The bulk of BUG Live at 9:30 Club was shot by six fans who won an online contest to interview Dinosaur Jr. and film them performing their third album, 1988’s Bug, in its entirety at the legendary DC club in June of last year. The subtitle of “in the hands of the fans” isn’t just appropriate considering the film’s production, though. In the hands of fans from way back is the best place for the DVD. (more…)
It somehow doesn’t feel like it, but Toward The Low Sun marks the first proper full-length from Dirty Three in seven years, as well as the Australian trio’s first record for Drag City. For better or worse, it may be exactly what fans of the band were expecting: It sounds . . . well, pretty much exactly like a Dirty Three record—any Dirty Three record. After such a long wait though, it’s surprising how predictable a record it is. While there’s no denying that Toward The Low Sun is an achingly beautiful piece of work, it doesn’t expand much on the band’s aesthetic or break any particularly new ground for them. (more…)
If there’s one good thing that can be said for what turned out to be a furthering of turbulent and dark days the world over, 2011 was at the very least a good year for music. A great year, even. (more…)
To trot out, once again, the nearing-cliche bit about The Fall said by the late John Peel, “they are always the same; they are always different.” Simple wisdom from Peel regarding the Fall, and always applicable: Ersatz G.B. is no different in that regard. Whether that’s a good thing or not is entirely up to the listener. (more…)
The concept of the “sophomore slump” may be a tired old critical cliché, but it’s applicable often enough that when a band with a great debut gets around to that second record, one may find oneself a bit nervous. Thankfully, Peggy Sue—whose Fossils and Other Phantoms was likely the best debut album of last year—have not only avoided the second record hex, they’ve completely obliterated it. It’s difficult to recall another sophomore effort that so masterfully retained the best of its creators’ aesthetic while expounding upon it by orders of magnitude; the example that springs to mind is Castanets’ First Light’s Freeze, and like that record, Acrobats may well stand as a modern classic. (more…)
In the exhaustive (and frankly exhausting) world of Internet forum guitar dorkery, few topics seem as sure-fire a heated debate-starter as the mere mention of Fender’s output in the halcyon days of the 1970s. To be fair, even in the mesozoic Internet days of the late ’90s, when I was working in a mostly-vintage-and-used guitar/hi-fi shop, plenty of—ahem—discussion was to be heard nearly any day of the week when it came to Fenders of that period. (more…)
You may have already heard that PJ Harvey has won the UK’s 2011 Mercury Music Prize for her most recent album, Let England Shake, but what you may not know is that she is the first person to win the award twice. Additionally, she was the first female to win the award ten years ago for her outstanding 2001 album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea.
Watch her performance of “The Words That Maketh Murder” at the Mercury Prize ceremony on September 6.
We reviewedLet England Shake on the Popshifter blog back in February, with J Howell saying that it “will likely stand the test of time as one of the finest, perhaps even one of the most important, records of the early twenty-first century.”
On September 12, 2011, PJ Harvey will release an exclusive iTunes Session which can be pre-ordered on the iTunesStore. The EP features seven recently recorded live tracks along with an interview. It also includes four songs from Let England Shake as well as three of her most widely acclaimed songs from past albums.
iTunes Session track listing:
1. Let England Shake
2. The Words That Maketh Murder
3. The Last Living Rose
4. Written On The Forehead
5. Angelene
6. C’Mon Billy
7. Down By The Water
8 – Interview –
Says Harvey of her win, “I feel surprised and astonished that I’ve won twice and I do feel proud, it’s amazing, I can’t quite take it in but at the same time I feel that making music and words is very important to me and I’ve always tried to make it the best it could possibly be and I hope to continue doing that. I hope to be back here again in another 10 years’ time with another record because it’s very important to me to keep making word that is of relevance, not just to myself but to other people.”
It’s a rare thing when a band comes along whose music is an instant game-changer, the kind of band that’s simultaneously comfortable but complex; easily understandable but somehow nearly indescribable, like an old friend. The Middle East is just that. (Well, was . . . more on that in a moment.) (more…)
Jennifer Charles made me a fan the first time I heard “Mr. Cardiac,” a song she sang on the first Firewater record, Get Off The Cross, We Need The Wood For The Fire.
Charles’ breathy, sultry singing paired with Tod Ashley’s brilliant, incisive lyrics was one of many high points on that record, and I had to hear more. A couple of years later, I found an EP of her band, Elysian Fields, a collaboration with Oren Bloedow and a revolving cast of Downtown New York luminaries, including Marc Ribot. (more…)
I became instantly curious about Julie Baenziger’s Sea of Bees a couple of months ago, after seeing a half-page ad for Songs For The Ravens in every audio geek’s bimonthly bible, Tape Op magazine. Being an almost-obsessive Sparklehorse fan, I knew any band compared to Sparklehorse would quickly make the top of my must-check-out list. After reading a bit about Sea of Bees and checking out a YouTube clip of “Skinnybone,” I had to hear more.
As it turns out, there’s more of a connection between Tape Op and Sea of Bees than an ad. (more…)
