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Straight to Video
Rock Art Rock
The Decemberists
September 19, 2009
Terminal 5, New York, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "The Decemberists played a special one night 'lottery show,' where the songs played were picked at random by a master of ceremonies, played by John Wesley Harding..."
Ra Ra Riot
April 4, 2009
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "This show was, at the time, the biggest one Ra Ra Riot had sold out as headliners, and it was clear to me after watching it that the band is destined for even bigger and better things..."
Florence and the Machine
October 28, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "Florence Welsh and her backing band delighted and mesmerized a sold-out crowd at Bowery in her first official NY headlining show..."
Dirty Projectors
July 19, 2009
Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY)
By Amanda Hatfield "I was skeptical about how well Dirty Projectors' gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies would carry over outdoors, standing under hot sunshine..."
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Search results for: todd snider
Todd Snider
Todd Snider
The Excitement Plan
(Yep Roc, 2009)
Although he’s a first-class singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Todd Snider has found it hard to get mainstream cred, despite guest shots on high-profile TV shows like Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and David Letterman’s Late Show. He’s nominally a country artist, but his music jumps around from mainstream country to bluegrass, blues, rock, and folk.
Snider grew up on folk and singer-songwriter stuff, and lived all over the United States in his youth, picking up a fondness for country music, or at least the conventions of country songwriting. His problem with the industry, which is also what makes him a unique talent, is that he has a razor-sharp sense of humor and writes lyrics that cut to the bone with their finely wrought observations of human nature and social interactions. He gets tagged as a “funny songwriter,” the kiss of death in an industry that’s deadly serious about the business side of the business, despite all of its legendary excesses and absurdities. Like John Prine, who signed Snider to his Oh Boy label, he laughs with us, not at us. He’s a humorist, not a joker, something many people have a hard time differentiating.
Questions and Answers With Todd Snider
Todd Snider, the endearingly eccentric East Nashville folksinger, has never shied away from the important issues of the day. Politically outspoken and with an acute eye for the absurdities of modern life, Snider has skewered everyone from Seattle grunge bands to Congress. So it’s somewhat surprising that his upcoming release, Peace Queer, is his first politically-themed record. Peace Queer is largely a reaction to the Iraq War, though Snider manages to imbue the collection with his trademark combination of levity and humanity. When we interviewed Snider recently via email, he replied, as is his custom, with bewildering, stream-of-consciousness answers. And, in deference to the artist, we’ve printed his answers below with only minimal editing for clarity. It may seem like rambling, but there’s some serious wisdom to be found in Snider’s words as he spoke to us about guitar lessons with Keith Richards, getting robbed by Tony Bennett, joint ventures with Michael Moore, and whatever else came to mind.
Crawdaddy!: Well, last time we spoke—or, more accurately, exchanged e-mails—we were talking about your East Nashville neighborhood. How’s everyone in East Nashville these days? You’re a politically savvy bunch, so I assume you’re all keeping a close eye on the election, eh?
Todd Snider:
our neighbor got so drunk at a party
that she gave her guitar to some guy
and the next day when she woke up still drunk
and couldn’t find or remember where she put her guitar
she quickly deduced that her friend down the street had stolen it and sold it
so she went outside, and peeled off in her car
about a hundred yards right into the big tree
in front of said neighbor’s house
breaking almost every bone in her body
and waking up everybody.
it’s been the talk of our street all summer
and then yesterday at the car wash tony bennett stole 60 dollars
from me after swearing up and down that he wouldnt.
i was and am disgruntled over it.
it was a flagrant breach of trust on his part.
fuck him.
Crawdaddy!: I assume that the title of “Mission Accomplished (Because You Gotta Have Faith)”, one of the tracks off your new record, is inspired by the current President. What are peace-loving, pot-smoking protest singers going to do when W. is finally gone? He seems to provide a lot of grade-A fodder for lyricists.
Todd Snider:
as god is my witness mission accomplished was inspired by billy white shoes johnson
but i do think without a war heeler in office certain folk singers and to an even greater degree
peace queers and folk nazis
often do and will have to revert back to spelling out different ways to get beer
and or just listing record collections and cute shit like that.
also we’ve always got the children to ask about too.
you know “what about the children” songs
Crawdaddy!: For someone with a true gift for crystallizing the ridiculous (”Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues”
immediately comes to mind), what are your thoughts on McCain’s VP pick, the former Alaskan beauty queen? Does the madness even surprise you anymore?
Questions and Answers With Tommy Womack
Tommy Womack may be the best songwriter you’ve never heard of. A veteran of Government Cheese, Daddy, the Bis-Quits, and now a solo artist, Womack is a member of the tight-knit group of Americana songwriters and slightly reformed rockers—along with compatriots and former bandmates Todd Snider and Will Kimbrough—that have made East Nashville, TN a major music destination. Unabashedly liberal and unflinchingly honest, Womack recently released perhaps his best solo record to date via Cedar Creek, There, I Said It. Womack’s endlessly entertaining political screeds on his blog have been causing a bit of a stir lately, and his recent posting of “Song for Hillary”, not so subtly urging Hillary Clinton and her “ego” out of the Democratic primary, has been making its way around the web. Crawdaddy! caught up with Womack who was in, appropriately enough, Washington DC to talk about a potential beard for Barack Obama, putting a brother in the White House, and how to say “fuck the system” via wheat field poetry.
Crawdaddy!: Hi Tommy, how are you? It’s been a few months since we last spoke.
Tommy Womack: Hey Matt. Things are good. I just finished up recording an acoustic show at XM radio and I’m on my way to do a show tonight. The XM show airs June 30th.
East Nashville and the New Country Outlaws of Music City, U.S.A.
Nashville, Tennessee, also known as Music City, U.S.A., sits squarely at the center of the country music universe. This small city has dominated the country genre for the better part of the past century, and Nashville’s Music Row, where scores of influential clubs, studios, publishers, and record labels are concentrated in a few square blocks of real estate, is the middle of it all.
But Nashville’s reputation has been built on traditional country music that caters to commercial tastes. The so-called “Nashville Sound,” which proved a successful formula for legends like Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Patsy Cline, and George Jones is notable for its glitzy production, a strict adherence to traditional song structure, and an obsession with ill-conceived string arrangements.
Young Fresh Fellows
by: j. poet
I Think This Is
(Yep Roc, 2009)
Young Fresh Fellows have been called the godfathers of the Seattle scene, usually by fanatical fans or clueless critics, but they have about as much in common with blockbuster Seattle acts like Alice in Chains and Modest Mouse as they do with fellow Fog City stars Sir Mix-A-Lot and Jimi Hendrix. They were making indie rock before the term was coined, and their first album, Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, came out a few years before the birth of the Sub Pop label and the first stirrings of grunge. They’re certainly a pop treasure, but they’ve gone their own unique way over the years, inspired more by tenacity and innate musical influence.
The Fellows started playing in 1982 with longtime leader and songwriter Scott McCaughey on bass and vocals, Chuck Carroll on guitar, and Tad Hutchison on drums. Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, recorded with producer Conrad Uno, became an early college radio hit, in 1984, at a time when college radio still had non-commercial street cred. It was an oddly packaged album, with cover art that looked like an AAA poster and spoken-word interludes between songs praising the Northwest taken from a tourist promotion album.
read more
by: j. poet
published: July 16, 2009 in column: Reviews
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