/ We pound it out on floor toms/ Our psalms are sing-along songs” Finn wails on “Constructive Summer.” They’re still Catholics obsessed with what they love about ritual and belief, folding in the main characters from the New Testament like Dylan fooled around with Sara and Cinderella and Maggie. “Hey, Judas, I know you made a grave mistake” Finn warbles on “Both Crosses.” “Hey, Peter, you been pretty sweet, since Easter break.”
They still know their rock history like guys who spent more time in record stores than making out with the girls they sing about, sprinkling references to Zeppelin, Billy Joel and “St. Joe Strummer … our only decent teacher.” The title track is about growing up with straight edge hardcore, “when the Youth of Today and the early 7 Seconds/ taught me some of life’s most valuable lessons.”
But for their fourth album, “Stay Positive,” the band has dialed down the Springsteen sheen and dialed up the noir, neither of which is a bad idea. Bruce’s anthemic style is still there, but these are darker, lower key songs, making for their most consistent record since their first. Guitarist Tad Kubler knocks out his first truly capital-c Classic capital-r Rock solo on “Lord, I’m Discouraged.”
Recurring characters from earlier albums, such as the cursed Holly and the dangerous Charlemagne, don’t seem to be around as much (maybe they’re in rehab). Instead, we get an unnamed gal who may or may not witness a murder she may or may not have had anything to do with.
“One for the Cutters” and its fluttering harpsichord chronicles a cross-class affair that ends in blood: “When one townie falls in the forest, can anyone hear it?” Right before it, we get the single “Sequestered in Memphis,” with a male character mumbling “In barlight, she looked all right/ In daylight, she looked desperate/ That’s all right I was desperate, too/ I’m gettin’ pretty sick of this interview,” probably to cops. “I went there on business,” says Finn in the outro, and he sounds like the classic ’40s patsy, up to his eyeballs in something that’s gone horribly wrong.
Maybe it’s like one of those stand-alone novels Ross MacDonald or John Updike might write between Lew Archer or Rabbit books. Or maybe the album is a Rashomon view of a crime, the continuing adventures of Holly and friends from inside her head. The album is littered with quotes from earlier records — it’ll look lazy to detractors and the stuff of Internet forum chats to fans. But like the man says, we gotta stay positive.
Recommended: “Sequestered in Memphis,” “Constructive Summer”
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