Archives for 2008 » October
Column from web archive October 21, 2008
Three to not forget: Valorie, Dao and Otis
No more humbling reminder of the impotence of the written word exists than the blank indifference of the marketplace. For 21 years now I have listened carefully to mounds and mounds of music, and sought venues in which to write about the songs and sounds which moved me. For a time I awaited a groundswell [...]
Record Review from web archive October 21, 2008
Lee Ann Womack’s not-so-easy country
Lee Ann Womack’s seventh album has a backstory. Her 2005 record There’s More Where That Came From was the strongest artistic statement of her career, a shrewdly crafted album that did well with the critics and also sounded great on the radio. But in 2006 she moved from her longtime label MCA over to Mercury, [...]
Column from web archive October 20, 2008
Squeezing out sparks from
the modern music marketplace
Whatever other factors may have contributed to the recent collapse of mail-order distributor Miles of Music, it’s hard not to see it simply as more detritus of the ongoing fireworks display of options for music consumers – colorful, exciting, changing almost minute to minute. For years, Miles of Music advertising was a fixture of the [...]
Record Review from web archive October 19, 2008
Gary Heffern
Gary Heffern sure made a lot of friends in his migration up the west coast, from his late-’70s proto-Americana compatriot Country Dick Montana in San Diego punkers the Penetrators, to Seattle-area acquaintances Scott McCaughey, Eddie Vedder and Mark Arm. Heffern, who now lives in Finland, released three albums in the early ’90s (Bald Tires In [...]
Record Review from web archive October 18, 2008
Band Of Annuals
A five-song stopgap between their well-received 2007 album Let Me Live and follow-up long-player currently in the works, this EP is apparently only available at the Band Of Annuals’ live shows. All the more reason to go see them: In addition to being one of the most promising alt-country bands working the national club circuit [...]
Column from web archive October 17, 2008
Randy Newman’s feel-good music for the new depression
YOU KNEW THAT HE WOULD: In the nine years since his previous release of new material, Randy Newman must have become overly associated with those animated Pixar flicks. How else to explain this past weekend’s concert introduction by a chirpy radio woman who promised an evening of music that would “make you feel good…swing and [...]
Record Review from web archive October 17, 2008
Cuchillo
It’s a dark romance that Cuchillo plies with Israel Marco’s supple guitar swooning and delicate fills. And it’s as alluring as parts unknown. Mystical seascapes give way to desert drones; a lolling drum tattoo may yield to the snaps of maracas. The Barcelona duo refers to their music as “psychedelic folk rock experimental,” but that’s [...]
Column from web archive October 16, 2008
Death, politics, and other bundles of joy
Cowpunk, Revisited: Anyone who thinks alt-country has suffered from an excess of delicacy and earnestness in the post-O Brother years can take heart: Two new upstarts are currently serving up authentic-ish approximations of classic cowpunk. The New York five-piece O’Death (named for the folk standard popularized most recently by Ralph Stanley, which is a good [...]
Record Review from web archive October 16, 2008
Portastatic
This trunk-clearing two-disc compilation includes covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Magnetic Fields, Ryan Adams, electro-pop group Hot Chip, ’80s-vintage cheese-pop band Prefab Sprout, and old Irish punkers the Undertones. And yet that range of names still doesn’t even begin to hint at the range of Portastatic, which has evolved from Superchunk guitarist Mac McCaughan’s [...]
Live Reviews from web archive October 16, 2008
Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe was his dapper, dry-witted self on his first visit to Cleveland in more than a decade. Lowe, who taped an upcoming episode of Austin City Limits last week and appeared on A Prairie Home Companion over the weekend, explained that he wasn’t “on tour” per se, and consequently offered to play material from [...]
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