Glitter and Doom

A Tom Waits tour is fantastic news. A Tom Waits tour that stops for not one but two nights in the great state of Arizona is several degrees beyond fantastic!
And leave it to Waits to announce his new tour in the strangest manner imaginable:



Check out all the dates at the Tom Waits Anti- page.

And let's agree to not rush out and buy up all the tickets until I get a chance, OK? Tom Waits is probably alone at the top of my list of musicians I've never gotten the chance to see play but must before I (or they) die. I've dug through a few bootlegs and his concerts are things of glory, almost as much for the stories as for the songs. And as much as I dig Arlo Guthrie and Robyn Hitchcock for their wonderful storytelling, Waits is in a league of his own. Check out a story and a song from his 1999 Storytellers appearance:

DOWNLOAD:
Tom Waits - Picture In A Frame Story
Tom Waits - Picture In A Frame

SumKid Majere

One song stands out above the rest in everything I've been listening to lately - "September" by SumKid Majere, an MC and songwriter who hails from "Brookakalantalangeles."

It's that combination of the East Coast, the South and West Coast that makes him stand apart.

"September" is laid back and nostalgic, a traveling type of groove in which motion gives way to self-reflection.

Sum is as good a wordsmith I've ever heard in hip-hop. There's nothing of the bling and boast that dominates the club scene. His lyrics are truly lyrical, with a peaceful core as well as a restlessness that drives the songs.

Another track from his 2006 The Lil Folk record, "Dude More Blue" follows an even more explicit road trip, from North Carolina to Atlanta. Sum deals in imagery that's extremely evocative of place and space.

Sum shifts gears on his forthcoming project The Bone Mustache Combe into a rawer sound, but doesn't lose anything on the lyrical side. "Chuck Norris On Drugs," produced by BadTouch, is downright brilliant, a collection of modern life's annoyances, crutches and ubiquitous technology, strung together in a stream of consciousness style.

Sum is for fans of rappers like Murs, Aesop Rock and Ghostface Killah, so don't take him lightly.
Visit Sum at MySpace to download "September," and also check out The Lone Wolf, Sum's collaboration with Belief.

DOWNLOAD:
SumKid Majere - Dude More Blue
SumKid Majere - Chuck Norris On Drugs

A few good reads

Since I'm probably not the only person to spend a little time wondering just what it was like to wander the Greenwich Village streets in the early 1960s, to bop into the folk clubs and sit cross-legged in Washington Square Park, to know who was who and just basically watch as the world became a new place, this new book from Suze Rotolo will command a lot of attention.

Dylan's girlfriend for the four years that he went from a recently arrived Midwestern nobody to one of the world's biggest stars, Rotolo had an utterly fascinating place in that scene.

Her bright eyes light up the Freewheelin' album cover, while Dylan stares downward. And in all likelihood, we might not be hearing from her today if she'd never appeared on a Dylan record cover.

But as this excellent LA Times article makes clear, this isn't a book of just Dylan, not does it have any sort of the groundbreaking revelations that Dylan nuts are always searching for.

The promise of an in-depth and detailed history of the whole folk world is what I'm most excited to read. A book about that place and time as it nestled and nurtured Dylan doesn't have to be just about him. Whatever it was about Greenwich Village that drew Dylan there in the first place by definition existed apart from him. That Dylan and the folk scene of Greenwich Village are now understood to be inseparable is a product of those years when Rotolo was at his side and it's that transformation of the place that's at the core of the book, as this Salon review discusses.

DOWNLOAD: Bob Dylan - Let Me Die In My Footsteps (Freewheelin' outtake)

***

Next up is an ongoing feature I stumbled across at the Seattle Weekly - Behind My Music, a series by the Long Winters' John Roderick (Part 1 and Part 2 are all that are up now).

In a sense, Roderick's tales parallel Rotolo's. He was front and center for the grunge explosion in Seattle and rather than trace too much of his own existence at the time, Roderick writes as an observer, with a list of fascinating names of both bands (Motor Virus) and singers (Joey Shithead). He catalogs a rich list of strange jobs and various other weirdos he encounters along the way.

As the dying grunge scene was co-opted by major record companies, Roderick was basically out of music himself, but kept writing songs. And as Seattle began its rebirth as home of the Northwestern jangle of indie rock Roderick was in the same boat again.

He's a fascinating writer and I'll definitely keep up as this series progresses.

DOWNLOAD: The Long Winters - Pushover

***

And finally, there's a great new blog at the New York Times about songwriting: Measure for Measure. The contributors are Andrew Bird, Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega and and Darrell Brown. Yeah, not a bad lineup.

The blog has been up for a little over a month and in the first entry, Andrew Bird described all the time he's spent over the past year in a tour bus, and how time to kill in the unfamiliarity of a new town is perfect time for songwriting. And in case I had any doubt that songwriters are a breed apart, consider this line from Bird: "Almost every breath contains some fragments of an escaping melody." It's as if he would actively have to try and prevent music from escaping from his body.

In other posts, Suzanne Vega talks about writing songs even as a teenager, and Roseanne Cash argues that the truth shouldn't get in the way of a good song - if an event didn't really happen that way, go with what makes the song better, she writes.

Indeed, what's most fascinating is how completely different one songwriter is from the next. The creative process is by its very nature an individualized thing, and this blog certainly puts the meat on those bones.

DOWNLOAD: Andrew Bird - Measuring Cups (live on KCRW)

Let the sunshine in

On the request of Mike Doughty, here's his new video for "Fort Hood," a bittersweet tune that touches on war and lost youth and is definitely among the strongest tracks on his new Golden Delicious album.



Read the rationale behind the video on Doughty's blog.

Find some live tracks from Doughty previously at Catfish Vegas Presents...

DOWNLOAD:
Mike Doughty - Madeline and Nine (live Plush, 2005-09-27)

That's Tucson for you

Tonight I caught the truly amazing Howe Gelb, along with perhaps 50 other music fans who managed to actually hear about the last-minute show.

It's a laid back town and I guess our legends are the same. Howe is prepping for a tour with the Canadian singer-songwriter Kate Maki, whose album On High he produced and released on his OW OM record label.

Sure the show was just announced yesterday, and the duo did play another venue on Thursday, but I was surprised at the relative low turnout. For damn sake folks, it was free! And it's not as if Howe plays every weekend in town - it's more like two or three times a year any more. In all likelihood, though, it was just simply a bonus - Howe said they were heading out on tour in the morning and hadn't really gotten to practice... so why not invite all a few dozen friends?

As usual, Howe was a meandering and quirky performer, but undeniably captivating as he drew his own brand of noise out of the classic Gibson you see in the photo. He can turn on a dime from spoken-word folk to Neil Young style rave-up quicker than anybody, including Young, and throw in curveballs that I haven't come close to figuring out after seeing him about a dozen times by now.

One song, perhaps titled "Sawdust and Chandeliers," was either a new song or a 21st century talking blues improvised right on site. Howe himself said sometimes they make up songs in rehearsal, just so they can at least play them once. But regardless, it's an absolute gem, about a dude who's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of Howe's age, staring in the mirror at skin sagging from the cheekbones and all sorts of other places it shouldn't sag from.

Howe kept it short, saying it was a school night and that he had no wisdom to impart as he left the stage. It was officially billed (as it was) as an Arizona Amp and Alternator show, with Giant Sand's Danish bassist Thøger Lund and Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara filling out the band.

Kate Maki, not so much an opener as a singer who started off the night with the band before yielding to Howe, is understated but a talented guitarist with a country-folk vibe. An article from her native Ottawa describes the fortuitous pairing as "one of the most resilient and consistently inventive American artists of the last two decades" lending his talents to a similarly tantalizingly performer who's on the fringes in all the good ways.

Trust me, Maki is an iPod commercial from breaking as big as Feist.

DOWNLOAD:
Giant Sand - Shiver (live, Club Congress 2005-09-02) - Find the whole show at Archive.org.
Howe Gelb - Chore of Enchantment (The Rock Opera Years) - From an incredible KXCI compilation also at Archive.org.
Kate Maki - Highway

For Guy Toronto

A good friend of mine moved to Vienna a few months ago and has been learning German, playing squash with all sorts of foreign people and generally growing a moustache.

In the latest of his occasional messages back to the mainland, as an aside to a discussion of how his cat is bored with the new surroundings, mentioned that the Pavement song "Here" is "so good."

Knowing that he's also a big Richard Buckner fan, I was immediately struck by the notion to send him the Bucker cover version of "Here" that I have.

Then, fair reader, my mind took another giant leap and I thought that I just might as well post it for everybody.

DOWNLOAD:
Richard Buckner - Here (live Pavement cover)

Danny Federici, R.I.P.

When I posted earlier this week about the musicians guesting with the E Street Band, I made no mention of Danny Federici's appearance at the Indianapolis show. I knew he'd had cancer and wasn't performing, but I didn't see any significance in what would ultimately be his final performance.

Federici was a brother - blood brother - to Springsteen as much as anybody was. Their 40-year musical partnership and friendship is at the heart of Bruce's sad message announcing Danny's death. (Read the New York Times obituary and a tribute at the Asbury Park Press.)

I was lucky enough to catch the E Street reunion tour twice in 1999 and 2000, and another performance two years later on the Rising tour. And through countless live recordings, what's always stood out to me about the E Street live performances is the fact that you can hear everyone. The wall of sound of the records is separated and you can distinctly tell what each musician is adding to the mix. And on organ and accordion, Danny gave those songs the life they needed, as did every member of the E Street Band.

Here's his final performance, March 20, guesting on probably the Boss' most bittersweet song ever, "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" which sails on that accordion's light and enigmatic melody:



DOWNLOAD:
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) (live 1980)

Record Store Day!

I'll be the first to admit that I don't get down to browse the stacks at Zia quite as much as I used to do, so the timing of Record Store Day is a good reminder for me of all that is good and holy about the record store.

I've certainly embraced the digital music realm and there's no question that downloading is an incredibly option. Not only that, it has changed how I approach the record store. I have to be more focused, have a list in mind of things to look for and zero in on a few albums or bands I've been looking for. Aimless wandering isn't quite the same as in the olden days of a couple years ago.

I used to take a couple hours or more from time to time and run straight through the alphabet, from A to Z, then the same through country, jazz and blues and hip-hop. That wasn't every-trip behavior, but there is no way to ensure you won't leave some treasure behind in the store unless you go through everything.

I'm in the midst of the slow and excruciating process of ripping all my music from CDs onto a monster hard drive. I'd say I'm well past "tip of the iceberg," but still a ways short of claiming to have ripped anywhere near a majority of the collection.

Anyway, I got the idea last night when I was thinking about this Record Store Day to set up a playlist of all the CDs I've purchased used from Zia Records. I've bought maybe a couple dozen used CDs from other places (my precious few trips to Amoeba Records in S.F. & Berkeley, now-defunct stores like Zips and CD Depot, Hastings for a short while and a few from Stinkweeds when it used to be in Tempe) but the vast majority of of my record shopping has been at Zia.

The playlist stands at 102 CDs now and that's sure to more than double, possibly triple or even more. And that's going strictly by those little yellow stickers on the spine. I used to pull those off for some reason, so there are a number of albums that will slip through the cracks of my search.

Now that's going back over probably 12 or 13 years (dating to my first Zia trips, when a visit to a real record store was one of the central components of a road trip to Phoenix) but I think that really underscores just how important good independent record stores have been to me - and just how much I've contributed to their well-being (or perhaps survival might be the better term now).

I've certainly bought plenty of new CDs (very rarely at the Best Buy type stores, a few dozen from my BMG and Columbia House days, but again mostly from Zia) but it's the used stock that has formed the core of my collection and really the core of my experience with music - discovering, devouring and all in all falling in love with all types and styles.

For a good number of years I've operated on the theory that no matter what albums you want - obscure, new, import, local, classics - you will eventually find them used on the Zia racks, so long as you are patient and diligent. And I'd reckon that's proven true about nine times out of 10.

Who knows why people sell or exchange music? I've gotten rid of very few albums, mostly just those ill-advised MTV-influenced back in junior high, the ones that would be the root of lifelong embarrassment (Paula Abdul's Spellbound, anybody?). There are CDs stuck on my homemade shelves (which are really quite an impressive achievement for what couldn't possibly be considered anything more than meager carpenter skills - thanks Dad) that I'll almost certainly never listen to again. But those are such a distinct minority (countable on one hand?) that I've never really bothered to purge the collection after a certain point. Besides, is there a record store on Earth that will ever buy back another copy of Hootie's Cracked Rear View? In some ways those purchases are just artifacts, proof that somewhere along the line all music fans made some choices that didn't really pan out.

While I'm actively engaged in a process that will end up with the vast majority of my (1000?) CDs taking a permanent, untouched place upon the shelf, I still don't think in any way the CD is yet dead, and much less so the record store. That's coming from a hopeful perspective to be sure, but there are plenty of reasons to think there's a lot of life left in the commercial trade of physical music specimens. First is the used CD market, which I've already described as a thriving and robust one and for the buyer and incredible option. A whole CD, liner notes and all, for $7 or $8 or $9 is a hell of a deal over low-quality or even acceptable quality digital files for $9.99 or more. (Now there are drawbacks to used CDs, chiefly that the artist doesn't get any cut, but it's that cyclical trade that is the lifeblood of a lot of remaining brick & mortar record stores, so I think the trade-off works.)

Add in the resurgence in vinyl sales and the record store as community meeting place or cultural square devoted to music lovers and I think it's a survivable equation. Big box stores may see dwindling reasons to stock music as more people move to digital, but record store customers have never been the same folks who seek out their James Blunt at Wal-Mart. Real music fans are the ones with stacks of CDs spilling over everywhere, an iPod or two, a hard drive with dozens and dozens (if not hundreds - I'm passed 153 and plenty more to go) of gigs of tunes. They're the ones who download bootlegs and stuff they never thought they'd actually see in physical form. And they're the ones who still can't get by without a regular trip to their record store.

I decided a few years back to get any brand-new albums from one of my favorites at Zia, the day it came out, unless the band was touring through Tucson soon enough and I could buy the new record at the show. So while my record store trips have declined some since the pre-Napster peak, the expenditures have remained pretty steady.

I'm off in a bit for Record Store Day at Zia, to see Chango Malo perform and hopefully walk out with a few used CDS. And I'll be back, over and over and over again.

DOWNLOAD:
Chango Malo - Dufrane Larue

Muxtape!

This is a simple, cool service that will no doubt become ubiquitous in no time (am I late on the trend? is it already passe?): Muxtape.

It's a super-simple mixtape site where you can load up your own tunes for easy share in almost lickity-split time and check out a world of others.

C'mon down and give mine a try: catfishvegas.muxtape.com

(Give props in the comments - using the metric system if at all possible - and shout out your own muxtapes!)

Bruce and Friends

In what has all the feel of one hell of a victory lap, Bruce Springsteen has had some absolutely fantastic special guests on this leg of the E Street Band's Magic tour.

And what I like best is the fact that aside from the obvious (and gag-inducing) guest spot for fellow Jersey rat Jon Bon Jovi, Springsteen has drawn out some less-likely guests, with fantastic results.

The unquestionable influence of Springsteen (and I'm guessing Dylan and Iggy Pop, probably in that order) is perhaps the only thing that really ties together the likes of Alejandro Escovedo - No Depression's artist of the 90s - and Tom Morello - who thankfully hasn't lost his revolutionary spirit since joining Audioslave.

These tremendous guest performers and the outstandingly variable set lists seem to be well on their way to defining yet another chapter in the history of Springsteen's live performances.

Alejandro Escovedo - "Always a Friend," from Escovedo's upcoming Real Animal record:


Tom Morello - "The Ghost of Tom Joad," which features the two trading verses before Morello turns in a guitar solo that absolutely demolishes the song:


Find more videos from Springsteen's Magic Tour on YouTube and BruceSpringsteen.Net.

Mr. Punk & Folk

Billy Bragg is near the top of my list for bands or artists I desperately need to see live - and soon. I jumped on board - as I'm sure many Bragg fans did - after hearing the Mermaid Avenue album. First was Worker's Playtime on a recommendation, then Back to Basics and anything I could find after that. By the time Mermaid Avenue Two was released, I was fully a Billy Bragg fan.

So now that Billy has a new album - Mr. Love & Justice - coming out later this month, it's time to revisit some old favorites in preparation. Say what you will about the "One Man Clash" comparisons, or the overly political songwriting, but in my mind he's impossible to pigeonhole.

Bragg is a stunningly engaging and captivating songwriter and musical figure and the fact that he is so explicit in tying together the folk of Woody Guthrie and the punk of the Clash as part of the same continuum of working-class music is enough to make him a legend.

He's more than earned elder-statesman status now and sometimes that can shy people away from new records, but I'm definitely going to pick up Mr. Love & Justice on April 22. Anti- is a label that can really do no wrong for established musicians, so I have no doubt it will be a strong record. For a British lefty folk musician who came of age in Thatcher's England, I'm dying to see what insights he can have at the tail end of Bush's America.

Love and justice are themes of Bragg's music through the ages, so I'm hesitant to think the title implies too much about the current times, but I'm far more excited about this record than I was for Enland, Half-English in 2002 or any of the spate of re-releases the last few years.

For proof that his passion as a performer is as strong as ever, check out his updated and reinvigorated Lead Belly cover, "The Bush War Blues" as well as a lyrically updated version.

And as far as some of the classics go, look no further than Catfish Vegas to dig out two great millennial versions of reupdated Bragg classics, as well as a solo version of one of his Woody Guthrie tunes.

DOWNLOAD:
Billy Bragg - She Came Along To Me (Live Hamburg, 2000)
Billy Bragg - Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards (Live Barbican, 2004)
Billy Bragg - The Saturday Boy (Live KEXP, 2006)

Check out this live performance of another early classic - "A New England" - with Kate Nash:



And if you've still got some energy, there's plenty of Billy Bragg on YouTube and over at archive.org.

"They've got too much to lose by printing the truth"

This is 40 years old. And the interview subject just won a Pulitzer Prize. He's kinduv a dick in the interview. But he has valid points to make about the media that ring true today.

I'd love to see some celebrity today have such antagonism to the system. Are there any respectable folks left out there?

Find some more cool Dylan interview footage here.


I'd like to see some indie rocker turn a bunch of clueless press folks upside-down. Of course, no indie rocker is Bob Dylan, the voice of his generation. It's hard to imagine facing up to someone from my generation really mattering on a large scale. Will there be another universally recognized artist ever? Dylan is a crucial part of the America That Turned From Black & White To Color.

Seriously -- there are good points to be made here. Every historical figure you've seen in black & white film as well as color really had something going. Nowadays there isn't such an easy way to indicate someone has been a crucial part of any change.

Want a trip? Check out this next clip, where someone took some Dylan footage from more than 10 years past those press conferences and overlaid it with music from another 20 years later in his career. What can you possibly say that that sort of relevance and longevity?

Ruby Vroom: The Musical

This didn't even remotely pass the smell test. It was just too ludicrous and I'd already been reminded of April Fool's Day by the Gmail Custom Time joke. But what an inspired ruse! The creativity is stunning and all the pieces tie together so nicely.

I can't say much else for an introduction and it's a joke best taken whole, so without further ado, here's the email that popped into my inbox this morning from Mike Doughty's HQ:

This summer, Mike Doughty makes his Broadway debut with Ruby Vroom: The Musical, a stage adaptation of the first Soul Coughing album, with book by Tim Rice and choreography by Twyla Tharp.

Ruby Vroom: The Musical tells the story of Ruby (Scarlett Johansson), a transgendered youth growing up in 1970s Chicago. After a botched, self-administered sex change operation, Ruby enters a series of ill-fated love affairs, all set to the musical backdrop of her caustic avant-punk trio, The 5% Nation. Convinced that one of her lovers is Satan, she travels from Chicago to Kansas, Detroit and eventually Los Angeles, where she is sidetracked by drugs, mad kidnapping plots and the tawdry allure of the Hollywood lifestyle. And just when she is about to succumb to bitterness, an older woman, Janine (Patti LuPone), enters her life and changes everything.

Press previews for Ruby Vroom: The Musical will begin in late June at the St. James Theater on West 44th St., with a public opening in mid-July. Says Mike, currently on tour with his band, "I am immensely excited about the opportunity to work with the fabulous Ms. LuPone. She is the bucket of shoes in my foyer."

For ticket information, see http://rubyvroomtickets.com/

HQ

That would be the strangest musical of all time, by far, no doubt. I'm sure it would net Scarlett a Tony, though.

??? I can almost see the resemblance...

Mason Brothers - The Sun, the Moon & the Sea

This self-released debut record from Richmond, Va. duo James and Christian Mason opens with a beautiful melancholy, driven by carefully fingerpicked guitar notes and verses that draw on battles, ghosts and journeys, all rooted in a lonely sadness. Then comes the soaring chorus, with a breezy harmony to counter the downtrodden imagery:

"If you wait for the sunshine, you might wait for a while
If you hate this feeling, you can hold on to me until it dies
May you rise"

The Sun, the Moon & the Sea is cinematic folk music, rich and deliberately crafted, with guitars and voices woven tightly together. It's something a visionary movie director would do well to notice - think Noah Baumbach in a slightly better mood than he's brought to his last couple films.

The songs are whispery at times, recalling Iron & Wine or perhaps Simon & Garfunkel. The brothers themselves cite Nick Drake among their influences and that's the most accurate parallel. Think also a folkier Elliott Smith, most like the songs on the posthumous New Moon album, or sometimes the less poppy songs of the Pernice Brothers.

The brothers split song-writing credits, with most of the lyrics written by James, who in 2003 released the stark Carnival Sky. The lyrics deal often with mystery and an elemental sort of imagery, run through by ghosts and angels, rain and fire, the night sky and the sunrise, and often things breaking or sinking or crumbling. And the music and vocals fit. Added together there's a power in this collection that reveals itself along the way rather than immediately. The songs are mellow but not slight, and they're weightier than they seem at first.

The arrangements are rooted in acoustic guitars, with spare percussion at most. The songs are most compelling when they're rounded out by organ or mandolin or steel or electric guitar touches.

"In The Canyon" has a bounce that's unique to the album as both the countriest and most strummed song. It still retains the intricacy of the picked guitars and closely tied harmonies, but also brings bit more swagger than most of the other songs. The electric guitar and organ are more pronounced and even without drums it's got a more rhythmic feel. Another stride or two in that direction looks likely for the Mason Brothers, who play live with a six-piece band that will record their follow-up record.

The Sun, the Moon & the Sea is a tremendous debut, stretching 10 songs to 38 minutes, recorded completely analog at Brink Studios in Centreville, Va. and produced by Mike Reina, who also contributes organ and vocals on a few tracks. The Mason Brothers could easily stick to pretty balladry, but there are enough elements in the record to suggest they have a greater versatility that could lead them a number of directions. Just think about the path of Elliott Smith, who found his salvation in the poppier styles that he drew from the Beatles. Or Nick Drake, whose songs had an airy, atmospheric quality, sounding more like night-time than the afternoon or dusk of the Mason Brothers. Or the SoCal songwriters who breezed into country styles. Most intriguing might be the Iron & Wine or M. Ward routes of hooking up with eclectic collaborators who can flesh out their spacious and captivating songs.

DOWNLOAD:
Mason Brothers - In The Canyon
Mason Brothers - Round And Round

Hear and buy the record at MySpace or the band's Web site: www.MasonBrothersMusic.com.

"I'm going to scream if you tell me how to organize my queue one more time."

This blog has been a little low on the funny for a while, so I thought I'd share this short, starring the masterful Arnie Niekamp from Chicago.
The best exchange:
"I don't think that's what I need right now."
"Well, it kind of is."

The Swim - Random Walk

The Swim call their second album an EP, but at eight songs and 36 minutes it doesn't fit too well within that boundary. Nor does it have the sense of being a minor or transitory work as the EP tag might suggest. Random Walk is a fully realized indie rock album, alternately somber and catchy, full of bombast and edgier guitars than the band brought to the debut LP We're Green. On the whole Random Walk is a more powerful album, with a new drummer and guitars that are both more sophisticated and often times more energetic.

The tone-setting lead track, "Heavy Ringer," is instantly captivating, with the band's trademark intricate guitar interplay and catchy, soaring harmony vocals.

"Unravel" follows with a smoother groove, accented by trumpet and organ flourishes before riding out in a fuzzy guitar, while "Reckless" is reminiscent of the Pixies, with a bouncy, thick bass line and surges of distorted guitar melodies and crashing cymbals. The Swim next turn toward an almost straightforward punk sound on "Stan The Man," a lightning fast song that rises and drops in fewer than 90 seconds.

The album closes with its two strongest tracks, the anthematic "Margaret With Comets" and
the eight-minute triumph "Piles on the Floor," which begins as a wistful slow-build before dissolving into a guitar solo that feels both ruminative and exultant.

Even after just a few listens, it's clear that Random Walk is a great companion for two of my favorite albums so far in 2008 - Real Emotional Trash from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and Delayer from the Heavenly States - guitars up front and center, with a lot of versatility. There's crunch and chime and distortion and melodic breaks and long, mesmerizing leads.

DOWNLOAD:
The Swim - Margaret With Comets (from Random Walk)
The Swim - Lazy Day (exclusive Catfish Vegas download)

CONTEST: We have two prizes to give away - a copy of The Swim's new EP Random Walk and two free passes to the CD release show Friday at Plush.
Entering is simple: just email catfishvegas@gmail.com with either "Swim CD" or "Swim show" in the subject line. You can enter both, just do it in two different emails. Winners will be chosen at random Thursday.

Interview: The Swim

This afternoon I caught up with Caleb Christopher and Colton Harris from The Swim to talk about their new EP, Random Walk, which the band is debuting this Friday with a CD release show at Plush, along with Blankets, The Deludes and Mostly Bears.
Since moving to Tucson from Prescott two years ago, Chrisopher, Harris and bassist Nate Ziebell have hooked up with drummer Justin Bernard, self-released their first record (We're Green) and quickly became one of the top drawing local bands.
I sat through overtime of the Suns and Pistons game in the wired-for-NBA shed behind Harris' West University house. Anything but casual fans, they exchanged high fives with every Steve Nash three-pointer and I suppose it's good I was there to turn their attention away from the heart-breaking loss.

Q: How does this new EP compare to We're Green? Any new directions or sounds you guys wanted to incorporate?

Caleb Christopher: It's just a batch of songs we've banged out that we're proud of. It's quite a bit more focused than our first album. We didn't spend as much time trying church anything up.
I seems to be all around a little heavier, a little more distortion, but it's still very melodic. We're incorporating some more keyboards and stuff. Andrew (Lane, drummer for Blankets) played trumpet on a song.

Q: What sort of approaches does The Swim have for writing songs?

Colton Harris: I think a lot of it is just that Caleb really writes a lot. That's why it's so diverse. It's almost become and extension of Caleb's life.

CC: In the past it was a lot of me and Colton working together. This album just came from me writing a lot of songs.
It used to be music first, and then lyrics first. Recently it's been more with the lyrics first, or even just the hook or a theme.
Most of the time I just have a lot of stuff written down I like to use, lots of starts of things and when I get something musically that works I can finish it up.
I'd imagine it's going to always be changing. Pretty much every song comes form a different place, a different start, different influences.
Some just start out as a theme that I want to write about. Some of it's an extension of my daily encounters and habits and activities. It's my way of having something so that I can push everything else aside.
This album was kind of a quick thing for us. We had the songs so we might as well record them and keep from being stagnant. I think that with this next album we'll be pushing our selves a little harder.

Q: You played SXSW for the first time this year. How were the crowds? Any other bands that knocked your socks off? Any other highlights?

CC: We didn't really know what to expect, nor did we have he time to research how we were going to do it up because we were hard pressed on the album. But we had a great time and we know what to expect for next year.
We got to see Jens (Leckman) that was awesome. NOFX too. The whole band loves NOFX. We all grew up listening to them

CH: It's really energizing to go on a trip like that and see a bunch of bands and people who are into music. We just kind of just cruised around and had fun. We didn't plan who to see, but we still had a blast.

Q: You guys have done all the recording and producing yourselves so far, and the mixing and mastering as well on this one. How do you guys approach recording and what benefits are there to doing the whole thing yourselves?

CC: The biggest benefit is the cost and considering our budget it was a pretty obvious choice. Also, the fact that we've gotten some good equipment and we all pretty much know what we're doing.
Timing is a big thing too. We wouldn't have had enough time or been able to afford to work out the small details with somebody else.
Nate does most of the engineering and he and I are really quick together. Me and Nate side by side works. We're both on the same page because we've worked on the songs, practiced them together.
Everything moved really quickly once we started tracking. We did the drums with Fernando at OG-7 studios. Colton banged out a lot of his stuff right away and Nate and I are really quick together.

Q: The Tucson Weekly has described your sound as "Equally informed by '60s pop and modern indie-pop/rock, with just a hint of Americana." What are some of the largest influences for The Swim? How do you guys pick which songs or bands to cover?

CH: We all like some of the same bands, for the most part, but everyone takes a different approach to it. Justin has a different take on everything, Nate has a different take on everything. Everyone has got different influences.
Caleb introduced me to a lot of bands that we've covered. He got me really into Ween and the last two cover-ups with Wilco and GBV.

CC: Me and Colton have always shared the DIY bands. Our early guitar influences were based on the Kinsellas (Tim and Mike, of Joan of Arc, et al.)

CH: What we were trying to achieve when we were first starting was a little bit more complicated than we're doing now.

CC: We were definitely interested in pushing ourselves to learn how to play out of time, play different guitar parts and feed off each other. It still shows in our music, but more than that it helped us to bond as guitar players and move forward

Q: How did The Swim form and when did you know the current lineup was really working well?

CH: Caleb and I started off playing guitars together and recording little ditties. We did a few with Nate and that's how he started playing with us.

CC: That's what's cool about the way The Swim started. It was just a fun thing and a way to try recording things we'd never done before. That's what was enticing about it. It was a ton of fun so we thought we'd get it together full time
And moving to Tucson, we wanted to do it and were ready to push ourselves to another level. There's an excellent music scene and touring bands coming through all the time.

CH: We'd come down to Tucson and scouted it out and everyone in our immediate group of friends were feeling a little restless with Prescott and needed to get out. To us, Tucson seemed a lot like Prescott as far as the people go. Everyone is really chill here.
After Justin joined we knew it was pretty solid. We knew that this is the group.

CC: Pretty much after the first practice with Justin, once he confirmed he's a gigantic Ween fan it was pretty much in the bag. We didn't even know his credentials at the time, but we didn't really know anybody else. The guy's solid. He's been playing drums for 50 some odd years. It made us think that it was time to sharpen up.

Q: How did you go about picking other bands to play during your CD release show? What sort of a connection do you feel to other Tucson bands or the Tucson music scene?

CC: It's an array of music that's going to happen that night. Blankets are just crazy, all over the place. You follow it up with The Deludes , a lot heavier and faster, almost punk. Mostly Bears are very progressive.
The people in all the bands are some of the favorite people we've met

CH: There are tons of bands that could have played it. There are so many that we're really close to or good friends with. It just happened that this is what works for all the bands. It's really just a lot of fun.

Q: You guys have been on shows with bands like Ted Leo and Okkervil River. If you could pick any other bands to play with, who would it be?

CH: Ween first of all. But I'd also really like to play with the folks from New Pornographers. Not necessarily the new Porn, but Neko Case and A.C. Newman and Destroyer.

CC: I'd love to play with (Joel) Plaskett. Or Malkmus would be sick.

Q: There was an earlier album (Pretty Good But Hella Rushed) that didn't get finished. Are there any plans for those songs?

CH: I think there are songs that sound good on the recording that don't sound good live and vice versa. There's always a push-pull between those songs. But also there's the fact that we want to keep moving.
There are plenty of songs to play. We have a shit load of songs to play, plus covers we like.
There's no need to rehash those songs unless it's fun for all of us. We're thinking about doing a really old song for our release show.

Q: Do you guys have plans for a tour?

CC: That's the goal - to get a tour going. We're playing CD release shows in Prescott and Flagstaff too, but we're still working out the details for a longer tour.


CONTEST: We have two prizes to give away - a copy of The Swim's new EP Random Walk and two free passes to the CD release show Friday at Plush.
Entering is simple: just email catfishvegas@gmail.com with either "Swim CD" or "Swim show" in the subject line. You can enter both, just do it in two different emails. Winners will be chosen at random Thursday.

Check back tomorrow for a review of the EP and two tracks to download: one from Random Walk and the second a Catfish Vegas exclusive!

I'm there!

Radiohead! Wilco! Beck! Tom Petty! And tons more.

The new spooky

English trip-hop pioneers Portishead are returning with their third studio album, 11 years after their self-titled second record and a full decade after the phenomenal Roseland NYC Live, which is when I actually started to really get them.

Portishead came across as way too spooky for me and I pretty much wrote them off initially. But after seeing the Roseland video and paying more attention to just how the band crafted its soul-spooking sound I came around. After that my only difficulty with Portishead was trying to remember the individual song names.

In a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone, Geoff Barrow described his self-styled anti-sampling method. The band would record original music, press it onto vinyl, rough the records up a bit and then sample that.

Third has leaked and probably isn't too tough to find in full, but just today the band officially released the first video, for the appropriately named "Machine Gun." It's rough and jarring in comparison to their earlier records (and the bulk of Third, at least from what I've heard) but it's hypnotic and compelling at the same time.



I wonder, as I do with a lot of well-established bands, whether or how well Portishead would catch on if they were to debut in this era of hyper blog scrutiny and immediate Internet access. Suffice it to say that while critically acclaimed for the most part, trip-hop never was the broadest sub-genre in alternative music. I don't think anybody who listened to that type of music then or now would rank Portishead any lower than the top two or three bands of trip-hop. And they certainly stand up over the time. Check out "Roads" from their Roseland performance:

Suicide Kings!

I'm stoked to be heading up to Phoenix on Friday to see the Suicide Kings for the first time. The Suicide Kings are led by Valley music legend (perhaps the Al Perry for the folks north of the Gila?) Bruce Connole, whose long string of bands and projects date back to at least the early 1980s.

Hell, Connole was being touted as a long-timer a decade ago, when he made a turn from honky-tonk to bluegrass. Not that he's purely country by any means -- Connole's bands along the way have been everything from new wave to full on metal.

It was Connole's Jetzons who were looking for an opener on their four-sets-a-night, four-nights-a-week gig when Gin Blossoms legend Doug Hopkins first stumbled into a regular gig.

Not that I was remotely around for any of that, but it's a fascinating rock 'n' roll history that demonstrates more than anything how versatile the Arizona music scene has been dating to the early days of punk rock and how talent and commitment can lead to as many different gigs as a musician can think up.

I first came to Connole's music through The Revenants, as pure a honky-tonk band as I've ever heard, no matter what the era. Mr. Chair first introduced me to the Artists & Whores album, with the promise that if I liked Johnny Cash, I'd dig what these Tempe dudes had to offer. And hey, he was right, though I'd throw in that anybody who digs Hank Williams would dig The Revenants as well.

Artists & Whores is pure honky-tonk, ornery as hell. It aint' alt.country, it's country - and also clever as hell. The lyrics are at once a mastery of the genre's themes of heartache and drinking early graves and a winking spin on those same themes. "That Girl's Insane" is my favorite off that record:

"She looks good, just like Hollywood, was a fire in her eye
Makes an entrance like a lady should,
Shoulders back, head up high
Ooh it makes me sad like the pouring rain
Ooh she looks so fine, but you know that girls' insane"

After The Revanants went on permanent hiatus, Connole moved on to The Busted Hearts, who were the one and only band I saw perform at the legendary and now demolished Mill Ave. Long Wongs. The Busted Hearts weren't quite pure bluegrass - there was a spirit of country songmanship that ran through what they did and downplayed the instrumental just a bit. But damn, what a show.

Apparently The Busted Hearts have now gone away and Connole has resurrected the spirit of The Revenants, along with the original band name, The Suicide Kings. I've heard a bit of the demos for their new project and while the honky-tonk remains, there's a roadhouse rock 'n' roll feel that shows up, a rowdier spirit that takes over. Some of the songs are re-recordings of Revenants or Busted Hearts tunes (like "Even Hookers Say Good-Bye" and "Hooker's Lament") that show new life.

Overall it's an incredibly promising set of tunes, a set that is all but certain to surpass what Connole achieved on Artists & Whores and The Busted Hearts single, self-titled record.

I'd hate to even start guessing how Connole has been active and innovative in a backwater (yet still compelling and absolutely unique) music scene for 30 years. But it's the straight truth. And what does that get ya? A gig (not even opening) at Mesa's Hollywood Alley, which can't hold more than a couple hundred (busted-hearted) souls. But I have high expectations and if y'all are in the Valley, go on and check out the show or (no matter where ya are) spend a little time with Connole's music on MySpace.

DOWNLOAD:
The Suicide Kings - Whiskey Row
The Revenants - That Girl's Insane
The Busted Hearts - Hooker's Lament (demo)

Damn

Since I gave short shrift to the Heavenly States myself yesterday I 'spose it's a tough position here to complain about how under-attended tonight's show at Congress was. But damn.

I first saw the Heavenly States almost three years ago - in the same venue, opening for Smog. I clearly remember their energetic brand of keyboard- and violin-laden indie rock. But I never did get any of their records and I'm already regretting that. This band has definitely progressed in that time and I couldn't believe how poor the ratio of great music to crowd presence was tonight.

Don't let the Heavenly States pass you by. I can't attest to the recorded material, having just picked up the latest album myself, but the Tucson Weekly has a good review. But judging from the live show, these Bay Area folks are going to have a great 2008.

DOWNLOAD: The Heavenly States - Lost In The Light

Gas money courtesy of Tucson, aka WXSW

A few years back, somebody in the Ol' Pueblo got the idea to start piggy-backing on the country's biggest music festival.
After all, Austin is a long drive from the West Coast and one extra stop a day's drive away will put that much more gas in the tank.
WXSW isn't the most blessedly scheduled festival - it's split over two consecutive Mondays and Tuesdays - but it more than makes up for the awkward timing with intriguing pairings.
Tuesday at Club Congress check out The Heavenly States (from the Bay Area) and Tucson rockers The Swim.
As for the second half of the festival, I can recommend both Helio Sequence (Portland) and Birdmonster (S.F.), headlining at Plush on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. (Also, the dudes from Birdmonster keep a highly entertaining blog.)

DOWNLOAD:
The Swim - The Beautiful Endeavor
Birdmonster - Cause You Can
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Turning heads

I never did come back and write anything after the Dean & Britta show a couple weeks back, but rest assured, it was fantastic.
The duo is better than anybody out there at reinterpreting the pimptastic sort of late 1960s and 1970s songwriters. They indiefy those sorta lush, French-sounding, loungy pop songs from the likes of Lee Hazlewood and Serge Gainsbourg (who, obviously, is French).

So check out this new video, which features Britta (who Dean describes as "very feminine and gorgeous in a Scandinavian way, with high cheekbones and big, green eyes") on vocals (and bicycle). And Demitri Martin, for some reason...



Dean has a book coming out about his rock 'n' roll days, a memoir of touring and recording in a band that never quite broke through.
It's called Black Postcards, and Men's Vogue has published an excerpt.

Got Malk?

I've tried to avoid reading too much about Stephen Malkmus' new album so I could really come to it more on my own terms. Basically, I really want to taste it first for myself, without the menu descriptions. But I've been sick and busy and only gotten in a couple fractured listens, even after a few days with the album. So some opinions have filtered in and I've gathered that it's considered somewhat of a psychedelic or loopy album. Maybe.

But what I haven't picked up on anywhere is the fact that Real Emotional Trash is the type of guitar album that's paradise when it's played live. And that was my first exposure to the music - a rare album-less tour for Malkmus just over a year ago, when he played six of the album's 10 songs in their road-test mode.

This four-piece version of the Jicks is just right for Malkmus. He's got an absolute crasher on drums in Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss, who manages to chip in some backup singing as well. Portland bassist Joanna Bolme has been a recording engineer and longtime fixture in Northwest indie circles. And Mike Clark delivers rock-solid grooves on guitar and keyboards.

I think it would be one of the more fascinating musical time-transportations you could think of to hear Malkmus fronting a 1960s garage band - all hair and moustache and proto-punk spirit, far quirkier than you ever found in that era. I'm by no means a Malkmus or Pavement expert - I picked him up in the Terror Twilight era as part a batch of taste filtered over from my roommate Dr. Chung (a big thank you for all that influence, by the way Doctor, especially Neutral Milk Hotel and Magnetic Fields in addition to the Malk). But Malkmus' music has always struck me as oddly approachable for how weird it can get. And the latest is no different.

This post isn't meant to serve as any sort of a proper review for Real Emotional Trash - really more of a preparatory exercise to really soaking in the album than any thing. But for those who appreciate the album, check out these road-test versions:

DOWNLOAD:
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash (live)
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Baltimore (live)
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - We Can't Help You (live)
Get whole show as a zip: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Live Tucson, 2007-01-09

(The Pictures are part of some wonderful behind the scenes stuff on the Malkmus Web site.)

Glory and tedium

Catfish Vegas is now the thrilled owner of a sweet new Macbook - a classically beautiful machine that seems quicker than Hermes himself after slogging away on a five-year-old Gateway laptop. It was a workhorse to be sure and while it's still running, it was sliding noticeably downhill. Not to mention the lack of any hard drive space whatsoever made the precious acquisition of music a difficult chore.

But not comes the tedium - the slow transferring of files (dating back nearly a decade if you count the already transferred once Word documents that are in many cases priceless). The bulk of the memory space is music files, but there are thousands of pictures there and beyond that, an entirely less well organized mess of written documents.

And not only that, but now it's time to begin the full digitization of my music collection. Yeesh.

But what that all means is I'll have far more music readily available and it will be much easier to dig things out of the vaults at any given time, for any given purpose. So (hint, hint), blogging will become richer from here on out. Plus it will be much easier to make additions to my iPod, like the all-latter-day Dylan playlist I'm working on for the drive to PHX later this week.

Tune in tomorrow for some live tracks from Stephen Malkmus in honor of his excellent new album, Real Emotional Trash...

There's never enough live Wilco

I can't possibly be the only person upset that I couldn't alter space and time enough so that I could live in Chicago's Riviera Theater the last couple weeks or so.
Five nights of every song the band has put on album has got to be the pinnacle of Wilco performances.

And if that isn't enough, the band jets right off to Washington D.C. to play a show tonight that the good folks at All Songs Considered are graciously sending out to all us other folks. It's on as I write this, but perhaps there's still chance to catch it: Wilco live on NPR.
If not, I'm betting NPR keeps up with the trend of podcasting its live performances.

And just because it's the song playing when I tuned in, here's a different version of "When The Roses Bloom Again," a song originally recorded for the Mermaid Avenue sessions that was scrapped after they learned it wasn't a Guthrie-written tune.

DOWNLOAD:
Wilco - When The Roses Bloom Again (live on A Prairie Home Companion)

Open, space

This is the time of year the desert starts bursting. The temperature is in the upper 70s, the sun is bright and clear, everywhere you look people are energized. We don't sit through long harsh winters like most folks, but that doesn't mean that the coming spring is any less enjoyable.

Wildflowers are in bloom. The air smells like life. Spring training is just about to get underway. The temperature swings more than 40 degrees from day to night. You need to be outside, need to feel the simply energy of an absolutely gorgeous day. Take a few moments of glory for yourself - nobody will mind.

When the landscape and the days are this open, you need some music to fill it. You need tunes that sound a bit dusty and a bit breezy. Bright sun-soaked tunes, energetic and laid back at the same time. Tunes that get you singing along. Simple, great tunes.

DOWNLOAD:
Roger Clyne - Fonder & Blonder (live)
Greyhound Soul - Rainer (live)
Dusty Buskers - Sail Away Ladies
River Roses - Forever 17

M. Doughty: The Man

I had a busy week and could hardly get in a couple of listens to my newest album purchase - Mike Doughty's Golden Delicious.

You see, it's a concept album about apples... The narrator is a young German boy in 1920s New York City, and in his playtime stumbles on a magical apple tree hidden from view in a roof-top garden. It lets him hear the music of clouds, and wind, and streetlights, all of which are constantly surging with beautiful sounds heard only by him. As the boy ages, the apples grow fewer and fewer on the tree, until one day the tree itself resembles nothing more than twigs jammed into hard-packed dirt...

That would be tremendously strange. The truth is, I've hardly had two listens to the new record, as I said (don't you pay attention?). But I'm a big Doughty fan from back in the day, when the cassette most frequently thrown into the tape deck while we cruised around in the back of pickup trucks was Ruby Vroom, the absolute paragon of cool in my own personal version of 1994. Somehow, between Nirvana and Radiohead, Soul Coughing was all that really mattered.

Doughty himself described Soul Coughing as "deep slacker jazz," and in writing about the first time I saw Doughty solo, I termed his lyrics "dream-scape beat poetry," perhaps more apt for his earlier solo work, but still something I hear in the latest stuff.

Doughty has a new vision for his music; it's a more organic sound, readily identifiable as music played by a musician. Gone are the samples and drum loops that gave the punch to Soul Coughing's stranger tunes. Doughty terms the new sound and recording method "Dude Theory." It's simple: when the listener sits down with the new tunes, he or she hears five dudes playing music. There aren't any tricks pulled - the layering or overdubs are toned down. And even in the first couple listens I hear the difference. I'm still working my way through Golden Delicious, but it sounds fantastic so far. It's a sparer album than Doughty's Haughty Melodic, but it's better for its simplicity.

"Fort Hood" is the first song that really jumps out at me, with the line "you should blast Young Jeezy with your friends in a parking lot" one of Doughty's most wistful and specific. There's no doubt I'm going to continue burrowing into Golden Delicious for quite a while. And hoping Doughty sticks a Tucson show into his latest tour itinerary...

DOWNLOAD:
Mike Doughty - Fort Hood (live MPR 2008-02-19)
Mike Doughty - I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep On Dancing (live 2007-11-13)
Mike Doughty - Madeleine and Nine (live 2007-11-13)
(Get the MPR whole set, with some really interesting interview segments, here. Check out more live Doughty at archive.org.)

And if you're not following Doughty's blog, you're missing out on a damn good thing.

And if you're into dj stuff, Doughty's been doing some spinning lately. Check out his work in that realm: Dubious Luxury - Soul Power Dry Run

Lastly, props also go out to So Much Silence, who tracked down a promo album of Doughty busking in the NYC subway.

UPDATE:
I just noticed that Doughty's cover of the Magnetic Fields' "Book of Love" is finally recorded as an official release, but it's an iTunes only bonus track. I don't really dig this new trend of digital only extras. I'm not going to re-buy the album for one track. For now, all I could find is a snippet of a live performance:
Mike Doughty - Book of Love (live, partial)

Tucson show alert: Keren Ann, Dean & Britta

The other day I wrote about Dean & Britta, so now here's a quick look at Keren Ann, who opens Wednesday night at Club Congress in what the promoter calls a "double bill from indie heaven."
Overstatement aside, this is one hell of a promising show.

I've been sampling some live Keren Ann I've tracked down from a recent in-studio performance on Minnesota Public Radio and she's an extraordinary singer-songwriter. With Jewish, Dutch and Indonesian heritage, she was born in Israel and raised in Holland and France and aside from being multilingual, her musical influences are varied enough to produce a truly unique artist in a genre that's hardly known for break-through performers these days.

In the immediate aftermath of Amy Winehouse and Feist battling it out for Grammy's best new artist, Keren Ann is all-but-assured to get noticed soon, and big time. At least from the live tracks I've heard, she has the potential to be a jazzier and folkier performer than either. But there are exotic elements that seem to pop up throughout.

Regardless of whether you're struck more by Keren Ann or Dean & Britta, definitely catch both, Feb. 20 at Club Congress.

DOWNLOAD:
Keren Ann - The Hardships of the World (live)
Keren Ann - In Your Back (live)
(Get the whole set, with interviews, here.)

And here's just another little taste of Dean & Britta:
Dean & Britta - Night Nurse (live)

Tucson show alert: Dean & Britta with Keren Ann

Just over three years ago, Luna played Club Congress as part of their farewell tour and it was amazing to see the band members so zeroed in on making those last songs and notes stand as their legacy. The band's ascendancy, through seven albums and too manu tours that never broke through the nightclub level, had finally reached its peak. And then they were done.

In the aftermath, a mellowed 40+ Dean Wareham and his bass playing wife Britta Phillips turned their attention to a different sound, a lusher and loungier cousin to the transcendent mix of soaring guitar leads and fuzzy indie pop. Their two albums mix covers (most fitting are the French pop gems) and originals, with a vocal harmony that's surprisingly excellent and beyond anything Luna attempted.

Dean & Britta are coming back to Club Congress Wednesday and check out the Tucson Weekly for an interview. I'm psyched to see what they bring to the stage and how their new direction influences the live performance. I can't imagine anything less than an excellent show, especially given what I've read about the opener, Keren Ann, an Israeli-born, New York and Paris-based dream folk singer.

Below are a couple tracks Dean & Britta recorded earlier this month for Minnesota Public Radio. The stripped-down "Night Nurse" is a particularly good performance.

DOWNLOAD:
Dean & Britta - Words You Used To Say (live on the Current)
Dean & Britta - Night Nurse (live on the Current)
(Get the whole set, with interviews, here.)
And check back in a couple days for some live Keren Ann, also from MPR.

Lastly, here are two more worthwhile diversions:
* a handwritten interview with Dean & Britta. (an incredibly cool concept)
* And the trailer for "Tell Me Do You Miss Me," a documentary of Luna's farewell tour. (Check out at 2:25 for the top quote of the film, "I'm in a bunk bed in Tucson.")

"One more gift to bring..."

I first heard about the amazing collaboration between Iron & Wine and Calexico long before any official word was released about the In the Reins EP. In late 2004, Sam Beam had been spotted hanging around the Tap Room in Hotel Congress, and he was talking a little about recording with Calexico over at Wavelab. I was immediately intrigued and thought the combination had a lot of promise, though the album wouldn't be released for another nine months or so. Beam didn't have any sort of a band to speak of at that point and Calexico is a band full of seasoned musicians who show tremendous versatility in backing various singers.

After the album dropped they all teamed for a tour, also bringing along Salvador Duran, a Mexican singer-songwriter who's since become something of a Tucson institution. I caught the tour at a very packed Rialto Theatre and later found a free NPR recording of a show from Washington D.C. later in the tour.

The day before the Tucson show, Sam Beam, Joey Burns and Salvador dropped into KXCI for an in-studio session that featured a more subdued take on some of In the Reins top tunes. Most interesting was hearing Burns take the lead vocal on "Prison on Route 41," with Beam providing the harmony. The EP started with Beam songs that he'd written with just vocals and guitar. The bands collaborated in the studio for a much fuller sound, and once the songs are stripped back down for a radio performance, there's somehow something more there.

DOWNLOAD:
Iron & Wine and Calexico - Prison on Route 41 (live KXCI)
Iron & Wine and Calexico - Dead Man's Will (live KXCI)
Iron & Wine and Calexico - He Lays In The Reins (live KXCI)