My Favorite Music of 2008 (Part 1: Top 10 Albums)

Inspired by Goose’s mostly annual, highly entertaining list of his favorite music of the previous year, here’s the first half covering my Top 10 Albums. I’ve included streaming versions of 2 tracks from each of them, and a random selection of YouTube clips.

If you’ve listened to our podcasts (if not, why not?), you’ll know that Goose listens to a much more eclectic range of music (Bolivian Vacuum Polka Funk, anyone?) than I. Also pretty sure he’s the reason Comcast may start throttling users’ bandwidth. Admittedly, I could stand to open the valve wider into my ear hole, but what I love, I love.

So here’s the Top 10 albums I loved the most in 2008. Eligibility was determined by the Year that came up in iTunes.

Part 2 (Songs & Shows) is now up as well.

Selling Out

We’ve said from the beginning that we will sell out to the first person who offers us enough money to buy us a nice sandwich. The same applies for persons 2 to 100. But that’s where we draw the line.

The Popcorn Trick is easing on down the slow road to whoredom. All of the albums listed below are linked to their respective Amazon CD & MP3 pages. If you purchase them from the links on our page, we get a few shekels kicked back in our direction.

We give you hours and hours of entertainment, and all we ask in return is that a 3rd party compensate us.

If you do actually buy one of these albums, drop us an email or a comment so we can see if this scam actually works. I think you have to buy the product in the same browser session you initiated when you click a link.

Top 10 Sampler

Here’s 2 of my favorite tunes from each of the Top 10 Albums. In some cases, I did not choose my favorite because they will be included in my favorite songs of 2008. And they’re somewhat out of order because I changed my mind on the Top 10, and you can’t edit a mixtape once you’ve created one.

Fuzz.com says that songs will stop being playable after a few weeks, but the Christmas mixtape I did back in December is still working, so who knows?

Press the Play button to open the case and start the music. If you have any problems viewing the embedded player, you can check the mixtape out here.

The Best

#10 My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges (MP3)

“It Still Moves” might me one of my Top 10 Albums of all time. It’s that good. Most of the songs I heard off their follow-up, Z, were going in a more experimental direction compared to the stadium-rock, jammy-but-not-too-jammy-more-like-Neil-Young-than-Phish-jammy, stuff off ISM. Left me cold.

This feels like they moved the dial somewhere in between those 2 motifs. You have the full-throttle rock of “Aluminum Park” and “Remnants” juxtaposed with the atmospheric weirdness of “Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream Pts. 1 & 2”. But they split the difference with several mid-tempo numbers touched by late-model Wilco-ness (“Sec Walkin” and “Two Halves”). It gets eclectic with some falsetto soul (“Evil Urges”), sweet-sounding but lyrically caustic beauty (“I'm Amazed”) and a fricking bizarre song which I have to be in the right mood to enjoy (“Highly Suspicious”).

This one has really grown on me, and it feels like they’re still growing and trying new things without going all Radiohead on me.

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Here’s 2 members of MMJ doing one of their weird ones in the back of a cab:

#9 Two Cow Garage – Speaking in Cursive (MP3)

I’ve pimped these guys multiple times before. Their combination of raspy vocals and blistering cowpunk hit me in the cozy hearth of my wheelhouse. And while I’ve never seen them in a crowd of more than 20 people, they are incredible live.

But this album feels like it could have been a lot better and a bit of a step back from their last one (“III”). The peaks are high (“Humble Narrator”, “Bastards & Bridesmaids”, “Skinny Legged Girl”, “Funeral Drag”), but there’s more filler (“Swallowed by the Seas”, “Glass City”, “The Heart and the Crown”) than there should be.

This could be one of the greatest 6-song EPs ever, but as it is, it’s a frustrating collection of classics and skip-this songs.

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It did provide probably my favorite YouTube of the year:

Here’s a bonus clip of “Humble Narrator”:

#8 Mates of State – Re-arrange Us (MP3)

A few years back I was walking around the Austin City Limits Festival and came across these guys playing on one of the smaller stages. I wasn’t familiar with their stuff, but was really impressed with the size and scope of the music they made from just 2 people. I made a mental note to check them out. That joined my resolution to

Fast-forward to this year when this album came out. I heard “My Only Offer”, liked it, and eventually got the album in December. I then listened to it like a mental patient. I love the interplay of their vocals and the sparse but hook-filled tunes. It may be the most consistently good album on this list. There isn’t a bad song on the album. It makes me want to go back and get some of their older stuff.

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Also, I think Kori Gardner may be a future version of Kristen Bell:

Here’s an in-store performance of an older song with a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” inserted into the middle:

#7 Old 97’s – Blame It on Gravity (MP3)

Always been a big fan of the country/pop/rock thing these guys do. Their stuff has gotten more polished and more pop-centric over the years with mixed results.

BIOG could still have a bit more edge and grit, but it’s a good collection of the kind of songs they can probably craft in their sleep (whilst counting their Chili’s money).

The highlights are the twirling word play of “Dance With Me” and the simply beautiful “The Color of Lonely Heart is Blue”. The latter is Murray Hammond’s contribution (the rest are Rhett Miller’s). Normally, the song or 2 a band gives the bassist seems more like a bone tossed to him in attempt to forestall a prolonged pouting session. But Murray makes the most of his bones, and this song overcomes its mawkish title in a big way.

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Here’s the video for “Dance With Me”. It features a Gallifinakisian protagonist fighting his way towards some chick from Battlestar Galactica.

#6 Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue (MP3)

I had a chance to see Rilo Kiley at the Troc over a year ago. At the time, I only knew “Portions for Foxes” and passed. A decision for which I’m currently kicking myself. Really. It’s

I’ve fallen hard for both Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis. Not just because she’s hot. And not just because she was in Troop Beverly Hills, a movie whose tape my kid sister just about wore out watching to my disbelief.

She’s got skills as a singer and songwriter, but what I love most of all is her unpredictability. While there are hooks all over the place like some kind of house whose inhabitants have way too many coats, the song structures rarely feel familiar from one song to the next. They’re much more about the journey than the destination.

This album alternates between slower tunes that explore the upper end of her register (“Black Sand”, “Trying My Best to Love You”) and tempo-shifting romps (“See Fernando”, “Jack Killed Mom”, “The Next Messiah”). The clear highlight for me is the title track, which is the one of the most desolately beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It feels like something Linda Ronstadt and some hangers-on would sing at sunset during Jackson Brown’s Annual Clam Bake and Quaalude Festival in Reseda.

While I still prefer her R-K work, you can feel the fun they had experimenting with different styles.

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Here’s a clip of her doing Carpetbaggers with Elvis Costello:

#5 The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (MP3)

This is not the masterpiece I think these guys are capable of producing at some point, but it’s a solid double in the gap nonetheless.

“Navy Sheets” is an annoying misstep. Probably my least or second-least favorite song in the Top 5.

“Sequestered in Memphis” grabbed me from the get go, but I like the sax less and less with every listen.

The guest vocalists (Ben Nichols from Lucero, Patterson Hood, amongst others) are subtly used throughout. Maybe too subtly.

You can feel them trying a to write an anthem with “Stay Positive” & “Constructive Summer”. When that kind of aspiration is tangible, it’s usually not a good thing. But they’re so winningly earnest about their desire for you to pump your first and sing along, it works.

The other weird thing about this album is that the best 2 songs are the last 2. “Joke About Jamaica” and “Slapped Actress” do indulge in their usual storytelling and name-checking, but not even obliquely referencing Hallelujah or Charlemagne feels liberating and a new take on things. The next album should be all references to the man who called a blind blues man “Elvis” and asked him to play something with balls.

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These guys do web videos, and they somehow finagled an afternoon of drinking and playing bar games with THS. Not bad work if you can get it. Check out the chick’s potty mouth, and also the tattoos that Tad and another guy got at the end of this. Weird.

x``
The Hold Steady Vs. VBS - Bar Games - The best video clips are here

#4 Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

Here’s another artist that The Popcorn Trick is firmly in lockstep behind. It’s music whose building blocks are a rapid-fire assault of beats and clips of songs well-known and obscure.

If you look at the list of 20-30 songs necessary to build each track, some of them are the obvious ones you can hear. But there’s a lot buried deep in the mix and/or distorted to the point of being unrecognizable. Popular songs are hardwired into our DNA and these songs use that both on the liminal and the areas below the liminal.

It does seem that the beds of the song use more rock/pop with hip-hop more featured in the foreground, as compared to his previous effort, “Night Ripper”. It also seems like he’s using more distorted vocals (“The Weight” in “Still Here” and “Nothing Compares 2 U” in “Play Your Part (pt. 1)”). Those vocals play like an attempt to bond with the listener over how good, but worn out those songs have become over the years.

Picking out favorite tracks is hard, since they’re all such altered beasts. Favorite moments, however, are plentiful and easier to spot. They distill two or more disparate well-known musical sensibilities from different eras into combinations that seems obvious in hindsight.

• Metallica’s “One” & Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” -- (“Like This”)
• Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park”, Quad City DJs “Ride the Train”, & ? and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears” -- (“Here’s the Thing”)
• Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” & Big Country’s “In a Big Country” -- (“Hands in the Air”)

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I included a bunch of their videos way back when, but here are a couple I didn’t. In this first one, Greg walks us through how he puts together a few seconds of mashed up goodness. He also tries to justify the manner in which he makes his music and wordlessly show off the Level-9 Stockholm Syndrome chick he has dozing in the background.

While most of the Girl Talk YouTube clips use the original videos for the songs in the mashup, this guy is different. He puts up the lyrics and pics of the bands as the song plays out. Literal, but I like it:

#3 Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (MP3)

Albums are not made in a vacuum by robots. At least not until 2015. They’re made by humans and are shaped by their personal lives, by factors mundane and ethereal.

The DBTs’ last effort (“A Blessing & a Curse”) was the last one made with Jason Isbell before he divorced Shonna Tucker (the band’s bass player) and went solo less than a year later. You can hear the transitional aspect of that album. The band that made “Decoration Day” & “The Dirty South” knew what they were and that they could kick your ass. The band that made ABAAC could still kick your ass, but they seemed to be spinning their wheels.

This album, however, seems to find the band in a much more settled place. And that’s a good thing. I’ve written at length wondering what direction they’re going to take in their post-Isbell times. If you can judge by this album, they’re turning down the volume and turning up the warmth. Adding pedal steel (John Neff), piano (Spooner Oldham), and female vocals (Tucker) will do that.

They can still stomp a mud hole and walk it dry (“The Righteous Path”, “That Man I Shot”, & “Goode’s Field Road”). But the intimacy of songs like “Daddy Needs a Drink” and “Two Daughters & a Beautiful Wife” is comforting, even if the subject matter of the lyrics isn’t

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Shonna’s efforts, especially “I’m Sorry Huston” and “Home Field Advantage”. I question her range (the clip of her doing the female part of THS’ “Chill-Out Tent” is cringe-inducing), but her husky voice is well-suited to these regret-soaked songs.

My only major qualm with the album is that its 19 tracks are 4 or 5 too much. Take out “Bob”, “Lisa’s Birthday”, “Perfect Timing”, and “The Purgatory Line”, and I probably move it up to #2. Note that three of those songs are Mike Cooley’s. That would be my only minor qualm, that his efforts could have been stronger.

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Patterson Hood & I share some favorite bands:

Doing “Marry Me” with some help from #5 and a guy in a gorilla suit:

#2 Marah – Angels of Destruction! (MP3)

This one came out so early in 2008, I had almost forgotten about it. Thankfully iTunes’ Smart Playlist technology had not.

It’s easy to forget about an album when a band doesn’t tour behind it. The bad taste in my mouth from yet another band reshuffling causing that non-touring didn’t help either. I’ll be damned if they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot for fear of taking that next step yet again. I don’t know where Marah is headed, since Serge Bielanko is on semi-permanent hiatus in Utah having just become a father.

All that being said, this is a great album. It doesn’t really have a cohesive feel to it, but that’s OK because the songs are that good.

“Blue But Cool” is one of the few missteps, and even that has more good moments than bad. There’s all kinds of styles here, from the carnival folk of “Can’t Take it With You” to the propulsive “Coughing Up Blood” to the moody verses/uplifting chorus combo of “Angels on a Passing Train”.

“Jesus in the Temple” is a really good, but out of place stylistically. That’s not easy to do on an album as diverse as this one. It’s largely the efforts of yet another rhythm section shown the door. They left to form Adam & Dave’s Bloodline (a really good band in its own right). With them still in the fold, Marah would have been a powerhouse.

The album closes on a 10-minute track (“Wilderness”) which is 2 songs connected by a bagpipe interlude (a shout-out to the end of their debut effort). The first part is a stomping, defiant ode to persevering through struggle (“passing through this wilderness… searching for our home… together and alone…”). The second part is a slow, jokey song about Dave Bielanko’s incarceration for falling asleep drunk in the lobby of an Indiana hotel. The first part would give me hope that this too shall pass, but the reality says otherwise. Also, I’d love to hear them stomp through Wilderness live. With Serge.

“Marah” is still touring, but in a more stripped-down fashion. Marah will always be Dave & Serge, and whomever they haven’t pissed off yet filling in the rest. They’ve been a huge part of my life in the last 10 years, but it feels like I will be talking more and more about them in the past tense. This album reminds me how much that sucks

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Here’s Dave doing “Can’t Take it With You” in the UK with Christine Smith on keys:

#1 The Felice Brothers – The Felice Brothers (MP3)

On the recommendation of some fellow Marah fans, I checked these guys out at the First Unitarian Church’s exceedingly intimate Chapel back in April. It was, to put it mildly, incredible. They climbed all across the altar and shivered the rafters with their murder ballads and heartache takes on folk classics. They are by far my favorite musical discovery this year.

3 of the 5 members are actual brothers, and the rest of the band is filled out by washboard and traveling dice players. Seriously. Seriously.

Everything seems loose and organic with these guys. Nothing’s forced. It’s entirely plausible that they traveled here from a 1930s Dust Bowl tent city via time travel.

When I saw Old Crow Medicine Show earlier this year, I couldn’t help but compare them to The Felice Brothers. OCMS has all the ingredients of a great band, but it all seems forced. I don’t want to get into an authenticity pissing match, but the gut feel I get from both bands couldn’t be more different.

Oh, and the album? Transcendent. They turn phrases and paint evocative stories with remarkable consistency. I do lunge for the Next button when “Goddamn You, Jim” comes up, but the rest is straight from the Big Pink. The highlights are “Frankie’s Gun”, “She Loves Me Tenderly”, & “Whiskey in my Whiskey”.

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Here’s a MixTube list of videos I recorded at a fantastic house show last June. Possibly my favorite show of the year, but I’ll save that for Part II.

And here’s another Black Cab Session:

The Rest:

1. The Whigs – Mission Control (MP3)
   • Got this after hearing the killer single “Right Hand on My Heart”. It hasn’t held up fantastically on repeated listenings, but they bring the heat live.
2. Gutter Twins – Saturnalia (MP3)
   • As I’ve mentioned in several places on this blog, this outing really disappointed based on my love of most things Dulli and a fondness for Mark Lanegan’s Screaming Trees work. But the whole is less than the sum of its parts. It occasionally hits its dark stride on tracks like “Idle Hands”, but generally it just mopes along.
3. She & Him – Volume One (MP3)
   • Haven’t really gotten into this one too much. My first impression that it was a little too stark. I loved “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” and its girl-group flourishes which seem to be absent from most of the other tracks.
4. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel – Dual Hawks (MP3)
   • Basically the same band with 2 musical approaches put out a double album with each approach getting their own “side”. Love Centro-Matic, but the SSG sound is too mellow for my tastes. It felt like SSG bled over more into the CM stuff, so I’m not feeling it as much as previous works. Still highly, highly recommended live.
5. Hayes Carll – Trouble in Mind (MP3)
   • Wryly sarcastic lyrics and good drawling vocals are a good combination, but the production was too glossy and new-Nashville for my tastes at times. “She Left Me For Jesus” is still one of the funniest songs in recent memory. And the video ain’t bad either.

Albums I Wished I Had Checked Out in 2008, and Intend to Check Out in 2009

1. The Streets - Everything is Borrowed (MP3)
2. Jonatha Brooke - The Works (MP3)
3. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E (MP3)

Podcast 10.009 Recap -- Pics, Vids, Links, and More!

After more aborted beginnings than a Planned Parenthood yard sale, The Popcorn Trick finally started spurting digital chatter into your collective podholes. To ease us back into things, we tackled some broad topics and even a few topics about broads.

Intro:

10+ days after the Popcorn Trick and most of their fanbase attended the Drive-By Truckers show, we kicked off the show with a live recording from that show, as captured in this video:

In case you haven't already, you can check out Goose's review of the show and my treatise on what it meant for the future of the Truckers.

 

As the music faded, we seamlessly rejoined the light banter our fans have come to know and envy. And we totally didn't have a better opening segment deleted due to technical difficulties, in case you were wondering.

The Best

5 months between podcasts, and we both went with something fresh in our memories for our respective The Bests.

I kicked things off recounting a late-night trip to an apparently legendary jazz club north of Harlem (not really Upper West Side as I initially though) called St. Nick's Pub (also this). Drinks were shared, stories told, business cards swapped, sandwiches made, and other people laid.

An exterior shot:

A little Latin flavor:

Not great video, but this is a decent approximation of what I remember in terms of music and visibility:

Jayne Kennedy's daughter doing some jazz vocals:

After trying to sow seeds of distrust between me and my alleged girlfriend, Goose went on to detail his The Best. You can't go wrong with the mad genius that is R. Kelly. Especially on The Popcorn Trick.

This is Kels' latest video, or as it some day may be known, Exhibit A:

A little taste of the brilliance of Trapped in the Closet:

And then,this:

Musical Interlude

We kept it broad, and directly in Goose's wheelhouse by going with songs that have horns in them. All of them, in some form or another can be listened to via this here thing:

podcast 10

Other stuff:

• Good Onion article (mentioned by me in a deleted scene) about songs nearly ruined by saxophone.
• Marah doing Can't Hardly Wait (sans horns):
  
• Fathead has a reunion show 1/24/09 at the North Star
• More info on the Elephant 6 collective, which includes one of Goose's choices (Neutral Milk Hotel)
  • Wiki entry
  • A guy involved with Elephant 6 shuffles through his iPod (AV Club's Random Rules)
• Neutral Milk Hotel
  • Weird MS Paint video for an NMH song:
  • NMH's Jeff Mangum doing Holland, 1945:
• Beck doing "Debra" live
• Trailer for documentary (Dig!) about the Dandy Warhols & the Brian Jonestown Massacre:
• Spiritualized

  • Live version of "Come Together" from earlier this year :
  • John Prine's "Sam Stone", which had a few lyrics borrowed for "Come Together"
    
• Phil Collins

  • I couldn't find any clips of him acting, but here's what he looked like when he was on Miami Vice and what he sounded like when he was singing songs from Buster:
    
    
    
    

Underrated Hotties

We kept it broad, this time going with the vague concept of "Underrated Hot Chicks". Whether it was someone well known but under-lusted-after or someone who is obviously hot, but less famous, these are some of the people we would love to handcuff to our mental radiator.

• Angela from the Office
  • 
• Christa Miller
  • 
    
• Maura Tierney
  • 
  • 
• Jordana Brewster (DEBS - other chick)
  • 
    
• Jill Ritchie (from D.E.B.S, Arrested Development, and being Kid Rock's sister)
  • 
• Cobie Smulders
  • 
• Jenny Lewis
  • 
    
• Michelle Obama
  • 
  • 
• Mary Steenburgen
  • 
  • 
  • Slightly NSFW striptease vid
• Diane Kruger
  • 
• Dana Delaney
  • 
  • NSFW Sex Scene

Enjoy!

What's Next for the Drive-By Truckers?

Loathe as I was to admit it to myself, I was starting to get a little bored with the Drive-By Truckers.

Then last Saturday's show happened.

Does it represent a slightly new direction for the band I love?

Or was it just a drunken hook-up that will never call, never buy me brunch, never even throw me a pity bang?

A lengthy dissection of this and some kick-ass tunes after the jump.

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Hell No, I Ain't Happy

Rockin' in the Free World from 11/8 Philly show.

We all have regrets in life. The path not taken, etc. This one ranks just below missing an impromptu stand-up set at a PADA holiday party back in 2005. To this day, I don't know the difference between how white people and black people drive.

My regret is that I didn't trust my fellow Marah fanatics when they kept pimping this band called the Drive-By Truckers to me for over a year. It wasn't that I didn't trust their opinion, it was just never the right time or place. But those are just excuses for a lack of initiative on my part. When it was finally the right place & time (TLA, June 21, 2003), I had missed the chance to see them in the really small venues (they played the Bishop's Collar twice for crying out loud).

But despite not knowing any of their songs going in to that show, I knew I was going to be hooked. They beat the shit out of you with 3 guitars, and then throw you in the back of a pick-up truck and take you on a tour of seedy backwater counties resplendent in all shades of gray. Metaphorically, that is. Mostly.

And to say they had an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent would be an understatement. All 3 leads (Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Jason Isbell) could easily front their own band. And they were unabashedly Southern, embracing all the baggage and pride that it entailed.

In short, there was nothing for me not to adore. Ever since then, I've jumped at the chance to see them whenever they came to town, or any towns within a 2 hour radius. Or when the opportunity struck, any town within a 2 hour flight. New Year's Eve day 2003, with no big plans for the evening, I jumped a plane to see them at the Variety Playhouse in the ATL. I took 2 more Georgia-bound flights over the next year+. The destination for both of those trips was the lovely little college town of Athens, GA. Home to my favorite college football team and more great little dive bars than one could count on 3 hands. I fell in love with the town and put my soul further in hock to the band.

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Down in a Hole

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit -- "Decoration Day"

Even though it was clearly Patterson & Cooley's band, you could tell early on that Jason Isbell was special. He could do the rockers and he could do the heartbreaking epics. And he was the only one who brought a smoothness in his vocals and songwriting to the table. He wasn't as prolific as the other two when you look at the DBT catalog, but there wasn't a clunker in the bunch. "Danko/Manuel", "Outfit", "Goddamn Lonely Love", "Never Gonna Change", "The Day John Henry Died" I could go on.

And the blend of the 3 songwriters was perfect during their live shows. Every single DBT set started with (in differing order) one song from each of the 3 leads. I loved the democracy it exemplified. And the rest of the setlist always seemed perfectly balanced between the three of them..

Then he left the band.

It was never a question of "if", but "when" he would go solo. His songwriting and chops were too good. But it all happened too fast (for me, anyways) in April 2007. It didn't help that he was divorcing the woman who was both his wife AND bass player (Shonna Tucker).

But like they say in Frisco, the band played on.

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Aftermath, USA

Burning for You in Louisville:

Since then, the live shows have been off-balance. It didn't matter how good the band or how hot the crowd was. It's not like the rest of the band started sucking all of a sudden, but there was always an Isbell-sized hole in the shows.

Most bands could not have weathered a loss like that and continued to be a viable act. Most bands are not the Drive-By Truckers. But it also seems like they've been trying to find a new tack since then.

To their credit, they did not try to replace him with another guitarist/songwriter wunderkind. Not that there a lot of those hanging around the Waffle House, but it's a route they could have tried to take. It worked for INXS, right?

In the immediate aftermath, they launched a mostly acoustic tour (The Dirt Underneath) and drafted legendary Muscle Shoals musician Spooner Oldham to help fill in. But as they went back to doing more rock shows, they leaned more on pedal steel guitarist John Neff who had been with them early on and then rejoined them in 2006. But the pedal steel sound is going to swallowed mostly whole by the guitars of Cooley & Patterson. Shonna would do 1 or 2 of her Dusty Springfield-ish tunes, which was fine, but nothing to get psyched about.

The nadir might have been a show down in Baltimore at Pier 6 this past summer. A good chunk of the crowd left after the The Avett Brothers "opened", and the show could be best described as "workmanlike". To be fair, when you play 300 shows a year, that'll happen. And it doesn't help that the last 2 albums were overall quieter and smaller in tone than the bombastic brilliance of The Dirty South or Decoration Day.

Something, however, was missing.

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Daylight

Let There Be Rock in Boston

Maybe they found that missing ingredient in a NJ Turnpike rest stop on the way down to Philly Saturday afternoon. It wasn't evident Friday night in NYC, but to be fair, that felt like a Hold Steady show with a Hold Steady crowd.

Saturday night at the Electric Factory was a revelation.

Something lit a fire under their ass and they took it to another level, a level I hadn't seen them at since early 07. They extended several songs ("Heathens", "Hell No, I Ain't Happy") with some atypical jams. They do love a guitar solo (or threesome), but it's usually done within the confines of the song structure. It was nice to see them explore the studio space. It's interesting that their fan base has a decent-sized overlap with the "jam" community, but I never thought they fell into that category. They've never noodled.

Maybe it was as something simple as it being Saturday night before a hot crowd, or maybe the ever-present bottle of Jack they passed around was aged in a particularly good barrel.

Maybe it was the unlikely addition of a horn section for several songs. At first glance, you would say that the Truckers and a horn section go together like Craig Finn and tight, on-stage choreography. But against those odds, it worked. The horns lent a funereal quality to the otherwise uplifting "World of Hurt". 180 degrees the opposite direction, they helped cut the brakes on they always-fiery "Marry Me". On a side note, we here at the Popcorn Trick are working on a behind-the-scenes look at the particulars of how the horn section came to be. Stay tuned.

Or maybe it was the natural competition and inspiration that touring with a band like The Hold Steady can bring. I don't see how it couldn't bring out new aspects of your live show. Especially when the 2 bands intermingle for the encores every single night of the tour to do each band's signature closer (THS' "Killer Parties" and DBT's "Let There Be Rock") and a wide array of covers (e.g. "Rockin' in the Free World", "Look Out Cleveland", "Burnin' For You").

Most likely, it's some combination of all those factors. The simple fact is that without Isbell, they can't just hit you with a Neapolitan ice cream barrage of classics for 3 hours. But they're a very tight unit. What they can do is play the shit out of a still-impressively deep catalog of songs. I would love to see them rework a few of the war horses and forgotten chestnuts. Most importantly, take the vibe from those encores and extend it through the whole set. Make us feel like we might see something we've never seen before, even those of us who've seen 'em dozens of times.

Hell, if Patterson can change the lyrics of "Steve McQueen", anything can change, right?

"I really loved The Getaway back when I was eight... That pussy Alec Baldwin sucked in the remake..."

became

"I really loved The Getaway back when I was eight... I really thought Alec Baldwin was a pussy back when he made that remake... That was before 30 Rock... I kinda like him now..."

So it doesn't flow quite as well, but it definitely shows the Universe more respect. Either way, the next couple of lines still kill me:

"Speaking of pussy, they say Steve McQueen got it all... He fucked Faye Dunaway... And he fucked Ali McGraw..."

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Multimedia

Some auditory evidence of the genius that transpired that night:

• DBT
  • MP3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/mpbai8
  • FLAC Torrent: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=520207
• THS
  • MP3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/i7p94w
  • FLAC Torrent: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=520206

And some Hold Steady-centric stuff too:

The Band's Look Out Cleveland in Boston

Killer Parties in Boston:

Chillout Tent (!) in Boston:

And for you Van Morrison fans: Isbell doing "Into the Mystic:

Hold Steady/Drive By Truckers Show

Saturday night I got a special treat - the Hold Steady and Drive By Truckers were playing a double billing in Philly. Though they were playing the Electric Factory, a notoriously poor venue for quality sound, it was tough to pass up seeing two good bands in one night.

And neither disappointed.

While I am a much bigger Hold Steady fan, I walked away more impressed with the Drive By Truckers. While I like their studio work, nothing really stands out for me, and going into the show I was afraid they were going to play a more mellow, more country influenced set. That was not the case.

Both bands put on a great show, and I would recommend going out and seeing them if you can. Below I have put together both sets for each band as accurately as I could; there are only a few songs missing from each night. Enjoy!

Hold Steady setlist:


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Drive By Truckers set:


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Also, if you'd like to get your hands on the actual sets, let me know and I can point you in some right directions. Just leave your email in the comments section.

Week 10 Picks (Cline) - I Miss Marisol Massey

Yeah, yeah, I suck. These picks are late and but not as truncated as they were going to be. I did make my picks in a comment to goose's . I will again attempt to placate my guilt by giving you pictures of famous chicks nearly naked (NSFW).

And something else after the jump...

Like this:

It's been 3 days of great music and schlepping around, but not a whole lot of Internet access. Here's a brief travelogue:

Thursday: Caught the train into the city (a lovely new double-decker version) and met up with my friend in Brooklyn. We got to the Warsaw (concert hall/Polish social club) just in time to sample some of their delectable pierogies and Polish beer whose name I can't pronounce. We were there to see the Gutter Twins, a super group of sorts formed by the lead singers of the Afghan Whigs (the ever-sexy Greg Dulli) & the Screaming Trees (Mark Lanegan). I've seen them a couple of times and was underwhelmed (though to be fair, I was over-beered for one of those). Tonight was the best show I've seen by them. But at the same time, I can't wait for this project to be over and Dulli start doing his own thing, whether that's solo, with the Twilight Singers, or (Please, Jebus) an Afghan Whigs reunion. It's just not a good mix. The whole is less than the sum of its parts.

Also, we had a carnival of douchebags in a 3 foot radius surrounding us at all times. Not the same douchebags, but rather a never-ending stream of them in all annoying shapes and sizes. Usually NYC crowds are loathe to appear that they are enjoying themselves. This was not Thursday's problem. We had people who wouldn't shut up, people who stood an inch in front of us (with 3 feet of space in front of them), 6'5" really drunk guy who wanted to swing dance with his equally drunk girlfriend in a larger radius than what was afforded him by the crowd, corduroy jacket-wearing high-fivers, and a blond who we wondered about how drunk she was vs. how drunk she was acting. The verdict was that she was really drunk.

Friday: I was on my own, as my host had to be lame and work. So I made plans to meet up with another friend for lunch and just explore the city. I met her down in the Village and afterwards decided to start exploring the city. That entailed walking past a bunch of leather, fetish, and discipline daddy stores into a 4-block stretch where every other store was selling purses of some kind. I know women need purses like I need pepper jack, but this was ridiculous. I mean, where are my pepper jack stores? To minimize my revulsion, I ducked into Barrow's Pub and killed a few hours with an excellent jukebox sound system, and talked to a local who was just MRIed (even though she was too big for the machine) and who had interviewed Hendrix (very nice), Little Richard (only got 5 minutes with him), & Sly Stone(vicious jerk).

After dinner with my Brooklyn peeps, it was off to Terminal 5 and a sold-out show with a dream lineup of the Drive-By Truckers & The Hold Steady (a.k.a. The Rock & Roll Means Well Tour). The bands are co-headlining and take turns in the roles of opening and closing. Tonight the Truckers opened and The Hold Steady closed, which seemed appropriate because the crowd was heavily in favor of The Hold Steady. I enjoyed the show, but was not blown away, partially due to being a bit tired and partially because it was wall-to-wall New Yorkers. The encore bit was fun as Patterson Hood & John Neff joihned THS to close with a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Burning For You", and THS' traditional closer "Killer Parties".

But the real fun came after the show. I met up with Tony Leonardo, Ultimate book author, at a Harlem jazz club. Correction, a jazz club north of Harlem. Well, at least I was dressed to impress at a smoky jazz club. Girl Talk t-shirt, shorts, & sandals. But the night was a memorable one as we interacted with locals, got some not cheap/not weak drinks, and grooved till 4 in the morning. An hour later, I was back in Brooklyn.

Saturday:

Brunch in Brooklyn, and a train back to Trenton. I had all of 30 minutes to remove several layers of NYC funk before heading back out to a light dinner with K-Chop and several of her friends. And by "light dinner", I mean a Thanksgiving Dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes at Jones. And a 22 oz. Pilzilla. Highly recommended.

The show was, to put it mildly, incredible. Rather than being by myself and packed into a sardine can like in NYC, this time there was room to breathe and I had an entourage. Or maybe I was in the entourage of someone else. TPT wordsmith Goose, frequent commenters Hendge & KChop, and a couple of her friends. THS opened and the crowd was fired up from the word go. Especially fired up were a group of heterosexually-deficient young lads in front of us. Either they're part of a sleeper cell-esque operation to eventually mount a Broadway musical based on hit Hold Steady songs (which means THS would have to eventually have some hits) OR they are really, really gay for each other.

Post-THS, a small portion of the crowd did leave, but that only served to loosen the crowd up a bit and make it easier for piss & beer runs. And then the Truckers put on a rollicking set that was by far the best I've seen from them since Jason Isbell left. I have a whole 'nother post in me that will explore some of my feelings about where the band stands after last night's show. Adding a touch of brass to the proceedings was a 3-piece horn section that, I think, is the same one that played at a THS Asbury Park (Stone Pony) show a year or so ago. The story I hazily remember Craig Finn telling was that they were these high schooler guys who contacted the band about having worked up some arrangements to THS songs. So naturally, the band invited them to play with them. These *had* to be the same guys. How many 3-piece young male horn sections could there be who live in the area? However many, it's not enough. They played on 1 or 2 THS songs, and several of the Truckers' including "World of Hurt" & "Marry Me".

We capped the night off with some food at Good Dog. But the culinary highlight of the weekend might have been brunch at Carman's Country Kitchen, a South Philly landmark. Small and cozy (3 tables and a counter) means you NEED to call ahead the same day to reserve a table. Carman is a character, a thrice-married fan of plastic surgery and has cooked in resturants run by mobsters. Every week she goes by the Italian Market (about 2 blocks away) and comes up with a small menu that combines all kinds of flavors and ingredients. Her kitchen is open to the dining room and you can/should interact with her.
d
Now onto my picks for Week 10 in the league where they play.... FOR PAY!

Week 9 Records:

Cline -- 7-7 (-$140) (LOTW=W -- BDCS=L)

Goose -- 9-5 (+$260)

Overall Records:

Cline -- 57-41-1 (.582) +$610 (LOTW=4-2 -- BDCS=2-4)

Goose -- 54-44-1 (.551) +$10

Denver at CLEVELAND(-1)
TENNESSEE (-2) at Chicago
JACKSONVILLE (-5.5) at Detroit
SEATTLE at Miami (-8.5)

Green Bay (-1) at MINNESOTA
BALTIMORE (-3) at Houston
St. Louis at NY JETS (-4.5)
NEW ORLEANS at Atlanta (PICK)
Buffalo (-3.5) at NEW ENGLAND
CAROLINA (-7) at Oakland

INDIANAPOLIS at Pittsburgh (-1.5)
Kansas City at SAN DIEGO (-8)
N.Y. Giants at PHILLY (PICK)
San Francisco at ARIZONA (-6.5)

Podcast 9.01 Recap

Our last single-digit podcast was memorable for several reasons. Not the least of which was my rapid-fire catch phrase shoe-horning whenever Goose's defenses were lowered. Other actual content-related content:

• We discover that apparently Girl Drinks (Chocolate Choo Choo, Blue Crush) are like catnip to women. They even help me throw some game.
  
• I talk about the house concert I hosted recently. This segues into an update on the film we made recently.
• In Musical Interlude, we put on our A&R pants as we discuss songs dear to our hearts that should have been supper-massive mega hits.
• And finally we re-visit 8.00's ground-breaking The Naughty & The Nottie segment as I throw a couple at Goose he may or may not approve of.

Music from and inspired by Musical Interlude (I couldn't find the Moe or Huffamoose songs, so I include YouTube selections from each):


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Links/Images:

1. Some pictures from my house concert.
2. "Be Careful What You Wish For...", our award-winning short film, will be posted shortly, possibly in its own blog post.
   
3. Girl Drink Recipes:
1. What I dubbed the Blue Crush.
2. Goose's Chocolate Choo-Choo was mostly improvised, but there was definitely Godiva Liqueur, Sambuca, and random combinations of marshmallows & graham crackers. And maybe a splash of Spanish Fly.
   
3. General purpose drink recipe site: iDrink.com.
4. Lienert/Pickleman Podcast
5. Goose's Naughty Notties:
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 

Videos:

1. Moe - "Not Coming Down", one of Goose's Music Interlude choices
1. 
   
2. Huffamoose Documentary Trailer (could not find "Him in a Magazine")
1. 
   
3. ellipsis - Our friend Vale Jokisch's band who did my house concert, performing on NBC-10.
1. 
   
4. Another house concert I went to recently and recorded several songs by the incredible Felice Brothers.
1. 
   
5. The classic Kids in the Hall "Girl Drink Drunk" sketch. Watch for the little things like the waitress' choo-choo noises, and Kevin McDonald's slight sigh when Dave Foley starts reading off the Squashed Strawberry Alley Cat ingredients.
1. 
   
6. Trailer for the Illeana Douglas movie loosely based on the life of Carole King whose name I couldn't remember and whose existence Goose couldn't remember. I'm a big fan of the bad accents and awesome beards/hairdos sported by Turturro, Stoltz, & Dillon. This movie was also notable for having some pretty cool music (e.g. Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach) written in the style of the times portrayed by the movie.
1. More Wikipedia info.
2. 
   
7. Cheri Oteri turning me on
1. 
   
8. Leinert's doppelganger in sound + vision
1. 
   
9. A snippet of Baldwin & Wilder, apparently on a date. Not that I'm jealous.
1.