So, have you heard this new Decemberists record, The Hazards of Love? Dude. It’s an hour-long fantasy rock opera about a young squire who once suffered a vexing enchantment by a vengeful sprite of the wood, and whose lady faire — hey, where are you going? Come back! It’s good! Really!
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The big, sad news out of Camp X last week — the great Los Angeles punkabilly band X, that is —was that singer Exene Cervenka, 53, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. But there was neither sign nor mention of infirmity at the quartet’s typically rocket-powered gig at the 9:30 club Friday night, and not a lot of other chithat besides. The seminal foursome played just as they always have, and as every punk band should: Like they’ve got someplace else to be, five minutes ago.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 9:30 Club, bonus audio, John Doe, music, Post Rock, The Terminator, The Washington Post, X
If your memory of The Bangles begins and ends with their two breakout hits, “Walk Like an Egyptian” and the Prince-penned “Manic Monday,” you could be forgiven for assuming the all-female band was primarily a studio creation like so many of their fellows in heavy rotation on MTV circa 1986. But you’d also be quite wrong. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged music, Post Rock, the 80s, The Bangles, The Washington Post
Sasha Fierce, keep your distance.
“Y’all know where Beyonce is?” demanded Etta James at the Birchmere Saturday night. The septugenarian sexpot is still cranky that the 27-year-old one-namer who portrayed her in the film “Cadillac Records” got to sing “At Last” for the President and the First Lady back in January.
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Posted in Birchmere, music, The Washington Post
Tagged blues, dvias, Etta James, music, Post Rock, Soul, The Washington Post
Photo by Derek von Essen / courtesy Yep Roc Records
The great Los Angeles punkabilly quartet known as X had already made their best albums by 1985, when three-fourths of its lineup joined guitarist Dave Alvin to form the country and western offshoot The Knitters. That band took 20 years to brew a follow-up, but X/Knitters co-frontman John Doe’s sand-polished voice instantly proved to be such a natural and expressive delivery system for old-timey C&W that you knew (or at least hoped) he’d eventually get around to cutting a record like “Country Club”— his month-old set of (primarily) Bakersfield-centric “countrypolitan” classics, recorded with Toronto-based roots eclecticians The Sadies.
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Posted in music, shameless self-promotion, The Washington Post, Uncategorized
Tagged country, countrypolitan, IOTA, John Doe, Post Rock, The Knitters, The Sadies, X
Sadly, Bettye did not wear that belt at the 9:30 last night. Reviewed for Post Rock.
Bettye LaVette at the 9:30 Club, Monday, March 9, 2009
The Setlist
01 The Stealer
02 Still Want to Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am)
03 Choices
04 Joy
05 My Man, He’s Loving Man
06 You Never Change
07 Let Me Down Easy
08 He Made a Woman Out of Me
09 The High Road
10 Souvenirs
11 Somebody Pick Up My Pieces
12 Your Turn to Cry
13 Talking Old Soldiers
14 ?
ENCORE
15 Close as I’ll Get to Heaven
16 Before the Money Came (The Ballad of Bettye LaVette)
Posted in 9:30 Club, music, Soul, The Washington Post
Tagged 9:30 Club, Bettye LaVette, John Prine, Patterson Hood, Post Rock, Soul, Willie Nelson
I was hours behind the curve when the Man called Feedom pointed me towards this bulletin this morning, reacting to the announcement that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will play the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February. (A few hours later, E Street Band guitar man, “Yankee Stadium” composer, and local hero Nils Lofgren announced he will undergo double hip-replacement surgery tomorrow.)
Anyway, let the setlist-handicapping commence!
Bruce has a history of throwing curveballs in at high-profile appearances with limited stage time. The Sept. 2, 1995 concert celebrating the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland was one of only a handful of times when he performed with the E Street Band between 1989 and 1998, and he threw “Darkness on the Edge of Town” in his short set. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame himself in 1999 (Bono gave him an induction speech for the ages; Bruce returned the favor when U2 were inducted in 2005), he and the ESB played “The Promised Land,” “Backstreets,” “Tenth Ave. Freeze-Out,” and, er, “In the Midnight Hour” with Wilson Pickett, who looked younger at 58 then than Bruce looks at, well, 59 now.
For the Super Bowl, my best guess is he’ll do career-shortest versions of:
Tenth Ave. Freeze-Out
The Rising
The Promised Land (if Obama wins) or Darkness on the Edge of Town (if it’s McCain)
Born to Run
American Land (snippet)
Posted in Bruce Springsteen, excellence, music, The Washington Post, U2
Tagged Post Rock, Super Bowl
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