Son Volt

[hardwood floor]

Ok, this may be a stupid question (and admittedly I haven't read through this thread and I don't keep up much on SV news) but when did SV get a new guitarist? I missed ole skinny jeans last night!

 

masterson finished the last leg of the tour and then was replaced by james walbourne for this leg. very different players but both are fantastic

 

don't know why chris left the band, but he did get married a week or two ago ... maybe he just didn't want to head out on the road again after getting married

 

and he plays with the madison square gardeners and other people in nyc

[watch me fall]

masterson finished the last leg of the tour and then was replaced by james walbourne for this leg. very different players but both are fantastic

 

don't know why chris left the band, but he did get married a week or two ago ... maybe he just didn't want to head out on the road again after getting married

 

and he plays with the madison square gardeners and other people in nyc

 

Ah, ok thanks. I knew he played at the February show I saw but didn't realize he wasn't touring with them anymore.

[myboyblue]

Is jay farrar not nice? this is a serious question.

Seems alright to me.

 

Are you nice? this is a serious question.

[MattZ]

i'm curious. their current drummer is a real asshole.

 

I read your back and forth with Bryson on his blog, and I think you are really reaching. He was having some good natured fun. I took the "we really don't care" to mean that he didn't take your critiques too seriously. Would you have preferred that he cried himself to sleep that night?

[myboyblue]

i'm curious. their current drummer is a real asshole.

I met the drummer when he was touring with Jason Isbell. Good guy.

[Analogman]

i'm curious. their current drummer is a real asshole.

 

I was able to go backstage at the show and meet him. He did not want to be bothered at the time. The people I was with sort of pushed the issue. Looking back, I can see that we were wrong to bother him.

[hardwood floor]

i would have preferred that he didn't continue to make fun of a fan after said fan wrote an apology. he's shown himself to be an asshole. another hole in the son volt facade.

 

why would whether the drummer is an asshole or not have anything to do with your enjoyment of son volt's music?

 

i mean, who cares?

 

robert fripp might be the biggest douchebag on earth. doesn't affect my enjoyment of king crimson

[Ghost of Electricity]

why would whether the drummer is an asshole or not have anything to do with your enjoyment of son volt's music?

 

i mean, who cares?

 

robert fripp might be the biggest douchebag on earth. doesn't affect my enjoyment of king crimson

every star that shines in the back of your mind is just waiting for his cover to be blown

[CortezTheKiller]

Prefix Mag Interview with Jay Farrar

[Guest Speed Racer]

i would have preferred that he didn't continue to make fun of a fan after said fan wrote an apology. he's shown himself to be an asshole. another hole in the son volt facade.

 

He wasn't making fun of you until you flipped out after he said (and I agree with him on this), something to the extent of, "It's all cool."

 

Does Son Volt have a facade? It's a band full of people that make music, play shows, and while doing both have good days, bad days, meh days, and sick days and a-okay days. Is their facade that they really care about the working man, but then they muddy up the sound to lure him to their blogs to tease him after he critiques them?

[calvino]

Prefix Mag Interview with Jay Farrar

 

Finally an interview that Jeff Tweedy/Wilco was not brought up. Thanks for the link.

[CortezTheKiller]

For what it's worth, I'm listening to the now infamous Atlanta show(at least in the land of Wilco/Son Volt message boards and drummer blogs), and it sounds fantastic.

[myboyblue]

dude, you seem to be the one flipping out. i wrote a review, he used it, i apologized, he mocked, i responded, he mocked, i responded, he apologized, i apologized.

you wrote a lame, negative and, at times personal, review, he called you out, you whined and apologize that it wasn't your day, he teased you, you whined and threatened to stop being a fan, he eventually apologized to shut you up.

 

Moral of the story, there are times when there are ramifications to negative, overly personal opinions on the internets. Becoming a victim when you get called out shouldn't happen.

 

it had nothing to do with you.

You posted it on the internet!

[Guest Speed Racer]

dude, you seem to be the one flipping out. i wrote a review, he used it, i apologized, he mocked, i responded, he mocked, i responded, he apologized, i apologized. it had nothing to do with you.

 

I just don't think he mocked you the first time (the "we don't care" remark), and wasn't clear what you meant about Son Volt having a facade.

 

On the topic of the interview, I have to say I now prefer when Jay is terse over wordy. That "interlocking and changeable parts" remark about the band seemed kinda forced (so did the Keith Richards shout-out, though that's likely because I still don't care for "Cocaine and Ashes"). Well, not forced so much as silly. That's still not the right word, though...

 

I was glad for no mention of Wilco/UT/Jeff though, but overall so-so on the interview.

[Ghost of Electricity]

You guys are starting to remind me of the two old muppets who sit at the back and made snide comments. Only they're funny.

[dmait]

I'm seeing SV at Irving Plaza in NYC on Thursday. It will be my first SV show since they closed Tramps with an underwhelming show in 1999, after which I basically left the SV bandwagon. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but not holding my breath.

[hardwood floor]

better watch out. saying anything less than stellar about son volt will get you skewered. can't imagine what would happen to someone who said something critical about wilco, MMJ, DBT, etc. oh yeah, and radiohead.

 

grow up

[chumley]

I saw Son Volt last night at the 9:30 club. They were good.

[myboyblue]

I saw Son Volt last night at the 9:30 club. They were good.

Rider doesn't like their drummer. He evidently hates his fans.

[chumley]

I didn't talk to the drummer, so I can't confirm that he hates me (although, c'mon...who doesn't?) He did seem like he was having a good time playing drums though. Actually, the whole band (including Jay) seemed pretty into it.

[Head in a Guillotine]

I was also at the 9:30 Club show. I thought SV was very good.

 

Methamphetimine off of The Search may be my new favorite SV song. Also, they played a prolonged psychedelic version of Medication from Okemah which was pretty epic.

 

The new songs sounded a lot better than they did on record too. For some reason, the lines that I found to be cringe worthy when listening to ACD ("Celebrating the 4th of July with Dynamite," "Mother Theresa to the animal kingdom," "I did it because that's how it is done") didn't bother me too much live.

 

I've only seen SV once before, and this show was much better.

[hardwood floor]

Methamphetimine off of The Search may be my new favorite SV song.

 

a farrar classic, no doubt

 

looking forward to the philly show tonight

[people are leaving]

Methamphetamine = a farrar classic, no doubt

 

looking forward to the philly show tonight

Dust of Daylight is another that will lay alongside Windfall, Tear-Stained Eye & Methamphetamine as classics from the Farrar oeuvre.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I was also at the 9:30 Club show. I thought SV was very good.

 

Methamphetimine off of The Search may be my new favorite SV song. Also, they played a prolonged psychedelic version of Medication from Okemah which was pretty epic.

 

The new songs sounded a lot better than they did on record too. For some reason, the lines that I found to be cringe worthy when listening to ACD ("Celebrating the 4th of July with Dynamite," "Mother Theresa to the animal kingdom," "I did it because that's how it is done") didn't bother me too much live.

 

I've only seen SV once before, and this show was much better.

 

I'd never seen them before and was pleasantly surprised last night at the 9:30. Jay seemed to be having a good time and actually joked around with the crowd a few times, which I gather is unusual. I agree that the new stuff comes across very well live--it's got more energy and the lyrics don't bug me. I really liked "Cocaine and Ashes," which does nothing for me on the record.

 

The crowd was a bit annoying--the folks around me talked all night. They quit yapping only during Windfall and Tear Stained Eye, which you'd think would be a good thing, but you'd be wrong--instead of talking they sang along to those songs, and loudly. Youch.

 

But the show had great energy, Jay and the band were in good spirits, and there were only a few times when you could tell this was the new guitarist's first week back on the job.

 

Count me as a fan of the live Son Volt.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Quick review from the Washington Post:

 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2009/09/son_volt_live_last_night.html

 

'Scuse me, son, but haven't I seen you hanging around with Chrissie Hynde lately?

 

Indeed. The pale, intense young fellow stage right at last night's robust Son Volt gig at the 9:30 club was one James Walbourne, the British guitar prodigy whose serrated-edge leads make the current, boot-cut incarnation of the Pretenders so much fun. He's even more valuable as an addition to Son Volt, whose solid but often grayscale tunes -- which aspire to be the iPhone era incarnation of Woody Guthrie's dust-bowl ballads -- tend to need the extra hooch more than Hynde's do.

 

Son Volt's new "American Central Dust" is their latest Album That Isn't As Good As "Trace," their commanding 1995 debut. But it's a confident, graceful record, one that boasts a lovely tribute to Keith Richards in "Cocaine and Ashes," one of the best performances of the night.

 

Nobody seemed to mind that Farrar found room for three quarters of the new disc in his generous 26-song set. He also played five from 2007's "The Search." Farrar's confidence in his recent output isn't misplaced, but it was a credit to the exemplary musicianship of his band that these songs sounded as vital and urgent as they did, especially given Farrar's recent predilection to work in only one tempo -- that'd be mid.

 

If Farrar happened to stack a few too many slow-burners atop one another in the show's midsection, that at least gave you plenty of chances to notice that his voice -- as pliant and distinct as Michael Stipe's -- has never sounded better. Stomping on the throttle, Walbourne flash-fired dour numbers like "Strength and Doubt" and "Medication" into thrilling new realms with his incendiary solos. And the show-closing cover of Waylon Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?" gathered velocity like a tape deck with broken fast-forward button, ending the evening on a bracing note.

 

Extra credit to Farrar for leaving his coal-mining songs at home. He even had the good taste to omit "Sultana," his requiem for the passengers of a steamboat that blew up on the Mississippi in 1865. It's nice to hear a folkie whose head isn't stuck in the sixties.