I love looking for images to go along with my posts - usually I run into something stunning - like this photo of Kianna Alarid from Tilly and the Wall, taken in the UK by wunderkind photographer Andrew Kendall. Check out more pictures from this show at Andrew's page here.

So here's the Tilly show from their recent stop in Houston - fantastic show with Pony Up and Houston's own The Western Civilization opening. For whatever stupid reason I didn't tape The Western Civilization, and I still regret it. Good news is that I did get Pony Up's set - and that will be coming later this week.

This was the 2nd time in 2006 that I've taped Tilly and the Wall - you can hear the one from June, here - and check out this one from their 2004 tour opening for Rilo Kiley. It's interesting to hear the sonic differences between the two shows - its not often that I get to tape the same band multiple times in the same year, and this opportunity presented a unique opportunity for me to hear the same band, with the same soundguy, at two different venues, taped off of two different boards.

This show, taped at Numbers Nightclub has a lot more of a "arena" rock feel to it - more prominent vocals, heavy reverb giving it a "big" sound - while the show from Walters on Washington was more keyboard and treble heavy, giving a more intimate feel to the audio. Check them both out and let me know what you think.

As always though, Tilly rocked - putting on a totally kick-ass and over-the-top performance encouraging wild crowd particaption. Someone had brought a bubble machine to the show and kept generating hundreds of bubbles which flow above the crowds head and exploding into various band members. If you have pictures, send em on!

Live MP3s:
Intro
Rainbows in the Dark
Reckless
Black and Blue
Love Song
Bessa
Fell Down The Stairs
The Freest Man
Sing Songs Along
You And I Misbehaving
Bad Education
Brave Day
A Perfect Fit
Lost Girls
Nights Of The Living Dead

Labels: concerts, houston, indie, live mp3s, numbers, soundboard mp3s

happy holidays from Lullabyes and our My Little Pony friend.

Justin Rosolino opened up for Matt Wertz at his recent gig in Houston - playing an intimate solo set. Proving he's got some stamina, he then also played with Matt during his set, providing backup vocals and guitar.

I can't remember why, but I ended up arriving at the show a little later then I planned and missed the first 2-3 songs from Justin's set. Never one to cry over spilled milk, I plugged in and got what I could.

Enjoy!

Live MP3s:
Anyone
I Want To Know Why
Oprah
Henry Fonda
St. Francis
Come Sweet Day
Outro

Labels: concerts, houston, indie, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s, warehouse live

I remember back in early 2001, one of my friends asked me - have y0u heard of John Mayer?

No, I have not - I responded.

Man - he said - check out this live show - he's playing at a Sorority Party at the University of Oklahoma, and he's a really amazing singer-songwriter.

I put in the show, listened and loved it - here was an amazingly talented guitar player with obvious Blues influences who was also working in some Sting (and the Police) for good measure. And the boy could sing. (Speaking of this show, I'll pull it out one of these days and post it.)

In 2006 its easy to look at the uber-popular Mayer and dismiss him as a Top 40 golden child, producing music for the masses - but I tell you, I show him 5 times in 3 years, and the popularity he gained was directly attributable to his talent.

2001 - Contintal Club (300 people)
2002 - Numbers (1200 people)
2002 - Verizon Wireless Theate (2000 people)
2003 - Houston Rodeo (10s of thousands of people)
2004 - Woodlands Pavillion (14k people)

I tell this story, because listening to Matt Wertz reminds me of those first few Mayer shows - a guy and his guitar, singing his heart out, with a bunch of really cute girls singing along. He even reminds me of Mayer a little bit - though the songs as a whole are definitely happier.

I haven't actually seen any articles that talk about Matt being a Christian, but the crowd at this show was definitely focused on Jesus as Christ and Lord. A LOT of Younglife shirts around - and I think Matt even commented on a Younglife group coming out to see him.

Whatever the religious focus - these kids could sing. When mixing this show I tried to crank up all the sections with sing alongs. Check out Red Meets Blue for a particularly spectular audience participation moment - I've never heard a crowd be as in key as this one.

Beautiful show - Houston lucked out - Matt was actually on tour opening for Jars of Clay, had a night off, and played in Houston. So rather then a 45 minute opening set, Houston got a near hour and a half headlining one.

This was one of the few shows from the last several months that my girlfriend did not come to. When I played it for her she started moaning about how could I let her miss it. Don't make the same mistake she did - Matt's on tour for the next few months, be sure to check him out if he's coming near you.

Live Dates:
Wed 01/24/07 College Park, MD Santa Fe Cafe
Thu 01/25/07 Providence, RI Century Lounge
Fri 01/26/07 Boston, MA Boston University
Sat 01/27/07 Worcester, MA College Of The Holy Cross
Tue 01/30/07 Pittsburgh, PA Club Cafe
Wed 01/31/07 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues
Thu 02/01/07 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark
Fri 02/02/07 Madison, WI Majestic Theatre
Sat 02/03/07 Saint Paul, MN O'Shaughnessy Aud.
Mon 02/05/07 Ames, IA Maintenance Shop
Tue 02/06/07 Saint Louis, MO Blueberry Hill's Duck Room
Wed 02/07/07 Lawrence, KS Granada Theatre
Thu 02/08/07 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
Sat 03/24/07 Athens, GA University Of Georgia
Sat 04/14/07 Chicago, IL House Of Blues
Wed 04/25/07 Conway, AR The Burrow

Live MP3s:
Intro
Come Away
Everything's Right
The Way I Feel
Intro to...
Heartbreaker
Counting to 100
Sweetness in Starlight
Carolina
519
Capitol City
Wesley, Why
Marianne
Over You
Wandering Eyes
Like the Last Time
Matt on Ringtones
Matt on Mocha Club
With You Tonight
Matt on Hect
That For You
Into to...
Red Meets Blue - One - Red Meets Blue
Outro

Labels: concerts, houston, indie, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s, warehouse live

Check out these beautiful photos of Jude taken during his show a couple of months ago at the Continental Club in Houston. I was looking for some photos of Jude to use on these last couple of posts - and found this one on Flickr, taken by local Houston resident "Slight Clutter". Check out her photography skills here.

Unfortunately I cant seem to be able to figure out how to download pics from Flickr so you're going to have to go over there to see them.

Since I prattled on about Jude for a while on my last post, I'll keep this short and sweet. Here's the Houston show from his short US tour to promote the release of his new record, Redemption. Be sure to pick it up from CDBABY.

Various highlights from this show - a lot of the requests got played, including Gnarls Barkleys Crazy, Save Me, Crescent Heights Shuffle (which became Main Street Shuffle), Battered Broken and my own personal request, Isnt It Over.

Oh and as a side note, I also videotaped both the Dallas and Houston show, when Ive got some time I'll convert them into MPG4 format and post them online for you all to download.

Live MP3s
Intro
Married
Im Sorry Now
Prophet
Jude Story - France
Break-Up Song
Your Eyes
Intro to...
Run To My Room
Rick James
I Know
Intro to...
Crescent Height Shuffle
Gay Cowboy
Intro to...
Indian Lover
Jude Story - I Do
I Do
You Mama You
Isnt It Over
Cuba
Brad & Suzy
Jude Story - Save Me & The OC
Save Me
Crazy
The Asshole Song
Intro to...
Battered Broken
Out of LA

Labels: concerts, continental club, houston, indie, jude, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s

Have you figured out that i'm a big Jude fan?

I've posted on him a few times over the last year. Read those posts here, here and here.

I'd seen him a few times a couple of years ago in Los Angeles, at the Largo - a lovely little industry showcase/restaurant. Unfortunately the Largo, while a killer venue, take a very nazi-esque attitude to taping. So I've never managed to get a soundboard recording of Jude.

All that changed in October when he came through Texas. He was playing 3 dates - Austin, Dallas and Houston - all mid week. By some small miracle I happened to be in Dallas for work the day he was playing there, so managed to catch that show and the Houston show the next night.

Though the Houston show was significantly longer, the Dallas show was definitely the better of the two. There were about 50 (screaming) fans there, who crowded the stage and sang along to almost every song. Jude played a solid selection of songs that ranged across all his entire discography. He also took all sorts of fun requests. Unfortunately the only request he could not play was the one that I yelled out, Homerun Hillary (you can check out the studio mp3 on the second link I posted above.) Sigh.

Some of the best tracks of the night were songs from his brand spanking new record, Redemption - which came out in France a month or two ago - and which is finally available in the States at cdbaby.com - to check it out and buy it go here.

Couple of quick notes - the soundguy had added some delay onto Judes vocals, we realized it was too much during track 3 and minimized it. The Asshole Song is performed on the guitar - very cool change since its usually performed on the organ.

MP3s:
Jude - All I Want To Do

Live MP3s:
Intro
Married
Im Sorry Now
Prophet
Your Eyes
Run To My Room
Break-Up Song
Jude Story - France
Love Letters
Indian Lover
Intro to...
Gay Cowboy
Rick James
I Know
Intro to...
Black Superman
You Mama You
Jude Story - The OC & Redemption
Money
The Asshole Song
Everything's All Right
I Do
Love Love Love

Labels: concerts, dallas, gypsy tea room, indie, jude, live mp3s, soundboard mp3s, studio mp3s

So you may have noticed a slow down in posts lately. Well, there's a reasons for that - Lullabyes is moving all the way down the street (ie I-45) from H-Town aka Houston, to the Big D. Dallas, Texas. I've been in transition stage lately, and haven't had an Internet connection, thus no Blog Posts.

Now I've got to admit, I'm pretty excited about this move. Don't get me wrong, I love Houston. Of the (many) cities that I've lived in (including a previous stint in Dallas), Houston has been my absolute favorite. Beautiful town, great people, diverse cultures, more restuarants then you can shake a stick at, and of course its Space City. As a bit of sci-fi fan I've always liked knowing that NASA was just down the street.

With that said, from a musical perspective, its clear that Dallas gets a lot more concerts then Houston does - especially when it comes to Indie music. There's been many a night when I've been reading Gorilla vs Bear and been slightly pissed that some band is playing in Dallas, and skipping over Houston.

So - 2007 is going to be a good year. If anyone knows of a good show in Dallas that should get taped and shared, let me know!

More to come.

Labels: concerts, dallas, houston, indie, move

You've got to give it to Tori Amos - not only has she amassed an army of devoted (and primarily female) fans, she's also figured out how to capitalize on her private niche market. That is, release official records every year. Now don't get me wrong, I don't see this as a bad thing. Tori's fans have needs, and Tori likes to feed it.

Im fairly certain that Tori has put out a record every year since Strange Little Girls came out in 2001 - A Sorta Fairytale, Tales of a Librarian, The Videos DVD Collection, The Beekeeper, the 12 disc, multi concert "The Original Bootlegs" and now finally, the grand daddy of Tori collections - the Piano.

I managed to get my hands on a promo selections version of this bad boy - and it did not dissapoint. Every alternate or remix version I listened to was superior, or masterfully built on, the original. I've included this strings-heavy version of Baker Baker below. Every track also sounded remastered, and highlighted a lot more presence then the original tracks. Check out the 5 disc tracklisting below - a good mix of alternate versions, remixs, b-sides, unreleased and classic Tori cuts.

If you are, or know, a Tori fan - this would make for a pretty decent Christmas present. I know I'd like one ;)

MP3:
Baker Baker (Alternate Mix)

A Piano: A Tori Amos Collection
Track Listing
Disc 1
1. "Leather" (Alternate Mix)
2. "Precious Things" (Alternate Mix)
3. "Silent All These Years"
4. "Upside Down"
5. "Crucify" (Unedited Single Version)*
6. "Happy Phantom"
7. "Me And A Gun"
8. "Flying Dutchman" (Alternate Mix)
9. "Girl"
10. "Winter"
11. "Take To The Sky (Russia)"
12. "Tear In Your Hand"
13. "China"
14. "Sweet Dreams"
15. "Mother" (Alternate Mix)
16. "Little Earthquakes"

Disc 2
1. "Cornflake Girl"
2. "Honey"
3. "Take Me With You"*
4. "Baker Baker" (Alternate Mix)
5. "The Waitress" (Alternate Mix)
6. "Pretty Good Year"
7. "God"
8. "Cloud On My Tongue"
9. "Past The Mission" (Alternate Mix)
10. "Bells For Her"
11. "Yes, Anastasia" (Alternate Mix)
12. "Blood Roses"
13. "Mr. Zebra"
14. "Caught A Lite Sneeze" (Alternate Mix)
15. "Professional Widow" (Merry Widow Version - Live)
16. "Beauty Queen/Horses"
17. "Father Lucifer"
18. "Marianne"

Disc 3
1. "Walk To Dublin" (Sucker Reprise)*
2. "Hey Jupiter" (Dakota Version)
3. "Professional Widow" (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix)
4. "Putting The Damage On"
5. "Bliss" (Remixed Version)
6. "Suede"
7. "Glory Of The 80's"
8. "1000 Oceans"
9. "Concertina" (Single Remix Version)
10. "Lust"
11. "Datura"
12. "Sugar" (Live from sound check)
13. "The Waitress" (Live)
14. "Snow Cherries From France"
15. "Doughnut Song" (Remixed Version)

Disc 4
1. "A Sorta Fairytale"
2. "Not David Bowie"*
3. "Amber Waves"
4. "Iieee" (Remixed Version)
5. "Playboy Mommy" (Remixed Version)
6. "The Beekeeper"
7. "Jackie's Strength"
8. "Zero Point"*
9. "Sweet The Sting"
10. "Ode To My Clothes"*
11. "Spark"
12. "Intro Jam"* and "Marys Of The Sea"
13. "Cruel" (Remixed Version)
14. "Dolphin Song"*
15. "Gold Dust"

Disc 5
1. "The Pool"
2. "Never Seen Blue"
3. "Daisy Dead Petals"
4. "Beulah Land"
5. "Sugar"
6. "Cooling"
7. "Bachelorette"
8. "Black Swan"
9. "Mary" (Tales Version)
10. "Peeping Tommi"*
11. "Toodles Mr. Jim" Demo Medley:
12. "Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen" (Demo)*
13. "Playboy Mommy" (Demo)*
14. "A Sorta Fairytale" (Demo)*
15. "This Old Man"
16. "Purple People"
17. "Here. In My Head"
18. "Hungarian Wedding Song"
19. "Merman"
20. "Sister Janet"
21. "Home On The Range" (Cherokee Edition)
22. "Frog On My Toe"

*Previously Unreleased

Quick post tonight - I'm headed out to an art exhibit and I'm running late.

You may or may not have noticed that a whole bunch of the shows I've posted from South by Southwest 2006 are of artists from common labels - namely Sub Pop, Merge and Arts&Crafts. As you may have guessed, I attended those labels day parties, drinking lots of free beer, eating good ol' Texas BBQ (Austin's BBQ hosted all 3 labels showcases), and checking out some great bands. Lucky me, lucky you.

I'd never heard of Rocky before seeing his showcase, but I've picked up his records since. Americana at its finest, Rocky almost strikes up an image of an urban cowboy - with songs that could be country, or alt-country, if they weren't indie rock.

A beautiful and intimate set - if you need a place to start, I recommend White Daisy Passing.

Live MP3s:
Intro
Tinfoil Hats
White Daisy Passing
Portland Is Leaving
The Night's Disguise
Alabaster
Streetlights
Makers