Now Hear This » Live/rare recordings

Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Fox Theater September 9 & 10, pre-sale on now!

Michael — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:07:07 +0000

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are coming to The Fox Theater in Oakland to pump folks up about their latest record It’s Blitz! on September 9th & 10th. I’m thinking it won’t be too tough to get a ticket to such a big joint on a Wednesday or Thursday night but hey, no reason superfans shouldn’t get tickets now before they go on sale to the general schlepulous Sunday. To that end the good Samaritans at Another Planet are providing a pre-sale for ya. The password is “yeah105″ (though I’m hearing that “foxy” will work too and that’s a lot more fun!). Click here to buy ‘em.

While we’re on the subject, you gotta wonder how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are feeling about the video for “Heads Will Roll” now that the fella the werewolf is imitating has kicked the bucket:

And since I’m still in awestruck-by-Sonic-Youth mode here’s a nifty acoustic cover of Diamond Sea from an iTunes session a couple years back. Oh what the hell, let’s toss in a Bjork cover for good measure…

Diamond Sea (Sonic Youth cover)

Hyper Ballad (Bjork cover)

How ’bout we throw in an It’s Blitz! bonus track?

Faces (thanks to becca darling is: the bee charmer for this one)

Bat For Lashes: New EP, more covers

Michael — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:19:18 +0000

Bummed I missed the Bat For Lashes show at the Great American Music Hall the other night. You just can’t get to ‘em all unfortunately. And judging by the snippets of live tracks she’s streaming on her myspace page it was a magical night. I say snippets because the full versions are on the Pearl’s Dream EP available on iTune’s UK store (no word on whether or not the US store will have it). Here’s the tracklist:

- Pearl’s Dream (album version)
- Pearl’s Dream (Cenzo Townshend Radio Edit)
- Sleep Alone (909′s In DarkTimes Mix)
- Siren Song (Live At Shepherd’s Bush Empire)
- Good Love (Live At Shepherd’s Bush Empire)

909 is apparently the pseudonym of David Sitek (TV on the Radio & Telepathe). Since we haven’t gotten our own copy here at NHT we’ll just have to share what BFL tracks are kicking around the old hard drive already (covers of course):

I’m On Fire WAY more convincing than the Boss, from the beeb’s Dermot O’Leary Show in 2007

Sweet Dreams The Eurythmics’ classic from Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge (also on the BBC) in 2008

Use Somebody A Kings Of Leon cover also from Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge, this time back on April 9th of this year

THere’s a video for Pearl’s Dream up on BFL’s website but it’s not nearly as cool as the video for What’s a Girl To Do from her 2006 debut Fur And Gold so I’ll post that instead!

Case of covers

Michael — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:38:40 +0000

Caught the second night of Neko Case’s two night run at the at the Warfield a couple weeks ago. It was a fabulous evening with that big-as-a-house voice of hers in fine form and along with regular companion Kelly Hogan we were treated to some of the best between song banter in the business. Unfortunately the new material from Middle Cyclone was delivered with less enthusiasm then the older stuff she played. I couldn’t help thinking a well placed cover would have livened things up a bit. To that end I threw together of couple of songs by other folks Neko’s done over the years.

Alone & Forsaken A Hank Williams cover that first appeared on Neko’s 2001 release Canadian Amp. When she opened for Calexico at The Fillmore back on July 7th, 2004 she came out during their set and did this spectacularly haunting version with them.

Brown-Eyed Handsome Man Now we’re talkin’ lively. This comes from a great compilation on Bloodshot records called Hard-Headed Woman: A Celebration of Wanda Jackson. Buy it here.

Buckets Of Rain (Bob Dylan)

Knock Loud (Sook-Yin Lee) A staple of her live set for a while, Neko’s version of this first appeared on Kill Rock Stars’ 2002 collection Fields and Streams. Both this and the Dylan track are form the 9:30 Club in DC on 4/9/06

Lord Dont Move The Mountain Neko Gets her gospel on with a Bessie Griffin number during a Peel Session at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in London, 9/13/00

Runnin’ Out Of Fools From the same Peel Session, the way she delivers this Aretha Franklin tune makes the hair on my arm stand up.

Poor Ellen Smith A 19th century tune from the fabulous collection of murder ballads by the Mekons related Pine Valley Cosmonauts called The Executioner’s Last Songs Volume 1. Proceeds from this record and a second volume benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project. Buy it here.

Stay A Little Longer Again with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts from their 1998 debut Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills

The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise A hit for Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, this is from a solo record by Neko’s secret weapon, Jon Rauhouse’s Steel Guitar Air Show.

River Of No Return From another Rauhouse solo record, Steel Guitar Rodeo. Neko does saucey almost as well as Marilyn Monroe did in the movie of the same name with Robert Mitchum.

Get ‘em all zipped right here: Case Of Covers

Blitzen Trapper live on KALX

Michael — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:43:49 +0000

BT was kind enough to stop by my show on KALX in Berkeley last week and get their peace & quiet on. You know I was stoked since their latest record was my number one for 2008. We got three tunes peppered through some banter I’ll try and get up as soon as I get it edited so I don’t come off a dufus. Standing in the cramped air studio while they did “Sleepy Time…” a capella was just amazing. Check ‘em out:

Sleepy Time In The Western World

Lady On The Water

Stolen Shoes + A Rifle

Here’s a bonus from their show at The Independent back in December:

The Gambler/The Last Thing On My Mind

An hilarious stab at Kenny Rogers and a gorgeous Tom Paxton cover. The whole show is up at the Internet Archive.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Michael — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:03:33 +0000

Can’t believe it’s taken me this long to post about this amazing five disc Pogues box set lovingly compiled by their own Phil Chevron. After all, it made my best of 2008 list. What better time to rectify the situation than today? This is no mere odds n’ sods set. It includes gleaming gems like “Maggie May” (which I had the good fortune of seeing at The Filmore in 1986), a couple of tracks from Joe Strummer’s stint replacing Shane McGowan (criminally not the haunting version of “Straight To Hell”), and demos galore (including what the band feels is the best song never to make it onto a Pogues record, “NW3,” which would appear as “Mother Mó Chrói” on a Shane solo record. Another favorite of mine is the Sexy Bongo track “Johnny Was.” This comes from a legendary episode in Pogues history where Andrew Ranken, Darryl Hunt, Jem Finer, James Fernly and Phil Chevron formed their own opening act for just one show in Sweden. They wrote all the material at the sound check and performed it that evening, never to be repeated. Phil swears the majority of the crowd had no idea who they were. So here are some of the live highlights for you on this fine Paddy’s day:

Golden Globe #2 for the Boss

Michael — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:01:15 +0000

Bruce Springsteen picked up his second Best Original Song Golden Globe last night for his theme for the film “The Wrestler.” He won the same award for 1994′s “Streets Of Philadelphia.” While he certainly deserves kudos I mention his victory over Peter Gabriel, Clint Eastwood & Miley Cyrus merely as an excuse to revisit of my favorite records of 2006, We Shall Overcome: The Seegaer Sessions. The Seeger Sessions is a rollicking, heartfelt tribute to a giant of contemporary American folk music. While the sound is big enough to verge on bombastic there’s a rowdy sincerity that’s impossible to resist. Instead of literal interpretations of Seeger’s spare sound Bruce infuses these tunes with a careening energy as diverse as a 60′s hootenanny mixed with Dylan’s work with The Band.

Here is an incredible sounding recording from the Seeger Sessions tour when it stopped in the UK.

St. Luke’s , London 5/10/06

John Henry
Oh Mary Don’t You Weep
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?
Mrs. McGrath
My Oklahoma Home
Jacob’s Ladder
We Shall Overcome
Pay Me My Money Down

Get the whole deal at once: Seeger Sessions live zip

Now Hear This » Live/rare recordings

Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Fox Theater September 9 & 10, pre-sale on now!

Bat For Lashes: New EP, more covers

Case of covers

Blitzen Trapper live on KALX

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

From the BBC’s David “Kid” Jensen show, 6/21/84

From the BBC’s Janice Long show, 10/10/86

From The Barrowlands, Glasgow, 12/17-19/87

With Joe Strummer from The Forum, London, 12/12/91

Golden Globe #2 for the Boss

St. Luke’s , London 5/10/06