Oil Can Boyd

Nice choice. Spinning is such a great song.

It's a short tour: Boston and NYC. But it was so good. They had strings and a trumpet player. They actually played it back to front because they said the flow was better. One Wilco connection: Joe Pernice talked about each song and he said that the first time he played one of them he was still in the Scud Mountain Boys and they were opening for Wilco in Chicago in 1997.

The Pernice Brothers (performing their album Overcome by Happiness in its entirety)

A band called Wild Pink from NYC opened. I liked them though they didn't blow me away. NPs were great (as always). New guy on sax and keyboards but I didn't catch his name.

The New Pornographers

This is a great album. Big fan.

Same. I live vicariously through bböp's reports.

As always, the Feelies put on a great show. Mostly stuff from the first three albums, plus their usual mix of covers thrown in. (Jonathan Richman's Egyptian Reggae was a highlight.) With bands that they play out a lot, I often worry they will be rusty to start a show but I thought they were pretty tight from the start. They did two Television covers in the encore (Glory and See No Evil), which was nice.

The Feelies!

I am only about half way through but it definitely talks about the tension between Leon and Joe Cocker on the Mad Dogs tour. Much of it seemed to be around the perception that Leon was running the show and trying to make his name off of Cocker. And part of it seemed to be based on the contrast between Cocker's manic performance and Leon's calm presence. That said, the book suggests that Leon is really the person who made that tour possible.

Everything you'd ever want to know about Leon.

Live last night - Robyn Hitchcock! Great as always.

Sure. I didn't mean to suggest that those were the only three songs by Weir that I like.

The question above got me thinking about favorite songs. Over the past few years, while working from home, I've been listening to more Dead than I have in a long time. And almost all of the songs I go back to are Jerry songs: Bird Song, Dark Star, Scarlet>Fire, Morning Dew, Eyes of the World, Brokedown Palace, Ripple, Terrapin, Althea, Franklin's Tower, Friend of the Devil, China>Rider. I don't mean to crap on Weir - I really like his guitar playing - but in thinking about my favorite Dead songs, almost none are his. There are some I like: the Other One, Cassidy, Estimated

Ha! I am too. And it's a big book!

I've been listening to some Leon recently. There's a new biography of him just out (written by Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom).

Wow - I used to listen to that a ton. I haven't listened in ages.

I've been listening to a lot of Hitchcock recently - going to see him in a few weeks.

The latest edition of the Jokermen podcast discusses the album. I like the podcast but I haven't listened to this one yet.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of that album (and Quine). But I haven't listened in a while. Maybe I'll put it on now ...

Been on a big Lou kick recently. Dating myself, but when I first got into Lou and the Velvets the first three Velvets albums were hard to find. This and 1969Live were my intro and I still think of this as the definitive version of Heroin.