Billboard — This long-in-coming sophomore set from the prolific Drive-By Truckers frontman hopscotches across time in a way that would make J.J. Abrams happy. It’s grounded in tracks that predate the Truckers, songs that he wrote upon first moving to Athens, Ga., in 1994. But “Oscar” contains a few tracks (the bright “I Understand Now,” one of Hood’s cheeriest-ever moments, and the searing, black-hearted title track) that would fit right into the emotional bedlam of a DBT album. Others, like the Todd Rundgren cover “The Range War,” show a sense of stretched-out adventure. Surprisingly, though, there’s a warm sense of family, thanks to the wonderful lullaby “Grandaddy” and the hotel-room love song “Back of a Bible.” The appearance of Hood’s dad, legendary session man David, gives parts of “Murdering Oscar”—even within the Southern-rock storm and Hood’s charcoal vocals—a sweet, possibly unprecedented sense of tranquility.
Posted in Billboard, Music, Reviews, mp3 | Tagged Billboard, cd review, drive-by truckers, i understand now, jeff vrabel, mp3, murdering oscar, Music, patterson hood, review | Leave a Comment »
GateHouse — If you read the news these days with any regularity at all, if you take even a small time to try to keep with the disorder and disquiet in the world, then you already know these are very, very difficult times. For the polka.
I am saddened to report that the polka is dying, although I am mostly saddened to report it without the benefit of a depressed-sounding tuba honking gloomily in the background, so you’ll just have to imagine that part, and that it’s doing so unloved and under-respected, even by its musical cousins, the waltz, the mazurka and, of course, the modern oom-pah band. And sadly it is doing so as a relic, something believed to be practiced only by older men whose names sound like what would happen if consonants spent a day beating the hell out of each other, names such as Roman Rezac, Ernie Kuchera, Al Grebnic and, of course, Frankie Yankovic.
Because as of this year, the polka category is being dropped by the Grammy Awards. The. Grammy. Awards. Being shot down by the Grammy Awards is like being picked last in dodgeball in gym class, except it’s more like being instructed by the teacher to go lay quietly during dodgeball in gym class with your head on the floor facing the bleachers in a corner of the gym located, if possible, in an entirely different school district.
Posted in Columns, GateHouse, Music, mp3 | Tagged al grebnic, beer barrel polka, brave combo, column, comedy, czech, dave ulcyczki, ernie kuchera, frankie yankovic, freezedried, grammy awards, humor, international polka association, jeff vrabel, john krawisz, john mayer, mazurka, mp3, Music, polka, polka music, roman rezac, slovakia, taylor swift, waltz, weird al yankovic | 1 Comment »
Island Packet — Here’s what I did at work last Friday: Held an alligator. With my hands. Both of them. That is an essential strategy, because holding an alligator with one hand is a terrible idea, because no matter how you do it the gator is going to be hanging in some fashion, and that is highly unsafe, especially if the hanging portion contains the mouth. So I used both, which was good news for the alligator, because when you’re being held by someone who is quivering uncontrollably, the effect is probably that of a pleasant massage.
I was holding an alligator because it was brought to the office by gator wrangler/guy who could snap my spine in half like a pretzel stick Joe Maffo of Critter Management, a company that specializes in the removal of alligators from things, such as pools, ponds, baby seats and refrigerators. If there’s an alligator that needs to be relocated — often, it seems, because of tourists trying to impress someone by playing a minivan version of “Man Vs. Wild” or attempting to snap a cool picture for the breakroom bulletin board — it is his job to do so, which is the mathematical opposite of my job, which involves trying to tap-tappity funnies at 2 a.m. for one of these “newspapers” that my grandkids will be asking me about in the way that I ask about, say, stegosauruses, like: “Wait, they really had those?”
Posted in Columns, Island Packet/McClatchy-Tribune | Tagged alligators, bear grylls, column, comedy, gator, humor, jeff vrabel, man vs wild, parenting | 3 Comments »
GateHouse — With the exception of Gary, Ind., which produced the version of Michael Jackson most folks are trying to remember this week, Hollywood has not often intersected with northwest Indiana, or “The Region,” the weirdly blank nickname used by us locals.
I say “locals” though it’s been years since I’ve actually lived there, having fled the area’s eternal roadwork, magical-smelling pollution and pierogi-based diners years ago for warmer climes. But I grew up partly in Crown Point on the Region’s southern edge, a fine town but one where you don’t often bump into famous people. Which isn’t to say we haven’t had a few. The ex-house of journeyman reliever Dan Plesac — who Keith Olbermann once introduced on “SportsCenter” with, “You may remember him from every major league ballclub ever” — was close enough to mine that my cousins and I used to walk down to it hoping …. I don’t even know what, maybe that he’d sign our baseball cards, or maybe we’d catch a glimpse of the legendary Rick Wilkins or something. Rudolph Valentino was married at our Lake County Courthouse in 1923, to, I believe, Blitzen. Also, I think we produced an astronaut. (Whoa, wait – according to The Web, the following were also married in Crown Point, though not to each other: Muhammad Ali, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, Red Grange and the parents of Michael Jackson. The Jacksons? Really? Is there some reason this is not covered in Social Studies, or for that matter on the town’s welcome sign? CROWN POINT: PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR TITO.)
Posted in Columns, GateHouse, Movie Reviews | Tagged chicago, christian bale, column, crown point, dark knight, GateHouse, humor, indiana, jeff vrabel, johnny depp, lake county, lake county courthouse, michael jackson, movies, northwest indiana, public enemies, teenage mutant ninja turtles, the region, wolverine | 5 Comments »
Billboard — Angry, pitchforks-in-the-streets populism has few busier cheerleaders than Tom Morello and Boots Riley, who, with their respective groups Rage Against the Machine and agit-hip-hop act the Coup, have reigned as some of the left’s most visible, visceral voices. But though a floundering economy, bombed-out GOP and a season or two of corporate bailouts have provided them with a fat barrel of fish to shoot, this rap-rock hybrid simmers instead of seethes, never quite mustering the blood-boiling rage of its principals’ previous material. Morello’s blue-steel guitar work is in fine form (when is it not?), and Riley pops off some nice shots on tracks like “The Squeeze” and “100 Little Curses,” where he wishes poverty, bad cocaine and a sucky life on his aristocratic targets. And Galactic drummer Stanton Moore acquits himself nicely in the rap-rock universe. But too much of it is disappointing jingoism (”Fight! Smash! Win!”) that falls well short of the vicious punch these guys are capable of. Maybe it’s just harder to rage when the machine’s in such lousy shape already.
Posted in Billboard, Music, Reviews, mp3 | Tagged 100 little curses, Billboard, boots riley, cd review, cover, download, jeff vrabel, mia, mp3, Music, paper planes, review, street sweeper social club, tom morello | Leave a Comment »
brucespringsteen.net (Tour Notes) — Even setting aside the Tennessee hot, the sprawling carnival-world landscape, and the frequent need to avoid people who are hula-hooping where you need to be walking, it’s safe to say Bruce Springsteen has never played an environment like the one he burned down Saturday night at Bonnaroo. The night was jammed full of Bruce-time idiosyncrasies: it was only the band’s second-ever festival date (after Pinkpop), and it unfolded not in the relative safety of an arena but on a lush, pastoral and almost entirely inaccessible farm that 48 hours prior had been prolifically drenched by what amounted to a freak one-night hurricane season (and spent all of Friday being dried out by a sultry sun that seared the grounds and turned the place into a wonderland for fans of the smell of fast-drying mud).
Read the full review at brucespringsteen.net (over in the Tour Notes section).
Posted in Music, Reviews, Springsteen, mp3 | 2 Comments »
Island Packet — I attended and covered last weekend’s Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. — for those who don’t know or think I just said “Bali Hai,” it’s a sprawling four-day music fiesta jammed with bands, sweat, camping and things you can hold marijuana in — with one goal and one goal only: to meet Bruce Springsteen and, with any luck, have him adopt me as his full-time tambourine player, or, failing that, his son. This is, incidentally, how I attend everything. Every time I go to Publix I secretly hope the trip will end with my being adopted by Bruce Springsteen. Usually it just ends with milk.
Bonnaroo is, of course, held on a former hog farm in Manchester, which is in the middle of Tennessee, which has a great many back roads, all of which look like the middle of Tennessee and none of which actually connected to anything other than more back roads in the middle of Tennessee. In addition, we had a set of helpful official directions that literally included a line that said, “Turn right at the red brick house and pine tree.” There are satellites in space that know what brand of laundry detergent I prefer, and here I was driving around Tennessee looking for a pine tree. You can literally go about 20 minutes and not see another structure that looks like it might contain a human being. I came extremely close to asking directions from a cow.
Anyway, after wandering the hill country looking either for directions or John Denver, I gave up and pulled into a gas station/restaurant/tackle shop/bar, one of those ramshackle, low-roof joints that appeared to have just teleported in from 1974. Manchester does an inhumanly fantastic job of welcoming the 75,000 drinky music kids who can drop a couple hundred clams to see grown men calling themselves “Phish” and “Nine Inch Nails,” but still, if you are me, walking into a gas station/diner pretty much screams, PLEASE ROB ME BLIND AND DRIVE MY CAR AWAY.
Posted in Columns, Island Packet/McClatchy-Tribune, Music, Springsteen | Tagged bonnaroo, glory days, john denver, manchester, nine inch nails, phish, Springsteen, tennessee | 2 Comments »
GateHouse — There will come a day, sometime in the mystery years ahead, when my son, who is now 5 years old, will tell me he’s having a kid of his own, and when that day comes it will be change everything that I know about everything that I know. It will be a crazy, life-rattling event, a strange and magical thing, and probably a great deal unlike the first time he told me he was having a baby, which was Thursday at lunch.
My son, who is, again, five years old, is convinced that he has a baby in his belly. For the record, there is not. I checked.
But I also know this because I know that he is five years old, and a dude, which are two pretty crucial factors to consider when deciding if the person before you is or is not pregnant. However, the little man, being five years old, and a dude, does not much care what Science has to say about anything, really: pregnancy, bedtimes, why sharp wet things do not go in toasters. He is adamant, and there is no amount of haggling, explaining, haranguing, Googling, Encyclopedia Brittanica-reading or screenings of “Junior” that will convince him otherwise, because his fundamental misconstruing of the wonders of reproduction comes exactly at the time he has decided that everything he says is factually indisputable, while everything I say is a piping hot load of pllttthb.
Posted in Columns, GateHouse | Tagged bugs bunny, column, GateHouse, humor, jeff vrabel, junior, kids, parenting, tony stewart | 4 Comments »
Billboard — Mos Def’s late-2006 release “True Magic” was so quietly whisked out in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s (without cover art, no less) that rumors circulated that the “real” album was coming sometime later (it wasn’t). That might have been for the best. Where “True Magic” was the uncomfortable sound of Mos stretched too thin among his myriad pursuits, “The Ecstatic” is a more focused set with more high moments than Mos has hit since his near-perfect (and never remotely approached) 1999 masterpiece “Black on Both Sides.” The killer first half is filled with off-kilter, dissonant soul hooks and Mos’ hypnotic, just south-of-smoked-out verses, all nicely merging his obsessive drive for hip-hop innovation with a distinct purpose. The beats are better, too: There’s an angry tuba and xylophone on the banging Chad Hugo-produced “Twilight Speedball,” the epic and orchestral “Life in Marvelous Times” (they’re not) and the humid, hallucinogenic Eastern vibes on the dark narrative “The Embassy.” The back half is all over the place, prone to the sort of detours that seem designed solely to show off Mos’ scope, like the all-Spanish throwaway “No Hay Nada Mas.” Still, when’s he’s on, which is more than not, Mos is refocused and seemingly rededicated.
Posted in Billboard, Music, Reviews, mp3 | Tagged Billboard, billboard.com, cd review, ecstatic, jeff vrabel, mos def, mp3, Music, quiet dog, review | Leave a Comment »
Billboard — Thanks to a deep love of live music, being outdoors, the symptoms of heatstroke, sweaty insomnia, flimsy sandals and people who are baked out of their minds and dancing where I would like to be walking, I’ll be covering Bonnaroo this weekend (with the extremely talented and personable Troy Carpener) for the good folks at Billboard.com, making us one of a very select few people to be covering this festival for The Internet.
We’ll be doing daily recaps, blogs, video interviews, etc. etc. social media multimedia one-man mobile uplink unit-ing all weekend long at Billboard’s Bonnaroo Page.
First up, our brief and ragingly incomplete 10 Must-See Bands Itinerary can be found here.
Posted in Billboard, Music | Tagged Billboard, billboard.com, bonnaroo, festival, manchester, Music, preview, review | Leave a Comment »
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