Don’t forget Rhett!
We’ve got five pairs of tickets to give to away to lucky photopol.us Flickr Group Shooters.
You’ve got two days left to enter for your chance to attend Rhett’s show with us on November 14th at the Granada, a benefit for the CFF.org
So dig up your old show photos or go take new ones and submit for your chance to shoot Rhett with us!

Rhett Miller by Jason Janik

Telegraph Canyon’s “The Tide and The Current” is available on Itunes as of today. Get you copy now by clicking here!

“don’t let this be one of the releases you miss out on.” ~ Adequecy.net

“A lesson in beauty sent back your way in waves.” ~ The Dallas Observer

“They navigate the pre-apocalyptic universe by the light of bright acoustic riffs and to the march of thunderous beats, everything guided by the spirit of frontman Chris Johnson’s ominous, the end-is-near lyrics” ~ Ft Worth Weekly

“I’d advise listening on a rainy night with your favorite set of headphones as the experience is incredibly personal.” ~ Rock Sell Out

I can’t believe I had never heard of this movie until yesterday, but Youth In Revolt, a movie adapation of the C.D. Lang book is coming to theaters October 30 and it will star Michael Cera as Nick Twisp. I’ve had this book recommended to me countless trusted friends, but have been to busy to get around to reading it. Well, now I get to watch the movie instead, and it has one of my favorite actors, Michael Cera. Ever since seeing him star in Arrested Development (my all-time favorite show) as the earnest and awkard George Michael Bluth, I’ve been a fan of Cera’s work. Superbad was great, too.

If the trailer is any real indication, this looks like it’ll be a great movie, regardless of the good casting decision. The movie looks to be a unique take on the “dorky boy trys to win girl” plot, and seeing Michael Cera playing two personalities looks like the funniest dual roll since Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger. And as if that’s not enough to get me psyched up for the movie, I was stoked to hear one of my well-documented favorite songs, “Timebomb” by the Old 97’s. Here’s hoping they feature more music from Rhett Miller and company in the film.

The Old 97’s on MySpace

The secretaries I worked with at college would play the Old 97’s song “Question” over and over, and I hated it.  Not a great introduction to the band.  It wasn’t until I happened to catch them on some TV show playing this song that I really got hooked in:

The song has a few interesting references.  The title comes from a line in “Catcher In The Rye”, J.D. Salinger’s famous novel.  The line “wouldn’t be here if the Athenia hadn’t sunk” references a passenger ship that was torpedoed by a German U-Boat.  Rhett Miller’s grandmother was one of the survivors, and (as any student of chaos theory knows) that event set her on the path that led to her meeting the grandfather (Giles Miller).  Who knows what would have happened if it had been an uneventful trip?

Maybe we wouldn’t have such an awesome band to listen to.

In honor of the Old 97’s and Rhett Miller coming to Indianapolis for a bar show this Thursday night, here is a nice audience-shot video of their encore earlier this week from Minnesota.

Seattle Weekly
In case you haven’t heard, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (who you saw at Sasquatch!), Old 97’s (who you saw at B-Shoot last year), and Cold War Kids (who you saw at The Showbox in April) top the list of the final Bumbershoot lineup announced this weekend. They join Katy Perry, The Long Winters, Sheryl Crow, Modest Mouse, and … the list goes on forever, at the Seattle Center September 5-7.

Judd Apatow, as you all know, doesn’t make mistakes. Well, The Cable Guy sucked, but everything since then that he’s even been loosely associated with has been great (see Freaks and Geeks, 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Pineappple Express, etc, etc). The latest from this comic master is Funny People, a movie about, well, funny people. The story follows two comedians, played by Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, as one faces a terminal illness, and the other is trying to make a career. This definitely has the makings of a more serious movie than previous Apatow works, but he has always embedded a certain amount of heart and morals into everything he’s done anyway.

I just stumbled upon the TV trailer, which can be seen below, and it looks very promising. Per usual with Apatow, the trailer also features an amazing song (anyone think MIA would be as big as she was without the Pineapple Express trailer?). The tune, “Ain’t That Strange” by Rhett Miller, was one of my favorites off his 2007 album, “The Believer” and I always thought it flew too far under the radar, so I’m really glad to see it get some exposure here. Hopefully, it also gets a prominent role in the film itself, which is scheduled to hit theaters July 31.

Funny People Official Website

Rhett Miller on MySpace

MEDIA ALERT – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Spune Signs Telegraph Canyon To Development Deal Artist Management and will be  co-Releasing the new album from Telegraph Canyon, “The Tide and The Current” with Velvet Blue Music.

Release date set for Tuesday, Aug 18th, 2009 available on CD, Vinyl and iTunes download. Telegraph Canyon enters into management deal with Spune. Spune Picks Up Telegraph Canyon Spune Productions, promoter and artist development company who books several venues in the Dallas / Ft. Worth, Abilene and Lubbock markets, and also handles management services for the emerging songwriter, Doug Burr, has been working with Telegraph Canyon non-exclusively off and on for the past year. A couple months ago, both parties agreed to exclusive management representation and began work to develop the band in the areas of regional booking and national touring, publicity, the release of their sophomore record, and Film/TV placement.

“Telegraph Canyon has been one of my favorite local bands for some time now. Being a concert promoter, I’ve seen bands perform countless times and Telegraph Canyon’s live show is equally as great, if not better, than some of the most blogged about indie buzz-bands out there on tour. The band has an incredible amount of potential and these recordings reinforce that the band is ready for the next stage. They deserve the national spotlight and we hope our efforts will assist in turning many others out there on to the band so they too can experience their excellence.” - Lance Yocom, Spune Productions.

The Tide and The Current It takes just the first few opening hollow piano notes of ‘The Tide and The Current’, produced by Will Johnson (Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel), to set in motion the idea that Telegraph Canyon is a band with purpose and craft. For quick reference, tags like Southern Gothic and Dark Folk could be applied, but neither convey the earnestness, yearning, and desperation of these recordings. Telegraph Canyon combines compelling songwriting with layers of driving, dynamic sounds only to, at times, strip it all away and expose a raw and gentle undercurrent. There are sparse and quiet moments, and then there are explosions of sounds, all underlined with an insanely personal connection. After a few listens, you start to feel as if the band is playing these songs just for you. We are thrilled to co-release this record with our Huntington Beach, CA friends, Velvet Blue Music, and continue our collaborative efforts in putting out quality records such as the recent On Promenade and The Shawl by Doug Burr.

“It took me probably less than a minute of listening to the band to know I wanted to be a part of what they were doing. Obviously new bands with a myspace and facebook are like a dime for 25 dozen, but when you hear a true artist at work, you get excited!” – Jeff Cloud, Velvet Blue Music

For one week only, you may stream and share the entire record at www.spune.com and www.velvetbluemusic.com via a Fairtilizer audio player that can be easily embedded into any blog, website or social networking site. Our hope that the good word will quickly spread around the World Wide Web. The record will be available at all popular digital download websites (iTunes, CDBaby, Rhapsody, Napster, etc.), CD and Vinyl available online through www.spune.com and www.velvetbluemusic.com, and in-store at Good Records in Dallas and Waterloo Records in Austin. In support of ‘The Tide and the Current’, Telegraph Canyon is filling the rest of their 2009 calendar with tour dates across the U.S.A with the first of two West Coast Tours kicking off in September.

The band has several upcoming appearances in the Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin area including an in-store at Waterloo Records in Austin (July 20), a performance at Granada Theater for the Dallas Observer Music Awards (July 21), and a killer double-hitter evening supporting Old 97’s at the beautiful Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth with a tour kick-off party at Lola’s Sixth after the show (acoustic performance/CD listening) (Aug 21). For a complete schedule, log on to www.myspace.com/telegraphcanyon. Follow Telegraph Canyon on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

Between the whiskey and the beer, between the carnival and the sleep, I’ve somehow zipped through most of my summer already. My last day at the carnival is August 18. I’m moving to Miami on the 20th. Where it all went, I really don’t know. I’ve kept up the bad boy decision making, revealing to not only the Movie Man, but myself just how great  I am. I’ve stayed away from the potential good and stuck to Whiffies and the Ship. Routine trumps renovation.

And cue the end of the prodigal summer. Set to a soundtrack of The Replacements and the Old 97s, it’s been good. But I guess it’s gotta end.

(download The Replacements “Unsatisfied”)

(download The Old 97’s “Rollerskate Skinny”)

Well, by now Jay and Mark have finished playing in Tucson.  It goes without saying that we wish we could have joined them.  Salt Lake City on a Sunday is not a happening place.  We stopped crying long enough to have a gluttonous meal at The Red Iguana.  Hopefully, the van will be fixed in the morning and we’ll be on our way to Phoenix.  If not, we go to plan B which is to complicated to explain.

Chris, Jason and I decided to stay up at Snowbird Mountain to pass the time yesterday.  It was a beautiful day filled with tram rides, open bar, 6-shooter Frank, Old 97’s, too much bluegrass and a festival staff that wasn’t thrilled by our continued presence.  Jeepers did we have fun.  I put together a little scrap book of the day:

Here’s the review I did of Rhett Miller’s excellent new, self-titled solo disc. It’s running on Metromix sites nationwide.

http://losangeles.metromix.com/music/cd_review/rhett-miller-rhett-miller/1239032/content

There was a guy who worked with my wife some years ago, he liked to throw parties at his house but he never could choose the right “party” music (in my opinion).  In the process of helping this hapless host discover his true party animal – Linda Ronstadt was a revelation to him – we both stumbled upon the Old 97s.  Not quite country-rock, not quite power pop, not quite anything, the Dallas band seemed to fulfill a lot of requirements for party background noise.

The frontman of this erstwhile quintet was, and still is, Rhett Miller, a wordplay wizard who also has a marksman’s aim with his musical hooks.   He has produced a fourth solo album, Rhett Miller, with all of his formidable skills intact.   The first single “I Need To Know Where I Stand” sounds like everything’s there, all right, until Rhett says his love “feels like paralysis.”

On this album, Miller’s coming from a real dark place – “Happy Birthday Don’t Die” was apparently inspired by the death of a family member – but he has the knack for wrapping his angst and misery in some of the peppiest tunes this side of Paul McCartney.  “If It’s Not Love” is a highlight with its ringing guitars and rootsy electric solos, “Another Girlfriend” has Miller confessing “the last thing I need is another girlfriend.” 

Rhett Miller is a good soundtrack for a dark night of the soul, an evening on the patio with burgers on the grill or even a party with your co-workers.  He’d fit right in after that old Linda Ronstadt record.

MP3: “I Need To Know Where I Stand”

Rhett Miller official website

Hello again all!

So.

Music.

The process of writing and performing music is a huge passion of mine, and has been since i picked up the guitar. Having left my old band when i moved away from Hull, i have decided to embark upon a solo career! How exciting.  In a few days, i am hoping to recieve the mixed versions of 4 tracks that i recorded at SEEC Studio (Thanks to Amy). These 4 tracks i intend to put onto a CD, and start gigging locally – hopefully recording a live CD at one of those gigs; and gradually build it up from there.

Whilst writing the songs that i want to play at these gigs, i decided i wanted to raise awareness that this is what i am doing, hopefully generate a bit of a buzz in preperation for when i actually start performing, so at a friends house, i used their Webcam and Mic (He’s a gamer) to make a really cheap-sounding video of one of the songs that has been recorded, “Won’t Be Home”. It’s actually a cover, by an amazing Alt-Rock/Country band from the U.S, the “Old 97’s”. Would hugely reccomend them.

Anyway, here it is;

Absoloutely love the sentiment of the song, think it’s really nice and definitley a song i imagine myself playing for a long time.

Keep an eye out

Kenny

1. Rage Against The Machine – “Wake Up” Rage Against The Machine
2. Panic! At The Disco – “I Constantly Thank God for Esteban” A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
3. The Pogues – “London Girl” The Very Best of The Pogues
4. Eric Clapton – “Wonderful Tonight” Time Pieces
5. Feist – “How My Heart Behaves” The Reminder
6. Velvet Revolver – “You Got No Right” Contraband
7. The Clash – “Spanish Bombs” London Calling
8. Old 97’s – “King Of All The World” Satellite Rides
9. Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.” Demon Days
10. Coconut Records – “Wires” Davy

John and I just had a conversation about “Wake Up” the other day.  Escala, the previous winners of “Britain’s Got Talent”, were on the show this week playing a song.  John was convinced it was “Wake Up“, but it was quite obviously “Kashmir”.  The performance in question can be viewed here, judge for yourself (but it’s definitely “Kashmir”).

In the interest of keeping things relatively in the present, as I promised, I figured I should give a quick (or perhaps not-so-quick) update of what I’ve been up to in recent weeks…

About a month ago, I hit the road for a week in the South. A certain band I like did a short southern series of shows, of which I caught the ones in Athens, Ga., Asheville, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., Oxford, Miss., and finally New Orleans. I think my favorite venue easily was Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham. It’s an old ironworks turned into a National Historic Landmark where they now hold the occasional concert. I had pretty low expectations for this show, but the memorable setting seemed to energize the band. And when a member of their road crew surprised the band by coming out shirtless to play cowbell on the last song, well, it just seemed to put an exclamation point on the evening.

After the final show of the tour at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, I made my way up to Madison, Wis., via Chicago (haha) to see Flight of the Conchords with Brianne. I had seen both of their shows in New York, but it was nice to be able to focus on some specific aspects of the show since I sort of knew what to expect overall. And any show with “Albi, the Racist Dragon” is a winner for me. Brianne was gracious enough to have me over at her house for a few days and so I stuck around for Robbie Fulks’ 50-Vc. All-Stars show (with Jenny Scheinman and Nora O’Connor, among others) at the end of that week. I also went to Miller Park in Milwaukee for the first time to take in a Brewers game with some friends; visited the New Glarus Brewing Company and had a nice meal in that Swiss-tinged small town; and scored a nice vinyl haul at Strictly Discs, a very cool record store in Madison.

A brief weekend stopover in Chicago followed, where I attended my first Cubs game of the season (a win over the Florida Marlins on an absolutely gorgeous afternoon when the team retired the No. 31 jersey of Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux). That night, I also caught the Old 97’s show at the Cubby Bear. It was one of two shows they did that weekend as the headliners of WXRT’s Cinco de Mayo celebration and I didn’t have very lofty expectations, but they dusted off some old gems such as 504 and W-I-F-E, so it was better than I thought.

Back home, I found out about St. Vincent’s free in-store at the Virgin Megastore Union Square in time to attend and get my pre-ordered copy of her new album Actor signed. It’s hard to believe that by the end of May, there will no longer be a Virgin Megastore in New York. The following night, I made it to three different shows — Tim Easton at Mercury Lounge, John Doe with the Sadies at City Winery and the last hour or so of Martin Rivas and Craig Meyer’s Wednesday Night Campfire at Prohibition. All were pretty stellar. A couple of days later it was off to Washington, D.C., for a couple of days to go to two shows by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the 9:30 Club with Heidi. We both love SJ and the DKs, so I had a lot of fun dancing (not onstage, of course) and hanging out with her. But it was a quick trip because I wanted to get back home in time for a rare solo set by Nels Cline at the Stone. Nels says he’s terrified of playing by himself, but I thought it was a strong effort even with some of his gear breaking down mid-set. It was Mother’s Day and he closed with “Cymbidium” from his latest record Coward, a piece dedicated to his late mother. It was really touching.

Shortly thereafter, I headed to Los Angeles for about five days. I hadn’t planned all that far in advance on making this trip, but things seemed to align on the Largo at the Coronet calendar with some shows I had wanted to check out. And thanks to the graciousness of Andrew and Evonne, who lent their couches, I was able to swing it. So I got to see Theresa Andersson, a New Orleans-by-way-of-Sweden singer-songwriter whose most recent album Hummingbird, Go! was a favorite recent discovery; Sara Watkins, whose new self-titled record is really solid; and, of course, Jon Brion. I’m really glad I got to see all three shows. Seeing Andersson live is quite fascinating because of all the looping she does to construct her songs. Watkins’ return to Largo for the first time since her record came out was, of course, a special occasion and she had a terrific band for this gig that included Benmont Tench and her brother, Sean, as well as Sebastian Steinberg and Greg Leisz. And Brion is trying some different things out lately, using some multimedia elements with film loops playing behind him on a screen while he puts music to them, for instance, and focusing on playing strictly by himself without his usual cadre of special guests.

Another reason why I decided to make this LA trip was an opportunity to catch a show by Scarnella (Nels Cline and Carla Bozulich) and Pronto (Mikael Jorgensen’s side project). They played at the Mint, a small throwback of a club in Hollywood. The Scarnella set instead became a Stained Radiance gig, as it turned out, because Carla couldn’t make it that night. Stained Radiance is a duo Nels plays in with the painter Norton Wisdom, who paints on a big, illuminated screen while Nels adds his unique brand of improvised sound. Pronto, which I had seen a few times back on the East Coast, continues to become more cohesive as a working band each time I see them. So it was a good night, all in all. During my stay I also got to see a free in-store by Steve Earle at Amoeba Records, where he was promoting his latest release, Townes. My only regret was not being able to stay in town longer to see a few of the other shows I wanted to, including a performance by Scarnella — playing along to the Lon Chaney silent film “Laugh Clown Laugh” — with an opening set by Bobb Bruno.

But I couldn’t stay because I had a (really expensive) ticket to see Leonard Cohen at Radio City Music Hall the following night. I could write a lengthy post just about that show, but suffice it to say, I’m glad I saw him at least once. He is a charismatic, elegant performer and even though I wasn’t tremendously familiar with his repertoire beyond the big “hits,” I found myself captivated for much of the show. He played for close to three hours and although I think the show was stretched out a bit more than it needed to be with some questionable arrangements — some lengthy horn solos were reminiscent of bad smooth jazz at times — how many times to you get to see a legend?

And finally, on one of my last nights in town before leaving for Europe, I got a chance to see two terrific shows: a semi-secret gig by Bill Frisell and his 858 Quartet at the tiny Barbes in Brooklyn and an all-original show by the Martin Rivas Band (hilariously dubbed, for this performance, anyway, The Crunchy Fudge-Nut Ice Cream Bar Boys) at the Bitter End. From what I understand, the 858 Quartet — a string quartet with Frisell on electric guitar in place of one of the violins in a traditional string quartet — hadn’t played together in quite awhile and I was grateful to have heard about this intimate performance from an inside source. And seeing one of Martin’s shows where he plays his own songs is always a great time. I think the songs on his forthcoming Sea of Clouds record sound better each time I hear them. It was a fitting way to close out a very busy few weeks.

So, this is the end.

I leave you with a high top fade, an old Coogi sweater, and some impeccable harmonies. And, if you’ll follow me after the jump one more time, I’ll leave with you my goodbyes.

You hit play before you started reading this, right? DO IT. Ok, now pretend Coach Taylor is reading you these words.

Folks, it has been an absolute blast running this blog for the past two and a half years. I think that makes us in our mid-40s in blog years, but I’m not certain. As much as I’d like to take the time to thank everybody who has contributed here since we started in February of 2007, it’s just not possible because we’ve had a lot of freaking bloggers. We had nearly 30 when we launched and we’ve shuttled another 10 or so in and out the door since then. DeadOn was an insanely fun collaborative project and I’m extremely proud of the fact that a lot of our original writers are getting paid to do this now at some large, well known places. When you are surrounded by greatness, you have to raise you game, and I hope we were able to do that – even if just for a short time.

I’ve been going back through the archives over the past few days and it’s been great to see some of the old features that once were – Lost Haiku, Tied to the 90s, New Movie Fridays, Schrutebag of the Week, and, of course, The Black Donnellys. God bless you, Paul Haggis. We’ve had a few  semi-constants – MTV Reality, American Idol, Friday Night Lights, and the music posts. The countless music posts. They were kind of my impetus for organizing this whole thing. I’d like to thank our longtime commenter friend, apostles3, for his kind words on Monday. Somehow, this blog managed to get viewed well over one million times – thanks mostly to Matt and The Hills – but we know that a lot of those people came once and never came back. There are some regulars though, and to know that we had any impact on your life at all just blows my mind. If we introduced you to a new band, just ONE new band, that you love now, then I did my job here.

DeadOn was, ostensibly, a pop culture blog. The two true constants of this blog were music posts, though – Your Morning Rock and New Music Tuesday. As a former record store guy, Tuesday’s have always been special to me. I love shopping for new tunes and the rush of listening to a great record for the first time in your car or through your headphones. Yet, the real joy has been Your Morning Rock. It was my forum to share with you all the songs that I love, the songs that I sing from the top of my lungs in my car. Or in my shower. Or in my office. I believe in the power of music and I hope some of that rubbed off on you. I can’t just leave YMR alone forever though, and starting in a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to find me at www.YourMorningRock.com. It’s not going to be as constant as DeadOn, but it will provide you with a stream of good tunes and occasional musical commentary. I couldn’t leave you totally behind, could I? But, first, I’m gonna take a few weeks off of blogging, celebrate another birthday, watch some baseball, and mostly bust my ass for the non-profit that I work for.

Ultimately, the time to shut down DeadOn was simply here. I can admit that I lost my fire here a while back and I was just hanging on for old time’s sake. I didn’t have another summer of it in me. I never wanted the blog to just become a YouTube repository with little actual content, but we were starting to look just like that. So, thanks to Matt for keeping us afloat with The Hills. Thanks to Doug for handling 24. Thanks to SA for Scrubs. Thanks to Andy for his music posts. Thanks to JB and Mrs. JB for letting JB take part in our Roundtable. And thanks to all of you who chipped in over the years. I’m going to miss the old girl, but hopefully you’ll find me at my new home in June (remember, that’s YourMorningRock.com!) and we can continue to build whatever it is that we’ve built here. You can always find me over-tweeting at twitter.com/jerkwheatery as well.

So, thanks for all the memories folks. I’ve made some great friends through this little initiative of ours and I hope to continue collaborating with them in some fashion in the future. I didn’t really have much choice in the song that I’m going to leave you with. Enjoy one last round of “Timebomb” y’all.

Followers of this blog already know that I have a deep appreciation for the musical stylings of Rhett Miller.  Last year’s Old 97’s album, Blame It On Gravity, was my favorite since Too Far To Care, and now he has a new, self-titled solo album on the way. Color me giddy. Beyond preparing for the release of this album, Rhett also had the time to make a guest appearance on perhaps the single funniest show on TV right now, 30 Rock. Didn’t catch this awesomeness? I’ve got a video for you below.

Sharing the stage with Mike D, Elvis Costello, Wylecf Jean, Cyndi Lauper and a host of others, Rhett lent his vocal talent to “Kidney Now,” a genius homage/satire of all those celebrity songs for a cause that everyone loved to do in the 80’s. Check out the video below, and if you would like a downloadable version, you can find it on iTunes, with proceeds benefitting the National Kidney Foundation.

Rhett Miller on MySpace

Game on assholes.

1. The Fratellis – Flathead – I would’ve looked a lot more indy-cool if I had posted this about 3 years ago.

2. The Old 97’s – Question – Simply a great song if you’re in a sappy mood and enjoy wearing scarves and being emo.

3. Drive By Truckers – Women Without Whiskey – This song’s about boning and drinking, so we’re for it. Also, Drive By Truckers are secretly an awesome Southern Rock band and I feel cool telling you about them.

4a. Bruce Springsteen – Incident on 57th Street – Bruce is a God among men. This is reason 1090978079080 why. There’s never enough Bruce.

4b. Bruce Springsteen – My City of Ruin – This uplifting ditty was a song Bruce wrote about September 11th. The moral of the story is that Bruce Springsteen is amazing. Thank you for your time.