Over the years I've built up a fair collection of soundtracks.. I think it started with David Arnold's Fifth Element soundtrack. The moment when the massive "asteroid o' negative karma" was screaming towards the Earth, and the strings and glockenspiel crescendo above the thundering bass I thought - damn, I need to go get that score.

Since than I've learned soundtracks (and scores) can be hit or miss, but I still pick up various movie, TV and "compilation" soundtracks - usually culling out a few "atmospheric" tracks for inclusion on the iPod.

Last week I got two new soundtracks - the Simpson's 'Testify' and Ken Burn's 'the War'. And these two hail from opposite ends of the musical stratosphere.

'Testify' brings tracks from seasons 10 through 18 together and features the various guest stars from the episodes that produced the songs - Jackson Browne, David Byrne, the B-52s, Los Lobos, Kelsey Grammer, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Ricky Gervais, etc.

Ricky's track 'Lady' (instant classic) was my personal highlight. Check it out below.

I also got the War - the soundtrack for the 7 part PBS mini-series that brings together the stories of World War 2 survivors from four towns from across America. Powerful stuff. DVR it if you can - or pick up the DVDs.

The soundtrack contains a wild range of tunes - vintage era jazz (Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Nat ‘King’ Cole), singers (Kay Starr, Bing Crosby), orchestral works and a lovely little tribute song 'American Anthem' from Norah Jones.

Simpsons MP3 MP3s:
The Simpsons Main Title Theme
Everybody Hates Ned Flanders (David Byrne)
Lady (Ricky Gervais)

The War MP3 MP3s:
American Anthem Norah Jones
How Long Blues Count Basie

Quick post tonight!

Got to see Christian Hjelm, lead singer for the Denmark-based band Figurines, play a solo acoustic set at Good Records last Saturday afternoon.

Quick little four song set from Hjelm primarily drawing from their new album, When the Deer Wore Blue.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Good Old Friends
Angels Of The Bayou
Drove You Miles
Rivalry

Labels: dallas, good records, indie, soundboard mp3s

Local Dallas native, Doug Burr, also played a set at the Museum of Modern Arts "Modern 'til Midnight" show on Friday night.

Doug's new album, 'On Promenade', dropped on October 9th - and his set focused on the new material. Channeling Tom Waits (and a little Ryan Adams), Doug Burr brings a classic sense of storytelling to his almost-gravelly songs - the familiar subjects of heartbreak and hope. Live, Doug brought a full-band to the show - with nice guitar interplay and backing vocals, over the building drums and bass.

My personal favorite - Last Promenade.

Check out some studio tracks at his MySpace. If you like what you hear, 'On Promenade' is available for download at iTunes, Napster, CD Baby and Doug's record companies, www.spune.com,
www.velvetbluemusic.com.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Slow Southern Home
Graniteville
Always Travel Light
Thing About Trouble
Last Promenade

Labels: concerts, fort worth, indie, live mp3s, museum of modern art, soundboard mp3s

Annie Clark aka St Vincent put on an amazing show last night at the Museum of Modern Arts in Fort Worth.

It was a fairly impressive evening - with various Dallas/Fort Worth based bands including MOM, Doug Bar and St Vincent playing sets as part of the "Modern 'til Midnight" series.

Adding to the evenings appeal, the Museum was also featuring two amazing art exhibits, a collection of Ron Mueck's hyper-realistic human sculptures as well as the "Declaring Space" collection featuring various paintings from my favorite artist Mark Rothko.

As always, Annie's performance was gorgeous and captivating. An impressive sized crowd gathered around the stage set up on a 2nd floor, outdoor sculpture garden and watched Annie perform solo - an electric guitar, a stomp box and a very cool sampler.

Highlights include the covers for the evening - a rendition of the Beatles 'Dig a Pony' (which I've been singing all day) and Jackson Browne's 'I've Been Out Walking (These Days)'. 'Your Lips Are Red' and 'Jesus Saves. I Spend' also stand out as killer tracks.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Human Racing
Marry Me
Bang Bang
Paris is Burning
-Tech Issues-
Dig A Pony (The Beatles)
-Tech Issues-
Jesus Saves. I Spend
What, Me Worry
These Days (Jackson Browne)
Your Lips Are Red
Now. Now.

Labels: concerts, fort worth, indie, live mp3s, museum of modern art, soundboard mp3s

I've been a Dan Wilson fan for quite some time.

I first saw him open for Tori Amos a long time ago, then really get into Semisonic with the release of Feeling Strangely Fine. The record had so many great songs on it that most of the record still sits on my iPod. I especially love listening to 'Gone to the Movies' when I'm driving in my car and it's pitch black outside.

I also enjoyed Semisonic's follow up 'All About Chemistry' (I'm sure you can guess what all the songs were about). Again, about a quarter of that record sits on my iPod.

So I've been waiting a long time for a follow up from Semisonic. Unfortunately, it didn't happen - but on the good news front, we did get a solo Dan Wilson record - Free Life, which is coming out this Tuesday.

Definitely more low key than any of the Semisonic albums - there's no real "rock" tracks on the record, but Wilson's signature song writing is intact and shines through this collection of slower, more thought-out tracks.

'Cry' and 'Breathless' emerge as the stand-out tracks from the record - both building up from simple arrangements to layered, multi-instrument affairs, highlighted by Wilson's signature guitar leads and vocals.

Check out more track's at Dan Wilson's MySpace.

MP3 MP3s:
Cry

Tour Dates:
Oct 16 2007 Bryant Lake Bowl Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 17 2007 Bryant Lake Bowl Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 19 2007 Electric Fetus Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 24 2007 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 25 2007 Joe’s Pub New York, New York

Labels: studio mp3s, tour dates

I started this blog a couple of years ago, and one of my early posts was on the "secret" Counting Crows show in 2003 at the Shim Sham club in New Orleans.

I only posted a couple of the tracks from the show - I think I was just daunted at having to link to 50 different tracks (it was a long, long show), and every now and then when I see the original post I think about how I should put up the rest of the show.

Well here it is! Between 1999 and 2003 Adam Duritz and other members of Counting Crows played a secret show at the Shim Sham Club in New Orleans each May - corresponding with one of the two Jazz Fest weekends.

Always amazing concerts, Adam and Co would slowly but surely get very, very drunk over the course of the shows, playing covers, each one with different friends contributing in some way.

Here's the last Counting Crows Shim Sham show. Enjoy.

Live MP3 MP3s:
Club Music
Intro Music
Immys Intro (Its My Birthday)
Dark Globe - Syd Barrett (Placebo)
Night Moves - Bob Seger
Adams Intro (Welcome to the 5th...)
Borderline - Madonna
Catapult - Counting Crows
Band Talk (Its Getting Hot in Here)
Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
Band Talk (Tuning for Goodnight...)
Goodnight Elisabeth False Start - Counting Crows
Goodnight Elisabeth - Counting Crows
New Frontier - Counting Crows
Band Talk (Welcome You Once Again)
Night Flight - Led Zeppelin
Band Talk (Officially Drunk)
Give You Up - David Gibbs
Dave Gibbs Talk (...Fuckin Beautiful)
Ghost - David Gibbs
Band Talk (that Bitch)
Barely Out of Tuesday - Counting Crows
Band Talk (No Video)
Better Things - The Kinks
Band Talk (Concerned About My Friends)
Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead
Band Talk (End of an Era)
Goodnight L.A - Counting Crows
A Long December - Counting Crows
Band Talk (I Am So Fucked Up)
Here Comes your Man - Pixies (Beastie Boys)
Band Talk (Cocaine Intro)
Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain - Steve Earle
Band Talk (Musical Interlude)
Pale Blue Eyes - Velvet Underground
These Days - Jackson Browne
Band Talk (Ok. We're Getting There)
Fearless Heart - Steve Earle
Band Talk (Quiet)
Good Time - Counting Crows
Band Talk (Woman. God Damnit)
Crazy for You - Madonna
Amie - Pure Prairie League
Band Talk (Articulating My Words)
Rain King - Counting Crows
Happy Birthdays - Crowd
Oh Susanna - Stephen Foster
Blues Run the Game - Jackson C Frank
Sullivan Street - Counting Crows
Club Music

Whoa.

Labels: concerts, live mp3s, major, new orleans, shim sham club, soundboard mp3s

I get a lot of crap in my inbox. Occasionally though I get something so good that I immediately want to post about it.

Here you go.

Hailing from Nottingham, England, House of Brothers is the solo project from Andrew Jackson, former member of The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg. The first EP is coming out in late November, and 'Deadman' the title track single is available as a free download this week.

And its lovely - beautiful and intricate acoustic guitars layered with subtle strings, pianos and flutes. I think my favorite moment is at 1:38 when the whole song is lifted from slight melancholy to something entirely positive with the sudden introduction of taut strings and quick hand claps.

Being a lad from Britain - Mr Jackson is only playing shows in England. So if any of you lucky kids can go see him play and the tape the show, let us know. We would like you a lot.

MP3 MP3s:
Deadman

Tour Dates:
09.10 – Norwich, The Queen Charlotte (w/ Youthmovies, Adam Gnade)
10.10 – Cambridge, The Graduate (w/ Youthmovies, Adam Gnade)
11.10 – Kingston, The Works (w/ Youthmovies, Adam Gnade)
12.10 – Tunbridge Wells, The Forum (w/ Youthmovies, Adam Gnade)
13.10 – Oxford, Jericho Tavern
15.10 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms (w/ Ed Harcourt)

Poor Bono. The man tries to do a little good and the South Park guys take him to town. Still fairly amusing episode - even though the Bono-lambasting seemed oddly chosen I really liked the King of Kong inspired plot.

Luckily, I'd recently picked up a copy of the new U2 DVD - POPMART - Live in Mexico City and so we popped that in to introduce some positive rocking vibes (Let's be honest. I love U2 - big Bono fan musically, and I like how he's used his fame. He see's a problem, he pushes for a solution.)

The politics aside - I really liked U2's 1990s phase. All trash and kitsch, Bono created his little Fly character and the shows ended up as stadium level, prop based madess. Giant mirrorball lemons, the 100ft cocktail stick - Lichtenstein, Warhol and Haring. The massive random word generator displays and Bono's prank calls. U2 took the spectacle award for the decade.

I think Pop Mart was the last "ultra-glam" U2 tour - and this DVD captures it perfectly.

From a quality perspective - the DVD looks great, bringing the vibrant colors of the show to life. I had the VHS a few years ago, and the picture, sharpness and contrast are much improved in this release. The only complaint would be that it was filmed in 4/3 rather than 16/9, and the DVD keeps that aspect ratio. Black bars bug. On a positive note the audio has also been re-mastered and mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound. Nice.

The show itself was excellent - with a wide selection of songs from almost every record that had come out up til that point.

Pop Muzik / Mofo / I Will Follow / Gone / Even Better Than The Real Thing / Last Night On Earth / Until The End of The World / New Year’s Day / Pride (In The Name Of Love) / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / All I Want Is You / Desire / Staring At The Sun / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Bullet The Blue Sky / Please / Where The Streets Have No Name / Lemon (Perfecto Mix) / Discothèque / If You Wear That Velvet Dress / With Or Without You / Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me / Mysterious Ways / One / Wake Up Dead Man

And to touch it off, the packaging is fantastic - with shiny silver wrap that glitters as you move it. It's one of the best packaging jobs I've ever seen on a DVD.

Check it out.
Buy it here.

PS Check out the new U2 single Window In The Skies at their MySpace. I just heard it for the first time. Like it so far.

So I got engaged. Sweeet!

I also unknowingly scheduled an engagement party on the same night Rilo Kiley is coming to town. Oh well - I'd be sleeping in the guest room if I mentioned any regrets. ;)

But since I won't see them this weekend, I pulled out some old shows to listen to.

Here's my favorite one from the Jenny/Blake solo tour back in early 2004 - where they were trying out cuts from the (at that point) forthcoming album, More Adventurous. Lots of great banter and low key acoustic versions of rocking tracks.

Enjoy! (I've got a 2 cam video mix of this somewhere, ill see if I can find it)


Live MP3 MP3s:
Intro
Better Son-Daughter
Bulletproof
So Long
Go Ahead
More Adventurous
Somebody Elses Clothes
(Simply Irresistible Banter)
Simply Irresistible (Robert Palmer)
Absence of God
It Just Is
I Never
(With Arms Outstretched Banter)
With Arms Outstretched
(Panty Banter)
Rock N Roll Suicide (David Bowie)
(Encore Break)
(Glendora Banter)
Steve - Take 1
Steve - Take 2
Salute My Shorts
Spectacular Views

Labels: audience mp3s, concerts, indie, live mp3s, los angeles, pomona

So blame my dad, but every now and then, if a Bee Gee's track comes on, I wont change the channel. Disco was just so amusing.

When I saw a brand spankin new Bee Gee's remix of Stayin' Alive by the Teddybears, I clicked on the link thinking that if nothing else I'd get a laugh.

Ended up being fairly cool - ultra smooth, the electronically distorted main riff and wailing falsetto's were almost akin to Muse's Supermassive Black Hole.

Streaming Audio:
Stayin' Alive - Teddybears remix

Buy more Bee Gee's remix goodness here.