Concert Review: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dave Alvin and Jon Langford at Knuckleheads

My date threatened to run off with Jimmie Dale Gilmore at Knuckleheads on Saturday.  I understood her impulse.  The Texan is an even groovier variant of Willie Nelson.  And at 73, Gilmore’s voice remains celestial.  He’s touring with Dave Alvin in support of their collaborative album Downey to Lubbock.  (Here’s the title track.).  They’re backed by a band of ringers including Lisa Pankratz.

Alvin’s frenzied guitar solos and the surprising jam-based segues were pleasing, but Gilmore was the main attraction.  His delivery on Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” was free of the sanctimony that often spoils the song.  And hearing Gilmore warble “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown” was worth the $70 I paid at the door.

Jon Langford opened the show.  After noting my enthusiasm for the man who described he and his accompanist John Szymanski as “sad old guys playing acoustic guitars,” a few members of the audience of about 200 asked me about Langford.  I told them that his band the Mekons was the best rock group of ‘80s.  Langford seemed more inclined to abscond with my date than Gilmore.  I’m relieved that she didn’t ”Treat Me Like a Saturday Night”.

(Original image of Jimmie Dale Gilmore by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: F*cked Up- Glass Boys

I've seen at least three variations of the same exchange on my social media feeds.  After a fan raves about the new Bob Mould album, one of his pals dismisses the positivity by suggesting that Hüsker Dü was superior.  Who has time for nostalgia when F*cked Up just released Glass Boys?  Without ever sounding like it's aping its predecessors, F*cked Up combines the melodic rage of Hüsker Dü with Pete Townshend's rebellious theorizing. I'll blow the dust off my collection of Hüsker Dü vinyl on the SST label once I've had my fill of Glass Boys, but I don't anticipate that happening anytime soon.


---
I reviewed Rockfest on Saturday.  And for the record, my report noted the Aaron Lewis incident that subsequently became a meme. 

---
My notes on Sunday's performance by Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey are at Plastic Sax.

---
Here's a new video for a track on the Gee Watts album I reviewed at There Stands the Glass on April 12.

---
A cameo by Music Millennium's Terry Currier makes Bob Mould's "I Don't Know You Anymore" my favorite music video of 2014.

---
Not surprisingly, the new compilation Wheedle's Groove: Seattle's Finest In Funk & Soul 1965-75 is excellent.

---
Just when I begin to think that I'm completely over mainstream jazz, Theo Croker's AfroPhysicist saves the day for swing.  RIYL: Dee Dee Bridgewater, your father's jazz, Roy Hargrove.

---
Blu's Good to Be Home may be a good album, but I just can't deal with the knob-twisting production.  RIYL: 9th Wonder, annoying modulation, Digable Planets.

---
The release of Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse is testing the limits of my love/hate relationship with Mariah Carey.

---
Black Stone Cherry's blend of Southern rock and metal has long appealed to me, but the new album Magic Mountain isn't very good.

---
A few tantalizing moments on Meshell Ndegeocello's Comet, Come To Me cause me to marvel that she's not more popular than Prince.  The worst moments remind me of why she remains a cult artist.  RIYL: Janelle Monáe, arty dance music, Daft Punk.

---
The guys in Parquet Courts put great records in their bags.

---
Owen Pallett's In Conflict is an accessible entry point for anyone looking to investigate the avant/pop/classical composer's work.  RIYL: Ned Rorem, art galleries, Arcade Fire.

---
It's nice that Dave and Phil Alvin put their differences aside to perform the songs of Big Bill Broonzy on Common Ground.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

All the Young Punks

I've yet to tell Steve Pick that he was once one of my heroes.

Soon after I became obsessed with bands like the Sex Pistols, the Specials, the Buzzcocks and most significantly, the Clash, I encountered Jet Lag at a record store.  With internet and cable still in the future and with mainstream media yet to acknowledge the underground, the commentary in the St. Louis-based fanzine served as a treasure map that led me to new sounds.

Pick recalls this era in a new interview.

"In those days, you could be beaten up, attacked, because you liked the Sex Pistols or the Clash or Elvis Costello. If you weren't beaten up or attacked, you would be threatened, or called a 'fag.' It was that dramatic." 

It's true.  I endured many beatdowns in high school that were ostensibly based on a skinny tie or PiL t-shirt.  I never disavowed my allegiance to the locker room staples of Led Zeppelin and Van Halen but my open affection for "new wave" was a punishable offense.  My love of Michael Jackson, Lakeside and Donna Summer further antagonized my adversaries. 

My taste in music has since diverged with Steve's, but this post serves as a belated acknowledgment of his influence during my formative years.


---
My notes on Saturday's outing by the Brad Mehldau Trio are at Plastic Sax.

---
The Kansas City Business Journal reports on the unlikely transformation of El Torreon.

----
Live and B Sides is the latest release by Quiet Corral.

---
Forgive the blasphemy: Caetano Veloso sounds as if he's following rather than leading on Abracaco.  RIYL: failed experiments, St. Vincent, geniuses living in the moment. 

---
Balani Show Super Hits: Electronic Street Parties from Mali is astounding.  RIYL: Oumou Sangare, surprises, M.I.A..  (Tip via Big Steve.)

---
Unreleased Led Zeppelin to the rescue.  (Of course I'm excited.)

---
Ana Tijoux's Vengo disappointed me.  RIYL: Dessa, blandness, Ozomatli.

---
Even though I'm a proud member of the ol' Chevrolet set, I'm charmed by Sabina's jet-setting Toujours.  RIYL: Nico, passports, Rufus Wainwright.

---
Jello Biafra is featured in an episode of "Cratediggers".  I hadn't realized that he's an obsessive music nerd. (My brother!)

---
Future's "I Won" is gross.

---
Homeboy Sandman raps about vegetarian food on "Fat Belly".  I've given his sketchy project White Sands repeated listens, an indication that 2014 is shaping up as a terrible year for hip-hop.

---
Reunited and it feels so good: Dave and Phil Alvin.

---
Kelis' Food will be released tomorrow.  It's my most highly anticipated album of 2014.

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

What Rabbath Wrought

I've long viewed my enthusiasm for European improvised music with suspicion.  François Rabbath's astounding performance at Park College earlier this week helped me realize that my love of projects like Dan Nicholls' new album Ruins is more than a pretentious affectation.

Through both his innate brilliance and his willingness to disregard established conventions, the Syrian-born and Paris-based Rabbath creates music without boundaries.  (Here's my review.)

Why then, I asked a colleague last night, don't more area musicians follow his lead by ignoring the formal mandates of the classical, folk and jazz worlds?  My friend brought me back to earth by suggesting that most professional musicians in Kansas City are forced to make their livings by playing music that conforms to established forms.  He's right.  I suppose that playing "Someone To Watch Over Me" in a cocktail lounge night after night might extinguish the creative spark.

In addition to being free from the American cultural mandate to swing, many experimental European musicians are also immersed in international folk and classical traditions.  And that's how a restless music obsessive ends up listening to At Home, the new album by Polish trumpeter Maciej Fortuna, as he folds laundry in Kansas.


---
I reviewed Friday's concert by Matchbox Twenty, the Goo Goo Dolls and Kate Earl.

---
I reviewed Dave Alvin's debut at Knuckleheads.

---
Toshi Seeger has died.

---
KCPT chats with Kerwin Young.

---
Here's footage of Radkey performing at the Bottleneck this week.  ("Maybe the Misfits...")

---
An Olathe man was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer outside a Chief Keef concert in Oklahoma City.

---
I hadn't clued in to Lake Street Dive until a dude at last month's Los Lobos concert raved about the band. 

---
Confession time- I actually bought Ellen Foley's Spirit of St. Louis album in 1981.  Here's the video for the cringeworthy lead track.

---
A person I don't know intended the following Facebook comment as a compliment to both bands: "Jethro Tull was the Radiohead of the '70s."  I concur (for entirely different reasons).

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)