Music Snobbery

Third Edition of AM Gold or Yacht Rock?

I'll post a few songs, you give your opinion if you think it's in the AM Gold genre or Yacht Rock genre. There's no both. It's one or the other.

We'll start with unappreciated singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. He's best known for Stealers Wheel, his band with Joe Egan, who recorded the Top 10 song "Stuck in the Middle With You" in 1972. As solo artist, he took his experience busking on the London tube system and made the memorable No. 2 smash, "Baker Street"

For our little informal survey, I bring up his second most popular solo song, "Right Down The Line". It goes something like this,

You know I need your love
You've got that hold over me
Long as I've got your love
You know that I'll never leave
When I wanted you to share my life
I had no doubt in my mind
And it's been you woman
Right down the line

So is the song more AM Gold or Yacht Rock?

I was at dinner on Sunday and this song was played in the restaurant. It doesn't need much of an intro. "If you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me. UHHHHHH OOOHHHHH OHHHHHHH. No baby please dont go."

Peter Cetera probably can sing it better than I could. "If You Leave Me Now" was a No. 1 hit for Chicago in 1976.

Every time I hear the song, I think of the scene in Three Kings where it's played in the desert.

So is the song more AM Gold or Yacht Rock?

By the way, where the hell is Pete these days? I heard there was going to be a Karate Kid remake, so that means somebody needs to cover "Glory of Love".

Finally, we have America, with their classic smooth tune, "You Can Do Magic." This song is pretty much engrained in my brain thanks to steady dose of adult contemporary I was forced to listen to as a wee lad. Magic 103 WMGK Philadelphia is responsible for my adoration of yacht rock and 70s singer-songwriter music.

Fastest Three Minutes in Music Blogging: Tour News and Random Thoughts

I use do these when I was stumped at to what to write tonight and when I'm pressed for time. So there are just kick hit thoughts and tidbits:

* Princess Snaggletooth Jewel is stopping by The Wellmont Theatre in February to save our souls, and the lies that we told. Also added to the Wellmont's lineup, a real favorite of mine, Pink Martini, who I saw last year in Paris.

* Guess who will be opening up for The Ting Tings are their big U.K. tour? Ladyhawke. In my delusional world, I had a hand in the pairing. I know, I'll shut up.

* Titus Andronicus added a headlining show on Jan. 14 at Maxwell's.

* If all goes as planned, The National should be releasing an album early next year on Beggers Banquet. It was recorded in their own studio that they built.

* Retro Asian pop band Dengue Fever will be heading out on tour in January around these parts. One date that has been announced is Maxwell's on Jan. 10.

* Muse takes over for Smashing Pumpkins in the new Watchmen trailer. Another reason for Billy Corgan to be pissed off.

* Recently added band names to the Canonical List of Weird Band Names include Discount Methlab, The AquaFaggots, Urethra Franklin and The Sweatpant Boners.

* The lovely people of Lucky Soul made New York Magazine in their Approval Matrix. They are brilliant and slightly below middlebrow. The scored better than Joaquin Phoenix's non-existent music career and Shirley Manson's acting career. 

*  Finally, Rough Trade released their Top 50 albums of the year. Bon Ivor tops the list, they usual pick an album that more acoustic Last year, it was Alela Devine's The Pirates Gospel.

1. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Fleet Foxes
3. Vampire Weekend
4. White Denim, Workout Holiday
5. Metronomy, Nights Out
6. El Guincho, Alegranza
7. Benga, Diary of an Afro Warrior
8. Zombie Zombie, A Land of Renegades
9. Vivian Girls
10. Ladyhawke

A.C. Newman / The Oranges Band / Bird of Youth @ The Bell House

 

On Saturday night, it was time to catch up with Senor Carl Newman, lead singer and mastermind behind The New Pornographers. It's been 3 1/2 years since he's played solo or worked on a non-NP album. With two of my favorite ladies supporting on stage and on the album, he showed why he's one of the most prolific and consistent pop songwriters in music.

The night was a chance for him to debut new material from his second solo album, Get Guilty, which will be out on Matador on January 20. Like his first solo work, The Slow Wonder, the music is not that far off the New Pornographers material. The songs are catchy and concise and the lyrics are full of witticisms and cryptic meanings. The tempos are a slight step slower than the average NP song, but you can definitely see Carl's formula in both his solo work and the NP albums. The obvious main difference is that he gets to call all the shots, as suppose to sharing songwriting duties with Neko Case and Dan Bejar.  

Knowing Carl, he let his Canadian sense of humor peak out once in a while. He joked about getting a bunch of money from Starbucks for recording two songs for a Valentine Day's compilation and he has no problem taking money from the coffee giant. One song was A-ha's "Take On Me," which he didn 't play (he did a Go-Betweens cover instead), but sounds like an interesting choice. His unplanned encore, where he explained that he played every solo song his know, was "The Fake Headlines".

So I felt like a proud poppa as Nicole played the part of Stevie Nicks to Carl's Lindsey Buckingham and my homegirl Tara broke out her violin. My girls are all grows up! If Carl would like to enlist my alto saxophone playing abilities, I would be more than happy to help ... for a modest fee.

This is my first time at The Bell House, the new Brooklyn venue by the makers of Union Hall. I love it. It's located a few blocks away from Park Slope in the Gowanus section of town, obviously within earshot of the Gowanus Expressway. The joint is situated away from the residential area among warehouse and bus depot. Inside, it's like a fancy barn with chandeliers. It's bigger than I thought it would be, but they really did a nice job. It's spacious, easy to get around and plenty of bar space. They even sell meat pies, and one of the Red Hook vendors sells some strange Mexican food outside. No complaints about the place at all.

 

 

 

 

 

Two decent opening acts on the bill. In the middle was Baltimore band, The Oranges Band. It was the first act I've ever seen that had the lead singer's dad come on up on stage to announce that he's selling merch in the back. As for the band, they are a straight forward hard-rocking indie rock band.

 

 

Starting the night off was new local act Bird of Youth, whose debut album was produced of Will Sheff of Okkervil River. The music is similar in tone to Sheff's work, roots rocky in the vein of early Wilco. It took a couple of songs for the band to come together, but they have a good, easy going sound.

 

Nicole Atkins & The Sea / Salt & Samovar / Nouvellas @ Bowery Ballroom

 

The theme for my weekend concert activities was about seeing all my rowdy friends. Again, sometimes this space is just used to pimp my peops. In any event, the show was major fun, good laughs and good times. I don't hang with no slouches.

Nicole is winding down her touring activities to focus on album No. 2 for Columbia. She's wanted to do more psychedelic rock material, and the new material does lean in that direction. A new song called "The Tower" is like Doors as fronted by Janis Joplin epic. It's going be sweet when it gets to the studio. She has a little country ditties up her sleeve.

For "Neptune City," she asked the crowd to sit down like it was story. It's funny how we both thought of the Jim Jones 30th anniversary and the CNN special that was on. Eerie.

Last time she played Bowery, she broke out a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," which is my favorite moment during one of her concerts. This time around, she was joined by the opening acts and Carl Newman for Derek and The Dominos' "Bell Bottom Blues."

A little sad news for this show as this was Dan "Cashmere" Chen's last show with the band. He's been with The Sea from the beginning and he and his sexiness will be missed. We here at Team Atkins salute him and wish him well.

As a side note, and as a inside joke for all who were there, "I LOVE YOU, NICOLE!!!!!" The dude only screamed twice between every song. *rolling my eyes*, so that was 26 times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salt & Samovar are in the midst of recording their second album as well. I guarantee it will be hot. Do yourself a favor and follow their progress. Their are damn good and are just getting better.

 

 

Nouvellas, a familiar name in this space, started things off on Friday night. They've got a 7" for "Satisfied" floating around at their show and the internets. It's soul music to feed your, ummm, soul

 

Souled Out: Film Completed About Wigan Casino

Here's a little motion picture that should make some people happy.

The Wigan Casino was the center of the Northern Soul movement in the 1970s England. You can compare it to Studio 54 and disco. The Casino was the place where the working class blokes of Manchester would don their best clothes, head to the dance floor, dance until 6am, hook up and take various drugs. The documentary short, This Is England, chronicles the scene. The whole thing is on YouTube (thank you YouTube gods!). The doc should be well known to Doves fans because it plays as background projection during "Here It Comes."

In any event, a fictional film was completed recently called Souled Out (IMDB listing). It's basically a coming-of-age story using the Wigan Casino as a backdrop. Although the real location burned down in 1982, King's Hall in Stoke-on-Trent was used in place. Mostly unknowns are in the films, save pop star and lad magazine favorite Jennifer Ellison.

The soundtrack will feature Paul Weller, Duffy, Mark Ronson and The Dap-Kings. The movie should debut at 2009 Cannes Film Festival in May.

I highly endorse this project. I'm thinking of a Saturday Night Fever-type film where there's wall-to-wall music and lot of dancing scenes. Similar to the moves below....

Los Campesinos and Titus Andronicus Join for Tour of Awesomeness

The pride of Cardiff, Waves and Northern New Jersey are teaming up to indie rock this land of ours into submission. L.C. will be promoting their second album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (although the band considers it an EP)  and T.A. will be re-releasing The Airing of Grievances on XL.

January 15 -- Baltimore, MD: Ottobar
January 16 -- Carrboro, NC: Cat's Cradle
January 17 -- Atlanta, GA: The Earl
January 19 -- Jacksonville, FL: Jack Rabbits
January 21 -- Tallahassee, FL: Club Downunder
January 24 -- Nashville, TN: Exit/In
January 25 -- Memphis, TN: Hi Tone Cafe
January 27 -- New Orleans, LA: One Eyed Jacks
January 29 -- Houston, TX: Walter's On Washington
January 30 -- Austin, TX: The Parish
January 31 -- Dallas, TX: Club Dada
February 3 -- Lawrence, KS: The Bottleneck
February 4: St Louis, MO: The Gargoyle
February 6: Madison, WI: Der Rathskeller
February 7: Chicago, IL: Logan Square Auditorium
February 10: Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin College
February 11: Columbus, OH: Wexner Centre for the Arts
February 12: Swarthmore, PA: Olde Club
February 13: Boston, MA: Paradise Rock Club
February 14-15: New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom

Previously:

• Interview time with L.C. (Aug. 2007)
• Los Campesinos hit up Mercury Lounge and discover crowd surfing (Aug 2007)
• L.C. and their New Jersey debut (May 2008)
• Titus was in middle of an awesome bill at Maxwell's (Oct. 2008)

The Decemberists / Loch Lomond @ The Wellmont Theatre: Yes We Did!

 

Now, Montclair is the coolest New Jersey town outside of Hoboken. We've received the Colin Meloy stamp of approval. Somebody give this man the keys to the city.

This was the show that answered the all important question about the new Wellmont, if they had a cool act that you and I would see, would people get their butt to the joint. I am happy to report that a robust audience came to our neck of the woods to sing "July, July".

The Decemberists have been out and about this fall to road test some new material from their fifth studio album, Hazards of Love, and their singles releases, Always The Bridesmaid. Hazards should be out on Capitol in 2009. One of the new singles is about outed U.S. spy, Valerie Plame.

This being my fifth time seeing the Portland powerhouse, it just doesn't get old or tired seeing them live. It's always a joy to see the crew and they are good for a few chuckles.

The setlist:

• Shanty for the Arethusa
• July, July
• Valerie Plame
• On the Bus Mall
• The Bachelor and The Bride
• The Crane Wife 3
• Apology Song
• Days of Elaine
• Record Year for Rainfall
• O Valencia!
• Culling of the Fold
• Chimbly Sweep
• Sixteen Military Wives
• ENCORE: Raincoat Song
• Eli, The Barrow Boy
• Sons & Daughters

Colin was undoubtedly in a celebratory mood with the end our national nightmare coming to a close. I think any show you see from now until January will have some sort of political triumph mention. Thus, Meloy encouraged the crowd to chant "Yes we can" during the extended version of 16 Military Wives.

The leader was back in a chatty, goofy mode. Last time I saw him in Philadelphia, something was seriously amiss where he barely said anything interesting. In fact, tonight might have been the first time in the Wellmont's new era that a performer came into the crowd. During "Culling of the Fold," CM took to the floor, grabbed a guy's cell phone and yelled the chorus into the phone. That was nifty. Even when Colin screwed up the lyrics for a few songs, he still does it with a wide smile on his face. I think that's why I return to see the band, to see what goofy business the band has up its sleeve. One of tonight's tricks was Decemberists collaborator, Rachel Blumberg, being dragged onto the stage to chime in on "Chimbly Sweep."

As a side note, I think Colin and Gibbard made a bet to see who could grow the worst looking muttonchops. I'm thinking Benjamin has the edge.

Previously:

• Decemberists with the Mann Music Center Orchestra, Philly (July 2007)
• The band's last Jersey appearance in Jersey City, March (March 2007)
• Back when the band were indie label darling, Webster Hall (October 2005)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fellow Portland band Loch Lomond has been tagging along this tour. They were good enough to warrant mentioning, even thought they sound similar to the Decemberists, maybe meaning towards the Sufjan Stevens vein. The band plays that lush, lyrical chamber music/new folk that seems to spill out easily from the Pacific Northwest. When the band all joined in with their various strings and guitars, they had a gospel/spiritual quality that I found refreshing.

 

 

 

 

Coming Soon: That's The Band's Name

Another band name that could easily find its way to a "Who's on First" routine.

You: "This sounds good. Who is this?"

Me: "Coming Soon."

You: "Urrrrrr, when you going to tell me?"

Me: "No, it's Coming Soon."

You: "Like today or tomorrow?"

Me: "The name of the band is Coming Soon."

You: "From where?"

Me: "France."

You: "The name of the band is coming from France?"

Me: "No, it's not Coming From France, It's Coming Soon."

You get the point. These ladies and lads out twee your favorite twee pop band. For those who think The Boy Least Likely To is too cutesy-cutesy or Los Campesinos is too frantic for your tastes, than Coming Soon is the happy medium. The large collective have plenty of instruments swimming around to make some delightful, quirky and catchy songs. Add in a little country-western twang or some Pavement/Moldy Peaches musings on a few songs and you have the Coming Soon experience.

On Wednesday, they'll be opening up for MGMT and Fleet Foxes at L'Olympia in Paris, which is a good thing for exposure, but I do admit they might get lost among those two power house bands.

While we see if they get a following, you can download their debut album, New Grids, via iTunes in the US.

In the meantime, check out their video for "Big Boy."

Nic Harcourt Steps Down from Morning Becomes Eclectic

A little sad news came in this morning with the annoucement that my man Nic Harcourt will leave KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic and as the station's music director. He will stay on as a DJ with a Sunday 6-9pm PST shift.

Nic says in a statement:

“Since I arrived here, I’ve fulfilled many of my dreams as a music lover, meeting and interviewing legends like Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson and Cat Stevens (Yusuf). I’ve also been able to set the stage for future stars, introducing artists like Coldplay, Damien Rice, Dido and Norah Jones on KCRW’s airwaves. I’m equally proud to have played many unsigned and independent artists and to be a champion for Latin Alternative music.” 
 
“As a parent of two young children, I believe it’s time for me to explore new career opportunities and expand upon my other activities in movie, television, voice over work, advertising and the Internet.” 
 
“My heartfelt thanks and gratitude go to KCRW, the staff and volunteers who have supported my work through the years, but most of all to the listeners.  I’ve always said that I couldn’t do what I do without them and I hope they will join me on Sunday nights,” said Harcourt.

I, like many of you, depend on his insight and the show to discover the next big things and to hear bands that you and I love. He's made KCRW the finest NPR station in the land.

Before Nic, KCRW's music director was Chris Douridas, who was influential in his own right. He went on to become a Hollywood soundtrack supervisor and AOL Music consultant, while still having his own show. So I expect that Nic will have some similar tricks up his sleeves, as long as people forget that whole Love Monkey job.

As for the show, I would like to put my name in the ring as the new host of Morning Becomes Eclectic. I certainly have a face made for radio and the music taste that is in tune with the NPR crowd. If not, might I suggest a new show featuring all goth and death metal. It will be called Mourning Becomes Eclectic.

Top 5 Things That Need To Stop Happening In Music

These are right off the top of my head. I'm having Blogger's Block tonight:

5. Classic rock bands selling out to Guitar Hero/Rock Band and saying that video games are bringing their music to a new generation of fans. As we all know, kids don't have ears and have never heard of Jimi Hendrix before the age of 12.

4. Anything involving Katy "I've Got Bigger Tits Than Gwen Stefani With None of the Talent" Perry, who is the frontrunner of my Top 5 Pieces of Crap Flung Upon the American Public in 2008.

3. Bands sending out pointless myspace alerts. It's gotten to point where bands will send out a bulletin to alert friends of a spelling correction.

2. Blur reunion rumors. I've had enough. Do it next year or don't do it at all. There's no shame in calling it a day.

1. Rick rolling. It wasn't funny two years ago and it's not funny now.