The Sublimation Hour

A face made for radio and a voice made for newspapers

2006-10-27T14:35:00.000-05:00

I have the good fortune of living a half a mile away from the Record Exchange on Hampton Ave, which is an old library building converted to store and sell rows and rows of vinyl. I was in there today, getting lost in their 45 loft*, which is pretty close to heaven for me. You know on "Duck Tales" where Scrooge McDuck would go swimming in his vault of gold coins? It's like that, only replace "swimming" with "browsing" and "gold coins" with "45s of the Commodores 'Lady' (You Bring Me Up When I'm Down)".

Anyway, as I'm ready to check out, a long-haired clerk asked me if I used to work for KSLU. I said yes, that I used to have a show 3 or 4 years ago (Sound Salvation, motherfuckers!). I asked if he went to SLU; he didn't, but he recognized my voice from listening to KSLU over the internet. I'm not entirely sure that the station's web radio worked back then, and even if we did, why in the hell would anyone listen to my show unless I begged them to? Furthermore, I tried to talk as little as possible on that show. Furtherfurthermore, is my voice that recognizable that, four years hence, some dude recognizes it while I'm buying AM Gold 7-inches? Was I the Rick Dees of KSLU and didn't know it?

Obviously more questions than answers at this point. I haven't ruled out the possibility that someone put him up to this, but who?

*Purchased recently:
Looking Glass - "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)"
Dusty Springfield - "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"
Crowded House - "Private Universe" (colored vinyl)
Lulu - "To Sir With Love"
King Harvest - "Dancing in the Moonlight"
Chicago - "Hard to Say I'm Sorry"
Mike + The Mechanics - "All I Need Is a Miracle"

A Dues-Paying Member of the Nite Club

2006-10-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

I just found out today that I am the new Clubs Editor for the Riverfront Times. I'll tell you more about it when I actually get a grasp of what that means, but for the time being it involves going to and writing about live music venues and changing my ringtone to "In Da Club."

Things

2006-10-06T00:16:00.000-05:00

Hi! Back in St. Louis, back in school, back to the blog, however briefly. I've updated some clips on the right and hope to be writing more often. In the meantime, check out our our lady in Madrid.

He don't know Dick

2006-07-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

In today's Times, A.O. Scott invokes the name of former Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt (and name I haven't thought of in a long time) in the review of Miami Vice:

"Mr. Farrell, however, is a movie star only in the sense that Richard Gephardt is president of the United States. He’s always looked good on paper, and he’s picked up some endorsements along the way — from Oliver Stone, Joel Schumacher and Terrence Malick, among others — but somehow it has never quite happened. Here he squints and twitches to suggest emotion and slackens his lower lip to suggest lust, concern or deep contemplation, but despite his good looks he lacks that mysterious quality we call presence."

MattyFred, isn't there a framed picture of you shaking Dick's hand?

Why I'll miss Chicago*:

2006-07-20T08:49:00.000-05:00

The ridiculous musical gear that shows up on this city's Craigslist. Yesterday's browsing yielded four different pieces that I've coveted at different points in my life. One guy was cleaning out his studio and was selling a Yamaha CS-15 analog synth and a super rare Maestro Universal Synthesizer System, a unit that sells for over $1200 when they pop up on eBay. Later, a seller offered a Yamaha CS-50 synth (pictured), and another listed a Yamaha CP-25 electric piano (sensing a theme here? I've loved Yamaha keyboards ever since I bought my YC-25D combo organ in 2000. They're not as flashy a brand as Moog or Vox, but they're built like tanks).

I passed on all of these - I've got about two weeks left until I descend into poor grad student status, so blowing money on outdated keyboards is unwise. But damn, with enough money I could faithfully recreate Howard Jones' Dream Into Action just through Craigslist!

In a side note, last night I dreamt that I was going to be a TA for a class on the genius of Hal David (Bacharach's songwriting partner). In this dream I was excitedly detailing each nuance of "Walk on By" (that harsh guitar chord on the downbeat! The rolling piano arpeggios in the chorus!) to a rapt classroom. I was a little disappointed to wake up from that one.

*See also: Pequod's Pizza, Dusty Groove, bike lanes, the lakefront, mass transit, culture.

Swamp Boogie Badass

2006-07-19T16:03:00.000-05:00

My interview with Quintron and Miss Pussycat went up today (second item). Bummed I'll be missing the show in StL (no Chicago show this tour), as I still haven't seen them play. Their Spellcaster Lodge will reopen in September, in their same 9th Ward neighborhood, so maybe I'll get to see them in their element.

Watch out Gerber strained squash, she'll chew you up

2006-07-10T11:05:00.000-05:00

How to be a good uncle, Part 1: Create novelty bibs at trendy iron-on stores.
Celia Frances demonstrates:

I'm just glad that she didn't get any food on that nice bib; it looks like she's saving some for later.

Remember the day when I heard you say "we can make it if we try"?

2006-06-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm always wary of festival shows - not just for the suspect layout (not ideal for listening or watching a performance) but for the possible pandering of the setlist. The Costello/Toussaint show at Ravinia last night wasn't a festival per se, but the set up ($65 auditorium seats, $15 lawn seats) invites a more casual audience. For most it was a picnic with friends with a few recognizable tunes in the distance. I only caught a few other people in our area mouthing the words or getting visibly into the music, which was weird. It's Elvis Goddamned Costello - put your sangria down and pay attention.

For all that, it turned out to be a great evening, if a bit chilly (thanks for the two weeks of summer, Chicago). My fears of pandering were seemingly confirmed when the band, unannounced aside from a hip-hop/gospel intro track, launched into "Peace, Love and Understanding," which is normally saved for later in the set. But after that, it was a perfect mix of songs from River in Reverse (which is his most solid collab to date; listen to bits of it here) and older tunes from both men. Costello knocked me out by dusting off "Tears Before Bedtime," a favorite from Imperial Bedroom and a song I thought I'd never hear live. Toussaint played "A Certain Girl" early in the set, and later on did "Working in a Coal Mine" (no "Mother-in-Law," unfortunately).

One of my favorite aspects of EC is his never-ending scholarhip of all music; however the results turn out (and it's rarely great), his forays into jazz, classical, and ballet show that he never coasts. At his best, he introduces his audience to other artists whose work has been maligned as schmaltz (Bacharach) or ignored by many (Toussaint). I became more aware of Toussaint's work after living in New Orleans, but that was mostly his production work with The Meters and other NOLA funk bands. He wrote the lion's share of River in Reverse (many of them from his songbook, a few written recently with EC), and he's as great a lyricist as he is a producer and arranger.

As an arranger, he reworked a few of Costello's old tunes with new horn charts ("Clown Strike," the one-two punch of "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down/High Fidelity,") and the horns never crowded the rest of the sound. The best example of this was "Bedlam," the best song of his from the past 10 (15?) years. Read the lyrics to get an idea; the mix of Biblical allusions and Israel/Palestine references collide into a travelogue into hell. Musically, its closest analogue is "Toyko Storm Warning," the horns' brazen punctuations and Steve Nieve's theremin explosions tore the roof off the sucker.

The show ended (after three encores, including the requisite "Alison," which Krissy said sounded like Disney number) with the newbie "The Sharpest Thorn," a sort of "Auld Lang Syne" for all year round. I'll throw a setlist up here if I can find one.

Lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff

2006-06-09T15:02:00.000-05:00

Nothing too new; I wrote the Twangfest preview this year, and I think it turned out all right (thanks to Allison for the nod). I put a few other clips on the file at the right if you're interested.

From the same issue: you should read Randy Roberts' piece on StL record stores if for no other reason than to see local clerks recreating their favorite album covers.

Going to see the Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint show at Ravinia on Sunday. I just bought the new record last night and have only listened to it once. I've been sidetracked by the Fleetwood Mac greatest hits set I purchased on the same visit. I realize now that I just should have bought Fleetwood Mac and Rumours and be done with it.

I'm Lonely as Mt. Everest and Probably as High

2006-05-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

For the last week I've been in possession of the Schaeffer family pick-up truck, a 2004 Ford F-150 with an extended cab. I'm moving out of my apartment this weekend - most of my stuff is heading back to StL and the rest is going to my temporary place in Old Town*. The truck is about 3 times the size of my VW Golf, so I've kept it parked in the Ukranian Village and have been CTA-ing around town.
In related news, my iPod may have finally crapped out over 3 years of spotty service. So with no mp3 player for the drive home this weekend, I've made a mix of songs purchased on iTunes over the years; it may sustain me for the whole 300-mile trip. Here are the best of my "Purchased Songs" folder:

1. "I'm Lonely and I Love It" - Future Bible Heroes. [I'd kill to know how Merritt got those background vocals to sound so ethereal and glossy]
2. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" - Looking Glass. [In my eternal top ten. That Bsus4 into the B chord right before "Doo doo do doo doo" part kills me. And yes, I had to look up the tabs to tell you that]
3. "Life on Mars?" - David Bowie. [Another fun one to play on the Wurlitzer]
4. "Israelites" - Desmond Dekker. [I'll cop to buying this last night after learning of his death. So what?]
5. "Kid Charlamagne" - Steely Dan. ["You are obsolete - look at all the white men on the street"]
6. "Odds n Ends" - Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. [From a live radio broadcast. Dave takes the lead on this Basement Tapes track]
7. "Electric Co." - U2. [A good song]
8. "Dress" - PJ Harvey. [The first CD I bought was Live's Throwing Copper at Target on Lindbergh Rd. The second and third were import singles on Too Pure of "Dress" and "Sheela na Gig" at the Music Vision in Ronnie's Plaza (you know, behind the Target on Lindbergh)]
9. "Valerie" - Steve Winwood. [Since I'm driving my brother's truck, I might as well honor him with one of his favorite songs. This track introduces a certain theme in a few of these songs: young love was easier, more pure and more real, and we would give anything get back to that time]
10. "You Make My Dreams Come True" - Hall & Oates. [Performed on a Yamaha CP-30 electronic piano, a 'board I almost bought on several occasions. Thank god I didn't]
11. "Whenever I Call You Friend" - Kenny Loggins with Stevie Nicks. [More Yacht Rock, though I was nurished on this stuff since I was in utero - no 2-bit internet show can change that, no matter how great it is]
12. "Bad Time" - The Jayhawks. [Also a good song]
13. "No Myth" - Michael Penn. [The English teacher in me appreciates his use of the subjunctive mood in the first part of the chorus - "What if I were Romeo in black jeans"; the poet in me understands why he breaks this grammatical rule for the sake of euphony in the next line - "what if I was Heathcliff, it's no myth]
14. "Weakest Shade of Blue" - Pernice Brothers. [This band is like the Jayhawks of this decade: great songs sung and performed beautifully, only to be shrugged off by critics. This is their best]
15. "Your Wildest Dreams" - The Moody Blues. [An early sweetheart of mine once played this on the jukebox at Imo's Pizza in Webster Groves. It's haunted me since]
16. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody who Loves Me" - Whitney Houston. [My current sweetheart once agreed to come back to my college apartment to listen to the Whitney! record with me before we started dating. She should look back on this as a warning sign]
17. "No One is To Blame" - Howard Jones. [Completes the young love trifecta with "Valerie" and "Your Wildest Dreams"]
18. "Ghost Town" - The Specials. [See where Damon Albarn got his ideas for Gorillaz]

*no, I'm not sure where I'll be living come this fall. Will let you know as soon as I do.

Get up!

2006-05-18T11:40:00.000-05:00

In this week's Post-Dispatch, Jeff Daniels gives us the kind of hard-hitting journalism he's known for: a spread on the fashion sense of Cards broadcaster Mike Shannon.

Speaking Redbird announcers, the first time I met frequent SubHour comment-leaver Matt "MattyFred" Frederick, he was in his apartment answering the phone in the manner of a belligerent Jack Buck. The greeting/warning "Don't fuck with the Buck" was delivered in the same trademark lilt that JB used to call the game or pitch commercials for GMC.

Good Old Boys, part 2

2006-05-17T09:30:00.000-05:00

The Times-Picayune is endorsing Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu for Mayor of New Orleans. This doesn't surprise me entirely - does C. Ray Nagin really deserve another chance? I don't know, but the sentiment among locals during JazzFest was that either candidate would continue the proud NOLA practice of politics as usual. To wit:

"Though Mr. Landrieu would bring a freshness to the mayor's office, he is a known quantity -- a member of a prominent political family, the son of a former mayor, the brother of a U.S. senator. He is a graduate of Jesuit High School, Catholic University and Loyola University Law School."

I'm not sure what kind of freshness a dyed-in-the-wool politician brings to any office (is it the same kind that George W. brought in 2001?). I found it interesting that Landrieu's family history in politics was followed immediately by a list of his Catholic formation, drawing some (unintentional?) parallel between croneyism and Catholicism.

When I taught at Jesuit, Landrieu would pop in every so often. My favorite was during NEA chairman Dana Gioia's presentation and poetry reading, at which Landrieu told "Dan Gioia" and the student body about his love for poetry by reciting the first stanza of Blake's "The Tyger." Finally! Someone to take Jimmy Carter's place as both a politician AND a poet.

Jazzfest weekend 1 rundown

2006-05-05T11:17:00.000-05:00

Kind of a misleading title to the post, which suggests that I'll be in NOLA for the second Jazzfest weekend (I won't). It's been a long week, but here's what I remember:

Friday, April 29
Ryan and Jeff retrieved me from Louis Armstrong Airport, blaring Prince's "Sey MF" from the car stereo. We head directly to the Fairgrounds, wait in a few lines, and get in the Fest proper by about 1pm. After hungrily consuming some crawfish bread and MGD (I hadn't eaten since the previous night in anticipation of the crawfish bread) we went to the biggest of the 8 or so stages, the Acura stage.
The crowds were pretty heavy for a Friday (usually the least populated of the 3 days) but I think the combination of post-Katrina sympathies, New Orleans' work ethic, and Bob Dylan accounted for the crowd. I normally like to run around the different stages, but the mix of beer and sunstroke kept me (mostly) planted.
-Keb Mo: pleasant enough preservation-blues stuff, though he should refrain from using the word "internet" in ol-timey blues songs.
-Bob Dylan: he was light years better than when Krissy and I saw him three years ago at the Pageant. He is still just playing keyboard (all organ sounds) and his delivery wasn't as erratic as before. He started with "Maggie's Farm" and "She Belongs to Me." I walked out to meet my old roommate Chris as he was playing a great, slow version of "Positively Fourth Street," one of my favorites.
-Ani DiFranco: I saw her across the Fairgrounds with Chris and our old neighbor Sara. The last time I saw Ani was in 2000 and she had a very horn-heavy band with her that farted all over her tunes. This time it was just her, an upright bassist and a great vibes/marimba player. I only caught the first 20 minutes, but it was a lot of the hits: "As Is," "Names, Dates and Times," "Sunday Morning," "Two Little Girls." I fell off the Ani train after high school but she's a lovable performer.

-Dr. John: Mac Rebbenack closed out the day at the Acura stage. I saw the last 10 minutes of his set, which ended with "Thank You (Falettenme Be Mice Elf Again)."

Saturday, April 30
Jeff had to sit out today for an all-male "tool shower" on the West Bank for our buddy Todd. Oh, the indignity. Ryan and I picked up Krissy from the airport and went right over to the fest. This was the weakest of the 3 days in my opinion, but there were some highlights:
-World Leader Pretend: I still like these guys for some reason, even if their set was a little overwrought. The best part came when local hooligan Bryan Spitzfadden busted out of a paper-mache eggshell and ran around the stage in chicken feet a red speedo for "BADABOOM." WLP's cover of "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" was nice but petered off. There were rumours that this was the band's last show. No great loss if it was.
-Rockin' Dopsie: this was at the Cajun/zydeco Fais Do-Do stage. Dopsie spent the first 10 minutes of his set hyping himself, his band, and his new CD before playing an actual song. That was enough to convince us to move on. We did see NYT scribe Jon Pareles at this stage, though, which is the dorkiest kind of celebrity sighting possible.
-Los Hombres Calientes: good local Caribbean jazz on a small stage. Irvin Mayfield is a stud in every sense of the word.

Sunday, May 1
It rained something fierce during the night and early morning, so it's a miracle that the Fest wasn't cancelled on its biggest day.
-Soul Rebels Brass Band: They were perfect: fun, involved with the crowd, adventurous, and they didn't pander by playing easy soul/r&b songs. There's more of a Latin edge in their stuff now (I haven't seen them since last year) which makes things interesting. They give Rebirth a run for the title of best brass band in NOLA.
-Allan Toussaint w/ Elvis Costello: Toussaint started by reminding the crowd how many great songs he wrote with a medly of "Mother-in-Law"/"A Certain Girl"/"Working in a Coal Mine." Elvis only played for about 4 songs, which seems about right: it was Allan's show and he deserves the spotlight at the fest more than EC. The few tracks they played from the upcoming River in Reverse sounded all right too.
-Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band: Highlight of the Fest, and not because of his stature or fame (although I was pretty awestruck, even from 300 yards away). The Seeger tunes are great, the band kicks, and his empathy (and his ability to communicate it) is boundless. He started his encore with "My City of Ruins," written about Asbury Park pre-9/11 and appropriated for NYC in its aftermath, the song nailed the emotion of post-K NOLA: disbelief, grief, hope, a call to arms, a prayer to God. To call it an emotional experience doesn't quite cover it. Eventually I'll write more about the rest of New Orleans and the unbelievable amount of destruction that is still there 8 months later, but that song broke me down and built me up in about 4 minutes.

That was long and not quite complete, but it'll suffice.

Off to the racetrack

2006-04-27T17:00:00.000-05:00

New Orleans' Fairgrounds racetrack that is, the home of JazzFest. I'll be there from Friday morning to Monday evening, so that should be just enough time to see many, many bands, eat my weight in shrimp po-boys, and catch up with my NOLA crew. The best part? Krissy and I will be staying in an honest-to-God FEMA trailer, compliments of our pal Ryan. Will this put me in solidarity with the displaced storm victims or merely re-connect me to my St. Louis hoosier roots? Find out next week!

If music writing be the food of love...

2006-04-25T12:38:00.000-05:00

...read on.

It seems that Kelefa Sanneh can't keep himself from quoting Shakespeare in his recent NYT articles. His thoughts on the new Tom Moulton dance mix sneak in this re-worked chestnut:

"His discovery seems obvious now: he realized that the thumping, dance-floor-friendly soul records of the early 70's would sound that much better, and thumpinger, if he made them longer. (Apparently brevity isn't the soul of soul.)"

More recently, his great piece on New Orleans hip-hop and it's place in the city's culture of preservation places Julius Caesar alongside Juvenile (which seems about right):

"Believe it or not, that question brings us back to the Smithsonian, which has come to praise hip-hop. Or to bury it. Or both."

For what it's worth, I once tried to quote Thomas Payne in a CD review. My editor thought better of it, thankfully.

Dusty in Chicago

2006-04-10T10:57:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about living in the Ukranian Village/Wicker Park part of Chicago is the high concentration of record stores; there are at least 5 in walking distance from my place. My favorite is Dusty Groove, the retail outlet for the famed mail-order website. I've found that it's impossible to just browse there - I always leave with something I hadn't heard of and didn't know I needed. This weekend it was Fernando Gelbard's Didi, a sort of Latin-jazz-fusion deal that sounds a lot like elevator music at first but picks up a bit with some Moog frippery. My shopping at Dusty Groove is predicated almost exclusively on cover art, and the mere appearance of a be-sweatered Argentinian playing a Fender Rhodes sold me on the spot.

I used the same thinking a few months ago when I bought Melvin Jackson's Funky Skull. It wasn't Jackson's creepy visage that grabbed me - it was the gear. The promise of an upright bass played through a Maestro Echo-Plex and a Maestro G-2 Rhythm and Sound box was too tempting to pass up.

And yet this fuzzy record-buying logic can't explain my other purchase of the weeked: an entire CD of 16 renditions of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" featuring Dusty Springfield, Booker T and the MGs, and Cher. I haven't played it yet, perhaps in fear that I wasted $15 on one song. I bet Robert Mitchum's version will make it all worthwhile.

Centro-tastic

2006-04-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Little-known fact: All RFT music writers are required to do an article on Centro-matic/S. San Gabriel/Will Johnson at some point in their tenure. I drew the straw this time around. It was actually one of the more fun interviews I've done (they're always so much better in person) and I lucked out that their STL show coincided with the start of the baseball season, as Will's ruminations on Busch Stadium are my favorite parts of the story.

Actually, I just now discovered that the C-M show on Monday is the same day as the Cards' opening game. A real journalist would have realized this about 2 months ago.

There's Always a Place for Me at the DQ

2006-03-29T13:03:00.000-06:00

My co-worker Libby and I came across this flyer at lunch the other day:

Which, of course, reminded us of Parker Posey's poignant scene (as Libby, no less) in Waiting for Guffman as she resigns herself to a life marking Derbys at the Dairy Queen in Blaine, MO.

(There were no actual clips from the movie on YouTube.com, but this clip of a young girl reciting Corky's "bastard people" scene is much, much better.)

The Real Juliet Letters

2006-03-27T12:35:00.000-06:00

I happened upon this article in the NYT about ongoing correspondance between (actual) lovelorn souls and Shakespeare's (fictional) Juliet. It turns out that an entire Veronese club is in place to answer these letters and a book chronicling this phenomena is forthcoming.

This should sound familiar for Costellophiles, as this correspondance inspired his 1993 album with the Brodsky Quartet The Juliet Letters. I enjoy a few tunes on the album but find it to be among his lesser work (funny how most EC collabos end up that way). Apparently Rhino Records thought so too; they have officially completed their overhaul of Costello's catalogue with the two-disc reissue of this album (released last week), the last in the series and seemingly done for completions' sake. I won't be rushing out to buy it, but it is noteworthy for the inclusion of the live versions of "God Only Knows" and Tom Waits' "More Than Rain" culled from a radio-only EP (one I borrowed from KSLU and subsequently lost).

ps-if you can't make out the handwriting, the note above says:
"Dear Giulietta! pray for me. I am in love with a guy who is quite serious about marriage but not in the near future. Help me! - Chris"

I'm still waiting for a reply, Ms. Capulet.

It was a clear black night, a clear white moon

2006-03-15T15:59:00.000-06:00

Here's another new Yacht Rock; pretty good, but this one even I saw coming. They did a nice job of making 1993-era McDonald look like a founding father, though.

It's been a good week to get nostalgic for rock writers; Michaelangelo Matos says goodbye to Seattle in a mix CD, and Geeta Dayal has a beautiful post on listening to Can during a summer storm in Boston.

Not much to say about last night's Jenny Lewis show except that her new songs don't hold me in the same way some of her Rilo Kiley stuff does, but I already knew that after sleeping through most of her solo album. She seems to be playing dress-up with country, wearing a Loretta Lynn dress and having her band wear thrift-store Western wear while dropping slight C&W signifiers in her largely folk-rock songs. She had Farmer Dave Scher (of Beachwood Sparks and All Night Radio) playing lap steel and Wurlitzer, so that was a highlight. He gave me the weirdest interview of my short career when ANR were touring about 2 years ago; you can find it on the sidebar if you're so inclined.

The elegance of an empty room

2006-03-08T12:40:00.000-06:00

Of course a blog titled The Sublimation Hour would have something to say about the new Destroyer record, right? In fact, RockCrit bylaws demand that all music writers take a swing at this one. You can read the review here, though the record has grown on me more since I wrote the review.

Pardon the lapse in posting; I've been studying for the GRE, which I took this morning. So, in the spirit of standardized testing, here's a word problem for you to mull over:

Dan Bejar:The New Pornographers as:

a) Jeff Lynne:Traveling Wilburys
b) Kris Kristofferson:The Highwaymen
c) Ted Nugent:Damn Yankees
d) Sheila E:Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band
e) Pedro Guerrero:1989 MLB All-Star Game

Heard ya missed me, well I'm back

2006-03-01T14:16:00.000-06:00

Here's my take on Elvis Costello's new live album, as well as short takes on The Iguanas and The Damnwells. And matt pond PA from last week. I've now surpassed the 100-article mark for the RFT, so I'm waiting for that set of steak knives to be delivered.

Jazz Fest line-up announced

2006-02-15T17:11:00.000-06:00

Full list here, but I've already ear-marked my list. The lady and I will be going down for one of the weekends (most likely the first) but I'm still wondering how feasible it will be to do the whole 2-weekend jaunt. Probably not very likely.

1st Weekend - April 28-30
The Meters
Bob Dylan
Allen Toussaint with special guest Elvis Costello
Ani DiFranco
Dr. John
Rebirth Brass Band
Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
Clarence “Frogman” Henry
Sonny Landreth
Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews with special guest Steve Turre
C.J. Chenier
The Iguanas
Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes
James Andrews
Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots
World Leader Pretend
J. Monque’D Blues Band
Jonathan Batiste
Coolbone Brass Band
Tim Laughlin
Don Vappie

2nd Weekend - May 5-7
Fats Domino
Lionel Richie
Paul Simon
Doug E. Fresh
Slick Rick
Special Ed & Big Daddy Kane
Irma Thomas
The Radiators
Nicholas Payton
Big Chief Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolias
Ellis Marsalis with special guest Lew Tabackin
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles
New Orleans Klezmer Allstars
Theresa Andersson
Papa Grows Funk
Soul Rebels Brass Band
Alvin Batiste & the Jazzstronauts
Storyville Stompers
Tornado and Stooges Brass Bands
Mem Shannon & the Membership
Fredy Omar con su Banda

They can make all the stadiums rock. Seriously.

2006-02-10T11:08:00.000-06:00

It's official: all great music writers harbor a not-so-secret, not-at-all-shameful love of Air Supply. I do, and now it appears that J. Niimi has come out in this week's Chicago Reader. An excerpt:

So can anyone actually present a cogent argument as to why they supposedly suck, at least in a way that distinguishes it from anything else you might've heard in your mom's Pinto on the way to Kmart? You say they played maudlin love songs? So did Roy Orbison. Their arrangements were pretentious? So were Queen's. The irony is that being the apotheosis of the most critically reviled pop category--a band that owns valuable real estate in everyone's brains against our will--means Air Supply are best understood as something that can't be appraised along aesthetic lines. Their chilling ubiquity elevates--yes, elevates--them to another realm.

Glorious. But goddamn, tickets are $55-$75! I still regret missing their free show at the Casino Queen in beautiful Sauget in the summer of '01.
And I haven't yet read Niimi's 33 1/3 book on Murmur but I'm sure it's stellar.

Couldn't they have gotten Ben Ratliff to talk about that Monk/Coltrane album some more?

2006-02-07T16:21:00.000-06:00

If you want to know why music (sorry, "pop") critics should be read and not seen or heard, check out the New York Times' Grammy preview video featuring Jon Pareles and Kelefa Sanneh (click on the multimedia box on the right, sit through the advert, and voila!). Wait for the end to see Sanneh ribbing his editor Tom Kuntz!

Now with 25% less content

2006-01-25T14:56:00.000-06:00

The winter touring season means that freelancers have to wax moronic on bands they know nothing of while waiting for the usual critical darlings to come out of hibernation (will Cat Power see her shadow this year?). To that end, I give you previews on The Nields and Dave Insley, two acts I had never heard before but found likable enough. If you're in St. Louis, the Insley show is worth checking out if only for one more reason to go to Frederick's before it's sold.

While you're reading my articles, check out the RFT's new user-unfriendly web redesign!

When Smokey Sings

2006-01-20T09:56:00.000-06:00

I still haven't formed an opinion on Rick Moody; I've read one story from Demonology ("Mansion on the Hill") and found it fair, though it reminded me of a more overwrought George Saunders story. Anyway, Moody is interviewed in PopMatters today and the discussion mostly deals with Moody's rock-star aspirations. He had this to say about one of his favorite songs:

Rick Moody: ...I've often contended that the best pop song ever written is "The Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson.

PopMatters: Really? What do you love about it?

RM: For one, that opening snippet of melody that's played on that kind of little marching band ensemble, that's just a beautiful, really simple great melody. And then the guitar comes in really big with that cycle of four-chord progression. And the lyrics are really great just as love song lyrics, but I don't think they are love song lyrics. I think that they're race relation lyrics that a lot of those late, great Motown songs doubled as, songs about the kind of racial difficulties in America in the sixties. I think it's a really beautiful, graceful, and gentle but defiant song about black culture.

I experienced a fairly major Smokey conversion over the summer but I've been fascinated by this song since I was a kid: by the Pagliacci back-story, by the un-Motown-ness of the harpsichord and bassoon parts, how the English Beat (almost) improved this near-perfect song. I'm a little embarrassed that I never considered the racial element of the song, but I like Moody's take on it. Still, it's not near as devestating a song as "Tracks of My Tears." That one floors me every time I hear it.

Baseball Rocks! (part 2)

2006-01-12T10:45:00.000-06:00

This picture comes courtesy of Tom (he of Jeopardy fame). Tom is convinced that Bruce Sutter and Joe Cocker were separated at birth; what do you think?

Baseball Rocks! (part 1)

2006-01-12T10:36:00.000-06:00

While we all wait patiently for the new Centro-matic record to come out in March, enjoy this haiku meditation on Rickey Henderson by lead singer Will Johnson (compliments of Phil at Misra Records).

Rickey Henderson
Thank you for ending career
It was beyond time

"Rickey is not here"
"Please call Rickey back later"
Is what Rickey said

No one to talk to?
Maybe talk to yourself now
In the third person

Please put third base down
I know you broke the record
But there's more game left

You are not Lou Brock
You have stolen more bases
But, not cool like Lou

Back in eighty-nine
Your first World Series title
Bash Brothers on 'roids?

You wore blades glasses
Long before they were deemed cool
Fashion pioneer

Do you know the way
To the baseball old folks' home?
Let me show you now

When you were drafted
Ford was U.S. president
I was fucking five!

Finally retired
World Series of Poker now
To keep you busy

Alex Trebek plays the middleman

2006-01-11T10:02:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, my good friend/sometime bandmate Tom Kavanaugh was recently on Jeopardy for 9 games. He won a lot of money and wound up as the 5th place all-time winner in non-tournament play. There's a charming piece from Show Me St. Louis, and a Google search turned up that Tommy was the player of the week on some game show website. They say he "ripped through seven opponents" which seems a bit graphic, but I guess they don't call him a player for nothing.

While we were all sad to see Tommy's run end on Tuesday's show, I discovered a strange bit of synchronicity: Tommy was beaten (badly) by Kevin Marshall, a college student who attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans, where I taught last year. If I were a lesser man I'd make some stupid St. Louis high school joke; luckily, Tommy beat me to the punch.

He's a Sutter

2006-01-10T14:13:00.000-06:00

Since SubHour has become more about the St. Louis Cardinals than about music lately, let's keep things rolling. Former Cardinal Bruce Sutter will be the sole inductee for the Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2006. While this won't be as momentous as Ozzie Smith's induction or as hilarious as the Sklar brothers attempt to induct Jose Oquendo, this is a proud day for all fans of the '82 Cards.

The run-down of the voting (follow the Sutter link) is a bit dissapointing, though; not only did Rich "Goose" Gossage narrowly miss induction (tied with Oil Can Boyd for best baseball nickname), #51 Willie McGee only garnered 2.3% of the vote. Have they never tasted the man's cookies?

A Natural Man

2006-01-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

The words "smooth" and "velvety" will be used quite a bit today as the world mourns the death of Lou Rawls. He was my favorite of the suave soul brothers, thanks in part to his version of Paul Young's "I Go Crazy". I only saw Lou once, at a St. Louis Cardinals game (fitting, I suppose, as he used to be Anhueser-Busch's spokesman). We sat about 30 rows up from the Cards’ dugout and Lou was seated in the frou-frou green seats in front of us, wearing a natty camel-hair jacket and a brown Kangol hat worn backwords. Before the first pitch, Lou stood up and was introduced to the crowd. Taking a wireless mic in his hand, he lip-synched along as “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” echoed around Busch Stadium. I felt bad that his handlers or the Cards front office made him do it, as he couldn't really sing along in time to the recording. I don’t think most of Cardinal Nation cared, but my friends and I kept hollering “Lou Rawls!!!” during lulls in the game. That game was also notable for JD Drew’s game-opening homerun, an event my brother Brian predicted right before Drew went to the plate.

Explicitly laid out like a fruitcake

2005-12-31T14:15:00.000-06:00

I'm back in St. Louis for a few more days to celebrate the New Year in typical low-key StL style and, moreover, to spend some time with my newborn niece Celia. I caught the tail-end of Magnolia Summer's show at Frederick's Music Lounge last night, in time to see "Baton Rouge" and "Summer Moon" before their kick-ass encore of The Kinks' "Big Sky." Only about 20 people were there when I arrived (sadly, a moderate turn-out for a Fred's show) but the band sounded great as always - there are now 3 guitars on stage (including the mighty John Horton), so whatever acoustic/alt-country leanings they had on Levers and Pulleys are all but gone. Chris Grabau gave me a copy of the new record (From Driveway's Lost View) - I haven't quite absorbed it yet, but it sounds pretty great.

Happy New Year to the SubHour faithful - remember to have fun without guns this new year's eve.

A new tradition

2005-12-20T14:47:00.000-06:00

I've decided to try something new: a year-end list of my favorite musical happenings. I hope this catches on.

Best Albums
1. The Hold Steady, Seperation Sunday
2. New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
3. Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree
4. Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy
5. Spoon, Gimme Fiction
6. Andrew Bird, The Mysterious Production of Eggs
7. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
8. Black Mountain, Black Mountain
9. John Vanderslice, Pixel Revolt
10. South San Gabriel, The Carlton Chronicles

Best Songs not found on the albums mentioned above
"Walter Reed," Michael Penn
"Leaves Do Fall," The Rosebuds
"Big Boat," M Ward
"Amazing Glow," The Pernice Brothers
"Hope There's Someone," Antony and the Johnsons
"When I Wake," The Changes
"Infanta," The Decemberists
"Could Be Anyone," The Eames Era

Best Concerts
-New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Randy Newman, Old Crow Medicine Show and Madeline Peyroux were stand-outs, but the real star of Jazz Fest was the crawfish bread)
-Hold Steady/Constantines/Thunderbirds Are Now! at Logan Square Auditorium, CHI
-Elvis Costello and Hem at The Pageant, STL
-New Pornographers at the Metro, CHI
-The Walkmen at Twiropa, NOLA
-Intonation Festival in CHI (Andrew Bird, AC Newman and The Decemberists especially)
-Head of Femur/Turing Machine/Okkervil River/Olivia Tremor Control at the Wicker Park Festival. Best $5 spent all summer.
-Iron & Wine/Calexico at Congress Theatre, CHI
-Any concert at Le Bon Temps Roule, NOLA (Sunpie and Joe Krown in particular)

Another year of white dudes with guitars, which is not too different from my top 10s from years past. That doesn't make me a shallow person, does it?

12 years on the east side, and still so house proud

2005-12-15T10:35:00.000-06:00

Carl Wilson is the music critic for Toronto's The Globe and Mail and has lately become on of my favorite writers. This week he posted his thoughts on Destroyer's new record (which comes out in February, though apparently those more web-savvy than me can find it online). At the end he gives some options for Destroyer drinking games; a few highlights:

Take a drink whenever there is:
- Invocation of a cliche or idiom, however dismantled;
- Character assassination - drink twice if of a woman;
- Conspicuously long pause (line break?) in the middle of a phrase;
- Sudden crescendo and/or acceleration;
- Use of archaic or ostentatiously formal or foreign-language term;
- Direct address to an audience by name or collective noun eg. "kids..." or "Contessa..." ("you" doesn't count)

More LaRussa

2005-12-13T14:13:00.000-06:00

Looks like a good idea is a good idea. Thanks to editress Annie Z. for the link.

LaRussa shotguns beer, rocks out to "Photograph"

2005-12-08T09:19:00.000-06:00

Fans of both the Cardinals and Arena Rock will enjoy Randy Roberts' piece on Tony LaRussa's concert routine from this week's RFT (I'm thinking of you, Matty Fred).

I've got a jazz guitar

2005-12-01T14:22:00.000-06:00

Slate's Jody Rosen has a nice piece up about Billy Joel's new box set in which Rosen tells of growing up a Joel devotee before Elvis Costello straightened him out. Sounds a lot like me, actually.

I like that Rosen chose Elvis as Joel's foil; For as different as they are, both men made great use of double-tracked vocals and wore their soul and early rock & roll influences proudly. I've long felt that both men made their most direct records in '77 and '78 (My Aim is True and This Year's Model for EC, The Stranger and 52nd Street for BJ). But while you can always count on EC to save his best songs for the end of a record, Billy seems incapable of putting a cap on his near-perfect albums (particularly those mentioned above).

The article reminded me of one of my favorite Onion articles.

Bacharach at ya

2005-11-30T11:20:00.000-06:00

Pardon the absence - I know you've all been waiting patiently. This piece on Burt Bacharach's new ventures ran last week (scroll to the bottom). It could've turned out better, but at least my Mom got a kick out of it.

I'm in the thick of Christmas album mania - it's still a little too early for me to really listen to the stuff, but there are about 13 Xmas albums piled up at home to wade through. Haven't made it through all of them, but Marah's holiday album is an early favorite.

God Bless Media Conglomerates

2005-11-09T16:15:00.000-06:00

Say what you will about the New Times and their merger with Village Voice Media, you can't beat getting free money for story reprints. For example, my Metric feature got picked up by two different papers this week, including the Houston Press, which has now paid me twice by running the same Lucero article five months apart. Thanks, Houston! I take back all the bad things I said about the Astros.

I'm kinda saving myself for the scene

2005-11-08T11:14:00.000-06:00

Unless some dark horse emerges in the next six weeks, Separation Sunday by the Hold Steady will go down as my favorite album of '05. I know I'm not alone in this, and I've been a little stunned at the amount of attention this record (with its Biblical allusions and Catholic redemption) has received in the mainstream press. Holly, the album's prodigal daughter, wades through perverted baptisms and druggy saviors to be reborn (not in an Evangelical sense; that's "born again") at the Easter Mass. The last words we hear, presumably from the mass choir, are "welcome back."

Stylus has an article on The Hold Steady (which even quotes this blog's namesake, Destroyer's "The Sublimation Hour"). The writer (Mike Powell) points out some of the holes the resurrection sequence, which he calls "striking, but surrounded by a muddled feeling of meaning yet to settle." My guess is that in the diminished world of Separation Sunday, a muddled feeling is as good as it gets.

(Link by way of Franklin Bruno's blog)

Vincent Price (the Actor)

2005-11-07T14:02:00.000-06:00

I've tried foisting this on people with varying success, but I'll be damned if Yacht Rock isn't the the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It's not a case of skewering soft rock for its inherent cheesiness; the show's creators have done their homework, connecting dots I didn't even know existed. This month's episode tells the story of my favorite Michael Jackson song and posits an interesting theory: did smooth music turn MJ from a hetero lothario into the man we know today?

In related news, I bought Firefall's "You Are the Woman" on 45 for 50 cents this weekend.

Ooo Poo Pah Doo

2005-11-03T16:09:00.000-06:00

I haven't listened to very much New Orleans music since I moved to Chicago five months ago, so it was good to be inundated with the stuff this week at the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund show. The band is a hodge-podge of sidemen from the area, and their collective CV is pretty impressive. The only player I really know is organist Joe Krown, whose combo I saw play at Le Bon Temps Roule a few times. He couldn't haul his monster B3 with him, though a borrowed Nord Electro sounded mighty fine.

I talked to Joe for a few minutes before the show and he gave me the list of clubs that are up and operating in NOLA: DBA, Le Bon Temps, Maple Leaf, and Rock & Bowl are all hosting live music. This is good news, as I'll be in Louisiana in a few weeks; not too be coarse in the light of the destruction, but it will be nice to visit some of the old spots.

The all-stars played a primer of NOLA music: "Little Liza Jane," "Ooo Poo Pah Doo," etc. Trumpeter Leroy Jones did an olbligatory "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans" in a style more befitting Johnny Mathis than Satchmo, but it was sweet, sad and comforting all the same.

I'd recommend Shout! Factory's recent New Orleans box set as a good starting point for anyone interested in the city's music (or the city itself; it's been said a million times, but you can't sever the two). It's not without its omissions; Christgau was pissed that there's no rap here. I can live without Master P, but where the hell is Lucinda's "Crescent City"?

Intro

2005-10-29T10:37:00.000-05:00

I've been reading about these things in Newsweek, and I just had to try one.