Tampa Calling

Conor Oberst, the young man who began his career writing about breaking up with actress girlfriends and late-night boozing via his alias Bright Eyes, recently told Rolling Stone that he was ready to put that part of his life to rest.

It’s true indie citizens. After one more album, which Oberst plans to record early in 2010, Bright Eyes will be no more. But fear not! Conor plans on keeping himself busy with other projects, including his Mystic Valley Band and this new super group, Monsters of Folk (pictured), which also features M. Ward, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and producer Mike Mogis. Read the rest of this entry »

This Saturday marks the second annual Record Store Day, a national salute to the more than 700 indie music stores located across the country and the positive impact they make on their communities. In honor of the event, several Bay area stores are offerings specials and carrying limited edition, exclusive Record Store Day releases.

Daddy Kool gives 10 percent off all new albums and 20 percent off all used inventory, and hosts some yet-to-be-announced activities.

Other area stores, like Sound Exchange, Mojo Books & Music and Vinyl Fever, have stocked up on an array of exclusive Record Store Day releases available only at indie stores. Amid the offerings are an array of split 7”-ers, including a double 7” of live tracks from Atlanta and Edinburgh by Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams, and a split 7” featuring covers of songs from Warner Bros.’ back catalog – Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs performing Madonna’s “Borderline,” and The Black Keys doing Captain Beefheart’s “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles.” Guided By Voices re-releases its Hold On Hope LP with three bonus tracks, My Morning Jacket offers a limited run CD and double 10″ vinyl release recorded live in Louisville at Ear X-tacy record store, and Wilco makes its forthcoming concert DVD, Ashes of American Flags, available solely to indie stores and on its website on Record Store Day. Other exclusive RSD vinyl releases come from Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Mastodon, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Jane’s Addiction, The Stooges, Modest Mouse, Slayer, The Decemberists and Black Kids, among many others. Read the rest of this entry »

Guitar World recently offered up a list of the “Top 10 Stupidest Band Names of All Time” and I gotta say, it doesn’t look like they put a lot of thought into it, like someone had a good idea but didn’t use enough brain power to carry it out properly. Here’s the list:

1. The Beatles
2. Limp Bizkit
3. Boy Parts – Throbbing Gristle, Revolting Cocks, Iron Sausage
4. Girl Parts – Nashville Pussy, Bush, Pussy Galore, Hot Tuna
5. Scatological Names – Butthole Surfers, Fudge Tunnel, Butt Trumpet
6. Place Names – Nantucket, Boston, New York City, Europe, Asia, Chicago, Wakefield, Landale
7. Yes
8. Toto
9. The Presidents of the United States of America
10. The Band

First off, it’s not even an authentic Top 10 (see numbers 3 through 6). Second, The Beatles? You’re a writer at a marginally well-known rag that covers music, solely, all the time, and you can’t come up with a better bad band name than The Beatles? And you stick it up top, in the number one slot, as if to say it’s the worst band name of all time, even though the list is supposed to be in no particular order. And if it really is in no particular order — The Beatles were the first band you thought of? Really? I don’t want to judge, but I am. So I’ve made my own highly subjective, somewhat thoughtful list of awful band names in response. In no particular order: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written different variations of the following caveat for years, but I think it establishes an important distinction: The following is a list of my favorite albums of 2008. This is not to be confused with what’s important or hip or widely acclaimed by the critical community. If some of the titles below happen to be important or hip or widely acclaimed by the critical community, it is purely by chance.

1. My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges (ATO). 2008 was the year I finally got pulled into My Morning Jacket’s orbit. It started with their appearance on Saturday Night Live and continues with Evil Urges, a rock album that I still don’t know quite what to make of, other than it constantly fascinates and delights me. Jim James and his Louisville compadres wantonly hop around through different styles — bracing riff-rock, terse funk, jam-band ooze, sweet balladry, twang, power-pop, neo-folk, prog and more — and somehow make it all sound so perfectly at home.

2. Al Green: Lay it Down (Blue Note). A lot of artists tried their hand at the vintage soul sound this year, but the master schooled ’em all. Coproduced by Green, ?uestlove and keyboardist James Poyser, Lay it Down lovingly evokes Green’s early-’70s heyday, with the easy sweep of the grooves and organic arrangements that allow the singer ample room to rifle through his whole bag of signature techniques: the shaping of a line, the slipping in and out of falsetto, the melismatic flourishes. Younger vocalists Anthony Hamilton, Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend go to school with the professor and end up getting good grades.

3. Shelby Lynne: Just a Little Lovin’ (Lost Highway). One of the best singers of her generation, and certainly one of the lesser appreciated, caresses a program of songs made famous by the late Dusty Springfield. Backed only by a bare-bones quartet of veteran studio musicians assembled by producer Phil Ramone, Lynne carries the entire affair, singing the likes of “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “The Look of Love” et al with subdued radiance. Lynne and company transform all of the tunes into sexy ballads, and overall the vocalist puts her firm imprint on these time-tested gems.

4. Firewater: The Golden Hour (Bloodshot). Tod A., singer, songwriter and one-man brain-trust of Firewater, wandered through India, Pakistan, Turkey and elsewhere, recruiting local musicians along the way and recording them with a single microphone and laptop. The results are an astounding fusion of punk-infused rock with indigenous Eastern sounds, anchored by Tod A.’s rag-and-bone voice and angry, sardonic lyrics. Overall, The Golden Hour sounds as rugged as the artist’s trek. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, here’s my list. Stay tuned for Top 10s by Snider and Leilani.

1. Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway)
On Little Honey, alt-country queen Lucinda Williams returns to the more focused, rock-oriented sonics of her breakthrough 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. In doing so, she reveals a newfound sexual confidence (”Honey Bee”) and celebrates domestic bliss (”Tears of Joy”). The singer/songwriter also manages to mine pathos for humor on the superb Elvis Costello duet “Jailhouse Tears.” Williams can still break your heart, though. “Little Rock Star” plays like a much-needed note to Amy Winehouse, penned by a sympathetic female singer who has already survived the perilous, do “whatever it’ll take to get them to listen” phase. Williams closes Little Honey with a fun treat: A surprisingly awesome swamp-rock cover of the AC/DC road warrior anthem “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna to Rock ‘n Roll).”

2. Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III (Cash Money)
Lil Wayne’s stoned, whisper-y flow and high-drama delivery is spellbinding. The dude opens his mouth, and you listen, hanging on each dazzlingly whack rhyme. On Tha Carter III, Weezy’s scattered-brain brilliance is in top form – as is the big budget production that dutifully follows Weezy’s serpentine flow like a hypnotized lover. The New Orleans native’s boasts, observations and musings are weirdly striking at nearly every turn (”I’m a young millionaire, tougher than Nigerian hair.”) Wayne still bulks at straight story telling, but to fault him for this would be like dissing Dali or Picasso for rebuking realism.

3. My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges (ATO)
Genre-hopping indeed rock outfit My Morning Jacket’s juiciest disc to date features a smattering of styles, all of which are rendered outstandingly natural by the Louisville band. There are moments of extreme sadness (”Librarian”) and utmost silliness (”Highly Suspicious.”) Leader Jim James’ versatile voice convincingly sells everything from guitar-blazing, kick drum-intensive arena rock (”Aluminum Park”) to somber country-pop (”Sec Walkin.) Unlike other ultra eclectic offerings, Evil Urges never comes across as show-y. You just get the sense that My Morning Jacket is doing what they love. And doing it damn well.

4. Robyn: Robyn (Konichiwa/Cherry Tree/Interscope)
This year former Swedish pop tart Robyn finally witnessed the U.S. release of her 2005 self-titled disc. Britney and the rest of our countrys’ brain-dead blowup dolls blew Robyn away in terms of sales, but the woman born Robin Miriam Carlsson in 1979 proved the most compelling of the bunch. By far. Over thick disco beats, jittery high hat, deep space bleeps and icy strings, Robyn subverts pop platitudes. She exudes sexiness, smarts, poise and vulnerability in a way rarely seen in a world where hottnes is defined by Paris Hilton.

5. Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia)
The magnitude of Dylan’s late-career resurgence is brought into sharp focus here with a collection of “rare and unreleased” tracks recorded between 1989 and 2006. The two-disc set is a dud-free treasure chest featuring previously unreleased gems like the Time Out of My Mind outtake “Red River Shore” (an epic folk tale with spiritual overtones), the unreleased 2005 lament “Can’t Escape From You” and the superior Oh Mercy session version of “God Knows.” Another testament to Dylan’s genius is hearing drastically different “alternate takes” that are every bit as fascinating as the ones that made the final cut. Sequenced judicially, Tell Tale Signs plays like a stellar double-album by popular music’s most vital elder statesman.

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It’s that time of year again. Time for holiday hoopla. Time for yuletide cheer. Time for year-end best-of lists, especially if you’re that endangered species known as a “working music critic.” This occupation makes me nervous these days. But I love making lists. And mix CDs. Especially for my siblings.

My younger sister Beth is graduating from college in a few days. I can’t make the flight to Colorado. But I’m sending some custom-made CDs with my mom and my other sister Alli to give her. I burned Beth new albums she would like. I then decided to go ahead and tally my favorite songs of 2008, which took about 2.5 hours and several more glasses of wine. I have a print piece on the topic due at 2 p.m. Thursday.

I came up with a working list of 43 tunes tonight that will be whittled down to a nice round number for my music feature that streets Dec. 17. It will be online earlier than that. I stole the word “streets.” And use it whenever I can.

Here are the songs I put on a CD for my lil’ sister. She’s a nurse now. I’m very proud of her. Beth’s chosen profession will come in quite handy for me. My lifestyle is, well, reckless. It worries her. That’s the flip side to having a blood relative in the medical field. I must sound awful. But she understands.

Beth and I dig many of the same artists. That’s one of the numerous advantages of being the eldest child: You play a significant role in the music tastes of your younger siblings. At least I did. That makes me happy. My siblings and parents make me happy. Good music makes me happy. And several other people and things. But enough of that. Here are the tunes.

Beth Mix CD 2008

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She Silverstein, who died on Key West in 1999, is best known for classic children books like Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic and my personal, tear-inducing fave, The Giving Tree, which was made into this animated movie, read by Silverstein. But he also wrote screenplays, and hilarious raunch in the form of short fiction and poetry for Playboy — and penned tunes. Excellent ones. His credits include Johnny Cash’s father-son fight classic “A Boy Named Sue,” Loretta Lynn’s mothers-have-it-hard gem “One’s on the Way,” the pub sing along sensation “The Unicorn,” which was a huge hit for the Irish Rovers and Dr. Hook’s signature tune “The Cover of the Rolling Stone.”

My Silverstein faves? “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” which Marianne Faithful covered, Willie Nelson’s “A Couple More Years” and Silverstein’s own recordings of “I Got Stoned and I Missed it,” “Stacey Brown Got Two” and “Polly in a Porny,” all from his 1969 underground classic  Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball. Another landmark album is the superb 1973 country stoner collection of Silverstein numbers Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies. So it’s fitting that Bare Sr. and his son, the highly talented Bare Jr., who a few years back told me how much Silverstein meant to him as a songwriting mentor, are helming what will likely be the tribute album of ‘09. Anything involving My Morning Jacket, Black Horses, Emmylou Harris, Dr. Dog, Andrew Bird and George Jones has to kick ass. Here’s the PR release:

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