Midweek Music News Roundup 11.25.09: Live at 411music!

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 11.25.2009

The Faces reunion is out, The Velvets, Big Star and The Beatles reunions are kind of on, Tom Waits is all over the place, Neil Young is compiling for the Bridge School, Massive Attack make a new album, Lady Gaga is old news to the Grammys, and a look at the good and the bad associated with live albums. Read all about it.

Howdy, y'all, and welcome to week 22 of the Midweek Music News Roundup! Yes, I'm still counting, for sorting purposes. But enough of me, let's get straight to the news.



- Two weeks ago I mentioned the Faces reunion. In fact I mentioned it a few times. Basically, they want to tour, but Rod Stewart is a member, so that's hard. Well, after years of questioning the involvement of Rod the Mod, it seems he's officially out. But the other three have no yet lost hope. Since Stewart can't seem to find the time, they seem to be looking at possible replacement singers. I saw almost no one can do it, but they're looking at people like Mick Hucknall of Simply Red. The group would also need a new bassist to replace the fallen Ronnie Lane, and they're thinking Sex Pistol Glenn Matlock. I don't see either replacement working, but good luck to them. I'd suggest Paul Westerberg.

- Speaking of reunions, The Velvet Underground! Notice the lack of an excited expletive. That's because the next words are "well, kinda." It'll only be Lou, Maureen and Doug, meaning no John Cale, which kind of ruins the whole effect. There also won't be music. The three will get together on December 8 at the New York Public Library to talk about the band. Rock critic David Fricke will moderate the discussion. Granted, I complained that it isn't that cool, but it could lead to something cool.

- Jay Reatard's old band, who recently quit, have a new home: Wavves. Y'ask me, that's a huge step down, but let the kids do what they want to do. I'm not going to go the route of calling the move retarded, though, 'cause that would just be offensive.


The next story, in mug form.

- As if any more evidence of Tom Waits being awesome was needed. He is recording a song called "Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing." For charity. Along with the likes of Andrew Bird, J/Yim J/Yames, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, Steve Earle and other luminaries, Waits is teaming up with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a benefit album called Preservation, due February 16. The charity benefited is the Preservation Hall itself, a legendary venue for New Orleans jazz, and it's music outreach program.

- We always say never travel too far without a little Big Star, and last week, New Yorkers lucked out when it came to fulfilling that promise. The band played a rare show last Wednesday. Not much to add other than the show apparently was great, but I've been on a big Big Star kick lately, and wanted to mention them.

- It's crazy that now, at 68 years old, Ringo Starr seems more active than he has in forty years. Coming January 12, Ringo will release his fourth solo album of the decade, titled Y Not. As always, it will be a Starr studed affair, featuring guests in the likes of Joe Walsh, Joss Stone, Van Dyke Parks, Ben Harper and Richard Marx. Oh, and the big one: Paul McCartney, who will provide bass and co-vocals on a few tracks. This will also be his first completely Roundhead free album since 1992, which should make it interesting.



- Roger Daltrey is thinking about writing an autobiography. Which is cool, but I mean, he's an old rock star, and I would imagine they're all thinking about writing an autobiography. So why do I report this? Because I really really really want the book to be called Who's Roger Daltrey. The only acceptable reason for the book not to have that title would be if Pete called it.

- Gwen Stefani, Bon Jovi and various others are now making habits out of suing bars over playing their music without licensing. This is insane. Basically, you are not allowed to play music in public places without paying the artists. Next up will be lawsuits against headphones because people aren't allowed to hear the music that well, because it reveals mistakes. Greed, for lack of a better word, is killing the music industry.

- After all those years of lovely music, it may be the Bridge School Concerts that are ultimately Neil Young's greatest gift to the world. Actually, no, After The Gold Rush is too good, so it's still the music. But Bridge School is a close second. For those not aware, the Bridge School Concert is an annual star studded event hosted by Young benefitting, you guessed it, the Bridge School. The Bridge School is a school for children with severe psychical impairments and communication disorders. Well, that twentysomething year tradition is hitting stores once again, with the fourth edition of The Bridge School Collection reaching iTunes...yesterday. Artists featured include Tegan and Sara and Tom Waits, amongst many other luminaries. Check it, proceeds go to a good cause.



- Here I was with Weather Underground on my wishlist, and it turns out that's not even real. The actual new Massive Attack album will be called Heligoland, and the release has been announced as February 9. A remix album by Burial is also in the works. Guest stars include Damon Albarn, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Martina Topley-Bird, regular Horace Andy fellow trip hopper Adrian Utley of Portishead and Hope Sandoval, amongst others. Unfortunately, no Tom Waits, as previously rumored. Oh well. I'll still check it out.

- Lady Gaga is not eligible for the Best New Artist category at the Grammy's, as "Just Dance" was nominated in 2009. So let me figure this one out, Grammy's. If you release a single, you're exempt from Best New Artist. But when The Beatles won in 1965, they had released...five albums and probably like fifty singles. Which was fine. But one dance single and you're out? Grammy's, you make no sense. Lady Gaga forever.

Star Power

Yesterday, Tom Waits released his second live album, Glitter And Doom. It became the first album I've bought the day of the release since Sainthood. I considered buying The Fame Monster as well, but it turns out I am not as comfortable with my pop musicality as I thought. But I digress. In a word, Glitter and Doom is awesome. In honor of that, today's Star Power will be a look through a few of the world's best known or perhaps just most interesting live albums. Of course, I'll be going through this with the lens that is my opinion, so you may like some of these and you may hate some of these. In fact, you may just not give a shit. That's all fair. Also note that this is a look only into live albums as opposed to the spectacle of a live show. There will be no Michael Jackson discussion for that reason, and since the less said about the myth of jam band superiority the better, I won't bother with that route, either.



I feel like the best way to start would be to examine a few facets of what makes Tom Waits so awesome, and how that translates to the live setting. The primary power of Waits as a musician relies on his ingenuity and his voice, which remain strong in his live outings. I'll get back to why that makes me a hypocrite later. For now, I'll focus on the primarily power of Waits as a human relies on the fact that the man is a comic genius. This, too, shines through in his live releases. As early as the semi-live-semi-studio album Nighthawks At The Diner, Waits was interjecting genius bits of humor between his songs. A live album where every track has a minute or two intro might turn some off, but with Waits, that's the selling point. Disc 2 of Glitter and Doom, titled "Tom Tales," is going to be the preferred disc of some people. It deserves that status. Waits rattles off tales and stories like an accomplished bizarro world comedian. He also told stories on his first live album, Big Time, though to a lesser extent, which is the fact I blame the album's relative failure on.

Speaking of having fun on stage, let's take a note to acknowledge Having Fun On Stage With Elvis. In many ways, it is without a doubt The King's worst release, and an insult to music fans who purchase albums everywhere. In other ways, the album has achieved a level of lore that no other album has received. Literally just Elvis talking between songs, fans hate the fact it is an Elvis live album which features no live songs. Others think it's a brilliantly surreal slice of life from a man past his prime, who was jaded by fame in ways that no other has ever been. Including Kanye West. Similarly, we have Robert Pollard's famous (1)0/10 bootleg, Relaxation of the Asshole. Just like Fun on Stage, Asshole is merely Pollard talking between songs during a live performance. However, as that (1)0 rating suggested, people tend to be torn. It's obviously a worthless album, but wow, it's so incredibly worthless that you just have to listen to it to understand it. This is an area of paradox and confusion, so I'll move on to a different kind of fun on stage.



Namely, The Replacements, and when The Shit Hit the Fans. Released only as a cassette (because who would buy the remaster?), the album is a set of increasingly drunk covers the Mats played during one of their shows. Rarely do they do more than a riff and a chorus, rarely is it less than comical. My favorite is the ten seconds or so of "I Will Follow." What separates this from the other artists having fun on stage is, firstly, that there's music. But that's obvious. The second thing that puts them apart is the energy. Energy, I argue, is what makes a great live album. And that sentence is one hell of a segue, isn't it?

There are two veritable kings of energy during live performance. First, there's Bruce Springsteen. I must admit that I'm hardly a fan of The Boss. He has some good songs here or there, but I never fully got in to him. But one day, I discovered Live in New York City in my house. This particular live album seems to land in the lower tier according to certain Bruce fans. 1975-1985 is way higher on the list, and according to rateyourmusic.com, a source I dearly trust, so are Hammersmith Odeon 1975 and Live in Dublin. However, as someone who's only heard NYC, I gotta say: the energy is overwhelming. Even a minor fan like myself is swept away by the power of Bruce. The man knows how to energize a crowd like no other.

Well, scratch that. There's one other.



Ain't it funky now? This article begs the question so I might as well answer it in the middle: my favorite live album is James Brown's original Live at the Apollo (though I'm honestly already saying let's give Glitter and Doom some time before I'm sure about that). 28 minutes is not a long time for an album, certainly not a live album, but when every second counts, that doesn't much matter. The energy that James puts into these songs elevates the title Godfather of Soul to actually mean that he is the Godfather of the concept of human beings having souls. If, as I'm sure I've been told, dancing is the expression of the soul, that statement might not sound so ridiculous. In addition to having the most energized band of all time, this is probably the only live album I've heard where you can hear a person dance. That's the kind of power James Brown brought to the table, and it's why this album is a legendary staple of live albums.

And with that, I go with another excellent segue, and move on to other landmark live albums. The first I'll discuss is one I'd be mocked forever not to mention, since it's both the obvious example and an overwhelmingly necessary one: The Who, Live at Leeds. I use it as the first example of the legendary, but it doubles as an example of energy, as well. Another relatively quick album (in it's original form), Live at Leeds shows the Who at their tightest and most powerful. The deluxe edition also explains the concept of performing albums live, showcasing Tommy as a part of the show. The same concepts apply, with energy overtaking the music and making it something new and special.

Then there's Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York. I already explained Unplugged last week, so I won't say too much. But I will again say that for as much as I don't like Nirvana, the Unplugged put them in a new format and made them listenable to some who previously wouldn't bother. And Kurt's voice is certainly in top form, allowing a little bit of that whole energy thing, though in a different light.

I have one more legendary live album to talk about. Bob Dylan, Live 1966: The Royal Albert Hall Concert. Legendary for musical merit, yes, but also legendary as the turning point in the career of one of the all time greats. There is not much to say about this show, other than to say that if you've never heard it, you should first try playing it fucking loud.



That legendary portion sure was short, especially the Dylan bit. Another segue perhaps? I'm getting good at them. Next up, I'd like to delve into the world of bootlegs. Early on I mentioned that I have no patience for jam bands, but I would be remiss not to first mention that bootlegs are the beacon of a jam band fan's existence. However, they can be pretty cool for us normies, too. Of the bootlegs I've heard, my favorite is The Rolling Stones' Brussels Affair. In their review of Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Pitchfork complained that the Rolling Stones never made a truly great live album in their heyday. Brussels Affair overwhelmingly proves that wrong. Overwrought with energy, power and a great performance from the band, Brussels has everything you could want in a live album, and it offers more than any of the official releases would until Shine A Light.

That last sentence is really the whole point of bootlegs, to my open ears. To offer more than any official releases do. This is why the next bootleg I examine is the recently discovered Velvet Underground show, Live at the Gymnasium. In addition to discovering a new song, the set also allows a peak into a different take on "Sister Ray," definitely the selling point of every piece of Velvet Underground live material. The same is said of Lou's solo bootleg, Out of the Underground, which features what's been described as "the bounciest version of 'Sister Ray' you'll ever hear." By offering these different versions of legendary songs, these bootlegs prove their worth, a difficult thing for bootlegs to do.

Another sign of bootleg worth is seeing an artist come out of hiding, which happened with the release attributed to Neutral Milk Hotel (though it's really just Jeff Mangum), Wild World of Beards Incorporated. A ridiculous title (ridiculously explained within), the album is Mangum's return to the stage for the first time in years. All in all, he preserves the beauty of his songs, but doesn't really add much. However, that doesn't matter in the context of that particular bootleg. There are different reasons for a bootleg's success (as evidenced by the hundred Dylan bootlegs prided on the fact that they were the only one that month or some such nonsense), and availability alone can provide that reason.



Lastly, I'm going to complain about something. Certain live album are just superfluous and unnecessary. It'd be impossible to name them all, so I'll just name two random ones I've heard: Morrissey's Live at Earl's Court and R.E.M. Live. Neither are bad, but neither offer anything new to the songs or the material. They're more or less just there. Nothing happens. It isn't worth it. And that's the problem that many live albums face. Acts like R.E.M. and Morrissey have just been along for so long it seemed like they HAD to make live albums. But most artists don't. The nostalgia act is the main purpose of a live show, and it should be left that way. But if they want to give it a go, who am I to stop them?

Farewell Song

1980 is the year that one of the most impressive albums of all times was released. I can readily think of one more impressive, but let's not split hairs, Sandinista! is one hell of an effort. 36 brand new songs, some experimental, some just brilliant Clash style pop, rocks my world every time I listen to it. From the very first song I'm hooked into a world where dancing is a requirement, but we're all dancing to songs that the average person wouldn't dance to. The king of these songs is the very first one, one of my favorite disco songs and perhaps, as they claim, the first song by a white rapper. The song is "The Magnificent Seven" by The Clash.



In addition to producing the song of the year, Sandinista! wins my accolade for album of the year as well. That's kind of anti-climactic, I know, but what else can I really say?

That does it for this week, ladies and gentlemen. I hope the Yanks amongst us (which, I believe, is 90% of us) have a fantastic day tomorrow commemorating the destruction of an entire race by pretending they're our best friends and being gluttonous. Don't take that as an attack, because I'm sure I'll be right there with you. See you all next week for another Midweek Music Roundup.