Teenage Kicks

#18 (MA) Have Gun Will Travel - Mergers & Acquisitions

2012-01-29T16:23:00.003-06:00

I was going to put Wild Flag's excellent album here, but Trip already got that one, so I'll offer up a left-field choice. I don't know much about Have Gun Will Travel, but Mergers & Acquisitions is a near-perfect mix of rustic and tuneful that will transport you to the halcyon days of early alt.country. This is the album Uncle Tupelo didn't make between March 16-20, 1992 and Anodyne.

Have Gun Will Travel - Time Machine
Have Gun Will Travel - Disappearing Kind

#19 (TM) Adele - 21

2012-01-26T23:54:00.001-06:00

It's nice to know an album can still be an artistic triumph and a commercial smash.

Let's hope 24 continues her success.

Adele - "Rumour Has It" (from 21)

Adele - "Last Nite" (Strokes cover)

#19 (MA) Butch Walker & The Black Widows - The Spade

2012-01-25T10:36:00.001-06:00

Butch Walker makes musical confections, sweet rock candy that cuts through the sour indie rock landscape. Once upon a time this stuff made you a star, but now it just makes you a cult hero to folks who want to enjoy new music but who don't subscribe to the new musical paradigm. Big hooks, big drums, sly words, plentiful beer, willing girls and cunning song craft all wrapped up in a shiny box and bow. It hits your body first and then works its way to your brain. A sugar rush in all the right ways.

# 20 (TM) - Foster & Lloyd - It's Already Tomorrow

2012-01-25T00:11:00.001-06:00

Just as Foster & Lloyd's recording hiatus was able to buy a drink, it up and went on a harmony-filled alt country bender. Twenty-one years is a l-o-o-o-n-g break, but the rust is barely noticeable on It's Already Tomorrow, possibly the least touted reunion album of the year. And quite possibly the best.

What makes this partnership go is the marriage of Bill Lloyd's jangle pop guitar sensibility to Radney Foster's clear, warm vocals, but what makes it soar are the old school harmonies, two voices meshing as one on immediately memorable choruses. Sure their cover of "Picasso's Mandolin" is a misstep better left to the craggy story telling of the great Guy Clark, but the daylight fading, gracefully aging title cut reminds us of the Foster and Lloyd's Top 40 hitmaking heyday. And album closer "When I Finally Let You Go" is a heart tugging, father to daughter love letter that will inspire more "Ahh Seanie" comparisons than this author would care to admit.

By the way, go buy the fantastic This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, which features our boy Radney absolutely killing "L.A. Freeway".

Foster & Lloyd - "It's Already Tomorrow" (from It's Already Tomorrow)
Radney Foster - "L.A. Freeway" (from This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark)

#20 (MA) Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures

2012-01-23T13:55:00.001-06:00

If you didn’t know this album was cobbledtogether from odds and ends after Ms. Winehouse’s death, could you discern itby listening? Maybe, especially once you noticed “Tears Dry,” an alternateversion of “Tears Dry On Their Own” from the brilliant Back to Black album. But would it make the experience any lessenjoyable? I can’t image that it would. Winehouse was one of the lastcontemporary singers who could fully inhabit a song, tugging at melody andtempo to make other writers’ tunes her own, and never resorting to studiotricks. Her buoyant takes on chestnuts ranging from “Our Day Will Come” to “ASong For You” never fail to charm, and they serve as a reminder of what a raretalent she was. You won’t find her death in this collection. Only her life.

# 21 (TM) - Fucked Up - David Comes to Life

2012-01-22T18:57:00.001-06:00

Holy crap this album has a lot going against it - the NSFW for band name, the unrelenting hardcore growl of a mostly shirtless lead singer named Pink Eyes, the hard to penetrate (and understand) lyrics to a godforsaken prog-punk opera, a 78 minute running time - but every time I put this disc on my heart rate accelerates and I feel like a better man. This thing explodes in scream-along mayhem with force, anger, bile and a bulldozer's soft touch that takes its only breaths with the occasional sweet touch of girl group coos that leavens a song like "Queen of Hearts".

Rock and roll is dead? Nah... it's just Fucked Up.

Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts" (from David Comes to Life)
Fucked Up - "Turn The Season" (from David Comes to Life)

Etta James, 1938-2012

2012-01-20T11:39:00.001-06:00

Johnny Otis, dead at 90

2012-01-19T13:13:00.002-06:00

The obituary of a fascinating man is here.

Bruce Springsteen - "We Take Care of Our Own" (Listen)

2012-01-18T23:30:00.001-06:00

We interrupt our 2011 countdown to acknowledge 2012.

# 22 (TM) - The Red Button - As Far As Yesterday Goes

2012-01-18T23:25:00.002-06:00

Now Pop for Pure People

As Far As Yesterday Goes plays like an unwritten John Hughes movie, with looming heartbreak leavened by day-glo horns and impossibly sunny arrangements. Each chorus, each handclap and each strum screams pure pop. There are 60's nods everywhere - the "I Should Have Known Better" harmonica riff that powers opener "Caught in The Middle" to euphoric heights, the heavenly, Turtle-y "ba-ba-bas" of "You Do Something to Me" and album thesis "On A Summer Day" that plays like a full on celebration of Small Faces ultra-modness crossed with the elegance of Bachrach/David classic.

Teenage Kicks review of As Far As Yesterday Goes

The Red Button - "Caught in The Middle" (from As Far As Yesterday Goes)
The Red Button - "On A Summer Day" (from As Far As Yesterday Goes)

# 23 (TM) - Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

2012-01-17T23:55:00.001-06:00

This album can inspire love and hate - I've both loved and hated it. Sometimes the ordinary lyrics ("Honey Bunny", "Magic", "Saying I Love You) seem like empty platitudes and songs veer off into Pink Floyd wankery territory ("Vomit", "Forgiveness), but then I find myself going back to this album again and again because it truly sounds wonderful and different - except "Vomit", which is an exercise in noisy tedium.

The lyrics are mostly uplifting (and ordinary, but they work) and who doesn't love an album that calls to mind the fractured, desperate beauty of Sister Lovers and the deeply touching melancholia of Sunflower / Surf's Up era Beach Boys.

Love... for today.

Girls - "Honey Bunny" (from Father, Son & Holy Ghost)
Girls - "Love Like A River" (from Father, Son & Holy Ghost)

# 24 (TM) - Wild Flag - Wild Flag

2012-01-15T20:27:00.002-06:00

With a scorched earth policy that leaves no riff unturned, Wild Flag's joyous rocket launch sounds like 1977 in 2011. I hear the new wave mannerisms of Lene Lovich and the exaggerated strangulated yelp of Richard Hell, but Wild Flag carries not a whiff of punk revisionism or slavish tribute. This is breathtaking rock and roll in the moment, loaded with hooks and F-U-N.

Inspirational verse from the slam bang opener, the absolutely irresistible "Romance":

"You watch us sing, we sing till we're crying
We sing to free ourselves from the room
We love the sound, the sound is what found us
Sound is the love between me and you"

If you are not moving to this one, have someone check your pulse.

Wild Flag - "Romance" (from Wild Flag)
Wild Flag - "Boom" (from Wild Flag)

# 25 (TM) - Ron Sexsmith - Long Player, Late Bloomer

2012-01-13T00:41:00.001-06:00

Eleven albums into a career that has flown mostly under the radar, Ron Sexsmith has had his praises sung by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Elvis Costello. Sexsmith writes rueful, self-deprecating songs about the painful joy of being in love. Long Player, Late Bloomer is more of the same, but only better with a strict no filler mandate among the album's 13 tracks.. The title song "Long PLayer" is a nod to his own survivor's instincts and his slow, gradual climb to the middle.

"I'm a late bloomer, I'm a slow learner
And I've turned the record over, I'm a long player
My song is my saviour, Got to raise it up"

His vocals cling to melodies like thick maple syrup on the edge of an amber jug, causing the world to spin a little slower while Sexsmith spoon feeds melancholy one bite a time.

Ron Sexsmith - "Believe It When I See It" (from Long Player, Late Bloomer)
Ron Sexsmith - "Give Me Love" (George Harrison cover)

# 26 (TM) - The Black Keys - El Camino

2012-01-10T23:40:00.000-06:00

I am jumping on this train as it hits top speed. Forget all the comparisons to The White Stripes, and forget all the critical hosannas and flowery expositions of The Black Keys as rock and roll saviors, even though they might be. Let's celebrate the big fat choruses, the head-bobbing, hair-flyin' groove, the underpinning of greasy soul that lifts them above the fray. This is big, dumb rock in all it's bare chested glory. The Black Keys are 2012's Foghat and "Lonely Boy" is their "Slow Ride", as camaro rock as it gets.

The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"

Foghat - "Slow Ride"

Fashionably Late

2012-01-10T10:52:00.002-06:00

Trip could come up with a list of one hundred albums about which he was genuinely enthusiastic in the past year if he set his mind to it. Me, not so much. It's not that there weren't that many (and more) worthy of enthusiasm, it's just that I didn't work hard enough to find them. I'll join the fray at album number 20.

# 27 (TM) - Tommy Keene - Behind The Parade

2012-01-08T17:02:00.000-06:00

It would be easy to dismiss Tommy Keene for rehashing the same formula with each album. But with a Ramones-like devotion to the mid 60's pop anthems championed by The Who as well as early 70's power pop, Keene's stunning lack of commercial success has freed him to crank out yet another batch of soaring tracks that make Keene sound as vital today as he did on his classic Songs from the Film album.

This is album is loaded with ringing electric guitars, Keene's dry vocals and wry wordplay and thankfully not much else. Sure there are nice touches like the Belle & Sebastian horns that adorn opener "Deep Six Saturday", but mostly Behind The Parade sounds like another record full of stirring, sharply played songs in a career full of them.

Tommy Keene - "Deep Six Saturday"
Tommy Keene - "Already Made Up My Mind"

(both songs on Behind The Parade on Second Motions Records)

# 28 (TM) Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams

2012-01-06T00:05:00.002-06:00

Terry Anderson's sweetness is most definitely my weakness. Working with the modestly named Olympic Ass Kickin Team, Anderson delivers a record that is quite simply without frills. Bashing out ragged bar band nuggets for urban hicks that suggests Rockpile playing a set of NRBQ covers, Anderson delivers a back-to-the basics clinic that leaves no wiggle room - rock and roll can save your life. For 38 minutes, it sure felt like More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams saved mine.

Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - "Gambled And Lost"
Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass Kickin Team - "Spend The Night"

(both songs available on More Smooth Jazz & Sweet Sweet Jams)

# 29 (TM) - The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

2012-01-04T00:02:00.001-06:00

One of the benefits of year-end reviews is that you have had time to let an album sink in and make your own decision on its relative merits or shortcomings. A major drawback is having already other reviews. So this album is either a "well rounded pop-jugular album" (The A.V. Club) or a disc that "fails to muster much sense of enthusiasm for itself beyond those first and last tracks" (Drowned in Sound).

Me - all I hear is effervescent gloom that seems to be a lab experiment grafting Jesus and Mary Chain's acidic wall of buzz onto the sing-along friendliness of Irish goobers The Saw Doctors. In a year mostly devoid of guitar albums, this one couples stompy riffs with singer Justin Young's anthemic melodic swells in 3 minute amphetamine rushes. I love it, but skip the 8 and 1/2 bummer of a closer, "Family Friend", and make this a 10 song album that wraps up in a tidy 27 minutes. That gets the Teenage Kicks seal of approval.

The Vaccines - "Post Break Up Sex" (from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?)
The Vaccines - "Norgaard" (from What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?)

# 30 (TM) - Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now

2012-01-02T23:04:00.001-06:00

With Jenny Lewis abandoning the americana soul of her solo lps for the fizzier, buzzier pop of Jenny and Johnny and Zooey Deschanel using up every ounce of her vast accumulation of good will on the unwatchable New Girl (Ben Gibbard must be delighted he doesn't have to watch that dreck anymore), America needs a new winsome sweetheart to embrace. Looking like Heart Like A Wheel Ronstadt, but with a Laurel Canyon via Nashville sound, Caitlin Rose's Own Side Now was one of the more impressive 2011 debuts. Standout tracks include the leave-me-alone kiss-off "Spare Me" and the buoyant kiss-off "Shanghai Cigarettes", that sounds like the kind of hit Mary Chapin Carpenter would have had 20 years ago. One to watch.

Caitlin Rose - "Shanghai Cigarettes" (from Own Side Now)

Caitlin Rose - "Faithless Love" (from Columbia Hotel EP)

The sign says OPEN

2012-01-02T22:25:00.001-06:00

After a spotty, fallow 2011, Teenage Kicks returns in 2012 with one our favorite things - a list. We are quite happy making lists - to do lists, grocery lists, concert lists, revenge lists, what-i'd-do-if-i-won the lottery lists. One of my New Year's resolutions was to start a list of all the lists I wanted to make. I still have time for that.

But for now we'll each be putting up our favorite albums from 2011, which was a very good year for music, but had no slam dunk rock and roll classic, like Titus Andronicus' The Monitor from last year The Hold Steady's Boy and Girls in America in 2006. In 2011, music was everywhere - on your phone, in the car, on TV, and instantly accessible on your computer and ipod. Now with Spotify, you can stream millions of songs for free. It's mind-blowing, fantastic and incredibly daunting. Because with millions of options, how do you choose? How do you ferret out the diamonds in the rough, separate the wheat from the chaff, make sure you get to hear Ezra Furman and skip James Blake? We hope to help here at Teenage Kicks, and we'll start with our 2011 faves. And maybe this time next year we'll salute 2012.

Have a Roman Candle Christmas

2011-12-06T08:25:00.001-06:00

Roman Candle's Oh Tall Tree in the Ear made our list of ten best albums of the last decade (at least I think it did; feel free to check). The members of the band are in the studio with their kids working on a long-player promised for 2012. In the interim, they've written and recorded "It's Christmas, Go On and Say Hello," three minutes of yuletide cheer. Get it as a free download at the band's website.

Dave Hause & Cory Branan at Johnny Brenda's Tonight!! (plus a Long Overdue Report on The Replacements Movie & Tribute Concert)

2011-12-05T23:28:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I made the trek to New York to see a screening of the new Replacements documentary, Color Me Obsessed. If the idea of driving two hours in the rain with two other degenerates to see a music film in a dank, crowded subterranean shithole about a drunken bunch of stumblebums who were touched by genius, and knowing that the film contains exactly zero music by said stumblebums - well, if that's your idea of a good time, I've got one thing to say to you... welcome friend. This movie features talking heads doing nothing but trying to explain the unexplainable - what made The Replacements great? As the saying goes - if I have to tell you, you'll never know. But the film is a clunky, heartfelt, ultimately sweet valentine to the last great rock and roll band - you'll laugh, you'll shake your head and god damn if you don't get goose bumps just remembering how mighty they could be.

So see it if you get the chance. Right after the screening, there was a tribute concert that was pretty good, but lacked the careening unpredictability that made The Replacements either the world's greatest or world's worst rock and roll band, often in the same night. There were some head scratchers - Steve Wynn sleepwalking through "Never Mind", Robert Gordon's flabby and meandering "I Will Dare" (a waste of a big moment) and Matt Pinfield (the dj!) flop sweating through "Waitress in The Sky". Bree Sharp's Vegas-y "Unsatisfied" gets a pass because quite frankly I am not really sure I can say anything bad about her.

But there were also some real standouts - Kevn Kinney making "Here Comes A Regular" his own as a southern fried lament and Craig and Tad from The Hold Steady falling just short on "Within Your Reach" but knocking it out of the park on "Color Me Impressed", while Tommy Ramone gently found the sweet pathos in a moving solo take of "If Only You Were Lonely". Danny Sage seemed pleasantly befuddled as he brought some New York scuzz to "I'll be You" and "Answering Machine", while host Jesse Malin was perfectly reverential with "Achin to Be" and "Alex Chilton". But the highlights of the evening were Titus Andronicus' Patrick Stickles nailing the confused desperation of "Sixteen Blue" and Dave Hause's super-charged take on "Anywhere is Better Than Here" and an electric and show stealing "I.O.U." The all hands on deck finale of "Bastards of Young" was a fitting sloppy mish-mash highlighted by the Little Billy antics of Patrick Stickles and his video recorder.

Which is a very long way of saying go see Dave Hause tonight in his first full band Philadelphia show in quite some time. We raved earlier this year about Resolutions, his 2011 marriage of punk rock spittle and sensitive singer songwriter-isms that is one of the year's best albums. Tonight he'll be joined by Cory Branan, whose literate story songs sit somewhere between John Prine and the softer side of Lucero. And it's ten bucks. Get off the couch, lazy ass.

Dave Hause (11:00)
Cory Branan (10:00)
Turning Violet Violet (9:00)
at Johnny Brenda's
1201 N. Frankford Ave. (near Girard)
215-739-9684

Dave Hause - "Years From Now" (from Resolutions)
Dave Hause - "C'mon Kid" (from Resolutions)
Dave Hause - "Another Town" (Steve Earle cover)

Cory Branan - "Troublesome Girl" (from The Hell You Say)

Love this band, love this song, love this video

2011-12-05T21:24:00.001-06:00

This is Deer Tick conjuring the spirit of vintage Replacements while playing an homage to the Rolling Stones. The song is "Main Street." The album is Divine Providence. And if you're the kind of person who has been to this blog more than once on purpose, you should own it.

New Paul Weller: "Around the Lake"

2011-11-29T10:05:00.001-06:00

We're big fans of the Mod God around here, and his album Sonik Kicks is set to arrive on March 26, 2012. The first single "Around the Lake" is a classic Weller stomper, checking in at an economical two minutes, twelve seconds. Enjoy.

Paul Weller, "Around the Lake"

Honey Pies, You Were Meant To Be Near Me

2011-11-28T10:49:00.001-06:00

The Honey Pies are an Australian four-piece that makes the kind of breezy, 60's R&B-inflected pop and buzzy, punk-inflected rock that never goes out of style, but never quite comes into fashion. They'll be releasing their second long-player Carpe Carp at some time in the future described only as "soon." While you wait for soon to come, enjoy the first single "Girl," an irresistible ray of sunshine.

The Honey Pies, "Girl"

Welcome to the new Teenage Kicks

2011-11-18T08:24:00.001-06:00

This used to be a semi-dormant rock and roll blog. Now it's a semi-dormant rock and roll blog with style.

Lester Speaks

2011-11-17T13:20:00.001-06:00

I had read thousands upon thousands of his words, I had seen him portrayed in Almost Famous, but until stumbling upon this on YouTube, I had never seen video of history's most notorious rock writer.

New Craig Finn!!

2011-11-03T22:30:00.006-05:00

Craig Finn will be releasing a sure-to-be-impossible-to-find 7" single, "Honolulu Blues", as part of Record Store Day's Black Friday boondoggle. It's the first taste of his forthcoming solo album (out soon) and the single also features b-side "Rented Room". Both songs will be avialble digitally 11/29. Thanks to Finn's English label Full Time Hobby for the streams below.

"Honolulu Blues" reminds me of... you guessed it, The Hold Steady, and the racket they kicked up for their greasy take of Dylan's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window".

The Hold Steady - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" (from I'm Not There)

Streams removed per request of label.

Austin Has Always Had The Best Music, Now They Have The Best Halloween Too

2011-11-03T19:51:00.003-05:00

Patty Griffin and her squeeze welcome some local demons.

Behold The Power of Rock and Roll

2011-10-27T00:15:00.002-05:00

Butch Walker killing it at Union Transfer in Philadelphia earlier tonight.

photo: Hudak

Fierce Bad Rabbit Tonight!

2011-10-23T16:56:00.004-05:00

Here's a late heads up for all you Philadelphia couch potatoes looking for a reason to leave the house tonight - the pride of Fort Collins, CO, Fierce Bad Rabbit, scampers into the M Room as the headliner on a four band bill including Oh! Pears, Dad Rocks and Attia Taylor. Fierce Bad Rabbit are touring behind their excellent, brand new 3 song EP, Live and Learn, whose well scrubbed rock finds kindred spirits in the harmony heavy americana of Mumford & Sons, Dawes and Band of Horses. Lead singer Chris Anderson has a voice that would sound perfect on AAA radio. Let's hope those programmers take notice.

And I'm all in for a future all Rabbit tour - Fierce Bad Rabbit, Frightened Rabbit, White Rabbits and Pepper Rabit.

Fierce Bad Rabbit - "You"

M Room

15 W. Girard

Philadelphia,PA

215-739-5577

fun. with Deer Tick!!!

2011-10-13T23:18:00.004-05:00

While that headline would work for any Deer Tick show, it takes an absurd literal turn Friday night as emo-freindly heartbreakers fun. share the stage with your favorite scuzz rockers at the University of Pennsylvania's Harrison Auditorium. Me? I really love both bands but I wouldn't have put them together on the same bill on a dare.

You know that girl whose nose is a little crooked, wears skinny jeans and ragged t-shirts, buys you a beer when you're down, can stay out late and not complain, has nerdy glasses and knows everyone? Who doesn't read but is whip smart, smokes when the moment is right and never seems alone? The one all the guys want and all the girls want to be? Well Deer Tick is that girl. And they've even got a cute friend. Let's call her Divine Providence and she's BOS. Fresh of a surreal appearance on Letterman, they'll both be in town for what's sure to be one of the weirder pairings in recent memory. I am asking the music gods right now for duet featuring John McCauley's boozy creak paired with Nate Reuss' woozy falsetto. I vote for either "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" or "I Got You Babe". Let's call it He & Him.

fun. (complete with lower case "f" and a period as part of the name - a Google nightmare) are a couple of years removed from their dizzying debut, Aim and Ignite, which sounded like Freddie Mercury preening with the Beach Boys during a Broadway casting call, but it worked. They've got a new album in the works and so far have dropped one single "We Are Young", a collaboration with Janelle Monae that shows the band heading in a busier direction with eyes on the dance floor (expect many remixes), but with vocal harmonic histrionics intact.

Deer Tick's Divine Providence (out 10/25 on Partisan Records) is a career high point - a mix of their homespun citylbilly freakouts mixed with some of the foamy explosiveness of their tightrope-walking live show. Opening with the primal stomp of "The Bump", it seems like McCauley and company realized it was OK to relax and have fun in the studio. "Main Street" fulfills the promise of those Replacements comparisons and sounds like a lost Tim track. First single "Miss K" is a Byrdsy cum Costello valentine to a darlin' girl, easily the most radio friendly thing they've ever done.

Deer Tick - "Main Street"
(from Divine Providence)

fun. (w/ Janelle Monae) - "We Are Young"

Here's the show info, and tickets available here:

Deer Tick and fun. - 10/14 @ 8:00 PM
Harrison Auditorium - 33rd and Spruce Sts.
Philadelphia, PA

Lydia Loveless (Again)

2011-10-05T23:21:00.005-05:00

.

In my post yesterday, I inadvertently linked to another mp3 rather than "Steve Earle", the stalker fantasy rave-up by 21 year old upstart Lydia Loveless, who makes her Philadelphia debut Friday night at Fishtown's M Room. So today we bring you "Steve Earle" plus a track from her 2010 Peloton Records debut, The Only Man. You can order Indestructible Machine here and The Only Man here. Both are highly recommended.

Get thee to the M Room Friday night.

Lydia Loveless - "Steve Earle"
Lydia Loveless - "Always Lose"
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And here's Maria McKee sounding positively unhinged on "East of Eden" from Lone Justice's debut - I'll bet Loveless is a fan.
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Lone Justice - "East of Eden" (from Lone Justice)

All the Girls Say "Steve Earle, Steve Earle"

2011-10-03T23:38:00.004-05:00

2011 is the 25th anniversary of Steve Earle's Guitar Town, so I guess it's also the 25th anniversary of my being able to stomach country music. Prior to that, it was classic rock, punk rock, power pop and AM radio that filled my listening hours. Guitar Town is not only one of rock and roll's great debut albums, it was also a gateway drug to Waylon, Merle, Willie, Gram and a thousand others.

Earle has quite the career since - Grammy winner, drug addict, actor, divorce attorney's dream, novelist, activist, absentee father, record producer, playwright - but it's the songs that keep us riveted. That and the mystical puzzle for the ages of how he pulled Alison Moorer.

And now 21 year old Lydia Loveless (who name conjures up a goth country diva) has written "Steve Earle", a fitting "tribute" that paints Earle as a stalker of sweet young things who "won't stop calling me" and "just wants to write some songs", but all Lydia wants is for Steve "to please introduce me to your son", the ultimate backhanded compliment. And it's just the tip of the iceberg for Indestructible Machine, Loveless's brand new firecracker of an album, out now on Bloodshot Records. The album traffics in that Old 97's galloping backbeat, but recasts Rhett Miller as Loretta Lynn.

But mostly this album recalls the glory and go-for-broke-ness of the debut Lone Justice record, especially on the roiling "Bad Way to Go" and the unapologetic war cry of "Do Right." Loveless may not possess Maria McKee's wondrous range, but that's really praising by faint damn. Loveless is a take-no-prisoners storyteller, the freshest new female alt-country voice in recent memory.

Just for fun, I've also attached another "Steve Earle", this one by sappy country megastars Sugarland. This one sounds like Elly May Clampett first stalking then squawking Steve Earle. And finally a gorgeous, brand new cover by Kasey Chambers of Earle's "Nothing But A Child". Enjoy.

Lydia Loveless - "Steve Earle" (from Indestructible Machine)
Sugarland - "Steve Earle" (from Love on The Inside)
Kasey Chambers - "Nothing But A Child" (from Storybook)

Filligar!

2011-09-30T11:30:00.002-05:00

Two things I know about the Chicago band Filligar: (1) their drummer Pete sends the kind of direct, concise and polite emails that cut through the inbox clutter; and (2) they play the kind of loose-limbed, four on the floor rock and roll that never fades away even as trends come and go. We gladly direct you to the band's website where you can download two fine new tracks for free. "Knock Yourself Out" is a slow-burning hip-swayer, and "Dead Wrong" is a spirited blast of rock and roll joy.

While you're at the website, be sure to visit the tour section to see how the band is reviving the classic concert poster one show at a time.

Happy Birthday to Us

2011-09-21T23:54:00.002-05:00

Buddy Holly and Chrissie Hynde share the same birthday as Teenage Kicks. Johnny Brenda's, the best rock on the planet, is celebrating their five year anniversary. Michael and I have bonded over many things (The Hold Steady, 70's AM radio, Springsteen, college hoops, family histories), but maybe the real Teenage Kicks totem is a band non-celebrating it's 30th birthday (where's all the love for Sorry Ma?), The Replacements.

Westerberg is the greatest songwriter of the last 30 years (apologies to Steve Earle).

Dig the 14 year old Tommy Stinson.

RIP Bob.

Rock and Roll Can Kiss My Ass...

2011-09-15T23:52:00.006-05:00

As Teenage Kicks (quietly) celebrates our fifth birthday (stay tuned for a couple of contests next week), on Saturday we'll be hightailing it down to the new World Cafe in Wilmington, DE to catch Marshall Crenshaw celebrating the 30th anniversary of his stone classic debut album. A primer on creating the perfect pop song, Marshall Crenshaw has been a constant companion on every road trip for Mr. & Mrs. Teenage Kicks (speaking of Mrs. TK, happy anniversary baby!). And wait, it gets better! The Bottle Rockets, promoting their new acoustic disc Not So Loud!, are opening the show and will serve as Crenshaw's Crickets to his new wave Buddy Holly. Concert wood alert!

But tonight, halfway across the country at The Turf Club in St. Paul,MN is the superb triple bill that has us salivating - Tommy Keene, Slim Dunlap (Slim!) and Minnesota's best kept secret High on Stress. Tommy Keene has been so good for so long that I hereby declare him a national treasure. His latest, Behind The Parade (out now on Second Motion Records), is exactly what you'd expect - 10 blasts of revved up guitar pop nirvana. Slim Dunlap is best known as the post-Bob guitar player in the Replacements and a charming, if slightly wobbly, frontman in his own right. High on Stress open the show (then pull a Bottle Rockets as Slim's band) and their jangle crunch is highlighted by main man Nick Let's sardonic wordplay and world-weary delivery. Their 2008 release, Cop Light Parade (no relation to Behind The Parade), pretty much tells everyone to kiss their ass - I love High on Stress.

Marshall Crenshaw - "Cynical Girl" (from Marshall Crenshaw)
Bottle Rockets - "Kerosene" (from Not So Loud)

Tommy Keene - "Deep Six Saturday" (from Behind The Parade)

Slim Dunlap - "The Ballad of The Opening Band" (from The Old New Me)

High on Stress -"Table 8 in Queens" (from Cop Light Parade)

Lou Reed is not being egotistical when he says he may have just created the best music ever

2011-09-12T11:35:00.003-05:00

Lou Reed and Metallica have collaborated on a new album called Lulu, to be released October 31. And according to Lou, the result may be even more spectacular than you might expect: "The [music] is awe-inspiring. It’s maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever. It could create another planetary system. I’m not joking, and I’m not being egotistical."

Five Years

2011-09-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

Earlier today, Trip sent me a note asking if we were about to hit Teenage Kicks’ fifth anniversary. So I looked it up, and it turns out that said milestone is . . . today. You can accuse us of a lot of things, but not of hyping our own history.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. It’s the time between Meet the Beatles and Abbey Road. It’s enough time for the entire world to change.

It’s also enough time for lives to change in significant ways. When we started, my kids’ ages were five and two. Now at ten and seven, their activities and tastes (hello, Nickelodeon!) dominate my free time in ways I never expected, as do other things I never expected, like running the occasional half-marathon or taking a stab at writing long fiction.

That’s my way of saying that I used to pour a lot of effort into this place, but that I don’t anymore, and please don’t blame me.

I still love music, and I’m even trying to learn it (my third piano lesson is coming up), but it doesn't consume me quite like it used to. Still, it can still possess me in unexpected ways. Over the past four months, I've listened to the Beatles more than at any time in my life, and I’m working on reading a couple thousand words about them. Forty years after they went away, they’re blowing my mind all over again.

And bands like Dawes and Ezra Furman and the Harpoons give me faith that rock and roll, even in a time of great technological and creative upheaval, will continue to thrive as long as there are talented young people who want to connect with others in the most powerful way possible.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. Clarence Clemons has played on two original Bruce Springsteen albums since we started. Now he’s gone.

The spirit of Springsteen and The Hold Steady, more than any other acts, animated this space like no other in our original burst, and provides the framework of our worldview. It’s a deep love of what came before and a fervent belief in what’s coming next. We love our old records, but we can’t wait to hear the next thing to grab us by our collars and shake our bearings loose.

Five years is a blink. But it’s also a chasm. When we started, I hadn't even met Trip in the flesh. Now he’s my blood brother, a bond formed over rock and roll, the occasional beer, college basketball, the community of friends we've formed, and a shared sense of what’s good and right in the world.

Thanks to all of you who have spent some of your valuable time with us.We and our friends are like the drums on “Lust for Life.” We pound it out on floor toms. Our psalms are sing-along songs.

William Elliott Whitmore - Field Songs

2011-09-01T23:50:00.005-05:00

William Elliott Whitmore's Iowa farmer perspective infuses darkly soulful songs with dirt under the fingernails realism put across with an extraordinary big, booming voice. Each song is a call to arms, inspiring the listener action and reaction. Reminds me of Jay Farrar - an old soul frozen in a young man's body.

Field Songs evokes old time spirituals, songs of faith sung by slaves to try and ease their burdens. "Let's Do Something Impossible" implores the listener to reach for something grand, something unthinkable like escaping Alcatraz, defeating Custer or Hitler, or just betting it all on one horse to win it all. Just dream big. It seems to be the most hopeful statement from Whitmore to date.

The sparse instrumentation (a gently picked banjo, a barely strummed guitar) puts the focus on Whitmore's bruising vocals, and he hangs on to words like he's afraid to let them go. The vocals can be folky soothing like John Gorka, punky soulful like Willy DeVille or bar room broken akin to Lucero's Ben Nichols. At 8 songs and 34 minutes, Field Songs scores a quick and decisive knockout, landing blows for the oppressed and depressed everywhere.

William Elliott Whitmore - "Field Song" (from Field Songs)

William Elliott Whitmore - "Hell or High Water" (from Animals in The Dark)

William Elliott Whitmore - "Don't Pray on Me" (Bad Religion cover)

Deer Tick Releases "Miss K", Plans to Conquer World

2011-08-16T22:46:00.004-05:00

Deer Tick today dropped "Miss K", which quite simply sounds like the best thing they've ever done, and it may only be the second best John McCauley song this year, # 1 still in lockdown by Middle Brother's "Daydreaming". Deer Tick has been steadily morphing with each release, from the spazzy punk folk of War Elephant, the country rock of Born on Flag Day and the moodier but bracing alt-soul-scuzz of The Black Dirt Sessions, where the volume was turned down while the intensity soared. And now we can get our drink on while we await what promises to be the greatest Deer Tick of all, Divine Providence, out October 25th on Partisan Records.

John McCauley is on fire, with Deer Tick tearing up clubs across the country, festive solo shows, the ridiculous greatness of Deervana and as the heart and soul (and breakout star) of Middle Brother. McCauley is forging a reputation as a monster songwriter, with a scabby, craggy voice that delivers songs with a white-hot intensity calling to mind Paul Westerberg, while Deer Tick's manic, booze-fueled live show is drawing comparisons to The Replacements.

Here's what main Tick McCauley has to say about the upcoming record:

"Man, you can practically smell the sweat and the beer! Shit, you may even hear a guitar or two break somewhere in there!. It's got a little Exile, it's got a little In Utero, it's got a little Nilsson Schmilsson, but it's 100% Deer-Fucking-Tick in our purest, and most carefree form."

Based on the above, I proclaim Divine Providence one of the best records of the year and I've only heard one song. Let the hype begin!

Deer Tick - "Miss K" (from the upcoming Divine Providence)

Middle Brother - "Daydreaming" (from Daytrotter)

Deer Tick - "Still Crazy After All These Years" (Paul Simon cover)

Deer Tick - "Nebraska" (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Deer Tick - "Beautiful Girls" (Sean Kingston cover)

Deer Tick - "Mexican Home" (John Prine cover)

Deer Tick - "Unwed Fathers" (from Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows)

Deer Tick - "Dead Flowers" (Rolling Stones cover)

Deer Tick - "Summertime Blues

Deer Tick - "Waitress in The Sky" (Replacements cover)

Deervana - "All Apologies" (Nirvana cover)

Deer Tick - "Christmas All Summer Long"

Red Button For President

2011-08-03T23:47:00.003-05:00

Double digit unemployment. Iraq. Afghanistan. Bailouts. Sex Scandals. Mind-numbingly bad reality TV. Every time you turn on the TV, open up the newspaper or fire up the latest app to keep you up on current events, it seems that only news can break your heart. Well saddle up losers, because it's time for the antithesis of all that with the return of The Red Button and their shimmering new release, As Far As Yesterday Goes.

Singer-songwriters Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg's first Red Button disc, 2007's She's About to Cross My Mind, was one the finest debuts of the last decade. If names like The Beatles, The Zombies, The Left Banke and Big Star mean something to you, you can place your order here. If compilations like Poptopia and Yellow Pills ring your bell, you won't believe records like this still get made in 2011.

As Far As Yesterday Goes plays like an unwritten John Hughes movie, with looming heartbreak leavened by day-glo horns and impossibly sunny arrangements. Each chorus, each handclap and each strum screams pure pop. There are 60's nods everywhere - the "I Should Have Known Better" harmonica riff that powers opener "Caught in The Middle" to euphoric heights, the heavenly, Turtle-y "ba-ba-bas" of "You Do Something to Me" and album thesis "On A Summer Day" that plays like a full on celebration of Small Faces ultra-modness crossed with the elegance of Bachrach/David classic.

Fitting closer "Running Away" uses its Cat Steven cadence to posit that "it's never been harder to tune out the noise, the world just gets louder, can't hear my own voice", but ultimately the fight or flight is internal, everything else is just noise. And part of that loud world is The Red Button, whose timeless melodies cut through the noise to offer bite size bits of respite in the form of three minute paeans to help ease and understand the pain. They have my vote.

On A Summer Day - The Red Button from Seth Swirsky on Vimeo.

2011-07-23T13:04:00.000-05:00

RIP Rob Grill of The Grass Roots (1943-2011)

2011-07-12T23:39:00.003-05:00

If the call letters WFIL and WIBG bring a slight pang to your middle-aged heart, chances are you know Rob Grill's voice, which was silenced Monday at aged 67. It was Grill's voice that pushed The Grass Roots bubbly, dancey bubblegum folk to the top of the charts. To a 12 year old shrimp who didn't know about the Summer of Love, Bob Dylan or the burgeoning influence of FM radio, it was 560 or 990 on the AM dial that ruled the day.

The Grass Roots, along with other great AM singles bands of the late 60's/early 70's like CCR, The Guess Who, Badfinger, The Box Tops, Bread, Chicago, The Jackson 5, Rare Earth, The Raspberries, Slade, The Spinners, The Stylistics, War and The Fifth Dimension, mounted an assault on the charts with irresistible 3 minute pop songs that still sound fresh 40 years later. Rob Grill's high, sturdy voice wrapped itself around melodies with lyrics concerning the vicissitudes of love, whispering "Midnight Confessions", lamenting "Two Divided by Love", trying to avoid "Temptation Eyes", but "Sooner of Later" deciding it was best to "Live For Today". Between 1967 and 1972, The Grass Roots spent 307 straight weeks on the Billboard charts. Nice run.

So tonight, sit back, dial up the memories of George Michael or Banana Joe Montione, and let Rob Grill and The Grass Roots remind you that rock and roll, still going strong after 55 years, is still best served up in three minutes blasts of teenage symphonies to god.

The Grass Roots - "Sooner or Later"

The Grass Roots - "Heaven Knows"

The Grass Roots - "Tempatation Eyes"

The Replacements - "Temptation Eyes"

Songs in the Key of Perjury

2011-07-06T09:34:00.001-05:00

My buddy T.J. is spending the next four to six weeks in a Washington, D.C. courtroom covering the trial of Roger Clemens, who is accused of lying before Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs during his days as one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers. For his listening pleasure during the downtime that inevitably comes, here’s a Rocket on Trial playlist.

“Rocket Man,” Elton John. A cliché, for sure, but obligatory.

“The Needle and the Damage Done,” Neil Young. See “Rocket Man.”

“The Weight of Lies,” The Avett Brothers.

“Tell Me About Your Drugs,” Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians

“I Don’t Believe You,” The Thermals

“Evidence,” Thelonious Monk

“Rough Justice,” Rolling Stones

“Give Me Some Truth,” John Lennon

“Don’t Worry About the Government,” Talking Heads. Actually, Roger, do worry about the government.

“Can I Get a Witness,” Marvin Gaye.

Willie Nile & Scott McClatchy - Tin Angel Tonight!

2011-06-24T00:07:00.006-05:00

Come out Friday night (that's tonight if you're reading this today, yesterday if you're reading this tomorrow) to The Tin Angel for the veteran troubadour double bill of Willie Nile and everyone's favorite little brother, Scott McClatchy.

Willie Nile has been making great records for over 30 years. Not especially prolific, his latest album, The Innocent Ones, is only his 7th studio album since 1980, but his fourth since 2004. So I guess we are in the midst of a Willie Nile renaissance. His music is marked by passion, humility, grace and a sly sense of humor, ready to explode in a lightning bolt of energy. He seemed at one point to be both a "new Springsteen" and a "new Dylan", but although his first two albums (Willie Nile and Golden Down) are singer-songwriter classics, he never found much commercial footing. Friday's concert is sure to showcase a handful of favorites (I'm hoping for "Vagabond Moon" and "I Can't Get You Off of My Mind") along with new ones like the anthemic "One Guitar", which is being recorded by several artists who will each put their version up on itunes with all proceeds going to charity, including 50% to the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Scott McClatchy is local Philly musician whose latest album, A Dark Rage, is a career best. This album kicks up a Celtic storm, with tin whistles, fiddles, uilleann pipes (that's right, uilleann pipes - you got a problem with that?!) and anthemic, million man choruses raising a righteous fury. Whether singing about a wayward bachelor party ("Cigarettes, Breath Mints & Visine"), domestic bliss in under two minutes ("Forever With You") or social unrest (the rollicking title cut), McClatchy takes you a journey not only to the heartland but right to the heart.

Willie Nile and Scott McClatchy appear at The Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd St. in the heart of Old City) on Friday, June 24. Tickets will be available at the door or you can buy them here.

Willie Nile - "Vagabond Moon" (from Willie Nile)
Willie Nile - "Run" (from House of a Thousand Guitars)

Scott McClatchy - "A Dark Rage" (from A Dark Rage)
Scott McClatchy - "Forever With You" (from A Dark Rage)

It's Good to be the King

2011-06-20T20:00:00.002-05:00

When I got an email from Stewart Copeland, I thought we had a big scoop on our hands. It turns out it was the other Stewart Copeland, guitarist for Tennessee indie pop band King Arthur. Though Stewart violated rule one of mp3 submissions by saying that he’s a really big fan of our blog (really? This little ol’ thing?), I clicked through anyway, and I’m glad I did. The band’s four-song EP Ad Inexplorata is a charmer with its heart in all the right places, and you are encouraged to give it a virtual spin.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://kingarthurtheband.bandcamp.com/album/ad-inexplorata"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Ad Inexplorata by King Arthur&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

RIP Big Man

2011-06-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

Gimme a C!

This kid is all kinds of awesome

2011-06-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

Toasting Our Friend

2011-06-12T10:22:00.004-05:00

It's not nepotism if I post it, so please enjoy "Toasting My Friends," the new video from Teenage Kicks' favorite left-handed, gracefully graying troubadour, Scott McClatchy (and to get the full effect, you should really watch the video at Scott's site; it gets chopped off here).

And if you love the rockin' penny whistle, there's more where that came from on Scott's excellent long-player, A Dark Rage, available at Amazon and on iTunes.

Dawes, Dawes, Dawes - Nothing is Wrong

2011-06-10T00:35:00.008-05:00

Since I am crushing on their brand new album, Nothing is Wrong, in a pretty unhealthy way, I feel it is my civic duty to inform you that you have three chances to catch Dawes today. Two are free and the third one is a perfectly matched sad-eyed bill with M Ward and Bright Eyes guaranteed to fill your daily quota of heartbreak and joy.

For those who place those first four Jackson Browne albums on some mystical higher plane (and really... who doesn't?), all I can tell you is you need to snag Nothing is Wrong TODAY, preferably at Main Street Music where Dawes performs a crazy intimate acoustic show for 60 lucky wristband holders. Or you can drink your lunch at World Cafe Live for WXPN's Free At Noon show with the boys. Or cough up some of your hard earned and get an americana dream bill at The Mann.

Taylor Goldsmith is on a roll - first with Dawes' debut North Hills, then Middle Brother's giddy romp, on to backing up Robbie Robertson and now laying waste to the sophomore slump with an album filled with such effortless, conversational songwriting that even lyrics about "piling on those mashed potatoes" and grabbing an "extra chicken wing" work perfectly. There are 11 songs and each one will be your favorite for at least a while. If he gives you a stock tip, buy without hesitation.

Nothing is Wrong is the Jackson Browne album you've been waiting for since The Pretender.

Dawes at World Cafe Live - 12:00 (sign up here)

Dawes at Main Street Music - 5:30 (need a wristband to gain admittance, call 215-487-7732 for more information)

Dawes (with Bright Eyes and M Ward) at The Mann Music Center (Dawes on 7:30)

Dawes - "Time Spent in Los Angeles" (from Nothing is Wrong)

Dawes - "Love is All I Am" (from North Hills)

Dawes - "Lawyers, Guns And Money" (live Warren Zevon cover)

Dawes - "Hula Hula Boys" (live Warren Zevon cover)

Dawes - "Pretty Good" (live John Prine cover)

Amanda Shires Sweetly Shines

2011-06-01T23:53:00.004-05:00

It is so hard to get heard over the din of an ever-expanding media maze of itunes, video games, facebook, twitter, radio, TV, commercials, movies, concerts and clouds - what's a girl to do? If you're Amanda Shires, you do it yourself. Although a veteran of tours and recording projects with such alt country luminaries like Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, Billy Joe Shaver, Shires is just beginning to get noticed for her burgeoning solo career.

As evidenced by an early set (8:00 sharp start!) tonight at Philly's Grape Room, Amanda Shires is a nimble fiddler who packs a wallop in her tiny frame. Taking the stage as a duo with Nashville songwriter Rod Picott on acoustic guitar, she thrilled a couple of dozen patrons with her hushed, melancholy Texas twang that recalled a less craggy Lucinda Williams with the emotional purity of prime Nanci Griffith.

With a set chock full of strong originals like the missed opportunity lament "When You Need A Train It Never Comes" and the whistling, banjo flecked lover's longing glaze of "Swimmer...", her stark, elegiac take on fellow Lubbock-ite Butch Hancock's "If You Were a Bluebird" felt like one of her own.

Amanda Shires latest album, Carrying Lightning, is a top-notch singer-songwriter album, and is available at amazon and itunes. You can check her out on tour here, and those lucky campers at the Philadelphia Folk Festival will get an earful (and eyeful) at the Wednesday night Campers Only show in August.

Amanda Shires - "When You Need A Train It Never Comes"

Amanda Shires - "Swimmer...."

An added bonus, check out this superb take of "If You Were A Bluebird" from a recent radio show:

The New Connection Tonight (5/27) at Johnny Brenda's with Southwork and National Rifle

2011-05-26T23:57:00.004-05:00

Come out tonight for a sure fire triple bill at Johnny Brenda's (how many time do we have to tell you JB's is the best rock club on the planet?) featuring the stellar Philly trio of Southwork (11:15), National Rifle (9:15) and Teenage Kicks pick-to-click The New Connection (10:15).

The New Connection has the pop smarts of The New Pornogrpahers, but filters their songs through various lens, including the prog-pop of Yes, the piano swells of Ben Folds, the irresistble bop of your favorite punky reggae party and the lush harmonies of Philly psych stalwarts, Dr. Dog. All these elements mesh effortlessly on their brand new self titled record they'll no doubt be showcasing tonight.

Go and get yourself connected. Make 'em play the dreamy "Yours" and get lost in the gorgeous chorus.

Johnny Brenda's - 1201 N. Frankford Ave.
215-739-9684

Take the Money and Run

2011-05-26T15:10:00.004-05:00

There’s been some press lately celebrating the tenth anniversary of Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad’s book detailing the stories of thirteen American indie rock bands in the 1980s. I haven’t read it since shortly after its release, but I recall the book being fascinating, entertaining and maddening. What I found maddening was how bands seemed to cease to exist once they signed with a major label, or at a minimum how they seemed to become minimized in importance, as if moving from one business model to another diminished them or made their music less good. But several of the bands, like Sonic Youth, Husker Du and Dinosaur, Jr., made terrific records for majors. And if you forced me to choose between the albums the Replacements made for Twin/Tone and the ones they made for Sire, I’ll take the latter. As a listener, I care about the sonics, not the economics.

In a recent interview, Azerrad continues to tout the indie ethic while broadsiding indie bands who cash in anyway they can:

Your book details an “us-versus-them” mentality in the eighties underground scene which really doesn’t seem to exist anywhere nearly as much in contemporary indie bands. Does that mean these recent bands aren’t quite the heirs one would hope for? Have they sold out?

The line’s definitely blurred. Now you have this little Brooklyn indie band called Matt and Kim, or Neon Indian, who have recorded for Green Label Sound, which was Mountain Dew’s label. Mountain Dew is awful stuff. Or Spoon’s music, selling Jaguars. I guess part of it is pragmatic: “Well, we’re not selling records so we have to get our music heard, and to get some money to make more music, we have to license this song for a car commercial.” I’d really like to see the economics of that because it seems like a lot of indie bands do quite well on the road selling concert tickets. I wonder how much they really need the money.

“I wonder how much they really need the money.” I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. How much they need to rent an apartment this month? This year? Enough to buy groceries? To have health insurance? How about enough to pay for braces for the kids they haven’t had yet?

If anyone should know that the shelf-life of the average band – even the average very good band – is tragically short, it’s the guy who chronicled the Minutemen and Mudhoney. It’s nice to think that members of a band like that can make a good living recording and touring into their dotage, but for most of them, it ends. And few of those endings come with a golden parachute.

Buffalo Tom was better than 99% of the bands that came out of the era, and they still record and play. But bandleader Bill Janowitz is now a real estate broker Monday through Friday because there’s no economic security in being in an indie rock band.

The truth is, a few months away from our 25th anniversary as a band, we still manage to get out there and tour every once in a while, playing to a peak of 1500 in Brussels, or to a low of maybe 75 people in Portland the other night. But like the indie bands outlined in Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life — bands that, in the mid- to late-1980s, paved the way and formed a foundation for groups like us — we still have a devoted, if modest audience. We, in turn, have influenced many bands. And all of that that encourages us to keep trying to balance the cottage industry we have in music business with grown-up responsibilities like families and jobs. But it is increasingly difficult, financially, physically, and mentally, to tour or play to diminishing crowds. Of course we understand. Most of our audience is also in their 40s, and have kids and demanding careers. They live out in the suburbs, most likely. And we have to play weeknights as well as whatever weekend nights we can book. And who wants to go stand around in the rock clubs of their youth on a Monday or Tuesday night?

My advice to every young band out there: Sell as many Jaguars today as you can. Nothing is promised for tomorrow. Providing your kids braces doesn’t make you less of an artist.

Army Navy Called in To Save Power Pop!

2011-05-18T23:08:00.004-05:00

A couple years ago we touted west coast power pop savants Army Navy's fab redo of disco queen Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From" the best cover song of 2008. We can live with that choice.

Today the boys announced that album # 2, The Last Place, would drop July 14 on their own Fever Zone Records. Lucky emusic nerds get an exclusive four week window to be the coolest kids on the block starting June 14. Check out "The Long Goodbye" from the new record and try to keep from swooning.

The Long Goodbye - Army Navy by Army Navy

Army Navy - "Right Back Where We Started From" (from Army Navy)

Army Navy - "Saints" (from Army Navy)

Pure Pop for Old People

2011-05-10T15:02:00.001-05:00

I recently encountered a quote from the late English poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin that struck a little too close to home. Before I was born, Larkin decried modern jazz and other forms art contemporary art because they "take what was once among our pleasures, and place it among our duties."

My urge is I to repudiate the thoughts of a man who derided Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, who couldn't abide Charlie Parker, who just wanted to bob his head and tap his feet. But I understand what he meant.

When I hear Animal Collective or TV on the Radio and scratch my head, I know I'm on the wrong side of history, though I suspect that I might one day catch up. After all, it took four or five years of bemusement before I embraced OK Computer, and now it's indispensable (perhaps I'll feel the same about The King of Limbs five years from now). I don't want to be the fogey who drones about the old days, but I also won't lie: last year's Deerhunter album isn't without its charms, but I'd still rather spin Beggar's Banquet.

One of the great pleasures of my adult life has been this blog and the relationships that have grown up around it. For the first couple of years, we were on fire; the joy we got from rock and roll spilled out uncontrollably. And then one day I decided to put my email address up on the site, and it has never been the same. Since then, we've been inundated with messages and mp3s from bands and promotions people we would otherwise never have heard of. There are gems in there, but there's a whole lot of stuff I don't understand, and a ton more I never hear; this is a hobby, not a job, and there's no way I can get through it all, so eventually the inbox gets cleansed sound unheard.

Life gets busier, too, with kids and commitments and tilting at the occasional windmill, as I did in the first few months of the year. But even as I've neglected this space, I haven't given up on rock and roll, though I routinely find myself looking for comfort, not adventure. When in doubt, I always fall back on the Rolling Stones, and January was spent with my nose in Life, Keith Richards's impossibly entertaining and frequently maddening memoir, in which the man who is rock and roll to me crashes cars, starts fires, throws knives, devours drugs and then whines when Mick Jagger doesn't trust him to make business decisions. In February, I dug deep into the Darkness on the Edge of Town box set, mesmerized by video of Springsteen in his fighting-trim prime and by audio of the classic album he left on the cutting-room floor. Then March was devoted to the long-awaited reissue of Nick Lowe's Labour of Lust, an endlessly tuneful and wry record that sustained me through the nervous nights leading up to a local election. But it only reinforced my feelings of being a man-out-of-time to listen to Lowe's "Switchboard Susan," a song about a girl with a job that doesn't exist anymore.

In an effort to bring myself into the here and now, a couple of weeks ago I went to see The Arcade Fire play. I don't think I had seen another band at the same sort of creative and commercial peak since U2 in 1987. Win Butler and his wife Regine Chassagne led the eight-piece collective through a spellbinding show that crested with "Wake Up," an all-time set-closer. The band's thoroughly modern take on what is essentially folk music featured members moving from instrument to instrument, keyboards to hurdy gurdy, drums to guitar, bass to piano. I was about ten rows back in a regal old amphitheater packed to close to its 8,000-seat capacity when the crowd exploded into the wordless sing along of "Wake Up," and I felt something I hadn't felt in years, being in the center of something powerful, contemporary and seemingly without antecedent. In the moment with the band of the moment.

At show's end, as the lights came up and we began to shuffle out, Richard and Linda Thompson's "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight," a married couple's powerful reinvention of folk music, now thirty-seven years old, came over the PA, and I laughed because I had never made the connection. What's old is new again.

Oh Brother...Gritpop Lives!

2011-05-09T22:10:00.002-05:00

Miss Liam's sneer? Believe Beady Eye could use a little zip? Pine for the fabricated Blur vs. Oasis hype? Think youth should be served? Then fire up the stereo and crank this "song of the summer" contender up... LOUD! It's Brother or Brother (UK), depending on your residence, and they are four pasty mutts from Slough (UK) planning world domination. You have been warned. Hat tip to Lou for the heads up.

Brother - Darling Buds of May

(from forthcoming LP, Famous First Words, due July 2011)

Dave Hause - Resolutions

2011-04-27T23:20:00.005-05:00

I heard "Clash City Rockers" on the radio earlier this week and its startling face-smack triggered a flood of emotions - remembering sweaty, desperate punk rock shows, recalling the steely-eyed yet approachable humanity of Joe Strummer, but most of all reveling in how the Clash's awe-inspiring debut never backed down, never gave an inch and was unapologetically earnest while dolloping out bolts of righteous rage.

Dave Hause reminds me of that feeling - you get the sense there's no backup plan, rock and roll is the only thing there is to do. Talk to him for five minutes and you've got a friend for life. The songs on his solo debut Resolutions are about coming to grips with the moment when idealized notions (conquering the world with punk rock) meet maturing truths (how to marry art, family and adult obligations) in a fantastic mess of frayed nerve endings and still-to-be finished stories. Hause loses some of the scorched earth franticism of The Loved Ones, but guess what, the guy has a GREAT troubadour voice, full of emotion, evangelism and empathy. I was sold on this record when I first heard this line from the title track - "I want to play some Al Green records and spend more time with Tim".

Opener "Time Will Tell" sets the stage for looking back ("All my records feel like yearbook pictures, there's fondness but I can't remember where I've been") while the plot to move forward is formulated. Along the way there's a sobering wreck that drives home that life on the road is always tempting fate ("Pray for Tucson"), an organ driven shoulder to lean on in the anthemic "C'mon Kid" and ultimately a celebration/roll call of friends too good to be forgotten or cast aside ("Meet Me at The Lanes"), where ultimately we all wind up where we should ("So come on sing along, you got no better place to go"). Hause's naked uncertainty has yielded one certainty - this album will remembered when year-end best of lists are compiled.

Dave Hause appears this Saturday for two shows (sorry... both are SOLD OUT) at The Side Chapel at The First Unitarian Church on Chestnut St. (near 21st).

Dave Hause - "Pray for Tucson" (from Resolutions)

Dave Hause - "C'mon Kid" (from The Revival Tour Collection 2009)

Dave Hause - "Another Town" (Steve Earle cover)

The Loved Ones - "Louisiana" (from Build and Burn)

Record Store Day 2011 - You Can't Put Your Arms Around an MP3

2011-04-15T23:37:00.014-05:00

I would say 98% of the United States is blissfully unaware of Record Store Day. But to the other 2%, Record Store Day is a national holiday - time to step away from the computer (oh the irony as I sit at my desktop PC typing this), take out the earbuds, power down the ipod and head out to your local record store... provided you are still fortunate enough to have a local record store.

There will be plenty of collector cool but hardly music essential Record Store Day releases - but if you're letting your geek flag fly (guilty!), I am sure there are a couple of releases you just HAVE to have. Above are some of the more Teenage Kicks friendly releases - I'll be spending most of the day at Main Street Music in Manayunk, where, for the price of zero dollars, you'll get three local bands (Brown Recluse, Cabin Dogs and Creepoid), free beverages, free food and plenty of sale priced vinyl and cds. So please visit Main Street Music or your favorite haunt and sift through cds, flip through some vinyl and maybe even engage in some actual face to face music discourse. Just breathe in that record store smell.

Main Street Music - 4444 Main St.

Philadelphia, PA

215-487-7732

1:30 - Cabin Dogs

3:00 - Creepoid

4:00 - Brown Recluse

Johnny Thunders - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory"

Beach Boys - "Good Vibrations"

Give Larabee 216 Seconds!

2011-04-12T23:21:00.005-05:00

It's amazing what you can do with 216 seconds. You can boil an egg, eat a hot dog, skim yesterday's Phils' highlights, take out the trash, even drinkthreebeersfast... but most gloriously you can get lost in a pop song. In this give-it-to-me now, attention deficit, jump cut, itunes instant gratification age we wallow in (if only for a moment), many mourn the death of the album, the grand artistic statement. Not me. Give me great songs. Give 'em to me fast and hard.

My friend Dave espouses the Five Second Theory - you will know in the first five seconds of a song whether it has a chance to make a lasting impression. I'm on board with that theory. Yeah, you'll miss a few great ones, but think of all the turds you'll be spared.

Matt Maguire, driving force behind Philadelphia's Larabee, leads off his brand new EP, Expose A Little Wire, with 216 seconds of pop bliss, the jittery, harmonica driven jangle fest "Little Liar". Easily passing the Five Second Test (trademark pending) with an adrenaline-laced guitar volley spiked with a skittish harmonica jolt, "Little Liar" is a classic, attention grabbing track 1.

Maguire is aided and abetted by former Buzz Zeemer/Flight of Mavis drummer Ken Buono, who helped pull this project together prior to his recent Nashville relocation. Their shared love of power pop and alt country filters through Expose A Little Wire, which also features the mid-tempo plea of "Cold Dark Night", the maudlin country waltz of "9:58 PM" and the Jayhawks-meets-Buckinghams closer "Forever's Ending".

Expose A Little Wire is available on itunes, Bandcamp, Amazon and cd baby, but Philadelphia locals should rush out to Main Street Music in Manayunk this Saturday and snag a copy and support Record Store Day. Do it.

Larabee - "Little Liar"

Other great ways to spend 216 seconds:

The Spinners - "One of a Kind (Love Affair)"

The Lovin Spoonful - "Darling Be Home Soon"

The Fratellis - "Whistle For The Choir"

Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"

Mark Cutler - "Cousin Mary's New Car"

Willie Nile - "Police on My Back"

Goodbye Picasso, Hello Manayunk

2011-04-06T22:52:00.003-05:00

For anyone looking to the get their alt-country on Thursday night, head down to the Grape to catch the New York (via Florida, London and Nashville) based flannel-flying Goodbye Picasso. Their melancholy debut, The Book of Aylene, is song cycle about a group of guys trying to become a band, peppered with the shrapnel that comes with long drives, long nights and even longer days. No songs sums this feeling of looking back/looking ahead rootlessness than the sublime "Notes And Measures", an achingly gorgeous meditation on change.

There are echoes of the fragility of Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker, but enough stylistic shifts (the horns on "Silhouettes" and "We Make Great Enemies (Reprise)", the bluesy vamp "Don't Want Nothin") to keep the listener engaged.

Goodbye Picasso plays The Grape Room in Manayunk Thursday, April 7. The band's website says show time is 11:55. I'd call 215-930-0321 to confirm.

Goodbye Picasso - "Notes and Measures" .

Goodbye Picasso - "The Devil, The Bottle and Me"

Ezra Furman's Mysterious Power

2011-03-31T23:43:00.006-05:00

Back in December 2009 I saw Ezra Furman and The Harpoons at Johnny Brenda's, the Holy Grail of rock clubs. And the one thing I remember about that night was a new song they played that I assumed was called "Mysterious Power". Every now and then I'd think about that song and wonder if it was really as good as I remembered or if the intoxication of venue and Kenzinger's had created a romantic ideal of a song that could never live up to the hype.

Well, guess what? The new album by Ezra Furman and The Harpoons is called Mysterious Power. Hot diggity dog! And while I've set the bar impossibly high, the song does not disappoint. The song appears to sum up the power of music and being alive in just over three minutes, all delivered in Furman's odd nasal yelp reminiscent of a sweetly unhinged mix of Gordon Gano, Neil Young and Jonathan Richman and set to a loping Kweller piano romp. You will love this song - it will make you feel glad to be alive.

Mysterious Power is out this Tuesday, 4.5.1, on Red Parlor Records

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - "Mysterious Power"

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - "We Should Fight" (from Inside The Human Body)

Dropkick Murphys Last Party

2011-03-23T23:38:00.003-05:00

Imagine you are driving a suped up, 1967 Camaro straight down Charles Street blind drunk on PBR pounders... and then you chuck the steering wheel out the window. That's what this song sounds like:

The Dropkick Murphys latest, Going Out in Style, features not only the title track but special guest star Bruce Springsteen guesting on buzzsaw rave-up "Peg O' My Heart". There is simply isn't a better way to spend three minutes. And hooray for Bruce's "rock voice" - let's get him in the studio and make a record with these guys.

Buy Going Out in Style.

Dropkick Murphys - "Going Out in Style" (from Going Out in Style)

Dropkick Murphys - "Tessie" (from The Warrior's Code)

March Madness 2011

2011-03-14T22:04:00.004-05:00

As we prepare for the start of March Madness, today we celebrate one of the great NCAA Tournament upsets of all time. LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT THIS! THEY WIN!

And check out this video from a game I witnessed Saturday. My nephew, Princeton freshman Tom Noonan, is going to the NCAA tournament. Unreal.

Finally, the greatest video of all time, possibly the sole reason for the internet to exist. Oh no.

Cheech and Chong - Basketball Jones

Rogue Wave - Basketball

GO TIGERS! GO OWLS!

Under The Radar in 2010 - Anthony D'Amato - Down Wires

2011-03-06T23:37:00.002-06:00

There's a blind, sweet and unfortunately commercially soft spot where 70's AM radio, power pop and alt country coalesce into an impossibly perfect blend of indelible melodies and sweetly sour tales of broken hearts, just-out-of-reach dreams and roads not taken. Some fairly recent examples are Jason Collett's Idols of Exile, Jesse Mailn's The Fine Art of Self Destruction and Jeremy Fisher's Goodbye Blue Monday - all among the best records of the last decade. We can add Anthony D'Amato's Down Wires to that list.

It only takes about five seconds for Down Wires to slay - the ringing, opening guitar riff of "Ballad of the Undecided" recalls the Bodeans in their prime (let's add Love And Hope And Sex And Dreams to the above list) and although D'Amato states he's "just a man who doesn't know what he wants", I get the feeling he knows exactly what he wants - to make more records that shine like this one.

This disc is a throwback to the 10 song, 40 minute album - all meat and potatoes and no appetizers. "Once" is a litany of places where love's been found ("in your patience", "in the blink of an eye", "on the sidewalk", "in a love song", "in the tv's glow" and even "in the cocaine snow") and then disappeared, all leavened with mournful harmonica and quietly graceful piano.

A recent Princeton grad (go Tigers!) who recorded Down Wires in his dorm room, D'Amato is giving singer-songwriters a good name, returning to simple songcraft as a calling card, instead of over-emoting navel gazing. And he's having serious fun - especially on the jaunty, hiccupping mandolin plea "Never Grow Old" and album standout "My Father's Son", whereby his gene pool seems to steer him on an unavoidable journey.

Down Wires was a late 2010 release that's gathered steam every time it cropped up on the ipod. It's one of those rare albums where your favorite song changes daily, and it makes you want to start a record label to get this thing heard.

Anthony D'Amato - Ballad of The Undecided (from Down Wires)
Anthony D'Amato - My Father's House (from Down Wires)

And for a free download of D'Amato's latest single, "Songbirds" (for the princely sum of providing your email address), click here.

Anthony D'Amato - Hank Williams Tune (from Shades of The Prison House)

50 Ways to Cleave Your Brother

2011-02-21T22:51:00.006-06:00

I am fascinated with numbers. I'm never happier than making a little list. So here's 10 reasons to celebrate my little brother's 50th birthday. And you know you're getting old when your younger brother turns 50.

9. We are all born with a gift. It's up to each of us to cultivate it. Scott's gift is the deceptively difficult art of being able to create well crafted pop songs. Whether the masses have found them or not, they're out there (see the end of this post for a few examples). I once asked Scott why the creative well seems to run dry for so many talented bands and artists. His answer was direct and succinct - "It's hard to write a good song".

8. A Dark Rage, Burn This, Redemption, Blue Moon Revisited - a string of four excellent albums full of asphalt rock, each one better than the last. Here's to # 5.

7. Back hair, shoulder hair, bottom of foot hair. Woof.

6. Scott lives his life in exclamation points and all caps. He grabs each experience and savors it... or wallows in it. And if that exuberance means no watching hockey in my living room, then it's upstairs or to the basement you go. Sean gets enough of that colorful language during Eagles and St. Joe's games. Plus... it's hockey.

5. My youngest brother Kevin was a college basketball player, as tenacious a gym rat as you are likely to find. I have spent my life trying in vain to perfect the pump fake, and fear no shot. Yet the last time we played Utah (that's three man roughhouse), Scott won. On a free throw. In the rain. In the dark. Talk about A Dark Rage.

4. Laura. Who knew Scott would make a great husband?

3. 577 concerts - that's how many shows we've seen together. Now there's a book. And in the book, and later on the movie and even later in the fictionalized TV series, guess who's buying the first round?

2. Turtle Dove - my mom's nickname for Scott. God bless the internet.

1. Ian - Scott's greatest hit. Father turns out to be the gig of a lifetime.

0. Zero. As in PSA score. Hell yes. F cancer.

Happy 50th, dude!

Scott McClatchy - Call Out My Name (from Blue Moon Revisited)
Scott McClatchy - Margaret Ruth (from Blue Moon Revisited)

Scott McClatchy - Late Night Rodeo (from Redemption)
Scott McClatchy - I'll Follow You (from Redemption)

Scott McClatchy - Just One Kiss (from Burn This)
Scott McClatchy - Come Across The River (from Burn This)

Scott McClatchy - A Dark Rage (from A Dark Rage)
Scott McClatchy - Forever With You (from A Dark Rage)

New Fiction

2011-02-19T15:09:00.003-06:00

A couple of months back, we brought you the lovely first single from Summer Fiction. It turns out there are more lovely singles from Summer Fiction, including this one,"Throw Your Arms Around Me."

Middle Brother

2011-02-19T09:19:00.003-06:00

Trip has heard the whole album and loves it. I've heard a couple of tracks and concur. Middle Brother is a summit meeting between members of Dawes, Deer Tick and Delta Spirt (members of Devo, Decemberists and Dire Straits: unavailable), and they play a loose-limbed Cosmic American Music that would make Gram Parsons proud. But unlike Gram, they have their own free iPhone app for news and streaming. Middle Brother hits the road in a couple of weeks, including a stop at Philly's TLA on March 9. Here's the song that gave the band its name (or vice versa):

Middle Brother, "Middle Brother"

Flight Brigade

2011-02-19T09:13:00.002-06:00

I don't know this band, but they make a pleasant noise. They also made the video for "A Girl Who Loves Her Smoke and Wine" for 53 pounds (someone else will have to do to the exchange calculation. Check them out here.

Flight Brigade // "A Girl Who Loves Her Smoke & Wine" (The £53 Official Music Video) from Flight Brigade on Vimeo.

Rave On

2011-02-19T09:00:00.002-06:00

The Ravonettes return on April 5 with the album Raven in the Grave, and they're hitting the road to support it. They'll be at the TLA in Philly on March 30, and at Record Bar in Kansas City on my birthday (for those not keeping track, April 9). While you wait, enjoy the icy cool first single, "Forget That You're Young."

The Raveonettes, "Forget That You're Young"

Bands That Broke Up At EXACTLY The Right Time

2011-02-03T22:55:00.005-06:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's news that The White Stripes now belong to you and me, here is a list of bands that timed their break up to the exact moment when they should break up (and death was not a factor) - and stayed broken up.

1. The Beatles
2. The White Stripes (TBD)
3. The Jam
4. Husker Du

And I wonder if The White Stripes planned yesterday's announcement to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of "the day the music died".

God bless Jack White.

The White Stripes have broken up

2011-02-02T17:49:00.000-06:00

Long live the White Stripes.

A Raging Good Time

2011-01-30T15:59:00.003-06:00

It's well-known that the proprietors of Teenage Kicks have a certain affection for Philadelphia singer-songwriter Scott McClatchy, and for one of us, the affiliation is familial. And so when we tell you that Scott's new album A Dark Rage is terrific, his best yet, you might be skeptical. So don't take it from us, take it from the Philly Inquirer's Nick Cristiano who writes "Back in the Philadelphia area after about 20 years in New York, Scott McClatchy is still turning out spirited, heart-on-his-sleeve roots-rock. And getting better at it with age: A Dark Rage is his best effort."

The very wise Mr. Cristiano writes even more that you can read here.

Enjoy the Stonesy kick of "Cigarettes, Breath Mints & Visine," which I am told is a true story, but please don't mention it to the authorities.

Scott McClatchy, "Cigarettes, Breath Mints & Visine"

The album is available on iTunes and at Amazon, among other fine retailers.

The Whigs, "So Lonely"

2011-01-30T15:45:00.004-06:00

The Whigs released an album a couple of years ago that I really liked, but then I kind of lost them. So much music, so little time. So it was a pleasure to stumble across a new video for the track "So Lonely" (and by stumble across, I mean find while wading through the dusty stacks of emails in the inbox). They make a hellacious racket for a three-piece, but they keep it tuneful, and I dig the way the singer slings his guitar high like John Lennon (Keith Richards, whose autobiography I just finished and about which I'll try to comment here at length, would not approve at all).

By the way, double click on the video to go to YouTube and watch in widescreen. I haven't yet figured out (or, haven't tried) how to embed a widescreen player, so the right side of the picture gets cut off here.

Objects of Influence

2011-01-30T12:16:00.003-06:00

Esquire's Chris Jones has a terrific new blog called Son of Bold Venture, and it's clear from this entry that he's trying to seduce us.

When I Stop Dreaming - R.I.P. Charlie Louvin

2011-01-26T12:09:00.003-06:00

Charlie Louvin, country music pioneer and master of that high, lonesome sound with his brother Ira, died earlier today from complications due to pancreatic cancer. It's difficult to overstate The Louvin Brothers influence on classic country music and today's americana artists. Their incredible harmony singing still thrills 50 years later and their gospel leanings gave their music an otherworldly intensity. Charlie Louvin was never really able to make up for the loss of his brother Ira, who died in an automobile accident in 1965, but continued performing and recording until as recently as last year. As Mr. Louvin recounted to host Terry Gross on a 1996appearance on NPR's Fresh Air:

“When it comes time for the harmonies to come in, I will move to my left because my brother and I always used ... one microphone. Even today, I will move over to the left to give the harmony room, knowing in my mind that there’s no harmony standing on my right.”

If you're not familiar with them, you're familiar with some of their devotees they influenced, including such Teenage Kicks faves as the Everly Brothers, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Uncle Tupelo. If any of those artists reside in your collection, you owe it to yourself to check out Ira and Charlie Louvin - and you can start with When I Stop Dreaming, The Best of The Louvin Brothers, Razor & Tie's 5 star 1995 compilation. This is truly moving, spellbinding, timeless music.

The Louvin Brothers - When I Stop Dreaming

The Louvin Brothers - Cash on The Barrelhead

Gram Parsons - Cash on The Barrelhead / Hickory Wind

The Louvin Brothers - The Great Atomic Power

Uncle Tupelo - Atomic Power

Everly Brothers - Sing Me Back Home

Noah and the Whale, "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N."

2011-01-17T10:29:00.004-06:00

Heard it. Liked it. Sharing it.

Album out either March 7 or March 15, depending on whether you believe the website or the email that caught my attention. More here.

Merry Christmas - I've Built My Dreams Around You

2010-12-23T21:34:00.003-06:00

I can say with absolute certainty that at least 50% of the Teenage Kicks staff is 100% positive that The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" is better than 99.9 % of all other Christmas songs, and 78% sure that it's almost impossible to ruin. It blends the sweet and sadness of Christmas, gives equal import to both the hope and desperation prevalent during the holidays. It also lends credence to the notion of Shane MacGowan as one of rock's greatest songwriters, as only he could conjure up this mixture of blood, beer, sweat and junk commingling with simple dreams of domestic bliss.

Pogues (with Kirsty MacCool) - Fairytale of New York

Florence And The Machine (with Billy Bragg) - Fairytale of New York

Stars - Fairytale of New York

Jesse Malin (with Bree Sharp) - Fairytale of New York

In-Flight-Safety (with Jenn Grant) - Fairytale of New York

KT Tunstall (with Ed Harcourt) - Fairytale of New York

Cold Blow These Winter Winds - Fairytale of New York

The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Fairytale of New York

Yoni Gordon & The Goods - Fairytale of New York

Matthew And The Atlas - Fairytale of New York

Pilate - Fairytale of New York

Merry Christmas!

Captain Beefheart, 1941-2010

2010-12-17T19:37:00.000-06:00

No Time To Cry

2010-12-09T14:38:00.004-06:00

Two songs have been sustaining me over the past few weeks. Thanks to all those who have reached out and my apologies to those I have not been able to get back to - I will soon.

"Up above my head, up above my head
I can hear music in the air, I hear music in the air
Up above my head, up above my head
I can hear music in the air, I hear music in the air
Up above my head
I hear music in the air, oh lord.
And I really do believe
I really do believe
There's a heaven somewhere
There's a heaven somewhere"

"Up Above My Head" is a 1940's gospel song by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It brings together two things that loom large in my life - music and religion. My faith in music never wavers and quite frankly dominates my thoughts. Kicks ass all over my religious faith. Not something I am terribly proud of, although I often wear that dichotomy like a badge of honor. But this old gospel song (brought into my world in the mid-80's in a wondrously upbeat version by alt-country stalwarts The Jayhawks) brings both together in such a simple way that it seems to give ample weight to both faiths. The last few weeks have had these lyrics swirling around and above my head like an oncoming tornado.

"No Time to Cry" by Iris DeMent is a simple portrait of dealing with grief in the most ordinary way, which is really what we do - bills still get paid, phones still ring, children still need help. I guess when the music stops is when things get truly desperate. So I guess the only way to make sure you make it through the tough times is to make sure the music never stops. And to make sure you're making that house a home.

The Jayhawks - "Up Above My Head"

Iris DeMent - "No Time to Cry"

p.s. I promise the next post will bring the rock.

A Little Light Reading

2010-11-19T13:47:00.002-06:00

Today, the inbox brings "Chandeliers," a divine slice of pop from Summer Fiction, the brainchild of singer/songwriter Bill Ricchini. For our Philly followers, Bill & company are slated to play Johnny Brenda's on December 1.

Summer Fiction, "Chandeliers"

"Neil Young" & Bruce Springsteen - Whip My Hair

2010-11-17T23:13:00.003-06:00

I assumed Jimmy Fallon's staff had written a song parody for "Neil Young" and Bruce Springsteen to sing as Bruce commandeered Fallon's show last in an entertaining hour where Springsteen let his hair down a little while still maintaining the requisite amount of Boss-ness. But now that I know that it's a current pop hit by Willow Smith, the obviously fabulous progeny of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, only one word comes to mind... genius.

Go buy The Promise - fanatics need the full boat six disc enormo-package, casual listeners can settle for the two disc version that contains 21 unreleased top shelf castoff gems from what is arguably Springsteen's creative peak.

Jimmy Fallon & Bruce Springsteen - "Whip My Hair" (live 11/16/10 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

Bruce Springsteen & The Roots - "Because The Night" (live 11/16/10 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

Willow Smith - "Whip My Hair"

Pat yourself on the back if you even knew Will Smith had a daughter, much less one with the current # 13 chart hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Promise

2010-11-11T12:28:00.004-06:00

For guys like us, the only thing better than Darkness on the Edge of Town is a three-CD, three-DVD exploration of every crevice in that spectacular record's creation. It comes out next week, but I'm told that if I wait five weeks or so, it might show up under some radom tree. In the meantime, read Joe Posnanski's lovely meditation on the connection between Darkness and real life. And while you're reading, listen to the treasure chest of previously unreleased Darkness-era tracks now streaming on Spinner.

Front Row at The Bon Jovi Concert

2010-11-03T15:10:00.003-05:00

"To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts"
---Sapphire (Almost Famous)

Bon Jovi - "Bad Medicine"

Of Field and Fire

2010-10-28T21:17:00.002-05:00

I’ve been meaning to wax poetic about this for weeks now, but I haven’t found the time, so instead I’ll just wax.

Field Music has made the best album I’ve heard all year and nobody gives a damn.

It’s arty, it’s quirky, it’s melodic. It’s accessible without being obvious. It’ll appease those (like me) who think Dirty Projectors are a little too out there (and in case I've buried the lede, it's called Field Music (Measure)).

It’s impossible to know how a band or a record is going to strike the public. Kings of Leon are the biggest contemporary rock band going, and they’re a nifty little combo I suppose, but why them and not The Gaslight Anthem?

I fall victim myself. Arcade Fire, whose first two albums I liked, released an album earlier this year, and I had it within five minutes. Field Music, whose first two albums I loved, released one, too, and it took me five months. Both albums are ambitious, arty and anthemic. One of them has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The other one is great.

Arcade Fire captured the zeitgeist. Field Music captured my attention and little else.

Trip has been carrying my sorry ass on this blog for months now. I’ll try to do better. Let’s call this a start.

Two Cow Garage - Sweet Saint Me

2010-10-25T00:14:00.005-05:00

"Thanks for asking, but things have never been worse"

So goes "No Shame", from Two Cow Garage's 2007 album III, and it just about sums up the band's worldview. Singer Micah Schnabel posits there's no shame "in just giving up and walking away". While that might be true for some bands, it would have been a terrible shame if Two Cow Garage had packed it in back in 2007. They wouldn't have hit on the career detours, one night stands, broken promises, empty rooms and deep self analysis that have led to Sweet Saint Me (out this Tuesday on Suburban Home Records), their no-doubt-about-it high water mark as a fierce rock and roll band.

Main songwriter Schnabel spares no one, least of all himself, as he examines the rock life choices he and his friends have made in pursuit of the perfect riff. On Sweet Saint Me, Andy Schell's piano and B3 sweeten and deepen the self-loathing that threatens to sink the band in a morass of self pity. But hold off on the pity party for this band, because they've delivered one of the most vital rock records of the year, sown from seeds of desperation and heartbreak.

Soak in the glorious sing-along "Lydia", about a troubled woman-child, an Adam and Eve vision that haunts every barfly on a bender. There are no happy endings here, except for the 75 minutes on stage each night. The album's title track may be Schnabel at his most self-flagellating, flinging self-inflicted daggers like "my own words are turning on me like a gun inside my mouth". but a thumping rhythm section, swirling B3 and clackety guitar make the medicine a little easier to swallow. And the age old question of every indie band that scuffles even remotely with success is dissected in "Soundtrack to My Summer", as the band are "going to sleep as punk rock kids" and "waking up part of the machine". For those who like their rock straight, no chaser and abhor dj dance club culture, check out this diatribe from "My Great Gatsby":

"Since Dylan went electric, man, things just ain't been the same
Now djs are making records, could you please just be ashamed
Of your raping and your pillaging of this thing we love
Now I'm stuck down here on the killing floor and I need someone to shove.

The album's relentless, claustrophobic wallow is leavened somewhat by contributions by bassist Shane Sweeney, he of the Civil War-worthy muttonchops. "Wanted To Be" and "Closer to You" feature Sweeney's warm, craggy baritone that sees the light, knows the shared blood spill is worth it, and seems to prop up his world-weary brother. This is a band with a bond that runs so deep that they had to close the album with the call-to-arms of "Brothers in Arms" that celebrates not only their own shared struggles but those of any desperate band of brothers. And that bond is passed on to the next generation in "Jackson Don't You Worry", an unsparing chronicle of bringing kids into the rock crucible, where you celebrate "birthdays and graduations through a telephone", but physical absence doesn't have to mean spiritual absence. Note the bookend cribbing of Big Star and Springsteen.... is there a better pair to pilfer from?

For those despaired that Westerberg went soft as The Replacements ended, Sweet Saint Me seems to fulfill that hard/soft quiet/loud pop song cycle that would have fit nicely after Pleased to Meet Me. It's a rock band that is sick of itself, so much so that the only cure is transcendent rock and roll.

Two Cow Garage - "Lydia" (from Sweet Saint Me)

Two Cow Garage - "No Shame" (from III)

Two Cow Garage - "Skinny Legged Girl" (from Speaking in Cursive)

Two Cow Garage - "No Surrender" (from Under The Influence, Vol. 9)

Micah Schnabel - "American Static" (from When The Stage Lights Go Dim)

Just 'Cause You Feel So Good, Do You Have to Drive Me Out of My Head?

2010-10-15T23:56:00.002-05:00

Just finished watching the movie Pirate Radio, and while it appears to be a rather sanitized version of British pirate radio in 1966, it is hugely entertaining and worth two hours of your time. The above is a deleted scene from the movie, and one of the best music videos of the last ten years.

I am also certain that 1966 was the single best year in the history of rock and roll. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Beach Boys and even the Prefab Four, the Monkees, were in their prime. Radio ruled with a wide-ranging diversity and endless supply of three minutes songs whose heart and soul have provided the blueprint for every rock band that followed.

Watch Pirate Radio with measured expectations, enjoy the fab music and dry, awkward humor and revel in the notion that not one song from 1966 has aged a day.

The Rolling Stones - "Get Off of My Cloud"

Jason And The Scorchers Tonight!

2010-09-30T13:20:00.003-05:00

For those of you in the Philadelpia-New Jersey-New York corridor, there is a show tonight that demands your attention - the return of Jason and The Scorchers. Unfortunately it's in the godforsaken hinterlands of Bucks County, and even though I've been to the Sellersville Theater three times, I still don't where it is. God bless GPS.

Take a look at this clip and skip this show at your own peril.

The Scorchers latest, Halcyon Days, is among the best releases of 2010 and bonus show points for spitfire opening act, Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles.

Jason & The Scorchers - "Moonshine Guy/Releasing Celtic Prisoners"

Jason & The Scorchers - "Golden Days"

Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles - "The Day We Met"

Sarah Borges And The Broken Singles - "It Comes to Me Naturally"

Tommy Keene - Songs From The Film - LIVE!!

2010-09-17T00:38:00.006-05:00

Guess what is exactly 2 hours and ten minutes from Havertown, PA (going north) and 2 hours, 10 minutes from Red Hook, NY (heading south)? Brooklyn, And that's where worlds collided at The Rock Shop, a tiny new venue in the heart of Park Slope that brought together me and my old college pal, JM, plus trusted accomplice Chopped Liver for a night of reliving our debauched late 20's (no wonder we couldn't find wives until our 30's). The soundtrack? The magnificent Tommy Keene, currently on a limited 8 date tour that features Tommy and band zipping through the power pop landmark Songs For The Film from start to finish. How could we not go see that?

Songs From The Film, you say? You bet - it stands with the best of Big Star, Matthew Sweet, The Plimsouls and The Raspberries as the cream of the crop of the critic wet dream genre of power pop. The night began with the first sighting of JM in four years (and a great burger at Bonnie's Grill), the last being a disastrous screening of the Jack Black stinker, Nacho Libre, that apparently JM's kid still hails as a classic. And for chrissakes, isn't it time for a moratorium on Jack Black movies? The guy has been in about 700 movies in the last 10 years, and by my count has been tolerable in maybe two, High Fidelity and Tropic Thunder. And don't even start with Tenacious D - that is some horrid, unfunny pain. Jack Black makes Will Ferrell look like he has range. But I digress.

The first time JM and I saw Tommy Keene was on a hellacious double date / double bill (Peter Case opened - don't get me started on all you fuckers that refuse to acknowledge Case as one of the great under appreciated American songwriters of the last quarter century) at Maxwell's in Hoboken. It was all going so well until JM and I tried to answer the question "What if we tried to drink all of the beer in New Jersey?" I can't say we satisfactorily answered the question, but I can hazard a guess our dates might have given the night a slightly unsatisfactory review. I do remember a night spent in my date's bathroom, alternately heaving and lying prostrate on the floor, reveling in the refreshing flop sweat respite delivered by the icy cool blue and white bathroom floor tiles. Yep, I was a keeper. But again I digress.

Tommy Keene circa 2010 is enjoying a slight burnishing of his alreay considerable legend based on the absolutely essential career spanning double disc compilation, punnily titled Tommy Keene You Hear Me? Filled with alternate universe hits like "Places That Are Gone", "When Our Vows Break", "Love is A Dangerous Thing" and "Back to Zero Now", it's a power pop nerd's treat as it includes 7 tracks each from the difficult to find Songs From The Film and the almost impossible to find Based on Happy Times. Keene is an exceptional guitarist (just ask acolytes Robert Pollard and Paul Westerberg) and his music is defined by his crunchy jangle, as well as his sharp (and sometime opaque) songwriting and plaintive vocals.

Last night's giddy romp that ran from "Places That Are Gone" through "The Story Ends" was a glorious and nostalgic celebration that happened, according to Keene, "because it seemed like it was time. It's everyone's favorite album. Not mine, but everyone else's". The songs crackled with urgency as Keene smacked us in the face with his meaty but lean guitar leads, playing only was absolutely necessary. Especially thumping was his reading of Lou Reed's scathing account of his institutionalized electro-shock therapy, "Kill Your Sons", each note a crushing blow. Keene has aged remarkably well and his vocals still carry just the right mix of heartache and sneer. And major kudos to the soundman, whose mix was clean and crisp and still loud enough to rattle walls. Excellent, excellent sound. Also of note was the abundant appearance of homo obscura, rock nerds dedicated to the pursuit of obscure power pop bands (and yes... guilty as charged.). Openers Valley Lodge (fizzy glam pop featuring wise guy singer Dave Hill's deadpan asides on selling songs for commercials, Gary Glitter and pedophilia) and Title Tracks, whose debut It Was Easy is one of 2010's best pop records (and whose set included The Who's "So Sad About Us"), set the stage perfectly for Keene's valentine to long-time fans.

JM - I hope you got home OK. Let's do this again.

Tommy Keene - "Places That Are Gone"

Tommy Keene - "Love Is A Dangerous Thing"

Title Tracks - "Black Bubblegum"

Valley Lodge - "Comin' Around"

JM, Tommy Keene, TK

Chopped Liver, Tommy Keene, TK

Because once isn't enough

2010-08-26T16:54:00.001-05:00

Here's Cee-Lo again. The song remains Not Safe for Work, and Not Safe for Not Dancing.

Cee-Lo's Shawshank Redemption from Dallas Observer on Vimeo.

The Best Song of 2010 is Not Safe For Work, Children, Parties, The Supermarket, School, In Fact, Almost Any Social Gathering... But Oh My, Is It Good

2010-08-25T12:01:00.004-05:00

Back in the days of historically bad break-ups, broken hearts and the occasional restraining order, I dreamed of a song that would combine the cavity-inducing bubblegum smarts of the Grass Roots, the urgency of primal rock and roll and the screaming soul chops of Otis Redding and Little Richard all wrapped in an exuberantly profane chorus that focuses on the one word that gets daily workouts from all walks of life, but still maintains it's hard-earned bad boy image.

That song has finally arrived and "Fuck You" by Cee-Lo Green is the best song you'll hear all year, and it'll be despite the saucy chorus, and because it imagines that Terence Trent D'Arby had fulfilled the promise of his debut and decided to mash 50 years of soul music into 3:45 of spleen splitting, piano driven, loaded with oh-oh-oh's call and response euphoria. And it's even better than that.

And because we love a good kiss-off as much as the next guys, here's a few of our favorites including two more NSFW entries by the similarly agitated Tonio K and Harry Nilsson.

Ain't that some shit.

Cee-Lo Green - "Fuck You" (from the upcoming Lady Killer)

Tonio K - "H-A-T-R-E-D" (from Life in The Foodchain)

Nilsson - "You're Breaking My Heart" (from Son of Schmilsson)

The Beat Farmers - "Goldmine" (from Tales of The New West)

Lyle Lovett - "God Will" (from Lyle Lovett)

New Video from The Duke and The King

2010-08-25T10:49:00.002-05:00

If "Shaky" is any indication, the sound on The Duke and The King's new album has a sound that's a little bit fuller (horns, group harmonizing) but the songs will retain that looking forward/looking back wistfulness that characterized much of their debut, Nothing Gold Can Stay. TD&TK mainman Simone Felice heads out for some solo dates, including a local stop at the intimate First Unitarian Side Chapel, and you will not see a show in a better venue this year.

Nottingham (Sold Out!) 08/25/10 UK
Newcastle 08/26/10 UK
City of Edinburgh 08/27/10 UK
Sheffield 08/31/10 UK
Liverpool 09/01/10 UK
London, London 09/02/10 UK

Toronto, Ontario 09/17/10 10:00pm CA
Toronto, Ontario 09/18/10 10:00pm CA

Philadelphia, PA 10/09/10 8:15pm US
Freehold, NJ 10/10/10 3:00pm US

Teenage Kicks in a nutshell

2010-08-16T15:34:00.001-05:00

If there were a pedal steel in here somewhere, it would be the perfect synthesis of our record collections.

Long Live The Duke & The King!

2010-08-13T23:17:00.002-05:00

Teenage Kicks faves The Duke and The King return with their new lp, Long Live The Duke & The King, on September 27. No specific label, track info or cover artwork yet, which in the internet age is a bit of a treat as the band and their new release retains a bit of mystery as we wait for the actual release day to hear the new record.

Nothing Gold Can Stay, their debut, was an introspective, soulful stunner, with Simone Felice emerging as a significant voice among the alt-indie-folk dream weavers. It's been an event-filled couple of years for Felice, including recent open heart surgery. Earlier this month he self-released an acoustic disc, Live From A Lonely Place, where he re-interprets the five best songs from Nothing Gold Can Stay, reclaims a handful of Felice Brothers songs and offers up two new songs. The treatments are really spare, with just acoustic guitar and the occasional harmonica for accompaniment.

Simone Felice - "The Morning I Get to Hell" (from Live From A Lonely Place)

The Duke And The King - "Long May You Run" (Live - Stills-Young band cover)

The Felice Brothers - "Waterspider" (early version of song that appears on Nothing Gold Can Stay)

Al Gore Gets His Inner W.A.S.P. On

2010-08-06T14:16:00.003-05:00

From The Onion, Recently Single Al Gore Finally Able To Listen to W.A.S.P Albums

Ike Reilly Week in Philly

2010-08-04T12:32:00.005-05:00

The Ike Reilly Assassination, a searing , combustible mix of the DIY punk rock of '77 and the classic rock of Dylan and Springsteen, went three years between Philadelphia gigs and by the end of the week they'll have played 4 Philly shows in three months. Lucky us.

Ike Reilly's current media blitz is in support of Hard Luck Stories, one the best releases of 2010 (and 2009 too, since it was a digital only release in Novemeber 2009). Reilly is, quite simply, one of the best current songwriters working, and he's still getting better. Just don't ask him to "magic rat" you.

Tonight come join the faithful as Reilly and crew take Girard Ave. by storm by smacking you in the face at the M Room, a perfectly seedy hole in the wall right near Frankford and Girard, about a block away from Johnny Brenda's. And get there early (ten?) for Standard Fare, a Brit-pop three piece wallowing in romantic angst, featuring the slightly agitated, wobbly warbling of one Emma Kupa and three minute post-punk songs that sound like a cross between Art Brut and Liz Phair (Guyville Liz Phair, that is).

And then Friday at noon, Ike Reilly will play a FREE show at World Cafe Live. You can go (remember it's FREE) or listen to show on WXPN. I suggest a go route. Get your FREE TIX HERE.

Ike Reilly - The War On The Terror and The Drugs (from Hard Luck Stories)

Ike Reilly Assassination - When Irish Eyes Are Burning (from We Belong to The Staggering Evening)

Ike Reilly - Farewell to The Good Times Part 2 (from Poison The Hit Parade)

Ike Reilly Assassination - Garbage Day (from Sparkle in The Finish)

Ike Reilly Assassination - She's So Free (from Sparkle in The Finish - bonus track)

Ike Reilly Assassination - Heroin (from Junkie Faithful)

Ike Reilly - Hip Hop Thighs # 17 (from Salesmen And Racists)

You can order his music here.

The Gaslight Anthem: "People Wanted Something Honest"

2010-07-28T09:25:00.002-05:00

I recently chatted with Ben Horowitz, drummer for Teenage Kicks faves The Gaslight Anthem. The fruits of that conversation are in the new issue of The Providence Phoenix.

Here Today

2010-07-27T13:56:00.004-05:00

One of the most remarkable things about Paul McCartney’s astonishing show on Saturday is that it told just half a story.

All of the songs that McCartney and/or John Lennon wrote for the Beatles are credited to both of them, but most are regarded as either Paul Songs or John Songs, and with a couple of exceptions (including “A Day in the Life,” which is a Paul Song and a John Song welded together), Saturday’s set consisted entirely of Paul Songs:

Venus and Mars/Rock Show; Jet; All My Loving; Letting Go; Drive My Car; Highway; Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady; The Long and Winding Road; Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five; Let 'Em In; My Love; I've Just Seen A Face; And I Love Her; Blackbird; Here Today; Dance Tonight; Mrs. Vanderbilt; Eleanor Rigby; Something; Sing the Changes; Band on the Run; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Back in the USSR; I’ve Got A Feeling; Paperback Writer; A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance; Let It Be; Live and Let Die; Hey Jude. First encore: Day Tripper; Lady Madonna; Get Back. Second encore: Yesterday, Helter Skelter, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)/The End.

In the early days of this blog, in a brief rumination about John Lennon, I wrote “Every once in a while, don’t you stop to wonder what he might have done these past twenty-six years? And doesn’t it break your heart a little every time?” Watching Paul play, I had those thoughts again, and I wondered what a comparable Lennon show in 2010 might be like.

Your first reaction might be that Lennon wouldn’t do a comparable show, that he had little interest in visiting his past. But there’s no telling how his thinking might have changed over the past three decades. He clearly was more at peace with himself and his past just before his death at age 40 than he had been ten years earlier. So, if you have disbelief, suspend it for a moment.

In my imagination, this is the set of John Songs that he would have played, and it is as titanic as the show Paul performed. How is it possible that these two men were in the same band?

Power to the People; Whatever Gets You Thru the Night; The Ballad of John and Yoko: Eight Days a Week; A Hard’s Day’s Night; If I Fell; Help!; And Your Bird Can Sing; Come Together; Jealous Guy; Working Class Hero; Norwegian Wood; Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; Dear Prudence; #9 Dream; You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away; Mind Games; Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey; (Just Like) Starting Over; Nobody Told Me; I’m a Loser; Ticket to Ride; Happiness is a Warm Gun; Across the Universe; A Day in the Life; Watching the Wheels; Strawberry Fields Forever; Revolution; I am the Walrus; Instant Karma! First encore: Imagine; Nowhere Man; Tomorrow Never Knows. Second encore: In My Life; All You Need Is Love; Twist and Shout.

In this fantasy, John is alive, but George is not, so just as Paul played “Something” as a tribute to the Quiet Beatle, John might slip in “Here Comes the Sun.” And at some show, somewhere, John’s friend Paul emerges unannounced during the first encore for a duet on “Two of Us.”

If I’m going to dream, let me have big dreams.

The Universal

2010-07-26T22:20:00.004-05:00

About an hour into his show Saturday night in Kansas City, Paul McCartney’s band retreated from the stage, leaving the man alone with an acoustic guitar to play the Beatles’ classic “Blackbird” and “Here Today,” the open letter he wrote to John Lennon’s memory. Without tricks or adornment, McCartney strummed and sang simple melodies and words, and it was spellbinding, the mystery of music encapsulated in six minutes. How can something so stark be so stirring?

The whole night was like that, though most of it was appreciably louder. Three hours of some of the best and most famous songs ever written, each mangifiying the power of the one that preceded it.

I was born in 1968, just old enough to remember “Silly Love Songs” and “Let ‘Em In” as hit singles on the radio. But I don’t recall a time without most of the songs that Paul played. For me, the Beatles catalog is like the oceans and mountains, things that help define the earth. There is no hyperbole when it comes to this stuff. A recital of Beatles songs in 2010 is nothing more or less than a performance of the great cultural artifacts of the past half-century. Some of it, like “All My Loving” and “Drive My Car,” brought a smile, and much of it was pure majesty – “Eleanor Rigby,” “Let It Be,” the monstrous sing along to “Hey Jude.” And I’ve never felt my heart swell at a rock show the way it did during the opening chords to “A Day in the Life.”

Three songs from the set – “Dance Tonight,” from Memory Almost Full, and “Highway” and “Sing the Changes” by Macca’s alter ego The Fireman – earned their first release within the past three years, but most were three or four decades old. Still, the show was no more an act of nostalgia than a performance of Hamlet is. These are important songs, living things, and they stand on their own without need for any personal context.

The fact that there’s no one else left to play them made the evening feel even more poignant, as did the easy intimacy McCartney shared with the audience. He mentioned three people by their first names only – Linda, George and John – and 15,000 strangers knew who he meant and that they are all gone, lending him a humanity that’s sometimes hard to appreciate. Yes, he’s a titan, but he’s also a man who has known more than his share of loss. Beatles songs have long represented myriad things, and now they also represent the finite nature of life.

The depth of that cache of songs was further revealed when Paul came out for his first encore, after a murder’s row of classic to close the set. I thought “what else can he play?” and he pulled out “Yesterday.” Oh yes, that one.

Very few can make any claim to being McCartney’s peers, and all of them come with obstacles to appreciation. The Rolling Stones carry a hint of menace, with a junkie vampire guitarist and songs that have not always reflected the most enlightened attitude toward women. Bob Dylan is the definition of inscrutable, with his blown-speaker voice and labyrinthine lyrics making for disciples more than fans. And a Bruce Springsteeen show, joyous as it is, can have a clubby feel, as die-hards work to one-up one another by getting the Boss to play the most obscure requests. But there is no obstacle to McCartney. He is the last universal in music, with the best songs and the broadest appeal. Saturday may mark the only time I ever see him, and it was a privilege to be there.

Day 69 - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Pop Music

2010-07-22T23:49:00.005-05:00

I haven't seen this commercial on TV (I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a commercial since April when I got a DVR, except maybe during ballgames) but this song is yet another example of why the three minute pop song is king. Sounds like the Juno theme song crossed with my boy Jeremy Fisher. I love it, but those who have a low tolerance for sunshine pop should sit this one out.

And check out the remix, which actually doesn't ruin the song.

Kyle Andrews - "You Always Make Me Smile" (from the Kangaroo EP)

Kyle Andrews - "You Always Make Me Smile" (remix)

Jeremy Fisher - "Scar That Never Heals" (from Goodbye Blue Monday)

The Moldy Peaches - "Anyone Else But You" (from the Juno soundtrack)