Mr. Heartbreak

Yep, agreed, MB. I caught some good 80s shows, including the one referenced above that Lammy also caught, but I always say their best period was from about '70 to '77. I was listening to a Playin' in the Band from '74 earlier this week that I had not heard before, and it was fantastic. Last night on my way to pick up my wife from work, I was listening to Scarlet > Fire from 4/22/77 (a show I working my through for the first time this week), and it's sooooo good. Jerry royally screws up the verses on Fire, which usually kind of ruins a song for me a bit, but in this case it doesn't even matt

When I remember to do it, I like to commemorate the anniversary of Dead shows I attended by listening to them. Today it's my first Dead show from 9/23/82. Right in the middle of Lost Sailor>Saint now. I know some of you old Deadheads were there too: https://archive.org/details/gd1982-09-23.sbd.miller.108973.flac16

Wilco typically has an opener, although I don't see one listed for this leg of the tour. Someone else may be able to provide more details. I would imagine there is an opener, but no idea. They usually start pretty darn close to on time, and shows last from 2 - 2.5 hours as a general rule. Not sure about other questions, as I have never been to the Cap.

Got mine in the mail yesterday and started listening to it on the road. I've gotten through all of disc one and part of disc two (thanks, traffic jam!), and I'm really digging it so far. I think the first disc has enough variations in style to keep a listener's interest, and I haven't heard anything "forgettable" or "filler" on disc two yet. I also think there are probably enough really strong songs on both discs to warrant splitting the album up into two separate parts like this. It occurred to me that the whole thing is, technically, short enough to fit on one CD (70 minutes), so the decisio

Jazz fanatics may be familiar with him. I thought he was much younger, as I just got into his work a few years back. http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/music/jazzblog/rip-kenny-wheeler

Rolling Stone gives it four out of five stars. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/tweedy-sukierae-20140917

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/18/jeff-tweedy-wilco-why-the-album-still-matters This is actually an article by Jeff ("as told to Dave Simpson"), but it's about as close to as a review/explication of Sukierae from him as you're likely to get (I think). I didn't see it posted anywhere else.

Thanks for posting that. Pretty amazing: I had always figured he had to be the kind of writer who pens lyrics like Via Chicago or I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and then has to go find a melody for them. That it is the opposite is really quite stunning. Very gifted guy.

Thanks for posting so much obsessively intricate review material. Seriously, for those of us who geek out over this stuff, it will be instructive to go back and read this later. I have resisted the temptation to 1) Download the preview tracks or 2) Listen to the live material (well, I watched that one live stream...lol). Thus far, I have only played the preview tracks that streamed on various websites one time...and I avoided the NPR stream completely. Not easy for me to have even that level of self-discipline, particularly with this. However, I have ordered the discs, so I expect to have th

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/arts/music/joe-sample-crusaders-pianist-dies-at-75.html?_r=0

I didn't see that special, but this is probably a little more interesting and insightful: http://www.vulture.com/2014/08/what-it-was-like-to-do-improv-with-robin-williams.html

This kind of cracked me up. There is a lot of stuff I am not interested in, but with the stuff I am interested in, I am a fanatical completist. So for me, "essential "would mean it's a must-have album, but not necessarily career defining or even in the upper echelons of their best work (after all, some artists have an extensive catalogue by age 50). It also might not get a lot of listens, but I would not want to live without it.

Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl Bruce Cockburn - The Charity of Night; Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu

I did not know this. So we will be clamoring for the Sukierae demos someday, just like we did with YHF? I mean, honestly, I would rather hear Jeff's castoffs than just about anything else being released these days.

Dang, you are right about those '74 mics! I was listening to some '74 material I downloaded from that Steel Cut Oats site, and the vocals really sound trebly. Very good performances otherwise, but it's distracting.

Never bothered me either. The vocals aren't as good as they are on, say, Europe '72, but that is a pretty great era overall.

"Boots on the ground" against ISIS may not sound ideal, but I doubt it has to be tens of thousands of troops. Some serious air strikes and select use of special forces might be able to degrade them sufficiently that the clowns who think of joining up are disincentivized, if that's a word. Then again, that whole 72 virgins thing may continue attracting people to these extremist groups for hundreds of years. EDIT: Looks like Obama is thinking of doing exactly what I posted above, after that address to the nation. I know that a lot of people think we should leave the whole area alone, but not s

I'm actually a lot like you in my appreciation of the Dead: prefer the shorter, song-oriented set lists, and have to be in the mood for the long jams on the types of tunes you mentioned. Seriously, in addition to '74, check out some of the other official '71 and '72 releases. If you're looking for best versions or polished vocals, there are some good ones in addition to the Europe shows. (Rockin' the Rhein is one, but I know there are some others). As for the Hornsby era, I am sure there are some shows with great playing, but I've always put late-era Dead on the bottom of my priority list.

I've been in a '72 mode recently, and have listened for the first time to a bunch of that material. In a way, it's like '77: the band is very tight, playing at a high level, and the set lists are very song-oriented (unlike, say, your average 1969 set). They might go way out there once in a while on Dark Star or The Other One, but most songs in each show are less than 10 minutes. There are still plenty of good boards out there, but if you want something as close to perfect as you can get, you can buy some of the Europe '72 releases. I didn't have the deep pockets to spring for the entire Euro

Heck, I'm the biggest peacenik going, like I said before, but even I say, Go ahead and put some boots on the ground if airstrikes are not enough to seriously degrade/destroy these clowns. Of course, it'll create a whole new generation of "martyrs," but that will have to be another president's problem. It's either that, or we start banning travel to all these countries, like we do with Cuba. When was the last time an American was beheaded there?

Dang, that is cool seeing a Wilco setlist with a big ol' Stealie at the bottom (a "Stealie" is a Grateful Dead logo or illustration similar to the cover of Steal Your Face, for all you non-Deadhead WIlco fans. )

So, as I predicted, none of the TWEEDY songs have made it into Wilco shows. Not saying I'm happy or sad about it, just wanted to point out that I was right.

Wow, someone on the Facebook 80s Dead page just reminded me of my one and only JGB show. It was 25 years ago today, at the Hartford Civic Center. http://www.allmusic.com/album/fall-1989-the-long-island-sound-mw0002591663

Yup, I am a subscriber as well. I haven't looked for the online content though.

http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/09/joan-rivers/379408/ I realize she was known in recent years mainly for her many plastic surgeries and some of her more controversial statements, but there was a time when she was a pioneer in standup for women...and pretty funny at that.