Songs of the Moment (And an Apology)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
First, my apologies to Harry for having missed, completely, his month-long discussion of contemplative cinema, which I'd been eagerly anticipating. That half-written Pedro Costa post is still on my hard drive, I swear, and it will make an appearance at some point. Just as soon as I find the time to write it. I'm hoping (really, really hoping) that in a few days I'll be able to post an explanation of why it's been so quiet around here lately. The short version: stressful, 50+ hour work weeks do not a productive blogger make.
In the meantime, here are some fantastic songs.
Enjoy.
Little Honda EP
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First great show of 2007: Lambchop and Yo La Tengo. Unfortunately, YLT's last visit to Knoxville was memorable for reasons having little to do with the amazing music that was played that night. But they came back anyway, God bless 'em, and this time they played to a large and rapt audience at the Bijou. They closed the show with this cover of the old Sandy Denny song, "By the Time It Gets Dark," and I've probably listened to it a hundred times since. And I have to mention this: thanks to the kindness of a friend, I not only got to hang out with Georgia for a while and drink a beer from the YLT stash; I actually drove Georgia and Ira's van. That smell you smell is indie rock cred. I reek of the stuff. :)
Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2
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Second great show of 2007: Tin Cup Prophette and Jeff Tweedy, also at the Bijou. After Tweedy's first minutes-long conversation with the audience, the show took on the character of a hootenanny, especially in the final encore, when he stepped in front of the microphone and sang directly to the crowd. (It's amazing how much more intimate music is when it's not mediated by technology. Here's a clip from a performance a few nights earlier.) Before his first conversation, though, the audience was perfectly quiet, which made his rendition of Woody Guthrie's "Remember the Mountain Bed" even that much more heartbreaking. Has a greater lyric ever been written?
Live at the Roxy
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This song is a little preview of that soon-to-be-finished-I-hope Pedro Costa post. Eighty minutes in, Costa's third feature-length film, Ossos, was already the best film I'd seen in months. But when this live version of Wire's "Lowdown" made its unexpected appearance in the final reel, I fell deeply, deeply in love with Ossos.
Rather Ripped
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One of the many things I love about my job is that everyone on our local network shares their iTunes libraries. I have constant access to tens of thousands of songs, and, fortunately, many of my coworkers have fantastic taste. After listening to Neil Young's On the Beach for the tenth time, I finally walked down the hall with a CD-R in hand and asked one of our designers to burn me a copy. Now I want it on vinyl. On the Beach is one of those records that would just sound better with a little air and hiss around it. When I asked my friend about the album, he said he loves it so much because "Neil is deep in the hole, but he's catching glimpses of daylight."
Veneer
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I can't remember where I first heard Jose Gonzalez. I probably discovered him like everyone else: that Bravia super ball commercial. If you like that song or my song of the moment, "Lovestain," you'll like the rest of Veneer, too. Variety is not Gonzalez's strong suit. He's found a sound (somewhere between Nick Drake and Jose Feliciano) and works it to perfection.
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