I’ve always been a folk dude, first and foremost, and among my favorite musicians of the genre are the wandering troubadour types who’ve left trails of discography in their wakes — from Neil, Joni and Bob to modern heirs such as Will Oldham, Jason Molina and Bill Callahan, formerly Smog. (And Ryan Adams, but I [...]
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First Look: Smog - “Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle”
New Weezer Album Coming This Summer?
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The LA Times‘ Todd Martens reports on his Tweeter page that Weezer has a new album due in a couple months — but Rivers won’t talk about it so he won’t “jinx” it. Can we expect a “Greatest Man Who Ever Lived Pt. 2?” Cross your =W=s! Other surprise albums on the way: Hayden’s The [...]
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New Music: Bowerbirds - “Northern Lights”
“All I want is your eyes,” Bowerbirds frontman Phil Moore sings in the meditative “Northern Lights,” a dusty, cymbal-filled folk song combining chamber-pop intimacy and woodsy, flannel-clad rawness. It’s very much in line with Strand of Oaks’ mournful Leave Ruin, an album you’ll remember I liked quite a bit. I was a fan of the [...]
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Spencer Tweedy Has Become A Man
Photo via SpencerTweedy.comEnterprising Wilco fans may remember Spencer Tweedy as the adorable scamp playing air drums with Dad in the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Well, he’s all grown up now — he’s had a Bar Mitzvah! Not only that, but he’s written about it in the best blog post imaginable (dude’s [...]
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It’s My Birthday Too, Yeah
Let’s listen to the best song ever written together. I’m now in my mid-twenties, oh, God. Also: Star Trek is fucking awesome.
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St. Vincent’s Annie Clark Says Smart Things
Photo by David GreenwaldSt. Vincent’s Annie Clark on adding her voice to the creative chorus and the title of her latest album, Actor: “It’s about just the general sense of feeling like a fraud. I think anyone who is creative or self-aware in any way, there’s like a humility to it, or I should say [...]
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Old Music: The Smiths - “Back To The Old House” (Peel Sessions)
The Smiths‘ catalog is a pretty overwhelming animal, in both diversity of sound (take the easy ska of “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” vs. the torch ballad “I Know It’s Over,” for instance) and the sheer number of tracks scattered across their four albums and numerous singles compilations. But their appearances on John Peel’s show over the [...]
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New Music: Burning Hearts - “Iris”
On “Iris,” Finnish twee act Burning Hearts sound less like they’re running with chests aflame than like Meryl Streep in Doubt listening to Belle & Sebastian. The Hearts play a matronly, serious brand of indie pop that nevertheless shimmers and jangles with the best of ‘em; of all the songs of their latest, Aboa Sleeping, [...]
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Bootleg: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke - 4.15.05 Methodist Central Hall, Westminster
Some three years before the release of In Rainbows, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke presented the world — or rather, a talkative crowd inside the roomy-sounding Methodist Central Hall church — with acoustic versions of “House of Cards,” “Nude,” “Last Flowers” and a drastically different version of “Reckoner,” which shares little besides a name with the eventual [...]
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The Week In Rawk, 4.19.09: To Coachella And Beyond
Coachella: My hour-by-hour guide hopefully helped you through the weekend. Check it out if you’re not sure who to see today, and click here for Flickr photos from Friday’s sets. In other concert photo blogging, I posted my shots from The Boat People’s opening gig for Chad VanGaalen. [At left: The Boat People / photo [...]
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Video: Seth Rogen’s Bar Mitzvah Years
13-year-old Seth Rogen, circa 1996, jokes about Jews: Grandparents, summer camp and constipated Biblical figures. The last part’s in song! Dude’s humor has changed a bit over the years, but he’s surprisingly sharp for a kid (and he looks a bit like McLovin). [Via Vulture]
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Rawkblog Guide To Coachella 2009
Coachella 2006 / photo by David GreenwaldSigh. I am not going to Coachella today and am totally bummed about it, but such is life and work scheduling. (Plus, I’m still recovering from last night’s My Bloody Valentine ear/mind obliteration.) But as with last year’s hour-by-hour guide, I’ve put together a handy schedule for you (in [...]
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The Canon, Examined: American Music Club - “Mercury”
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Artist:The Canon
American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel performs at Largo on Saturday. What follows is the second in my two-part look at the band’s ’90s heyday. Part 1, on Everclear, is here. Update: The show’s been canceled! But the review stands.American Music Club’s follow-up to the lauded Everclear came in the wake of the grunge explosion. Mercury [...]
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The Canon, Examined: American Music Club - “Everclear”
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As far as reunions go, American Music Club’s hasn’t garnered quite the attention of the Pixies or My Bloody Valentine. But then, they were never ones for the limelight. The California band split after 1994’s San Francisco and reformed almost 10 years later for 2003’s Love Songs For Patriots; frontman Mark Eitzel arrives at Largo [...]
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New Music: Dave Matthews Band - “Funny The Way It Is”
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For the last decade — since 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets officially, and since 2001’s widely bootlegged Lillywhite Sessions in actuality — Dave Matthews Band has gone from being one of pop music’s most interesting acts to its most predictable. Since the radio cop-out Everyday, the group has largely sacrificed the rich arrangements and wide-open [...]
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Camera Obscurist: Young Girl Playing A Pop Song
Venice Beach, California. The full set is on Flickr.Previously: Goodnight, Hollywood Blvd. | All Camera Obscurist Posts***Camera Obscurist is an occasional photography series. Click below for more.
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Video: Nirvana - “On A Plane” (Unplugged)
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Kurt Cobain died today 15 years ago. A painful anniversary for music fans of a certain vintage; it’s strange to think that it’s been long enough for a generation of teenagers to have been born into a world without Nirvana. Still, the band’s songs hold up — and remain at their best at their concert [...]
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The Week In Rawk, 3.29.09
Interviews: Chad VanGaalen (pictured at left; photo by David Greenwald) in advance of his Saturday night performance at Spaceland.Jamz: A rare, glorious Softies bootleg from 2000; a First Look at Telekinesis‘ fantastic debut.News: Some pre-Coachella rumor-mongering.Camera Obscurist: Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard, goodnight.And, random: R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe was captured by The Sartorialist t
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Interview: Chad VanGaalen
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Photo by David GreenwaldPerhaps no single musician in indie rock has emerged as intriguingly over the past few years as Chad VanGaalen. While many a band would be happy to fill their press release with his backstory’s highlights — building his own instruments, quietly amassing hundreds of recordings, doing for Asimov and Dick what Led [...]
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Bootleg: The Softies @ The Milky Way, Boston, 10.20.00
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Artist:The Softies
The Softies reunited in Seattle, 2006 / photo by PhotophonicWhat a wonderful show. Softies bootlegs are few and far between, and this 2000 show is only the second I’ve seen. Main Softie Rose Melberg remains an active artist, releasing Cast Away The Clouds in 2006, but given that she tours about as much as Leonard [...]
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