rock ’n’ roll, n. where electric guitars and drums collide.
True Believers,* live, Austin (SXSW, Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop), 3/13
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I said, Annie, I’m only forty-eight. There’s lots of time for me to be totally wrecked—if I live, I mean.
—Grace Paley, “Friends”
*****
*Alejandro Escovedo (vocals, guitar), Jon Dee Graham (vocals, guitar), Javier Escovedo (vocals, guitar), Denny DeGorio (bass), Rey Washam (drums).
tonight
These guys will be at FitzGerald’s (see yesterday’s post)—me, too.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones, “Broken Bones and Pocket Change,” live, Nashville, 2012
***
Went to Mercury Lounge tonite. I have seen the future of music & the name of the band is St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
—Rosanne Cash, Twitter, 6/5/13
Happy 4th of July!
It’s easy, sometimes, to take even great blessings for granted, like, for instance, living within walking distance—yes, walking distance—of a wonderful club (FitzGerald’s), where, last night, at their annual American Music Festival (three stages, four days), now in its thirty-third year, I saw these folks.
Joe Hall & The Louisiana Cane Cutters, live, Louisiana (Breaux Bridge), 2009
***
Sleepy LaBeef, “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (plus interview), TV show (Late Night with Conan O’Brien), 1994
***
The Paladins, “Kiddeo,” live, Netherlands, 2007
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lagniappe
radio
Today, celebrating one of his birthdays (a long story), WKCR-FM (Columbia University) will be playing Louis Armstrong—and nothing but—all day.
last night
He opened his show, at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, with this.
Daniel Lanois, “The Maker” (D. Lanois), live, Toronto, 2012*
*With James Wilson (bass), Brian Blade (drums).
ear candy
Avril Lavigne, “Girlfriend”/Japanese version
***
“How to pronounce Avril Lavigne”
only rock ’n’ roll
The Stooges (1967-)
only rock ’n’ roll
Rolling Stones (with Katy Perry), “Beast of Burden,” live, Las Vegas, 5/13
Seeing Mick perform these days makes me queasy. When Muddy was nearing seventy, he seemed, onstage, entirely at home in himself. Mick seems like an old guy—he turns seventy in July—who wishes he were still twenty.
basement jukebox
three by Randy Newman
“I Don’t Want To Hear Anymore” (AKA “I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore”), Jerry Butler, 1964
*****
“I’ve Been Wrong Before,” Cilla Black, 1965
*****
“Just One Smile,” Gene Pitney, 1966
**********
lagniappe
found words
Best of the Web: Celebs Who Are Older Than You Think
only rock ’n’ roll
Dolly Varden, “California Zephyr,” live, Chicago, 1999
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Last Saturday, with my wife Suzanne and son Alex, I heard these folks at Fitzgerald’s, a wonderful club in Berwyn (just outside Chicago) that I’ve been going to since long before Alex, now twenty-five, was born. Some people, if given the chance to be anywhere in the world on a Saturday night, might choose Paris. Others might take Rome. London would likely get some votes, New York too. For me, last Saturday anyway, there was nowhere I would rather have been than Berwyn.
music clip of the day 