The Dadada is done, done, done…

After trying to make this work a second time, I’ve come to realize that my professional career is too demanding, and that I have too many family responsibilities to maintain a good music blog. I will continue to make music mixes and post these here and through facebook, and I will keep the archive available for the curious surfer.  However, I am not going to commit to anything or even try to approximate the blogs I enjoy reading in my spare time (some of which I’ve lost touch).

If you want to read good music blogs–take a gander at the blog roll to the right…

Thanks to those of you who’ve e-mailed me and followed this blog since moving here in July.  Thanks to the bands who linked to this site or sent along materials for consideration.  This was fun while it was manageable, but I’m throwing in the towel. Happy Holidays…

Yes… this is a hobby.

I do appreciate the support, and encourage you to stick with me… RSS feed me, whatever. Know that I enjoy doing this, but that I have other pressing work and a life that consumes me from time to time. thanks for looking and I will have stuff later this week.

I love Joe Pug

Yes, I love Joe Pug, Joe Pugliese, the UNC graduate who busted his knuckles as a self-described “bad carpenter” in Chicago for a year before being “discovered.”

Joe Pug follows the Dylan-Goodman-Prine lineage of great folksingers from the Midwest. I first heard Pug like many people–through a free track-Hymn 101 (MP3). Since that time, I’ve managed to get a bootleg from one of his shows, get an EP of his music (In the Meantime–FREE Download), and downloaded his NPR performance from the 2009 Newport Folk Festival.

The problem with the Newport show is that the NPR site has no set list with it. So now I am stuck. I was hoping to index and burn the show, but I can’t really until I have a confirmed set list.  So e-mail me (thedadadablog at gmail.com) if you know the set list.  Otherwise, I am playing a guessing game.

PEACE!

Sunday Ramblings

The Big-O ezine or blog or whatever it is (no disrespect intended, I am tired) has outtakes from Dylan’s best album of the eighties, Infidels. The transition from analog to digital is a bit rough, but these bootlegged outtakes are in acceptable shape, and if you are Dylan fan, I suggest you download it.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about Dylan is his approach to recording varying arrangements of his songs.  I don’t think I ever appreciated his ability to do this until the Bootleg series became a reality. Pick up any copy of this series and you will be pleasantly surprised. For example, last year’s Tell Tale Signs (Volume EIGHT) provides two excellent alternative takes of Mississippi, which was originally released on the Love and Theft album.

This set of bootlegs provides alternative recordings of all of the tracks from this album, most notably an electric version of Blind Willie McTell.  It also provides a history of the album with the intended track listing and how it resulted in the actual playlist from this 1983 release.

So have a listen, and if you like it, buy the album (7.92 on Itunes).  It’s among his best, and I am thankful I bought it over twenty years ago at the suggestion of a friend.

Blogophilia 12.5

Blogophilia 12.5

Songs from Blogs September 20 – October 15, 2009

Ripped @ 256k VBR

01 Intro

02 The Big Pink – Dominos

03 Bear in Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers

04 Windmill – Ellen Save Our Energy

05 Real Ones – Every Dog Has His Day

06 Headlights – Telephones

07 Akron Family – Everyone is Guilty

08 Vampire Weekend – Horchata

09 Foreign Born – Early Warnings

10 The Clientele – Harvest Mix

11 Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard – Breathe Our Iodine

12 Real Estate – Beachcomber

13 Sweet Serenades – On My Way

14 The Bravery – Slow Poison

15 Death Cab for Cutie – Meet Me on the Equinox

16 Spiral Stairs – The Maltese T

17 Erin McKeown – The Foxes

18 The Static Jackets – My Parents Lied

19 Miss Derringer – Click Click, Bang Bang

20 Tegan & Sara – Hell

21 A Grave with No Name – Open Water

22 Devendra Banhart – Baby

23 Laura Veirs – Wide Eyed, Legless

24 Outro

Right Click Save on Artwork to Download

Blogophilia 12.5
Songs from Blogs September 20 – October 15, 2009
Ripped @ 256k VBR
Run Time: 77:17

Tracklist:
01 Intro
02 The Big Pink – Dominos
03 Bear in Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers
04 Windmill – Ellen Save Our Energy
05 Real Ones – Every Dog Has His Day
06 Headlights – Telephones
07 Akron Family – Everyone is Guilty
08 Vampire Weekend – Horchata
09 Foreign Born – Early Warnings
10 The Clientele – Harvest Mix
11 Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard – Breathe Our Iodine
12 Real Estate – Beachcomber
13 Sweet Serenades – On My Way
14 The Bravery – Slow Poison
15 Death Cab for Cutie – Meet Me on the Equinox
16 Spiral Stairs – The Maltese T
17 Erin McKeown – The Foxes
18 The Static Jackets – My Parents Lied
19 Miss Derringer – Click Click, Bang Bang
20 Tegan & Sara – Hell
21 A Grave with No Name – Open Water
22 Devendra Banhart – Baby
23 Laura Veirs – Wide Eyed, Legless
24 Outro

I wasn’t planning to develop another mix so quickly, but a close friend of mine–let’s call him the Muck Man–was less than impressed with the Volume 12 mix. I liked volume 12, but I also know I’ve been working hard and was not in the best of moods when I was selecting songs for volume 12.  So we have volume 12.5 thanks to a friend of mine who once used this as a pickup line, “Do you like Metallica?”  when we were out club hopping on summer break from college. It was the eighties, what can I say?

Notes for this volume–I really love Breathe Our Iodine from the One Fast Move or I am Gone Soundtrack. I know that the guitar riff is derivative in that it has been used in a few different blues tunes, but Jay Farrar does a nice job of delivering Kerouac’s words.  I have an order in for the One Fast Move DVD and I can’t wait to see it.  I started reading Big Sur again the other night following my last post.

Other highlights from this mix–Real Ones – Every Dog Has Its Day is reminiscent of the Talking Heads. Akron/Family’s Everyone Is Guilty is guilty of being a great tune from an even greater album. Laura Veirs‘ Wide Eyed, Legless reminds me of Suzanne Vega’s Left of Center for some reason. I can’t wait to hear Ms. Veirs’ new album. For a long time, I’ve managed to keep The Big Pink’s Dominos off of the Blogophilia mixes, but I think it’s finally grown on me, and represents a good opening track for this mix. Other quick notes, I find Ellen Save Our Energy by Windmill very endearing; I think that Death Cab has ripped off the Canadian power trio, Rush with Meet Me On the Equinox; and I am glad that the Queen of the California Quail forced my hand and made me check to see if I had any Erin McKeown–she’s great with The Foxes.

Until next time…

Three Degrees of Separation: Kerouac, Gibbard, and Geddy Lee

Jack Kerouac serves as the inspiration for a documentary and album titled, One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur.  It seems like all of the media outlets I frequent have mentioned this now.  This morning I heard an excellent piece on NPR about the making of the documentary.

The album is a soundtrack for the documentary, but represents recordings using Kerouac’s narrative as lyrics to songs. The album is an effort between Jay Farrar (of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt) and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie). The documentary and soundtrack represent works that have spurred me to re-engage with Kerouac, who has been a person of interest to me since reading On the Road in 1987.

When I entered graduate school in 1994, I took part in a reading group who focused on examining the literary giants that influenced Kerouac and his beat generation buddies, Alan Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. We regularly read excerpts and short stories from likes of Melville, Blake, Proust, and others who influenced these fringie characters of the Beat Generation. For about two years I was into all things Beat, and then I slowly weaned myself off of it, and moved onto more heady post-modern stuff by the likes of Don Delillo, David Foster Wallace and others.  Just when I thought I was I out, they pulled me back in!

Well, I am excited about this.  I am amazed at how many folks are inspired by Kerouac.  I think it has to do with his unabashed love of the little things and the mess of contradictions that he represented.  He was a complex man.  He wanted to be known as a great writer but he eschewed fame by drowning himself in alcohol.  He was a devout Catholic who appreciated Buddhism and Buddhist teachings.  He was a devout Catholic who ended up in some really odd and often complicated sexual relationships. He represented the Beat Generation but despised the counterculture that emerged from it.  I could go on all day about Kerouac.

I think what attracts most readers to Big Sur is the tragedy that it foreshadows in Kerouac’s life.  He died embittered and young at age 47.  He was one who held so much promise, but became undone by his own insecurities. To me, Kerouac’s vulnerability is what grabbed me about him. You get the feeling from his later books that he is ready to run off the tracks at any moment, and in Big Sur he almost does.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kerouac, I suggest reading Kerouac: A Biography by Ann Charters first.  It’s an excellent introduction and history of Kerouac that hasn’t been topped despite several other biographies of Kerouac and the Beats.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the soundtrack yet.  What I’ve heard sounds more like Son Volt than anything else.  That’s not a bad thing. Check out a track from the soundtrack here: Farrar & Gibbard – One Fast Move…(mp3)

To close the loop on the title for this blog piece, I should explain how Gibbard and Geddy Lee are connected.  In all of this hub bub about the Kerouac documentary, Gibbard’s band, Death Cab for Cutie, contributed a track to the new Twilight movie which has been making the rounds in the blogosphere.  Have  a listen to: Meet Me on the Equinox (MP3), and tell me that it doesn’t sound like something from the Canadian power trio. I had to listen to it twice to be sure that it wasn’t a mistake.

Until next time…

Monday? Ramblings…

Yeah, it’s been a rough couple of weeks with everything–Busy Person Syndrome. But  I do have a couple of tidbits to share today!

The L.A. Times is featuring a great series on the work of their long time music critic, Robert Hillburn. His book, Corn Flakes with John Lennon and Other Tales from a Rock and Roll Life, was released last week, and based on the excerpts, it looks fascinating. Hillburn was a critic for 35 years and had the privilege of knowing several iconic music artists over that time. If you’re at all interested in Rock and Roll history, I suggest you check it out.

The guys from My Were They have a new video (see it below)  for the track, See Now, off their free EP, Four Songs.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a very favorable review of the EP, and did I mention it’s free ?  FYI–If you follow the link be sure to click on the song titles to download the mp3s.

Since the time I wrote the review, I’ve learned that the EP represents tracks from a forthcoming, full length album due out at a later date.  As details become available, I will share them. Here is the video:

And… we all know that the U.S. is perpetually listed as the fattest industrialized nation in the world (we’re in a neck and neck heat with Australia).  As part of what I do for a living, I get to read the latest research and review work that attempts to increase physical activity within communities.  Well, an interesting (and probably expensive) solution came into my inbox today.  Check this out:

I am not sure about the feasibility of it all, but it’s something to think about.  We have a similar (and very much smaller) musical set of stairs on the East Carolina campus, and it’s always a hit with my kids.

That’s all for today. Happy Monday folks!  Get out and breath today…

Blogophilia 12

It’s back!

Blogophilia 12

Songs posted to Blogs

September 7 – October 15, 2009

Ripped @ 256k VBR

Runtime: 77:03

Tracklist

01 Intro

02 Secondstar – Ravens

03 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – Home

04 Sing Fang Bous – Catch the Light

05 Young Buffalo – Catapilah

06 Electric Tickle Machine – Gimme Money

07 The Danks – Treaty Connector

08 Bear Hands – Golden

09 Ezra Furman & The Harpoons – We Should Fight

10 Heartless Bastards – Out at Sea

11 Yo La Tengo – Periodically Double and Triple

12 Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down – Know Better, Learn Faster

13 Dan Mangan – Road Regrets

14 Julie Doiron – When Brakes Get Wet

15 XX – VCR

16 Venice Is Sinking – Okay

17 Starlight Mints – Paralyzed

18 Clinic – The Return of Evil Bill

19 Daniel Johnston – Freedom

20 Langhorne Slim – Back to the Wild

21 Say Hi – November was White, December was Grey

22 Sam Means – Yeah Yeah

23 Vic Chestnutt – Flirted With You All of My Life

24 Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s a Zombie for You

25 Outro

This 12th volume of Blogophilia also marks the one year anniversary of the series.  Songs range from campy (e.g., Edward Sharpe, Ezra Furman, Yo La Tengo, Daniel Johnston, and Dead Man’s Bones) to rocking (e.g., Young Buffalo, Electric Tickle Machine, and The Danks) to revealing (e.g., Secondstar and Vic Chestnutt) to just damn good (e.g., Thao Nguyen, Julie Doiron, Dan Mangan, XX and Langorne Slim). Thanks to everyone for the nice e-mails and comments on the site and facebook, I hope I’ve turned you on to something new.  Enjoy!

Right Click Save on Cover Art for Download

Blogophilia 12
Songs posted to Blogs
September 7 – October 15, 2009
Ripped @ 256k VBR
Runtime: 77:03

Tracklist

01 Intro
02 Secondstar – Ravens
03 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
04 Sin Fang Bous – Catch the Light
05 Young Buffalo – Catapilah
06 Electric Tickle Machine – Gimme Money
07 The Danks – Treaty Connector
08 Bear Hands – Golden
09 Ezra Furman & The Harpoons – We Should Fight
10 Heartless Bastards – Out at Sea
11 Yo La Tengo – Periodically Double and Triple
12 Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down – Know Better, Learn Faster
13 Dan Mangan – Road Regrets
14 Julie Doiron – When Brakes Get Wet
15 XX – VCR
16 Venice Is Sinking – Okay
17 Starlight Mints – Paralyzed
18 Clinic – The Return of Evil Bill
19 Daniel Johnston – Freedom
20 Langhorne Slim – Back to the Wild
21 Say Hi – November was White, December was Grey
22 Sam Means – Yeah Yeah
23 Vic Chestnutt – Flirted With You All of My Life
24 Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s a Zombie for You
25 Outro

This 12th volume of Blogophilia also marks the one year anniversary of the series.  Songs range from campy (e.g., Edward Sharpe, Ezra Furman, Yo La Tengo, Daniel Johnston, and Dead Man’s Bones) to rocking (e.g., Young Buffalo, Electric Tickle Machine, and The Danks) to revealing (e.g., Secondstar and Vic Chestnutt) to just damn good (e.g., Thao Nguyen, Julie Doiron, Dan Mangan, XX and Langorne Slim). Thanks to everyone for the nice e-mails and comments on the site and facebook, I hope I’ve turned you on to something new.  Enjoy!

Right Click Save on Cover Art to Download

Sunday Ramblings

MY WERE THEY – Four Songs EP (4.25/5).

The ramblings for this week are limited to a review of an EP.  I don’t like to review EPs: 1) they are often not part of  a broader idea, and 2) they are often cherry picked tunes designed to garner support for a LP recording. With these caveats in mind, I review the an new EP by the band, My Were They.

My Were They hail from Chicago, and have previously released two  LPs. Their current effort is simply titled, Four Songs.  The EP opens with The One With The Votes, a song with a very strong, dub style bass line, and big spacey guitars. This track sets the tone for the entire EP.  Big, spacious sounds with excellent instrumental work and sublime vocals that are best captured with headphones. The vocals are best captured with headphones, but the entire sound is best captured with a pair of speakers cranked to eleven.  The sound will fill the room, and bowl you over. I haven’t heard anything like this since The Last Broadcast by the Doves.

It’s easy to pick out My Were They’s influences.  I hear The Police, The Smiths, The Cure, and Doves on this latest release, but I also hear something completely original. The second track, Lately, is a trippy, psychedelic number with an interesting twist at the end of the song. See Now would be a deep track on any other recording, but it is the one meditative piece on this EP. Lastly, Mossy and Green demonstrates the band’s pop sensibility without sacrificing their indie rock chops. It has a pseudo-Bo Diddley beat that drives this beyond your ears, and into your bones.  You can’t help wanting to dance. Mossy and Green was featured on Blogophilia 11, and was one of three tracks that I felt was excellent on that collection.

Earlier, I stated that I don’t like to review EPs, and explained why. When I listen to Four Songs, I am reminded of another reason for not reviewing EPs. They sometimes leave you wanting more.  This is the case with Four Songs.  I’ve tried to follow My Were They via Myspace and their webspace, and the most I can gather is that they have enough gigs to keep them in business and relevant to the folks of Chicago. For selfish reasons, I need to hear more from this band.

I should also mention that Four Songs is available for FREE through My Were They’s website.  Download and Enjoy it.

Peace to all of you!

New Okkervil River Tune

Okkervil River (photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/wunderkind_magali/)

First, I want to give a big thanks to Thaddeus for directing me to a new Okkervil River tune to which I am referring as: When The World Was Young. It was performed as the first encore at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv two weeks ago.  If you ask me, it’s classic somber Will Sheff.  Man, can he write a song.

Thaddeus provided a link to a bootleg of this unnamed song, and we can only hope it’s on the new album, which is due out early next year. This is one album that I am anticipating with high hopes. Here is the You Tube video of the performance:

And from that same night, here’s one off of The Stage Names, A Girl In Port: