Jan 29, 2022
Saw this on Twitter. I unfortunately did not get the author to credit them but all credit goes to who ever they are
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Saw this on Twitter. I unfortunately did not get the author to credit them but all credit goes to who ever they are
Out now: Unwell S3/Ep4- the Imminent Frost
Just how much snow will this small Ohio town get?
Listen now
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Image Description: Actor Pat King (a white man, blonde, in a mauve shirt) as Chester Warren, recording in the studio.
Drive-By Truckers Leave Them Wanting More at Webster Hall on Friday
Drive-By Truckers – Webster Hall – February 21, 2020
For those paying attention, Drive-By Truckers have been shining a light on the deep wounds of America for more than 20 years. Led by master storytellers—and simpatico songwriting and musical partners—Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, the band has an unimpeachable catalog of rough-edged heartland rock that owes just as much to Crazy Horse and the Replacements as it does to Lynryd Skynyrd. While the Truckers have made a stir with their casual Southern fans by calling out the hypocrisies of the Republican party and their inaction with the rising rate of senseless school shootings and race bating on their last album, 2016’s American Band, the five-piece doubled down on their art-depicts-our-shit-show-of-American-life muse with their newest album, The Unraveling. With such politically charged tracks as “Thoughts and Prayers” and “21st Century USA,” Hood and Cooley aren’t releasing any steam from the pressure valve, and they brought their tour in support of the new LP to a packed Webster Hall on Friday night.
When I interviewed Hood last year while the band was working on the album, he leveled with me regarding how his frustrations with the political direction of our country have started to dig inward resulting in a more personal set of songs than American Band. “It’s probably just coming to terms with this world that we’re in right now,” Hood told me. “It’s maybe not as blatantly political as the last album, but it’s definitely part of it. But a more, kind of personal slant of it, I guess. How do you explain this shit to your kids?” It was bound to hit Hood this way. After all, this is the guy who wrote the songs “Puttin’ People on the Moon” and “The Righteous Path.”
The Truckers dove right into the proceedings with Cooley’s “Made Up English Oceans” before moving on to some of the new album’s darker material with “Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun,” “Slow Ride Argument” and “Heroin Again”—each track direct with its subject matter, and like the best Drive-By Truckers songs, acts as uncomfortable but necessary ice breakers and hard pills to swallow. But while we’re mentioning the band’s need to shake up things lyrically, we should also discuss how hard they rock. No matter your political affiliation, you cannot deny the power of this band’s three-guitar assault of Hood, Cooley and multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, the surplus of riffs surrounding the messages being conveyed.
While Friday’s performance showcased much of The Unraveling, Drive-By Truckers dug deep with some of their most beloved songs, one of the three best Cooley-penned tunes, “Women Without Whiskey,” an early set highlight, before the one-two punch of Southern Rock Opera’s first two numbers, “Days of Graduation” into a particularly raucous rendition of “Ronnie and Neil.” There were only a few moments of preaching from Hood during the marathon-length show, the songs doing the actual sermonizing, but ahead of “Babies in Cages,” he mentioned that Jeremy Christian, who had stabbed multiple people (one of whom Hood loosely knew) on a train in Portland, Ore., was sentenced earlier in the day, and that although he was happy this horrible person was getting the time he deserved, Hood hoped Christian lived long enough to understand the error of his ways.
After hitting the 20-song mark, the Truckers treated the rapt crowd to a rousing cover of the Ramones’ “The KKK Took My Baby Away,” bassist Matt Patton handling lead vocals. From there on out it was all classics, including the bleak desperation of Hood’s “Lookout Mountain” and Cooley’s other two greatest songs, the love-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks duo of “Marry Me” and “Zip City.” Ditching the idea of an encore, Drive-By Truckers rocketed through the finish line at the end of their two-and-a-half-hour set with the Hood sing-along “Hell No, I Ain’t Happy.” The fire behind the pummeling riffs and Hood’s convictions were palpable, and at one point, Cooley and Gonzalez lifted their guitars in the air to slide their fret boards against each other’s to create a striking mix of distortion and feedback. As the lights came up, there was nothing left unsaid but, as always with the Truckers, plenty left not played. But that’s the trick: Leave ’em wanting more. —Pat King | @MrPatKing
The National Play Soon-to-Be-Released Album in Full at Beacon Theatre
The National – Beacon Theatre – April 22, 2019
The National have reached the point in their career where the beast they have created is hungry enough to feast on different media beyond the world of music. With their next moves, they have earned enough confidence to afford to make grand gestures, which is exactly what they’re doing with their soon-to-be-released eighth album, I Am Easy to Find. This time around, the band teamed up with renowned film director Mike Mills for what was originally just intended to be music to accompany a short film. But the collaboration quickly swelled with possibilities as the two creative forces began to feed off of each other. Mills ended up coproducing the new album, and some of the dialogue in the 25-minute short ended up as lyrics in some of the LP’s pivotal songs. Ahead of its proper release, the band and Mills brought the film to the Beacon Theatre on Monday night for its U.S. debut.
As fans shuffled into the historic venue’s aisles, singer Matt Berninger walked out for a brief intro to the film we were about to see. He described the fruitfulness of the National’s collaboration with Mills—mentioning that as a graphic designer with an incredibly keen eye, the director had also provided creative direction for the evening, designing the complete stage show as well as the band’s merch and even their tour laminates. The gorgeous movie follows the life arc of a woman, played by Alicia Vikander, as she struggles to understand the complexities and cyclical nature of life. I’ll keep the description short as the film moves through the character’s life with a quick a fluid efficiency to a swelling and propulsive soundtrack by the band.
After the short concluded, Berninger returned to the stage with bandmate Aaron Dessner and Mills, plus a special moderator, Julien Baker. The chat was quick and friendly, as Baker, who’s previously toured with the National, asked thoughtful questions about this creative partnership. Following a brief intermission, for the purpose of alcohol as Berninger explained, the band returned for a special performance of I Am Easy to Find in full. As those in the crowd had experienced from watching the film, the new songs expand on the direction the National had been building toward on Sleep Well Beast. The songs simmered with lush yet tense orchestral arrangements further cementing the National as one of the all-time great 4:45 a.m. bands. Their music is the perfect soundtrack for that quiet sobering introspection before anyone else is awake to distract you from your soul-searching session.
To bring these new songs to life, the five-piece welcomed a full string section, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and a trio of female singers that included Mina Tindle and Baker. The new songs contained everything there is to love about the band. At times, the arrangements become overwhelming with possibilities as both Aaron and his twin brother, Bryce, layered their dreamlike guitar textures over the propelling rhythm section. —Pat King | @MrPatKing
Photos courtesy of Mina J
(The National and Courtney Barnett play Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park Bandshell on 6/13—6/12 is already sold out.)
Boygenius Prove That Rock Is Still Alive and Well
Boygenius – Brooklyn Steel – November 6, 2018
Snarky journalists and fans of old-guard rock and roll will quickly tell you that guitar music is on its last breath any chance they get. A 2017 article written in the Washington Post titled “The Death of the Electric Guitar” explained that high prices and disinterest from younger generations of music fans have led to the steady decline in sales of the instrument. But a recent discovery by Forbes shows that more young girls are increasingly picking up guitars. It’s easy to see why as more exciting female-led indie-rock bands are setting the example than ever before. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus are perfect examples and have each released some of the best bar-raising records in the field. With all three just under the age of being able to rent a car—Bridgers is the oldest by one year at 24 (both Baker and Dacus are 23)—the future is wide open with possibilities for these incredibly talented musicians.
That is why fans of each were equally surprised and overjoyed to discover the three had recorded a self-titled EP as the brand-new indie-rock supergroup Boygenius in honor of their joint fall tour, which came to town for two straight sold-out shows at Brooklyn Steel this week. On Tuesday night, the floor was as packed as it ever was for an opening set as Dacus took the stage. With her intelligent wordplay, wine-soaked low croon and powerful guitar interplay, she’s more at home with the classic roster at her label, Matador, than her Boygenius bandmates. Dacus performed a brief all-killer-no-filler set comprised mostly of her fantastic 2018 album, Historian, including the epic breakup song “Night Shift.” This track’s power could not be overstated, as it’s impossible to think that it will not be destined for closing-credits glory in the near future.
With a violinist, keyboardist, bassist, lead guitarist and drummer, Bridgers had the night’s biggest onstage presence and for good reason. The lush arrangements of her destined-to-be-classic-debut-album, Stranger in the Alps, floated across the room like a gas leak in slow motion with the opening chords of “Smoke Signals.” The only suitable way to describe Bridgers’ high voice is that it is spectral-like. There were moments in her 45-minute middle set when it was so piercingly beautiful that my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth too hard in disbelief. One of the best moments was when she and drummer Marshall Vore took on the Gillian Welch song “Everything Is Free,” which tells the story of a lost musician trying to make ends meet in a world that chooses not to value art. The set closed with a one-two punch of the two best Alps songs, “Motion Sickness” and “Scott Street,” the latter sprawling out like dead leaves getting blown from a sidewalk—in the best possible way, of course.
Technically, Baker was the stacked bill’s headliner and even though she performed with just a guitar and a keyboard, it would be silly to think that there would’ve been a better act to anchor the night. Baker’s vulnerability in her songs sets the template for all young singer-songwriters who will follow. The spiraling looping guitars of “Sprained Ankle” elicited the night’s first true sing-along. This kept up throughout the rest of her set, the crowd taking a lower hushed harmony to Baker’s soaring voice. Song after song felt like missing and regaining a rung on an emotional ladder as she built up concertgoers just to break their hurts even further. That wave overwhelmingly crested with the exploding chorus of the title track of her 2017 album, “Turn Out the Lights.”
After Baker’s set, all three singers returned backed by a mix of the first two acts’ bands for a proper Boygenius set. This was only the group’s second official show, but it felt like the crowd was witnessing something truly special from one of the most exciting new indie-rock bands to emerge in some time. Rather than playing out like a mixed bag of each of their strengths, the songs were true collaborations. Numbers like “Bite the Hand” contained the world-weariness of Dacus’s lyrics, Baker’s urgency and melancholic beauty from Bridgers. The set’s two highlights were Baker’s ode to her favorite companion, “Me and My Dog,” and the set closer, “Ketchum, ID,” which had the group sing around a bluegrass-style room microphone with just a guitar and their three voices in complete harmony filling the room. If there was a better case for indie rock being alive and well in 2018, it was this show. —Pat King | @MrPatKing
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band Watch 1978 Bronze ————————————————— Tracks: 1. Circles 2. Drowning on Dry Land • Fish Soup 3. Chicago Institute 4. California 5. Davy’s on the Road Again 6. Martha’s Madman 7. Mighty Quinn —————————————————
Dave Flett
Pat King
Manfred Mann
Chris Slade
Chris Hamlet Thompson
* Long Live Rock Archive
My greatest source of entertainment is Pat King not knowing what “anglo-saxon” actually means and thinking it just means all white people as a whole.
