Dancing About Architecture 9.01.09
Posted by Ian Wright on 09.01.2009
Ellie Greewich passes away, Wilco live, thoughts on the new Jim O’Rourke album, new music from No Age, a new Thom Yorke EP, Oasis splits, a new song from Islands, Fun Fun Fun Fest and a new Nirvana live release.
The bit at the start
The intro this week is in the form of excerpts from my blog. The rest of the entry talks about local bands which I'm not sure would be of great interest to 411 readers but if you want to read the whole thing there's a link at the bottom.
…
Wilco in Vicar Street on Thursday. It's been a while, 10 months or so since I was last in that venue and it only hit me when I saw the music shop's worth of gear on stage and the racks of guitars mounted off to both sides of it (I stopped counting at 27) that Wilco are a seriously different level to most of the bands that I go to see these days. Not least because they know how to play their instruments, really, really well (eat it dude from Wavves).
Nels Cline may get much of the attention from the muso geek squad and the guitar fanboys and admittedly it's deserved because he's an astoundingly gifted musician and performer, quite possibly the best guitarist I've ever seen live but through to be quite honest ruthless willingness to jettison band mates when things aren't working Jeff Tweedy has assembled a group of musicians that in terms of, and I don't mean this in a bad way, "meat n' two veg" rock bands are up there with The E-Steet Band when you're considering who you might want to have backing you up when you walk into a dodgy bar, sorry, not a dodgy bar, I mean recording studio. There's also the likes of Glenn Kotche, a hugely creative drummer who when he joined the band circa Yankee Hotel Foxtrot played a key role in the sound of the band moving away from it's alt-country roots and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone who when not behind the keyboards was preening around the stage with his guitar, he's a far more traditional in his playing style then Cline but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have as many chops in his arsenal as a half decent lumberjack.
But enough of the players, what of the gig itself. Well aside from "Impossible Germany" (despite my admiration for Cline I loath that fucking song and the mammoth solo that he dovetails off into at the end of it, actually all of Sky Blue Sky is a total wash out for me) there isn't much to complain about. The band dipped into all periods of their existence when it came to selecting the set list, which did occasionally leave portions of the audience bemused but that's a minor quibble. When you go to a gig and hear all but two of your favourite Wilco songs played it's pretty hard to find anything to bitch about.
…
I also got the chance to listen to the new Jim O'Rourke album The Visitor. It's O'Rourke's first solo album to be released outside Japan in 8 years. The album takes the form of a single 38 minute long track and without wanting to use too saccharine a term it's lovely. It's a luscious and precisely arranged piece of music reminiscent in sound to "Prelude to 110 or 220 Women Of The World" or "Ghost Ship In A Storm" but to be frank if one were looking for an introduction to the melodic side of O'Rourke's canon you might be better served going with Eureka, the album from which those other above mentioned songs were featured on.
Beg, borrow, buy, steal or download this album.
Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
Seriously, listen to this album as soon as possible.
You news, you lose
RIP Ellie Greenwich.
It has been a pretty rough few months for the incredibly important musical figures fraternity as last week songwriter Ellie Greenwich followed Michael Jackson and Les Paul into the great uknown.
Greenwich died on Wednesday of a heart attack New York City. Even if you're unfamiliar with her name there is no chance that any music fan is unaware of her work as she, along with former husband Jeff Barry wrote many of the most famous and greatest songs of the 1960's. Together the duo wrote such undisputed classics as "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las and a whole raft of brilliant songs with Phil Spector such as "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner, "Chapel of Love" for the Dixie Cups, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by Darlene Love, "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron" for the Crystals but it was perhaps the Ronettes who got the best tunes of all by having "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You" penned for them.
Later in the 60's Greenwich also discovered Neil Diamond (hey, he wrote "Daydream Believer" and that makes up for all the sequins and jump suits) and also sang backing vocals on some of his records, a duty she also performed for Dusty Springfield, Bobby Darin, Lou Christie and Frank Sinatra.
A career, I think you'll agree, that should be the envy of most people.
For those of you with Spotify there's a playlist of the songs she wrote here.
New No Age.
LA noise/dream/scuzz/whatever punks No Age have a new EP out in October. As previously mentioned here it's called Losing Feeling and will be available exclusively on vinyl and download.
Also previously mentioned in the past couple of weeks is the fact that Sub Pop have been streaming the EP from their site (it's one of those sign up with your e-mail address dealys). However they've now made Losing Feeling's closing track "You're A Target" available for download.
Rumours abound that Thom Yorke is going to release a new 12" EP on September 22nd on TBD records with two new songs, "Apart By Horse" and "The Hollow Earth" on it. According to TwentyFourBit.com it will be a limited release with only 8,000 copies being pressed.
Details are still hard to come by right now but there has also been stories doing the rounds that Yorke is contributing songs to the new Twilight film so some are saying that these may be the songs from it.
Or perhaps they're adding 2 + 2 and coming up with 5.
Noel Gallagher quits Oasis.
Ding Dong the witch is dead.
Look for a reunion tour in 5/10 years.
Yawn.
New Islands tune, free and legal.
From the upcoming album Vapours, out September 22nd on Anti.
In addition to SXSW and Austin City Limits also has the Fun Fun Fun Fest which takes place in November. This year it's happening from November 7-8 in Waterloo Park and the initial lineup of bands playing is pretty impressive with the Jesus Lizard, Mission Of Burma, Why?, Atlas Sound, No Age ,Fuck Buttons, Fucked Up and Les Savy Fav being the most immediately obvious highlights of the weekend.
The full lineup for the festival can be viewed here. Tickets for the festival are on sale now for $67.50 (that's an early bird price which expires at the end of the week).
Nirvana – live and VERY LOUD.
Nirvana's appearance at the 1992 Reading festival has reached near legendary status over the years but up till now it's never been officially available.
That however will all change on November 3rd when Nirvana: Live at Reading on November 3rd on CD/DVD, CD only and DVD only versions. A double LP version will be released a couple of weeks after.
DVD tracklisting:
01 Breed
02 Drain You
03 Aneurysm
04 School
05 Sliver
06 In Bloom
07 Come as You Are
08 Lithium
09 About a Girl
10 tourette's
11 Polly
12 Lounge Act
13 Smells Like Teen Spirit
14 On a Plain
15 Negative Creep
16 Been a Son
17 All Apologies
18 Blew
19 Dumb
20 Stay Away
21 Spank Thru
22 Love Buzz *
23 The Money Will Roll Right In (Fang cover)
24 D-7 (Wipers cover)
25 Territorial Pissings
* not on CD
The YouTube video of the week
If you don't have Spotify here's my favourite Ellie Greenwich song.
If you can you should go to these gigs.
Rain Machine – Kyp from TV On The Radio's new thing
09-21 Brooklyn, NY - Bell House
09-25 Echo Park, CA - The Echo
09-26 Los Angeles, CA - The Getty Center
09-28 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
09-30 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
10-01 Seattle, WA - Neumos
10-02 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore
10-09 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree
10-10 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
10-12 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10-13 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
10-15 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
10-16 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10-17 Chicago, IL - Double Door
10-18 Detroit, MI - Small's
10-19 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-20 Montreal, Quebec - Il Motore
10-22 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs
10-23 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
Dirty Projectors
09-09 Paris, France - Maroquinerie
09-11 Dorset, England - End Of The Road Festival
09-12 Isle Of Wight, England - Bestival
09-13 London, England - Scala
09-16 Dublin, Ireland - Whelans
09-19 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
09-20 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
09-21 Berlin, Germany - Kreuzberg Festival
09-25 Toulouse, France - Le Printemps de Septembre Festival
10-20 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
10-21 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
10-22 Washington, DC - Black Cat
10-24 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
10-25 Lafayette, LA - Nitetown
10-26 Austin, TX - Antones
10-28 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
10-30 San Diego, CA - North Park Theatre
11-01 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's
11-03 Portland, OR - Aladdin
11-04 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
11-07 Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
11-08 Denver, CO - Bluebird
11-09 Lawrence, KS - Granada
11-11 Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center
11-13 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
11-14 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
11-15 Montreal, Quebec - National
11-17 Boston, MA - Paradise
11-18 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
11-19 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall
11-21 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall
11-22 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
Writing under the influence
Without which this column would not have been possible:
Talk Radio
The bit at the end
The Volcano Choir album leaked on Sunday night, I'll be back in a week with my thoughts on it.
