Some high quality professional footage of Tom Waits joining the Rolling Stones on stage in Oakland courtesy of the Stones. Includes some commentary from Tom about the experience.
This is pretty cool, even if Mick freaks me out a little bit.
Iron & Wine- Innocent Bones
Every mouth sings of what it’s without, so we all sing of love…
I’ve spent a little time the last two weeks in the wayback machine to 2007— it was a simpler time, you know. Actually, I was on one of my typical long overnight drives covering a few states, and I found myself putting Iron & Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog on repeat. It’s such a perfect album, which is odd to say now, as so many people at the time seemed to think it was Sam Beam’s “Judas” moment, where he abandoned his lo-fi acoustic roots.
After a few years’ separation, I’m sufficiently removed from the felt need to defend the record, and listening to it with fresh ears is really wonderful. It’s quite a breathtaking record, with such depth and layers of sound. The songwriting is beautiful too, and Beam’s trademark melodicism has never been stronger.
This song will be a favorite on quiet summer nights for many years to come.
Dawes- Jealous Guy (John Lennon cover)
I think this works.
We have been called to participate in the world’s creation from the very beginning. Making music. Baking cakes. Sewing curtains. These things mean something greater: that we have been known from the very start. Our eye color, our hairline, our jawline, the shape of our big toe, the tone of our voice. These things have been designed from the very beginning. What kind of music we listen to. The sort of skirt that looks good. The baseball cap, the tennis shoe, the orange bandana. We have been made to find these things for ourselves and take them in as ours, like adopted children: habits, hobbies, idiosyncrasies, gestures, moods, tastes, tendencies, worries. They have been put in us for good measure.
Perhaps we don’t like what we see: our hips, our loss of hair, our shoe size, our dimples, our knuckles too big, our eating habits, our disposition. We have disclosed these things in secret, likes and dislikes, behind doors with locks, our lonely rooms, our messy desks, our empty hearts, our sudden bursts of energy, our sudden bouts of depression. Don’t worry. Put away your mirrors and your beauty magazines and your books on tape. There is someone right here who knows you more than you do, who is making room on the couch, who is fixing a meal, who is putting on your favorite record, who is listening intently to what you have to say, who is standing there with you, face to face, hand to hand, eye to eye, mouth to mouth. There is no space left uncovered. This is where you belong.
New album “Ghost on Ghost” is streaming on NPR’s First Listen. It’s pretty… the drumming is actually pretty brilliant. Click here.
It’s nights like these the sad songs don’t help
It’s nights like these your heart’s with someone else
It’s nights like these I feel like giving up
It’s nights like these I don’t seem to count for much
Nirvana- Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Home Recording)
Sat through lunch with a guy last week who would not shut up about how much he disliked Kurt Cobain. Oh well. 19 years today, it seems.
Jason Molina- I’ve Been Riding With A Ghost
I’ve lost my taste for internet death posts. Whenever somebody of note dies, there’s this mad race among the tweets and statuses to come up with the most genuine, sincere, and obscure “RIP” message. I guess I got tired of it and dropped out of that game.
But this one is different. It sounds like melodramatic existential crap to suggest that life is a slow suicide, but in some ways, Jason Molina’s life was that. His untimely death caught me by surprise, though maybe it shouldn’t have. Regardless, it happened, and it’s an occasion not only to reflect on the life and work of a great artist, but on the life and choices we’ve made ourselves. We should all find peace, after all, in this world or the next.
Richie Havens- All Along The Watchtower (live)
I’ve had this kicking around the hard drive for over a decade, it seems. This is probably the most impressively angry version I’ve ever heard. It hits you like a hammer in its simplicity.
“Washington is groovy… for Romans…”
Nirvana- Drain You (live on French television)
This video answers the eternal question of what Nirvana would look like if they dressed like waiters. Or kinda like Han Solo.
Earlier in the night, he helped boost the value of an auctioned signed guitar. “With this guitar comes one free guitar lesson with me,” he said to the audience to trigger more bids. Then he threw in a ride in the sidecar of his Harley motorcycle, and his mom’s lasagna. The guitar sold for $250,000.
(Source: Yahoo!)
David Bazan- Cold Beer and Cigarettes (live on KEXP)
It’s time to play another fun round of, “Guess who’s an old bastard?” This album is 10 years old.
So the answer, as always, is me.
Glen Hansard- Astral Weeks (Van Morrison cover)
This is pretty powerful stuff.
Neil Young- Long May You Run (live on Conan’s last Tonight Show)
Stubborn and righteous, there is no entertainer of the last half century who more closely resembles a super-hero than Neil Young. I’ve been addicted to his live LPs from the 70s lately, especially his Massey Hall show.
We Are Alive
“It’s the thing that eats at me and always will. My life took a very different course, but my life is an anomaly. Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose.” Gesturing toward the band onstage, he said, “We’re repairmen—repairmen with a toolbox. If I repair a little of myself, I’ll repair a little of you. That’s the job.”
