2011 Music Review... a little late

It has been a long time since I did a top ten list. maybe a year. maybe two. It was a good year for music. it was a good year. I listened to more music which was a goal.The challenge continues to be the same. Where in a world where there is so much music available all the time, for free and to pay, how do you find the good stuff? Who are the trusted sources? I still don’t know. So here we go.

1. Decembrists: The King Is Dead, OK, I like everything about this CD. I might be biased because I got to see the show twice. The album is so much lighter and so much easier and breezier than any of Meloy’s EPIC CD/Album/Song Cycle (pretentious bullshit) that it sings and it flies. It is right up my alley with an alt country flair and having no good hacks like Gillian Welch and Peter Buck makes it that much worse. When I think of 2011 it will be of this CD. If you have not bought it, get off your ass and get it done. No excuses.
Don’t Carry It All
Calamity Song
Rise To Me
Rox in the Box
January Hymn
Down by the Water
All Arise!
June Hymn
This is Why We Fight
Dear Avery


2. Dawes: Nothing Is Wrong, This was probably the easiest and perhaps saddest discovery of the year. I read about this band on Bob Lefsetz blog, email letter, Lefsetz.com and he was extolling the hard work of these guys. I tuned in and it sounded a lot like Jackson Browne and Browne in an effort to revitalize himself did some gigs with them. Download “A little Bit of Everything” and “If I wanted Someone.” If you like those two go for the whole thing. It is well produced and he writes good songs. Maybe a little over wrought. What is wrong with that? I think Jackson Browne sings some back uop and I would swear that David Lindley plays some of that beautiful slide guitar. As your attorney... I would recommend it.

3. Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck, I do not think John Darnelle can do anything bad at this point in his career. He is prolific, opinionated and brilliant. God is great, all the time. Darnielle is great pretty much all of the time. There is a mournful desperation to all his songs, a concentration of angst which sounds in each song like he is cathartically loosing it from his psyche. Try three songs, “Damn Those Vampires”, “Age of Kings” and my favorite...”For Charles Bronson”.

“Set your sights on good fortune
Concentrate
Pull back the hammer
Try to hold the gun straight”

Indeed.

4. Bottle Rockets: Not So Loud, This is Brian Henneman and the boys unpluggin and playin the hits. I am a fan. I heard them too many times this year but Henneman can write a song and can play. He puts on a show and he makes it bend and shake. If your not already a fan buy this, put it on and you will be. And go to his shows each year in the Lou on Christmas night. Good for the soul.

5. Rural Alberta Advantage: The Departing, OK, this is one of my favorite known, unknown bands. There last CD had several rocking songs. They sound is like a fun Billy Corgan who really embraces the beat and the lyrics with no pretension. The departing is just an excellent CD with no weak spots at all. It rocks. It rolls. it sighs, it cries. This could be the best of the year if for no other reason than that it sounds like no one else. If you want to check them out they have a My SPace page which is really kind of cute. last time I went to my My Space page there was a homeless man living there. http://www.myspace.com/theraa

6. Steve Earle: I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Earle turns out a CD that is not quite as haunbting as the Hank Williams song he named it after. A couple of songs with his girlfriend/wife Allison Moorer and production but the inimitable T-Bone Burnette. If you pick up the deluxe edition on iTunes it has the title song and a video of the albums making. Earle is a true artist who struggles and thrashes with his art in a way that remains interesting and has established some longevity that forces respect.

7. Bright Eyes: The People’s Key, Connor Oberst is long past being a child prodigy or even an edgy artist from Omaha. he is a pretty consistent producer of quality indie pop. The question is not whether he can still make good music but whether he still has anything to say. This album with his long time side man Mike Mogis would seem to say yes. Downlaod “Jejune” and “Triple Spiral” and see where the rest takes you. Your not in Omaha any more.

8. Blind Pilot: We Are The Tide, I was so in love with these guys after their first album that there was really not much room for them to do anything but disappoint. In 2008 it was really just a two man band with a lot of people helping out but on tour and on this album it is a full blown sextet. The sound is fuller and is sweetly swings. it has been described more than once as a “bookend album” and although there is much to be said for what it in between download the tunes “Half moon” and “New York” and thank me later.

9. Hayes Carll: KMAG/YOYO, You know if you don’t like Hayes Carll...I don’t like you. No one rocks the genre of insurgent country, alt-country, country, honky tonk like Carll. And he has two LLs in his last name. Every song is great with an anger and an irony and sense of real people and real music and a real good time. Get a feel for it with “Another Like You” and “Grateful For Christmas”. Be happy for Hayes Carll. Wait for what comes next.

10. Wilco: The Whole Love, This is kind of like The Decembrists offering. A little lighter, a little easier. But it is not as good. I get tired of all the guitar noodling and the techno rambles but it is much more to hold on to than the dreaded, “Wilco, The Album”. Not all of it is tuneful but still, it is an easy listen.

Honorable Mention:
Rhett Miller: The Interpreter Live
The Lemonheads: Varshons
Joe Pug: Live At Lincoln Hall
Ryan Adams: Ashes and Fire


it was a good year for music. This is not all of it. there was a plethora of one song bursts and discoveries of some old stuff that really made me smile. For a feel good that really goes way back try:
The Dismemberment Plan, “You Are Invited”.
Eddie Money From His Acoustic Unplug It In CD “Trinidad.
The Javelinas: Illinois Line
All of those should light you up one way or another. God’s Peace and go listen to a lot of music in 2012. it might make you whole again. it certainly cannot hurt.

Off Broadway, KDHX, Marshall Crenshaw, Bottle Rockets and Dale Watson

Sooooo...I am falling in love with Off Broadway and with KDHX all over again. Last things first but KDHX in my adultery.... or in my adulthood has become such a mature, yet still such a fun station. We have no idea how lucky we are in a market like St. Louis to have a good NPR station and a good independant music station. There is NOTHING play listed about KDHX and if you know their programming schedule the chance to hear eclectic music in a genre that you like is awesome. They have always promoted live music in town but have gathered the people and economic resources so it seems like they are always promoting great music coming to town. Here is site for their schedule of weekly shows:

http://kdhx.org/radio/881-kdhx-schedule-shows-and-playlists

On to more important matters. Off Broadway was formerly a nightmarish venue. It had a lot of character. It had cold beer. It had good shows. But it was dirty, beaten up, looked like a big version of my old dorm room only the wagon wheel was a chandelier rather then a coffee table. That was not the problem though, the problem was that the shows would be doors at 8 and show at nine. More often then not the show would not start till 9:30 and then they would book three acts (two local) which meant that the headliner often did not start till 11:00 and sometimes would not be done till 12:30 or 1:00. That just became too late for and aging man like myself. They have a very accsesable web site which i link to from the Diner review home page but it is good to keep an eye on. I cannot complement the place enough and for the first time in a long time it seems like we have a somewhat worthy successor to the niche that Mississippi Nights formerly held. It can be a little “close” sometime but that does not change the...awesomeness of having great bands playing at a reasonable time, close enough so that the guitarist can spit on you... should he have a mind to.

I have seen two shows there already this year. the first was the Marshall Crenshaw show where he was backed by the Bottle Rockets. I got a little confused by the billing not understanding that the Rockets would be his back up band and then still not expecting an opening set from them. You can say what you want about Bryan Henneman but he has become a local treasure and he really knows how to put on a show. There is none of the shoe staring mopiness of a Jay Farrar show and of course though Tweedy is great... he did leave us... the bastard. So Henneman comes out and the place is packed. Easily 20% of the folks were out just to see a Bottle Rockets show and he did a great job... just the hits folks...just the hits. The bottom line is that he puts on a great show, works the audience and delivers... every time. Then Crenshaw came out. Marshall Crenshaw was the next big thing for a solid 5 years. he was a critics darling who wrote some excellent songs, had a distinctive sound and great pop sensabilities. But... he could never quite crack it. He got to play Buddy Holly and continued to put out quality, crafted pop but he never made it, as making it was defined in the day. His debut album in 1982, the epynomous Marshall Crenshaw is a pop gem. Buy it. But he is old. With the Bottle Rockets and Henneman all wearing what looked to be J Crew style pork pie hats they looked like a group of middle aged men very uncomfortable with their baldness. Still, Crenshaw worked through his beautiful jangly songs and it was just a lot of fun. As I said the place was absolutely packed and it was a lot of fun. it remined me again about how fun a show was and I saw local music head R. Brightman who informed me Dale Watson would be playing the next week... and I needed to see him.

I had no idea who Dale Watson was. But Brightman has an ear for the twang and he seems to have a lot of the Bakersfield penchant that has grabbed me for a while so... I trust him. he has also gotten me into a couple of house concerts and that is something for which i owe him no small debt. So... on a Sunday night after the first football playoff game and during the second one I headed out to the show solo. There were not quite as many people there and he had a nice big bus in front of the place but he came out and... he was site. He has a pretty regular gig at the revered Continental Club in Austin and I would judge his age at somewhere north of 50. I have never seen hair like his in my life. There was a good crowd there and he came out with a very tight band and a sweet lap steel player. Beatle Bob was there doing his thing (he made the Marshall Crenshaw show as well and he rocked us through a set made up of his own classic country relating to liquor, death and sadness. It was a well received show that had people two stepping the night away on the dance floor in front of the stage.

St. Louis is not grateful enough for it’s music scene. Off Broadway and KDHX are partnering to put on some great shows. Pay attention. In the words of Neil Young, “Live Music Is Better! Bumper Stickers Should Be Issued!” Amen.

Brian Henneman Christmas Show/Awesome

Sooooo... one of the great regrets is, as i age prematurely and stay alive (against all odds) I am seeing less and less live music. This is sad on a number of fronts because I love live shows and it indicates the obvious deterioration that people who know me cannot be surprised by. It is not longer surprising me...which is also sad. For years I have been wanting to see Brian Henneman's Christmas show at the Duck Room. For years I have gotten finished with our families rather rigorous Christmas schedule and
decided that between:

1. What is the right thing to do,
2. I am very tired,
3. I do not want my wife irritated with me,
4. I am tired.

For those reasons I have always ducked the show which sounded like a festive thing. Henneman has fronted his band The Bottle Rockets for years since the halcyon days of alt-country when Uncle Tupelo tapped him to hold up the elctric end on their tours. He hails from the Festus/Crystal City metroplex and frankly...really tears it up. His band The Bottle Rockets did there best work a long time ago but he wrote and cut some brilliant songs with them over the years. Henneman has been a reasonably colorful guy around town over the years showing up and playing at a lot of other peoples shows.

This year my son Jon was in town for Christmas. Jon has always been bitter at the The Duck Room and their 21 and up shows which precluded him from seeing a lot of good concerts and tended to relegate him to the big rooms like the Pageant. He was blessed with seeing some shows at Mississippi Nights before they close but not nearly enough and then they closed. He has been in college and working out of town in summers so... he has not been home a lot to enjoy the beauty that IS the Duck Room.

As I stated Henneman has been doing this Christmas Show on Christmas Evening for years and I have never had the energy or motivation to go but this year...finally...Jon and I made the trip to U-City and saw the show. When we walked in around 9:30 the venerable St. louis "personality" Fred Friction was opening. Friction is famous for his former band The Highway Matrons and for running the now closed and lamented "Frederick's Music Lounge" down on Chippewa. Friction is a frightening tragicomic figure who is probably in his mid fifties but looks like a 70 year old heroin addict. He resembles a dark haired Iggy Pop and I do not say that in a kind way. Still, he was fun to watch for a little.

Henneman came on stage promptly at 10 and immediately tore in to the back catalogue with the old Bottle Rockets ballad of "Kerosene". A lot of Henneman's songs spring from the newspapers but this was a particular one about a Jefferson County family that decided that since they were out of kerosene their heater would work just as well with gasoline. Ooops. It was a middle aged crows and the place was about 1/2 full and there was a nice middle aged lady fan, drunk, calling out all the songs. He played a lot of the Bottle Rocket catalogue and hit all the high points over a two hour set including Indianapolis, 1000 Dollar Car and Sunday Sports In His Boxer Shorts. In the middle he strapped on an electric and tore it up on the first electric version of "Early In The Morning" that I have ever heard.

He then brought out a guy names "Steve" who joined him for a great version of the Old Crow Medicine Shows song "Wagon Wheel" and a few more Bottle Rocket chestnuts with Fred Friction on spoons. It was sweet. The show rapped up promptly at midnight with his classic "Welfare Music" and I think the whole crowd left feeling strangely and satisfyingly full on this Christmas night and i think my son and I might have a new tradition. At least for next year.