John Cale

Open Letter to Amoeba Records:

Dear Amoeba,

Thanks so much for having free shows.  I especially want to thank
you for having John Cale perform on Saturday November 26th.  I would have gone to see his show at the Cafe DuNord, but the tickets
were $20.  I would have gladly paid that steep price for such a
legend as Mr. Cale whom I have admired since his days witht he Velvet
Underground, his production work on Nick Drake’s albums and for Cale’s
Paris 1919 record, which I feel is his best solo work.  Oh yeah, the
stuff he did with Nico was awesome too.  

Even though I know the 5 songs Mr. Cale performed at your wonderfully
huge record store were done for the benefit of his new release black Acetate, I couldn’t help but think that I had seen enough. 
Sure I could have heard him play the beautful tune Andalucia, but I’m
not sure it would have satisfied me.  You see, I can’t stand his
new song Perfect.  Did EMI put a gun to Cale’s head for him to record
this?  I hope they did because the song truly stinks and worst of all, he made a video, a really silly video.

I still love Cale and what he has contributed to musicians like myself
that have been influenced by his authentic approach to the artistry of
composition, but is it true that artists can only create one really
good piece while the rest of their life’s work is only an attempt to
recapture their past glory? 
               
              
  
Sincerely,

4F

John Cale : Andalucia (sample)

High Llamas

Some folks believe a live High Llamas show lacks enthusiasm or pizazz, but I disagree entirely. Sean O’Hagen, the genius behind the music, is a subtle and unmatched wit at times. Recently I checked out a show at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill (with Joanna Newsome opening the show— I’ll devote a post entirely to her beautiful sound sometime soon). Don’t know if it was the intimate setting or O’Hagen’s poignant political comments on our current administration that cushioned the evening, but what a display of musical professionalism and discipline I witnessed that evening.

Thanks to that wonderful archive at KVRX I can relay these live-in-studio sounds to you:
High Llamas : Nomads
High Llamas: Lobby Bears

Tom ‘Never’ Waits

The interview is from 2002, but it’s still a treat to hear the gargling genius talk about his influences (does Terry Gross know what she’s talking about?).

Tom Waits on Fresh Air

Other Tunes:

Tom Waits : Jesus Gonna Be Here (live)
Tom Waits : Falling Down (live)
Tom Waits : Sea of Love (amazing, live!)

Dry Turkey Punk Rock

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane…. They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (cited form the diaries of Columbus)

From the chapter “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” in the book A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Dead Boys : Sonic Reducer
The Germs : Lexicon Devil
New York Dolls : Babylon
Ramones : Judy is a Punk

Two Gallants new 7″

You
can read a previous post I did about these guys here, but this new
recording goes beyond what I heard on their last release and live.  Adam’s
voice keeps getting better and you can here the new single below.

Bringing an infusion of bloody-knuckled punk energy to storytelling
epics and tear-in-your-beer honky-tonk, the two musicians of Two
Gallants had the balls to name themselves after a short story by James
Joyce, and they back up their hubris by crafting a surprisingly
original sound out of their timeworn influences.

Founded in 2002 by childhood friends and San Francisco natives Adam
Stephens (vocals, harmonica, guitar) and Tyson Vogel (drums, vocals),
Two Gallants cut their teeth at house parties and frequent guerilla
shows outside Mission Street BART stations.Equally adept at dark,
brokenhearted ballads shot through with a whiskey-soaked wit that
belies their youth (Adam and Tyson are in their early 20s) and
punked-up jigs that make the duo sound like a pared-down version of the
Pogues tackling Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, the
gallants honed their startlingly mature material with extensive touring
and a couple of homemade CDs, long before they had an album in stores.

Their proper debut, The Throes, was recorded in Berkeley in early 2004
and released by Alive Records. The resulting album details vivid
narratives built around Stephensís craggy, potent voice and intricate
picking and propelled by Vogelís alternately muscular and sensitive
rhythms.

las cruces jail marks Two Gallantsí first release on Saddle Creek.
Recorded at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco with Scott Solter during
August 2005, Two Gallantsí second record what the toll tells will be
released on Saddle Creek in February 2006. Look for Adam & Tyson
touring Europe in November 2005 with The Decemberists, and then around
the US and Europe again next year in support of the new release.

las cruces jail 7î Single
release date: DECEMBER 6, 2005
Track Listing
1.las cruces jail (6:50)
2.long summer day (acoustic) (5:25)

Broken Social Scene: To Be You and Me (Bonus EP)

Iím the type who scours sites like The Hype Machine looking
for music from either artists I know, or covers of songs I know. What
the hell is wrong with me? Why was I at KFJC for nine years if Iím only
looking for covers of ìNight Movesî? So when the day came that I
finally said to myself ìPlease, for the love of everything that you
hold dear, find something today, that you have not heard before.î, I
knew I was about to get an earfulÖof what, I did not know, but who
cares, right?

I poked around on Hype for a while; one of the things I love
about the aggregators is when I see six or seven songs from the same
artist. I can make a little mini CD, or split CD of two or three bands,
is that illegal? I saw the latest EP ìTo You and Meî, from Broken Social Scene sitting on there, and figured, why not? Iím pleased that I tuned in.

This is a bonus EP that goes along with their full-length, third,
self-titled release on Arts & Crafts records. I have to say right
off the bat, that I am not familiar with their last album ìYou Forgot
it in Peopleî, which garnered such enthusiastic reviews. With that
said, I truly enjoyed this EP, so much so, that Iíve had it on repeat
for a few days now. Seven tracks, totaling 26 minutes. Yes, it has a
bit of the Wilco sound to it, as well as Pavement, but thatís a good
thing. Many of the tracks are instrumental, a few with some vocalizing
over the music, but no actual lyrics, and one or two with some fine
lyrics added for good measure.

Standouts include, but are not limited to (my many years in radio
seeping out right there): Canada vs. America. Great lyrics here, placed
over drums in the foreground, and horns in the Azalea Snail school of
indi rock. When the mention ìThe big guns are coming outî in the
chorus, Iím reminded of John Candy movie when heís a cop on the
U.S./Canada border, and weíre about to go to war with them to take
attention away of the crap going on here. Candy and Reah Perlman save
the day. If I remember correctly Alan Alda plays the President in that
movie. A real classic, obviously. So is this song.

The entire CD appears to be sounds colliding with each other in one
way or another, but just like the current book Iím reading: ìNo Logoî,
by Naomi Cline, about advertisings pervasive influence in our lives,
every time I think theyíve made a mistake somewhere, I realize, no they
have not. As a matter of fact, what they just did was so brilliant; I
must listen to it once again.

The use of programmed drum and synth tracks works well with the
acoustic/analog instruments they haul along their thick path of musical
frontier discovery. They carry along with them many musicians. I guess
their live show is something to be seen. They are playing at the Grand
Ballroom tonight (11/09/05) in San Francisco. I will not be attending,
but you should go. Really, you donít have a life. Look at you. No,
seriously, look at you.

Other stand out tracks: ìBaroque Socialî, nice use of synth
equipment. ìNo Smiling Darkness/Snake Charmer Associationî, bass and
tambourine for the soul. And I seriously have to say that ìAll My
Friendsî will sadly be a theme song on some show like OP or Laguna
Beach sometime very soon. Awesome song, which you just know will be
picked up by those Hollywood bastards! ìMajor Label Debut (fast)î is a
real rocker. At 3:12 it is sure to be on your local indi radio station
real soon. The lyrics are catchy, and the music is very punchy. And
theyíre right, itís fast. This should be the single, actually. From
what I understand they may be suffering from the sophomore jinx with
their full length release. I certainly donít see that with this EP. Get
it todayÖor on payday.

Ok, Iím going back to finding covers of Styx tunes, or perhaps
another mash-up of Air Supply and Guns and RosesÖthat was a good one

Thanks to Think Tank for these links:

KVRX Radio-Austin Texas 2003
Broken Social Scene – Stars and Sons
Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline)
Broken Social Scene – New Country(?)
Broken Social Scene – Willie Nelson(?)
Broken Social Scene – Cause=Time

Reviewed by the amazing John Hell

Radio Frequencies

Ryan Francesconi is everything at once.  Part musician, part
programmer, part photo artist, film artist, Balkan music lover and
maybe human (I don’t know).  But what he creates on his own as
Radio Frequencies (RF) or alongside of other artists in groups such as
Life on Earth and The Toids is a repertoire (did I just use that word?)
of muscial abstractions ranging from electronica to folk.  At
first listen I’m certainly reminded of artists such as Tortoise,
Nobukazu Takemura, Mouse on Mars and Stereolab, but RF doesn’t concern
himself with structure or repetiton, he creates sound scapes for a
digital aquatic age <I’m transported back to the fish tank of my
youth, swimming with my pet Oscar (a species of fish), grooving to the
sound of the air pump, floating on bubbles like the choppy dude on my
Commodore 64 version of Jungle Hunt>. I’m not talking dance music
folks.  I’m talking sensory bliss.

Catch him live with Life on Earth Friday November 11th at the always packed and acoustically firm Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

Mp3’s:
RF : Bis
RF : Internal Notes
RF : Difference
RF : Sunday Park

Videos:
RF : Sunday Park
RF : Internal Notes
RF : Sunspot