Blogging Roller

That was the only complaint the kids had about the They Might Be Giants show last night, their first "real rock concert" as they called it. Otherwise they loved it. My brother and I took Alex (10) and Linus (9) to the show at the Carolina Theater in Durham. They had a great time, pogoed around like the rest of the crowd and didn't get to bed until after 1AM.

I loved the show too. The last time I saw TMBG was probably before you were born; just the two Johns with a guitar, accordion, saxophone and a jam-box playing a drum tape. This time they had a full rock band with an amazing guitar player but unfortunately, no horns. They put on a solid show, played a wide variety of songs not weighted too heavily to their latest release, The Else, which was good and bad. Good because they've got a giant back catalog of kick ass jams. Bad because we've been listening to The Else and the boys really dig Bee of the Bird of the Moth -- guess they needed the horns for that one.

Here are some related links: There are still about 20 shows left in the TMBG tour. David Menconi of the Raleigh N&O blogged about TBMG and scored an interview. And Pat Mueller remarks on the nerd-fest that is the TMBG audience.

Since I inflicted the 5 things-about-me meme on Linda, she's inflicting the latest 5 things meme on me. This time the meme is this: name 5 songs you like but annoy your significant other. I thought that would be easy as I've got a giant collection of songs that seem to irritate Andi, but she can't seem to identify any specific songs that particularly annoy her. So, you'll have to be satisfied with some broad categories:

1. Anything by Bob Dylan
2. Punky stuff like X, Superchunk or Bad Brains
3. Hard rock stuff like Zeppelin or The Who
4. Nasty Zoo - me on helium-voice vocals and bass, kids singing backup
5. Java Posse podcast. OK, it's not song, but it's on my iPod and annoys the hell out of her.

Here's to my new co-workers: Roberto, Arun, Rajiv and Marc consider yourselves tagged. I guess you've got an "out" if you have (or claim to have) no significant other.

Neil Young is offering a free stream of his new album today only: Living With War. And while you wait for a connection/stream, check out Code Monkey (heard it on the MacCast).

And by the way, Wilco rocked! UNC's Memorial Hall is a great place to see a show. It's pretty sure it's been renovated at least once since the last time I saw a rock show there (Hüsker Dü, back in in the stone age).

Rocked the Cradle.



So go see 'em if you get a chance. Actually, Son Volt played at Raleigh's Disco Rodeo (good god I hate that name), but  it was a Cats Cradle production. NC's own Tift Merritt opened and put on quite a good show too.

They Might Be Giants first podcast is available. Here's the TMBG podcast feed.

Twenty-five years ago on this day John Lennon was killed. I still remember hearing the news and, I'm not ashamed to say, thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes. On a much happier note, nine years ago on this day my first son Alexander Broering Johnson was born.

Sam Whitmore: This is the last Closet Deadhead podcast. We weren’t shut down. In light of the Archive.org debacle, we simply sense that it’s time to go. Thank you for all your support, and stay in touch at www.closetdeadhead.com.

How very sad. Ten years after Jerry passed, Dead fans like Sam (and I) mourn another loss.

Rockin' the house
Originally uploaded by fieldmouse.

Fieldmouse took some good shots of The Connells show at Mission Valley saturday night. I was there. It was hot and muggy as hell, but after a somewhat shakey start, sound-wise, the guys put on a great show.

CookieCulture: Don't ask me how but Shatner and Folds really pulled it off here. A smart sincere album that's funny in the right places.

Cookie hasn't learned the art of linking so here ya go Has Been, William Shatner

My brother Dan promises to blog an disc a day until the end of he year. Today's disc: Hands Up by Chapel Hill's own Two Dollar Pistols.

My bro located these pictures of Saturday's Wilco show in Raleigh. It was an amazing show, BTW.

The two concerts that I attended were arranged by a friend of mine who was working in Armenia. He keeps up with new releases and concerts by watching music news sites and Pollstar. From half a world away, he had more awareness of local music happenings than I do. I'm just not that hip to the scene.

What I need is something like SonicBreakdown.com. SonicBreakdown.com is a site that is designed to keep you in touch with your favorite music - sort of a personal music portal/aggregator. The spyware-free SonicBreakdown client scans your music collection, uploads that information to the site, and then keeps you informed of nearby concerts, upcoming television appearances, new releases, and music news about the artists in your collection. It does this by using RSS from a variety of music news sites and Web services provided by Amazon, Pollstar, and others. I wish I had signed up earlier, then I would have known that Sonic Youth is playing the Cradle tonight. Now, if only I could subscribe to SonicBreakdown feeds in BlogLines...

The Dead show was a lot of fun. With the addition of guitarists Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring, new keyboard player Jeff Chimenti, and Branford Marsalis on sax and clarinet the Dead has a very different sound than the Grateful Dead had in the 90's. The band seems more together and more "tight" but is still has the ability to veer off into wildly improvisational trippy jam territory and then bring it all back home again. Overall the music was good and the Dead songs they played were generally excellent, but there were times when the new songs ventured a little too far into the southern rock sound for my tastes. I'm not that big a fan of southern rock, unless you count REM, the B-52s, and The Connells. Overall review: two thumbs up. (see also: photos and set-list).

No blogging or any other productive work for me tonight - I'm going to see 'the Dead.' That's something I haven't done since June 18, 1995. Ok, it is not really the Dead without Jerry, but it is as close as you can get these days (Dark Star Orchestra not withstanding).

Rest in peace, Joe.

Yesterday, I drove over to Chapel Hill to visit my brother and to see the movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.  The movie is a rockumentary about the making of Wilco's recent and critically acclaimed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (YHF) album. My nutshell review is simple: if you like Wilco you'll love it, if you don't then you might want to skip it. I loved it.

Whether or not you like Wilco, the YHF story is pretty interesting.  Wilco's record label, Warner Brothers Reprise, gave the band the freedom to make the album on their own, working in their loft, and without a producer.  Once Wilco was done with the album, the record company decided that the album was not marketable or radio friendly or whatever.  The company dropped Wilco and let the band walk away with rights to the album.  Eventually, Nonesuch Records took interest and signed Wilco. Like Warner Brothers Reprise, Nonesuch is owned by AOL Time Warner. So in the end AOL Time Warner paid for the same record twice.  

The story of record company stupidity was covered in the movie, but the movie seemed to gloss over the file sharing story.  YHF was available in MP3 format on the Wilco website for over six months before the album went on sale, but despite this and much to the surpise of the music industry middlemen the album debuted at #13 on the Billboard album charts.