I really like good covers of good songs. I have a large (and excellent) Spotify playlist centered around cover songs.
So when I saw someone with the Grateful Dead say that this was possibly the best Friend of the Devil cover they’d ever heard, I stopped in my tracks for a listen.
This may be the first time I’ve talked about I See Hawks in L.A. But it won’t be the last time. That is one great cover. Here’s their web site.
Or just one of them. That’s the only question. Well, maybe there’s just one more question…
If I can’t trust you with a quarter, how can I trust you with my heart?
When you moved a little closer
I had no intention of saying “no sir”
Then you asked my for a quarter
That’s when it all went wrong.
Oh, there’s more.
When you said you’d never heard of John Prine
Well I knew right away you weren’t worth my time
And I’m sorry to say hon before we’d begun
We were already through.
Buy this record. Now. Amazon. Google. iTunes.
Zoe is battling Fred Eaglesmith for playlist domination on all my devices.
Hitfix has a great read about Fleetwood Mac’s excellent Rumours album, released 35 (actually 36) years ago. There is a new deluxe edition, that I’ll have to check out (here’s the Spotify link). Though my favorite Fleetwood Mac era was the earlier, unknown by most yuppies, blues era, there is no denying that Rumours is one of the best records ever made.
The quintet took a year to record “Rumours” in Sausalito, Calif. at the Record Plant. While they were in the studio, their self-titled 10th album (and the first to feature Buckingham and Nicks) was gaining traction and was a clear sign that moving from the blues-based sound of the previous efforts to a pop-oriented sound was the right move commercially. That was only confirmed with “Rumours,” which spent 31 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Along with Frampton Comes Alive, Europe ’72, At Fillmore East and Hotel California, Rumours constitutes a material part of the soundtrack to my high school years. We played the absolute heck out of those records.
In fact, Rumours (and, more importantly, Stevie Nicks) was so beloved by my crowd that some cat actually tried to stab me one night for talking it off the turntable at a party. The turntable arm was up and one side (side 2, the one with The Chain and Gold Dust Woman) had played repeatedly for hours and hours. Fortunately, another dude tackled him from behind before he could complete his honor killing.
I think we put Hotel California on after that. Only dudes in that band, and no one’s going to try to kill anybody over Don Henley.
Those who only know the Steve Miller Band from Take the Money and Run forward missed their best work and the enduring reason why (some of) their music remains on the Rancho DeNada playlist.
In 1968 the band played live at KPFA in Berkeley, California. Included in the setlist was what I believe to be their best song. The rocking Steppin’ Stone, from their 1968 record Children of the Future. You might recognize the lead singer on this track. Another guy whose far superior early work is overshadowed by his later commercial success.
Christmas weekend is here, and it’s finally starting to feel like Christmas.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Newsome family. Here’s a video holiday greeting I made last year, with the best Christmas rock and roll song ever.
Punchbowl Full of Joy – Sonny Columbus and the Del Fuegos.
I’m really into Fred Eaglesmith these days. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, you owe it to yourself to take a listen.
That playlist is pretty much the soundtrack to my life these days.
This weekend’s SOTW is Come Back by The Go.
Love, love, love that bass track.
The Go is an American rock & roll band from Detroit, Michigan. Their sound has evolved from garage punk to a blend of 1960s and 1970s influences, most notably The Beatles. The Go is composed primarily of Robert “Bobby” Harlow (vocals), John Krautner (guitar, bass), Marc Fellis (drums), James McConnell (lead guitar), and a rotating cast of other band members, including Jack White (later of The White Stripes, The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs), who was with the band from mid ’98 to early ’99.
Come Back is from their 2003 self-titled record (Amazon, iTunes, Spotify).
I heard this one at the end of Asylum Blackout, an OK, but nothing special, horror film I watched on Apple TV last night.
So we all know that Game of Thrones, books and TV show, are just about perfect. To say I am immersed in George R.R. Martin‘s expansive world is an understatement. In fact, I have dreamed on more than one occasion that I was in Westeros. Those are my third favorite dream topics, behind only the times I’ve dreamed I was a member of the Grateful Dead and…. Well, other stuff.
While we wait impatiently for the next book in the series and season on TV, here is one of the most rocking songs I’ve heard in a long time.
I was previously unfamiliar with Dominik Omega and The Arcitype, but if this is indicative of their work, they should be performing in stadiums full of crazed fans. This is really good stuff.
Anyone who reads this blog or knows me in the semi-real world knows that I frickin’ love The Wrinkle Neck Mules.
Somehow, though, I managed to totally miss their new record, Apprentice to Ghosts, released back in February. Fortunately, the excellent music blog Twangville alerted me to this ear-pleasing development.
Sadly, I don’t see the record on Spotify. It’s available via Amazon, via Google Play or via iTunes. Look for a review shortly.
This is huge!
I get a bunch of records to review, and discover and review a lot of good music that way. But it’s not everyday that a new record by the original lineup of one of the best bands of all time hits my inbox. But that just happened.
The dB’s have a new record!
![15004 [Converted]](https://newsome.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/3138-the-dbs-falling-off-the-sky-de8a8f05706c25971.jpg?w=233&h=242 "15004 [Converted]")
It gets better. Lots better. This record is excellent. Better than excellent. Wonderful. Perfect. Holsapple, Stamey, The frickin’ dB’s!
‘Falling Off the Sky’ is the first new dB’s album in a quarter-century. It’s also the first in three decades to feature the band’s original lineup of Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Gene Holder and Will Rigby — the same lineup that recorded the beloved early-’80s classics for deciBels and Repercussion.
Street date is set for June 17 on Bar/None Records.
Listen to That Time is Gone for yourself.
Is that The dB’s or what?
The second track, Before We Were Born, is even better. Far Away and Long Ago sounds like a great, undiscovered Beatles song. There’s not an average song on this record. It is excellent, from start to finish. It’s a beautiful blend/mash-up of 80s alternative rock/indie rock/Americana.
She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore is as wonderful as its title. Beautiful. Wistful, like most great music.
Early leader for my record of the year. If you buy one record this year, it should be two copies of this one. One for you and another for some poor soul who doesn’t know about The dB’s.
I gotta go, so I can listen to this record over and over.
Newsome.Org 