Tom Jones FAQ

Q: What happened to your face?!

A: It got rocked off.

Q: Really? That sounds terrible.

A: Not so much. Happened at a Tom Jones concert.

Q: You went to Tom Jones. On purpose?

A: Yeah, we went with the company. Had a blast. Tom Jones rules.

Q: Why does Tom Jones rule? I thought he was just old.

A: The dude is almost 70, and he’s still an amazing performer. I was expecting an old man on a stool. But he had a great band, completely modern arrangements, and he put on a much better show than a lot artists half his age.

Q: How was the sound? It was probably terrible.

A: No, actually, the Mystic Lake casino has a really modern room. Found out afterwards that it holds about 2100 people, and it’s a really well-groomed room. The bass wasn’t overpowering, and the mix was nice even though they kept the volume low for the mostly over-50 audience.

Q: So he wasn’t boring?

A: Not at all. He had this great rapport with the audience. Always talking, always dancing. He kind of rolled his eyes every once in a while when he knew a line in the song or a bit of banter was cheesy, but it just gave you the feeling that he was letting you in on the joke. Pretty sure he shouted out to “Michigan” rather than “Minnesota” at the beginning, but whattayagonnado?

Q: Good setlist?

A: The guy obviously knows which side his bread is buttered on. Saved the 1-2-3 punch of “She’s A Lady,” “Not Unusual,” and “Sexbomb” until near the end of the show, and closed the encore with Prince’s Kiss, the first time most people in my generation had ever heard of the guy. He might have been pandering to middle America a little by doing country ballads by both George Jones and Merle Haggard, but I didn’t mind.

Q: Check you out. You sound like a fanboy.

A: Yeah, I guess I kind of am. If I wasn’t before last weekend, I sure am now.

Q: Oh my… you… You threw your underwear on the stage, didn’t you?

A: No, but even if I had it wouldn’t have been as good a moment as when one lady got pushed down in her wheelchair so she could throw hers.

March 18th, 2008 - Posted in Homelife, Music | | 1 Comments

The annual music-of-the-year post

What would a year of sparse posting on this blog be without my year-end list of music? My listening habits are kind of crap lately, so I don’t have much of a system anymore except to look at other people’s year-end lists and say “oh yeah, I liked that one.” But for what it’s worth, here it is. To save space, I’ll put the top 2 above the fold. Click through for 3-10.

The National - Boxer
I’d like to think that my musical tastes have grown up with me. Smarter (or at least more wily), with a more mature wit, and less acerbic without being any less rocking. So I heard Boxer and i said to myself, “Oh, I get it. This is kinda like me.”

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
Political / socially conscious music is hard to find these days, and when you do they’re often preachy and uninteresting, like Tom Morello. These problems are magnified in hip hop because there’s such an emphasis on materialism and thugishness. But Ali finds just the right mix of authentic rage and confessional candor. He talks about his personal demons in a way that makes you believe him. His outlook might be angry, but you see quickly that it’s directed anger.
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December 26th, 2007 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

Random 10

Shakespeare’s Sister - The Smiths
I am trying very hard to like the smiths. Most of the time, they bore me. But they definitely have some gems, like this one.
Crying Shame - Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson usually makes me smile, but this song is a little more meditative and reflective. Sounds a scary amount like a modern Red Hot Chili Peppers ballad, actually.
Banging Camp - The Hold Steady
Punks channelling Springsteen (and maybe Vic Chesnutt) and singing drug songs that aren’t really about drugs. With horns. What’s not to like?
Runeii - Talk Talk
“Fragile” is the first word i think of to describe late-era Talk Talk. Fragile, and utterly unique.
Broadway - The Clash
Not one of the Clash’s finest moments, but all of Sandanista is a mixed bag. The little kid singing “Guns of Brixton” at the end of the track is brilliant.
Things you do to me - Hank Williams III
It’s a testament to how good a songwriter Hank3 is that he can seemingly create a radio-friendly nashville-ready tune like this in his sleep. It shows that he’s rebelling by choice, not due to a lack of chops.
Case In Point - Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire
Just recently started listening to Bird. He’s definitely the most musically interesting guy in my current rotation.
Sea Of Heartbreak - Don Gibson
A song i’d known for years from the Johnny Cash version. Wonderful. Part-country, part-doo wop, part Elvis.
Another Place To Fall - KT Tunstall
Like Dave Matthews, only with a more manly voice. Kidding aside, though, smart head-bobbing music is always welcome in my life.
Trompe Le Monde - The Pixies
The Pixies would have changed my life if I’d heard of them sooner. It might have saved me from the years of hair metal that I put up with as a youth.

February 13th, 2007 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

5 records I enjoyed in 2006

Bob Dylan - Modern Times  I thought Love & Theft was like a large dining hall with vaulted ceilings and old portraits on the walls, evocative of the sense of history you get in a museum, or maybe wandering through the oldest parts of Oxford University.  Then I heard Modern Times, and I realized I was just in the broom closet before.

Hank Williams III - Straight To Hell  I first liked it because I thought the “Nihilistic cowboy with third-generation rock star money” schtick was funny.  A thousand country singers manage to be nothing but another country singer.  But Hank 3 finds his own voice and creates something that’s much more than he started with.

T-Bone Burnett - The True False Identity  As I tell anyone who will listen, this guy is brilliant.  The more I listen, the more detail I discover.

Man Man - Six Demon Bag  I would expect that no one wanders into this record casually and likes it.  But if you, like me, were already keen to the … er… peculiar charms of people like Dylan, Zappa, and Waits, these guys have a lot to offer.

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife  Only had this for a couple of weeks, but I already love it.  Some of the songs are fun little prog-rock noodly sorts of things, while others are so beautiful that you can’t help but smile.

There was no 2006 product involved, but Merle Haggard was an important part of my music listening this year.  I really didn’t know his work before this year, and now I’m hooked.

December 28th, 2006 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

Five terrible reasons not to listen to a song

“That’s just so lame.”
Be a snob about uncool bands if you want, I suppose. More for the rest of us.

“Those guys are such jerks.”
The difference between sullen, anti-social, greedy celebrities and celebrities who are “wonderful human beings” is that the wonderful ones spend more money on their PR firms. Certainly some rock stars are shallow and self-absorbed and some are kind-hearted and humble. But Entertainment Tonight and People Weekly aren’t going to help you decide which is which.

“I don’t listen to country.”
I don’t have much to say on this one. It’s like hating people who live in Iowa. A great punchline, for a certainty, but a lousy way to interact with the world.

“I’m so sick of hearing their other song.”
When people complain that a song is “overplayed,” I always like to suggest another possibility: Maybe the problem is that you listen to too much mind-numbing commercial radio. It’s bad enough to let someone else beam music into your head against your will. It’s even worse when you let that affect the choices you make when you actually do have a choice.

“musicreviewsnob.com said it was terrible.”
You know what they say opinions are like. If you didn’t listen to your mother when she told you not to start smoking, why would you listen to somebody you don’t know in New York or Chicago when they tell you not to listen to Modest Mouse?

September 27th, 2006 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

Dylan in Concert

(I hadn’t intended to make this a Bob Dylan blog, but it seems that’s what it’s becoming)

Bob Dylan - Sioux Falls Stadium, Sioux Falls SD 9/8/06

Yakko came along with me, and was generally positive about the experience.  There was a little complaining and the usual 8.4 questions per minute for first half hour or so of Dylan’s set, but by the end “Highway 61″ and “Summer Days” had him dancing and forgetting how cold it was.

Having trouble putting coherent sentences together, so here are random thoughts on the show:

I was very impressed with the band.  Dylan said in the Rolling Stone interview that it was the best he’d had, and it would be hard to argue.

Bob’s voice was in pretty good form, and he generally refrained from spitting out three lines of lyrics at a time as he sometimes does.

There’s always a temptation to dwell on the omissions.  I always have a mental list of a few songs I would love to hear when I walk in, and in almost every case at least some of them get skipped.  It’s not fair, but it still happens.  Tonight, no “Tangled Up In Blue,” no “Things Have Changed,” and nothing from “Oh Mercy.” Ah me.
The definite high points of the night for me were the violin-laced arrangement of “It’s Alright Ma” and a scorching stomp through “Love Sick.”

“Watching The River Flow” and “Desolation Row” were dead on. “My Back Pages” would have benefitted from being a little slower, but it was still a good take.
Jimmy Vaughn, gods bless him, is in retirement mode.  His second guitarist took half the solos, he had a female vocalist take half the singing duties, and he just pretty much phoned it in.  He did do an admirable job channelling his late brother on “Texas Flood.”

It’s interesting (to me, anyway) that the arrangements of “Stuck Inside Of Mobile” and “Lay Lady Lay”–which had morphed so much over the years–have now morphed right back to sounding a great deal like their original album takes.

His sunburst finish guitar was placed on stage but was never played.  Ironically, at his first Sioux Falls show in 1990 there was a piano on stage that he never played.

September 8th, 2006 - Posted in Music, Parentgeekness | | 0 Comments

Dylan’s Modern Times

I’ve had it playing for over a week now, so I thought I’d weigh in. I love how punchy and immediate it sounds. Much more old-timey than the other recent records he’s done.

The lyrics are always the focus for a lot of people, and I like the modern day troubador feel his lyrics have taken on. Throughout his career, he’s had a folksinger’s tendency to tell a complete story, to create his own world inside the song. Here, he’s content to let context speak for itself, and concentrate on touching the vein of common experience rather than inventing it all from scratch.

I’ve seen several reviews point out what a great vocal performance he turns in on this record. If I tended to bitterness, I would be angered that people are only now catching on to what I’ve been saying for almost 20 years about his clever phrasing and his expert command of a less-than-perfect voice.

Also, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s glad to hear those unmistakable two-note guitar lines again after listening to him pound the piano for so long on the road (for the non-obsessed, The Poet hung up the guitar in favor of the keyboard in 2003, and hasn’t played guitar on stage since). It’s no indication that he’s going back to the guitar on the road again, but a guy can hope.

September 7th, 2006 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

Music Thoughts

Things I’ve been listening to that are not Bob Dylan (which follows):

T-Bone Burnett - The True False Identity
Burnett is seen mostly as a producer, but the first record in 14 years to sport his own name is a thing of beauty. He could write a textbook on how to pristinely recreate the sounds a band makes in the studio, and he has plenty of sound to work with here. Reverbs, tambourines, snares, cymbal crashes, and even layers of fuzzy guitar squall are all rendered with mathematic precision. And once you get over the sound of the whole thing, there’s the small issue of his wonderfully observational songwriting and sweet voice. Just amazing.

Panic! At The Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
Next great rock band or one-trick pony? That’s the real question here. What impresses me is the overall aesthetic of this record. Production, musicianship, and songwriting are all distinctive and interesting, if maybe not unique. Lyrically, you can build one album entirely on overheard conversations, as Panic! appear to have done. But I hope they’re able to reach out a little going forward. Otherwise, this album is getting filed in the “one great album” folder next to Howlin’ Maggie, Chagall Guevarra, and The Toadies.

Live - Songs From Black Mountain
The transition from smart, edgy rock band to slightly-more-interesting-than-average radiopop factory is now complete. I don’t blame them. In fact I’m happy that Ed has found a happy place that allows him to write pop songs and appear on American Idol. I just hope he understands if I don’t feel like hanging around to bear witness. Addendum 1:45 pm: I hadn’t really listened to the lyrics for “Where Do We Go From Here.” “I wanted a revolution / you said I was already free.” This kind of insight is why I loved them in the first place.

September 7th, 2006 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments

My life in Dylan concerts

Got my ticket in the mail from TicketMaster the other day. It’s official: I get to see Dylan again. Because it’s right here in town I get to take Yakko, which will be great. Three opening acts, including Junior Brown and the girl who used to sing for Hot Club Of Cowtown. Unfortunately, because I love my son and because I know that 15 Dylan songs will be test enough of his attention span, I plan to go late, hopefully just as The Poet takes the stage. I haven’t heard any of the 2006 shows yet, but i’ll try to grab one and listen to it beforehand.

For those interested, click the link to read about the Dylan shows I’ve been to. (more…)

August 17th, 2006 - Posted in Music, Parentgeekness | | 0 Comments