Category: Music

Blanket with a View – ACL Fest Day 1

We arrived late on Friday, but caught the second half of Nickel Creek’s set. They were pretty on, a group of very talented musicians who clearly love their work. The amplified tap dance routine was amazing. Who needs a drummer when you can tap?

After Nickel Creek, we cruised over to check out Thievery Corporation. We saw them last year on a smaller stage, but they were on the big boy stage this year. We were pretty far away, but I got this shot of their set:

Obviously, the view from where we were wasn’t great, but the sound was good and the energy level was high. Thievery Corp are at the core two DJs with killer taste in world music, but their live sets include bass, sitar, percussion, and several vocalists doing ambient, rap, reggae and a host of other styles.

After Thievery, we caught the Tragically Hip:

Tragically Hip are one of my all time favorite bands and I’ve seen them a number of times. Unfortunately, their sound was off. The vocals were too hot, a shame considering singer Gordon Downie’s performances are full of his off-the-cuff stream-of-conciousness explorations, which are one of the things that makes seeing the Hip so fun. With the vocals so hot, the music sounded buried and muddy.

Still, “Courage” and “100th Meridian” came through just fine and were highlights of their set. Downie also dedicated “Ahead by a Century” to “Annie Richards,” a gesture which seems truly appropriate considering that she really was ahead by at least a century if not more.

Rounding it out, the heat wasn’t as bad as previous years, the grass was in good shape so dust wasn’t a problem, and despite the crushing crowds you have to deal with when the music you like suddenly becomes popular, it was a pretty good day.

It’s ACL Fest Time! Hell Yeah!

September 14, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

I love ACL Fest and that time of year is now upon us. I have a schedule of bands that I want to see, but there’s plenty of room for discovery as well. Discovering artists I’d previously never heard is the best part.

There is one conflict for me. Massive Attack or Willie Nelson? I’ve seen Willie twice (once this year) so I’ll probably check out Massive Attack, assuming they have their visa issue squared away. If not, I’ll happily see Willie again.

Today’s Austin 360 featured an article about key schedule conflicts. Here’s my take:

In the matter of Tragically Hip vs. Ray LaMontagne, I will see the Hip. They’re one of my favorite acts and I haven’t missed a Hip show in Austin in nearly ten years. I will not, however be sporting a hockey jersey.

In the matter of Nada Surf vs. TV on the Radio, I will probably check out TV on the Radio, but I’m not familiar with either band.

In the matter of Tom Petty vs. going home early on Sunday, I will probably go home early. I usually do. I stuck around for REM in 2003, but it just made feel old.

My other picks:

Friday: The Greyhounds, Ghandaia, Nickel Creek, Del Castillo, Thievery Corporation, Tragically Hip

Saturday: Pierre Guimard, Federico Abele, Galactic, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson or Massive Attack

Sunday: The Black Angels, Husky Rescue, Buckwheat Zydeco, New Orleans Social Club

The weather looks like it will be nice: hot, but in the low nineties it should be bearable.

Check out my wife’s blog for some good ACL Fest survival tips.

So Long, Back Room

July 27, 2006 • James Brush • 3 Comments

One of the first shows I ever saw in Austin was at the Back Room. The Godfathers (of “Birth, School, Work, Death” fame) were playing sometime either in ’88 or ’89. I had just moved here and was only starting to realize that Austin was a place where I could easily see some of my favorite bands and discover new ones.

The Godfathers show was pretty fun. They were shooting a video and let the first few hundred fans come in early for the shoot. We were near the front of the line and got to participate. They played one song several times and asked the crowd to really get into it. We did. Then they let the rest of the crowd in for the real set and we rocked out with the Godfathers in all their pinstripe-suited punk rock glory.

Over the years, I caught the occasional Back Room show and when I lived in South Austin, it was only a short walk away. The last show I saw there was Spindrift sometime in the mid ’90s. It was an off night for them, but the beer was, as always, cold and cheap.

The Back Room was mainly known as a metal club, and that really wasn’t my scene, so I never got to know it as I did the other late greats: Liberty Lunch, Electric Lounge, Steamboat, but it was part of my introduction to the world of Austin music and so I’m sad to read today that it will be closing its doors.

Soulive at La Zona Rosa

July 10, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

I first saw Soulive at the 2003 ACL Festival. The forty-five minute festival set didn’t really give them time to open it up so it was cool to catch them on Saturday night at La Zona Rosa.

Soulive is the kind of band that’s bringing back the organ-based jazz-funk sound of the late sixties and early seventies and playing it to audiences comprised of jazz, hip hop, and jam band lovers. I’m a fan of guitar and organ based jazz and there’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing a band play, and I mean really play in the truest sense of the word where experiments and improvisation are all part of the fun.

The crowd was small, which I like, though I think Soulive deserved a bigger audience, but it wasn’t one of those come-to-be-seen crowds. People listened and danced and just generally dug the whole vibe.

I tend to watch guitarists and so I tried to focus on what Eric Krasno was doing. His playing just amazes me whether it’s on CD or live, he seems to get to a place that’s so inside the music that I just follow each line, each riff with rapt attention. Neal Evans on organ and Alan Evans on drums kept things simmering through the set.

I’ve always felt that the trio format can be a bit limited and start to sound the same after a few tunes whether it be jazz, rock or punk, but Soulive kept things interesting through their own interplay and by bringing out singer Reggie Watts to do a few numbers with them.

One highlight of the show was their funky jazz rendition of the 2Pac and Dr. Dre gangsta rap classic “California Love,” which drew a cheering response from the small crowd. I’m a big fan of jazz bands delving into the realm of pop music to find the new standards for modern audiences, and it’s always a treat to hear a band find jazz in unlikely places be it 2Pac, Radiohead, Pavement or Nirvana.

Afterwards, we stopped for a slice at the Roppollo’s Pizza truck and sat on the curb, enjoying the cool night air and mild humidity that carried bass notes and snippets of songs, barely heard, from countless other acts in other bars. A good night in a good city.

(My wife posted about this as well.)

Sonic Youth at Stubb’s

June 26, 2006 • James Brush • 4 Comments

There’s nothing like the sound of controlled chaos, screaming guitars that somehow manage to sound mellow, and a laid-back approach to making intense music out of sounds and noise rather than traditional chords and notes coupled with a musical style that exudes freedom and energy and life. It’s perfect really. It’s why I never miss a Sonic Youth show.

Friday was a very strange day for us. I won’t elaborate, but you can take my word for it. That’s why seeing Sonic Youth play Stubb’s was such a great thing. I’ve loved their music and most of their albums ever since I discovered them back in the eighties. I’ve been to many SY shows from back in the days when you went to mosh to these later years where you go to listen to the music of a wickedly creative and innovative band that just keeps getting better if somewhat mellower.

Friday’s set was mostly comprised material from their latest album, Rather Ripped. I like the album, though not quite as much as the previous three. Still, they sounded great and the songs, quieter than usual, still seemed to please the crowd. Of course, when a band has been around as long as Sonic Youth, everyone likes to hear which of their old classics will be broken out and transformed.

In a way, hearing the older tunes is the best part of a Sonic Youth set. For me, this is because they constantly reinvent their old songs so that rather than playing them the way they sounded back in the eighties or nineties, they sound fresh, as if they could fit comfortably on the newest album. This musical exploration and experimentation is at the heart of what Sonic Youth is about.

They played “Catholic Block” and “Schizophrenia” from Sister, “Eric’s Trip” from Daydream Nation (my favorite album ever), and dug way back to Confusion is Sex for “Shaking Hell.” Great stuff that managed to be both a nod to SY’s punk/hardcore roots as well as being thoroughly of the present. This timeless yet futuristicly experimental quality to their shows reminds me of more than anything else of Phish or Grateful Dead shows.

Not exactly punk, really, but I’ll keep on truckin’ along and seeing their shows as long as they keep doing them. It’s been since 1981 and they don’t seem to be growing bored or more importantly boring.

ACL Lineup Released

May 18, 2006 • James Brush • Leave a comment

The 2006 ACL Fest lineup is out. I’m pleased with the list. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is the Sunday night headliner. I like them when I hear them, but since we usually leave during the last set on Sunday night, I’m glad the headliner is one I won’t feel bad about walking away from if exhaustion proves once again more powerful than music.

Other acts I’m looking forward to seeing: Massive Attack, The Tragically Hip, Galactic, Thievery Corporation, Calexico, Willie Nelson (who’s finally playing ACL!), Buckwheat Zydeco, Nickel Creek, and Son Volt.

The best thing about ACL Fest, though, is the number of acts I discover there. There are many on the list that I’ve never heard before so I’m sure I’ll be making quite a few discoveries.

(Not the) Same As It Ever Was

April 29, 2006 • James Brush • 1 Comment

At long last, the Talking Heads have gotten into the business of remastering their albums. CD technology changed sometime in the late ’90s which is why old CDs such as all the Talking Heads CDs I bought in the ’80s sound so flat compared to newer CDs.

I’ve picked up remastered CDs by numerous jazz artists as well as a few rock bands that I especially like. Buying a remastered CD is like discovering a favorite album for the first time all over again. It’s one of the few times when you can truly relive the experience of discovering something new and wonderful.

Remastered CDs are always worth the money for any artist whose music is especially dense or that involves complex interplay between musicians because the biggest difference between remastered CDs and the originals is the separation of the instruments. John Coltrane claimed that you couldn’t tell if music was good or not until you’d listened to a record once for each instrument and followed just that instrument all the way through. A well done remastered CD makes that possible, opening windows into musicians’ playing and style that had previously remained difficult to penetrate.

Today, while running errands and listening to the remastered version of American Beauty by the Grateful Dead, I decided to stop in and buy the remastered Workingman’s Dead. I got to the store and there on the shelf was what I had waited for, lo these many years: remastered Talking Heads CDs.

They were all there: ’77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues, Little Creatures, True Stories, Naked… Oh, embarrassment of riches!

What to do? I looked closer and saw that not only were all the albums remastered, but they included alternate takes and unfinished experiments. The CDs are all dual-discs meaning that they have a DVD side with videos and the original albums remastered in DVD 5.1 Dolby Surround. Holy crap, I would have to discipline myself and only purchase one. There was no choice. It would have to be Remain in Light.

Hell’s Belles at Antone’s

April 24, 2006 • James Brush • 3 Comments

On Saturday we caught the Seattle-based all female AC/DC tribute band Hell’s Belles at Antone’s. My cousin is one of the Belles so not only was it a great show, but it was a chance to sit around and catch up before the set.

The last time we saw them was great, but I really liked seeing them at Antone’s (instead of Stubb’s) because the layout puts everyone close to the stage, which is a must with this band since they work so hard to engage and energize the audience.

There’s nothing more infectious and flat out fun than watching a band that appears to be enjoying themselves on stage, and I think that that party-all-nite excitement that they bring to their shows is as important as the music, which as I’ve written before is simply incredible.

The last time we saw them, I didn’t know much of AC/DC’s material, except for the big songs, but I still loved it. This time around I was more familiar with the songs (mainly through the Hell’s Belles We Salute You CD) and so enjoyed it even more. They wrapped up way past my bedtime, but it still seemed early which is exactly what a high energy rock show should do.

ACL Fests, Past and Future

April 13, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

My lovely wife emailed me today to tell me that ACL Fest tickets are on sale and that she got ours. The schedule hasn’t been released yet, but it’s always worth it to buy the tickets early before the prices shoot up when the schedule is made public.

This will be our fourth ACL Fest. It seems it’s become something of a tradition for us and our friends. We all take four days off and hit the festival on Friday afternoon and use Monday to recover. Friends come up from the coast (last year evacuated was a more appropriate word) and we listen to music and eat out and just enjoy living in Austin.

The best thing about the festival is discovering so much great music. Half the artists I see, I’ve never heard of before, but I often go out and buy their CDs after the shows. Plus, I love that it’s so civilized as far as big outdoor festivals go. The food is great, most of it provided by Austin’s local restaurants. The facilities are clean. The people are not obnoxious. And of course Zilker Park is just a nice place to be. Sometimes the heat can be miserable. 108F on Sunday last year, for instance. But by Spetember most people around here are kind of used to that. Besides it can be nice in September.

Anyways, the main purpose of this entry is just as a place for me to record the bands I saw in previous years since part of the reason for this blog is to help me remember things, and I wasn’t blogging back then, but if you want an idea of who’s been there in the past, check it out. That’s what’s below the fold. I’ll be adding to the lists if I remember anything.

Dinosaur Jr at Stubbs

March 31, 2006 • James Brush • 2 Comments

We sat in the car waiting for the light at Red River and Eighth and watched pedestrians saunter in front of us including a man engaged in some serious butt-scratching. Just a regular looking dude with long hair and thick glasses caught in one of those moments when you forget the world exists around you, funny because we’ve all been caught in that moment.

I guess you just reach a point in life when you’re comfortable and too old to care that you’re standing on a street corner scratching your bum. It was a perfect way to start the evening.

We were downtown to see Dinosaur Jr at Stubbs BBQ. They’re one of those bands that I’ve always loved from back in the days of the ‘80s underground, before Nirvana broke, before anyone thought any of these bands would ever be played on the radio, back when alternative actually meant alternative to the mainstream. They came from that scene that was my musical home during that time.

Dinosaur Jr emerged from the hardcore and punk clubs, but along with bands like Sonic Youth and the Pixies weren’t exactly playing three chords and anger hardcore. They just shared a scene. Dinosaur Jr, however, offered something different. I guess it was melody.

At the heart of the feedback and noise stood a truly gifted shredding guitarist named J Mascis who frequently gets referred to as an indy rock Neil Young. I don’t know enough about Neil Young to comment on that, but it’s what They say. Still, despite the ferocious volume and soaring intensity of their music, it’s always sounded kind of lazy to me, kind of like punk for slackers.

I have all the CDs and still enjoying cranking the stereo to listen to them, but I never got to see Dinosaur Jr back in the day so it seemed like a cool idea to check them out on this reunion tour.

They were fun to see live. They were ungodly loud (seven full amplifier stacks for a three-piece band in a small venue, f’chrissakes!), Mascis can still shred, his solos were properly unpolished and lazy yet still amazing. His croaky voice is still endearing as he mumbles his nerdy stoner lyrics (it was never about the words with this band), and everything was just thunderous glorious noise and…

Well, it was also Thursday night. There was no place to sit. Drinking doesn’t hold as much charm as it once did. Canned beer in a club is a rip-off. A dinner of fish and chips in a Sixth Street pub was starting to make me drowsy.

We left with a shrug half-way through the set. Upon reflection it seems a fitting tribute to this band. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the music – then or now, there’s no band quite like them – and the show was good, but not enough to trump a desire to go home, play with the hounds, and go to bed.

Damn, getting older is so not punk. Still, I suppose it’s appropriate that the show that made us feel our age was Dinosaur Jr. Something about them makes being lazy and uncool seem okay.

We lumbered home, our hipness extinct, but not really caring. Kind of like that butt-scratcher on the corner outside Stubbs, who was incidentally none other than J Mascis.