Wilco Going Wild: Live from Miami Beach

by marty

Halfway through the opening set of the opening date of its 2010 tour, frontman Jeff Tweedy gleefully declared it, "Wilco Gone Wild" and threw his head back with a laugh.

Imagining the laid-back, and often solemn, indie music godfathers at some Spring Break bacchanal is fairly ridiculous, especially for the 42-year-old singer and father of two boys. Not that the middle-aged, Chicago-based band is stuck in its ways. In fact, it is the opposite.

During its nearly 3-hour, 30 song set last night at the Jackie Gleason Theater, Wilco re-imagined many of their hit songs, ranging from a stripped down bluesy version of "Kamera" to a fusion frenzy on "Pot Kettle Black." For this scraggly country group turned indie rock band, Tweedy continues to push his bandmates forward to experiment in creating new and exciting sounds. The addition of true Guitar Hero Nels Cline to the band has put a razor's edge to Tweedy's musical explorations. Clines' solo on "Impossible Germany" was one of the show's highlights.

The enigmatic Tweedy was loose and playful. He brought a pre-teen up from the crowd to sing a couple of versus of Woody Guthrie's "California Stars." In the second half of the show, Tweedy did an amusing Carnac the Magnificent routine to introduce song requests from the sold out Miami Beach crowd. The lucky audience members were rewarded with a free meal at a nearby sushi restaurant.

The second half of the show started with an acoustic set where the band sat together surrounded by old-fashioned floor lamps - giving off a living room jam session vibe. But instead of playing the easier, long-winded, jam style of music, the band adheres to a jazz aesthetic, where improvisation and the silence between the notes are valued over the grandstanding solo. The interplay of the musicians and the melodies all through the night elevated the event from a great concert to something magical.

The "Evening With Wilco" tour continues for the next three weeks before it heads overseas. Better see your friendly, neighborhood scalper as the tour is sold out.

Setlist:

Price is Right theme music

1. Wilco (The Song)

2. Bull Black Nova

3. You Are My Face

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

5. One Wing

6. Shot In The Arm

7. At Least That's What You Said

8. Pot Kettle Black

9. Deeper Down

10. Impossible Germany

11. California Stars

12. Either Way

13. I'll Fight

14. Handshake Drugs

15. You Never Know

Break

16. Spiders (Acoustic)

17. What's The World Got In Store (Acoustic)

18. Kamera (Acoustic)

19. Hesitating Beauty (Acoustic)

20. Sky Blue Sky (Acoustic)

21. Casino Queen (Acoustic)

22. Outta Mind (Outta Sight) (Acoustic)

23. Misunderstood

24. Heavy Metal Drummer

25. Jesus, Etc.

26. Hate It Here

27. Walken

28. I'm The Man Who Loves You

29. Monday

Encore

30. Thank You Friends (Big Star cover)

“California Stars” by Billy Bragg and Wilco (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

The Whigs Blow Through The Labels

By marty

Mimicking the ever-expanding 'net, musical labels (not record labels) also promulgate at a bunny-rate forcing musicians to quickly declare their party. These labels, a blunt instrument wielded by critics and musicians alike, now mean little more than a simple column on your iTunes spreadsheet.

Indie rock, Americana, college rock, alternative, freak folk, electronic, arena rock - these labels can all apply to the Athens, Georgia trio and AF favorites, The Whigs. But none of them fully apply. The Whigs blow through these labels.

In their latest effort, In The Dark, The Whigs simply rock.

These labels are just adjectives that frontman Parker Gispert uses to create its impressive wall of guitar and bass. Although Gispert's vocals and lyrics provide the heft of The Whig's appeal, it is the driving rhythm section of Julian Dorio and Timothy Deaux that allow the band to see the world.

Written while supporting the Kings of Leon on tour, the influence of the Kings can be felt throughout the album along with nods to other indie heros My Morning Jacket, The Strokes and Fleet Foxes and HOFers REM and U2. However, make no mistake, there is something interesting here - something more than just another college band.

This album won't set the boys up to those other arena headliners, but it takes them several steps closer that acclaim.

“Hundred/Million” by The Whigs (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Welcome To The World Of Plastic Beach

By Ian Minor

The fictional members of Gorillaz are in a bad state, bassist Murdoc has gone insane and dragged singer 2D to a island made of trash. Guitarist Noodle is missing with a robot taking her place and Russell the drummer was last seen jumping off a pier. Obviously not the best conditions to make a album on. Luckily the real brains, Damon Albarn, is doing great and after reuniting Blur and writing an Opera, he’s ready for some monkey business.

The album is heavily inspired by 80s pop, with a whole bunch of synths, which is quite a departure from the world feeling of Demon Days. It’s most notable in the track "On Melancholy Hill," which I could see as one of those weird 80’s music videos. There’s also a lot of rap on this album. Mos Def and De La Soul are both great in "Stylo" and "Superfast Jellyfish" respectively. "Superfast" is one of my favorites, and it’s heading to be the the hit of the album. With it’s bizarre sounds and great lyrics (the opening line “It comes with a toy, I like that” is already becoming a meme) sets it up to be the "Feel Good, Inc" of the album.

While the rappers do great, Lou Reed really shines through as the high point with his great song “Some Kind Of Nature” probably the most green-friendly song on the album, yet it still keeps with the offbeat nature that is Gorillaz. Lou Reed’s voice is hypnotizing and you can’t help bobbing your head to the keyboards in the background.

It’s a shame they wasted two great guests, Mark E. Smith gives a few mumbled growls that somewhat resemble human speech on "Glitter Freeze." Snoop Dogg intros the album with some slurred rhymes, but I really don’t blame Damon for that, it’s more that Snoop has not been sober since his first album came out. Rap song "White Flag" suffers from bad editing, barely transitioning from the first part (The Lebanese National Orchestra) to the fast rhymes of Kano and Bashy. It could have been a great track but it just trips in it’s current form.

Is Plastic Beach the best Gorillaz album? No, but it really doesn’t matter, Plastic Beach has enough great songs to carry the somewhat lacking ones. It doesn’t hit you hard with rock like the last albums did, but really it didn’t have to. This is perfect lounging music and in these stressful times, maybe we need an album to just chill out to.

“Superfast Jellyfish (feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)” by Gorillaz (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Lips, Weezer and the Top!

By marty

Best. SunFest. Lineup. ........ in quite awhile.

Perhaps not the best lineup is the
View Larger Map">West Palm Beach festival's 28-year history, but it is a damn good one.

The Flaming Lips, Weezer, ZZ Top, Ben Harper, Patti LaBelle, B-52s, Damian Marley and Charlie freakin' Daniels. Maybe because of the dearth of acts venturing to South Florida lately, but I am pretty stoked about my hometown festival, set for April 28 to May 2.

In recent years, the family-oriented festival tended to select its lineups down the middle of the road. More than a couple of locals have joked about annually seeing Steve Miller and Spyro Gyra at SunFest. Not of lot of variety and not much risk, outside an experiment of two. Worthy of a day or two of attendance.

There is some juice with this year's lineup. Some of the acts are getting a little long in the tooth, but this is something to get excited about - time to start mapping out your days.

Weezer opens the festival Wednesday, April 28th, with the third year of festival's New Music Night, which has featured some solid, up-and-coming acts such as After Hours favorites The Whigs. This year's New Music lineup has not been named yet, so you can still add your suggestions.

The Flaming Lips and ZZ Top will play at opposite ends of the festival Thursday night at roughly the same time and that sucks. Patti LaBelle will rule on Friday. The weekend is all over the place musically. Better to pull up a chair, catch some shade and enjoy.

That's worth getting excited about.

2010 SunFest Lineup

Wed, April 28
Weezer

New Music Night

Thurs, April 29
ZZ Top
Flaming Lips

Fri, April 30
Patti LaBelle
Maze featuring Frankie Beverly

Sat, May 1
Shinedown
The Charlie Daniels Band
Rise Against
Sister Hazel
Better than Ezra
Classic Albums Live's 40 years of Woodstock

Sun, May 2
Ben Harper and the Relentless7
The B -52's
Five For Fighting
Damian Marley
Nas
Flogging Molly
Marcus Miller

“Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1” by The Flaming Lips (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

“Pork And Beans” by Weezer (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

“I’m Bad, I'm Nationwide” by ZZ Top (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

“Toisu” Means Hello In Japanese!

By Ian Minor

My first experience at the Double Door was not a good one. I was standing out in the cold with a low-powered iPod and waiting outside for a hour and a half. To be fair, the hour was my fault, have to be early to get up front for one of Japan's biggest bands on their final tour before a well -deserved break. I could see Polysics, the love child of Devo and a J-Pop singer, warming up inside if I stood on tip toes. They lacked their Orange Jumpsuits™ and Censor Glasses™ so it was hard to tell it was them.

As I walked in, I made a beeline for the merch table, buying a poster stickers and the all important T-Shirt. As I walked away, someone asked why I didn’t ask Hiro, the singer and guitarist for an autograph. Sure enough the Merch guy was Hiro and right next to him was the bassist. It was weird, in Japan they would fill the Budokan, here they sit next to the band with the home made CDs. I managed to get the entire band to sign, even the soon-to-leave keyboardist Kayo.

“New Wave Jacket” by Polysics (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

The Earth Program

The opening band was the one with home made CDs, The Earth Program. It’s easy to see why they’re on the list of bands to look out for in Chicago. Reminiscent of The Apples in Stereo, they gave hard hits while footage from the 50’s played in the background and the drummer once abandoned his post to help the bassist/keyboardist by jumping on him. Really their whole set was put into words by the singer, “We know we’re not Polysics, we’re sorry, we’ll try to entertain you while you drink.” However they were able to entertain me quite well, giving me a pleasant surprise, something I've needed.

“Le Gloom” by The Earth Program (mp3)(MySpace)

The next band however, was hard to sit through. Evil Beaver is a callback to hair metal such as Joan Jett and Poison. However the band members (a guitarist and a drummer) are both from that era, so it kind of felt like when someone starts to sing karaoke of the band they liked when they were 15 and everyone just kind of humors them. Except that they kept singing for 40 minutes, the last song taking comically long. Not helping was the fact that I was standing next to the singer's friends, who were all her age and tried their best to rock out, without ever succeeding. I wanted to go talk to Earth Program (who was hanging out at the merch table talking to fans) but I knew to leave now was to give up my spot for the Polysics. I stood there.

As Polysics set up, they began playing along to Devo’s cover of Satisfaction, which was playing over the sound system. As they began it was a non stop thrill ride, with some of the best and most energetic guitar playing I’ve seen which included him playing with his teeth. He only stopped once to wipe off the gallon of sweat on his forehead and to tell the audience “In Chicago, you have a lot of snow, Polysics shall melt all the snow!” Kayo was the real draw, keeping a straight face while everyone else went crazy, despite her doing such ridiculous things as busting out pompoms and doing the most badass recorder solo known to man. The music was fast, the playing supreme and the crowd energetic. What more could you ask for?

The weird thing is that Hiro was right. When I waited outside, I almost lost my toes to frostbite, as I walked home, the snow just melted as it hit me. It was either the heat from being in a crowd of people, or it was the heat from feeling so good. I still can’t decide.

Lost at "The Show"

For the past two weeks, my wife has been singing a pleasantly catchy pop tune by a former Australian television actress/ambient music siren with a Slavic name living in Los Angeles.

Nearly two years after its release, Lenka's "The Show" has created a wonderful skip in my bride's step. However, this has not occurred through the efforts of any DJ or even any of the influential television music supervisor. Lenka's sole album only reached 142 on the Billboard chart before disappearing. However, the song was a smash in Hanoi and Warsaw in 2008.

The song's re-emergence here in our little urban abode was the makings of some keen eared programmer trying to find the right "creative content" while working for an "integrated sensory branding service." It is music provided to enhance the retail experience - to cause customers to linger a few seconds more with the hope of capturing some additional customer money.

I am not going to veer off into some art versus commerce rant. Music has been used to sell something from nearly the beginning. This is to identify yet another growing avenue for music to find its way to our ears. A route that continues to grow in importance with the declining influence of radio and music videos. Does these ever-widening routes of distribution between artists and their listeners create the environment for better music? Or does everything get lost in the noise?

“The Show” by Lenka (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

9 Favorites for '09

End of the year. Time to take stock and to stock up on prescriptions before the old health insurance, or what's left of it, rolls over.

As such, each member of After Hours' fortified stable of writers and music lovers has been tasked with coming up with three favorite albums from the past year. Not necessarily the best - just the works of art that turned our earbuds into conduits to something better. Here are their reports.

Duncan Strauss

My dirty little secret (well, it's not actually dirty, and it's about to be not secret, but it is little) is that I don't like making Best Of album lists. Never have, even a zillion years ago, when I made my living as a music critic.

It most assuredly would be boring and pretentious to explain why I have philosophical difficulty drafting Top Ten lists--but it seems 70% less difficult to comply with the request from After Hours impresario Marty to submit three favorite albums of the year.

Especially once I decided that I'd zero in on albums that not only were faves, but also meant something to me personally in a direct, powerful way that transcended the collection itself. So while I nod in agreement with lists that cite Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, Monsters Of Folk, Neko Case, the Avett Brothers and others, here's my Three:

7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came Out. This two-disc set fairly bursts with the joys of music making, the buzz of collaborating--of course, I'd be pretty buzzed, too, if I were collaborating with the likes of Neil Finn, Radiohead's Phil Selway & Ed O'Brien, Johnny Marr, most of Wilco, Lisa Germano and others--and the thrill of artists discovering or developing new gifts, like the surprising emergence of drummer Selway as an outstanding singer-songwriter. Plus, I did a radio interview about The Sun Came Out with Neil Finn, the project's visionary and artistic guiding light, and a musical hero of mine for 30 years.

“Too Blue” by 7 Worlds Collide (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

EELS - Hombre Lobo. When everyone in 2009 seemed in the throes of vampire madness, EELS singer-songwriter E gave voice here to a werewolf by way of concocting a suite of songs about desire, mostly of the romantic variety, written from an array of perspectives--and placed in a characteristicly broad range of musical settings, E's vocals traveling from a whisper ("In My Dreams," one of my fave songs of the year) to a scream ("Tremendous Dynamite"). There's a cadre of folks who feel E is a profoundly talented rock auteur--folks with names like Townshend and Waits, as well as schlubs like me. (And prolific: "End Times"--the follow-up to "Hombre," released in June--arrives Jan. 19!) So it was extra thrilling to interview him on the radio, in a discussion framed around animal ideas on "Talking Animals."

“In My Dreams” by EELS (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Tom Waits - Glitter And Doom Live. Speaking of Waits, he recently released the third live set of his career, and while live albums rarely make year-end Top Ten--or Top Three--lists, Glitter And Doom Live is in its own category. I mean, for one thing, it's Tom Freakin' Waits! For another, the double set represents an inspired trip through Waits' latter-day catalog, rendered by his crack squad of musical magicians (and one disc collects the shaggy dog stories, warped commentary and improbable "facts" he unspools while alone at the piano). And, no, I did not interview Waits on the radio (see above: it's Tom Freakin' Waits!) but I did attend one of these shows--in Jacksonville, FL--and the boozy, unruly audience notwithstanding, it was an enchanting, exhilarating evening.

“Get Behind The Mule” by Tom Waits (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Ian Minor

Eminem - Relapse. Eminem disappeared from the music world for four years and with good reason. He was in rehab getting off sleeping medication. Really, I’m just glad one of the rap kings is back in the studio. He is a little shaky, falling back on the tried and true of Slim Shady, but he does do some great stuff on this album. Most notably “Beautiful,” a great thoughtful song. Relapse may not be his best, but it’s a sure sign he’s back, and that’s good news.

“Beautiful” by Eminem (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Weezer - Raditude. After Weezer disappointed me with the Red Album, they shocked me with their best album since The Green Album. Raditude lives up to the name, feeling like the soundtrack of a particularly quirky date movie. Weezer fans may still be disappointed, wanting the days of Pinkerton back, but I’m perfectly happy with a nice happy album.

“Tripping Down the Freeway” by Weezer (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Super Mash Bros.- All About The Scrillions. Last year, Girl Talk was in a bunch top tens and spawned countless imitators. One of those imitators was the Super Mash Bros. who are, arguably, better DJs than Girl Talk. They have the magic ability to make any combination gold. You’ll hear classics like “Axel F” combined with new songs like “Hustlin.” Even if you hate the songs themselves, they have the ability to make songs I hated great, like “I Kissed A Girl.” The whole album is great and a friendly price of free.

“Still Bleeding” by Super Mash Brothers (mp3)(lazerwolf)

marty

The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You. From its bluegrass heart, a piano pop outfit has emerged. Guided by uberproducer Rick Rubin, The Avett Brothers unleashed an extremely sad pop album stuffed full of hooks. Beneath its sweet veneer, the album dwells in the loneliest corner of your heart. I play it constantly and never tire. My favorite of the year by far.

“Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise” by The Avett Brothers (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Duckworth Lewis Method. Eccentric British chamber pop about a quirky British sport. What's not to love? This ode to the intricacies of cricket from The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon continues to enthrall. It is such a devotion to one topic that one is surprised the Ry Cooder didn't produce. The album is a fine brandy to be enjoyed deeply and with focus.

“Gentlemen and Players” by The Duckworth Lewis Method (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

The Beatles - Revolver (Remastered). Not necessarily a fair pick as it was released some 43 year ago. However, Revolver's remastering this year - and the remastering of the entire catalogue - was long overdue. The results were stunning. This grand reintroduction shows how much of today's music is still following the four lads from Liverpool.

“Taxman” by The Beatles (mp3)(Amazon)