Intrepid lensman Scott Dudelson is on the ground in Indio, CA for this year’s running of the hipsters known as Coachella. Here’s some captured moments Scott brought back from yesterday’s kick-off!
Posts by Dirty Impound
We conclude Double Shot Week with arguably the most underrated band of the 2000s, the utterly brilliant and original Subtle. Every bit the unique, future-forward hybrid that Radiohead has been long heralded as, Oakland/SF-based Subtle has never received the commercial or widespread success of their English cousins, though smart musicos have been hip to them since their first visionary EPs began arriving in 2001. Beck once tried to hire them as his backing band, and they’ve worked with luminaries like The Notwist for years. Subtle is one of those bands that’s hard to describe but once experienced easy to identify as them and no one else. It’s been nearly three years since their last studio album, ExitingARM, so fingers are crossed that we’ll soon hear the next chapter in their ever-curious, socially astute and sonically kinetic evolution. For more on Subtle, check out Dennis’ feature on the band from a few years back here. Besides making some of the densest, most daring albums of the past decade, Subtle is a monster and a half live. We offer up a taste of both sides of their shiny coin below.
Wow, such a lot of talent on one stage.
This thought kept running through my mind as I witnessed the quietly stunning closing show for the inaugural tour of the Trio of Troubadours at SF’s last speakeasy, Boom Boom Room on Fillmore Street. The trio, actually a banging rock-pop quartet, is made up of singer-songwriters Dan Lebowitz, Dave Brogan and Chris Velan, plus bass playing whiz kid Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green). While usually hyperbole, one couldn’t shake comparisons with fighting trim Badfinger or pre-Sgt. Pepper Beatles as these boys whipped out one instantly likeable, ably jammed-out ditty after another. Despite most of the material being new to most ears in the room, there was no waiting period on one’s affection for each cut. This music reaches out and pulls one in quickly and surely, an arm that beckons one to sway and dance with them, a smile you simply can’t refuse.
While they played round-robin with selections from the catalogues of the three songwriters, the night felt harmonious, the tunes bouncing nicely off of one another and suggesting this group would be positively lethal if they started composing together. Each has a strong, appealing voice and their harmonies, Mathis included, were dynamite – a natural vibration far from the mechanized cleanliness of today’s radio. What came through very strongly was a shared interest in exploring this music together, each man swinging happily, savoring the freshness and foreigness, grinning with surprise at what the others brought to bear, each songwriter seeing their compositions in a new light. I could see these Troubadours appealing to folks who lose in love with Nickel Creek, Gillian Welch & David Rawling, The New Pornographers, Matthew Sweet, Aimee Mann and more. The range of their charm is wide.
The fact that they sounded so together – jams, solos, everything – after a few days of rehearsal and six tour dates is seriously impressive. Each is a powerhouse musician with wide-open listening habits and the ability to transform that diversity into a very together final product. Combined, these four have a hell of a lot of lift, so to speak. If this quartet really put their minds to it and made this into a real band, The Mother Hips and Surprise Me Mr. Davis would have some healthy competition for the best new era classic rockers going. As it is, the Trio of Troubadours will be a sometimes thing, fit in between ALO gigs for Brogan and Lebo, Velan’s solo career and Mathis’ TLG duties and upcoming Beethoven solo project. But, the musicians clearly felt the spark of something promising as strongly as those in attendance, and it seems like there’s a future for this budding aggregation. Festival promoters would be wise to pursue the Troubadours whenever their schedules allow. This band would be a real ace in the hole for a savvy programmer this coming summer fest season. (Dennis Cook)
Dave Brogan has a fab debut album from 2008 (see review here) and is working on follow-up. Dan Lebowitz is working on his solo debut. And Chris Velan has a crazy good new album called Fables For Fighters available digitally now and coming out in stores April 19 in Canada and in the U.S. on June 7.
Once again, our faithful lensman John Margaretten serves up the scene.
Todd Snider backstage by Chad Staehly
Great American Taxi keyboardist-singer Chad Staehly brings a tale from GAT’s recent Austin get-together with Impound super pal Todd Snider, a sublime combination of talents that recalls The Band at their wooly best. Each bunch is awful great on their own, but when their Wonder Twin powers activate, boy howdy!
I’m sitting backstage at the stock in trade venue La Zona Rosa in Austin, TX waiting to sound check and reflecting on what will be the last of a four show run. The idea of it showed up as an offer in my inbox a few months ago with subject line “Fwd: TTT” – the three “T”s representing “Texas, Todd, Taxi.” This couch I’m sitting on here in the green room is damp and smells musty, but the mood is good back here as we all prepare to take one more trip with the “Tipsy Gypsy,” Todd Snider.
Great American Taxi has always been an in the moment type of outfit with the neo-vaudevillian Vince Herman at the helm, but Snider keeps everyone on their toes, too. We’ll get a setlist 10 minutes before the show complete with several songs we’ve never played and possibly have never heard, as well as instructions from Todd that we will play the first two numbers of the night in a completely different arrangement and feel. I’ve heard the comparisons before, but this particular habit of Snider’s seems to be snatched directly from Bob Dylan’s playbook. Just last night at the legendary Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, we played the revered Snider ballad “Play A Train Song” about 10 clicks slower with a different feel, but that’s how he chose to deliver that song last night and we had to be there ready to back him up.
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are about the most real rock ‘n’ roll creature trampling around the mainstream today. While their studio work shows finesse and radio pop instincts, live the band is all sweaty, all-in, all-the-time goodness. And throw in an opening set from Nocturnals’ guitarists Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco‘s side project, the glorious 70s-denim-rock-meets-post-Radiohead Blues & Lasers (who narrowly missed out on the Impound’s Best Albums of 2010 list with their righteous sophomore spinner After All We’re Only Human) and you’ve got one hell of a night in Boston. Fortunately for Impound-ers, photographer Mallory Finley was on the spot to snap up some of the vibe. She really captures what a good damn time these folks were having onstage. Makes you want to crank it up to 11, eh?
Double Shot Week continues with an absolute and enduring Impound favorite, Jerry Joseph. Simply put, the man is one of THE great songwriters and live performers of our time, and he’s no slouch as a nuanced singer or freakin’ badass guitarist, too. Jerry embarks on a new solo acoustic tour today in Baltimore, MD. Check out the full itinerary here, and enjoy a couple quality acoustic performances here in the meantime.
Deep Dark Robot
Two of the eight tracks contain the f-word in the title, and Linda Perry doesn’t scrimp on saucy language and pulse racing observations throughout 8 Songs (released March 22 on Perry’s own Custard label). But Perry’s first new band since 4 Non Blondes isn’t provocative for the sake of it. There’s real feeling behind the f-bombs, tears inside an utterance of “stupid bitch,” and ultimately the pain of knowing that what you want will never be. It’s a heck of a debut, and Tony Tornay (Fatso Jetson) proves a great foil for Perry’s ever-skilled pen and split-open vocals. Like any interesting relationship, the journey from nostril-flaring first spark to sad ending is a curious rocket ride sure to hit a nerve with anyone who’s ever really, really wanted someone they couldn’t have.
After years of penning high quality material for the likes of Pink and Christina Aguilera, Perry has reemerged with a project that’s utterly personal yet strangely universal and chockablock with raw rock spirit. It’s the kinda slab that almost makes you wish she’d get her heart kicked around a little more just so the second album is just as fucking cool and immediate. But really, we wouldn’t wish that on anyone, especially a musician we really dig.
We got Linda and Tony to dip their little toe into our swampy questions.
Double Shot Week continues with Chuck Prophet, a seemingly perfect rock ‘n’ roller who’s knocked out distinctive, memorable and hugely satisfying music since the late 1970s when he first rose to attention in Green On Red. However, it’s Prophet’s solo work, particularly in the past decade, that marks him as a rootsier American answer to Richard Thompson, displaying his own nuanced way with a guitar, a tune or a vocal delivery that makes one lean in and pay attention. The sweet meat with Chuck Prophet is often found in the details – a slight turn of phrase, a wink in a black tale, a totally unexpected yet perfect flash of guitar, tenderness in a punch – and his albums are the sort that just keep getting better & better with repetition and time. Like we said, kind of a perfect musician, and goddamn great live performer, too. Here’s two recent killers from his pen, and check out Dennis chat with Chuck Prophet from a few years back here.
Ah heck, it’s Sunday and we adore Chuck, so we’re gonna make it a DOUBLE Double Shot!
