Muzzle of Dan
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Posts posted by Muzzle of Dan
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This is a great song - perhaps my favorite of the tunes I've heard so far from pre-release/live recordings. This recorded version sounds like it could be from Mermaid Avenue era Wilco. I really dig the production on this track - especially the delay effect on the vocals.
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Someone Else's Song is in 3/4.
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Finally got a moment to check out this song. I dig it. Cool acoustic psychedelic folk vibe. Definitely akin to something off Rubber Soul or Revolver. Sounds really fresh though.
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The last David Gilmour album was actually pretty great. Not sure how that will contribute into the Pink Floyd sound on this new album. Hoping for the best though; and a tour. Even if it's just Dave and Nick, I'd like to see them play some old Pink Floyd tunes together (as someone who has not been to a Pink Floyd show of any kind other than the Roger Waters The Wall tour).
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Been listening to the Mountain Jam show a bunch this week - Fake Fur Coat is probably my favorite of the new tracks. I also really dig Slow Love and Diamond Light (already ordered my Vinyl of that one).
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What a sad day... Gotta go watch some Young Ones.
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Caught the end of Diamond Light and the last few songs. Can't wait to hear more of this new stuff!
Looks like Jeff got some new amps for this tour.
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Went to pre-order the Detroit show thinking I'd be jamming out to some awesome new tunes by later this week, only to have my schemes foiled by this:
Please note, this is a preorder. This roadcase will not be available for download until approximately 4 weeks after the show takes place. Customers will be notified by email when the roadcase is available for download
Guess if I'm going to want to hear the new stuff with the new band in the immediate I'm going to have to try to check out one of the upcoming webcasts. Hopefully there will be some tapers out and about too...
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Read through this thread and look for the posts by Chris Shaw. He was actually an engineer on the Ghost recording sessions and offers a lot of cool info.
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Got tickets to see the shows at Dodger Stadium and The Farewell to Candlestick Park Concert in SF. We sprung for good tix in SF and I managed to get $25 tickets for the Dodger Stadium show. $25 to see Paul McCartney? What a steal!
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More dates added today. Crossing my fingers that a date gets added near LA. Saw him at the Hollywood Bowl last time he came around and it was seriously the most fun show I've ever attended. Paul is such an incredible performer with boundless joy and energy. HIs band is excellent too.
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Saw Neil Young at The Dolby Theatre in LA tonight. It was the last show of his 4 show run and my first time seeing him play. It was super. He did a great cover of Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind.
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Just felt a pretty good earthquake.
My girlfriend and I were at a theatre seeing a play in La Mirada - one town over from the Epicenter. That place was shaking like crazy.
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Thanks for posting!
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From London’s CAFE OTO:
We’re thrilled to welcome Yoko Ono back to Cafe OTO for two very special performances – A trio with Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley next Saturday (22 March) and an NYC-style late night set the following Tuesday (25 March) with Nels Cline and Talvin Singh.
Obviously, this is an incredibly rare opportunity to see one of the most important figures of the twentieth century avant-garde/counter-culture in such an intimate setting.
The ticket links below will be added to our website later today, but we wanted to give email subscribers some advance warning as these are likely to go pretty fast.
YOKO ONO LIVE with Thurston Moore & Steve ShelleySaturday 22 March, 8pm, Café OTO, London
YOKO ONO LIVE with Nels Cline & Talvin SinghBuy TicketsSOLD OUTTuesday 25 March, 10:45pm, Café OTO, London
Buy TicketsSOLD OUT -
Not sure if I've seen this posted - thought I'd share.
http://kdhx.org/music/news/the-ballad-of-uncle-tupelo-an-abridged-conversation-with-mike-heidorn
Written by Robin Wheeler
Mike Heidorn lives in Belleville, Ill., not far from the neighborhood where he lent his punk gunfire drumming to Uncle Tupelo for its first three albums. Over a three-hour lunch at a local restaurant with his band's framed album covers on the wall, Heidorn talks as fast as he drummed for the band.
Open and thoughtfully verbose, Heidorn prefers to look back on what his band did, not on their place in history. This year saw the deluxe anniversary reissue of Uncle Tupelo's first album, "No Depression," so it seemed opportune to revisit that time, gone as it may be. Here are some highlights from our conversation.
Listening to a 1985 recording of a rehearsal of the Primitives, which became Uncle Tupelo
I was trying to figure out what I'm going to talk about, and what really came to my mind was some of the things we did leading up to 1991. What did we do in the years leading up to that to be functional enough to be on stage? I had the good fortune of running into a cassette tape of the Primitives practicing.
So here's the list of the songs, with the years they were originally released. "Are You Going to Be There (At the Love-In)," 1967, by Chocolate Watch Band. Jay ... I couldn't believe Jay was singing about the love-in. "I Can't Explain" by The Who. "You Don't Stand an Outside Chance," written by Warren Zevon, a 1966 song by The Turtles. Jay would sing that.
Some of these songs were on the oldies station our parents listened to. Rolling Stones "Make Love to You," "Dirty Water." That what's we were doing, and I look at it as study hall for me in 1984 through 1986.
I was born in '67 and most of these songs are from '65, '66, '67. These songs were 20 years old at the time, laid down the same year as our birth, and we got ahold of them. This was the template to everything we played after that. Jay had a head start, playing these songs with his brothers, but we had the gusto and energy.
On growing up with music
The thing about music is I don't know if I would have mixed it up with Jeff and Jay without music as a conduit.
I did take one piano lesson before I got kicked out. I'd heard my brothers and sister play piano, and I thought I could do it. I did not like the lesson. She returned me to my parents and said, "Don't bring Mike back." In hindsight I was a hyperactive little thing. I think what it was was that I didn't want to learn what she was teaching, because I wanted to play like my Aunt Annie [a boogie-woogy piano player]. I wanted to get into a song, not a scale. I wasn't having any of that.
Meeting Jay and Jeff
My older sister Kelly was dating, fell in love, and is still married to Dade Farrar, Jay's older brother. I was an eighth grader, meeting Dade, who had already been instrumental in Jay's life. Kelly meeting Dade, and Dade coming over to our house in his leather jacket and Converse tennis shoes made an impact. Started going to high school and met Jay.
What was important was having connections with Dade, Kelly and Wade ... in the early '80s to hear these great bands that I ended up cutting my teeth on, you didn't have a lot of volumes of Internet encyclopedias to look at. You had to have older friends, or older brothers who went to college, that was really key. These were songs Dade and Wade had played with Jay as a 14-year-old on guitar. It was important that Jay had cut his teeth before I met him. We dove right in. We faked our way like we could play these songs. I listened to this tape recently and thought yeah, it's not bad.
Leaving the band
I met [former wife] Sandy right at the beginning of Uncle Tupelo, around '87. Sandy, her children and Uncle Tupelo had entered into my life at the same time. And I had a job here, near the fountain, for the News-Democrat and the Journal newspapers, for the health insurance. I was very fortunate to have my job, and vacation time accrued. I blew through my vacation time right away, especially in the summer of 1991 when we went east, and then way southwest. It was our first three-week tour.
I lost my mind in the middle of a set on a Monday night in Phoenix. I remember in the middle of a song called "Fall Down Easy," there was a breakdown on the drums, and maybe five people in attendance. Brian [Henneman] was on the side of the stage with a guitar when I got off stage. It was hilarious and sad. They all looked at me, and I said, "I don't know where I'm at." I remember thinking boy, this is what it's going to take to keep this thing alive and doing well, and these guys are good.
There was a huge tug in the home life from my soon-to-be wife. There was a huge amount of strife, and I'd be lying if I didn't say there was. That can permeate a band. And also, my own thinking was that this would hold back the band unit.
We had gotten done doing a lot of touring with "Still Feel Gone." Peter Buck, at the end of that, wanted to do a record and I said yeah.
I remember calling [manager] Tony [Margherita]. I lived with Jeff and Jay on 11th Street. This would have been in February [1992]. I told them that it was probably time for me to bow out, and that they could probably get somebody else. I was crying, I'm sure. Or trying not to.
Jay, the first thing he said was, "What? Don't you want to record with Peter Buck?" I said that I don't have to, but I said I would, but I don't think I could support the record.
Jeff said something. He was mad, but not saying, "Screw you." I don't remember what he said that day. We didn't communicate much anyway. We didn't sit around and rap about our feelings. We would not speak about music directions or anything.
We really didn't speak much between February and March 16. I left them alone. I might have heard some of the songs because Jeff was playing them in the living room before the recording. That's how we spoke to each other -- what's in your hand, whether you want to hear it and play it. I could hear these songs, and Jay's. I heard a version of "Grindstone" in solo form. Hearing those songs I knew that I wasn't going to be the one to hold them back, and I told them that.
Joining Son Volt
My wife was hobnobbing with Monica, Jay's wife. Monica told Sandy that Jay was auditioning drummers for a new group he was forming. I wasn't blowing through my vacation time and didn't have the money to go on vacation anyway, so I had time. I called Jay and I'll never forget the conversation. I said, "I hear you have something kicking and for what it's worth I have some vacation time," and he said, "Yeah, Mike. I was wondering what your state of mind was." That's what he said to me. "Well, I don't know about that, but I do have some vacation time. He said that yeah, we should do that, and we did.
Before [recording with Son Volt] I made a call to Jeff Tweedy, because I thought that if Jay and I were going to play again, I wanted to tell him so that he didn't read it or hear it anywhere else. I said, "You'll never guess who I'm playing with now." And he said, "Jay." And I go, "Yeah." He said, "Mike, I thought you didn't want to play anymore." That was the first thing he said. I said, "I know. I didn't. But if you would have called and needed a drummer I probably would have jumped in."
The Uncle Tupelo lawsuit against their first label
In 2001, Jeff and Jay -- Uncle Tupelo, Inc. -- went after the owner of Rockville Records to sue him for non-payment. I talked to Jeff during this time frame. He was at his dad's house and called me over. We were talking out on his dad's front porch.
The judge told [Rockville Records] to cease and dissist all sales of Uncle Tupelo albums, and any supply he had left he had to give to the lawyer, and the master tapes, he had to turn over to the lawyer. At that moment, Uncle Tupelo were free agents in the marketplace to do something with them.
When Jeff called me over to his folks' house and said "Mike, do you have any idea how many albums Uncle Tupelo sold the first time?" I said, "You know, no idea. Let me think." He didn't say anything so I gave it my best shot. Independent band, I remember seeing the crowds at the shows growing and getting bigger, and we were hitting it hard. I could tell during the shows, from east coast to west, Canada, and beyond that we could have sold some units. So, 2000 units for an independent band is a start. And this was 10 years later. I said, "Well, I'm going to guess 25,000 records, Jeff."
He said, "Well, it was proven in court that it was 100,000 copies each of the first three records."
So that could have been a different story, a game-changer for me at the time. But in all fairness, in '92 it wasn't just the money. There were a lot of things at play. I don't know what to be happy for -- that it happened or it didn't. But we weren't getting paid the royalties and this proved it.
On playing now
I did have the good fortune some months back to play with my good friend Peter Bruntnell, a great singer-songwriter. I met him in Son Volt, touring with them in England, and he opened for us in 1999.
Dave Boquist from Son Volt called me in September of last year and said that Peter was coming to Nashville to play the Americana Music Conference, and he asked if I would be interested in backing him.
[After playing in Nashville] We wrapped up that weekend in Belleville, at Eckert's Orchard. Before I left town my friend Chuck was working at Eckert's and said, "Mike, you want to play a show? I'll give you a wad of cash." So I said, "Pete, do you want to play in Belleville for some money," and he said, "Uh, yes!" It was a great job. My hometown, down the street from where I live. If that's the last time I play, that's fine because it was a good time. My hometown, and Pete was there, my dad, my family. It was great. Peter was a conduit to get back to that stage.
I'd love to do that again with them. Or anybody. But I don't see it. You're asking me to see the future, and it's question marks. But I'm not stupid enough to say yes or no to anything in my own life because I know 2014 is going to be full of change, but I don't know in what regard. I'm really diving into the old records, and diving into musical history, even just in my life and it seems so pertinent and near. It's not a far stretch. I play at my house with my friends all the time. So yeah, I'll play. Whether or not it's seen by anyone else….
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Love, Love, Love for Sue!
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No love for Ray Manzarek? I'd put him on my list.
Van Morrison too.
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I'm so happy to have the Tweedy Largo shows!!! It's especially great to have the night 2 show which I attended. I was just thinking about that show a couple weeks ago and thinking "damn, I got to see Jeff Tweedy play Dash 7, The Long Cut and Cars Can't Escape all at one show. Too bad I won't hear it again since there was no recording allowed but at least I got to witness these rare and amazing songs I love so much live, in person." Then voila! - I get on here only to see the shows have been put out and I can hear it all again. It's just as amazing to listen to over and over again as it was in person. I was laughing so hard at all the banter and especially the version of Thanks I Get.
It's also so cool to be able to hear the other shows I wasn't able to attend. I think a lot of us were crossing our fingers that these shows would get released and I'm glad it came through. Too bad about the WTA songs. It was a damn fine version of BBN at night 2. I'll be pretty happy with the wealth of awesome songs that were included though.
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Colin Meloy at The Fonda Theatre; LA
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34 days is not so bad - just over a month.
That said... I'm about ready to have baseball back in my life.
Let's go Cardinals.
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Definitely. You are not alone. I wouldn't limit to Wilco/Tweedy shows, I've had a number of true religious/spiritual experience over the many years (decades) of concert going. Keeps me going back. A religious experience without the religion, it's the best.
Agreed.
This is the best kind of religious experience.
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Was playing trivial pursuit the other day and the question was along the lines of:
The bands Wilco and Sun Volt formed out of the breakup of what band?
Shouldn't that read:
The bands Wilco and Sun Volt rose out of the ashes of what band?
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What an incredible show. I feel so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to attend such an amazing night of music and entertainment.
Jeff Garlin is a really, really funny guy. The off the cuff bit about the dogs coming to get him and playing an Andy Kaufman bit was hilarious; as well as the whole airplane story.
Jeff gave a really beautiful and inspired performance, despite being terribly sick. After seeing the show in Santa Barbara, it was great to be a part of an audience that was the exact opposite of that one. Everyone was so quiet during the songs and it was so beautiful to be able to hear everything so well. The intimacy of Largo was also alarming - watching Sunken Treasure was like being in a trance. Jeff was so close and the music was so clear and present. I will never tire of hearing that song in any arrangement.
I will also never tire of hearing New Madrid. It's a wonderful song,
Pick Up The Change was great. Love the harmonica on it.
I couldn't believe my ears when he launched into Black Eye. I literally grabbed my girlfriend and whispered "Holy shit, this song is SO good." What a beautiful performance of a wondeful and sad song. All Jeff's vocals throughout the night were filled with so much emotion and tinged with a raw edge (probably due to the cold, but it made it sound REALLY great).
I seriously LOVE Radio King. That song feels so good.
Nothing Up My Sleeve was beautiful. After the whistling solo at the end Jeff mentioned that his whistling was in good form and perhaps he should just whistle the rest of the songs all night.
I loved hearing the acoustic arrangement of Art Of Almost - Jeff ended it by saying - that's where that song started out... I could have played the guitar solo... it's easy... all the other parts of that song are easy... I could have played them, but they're too easy.
Jeff was really in a warm and friendly mood tonight. Lots of funny banter others can help me to piece back together...
Cars Can't Escape is always welcome. Loved the added reverb on the ending tonight to give it a tinge of psychedelia. He didn't do that in Santa Barbara.
Before going into The Long Cut, Jeff called out that the song was requested by someone who just couldn't let go of the past. I am guilty as charged here - it's definitely not like I can't let go of the past. Wilco has not made a record that I don't like at least a bit. I thought the Whole Love was a great record, but danm The Long Cut is a good song and that can't be denied. I had been requesting this song like crazy. I love the performance of it from The Lounge Ax bootlegs from January 2000 and I've always wanted to hear it live. My band even recorded a demo of it when we were just starting out because I loved Jeff's acoustic arrangement so much. It was so special to see him play this tune tonight.
I had also been requesting Dash 7 equally as crazy and it was equally as mindblowing that it actually got played. This song is so, so beautiful. I feel so fortunate to have witnessed the performance of this rare, early tune. The intimacy of Largo and the vulnerability of Jeff's performance came together to make magic with the one-two punch of The Long Cut/Dash 7.
One True Vine is great. Jeff sounded so good.
Jeff started playing Red-Eyed and Blue and some folks started cheering. Then he stopped and threatened to abort the song because he didn't feel like playing it. Then he went back into and that's where the sing-along portion of the night began. Jeff was clearly happy to have the support of the audience and the show took a really fun turn here after all the virtuosity that had taken place leading up to this point. Love the arrangement of I Got You. Jeff thanked everyone for singing along and welcomed suggestions of more songs we could sing along with.
Summer Teeth was so much fun. I really enjoyed getting to do the audience participation backing vocals at the end.
Magazine was dedicated to Nate - Jeff's friend, who's not really his friend, but a crew member/employee and not someone Jeff is friend's with at all. Apparently he always requests this song. Jeff started and then stopped saying he didn't want to play it. The audience volunteered to help and then he gave in and started into it. Everyone started out singing and then Jeff goes "do you guys actually know the verses?" before going into the first verse. I think we did pretty well.
Someone had shouted Hummingbird when Jeff was asking for suggestions of things to sing along with. He decided to try it - I don't know if it was supposed to be on the setlist anyway or if inspiration hit. It was probably one of the best solo performances I've ever heard of Hummingbird by Jeff. He didn't flub and chords and got all the words with the support of the audience sing-along. He also nailed the whistling solo.
I love the acoustic arrangement of Always In Love. Another good sing-along song.
The Late Greats was so awesome acoustic. I love this song and I was so pleased to hear it - as I haven't really noticed Jeff playing it solo much. He was really having fun at this point, laughing at little chord flubs and imperfections of the arrangement. At the end of the song he said - "Nailed it" and laughed heartily. I actually thought it was quite good.
The Thanks You Get was where things really got silly. Jeff started the first few chords and then aborted saying -"I was going to play..." and someone yelled [ "play it." Jeff asked if he knew what song it was and a few folks shouted the title. Jeff then remarked on how much he was stopping and starting the songs and then noted that he was just recapping the situation that had just played out and then launched back into the song. We all tried to do the call and response section too early and Jeff chided us playfully. He kept on and then when we got to the call and response section he was hesitant and said he didn't want to do it. Then he went on with it and did it anyway but told us that he thought we could dig deeper and do better, so he wanted to try it again. Then he launched into the aforementioned David Lee Roth Banter from some other shows and lead to Jeff saying Fuck the Fun-Havers, etc. He never stopped playing the two chords of Thanks You Get the entire time he went off on all the banter and even remarked that he had never been able to vamp under banter. He mentioned that he had a "real groove going." Then by the end of that diatribe he said he didn't want to go back into the call and response cause he was over it. Then he decided to do it but said we needed to try harder and do better. We did it again and Jeff was really pleased with the results. We kept going and then when Jeff changed the melody and we changed with him, he stopped and asked why we did the same melody change as him. He then went off doing silly voices and making us imitate them saying "We can make it better" in sillier and sillier high and low and charactery voices. The whole thing ended up with Jeff making fart noises in time with where the words would go and we all made fart noises back at him, in turn. It was probably at least a 10 minute version of Thanks I Get with all the craziness that happened throughout the song. Jeff was in rare form and clearly having an excellent time.
Jeff thanked us for being a great audience and said that he truly had fun before ending with A Shot In The Arm - another excellent sing-along song and everyone sang along quite boldly. This is also a song I will never tire of hearing. It's too good.
This was probably one of the most fun evenings of entertainment I've ever had. There were so many beautiful and vulnerable moments in the early part of the show and then everything got so warm and fun. Jeff is truly my favorite songwriter and live performer of the modern age. I'm sad that I won't see any other shows at Largo, but I told my girlfriend on the way home between the experience of tonight's show and the setlist of tonight and Santa Barbara combined (only 5 songs played at both shows!), there is nothing else that could pop up on any future setlist that would make me feel like I missed out on anything. Santa Barbara was beautiful and weird with a great setlist and tonight was just perfect with an equally great setlist.
I want to put some positive vibes out there to Jeff. I hope he is feeling better after a day of rest. He mentioned during the show tonight that he was leaving it all out there on the stage and giving us everything he had. He said they were going to have to scrape up the green globule that was left of him and put it into the limo because he was giving us everything he had. I truly believe that he was not holding back even an ounce. Jeff gave us a really special performance tonight at Largo and it might be one of the greatest live performances I've been fortunate to witness. I can only equate it to Michael Jordan's flu game - any other old Bulls fans out there?
tweedy- 7/26/14 freeport, ME
in After The Show
Posted
That's what I thought too - new album track live debut?