Crazy Talk!

U2 - "Window in the Skies"

I previously stated that U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" is my favorite wake up song.  Any great wake up song must, of course, be uplifting and inspiring; both words describe much of U2's catalog.  The songs will always stand on their own, but no doubt the lads from Dublin will be equally well remembered for their extraordinary ability to compliment the music with a fierce and often dramatic live visual element.  The band's '02 Super Bowl performance of the aforementioned song (seen here), a tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, is an apt example.  [Incidentally, I still get teary-eyed watching that clip.  Hard to believe how unified the country felt just a few years ago.  But that's a different post for a different blog.]

U2's videos have often shared the brilliance of their live show.  The new video (posted yesterday) for "Window in the Skies" is no exception.  A beautifully conceived and executed idea and montage of images.  From Billie Holiday and Cash to Arcade Fire and Wilco, it's a crash course in film editing and a who's who of the music that unites us all as artists and fans.  Watch for shots of U2 band members in the audience (nice touch).  The song, recorded at Abby Road Studios and produced by Rick Rubin, is classic U2 and one of two new tracks found on the recently released U218 Singles compilation.

Credit U2 with another healthy platter of uplifting deliciousness:

Summer Brings Golden Smog

Everyone's favorite alt-country supergroup is BACK, as in back in a BIG way!  Golden Smog is now streaming samples of four tunes from their forthcoming album Another Fine Day, slated for July 18 release on Lost Highway Records.  The songs sound absolutely fantastic!  To quote Andrew a few posts back, "I am officially giddy."  While you're checkin' the tunes, check out photos of the 2003 Golden Smog reunion in Minneapolis.  Here's to hoping the Smoggers take this show on the road con Tweedy. . . Viva la Golden Smog!

A few excerpts from the press release:

Golden Smog started in 1992, when Perlman, Louris (The Jayhawks), Murphy (Soul Asylum), Johnson (Run Westy Run, Iffy), and Chris Mars (The Replacements) got together to record a few cover songs for the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Crackpot Records. Mars left the Smog fold almost immediately afterwards, Noah Levy (The Honeydogs) and Jody Stephens (Big Star) have done stints on drums, and Tweedy (Wilco) comes and goes these days.

The initial recording of the first Smog record in eight years was done at producer/engineer Paco Locos studio in Puerto Santa Maria in the south of Spain. Gary, Kraig, and "I have fallen in love with the country the last few years," says Perlman. "To tell you the truth, making the record there was an excuse to go to Spain for a month. If youre gonna be bored in a studio, which is what youre always gonna be, why not be bored in the south of Spain?"

"No one spoke English, so words didnt get in the way," says Murphy. "You couldnt worry about stuff before you played. You just started playing, rather than telling people what you wanted it to sound like or be like, or what it was about."

Still, says Louris, "We wouldn't have made nearly the record we did had we started in Minneapolis. It kind of reminds me of the story of the making of Band On The Run, where everything that could have gone wrong did. Guitars were lost, luggage was lost, Tweedy couldn't make it, the studio wasnt really quite up to L.A and yet, for some reason, it's like that old cliché: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It made for this certain vibe that Paco helped nurture. We went through this thing together."

Alls well that ends well. The record was completed with the help of Ed Ackerson at his Flowers recording studio in Minneapolis, where Tweedy and Stephens joined the recording. The result, 14 original songs (penned by Tweedy, Louris, Perlman, Murphy, and Johnson) and a cover of Dave Davies Strangers from the days of On Golden Smog.

In God's Country

I had the good fortune of spending yesterday with my father in Joshua Tree National Park.  Quite simply, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.   Dad and I took the opportunity to bond and talk about everything under the sun.  The Joshua Tree has been playing through my laptop speakers all day and I am reminded of just how powerful an album it is.   Every song is conjuring up memories.  I recall spending several days at my best friend Colin's house in Minneapolis as a kid.  We were approximately 13 years old.  It was a school week, my folks were out of town, and his family was putting me up as they often did.  Colin's CD alarm clock was set to wake us with "Where the Streets Have No Name."  I challenge anyone to comment and suggest a better wake up song.  It's perfect.  The faint organ and Edge's echoed guitar notes on the intro still gives me chills everytime.  Once a month or so I'll rotate through another morning song just to change things up, but nothing has ever beat "Where the Street Have No Name" for pure inspration to get up and kick the day's ass.  The words were ringing through my head yesterday.  It was a day of sunshine, friendship, beautiful silence, laughing,  freedom, and just taking it all in with wide open eyes.
    I wanna feel sunlight on my face
    I see the dust cloud disappear without a trace
    I wanna take shelter from the poison rain
    Where the streets have no name

Dust off The Joshua Tree and give it a spin this week if you get a moment.   I've always considered it a favorite, but had forgotten just how compelling it is from start to finish.  These songs make you feel!  God bless America, its wide open countrysides, and its unparalleled national parks.  And God bless U2 for making such an inspirational, intelligent, and timeless album.

*Interesting trivia via Wikipedia:

Crystallizing this musical journey, as the band jokingly says in the film Rattle and Hum, the album name The Joshua Tree is not without meaning. The Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Joshua, first encountered as the name of Moses' successor as leader of the Israelites becomes, when transliterated into Greek, Ἰησοῦς Jesus, which provides a specifically Christian context for the album content. These images resonate with the themes of the album by evoking an image of a man suffering a great loss or making a great sacrifice, and either calling on something greater for assistance, or simply drawing on catharsis to reconcile what has been lost.

As for the tree itself, The Joshua Tree was named by Mormons traveling through the region parts of which later became Joshua Tree National Park. They named the tree because of its outstretched arms. . . .  The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky.

SXSW 06: Stowing Away

I was certainly eager to get to SXSW, but this woman really kicked her eagerness up a notch: Bam!  Stowing away to make it to the party . . . that is so punk rock, man!  She's totally blogging this when she gets out of jail.

Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins

All you hipsters probably don't need a reminder or encouragement, but there are two must have albums being released tomorrow.  The Cat Power release, The Greatest, I've heard is very good.  The songs streaming are fantastic.  The one I hope doesn't fly under the radar is the Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins album entitled Rabbit Fur Coat.  Ms. Lewis, of course, we all know from Rilo Kiley.  The album is streaming here.

There are so many highlights and, although it's early, I'll predict it to be one of the year's very best.  Among other moments sure to make you smile, M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Ben Gibbard show up for a group cover of the Traveling Wilburys' classic "Handle with Care."  Gibbard takes on Roy Orbison, Oberst sings Dylan's parts, and M. Ward sings the Jeff Lynne part.  Now that's some heavy supergroup indie action ya got right there, giddy up!  Almost every song is a pure winner, and the tracks you're neutral on after a few listens will grow on you faster than you can say Brokeback Mountain.

A country/folk/gospel influenced gem guaranteed to ease your late night pain. 

My dilemma: I just bought New Pornographers/Belle & Sebastian tickets 2 days ago, only to find out this morning Jenny Lewis is playing here (Minneapolis) the same evening at a beautifully small venue.  What show would you rather check out?  I'm looking for advice/opinions . . .

Craziest Albums of the Year: A Call to Arms

The photo was taken tonight, outside my parents' house. 

It's cold and snowing.  Perfect night to start working through 2005 albums and narrow down a best of list.  This post is simply to encourage you, the reader, to do the same, and get the list up on this site soon.  My sources tell me all the cool music blog kids are doing it, right now, as you're reading this.  Andrew's list last year brought the fantastic French Kicks into my life, and I'm always eager to get ideas before the next trip to the record store.  I plan to have a list up within the next few days.  Remember, as my friend Solace points out on his (in my opinion) fantastic list, a favorite albums list might look a lot different than a best of list. I encourage either or any list here at CT, just get that list craziness posted and share the magic!
While you're thinking about it, here is some new Cat Power magic to digest.

MTV Cribs: Indie Rock Style

The Pernice Brothers have been making beautiful music for years.  If you haven't heard their albums, visit their site and have a listen.  I stumbled upon the band a few years ago while taking a slight detour from dragging my feet down the 'ol alt. country road.  The Scud Mountain Boys, Joe & Bob Pernice's long defunct band, released one of that subgenre's gold standards in 1996's Massachusetts.  The Scud Mountain Boys broke up in 1997.  Joe, his brother Bob, and an assortment of other fine players have, as the Pernice Brothers, been putting out ridiculously good indie pop albums ever since.  Paste Magazine described Joe Pernice as "[a]rguably one of rock’s most neglected geniuses."  Fair statement?  You'll find no argument from me.  The man's lyrics and melodies are consistently beautiful.  His haunting and captivating voice sends chills down my spine. The new and soon to be released Pernice Brothers album Discover a Lovelier You, is partially streaming here.  Check their tour schedule and see them live in a town near you.

What does any of this have to do with MTV Cribs?

Joe Pernice recently posted his hilarious vision of an MTV Cribs for indie rockers.  The below text from Mr. Pernice and accompanying video can be found here.

"Greetings Folks,          

It came to me as if in a dream, but I was wide awake, coveting a mesh onion bag full of suet hanging from a bird feeder: There ought to be a show like MTV Cribs for indie musicians/actors. Maybe MTV2 could do it (if they haven't already) and call it MTV2 Cribs. Think about it.

In a way it's sad that it has come to this. Would that the pimped-out Hummers and drive-in sized plasma screens could lock me to my own TV the way they once could, long ago, in say, March of this year. The thirst is no less strong, but oh, satisfaction, you capricious little tart, where do you go? Where do you go when glimpses inside Usher's great room no longer titillate? (The centerpiece of which is a thrice larger than life marble likeness of himself (wrapped by Christo) getting, as the kids would say, "jiggy" at an awards show?) I'll tell you where you go? You go straight into the musty crawl space of that dude from Spoon. You put in some hang time in Cat Power's mud room, is what you do. You give a Bill Curtis-worthy examination to the carport where the Tyde parks their rental van.

For any of you producer types who are having a difficult time visualizing my idea, I took it upon myself to shoot a short pilot. And now I ask that you please sit back and enjoy the show."

Click here.