Hungry Like The Wolf

Damn right I had Freeze Frame on cassette. Former J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf has a new solo record coming out, and it includes duets with Merle Haggard and Shelby Lynne. Am I the only one hoping for a redux of the "Centerfold" video with Shelby Lynne?

Here's the press release:
'Midnight Souvenirs'...(Verve/UMe, April 6, 2010) Peter Wolf's seventh solo album, is a continuation of the singer-songwriter's distinctive and eclectic tales that brighten and interpret a world gone noir. Following in the tracks of Wolf's Sleepless, which was honored by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the '500 greatest albums of all-time,' the new collection gives hope to the love-wounded and promises 'there's still time for the midnight wine," even if "sometimes you heal, sometimes you're scarred."

Featuring duets with country legend and national treasure Merle Haggard, the soulfully transcending and dynamic Grammy award winner Shelby Lynne and the haunting and majestic voice of Neko Case, 'Midnight Souvenirs' integrates and embraces rock, R & B, blues, folk and country in a way that has distinguished Wolf's storied career. Measurable are his decades as the leader and frenzied focal figure of the J. Geils Band, with whom he showcased his talents on such hits as "Centerfold," "Freeze Frame," "Love Stinks" and "Musta Got Lost."

Wolf's musical roots precede rock and roll, and are personally entwined with friendships and performers such as the late Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin and Van Morrison. His talents have continued into the music of tomorrow with tours and on-stage antics with the Rolling Stones, U2, Kid Rock, and Bruce Springsteen.

'Midnight Souvenirs' was packed fair and square in the studio by Wolf and Kenny White, who also co-produced 'Sleepless' and 1998's 'Fools Parade,' celebrated as one of the "50 most influential albums of the '90s" by Rolling Stone Magazine. As on those two discs, the majority of the new songs were co-written with Oscar winner Will Jennings, whose pen yielded Eric Clapton's "Tears From Heaven," Steve Winwood's "Higher Love," and Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warens duet "Up Where We Belong." Also contributing to the album were songwriters Angelo Petraglia and Taylor Rhodes, whose songs have been recorded by Kings of Leon and Aerosmith.

The 14 songs on the album range from the country blues of "Tragedy" with Shelby Lynne and the hard-rockin' "The Night Comes Down," dedicated to the late Willie DeVille, to the bittersweet texture of "It's Too Late For Me" with Merle Haggard, and the punchline impact of vintage Philly roots R & B on "Overnight Lows." Wolf and Neko Case deliver an eternal bouquet on "Greenfields of Summer."

The timelessness of 'Midnight Souvenirs' spans decades and musical genres and travels into the after hours of silhouetted smoky clubs, as well as to the deep delta of America's South with its sounds of shake, rattle and roll.

"I never obsess about the commercial aspect of my music, just like with my artwork," says Wolf, also an accomplished painter whose art world connections have included Norman Rockwell, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Director David Lynch.

"What matters is if the painting is interesting to keep or show to somebody." It's the same with the songs; you hope people will make an emotional connection. I absorb the influences and reshape them," he says. "The act of creation is what gives meaning to my life and keeps me going--in music and in art."

That passion was evident, as Wolf pursued the project in studios from Boston to New York to Los Angeles. Night after night of midnight wine and of setting the scenes for the melodies of lost love, backroom laments and new expectations.

Midnight Souvenirs...the black leather pants and high-topped boots that minutes ago walked the rain-splattered streets are now piled on an overstuffed chair. In the deep background is the love of love and the love of music. Hear these nocturnal souvenirs...in fourteen soul-stirring segments of sound.

'Midnight Souvenirs' track list:
1. Tragedy - with Shelby Lynne
2. I Don't Wanna Know
3. Watch Her Move
4. There's Still Time
5. Lying Low
6. The Green Fields Of Summer - with Neko Case
7. Thick As Thieves
8. I'm Always Asking For You
9. Leaves Us All Behind
10. Overnight Lows
11. Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky
12. Don't Try And Change Her
13. The Night Comes Down (for Willy Deville)
14. It's Too Late For Me - with Merle Haggard

Truckers Tune Up For Number 10

ATO Records is pleased to announce the signing of Drive-By Truckers and their label debut, The Big To-Do. The album, which will be the band’s tenth in their thirteen-year career, is scheduled to be released March 16, 2010. The Big To-Do features thirteen new tracks from the Drive-By Truckers and was produced by their long time producer, David Barbe (Sugar, Bettye LaVette). “It’s very much a rock album,” says Patterson Hood of the Trucker’s upcoming release. “Very melodic and more rocking than anything we’ve done since disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera.”

The inspiration for The Big To-Do came to the band during their time on the road. “We’ve often set our songs and albums in different periods of time, but this one finds us directly in our present. Riding all through the highways of America (and Europe) trying to make sense of a very different world than the one we grew up in,” says Hood. “I don’t write a lot of songs on the road, but I did more than usual on this album and many more were inspired by or set there, either in a literal sense or something I witnessed or heard about while I was out there.”
Hood and Mike Cooley continue to be the chief songwriters of the group, continuing a musical partnership that has lasted over twenty-three years. Bassist, Shonna Tucker, flexes her songwriting muscles once again by contributing two original songs to the album. Brad Morgan (drums), John Neff (guitar/pedal steel) and Jay Gonzalez (keyboards) round out the current Drive-By Truckers lineup.

The band recently backed legendary R&B musician, Booker T. Jones, on his critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated album, Potato Hole. The album is nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
The Drive-By Truckers will be hitting the road at the beginning of the new year. A full tour supporting The Big To-Do will be announced in early 2010.

The Big To-Do Track Listing:
1. Daddy Learned to Fly
2. The Fourth Night of My Drinking
3. Birthday Boy
4. Drag the Lake Charlie
5. The Wig He Made Her Wear
6. You Got Another
7. This Fucking Job
8. Get Downtown
9. After the Scene Dies
10. (It’s Gonna Be) I Told You So
11. Santa Fe
12. The Flying Wallendas
13. Eyes Like Glue
14. Girls Who Smoke (Bonus track – vinyl only)

Drive-By Truckers on tour:
1/28 Huntsville, AL Crossroads Music Hall
1/29 Mobile, AL Soul Kitchen
1/30 Tuscaloosa, AL Jupiter Bar & Grill
2/11 Greenville, SC Handlebar
2/12 Raleigh, NC Lincoln Theatre
2/13 Raleigh, NC Lincoln Theatre
2/14 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
2/25 Charlotte, NC Neighborhood Theatre
2/26 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theatre
2/27 Charlottesville, VA Jefferson Theatre

In The Studio with R.E.M.

What's The Frequency New Orleans? Legendary rock band R.E.M. has just wrapped up a very quiet three week stay in New Orleans while recording the first pieces to their upcoming 15th studio record. While the band was in town they embraced some well known New Orleans horn players including trombonists Mark Mullins, Craig Klein and Greg Hicks from Bonerama, plus Leroy Jones and Shamarr Allen on trumpets with Mullins providing the horn arrangements.

The site of the work was the lower garden district's Music Shed recording studios with famed producer Jacknife Lee (U2, Weezer) at the helm. There is no word about a working title or release date. Bonerama has crossed paths before with R.E.M.'s bassist Mike Mills in previous Future Music Coalition "Bringing Musicians Home" concerts at Tipitina's and most recently in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the FMC's Policy Summit focusing on issues related to the FCC's policies for music in digital technologies and the Internet. Mike Mills was also present when Bonerama brought Tony Clifton to the stage at the very first, now infamous, FMC show at Tipitina's in 2006.

Videos of R.E.M.'s stay in New Orleans through the lens of Michael Stipe are already circulating around the Internet including Stipe's personal videos from the sessions with the Bonerama horns and friends.

In addition to spending time at The Music Shed studios with R.E.M., the band is also in the process of recording their next record. The as-yet untitled album will be Bonerama's fourth and first full-length studio effort. Following hot on the heels of the concentrated and potent Hard Times EP, the album is tentatively scheduled for release in the Spring of 2010. Stay tuned to BoneramaMusic.com for more news and details in the upcoming months.

A Ruminant Band

First Tube

He's Fat And Nobody Likes Him

Bonnarro, Take Eight

Ten days removed from the eight annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, I'm beginning to catch my breath. It was another great one...Phish was outstanding, so was The Boss. I saw Snoop Dogg and Beastie Boys and Grace Potter was following me all weekend. Also: Of Montreal was really weird in a fantastically theatrical freakout kind of way, which of course I love.

My review of the weekend is here, at http://www.honesttune.com

Scorsese & Sinatra

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this will be pretty damn cool...

Universal City, CA May 13, 2009 ----Universal Pictures has acquired the
feature film project Sinatra from Mandalay Pictures for Academy Award®
winner Martin Scorsese to direct, it was announced today.

Oscar® nominated screenwriter (Field of Dreams) Phil Alden Robinson is writing the screenplay for Sinatra based on the life of the iconic entertainer. Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures have been developing the project, after securing the Frank Sinatra life rights and music rights from Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE) - a joint venture of the Sinatra
Estate and Warner Music Group.

"We have dreamt of making a movie about Frank Sinatra, and Marty Scorsese is undeniably the perfect vision keeper for this project," said Chairman of Mandalay Entertainment Group, Peter Guber. President of Mandalay Pictures, Cathy Schulman added "In addition to our excitement at having Marty in the director's chair, we are thrilled to be in business with Universal, the
Sinatra estate, Warner Music Group and the talented Phil Alden Robinson on this project about one of our greatest entertainers."

"It's an honor to be involved in this film which will celebrate the amazing life and work of Frank Sinatra," said President of Production for Universal Pictures, Donna Langley. "With Phil Alden Robinson writing the screenplay and Martin Scorsese at the helm, we know that this first feature motion picture adaptation of Sinatra's extraordinary life is in the best of
hands."

"My father had great admiration for the talent of the people he chose to work with, and the talented people who worked with my father had great admiration for him," said Tina Sinatra. "It is personally pleasing to me that this paradigm continues with Marty Scorsese at the helm of the Sinatra film."

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1915. Over the course of his career, he performed on more than 1,400 musical recordings, was awarded 31 gold records, received 10 Grammy Awards in addition to three special honors bestowed upon him by the Recording Industry Association of America. He appeared in 58 films winning three Oscars® and two Golden Globe awards, in addition to a lifelong legacy of humanitarian work.

Guber and Schulman will produce the film for Mandalay Pictures with Scorsese producing on behalf of Sikelia Productions. Former President of Worldwide Music Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, Gary LeMel, Tina Sinatra and Robinson will serve as Executive Producers.

Just Play The Music, Tweedy

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” grumbled Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy before walking off the stage at The Lyric Theater last week. This was after he had repeatedly stopped during the sold-out concert to lambast the crowd for talking (gasp!) during the show, thereby becoming someone who was… talking during the show. He even changed the lyrics to “Hate It Here” to sing “what am I gonna do when I run out of audiences to scold.”



A few weeks prior, Andrew Bird asked the audience (very politely, I might add) at the Lyric to pipe down for a specific song, before later conceding that there was indeed a bar in the venue and maybe he should just have a drink himself. Also at the Lyric, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock offered not once but twice to fight audience members after his sold-out show.

Are Oxford audiences really that chatty or do these rock stars need to just lighten up?

Some of both. Throughout the history of our species, when alcoholic beverages and music are combined, humans become boisterous. Sometimes in the throes of their happiness, they even want to talk to each other. Revelry is expected in such situations, and should be encouraged. And here in Oxford, we are a social people. After all, we're as well known for "not losing the party" as about anything.

Additionally, It’s a rock show, not a piano recital.

Oxford isn’t a big enough town to populate a 1,200-seat concert venue solely with self-loathing, anti-social shoe gazers. So with a crowd of this size, you inevitably end up with a mixed bag of folks---college kids, townies, artists, university drones. Even lawyers.

Each of them shelled out at least thirty American dollars to attend the Wilco concert. When a monetary exchange such as that takes place, those people are called “customers.” These are the same people who buy albums and t-shirts and posters and DVDs. They are the same people who wait in line breathing tour bus fumes to attend the concert. Should not these people be given enough respect to not be chastised? The argument goes that we should respect the artists and allow them to perform their craft, free from the apparently bothersome din of crowd chatter. But shouldn’t the artist respect their fans? Their customers?

It’s true that the girl who spends the entire show texting her friends across the room or loudly discussing absolutely nothing can by annoying or distracting, if you let her. But you know what’s more annoying than crowd chatter? The pissy guy on stage bitching and moaning about it. Mr. Tweedy mentioned at one point in his rants that 75% of the people in the crowd were behaving in a manner he approved of, and that it was the other 25% who were talking and “not paying attention.” Is this really what he’s thinking about when he’s singing those heartfelt ballads? Statistics? But even if his numbers are accurate, what’s the point in pulling a Debbie Downer on the majority of people who are paying attention to the music. It’s kind of hard to pay attention to the music when you’re not playing the music, Jeff.

Train Mail

At the risk of renaming this the Blog of Bad News, let me tell you about last night.

Railroad Earth mailed it in. They played barely an hour and half at the Lyric Theater in Oxford, Miss to about 250 people. That’s a pretty good group of people to pay 17 American dollars each to hear some music in a small town on a Wednesday night, but it seemed sparse in the 1,200 capacity Lyric Theater. 

The last time Railroad Earth played in Oxford, they played to an energetic and enthusiastic packed house at Proud Larrys—about 250 people. That night, the crowd danced and whooped and hollered and generally advanced the energy flow between crowd and audience that is so crucial to a successful performance by a band like Railroad Earth, who relies so much on seat-of-the-pants improvisation. They’d booked another gig at Larrys last year, close on the heels of the release of their excellent album Amen Corner, but cancelled the show, purportedly because they had their sites set on the bigger hall.

To be sure, The Lyric is a splendor. Since its opening, the venue has reinvigorated the Oxford concert scene. That’s due in no small part to the fact that it feels more like a concert venue than a bar. The elevated stage, the wraparound balcony and the early start times all convey the sense of an event, something more than just a night out at the club listening to some tunes whilst quaffing some brews. The finally converted ancient movie theater on the Oxford Square has thus far hosted stellar shows by Modest Mouse, North Mississippi Allstars, Conor Oberst, Girl Talk, Old Crow Medicine Show, Andrew Bird and many others, with a sold-out show by Wilco coming in two weeks. For the most part, these are shows that would have passed Oxford by in the absence of a proper venue such as the Lyric. All of those concerts drew at least a nearly-full house.

But on Wednesday night, the Lyric was far from packed, and the place seems extra cavernous when it’s like that. At Larrys, the same crowd would have provided the required energy to take the performance to stellar heights. Instead, we got a show where the band seemed to want to get off the stage as soon as possible, and a crowd that was inattentive. Instead of jumping to the larger venue, Railroad Earth should’ve stayed put at Larrys until the time was right. Though they’

Taking the stage at about 10 pm, the band worked through a number of instrumental tunes, finally making their way to an exploratory workout of “Forecast,” the Amen Corner tune that from its creation seemed to be crafted as a springboard for improvisation. Railroad Earth indeed used it to spring into a shrewd jam that for a while invigorated the set. But they quickly fell back into a play-by-numbers approach. A guest appearance by local vocalist Shannon McNally, who relied on what must have been a TelePrompter iPhone app to remember her lyrics, didn’t do much to bolster the set.

They ended their set at about 11:20, then came out for a perfunctory “encore” that including a brisk take on “Hard Livin’,” with fiddler Tim Carbonne strapping on an electric guitar for some cathartic shredding.

One mark of professionalism by performers is the ability to play as well to a smaller but appreciative crowd as to a larger one. Years ago, the San Francisco group OM Trio played a gig in Oxford on a Tuesday night to about 20 people. During a break, they griped to me about how they were so much more used to playing for a thousand or two thousand people, and during the show they goofed off on stage, amusing each other with silly sampling and more or less disrespected the audience members who had turned out to see their show, and paid American currency to the band for the right to do so. Those people deserved more respect that that. If you’re asking, Who The Hell is OM Trio?, your query is understandable. They were a nifty little jazz fusion band who thought far too much of themselves to respect their audience and lost them because of it. They broke up a few years into their career, having released just a few albums and never gaining much momentum.

Railroad Earth strikes me as more caring than that. They’ve amassed an impressive catalog and dedicated fanbase. They’re adept performers and insightful songwriters. They seem to care about their craft and about their supporters. They are capable of enlightening and exhilarating performances. It would have been nice to have seen one in exchange for seventeen American dollars last night.

Minglewood Blues

If you’re ever in Memphis, you better stop by Minglewood. Unless, that is, you like drinking whiskey. Or for that matter, any libation other than draft beer in a plastic cup while you’re taking in a rock and roll show. That’s because, despite the extensive fanfare and extreme promise offered by Memphis’ new and much needed music venue, Minglewood Hall, that’s all you’ll get there. At least for now.

The new venue is by many measures a sharp upgrade from the primary similar sized venue in town, the New Daisy Theater downtown. Minglewood, named after an old Gus Cannon tune that was later popularized by the Grateful Dead as “New Minglewood Blues,” is in midtown on Madison Street in the space most recently occupied by the Strings and Things music store. Previously it had been the Tastee bread factory among other things. 

The midtown location provides several advantages over its downtown counterpart. Ample and free parking is chief among them. Distance from the Beale Street hubbub is another. No expense seems to have been spared on the sound system at Minglewood, as the sounds rings true and clear in most spots in the room. But the room itself is unremarkable—a large and flat span with a too-low ceiling that evokes the feeling of being in a warehouse. Hall, yes. Theater, absolutely not. Some VIP suites overlook the main floor, and seem to offer a good vantage point. But otherwise there are not many good sight lines for a room of such size, and that’s one area where the tiered nature of the New Daisy holds an advantage. The bathrooms are nice and new and extensive. The staff, fairly courteous.

Plans call for Minglewood Hall to be expanded into Minglewood Plaza— an entertainment and retail center that will include additional retail outlets, restaurants and offices under the same roof. Indeed, there is ample room for such expansion. The entryway to the concert venue snakes past several open areas that would provide excellent locations for any number of retail outlets. Like, say, a bar?