By Matt Harness
A sampling of Bloodshot bands performing in Chicago in June.
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Artist: Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Date: June 5
Venue: Double Door
Sample:
Posted on May 29, 2009
Pieholden Suite
“His collaboration with Tweedy, the band’s primary songwriter and singer, reached its apex on the 1999 Summerteeth album, and one of its densely orchestrated songs, “Pieholden Suite,” later became the name of Bennett’s recording studio.”
– Greg Kot, “Jay Bennett Dies At Age 45: Ex-Wilco Member And Musician Extraordinaire
Pieholden Suite
Posted on May 26, 2009
Bloodshot Briefing: Bobby Bare Jr.
By Matt Harness
As far as I know, Bloodshot Records’ current stable houses two musicians whose fathers also beat the main streets playing tunes. Justin Townes Earle is the son of folk-country hippie Steve Earle, and Bobby Bare Jr. is the offspring of Bobby Bare, a man who ran in circles with Waylon Jennings and lived on the same block in Nashville as Tammy Wynette and George Jones.
I tracked down Bobby Bare Jr. – who was nominated for a Grammy Award at the age of six for a song he sang with his father – this week and we covered everything from Kenny Chesney to Shel Silverstein.
Posted on May 22, 2009
I Shot the Band: Pipe Dream
By Steve Rhodes
Band: Pipe Dream
Song: I Touch Myself
YouTube Added Date: May 17, 2009
Shooter: pipedreamband
Locale: Chicago City Limits, Schaumburg
Video Quality: Generally strong, with slight focus problems offset by nicely capture color contrasts.
Sound Quality: Barely adequate, with muddy vocals and tinny guitars not doing the band any favors.
Overall Beachwood Shaky-Cam Rating: 8.5 (out of 10)
Comments: The video is stronger than the band’s performance, keeping lead singer Fantasy front and center with occasional smart cuts to other band members in a way that doesn’t distract from the main focus, which, in a song like this, is inevitably the performance of Fantasy.
Posted on May 20, 2009
Bloodshot Briefing: Rob’s Jukebox
By Matt Harness
Now that we’ve sucked you in on a weekly basis with one-of-a-kind features on the musicians, let’s step back from the bands and get inside a corner in the mind of Bloodshot Records co-founder Rob Miller, a man responsible for so many of the sweet sounds we enjoy so much.
Today’s topic: Jukeboxes
The Satellite Lounge in New Orleans hosts his favorite bar jukebox, but Miller is a rare audiophile who owns his own record spinner.
We wanted to know what was on it.
Posted on May 15, 2009
More Booze
A Compilation By Brian Page
I dig honky tonk songs about that place between diminished and extinguished capacity. I chose these because in general they’re less well-known, the music’s good, and they were made in my favorite period of 1960 to the late 1970s. And I have them on listenable 45s.
1. Booze And Wine
By: Ben “Queenie” Stewart and the Tune-Drifters
Note: On the Scarlo label from Elmhurst, Illinois.
2. One Too Many
By: Clay Allen
Note: “Guess I’d better drive, ’cause I’m too drunk to walk”
3. Dim Lights, Thick Smoke
By: Leon Rausch
Note: An update of the perennial Rose Lee & Joe Maphis song
Posted on May 12, 2009
Bloodshot Briefing: Jon Langford’s Chicago
By Matt Harness
Several bands in the Bloodshot Records family call Chicago home. Don’t you think you ought to know them? Of course you should.
So this week in Bloodshot Briefing we were lucky to lasso the legendary Jon Langford, a true Renaissance man, long enough to ask him some questions for Get To Know Your Chicago Bloodshot Musician. Off we go.
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Name: Jon Langford
Hometown: Chicago via Newport, Wales
Band(s): The Mekons, Waco Brothers, Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Instrument: Guitar, vocals
Neighborhood: Sauganash
Bar: Ginger’s Ale House to watch Leeds United.
Record Store: Planet of Sound and Raffi’s Record Riot. “Don’t ever shop at the big retailers. They exclude bands like mine, so I won’t support them.”
Posted on May 8, 2009
An iTunes Top 25
By Steve Rhodes
This really doesn’t look right, but according to my iTunes, these are the most 25 played songs/stations in my library.
1. WELY: The End of The Road Radio.
2. WRONGRADIO.com.
3. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy/Elton John.
4. Rocky Mountain High/John Denver.
5. True Confessions/Blue Oyster Cult.
Posted on May 4, 2009