On Friday I saw James Hunter (myspace) at Bimbo’s 365 Club. I wrote about Hunter being a class act (and about loving his new album the Hard Way) back in May.

Upon arriving at Bimbo’s, I knew it would be different than the normal fare I see there: the age bracket was much wider as was the style bracket–people were in hoodies and people were in suits and fedoras. There was already a good crowd on the dance floor near the end of the opener’s set. People (some of whom didn’t go to a lot of shows) were out at a show; things were jovial; drinks were flowing.

Bimbo’s seemed like an appropriate venue for the show. The 1930s-era venue would have already been anachronistic by the ’50s and ’60s–the time and music which James Hunter draws his inspiration–but oddly the style seems more appropriate. People were still going to supper clubs in the ’50s to see the Sam Cookes of the world.

Hunter came on applause after a drawn out break after the opener. Dressed in a jacket and shirt and wearing his sunburst Les Paul low around his neck, Hunter, from the get go, was obviously someone who was comfortable on stage and knew how to perform.

I’ve seen some shows where the performer has the audience in the palm of his hand and will follow his every turn. Friday was a different type of performance, though: Hunter is a showman. His band is tight and his between-song banter in his Essex accent was loose but in its own way just as precise. He’d do his band introductions, do a quick one liner (”This song is so romantic, Tommy [the drummer] has to take off his wedding ring.”), make sure the audience was having fun, etc. He also did some old school call-and-response with the audience that ended in him doing some vocal acrobatics that the audience couldn’t follow.

I realize I haven’t talked much about his music yet; I’m not putting it off for dramatic effect. They played really well. The band, as I mentioned, was tight and Hunter sang and played well. They compiled a solid setlist of great tunes mostly off of their last two albums, like “the Hard Way”, “Hand It Over”, “Don’t Do Me Any Favours”, “Carina”, “She’s Got a Way”, “Jacqueline”, “Class Act”, “No Smoke Without Fire”, “Riot in My Heart” and “Talkin’ About My Love”. They also did a couple great covers, like the Five Royals’ “Don’t Do It”.

All in all, it was a fun, fun show.

It really seems like there’s a ridiculous amount of music out there for people to listen to these days. Perhaps the shift to this new business model people are talking about is well underway?

• Adele 19 (stream it here) Some good songs, a good voice and a nice overall sound but not as engaging as I wanted it to be.
• My Morning Jacket Evil Urges (stream it here) I don’t like classic rock.
• Beach Boys U.S. Singles Collection (stream it here) Some of the ol’ favorites on here but there’s also some really goofy gems and some so-so filler on here.
• James Hunter the Hard Way (stream it here) I love this guy and I love this album. I really recommend it if you’re into soul, the early R&B sound or oldies at all.
• the Hold Steady Stay Positive (stream it here) Hold Steady has always taken me a while to get into, mostly because the lyrics are what does it for me and I don’t find their music terribly enthralling overall. That said, I’m not sure if this album will grab me on later listens or not.
• Sigur Ros með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (stream it here) I liked it from the get-go!

Only marginally late with this one.

You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to File->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2008may playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one was pretty easy to put together–just sort of made sense. There’s a number of soul tracks I’ve been enjoying by people like Sam Cooke and Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Band. There’s also a handful of indie tunes from old favorites (Low, Mogwai), newish favorites (Fanfarlo, the Morning Benders) and a few that are pretty new to me (Lykke Li). Enjoy!

Adrian’s May 2008 mix tape (rapidshare link [1])

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.

[1] If you’re having trouble with the rapidshare link, here’s what you do, step-by-step. 1) Click on the link. 2) scroll down and click “FREE” 3) wait till the counter gets to zero 4) enter the letters in their graphic into the box 5) click “download”

No, not James “Catfish” Hunter

For those familiar with my tastes, it was no surprise I was quickly obsessed with James Hunter (myspace). I grew up on a steady diet of oldies radio and I’ve come back to a lot of that music in the last few years, especially soul, Motown, Phil Spector, Sam Cooke, girl groups and other early R&B groups.

James Hunter, promo shot by Chris Ramirez

I got Hunter’s the Hard Way, out June 10 on Hear Music[1], a few weeks ago now and I keep coming back to his blue-eyed soul and liking it as much as on the first listen. The album is made of old-sounding songs hearkening back to the ’50s and ’60s, but within that sort of broad categorization, it’s actually pretty eclectic. Some songs are latin-influenced pop, with sounds like those Phil Spector employed frequently. Others have a very old-school R&B sound to them, like Big Maybelle. There are moments that remind me of Sam Cooke and others that remind me of some non-soul oldies.

It’s an album with a breadth of songs but they are also of consistently really high quality. The songwriting, orchestration and singing are great across the board.

One of the songs on the Hard Way is “Class Act” with the unsurprising chorus line “You’re a real class act”. Excellent song. I was listening to it the other day and it dawned on my that James Hunter is a real class act. While you could call his sound a gimmick, these are not cheap thrills he’s offering here. For a couple decades he’s been making music like this; he’s not some young kid appropriating sounds of a different time or place for profit. And the music he’s making is so right: put this in line with his influences and you could easily mistake it for something from that time period. But this is not merely some good and accurate imitation, but rather something that is itself imitable.

James Hunter - Hand It Over (mp3, from the forthcoming the Hard Way)

James Hunter - Talkin’ ’bout My Love (mp3, from People Gonna Talk)

Tickets are on sale now for his July date in San Francisco (I’ve bought mine):

7/11 James Hunter @ Bimbo’s, 9pm, $18, 21+

The rest of his tour dates can be after the jump.

Pre-order the Hard Way at amazon. People Gonna Talk is already available.

[1] I got this CD in the mail and immediately saw Hear Music and groaned. Hear Music is the Starbucks music label (though, right around that time Starbucks handed over creative control to its partner) and there was no way I was going to promote a Starbucks CD. Well, I put it in and, to my chagrin, I quickly realized that it was too good not to talk about.

Tour dates and a live video below.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was at Amoeba the other day and I was going through the oldies collections they had. They had a small section on “songwriter” collections, and as I love some producer/ songwriter-focused sets, I decided to flip through and check out what they had. I found Double Trouble: the Pomus and Shuman Story and checked out the track listing. I knew and liked some of these songs–”A Teenager in Love”, “Save the Last Dance”–and I knew many of the artists–Bobby Darin, Del Shannon, Elvis, Gary “US” Bonds, Barrett Strong, Ben E. King. Also there was a song called “I Ain’t Sharin’ Sharon”. I mean, with songs like that, how could I pass it up?

When I bought it, I didn’t know that Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were a team of songwriters that were in the famous Brill Building[1].

I’ve been listening to the CD a lot and it’s really solid. There are some great familiar songs and some hidden gems (including that “I Ain’t Sharin’ Sharon”, “Angel Face” and the teenage-boy-giggle-inducing “All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me”). I’d thoroughly recommend it[2].

“(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame” is one of those songs that sounds familiar even if it isn’t; it’s feels comfortable with a classic sound. The guitar riff is classic, the vocals and solid and a bit endearingly showy and the keyboard is fun.

Del Shannon - (Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame (mp3)

Elvis also recorded a version of “His Latest Flame”, but apparently Del Shannon’s version was recorded 5 days before Elvis’.

You can buy it at insound.

[1] The Brill Building was a building in NYC that housed many music publishing companies, songwriters and other music industry ventures. I wouldn’t normally point this out, but I’ve talked to some serious music nerds that didn’t know what the Brill Building was.

[2] But after you get Phil Spector: Back to Mono which is the must-have oldies/ early R&B set.

This is the February 2008 mixtape. It’s even almost on time!

You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to File->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2008february playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one is really making me smile. I’m pretty happy with it. Great local stuff by bands like Two Sheds, Geographer and the Ian Fays plus some new and old stuff by (inter)national bands like Chris Walla, Basia Bulat, Pedro the Lion and Cat Power.

Adrian’s February 2008 mix tape (rapidshare link [1])

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.

[1] If you’re having trouble with the rapidshare link, here’s what you do, step-by-step. 1) Click on the link. 2) scroll down and click “FREE” 3) chose a mirror (or you can leave it) 4) input the number/ letters they show in the graphic into the box 5) click on “download via…”

I finished Johnny Cash’s second autobiography, Cash: the Autobiography a couple weeks ago.

You’ve seen Walk the Line (probably) so you know the Johnny Cash story, approximately at least.

But there’s a lot more to this book than the story of his life. In fact, this isn’t so much the story as the stories of his life: vignettes, tales and anecdotes from many different periods of his life.

Some parts are funny. Some are poignant. Some give you a better background to where his music’s coming from and the artists he grew up on. There are even a couple advertisements for things he likes (like the Carter Family Fold he’s totally upfront about these endorsements).

I was most interested in the stories of music on the farm growing up–listening to the radio late at night, singing out in the fields–and also of the story of how the partnership with Rick Rubin came about. There was another interesting snippet about preparing for a mid 90s concert (with an audience of younger people) at the Fillmore.

The style is very fluid, conversational, upfront and personal. There’s a ghost writer, but it honestly feels like he must not have done much because it seems like Cash put down these words himself.

At some point I read someone say something like Cash by Johnny Cash is the best music biography or perhaps the best writing on music. I can’t find who said that or the context now, but I’m leaning toward that sentiment. It’s an engaging and entertaining read and give a good background and context to this great artist’s music.

You can buy it at Amazon.

I have a lot of CDs so sometimes some get misplaced.

Three (good) CDs I thought I’d lost but found in my room while cleaning it.

• Matt Pond PA Emblems
• Sam Cooke Portrait of a Legend
• Arcade Fire Neon Bible

What a sense of relief! And the Sam Cooke one is beyond good, it’s excellent. I’d recommend picking it up.

Jon Wilde at the Guardian throws down and challenges you to come up with your favorite 10 songs in 60 seconds, no pre-thought or cheating. I thought I’d give it a try.

Actually, this took me about 3.5 minutes, so I guess I lose; I simply couldn’t think quickly enough to get down 10 songs in 60 seconds. Also, I’m not sure this would be my final order or even final song list if I had a lot longer to think about it, but I’m not allowing any revisionism or second guessing.

All descriptions came after the original list was down and time was up.

10. Beatles “For No One” This has long been my favorite Beatles song: it’s a simple song with interesting instrumentation (piano/ harpsichord/ french horn) and a nice melody.

9. Horton Barker “Two Sisters” This is a field recording of an Anglo-American ballad from Tennessee (I believe). One thing about these hundreds-of-year-old tunes is that the melodies have been honed down to near perfection. This version of “Twa Sisters” has a lovely refrain and Horton Barker has a very pure voice.

8. Beirut “Postcards from Italy” I can’t help but smile when I hear this song. It’s the song that made people love this band, it’s the song that made me love this band.

7. Mark Kozelek “Bad Boy Boogie” (from Rock N Roll Singer) I’ve honestly never heard the AC/DC version, but Mark Kozelek makes this song amazing—a crushingly beautiful ballad.

6. Sigur Ros “Njosnavelin (Nothing Song)” I’d heard Sigur Ros before this song but I never really got them until I heard this song. I’m still not sure how I’m so enamored with vocals in a made up language.

5. Sufjan Stevens “Romulus” This is just amazing songwriting—putting in exactly all the right details with a compelling melody and good instrumentation.

4. Amelda Riddle “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” This is another field recording of melancholy ballad from the American South (see #9). Amelda Riddle is sort of an iconic voice for songs like this and the melody (like #9) seems like it couldn’t be better, while the story seems as melancholy as it can be without being cheesy.

3. Sam Cooke “Cupid” Sam Cooke’s voice is among my favorites ever and this is among my favorites of his songs. No one could sing the word “Cupid” better.

2. Bob Dylan “Girl from North Country” A classic sounding song with roots back to traditional British ballads (via Martin McCarthy’s version of Scarborough Faire). Great melody and a compelling story line.

1. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles “Tracks of My Tears” I heard this song again for the first time a couple years ago and I’ve been in love with it since. As I said then: “I don’t think I’ve heard another song from that era with as much tortured-soul emotion in it.” Smokey’s voice is a wail, a cry during this song.

For a limited time, I’ve put up all the songs as a zip file:

Download my top 10 (in 60 seconds) songs (rapidshare link with zip file)

Give it a try. What are your 10? You have 60 seconds starting…now.

With all the hubbub surrounding John Vanderslice’s appearance on KZSU on Wednesday, I didn’t want to distract everyone with my radio show playlist.

I played a few new tunes but then I had a nice hour and change of oldies songs, heavy on the Motown and girl groups. I haven’t had the chance to play any oldies for a while, so it was nice. Initially I didn’t intend to play so much oldies but once I started, it made me happy so I just kept going.

I’ve had the Beach Boys on the minds since Monday night’s Brian Wilson show.

Let’s all assume you all have the mono + stereo + bonus tracks version of Pet Sounds (and you should, it’s the 2nd best album ever after all).

Two questions immediately come to mind:

• Do you listen to the mono or stereo versions of the tracks or both? The mono’s the original, but is it the way it was intended to be heard forever and ever?
• “I Know There’s an Answer” or “Hang onto Your Ego”? Same music but different words.

Come on, these are important questions here. Personally, I go mono (but sometimes I leave it on to play through the stereo too) and I think “Hang onto Your Ego” is better, mostly because I love the way that title line is sung in the chorus.

This place is in the middle of nowhere. I was convinced that I had the directions wrong at every turn. There weren’t any other cars going the way I was going and I was just passing houses as I wound up the road into the hills. Then, I saw the sign…

Last Wednesday, in between hosting the Morning Benders and Beatbeat Whisper, I noticed that there was still a staff ticket to Brian Wilson at the Mountain Winery. Yeah, there are perks to being famous. Yeah, last Wednesday was a pretty good day…

the view from my crappy phone camera; that’s Brian a little right and down from the percussionist

I finally saw some other cars as I pulled into the parking lot. Comp tickets are always a bit hit or miss, but after I got my ticket and walked down, I realized two things: a) whereas I was expecting a Shoreline-size (22000 seat) venue, it was much smaller, even much smaller than the Greek Theatre (by my count. b) My comp ticket was in the “premium” floor area. Boom! Winner!

The concert area is built next to a hill side, not really into a hillside like a greek-style theater. That is the performers face parallel to the ridge of the hill and all the spectators on the hill, sitting on built-in wooden benches, face his left side. There is then a floor area and a small set of bleacher on stage right. I ended up being in row N, about 60 feet from Brian, not much further than I am from the stage on a typical night at the Fillmore.

Anyway, I made my way to my seat during his second song; it was not a hit and now that I think about it, I think it was a cover. Brian was seated at, but not playing, a keyboard. His arms were at his sides. The 64 year old looked a bit haggard, with a glazed look in his eyes and his grey hair splaying every which way. He was wearing a non-descript white long-sleeved shirt and a blue and red-striped nylon track jacket. They launched into one of their better known songs and that’s when I noticed something: he was staring into a screen mounted above and to the right of his keyboard. He had a teleprompter. He continued to stare at this for most of most songs. “God Only Knows”? Yup, used a teleprompter. “Wouldn’t it Be Nice”? Teleprompter. “I Get Around”, “California Girls”, “Surfer Girl”? Teleprompter. I enjoyed the idea of Brian Wilson watching a bouncing ball bounce across the words on the screen. He was doing karaoke to his own songs.

After about 45 minutes of music there was some craziness. As they were finishing “Sloop John B” Brian got off of his stool and went down onto his stomach. I thought he might just be acting strange (it’s not like he doesn’t have a history of that), but his band mates seemed genuinely concerned when he stood back up. Brian got on the mic and said that he’d been having fainting spells and might not be able to finish the concert.

Cleveland Simmons Group - Histe Up the John B.’s Sails (Sloop John B.) (mp3) (buy)

(I just like to remind everyone that Sloop John B is actually a traditional tune from Bahamas/ West Indies.)

For about 15 minutes it looked like the show might end there and some people started leaving, but eventually the band and Brian came back on stage and immediately launched into “God Only Knows” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” but not before everyone overheard Al Jardine (guitar, vocals) tell Brian “Let’s do a good show, Brian.”

I wanted to elaborate a bit further on Brian’s role in the concert. He had a keyboard in front of him but didn’t play it, save the intro of one song. He sang some lead vocals but left plenty of them to Al and left all of the falsetto leads/ harmonies to one of his band members. During the encore, someone put a bass on him and he appeared to be playing it, but the more animated bass lines were obviously coming from the regular bass player. He started the show hardly saying anything but became more engaged and engaging as the show went on, even playing to the crowd later in the show.

His band and their sound were pretty good. The band was pretty tight and the vocal blend was pretty solid, though not much will top the Beach Boys recordings. The bass end vocals seemed a little too percussive, like they were honked. The musicians, in the basic set up were: 2 keyboardists, 4 guitarists (including Jardine), two percussionists, bass player, misc woodwinds, backup singer and Brian. One of the guitarists also played trumpet and french horn (and “theremin”, they called it, though he definitely touched it, so I think it was probably a portamento strip on a synth). It’s cool that they cover important parts in the songs when they come up, but let’s be honest, a guy playing one french horn line a day isn’t going to beat someone like Alan Robinson who played all day every day for a living.

In fact, musically, it was good. It was fun, but it wasn’t the records. Pet Sounds is so meticulously perfect—it’s as simple as that—no live performance is going to beat that one pure musical basis.

For the encore, everyone was standing: “Johnny B. Goode”, “Fun Fun Fun”, “Barbara Ann” (and one other, I think). There was a second encore which was “Love and Mercy”.

With Brian Wilson and Al Jardine (and Billy Hinsche but he hardly counts) are there, it makes me wonder: why is Mike Love’s group still going by the “Beach Boys” when this group has more original members? I know it’s legal reasons, but the law is dumb.

The crowd there was mostly older people, but there were a few younger people sprinkled in there, the ones that are hip to the old stuff and the ones either dragged there by their parents or the one whose only common ground is the Beach Boys.

A funny conversation during the fainting break:
Daughter: “His voice is really good.”
Mom: “Do you recognize the music?”
Daughter: “Yeah”
Dad: “Isn’t this great??”

(I’m really amused by the idea that anyone could possibly not recognize at least a handful of Beach Boys tunes.)

(And before we move on I wanted to at least mention the two guys front-left who were giving standing ovations after each and every song at least for the first hour of the show.)

The crowd got me thinking about what coolfer pointed out a while ago: only 2% of Americans go to 3 or more shows a year. I was seeing the 98% there tonight. They were out in full force. It seems ridiculous to me to pay $50 or $150 for a ticket to an event (let alone if you are bringing a spouse or the whole family), but I guess if this is your show, or one of two for the year, shelling out multiple hundreds of dollars isn’t all that bad. And instead of standing in a crowded, hot room uncomfortably close to tons of sweaty hipsters watching a band that a few hundred or thousand people in the world know while your back is hurting and your knees aching and hoping you’re going to see something amazing, you get to sit fairly comfortably in a fresh-air venue at a reasonable distance from reasonably smelling, reasonably dressed rich people, seeing one of the best-known songwriters in the world, knowing you’re probably going to see a good (but not amazing) concert. There are trade-offs there, definitely.

The run-down-summary:
Show: good; that is, fun.
Music: fine, doesn’t beat the records
Venue: surprisingly good and intimate. Good place to see the Brian Wilsons of the world
Crowd: odd, interesting.

You don’t have to read this blog for long to know that my biggest musical love other than the indie rock is oldies music. I was pretty sad when KFRC switched from oldies to other crap (and that obviously didn’t work, because they now are a booty music format station). There hasn’t been an oldies station in the Bay Area for a couple years now.

Well, today, I was pleased to discover via this Bay Area Radio blog that there is KOMY (KOMY) in Santa Cruz. I’m not sure if I can receive the signal down here in the MP, but I’ll check and update later. However they do stream online and I’ve been listening for a while. It’s just a classic mix of oldies: Motown, Beach Boys, Beatles, one hit wonders, girl groups, etc.

The Letter (”Give Me a Ticket for an Airplane”, by the Box Tops) just came on. Man, I’m loving this. And now “Lola”.

(Oh, man, I’m a little disappointed to discover they’re getting their content from Jones Satellite Network. I was hoping there was someone real doing the programming. Note to Bay Area radio station managers: I’d be a very good oldies format radio music director.)

I grew up listening to oldies music and I think part of why I still love it (besides the genre having some of the best pop songs ever written) is the associations it brings up. I know some songs that bring me back to specific times, or in some cases, albums or artists (like, somewhat embarrassingly, Dashboard Confessional brings back this day my junior year in college where I hurriedly read all of Ender’s Game for a class during which I listened to only DC’s first two albums (yes, for like 10 straight hours), but it’s odd than a genre would have such associations. Oldies music brings me back my early teen years, listening to my radio in bed after I should have been asleep.

Update: My car radio doesn’t pick up KOMY, even at night. The streams still work nicely, though.

One of the best box sets I have is the Phil Spector Back to Mono set. It is just packed with great oldies/ r&b/ girl group songs like “Be My Baby”, “Spanish Harlem”, “He’s a Rebel”, “Da Do Ron Ron”, “Uptown” “Then He Kissed Me” and I could go on. It has some of the best pop songs ever written on it.

It was a steal when I got it for $45, but today I saw it at Amoeba for $18.99. For 4 CDs!

It seems that they’re not the only ones on crazy pills because insound and amazon both have it at this price too.

Any two CDs in the set would be worth while for that price.

It’s been floating around the internets. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t seen it yet.

It’s a bit odd that this came my way today because just a little earlier in the day, I was telling someone that the drum beginning to Stevie Wonder’s “Music Talk” is one of the best I’ve heard.