Bluegrass Week: The Tallboys

Seattle, home of coffee and Nirvana, not quite the place you'd imagine there would be a thriving bluegrass scene. I vacationed there a few years ago and on one particular day I found myself strolling along Pike Place Market, a bustling place of fresh fruit, fish, and music. Like Venice Beach here in Los Angeles, Pike Place has a ton of buskers positioned throughout the market. Located in front of the original Starbuck's I happened to stumble upon a local old time string band that called themselves The Tallboys. They had attracted a large crowd and for good reason, they were very talented. At the end of their set I threw a few coins in the hat, and bought their CD. It was the first bluegrass album I ever owned. The Tallboys are still around busking up in Seattle. Unfortunately they haven't ever really done an extensive tour, for they are still highly unknown except in Washington. Someone with Rounder Records needs to snatch these guys up, and fast.

Attached is a track of The Tallboys performing one of my favorite bluegrass classics "Cumberland Gap"

Download via Mediafire:

Cumberland Gap

Where it all began...

For the longest time I hated bluegrass. I absolutely could not stand it. I felt it was repetitive superficial and trite. However that all changed when my Uncle (huge bluegrasser) took my Father and I to Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival near the Catskills of New York. I spent the first day walking around, catching a few acts, playing frisbee with strangers, you know, the stuff you do at music festivals. The bands were pretty entertaining, I enjoyed what they had to offer however nothing really blew me away. Until night fell. The headlining band that night was a reformed bluegrass group that date all the way back to the 70's called Hot Rize. Each member of this band is a demigod of their instrument, Tim O'Brien to this day is the best mandolin player I have ever seen. When they closed their set with a cover of the blistering Bill Monroe instrumental tune "Train 45" my jaw dropped to the floor. I could have never imagined a banjo, mandolin, bass and acoustic guitar could convey such power. After that I was hooked to bluegrass like a drug. I couldn't get enough, since then I have attended numerous bluegrass concerts, and have avidly sought out bluegrass of both new and old styles.

Here is the video and attached MP3 of Hot Rize performing "Train 45" at Grey Fox. It may not carry as much of a punch as it for me when I was physically there, but you get the idea.

Download via Mediafire:

Train 45

Next Week is Bluegrass Week

One of the reasons I created this blog is I wanted to expose my readers to new types of music. While I tend to post a lot of indie-rock and a few classics, I have been dying to expose some of you to one of my favorite genres, bluegrass. I'm going to have it all, classic bluegrass, contemporary, underground, popular, Appalachian old-timey, and even indie rock artists trying out their banjo chops. If you have been enjoying this blogs and have been digging my taste in music thus far, you are not going to want to miss this week.

New Spoon

Yep, Spoon are rolling out a new one in January of 2010, mark that as another highly anticipated release for next year. A new song from the album Transference leaked the other day. It has a weird edit at the end, not sure if that was by accident or if it was intentional (a la The Beatles, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)") you be the judge. This song "Mystery Zone" is everything you'd expect from Spoon; crisp, clean sounding and well-produced.

Download via Mediafire:

Link Removed by request of Merge Records

Think About Life

Think About life are a new Canadian export, they have a lively indie-pop dance hall sound. They recently made appearances at CMJ in New York and have toured with Wolf Parade. This is one of the happiest songs I have heard all year.

Download via Mediafire:

Havin' My Baby

Fiddlin' Around

I love blues, and good country, and on special occasion the two get put together and it creates something absolutely amazing. Here's proof of that from bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's highly underrated 1976 album Bogaloosa Boogie Man. 

Download via Mediafire:
Fiddlin' Around

Needs to Stop: Weezer

*** "Needs to Stop" is an on-going segment, where I take great bands that have disappointed me and scold them.***

If you are in a fledgling rock band and want to learn how not to destroy your career, or if you just feel like being depressed in general listen to Weezer's discography in chronological order. By doing so you will learn how a unique band full of talented individuals slowly became one of the most shallow one-dimensional artists around.

Weezer aka The Blue Album was one of the best and most important releases of the 90's. The influence from it can be clearly seen in much of the mainstream pop-rock and indie rock bands today. Rivers Cumo's style of lyrics even helped craft Emo into what it regrettably became. Songs like "Undone (The Sweater Song)" and "Say It Aint So" didn't necessarily have the most poignant lyrics or anything musically incredible, but the sound and feeling they created spoke to a generation that could really relate to it.

Then came Pinkerton, at the time it was panned by critics and hated by the band. However, as time progressed people started to discover the magnitude and distinctiveness of this disc. Nowadays, Pinkerton, along with Blue are considered their most important works.

   Then came the downward spiral. The Green Album, and Maladroit,were released. Each of which had their own individual moments, "Island In The Sun" off of Green is considered a classic, and many songs off of Maladroit hold special places in my heart. However while each of these albums had their shining points of brilliance, they have all been overshadowed by the filler and uninspired tracks that litter these records.

With the advent of Make Believe it really became apparent that Weezer stopped caring. While they roped in new throngs of MTV-ites to their fan base with "Beverly Hills" the rest of us who have been with them since the beginning felt cheated. These songs came off very exhausted, it felt like they pained the band to sing them. This showed with the subsequent concert that I saw them perform when they were touring in support of this album. After the tour rumors spread that Weezer were breaking up.

    In 2008 those rumors were put to rest when their third self-titled record, The Red Album was released. Buzz was spurring all over the internet about this album, people had a feeling that since they were releasing a self-titled album it would be above-par for them since their track record with self-titled albums has been pretty good. Would this album live up to the hype? Nope. Not at all. Sure "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" is too epic of a song not to enjoy but when compared to "Buddy Holly" or "El Scorcho" none of these tracks hold a candle to their previous work. It seemed to a lot of us that Weezer needed to take a much needed break and focus themselves and re-establish their sound. Instead they recorded an even worse album the very next year.

    This leads me to Raditude their 2009 release, the record that is being dropped today, the entire reason that has inspired me to write this blog. To call Raditude a bad album is putting it nicely. Raditude could possibly be the worst piece of shit I have heard in years. Every single track is drenched in half-assed craftsmanship all around. The songs aren't catchy, the lyrics are god-awful, and the musicianship is insanely bad for a band who weren't known for their instrumentation to begin with.

To hear how Weezer has since gone from "My Name Is Jonas" to "The Girl Got Hot" or "Can't Stop Partying" brings a tear of disappointment to my eye. Here is a sample of the lyrics from their new hit "Can't Stop Partying":

Monday to Sunday I hit all the clubs
And everybody knows me when I pull up
I got the real big posse with me, yeah I’m deep
And if u lookin for me I’m in vip

WHAT THE HELL?! That sounds like something some douche-bag open mic act would write! Weezer please I beg you, stop. Stop hurting your music, stop hurting me. Rivers Cumo you are thirty-nine years old, stop talking about high-school. It was great in 1992, now it is just creepy! I am sick and tired of people trying to come up with excuses for this band. "Oh they're just trying to have fun!" or "Oh they're actually mocking what their singing about." No. I am all for fun. However if you are in a band that wrote The Blue Album you have expectations as artists. You can have as much fun as you want, as long as it's on par with your previous work. 

Now I am not saying Weezer needs to quit period. However, they need to really re-assess who they are and what they are contributing as a band to their genre. They need to stop associating themselves with these teenie-bopper pop bands like Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, or Blink-182 because Weezer is way out of their league. Rivers Cumo needs to mature as a songwriter and start coming up with lyrics that are appropriate for his age, not for the pirañas of MTV. And above all they need to re-listen to their previous work and learn what they are capable of, Pinkerton especially, an album that is brash carefree and honest. Weezer has done a lot and are still in a prime age for a rock band. They could make an even bigger impact on music if they sit down and work hard. However, if they keep churning out crap like they have been, then they might fade away, and that would be a terrible shame.

Rather than polluting the internet with songs from Raditude I decided to post a video compilation of the Weezer that was and what they have become, so you can draw your own opinions.

The Good:

The Bad:

The Ugly

Review: Devendra Banhart - What Will We Be

The biggest problem I had Banhart's past release Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon was it was a very creative album, yet was swallowed up in this careless echoey production. It lacked focus, and direction. With his 2009 release of What Will We Be has has done completely the opposite. This album is more concentrated than Smokey however now it lacks the creative side. Out of fourteen tracks, there are only about seven keepers here. The rest of the album is filled with throwaway songs. The last four songs of the album are some of the most boring work he's ever done.
  That is not to say this is a terrible album. There is some great stuff on here. The first half of "Angelika" harkens back to the Devendra of the Nino Rojo years, while the second half transforms into a spanish-tongued salsa. "Rats" is one the most epic songs he has created, it should be considered a cousin of "Seahorse" for they share a similar stoner-rock Black Sabbath guitar riff.
   The thing that annoys me the most about this release and Thunder Canyon is to me it seems that Banhart is so wrapped up in this free love lackadaisical hippie shit that it makes his albums seem half-baked. The main theme of What Will We Be seems to be "We don't know what we're doing, but boy are we having fun!" Devendra Banhart is an extremely talented artist and has created some absolutely tremendous music, Cripple Crow was the pinnacle of this freak-folk movement. Songs like "I Feel Like A Child" had the loose experimentation that he enjoys, yet they were focused impassioned and exciting. I just hope that on his next release Banhart will re-listen to his earlier work, and learn what he is in fact capable of.