Category: Music

KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 14 Coming Down

November 29, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

One of the best things about the Thanksgiving weekend in Austin is the annual release of the KGSR Broadcasts CD. I buy them every year, and they’re usually amazing. While KGSR has yet to match the sheer perfection of Vol. 4 (1996) or Vol. 8 (2000), I can say that after a few days digesting Vol. 14, it comes pretty close.

The set opens with Bruce Robison’s “Virginia” followed by a very cool “Soul Meets Body” by Death Cab for Cutie. The first disc also includes such diverse artists as The Blind Boys of Alabama doing “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” Spoon’s “I Summon You” and Kris Kristofferson’s brilliant and timeless ode to burning the candle at both ends: “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”

Despite the treasures on the first disc, the second is my favorite. It opens with World Party’s “What Does it Mean Now” and goes into “The Pugilist at 59” by Tom Russell, a song I heard a few times last summer and really liked without catching the title or artist.

KT Tunstall, Alejandro Escovedo, Slaid Cleaves, along with usual suspects Eliza Gilyson, Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin make appearances as well. In all there are 38 tracks each capturing a unique performance by a very eclectic mix of artists.

These sell out fast, but you can order them from Waterloo Records for only $20 and all proceeds go to benefit the SIMS foundation.

Friday Random Ten

November 24, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

And I’m back. Well, back to this blog if not yet back to Austin. So from Orange, Texas, a rather poppy Friday ten…

“Adam’s Song” – Blink 182
“Something More Besides You” – Cowboy Junkies
“Running Kind” – Darden Smith
“Man in Black” – Johnny Cash
“Jesus Walks” – Kanye West
“Fade Into You” – Mazzy Star
“Pinocchio” – Miles Davis
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy
“1979” – Smashing Pumpkins
“Here’s Where the Story Ends” – The Sundays

Friday Random Ten

This is Husky Rescue performing at the 2006 Austin City Limits Festival back in September, and today making an appearance at the bottom of the Friday Random Ten.

“Who Loves the Sun” – Velvet Underground
“Iron Man” – The Bad Plus *
“Prime Directive” – Dave Holland Quintet
“Shack” – Medeski, Martin and Wood *
“Wedge” – Phish *
“Arnold Layne” – Pink Floyd *
“Zelao” – Vince Guaraldi
“Animals” – Talking Heads *
“Confusion is Next (live)” – Sonic Youth *
“Summertime Cowboy” – Husky Rescue *

I realize that I have seen seven of these acts (marked with *’s) live, but the Talking Heads, which I saw in ’90, was without David Byrne. Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth split the vocals and put on a great show along with Debbie Harry and the Ramones.

Friday Random Ten

November 10, 2006 • James Brush • 1 Comment

This one was awesome. I especially like the connection between hooligans, police and trials.

“Good Vibrations” – The Beach Boys
“Sweet and Tender Hooligan” – The Smiths
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” – The Police
“Your Funeral and My Trial” – John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
“It’s About That Time” – Miles Davis
“Plastic Sun” – Sonic Youth
“Dub Latina” – Calexico
“Fame Throwa” – Pavement
“Down to the Well” – The Pixies
“Swampland of Desire” – The Dead Milkmen

Friday Random Ten

November 3, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

A shoegazing/trip-hoppy type of mix…

“You Make It Easy” – Air
“Happy-Go-Lucky Local (Night Train)” – Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery
“Man Next Door” – Massive Attack
“Angel” – Massive Attack
“Linger (Live)” – The Cranberries
“Persephone’s Jive” – Nucleus
“On the Run’s Where I’m From” – American Analog Set
“Seven Months” – Portishead
“Nebulizer” – Nils Petter Molvaer
“Lay It Down” – Cowboy Junkies

Friday Random Ten

October 27, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

Yes, I’m meme stealin’ from George, but I love the randomness of the ipod giant shuffle. I’ve had the thing for almost a year, but I’m nowhere near getting all of my CDs ripped and itunesified. I’m about halfway, though I think I’ve gotten most of the jazz (exluding all of the rarities, alt-takes, and obscurities from the all the Coltrane and Miles box sets), which is interesting since this comes out as a jazzless ten:

“Fake Plastic Trees” – Radiohead
“Didjeridoo” – Tortoise
“I Hung My Head” – Johnny Cash
“Si Tu Disais” – Calexico
“Good Advices” – REM
“You’re All I Need to Get By” – Marvin Gaye
“Lost in Bessemer” – Yo La Tengo
“One Bedroom” – The Sea and Cake
“The Book and the Canal” – Calexico
“Childhood’s End” – Pink Floyd
“Drug Test” – Yo La Tengo

Okay, I see now that that’s eleven. I suppose there’s a reason I don’t teach math.

Anyways, that’s what’s been playing the past hour or so.

Karl Denson Trio at La Zona Rosa

October 2, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

On Saturday, we caught the Karl Denson Trio’s show at La Zona Rosa after an awesome dinner at Ranch 616. It’s a shame we don’t get more jazz shows around here – I guess Austin just ain’t a jazz town – but the ones that do come tend to be fun because the audiences are usually small. Probably why we don’t get many, but I digress. We saw Denson’s Tiny Universe band at ACL a few years back, but this was the first time we had seen his trio.

We arrived early thinking he was going to start at 9:00, but there were only about 30 people in the place so we got to wait and discuss the fact that there are never chairs at shows. While waiting, we enjoyed the opening act: Marvin Gaye’s brilliant What’s Going On? album played twice. Perfect music for people watching, and, well, perfect music for these times.

When Denson finally came on a bit after 10, the crowd was still small, but what was lacking in numbers was made up for in enthusiasm. Denson started off a bit slow, but on the second number he traded his saxophone for a flute and turned up the temperature.

Denson’s trio sound (drums, organ, sax and sometimes flute) falls somewhere between acid jazz and jazz funk. However you split the hairs, though, the music is great – sometimes funky, sometimes searching, always interesting. I enjoyed his flute numbers the most, partially because I’d never heard anyone play a flute with such funky intensity.

Denson’s trio found all the right grooves and pleased the small crowd that grew increasingly energetic over the course of the two hour set.

Pass the Paper Bag that Holds the Bottle

September 20, 2006 • James Brush • 5 Comments

George at I’m Not One to Blog, But… has tagged me with the fresh meme he busted: Songs that make you cry.

I have a hard time trying to determine if a song has ever made me cry. Using bloggetic license, however, I am replacing ‘cry’ with ‘so moving they inspire a sudden bought of quiet and thoughtful contemplation’ (but not like the guy who had to stop everything for “Desperado” on that episode of Seinfeld).

Here we go…

“This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” by Talking Heads

I said this in the comments on George’s blog: “‘This Must Be the Place’ would probably be the first and maybe only one on that list. It was our song at our wedding. It just makes me stop when I hear it. Actually ‘it hits me on the head, ahh ohhhh…..’”

But then I remembered that the wedding DJ lost that track so it wasn’t played, still my wife and I consider it our song anyway. It has an innocent simplicity to it that captures the magic of falling in love better than any song I’ve ever heard.

When I first heard it on Speaking in Tongues, I wondered if falling in love was really like that and I hoped that it would be.

Home – is where i want to be
But i guess i’m already there
I come home – – she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place

I know now that it is, which makes me love this song all the more. (I even used it as the title for a post once because it so perfectly captured the depth of feeling about the subject).

“Hard Times in Babylon” by Eliza Gilkyson

This meditation on the loss of a dear friend is heartwrenching. “Gotta hang together when the air’s too thin / Pass out the masks for the oxygen.” Indeed.

“Psalm” by John Coltrane

I could pick any track off Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, but this one is so understated, so quiet, and yet the perfectly chosen notes flowing from his saxophone speak so eloquently of yearning, anguish, heartbreak, hardwon wisdom and hope. It’s all there.

Coltrane wrote a prayer and then blew it into his saxophone.

“City of New Orleans” by Willie Nelson

I remember hearing “City of New Orleans” a lot when I was a kid. It made me think of wide open possibilities and yet there’s something dark there too. Something closed off and lost in those “freight yards full of old black men and the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.”

I know Willie didn’t write it, but it’s his version that moves me. He played it at ACL Fest on Saturday and it was like everything stopped happening around me for just the duration of that song.

“Nightswimming” by R.E.M.

This sends chills down my spine:

The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.
Still, its so much clearer.

Looking back at those reckless good times of youth and knowing that you can’t (and shouldn’t) go there again because you can’t be young again, because everything changes is captured beautifully in this song. You miss those times, those people as they were then, but it’s all memories, all gone forever. “Nightswimming” nails that melancholy feeling perfectly.

So There you have it.

I now tag Chris of Lenwood, Heather In all of Her Strangeness, Fred in the marbled halls of Ironicus Maximus (even though his blog doesn’t really cater to this kind of thing), and Jessica at 4 zillion. No pressure, folks. Except that George promised to “throw a hysterical bawling fit” if the meme dies.

Day of Discovery – ACL Fest Day 3

September 18, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

Most of my ACL time this year was been spent seeing bands that I already knew and liked, but on Sunday, all I saw were artists that I had previously never heard. Amazingly, not a single one disappointed. For me, those discoveries are the best part of ACL.

We started our day with Austin’s The Black Angels. I hadn’t heard them before, but their mesmerizing psychedelic drone hooked us right away. The guitars shimmered throughout their set that at times evoked such artists as The Doors and early Velvet Underground.

Afterwards we checked out Finland’s Husky Rescue. Three very serious looking guys dressed in black backed up the charming singer who wore a red dress and some fabulous boots. The music was mellow and kind of quirky in a way that reminded me of early Talking Heads but it flowed like Air while the singer’s ethereal vocals floated on top. It was a fun set that had us all smiling.

The weather was nice when we arrived. Cool and overcast, but the sun started to come out and make things steamy as we headed over to see Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, another of Bob Marley’s progeny. Damian looks very much like his father and the set was groovy as reggae should be. We left while they were playing a very cool version of “Exodus” which seemed appropriate.

Afterwards we went to Waterloo for the traditional purchasing of CDs by bands we’d discovered. We picked up CDs by The Black Angels and Husky Rescue both of which sound as cool on CD as they do live.

Despite leaving, ACL wasn’t over for us. A friend had managed to secure tickets to an Austin City Limits taping of Sufjan Stevens followed by The Raconteurs at the KLRU studios. These are hard to come by so it was a real treat to finally – after eighteen years in Austin – get to see a taping.

The studio is very small, there couldn’t have been more than 200 people in there, and they serve free beer so we were all pretty happy when Stevens started his show. I’d never heard him before but I was highly impressed. He was backed by a full orchestra all of whom wore giant butterfly wings. Wearing gigantic bird wings, Stevens played a haunting set that fully captivated the audience.

The Raconteurs came on next. They rocked. I hadn’t heard them before either, but I was impressed with their sound and intensity. I don’t know when these episodes will air, but both of them will certainly be worth watching.

Finally seeing an ACL taping and getting to see two such talented acts was truly the perfect way to end yet another awesome ACL weekend.

The View from Our Chairs – ACL Fest Day 2

September 17, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

We arrived around 3:30. Missed Galactic, but we’ve seen them before. The heat was intense and the crowd was thick so we went over to the Washington Mutual Stage to hide under the big trees in the back until Los Lobos started.

While enjoying Sweet Leaf’s honey and mint green tea, we listened to some of The Long Winters set. I hadn’t heard them before, but it was solid indie pop. While they were playing, dark storm clouds took over the sky, blotting out the sun, but never giving rain. In short, the day turned perfect.

By the time we headed over to Los Lobos, the temps had dropped to the mid nineties and a strong breeze kept us cool. We set our chairs up in between the AMD stage and the AT&T Blue Room stage since everything we wanted to see was on one or the other stage. This made life easy since after each set all we ever had to do was turn our chairs around to face the opposite stage.

One passerby told us we were brilliant. That’s not true. It’s just practice.

Los Lobos was as always fantastic. I don’t know why I only have one Los Lobos CD (Colossal Head). I should probably do something about that.

Next came Calexico, truly one of the best working bands out there. I saw them at ACL 04 and several times since, and they were about perfect. The sound was as big and expansive as ever, their cinematic soundscapes shimmering like the Arizona deserts from which they come.

Beautiful. If I went home then and called it quits for ACL 06, I’d have been happy, but fortunately there’s more to hear, always more to hear.

We turned the chairs around next for String Cheese Incident. Now, I likes me a good jam band, and I’ve never seen String Cheese Incident despite the fact that they play ACL every year. Jam bands tend to need more time to explore than a one hour festival set provides, but they were good, and I’d go see them again.

Around went the chairs for Kings of Leon. I’d never heard of them before, but we didn’t want to move. Good decision. Kings of Leon were fantastic. The ACL Fest guide said their sound evoked the Stones and the Velvet Underground and you could hear both influences in the band’s music. Definitely something to explore further.

Finally, it was time for Willie Nelson. We decided to stay for Willie and try to catch Massive Attack another time. The crowd was thick at first and Willie was hard to hear. Too many idiots having private conversations and yelling into cell phones. I mean, just as you don’t talk in church, you don’t talk while Willie’s onstage. We moved up and the talkers and scenemakers dispersed until we could hear him perfectly. I think they turned up the sound as well.

Willie’s guitar work is amazing. The guy can just flat out play, and Trigger’s sound is as familiar and wonderful as Willie’s voice. He opened with “Whiskey River,” and his set was exactly what everyone wanted: all the classics. He closed with two new, very funny tunes: “Superman” and “You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore.” By the time he said goodnight, the crowd was happy and feeling that magic that only a master like Willie Nelson can supply.

Perfect end for a great ACL day.