augustus westerberg

Just back from Rush R40 tour at the ACC here in Toronto, there's a certain giddiness in the crowd at a hometown Rush show that feels really unique, someday I'd like to see them in another city and see if that's the case. Although many of the diehards in attendance seemed to think this could be their last hurrah, won't be for lack of ability if that ends up being true.

Deliberately avoided reading anything about the tour and I'm so glad I did, *SPOILER ALERT* they went backwards through time starting with a few from Clockwork Angels and ending the 1st set with Subdivisions. Obviously the 2nd set was gonna be off the charts and it didn't disappoint: Tom Sawyer - Red Barchetta! - Spirit of Radio - Jacob's Ladder - Hemispheres - drums - Cygnus - Closer To The Heart - XANADU!!!!! - 2112 Overture - Temples of Syrinx - Presentation - Grand Finale. Encore: Lakeside Park!!! - ANTHEM!!!!! - WHAT YOU'RE DOIN!!!!! - Working Man.

Only (minor) beefs - they went from Roll The Bones to Distant Early Warning, skipped right past Power Windows & Hold Your Fire, Power Windows is one of my faves, they could have done 4 off that album and I wouldn't have complained. And I never thought I'd see Rush in Toronto where they didn't play YYZ (Moving Pictures tour was my very first concert back in 1981). And of course the drum solo could have been 45 minutes longer, as always. 

But there's never room for everything from a career that long, it was an awesome show, wish I could go again on Friday. 

After pissing away close to a grand and a week's vacation time on a fiasco of a Replacements tour, I have made the tough decision not to attend Solid Sound this time and would also like to give my 3 day early bird pass to someone here. I realize most people that can attend will already have tickets but maybe there's a friend or relative you could bring along? PM me or post here if interested. 

THE WIND BLOWS HIGH

Trees whip to the ground, the clouds are streaming

To think I would ever live to see this day

Beneath an angry sky the crowd is screaming

It's clear that someone's got to pay

I cannot account for where I've been

Never thought I'd need an alibi

Open up the sky and let me in

Oh - the wind blows high

I see you coming in the morning soon

Unwrap your blue guitar, play a merciful tune

Wipe a final tear from a dead man's eye

Oh - the wind blows high

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

There's a shaking in the ground like the world might end

Voices of the sea and sky contend

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

Through these wicked sheets of driving rain

I can hear the whistle of a train

Someone's gone away and never coming back

The crew's already tearing up the track

Track by track they cart the road away

Rail by rail the pile mounts to the sky

Does it always have to end this way?

Oh - the wind blows high

I see you stranded on the border line

Unwrap your blue guitar, play a tune so fine

Hold that rhythm, never let it die

Rock me  while the wind blows high

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

There's a shaking in the ground like the world might end

Open up the sky and let me in

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

     The wind blows high and the wind blows low again...

World enough and time and I do believe

For love to grow and the heart grow to receive

World enough and time to turn around

We're not really lost, just waiting to be found

Whistle up the wind that calls your name

Howling like a prayer with no amen

High or low, you ride it just the same

It will never blow this way again

I see you gleaming in the morning light

Played your blue guitar all through the night

Stretched your heart and soul upon the strings

Shining with the tender love you bring

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

There's a shaking in the ground like the world might end

Open up the sky and let me in

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again...

            (Robert Hunter, 1995)

Miss you Jerry, thanks for everything.

Will there be cigarettes in heaven?

Thanks so much for posting this, at the festival I asked them for a large or xl & they had just sold the last one to a girl in front of me for her boyfriend (they still had a small or medium but it didn't work for me). Ordered now - thank you!

Comes with download. Trailer for the movie here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymL2yH3whsQ

I just stumbled across a reference to a documentary from a couple of years ago. Made a Machine by Describing the Landscape. Anyone seen it? Is it worth 20 bucks?

It's worth it just for the phenomenal live in studio version of Electric Fence. The concert footage is good too though not as high quality as the bonus disc in the Funeral Singers dvd. Most of the songs in Made A Machine... are from Quicksand/Cradlesnakes, if you're a fan you should definitely have it.  

My Stitches pre-order bundle arrived Thursday, 5 days before street date! Loving it.

Just WOW indeed, that was amazing. Thanks for posting the setlist, just to add that Kiss Me On The Bus segued into 3rd Stone From The Sun. There were some Paul lyric blanks on Androgynous, I Will Dare & the best/least bit of Bastards Of Young, but overall they were super tight & couldn't have looked happier to be there. That was incredible. 5 words I never thought I'd say again: I saw the Replacements tonight!!! Fuck yeah.

I'm greedily hoping for a warm-up club show somewhere in Toronto on Saturday night, seems reasonable to think they might want to get their feet wet before headlining a festival on Sunday. Just in case, definitely saying NO to overtime next weekend and keeping my ears open for any announcement towards the end of the week.

The way the previously announced venue shows are right in the middle of the living room tour makes me wonder if there will be any full band shows at all. Especially since the venue shows are now listed as 'with Richard Buckner'. I totally get why Tim would rather play living rooms to an attentive audience but I'd love to see some full band shows too. Looks like Buffalo will probably be my only show on this tour.

Stitches pre-order info should be coming down the 'pike any time now, bring it on!

When Elvis Costello opened for Dylan there was no interaction until the very last show (if memory serves), then they did Tears Of Rage together. So that $5 bet may go down to the wire.

Wilco should break out We've Been Had on this tour. "Every star that hides in the back of the bus..."

I thought the prices were a little steep, too. Three 7" and Mikael's new record cost me $47. Nels has so little recent work on vinyl, though, so I couldn't pass it up. I skipped browsing the used stuff this year because every single record I bought at SSF 2 had a skip in it.

I picked up The Replacements Songs For Slim for $11.99 on red vinyl, was very happy with that, and surprised to even see it. Had a real "what is this shit?" moment when I put it on though, until I realized it should be played at 45 rpm. Wish I had more patience to browse there but it was uncomfortably crowded.

Last time I saw Paul (at the Phoenix, solo, circa Come Feel Me Tremble), he opened with Alex Chilton. If I were the 'Mats playing their first show since 1991 I'd do the same I think. Either that or an early classic like Color Me Impressed , or Takin A Ride. But Alex Chilton would work on so many levels. Can hardly believe this is happening, there's so much time for things to go wrong....but I got my ticket plus an extra at the earliest bird cheapest price, anyone looking to travel to Toronto for the FIRST REPLACEMENTS SHOW SINCE 1991 (!!!!!!!!!!), I got room for at least one, maybe 2 more here at the lighthouse, come on up! This is gonna be awesome, I'm already bouncing off the walls. BEST NEWS EVER! 

Just ordered Toronto tix, thanks so much for the heads up! 'Mats & Dino jr on the same bill, should be some kinda day. Assuming Paul & Tommy are in, wonder if Chris will play or if Slim is even able? I'll take what I can get, been such a loooooong time!

Toronto setlist was almost identical to Ottawa, they did Braindead in place of No Expectations and returned to finish Bottles & Bones this time after the Space-y interlude. The new songs are sounding really great, Stitches can't get here soon enough and hopefully some nearby dates on a fall tour!

Ottawa was great, there was a female singer "Jesse" with them who sang on all the new songs (5!) and a few of the old ones too, and played some harmonica. Bottles & Bones devolved into an effects pedals freak-out after the bridge & they never came back to finish it, too bad since the backing vocals were sounding great on that tune with the extra voice. Not that I didn't enjoy the "Space" segment, I definitely did. Such a treat to hear that amazing music in such an intimate setting, without a bar full of drunks and scene-makers babbling over it. Looking forward to Toronto show tonight, the local hockey team is in a deciding game 7, kind of a big deal around here to put it mildly, wouldn't surprise me if there were a few no-shows because of it. Ottawa setlist:

Orchids

Funeral Singers

Michigan Girls

Vampiring Again

Stepdaughter

Movie Music

Moses

Electric Fence>

(new song)

Fisherman's Wife

Bottles & Bones

Stitches

No Expectations

(new song)

Only 4 nerds made it to both NYC & Brooklyn? I'm doing a 900+ km round trip to Ottawa for tomorrow's show, then back for Toronto show Monday, I'm gonna be the super nerd of this tour! Would have considered Montreal tonight too but I bought Breeders tickets months ago & the show is walking distance from my apartment. Have to save some mileage for the album release tour later on! So excited for tomorrow & Monday.

Trying to imagine Electric Fence without drums & just can't, but will hear for myself soon enough in Ottawa & Toronto I hope. Will also report back here. Someone posted a few nice pics on Califone's facebook page, looks like just a duo - anyone know who the other musician is? 5 more days, can't hardly wait....

I'm torn. Thank You, Friends is the perfect song for SS but I've seen them do it a couple of times already, and you only get one pick. So maybe one of these...?

We've Been Had

Big Star - Kangaroo

Replacements - I'll Be You

side 2 of Abbey Road

the entire Floor Show from Rocky Horror

Heh heh, if they can nail Broken Arrow they can do ANYTHING!

My Heron King Blues coloured vinyls came yesterday! Got a green and a yellow, yes I know I'm insane. Band in SF was Tim Hurley, Danni Iosello & Griffin Rodriguez. Same lineup played a few shows towards the end of last year, I'm assuming they'll be on the album & living room tour too but have no official word on that. Some press item I read related to the SF shows said that Tim had put together a new lineup because Joe, Ben & Jim were "on neverending tour with Iron & Wine", don't know how much truth there is to that but it sounds like a steadier gig than Califone that would pay the bills more dependably.

The SF Noise Pop program has a brief interview with Rutili in which he mentions playing with Tim Hurley:

Noise Pop: How has it been revisiting early material with the recent reissue of Sometimes Good Weather Follows Bad People?

TR: It's been interesting to feel the lifespan of these older songs. Some of them refuse to come out of my mouth after all these years and some feel better to play and sing now than they did back then. It's been great to play with Tim Hurley after all these years too, he was a huge part of what we did on those first few records.

Revisiting Good Weather and getting the Roomsound vinyl reissue together has helped me get some good perspective on where we come from and how to get the next phase of Califone to stay creatively vital and survive in this weird world.

I'm in for Toronto & waiting on Ottawa confirmation. Know exactly what you mean about the rabbit hole & not coming up for air, since I saw Califone open for Wilco in Hamilton & London, Ontario in 2010 they've been my favourite & by far most listened to band. By the 3rd song in Hamilton I was having a "where have you been all my life" moment with this music, such a shame I missed the previous decade but that's the way it goes sometimes I guess. Most grateful to Wilco for bringing them along on that tour and introducing us.

Saw the new lineup in San Francisco earlier this month, one regular show & one improvising live soundtrack to films performance. They were great, but I missed Becker's versatility - the banjo & fiddle, the variety in sounds - and the emphasis on percussion. Still a 4 piece band but sounding way stripped down from what I remember in 2010. Not to sound too negative though, they were still great and the new members are probably still feeling their way a little bit. They played about 4 new songs that all sounded excellent, can't wait for the new album. Beyond that they did Bottles & Bones, Fisherman's Wife, The Orchids, Electric Fence(YES!!!!), Funeral Singers, Ape-Like, Pastry Sharp & one Red Red Meat song.

My 2 cents on where to start is start with Funeral Singers and work backwards, that's what I did on Tim's recommendation when he was working the merch booth at those Wilco shows. He sold me Roots & Crowns at the 2nd show, I love them all but that one's my favourite.

Festival Express

Grateful Dawg

Sex Pistols - Filth & The Fury

Townes Van Zandt - Be Here To Love Me

Public Image Ltd at the Opera House, Toronto.

Picture Book

Till The End Of The Day

Alcohol

Celluloid Heroes

Days

Victoria

Sunny Afternoon

Better Things

Father Christmas

Around The Dial

honourable mentions...

Village Green Preservation Society

Give The People What They Want

Rock n Roll Fantasy

One of the Survivors

That live version of Morning Of Our Lives is amazing, the crowd all hostile & screaming for Roadrunner as it starts then by the end everyone is clapping along and won over, I love that. Have all the Jonathan on vinyl up to and including the self-titled 1989 Rounder release except for one, Back In Your Life, will have to look out for that one. Will also keep eyes open for a copy of Rockin & Romance, the Rough Trade trilogy are my all-time favourites of his.

I'm in Califone immersion and have been trying to find Roots & Crowns on vinyl for months, there were 2 limited runs of 1000 each as I understand it. Found a couple on amazon from $65 and up, but the sellers wouldn't ship to Canada. Checked ebay every couple of days, no joy. After ordering the Roomsound vinyl reissue from Thrill Jockey a few weeks ago, last week I got an email from them regarding a warehouse find of a single box of the 2nd pressing of Roots & Crowns (28 copies), "order now these will sell out overnight". Unfortunately I work afternoon shift and didn't get the email until the next day, by which time they were gone. Thrill Jockey still had a page advertising it on their site so I sent them an email asking them to take it down as it was breaking my heart to look at it, and cursing my luck for being on afternoon shift and not being a smartphone zombie and why oh why did I go out for beers after work on Thursday night when if I'd come home and dicked around on the computer maybe, just maybe, there would've been one left for me. Ultimately ending my email with "at least now sealed copies should be popping up on ebay", which I really was happy about, would've paid $100 for one no questions asked, maybe more. Paid $200 for the Big Star 3rd record store day edition and these are both top 5 albums for me.

An hour later I get a response that they miscalculated and have one single copy left, for which they have sent me a paypal invoice. After taking care of the invoice and sending my new hero some really effusive thanks, his final words to me were to "live with the joy of knowing that you got the LAST copy". Which I'm trying to do, but not sure how, nothing this good ever happens to me!