Fall Music Preview

Lots of potentially great new music coming out this fall. Here’s a list of what I’m looking forward to (I’ll continue to update as I find more info):

8.19
The Verve, Forth
The reunited Manchester outfit’s first album since 1997’s Urban Hymns. They’ve been playing new songs on tour this summer, and early buzz is good. Even if Forth is only half the record Hymns is, that would still make it a quality reunion album.

8.26
Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies
I’ve heard a couple tracks on his MySpace page, and I can’t tell if they're rough mixes, or if his production is that raw. His last few albums have been hit or miss for me, so I’m hoping this one will be more along the lines of In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki, and not another Living Things.

9.12
[UPDATE] Metallica, Death Magnetic
I can’t decide about this one. It’s hard for me to get excited about a new Metallica album since their last few have sucked so hard, but the word is that they’ve returned to their roots for this one, tapping into some ...And Justice For All-type riffs. That sounds good... after all, Justice is the album that made me love these guys in the first place, but then again, it’s hard to forget how bad St. Anger was. I think I’ll give this one a listen before I drop any cash on it.

9.23
Kings of Leon, Only By the Night
Their last one, Because of the Times, was such an amazing leap forward, I’m interested to see if this is more of the same, or if these four Southern boys keep pushing their sound.
[UPDATE] If the first single (now playing on their MySpace page) is indicative of the whole album, I’d say they haven’t strayed too far from Because of the Times. I’m good with that.

Mogwai, The Hawk is Howling
Same here. I liked Mr. Beast a lot, and Mogwai’s the type of band that sticks with what works. Fine by me.

9.30
Ben Folds, Way to Normal
On the other hand, we have Ben Folds, coming off the underwhelming Songs For Silverman. I’m hoping he can get back to the fun of Rockin’ the Suburbs on this one.

10.07
Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos, Animal! & Not Animal! (2 separate releases)
No idea what to expect here, although I do know the excellent “Broad Ripple is Burning” will be on one of these.

Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul
It might suck, but I’ll still play the shit out of it. Easily worth it for the two or three Noel-sung songs that are sure to appear, like [UPDATE] the newly-released “Falling Down”. I'll buy it on the strength of that song alone.

11.18
U2, No Line on the Horizon
Early word is that U2 are “very, very pleased” with this one. Bono is happy, and just in time for the holidays. Looks like we’re in for 7 years of peace and prosperity the world over.

(Most of these dates come from Metacritic.com)

U2 x 2

When a band has been making music for 25 years, including 11 studio albums and what is widely considered to be one of the top five live albums of all time, they've got a pretty heady reputation to live up to. Since I've been a fan for about 19 of those 25 years, but these two shows were to be my first live experience with U2, I had very high expectations. For the first show on Sunday night, Andy and I arrived about 25 minutes before U2 came on. Our seats were in the lower bowl, about 20 rows off the floor. The stage was set up at the opposite end of the floor, but there was a large oval walkway (referred to as "the ellipse") that extended about halfway out across the floor, creating a pit area that encompassed about a hundred lucky fans and bringing various band members closer to us throughout the night. The view from our seats looked pretty similar to this. The Wachovia Center filled in pretty quickly, and by the time U2 took the stage, the place was full. But despite the packed house, the show was, I have to say, a disappointment. I don't know exactly what it was: the sound was tinny, the band seemed sort of lifeless, and the few moments of real excitement tended to come during Bono's political rants (which ran on a bit too long). They did in fact lean pretty heavily on the newer stuff, with songs from their last two albums probably accounting for 2/3 of the setlist. A few big ones were in there (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride (In the Name of Love), With or Without You), but the hits were overcome by some odd choices (Miss Sarajevo?) that really brought the mood down. I thought it was a decent show, but was left preparing myself to be disappointed again on Monday night.

Well, I needn’t have worried. We arrived much earlier the second night, due to the fact that we had general admission floor tickets. When we arrived and had our tickets scanned, we were informed that they were randomly selecting people with floor tickets to go inside the ellipse, and Andy and I had been picked! After receiving two wristbands apiece to identify us as members of the elite, we got beers and proceeded to the floor to stake out our spot. As we made our way into the pit by passing under the ellipse framework, we realized that our position was going to give us a vantage point equivalent to seeing U2 in a tiny club. At the farthest point, we were probably 20 ft. from the stage. We took a spot towards the back of the pit, but just in front of the farthest point of the ellipse, where the night before members of the band had camped out during different songs. (This picture is good for reference: the people in the spotlight on the floor are right about where we stood.) Since we arrived early, we got to see the opening act, Bob Marley's son Damien. It was a decent set, mostly marked for me by the fact that at one point, there were no fewer than three Marley offspring onstage singing one of their dad's songs together.

By the time U2 hit the stage, the arena was again packed, but unlike the night before, the crowd was electric (although this may have had something to do with the fact that instead of being towards the back of all the shouting, I was basically standing in the epicenter where the crowd sounded thunderous). The Edge appeared onstage, followed by Larry and Adam, and then suddenly Bono passed within 6 inches of me as he was ushered to his starting position at the tip of the ellipse by a phalanx of security. From the very first song, it was clear this night was going to be different. The band seemed much more awake and energetic, and the crowd responded, which in turn fueled Bono to take his performance to another level. I lost count of how many times he turned the mic to the crowd and let us sing, and I must say, we were in fine voice. It's been a long time since I've shouted and sung myself hoarse at a concert, but as anyone who spoke to me today can attest, my voice is gone. They basically followed the same setlist from Sunday until they got to the encores, but each song seemed to have that little more on this night. The sound problems from Sunday were solved, as Bono's vocals had a lot more bass, and he tightened up his speeches and kept them short. You expect some politicking from the man, and as long as it's not at the expense of the concert's flow, it's fine.

So the show was going well, the crowd was into it, the band was feeling good, and just when no one thought things would get any better, they did. Several songs into the encore, the stage crew set up another microphone and a guitar, and from behind the stage, up pops Bruce Springsteen himself, looking, as Andy remarked, like he'd just woken up from a nap. Bruce (and wife Patty Scialfa, after some coaxing from Bono), joined the band to cover "People Get Ready," with Bono making up lines as The Edge and The Boss traded solos. And the place went completely apeshit, for lack of a better word. If U2 were trying to endear themselves even more to their fans in Philly (not something that appears necessary), they did it with this guest appearance. After a long jam, the Springsteens left and U2 finished with three more songs, leaving me about as satisfied as I could get.

Talk about a save. I went from being pretty bummed that one of my all-time favorite bands (for whom, I might add, I had paid a lot of money for tickets and flown halfway across the country) was losing it, to being ready to re-crown them as the world's greatest band, all in 24 hours. But it was also a learning experience. I discovered two things about U2 from these shows. One, as goes Bono, so goes the show. Sunday, he seemed disconnected and listless, and the show was a disappointment. Monday, he was on and loving his audience, and the show reflected it... which brings me to point two. Not surprisingly, it's the fans that really drive this band. At the risk of sounding cheesy, on Sunday night, we saw a U2 show. On Monday, we were part of the show. Watching the band feed off the energy of the audience was a pretty incredible thing. During "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," an emotional song dedicated by Bono to his deceased father, the crowd sang the line "You don't have to go it alone" back to Bono. And at that moment, you could see by the look on his face that he knew it was true.

Here's some links:
u2.com's review of Monday night
Monday's setlist
Sunday's setlist

The City of Brotherly Love meets the City of Blinding Lights

I'm off to Philly in the morning to visit my friend Andy and see back-to-back U2 concerts. This will be my first (and second) U2 shows, and I'm pretty fired up. I'm in the midst of listening to their entire catalog on shuffle, and that's only increasing my enthusiasm. I've heard they're leaning pretty heavily on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in the setlist, but throwing some older gems in there as well. And they've been changing the set from night to night, so we don't have to worry about seeing the same show twice. Should be a good time, and as always, a welcome excuse to get out of town for a few days.

Keane, Lost and Bono Strikes Back

I made the trip to Cincinnati last night to see Keane at the Taft Theatre. The Taft is a nice venue; I've been there three times before for Dave Matthews Band and Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and the last Kids in the Hall tour. Last night, the sound was pretty good, our seats were terrific and the crowd response was surprising in its ferocity. You could tell the band felt it. They played most of Hopes and Fears as well as a few b-sides (like my favorite, "Snowed Under") and a couple of new songs, but generally stuck pretty close to the album arrangements on the songs I knew and didn't mess with the formula too much on the new stuff. Overall, it was an entertaining but short set that just seemed to be missing that little bit of magic that turns a great show into an amazing one. Doves had it, Keane didn't.

So tonight was the two-hour season finale of Lost. At some points during the show, it was obvious that they really didn't have enough to fill two hours, but there were enough twists to keep me hooked for next year. The fact that I got through the entire season and still had no idea what was going to happen in the finale speaks to the quality of the show.

And finally, I found this article to be very interesting. Apparently, Greg Kot, the music critic for the Chicago Tribune has a long-running relationship with U2, and has recently published some articles questioning the direction the band has taken since releasing Pop in 1997. Well, Bono took issue, and decided to hash it out face-to-face. The man is either total class, or the biggest media whore in the history of the world. More likely, it's some combination of the two. Either way, I have more respect for him after reading this.

Odds and Ends

My concert future is starting to look very bright. Just got tickets for my brother and I to see Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truth Speaker from Blackalicious in two weeks. Ben Folds is going to be here the first weekend in May, and the week after I'm heading up to Chicago to see Doves. Add in back to back U2 shows in October, and I've got a pretty good stretch coming up. Hopefully, there will be a few more to fill in this summer. I'd love to see Coldplay, Stereophonics and Elbow if they get over to the US this year.

Todd passed this along from Kottke.org. It's a pretty ballsy example of culture jamming, which just happens to be the last chapter I read in Naomi Klein's excellent book, No Logo, a look at globalization and the growth of corporate conglomerates that spun into a movement (and of course, requisite website). I forgot how much I was enjoying that book before I got sucked into Gormenghast, so I've added it to my sidebar. And no, the irony of linking to her book for sale on a giant corporate conglomerate website is not lost on me. If you want to buy it, try your local bookstore, as long as Barnes & Noble hasn't squashed them out of business. (Steps off soapbox.)

And finally, apparently, laughter really is the best medicine. Well, maybe not the best, but good enough for a physician in India to start a laughing club 10 years ago and for the idea to spread to the US. That's funny stuff, people.

Pimpin’ ain’t easy

One of the reasons I wanted to do a blog is to talk some smack about music, movies, and books. So from time to time, I’ll be pimping some stuff that I’m currently enjoying.

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of movies on DVD, courtesy of Netflix, a great rental service that works through the Internet and the mail. I’ve had a great experience with them and highly recommend a membership to anyone who watches more than 4 movies a month. This week, I’ve watched The Producers, King of New York, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of the three, King of New York was the one that impressed me the most. It’s hard to go wrong with Christopher Walken, but the cast also includes Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, and Steve Buscemi (in a minor role). It was an excellent flick, improved by some old-school rap on the soundtrack, but what impressed me most was the cinematography. This movie was beautifully shot, and the picture quality on the DVD was stunning. I usually skip over the technical part of DVD reviews when they start discussing the picture transfer, but I couldn’t help but notice how well-done this DVD was. For a movie made in 1990, King of New York looks terrific.

In between watching movies, I’ve been reading Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series of novels. The sequence begins with The Eyre Affair, continues with Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and the just-released Something Rotten. Thursday Next is a literary detective who lives in an alternate Britain where Wales is an independent republic, the Germans occupied Britain during WWII, time travel is an everyday occurrence, and literary characters can leave their books and enter other stories or the real world. Thursday gets involved in a series of misadventures that lead her through various books, but what I enjoy is the absurd, Monty Python-esque humor, obscure literary references, and inordinate amounts of bad puns.

As for music, I’ve had two CDs in heavy rotation lately. First is “It Still Moves” by My Morning Jacket. I’m getting to these guys a little late, but I finally understand why so many people love this disc. There'’s been plenty of talk about them for the past 15 months or so, but they’ve got a great southern rock meets Neil Young sound that sounds very lived-in and comfortable. Great music for driving on country roads after dark with your windows rolled down. The second disc that I’ve been giving a lot of play to lately is “Hot Fuss” by the Killers. I keep reading reviews that compare them to Duran Duran, but I feel like they’ve got a bigger sound than Messrs. LeBon and company. I see why everyone wants to go there, because the Killers are clearly 80’s-inspired and there’s synth all over this album, and even though they’re from Vegas, they sound British. It’s interesting to me that bands from both sides of the Atlantic are making danceable rock. No one would accuse the Killers of ripping off Franz Ferdinand, but there’s definitely some similarities.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of old U2 lately, mostly War and The Unforgettable Fire. Sometimes, you just have to be reminded that they’ve always been a great band.