Xmas Spectacular 2007 Pt. 2

Part One is here.

7. Dress Blues – Jason Isbell

This is a devastating song about losing a friend in the war. Every couplet is like its own poignant vignette of the way loss affects people. “Now the high school gymnasium's ready/ full of flowers and old legionnaires/ Nobody showed up to protest/ just sniffle and stare

“But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters/ and there's silent old men from the corps/ What did they say when they shipped you away/ to fight somebody's Hollywood war?”

8. Chemicals Collide – Cloud Cult

This album, The Meaning of 8, hit me hard this year. The theme of loving and losing a child, and the vivid descriptions of a child’s carefree life resonated intensely to me. Becoming a parent this year, I can’t imagine not filtering the contents of this album through that lens. This CD was in my car when my daughter was born and I remember listening to it on my way to the hospital one morning when my daughter was just a few days old. It struck me dumb, as I spent that week in a daze, listening to lines like, “These days it’s hard to tell what’s outside from what’s in my mind.”

9. All The Stars – The Evening Rig

Jason Miller’s former band, The Crush, was one of my favorites when they were around. Reemerging after the demise of that band, The Evening Rig touches on the same topics of heartbreak, longing and regret. The sound is a bit different though, and while people may disagree with my comparison to the Drive by Truckers, I still see them going in that direction.

10. Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – The Ramones

The obligatory Christmas song on my CD. Not the greatest song, but I think it works.

11. Bus12 – The Umbrella Sequence

This came of the underrated record, Events. I just love the part where the music drops out and the last syllable of the word “Possibly” sails up and bridges the gap until the electronic-pop music starts again. This whole song is worth it for me just for those five seconds.

12. John Allyn Smith Sails – Okkervil River

Just as I knew that Mouthful of Bees would open this mix CD, I knew this Okkervil River song would close the CD. Wonderfully literate and clever, this dark song touching on John Berryman’s plunge towards the Mississippi cops a riff from the Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B.” Will Sheff’s voice gives me the chills. I think a lot about singers and whether they are really giving it their all, I don’t think there is any doubt that Sheff means what he says.

previous spectaculars: 2006 2005

Xmas Spectacular 2007

Here is the first half of my Xmas Spectacular for 2007. This isn't really a best-of kind of list, it's just a bunch of songs that I thought sounded good together and wanted to share with my friends.

1. The Now – Mouthful of Bees

I knew from the moment I heard this song, the first track on my mix CD would belong to this group of youngsters. A frenetic, warbling, lo-fi song filled with a propulsive drum beat and guitar hooks to make Doug Martsch jealous.

2. Diggin’ on You – Stook!

I don’t know if this is the best song on Stook’s newest record, When the Need hit the Wax. The whole album is great with tracks like “Lovesick Firecracker” and “Hennepin Avenue” traversing the heart-on-sleeve lyrics of Stook and the musicality of The Band. What I do know is that driving home after a bad day at work, there is nothing to make you feel better than screaming along with the lines, “Hey, Hey, Baby, Baby/ Don’t you know you drive me crazy.”

3. Trampolining – Ice Palace

I was racking my brain, thinking off all the bands we covered in the HWTS podcasts this year. This is one that I kind of forgot about, but listening to it again, I have to say this is just catchy-as-hell pop song. And that is pretty much all I know about Ice Palace, except that their album, Bright Leaf Left, came out on Darren Jackson’s (Kid Dakota) label, Speakerphone Records.

4. Soulful Automatic – Little Man

Last year, when Duplomacy’s album, All These Long Drives, came out, I told people it would be in everybody’s year-end best-of list. They made it to mine, but not many other peoples. I said the same thing this year when Little Man’s album came out. It’s definitely on my list, and I’ve seen it on a few others. A classic-rock infused record, the songs are just plain good, and that’ll get me every time.

5. The National Side – Romantica

I was a big fan of Romantica’s first album; It’s Your Weakness that I Want. When I first heard the new album, America, I was a little disappointed. I think I was in the minority on that one. It took me a few listens to understand what was different. Romantica’s first album was a bit more eclectic, in my opinion. America is more focused and given time, I now realize that the songwriting is better, it’s just that the little R&B flourishes of the first album are abandoned for a pretty straightforward roots rock sound.

6. Clifton Bridge – Mark Olson

I haven’t always been a fan of Olson’s work outside of the Jayhawks. The Creekdippers seemed a bit too hippie for me. This album, however, features Olson’s intimate and fragile songwriting without a lot of pretext. This is what I love about music—the artist laying his or her feeling out on the table and saying, “have at it.” This song has nothing to do with the 35W Bridge, of course, but after that tragedy, this song certainly took on a deeper meaning to me.

Here are some previous spectaculars: 2006 2005

Part two is here.

Almost made it(s)

Every year I make a mixCD for my friends around Christmas time. I am going to post the songs that made the cut soon, but here are a few that were in the running, but just didn't make the final cut.

Dan Israel - Triangle
Matthew Ryan - Blackbird
His Mischief - Rock Song (Hyperopia)
Cloud Cult - Pretty Voice

...And this

While I was searching youtube for that maddening clip below, I found this human Tetris video. I think my favorite part is the sound effects.

Baby, Baby Let me Get Away From Meatloaf

My wife is an admitted HGTV addict. Therefore my exposure to shows like Househunters and Design on Dime is more than I would care to admit. Lately, HGTV has been airing this commercial for a new show called Sleep on It.

The commercial spoofs Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." The problem with all of this is that the songs just gets stuck in my head. I wake up in the middle of the night with that song playing in my head. Driving to work, I'm singing, "Let me sleep on it/ Baby, Baby, Let me sleep on it." Please, Please, someone make it stop...

Top 89 of 2007

I thought that there would be more local music on The Current’s top 89 songs of 2007. Six out of 89 is not a very good showing; I don’t think that necessarily reflects the quality of local music in the past year, but the quality of voters in the poll. The highest ranking artist is Brother Ali, which is no surprise, but I thought that he and Cloud Cult would crack the top 20, at least.

20. Brother Ali – The Undisputed Truth
22. Cloud Cult – The Meaning of 8
27. Dan Wilson – Free Life
42. Low – Drums and Guns
69. Prince – Planet Earth
79. The Alarmists – The Ghost and the Hired Gun

I did vote in the poll, but I can’t remember what I picked exactly. Locally, I know that I picked Brother Ali and Cloud Cult. I also picked Romantica, The Glad Version and Dan Israel. There were two artists that were not on the ballot, surprisingly, but I wrote them in anyway. They were Little Man and Stook. Some of the national acts I chose were Wilco and Okkervil River.

Places

Places where my dog has thrown up in the past two days:

1. Dining Room
2. Kitchen
3. Back Steps
4. Living Room
5. Kitchen

Things #2

Things that I say I could do without (but secretly, either because of obligation or the fact that I secretly like this thing or that I secretly enjoy hating this thing, I really could not do without).

1. The New York Yankees
2. My Job
3. McDonalds
4. ABBA
5. Washing Dishes

Things

Things I could do without

1. Ann Coulter
2. Rush Hour Traffic
3. The new Rilo Kiley album
4. Tim McCarver and Joe Buck talking about baseball
5. The real estate market that, thus far, has not allowed me to sell my house

Salvation Blues

It's Mark Olson weekend pretty much...
Unfortunately, for me, I have to go to Portage, WI for a wedding tomorrow, so I will miss his show at the 400 Bar. His new album is incredibly good. I talked about it in the HWTS podcast that came out last week, which you can listen to here.

Tony Thomas has an interview today with Mark Olson, which you can listen to here.

Olson is also playing at the fetus tomorrow at noon or at 2:00, depending on who you listen to.

I guessed and started the rumor that Olson would have some "special" guests with him and Olson himself, in his interview with Tony Thomas, intimated the same. Should be a brilliant show.

Happy Birthday

My friend, Jen is having a birthday bash with some great bands. You should really go...

My bridge story is like most people’s: not really about the bridge, but more about me. My sister-in-law called my wife to tell her to turn on the television. I was in the other room leaving a message for a friend whose dog had just died (a sad country song of a story in itself). “A bridge on 35W collapsed,” my wife said.

I thought first of the Diamond Lake Road overpass that they tore down a few months ago. I thought it must be an overpass somewhere that fell down—tragic, but relatively minor. I was wrong.

As I watched the news and listened to MPR constantly for the next few days, I couldn’t shake that helpless feeling. Like someone punched you in the stomach. I kept watching and listening, never really hearing anything new, but unable to turn away. I kept seeing this tangles mass of steel and concrete, splintered up towards the sky and swimming in the brown muck of the Mississippi. I couldn’t turn away. It looked to me like a movie, something not real, something that couldn’t happen a few miles from my house, something that doesn’t happen in Minnesota.

As I watched, my mind began to work in the exhaustive way it works—creating dark fantasies of myself driving over that bridge. What would I do?

Each day after work, I pick up my daughter from day care and drive her across town to our house in North Minneapolis. Each day I drive over bridges, past lakes and alongside that mighty river. I kept imagining myself with my daughter strapped into her Graco in the backseat, trying to get to her, underwater or teetering on the edge of a concrete cliff. These dark fantasies haunted me constantly. What would I do? How can I stand it? How can I protect this little, beautiful person? I didn’t want to tell my wife about these haunting thoughts, but I had to eventually, I couldn’t keep it to myself. I said plainly, “I keep thinking about being on the bridge with her. What if I had to save her, or worse yet, what if I couldn’t?”

“I know,” is all she said.

I think she knew, but I couldn’t really tell her what I meant. I couldn’t verbalize the twisted thoughts that were in my head. I couldn’t say them out loud.

Again, I kept looking at those images of the bridge. I couldn’t believe it was real.

I went out the Friday after the collapse to the 331 Club to see JG and Mary Everest. I was there by myself and I was enjoying the music, for the first part of the night, it was therapy to unnerve myself from the bridge and my nightmares. About 12:30 though, I found myself staring at the floor, daydreaming about that bridge. It was consuming me again, I knew it was right down the street and I knew that I had to go see it.

I drive down University to where the avenue intersects the interstate and I slowed and looked to my right. Powerful lights lighted the whole span and I could see a section of bridge tilted up towards downtown like a giant concrete launch ramp. I could see nothing beyond that, the road just dropped out of sight.

I drove home not feeling better, I sat on my couch and listened, through my headphones, to Cloud Cult’s The Meaning of 8. There are so many songs on that album about a parent and child separated by tragedy. It was just the kind of wallowing torture I needed. I stared blankly at the wall as I sat on my couch listening.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt better. The fantasies stopped. I still felt heartbroken and helpless, but I felt better. I think maybe my bridge story is still happening…

New Spins for the Old Drunk

I may have embarrassed myself at the Spins last night.

Me: I don't know if this means I have a drinking problem, but if I have one beer then I just want like twelve more.
Alexa: That sounds like a drinking problem to me.
Me: Oh.

Anyway, here is what I spun at the Spins:

1. Gray - Heartless Bastards
2. New Drink for the Old Drunk - Crooked Fingers
3. Across The Line - Scott Miller and the Commonwealth
4. Trouble Doll - Matthew Ryan
5. Charango (Isla Negra) - The Dad in Common
6. Sangre de Stephanie - Lifter Puller
7. Sound System - Operation Ivy
8. Quarter-Life Crisis - The Cardinal Sin

Last Week and Next Week

My Dinosaur Jr review is up over at HWTS.

What I didn't mention is that the friend who went with me to this show was the same sidekick for the last Dinosaur Jr show I saw ten years ago. The Boathouse, where we saw that show, has shut down now. Norfolk has a new venue called the Norva. I've never been there, but I can tell you the boathouse was kind of a weird place. It was actually on stilts on the water--an actual boathouse. During shows that were not 21plus they would put up a rail running perpendicular to the stage and they called one half the beer garden. When shows would get crazy the bouncers would be stationed along this rail and as kids tried to crowd surf or jump over the rail, the bouncers would pummel them.

Next Saturday come celebrate five years of internet goodness. The HowWasTheShow.com five-year anniversary party.

Saturday June 9 at the Turf Club. 9pm

First Communion Afterparty
The Slats
Jeremy Messersmith
Mouthful of Bees
Estate

Lullabye

If you want your heart to break because of a beautiful lonesome song, then go here and listen to lullabye.

Alison played this song at the hoot this past Friday and it absolutely floored me.

Take a Look at my Girlfriend

I stopped at garage sale in Northeast Mpls this past weekend and found this little nugget of vinyl goodness. Supertramp's Breakfast in America. I remember listening to this album a lot when I was a kid. I had it on a cassette tape and I just loved staring at the album cover with the city made out of breakfast cereal boxes and dished and cutlery. And "Libby" posing as a service industry statue of liberty. The music is good too. Released in 1979, this album is full of straightforward seventies rock. I've listened to the record about five times since Saturday afternoon.

The Spins Have Hit Glass

I want to have some more to say from now on, but at this moment I wanted to post my setlist from the Spins this past Saturday. The Spins is an event hosted by HowWasTheShow.com where the writers and editors basically make mix CDs to play while they drink $3.00 mystery beers with whomever shows up. It happens every other Tuesday at the Nomad World Pub. The next version happens May 22.

1. Hayden - "The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees"
2. Cloud Cult - "Chemicals Collide"
3. Brian Just - "Duluth"
4. Guided by Voices - "The Bride Have Hit Glass"
5. Story of the Sea - "Bubble Gum"
6. Matthew Ryan - "BabyBird"
7. Archers of Loaf - "South Carolina"
8. Lifter Puller - "Secret Santa Cruz"
9. P.O.S. - "De La Souls"
10. Lucero - "Bikeriders"
11. The Rockford Mules - "Crooked Tooth"
12. Self-Evident - "Automatic Lewis"
13. Dinosaur Jr. - "Sludgefeast"
14. Best Friends Forever - "The Loneliness Song"
15. Faces - "Ooh La La"
16. Alpha Consumer - "The Son of the C.E.O. of Rubbersuit Co."
17. Brother Ali - "Forest Whitiker"

Whew!

It's been awhile. A lot has happened in the weeks since I last spilled my guts all over the internet.

I finally graduated from college. What does that mean for my future, I don't know. One of the outlets I had for writing has collapsed. It's not like I was making any money so maybe this will force me to get out there and sell myself to publications that pay their writers.

We had someone that really liked our house, but then decided not to buy it, but then thought maybe, but then decided to wait, but then put an offer on a different house.

But really what has happened since I last spilled my guts all over the internet is that a beautiful brown-haired little girl has entered my life and my heart and she just makes me go all soft inside. My little daughter, Penelope just totally rocks. That is why I have been away. The thing is that I really do miss going out to shows, hanging out with friends and drinking beer into the small hours of the morning. I do miss that. But when I am at home with P, I realize that is where I really want to be. When I am with her, I don't want to be anywhere else.

There, take that internet, my guts are running through your spidery little veins now!

Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh Baby (No Baby Yet)

I am a worrier.

I get worked up; nervous and anxious about things. I burst at the seams when faced with simple things like: going to interview somebody, calling somebody on the phone, meeting people, going someplace new.

My palms get sweaty. My heart goes flutter-flutter. I can't sit still. My thoughts get all scattered and I just think and think about whatever kind of fantasies I can come up with about the way things are going to go wrong.

So if I get all goofy about calling my bank, imagine just how insane-out-of-my-head I am waiting for my baby to arrive. I can't focus on anything; work, school or writing. My wife is due in five days and has been having sporadic contractions for about a week now. Everyday I wake up and say, "Is this the day?" Don't get me wrong though, I am super excited about this. I just am not good at waiting.

I was going to do a Top5 in honor of my impending fatherhood, but all the songs I could think of or find that had something to do with "baby" were about the kind of "baby" that left you alone, or hit the bottle, or hit the needle, or died in a horrible car wreck. I don't really want to associate those things with my baby.

So I give you these things:
Some of the How Was The Show staff did a podcast for the excellent MinneapolisCast run by Tony Thomas. Andrea Myers, David de Young, Jennifer Paulson, Pat O'Brien and myself contributed and you can listen to it here. (I just realized that the song I reviewed. "Don't Take My Baby To War" has the word baby in it. Coincidence?)

Also, Chris at Culture Bully did an interview with Andrea and me about the local music scene and you can find that here.

They're Still Racing Out at The Trestles

(Update: Jinx! Andrea totally blogged about The Cates today also. This will give people more reason to believe in the HWTS mafia. I swear it was innocent and we were not commiserating about our intentions. Her post is better than mine so go read it.)

I’ve been thinking about cover songs lately. Normally, if a band plays a cover I don’t get all that excited about it. That is unless they are able to do something special with it. I am not talking about Hairball or Boogie Wonderland type bands here. I mean bands that have a little shame about their covers. These thoughts have been buzzing around the back of my brain for a few weeks now, but last weekend something happened that made the buzzing consume my brain. I’ll get to that in a second though. The Cates - photo by David de Young

My house is on the market and I packed up most of my CDs and put them in storage. So most of my music (except for about 30 CDs that I just couldn’t stand to put away) are in boxes in the dark corner of a storage unit in North Minneapolis. My main repository for music is now my little green iPod.

Last weekend I found The Cates for the first time. Brilliant, aching vocals by these two women whose melancholy songs are tinged with just enough optimism beneath the surface to not feel suffocating, but are still sad enough to go perfect with a dim room and a bottle of wine. They played an amazing version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

When the song started I thought, “Oh. This is a funny little song, this might be good.” But they weren’t going for a funny little song vibe, they sang that ‘80s pop song with as much soul as I think Lauper could ever imagine. It was then that it hit me what makes a great cover song. The lack of irony.

I’m sure lots of bands have covered “Girls…” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” or something along those lines with a tongue-in-cheek kind of hubris. A cue to the audience not to take this too seriously. But the best cover songs are the ones that say, “Listen fucker. I didn’t write this song, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from my gut. I am dead serious about this and you are going to feel it!”

I was looking through my iPod to find some kick ass cover songs, but I couldn’t find that many that had the qualities that made me love The Cates so much.

I am sure there are much more out there, but the only one I really found was Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” covered by The Winter Blanket.

I am on a mission to find some more. And I will be checking out The Cates again. For sure.

(You can listen to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on The Cates myspace page.)