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Robyn Hitchcock – World Cafe Live (Philadelphia, PA) – Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Playing the entirety of his 1984 masterpiece I Often Dream of Trains (albeit in an order different from the recorded version) backed only by two other musicians (including a former member of THE HIGSONS and yes, he also played “Listening to the Higsons,” among other songs). A short encore followed the main set, with the aforementioned “Listening to the Higsons” in addition to the title track of the album and the title track of 2006’s wonderful Ole! Tarantula. World Cafe Live, with its amazing sound, was also the perfect venue for such an intimate, mostly quiet performance.
Neil Halstead – World Cafe Live (Philadelphia, PA) – Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Although I got there late and missed the first 30 minutes of his set, Halstead ended up playing almost two hours total, so I got to see most of the set and what I saw was great. Unlike his show back in August when he opened for labelmates ROGUE WAVE at Johnny Brenda’s (review here), he was joined by another guitarist and a bassist for most of the show, though there were times where he played unaccompanied as well. And similarly to that show, he was great, playing stuff from both of his solo albums (including the recently released and excellent Oh! Mighty Engine) as well as a few MOJAVE 3 tracks (some of which he took requests for), much to the audience’s delight.
Brian Wilson – Keswick Theater (Glenside, PA) – Saturday, November 21, 2008
The first 50 minutes or so were composed of BEACH BOYS classics ranging from “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room” from the really early days to early ‘70s stalwarts like “Add Some Music to Your Day” and “Marcella”. After a 20-minute intermission, Brian and his ace band came back out and performed the entirety of his surprisingly strong new album, That Lucky Old Sun. After that, we got a full encore’s worth of stuff like CHUCK BERRY’s “Johnny B. Goode” and other Beach Boys hits including “Surfin USA” (based on Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”) and “Fun Fun Fun.” Finally, the night concluded with a sparse, almost a cappella take on “Love and Mercy”. It was amazing!
Neil Halstead – Oh! Mighty Engine (Brushfire)
Wow, what a record! This is just perfect music for late nights or quiet, contemplative, relaxing moods. It’s sparse, but catchy and relatively immediate as well. As some have noted, it’s more “monochromatic” than his previous solo album (2002’s Sleeping on Roads), but it’s superb nonetheless.
The Toasters- “Recrimination” EP
When I was 16, my friend ALAN BERKOVITZ made me a tape that featured THE PIXIES’ Surfer Rosa on the A-side and a MINISTRY album on the B-side (I think it was In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up). Since Surfer Rosa is a short album and there was a bit of room left over on the tape, he also put this great EP on the A-side right after it.
The Toasters’ very first release, it was produced by JOE JACKSON (under the funny alias STANLEY TURPENTINE), who also played melodica on “Run Rudy Run” (the EP’s most melancholy, weary-sounding moment, reminiscent of THE SPECIALS’ similarly eerie “Ghost Town”). The other three songs are faster, brighter, and highlighted by rollicking organ, fantastic melodies, and world-weary lyrics. Released in 1985, though it was little noticed at the time, it’s now acknowledged that this pretty much started the third wave of ska (for better or worse). One can also see this as an east coast corollary to what FISHBONE were doing at around the same time in Los Angeles, but I would argue that this leans closer to Two-Tone ska. For years this was available on Moon’s reissue of their 1987 album Skaboom as bonus tracks, but now it’s out-of-print, so look for it on the internet!
Julie Ocean – Long Gone and Nearly There (Transit of Venus)
It’s too bad that this great but short-lived (typical for D.C.) band recently broke up on account of JIM SPELLMAN taking a job in Denver for CNN (!), because I really love this album. I also never got to see them live. I’m already holding out hope that perhaps there’ll be a reunion show at some point, though.
The Ruts – The Crack (Virgin)
Hearing LOS VAMPIROS’ excellent cover of this album’s “Savage Circle’ made me pull this one out and boy do I love it. If you don’t own it, just get it!
Echo and the Bunnymen – Reverberation (London)
This album was much derided around the time of its 1990 release because it’s the only Bunnymen album not to feature IAN MCCULLOCH on vocals. McCulloch had left the band several years before, releasing a 1988 solo album called Candleland (he subsequently released another solo album, 1992’s Mysterio, before reuniting with WILL SERGEANT in ELECTRAFIXION and then finally with the Bunnymen in 1997). In his place, an Irish singer named NOEL BURKE took over and though he’s not Mac, he does a good job on this record. With that said, it’s not anywhere near on the level of their first four albums, but then again not much else is. Musically, it’s a better record through and through than their previous one (1987’s tepid, self-titled release) and than most of their subsequent records as well (with the notable exception of 2005’s surprisingly excellent Siberia), not to mention any of Mac’s solo albums (all of which I like). At the time of its release, I found it to be a good contemporary of “Madchester” type stuff that was coming out of the UK, and the psychedelic influences are still audible all these years later, but hearing it now makes it apparent that this is definitely a Bunnymen album. I also can’t help but feel that if they’d either recorded this under a different name or if Mac would’ve sang on this one, it would be regarded like the PSYCHEDELIC FURS’ “comeback” album Book of Days as a respectable return to form.
Dag Nasty – “Things that Make No Sense” EP
I picked up this 7” over the summer, never having seen it before. It’s four songs taken from a show at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ (the club where I spent many a night in the early to mid- ‘90s) from May 1988, mere months before their eventual breakup. The songs from 1988’s severely underrated Field Day (namely “Things that Make No Sense” and the album’s title track) come across as more aggressive, faster and bare-bones and thus closer to their hardcore roots in this live setting, while the versions of “Under Your Influence” (from 1986’s Can I Say and then re-recorded for Field Day) and “Safe” (from 1987’s Wig Out at Denko’s) are nice as well. You can download the entire show here.
Slumdog Millionaire (R)
Just go see it!
