The Current Music Blog: April 12, 2007 Archive

The Stream 04/12/07

Posted at 8:59 AM on April 12, 2007 by Barb Abney (1 Comments)

Tom Morello and Zach De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine to play free show in Chicago for 2007 Coalition of Immokalee Workers Truth Tour on Friday.

Mick Jones (The Clash) and Tony James (Generation X) are recording together.

Interpol announce some North American dates.

Noel Gallagher to release solo album.

Ziggy Marley will kick of Subway Music In The Zoo Concert Series.

Today In Music History:
1940 - Herbie Hancock was born.
1956 - Alexander Briley (Village People) was born.
1958 - Tony James (Sigue Sigue Sputnik) was born.
1958 - Will Sergeant (Echo and Bunnymen) was born.
1988 - Sonny Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, California.
1992 - Lisa Bonet filed for divorce from singer Lenny Kravitz.
1999 - Boxcar Willie died of leukemia.

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Live On Air Blogging 04/12/07

Posted at 9:04 AM on April 12, 2007 by Barb Abney

Noon-ish Tunes On The Telly Tonight
Of Montreal on Conan
K-OS on Craig Ferguson

11:55 a.m. Klaxons
Have been recruited for new Chemical Brothers disk.

11:45 a.m. Local Music - The Rank Strangers.
Will be playing the Missing Numbers release party along with The Slats and Faux Jean. They're also recording their 7th album. More info on their Myspace Page.

11:20 a.m. Shout Out Out Out Out
They're more than just a fun-to-say name!

11:10 a.m. LCD Soundsystem
Dates and news. They're playing Lollapalooza too!

10:55 a.m. Mando Diao
Will be coming to town next month along with The Films and Pop Levi, playing The 400 Bar.
More Dates on their official site.

10:50 a.m. The Postmarks
Have upcoming dates with Smoosh.

10:30 a.m. Low
Their CD release show is at First Avenue this Saturday night.
Their in-studio from late last month.

10:15 a.m. Sparklehorse
Are playing Lollapalooza. They stopped by for an in-studio in February.

10:10 a.m. Song Of The Day Info - Nostalgia 77
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Nostalgia 77 with the tune "Little Steps" from the album Everything Under The Sun. European tour dates and other info on the official site. More tunes on the Myspace page.

9:40 a.m. Sondre Lerche
If you own the Phanotm Punch album, you should check out some of the interesting exclusive content on his website that you can only access with the CD. More information on his official website.
He played our SxSW showcase last month.

9:30 a.m. Babyshambles Related
NME has a review of Pete Doherty's solo performance last night.

9:15 a.m. Aqualung
He's returning to the states next week for some solo dates, as well as a supporting slot on tour with The Fray. More tour dates and an interesting "Making the album" video on his official site.
Click here to listen to his in-studio performance from last month. Click here to hear his in-studio from May, 2005.

9:05 a.m. Laura Veirs
Saltbreakers was released earlier this week. She's currently touring in Europe but will return to the states for some dates this summer. More info on her official site.

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

Posted at 12:00 PM on April 12, 2007 by Jacquie Fuller (7 Comments)

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday at age 84. I try not to get too bummed out about the passing of people I don't even know, but Vonnegut has a special place in my heart. In high school, I devoured his books. His pointed humor and cynicism struck a chord within the teenaged me, that still resounds in me at 33. Vonnegut made me want to write, and gave me permission to write whatever the hell I wanted--reality was not a boundary. As a public figure, he seemed warm, generous, and gracious--something you don't see too often in this day and age, when celebrity writers act and are treated like rock stars. Vonnegut was a rock star, but he acted like your curmudgeonly old uncle.

This morning on The Morning Show, a listener, Meg, sent us a link to an awesome site that catalogs bands influenced by Vonnegut. Apparently, for instance, Elvis Costello's "Man Out of Time" was based on Billy Pilgrim, the main character in Slaughterhouse Five. (Which, by the way, continues to be pretty timely book these days.) Thanks for the link, Meg. And thanks to all the folks who sent their Vonnegut tribute suggestions to The Morning Show, including Carol in Blue Earth, whose favorite quote from The Sirens of Titan is this:

Just imagine that your Daddy is the smartest man who ever lived on Earth, and he knows everything there is to find out, and he is exactly right about everything, and he can prove he is right about everything. Now imagine another little child on some nice world a million light years away, and that little child’s Daddy is the smartest man who ever lived on that nice world so far away. And he is just as smart and just as right as your Daddy is. Both Daddies are smart, and both Daddies are right.

Carol says it's a "great passage that shows his goal of world peace ... the universe has room for all kinds of people to be right and not agree."

Here's my Vonnegut story. I saw him read about ten years ago in a packed college auditorium. After an hour reading and a lengthy Q&A, he said to the audience, "Now I have a question for you." He asked if we'd ever had a teacher dramatically impact our lives for the better. We all nodded. Then he said, "I want you to turn to the person next to you and say that teacher's name aloud." And we did. An entire auditorium rang with the music of these names...

And then Vonnegut walked off stage without a word.

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"My 3 Songs" for Thursday, April 12th

Posted at 1:41 PM on April 12, 2007 by Steve Seel

Taine Hatch-Rymer of Fond du Lac, WI submits today's noonday set.

1) The Shins, "Fighting in a Sack"
2) Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
3) Motion City Soundtrack, "The Future Freaks Me Out"

"I just saw The Shins in Milwaukee two Fridays ago, and I was bummed that they didn't play this," says Taine. As for the Death Cab: "This is the song my boyfriend played the night he told me he loved me for the firrst time, and yesterday was our eight month anniversary." (Congrats!) Finally, "I'm in college right now -- two years in -- and so (the Motion City Soundtrack song) rings pretty true for me right now."

Rock & Roll Dream

Posted at 2:55 PM on April 12, 2007 by Mac Wilson (2 Comments)

I had another rock & roll dream last night. I have them fairly often, but last night's was so vivid, and so bizarre, I thought I'd share it.

It was the aftermath of some concert in downtown St. Paul. I was walking through St. Paul's RiverCentre (the convention space) in throngs of people, when I ran into none other than The Band's Robbie Robertson. He looked exactly as he did on the cover of the Band's 1968 self-titled album [he's on the far right], and he seemed happy to see me. We began catching up on old times (it had apparently been a while since we had seen each other), but it was too crowded, so we went into an adjacent room, which also happened to be the Band's dressing room. I presume it was their show that had just gotten out. In the rush, I made sure to get Robertson to autograph my CD copy of The Band, something I hadn't been able to do the last time I'd seen them. I turned and saw Garth Hudson, sitting silently at his organ. As he silently signed my album, I noticed Richard Manuel sitting at a table over in the corner. (Apparently Levon Helm and Rick Danko were otherwise occupied) Manuel was not in his heyday, a la Robertson; he was in his strung out phase, much as he appeared in "The Last Waltz". I strolled up to him and told him it had "been a while" and handed him the CD to sign. He gave me a bit of a glare and said, "Last time you were here, you got wine." I replied with, "Yeah, I just wanted you to sign a copy of their first album--" before I froze, and corrected myself, "--wait, the self-titled album was actually your second album, and Music from Big Pink was your first." Manuel looked confused and wondered, "Which one WAS our first??" I told him it was Music from Big Pink. At this point, the conversation shifted completely; he told me what song he had heard on the radio this morning (he never actually said that, it's just one of those dream things where you figure out exactly what he meant). He looked at me, and said in his signature drawl, "'Rape Me'", undoubtedtly referring to the Nirvana song. He immediately followed up by saying the song had "No redeeming qualities whatsoever." At this point, I woke up, which is disappointing, because it would have been interesting to discuss modern music with the late Richard Manuel.

A couple of interesting things about this dream: Manuel killed himself in 1986, which makes it interesting that he referenced a Kurt Cobain song, of all things. Secondly, there were only three Band members present. For some reason, I was reminded of the Secret Machines, who are (or at least were) also a trio. I had gotten the chance to talk with the Secret Machines when they performed in the Current studios last fall, and perhaps I was engaging in a rapport with the Band members that I would if I were to run into the Secret Machines again. Lastly, and most interestingly, Garth Hudson collaborated with the Secret Machines on their latest album, playing accordion on a track. What a very strange dream.

Anyway, I know all of you have had rock-related dreams from time to time. Any interesting ones you'd like to share?

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