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Daniel: Next Spoon LP ‘about 60 per cent finished’
The way Spoon usually makes a record is that Britt Daniel writes the songs, then he and his bandmates hammer out demos, which they bring to the producer. Then the songs are rerecorded. But on the band’s as-yet-untitled seventh album, the demos are the foundation of the record, with the band building on top of those basic tracks.
“”We felt like we got something really good on the demos,” Daniel said from Portland, where he’s lived the past three years. Mike McCarthy, who co-produced 2007’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” 2005’s “Gimme Fiction” and 2003’s “Kill the Moonlight” with Daniel and drummer Jim Eno, is back on the new one. But at least half the record is being made in Brooklyn with Deerhunter sound man Nicolas Vernhes, who recorded the surprise single “Got Nuffin’,” which came out of nowhere last week.
“We should be done recording by the end of summer,” said Daniel, who added that all the songs have been written, but he’s polishing up a few of the lyrics and reworking his vocals on a couple songs. “Let’s call it September.” The album is slated for a spring 2010 release on Merge.
Some of the songs already in the can are “Written In Reverse,” “I Saw the Light,” “Trouble Comes Running” and Mystery Zone.” Daniel said the band will play those new songs and more (a series of sneaks?) at their three-night stand at Stubb’s this week, which starts Thursday.
Although it was pointed out that each Spoon album was slightly more acclaimed than its predecessor, Daniel said he doesn’t feel pressure to top “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard album sales chart and landed the band on “Saturday Night Live.” That was the record that got Keepon dancing.
“I feel that this record has got to be awful good,” said Daniel, who said unlike “Ga Ga,” the new one doesn’t have horns. Not yet, at least. “Making records is really important to us- we’re not going to force things. But we really like being finished. Then we get to go out there and do the fun stuff.”
Here’s “Written In Reverse” (the correct title) as performed at the Pitchfork Festival:
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Harlem inks with Matador/ Manny rejoins Dodgers
The Tucson-to-Austin band Harlem signed to Matador Records about two weeks ago, but since we read M’dor man Gerard Cosloy’s Can’t Stop the Bleeding sports blog more than his Matador blog, we just found out.
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Ice Cube headlines Texas Heatwave
Gangsta rap pioneer Ice Cube will play the Travis County Expo Center July 25 as part of the 20th annual Texas Heatwave car show. Mike Jones, Trae, Lil’ Black, J-Kapone and Dirty Wormz are also on the bill.
Tickets are $20 in advance and available at O’Reilly Auto Parts locations. The show is at 8 p.m.
The Heatwave Custom Truck & Car Show runs July 24- 26 at the Expo Center. One competitive event is for loudest car sound system, with the winner determined not by decibels, but with a meter that measures how much air is moved by the bass.
(It’s a good thing Scott Trainer doesn’t live on Decker Lane.)
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Changes abound at KUT
Programming changes at KUT have cut longtime hosts Paul Ray and Larry Monroe to one night a week each.
“Paul Ray’s Jazz” and Larry Monroe’s “Phil Music Program” are being replaced on KUT (FM 90.5) by “Music with Matt Reilly,” hosted by KUT’s new assistant music director.
In another change, KUT will air “Undercurrents,” a three-hour national music show hosted by Gregg McVicar, at midnight Monday through Thursday to replace overnight programming hosted by Monroe and Ray.
In all, Ray will lose 14 hours of air time a week, with Monroe broadcasting 10 fewer hours a week. Ray and Monroe will continue to host their popular weekly “Twine Time” and “Blue Monday” programs, respectively.
Reilly’s show, which will air from 8 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday, beginning July 7, “will feature a mix of hand-picked music that reflects the Central Texas experience, as well as live, in-studio performances from local and national artists,” according to a station news release.
KUT says the changes were made to better blend daytime and evening programs. “By creating more continuity between our daytime and evening music programming we hope to serve a broader listener base,” Hawk Mendenhall, KUT’s director of broadcast and content, said in the release. “Larry and Paul have been longtime voices of KUT and have built a strong and loyal fan base for their signature programs ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Twine Time.’”
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Avett Brothers perform new songs on NPR
Fans of the North Carolina folksters excited about their upcoming performance at this year’s Austin City Limits festival will want to check out this video of the Avett Brothers performing in the NPR office. The mini set includes a new song, “Laundry Room,” which will appear on their new album, “I and Love and You,” due out in September.
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New Riverboat Gamblers video
“Victory Lap” from the album, Underneath the Owl.
The Riverboat Gamblers just wrapped up a tour with Rise Against and Rancid. They’ll go to Europe for three weeks beginning Aug. 15. But first is the Antone’s anniversary show with Roky Erickson July 15.
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What’s in a song? Three artists share the stories behind theirs
Jamie Foxx’s ‘Blame It,’ from his 2008 album ‘Intuition’:
“Chris Henderson from Detroit wrote the song. He’s not a big producer, and that’s what you like sometimes. It means a lot to that kid. When I heard it, I thought, ‘I’ve gotta do that song.’ My man Brion Prescott, who brought me that song, said, ‘You have to do it tonight, because everybody wants the song.’ So, we cut it exactly like the record. I wanted to use the autotune and keep it exactly the same.
“By doing that, we snuck in the back door. People didn’t even know it was me singing. There was no grading the record, it was just, `Wow, what is this? We rockin’ to this. We don’t care who it is.’ People found out that it was me, and we got a chance to put Ron Howard and Samuel Jackson and Forest Whitaker and Quincy Jones in the movement. It made it a lifestyle record. It burst at the seams.” - As told to Brian T. Atkinson
Jamie Foxx performs at 8 p.m. July 11 at the Erwin Center. Tickets are $59.75. 1701 Red River St., on the UT campus. 477-6060, texasboxoffice.com.
M. Ward, ‘Hold Time,’ on the recent release ‘Hold Time’:
“‘Hold Time’ was the first song I recorded for the record, and it was written on piano. I don’t write very many songs on piano, but it was written in about 15 minutes, and those tend to be my favorite songs. In my opinion the words come out of the chord progression and the chord progression comes out of the words and they’re just … it’s like describing a dream or something. It’s hard because I don’t understand how it happens, and nor do I want to. If the mystery was decoded, part of the appeal of the music would die. I’m drawn to those mysteries in music and how they’re related to bigger questions related to memory. I think that’s something I’m a little obsessed with. It happens automatically in the same way a dream will enlighten you about your own life or a really old journal entry could tell you something about the situation you’re in today.” - As told to Alex Hannaford
M. Ward plays Aug. 4 at Antone’s, 213 W. Fifth St. $20-$22. 320-8424; antones.net.
The Boxmasters, ‘Some of Shelley’s Blues,’ from the band’s 2008 self-titled debut:
Guitarist J.D. Andrew: “Michael Nesmith’s a huge influence on us as a band. We got to play with Mike at his Video Ranch. You play a show in front of a green screen, but they digitally put you in an amphitheater space where people can watch you on the Internet. We had this screen in front of us where we look at the people watching, who are more like cartoon things. They can comment and post things on the screen that we can see.
“It’s really cool. They’re all communicating with each other, and it’s this amazingly wild thing that he’s come up with. The night after we played, we got to watch Mike play. We got to hear him do his version of ‘Some of Shelley’s Blues.’ We learned the song off the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album (`Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy’), and I hadn’t actually heard Mike’s version. That was great.” - As told to Brian T. Atkinson
The Boxmasters played last weekend as part of the celebration of Poodie Locke’s life at the Backyard.
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Weekend picks: Power twang, Zen punk and a flock of free range bikes
FRIDAY
Li’l Cap’n Travis at the Continental Club.This is the perfect venue for this Austin crew, which subdivides power pop, country twang and roots rock as well as anyone this town has ever produced. They hit the stage at midnight. $10. — Joe Gross
Also recommended
- Bone Awl, Ashdautas, Volahn, Total Abuse at Red 7
- Ghost Knife at Trailer Space (6 p.m.)
- Indian Jewelry, Daughters of the Sun and many more at the Mohawk (both stages, free for 21 and over)
- the Chumps at Beerland
- CD release party for both Til We’re Blue Or Destroy and New Roman Times at Club DeVille
SATURDAY
The Yellow Bike Project presents the Invincible Czars at Wooldridge Square Park. The Czars present their version of Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’ in its first Austin performance, along with John Philip Sousa’s ‘Noble of the Mystic Shrine’ and more. Expect a few Capt. Beefheart covers. The Yellow Bike Project will release a fleet of their famous Yellow Bikes into the wild. With them are Rebecca Havemeyer and Little Stolen Moments. Ninth and Guadalupe streets. 1 p.m. Free. www.austinyellowbike.org. — J.G.
Also recommended
- P.L.F. at Snake Eyes Vinyl
- 2009 Vans Warped Tour Party with Henry Rollins, more at Emo’s
- People Under the Stairs, Lowkey, Dred Skott at Red 7
- Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River), Joey Cape (Lagwagon), more at the Mohawk
- Mau Mau Chaplains at Flamingo Cantina
SUNDAY
M.O.T.O. at Beerland.One of the all-time-great long-running underground outfits, Masters of the Obvious is essentially Chicago songwriter Paul Caporino’s baby. A Zen master of bubblegum punk, his band always sounds fresh, no matter what sounds are in style. With Midnight Creeps, Ty Segall and Moonhearts. 8 p.m. $7. 711 Red River St. 479-7625. — J.G.
Also recommended
- Bill Callahan, Follow That Bird at the Parish
- the Calm Blue Sea at Emo’s
- Abdishment, Insidious Decrepancy at Room 710
- the Church of the Friendly Ghost presents Lady Friends part 3 with Sharon Crutcher & Michelle Waterman and more at the Salvage Vanguard Theater
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Delbert’s first studio LP in four years coming Aug. 18
Can producer Don Was do for Delbert McClinton’s career what he did for Delbert’s pal Bonnie Raitt on “Nick of Time”?
The Was-produced “Aquired Taste” (New West), which finds D-Mac doing what he does best, only with deeper lyrics, hits stores Aug. 18. The 14-track CD will contain a companion DVD with never=before-seen performances from his “Austin City Limits” appearances.
The CD also includes a guest appearance by McClinton’s friend since childhood, guitarist Stephen Bruton, who passed away in May from throat cancer.
“Acquired Taste” Track List:
1. Mama’s Little Baby
2. Starting A Rumor
3. Can’t Nobody Say I Didn’t Try
4. Never Saw It Comin’
5. Do It
6. I Need To Know
7. People Just Love To Talk
8. Until Then
9. Willie
10. Wouldn’t You Think (Should’ve Been Here By Now)
11. She’s Not There Anymore
12. When She Cries At Night
13. Cherry Street
14. Out Of My Mind
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Ray Price reschedules Austin show following surgery
Ray Price is out and Mel Tillis in on July 17 at the One World Theater.
Price’s agent Bobby Roberts told the Associated Press the 83-year-old Price was admitted to a hospital in Texas on June 22 for routine medical tests when a colonoscopy revealed a large number of polyps in the pre-cancerous stage. The polyps were successfully removed the next day, according to Roberts. Price is resting at his home near Mount Pleasant.
His show at the One World has been rescheduled for Sept. 25.
Tickets purchased for the original date of the Ray Price & Dale Watson shows will be honored on this new date. Or patrons can get a refund.
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Hot show! Roky and the R. Gamblers
Wednesday, July 15, marks the 34th anniversary of Antone’s nightclub. It’s also headliner Roky Erickson’s 62nd birthday, so it looks to be a special show.
But, wait, what if we threw in Riverboat Gamblers, Austin’s most over-the-top garage band? Plus, you never know who’s going to show up at Antone’s in July.
Tickets are available now at $20 plus service charge at Frontgate Tickets.
Other highlights at Antone’s this month:
Thursday 7/2- Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers with Shurman opening. Two great live acts.
Tuesday 7/7- Help Pinetop Perkins celebrate his 96th birthday. Marcia Ball is among those saluting the last of the original bluesmen.
Saturday 7/17- Hayes Carll is flying in from Canada to play.
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We already miss Vibe magazine.
It is ceasing publication, say the fine people at Daily Finance.
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Guest list giveaway: Electric Touch at Emo’s (indoors)
We’re giving away tickets to see Electric Touch at Emo’s (inside) on Wednesday, July 8.
Email us at events@statesman.com before midnight to enter. You MUST include your full name, email address and daytime phone number in the email to win. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified tomorrow. For complete contest rules email events@statesman.com.
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EP review: Spoon ‘Got Nuffin’
Spoon
‘Got Nuffin’ EP
(Merge)
A-
I love a good non-album single. They’re almost a subgenre of their own, a cult within the rock ‘n’ roll religion. The format is great — a brief musical comment, no more than three songs, none of the contextual weight of a full album. The only obligations are to be memorable and exist on their own. They hark back to a time when the single, not the album, was the key format. The slow death of the CD has given rise to the individually leaked track, sometimes far ahead of an album, but that’s not quite the same thing. Fugazi’s “Song Number One,” the Cure’s “Charlotte Sometimes” and, say, the Clash’s “Bankrobber” all deserve a place on a nerdy, “non-album singles” playlist. The Smiths seemed to be able to knock them off in their sleep.
Add “Got Nuffin” to that storied list. A driving drumbeat, a droning New Wave bassline, it’s all tension and torsion, with only flashes of fuzzy, spiky guitar solo. Britt Daniel’s high-strung voice flirts with liberation: “I’ve got nothin’ to loose but darkness and shadows/ Got nothing but emptiness and hang-ups.” It’s both classic Spoon and a small twist on their sound and does exactly what a non-album single should do — remind you that the band is still working and still making great music and get you excited for what is to come.
The B-sides are very much B-sides — experiments that escaped from the lab. “Tweakers” is a muddy, ultra-lo-fi mix of a stuttered drum loop and flashes of organ? guitar? It sounds like something that might morph into a higher-rez song in the future. “Stroke their Brains” sounds a heck of a lot like the Strokes and, to paraphrase Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman,” in no way is that a bad thing. None of this small pile of awesome is a bad thing.
Spoon plays three nights at Stubb’s, July 9-11. Information: stubbsaustin.com.
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CD review: Wilco ‘Wilco (the Album)’
Wilco
‘Wilco (the Album)’ (Nonesuch)
B+
Jeff Tweedy’s career thrives on twists. He changes up like a major-league pitcher, sometimes slow (there wasn’t too much aesthetic space between the end of Uncle Tupelo and the beginning of Wilco), sometimes faster (the transition from “Being There” to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” was quite a leap).
“Wilco (the Album)” (which opens with “Wilco (the Song)”) is the former and probably the better for it.
The past few Wilco albums have had the smell of Big Statement about them. This has been an issue for the band since NPR fans turned “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” into “Sgt. Pepper” for people who remember where they were when the second plane hit the World Trade Center. “A Ghost is Born” got artier and oddly heavier, that live album just smoked and “Sky Blue Sky” had folks looking up Steely Dan clips on YouTube. The title of this new one is fitting: It’s the first Wilco record in a long time that sounds exactly like a Wilco album.
Opener “Wilco (the Song)” rewrites the riff from the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For the Man” and assures you that Wilco will love you (don’t think we don’t appreciate it champ).
“Deeper Down” feels like creepy ’60s L.A. kitchen-sink pop — you keep expecting Dennis Hopper to wander past with a 17-year-old gal in tow. “You and I,” a nuanced duet between Tweedy and Canadian singer/Sesame Street guest Feist, shimmers and “You Never Know” splits the difference between country-rock and Cheap Trick.
The secret weapon, of course, is still guitarist Nels Cline, who can move from crafty interplay to noise rock heckler-spray in the same song (“Bull Black Noir”) and figure out a way to rectify the Stones idea of country with the Kinks’ in “Sunny Feeling.”
Dear Wilco fans, they still love you.
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CD review: Levon Helm ‘Electric Dirt’
Levon Helm
‘Electric Dirt’ (Vanguard)
B-
Where 2007’s Grammy-winning “Dirt Farmer” ended a 25-year hiatus for Helm, the new “Electric Dirt” is less than two years coming. But where the new album lacks the airy depth and sense of purpose of its predecessor, it’s similarly a labor of love. In fine voice after a bout with throat cancer, Helm leads what sounds like a jam session on songs ranging from blues (two Muddy Waters covers), mountain music (“White Dove”) and dirty dixieland (Randy Newman’s “Kingfish”).
The problem with the covers is that they all pale to the originals. As the last member of the Band still making records, Helm is the godfather of Americana music, but too much of “Electric Dirt” rests on that title. In a sense, this album sounds like little more than an excuse to hit the road to promote it.
But two original tunes from producer Larry Campbell save the record. “Growing Trade,” co-written with Helm, is one of the best songs you’ll ever hear about the plight of family farmers, and “When I Go Away” is a melodic soul stirrer. More time between albums would’ve led to more songs like these.
Helm and his band make their Austin City Limits Festival debut at Zilker Park in October.
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CD review: Regina Spektor ‘Far’
Regina Spektor
‘Far’ (Sire)
B+
What a difference some success makes. “Soviet Kitsch” (2004), Spektor’s first album that anyone noticed, lived up to its title — hipster dross for people who fetishized her Russian-Jewish émigré status. But the follow-up, “Begin to Hope,” was a stunner, a wonderful example of how a jump to a major label can focus a songwriter’s work into something both more mainstream and more odd — she was the sexy, spacey piano gal in the apartment next door, the one you can’t get your courage up to talk to even as you thrill to her odd little songs through the wall.
“Far” isn’t quite as revelatory as “Begin to Hope,” but she still balances the mundane and the profound, the serious and the goofy like a born comedian. She gets into God’s (gods’) head(s) around the time of Genesis on “Blue Lips,” and follows it with “Folding Chair,” on which she imitates dolphin squeaks. Croaks. “Machine” sounds like a machine, which isn’t wise, but “The Wallet” is a great little song about a lost one (“I found a wallet/ I found a wallet/inside were pictures of your small family”). Long may she write about whatever the heck pops into her head.
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Guest list giveaway: Greg Laswell at Stubb’s
We’re giving away tickets to see Greg Laswell at Stubb’s (inside) on Tuesday, July 7.
Email us at events@statesman.com before midnight to enter. You MUST include your full name, email address and daytime phone number in the email to win. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified tomorrow. For complete contest rules email events@statesman.com.
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Goose Gossage on Poodie Locke
Hall of Fame pitcher Goose Gossage flew in from Colorado for Poodie’s Picnic Sunday at the Backyard. The former Yankees reliever met Poodie in 1981 after Gossage named Willie Nelson as his favorite musician in a 1981 New York Times profile.
“They sent me a nice letter inviting me to come out to any show, so when they played Red Rocks I hung out on the bus,” Gossage said. “I’ve been a green fly ever since.”
Gossage, who wore a “No Bad Days” t-shirt with Locke’s silhouette, called Poodie “one of the greatest facilitators I’ve ever known. I met so many great people through him.”
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Poodie’s Picnic sold out!
If you were planning to head out to the Backyard this evening and you didn’t already buy your ticket, you can save your time and gas: Poodie’s Picnic sold out all 2,000 tickets this morning.
In other news, Johnny Knoxville just showed up from the airport. The “Jackass” star was a close friend of Poodie Locke.
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Schedule for Poodie’s Picnic today
The www.stillisstillmoving.com site has posted set times for today’s celebration of Poodie Locke’s life at the Backyard. Willie Nelson, Poodie’s boss of 33 years, is not on the list of performers.
According to his nephew Freddie Fletcher, Nelson is still in Maui, getting ready for his tour with Bob Dylan that ticks off Wednesday in Milwaukee.
Interesting notes: Little Joe will perform with a full band at 4:10 p.m. Cody Canada will perform with Robert Earl Keen and Stoney LaRue- not Cross Canadian Ragweed, at 9:15 p.m. Pat Green will be a surprise guest during Cory Morrow’s 10:45 set.
Locke, 60, died May 6 of a heart attack.
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My first thought was - “Don’t post a comment here, go to kut.org and tell them directly.” Well, I couldn’t find anything about these changes on their front page, which makes me think they don’t want comments, only pledges,
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Get rid of John Aielli..Please!!! He is the reason I don’t donate money anymore and why I don’t turn on KUT before 1:00 - unless he is on vacation. Then I listen
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