Tempest- Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Tempest is released September 10th on Columbia records

      The 35th record of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan begins simply with a quiet swung instrumental passage that lasts for about 40 seconds before the song really kicks in. For a man who has generated controversy since his early days on the cafe circuit, this is yet another unexpected twist. Dylan is known for his lyrics, and thus tends to get straight to the point on his albums, examples being Dylan's classic 1965 record Highway 61 Revisited waited no more than ten seconds for the then-youthful singer to snarl the life-changing poetry of "Like a Rolling Stone" and 1975's "Tangled Up in Blue's" lyrics coming in just as early (from Blood on the Tracks).  After the short instrumental passage, the band come in and listeners are taken on a dark journey throughout one of the world's most poetic minds.
    On Tempest, American rock music's favorite son sings "I'll pay you in blood, but not my own" over thumping drums and 1985 Keith Richards guitars before letting out a hearty chuckle, just in case you thought he was kidding. Elsewhere on the album Dylan sings of women turning from his lovers to victims of strange tragedy in a matter of days ("Soon After Midnight)  and "One time, for one brief day, I was the man for you" on "Long and Wasted Years," a gentle anecdote from the perspective of a married man who feels that he and his wife have not loved each other for years. Tempest is Bob Dylan's darkest record in at least a decade, especially considering his last two records, 2009's Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart, were a Cowboy blues-flavored flashback and Christmas cover album, respectively. Despite Tempest's dark nature, the album is not without it's light moments, its Cowboy-blues flashbacks and its standard blues tunes. Opener and first single "Duquesnse Whistle" is an up-beat tromp through the narrator (presumably Dylan's) childhood while "Early Roman Kings" recollects the early blues of Highway 61 Revisited's "Tombstone Blues."
    Though Tempest is full of great and diverse songs, there are two tracks that will no-doubt get the most attention: album closer "Roll on John," Dylan's heartfelt, albeit late, tribute to none other than John Lennon and Tempest's title track. "Roll on John" is a sweet tribute to Lennon, Dylan's acquaintance that recounts Lennon's murder in addition to remembering his legacy fondly. While Dylan's tribute is no doubt sincere and sports Dylan's most beautiful chorus since 1997's "Not Dark Yet," some of the Lennon references come off as a bit forced, "Come together right now, over me" and "Slow down, you're moving to fast" both spring to mind, but in a career such as Dylan's, a little silliness is warmly welcomed. "Tempest" in it's 14 minutes recounts the crash of the Titanic, both fictional and historical, in a way that only Bob Dylan can. "Tempest" packs the fear on the ship when it crashed, the band playing a waltz for the passengers, James Cameron's blockbuster movie Titanic and a character of Dylan's own creation called The Watchman into just one song. While "Tempest" may be no "Desolation Row," this reviewer believes that it will certainly prove to be one of the highlights not only of Bob Dylan's later history, but of his whole career. Tempest is an excellent album, but even if Dylan's unique ideas for the album hadn't come out as beautifully as they did, even if he hadn't been able to even spit out the high notes of "Duquesne Whislte," Bob Dylan didn't "need" to have another great record, he could've stopped making music years ago, but thankfully for listeners, he hasn't.

Roger Waters: The Wall live in Boston

Abandonment issues, isolation, love, teenage angst and giving everyone who was a teenager in the late 70’s a record to relate to (and no I don’t mean London Calling) are only a fraction of the ways it can be described.. The Wall by Pink Floyd sounded better Sunday October 3^rd then it ever did in the 1982, when the band first performed it live. Roger Waters, recently turned 67, sneered out the lyrics from the many characters throughout the show—all based on himself. Much like The Who’s Quadraphenia, The Wall has a main character with many different personal spectrums; except the latter’s are much more realistic. The main character “Pink” ranges everything from a dictator ready to conquer the world to a man, wondering why he even bother anymore. The show started with Waters shouting out the lyrics to “In the Flesh?” as fireworks shot past him and his infamous crossed hammer logo draped out behind him like a tarp. Soon after, the event settled down for a stirring rendition of “The Thin Ice”, sung by David Gilmour’s vocal replacement Robbie Wyckoff. Wyckoff sounded impeccable the whole night, even rivaling Gilmour’s original lullaby tenor. What followed that was the slow build up of the first two parts of “Another Brick in the Wall”, which reached it’s climax when a choir of children came on the stage to sing and dance the second verse only to leave during the guitar solo--- right on cue. After this was Roger’s first formal out-of-character welcoming to the crowd. He spent a minute acknowledging Boston’s great musical past, seeming to be out of genuine respect rather then feeling as if he had to. This led up to a completely acoustic version of album highlight “Mother”, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much until I heard this stirring rendition… What the album version failed to make me realize was that this song is song from a lost little boy, who after all the stress and all the pain, just wants a helping hand. Roger seemed truly vulnerable during this song and provided us with a laugh during the line “Mother should I trust the government” when on the wall appeared a great big No Fucking Way, which was met with thunderous applause by the clearly socialist audience. The Wall continued on with almost cartoony imagery (even including some pornographic images in “Young Lust”) as the stage hang built up the wall until it was almost complete. It should be noted that the band played “What Shall We Do Now”, a track not originally included on the album but played on the tours. Roger sang “Goodbye Cruel World” as the last brick was put in—cutting him off from the rest of the world.

After a short intermission everyone was requested to return to their seats, for the second half of the show was starting. Robbie Wyckoff and Waters sang “Hey You” from behind the wall which created quite a chilling effect. Following near-instrumental “Is There Anybody Out There” was another highlight. “Nobody Home”, a Waters’ attempt at a jazz song was sung from a hole in the wall manipulated to look like a hotel room. The sympathy was felt for this lonely man throughout the song, and another laugh was gained when everyone in the audience sang along to “I’ve got 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from”. “Vera” and (obviously) “Bring the Boys Back Home” were both used as tributes to the soldiers in Iraq, which was a touchy subject--- but still necessary to address. Pink slowly starts to ponder about the necessity of the wall during “Comfortably Numb” an anthem for concert-goers intending to do more then listen to the music. Behind Roger on the wall were images of what appeared to super-novas during the chorus, and Gilmour’s replacements (vocal and guitar) truly shined on this one. “The Show Must Go On” was slowed down to create a more soulful effect and was sung by nearly everyone excluding Waters. The “In the Flesh” reprise preceded an energetic “Run Like Hell” which the Pink himself introduced as a “song for the paranoid in the audience”. Interestingly, it also featured call and response lead vocals between Wyckoff and Waters. Shortly after, the show appeared to be too much for “Pink” and he decided to abandon “go home and leave the show”. The resolution of the show (complete with imagery projected on the wall from the movie of the same name) was “The Trial” which featured a rock legend Roger Waters using every accent he could think of as the previously mentioned characters (Mother, Teacher, etc) for let’s say… Character authenticity? It seemed that the jury was convinced that the wall needed to go, and the show ended with the Roger Waters mariachi band playing a horn filled 5 piece of “Outside the Wall”. This concert--- event is definitely worth checking out… Or in other words “So I think ya, might like to, go to the show”.

What do you think, “is it just a waste of time”?

“Must the show go on”?

Comment below how you felt about the show!

Pavement Agganis Arena September 18th 2010

“Thanks for having us here tonight, were any of you guys at our first show at the Middle East club?” inquires Bob Nastanovich, Pavement’s very own Ryan Noss to the audience. “They were all there man, all of them” replies Stephen Malkmus, the band’s genius in residence. The lads from Pavement are clearly not the bashful arena rockers that Green Day are or the angst-punk of Nirvana, the group is just a group of well--- regular guys… Nonetheless, Pavement are one of the—if not the-- most accomplished and acclaimed indie/lo-fi group of the last two decades. The gang of five started off with the opener from 1994’s “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”, the rocker “Silence Kit”, which took the crowd to an other-worldly place without letting them return for a solid two hours. Next up was an obscure track from the band’s fourth album called “Starling of the Slipstream” and even though unknown to most, the audience still knew all of the words. The set continued on with a triplet of fan-favorites from debut “Slanted and Enchanted” and even included the second drummer-sung “Two States”. Following that was a lively rendition of one of Pavement’s minor hits, entitled “Stereo”--- another massive sing-along! It wasn’t long after that the boys took the tempo down a notch for Crooked Rain’s “Stop Breathing” and then turned up the nostalgia with “Gold Soundz”, also from the 1994 cult-classic. The dream setlist continued with an exquisitely ironic version “The Conduit” and a fantastic version of “Grounded” (awesome light show included), the first of many tracks from 1995’s “Wowee Zowee”. The climax of the show at that particular moment in time seemed to be “Summer Babe”, not only one of the band’s greatest, but one of the greatest songs of the 90s, a lo-fi song turned into a choice slice of arena-alt-rock very easily—and precisely. After a few more major bursts of energy, the band once again turned the guitar down from eleven to ten for a wonderful acoustic version of “We Dance”, one of my favorite songs by the group. Succeeding that was a funked out rendition of 95’s “Brinx Job” and a beautiful “Fin”. Pavement’s big hit “Cut Your Hair” ended the main set. At this point I snuck down to the floor in hopes of getting the setlist after the show. Right as I got to the floor, the first encore started as if they knew I had just gotten into position. The first to songs of the encore, “Kennel District” and “Rattled by the Rush” were very strong and choice cuts of pure arena noise. Ending the first encore was the controversial “Range Life”, whose famous line was “Out on tour, with the Smashing Pumpkins, natured kids, but they ain’t got no function, I don’t understand, what they mean, and I could really give a f*ck” which obviously upset the Smashing Pumpkin’s leader, Billy Corgan. After over a decade of controversy, the line at the concert was sung as “Out on tour, with the Smashing Pumpkins, natured kids, and I love their function, I understand what they mean, and I really give a f*ck”, all in the good-natured humor of singer Stephen Malkmus. After the first encore many people left, thinking the show was over but little did they know, Pavement still had quite a bit in store. The guys turned it down for “How I Met Your Mother” ballad “Spit on a Stranger” and slightly quickened the past for “Shoot the Singer”. Pavement ended the show at the Agganis arena in Boston, MA on Saturday, September 18^th with the band’s magnum opus “Here”. There was nay a dry eye in the house as everyone was singing along to Malkmus’ best tune, and not being able to believe that “everything’s ending here”. As Pavement once crooned "Check the expiration date man, it's later then you think". What a band, whatta band.

New Band, what a joy, like the holidays but without the toys!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vehement-Fish/144354532269063?ref=ts

Tummeh

Hurley by Weezer

Imma listening to more Hurley then any of you have heard... So far it sounds great

Familial- Philip Selway: An album review

By some miracle, he just got away with it. While not as diverse as Thom Yorke's "The Eraser" or symphonic as Jonny Greenwood's "Bodysong", Phil Selway of Radiohead fame succeeds at making a good solo album. Even though he may be tainted by the fact that he is in arguably one of the best alternative "rock" bands of all time and he may be a drummer, my words hold true. Starting with the haunting lead single "By Some Miracle", Familial immediately grabs you in gently and sings sweet nothings into your ears so you don't let go. Some tracks, such as "Falling", "Witching Hour" and "By Some Miracle" stick out while others just blend with each other to haunt the listener while also making them feel warm. But one of the few flaws with this disc is just that; nearly all of the songs blend together and thus don't hold together as wall as "The Eraser" or Radiohead's recent "In Rainbows". Even though there are a few flaws, I am still looking for attempt #2 from Mr. Selway; a great songwriter in his own right.