Bettye LaVette’s first record in many years, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, introduced her to many Triple A radio listeners in 2005 — though she had been making music for decades. Her pained, churning vocals took us through some brilliantly reinvented covers, from Dolly Parton’s “Little Sparrow” to Fiona Apple’s “Sleep to Dream.” She takes a different tack on her new release, Scene of the Crime, employing the Drive-By Truckers (complete with new member Spooner Oldham) as her backing band, resulting in a delicious, gritty Muscle Shoals-style sound. Hear samples and the full story in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
Friday October 26th 2007, 10:46 am
Filed under: Americana
Posted by: Leslie
After a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, Mike Farris had a graveside revelation in the winter of 2004 — he was going to get clean, and quickly, with the aid of his family, his church, and his songwriting. He turned to the music of his roots (“When I was growing up, we had five records in my family . . . and three of them were by Johnny Cash. I didn’t realize how much that stuff was ingrained in my being.”) and infused it with the deep spirituality of Southern gospel. The result is a gem of an album called Salvation in Lights. Julia Clarke will tell you more.
Rilo Kiley has long been a darling of indie rock fans and critics alike. They made a bold move with their new record, Under the Blacklight, letting their pop sensibilities take over, sounding by turns like the Jackson 5, disco-era Diana Ross, with even a hint of the best of the Go-Gos. Luckily for us, the record succeeds with flying colors, banking on the crystalline purity of Jenny Lewis’s voice. Hear more in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
In less than two months since the street date, Rilo Kiley has sold over 77,400 copies of Under the Blacklight, with no sign of fading. In fact, due to a combination of the 52/52 campaign at MTV and front page “What’s Hot” selection at iTunes, the band has seen a vast jump in sales for both the album and individual tracks. (The album jumped 131% in sales, selling 2,730 albums this week, up from 1,179 last week; the track “Silver Lining” jumped 208%, selling 7,379 tracks this week, up from 2,396 in the previous week.)
Thursday October 18th 2007, 11:32 am
Filed under: Livewire
Posted by: Melanie
Rather troublingly, I have managed to live my entire 26 years on this Earth without ever seeing Bob Dylan live, despite having found enormous inspiration in his music. Of all the artists I’d desire to see as much as Dylan, the rest of them have long since passed. So, when I saw his co-headlining tour with Elvis Costello was coming to Albany, I decided to head north for the evening to fulfill a couple of ambitions. I was particularly taken with the idea of seeing the two singular artists share a bill, as both make timeless music, and both have taken on new relevance for each subsequent generation. In this respect I was not disappointed.
Elvis Costello took the stage first, armed with just an acoustic guitar, and easily commandeered the 7000-person audience. Showcasing perfectly preserved vocals, and his trademark stark yet heavy-handed (in the best sense) guitar work, his songs are as powerful today as ever. Throw in his eloquent satire between songs, and there couldn’t have been a better prelude to Dylan.
Costello began the set with “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” a song that started his recording career in 1977. Thirty years and almost as many albums later, Costello’s personal priorities may have changed, but the issues close to his heart are all too familiar. Now in his mid-50s, he lives in L.A. as a permanent U.S. resident, meaning he doesn’t get a vote (but, as he points out, he pays taxes). His infant twin sons, who turned 10 months old last Saturday night, are U.S. citizens, a fact that brings him a certain glee: “I quite like the sound of President Frank and Vice President Dexter.” He dined in the same L.A. restaurant as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last week, and he told us what he would have said if he had been able to get past the bodyguards: “You can never be president. But my son can.”
Love and politics have always been central to Costello’s music, and his performance showed that for all that has changed in his life and the world since his first release, much remains the same. Or, if you prefer: same song, different war. Though it was impressive to hear the classics “Veronica” and “Blue Chair,” it was songs like “Oliver’s Army,” “The River in Reverse,” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?” that spoke directly to our current state of affairs. It is as much his delivery as his songs that makes Costello consistently relevant; his performance is so rousing and his witty stage banter so sharp and articulate that his form of political protest comes across as persuasive and contemporary, not merely angry.
Costello played two new songs, “Sulphur to Sugar Cane” and the closer, “The Scarlet Tide,” both of which he co-wrote with T-Bone Burnett. The latter, which was sung by Alison Krauss for the Cold Mountain soundtrack, tells the story of a woman left a widow by war, who feels that questioning her country is the act of a traitor. “I would call that the act of a patriot,” Costello argued.
Though Costello’s political tone was welcomed by the crowd, the moments when he paid homage to his peers were among the most memorable. In addition to including a fragment of John Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier” during “Either Side of the Same Town,” the set’s crowning moment was easily “Radio Sweetheart,” the first song Costello ever recorded, which segued into a rendition of Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile).”
While Costello the Entertainer shone between songs, Dylan characteristically let his music do the talking, also delivering a spectacular show. He took to the stage dressed in a long black coat and black gaucho hat (which he later traded for a white version), his five-piece backing band adorned in crimson suits. He is still technically promoting Modern Times, and though he began the set with “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” he set the pace for the evening by transforming it into an almost unrecognizable blues and rockabilly number, in the same vein as the new album.
I’ve read and heard that Dylan performs better the closer he is to his Woodstock home, and seeing him live less than hour from there, I believe it. Adopting a wide-legged stance, he played electric guitar for the first three songs: after the opener came a countrified but fairly true version of “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” followed by “Watching the River Flow.” After that Dylan alternately growled and purred his way through “Ain’t Talkin,” “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” “Things Have Changed,” and others, his gravelly voice backed by one of the best live bands on the road today. It’s easy to see why Dylan is the oldest artist in history to have debuted at #1 (with Modern Times): he is one cool cat. He prowled around his electric keyboard, he killed on his harmonica solos, and then pointedly brought us back to reality as he concluded with “Masters of War.”
Predictably, he didn’t interact with the audience, instead bringing the lights down between songs — presumably so we couldn’t steal his secret recipe. But when the band returned after a lengthy applause for the encore, he did finally break his silence to introduce the band and play “Thunder on the Mountain,” which I’d been anxiously awaiting all night. As the show ended with “All Along the Watchtower,” I was finally able to tear my gaze away and examine the crowd, which I happily noted contained a whole new generation of Dylan and Costello fans who could grow up to become anything. Maybe even President.
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind
This is the scariest political thriller I’ve read in years — scary because it recounts how the Bush administration created their plan to fight the so-called “War on Terror”. Based on Dick Cheney’s conviction that we take out anyone suspected of potential aggression even if there’s but a one percent chance that what we suspect is true, we end up with two wars in the Middle East in an effort to root out jihadists. This book reads like a novel but sets in like a plague. It follows a cast of characters who have all become household names through day-to-day meetings, as well as the constant battle between the Departments of State and Defense and the various intelligence agencies leading up to the wars. Behind it all is the belligerent, pugnacious and highly secretive Vice President, with a boss in so far over his head that you find yourself gripping the book cover harder and harder and hoping you’ll wake up.
Bell X1 is a terrific Dublin-based band, but they’re not yet well-known outside their home country. Many of you may be hearing about them for the first time as the force behind the Cake Sale project — members Brian Crosby and Paul Noonan came up with the idea of the Oxfam benefit and collaborative album. Others may know them from their days in Damien Rice’s first band, Juniper.
Their new record is called Flock, and it’s set to be released by Yep Roc early next year. It’s already out in Ireland, where it went straight to #1 on the pop chart (their previous record went double platinum and had four #1 singles). We love this song, “Rocky Took a Lover,” and its video:
Bettye LaVette’s new record, The Scene of the Crime, is an autobiographical look at the long hard road the artist has traveled. Collaborators the Drive-By Truckers (complete with new member Spooner Oldham) help to make the music raw and direct.
The album was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Bettye recorded a 1972 album, Child of the Seventies, that was shelved for 30 years. In this video, she tells her story and lets us know how she’s gotten to where she is now.
I downloaded the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, on Wednesday, and not surprisingly it took a while. Not only has it been four years since they released anything, but when you offer an album for free, there’s bound to be a few million fans that will try to take you up on the offer. All at once, in this case.
After fulfilling their six-album deal with Capitol Records in 2003 with Hail to the Thief, the band decided to cut out the middle man and release their new album independently. What’s innovative about their decision is the mode of delivery that they eventually settled on. As of Wednesday, the music is available, but the only way you can get it is to download it from their web site, paying as much or as little as you want. There are conflicting reports — even amongst the band’s management and spokespeople — over whether the project will at any point be released on CD.
It doesn’t need to be stated that the recording industry has been in a digital music-induced tailspin recently, and I’m sure that a band of the magnitude of Radiohead offering their new music for free won’t seem like the most comforting turn of events to some. On the plus side, when you think about it, they are offering all of us some invaluable market research. Industry insiders and critics alike have speculated for years about how the digital revolution will affect everything from consumer behavior to label and artist profit, and today we have a real live experiment to help us come up with some answers. How far can a song go with just the internet and word of mouth? How much do people think music is worth? When music is technically free, will people still pay for it? (Record of the Day, a U.K.-based company, has created a web site where consumers can volunteer the amount they paid for In Rainbows. The company has promised to report back on the average amount at the end of October). I’ve just taken a look at a BBC chatroom on the subject, and many fans say that they have paid 40 pounds sterling — $80 — for the forthcoming box set, which includes an immediate download upon purchase. If it does turn out that people are still willing to play quite a lot for music when they could have it for free, how will that affect the RIAA’s lawsuits against illegal file sharing claiming loss of income?
In the U.S. alone, Radiohead has two gold albums, three platinum discs, and, in OK Computer, a double platinum release. Needless to say, they probably don’t need more money. With In Rainbows, if they follow through with their claims that they’ll only offer it online (not counting box set sales), they’ll take 100% of whatever profit they make and much more if they follow up with a tour. (The Police have so far been happy to stick with touring since they reunited, grossing $107 million in the first leg.)
If Radiohead’s new venture is a financial success, there is obviously the possibility that more major artists coming to the end of their contracts could follow suit and simply release their music on their own web sites — for free; for less than the cost of a traditional CD; or for less than $0.99 per individual song download. Although it seems probable that fledgling bands will still pursue record deals and the marketing and promotional advantages they carry, the implications for major labels can be read as ominous.
I am equally interested in how this may affect radio. Triple A, a relative latecomer to downloading music for airplay using digital delivery services, seemed to turn a corner this fall, as many major releases — Mark Knopfler, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few — were serviced digitally, with hard copies of full CDs following much later. This move forced the hand of many stations that had previously opted not to use digital download services, since their only other option was to choose to begin playing major releases a month later than other stations in their markets. American radio has long had the luxury of receiving free product, which is, let’s face it, an anomaly in corporate America. What would happen if major acts — Radiohead, U2, Coldplay — decided to release their music independently and/or online, and to charge less for it? Would radio be willing to pay for the music? Would they steal it? Or would they choose to ignore these releases?
We’ve been anticipating the day when record labels release all promotional music to radio digitally for a while, but will a world where radio must actively seek or even pay for music turn us all on our heads? I heard lots of music from In Rainbows on several Triple A stations that I streamed online these last few days. It helped me keep the faith that when the band is big enough, and the music is good enough, radio will always be there.
Montreal’s Patrick Watson has won some of the biggest and most prestigious Canadian music prizes this year for his new record, Close to Paradise, which offers a suite of enchanting songs. Don’t miss the boat!
