No Age - “Eraser”
This just in via brooklynvegan: No Age, one of the Post-Rockist’s Faves of ‘08, are heading out on tour (presumably based on positive blog buzz from the likes of us because, you know, we have so much clout), and they’re stopping for a spell in St. Louis. It’s at the Gargoyle, but still.
Tour dates after the jump: (Continued)
According to a letter posted on the 52nd City blog, notorious concert-goer Beatle Bob is attempting to orchestrate a boycott of The Bluebird:
Attention, St. Louis bands, club-owners & booking agents, and local media:
Just wanted to tell you about the Bluebird Club restrictions on bands that have been hurting not only the local bands but you groovy club booking-owners as well. I found out from some local band members who appear at the Bluebird club, cannot play another St. Louis music venue three weeks after they perform at the Bluebird.
This is totally uncalled for and is strictly unfair to both the bands trying to make a living as well as to the club owners who try and book the best bands for their fans. Let’s all hope the bands stand up to these restrictions by boycotting performances at the Bluebird.
Beatle Bob
Now, this whole boycott seemed fishy to me for two reasons: (Continued)
It took me a while to come around to Elvis Costello, despite that fact that one of my best friends, whose taste I shared in nearly everything, was and still is obsessed with the man. As usual, it turns out he was right: Costello is incredible. The Desert Island pick that he’s always been pushing on me is Get Happy!!, which has been in constant rotation on my iPod this summer. The video above is a promo off that record for the song “High Fidelity,” and it’s a real joy to watch.
I don’t think there’s a bigger fan of rock & roll music than Bruce Springsteen. It probably helps that he’s one of rock music’s biggest stars, but seeing him last night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis he looked as genuinely excited to be there as everyone else in the stadium.
The show started an hour late, and as I sat in my $70 seat sipping on my $8 Bud Light I had plenty of time to speculate on what song he’d open with. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” perhaps, or “The Promised Land,” or even “The E Street Shuffle”; I was giddy with anticipation. What I was not expecting, however, was a cover of the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me.” While a 1963 girl group hit seems like an odd choice for a group of street tough Jersey boys to play, it felt like a completely natural part of their set: Max Weinberg laid down the rudimentary blocks on his drumset, while the four guitarists, two pianists, and lone bass and brass players built the song up to the appropriate Phil Spector-ish wall of sound. More tellingly, it was the first of many covers that marked the start of Rock & Roll History 101 with Prof. Springsteen.
“Then She Kissed Me”
The band then jumped 40 years forward with “Radio Nowhere,” one of my favorites off last year’s Magic, in part because it sounds so much like vintage Springsteen. In fact, the whole evening sounded like vintage Springsteen, as if the youth and passion that had once made the E Street Band such legendary performers had never left them. For the entirety of the three-and-a-half hour performance, Bruce never ceased to amaze with his on-stage antics, outdoing rockers a third his age. He would sprint across the stage and slide down on his knees; jump back up and do a quick succession of head-high Rockettes assembly line kicks; swing his Fender Esquire around his entire torso, catch it, and proceed to lay into an impassioned lead solo. Unfuckingbelievable. I pulled a groin muscle just watching him. (Continued)
I’m going to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band tomorrow night, and I haven’t been this excited for something since that time when I got an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle for Christmas a few years back. That’s right, the Boss is coming to St. Louis to anthemically rock out the very un-rock & roll Scottrade Center, and I’ve got tickets. Tickets that I paid nearly $70 for and which will still seat me way up the nosebleed section, but tickets nonetheless.
In anticipation I’ve been listening to tons of old Bruce records, everything from Greetings From Asbury Park (1973) through Born in the U.S.A. (1984), and picking things back up again with The Seeger Sessions (2006) and Magic (2007). I don’t have any records in between, so as far as I know he just took 22 years off to focus on his cameo on High Fidelity and play some shows for that John Kerry guy. So, hoping that he plays nothing but material that I’m intimately familiar with, I’ve compiled some outstanding past performances the Boss and co. have put on through the years and around the world. One, two, three, four!
Counting with Bruce Springsteen
“It’s Hard To Be a Saint in the City”
London, 1975
(Continued)
The Verve - “Sit and Wonder”
(from Forth)
Continuing with this year’s theme of veteran British rock bands from the 1990s that are still making new music today, for better or worse, noise rock heavyweights the Verve have returned with their fourth full-length album after a ten-year hiatus, cheekily titled Forth.
After listening to Forth for the first time, I immediately sent out a quick and exclamatory e-mail to the only other person on the planet I know who is as remotely dedicated to these past-their-prime British rock bands as I am: “It’s incredible! Amazing! A helluva lot better than the new Primal Scream!”
But that’s not entirely accurate. I should have written: “It’s not bad. I expected worse.” Because the truth of the matter is that in growing up with certain bands, you become invested in their fate — being a fan becomes part of your identity. So if you’ve been a fan of the Verve, up until now you could have recommended with confidence any of their three albums or earlier EPs and singles to your friends, knowing that they wouldn’t be disappointed if they happened to pick up a Verve record on a whim at the local record shop. They had a finite discography and you knew it inside and out; what could possibly go wrong if you admitted to someone that you were a fan?
But with the band freshly reformed and releasing a new album, the odds are pretty good that they’ll find some way to ruin their reputation (and given Dick Ashcroft’s solo output that was a pretty realistic fear). You close your eyes, press play, and brace yourself for the worst: What if it sucks? Have they always sucked and I’m just realizing it now? Oh Jesus, have I dedicated myself to a band that sucks for well over a decade? (Continued)
Primal Scream - “Beautiful Future”
(from Beautiful Future)
Bobby Gillespie is a knob. There’s no point in beating around the bush here. Primal Scream may be responsible for a handful of the most exciting, revolutionary records I’ve heard in the last 20 years, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the drivel that spills from Gillespie’s lips may very well be the most cringe-worthy, grimace-inducing collection of lyrics this side of Kid Rock. Case in point: the Top 5 Most Idiotic Lines From “Beautiful Future,” the title track to the new Primal Scream record: (Continued)