the frig blig

Rocked out with The Tripwires at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard last night. Opening were Orange Peel, a young pop band from San Francisco, and Spanish for 100, energetic rockers with an insanely hot lead guitar cat.

The Tripwires did not disappoint. They encored with a cover of ‘Crawling From the Wreckage’ — sweet! I never realized before how much the Tripwires sound resembles a hard, tight, hook-laden Rockpile.

[If my keyboard had a key to type the equivalence rather than equals sign, sigh…]

Much has been written by musicians over the past several weeks about the influence Alex Chilton had on their various careers etc.

I myself was never a fan, since I didn’t particularly care for ‘The Letter’ (AC’s big hit). I may have even seen AC once in the 1980s in Tallahassee. If I did, I wasn’t impressed.

But all the recent attention motivated me to download the third Big Star album ‘Third/Sister Lovers’, which I have been listening to on the Metro 16 on my way to work.

And now I hear what I missed. This morning during ‘Nature Boy’ I felt a similarity between AC and Syd Barrett. In the way they approach songwriting; their actual music, voices and styles are not overtly similar.

Who knew? Apparently lots of people, I’m just late to the club.

BAD.

GOOD.

During a recent trip to Vancouver BC (no, I didn’t attend the winter Olympics) I saw posters for a concert by Canadian band Pointed Sticks. The blurb said they were an old punk rock band who had released a new recording in 2009 after a multi-year hiatus. I liked the album art and title — ‘Three Lefts Make a Right’.

Hard to find in the U.S., so I downloaded the MP3s from Amazon.

Long story short — don’t waste your time. I’d call it a cross between lukewarm Green Day and The Carpenters. These sticks are more like wet noodles.

While the musicianship is competent, the words are saccharine. If this band got a better songwriter perhaps they’d be more interesting.

You have been warned.

Every few years I enjoy listening to some songs of Linda Cohen. The ones I like best are quiet, comforting, with satisfying chord changes and gentle chutzpa — a blend of classical, blues and folk. So today I decided to find out more about this talented but obscure guitarist and Googled her.

Turns out she died in January, in her home in Philly where she taught guitar. Sigh.

I discovered her in a slightly roundabout fashion — I was studying graphic arts in college, and one of my heros was Milton Glaser. He did the album cover art for Angel Alley by Linda Cohen, whom I’d never heard of but didn’t care — I ordered the album for the cover alone. Turned out the music wasn’t bad either. A little heavy on the electronics for solo acoustic guitar (is how I feel today), but some tasteful tunes.

I hope to play one of her tunes myself before I die.

Lovers Lookout is the new CD from local fellows Red Jacket Mine. Released just a couple of weeks ago, the timing is appropriate — autumn’s display of red gold and brown hues and shorter, darker days are a perfect compliment for RJM’s melancholy sound.

All the tunes are by songsmith and frontman Lincoln Barr, a moody bastard. His best songs are slow, arty, dark, and complex. Barr is a brooder, not a screamer. RJM’s music is like red wine rather than beer — to be savored. There’s a bit of a Ryan Adams feel, which Patrick Porter’s pedal steel helps along.

The love in this title is not ecstatic. But there is passion here — ironic, angry, disappointed passion. Even the rockers on this album, like opener Stay Golden, Childish Things and The Pose aren’t about having fun.

Stay Golden starts out upbeat but Barr can’t help himself — he ends up singing “You were so brave, but when they asked you to, you sold me out…”.

The Pose sounds a bit like The Posies…and since Ken Stringfellow helped with the production, who knows, maybe it’s alluding to that 90’s band, although it’s plainly expressive of the song’s meaning too. Can’t tell you, only the band knows for sure. Regardless, “Took a chance on an inside joke” is a great opening line.

The strongest tunes are soulful and anthemic, like Deseret News, Apricot Moon and So Long, Radiant Flower (which despite the bitterness has a sweetness too, as S points out).

One thing leads to another — I went to hear Red Jacket Mine at their CD release gig at the Tractor last Thursday and discovered another great local band who played warmup: Downpilot who incidentally were also plugging their new CD They Kind of Shine and apparently will spend the next month gigging in Germany. A talented four-piece (including pedal steel) with great songwriting, Downpilot sounds a little REM-ish but more country and less hypnotic. Makes me suspect there’s this vibrant music community all around me of which I only see tiny bits and pieces.

I did purchase Red Jacket Mine’s new CD Lovers Lookout too but haven’t had a chance to listen yet — I’ll post a report soon on my impressions and maybe a comment or two on what I saw and heard at last weekend’s Hardly Strictly bluegrass fest as well.

Red Jacket Mine is playing at the Tractor Tavern tomorrow night to celebrate the release of their new CD Lovers Lookout. I’m hoping there will be physical copies of the disc available, with all of the non-green implications that has. I just discovered this band a few months ago and am looking forward to finding musical growth on their second CD (I’m hoping it’s harder edged than their first).

RJM shares the bill with fellow Seattle bands downpilot and Sweet Secrets. I’m looking forward to a great show — see you there!

S, D & I saw two good local bands at the Tractor last night. Red Jacket Mine (above) was the warmup act, and they were every bit as talented (with a darker sound) as the headliners The Minus 5 (below) who were playing a “new CD release” gig for recording ‘Killingsworth’ published by Yep Roc Records.

Some interesting music has come my way lately.

Iran’s CD Dissolver is great — I can’t get enough of it. I hadn’t heard of this NY-based band until they were booked at a recent KEXP concert.

Speaking of NY bands, I first ran into Gogol Bordello while visiting a friend in Tallahassee last December but didn’t get around to listening to his tunes until now. Very funny, lively and a little crazy!

And for something completely different — 70’s Texas tunesmith Townes Van Zandt died in 1997 but not before writing lots of classic songs made famous by other bands’s covers (e.g. ‘If I Needed You’, ‘Pancho and Lefty’, and ‘Who Do You Love’). Country musician Steve Earle recently released an album of Van Zandt covers, which prompted me to listen to the original again in the form of the double CD Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas recorded in 1973 but not released until 1977. Some mighty fine songs, yup.