Okkervil River - at the Bell House, then on Letterman

Caught Okkervil River a couple of weeks ago at the Bell House in Brooklyn, playing a warmup show for their appearance on Letterman. First of all, it was my first visit to the Bell House and I really liked the place - nice sized room, good beers on tap, very intimate atmosphere and pretty good sound. Kind of excited to go back there, even if it involves taking the R train.

The show was terrific - Will Sheff's voice benefited significantly from the band's short break from touring (he is not exactly gentle on his voice in the course of a show) and the band had a great energy that the room picked up. This was the first time I've ever seen a Brooklyn crowd spontaneously start clapping along (to Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe).

The next night, the band played Letterman, and while I think Lost Coastlines would have been a better song for the show (more representative of the band's overall catalog), the performance of Pop Lie is very good. It's also a funny song to play on a major TV show, as it plays with the singer-fan relationship ("He's the liar who lied in his pop song/ And you're lying when you sing along").

Kanye on SNL

Woke up on Sunday from a long Saturday night and flipped on SNL. Other than the probably over-the-line blind jokes about David Patterson, the one thing worth watchintg for this week was Kanye West. Been a Kanye fan for a while, but I absolutely love the new album - it's like he Kanye made a Ryan Adams album with beats.

Of course, the one downside to the album, particularly as performed live, is that Kanye sings, and Kanye's not a very good singer. In fact, I eagerly showed these to a friend who's a good singer, and she was both offended by how bad his singing was and impressed by the awesome visual display.

Also, Love Lockdown has a lot of karaoke potential.

Love Lockdown:


Heartless:

Rayn Adams - Cobwebs

Ryan Adams has been blogging constantly the last couple of days, including posting a ton of home demos and acoustic versions. This one's definitely my favorite, a version of the song "Cobwebs" off the new album. Been thinking about this song a lot lately (it's about love and fragility and Manhattan, I think), and this version is tremendous.


"COBWEBS" new version- Home Jam RA from Wilson Wolf on Vimeo.

Greatness.

Animal puppets sing Usher's "Love in This Club."

Now, that may sound stupid, or boring, or just awful.

But I nearly fell on the floor laughing.

Judge for yourself.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Ryan Adams playing "Two" in his hotel room

it takes two from Wilson Wolf on Vimeo.

Great clip. I think the recorded version of this one was a bit too poppy. This one captures the lyrical quality of the song better.

Guster - August 16th, 2003, Radio Music City Hall

This is the earliest show I attended that's up there, and still a favorite. I was a huge Guster fan in college, and although I sort of fell out of it after college, I have some fond memories of their shows, which were universally pretty fun, sometimes reaching excellence (as they did this night). Weirdly, my sister, who didn't share much musically with me, got to college and pretty much immediately became a Guster fan.

This one features my favorite Guster song (Either Way), my favorite Guster concert sing-a-long (Happier), and the song that's probably their best (Come Downstairs and Say Hello).

I Spy Careful Barrel Of A Gun (Nothing But) Flowers Keep It Together Red Oyster Cult Either Way Ramona What You Wish For Airport Song Homecoming King Medicine All The Way Up To Heaven Come Downstairs & Say Hello Demons Fa Fa Parachute I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today Amsterdam Happier

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The Live Music Archive

The utterly indispensable Live Music Archive now has a feature that lets you embed streaming shows. So, yeah, I'll be doing that a bit in the next few days. I'll throw up shows I went to, along with shows I just happen to think are awesome.