Archive for June 2014

Jeff Tweedy Live at Cain's Ballroom


This past Wednesday Jeff Tweedy played the Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma and it was really, really, really good. It was my first time to see him live and he lived up to the hype I built around the show. I was really nervous before. I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy the show, which was dumb to think. 
First off, if you ever get a chance to see a show at Cain's Ballroom you need to go. It's the best venue I've ever been to. Not only is it's history deep (country greats like Hank Williams and Bob Wills frequently played there), but's it's small enough to still connect with the artists plying on stage, and it's was air conditioned.

The first part of Tweedy's set were all new songs from his upcoming album. His son, Spencer, plays drums on the album and is also touring in the band put together for the tour. The new songs were really good. It made me really excited for the new solo album. I never got bored while they played through the entire new album. 

After 13 songs, the band left and Tweedy played a solo acoustic set of Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Loose Fur, and cover songs. It was flawless. The acoustic portion of the show started with "Via Chicago", one of my favorite Wilco songs, and he continued to play crowd pleasing hits. It was such a good night. 

Below is the set list of the acoustic part of the show.

  1. Via Chicago
  2. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
  3. New Madrid
  4. Theologians
  5. Whole Love
  6. Passenger Side
  7. Laminated Cat
  8. Hesitating Beauty
  9. Born Alone
  10. Jesus, Etc.
  11. I'm the Man Who Loves You
  12. A Shot in the Arm
Encore:
Give Back the Key to My Heart
California Stars

Upside Down Mountain: An Album Review

I haven't blogged in forever and a lot of it has to do with reviewing this album. I keep starting to write about it, but always end up deleting what I wrote or not posting it. It's overwhelming reviewing the album of your favorite musician. But here goes nothing. . .

Upside Down Mountain is a great album. I love it. I've listened to it on repeat for almost a month now and haven't grown tired of it. It's an upward progression in a catalog of great albums. I don't drink wine, but if I did I would probably say something yuppie like, "Conor Oberst is like a fine wine. He gets better with every year that passes." But I don't drink wine and I would never say that.

I've touched on this before, but I feel like all my favorite artists are dealing with the same issues that preoccupy my mind. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they've always been writing about the same old things and getting older has made me more in tune with the lyrics. I know what your thinking, "Zach you're so mature". But I'd like to think we have the same fears and anxieties. The standout song on the album, "Desert Island Questionnaire", is lyrically and musically one of Obert's best songs. It's about being fearful of complacency, religion, death, technology, boredom, loneliness and anything else that makes you anxious. It's both dark and beautiful at the same time. It's definitely my favorite song of 2014 so far.

"Your Mother's Child" is being compared to "First Day of My Life" frequently in blogs and reviews that I've read and I can see why, but I don't think the song is as sentimental as everyone thinks it is. It's more about how the father in the song has failed at being a father, and all the good things in their child's life come from the mother. That's not to say there aren't sentimental moments. The song goes through the life of the child from birth to high school graduation. This song could have been cheesy, but it's the complete opposite of cheesy. It's cute, but in a good way.

Other standout tracks are . . . all of them, I guess. The whole album is (in my opinion) wonderful, but I wouldn't expect anything less.

Strand of Oaks

Great things come from Indiana: Amy Doll, Ezra-Bug, Larry Bird, Rudy and Strand of Oaks.

I've probably said this one too many times but it feels like forever since I started liking an artist I hadn't already liked 5ish years ago. New music just hasn't been my bag, baby. Then I heard a song by Strand of Oaks called "JM" which is a tribute to the late great Jason Molina. The thing I loved the most about the song besides the fact that it's just a great song is it actually sounds like a song Jason Molina might have written. The way the guitar is tuned totally sounds like it might have been a track on Pyramid Electric Co.

Tonight I also listened to a few other songs from their upcoming album entitled Heal that comes out Tuesday.




Apparently their album is also currently streaming on NPR's first listen. So if you enjoy these songs as much as I do you'll probably be checking that out.

Jeff Tweedy + Handsome Family



Zach and I went to see Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) at Cain’s Ballroom on Wednesday. The first half of his set consisted of songs from his new band with his son Spencer, and the second half was mostly acoustic versions of Wilco songs. Tweedy has a voice like melted butter (earth balance!) and an incredible stage presence, and the two dudes who were there playing guitar with him are amazing. Also, I found out that he has a book of poetry called Animal Head, and you better believe I swooped that up.

Anyway, I’m not really here to talk about Jeff Tweedy, as great as he was. I want to talk about the opening band, Handsome Family. It is very rare when you go to a show and aren’t eager for the opening band to finish their set, but that’s what happened. Handsome Family is a pretty influential band (enough so that Andrew Bird just released a whole covers album of just their songs), and their song  is the theme song for True Blood. They are a married couple and you can tell that they have some kind of kinetic energy because their onstage banter and their singing and playing are perfect. They remind me a lot of Murder by Death, and I’d venture to guess that MBD is influenced greatly by them. 


My favorite song of theirs is “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas.” Check it out, and then check out Andrew Bird’s cover of the same song (and cry). 




Xtina's Song of the Day



I'm currently playing FKA Twigs on repeat. Geoff Rickly of Thursday is a fan, and I will listen to anything he listens to on repeat because he has great taste in music. I would recommend this for fans of Emily King, the XX, Grimes, and James Blake. It's good Sunday music. I really enjoy the clacking sound on "How's That," which I shared below. It sounds like a turn signal clacking or fingers hitting a keyboard, both sounds that I find oddly soothing. Anyway, enjoy.

God Bless Public Radio

We Gibsons are huge proponents of public radio. I don't know how people function without it actually. I hear the important news in-depth and also listen to interviews with people like Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Redford, Conor Oberst, and the creator of Orange is the New Black. Over the years, I have developed friendships in my head with some of my favorite hosts. Audie Cornish, Steve Inskeep, Kai Ryssdal, Lynne Rosetto Kasper, Terry Gross, and last but not least....


Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton. They are my best pals. You might think you know Bob Boilen, but it's probably just Ryan Earl Ward (made famous by the Wires and Waves blog). Anyway, I digress. I heard two great songs on World Cafe this weekend, and I wanted to share them here.

The first song was "Does Someone Have Your Baby Now?" by Mazzy Star. I have not listened to them much in the past, but not for any particular reason other than I am stupid.



The second song was "Start Choppin'" by Dinosaur Jr., another band I have never listened to for no particular reason.


Finally, I want to share "Popular by Design" by the Polyphonic Spree. I did not actually hear this on NPR. I searched for it on my own free will. I was always scared by their costumes because they have a certain cultish vibe, so I never actually listened to them. I am terrified of cults. Even thinking about cults worries me, as if the thought will render me a Kool-Aid drinking fundamentalist worshiper off things. PS is not a cult, though, but no one bothered to tell me that. I know a lot of people who really love them, and Annie Clark, my dream lady-musician, played with them for a long time, but none of that led me to listen to them until yesterday when I was sitting in a bookstore doing homework for 2+ hours.




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