Matthew Good in Buffalo 29/03/08 - Concert Review

March 30th, 2008 |

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(pictures form the show coming soon)

While the final show of Matthew Good’s tour of the U.S. had few surprises, it was still a remarkable feat of perseverance. Succumbing to food poisoning and bouts of insomnia midway through his state-side journey, Matt had canceled several of his shows, including a coveted spot at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, a gig that could have sparked interest from a whole new audience. Despite Matt’s terrible luck of late, he managed to pull himself together for his last stop at Club Infinity in Buffalo, overcoming sleep deprivation to serenade a packed house of eager fans.

Being a continuation of last year’s “Nothing to Hide” tour, Matt took to the stage alone with only an acoustic guitar in hand and immediately launched into a note perfect rendition of “I’m a Window”, the second single from last summer’s Hospital Music. He then proceeded to play through revamped versions of his older material, like the hit singles “Load Me Up” and “Strange Days” as well as most of the tracks from his latest disc, with some candid conversation thrown in for good measure.

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The Top 5 Matthew Good Videos

March 29th, 2008 |

I’m heading to Buffalo to see Matthew Good perform the last show in his acoustic tour of the U.S. I think this will be the 11th MG show I’ve seen since I started listening to Underdogs at the beginning of the decade. In celebration of today’s show, here are my Top 5 Matthew Good videos:

5. Strange Days. Beautiful Midnight 1999.

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Brethren of the Free Spirit - “All Things are From Him…” Review

March 25th, 2008 |

Brethren of the Free Spirit - All Things Are From Him, Through Him And In Him
Brethren of the Free Spirit

All Things are From Him, Through Him and in Him. 2008. 3.5 stars.

An avant-garde acoustic collaboration between guitarist James Blackshaw and lutenist Josef Van Wissem, Brethren of the Free Spirit play classically inspired melodies that gracefully build and repeat in a hypnotic and psychedelic manner. The album’s 4 tracks delve into folk and minimalist traditions, with layered compositions leading into a sustained and relaxed trances, never pushing towards powerful climaxes or crescendos.

The restrained and meditative quality of the music here is almost religious in its execution, with its meticulous attention to detail and patient movements providing a soft backdrop for intense personal reflection. I first started exploring this album when I was walking alone in the woods by my house, feeling the waves of acoustic guitar build naturally, seemingly mimicking the precise and intricate patterns found in nature. The album’s pastoral nature favors solitary experiences and requires the undivided attention of the listener in appreciating its inner dramas.

While the moods and feelings given off by this record are lucid and well conceived, the album’s short duration (under 30 minutes) and general lack of variety hurts its overall impact. Certainly there are intense and complex moments, but the entire affair becomes quite repetitive if its not taken in within the right context. As far as avant-garde recordings go, Brethren of the Free Spirit are consistently interesting and accessible, if you are willing to find the right setting to listen to it. This is strong conceptual music for the Zen set.

A Silver Mt. Zion - “13 Blues for 13 Moons” Review

March 19th, 2008 |

A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

A Silver Mt. Zion. 13 Blues for 13 Moons. 2008. 3 stars.

A Silver Mt. Zion, easily the most celebrated splinter project from the Godspeed You Black Emperor crew, return for their fifth full-length outing, spouting more anarchistic diatribes over intense and dramatic orchestral instrumentation. The gorgeous strings, pulse pounding drumming (courtesy of new member Eric Craven) and searing blasts of electric guitar remain intact and interact beautifully with each other over the four, 13 minute plus epics found here. While the stirring compositions build gracefully, with a greater emphasis on the soaring guitar bursts, the band’s newfound sense of urgency ultimately falls a little flat in its execution and once again, Efrim Menuck’s grating vocals are largely to blame.

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Matthew Good “If I was a Tidal Wave” Live

March 1st, 2008 |

This video was taken from Matthew Good’s 2006 acoustic tour. Israel’s incursion into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah was going on at the time, which explains Matt’s political spiel at the beginning. An interesting song, it exists only in demo form and has yet to appear on any studio release. Here’s hoping. What do you guys think of this song? These are the lyrics in case you can’t make them out.

The Saudis are ever our friends and our allies
The President smokes cigars with their Princes on his lanai
And across the street a mother sleeps with her babys ghost
Wrapped in pink and spotlights

If I was a tidal wave well you know that Id
Rise up and crash your castle gate and leave you high and dry
Disappear you down this trail of busted years to ride the rails and goodbyes

Well my name is propaganda
And my mamas pain is propaganda
If I was a tidal wave
Id let the Union fall
Ya if I was a tidal wave
Id be first against the wall

Back in 1980 Mayor Young he sent the key
To the city of Detroit to praise the best of enemies
Who shook hands with devil, now he runs the DOD
And spends lives

If I was a tidal wave well you know that Id
Rise up and crash your castle gate and leave you high and dry
Disappear you down this trail of busted years to ride the rails and goodbyes

If I was a tidal wave
From coast to coast Id scream
If I was a tidal wave
Id wash this whole place clean

Vic Chesnutt - “North Star Deserter” Review

February 22nd, 2008 |

Vic Chesnutt - North Star Deserter

Vic Chesnutt. North Star Deserter. 2007. 4 stars.

I had just recently discovered Vic Chesnutt, the celebrated folk/rock songwriter from Athens Georgia, after learning that A Silver Mt. Zion, one of my favorite post rock bands, lent their orchestral stylings to this harrowing album. Recorded at the now legendary Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Chesnutt’s collaboration, which also includes members of Fugazi and Godspeed You Black Emperor, fits beautifully among Constellation Record’s rustic yet avant garde catalog.

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Gordon Lightfoot - “If you could read my mind”

February 14th, 2008 |

While most of the music discussed on this blog is heavy, dark and alternative, its worthwhile to take a step back and enjoy some genuine, laid back classics. Gordon Lightfoot is easily one of Canada’s greatest musical exports, who, just like his fellow countrymen Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, helped shape the conventions of popular folk music. Even in his elder years, the man can still perform brilliantly, breathing new meaning into his now legendary body of work.

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

January 8th, 2008 |

Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan 1963. 5 Stars.

Everything has already been said about this man and his work. Like the greatest music legends of the 20th Century, Bob Dylan is just as much a myth as he is a musician, as the recent film I’m Not There will attest.

But there is no mythologizing about the lasting power of Dylan’s powerful song-writing, which in his more poignant efforts, provide stirring social commentary that has spanned decades and generations, making it depressingly obvious that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Last year, after being caught off guard by “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, off the album above, I immediately learned the song’s chords and did my best to memorize its labyrinthine lyrics. Every time I sing this song, I have to take a moment on reflect on its form and contemplative energy, trying to get into get into Dylan’s crackling mindset. I always have this image of a whethered and world-weary figure, exhausted by the multitude of horrors surrounding him, trying to inform the world of the immense costs of our collective actions. Over 40 years later, this screed is still echoing from the mountain.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways,
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’,
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’,
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’,
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’,
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’,
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.