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Primus at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1030 15th Street, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA on Sep 14
Menomena at Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Avenue, Seattle, WA on Sep 10
Ratatat at Riviera Night Club, 4746 North Racine Avenue, Chicago, IL on Sep 10
The Black Keys at Verizon Wireless Music Center, 12880 East 146th Street, Noblesville, IN on Sep 03
Featured Stories
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Meet Bosco Delrey, rock 'n' roll's new honky tonk dance hall hero
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New releases by Jenny and Johnny, the Clientele, Tracey Thorn, and more
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Which Neil Young Harvest track has been most covered by the indie rock sect?
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Before the Hype, Free Streams, What Goes On
West Virgina's Spirit Night is a contender for best breaking bedroom-pop out there
What Goes On
Book Review: 33 1/3, It Takes a Nation of Millions
33 1/3, It Takes A Nations Of Millions
by Christopher R. Weingarten
(Continuum Pub Group, 2010)From the “Is This Irony?” Department: The iconic photo that graces the cover of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back came from a session that had to be rescheduled because Flava Flav was in jail for real. This is just one of many juicy factoids Christopher R. Weingarten laces into his narrative telling the story of how Public Enemy’s shattering sophomore effort came together. Against a Big Apple backdrop of burgeoning new sounds and incredible racial tension, PE’s legendary production unit the Bomb Squad dipped into a pool of 1970s funk for the twisted samples that would concoct a truly arresting follow-up to their so-so debut, Yo! Bum Rush The Show.
Of course, the litany of songs PE sampled on Nation didn’t just spring up out of thin air; they all have fascinating back stories that Weingarten happily excavates for the reader. My personal favorite is the tale of a young Bootsy Collins and his band the Pacesetters who were plucked from Midwestern obscurity to play with James Brown when the Godfather of Soul (a labelmate of the Pacesetters) decided one evening in 1970 he needed a more compliant backing band. Brown and his new sidemen quickly churned out steamy teakettle jam “The Grunt”, which Public Enemy would use as the framework for their caustic anthem “Rebel Without A Pause.”
An early chapter is also dedicated to Clyde Stubblefield, the percussionist who brought to life James Brown’s 1969 “Funky Drummer”—aka the most sampled song in the history of hip-hop. “Funky Drummer” is certainly the most sampled song on It Takes a Nation of Millions, weaving its way into four of the album’s 16 cuts. As Weingarten writes, no one made Stubblefield’s sounds “more arresting” than Public Enemy,” so much so that the group “practically own[s] it.” That’s all well and good for Chuck D, but It Takes a Nation was crafted before this country had any serious sampling royalty laws. As a result, Clyde Stubblefield never saw a dime from the bounty of rap records that jacked his most celebrated beat.
Finally, A Das Racist Video Game
This 8-bit “get them to the gig” adventure starring novelty rappers Das Racist should satisfy all your lunch break goof-off needs for the day. The hoverboard level is kinda tricky, so watch out!Pop Go the Angels?
They take their name from one of the Velvets’ best songs, singer Alex Maas has described the group’s sound as “Native American Drone and Roll,” and their first two records were both hard-hitting, dark & heavy blues-drone affairs. The Black Angels’ third LP, Phosphene Dream, is due in a couple weeks on Blue Horizon Records, which seems cool because Blue Horizon was one of the most influential blues labels of the ’60s before it went under. The catch? Blue Horizon was revived this year as a Warner subsidiary, so it’s basically Blue Horizon in name only, as it has been severed from its historic back catalog. This would seem to have nothing to do with our beloved Black Angels, although the new-album single they just released via Spinner (which you can stream for free right here) is a little unnerving. On “Telephone,” it appears the new-millennium psych-blues band has relocated to a hula-hoop-happy garage on the beach, complete with bouffant pop organs, three-part harmonies, and hand-claps. This is not to say that it’s a bad song (well, ok, maybe it is. It is at least the shallowest, most mundane and bullshitty Black Angels song I’ve ever heard, which is sad, because up to this point I was absolutely a fan), or even that one has influenced the other, per se. I’m just saying that the correlations are creepy: Warner puts on their ’60s hat and signs a “vintage”-sounding up-and-comer; Black Angels sign to Warner and suddenly go all Monkees.Unfortunate though “Telephone” is, I will say that it’s 1000 times better than the last time Warner came up with a wacky scheme like this… read more
Jay Reatard Tribute Day Planned this Saturday in Atlanta
If you live in or near Atlanta, you have an opportunity to pay tribute to Jay Reatard this Saturday with a slew of other fans and musicians at Lenny’s Bar on Decatur Street. Bands including Hip to Death, Customers, and Sarin McHugh and the Everymen are slated to perform Reatard covers and some original music as well in homage of his memory. “Jay Day,” founded by Hip to Death singer/guitarist John Breedlove and backed by Matador, will enable those impacted by music and his untimely death to celebrate his life and remember him together side by side.
Read more about the event and an interview with Breedlove at Atlanta’s Creative Loafing. Thanks to the Daily Swarm for the tip. We miss you Jay!
Download a Free Radiohead Concert DVD
If you didn’t get a chance to catch Radiohead’s In Rainbows tour, now you can witness their live show from the comfort of home at no charge. Last year at their Prague show, 50 fans were given Flip cameras to film the concert from a variety of angles, and the footage was then pieced together to create the concert film, simply entitled Radiohead – Live in Praha.
Always a fan-first band, Radiohead provided professional audio from the show for the DVD, so while the video capturing is amateur, the sound is not, which makes for a personal and professional account of the concert. To download the concert film, head here. (Note: High traffic has made it difficult to get through, so be patient.) Below you can watch a sample of the show as the band plays “The National Anthem.”
Update: The Pogues Sticking Together; Saying Farewell to Christmas Tours Only
As we reported yesterday, a “Farewell” tour was announced by Irish folk/punk group the Pogues, with dates coinciding with their usual Christmastime run throughout December. In recent years, the Pogues have made a tradition of touring in December, as well as in the spring and occasional other shows, although they haven’t recorded any new material since reuniting in 2001. Given the lack of new material, and the fact that the current incarnation of the group is ultimately still “a reunion” (though they’ve been back at it for nearly a decade), the internet understandably went wild with the natural implication that a “farewell” tour meant that the band was splitting up. Fighting fire with fire, Pogues guitarist Phillip Chevron took to the Pogues’ website forum to set the record straight, stating, “This claim does not come from me and I will neither be supporting it nor discussing it. You may consider it a marketing ploy if you wish.”Moments later, tin whistler/vocalist Spider Stacy chimed in with his own clarifying post:
This is the last Christmas tour for the foreseeable future. That’s not to say we won’t be showing up at festivals here and there or maybe even the odd gig around the UK and Ireland and certainly in Europe. But we’re tired of dragging our weary, freezing carcasses around these drowning islands every December, so we’re going to give it a rest before you get tired of it too.
In response, Chevron immediately then posted: “As you can see, opinion is not uniform on the matter. Spider is using the royal ‘we’ here.”
Billboard’s “4 Strategies to Kickstart the Music Biz”
Cue the theme to Mighty Mouse, Billboard is here to save the day. As stated over at their article titled “4 Strategies to Kickstart the Music Biz”:
“The music industry’s recent challenges are well documented at this point—sales are down, piracy abounds, and the business models of tomorrow are still being developed. But amidst these challenges are new opportunities to develop fresh talent, new products and services, and provide a deeper connection with music consumers.”
No arguments there! Let’s see what these four strategies are all about.
Number one is “New Alternatives to Record Label Financing”, which they admit is an outdated notion, albeit one that has lacked innovation. They say, “think venture capital for musicians, with an industry services industry to support these artist-owned projects… some music publishers are venturing into recorded music.” Honestly, these seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to try. Good, bad, or indifferent.
Number two is “Use Ticketing to Deepen the Relationship with Fans.” Say wha? Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve had to frequently deal with the ticketing business of music, but overall how much does it prevent people from going to shows? Enough to improve upon in such a way that it would have a noticeable positive impact on the business of music? I’m not saying that it can’t, but I’m just asking if it really can. read more
New Classics: Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Just under a year ago, the editors asked me to pick my favorite album of the ’00s. Without much hesitation, my certainty only edified by how easily it sprung to mind, I chose Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. A lot of critics (but no one at Crawdaddy!) picked Kid A to receive top honors, but aside from not being one of those folks with a permanent boner for Radiohead, I’ve not connected with that album in the same way that I have YHF. Frankly, there’s no record from the early noughties that I listen to as frequently, or with such a continual sense of glee, heartbreak, and wonder.Like all great albums, there’s an element of history to it, but the bulk of my adoration for YHF lies neither in cryptically prophetic imagery nor in its role in the epic saga of sticking it to record company dinosaurs. True, we spooked fans perversely revel in the iconic depiction of Marina City, at “Ashes of American Flags” and every time we hear Jeff Tweedy croak “Tall buildings shake / Voices escape / Singing sad sad songs…”; even if the the associations were unintended, history ascribes them poignancy. There’s more to this album than its context.
read moreBandcamp Band of the Week: Yellow Ostrich
We at Crawdaddy! are big fans of Bandcamp.com, which allows independent bands and musicians to design their own webpage as a forum to expose and sell or give away their music. Each week, we cull through what Bandcamp has to offer to bring you some free tunes that we’re digging. Sometimes I wonder how much one-man band, bedroom crafted music we’ve missed out on from decades past, before there was readily available and affordable ways to make and disseminate said music. It seems like there’s quality bedroom pop and garage rock popping up all the time on Bandcamp; kinda makes you wish it was around for similar projects back in the pre-internet days. But no sense on dwelling on something you can’t change when there’s already plenty songs begging to be heard, which brings us to Yellow Ostrich.
Yellow Ostrich is the pet project of Alex Schaaf, who also plays in the Chairs, and he’s been at it for quite some time, releasing a bunch of material that’s available for download at his Bandcamp page (it’s a name your price situation, so it could be free or you could kick the guy a couple bucks so that he can keep making good tunes). While there’s a stark simplicity to Schaaf’s work as Yellow Ostrich in its limited production and negative space, he’s stunningly able to craft songs that feel warm and expansive.
The first track we’ve got for you comes from his Whalemary 7″ and is not surprisingly called “Whale” (the other on the mini-album is “Mary”). The first half of the track is left solely to booming drums and Schaaf’s consistently layered vocal play that uses background non-lyric singalongs, straightforward yet mildly distorted singing, and the occasional screeching. At the midpoint, the drums fall away, replaced by some mild guitar work before everything comes back in, amped up in a rolling crescendo… quite the ride.
“Bread” falls on the other end of the spectrum, a decidedly more sedate song from his Fade Cave EP. “Bread”, along with the rest of the EP, is made entirely with just a drum machine and Schaaf’s vocals. Even with the lack of variety in instrumentation, Fade Cave never dulls or gets repetitive. It’s got a strong Atlas Sound vibe to it, or perhaps I just think that because the opening of “Bread” is a dead ringer for “Walkabout”… You’ll see what I mean.
Hear a Five Song Sampler From New Sub Pop Signee, Shabazz Palaces
by: Darrick Thomas
Shabazz Palaces’ debut full length will be out some time in 2011. For now, sample some of their tunes, below.
Shabazz Palaces by subpop
by: Darrick Thomas
published: September 2, 2010
in column: Free Streams, What Goes On
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