Concert Preview: Dark Dark Dark @ CBGB on Jan. 5
So. Tom Waits and Yann Tiersen walk into a bar. CBGB, specifically. There they meet a young vagabond queen armed with an accordion. This isn’t a dream or a poorly set-up joke, but a close approximation of what you will experience if you attend the Dark Dark Dark show at CBGB on Monday night.
The Minneapolis band melds gypsy melodies with whiskey-soaked Midwestern grit to create an ominous and slightly off-kilter sound that will win over fans of Gogol Bordello, Beirut and Rasputina, as well as devotees of local bands like The Monads and Strawfoot. Thanks to Dark Dark Dark’s record label, Supply and Demand Music, you can (and should) listen to the band’s debut album, The Snow Magic, in its entirety via YouTube.
Supporting Dark Dark Dark will be St. Louis’ rockin’est blues fingerpicker, Pokey LaFarge, and MayDay Orchestra, whose lineup reads like a Who’s Who of the St. Louis folk scene with members of Theodore and the recently-demised groups Rats and People and Bad Folk (including Tim Rakel of KDHX’s Mystery Train).
Dark Dark Dark/Mayday Orchestra/Pokey LaFarge
10 p.m. Monday, January 5. CBGB, 3163 South Grand Boulevard.
The Beatles wish The King Happy Birthday
This coming Thursday morning on Pop! The Beat Bubble Burst from 5:00 am - 7:00 am CST I will be playing the links between The Beatles and Elvis Presley. The King would have been 74 years old. As I gathered material for the show I wondered if I would have enough for two hours - after all The Beatles never recorded a single Elvis song on any of their official releases — unless you count “Long Tall Sally,” but, with Paul McCartney doing his Little Richard imitation, you don’t really think of Elvis.
Why didn’t they record any of Elvis’s songs when they did so many covers by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Little Richard and Larry Williams? Elvis was one of the reasons they got sucked into rock and roll. Maybe it was because they felt like Elvis sold out after returning from his stint in the Army. He was doing silly movies and his music was not the raw rockabilly that they adored.
So, anyway I pulled all the songs together for my show and came up with just enough. Most of the songs are from The Beatles’ solo careers, but there are a few from their BBC radio shows and before. They may have felt like he sold out, but they still had a lot of affection for Elvis and it shows by the fact that they kept coming back to that music.
Along with The Beatles and solo Beatles covering Elvis or songs that show a strong Elvis infuence, I’ll also play a couple Beatles songs that Elvis covered. Tune in…well, well, well, just because.
January Concerts in St. Louis
Image by Jason Baldwin
In my “spare time” I maintain a concert calendar of shows of interest (to me and my co-updater Bonnie anyway) in St. Louis. It’s no replacement for KDHX’s comprehensive calendar, but it gives a snapshot of the vitality of the all-too-often maligned club scene in the river city. 2009 looks to be getting off to a decent start:
Sun 1/4 Dale Watson - Deluxe
Wed 1/7–Sat 1/10 Bad Plus - Jazz at the Bistro
Thurs 1/8 Girl Talk - Pageant SOLD OUT!
Thurs 1/8 Lil Wayne - Chaifetz Arena
Fri 1/9 Pomegranates, Ocean Rivals and the Mhurs - Bluebird
Sat 1/10 Woodbox Gang and the Monads - Off Broadway
Tues 1/13 AC/DC - Scottrade Center
Wed 1/14 Cedric Burnside - BB’s Jazz Blues & Soups
Thurs 1/15 Black Diamond Heavies - Bluebird
Fri 1/16 Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks - Sheldon
Tues 1/20 James Intveld - Off Broadway
Fri 1/23 Lambchop - Off Broadway
Sat 1/24 Pieta Brown - Off Broadway
Tues 1/27 Dave Holland - Sheldon
Tues 1/27 Todd Snider w/ Keith Sykes - Duck Room
Tues 1/27 Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Billiken Club
Sat 1/31 The Virgins - Gargoyle
Sat 1/31 The Ettes - Way Out Club
Sat 1/31 Mahjongg - Billiken Club
Let me know what I missed!
Hank Williams Special
The Mid-Day Jamboree and the Back Country are teaming up to bring KDHX listeners an afternoon of Hank Williams’s music from 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm CST on Saturday, January 3, 2009. To observe the 56th anniversary of the death of Hank Williams on January 1, 1953, Fred Gumaer and Jeff Corbin will be featuring the newly-released Mother’s Best shows originally done on WSM radio in 1951; they’ll be spinning as many cuts from this 3 CD set as they can. Tune in to the Mid-Day Jamboree at 2:00 pm and the Back Country at 4:00 pm as Hank and the Driftin’ Cowboys perform four hours of great country music you’ve probably never heard before.
New Releases for January 2009
January is traditionally a slow month for record releases, but here’s a sneak preview of some notable albums due out the first month of 2009:
January 6:
The Gourds, Haymaker (Yep Roc)
January 13:
Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
January 20:
Antony & the Johnsons, The Crying Light (Secretly Canadian)
BeauSoleil, Alligator Purse (Yep Roc)
AC Newman, Get Guilty (Matador)
January 27:
Andrew Bird, Noble Beast (Fat Possum)
Robert Pollard, The Crawling Distance (GBV)
Toni Childs, Keep the Faith (429) (her first studio album in 15 years)
Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino)
Loney Dear, Dear John (Polyvinyl)
Mark Olson and Gary Louris, Ready For the Flood (New West)
Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream (Columbia)
Various Artists, Just Like Heaven: A Tribute to the Cure (featuring the Submarines, Tanya Donelly, Rosebuds) (American Laundromat)
Later this week I’ll have a list of some 2009 shows about which I’m psyched.
New Year’s Eve in St. Louis?
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
At the end of every year in St. Louis, I’m always faced with a question: To suck or not to suck? Most years, especially since the demise of Frederick’s Music Lounge, it’s the former. I know that New Year’s parties are, as if by definition, the most overrated thing in the universe, but couldn’t we at least have a good rock show in town on the 31st?
I’m probably missing something this year, and if so let me know. At the very least, there’s KDHX’s dance-tastic line up on Wednesday evening, featuring Juxtaposition, Beep Beep Boop Boop, Propaganda and the Love Mix. The hosts are banding together to spin the best remixes of the year along with other party favorites. That might just be the best party in town.
Discovery: T-Bird & the Breaks
First there was Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and now there’s T-Bird & the Breaks. As young Austin rhythm & blues bands go, both pack a big, horn-fueled sound, a smacking rock rhythm section and a one-two punch of West Side Chicago blues guitar and gritty Stax-influenced singing. Tim Crane started T-Bird & the Breaks a few years ago and the band has burgeoned to 11 members who (judging from the three tracks they’ve offered up on their web site) have a soulful feel that belies their years. They’re set to release their first album, Learn About It, on January 27.
They’ll be playing SXSW in March. I’m going; no way will I miss them.
T-Bird & the Breaks on Myspace.
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Weird things I have heard on the radio: Vol. 1
1) Columbia, MO, 1980s: Tail end of a commercial that ended with a jingle that went “They’ve got big green numbers…and little rubber feet!” Never found out what it was advertising.
2) Stuck listening to Adult Contemporary station, St. Louis, mid-’90s: During a Michael Bolton song, I suddenly heard the voice of the female announcer answering the telephone:
Announcer: “[call letters]!”
Caller: “Um, yes! Do you think you could play something by Jewel?”
Announcer: “I’ll see what we can do!”
Caller: “Okay, thanks!”
A minute or two later, another call went out over the air.
Announcer: “[call letters]!”
Caller: “Did you know that you just had a phone call go out over the air?”
Announcer: “Excuse me?”
Caller: “I just heard it over the music. Someone called and requested Jewel, and the call was audible over the radio. In fact, I think my voice is on the radio right now.”
Announcer: “Oh my goodness. Thank you! We’ll have to fix that.”
The amazing thing was that both of the on-air calls occurred during instrumental breaks in the song, timed perfectly as if it was intentional.
Emotional Rescue’s Highly Subjective List of the 20 Musical Things Worth Loving in 2008
Although web guru/fellow DJ/stern taskmaster Roy Kasten finally nagged me into providing a standard top album list for 2008, I still needed to compile a more complete, annotated list that included individual songs (and then some) in addition to whole albums. I’m not sure if David Cantwell would consider this a list with argument, but I do hope it could be considered more than randomness and arbitrary subjectivity.
There is a four way tie for the number one position, but then things are listed somewhat by whim.
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- Weird things I have heard on the radio: Vol. 1
- Emotional Rescue’s Highly Subjective List of the 20 Musical Things Worth Loving in 2008
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