Bob Dylan-Forever Young
Today is Bob Dylan’s 71st birthday.
71 years of confounding expectations, and infuriating his listeners.
This film was my introduction to Bob Dylan, and remains one of my favourite videos of him. He just looked so cool in that hat with that Strat. The life of a Dylan fan is a frustrating one, and admittedly I hardly ever listen to anything he’s released since this film came out. But, when he’s great, he is truly great
Happy birthday Bob!
L’chaim!
Vintage Trouble-Gracefully
It is very unusual that I will go to a gig with no real knowledge of the main act I’ve gone to see. Apart from one of the most memorable Jools Holland performances in one of the best episodes I’ve seen in a long time, I knew very little about Vintage Trouble when I went to see them last November. I didn’t have any albums or any of that jazz!
As such, this song came as a huge surprise. Guitarist Nalle Colt had hinted at his six prowess throughout the show, but this was his first real opportunity to really show off. I remember standing with my jaw down by my feet as he wrung every note out of that guitar. Pure blues, not too showy but hugely melodic, I was absolutely stunned. This remains one of my favourite songs of last year, and had I not seen Wilco’s Nels Cline kick ass the month before this song would probably have included the best solo I had seen last year.
But Impossible Germany aside, it comes a close second!!
I never liked Joshua, I got tired of J: Father John Misty - Fear Fun
In the middle of January two pieces of news about Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman were announced. First he was leaving Fleet Foxes and second he was shedding the J. Tillman name to return as Father John Misty.
I loved J’s 2009 album Vacilando Territory Blues, and although I never got around to purchasing any of his subsequent albums (mainly due to their existence being extremely poorly publicised) I was excited to hear this new material.
The next I heard was his familiar tones on a video a friend was watching, starring the wonderful Aubrey Plaza. However, due to its more electrified-than-expected sound, I didn’t realise that Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings was indeed the artist formerly known as Josh until I saw his new moniker on the video’s title screen, and his familiar long hair and beard as he stuffed the Parks and Recreation star into the back of a white van.
If Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings was a curveball, the next song I heard was even more unexpected. Nancy From Now On (The above video) is a great song, dripping in soft rock production and vocals, and with lyrics evoking the overt sexuality of John Grant’s fantastic 2010 Queen of Denmark. You don’t have to be Roland Barthes to understand that the video’s shave and haircut is representative of Misty shedding his former folk rock image, for something that, at least on the surface, is slightly more mainstream and poppy.
All in all, Fear Fun is a fantastic album, including traces of everything from Rufus Wainwright-esque baroque pop, to pure Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds country. It might be unexpected, but it’s absolutely fantastic, and here’s to hoping he achieves some notoriety in front of the drum kit, just as he had it behind it.
Whilst writing my dissertation I rewatched Jonathan Demme’s incredible Stop Making Sense which got me listening to Talking Heads again.
This will probably always be my favourite TH track, and definitely my favourite song featuring Johnny Marr. It’s got everything you want from a David Byrne track, smart lyrics and funky music.
This is a great version of it live from Union Chapel, one of my favourite venues.
Ten years ago today (April 23rd 2012) Wilco released their landmark album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Jesus Etc. is one of my favourite songs off it and I thought that it would be nice to post a video of it. This is from Sam Jones’ great documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Chances are you already have YHF but if not you should definitely go out and buy it or listen to it on Spotify if that’s what all you cool cats do nowadays.
Levon Helm (May 26th 1940-April 19th 2012)
I don’t claim to know much about drumming. I’ve never had the coordination to get all my arms and legs doing different things. And singing as well as doing all that? A complete mystery to me.
Levon Helm, of the band was able to do all that, and so much more. A talented mandolinist and guitarist, as well as seemingly an all round fantastic, funny guy Levon was a true unique, in a group that was bursting with virtuosity, Levon sang with true emotionally, and played the drums with an inimitable driving beat, that sat at the heart of so many of their greatest songs.
He was also behind This Wheel’s on Fire one of the greatest rock autobiographies out there, actor, and the bandleader at countless of his so called “Midnight Rambles”. One of my great regrets will be that I was never able to experience one of these concerts.
So, here’s to you, Mark Lavon Helm. You, and your music, will never be forgotten.
One of my biggest musical regrets is skipping out on Neil Young when I had the chance to see him at Glastonbury, because Hey Hey, My My put me off a bit, and my friend persuaded me that we should go see Ray Davies instead. Such a rookie error.
Apparently he played a 25 minute version of Down By The River, which must have been absolutely incredible.
At the time I much preferred the work of CSN to CSNY and it wasn’t until I dug out my dad’s version of the incredible Everybody Knows This is Nowhere later that summer until I really “got” Neil Young. I now love Hey Hey, My My, and all the crazy jam band antics that so many of his songs lend themselves to. This particular track is a definite standout in this respect, and I just wish I hadn’t been so easily swayed.
And despite the weirdness of seeing Shakey play anything other than Old Black, this version is still probably the best out there.
1. Helplessness Blues-Fleet Foxes
I waited a long time for this. Robin Pecknold teased us, he really did, planning a late 2009 release, then some time in 2010. But, boy was it worth the wait? Opening with Montezuma, a song about the passing of time, with some harmonies that evoke Stornoway at their very best, it’s immediately evident that there is some real newfound maturity in Pecknold’s songwriting. Whilst holding onto the harmonies and instrumentation that made their debut album great, Pecknold is now living up to his potential as a songwriter, writing lyrics that bely a real admiration for the world’s beauty, whilst also insightfully writing about the human condition. And the other Fleet Foxes, are working just as well together as well.
The album plays like a good movie, with real tension, set pieces and resolutions. The eight minute odyssey of The Shrine/An Argument is some of the most ambitious music of recent years. If I had been told there would be acid jazz on this album, I wouldn’t have believed it, and I certainly wouldn’t have believed it would work just as well as it did. Just as the guitars in Wilco’s At Least That’s What You Said really sound as jarring and confusing as a migraine, so the saxophone really feels like an argument. The twin epics of Helplessness Blues and Grown Ocean both drive the album along phenomenally.
And the fact that they have been opening recent shows with the instrumental The Cascades, shows that the band who used to open a cappella with Sun Giant have really grown as instrumentalists. That’s not to say the vocals aren’t still exceptional. Of course they are.
2. Feist-Metals
Just a great record. Hard to pick highlights when music is this great. Somehow Leslie Feist manages to be both clear and obtuse in her lyrics at the same time, and puts together these gloriously dense backing tracks that are full of musical accompaniment, without being crowded. Awesome drumming and a jarringly twangy riff open this album which covers everything from Colin Stetson’s inimitable bass saxophone, to the fifties girl group vocals of How Come You Never Go There? Wonderful music, showing pure confidence, undercut by real vulnerability.
3. The Whole Love-Wilco
There are people who say that Wilco have been past it since any number of their albums. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Whilst the gloriously mental opening track Art of Almost, is a bit atypical of the rest of the album, it somehow fits perfectly, with the literally incredible rhythms blasting from Glenn Kotche’s drum kits and the just absurd riffage of Nels Cline as it builds up to an insane crescendo, it just sets the scene so well. Yes it’s over the top, and maybe a bit alienating. But sometimes music has to be like that. Then it leads perfectly into the garage pop of I Might. By turns audacious and heartbreakingly gorgeous, The Whole Love is the sound of six musicians who are completely in tune with how they should sound.
