Live Blogging the Hideout Block Party

4:04. Booker T doubles up with two classics, "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Green Onions". He wrote the former with William Bell for Albert King. Organ on "Onions" sounds identical to original MGs version. Wish this guitar didn't sound like a noodly Satriani. Gimme some more tremolo and less fuzz.

6:55. Really enjoyed Jon Langford but now Mavis is onstage and holding court. Band has a great mix and is a great testament to her original sound without comIng across as leftovers. I used to think the problem with "You're Not Alone" was it sounded TOO much like Jeff Tweedy but this performance convinced me. Great vocal delivery and blend for the band.

7:05. Nice subtle "fuck you" to the Tea Party. Go Mavis!

8:24. I really like Dosh. How many acts can consider the sound board as one of their instruments? weird placement in the lineup though. I do dig him more than Animal Collective, but as far as electronic acts go, he's not exactly rocking the crowd. Probably a good thing though.

Used to listen to Pure Trashna lot in 2005. Saw Dosh live at the Living Room in Providence that year. Set was so different. He was dropping shit off the stage and mic-ing the sounds of it hitting the floor. Now most of this stuff is pre-prepared but well layered in the moment nonetheless. I like.

9:35. Do Andrew Bird songs always have so many fragmented parts? Seems like he is switching tempos and doing starts and stops more than I remember from the albums. Maybe it's a necessary byproduct of looping the whistle and violin. As I wrote in my GBV review, I place a high value on "cutting to the chase" and the loops can sometimes frustrate (not unlike the TuNeYaRdS Pitchfork set in that way). Can't complain though. Some of these new songs are top-notch.

Miles Davis Quintet (1967)

Every now and then I return to a phase of heavy listening to the second Miles Davis Quintet. If you have never heard this band, or even if you have, I recommend watching this performance from 1967. Listen to how intensely these musicians are interacting with one another as each solo develops.



Thank you Jordan for buying me Miles Smiles for my 16th birthday!

B96 9/11 Tribute

If you listen to B96 here in Chicago, you've probably heard the new Bruno Mars song in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. Producers took the chorus from "Lighters" and filled the verses with audio clips from speeches by Michael Bloomberg and George W. Bush from the weeks and months after 9/11.

This thing is shockingly painful to hear. A more successful project would have simply used audio honoring the heroism of those who lost their lives that day. And I think that's what the original intention probably was. But by the middle of the song, we've swerved directly into Bush II's original spin: by coming together and fighting for freedom, the American people have regained their dominance as world superpower.

The very last thing I want to commemorate today is the fact that 9/11 put us on a path to international war and domestic division. But by rehashing the shallow argument that the people of this country have somehow been brought together in the decade since 9/11, all I can think of is how that assertion is just one big shortsighted lie. Don't most agree at this point that we had a moment of unity in the immediate aftermath, and then we blew it? The most false thing you could do to remember 9/11 a decade later is pretend the last decade never happened.

Like I said, they could have just made a song in tribute to our fallen civilians and emergency workers who lost their lives before all this turned to shit. Wait, someone already made that song. In 2002.

Happy Labor Day

Respect to union labor from 1973. The Band performs "King Harvest" at their studio in Woodstock.