Belatedly, The Knitters

It was on May 15, 2010 that I saw them, but I forgot to mention that I saw the legendary band The Knitters. They are comprised of all the personnel of the seminal L.A. punk band X except for Billy Zoom on guitars. They do country music. When The Knitters are together, their staff guitarist is none other than the legendary Dave Alvin on guitar. Too bad he didn't get to sing as he has a great baritone like John Doe.

But I digress. The concert was terrific. And I forget how excellent of a guitarist Dave Alvin is. The primarily did music from their 1986 project called Poor Little Critter on the Road and their other traditional country album Modern Sounds of The Knitters (probably a play on words for Ray Charles seminal country album of similar name Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music).

In any event, before Jason & The Scorchers, before Uncle Tupelo, there was The Knitters. They are and were a punk band doing more than competent Americana, bluegrass, and Country and Western. The concert was excellent. There was much inter-band banter especially by former married couple Exene Cervenka and John Doe. Except for Dave Alvin's great surfabilly playing, it was primarily a rollicking acoustic set. I was particularly fond of the their cover of Rank Strangers. All in all a great concert where the whiskey flowed and the fun was had.

We also got to spend a little time talking to the great John Doe who came out to greet people and autograph CDs on the way out of Columbia, MO Blue Note venue.

Drive-By Truckers The Big To-Do

Ahhh yes, Southern rock. I love it. And no one does it better than my current-favorite-for-some-years now, The Drive-By Truckers. I have had The Big To-Do for a couple of months already. They have performed at my current city of Columbia, MO already. I have just hesitated reviewing for some reason. A Southern picture as always; hot, humid, political, rawking...these hard rock singer/songwriters never cease to amaze. As always, I never understand why they are not incredibly famous and popular. They can WRITE a song that kicks most other bands in the balls. This album is no different. In fact, shedding a lead guitar gave them a tougher, rawer sound on this album.

It kind of reminds me of a serious Pizza Deliverance. And that album had plenty of seriousness to it as well. I am so fascinated with a band that can continue to evolve and keep loyal to an incredible goal and sound that keeps the South so honest and raw and rural and urban even. As usual their Fualknerian ability to not explain away the duality of the South, but to embrace one of the only bits of cognitive dissonance I can possibly tolerate. Never apologists, only reporters this great piece of Rock & Roll and Southern Rock in particular keeps moving them forward.

The songwriting which has been great for years now just gets better. This album has dropped one of the lead guitars from 3 to 2 which makes it more muscular. They hopped from the New West label to ATO and chose to lean this bitch up a little. They also give their great rhythm section Shonna Tucker another two songs to sing on as well. My favorite album since The Dirty South I just never get over how much this band continues to grow and evolve. I can also never get over why they are not selling out stadiums because they have the 'tude of all the great Southern Rockers 10 fold!

The tunes are all great too, plenty of working man ennui starting with the power chord on Daddy Learned to Fly, the alcoholic paean The Fourth Night of My Drinking and the destined to be a classic This Fucking Job. Well done boys (and girl)!

Also don't miss Shonna Tucker's on-line southern cooking show.

IT'S RECORD STORE DAY

It's record store day, today April 17, 2010. Grab a fistful of your hard-earned cheese and buy some new music as well as helping out an independent business.

Times are changin'

I didn't have a chance to acknowledge the death of the great Alex Chilton. I am a huge Big Star fan and like Alex's back catalog quite a bit. I did not get 2009's box set of Big Star. I think I had quite a bit of what was on it anyway.

Alex Chilton was a great pop song writer. In the vein of The Beatles, Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, or many, many that came before and after his mark is indelible. R.I.P Alex. I thought you were terrific. It is a shame more people don't know who you are. You knew the South, the U.K. New York and L.A. You even knew New Orleans and for that alone you are the best. You were another Rosetta Stone that does not live, but still a Rosetta Stone which makes you important, very important.

Tonight, I am listening to the very underrated Pink Floyd Album The Final Cut. A lot of folks may not get what a companion album it was to The Wall. I bought it when I was probably 17. I've been listening to it for close to 30 years, eh.

I recently ordered all of Blondie's' back catalog. Tremendous. I am always fascinated with how late 70's and early 80's punk barrows so much from 50's Rock & Roll, 60's girl group and doo- wop. In any event these are cheap, masterful recordings. Seminal, really.

I will review The Drive-By Trucker's The Big To-do here shortly. Great.

Galactic ya-ka-may

As the header states on the liner notes "THIS IS NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S NEW ORLEANS RECORD." This really captures the attitude of New Orlean's own bounce-style band(the term for the New Orleans hip-hop sound) Galactic on their new album ya-ka-may. Knowing a little about ya-ka-may will help though a little.

As so much of New Orleans culture is based around food, ya-ka-may (a bastardization of Ya Ka Mein) is a loose set of ingredients used in an Asian soup done New Orleans style. For this album it just means a mixture of all kinds of fun stuff musically. Funk, jazz, blues, R & B, rap/hip-hop are just the starting point for this terrific album. We got some heavy hitters too. If there is a single on this album it would have to be Irma Thomas singing the song Heart Of Steel. She belts this out in her great New Orleans funky style. Boe Money features the standard New Orleans brass style of The Rebirth Jazz band. Legendary New Orleans bandleader and producer Allen Toussaint appears on the song Bacchus.

This album sounds so new stylistically, but it is firmly rooted in New Orleans. Hip-hop in general owes much to New Orleans. A lot of hip-hop out there samples New Orleans beats (especially The Meters, who are one of the most sampled bands in hip-hop besides James Brown!)

I give this album two funky-butts up!

Surfer Blood Astro Coast

Start with The Beach Boys Pet Sounds, multiply by The Jesus & Mary Chain (if you can't find it, The Dandy Warhols are fine to substitute for the J&MC), fold in a large scoop of British Sea Power and sprinkle liberally with Yo La Tengo and you have the jangly surf pop of this Florida-based band. I really like their debut album Astro Coast A LOT! I liked it immediately too from beginning to end. Those jangly guitars can turn fuzzy and dark though real quick. So don't be fooled by the shiny sheen you might hear on first listen.

The lyrics are fun and airy and they even sport a fun instrumental tune called Neighbor Riffs. It is absolutely made for driving down the highway Dick Dale style. That is if Dick Dale was Johnny Marr. This album should be loved by any fan of American 60's garage pop or Euro-pop. Their cool contrast tunes called Fast Jabroni and Slow Jabroni stick some more of that surf garage guitar stuff at you. So quickly in this music though it can change to that British informed no wave; sometimes even in the same song.

I just love their little punky guitar riffs. Can you tell? And the studio treatments they give lead vocalist John Paul Ptts are just wonderful...sometimes as fuzzy as the guitar.

Grab it up, sure to be on my Top 10 for 2010.

Crazy Heart Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

It's hard to review the soundtrack to Crazy Heart without reviewing the movie. Which was great by the way. Jeff Bridges inhabited the main character who is a once famous country & western performer and songwriter. The amazing thing though was how well he sang the songs on this soundtrack. As was amazing too, how well Irishman Collin Farrell sang. Collin Farrell played a character who essentially was a protege of Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) who now in the present day made fame on his own as a Top 40 country music performer. Anyway I digress about the music.

Primarily a T-bone Burnett project, he either wrote or co-wrote the original songs with up-and-comer Ryan Bingham (he and his band the Dead Horses have a cameo as a member of one of the bands that back up Bad Blake). The title song to the movie is called The Weary Kind is co-written with T-Bone and sung by Ryan Bingham. It has been nominated for an Oscar, so cross your fingers.

The songs are great road country done in the Bakersfield rather than Nashville style of AM 1960's country. Lots of Telecaster guitar licks to get the party and dancing going at any little club that Bad Blake may be playing, the flick really captured the road life of a country and western performer, which in this world is probably devoid of this kind of live traveling act unfortunately. Some of the live numbers are recorded in that concert style sound. I thought the performances were so good that when they are finished with a number you wanted to clap! The duet of Collin Farrell and Jeff Bridges on the tune Fallin' & Flyin' were just excellent. Another well represented country style on the original songs is the classic early 1970's Outlaw movement.

Sprinkled throughout the soundtrack are some great classics. Townes Van Zandt's If I Needed You, The Lovin Brother's My Baby's Gone, Kitty Wells's Searching, George Jones's Color of the Blues, Waylon Jennings's Are You Sure That Hank Done it That Way are a few of the great extras that round out an excellent soundtrack. Be sure and get the Deluxe Version of the soundtrack with all 23 rather than the economy 16 track version. You get a nice a capella version of Billy Joe Shaver's Live Forever, sung by big time country music fan and actor Robert Duvall.

See the movie and buy the soundtrack. Great traditional country and western will flow out your speakers.