It’s come to that time of the year/decade where innumerable lists will come out touting writer’s knowledge of music by saying what the best album, songs or artists of the decade/year are. Some are interesting reads, others are banal wastes of time & yet others are pretentious attempts at musical superiority while showing you have little knowledge about “real” music. It is this final category that Paste Magazine’s 30 best covers of the decade falls into.

Covers are a delicate subject with me. A cover song must be at least similar to the original. Otherwise, you’re not covering another artist’s song you’re simply saying you think they did a shitty job the first time around instead of paying homage. Jimi Hendrix did not cover Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” he dissected it & made it better. Dylan provided the blueprint for Hendrix & Jimi ran with it. Dylan himself has said as much:

It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day…I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way…Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.

Paste has a reputation for thinking they’re better than everyone with obscure references to obscure songs & praising them from the mountain top as being immortal & themselves as fore bearers to the band’s success. Their list is full of songs that hold little relevancy to anyone except the artists themselves.

It’s a bit disgraceful to see a list of songs with The Polyphonic Spree at #7 with Nirvana’s “Lithium” or Calexico at #8 with Stereolab’s “Peng! 33″. What? Really? Stereolab was an obscure band from the ’90’s that never found success in part because they were bad at making music. The Polyphonic Spree is a band from today that suffers from the same problem. I’m all for opening eyes with new artists. I try to introduce new artists to the masses on this blog regularly, but to indiscriminately toss out labels like “best of the decade” is hyperbolic to the core.

There are a few I agree with on the list, but none above number 9 (they are 28, 20, 18 – which may be the best on their list, 10 & 9). In large part I think Paste is, once again, showing they’re rightly regarded as a magazine strictly for the arrogant hipster, who thinks he knows more about music than you. It’s like saying Sgt. Pepper is too commercial of an album to be the best of all time or the “Godfather” is too widely known to be the best film of all time. Everyone has their opinion & rightfully so, but when an opinion is there to show you how shitty your musical tastes are then it becomes a practice in musical bullying & I think it’s an abhorrent practice.

Music is there to spark conversation, to create unity, to educate, not belittle (unless you’re talking about Gangster Rap). Every time I give an opinion on this blog (or any other place I write) I try to give it context, not to dumb down my point, but to educate in one way or another. I happen to know a lot about music, mostly because I have no life, but also because it happens to be my passion. I do not claim to be the end all be all of musical critics. I’m simply a conduit to better understanding for those that have lives or seek some better form of musical knowledge.

So here is my list of the 15 best covers of the decade with short explanations as to why I enjoy them & why they’re great in my opinion:

#15 – Love Vigilantes – Voxtrot (originally: New Order)

A classic ’80’s song that is faithful to the original without being a complete replica. While expressing the emotion that many families are feeling, it is apropos of the moment in which we live.

#14 – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie (Originally: Cyndi Lauper)

Another ’80’s song many consider trite pop, but Gibbard turns it into something much more. An anthem of parental & societal oppression. The audience laughs but if you really listen to the lyrics you realize that it is a plea to stop worrying about social mores that tend to pigeonhole people into groups that have no true bearing on who they really are. A beautiful interpretation.

#13 – You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Counting Crows (Originally: Bob Dylan)

Redone by many artists, this is faithful to the original from Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes version with The Band. Marketa Iglova & Glen Hansard do a fairly competent version on the I’m Not There Soundtrack, but it really doesn’t compare to Adam Duritz belting this classic out.

#12 – The Long Way Home – Norah Jones (Originally: Tom Waits)

Tom Waits has that writing quality that makes everyone want to redo his songs. Norah Jones is a phenomenal songwriter in her own right & has the perfect voice for this Waits composition. There’s something to be said for a steel guitar & a Tom Waits song that just reeks of awesomeness.

#11 – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam (Originally: Nina Simone)

While the Animals may have popularized this song, it was written for Nina Simone by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus. The song correlates with Yusuf’s own struggles after he changed his name from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam & his subsequent inclusion on the Terrorist watch list in the early ’00’s.

#10 – Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want – She & Him (Originally: The Smiths)

Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward covered this song for the 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack perfectly. The echo behind Deschanel’s voice creates a haunting version while staying succinctly true to the original. You can almost hear the anguish in her voice as she desperately emotes Morrissey’s plea for a change in his luck.

#9 – Glory Days – The Avett Brothers (Originally: Bruce Springsteen)

The issue I’ve always had with this song is that instead of saying fastball at the beginning he says speedball. When I hear Bruce say “He could throw that Speedball right by you.” it always makes me cringe as a baseball fan & someone who had a lot of friends who did a lot of drugs. That’s my only complaint, though, I love the song & the Avett’s doing it with a banjo, a kick drum & a tambourine is magical.

#8 – The Weight - Gaslight Anthem (Originally: The Band)

The seminal song in the Band’s career is faithfully done by the Gaslight Anthem’s lead singer Brian Fallon. There’s a lot to be said for a man & his guitar. Fallon has that kind of voice that is suited for a song such as this. It’s a story song, almost in the same vein as The Beatles “A Day in the Life”.

#7 – Sunday Morning – Beck’s Record Club (Originally: Velvet Underground & Nico)

When Beck started his Record Club project it was considered a bit of a lark (especially when I read he considered doing Digital Underground’s album Sex Packets in it’s entirety), but when you hear this song you realize otherwise. I have never been a fan of Beck’s music. I’ve interviewed him a number of times, smoked out with him & find him to be a fascinating person, but musically I’m not evolved enough to enjoy what he does, though I do recognize his talent. Be that as it may I do love this cover so much. When stripped down Beck’s voice is incredible.

#6 – Dancing in the Dark – Pete Yorn (Originally: Bruce Springsteen)

Another Springsteen song covered by a talented musician. Pete Yorn’s first album spoke to me so much that I don’t think I listened to another album for a month after it came out. Yorn with a piano slowly singing this mournful song about escaping the everyday doldrums of life. It’s something we can all relate to, especially in this context.

#5 – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up – Cold War Kids (Originally: Tom Waits)

Hearing the Cold War Kids acoustically is a sound to behold. Hearing them sing Tom Waits’ song about having to accept responsibility as an adult & wanting to stay a child forever is a moment. It’s much like when the Beach Boys released A Beach Boys’ Party where they covered a few Beatles songs among others & made it a sing along. This recording, while much less hokey, has that feel to it.

#4 – The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Originally: Bob Dylan)

While not completely factual this song still does speak to the injustice that was still going on in 1960’s America. Lead Singer, Peter Hayes, expresses the difficulty in remembering all the lyrics before he starts actually singing noting it is a Bob Dylan song. He doesn’t sing it with tonal precision which makes it even that much better. What he does give it is slightly more melody than Dylan (as many often have). The harmonica in the Bridge is not overstated or too intense to overpower the audience.

#3 – My Oklahoma Home – Bruce Springsteen (Originally: Pete Seeger)

When Bruuuuuuce decided to make a tribute album with all Pete Seeger songs I never thought it would work. I love just about everything Springsteen touches, but even this seemed like a stretch to me. I was wrong. The true merit of an artist is the ability to reinvent oneself & make it work. Dylan did it, the Beatles did it & Springsteen did as well. This song about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl holds as much connotation in today’s current economic climate as it did 80 years ago. No one today speaks of the hardships of the blue collar society like Bruce & before him there was no one better than Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie.

#2 – The Drugs Don’t Work – Ben Harper (Originally: The Verve)

Ben Harper has a way of making songs better as with this Verve song about as Richard Ashcroft put it:

There’s a new track I’ve just written [...] It goes ‘the drugs don’t work, they just make me worse, and I know I’ll see your face again’. That’s how I’m feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take ‘em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape.

Harper brings a subtle vulnerability to this track as if he were actually speaking this to a loved one. The Verve version was a little more gruff, but beautiful nonetheless. Richard Ashcroft is a highly underrated lyricist & never was that made more evident than in this version.

#1 – Long, Long, Long – Jim James (Originally: The Beatles)

Earlier this year Jim James of My Morning Jacket, quietly released a 6 song EP under the moniker Yim Yames covering some of his favorite George Harrison songs. It went mostly unnoticed by critics as it was released primarily online, but it was perhaps the best thing recorded all year. This is one of my favorite Beatle songs from the White Album & James captures the essence of the track with the echoed brilliance of the vocals. If ever a cover song moved me I can not remember when one did it like this one. It is not merely faithful to the original, but luminous in it’s own right.

When I am down, I love listening to that song…

We are the boys from Little Eden
We are the heart of the Saturday night
We drink from the fountains off the fireworks
and off the sweat and bone for a better life

We like our choruses sung together
We like our arms in our brothers’ arms
Call every girl we ever met Maria
But I only love Virginia’s heart

Still we sing with our heroes, 33 rounds per minute
We’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished
I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all
With wild hearts, blue jeans, & white t-shirts

Some things Baby never told you
Some things Papa done ain’t right
Spent a lifetime just to get over
You always said my Mama tried

Still we sing with our heroes, 33 rounds per minute
We’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished
I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all
With wild hearts, blue jeans, & white t-shirts

So tonight I’ll call you from a 4th Street payphone
But I’ll sleep on the beach if I ain’t got a ride
Someday I’ll buy you that house on Cookman
We could sleep on the beach all night
Sleep on the beach if we ain’t got a ride
Sleep on the beach all night
Sleep on the beach all night
Sleep on the beach if we ain’t got a ride …

When the name ‘Adam Turla’ showed up on our caller ID last month, I got pretty fuckin nervous.  Turned out to be alright and they stole the show later that evening at the 9:30 Club.

This was finally posted on punknews.org

So you were playing shows throughout Europe over the summer, how were those tours and did you have a particular place you preferred playing in Europe?

We mostly just like going over there because it’s really wild to jump from one sort of cultural style to another. I think the fun of touring Europe is being somewhere new everyday or every couple days. You go to Italy which is such a culture of food and a certain attitude and a look to the land. Then you go to Germany and it’s completely different in every way and there’s something exciting about getting to jump between these various cultures that we love. We had a great time and then we toured Greece about a month and a half ago which is gorgeous. We played in front of Mount Olympus and we played in Athens in view of the Acropolis. It’s just crazy to find yourself in this sort of foundation of Western civilization while you’re playing a rock show.

That’s got to be pretty breathtaking . . .

Yeah it’s just crazy. I think when we started our band there was no thought we’d ever find ourselves in Greece because of the band. You hope that you’ll get to travel to see the world… you’re sort of thinking of travel as sort of a generic thing, and then you realize how many opportunities you have to see crazy stuff. I mean this summer we played Italy and we were taking a ferry to the island of Sardinia and on the way we stopped at Pisa and saw the leaning Tower of Pisa. You know, it’s like “What?! Alright!”

How is the tour with Gaslight Anthem going? Is this your first tour together?

Yeah, this is their first bug headlining tour. They were going to come out with us a year ago when they were starting to get some buzz, so they wanted to be the second band, but we had already confirmed a band. So we went with another option and we were like, “Oh we’ll just go with them next time,” and then when the next time rolled around they were asking us.

Oh man, that’s wild.

Yeah, so it’s been a good tour. The shows have been really big. And you know it’s always incredible to play a big room that sounds great. We’ve been able to play places we wouldn’t normally have been able to do on another tour.

Cool. So, how do American audiences compare to the ones you had in Europe?

It’s funny, in some ways it’s more complicated and in some ways it’s even similar than I would’ve expected. For one, American audiences sing along more. They speak English better (laughs). It’s so simple, but even if they are rowdy, or super into the show, or really respectful in Europe, you don’t get the amount of singing along. I love that about American shows – they’re always a little crazier. But even when you go to Europe, their attentiveness is incredible. We’ve played shows that were a 20 song set, and they want us to come on for an encore, and we’ll do that – we’ll do two songs. And then they want us to come on for another one, and we’ll do two songs. And then they’ll just keep clapping and they won’t stop clapping to the point where we’re standing there saying, “Do we know any more songs?” Then we’ll be like, “Alright this is the last song we know how to play.” And that’s kind of hilarious. Obviously they do an excellent job of stroking our egos… its fun. It’s interesting to compare because when we’re in Europe we’ll be the only band – there’ll be like one band opening for us instead of like a whole tour package.

Yeah they want more out of one band. So, Gaslight’s style is pretty different from Murder by Death. Are you all fans of Gaslight Anthem?

We weren’t as familiar beforehand. We had just heard a little bit. But yeah, we have come to be, certainly. I guess it’s different. There are certain songs that make more sense to their audience. They have a really upbeat, nostalgic sound. We have a much darker thing… some upbeat songs, but more downers and slower instrumentals. We have been testing out the material and seeing what people respond to. Trying stuff that’s really different from what they do, trying stuff that’s more similar. We’ve been experimenting over the course of two months what we should do, and how people will respond to each style.

Yeah, I was going to ask about that. This tour has a pretty varied line-up featuring Gaslight Anthem, Murder by Death, The Measure (SA), and the Loved Ones. So, what advantages can you find in such a diverse tour and are there any disadvantages?

This tour has changed a lot. There have been different openers. The Measure has only played one show so far… and before that it was Broadway Calls which is a punk band from Portland. Before that it was Frank Turner from England… and we have the Loved Ones who are like smarter, older dudes playing rock ‘n’ roll punk… they’d all get the audience into a excited frenzy, and then we’d play and maybe depress them a little bit.

Yeah (laughs)

We’ll do our drinking song thing, but we’ve had a great response. And then Gaslight will come up and obviously it’s their tour… It’s kind of nice with the diverse tour because then we can meet bands that we never would’ve met. We never would’ve played with any of these bands if we were headlining a tour because it’s just a tour of a different circle. It’s definitely more of a punk tour than we usually play. It’s been cool to kind of branch out.

Yeah I was going to ask a question about that. You guys are praised for having a unique style that incorporates a cello and an electronic keyboard. What type of fans are you able to draw with that style? Do you feel you can kind of steer people in a different direction from what they’re typically used to?

That’s kind of the idea. That’s what we’ve done since we started playing as a national touring band. We would just take tours, just take whatever the best option was, and sometimes we’d just take the only option. So we’ve just played for a huge variety of fans. We’ve played with metal bands, we’ve played with indie bands, we’ve played with artsy bands, goth, emo, punk, stoner, rockabilly, we’ve done it all. It’s been our angle – you go up there and you play for these people and you try to win them over no matter what their genre is.

It’s been an advantage for our career, since we’re sort of a unique band, we do go up there and people are surprised, people who have never heard of us. They’re surprised by the sound, and you can see them and they’re either like, “Eh, whatever” or they’re like, “Wow, this is unique, I like this”. We’ve actually won a lot of our fans by playing in front of other acts. It’s really helped us. But then again, you don’t have an identity in the same way. Like, if you’re a young punk band and you’re going out with an older punk band you know that fans are going to respond really well to you. It’s an identity that they’ve already committed themselves to.

Yeah, totally. You kind of touched on another question I was going to ask just for fun. People are quick to judge a band by their name rather than reading a review or listening to myspace tracks for a few seconds. I’ve seen a lot of hilarious assumptions made about Murder by Death’s style. Just for fun, are you more annoyed or amused at these assumptions?

These days we’ve been playing for over nine years together. We’re not really worried about that anymore because we have a pretty good thing going and I guess at this point it’s so easy to go online and in 30 seconds you’d know that we’re not a death metal band or something.

(Laughs) Right.

It’s pretty clear with the fact that we have a cello and the way that we sing . . .so it’s kind of one of those things where I’m not like annoyed or amused. I’m just kind of like, “Yep.” It’s just part of the deal . . .

So getting back to the tour, although it seems to be rarely updated, I enjoy the food blog on your website, especially Sarah’s most recent haiku about a feta wrap. What was the inspiration behind turning your tour blog into a food blog?

It’s just that when you tour as much as we do, you eat every meal at a restaurant. And so, the idea is that Sarah and I especially are both really into food. It was before we were in a band; we both come from families that love to cook for fun, you know? So when you are eating out at every meal, it becomes an important part of your day in that it’s an opportunity to sort of escape from the idea of being on the road – to go out and have a good meal. It can totally change your mood . . . I started going out and I’m like “Man, that meal was awesome!” We just went to some random restaurants that were some of the closest ones to the club and they turn out to be really good. I finally decided I needed to start writing them down. Then I realized, I could just write a review about each of these meals… and people liked it. People responded to it and thought it was fun. A lot of people these days are really into going out and trying new restaurants. It’s been a fun thing to write about, and it gives you something to do on the road.

And Sarah’s doing an anti-food blog. For all the worst meals of the tour she writes a haiku.

Yeah, that’s the one I read. I think that’s a pretty creative idea.

Yeah, we’re doing that for fun, just to make ourselves feel a little better about the awful meals we had.

So tell us a little about the book soundtrack for Finch. How did you get involved with that?

The author, Jeff Vandermeer, reached out to us. He said “I’m a big fan. I’ve got this new book coming out in November. I listened to your records pretty much the whole time I was writing it, so I would love if it makes any sense at all, for you to write a soundtrack. I would include it with the special edition copies of the book.” We read that e-mail and our publicist got back to us and said “This guy is for real. He’s got a lot of fans and he’s got a whole lot of science fiction awards…” So we wrote back saying “It’s such a weird idea, that we like it, we really like it. So send us a copy of the book, and if we like it we’ll move forward.” So we all read the book and we thought it was really cool. So we went into the studio – we rarely have time to do stuff like this, but it happened to work out. We went into the studio in August and we took five days and we wrote music to go with the scenes of the book. We wrote like it was going with a movie almost, and we scored those scenes. It’s all instrumental, and we got to experiment and try something we had never done before – to write to a book, and also to do an all instrumental release. It was really fun. It just worked. We just wrote and wrote and recorded. It’s just something totally new for us.

It seems like something totally new in general. I had never heard of something like this before.

Right, neither had we. That’s what we thought was cool.

Your lyrics tend to be honest and heavy. Who are some of your favorite lyricists, what do you admire in lyrics, and how do you incorporate that into Murder by Death?

I like unique lyrics. My favorite thing to do is to write about stuff in a different way. I try to stray from love songs because it’s such a traditional material and there are so many people that have an entire career of like relationship songs. I jut didn’t want to get sucked into that world of sort of repeating yourself. I mean some people do it so well. That’s just not where we saw ourselves when we were writing material. We were trying to get it to more of a fictional approach, which is a weird idea and we totally just write about weird subjects. Who Will Survive… is about a devil getting shot in a bar fight, and it’s a whole album based around the idea of revenge and it’s sort of a fun story that you can kind of immerse yourself in. We always would try to make the music fit the lyrics. So we kind of look at the lyrics and we’re like, “How do we communicate this musically?” and that’s kind of just the aim of the band is to kind of unite the words with the music in a way that’s much more thought about than a lot of acts do. I think we really wanted to make sure that it’s not just words over music. They exist together and really function off of each other. That’s been a major step in writing. We’re going to go home and do a lot of writing a recording in about a week. I’ve got all the songs and melodies done, but what we really need to do is set it to music.

So do you think the upcoming album will have a theme to it as well?

I didn’t want to do a concept record the way we have done in the past because I didn’t want to repeat my self and I knew the guys would probably enjoy something different from a writing perspective. This album has some themes, but it’s not about one thing. I wanted to have more isolated tracks. That’s creatively what sounded more fun.

I wanted to ask about the evolution of your sound overall. When you look back on the four full lengths and the latest project with Finch, what are your thoughts on Murder by Death’s musical progression over the last nine years from Like the Exorcist, but More Breakdancing to Red of Tooth and Claw?

The main thing about the band to us is to try and keep it interesting. We wanted each album to feel different and also fit under the banner of Murder By Death. We wanted to sort of create a world of Murder by Death, but yet make each album have its own thing. Our first album we were just trying to figure out what sort of band we wanted to be. Our second album was like an accidental concept record that told a story. Our third album, we were trying to make it like a book of short stories where each song just had a certain feel. On our fourth album the idea was to do a linear story but a very consistent rock record. We wanted it to be more of a rock record than our past records. And so the Finch record is totally different. It’s funny because at times we try to make homages to kind of older styles or songs. I think in some ways the Finch record, which is the latest thing we’ve done, starts out like a full release. I think at moments on it, fans of our first release will identify with it most, more so than our more modern fans. That’s something I saw – that musical tendencies that we had on our older records were coming up as we were working on that, which is pretty fun. We were kind of able to bring back some old style. The whole thing with us has been kind of moving forward while occasionally making nods to the past.

I’ve heard a few people compare your voice to Johnny Cash. Did he play into your major influences at all or Murder by Death’s influences in general and what other artists have had a profound impact on Murder by Death?

Yeah I’ve been getting that one a lot. Probably thousands of times. It’s one of those ones where I feel people naturally when they hear something that want to find a frame of reference. They say “What is this like, what does this remind me of? Ok, this.” And that’s great. I think I like Johnny Cash just as much as anybody, but I don’t really listen to him a lot or anything. I certainly didn’t mean to sound like him or something (laughs). It’s a very big compliment to be compared to someone that is one of the major recording artists of the last century. For me though, the singer that I always wanted to be about to sing like, that I really like, is Eric Burdon of The Animals. His style, where he sings like a very low part and then he kind of yells. It’s sort of ballsy shout-singing. That really attracted me as a style, and that’s been something that I’ve been enjoying. I love the idea of a very dynamic song vocally. It’s just so much more fun to sing that way than to do a flat, straight forward song. I love dynamics with singing.

The NME got in on the act early. This Sunday the Observer Music Monthly publishes its top 50. So I thought I might as well have a go. I wanted to get mine done first and see how much common ground I’ve got with the OMM seeing as its my favourite music mag. It’s harder than you’d think to select just 50 albums that span 2000-2009. I’ve had to leave out some records I really like. But here we go… Please comment as you feel necessary!

50 – Daft Punk: Discovery.

49 – Bob Dylan: Modern Times.

48 – Camille: Le Fil.

47 – Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

46 – The Blue Nile: High.

45 – New Order: Get Ready.

44 – Mercury Rev: All Is Dream.

43 – R.E.M.: Accelerate.

42 – Fionn Regan: The End Of History.

41 – The Beatles: Love.

40 – The Avalanches: Since I Met You.

39 – Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour Of Bewilderbeast.

38 – Roots Manuva: Awfully Deep.

37 – Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever ago.

36 – Mark B & Blade: The Unknown.

35 – Coldplay: Parachutes.

34 – Malcolm Middleton: Into The Woods.

33 – Seafood: When Do We Start Fighting…

32 – Doves: The Last Broadcast.

31 – Duke Special: Songs From The Deep Forest.

30 – Morrissey: You Are The Quarry.

29 – Guillemots: Through The Windowpane.

28 – Bruce Springsteen: The Rising.

27 – The Gaslight Anthem: The ‘59 Sound.

26 – Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

25 – Richard Hawley: Coles Corner.

24 – Fleet Foxes:  Fleet Foxes.

23 – Athlete: Vehicles & Animals.

22 – Spin Doctors: Nice Talking To Me.

21 – Sigur Ros: Takk…

20 – Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain.

19 – Maxïmo Park: A Certain Trigger.

18 – Delirious?: Glo.

17 – The Shins: Wincing The night Away.

16 – Ben Folds: Rockin’ The Suburbs.

15 – Green Day: American Idiot.

14 – Neil Young: Living With War.

13 – Ray Lamontagne: Til The Sun Turns Black.

12 – Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs.

11 – Idlewild: The Remote Part.

10 – Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around

An extraordinary achievement for a man in his final year. Johnny Cash’s last ‘proper’ album has the power to bring me to the edge of tears. I bought it the week he died in 2003 and played it a lot. A mixture of originals and covers, Rick Rubin’s brilliant production means there’s pathos dripping from every track. ‘Hurt’ is one of the songs of the decade which couldn’t even be ruined by that dire Nike advert. When I first heard ‘I Hung My Head’ it stopped me dead in my tracks. Just like most of the rest of this awesome album.

9 - Interpol: Turn On The Bright Lights.

I think there’s a good case to be made for Interpol as the band of the decade. To my shame I’m yet to see them live but their three dark, brooding and melodic albums demand that I get round to it soon. I think their debut is the pick of the bunch. Starting with ‘Untitled’ which takes its cues from the shoegazing bands of the early 90’s, the album goes onto channel the best of My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division and classic Krautrock. I suppose it can be said about all the records in the list but I can’t listen to this album too many times. It sends me to sleep, it wakes me up and generally soundtracks my life.

8 – Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend.

The drums alone deserve some kind of award. Chris Tomson is, for my money, the best drummer in a rock band at the moment. But this isn’t Keith Moon fury, or John Bonham theatrics. He sees the drum kit as a melodic and harmonic instrument. The kit is a lead instrument here and when allied to fantastic songwriting, it’s a winning combination. The African influence if overstated (this isn’t even the noughties’ Graceland, let alone Fela Kuti or Ali Farka Touré). However, the hints of afrobeat are enough to make this stand out from the crowd. Walcott is a great track – but there aren’t any duds here.

7 – Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump.

This outstanding record is often compared favourably with ‘OK Computer’. Well, I’ll put my cards on the table. There’s only one winner; and it isn’t Radiohead. Grandaddy are impossible to categorise, but this record combines the best bits of alt-country, electronica and post-rock. The audacity of a 9 minute opening track has been matched by many bands. The difference is they’ve not made a song as arresting as ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot’. ‘The Crystal Lake’ is among the best songs of the decade while ‘Undreneath The Weeping Willow’ showcases a brilliant knack for melancholy. Released at the start of the decade, very few records have got anywhere near matching Grandaddy’s Magnum Opus.

6 – The Hold Steady: Boys And Girls in America.

‘Best bar band in the world blah… blah… blah’ said the music press. Talk about damning with faint praise. The Hold Steady are one of the greatest bands of the 21st Century, full stop. And though their earlier albums are packed with gems, this breakthrough album sees their manifesto fulfilled. How many bands could start a record quoting Jack Kerouac but never fail to be fun? The sound was compared to classic E Street Band and that’s probably as close as you can get to describing this joyous racket. Craig Finn’s lyrics are always interesting and frequently brilliant. So looking at our checklist we’ve got superb music, superb lyrics and some guys that seem delighted just to be playing rock and roll. It’ll do for me.

5 – Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid.

I suppose too much has already been written about this album. It’d be easy to include ‘Asleep In The Back’ to prove I’ve liked Elbow since I used to play them on student radio in 2000. But that would miss the point: for once, the awards committees, journalists and hype-merchants got it right. This is an amazing album. There’s not an average track in sight in an hour’s running time. Picking highlights almost seems crazy, but ‘Grounds For Divorce’ and ‘On A Day Like This’ have deservedly grabbed the headlines and soundtracked a million daytime DIY programmes. But some of the less well know tracks contain stunning music and lyrics. When Guy Garvey croons ”We kiss like we invented it” on ‘Mirrorball’ it’s enough to melt your heart.  We await their next move with eager anticipation.

4 - Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther.

Take a moderately successful Texan indie band and give them a copy of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’. Stand well back and light the blue touch-paper. Doesn’t sound promising does it? How wrong could we be??? This was THE album of 2006. Inventive harmonies, layered synths and lyrics pining for the antebellum South came together to produce a stunning record. The guitar solo that comes halfway through ‘Head Home’ is one of my favourite musical moments of the decade, but this album contains several contenders for that title. The real genius of ‘…Van Occupanther’ is its ability to keep you on your toes. Just when you think it may slip into mid 70’s FM rock pastiche, the band pulls out a track like ‘Young Bride’ which forces you to admit this is a record which is far more than the sum of its considerable parts.

3 – Damien Rice: O.

David Gray is a perfectly decent singer songwriter. The same can’t be said for the likes of James Morrison and James Blunt. But how any of them came to be spoken of in the same breath as Damien Rice is beyond me. The irishman deserves to be in far better company (Jeff Buckley for example). This debut album was a slow-burning word-of-mouth behemoth that managed to retain artistic dignity while being offered on 2-for-1 deals in Tesco. Its strengths have been repeated endlessly, but any blogger who can’t find room for Lisa Hannigan’s beautiful vocals, the stunning string arrangements or the strange re-working of Silent Night is a fool. If this album has a flaw, I’m yet to find it. I can’t pick one track as a highlight because the others simply look at me reproachfully and say ‘actually we’re all rather lovely’. And they truly are.

2 – My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves.

This album sounds like the best party you’ve ever been to. If you want to label it I suppose it’s alt-country. But what on earth does that matter when the music is as much fun as this? Don’t get the idea this is some kind of comedy record though. Howling vocals, squealing guitars and pounding drums fuse together to create a brilliant racket. ‘One Big Holiday’ has a guitar hook to die for, but this isn’t an album of simple pleasures. The genius of the songs reveals itself slowly. The first time you hear it, it sounds like these are well crafted and edited jams. But like Led Zep at their peak, the tracks are more cunningly moulded than that. Crazy Horse are another reference point and when talking about a rock and roll band there are fewer bigger compliments than that. It’s a long record (71 minutes) but unusually for an album of that length, it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Superb.

1 – Stephen Fretwell: Magpie.

I’m annoyed I couldn’t find a decent picture of this album without the parental advisory sticker on it. Ok, maybe it doesn’t make an ideal present for a toddler, but any parent who’s doing their job properly should be investing in this if their child shows any kind of serious interest in music. It’s as close to a perfect record as its possible to get. At the start of the decade, Scunthorpe’s Stephen Fretwell found himself in Manchester as a promising singer-songwriter. A little while later, he was in a recording studio creating some of the most beautiful music that great city has ever produced. By 2004 it was ready for release. In reality, the Manchester thing is a bit of a red herring. Fretwell owes little to the genius of the Smiths and Joy Division or the more prosaic talents of Oasis. He’s just a good old-fashioned acoustic troubadour. So who are the key influences here? I’d guess Neil Young, Bob Dylan et al. But that doesn’t tell you much about this record’s greatest strength. Fretwell’s gift for melody is astounding. Songs like ‘Emily’, ‘New York’ and ‘Rose’ are beautifully crafted and sung. But there isn’t a track here which leaves you cold. You may know ’Run’ as the Theme of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ but don’t stop there. Investigate it immediately. Buy it and love it. There’s only one album of the decade after all; whatever the Observer says!

Last few months I am in some strange mood and the music that is so near to my heart is something between punk and blues…street punk…

Brian Fallon of Gaslight Anthem performs “Here’s Lookin’ at You Kid” live on Crash Test Radio

So I decided to make a blog. My name doesn’t matter.If you want just call me LOVEandPEACE.

I will show you my photographty, things that I like, some snowboarding and skateboarding. This will be my place in this lonely place called internet.I will express myself for free.

Sorry for my bad english, and I am not a photographer, so this is what I see trought my camera!

I am just a person who want to believe.

I was wondering what song to put here, for my first post…and from a while I can’t stop listening to this :

The Gaslight Anthem

From the scribble pad, here’s some stuff that’s been catching my eye in-between news events at the paragraph factory.

Amazon.com music
Recently came across a great sale they were having, something like 50 albums for $5, and decided to try out the service en masse while grabbing stuff I’d heard buzz about or need to fill out my library. Interestingly enough, the downloads ran the gamut of genres and time periods (from oldies like ‘Paul’s Boutique’ to the latest from Owl City). Spent a little cash, but came out with some stuff I probably wouldn’t have bought off iTunes. Also of note, Amazon’s freebie singles are a great way to try out someone you might not have before.
• Gaslight Anthem: Digging the album, but can’t help but think the lead vocalist sounds a lot like a younger Bruce Springsteen, in a good way.
• Weezer (Raditude): A few tracks like ‘I Want To’ have hit my heavy rotation mix.
• Airborne Toxic Event: Played SXSW to a lot of buzz. That kind of prevented me buying into the hype early on. However, at $5, I’m glad to have bought it. Good tracks off of it for me right now are ‘Wishing Well’, ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ and ‘Girls in Summer Dresses’ which manage to bring an 80s-’Pretty in Pink’-soundtrack vibe to my ears.
• The Avett Brothers: The austin360 print editor mentioned them to me awhile back. Takes me back to my days at Kansas State for some reason, in a good way.
• Owl City: Feels very Postal Service meets Pet Shop Boys, which makes me feel good, especially ‘Hello Seattle’.

The Penis vs. the Palin
Well, Bristol Palin’s baby’s daddy’s Playgirl debut is nearing. After dropping weight and buffing up with the help of moose meat, we’re about to see if the hype meets the reality. Despite his slightly 1950s mentality about women, he seems to have figured out who the target audience is going to be — gay men — and has said he is fine with it, almost welcoming. Maybe that publicity stunt with Kathy Griffin rubbed off on him. Way to stretch out your 15 minutes of fame. Meanwhile, Momma Palin is making the rounds promoting her new book … a little late to capitalize off her ‘popular’ attempt at being vice president. Others have tackled her drama better and more humorously than I probably could, but I do see what she’s attempting here. By releasing the book, she’s guaranteeing that her name stays in the spotlight for a little while longer (in hopes of another attempt at national office?). Gotta wonder though which will sell more copies … Palin’s book or the baby’s daddy’s Playgirl?

What the hell is up with Lady GaGa?
So ahead of her ‘new’ album — a re-release of remixes of ‘The Fame’ — the  androgynous one has unleashed the video for ‘Bad Romance’. Watched it with the Significant Other last night on YouTube. At first I started counting the number of dance queens she was ripping off (including an odd ‘pretty’ version of herself that tiptoes close to Gwen Stefani), but I had to stop when I realized that if Björk was doing this video, there’d be a lot more panning of Lady GaGa. Yet, folks like this mess for some reason. I can’t help but think we’re seeing the clock sitting at 11 minutes of GaGa’s 15 minutes.

U2 on YouTube
Finally got around to seeing U2’s 360 Rose Bowl show. Sure, u2’s tour continues to be heavy-handed with the political statements, but damn, if that wasn’t a great show to watch. Granted, Bono’s voice seemed to take half an hour to warm up. Makes me wish I had caught the show in Dallas or Houston.

The Visitors are here
Like many folks, I remember only bits and pieces of the 80s version of ‘V’ — something about a lizard baby — but I was tempted by the remake. The first episode easily could have been spread over a couple of hours, instead it was compressed debut. Some interesting promise with connections to the near-recent political climate. But the second episode kind of slowed it down without a whole lot of depth being added. I’ll keep with it until the holiday hiatus, but I wonder how many people will come back after the hiatus.

Top Chef
Robin is finally gone; Eli makes a gritty disaster; Jen continues to meltdown. Revise my three: The brothers and Kevin. Kevin still wins it all.

From the bookshelf • Marvel’s ‘Noir’ books: Not really noir, but retellings of Spider-Man and X-Men in the 1930s. It’s interesting, but not jawdropping.
• ‘Wolverine: Old Man Logan’: Pretty art by Steve McNiven, so-so story by Mark Millar. Set in a dystopic future (is there really any other kind), this buddy-road-trip story teams Logan with Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) with a touch of several revenge/Western clichés. Glad I waited for the collection, but overall not enough payoff for the setup.
• ‘Marvel 1602: New World/Fantastick Four’: Another elseworld approach based on Neil Gaiman’s popular, although uneven, ‘1602′, which set the Marvel Universe back to the 1602. This follow-up package of two limited series is uneven at best. The art is serviceable, but the stories collected are just too clunky to live. Quick perusal of Amazon shows there’s another follow-up coming. Marvel, please stop.
• Jason Aaron’s ‘Scalped: High Lonesome’: In the fifth volume of this FBI/gangster noir set on a Native American reservation, Aaron and artist RM Guéra ratchet up the tension in what appears to be several standalone stories. When put together, you see Aaron is placing his chess pieces in place for a hell of a sixth volume.

Still outstanding from the bookshelf
• Going to write a longer piece about David Mack’s ‘Alchemy’ which should serve as an inspiration for an artists/writers/designers out there.
• Even though I read the singles, can’t wait to jump into Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips collected ‘Criminal’. The production values on the book alone are gorgeous.
• Midway through Sean McKeever’s ‘The Waiting Place Definitive Edition’, which I had read in trade a few years back.

[via punknews.org]

Gaslight Anthem’s fall tour posters are sick. They were designed by El Jefe Design, definitely check out his site and buy some swag. Also, if anybody is looking for the perfect gift for ol’ AB over here…I think you know what to do.

Näst sista laget in är nu anmält. 236 personer är således inne i rullorna, även om några fortfarande bara har namnet vakant. Så, gott folk, följ betalningsinstruktionerna för att garantera er den åtråvärda tävlingsplatsen.

Medan vi väntar på sista laget in lyssnar vi på The ‘59 Sound med The Gaslight Anthem:

It’s been a bit of a strange year for me. Over the past ten or twelve months, I feel as if some certainties in my life that I took for granted – professionally and personally – became less certain, and the disquieting noise of doubt has grown louder and louder in my skull. It’s not unusual for me to greet what’s to come in my future with a healthy dose of unease, and I’ve always been a wee bit of a worrier. But I find myself less confident about a lot of aspects of my life or, at the very least, more confused as to how it’s all supposed to fit together. It feels as if I’ve lost the plot a bit.

Given this, I doubt it’s a coincidence that I’ve probably listened to the Gaslight Anthem this year more than any other artist.

The Gaslight Anthem are like a one-trick stallion. Though their entire gimmick comes down to a single stunt – “What if the Replacements wrote Bruce Springsteen songs?” –that stunt is flat-out awesome. Over fuzzed-up guitars, frontman Brian Fallon sings of late nights running away from the boredom of nothingness; of the noble pursuit of broken hearts; of lonely dance floors and crowded backseats. It’s brash, anthemic, and powerful, track after track. Who cares that the band’s breakthrough record – last year’s The ’59 Sound – really isn’t all that different from their 2007 debut, or that that the band probably lacks the range to really do much more than keep repeating themselves in the future? They don’t do much, but they do incredible, almost magical things with it.

True, perhaps I’m kind of predisposed to being a fan given the ‘heart-on-sleeve’ Springsteen influence – the band references Boss lyrics with abandon – but there’s more to the Gaslight Anthem’s appeal than just echoes of my record collection. There’s something about Fallon’s storytelling style that’s particularly enticing, that makes it possible to revisit these songs time and time again without really diminishing the returns. But figuring out exactly what that ‘something’ is ain’t easy.

The irony is that to a 21st century 20-something, the particulars of a Gaslight Anthem song are almost wholly unrelatable and rather unrealistic. Whereas it’s conceivable that Bruce Springsteen could have lived some of the 1950s American Graffiti-esque scenescapes that he often painted in song, it’s highly doubtful that these modern Jersey boys spent their teenage or post-teenage years with old cars, fast women, worn-out diners and all the other archetypal motifs they play with. They do their damnedest make you believe it, sure – unlike Springsteen, Fallon never distances the listener by inferring the existence of characters – but there’s always this hint of self-awareness lurking in the corner of your brain as you listen, a piece of you that knows that this entire plot is manufactured from another generation’s playbook.

But the emotions that Fallon sings of – loss, loneliness, romance, dance-floor politics – are timeless, universal. It’s essentially teenageism, re-examined a few years down the road with an healthy dose of self-awareness and a dash of nostalgia to taste. So given this, why the wholehearted embrace of another generation’s mythology to try and communicate these sensations? And why am I, child of the modern world, completely head-over-heels infatuated with it all?

Here’s the thing – great rock music is less about the explanation of plot and more about the inference of plot. When writers use the word “storytelling” to talk about a pop or rock lyric, they’re rarely describing the song’s narrative; in fact, straight-ahead narrative is actually a bit rare. Instead, the best songs often give us little more than a single moment: a fleeting minute, a pivotal scene, the emotional climax of a larger tale. And it’s the lyricist’s responsibility to give us just enough details to allow us to fill in the rest with our own imagination. Great songwriters don’t write plots on their own; they make the listener an active participant in the writing process.

On The ’59 Sound, the Gaslight Anthem enlist us as equal partners in manufacturing their landscapes of imagined nostaligia. They give us all the touchpoints we need – in “Great Expectations,” for example, we get a burned-out diner, oldies radio, drunk tanks and boy-stealing vixens from days of yore – and we join in and connect the dots, making the entire scene our own. I’m usually the first to challenge any sign of “baby boom supremacy”: the imposition of my parents’ culture as superior to mine just by virtue of their generation’s size and societal domination. But here, I’m on-board 100 per cent, singing along to the boisterous chorus in spite of the fact that I’ve never lived anything exactly like it.

Perhaps it’s because Fallon sounds like I feel these days: a little bit aimless, slightly lost and desperately seeking out narrative. Perhaps it’s because these strange scenarios feel certain in a way that my 21st century existential angst can never quite claim to be be. Perhaps it’s because we haven’t quite figured out how the modern world is supposed to work quite yet, so we find comfort in these pre-established storybook routines.

Whatever the case, I keep coming back to The ’59 Sound over and over again, a willing accomplice in its constructions. Though I’ll probably grow tired of it at some point, for now I welcome every opportunity to join the record for another nostalgic drive off into the night, seeking out sensation and pining for our lost plots.

Watch: The Gaslight Anthem – “The ‘59 Sound” live on Letterman (note: were we to live in the nostalgic age where a television performance could make a band, the Gaslight Anthem would be legends after this one).

Von der Band The Gaslight Anthem gibt es einen Song, der heißt: Even Cowgirls get the Blues sometimes.

Meine Übersetzung: Auch Pferdemädchen sind manchmal traurig!

Manche Menschen würden jetzt sagen: Ein Cowgirl ist doch kein Pferdemädchen! Ich sage: Doch! Der Cowboy hat zwar auf Kühe aufgepasst aber bei dem Wort Cowboy denkt doch jeder gleich an: Pferd, reiten, Revolver, Lasso und vielleicht auch noch ans Lagerfeuer.

Ohne Pferd kein Cowboy! Also ist der Kuhhirte eigentlich ein Horseman und folglich das Cowgirl ein Pferdemädchen.

Ich finde das toll! Nur zu sagen, dass Mädchen manchmal den Blues, also die Schwermütigkeit bekommen ist doch langweilig und dämlich. Außerdem ist es schwer vorstellbar, dass sich Otto-Normal- Frau regelmäßig ihrer Traurigkeit hingibt. Dagegen kämpft sie doch an, mit Einkaufen, Schuhe, Schokolade und Sex and the City auf DVD.

Ganz anders das Pferdemädchen. Das sitzt am Lagerfeuer, hört das Knistern des brennenden Holzes, die schmatzenden Kühe (vor allem aber die kauenden Pferde) und den heulenden Kojoten. Sie sieht in die Sterne, seufzt mehrmals aus tiefster Seele, um dann weiterzumachen, in der Gewissheit, dass die Schwermut immer bleiben wird und auch für immer bleiben muss.

Boo!

Oh how my festive juices are flowing! Autumn is here and I’m loving every beautifully colored leaf, bundling up in sweatshirts, and sipping coffee on those frosty mornings. Halloween is this weekend and I am very excited about getting dressed up and baking pumpkin-shaped cookies. Before I begin this post, I should warn you that I’m going to start changing things up on this lovely blog. I want to post more. Every post I have made has been in three parts, but sometimes I can’t post for an additional week or sometimes two due to my lack of a third part. I want to start posting every time I find a cool place or band or restaurant. So from here on in, I won’t hold back on you guys. Whether I have one or three things to tell you about, I’m posting! So this time around, I have one wonderful find for you .

Murder By Death

I recently went to see The Gaslight Anthem concert here in New York at Terminal 5. Murder By Death was the opening band and they were fantastic! They are a four member band from Indiana with a very original sound. The lead singer has one of the deepest voices I’ve heard in a while and has an awesome range. Attributing to their unique sound is the electric cello and keyboard which is used in most songs. I would have to say their sound is alternative country punk, but it’s hard to only classify them in those categories because they embody a lot of different styles. They have songs about everything from zombies to drinking whiskey. I bought their newest album Red of Tooth and Claw, and the first song, “Comin’ Home,” has the deepest vocals of the whole CD; its my favorite song thus far. With lyrics like:

“I got that taste in my mouth,
I got a hunger in my gut.
My skin has turned to leather.
My hair is banded rope.
My knees have buckled beneath the weight of doubt
but now i miss the things I have done without.

I’m comin’ home,
but I ain’t comin’ home for you.
I’m comin’ home and there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.
Ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.”

Murder by Death taps into their life troubles and Midwestern roots for lyric inspiration. While listening to them, I feel like I’m in an old run down town in the middle of nowhere drinking my troubles away.

Photo I took at the Concert

Murder by Death is easy enough to listen to while doing work or painting; yet you may find yourself filled with a little more angst due to the tunes. I can’t write about them and not mention the similarity to Johnny Cash, the same deep vocals and simple ideas for songs but with more intense percussion and some bass and cello. A fantastic listen if you want to let your mind bring you to a dirt road out in Indiana.

Album Cover

I hope that I have satisfied your wandering minds. I know that this is a little different than my usual posts, but I hope you enjoy the more frequent finds. Now it’s almost Halloween, so get your fake spiderwebs out and listen to some band with a creepy name like Murder By Death or break out the classic monster mash . Happy Halloween!

-Kristin ( The Traveling Pickle)

If you don’t have plans tonight, let me recommend the Gaslight Anthem at Nashville’s own Mercy Lounge.  I’m going so you should too.  Coincidentally my dog has the same hat as the lead singer (sorry Riles – she told me not to share this pic):

I had designs on heading out of the house to hike up a local cliff to get some great shots of the changing leaves, but the low temperatures, and the overcast clouds were probably going to not give me the camera light that I was looking for. Instead I headed out on a walk along the river trail in my hometown.

Pittston Bench

There are some nice places to shoot along there, and the geology there is amazing.

Not a camera trick. The rock is really like that.

Under that collapsed rock, is an air shaft where 13 guys escaped their sure death on Jan 22, 1959. 33 of their buddies were not quite so lucky that day.

How fitting is this graffitti? I have been coming here for years, and never realized that was a stencil. Man that is some dedication.

There is just something about a walk on the tracks that really brings me back.

I went down to the river and got some shots of where I Intended to climb to and one of our local bridges.

One early morning.

My Favorite shot of the day.

I got home just in time for the rest of my family to wake up and start their day. Some of the folks who were in town for the wedding wanted to go up to the circle drive in flea market. This place is usually pretty amazing, but with the cold and the rain…you can just take a look and see…

Not much going on

We went out for lunch, did some more visiting, and then headed back to Philly. On the ride we listened to my favorite team, the Raiders beat up on the Eagles. Stella was very happy to watch the game with me, while snuggled up on the best blanket in the house.

Best Blanket in the house

We got there just in time to drop our stuff off, watch some more of the game and head off to the Gaslight Anthem show at the troc. We hung out with some good friends and got to see the Loved ones who killed it, then we watched the ball game during Murder by Death and checked out the Gaslight Anthem. They were great, and sounded amazing,

To be a catty girl…their bass player looked like the biggest poser ever, and really needs to work on stage presence, but the rest of them were great. We capped the night off with some late night Chinese food, because we realized that we did not eat anything else the rest of the day.

I went to see The Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, and The Loved Ones in Philly last night at the Trocadero. It was an all around great show.

The Loved Ones played what was probably the best set I’ve ever seen them play. I can’t really describe why it was so great, but they just felt really on and didn’t talk too much compared to other times that I’ve seen them. Their set list was well chosen and leaning way more to the Keep Your Heart side of things than Build & Burn, which works out great for me since I think Keep Your Heart is a much better record.

Murder By Death was slightly worse than the last time I saw them, but that was also about five years ago. They played well and sounded good, but I think I miss them being a five piece. Having a dedicated keyboardist made them able to keep more of their recorded sound when playing live. Sarah did a great job switching between cello and keyboards, but it wasn’t quite the same. The last time I saw them was before their last two albums came out so they had fewer songs to play. This gave them time to rock out and jam a little more. I’m not into jam bands, but I love when bands that I like just jam out for a little bit during some of the instrumental parts of songs. It adds something extra to the live set that you don’t get from a record. This is something that they seemed to do a lot in the past and it was one of my favorite things about seeing them, but now with all the extra songs that they have, there is a lot less time to do it. Still, they sounded great and picked a good selection of songs to play. I think they covered everything that I wanted to hear.

And then there was Gaslight Anthem. They sounded amazing and were tight as hell with a great stage presence. It may have been the tightest that I’ve ever seen them play out of the six or seven times that I’ve seen them. But the selection of songs that they played was a bit disappointing. The ‘59 Sound is a really great record, one of the best to come out in 2008. However, it lost a lot over the last year for me. Most of my interest in it waned. Sink Or Swim has stuck with me though. That’s what I wanted to hear. I didn’t expect a lot, but the entire first half of their set was from The ‘59 Sound. By the end, we only got a couple Sink Or Swim songs in total. I guess normally it would be expected to hear only a few songs from a band’s first album…if they have more than two, but with only two of them, it’d be nice it at least a third of the set was from the first album. Oh well. At least everything they played sounded great.

Even accepting the fact that I’ll never get to hear them play much from Sink Or Swim again, I don’t know that I’ll ever want to see them live again. I’m not sure how to describe it, but they felt very rock starry last night. It was a little too much. They stopped feeling like this band from New Brunswick that used to play basement shows and the Court Tavern to small crowds and more like a band that has their eyes set on stages set in front of thousands and thousands of people. It wasn’t to the point where it was terribly upsetting and bothersome and a lot of it was subtle, but it was enough that I feel as though my love for them will start to decline if I keep on seeing them.

Last night was also the first time that I’ve been to the Troc in about seven years. I’ve generally avoided it as I was never a fan of the place and I was reminded 100% of this last night. The sound is terrible. It might be the worst sounding venue I’ve ever been to. Ugh.

Last night was another fantastic show. Almost perfect all around. Great music, great segues, and the phone was ringing off the hook. Not even just the phone, but the instant messages too. So much so that it was almost stressful trying to keep up. I was actually sweating because of it.

I found out last night that our station streams perfectly fine over an iPhone just by going to www.thecore.fm and clicking to listen. I’m assuming this will work on any other smartphone too, I guess I never thought about it before.

Apparently, we’re supposed to get a Nor’easter this weekend so that’s going to put a damper on my Field of Terror plans, but I’m still excited to see Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, and The Loved Ones on Sunday in Philly. And it seems that there are still tickets for the Monday night show as well. You may want to check that out. Either way, expect a full report next week.

Anyway, here’s what I played…

Source: 90.3 The Core

As I mentioned a few days ago, I went to see The Gaslight Anthem, Murder By Death, Jesse Malin and Broadway Calls on Tuesday night.

The show was great; Gaslight have really found their groove, they were improvising and taking risks with some of their songs on stage. It was an A+ show, though the sound at the Kool Haus was the worst I’ve ever heard it. The echo was so bad in parts of the room that the vocals were completely muffled. Once we moved to the centre of the room it was much better – keep that in mind if you find yourself at a similar sounding show!

Whether you were at the show in Toronto, are just a proud Canadian – or neither – you will probably appreciate this blog entry that Benny from The Gaslight Anthem wrote for Exclaim.

*********

Well, Toronto did not disappoint.

This is a show we’d been looking forward to for quite a while, the last show at the Opera House was one of the best shows of tour and we had a good feeling about this one.

We pulled up to Kool Haus early, and got to know the local neighborhood of office buildings, fish hatcheries and a sugar refinery. Like some bizarre version of Newark, NJ. When I walked into the venue I was blown away at the size, and was shocked we could play a venue that size. It was also still decorated with orange banners laced with confetti and giant yellow stars on the wall. I thought I walked into a senior prom from an 80’s movie. To my pleasure they ripped it all down, TGA are anti-balloons, especially in Canada.

It was the second night with Broadway Calls and Jesse Malin opening up the show. They both played really strong sets to a really large audience for so early on. I watched both from out front and really dug the sound there, not too bad at all. Murder By Death were celebrating anniversaries and had their usual bad-ass, whiskey soaked show. One of the best bands around these days.

We came out to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. Because, why not? No better way to get the good time started. Well, there is probably a better way, but it’s damn fun regardless. We played a mostly ‘59 Sound set, scattering in Elvis, Woody Joe and Angry Johnny throughout. The crowd was so incredible, the energy was truly infectious and we felt it all the way up on that big stage. Great feeling for sure. When we came back out to do more songs, we played 4 more old songs and finished off with Rivers Edge. I loved the show, this city is really becoming one of the best places in the world for us to play.

Until next time, I’d like to thank anyone who came out to the shows and the people who help us out in Canada. As usual, it’s truly a pleasure and we can’t wait to make it back. Like Brian said last night, these days, America is the workweek, and you guys are the weekend. I feel as tall as Joe Carter.

Here are a few things that caught my attention today:

This poor cat is beyond drunk, and by beyond I mean roughly 13 beers beyond drunk. I’m not going to lie and say I’ve never been in this condition, but check the time stamp on the video.  I can say I’ve never been in this condition at 10:47 am on a TUESDAY. Click here.

Captain Lou Albano, the 70’s porn star looking, rubber band on the face wearing, Cyndi Lauper video staring pro wrestling manager died today at the age of 76. Dude was an absolute fixture in wrestling since he started in 1953. I’ll always remember him from the WWF heyday of the ’80’s. Story here.

Got kids? Like movies? Here’s the best and worst children’s book movie adaptations from hollywood.com.

The price of cigarettes is absurdly high (keep your “you should quit” comments to yourself, thank you).

You can find the best band you’ve never heard of here.

This one’s for you Jamie W. Here’s an elaborate view of video game cupcakes. Diabetic coma or nerdgasm may follow viewing.

Thanks for checking this out. Please feel free to leave a comment….unless it has anything to do with quitting smoking.

You’ll be seeing a lot more of these and far bigger from here on out as I’ve reached out for some in-store help.

F.Y.P. – Five Year Plan
Forgotten – Control Me
Four Letter Word – A Nasty Piece of Work
Four Year Strong – Rise or Die Trying
Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards – Viking
Fugazi – Fugazi
Fugazi – Repeater
Funeral for a Friend – Memory and Harmony
G-Unit – Terminate on Sight
Gallows – Grey Britain
Game, The – LAX
Gaslight Anthem, The – The 59 Sound
Ghostface Killah – Fishscale
Ghostface Killah – More Fish
Ghoulie, Kepi – Hanging Out American Gothic
Gorillaz – Demon Days
Grae, Jean – This Week
Grayskul – Bloody Radio
Grayskul – Deadlivers
Green, Al – Lay It Down
Guttermouth – Covered With Ants
Gym Class Heroes – The Quilt

We’ve also got our first music DVDs up (more to follow):

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Live in London
Method Man – Live From Sunset Strip

Oh – and our two CDs ever!

Against Me – New Wave (French Import with 5 Bonus Tracks)
Rancid – Let the Dominoes Fall Expanded Version

Gaslight Anthem and Murder By Death, what a great tour!  The line up hasn’t been identical for the entire trip around North America, but tonight’s lineup (actual set times) at the Kool Haus in Toronto looks like this:

8:00 – Broadway Calls
8:45 – Jesse Malin
9:30 – Murder by Death
10:30 – Gaslight Anthem

Kool Haus is kind of a bummer venue (really big, with questionable sound), but I’m still really looking forward to it.

Gaslight blew everyone at Toronto’s Opera House away when they played a very sold out show about 6 months ago.  They even paid on-stage tribute to all the Bruce Springsteen comparisons they’ve been drawing, which I thought was really stellar of them.  Remember when the Killers started to draw similar comparisons to the Boss on their second album?  Man, oh man, did they ever piss and moan about it.  What a bunch of babies.

Murder By Death put on a great show as well, but it will be interesting to see them in a 2500 person venue since they played to about 100 at their last Toronto date.   If you haven’t heard them before, I suggest giving them a listen if you dig on the country-punk thing that’s been happening.

I’m still getting to know Jesse Malin and Broadway Calls, and it’s always nice to see artists play when you’re getting acquainted.

New York’s Jesse Malin reminds me very much of Ryan Adams, which is makes sense since Adams produced Malin’s solo debut The Fine Art Of Self Destruction.

Gaslight Anthem label mates, Broadway Calls, are sonically a sort of Green Day/Gaslight combination.  Some songs from Good Views, Bad News are more memorable than others; “Basement Royalty” and “Tonight’s Alive” are particularly good.

mp3: Broadway Calls – Tonight’s Alive from Good Views, Bad News

mp3: Jesse Malin – Me and Julio Down By The School Yard from On Your Sleeve

mp3: Murder By Death – Spring Break 1899 from Red of Tooth and Claw

mp3: Gaslight Anthem – Say I Won’t (Recognize) from Senor and The Queen

mp3: Gaslight Anthem – Even Cowgirls Get The Blues from The ‘59 Sound

Excellent sound and video for this ghostly, rock and roll version of the legendary (though aren’t they all?) Beatles track. This band is the real deal – think the beginnings of a U2, Pearl Jam, or Springsteen-type career. Now, that’s an unfair comparison, right?

the gaslight anthem always come through with really impressive covers of classic and/or influential songs. usually it’s the same “we wouldn’t be a band without this band” speech, with the influences clear in the gaslight anthem’s sound. here they give it up to gainesville’s greatest, hot water music, with their take on their calling card anthem, “trusty chords”.

thanks to my buddy ej for submitting this news as well as his band radio blackout for performing a killer set at one of the neatest beer gardens i’ve seen last night.

the gaslight anthem on myspace

download:

hot water music – trusty chords

- sunbear

BRIAN FALLON, THE render some flash contentheavily tattooed front-man for the Gaslight Anthem, is hanging out in his manager’s New York office one late-summer afternoon. EmailThis is a good thing, because it meansFAQ he’s not working construction. “It’s not cool to be working on a rooftop this time of year,” Fallon says, smiling. Construction work is only part of Fallon’s blue-collar background: Having talked to his real father only once, he was raised by a grant-writer mom and a stepdad who struggled through several jobs. “I always had a sense of uncertainty grc. up,” says Falloju.
That-sjirisc of uncertainty. aVrover The ‘59 Soundjthe^New Jersefy quartet’sejteeflent second album; a erjTTection of tuneful, passionately sung stories about working-class folks and young romance. One standout is the propulsive “Meet Me by the River’s Edge,” in which Fallon refers to factories and cruising dark highways. “No surrender, my Bobby Jean,” he howls on the cut, conflating two titles by Bruce Springsteen, whose shad¬ow looms over the entire record. Though the Gaslight Anthem are signed to the SoCal punk label SideOneDummy and they regularly open for mohawked acts, their sound is only sort of punk: It’s more like a super-charged version of early Bruce