The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Every now and then someone asks me where I get my music from.  I have to say multiple sources.  Vinyl, CDs, friends and sometimes the internets.

For the most part I purchase music through legal channels because it’s the right thing to do.  But sometimes I’m just forced to do things through not so legal channels for the simple reason that the proper channels don’t have what I want.

Case in point.  A few years back my boss and I went to India on business and were horrified that we were going to miss the new episode of Lost.

“No Biggie!” I said “We’ll just watch the stream on the ABC website!”

Wrong.  When we tried, all we got was a message informing us that ABC’s streaming media was not available in our host country.   My boss was disappointed, but I said “Wait!  We can download it off iTunes! Problem solved! Yay!!!”

Wrong again.  Different website, same discouraging message as before: Service not available in your country.  Fuck.

But do you know what service was available in my country? Bit Torrent.  And an hour later we were gathered around the warm blue glow of my laptop watching Lost.  My point is, we made every effort to give money to the right people and go through the proper channels…but in the end only piracy gave us what we wanted when we wanted it.  The day the media fully embraces that concept will be a great day indeed.

Another great day was the day Montreal’s  The Arcade Fire dropped their sophomore effort “Neon Bible” on the world.

Although I’m somewhat annoyed that once again a non-American rock band has out-rocked us again, I can’t help but love their sound.  That’s just the way things go sometimes.

Originally formed at Phillips Exeter Acadamy by brothers Win and William Butler, the band lineup went through a lot of changes before finally solidifying in 2003 around Butler and his new wife Régine Chassagne.  In it’s early incarnations, the group sold copies of the now unavailable “Us Kids Know EP” while playing local shows.  If anyone has a copy of this, let me know cause I need it.

Their first full length album, “Funeral” was released in late 2004 after a recording session plagued by the deaths of several bandmate’s relatives (Thus the title. ) They garnered the attention of David Bowie who loved their sound, but it was the internets that really made The Arcade Fire into stars.  The band’s mini tour was rapidly expanded into a mega tour, large venues replaced small venues and the band soon sold out of it’s stockpile of self released albums.

It was around this time I first heard the band and was happily surprised that the hype wasn’t exaggerated.  They have a lovely indie baroque sound that I could say was close to The Killers, but a lot dreamier.  If you don’t have “Funeral,” consider that your extra credit if you like “Neon Bible.”

After the success of “Funeral” the band purchased a defunct old church outside of Montreal and spent the first half of 2006 converting it into a recording studio.  The band also made some great decisions like trying out new instruments and sounds, and deciding to self produce their new album.

I think “Neon Bible” should have been 2007 album of the year.  Why it wasn’t was a mystery to me.  Maybe because it was a sophomore effort. But regardless this album will move you…emotionally or even physically to shake your ass.  Which to me is what a good album does.

You can hear how much work went into making the album, and how much attention to detail was put into each song.  That’s a rare feeling in most of today’s music.  And while their music is kind of hard to categorize, the quality isn’t.

BONUS: You know it’s good when Spike Jones uses a song for his trailer for “Where The Wild Things Are.”  Lets hope the movie is as good.

Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run

The problem with growing old is that the older you get the faster time seems to speed up.  Today my girlfriend commented that the first decade of the new millennium was almost over, and I had to pause a second before I realized that she was right.

How in the hell did that happen?  It seems like the Bush-9/11 years went by in such a rush…not that I’ll miss them. I remember when I was young and a night could last indefinitely, a year as a lifetime and a decade was forever.

It makes you wonder if it’s time that’s changing or merely our perception of it, although I’ll  put my money on the latter…and no other artist that  I know of has been able to capture that feeling of expanded time quite like Bruce Springsteen did in his 1975 masterpiece, “Born to Run.”

Born in 1949 in New Jersey, Bruce had a hard time relating in school, but like most music legends of the time he heard Elvis Presley and knew he had to rock…getting his first guitar at age 13 for a whopping $18.  Three years later his mother would take out a loan to buy him a $60 Kent.  He languished in High School…never really fitting in to the point that he skipped his own graduation.  He spent some time in community college before deciding that school wasn’t for him and dropping out.  In 1965 he went to a local couple with a reputation for sponsoring new young bands, Tex and Marion Vinyard, who got him his first gig as head of a group called The Castiles where he was lead guitar…and soon became lead singer as well.

BY the late 60’s he was making waves with a power rock trio called Earth, where he earned his nickname “The Boss” for being the guy in charge of getting the bands money from the club owners and distributing it to the band.  Let it be noted that Bruce hates this nickname, so if you run into him try and refrain from calling him “The Boss” since he hates bosses. From 1969 to 1970 he played with a band called Steel Mill which included many future members of the E Street Band, but despite great reviews and a cult following in New Jersey Bruce was not satisfied.  He was a man in search of a sound who wouldn’t stop till he found it.

For the next few years he formed a number of bands as he hunted the sound and formed his core band…groups like Dr Zoom and the Sonic Boom, the Sundance Blues Band, and The Bruce Springsteen Band.  As word of his talent grew, he garnered the attention of Columbia records who signed him in 1972.

In the studio, Springsteen brought out the still yet to be named E Street Band to help record his debut album “Greetings From Ashbury Park, NJ” The album was a critical success, but was easily dismissed by many to be just another Dylan or Van Morrison knock off.  In 1973 he released his next album “The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle” with the songs getting bigger and better and the band hitting a more soulful R&B vibe.  But as much critical acclaim as he was gathering…commercial viability still alluded Bruce and it was slowly draining him.

But in early 1974 Bruce found a new ally in music critic Jon Landau, who after seeing the band perform declared “I saw the future of rock and roll, and it’s name is Bruce Springsteen.”  Landau became Bruce’s new manger and the producer who would help him finish his last chance album “Born to Run.”  Bruce was given a huge budget but had gotten bogged down in the studio searching for the Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” feel. It took 14 months to record the album, with six of those months devoted to the title track alone.  A release of an early mix of the album to progressive rock stations was already beginning to grow the buzz, and Bruce was determined to get it right…becoming angry and frustrated by the fact he couldn’t translate the sounds in his head to the recording.  Steven Van Zandt came in the nick of time to help Springsteen polish his sound and get some of the sounds in his head on tape, but even the finished product didn’t please Bruce who chucked the album into an alley.

Luckily it didn’t stay there.  On August 13th, 1975 Bruce and the E Street Band began a five night ten show run at the Bottom Line Club in New York.  Broadcast on FM radio, the shows silenced any detractors once and for all and let everyone know that Bruce Springsteen was the real thing.  When the album dropped a few weeks later, the commercial success he had been searching for finally arrived with it.

I always knew I liked Springsteen, I just didn’t know much about him growing up because my sisters really didn’t listen to him and that was my only influx of modern music in the house.  Now after years of listening I feel safe pointing all non believers in the direction of this album because it’s such a pure example of  rock and roll.  I defy you to listen to it and not feel good.  Some may say “Darkness on the Edge of Town” was a better album, and I’d be inclined to agree with them…but it just doesn’t make you feel like “Born to Run.”

BTW: These videos are from Bruce’s performance at the Hammersmith Odeon Theater from November of 1975.  You should own that too.

I’m just sayin.

Kutiman – ThruYOU

I was walking down second street with my lady the other week when we spotted this nutterholding a sign that said something along the lines of “REPENT!  GOD KILLS!”  Then there was some sort of website you could visit for more insanity I guess.

While I admired his guts to just stand on the street corner and let his freak flag fly, I was also amused with the flip side of the sign that read “Little Wayne is the Antichrist!”  Now, I can’t say I like Little Wayne’s musical stylings that much…but the antichrist?

Really?

You’ve probably heard me deride the current state of hip hop, and I think Little Wayne may be a part of said problem.  But as I’ve always said…DJ’s invented hip hop, and it’s the DJ’s who will save it.  And my newest DJ savior comes to us in the form of Israeli DJ Kutiman.  Yeah I know taht for most of the Internets, this is not new news, but for me this is what this site is all about.

See, original hip hop was all about taking something old and making something completely new from it.  That’s the essence of hip hop.  Now, I’ve been waiting for something like this to come along since I first heard of the advent of DVD turntables…and more recently the new video functionality on Serato.  But Kutiman gets the proverbial X-Prize for reaching the mountaintop first…with his groundbreaking work ThruYou.

Kutiman, real name Ophir Kutiel,  has been making electronic  music for some time now.  He grew up playing music …mostly classical jazz until college radio and a friend introduced him to AfrobBeat and Funk…I have his earlier work and it’s pretty funky. So anyhow he was hanging out…putting together some tracks, just chillin when he realized he needed a bass line.  Not wanting the prepackaged sounds of the music programs on hand, he decided to take a look on YouTube.

If you’ve spent an obscene amount of time on YouTube, you may have seen some of these videos.  Just some guy and a camera giving a music lesson, jamming solo or something of the like.  The site is lousy with em. So anyways, he finds his bass clip..and he’s pretty stoked on it.  Then he realizes he needs a drum track and heads back to YouTube when it struck him…

Why go anywhere else?  Here it all was.  Videos of people from all over playing, jamming, singing…and he had the editing software that could tie it all together into a cohesive whole!

Compiled and produced over the course of two months, it was Ophir’s secret project.  He planned on having a big debut, sending out links to only twenty of his friends.  But his friends were not good at keeping a secret…and once something is on the web…it’s pretty much there to stay.  Through Twitter, Facebook and email it spread.

For me, ThruYOU is more than an album, but in experiment in almost global collaboration.  He gave credit to every single artist he used…and so far none have complained about the attention. This album simply couldn’t have existed fifteen years ago…it couldn’t exist without YouTube and it couldn’t exist without the Internet. Even  as I sit here writing about it, I’m adding a little bit more to the project.

What’s more is that it’s an album that isn’t meant to be owned…it simply exists on the Internet.  It belongs to everyone.

ThruYOU is one of those things that arrives incidentally one day and shows you just how far we’ve come…and how much farther we have to go.  I hope it sets off a brush fire of new music and collaboration.  It can only mean good things for us all.

Lykke Li – Youth Novels

Good news for my living room!  the closet guy is here and installing my brand new closet as I write this!

This is great news for my stuff, since most of it has been living in my living room for the last month or so.  It’s even better news for me because i get my living room back!  Sure, I’ll miss the little trails I’ve made through the piles of crud, but soon that crud will be replaced by glorious, glorious space!

So, that’s one less thing to worry about I guess.  Next up, formatting my computer!

Yeah, that’s gonna be a hoot.

So I was thinking that I’ve been stuck in retro mode lately on the posts.  Not that old music is bad, but I feel like sping time is here and i should throw out some new ish for the folks…which brings me to our latest offering.  One of my top albums of 2008, Lykke Li’s “Youth Novels.”

Her real name is Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (it’s a mouthful, I agree, but she’s Swedish and also a stone cold fox so I’m gonna let it pass) and was born in Sweden in 1986 to a painter mother and a musician father.  She moved around alot through her life, living on a Portugese mountaintop, Lisbon, Morocco and winters in India and Nepal.  All told it seems to have produced a well rounded young singer, although she says her sound was mostly influenced by the solitude in Sweden above all else.

In fact, growing up she didn’t want to be a singer…that came later.  All she knew was that she wanted to be an artist in something, and luckily for us she chose music.

She arrived in New York at age 19 for a three month visit and returned two years later to record this album under the production skills of Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John fame.  In 2007 she released the heavily slept on “Little Bit EP” that, if nothing else put her on the radar.  Of it’s four tracks, three ended up on “Youth Novels.”

I like a good pop female vocalist as much as the next guy, but really good new ones are hard to come by.  So when I picked up the album and tossed it into my play list for the day, I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did.  Dreamy vocals of liquid sunshine over sparse folksy beats make it as uplifting as it is intriguing.  You’ll hear dashes of psyche, electronic, rock  and indie sounds throughout the album…but the work still seems unified.

I’ve heard her compared to other Swedish imports like Robyn, but I kind of think she’s like a Swedish Feist more than anything else.  I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed she does a Sesame Street cameo as well…cause I love that shit.  Apparently Lykke Li is working on a second album at the moment, but says it’ll be a while before we hear any of it.

Until then I’ll be waiting!

Sly and The Family Stone – There’s a Riot Going On

A while back, my girlfriend seemed a little upset that there weren’t enough television shows that we could watch together…aside from “Family Guy.”

 

I’m just happy that I found a girl who’ll watch “Family Guy” with me. Besides that and “Lost,” I don’t watch an incredible amount of TV. But I’d like to take a moment to point out that HBO has just put out one of the best series I’ve ever seen on the tube. I’m referring, of course, to Danny McBride’s genius “Eastbound and Down.”

 

Written by McBride and produced in part by Will Ferrell, it is hands down better than 95% of the shit out there right now. I know my friends are already sick to death of hearing this from me, but fuck ‘em. This is too good not to share.

Danny plays Kenny Powers, former MLB star pitcher who let drugs and ego destroy his career. Thrown out of professional baseball, Powers heads back to the small town where he grew up to take a job as the grade school PE teacher. You get baseball, drugs, booze, a large dose of inappropriate behavior and …uh…swearing…you get lots of swearing! But what you really get is McBride’s brilliant ability to create flawed characters that just resonate with the everyman in all of us. If you’ve seen “The Foot Fist Way” you’ll know what I’m talking about.

 

If you haven’t seen it…go now…I’ll wait.

 

So aside from the regular album of the week knowledge that I’m dropping, take my advice and seek this out. If you don’t have HBO, you can watch it on the web. Now on to our next story of another man with a drug problem…summed up pretty well in Sly and the Family Stone’s seminal 1971 masterpiece “There’s a Riot Going On.”

Sylvester “Sly” Stewart grew up in a very religious family in Texas.    When the family moved to Vallejo California in the mid fifties, the Stewart kids Sly, Freddie, Roe and Vaetta formed a singing group called the Stewart Four and released a 78rpm record of gospel songs.  It was the beginning of the family’s life in professional music. After playing in a slew of high school bands and recording several singles, Sly hit the big time in 1964 when he scored the DJ job at the bay area’s KSOL and changed his name to Sly Stone, all while working as a producer for local bands.

In 1966 Sly formed a band called Sly and the Stoners, while his brother formed a group called Freddie and the Stone Souls.  Luckily, saxophone player Jerry Martini suggested that the two groups merge…and Sly and the Family Stone was born.  Since both Sly and Freddie both played guitar, it was decided that Freddie would be the band’s guitar player while Sly taught himself to play the organ.  But sister Vaetta wanted in as well.  She and her friends had a group called The Heavenly Tones and were soon inducted into the band as Little Sister, the backing vocalists.

The group was soon signed to Epic records and in 1967 released their debut “A Whole New Thing.” The album made a great impact on the music scene, but failed to chart…which is poison in the music industry. Despite the critical acclaim, label executive Clive Davis urged the band to come up with a sound that was a little more commercial.  Begrudgingly the band delivered “Dance to the Music” the following year.  The band wasn’t too fond of it, but it produced a highly marketable single and got them on the charts…and right before it’s release, Sly’s other sister Rose joined the band.

By the time the band released it’s next album, “Life”, the Sly Stone sound had begun to change the music scene.  The Motown sound that had dominated the soul scene was out – the era of psychedelic soul was in…and thanks to the brilliant bass playing of Larry Graham, the slap happy thump of funk had evolved.  When they released “Stand” in 1969, they had cemented themselves  as one of the biggest bands out there, scoring a prime spot at Woodstock and headlining a series of amazing tour dates.  Working politics and social commentary in their act had worked wonders, the album scored a number of hits like ‘Stand,’ ‘I wanna take You Higher’ and ‘Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey.’  But success had come at a price.

A lot happened between “Stand” and “There’s a Riot Going On.”  The Black Panthers demanded that Sly become more militant and fire the white members of his group.  The band began to splinter over creative and personal differences, and drugs began to figure prominently in all Sly’s activities.  Rumor has it that he travelled with a violin case full of drugs wherever he went.  Pressure from the label to produce more music had only resulted in one single ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),’ and they had to resort to releasing a greatest hits compilation.

Recorded almost completely by Sly himself in his Saulsolito studio and attic of his Bel Air.  It was almost entirely overdubbed and had the unusual inclusion of a drum machine on most of the tracks.  But what sets the album apart is the sound.  It’s not the frenzied, upbeat driving sound of the sixties…it’s the sound of confusion, paranoia, and depression.  I think that the single negative review on Amazon sums it up best.

‘I bought this CD and listened to it on the drive home – I thought my ears were playing tricks on me! I couldn’t make out the vocals. They were mixed very low, and were murky. Well you know, sometimes you need headphones. But at home I tried headphones, in vain.
The only songs with audible vocals were Family Affair and Running Away.”

It’s true, too. You can’t hear most of the vocals.  It wasn’t until years later when I picked up a copy of 331/3’s dissection of the album that I found out what the actual lyrics were. (if you want a really in depth description of the entire story of the album, I highly recommend picking up that book!) Here is a portrait of an artist in the middle of a complete breakdown…and one that would basically end his career.  I love it as a sort of demented counterpoint to Marvin Gaye’s  “What’s Going On.”  Because after “Riot” dropped, things did change.  In the world of music as well as the world at large.

Sly was simply there to document the fall.

Tom Petty – Full Moon Fever

So my life is a little hectic right now.

A few months ago I made the jump and asked my girlfriend to move in with me.  In order to facilitate that, I had to get on the ball and start the home renovations that I would need to make the idea work.  My condo is nice and big,  but I’ve also had 8 years to fill it up with my crap so storage is key.  As I write this, my man Danny is building my new walk in closet downstairs.  He already scraped the ceiling, and after the closet he’ll paint everything, toss up some crown molding, and build me a storage cabinet .  He’s a machine.

But what this means is that everything that once lived in my closet and in my bedroom is now stationed in my living room and I am sleeping in my loft with my records.

It’s kind of like camping…but in your own house…and not nearly as fun.

But anyhow while I was up here I came across one of my favorite albums of all time.  Tom Petty’s fucking awesome solo album from 1989, “Full Moon Fever.”

I remember it fondly because it was one of the first CD’s I ever owned and I transferred it to cassette so I could play it in my walkman (for the younger audiences out there, a walkman was like an mp3 player…before mp3s) and I played that shit out while I mowed the lawn or rode my bike.  Good times.

Born and raised in Gainesville Fla, young Tom’s life was changed forever when an uncle who worked in the film industry invited him to the set of Elvis Presley’s “Follow that Dream.”  It was then that Tom knew he had to rock.  Soon after, he watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and decided that he could rock even harder if he was in a band. He started taking guitar lessons…some from Don Feldman of The Eagles fame.

Tom worked in a lot of early bands before he started The Heartbreakers.  Bands like The Sundowners ,The Epics and a little band called Mudcrutch…where he would end up meeting future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench.  The band formed around their 1976 debut album titled “Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers,” but despite the strength of the single ‘Breakdown’ the album was not popular with the US audience.  It was re-released at the end of 1977 and by the next year it had broken the top 40.

It seemed that after that, Tom Petty could do no wrong.  The follow up album “You’re Gonna Get It” was their first top 40 album. 1979’s  “Damn the Torpedoes” went platinum soon after release and was so full of hits like ‘Refugee’ and ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’ that I almost chose it instead “Full Moon Fever.”  (If  you don’t own it, I highly recommend it as well.)

Tom kept  it up all though the 80’s, releasing four more great albums and touring with the likes of Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead, as well as performing at Live Aid.

Then, on a fate full day in  1988 Bob Dylan was having lunch in Malibu with Jeff Lyne, George Harrison and Roy Orbison when they decided to form a band.  As fate would have it, Harrison needed a guitar he had let at Petty’s house and Tom became the fifth member of supergroup The Traveling Wilbury’s.  What a lucky bastard.  It was during this period that Tom began writing songs with Lyne and wanted to record them.  His only issue was that they didn’t sound like Heartbreaker songs and Lyne was soon moving back to the UK…and so to the chagrin of all, he went solo.

I love this fucking album.  The fact that I love it just as much now as I did in 1989 only goes to show how awesome it is.  His bandmates may have been a little peeved that their name wasn’t on the cover, but the album did produce some their biggest live hits.  This album is so good it feels like a greatest hits album.  It shows a maturing Petty retuning to his roots with a cover of the Byrds  ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’ and giving a nod to Del Shannon in ‘Running Down a Dream.’  Most of the Wilbury’s appear on the album too…which I guess kind of makes it the lost Vol 2 in the Wilbury cannon.  Add that to the fact that there appears to be no filler material in this CD at all and you’ve got a prime album that everyone should own.

As good for lawnmowing as it is for loft camping…thats for sure.

Joe Cocker – Mad Dogs and Englishmen

I really wish more bands would learn a few cover songs to add to their repertoire.

When you go see The Rolling Stones, they obviously don’t need to ’cause they have 50 some odd years of material to play with…but with the newer bands out there it would really help.  It’s really disappointing to go see a hot new band and all they can play is the songs off their only album. I’ve sat through a couple of shows that ended like this:

“Sorry, that’s all the songs we know!  Goodnight!”

And I’m sitting there in the audience thinking “Really?!?! What kind of musicians are you???  You only know ten songs???” It’s at this point that the concept of the cover song becomes necessary.

So, if you are a musician in a band that is touring, learn some extra material.  Not only will it help stretch out your set and show your range, but it also gives you an encore when your album set is over. It’s such a no brainer that I have a hard time figuring out why more bands don’t do it.

And no one understood the concept of covering a song better than Joe Cocker.

Born in Sheffield in 1944, he made his first public performance on stage at age 12 with his brother’s skiffle band.(Is it just me, or was every UK musician required to be in a skiffle band at the time?)  A few years after, Joe formed his own band, The Cavaliers, but broke it up after a year when Cocker left school to pursue music full time.

By 1961, Cocker had taken on a new stage name and was playing local venues under the moniker of Vance Arnold and the Avengers…mostly doing covers of Chuck Berry and such. They reached their apex in 1963 when they opened for The Rolling Stones at a concert at City Hall.  Cocker was soon signed to Decca Records and released his first single, a cover of The Beatles ‘I’ll Cry Instead,’ but despite a huge promotional push by the label,  the single fell flat and he was dropped. This led to Joe’s dropping of the Vance Arnold name and forming a new band, Joe Cocker’s Big Blues…but after a tour of France, that band too was disbanded for lack of funds.  Cocker decided to take some time off from the music scene.

By this point Cockerwas well known for his gravelly vocals and high energy performances, and in 1966 he formed The Grease Band with friend Chris Stainton. After a string of local Sheffield performances, The Grease Band caught the attention of Procol Harem producer Denny Cordell, who brought a solo Cocker into the studio to record another single, ‘Marjorine.’ Soon the Grease Band was disbanded and Cocker and Stainton had moved to London where they would soon have a residency at the Marquee Club.

‘Marjorine’ proved to be a modest success, but Cocker soon hit paydirt with his classic rendition of the Beatles ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ which featured Jimmy Page on guitar and Steve Winwood on drums.  I’ll say this much, when Joe Cockercovers a song, he covers a song. The band went on tour with The Who in 1968, and after a early 69 tour With Gene Pitney, Joe and his band headed to the states for a tour of their own. His album “With a Little Help From My Friends” was released around the same time and soon went gold.

While on the tour, Cocker and his new Grease Band hit some big name shows like the Denver Pop and the Newport Rock Festivals, and so they were likely candidates to play at Woodstock. When the band arrived, they had to be flown in by helicopter due to the crowds, and played a legendary set that culminated in a rainstorm.

Cocker was on a roll.  Almost immediately after Woodstock he released his second album “Joe Cocker!”   His work on “Friends” won him fans like George Harrison and Paul McCartney who were happy to let him use ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’ and ‘Something’ for his latest work. He hit the TV circuit and soon cemented his reputation as a dynamic performer…but by the end of 1969 Joe was burnt out.  Not wanting to do another tour, he dissolved the Grease Band again.

Unfortunately for Joe, a US tour had already been booked and He had only days to get a band together. Luckily, Leon Russell heard of his plight and offered to help put the group together.  By days end they had a band of ten people…including Russell and Stainton.  After four grueling days of twelve hour rehearsals and the addition of eleven back-up singers, someone suggested they film the tour.  The result was “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.”

Filmed on March 27th and 28th at the legendary Fillmore in 1970, the album captures not only Cocker’s energy, but the feel of the merry band of 43 musicians, family, and crew that made up the group as a whole.  This is the way Joe Cocker was meant to be heard.  You get all the hit’s: The Beatles covers, ‘Delta Lady’ and ‘The Letter’… but also quieter pieces like “Bird on a Wire’ and the Russell song ‘Girl From The North Country.’

The group disbanded two months later…as tensions in the band and Joe’s drinking began to get out of hand.  It’s a fitting close to the Woodsstock era…but the album captures that brief moment in time when it seems like it was all going to be alright. 

The album is a must…and so is the DVD if you’re into that sort of thing.

Fleet Foxes – ST

Can anyone tell me what purpose the Grammy Awards serve anymore?

I’m sure there was a time that they were kind of like the Oscars for music, giving out their trophies to artists and musicians who really pushed the boundaries and put forth some truly stunning works of art.  But now, not so much.

The Grammy committee  is the brain dead entity that nominates the worst or most mediocre in the music world…largely for their own self aggrandizing reasons. Lets take a look at what they awarded this year starting with Best New Artist, which went to  Adele.

Now I like Adele, and think she has a lot of promise, but Best New Artist???  In what universe?  I have to assume that those who did the voting didn’t listen to much last year…especially since they also nominated The Jonas Brothers.

Moving on to Album of the Year, Allison Kraus and Robert Plant’s collaboration “Raising Sand” took top honors there, proving to myself and the rest of the music loving world that the prerequisite age for voting is somewhere north of 50.  Combine this with the addition of worthless sub-categories like “Best Album Notes” and “Best Album Packaging” and you have an enormous waste of time dedicated to the industry’s love of patting themselves on their collective backs.

And one of their biggest crimes for 2008 was their complete omission of what was undeniably one of the best albums of the year…the self titled first full length from Fleet Foxes.

Singer/guitar player Robin Pecknold met guitarist Skyler Skjelset while both were attending Lake Washington High in the Seattle suburbs.  Bonding over a shared love of artists like Bob Dylan and Neil young, the two began playing together regularly during lunch hours and after school in the parents basement. In fact, it was the influence of their parents vast music collections that inspired their sound. But it wasn’t until 2006 that the music left the basement and made it’s way onto the Seattle music scene.

By then Pecknold had stepped into the position of singer/songwriter, and together with Skjelset began sifting through their already substantial catalogue of songs…trashing and rehashing until their sound began to cohere.  By then they had picked up a few extra personnel from the local scene with Casey Wescott on keys, Christian Wargo on bass, and Joshua Tillman on drums. Their sound caught the ear of family friend Phil Ek, who from the first listen knew he had something special, and he helped the band cobble together their first demo “Fleet Foxes” in late 2006.

In 2007, their popularity on the Seattle music scene and their mounting pile of songs led to the decision to record the now infamous “Sun Giant EP.” It was less of an album and more a CD to sell as they headed of on tour.  The tour began to spread the word of Fleet Foxes at places like SXSW and over the internet when they were finally signed to Sub Pop and began to record their first full length album. But time, and money was tight..and most tracks ended up recorded in members apartments or the infamous Pecknold basement.  The result was released shortly after the reissue of “Sun Giant” in 2008.

Filled with soaring melodies and ethereal harmonies, “Fleet Foxes” evokes a spirit of a bygone era of musical craftsmanship…think Crosby, Stills and Nash mixed with Animal Collective and a dash of old Neil Young.  Actually, upon listening to it, you’ll hear a lot of influences.  But Fleet Foxes manages to pull them all together into an organic woven sound that makes for a good listen.  Add to that the fact that this is one of the first albums that I’ve heard in years that sounds like it was meant to be listened to as a whole.

If you missed out on these guys last year, catch up now before their next album drops later this year.  That way you can act like you knew all along.