Link-o-rama

Boy, I don't know about you guys, but if I go for a week without checking Google Reader, it's damn near impossible to catch up. (And is it just me or does that "+" in the (1000+) header look extremely menacing?) So I spend an hour or two glancing at headlines and clicking the links that I should have been reading instead of being productive. Then I post them here. Sure it's old news by now, but any news is old after ten minutes in the modern age. Here's what has caught my eye as of late:

--Videogum rants about Bruno here.

--Chromewaves reminds us why we still care about 90s alt-rock here.

--Muzzle of Bees has 5 Questions with Jay Farrar of Son Volt here.

--A double dose of Band of Horses courtesy of Charleston City Paper: Word association and a full profile. We really love these guys...can you tell?

--One of my favorite pop bands, Audible, has a new disc out for a "name-your-own-price" download here. Chip in and help out a great band. You'll love 'em.

--And Stereo Subversion has an interview with the excellently-bearded Matisyahu here.

Link-o-rama! Yippee! Serious buyers only, please...

Live Review: Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, North Charleston Performing Arts Center, March 11, 2009

I don't go to many shows at venues that hold more than 500 people. So I already felt out of place at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center the night Ryan Adams and the Cardinals were set to play. The lobby at the 1000+ seat venue was overloaded with trampy sorority girls, bearded folkies, and more than four pregnant women in Ugg boots (?); all were sipping wine and mixed drinks that they paid WAY too much for. (Two Guinness for me and my friend ran a total of $15--you do the math.)

Like everyone else, we heard a rumor that the night before Mr. Adams wed his one-time teenage pop star fiance', Mandy Moore, but I didn't believe it until the woman beside me pulled up the story on MTV.com on her Blackberry. And I don't believe anything until MTV.com confirms it to be true. Taking the stage at 8:45 to shouts of "Congratulations!" and "Where's Mandy?" the band seemed relaxed and official sounding. The guitars were tuned and ringing, and the floor tom had enough bass to it to shake a ribcage loose from it's skin.

Adams stuck to his livelier, more focused albums for the set: Cold Roses, Easy Tiger, and Cardinology, with the occasional tune from Heartbreaker and the Love is Hell series. In one sense it was the most predictable set of songs one could imagine, but with an artist like Adams, sometimes predictability is exactly what you want. After a number of songs, though, Adams announced there were some problems with the in-ear monitors (apparently they were picking up a radio station) and took a short ten minute intermission before returning--only to discover that the problem had not gone away. But Adams promised to "persevere and make this awesome." I took him at his word, even when some of the rhythmic noodle-jams between him and guitarist Neal Casal went on way too long with no direction.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who seemed bored because Adams signaled out a woman about three rows back in a red dress who was less than enthusiastic about the band's show. "We've been rockin' so hard for you!" he pleaded. "And we're sorry we suck so bad." He then proceeded to serenade her with an impromptu song called, "We Suck." If it wasn't the highlight of the night, it was definitely a rare show of humor from an otherwise humorless, unstable artist.

The show crested after that; now we got more guitar noodling, and some safe songs. And I was just getting settled in when Adams announced that the next song was about "Satan and fucking." A thumping version of "Magick" was followed by the end of the show. "Thanks you guys for coming out," and the house lights went up.

I checked my watch: 10:20. Disbelief all around. Surely an encore? Nope. They're taking equipment down onstage. "That's it," my friend said. We headed for the car and listen to folks outside who were visibly seething at the lack of an encore. And I felt the same way; a piano went untouched onstage, almost no songs from Gold, and we got three Neal Casal songs. "I didn't pay to see a Neal Casal show," my friend said, and he dropped me off at home and decided to head to The Pour House to catch Lucero. He'd never seen them before and I tell him that, even if they play the worst show of their life, it's probably still better than the Ryan Adams show we saw.

The Setlist, as I heard it:
Beautiful Sorta
Born Into the Light
Cold Roses
Come Pick Me Up
Everybody Knows
Wonderwall
Neal Casal sings song #1
(brief intermission with house lights while in-ear monitors are fixed)
Fix It
Why Do They Leave?
Neal Casal sings song #2
Goodnight Rose
Shakedown On 9th St
We Suck (impromptu song)
Let It Ride
I See Monsters
Neal Casal sings song #3
Broadway
Mockingbird
Magick

Funniest, yet saddest, conversation overheard at the show:
"Dude, how about him playing Oasis? That was cool, right?"
"Yeah...are you sure that's an Oasis song? You sure it's not one his songs?"
(*note to reader, these two gentlemen were approximately my age, 28-32)
"I don't know man, it could be..."
"I'm pretty sure it is. It's on one of his albums."
"What...you think Oasis covered his song?"
"Yeah, probably. I mean he wrote that song 'Stars Go Blue'..."
"So you think he licensed his song to Oasis?"
"Yeah, definitely."
"That's awesome."

The local paper, Charleston City Paper, has a review that is a little less flattering in it's sentiment and also contains some incorrect information. Read it here.

And here's some shitty cell-phone pics of the stage:




Good luck with the writing career, Mr. Adams. I mean that sincerely.

Charleston :: Weekend Concerts

If you're going to be in sunny, hot-as-hell Charleston this weekend, the weekend is looking like a good one for live shows.

• Friday, August 8, you're on your own...though I suppose you could go to the Music Farm to see Mike Gordon, bassist for Phish. If that's what you're into.

• Saturday, August 9, Richard Lloyd and the SufiMonkey Trio will be playing at A Dough Re Mi. Lloyd and drummer Billy Ficca were 1/2 of Television. The City Paper has an interview and article on the band here.

• Sunday, August 10, The Hold Steady + The Loved Ones are at the Pour House. I don't need to say any more. The City Paper has an interview and article on the band here.

I'm out for Friday and Saturday, but I'll be out Sunday with my rock shoes on.

Almost Killed Me

Monday morning is gonna land on your head like a ton of bricks. At least it did for me. Here's some help procrastinating at work:

• Salon reviews The Hold Steady's "Stay Positive"
• Muzzle of Bees talks to Centro-matic's Will Johnson about "Dual Hawks"
• Charleston City Paper has a live review of Modest Mouse at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach
• You Ain't No Picasso interviews Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes
• The Onion asks the tough questions

...and my iTunes library just took me from Thelonious Monk Quartet to Third Eye Blind...I am currently attempting to adjust.

Ride the Feedback

Short one today, mostly because I forgot to post the setlist from the MPPA show on yesterday's post. Here it is:

last song
last light
from debris
honestly
so much trouble
several arrows later
the crush
people have a way
wild girl
giving it all away
sunlight
lily 2

encore:
the summer is coming
taught to look away
halloween

encore 2:
new hampshire

And, I've got to say, this link is funnier than hell if you enjoy the big, corporate-owned newspapers ending up with egg on their face. Thanks, Charleston City Paper for sticking it to them.

And, tonight at the North Charleston Coliseum...Anne Murray!
Sorry folks...it's sold out.