Fugitive

So my concert story brag bar none - WAY back in maybe 1993/94 I saw David Gray (solo) open for Radiohead in this tiny club (downstairs at Pearl Street for those of you who are Western Massachusetts inhabitants) where the stage is just set against the wall and the band walks through the crowd to get to it. Yea. What a show.

What brings this memory back you ask? Well David is set to release his latest album, titled Draw the Line (pictured above), next month on the 22nd. The first single for it, Fugitive, is out, and you can stream it below (as well as purchase it here on Amazon.com, or pre-order the entire album)

• Fugitive by David Gray

More David Gray music on iLike

I haven't heard the new album myself, yet, but am planning on getting a copy to check out. In the meantime, here are a few older covers and favorites as well as some tour dates:


David Gray - Long Black Veil (live Lefty Frizzell cover) : 2007-12-10 - KCRW Radio FM Broadcast

David Gray - And It Stoned Me (live Van Morrison cover) : 2003-01-27 - Air Canada Centre Theatre

David Gray - Black Dog (live Led Zeppelin cover) : 2001-05-15 - Fillmore Auditorium

David Gray - Now and Always : Life In Slow Motion

Visit his website, his label Downtown / Mercer Street Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

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Upcoming Tour Dates

August 15 - Mountain Music Fest - Redmond, Washington (PRE RELEASE)
October 23rd - Boston, MA - Wang Theatre
October 24th - New York, NY - WAMU Theater
October 26th - Toronto, Canada - Massey Hall
October 27th - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
October 29th - Chicago, IL - Chicago Auditorium Theatre
October 30th - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
November 1st - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
November 2nd - Salt Lake City, UT - Kingsbury Hall
November 4th - Portland, OR - Arlene Schnizer Concert Hall
November 7th - Oakland, CA - Paramount Theatre
November 9th - Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre

World We're In

Soul Assassins (feat. Cynic) - World We're In : Soul Assassins - Intermission

Visit their website, their label Gold Dust Media, and become their friend on MySpace.

the real, Real American Heroes

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

So surfing around today, I stumbled across a previously uncharted blog on my scope, Imageyenation, which to my surprise is home-based about ten minutes from where I live. On it, I found the absolute funniest video I've seen in a LONG time (the one above, which you might have guessed). I watched it back to back three times in a row. Even if you never played with G.I. Joe dolls....errrr....I mean, action figures, this video is hilarious. Keep your eyes open for Henry Rollins, and good old SGT. Slaughter bringing it to a finale. And to take it back to the day, here's the original TV theme song:

G.I. Joe TV Theme song

I'll be honest, I haven't seen the new movie, nor do I have any burning desire to do so, but have any of you? Opinions?

The Ending

Swing

off like a light switch
you said it was time
remember the world will never be on our side

what about heaven?
is it a sin to willingly crave it?
leave this so soon

but what if the sky
grabbed me off this swing

what if the sky
told me love will be
we are going home
better hold on strong
we will find him

bitter the bliss was
all in one glance
knowing the kiss was likely our last
you seemed so calm then
like you knew just when
space in existence would open for us

Michelle Armstrong - The Ending : Apples

Visit her website and become her friend on MySpace.

Lushlife, Oh So Lush

I hold all sorts of love in my heart for old school hip hop. Part of it stems from listening to it as a kid, growing up with Run DMC, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, and the ilk. And when I say growing up with, I mean listening to albums like King of Rock, Radio, The Fat Boys are Back (Ha!), on cassette in the old boom box (and the walkman, which might as well have been just as big as the boom box), as well as recordings of late night radio shows playing the latest jams. That being said, I just about flipped my lid when I took in the cover of Cassette City, the second album from Lushlife. It looks 100% genuine like a cassette liner unfolded. Nice.

If you're not familiar with Lushlife (and I wasn't before spinning this album), it's the moniker assumed by musican/MC/producer Raj Haldar. Besides all of his production work, he also put out his debut, Order of Operations, back in '06, and even more intriguing, an album named West Sounds, where he becomes the mad experimenter, putting together the Beach Boys and Kanye West (if anyone knows where I can check a copy of this, please don't keep it to yourself). And speaking of dusting off some golden oldies, here he is taking on Jay-Z's Dead Presidents, live, in one take, on piano.



Taking it back full circle to my intro, taking it back to the day isn't just a YouTube gimmick for Lush. The real beauty of his album is how it pulls in where hip hop came from, revitalizing it, and building even further with, well, some lush instrumentation that melds seamlessly into the electronic elements of his music. Said instrumentation is just as central to this album as the rhymes laid down on top of it, with a few all instrumental tracks that you'd never place on a hip hop album if you heard them alone with their chamber-pop yearnings, yet when heard within the larger work, fit into place quite right.

With the exception of some guest vocals on only a few tracks, the album is the work of Haldar from the ground up. Check out In Soft Focus below, a track that does a fine job embodying that melding of rhymes and instruments.

Lushlife - In Soft Focus (feat. Ariel Pink and Elzhi) : Cassette City

Visit his website, his label Rapster Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

Jazz Brunch Jam - Bennie's Groove

Downbeat 1949

I've found myself listening to steadily more and more jazz lately (blame it on old age, I guess), and have decided to start another weekly feature to accompany my Sunday Soul posts, tentatively titled the Jazz Brunch Jam. And while I've always enjoyed listening to it, its form and complexity are beyond my feeble words of expression, so much like Sunday Soul, you'll get some killer compositions, with little of my ramblings to muck it all up.

Some of what I'll share is classic, you know, from cats like Miles, Bird, Dizzy (and the majestic Ella, pictured above). Some will be new, modern, acid-jazz. Whatever. Jazz as an art form (if you can even come to a consensus of the definition of jazz) has always walked the line between being avant-garde and commercialized. I'm not here to enter that debate, and all I'll promise you is that you won't see any Kenny G here. I think Bill Evans put it best when he said, "it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling."

That being said, the first track I'll share with you is one from a duo of Danes who call themselves Povo (which means "people"in Portugese) that just dropped this summer on a 12" they put out named City Blues, on a label which specializes in Scandinavian jazz, Ricky-Tick Records. It's definitely a modern take, with an almost looping interplay between piano and trumpet with a funky line that hooks you in. As a bonus, I've included a track from their debut album (We Are Povo, which came out back in 2005) titled Good & Bad, which hits the debate over the definition of jazz head on and really straddles the line between jazz and electronica.

Povo - Bennie's Groove : City Blues 12"

Povo - Good & Bad : We Are Povo

Visit their label Ricky-Tick Records and become their friend on MySpace.

Sunday Soul - Baby I Want You

i want you

i'm a nice and easy going guy
but i'm very choosy and hard to satisfy

if i see what i want
i'm gonna get it
you're what i want
i'm gonna get you
baby, baby
my baby, my baby
baby, baby, baby,
i want you

The Moments - Baby I Want You : Baby I Want You 7"

Visit the re-issue's label, Wax Poetics.

Woodstock, Sly Style

So besides coming up on the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Abbey Road, it's also been 40 years since the 3 Days of Peace and Music (the first one that is). While the whole idea of Woodstock has been commercialized and preempted in so many ways since its historic weekend, the truth is there was some darn fine music played in the fields of Bethal, New York. And now, 40 years later, some of that music is finally getting released in its entirety.

One of the thirty two acts who played that weekend was Sly & the Family Stone, who were at the top of their game with the release of Stand! earlier in the year, an album that would mark the end of the group's earlier, lighter, funkier phase before they turned darker with There's A Riot Going On and subsequent recordings. Although their set came at 3:30 in the morning, it proved to be one of the best of the weekend, and until this last June, had only been heard in its entirety by those that were there (and I'm sure a few bootleggers). In celebration of the 40th anniversary, Epic Records, through their Legacy Recordings division, are releasing it (along with the sets of other artists such as Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Santana, and Johnny Winter) in a 2 CD set, one disc with a remastered version of Stand! and the other with the band's performance at the festival (whose setlist drew heavily upon Stand!). Check out what you get:
I haven't listened to any of the other Woodstock releases, but Sly's is fabulous. If you want a chance to win a copy of it, along with a whole slew of other goodies including The Woodstock Experience (Limited Edition Complete CD Box Set), Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music (40th Anniversary Ultimate DVD Collector's edition), an Ang Lee autographed Taking Woodstock Poster, an autographed copy of The Road To Woodstock, and Woodstock - 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm box set from Rhino, head over to the official Woodstock website for a chance to enter.

In the meantime, check out a couple of tracks here. The first, Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey, is from disc 1, the remastered Stand! album, and perfectly demonstrates how on top of the then current social/racial issues the interracial Sly and the Family were for their time. The second, the band's first number one hit, Everyday People, comes from the live Woodstock recording.

Sly & the Family Stone - Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey : The Woodstock Experience (Disc 1 - Stand! remastered)

Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People (live) : The Woodstock Experience (Disc 2 - Live at Woodstock)

Visit their website, the release's label Legacy Records, and become their friend on MySpace.

Visit the official Woodstock.com website.

The Big O

La Petite Mort - I

"Oxytocin is also kind of famous to scientists because it’s the hormone that’s released when people have an orgasm. The evolutionary thinking behind that is that humans have among the longest periods of raising their children of any species—their children remain in the nest until they’re fairly old. So there would be a survival advantage for a human child to have two parents, for the parents to stay together. Biologists argue that the purpose of the orgasm and the accompanying oxytocin is to create an emotional bond between two people so they’ll stay together. Well, it turns out there’s evidence that when people listen to music together or sing together, oxytocin is released then, too. So music forms a social bond in the same way orgasms may, which benefits us as a species."

-from Daniel Levitin, author of The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, as shared on The Daily Beast

The Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict : Singles Going Steady

Big Star, Bigger Influence

Although their name might not ring a lot of bells with a lot of listeners, the truth of the matter is that Big Star had a huge influence on several generations of musicians who followed them. Although they didn't make many waves in the early 70's when they released the only two records the group recorded before dissolving (material for a third album was scavenged and released as Third after the group's disolution) , the musical legacy they left behind has been name-checked by artists such as R.E.M., Wilco, The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, The Bangles, and Steve Wynn (of Dream Syndicate), solidifying their cult status in a big way. Those two albums, #1 Record and Radio City, fell out of print awhile ago, to be dug up in 1992 by Fantasy Records and released together on one CD. And now, it's been re-issued, this time remastered with a few choice bonus cuts not on the original recordings.

The band's spark (and demise) was the turbulent relationship between two lead members of the band, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton (who had sung vocals for The Box Tops on their smash hit The Letter). This highly flammable pair shone bright, but short, with the band barely lasting the first half of the 70's before splintering to pieces. But in that short period, and the two albums the pair worked on together proved the chemistry created some of the biggest, most influential, power pop music of the decade and beyond. Bell would die in a car crash at the end of the decade, but other members of the group, including Chilton, would re-form Big Star in the early 90's.

So, back to the CD at hand, which includes the band's first two albums. Below you'll find In the Street, which would eventually become the theme song for That 70's Show, although the version used during the program was actually recorded by Cheap Trick. Check out the original below, which appeared on the band's first album. The second track, I'm In Love With A Girl, is a somewhat unique slower number from the group's second album. Check them out, then pick up the re-release, complete with thorough liner notes that will do an even better job of recounting the band's fractured history.

Big Star - In The Street : #1 Record/Radio City

Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl : #1 Record/Radio City

Visit their website, the re-release's label Fantasy Records, and become their friend on MySpace.

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The Box Tops - The Letter : The Letter 7" (find it on The Best of the Box Tops: Soul Deep)

Denison Witmer - Nighttime (Big Star cover) : Recovered

Matthew Sweet - The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star cover) : Big Star Small World

Legs

Vertigo

so picture this when you go to kiss
i hope that every time you'll think of me
your then and now they will all run out
i know he can't compare to what i used to be
and i'm gonna let it get to me

i know the scars on your legs
i've seen them in my head
like a map up to you
when i'm climbing into bed

and i don't think that it's fair
that he would lie with you there
and use my directions
to get right there next to you

Jer Coons - Legs : Speak
(watch the video)

Visit his website and become his friend on MySpace.

Pony Up! Stays Gold

It's been three years in the making, but Pony Up!'s third album Stay Gold is now out and about. It's hard to believe, but their last album, Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes, was one of the first albums that I wrote about, way back here. I've loved the girls since their self titled debut EP back in 2005, having been turned on to them indirectly through Ben Lee, who was playing a cover of their song Matthew Modine at some of his live shows. I traced it back to them and loved their energetic offbeat quirkiness. Their second release (that above mentioned Make Love...) displayed a different side of the girls and was a little darker and more mature than the EP.

While I was eagerly awaiting this album, I was scratching my head trying to figure out where they would go on the third time around: return to their zaniness or continue down a more serious path. This time around, the girls have parted ways with Dim Mak and recorded the album on their own, resulting in some beautifully stamped, hand-made cases. In terms of sound, the new album retains the mature complexity of their last one, with some deeply intense lyrics flowing below the ladies' trademark sound, a sound that uses some fairly standard instrumentation yet is still diversified enough to stay fresh. And to be honest, that's what I like best about their music, it's depth is there if you really listen. Try out Making More Beneath to see what I mean.

Pony Up! - Making More Beneath : Stay Gold

and an old favorite:

Pony Up! - Heard You Got Action : ?

and the song that turned me on to them:

Ben Lee - Matthew Modine (Pony Up! cover) : Live 03-21-05 at the Bluebird Theatre

Become their friend on MySpace.