Say It Ain't So, Lily
Gossip around the tabloids has it that Lily Allen is chucking the music biz. There is no truth to the rumors that she is giving it up to be with me.
Lily on Wednesday
told the BBC that she plans on taking “one or two years off from recording and performing music.” Her last scheduled performance is a March show with Dizzee Rascal at the O2 Arena in London. She also told the Beeb’s Radio 1 that she plans on setting up a fashion shop with her sister and working with new bands. “I’m just going to concentrate on doing some behind the scenes sort of stuff,” she said.
I’ve got say that Lily Allen taking a break from music will have no major impact on my life. However, I can admit to having been a casual fan since I saw her on Saturday Night Live a couple of years ago. I thought she was adorable looking and I kinda dug her infectious, pumped-up, ska-type music. And I have a weakness for girls with British accents.
Over the last couple of years I’ve picked up a handful of her songs here and there, but I never got around to buying a full album. I think what scared me away were tunes that veered away from ska and more into Pink territory. To be honest though, I haven’t really
hated anything I’ve heard from Lily Allen.
Anyway, to see her off, I’ve rounded up a few live and non-LP tracks. And Lily, if you get bored with all this new found free time, there’s always a chip butty waiting for you in Apt. 104.
Everybody’s Changing.mp3 ~
Keane cover – non-LPNaïve.mp3 ~
live, BBC Radio 1Oh My God.mp3 ~
Kaiser Chiefs cover – non-LP LDN.mp3 ~
live, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., Feb. 16, 2007Blank Expression.mp3 ~
Specials cover – live, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., Feb. 16, 2007. Labels: covers, live music, pop muzik, ska, unplugged
‘Sad Songs Swinging In My Whiskey Head’
I ran into something kinda interesting a couple of days ago and I thought I’d share it with you good people. I’ve never heard of a German band called Madstateworld, but apparently their singer, Tom Mess, went solo last year.
Like I said, I wasn’t familiar with Madstateworld, but I have listened some to Tom’s solo stuff, which is pretty interesting. Mess’ gravely voice and songs of heartache and drunkenness bring to mind a little bit of Tom Waits, if Waits had a near indecipherable German accent and was loaded on whiskey.
Mess has released a couple of albums in Germany, the most recent being
The Krämer Tapes. He was with Madstateworld for seven years before deciding to go it on his own. And on his own he is: it’s only Mess and his guitar now. “I have tasted new blood,” he says about his solo career.
You can check out some of Mess’ music on his
MySpace page. From there you can also get to the link to download
The Krämer Tapes, which I encourage you to do. You can also bounce over to the Madstateworld page. In the meantime, though, try these songs on for size.
Whiskey and Water.mp3 Already Done.mp3 Labels: punk, unplugged
A Stripped Companion
My friends, this is my
FIVE HUNDREDTH POST.
As such, I thought it might be appropriate to dig around the back corners of my hard drive and see if I could find something kind of special to mark the occasion.
What I came up with is a Rolling Stones boot, known as the
Stripped Companion. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that
Stripped was the Stones’ 1995 acoustic live album. This unofficial “companion” album is a compilation of outtakes, “B” sides, and a couple of other miscellaneous unplugged tracks, all from the 1993-1995 era. A listener review written on
Bootleg Zone called the
Companion disk “Amazing,” and said, “This is what boots should always do: Surpass the original.”
Recording info:1-6: Toshiba-Studio sessions: Tokyo. March 3-5, 1995
7: Backstage rehearsals, Olympia, Paris. July 3, 1995
8: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 26, 1995
9-10: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995
11-13: Paradiso, Amsterdam. May 27, 1995
14-15: Brixton Academy, London. July 19, 1995
1.
Honest I Do.mp3 2.
Let’s Spend the Night Together.mp3 3.
No Expectations.mp3 4.
Beast of Burden.mp3 5.
Memory Motel.mp3 6.
Let It Bleed.mp3 7.
Tumbling Dice.mp3 8.
Gimme Shelter.mp3 9.
Live With Me.mp3 10.
Black Limousine.mp3 11.
All Down the Line.mp3 12.
Dead Flowers.mp3 13.
Shine a Light.mp3 14.
Sweet Virginia.mp3 15.
Rip This Joint.mp3Labels: live music, outtakes, Rolling Stones, unplugged
How Dirty Girls Get Clean
On her
MySpace space, Courtney Love has posted a couple of new songs – things I believe she co-wrote with Linda Perry and/or Billy Corgan. The songs are rough versions; demo-type things, but if they’re indicative of the music that’s going to be on her new album, it should be a great disk.
One song in particular that I really, really liked was “Sunset Marquis.” It’s a haunting demo, recorded with just vocals and piano, and lyrics such as “I can tell this is a dark night of my soul / And I’m too old to be this lost / And I'll be thankful if I'm breathing when you leave / Oh baby, you weren't worth the cost.”
Courtney’s 2006 memoir, Dirty Blonde, includes an apology note addressed to both her husband and daughter, written on letterhead from the Sunset Marquis: “I love you. Please forgive me. ... You are both too beautiful for me. I love you forever.”
There’s two other new songs on Courtney’s MySpace: “Whose Porno You Burn,” which is not mentioned (at least by that name) as a potential track for her upcoming album; and “Dirty Girls,” also a Love/Perry/Corgan collaboration. NME called the song a “hard rocking autobiographical...and ‘totally indulgent’ tour de force.” They wrote that the biggest surprise, though, is “that it’s all brilliant.” It’s also the only downloadable track on the page.
Courtney Love’s second solo disk, tentatively titled
Nobody’s Daughter, is due for release sometime this year.
Along with the new track, I’ve also posted a version of Nirvana’s “You Know You’re Right,” which comes from a November 1994 Hole show at the Hollywood Palladium, in Hollywood, Calif.
Dirty Girls.mp3 You Know You’re Right (live).mp3Labels: covers, demos, live music, new stuff, unplugged
Straight off your TV screens...
There’s this new TV show that debuted on Fox last night. It’s called
“The Next Great American Band,” and is an “American Idol”-type thing, where bands compete for a recording contract or something. I’ve been seeing the advertisements for a few weeks, but couldn’t really see a reason I needed to watch any more of music’s homogenization process.
Turns out I may have been wrong about the show. At least for now. I put it on last night while I was eating dinner (I don’t like to dine alone) and I was somewhat surprised by the variety of bands. I saw Detroit rockers The Muggs, who apparently have an established fan base and are looking to break nationally. I saw a pack of 14-year-olds play the
hell out of some Iron Maiden. And I saw a bass player who has no arms.
I didn’t watch the entire two hours, or however long it was, but I will probably tune in again. Here’s the reason. I saw a bluegrass trio last night that absolutely blew me away. I’m going to be pulling for The Clark Brothers to go all the way. These three got up on that stage and just tore it up.
I couldn’t find much information about these guys. They said on the show they come from a family of 11 siblings and, if I remember, their dad is a musician. There’s not much on their
MySpace space, other than to tell me they are from Nashville, Tenn.; Adam plays the mandolin and guitar; Ashley sings, and plays the guitar and fiddle; and Austin plays the dobro and sings. Austin and Ashley have also appeared with Carrie Underwood at the Country Music Awards, so they have some talented and successful fans.
The song I’m posting, “This Little Light Final” is the full version of what they played on “The Next Great American Band.” It’s on their MySpace – these guys don’t have a recording contract yet.
This Little Light Final.mp3Labels: bluegrass, new stuff, TV, unplugged
The Freewheelin’ Pete Doherty
Someone certainly had their tongue planted firmly in cheek when they decided to call this album
The Freewheelin’ Pete Doherty. There’s probably no one more “freewheelin’” than Doherty, from his 2003 arrest for burglarizing band mate Carl Barat’s home, to tabloid allegations earlier this month that he forced his cat to inhale crack. Yeah, that wacky Pete Doherty pretty much epitomizes freewheeling.
The Freewheelin’ Pete Doherty, obviously a play on the title of Bob Dylan’s 1963 classic, was recorded sometime in late 2004. It’s one of a half-dozen or so Internet-only releases from Doherty.
Furious.com offers an interesting take on these recordings: “Pete Doherty's solo albums are more than just demo versions or throwaway pieces of music. They represent all that is right about his view on the world, past the ugliness of the drug abuse and tabloid attacks, and onto a more idealistic view of the music industry. In an age when many bemoan (with some justification) the commercialism of mainstream musicians, Doherty's albums represent his world view; a world view many fans welcome with open arms.”
I tend to agree. Whereas
Unplugged seemed to be Kurt Cobain’s cry from the darkness of addiction, Doherty’s acoustic albums – at least this one, anyway – has the feel of someone comfortable with himself. I hate to say it, but maybe even comfortable with his drug use.
Doherty, in addition to everything else he is up to, is planning to eventually release an “official” acoustic album. He is also gigging occasionally with Babyshambles.
Killamangiro.mp3 Conversation Diva.mp3 There She Goes (A Little Heartache).mp3 Visit
The Albion Arks for downloads from the Libertines, Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, and other stuff related to Pete Doherty and Carl Barat.
Labels: demos, unplugged
MTV, Get Off the Air!
By this time of night, it’s probably safe to assume that anyone who didn’t actually see the
Britney Spears fiasco on MTV last night has at least heard about it.
Maybe I’m just old (if not, I’m fast getting there), or maybe I’m just out of touch (???), but to me this Britney thing seems an apt simile for everything that is MTV these days. Didn’t MTV used to be
relevant? Didn’t it used to be about youth and flashy, sexy images? In what must be some sort of a cosmic coincidence, MTV and Britney are both about the same age, born in 1981. And I think / hope they both put the final nail in their respective coffins at last night’s Video Music Awards show.
I quit watching MTV several years ago, but I think it’s safe to assume that the channel has descended into some sort of reality-based programming channel. When I see it on my TV’s channel guide, I see listings for a lot of “Real World”-type crap. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think they show videos any more. I’m not even sure the once-powerful Top 40 program “TRL” is still on. For a while, MTV farmed its videos out to its sister channel, MTV2. I don’t get that channel any more, but I think they, too, stopped showing videos.
So, back to my question: Is there any relevance to MTV? The VMAs used to be highly anticipated and a good deal of fun to watch. I’ll admit I usually taped it so I could skip through the commercials and boring stuff, but I enjoyed most of it. You could almost always count on something happening to make you glad you stuck around.
In fairness, I turned last night’s train wreck off after about the first hour. From the reviews I read today, I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss a thing. A lot of schizoid cuts to and from bands performing in hotel room suites (wtf was that about?), and a lot of schmoozing of artists who this time next year will likely be second banana on one of those MTV reality shows. The only thing I’m bummed about missing is the
Tommy Lee / Kid Rock bout.
To quote Jello Biafra, “MTV, get off the air.”
And take Britney with you. We’ve seen enough.
~~~~
Here's a couple of songs from when MTV
was still somewhat relevant. These come from
The Unplugged Collection, Vol. 1, released in 1994. In particular, check “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” A great version.
Are You Gonna Go My Way.mp3 Lenny KravitzWe Can Work it Out.mp3 Paul McCartneyHalf a World Away.mp3 REMLabels: current events, live music, unplugged
Lily on Wednesday told the BBC that she plans on taking “one or two years off from recording and performing music.” Her last scheduled performance is a March show with Dizzee Rascal at the O2 Arena in London. She also told the Beeb’s Radio 1 that she plans on setting up a fashion shop with her sister and working with new bands. “I’m just going to concentrate on doing some behind the scenes sort of stuff,” she said.
