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Monday, July 6, 2009
Billie Holiday tribute to mark 50th anniversary of death
The great Billie Holiday died of drug and alcohol related causes on July 17, 1959. To celebrate her life on the anniversary of her death, David Stevens and the Morris Nelms Quartet, featuring Alex Coke on sax, will play Lady Day songs at St. David’s Episcopal Church (301 East 8th Street). Tickets are $25 in advance and benefit the St David’s Music Endowment and Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM).
Call the St David’s Bookstore at 610-3550 for more info.
Another way to celebrate Billie Holiday is to buy the “Love Songs” compilation, which is probably my favorite CD of all time. And I’m not really a fan of jazz. It’s just that nobody could wrap his or her emotions around a lyric like Billie Holiday.
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Stubb’s to host Michael Jackson tribute band
Getting in on the MJ craze, C3 Presents has booked Who’s Bad “the Ultimate Michael Jackson Trubute Band” to play Stubb’s Oct. 15. The North Carolina- based band formed about four years ago and hit the jackpot a week and a half ago. Tickets go on sale Saturday at Frontgate locales.
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CD review: Son Volt ‘American Central Dust’
Son Volt
‘American Central Dust’
(Rounder)
Grade: A-
First listen: This record is a numbing bore. It wouldn’t be surprising that, after an industrial accident, a heavy machinery operator tested positive for traces of Son Volt in his system.
Second listen: The band, two of the five from Austin, is doing some interesting things with rhythms and textures, creating a subtly subversive backdrop/Crazy Horse lurching. Mark Spencer’s pedal steel guitar makes “Dust of Daylight” and “Pushed Too Far” truly special.
But this record could do without “Sultana,” the sort of heavy-handed tale of maritime disaster that led to the formation of Wilco.
Third listen: Jay Farrar’s voice is mesmerizing in its consistency and commitment. There’s not a note out of place and such songs as “When the Wheels Don’t Move,” about the folks hurt most in a failing auto industry, and the LP-ending “Jukebox of Steel,” sound born sturdy. It’s quite remarkable the way all the pieces come together like a potluck dinner among close friends.
Fourth listen: This could be the best Son Volt record since 1995’s “Trace,” lacking only a “Tear-Stained Eye” to bring in the fence-sitters. “American Central Dust” is about 44 minutes from beginning to end, not the 3:45 that might get them next to Patty (Griffin) on the playlist. There’s not a producer credited, as the CD sounds like musicians left alone with the sounds in their heads and the talent to translate. It’s a mood piece that makes the silence after “Jukebox of Steel” almost jarring.
Someone should do a study on why it is that so many of the albums we love are initially met with disappointment. Raise your hand if you hated “Exile On Main Street” at first. Although “A.C.D.” is not going to be a classic, it’s one of those records that challenge, then reward, those who stick it out.
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CD review: Manikin ‘Stop the Sirens’
Manikin
‘Stop the Sirens’
(Super Secret)
Grade: A-
One of the most annoying things about the post-punk revival from a few years ago was some bands’ conviction that Gang of Four was a genre. Manikin managed to avoid this trap altogether and instead figured out that the first couple of Cure albums were ripe for reexamination. Their excellent new album isn’t shy about their interest in Robert Smith’s early trio workouts (they cover “Grinding Halt” from the Cure’s debut “Three Imaginary Boys”), but they also know that playing those sort of spare songs full of flanged out guitar is all the more fun when played fast, teetering on the edge of out of control.
Guitarist Alfonso Rabago belts out every word, his voice caked in echo and fuzz, yelling like he’s gotta get it all out before the song is over, his spiky solos running roughshod over the minimalist grooves. Alyse Mervosh (also the drummer in the excellent garage band Hex Dispensers) and bassist B.J. Schneider drive the songs like freight trains with Bill Jeffery’s trumpet adding weird, unexpected splashes of color. It’s a very Austin touch for one of the year’s best local albums.
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CD review: Deer Tick ‘Born on Flag Day’
Deer Tick
‘Born on Flag Day’
(Partisan)
Grade: B+
When Rhode Island’s Deer Tick showcased an impressive new array of gritty, twang-tinged folk tunes at this year’s South by Southwest Festival, it was clear that “Born on Flag Day,” out June 23, was going to be as sharp as a shot of whiskey.
The album is littered with the kinds of one-liners that made “War Elephant,” the band’s 2007 debut, so painfully poignant. “You have my heart/So take my money too,” young frontman John Joseph McCauley rasps on “Little White Lies,” while on “Friday XIII,” he and guest vocalist Liz Isenberg list the gifts they plan to buy each other over a rollicking minor chord romp before she cries, “But all I need is you.”
But when you compare the cuts on “Flag Day” to live performances of the same songs, it almost feels like the young McCauley and his recently formed backing band are still nailing down their studio dynamic. Blues-rocker “Chasing a Storm” chugs forward behind plenty of adrenaline-pumping guitar solo interplay, but when it reaches its bass-thumping climax near the end, the energy falters.
Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find ballads as sincere as “Smith Hill” or “Hell on Earth.” They may come out of the Northeast, but they thump with heart big enough to fill any open Texas sky.
Deer Tick plays Thursday at Emo’s, 603 Red River St. $10. 477-3667; www.emosaustin.com.
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Decemberists to Jarosz: nice cover
18-year-old Sarah Jarosz, who’ll be playing a free instore at Waterloo Records tomorrow at 5 p.m., is a huge fan of Portland’s Decemberists. She first saw them at Telluride a couple years ago, then pushed her way as close as possible for the band’s recent SXSW set at Stubb’s.
Jarosz’ debut “Song Up In Her Head” contains a cover of the band’s “Shankill Butchers.” Although she’s never met the members, Jarosz recently received an email from guitarist Chris Funk that said they liked her version.” It really meant so much to me for him to take the time to send me that note,” said Jarosz, who’ll be moving to Boston next month to attend the New England Conservatory.
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Live review: Bill Callahan at the Parish
“Hello.”
No “I’m Bill Callahan” (the musician formerly known as Smog). No “It’s great to be back home in Austin” (after a monthlong tour in support of the album “Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle”). No “Thanks to all my friends for coming out” (among them, Jonathan Meiburg and Thor Harris of Shearwater, who’ve played with Callahan in various incarnations).
Just “hello,” and then straight into “Our Anniversary,” a long and winding relationship narrative from the album “Supper,” nuanced by sentimental but not sappy violin and cello strings during Sunday night’s jackpot set at the Parish. Callahan has let his songs do the talking for him for 13 albums now. His oeuvre can stand toe to toe with the best in the singer-songwriter game. This is especially true of his three most recent albums, which include the baptism-by-fire “Woke on a Whaleheart” and the autobiographical rite-of-passage “A River Ain’t Too Much to Love.”
It was quite like Christmas morning when you are 5, then, when Callahan followed his opener with “Diamond Dancer” and “Sycamore,” the sublime back-to-back combo from “Whaleheart.” “Dancer” was faster than usual, the sight of one of those hippie chicks at a Dead show twirling into infinity hard to ignore. “Sycamore,” meanwhile, was slower than usual, with Callahan’s drawn-out enunciation of the word “sycamore” invoking more meaning than an entire Leonard Cohen poem.
Callahan and his four backing players also performed songs from the new album, including “Eid Ma Clack Shaw,” a song made memorable not only by its title (no amount of Google-searching yields a translation) but by its refrain, “Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way, to shake a mem-o-ry,” which was sung by Callahan while plinking a keyboard and wearing sunglasses to shield him from the overhead lights.
With the room finally dimmed near darkness, Callahan went all the way back to 1995, with a cryptic, unfurling version of the song “Bathysphere,” about living in the spherical deep-sea vessel. The song was covered in ‘96 by Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power), who, it’s said, was Callahan’s girlfriend, until, of course, one of them said goodbye.
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It’s official: Austin loves Wilco
Last Thursday while guest-hosting the Jim Rome radio show, the Sklar twins- Randy and Jason- read an email trashing Wilco from a guy named Brent from Austin. “Austin?” one of the twins said, incredulously. “Living in Austin and not loving Wilco is like living in any other city in Texas and not driving a pickup.”
This week, 283 Waterloo Records shoppers proved the Sklars right, buying “Wilco (the Album)” in the first week of its release. Wilco sold about five times more copies than runnerup Regina Spektor. Here’s the Top 50 list (note the sales of “Thriller,” which are about 30 more than on a previous week):
1. Wilco 283
2. Regina Spektor 57
3. Spoon TX 56
4. Charlie Robison TX KGSR 54
5. Levon Helm 49
6. Steve Earle TX 44
7. Grizzly Bear WR 41
8. Black Joe Lewis TX 41
9. Dinosaur Jr. 40
10. Slaid Cleaves TX 39
11. Phoenix 37
12. Sarah Jarosz TX 32
13. Kat Edmonson TX 31
14. Ryan Bingham TX 31
15. St. Vincent TX 31
16. Michael Jackson Thriller 30
17. Iron & Wine TX 28
18. Flatlanders TX 26
19. Todd Snider WR 26
20. Sonic Youth 25
21. Willie & the Wheel TX 25
22. Moby 24
23. Mars Volta 23
24. Dirty Projectors 23
25. Passion Pit 21
Continue the Top 50 after the jump.
26. George Harrison 20
27. Kings of Leon 20
28. Tortoise 19
29. Gomez 19
30. Pete Yorn 18
31. Dave Matthews Band 18
32. Ben Harper 18
33. Deer Tick 17
34. Neko Case 17
35. Mos Def 17
36. Spinnerette 16
37. Yeah Yeah Yeahs 16
38. Michael Jackson Off the Wall 15
39. Michael Jackson Essential 15
40. Sunset Rubdown 13
41. God Help the Girl 13
42. Paolo Nutini 13
43. Michael Jackson Number Ones 13
43. Bibio 12
44. Triple Cobra IS 12
45. Shawn Colvin TX 12
46. Rhett Miller TX 12
47. Joel Guzman & Sarah Fox TX 12
48. Bill Callahan TX 12
49. Balmorhea TX 12
