Wilco Webcast Tonight from 9:30 Club

NPR's 'All Songs Considered' will present a Wilco Live Webcast. Wilco will be on stage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 24.

That's at the 9:30 Club. Not to be confused with starting at 9:30...

This is the second night of the 2 night stand. Here's last night's setlist on Via Chicago.

Also, there will be a pre-concert studio interview and live Wilco performance on 'Talk of the Nation'. Audio will be available at approx. 6 p.m. on Feb. 24.

Wilco performs live in NPR's Washington, D.C., studios and talks with Neal Conan about the band's latest Grammy-winning album -- A Ghost Is Born -- and their nearly 10-year career.

Awesome concert photos of Wilco in Charlotte by Tim Sayer.

Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Journalist: 1937 - 2005

The blogsophere exploded today as word spread of the death of the father of Gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson.

From Jukebox Graduate:

"I know it is not very modern or PC to admire excess in the fashion he pioneered, and I am heartily tired of drugs claiming the best and the brightest, but there is a tiny part of me that is envious to have missed that decade.

He was a legend, he was one-of-a-kind, he was influential on several generations and will likely continue to be. It is so very sad that he could not tame his internal demons and that they won the battle, and it is sad he is no longer on the planet."

Hunter was known to blowup and shoot things with his shotgun -- like balky typewriters and surveillance cameras.

From The Rock and Roll Report:

"Hunter S. Thompson was responsible for some of the finest literature in the second half of the twentieth century and it is imperative that this legacy, rather than his drugs of choice become his true epitaph.

Hunter was the first author that wrote in a way that was not only entertaining but was brutally insightful, sometimes to a fault and with a depth and passion that could only come from someone with The Gift. Not only that, to me Hunter made literature "cool" something that not even my best English teacher could manage."

On Blogcritics Jim Carruthers writes:

"I was surprised at how affected I was at this news, seeing it on the front page of the newspaper this morning. HST inspired me to do many crazy things as a young man, and inspired me to write. He revealed the man behind the curtain in the sausage factory which passes for journalism in NorthAm.

For the last decade he has been a puppet show, yet a potent reminder at how irrelevant journalism has become, a plastic shell which seems to convey information, like settling for the mask is enough."

Blogcritics has a full page of articles and memories of "Hunter S. Thompson: Lost Gonzo" and lots of comments in memory of HST. Also, Where the Buffalo Roam soundtrack with Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Neil Young's "Home on the Range" (1980). (Beware the Where the Buffalo Roam DVD Ripoff without the original soundtrack of Hendrix, Dylan, Young, et al.)


From Largehearted boy some recordings of Thompson rants ... err, lectures:

Hunter S. Thompson: 1977-11-01, Boulder [shn]*

Hunter S. Thompson: 1991-02-04, Washington and Lee University [shn]* (contains references to Neil Young)

Here's a partial transcript on Hunter's lecture at W&L on Neil from Rust:

HST: "The question is - "Where The Buffalo Roams" - what I thought of Neil.

That's like asking me what I think of Doonesbury! ... It was a bad script, a silly film. I never have seen the finished version. "

Q: "What about Neil Young?"

HST: "I never got to Neil. I like Neil Young. I really ... he's one of us. But, I didn't like the ... I'm not sure we even got Neil Young to do that, and play music. I'll defend Neil Young to the death, for his right to do anything he wants - but not in my backyard!"

Henry Allen concludes in the Washington Post - Prose Laureate of the Age of Paranoia on Hunter Thompson's suicide cause:

"Or the paranoia got to him — in paranoia you are your own worst enemy, and that’s a tightening circle that nobody can escape, except, say, by suicide. Or it was pain and depression brought on by reported back surgery, a broken leg and a hip replacement. Or he was playing out the last moves of the Hemingway game — the paranoid, shock-treated Hemingway who ended up with his doctor one day, crying because he said that he couldn’t write anymore, he just couldn’t write.

Or America has finally become what he said it was, with lie-awake fears of suitcase nukes, jails full of secret uncharged prisoners with no legal recourse, and quiet applause for the recreational torture of Arabs in Iraq.

Or people have stopped reading, and there are no more literary heroes.

Or maybe he just killed himself, like a number of other people on any given day. He lived on his terms, he died on his own terms."

And who can forget the demented images of Ralph Steadman? Steadman's artwork provided confirmation that the reader had entered the world of insanity with just a single glance at his unique trademark style.

Tom Wolfe wrote this memory in tribute to Hunter's "gonzo" new journalism:

"I had never met Hunter when the book that established him as a literary figure, "The Hell's Angels, a Strange and Terrible Saga," was published in 1967. It was brilliant investigative journalism of the hazardous sort, written in a style and a voice no one had ever seen or heard before. The book revealed that he had been present at a party for the Hell's Angels given by Ken Kesey and his hippie--at the time the term was not "hippie' but "acid-head"--commune, the Merry Pranksters. The party would be a key scene in a book I was writing, (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). I cold-called Hunter in California, and he generously gave me not only his recollections but also the audiotapes he had recorded at that first famous alliance of the hippies and "outlaw" motorcycle gangs, a strange and terrible saga in itself, culminating in the Rolling Stones band hiring the Angels as security guards for a concert in Altamont, Calif., and the "security guards" beating a spectator to death with pool cues."

From KINGBLIND, a quote by Aspen neighbor John Hoag:

"There's no one in the world these days who writes the truth ... as he seems to, to me. He spoke to the world and said what people were afraid to say."

Lastly, Vinyl Mine has a MP3 download in Hunter's memory of a Neil Young cover of 'Expecting To Fly' by Sonya Hunter.

UPDATE March 25, 2005: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Remembered

Wilco Webcast, Photos, Reviews, Books, Films

Photo by Kim Rottmayer on donewaiting.com from 2/09/05, Wilco in Columbus, OH - Wexner Center

Wilco everywhere, all the time, 24/7.

Great Wilco photos on donewaiting.com by Kim Rottmayer. Nice gallery.

Over on Off City Limits, thoughts on the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart:

"For anyone interested in the process employed by Wilco during the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the demos are well worth tracking down. In I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Sam Jones' documentary on the band, Wilco discuss the creation of something new through structural deconstruction. The numerous versions of 'Kamera' on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos and the More Like the Moon EP show how Wilco embraced this idea. This is a common approach to art in our postmodern, used-up culture, but Wilco employ it so deftly to create pop music that is recognisable in form but sounds completely unique. It also explains why more straightforward songs like 'Alone' and 'Nothing Up My Sleeve' never made it onto the final album. In the form presented on the demos, they could have easily slotted onto Wilco's previous album, Summerteeth."

On Eat My Justice!, comments on The Wilco Book:

"The Wilco Book is probably one of the bigger surprises I've had this year - what I thought was going to be an overpriced book full of crappy poetry is really neat.

Starting off with selections from Bern Porter's Found Poetry, the book seems to have the quality of a Wilco song, and reading the book with the enclosed CD playing feels so undeniably right. And then it moves into different anecdotes from band members about lots of things, featuring interesting pictures and artwork. The humor and good nature of the band shines through the book, and the first anecdote ends with a wonderful illustration of that- says Jeff Tweedy, "I wish we owned the whole building and all lived there, like the Monkees. And had a fire pole from floor to floor. It's not going to happen, though."

Wilco curbs rudeness in crowd, then rocks in a review of the Pompano Beach Amphitheatre concert in Palm Beach Post (February 19, 2005) via largehearted boy.

NPR's 'All Songs Considered' will present a Wilco Live Webcast. Wilco will be on stage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 24. Thanks via Some Depression.

More Wilco.

THE JAYHAWKS' OLSON AND LOURIS REUNITE

From Americana UK News comes some promising news on the Jayhawks. Billboard reports that Gary Louris and Mark Olson might just reunite the Jayhawks.

"Rock'n'roll reunion tours come in many shapes, whether it's the classic rock band cashing in on decades-old nostalgia, or indie-rock darlings tromping though the clubs trying to recover a spark of their old glory. But expect something different when estranged Jayhawks principals Gary Louris and Mark Olson start their first tour together Friday (Feb. 18) in Ames, Iowa. "I don't see ourselves as one of the people who 'get the band back together and make some money,'" Louris said. "Mark and I just want to sing together again. There's something about the way we sing that is bigger than the sum of its parts." As the main songwriters for the Minneapolis-based band, Olson and Louris took the country/rock fusion of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers and turbo-charged it with a driving rhythm section and beautiful soaring harmonies. But just as the Jayhawks looked like they were ready to break into the mainstream, Olson, fed up with the music business and touring, quit the band in 1995 after 10 years.

"I didn't realize how much I was going to miss him until the last few years, especially onstage," Louris said. "But in the last six or eight months we started talking on a regular basis. We have a bond beyond music."

More on The Jayhawks

Ida: Like Neil Young and a lover popped Valium

A new album by Ida titled Heart Like A River is now out and here's a Rolling Stone review by CHRISTIAN HOARD with a Neil angle:

"This coed New York fivesome specializes in rainy-day folk songs pushed forward by harmonies that swirl like nagging memories. Ida's eighth album is among their sparest yet, with autumnally pretty tunes that are also full of quiet gravity, as if Neil Young and a lover popped Valium and decided to hash things out on record."

Blue Merle's "Burning in the Sun"

Blue Merle has a new album out "Burning in the Sun". The band is interviewed in The Ball State Daily News by Jonathan Sanders who writes of the band's potential:

"Blue Merle is a band on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream. However, Blue Merle is far from being a "mainstream" band, at least in the way it blends bluegrass sounds into conventional alternative-pop in the vein of Dave Matthews Band or Coldplay. The band is becoming increasingly well-known for its energetic live performances, and the first single, "Burning in the Sun," may be poised to take over the pop airwaves. We here at 72 Hours took the chance to speak with lead singer Lucas Reynolds as the band prepares to take the Midwest by storm."

The band is asked about if they could have one performer join their band for a live performance, who would they choose?

"We'd all love to tour with Neil Young, all of us are huge fans, and Beau [Stapleton, the band's mandolin player] would be beside himself! I'd love to tour with Muddy Waters, if we could find a way to reincarnate him, and put Herbie Hancock on keyboards."

Grammy Awards ... Why Bother?

The 47th annual Grammy Awards are over now and the usual sniping is going on. Like this review: Watch Grammys -- Or Gouge Out Own Eyes?.

Here are a couple of award winners we can get behind. Otherwise we'll reserve comment.

Contemporary Folk Album: "The Revolution Starts ... Now," Steve Earle.

Contemporary Blues Album: "Keep It Simple," Keb' Mo'.

Country Collaboration With Vocals: "Portland Oregon," Loretta Lynn and Jack White.

Pop Vocal Album: "Genius Loves Company," Ray Charles and Various Artists.

Alternative Music Album: "A Ghost Is Born," Wilco.

Solo Rock Vocal Performance: "Code of Silence," Bruce Springsteen.


Photo by Frank Micelotta, Getty Images.

Then there was the tribute to Southern rock with Lynyrd Sknyrd, Elvin Bishop, Dicky Betts, Gretchen Wilson and Tim McGraw which included "Sweet Home Alabama".

So does anybody have any idea why Gretchen Wilson sang the song's key line "Well, I hope Neil Young will remember"?

Neil News: Randomly Blogged

Neil Young News

• Crosby and Nash Europe Concert Tour 2005 Photos
  
• Devoted Rustie Powderfinger Seriously Ill
  
• TFA Petition Update - Comments Highlights
  
• Salute to Brian Wilson
  

Release "Time Fades Away" Petition

It's been called the "missing link" of the "Ditch Trilogy".

Neil Young's 1973 Time Fades Away is one of the most remarkable live albums ever recorded. Certainly at the time of release, it was almost unprecedented for an artist to release a live concert recording of previously unreleased material. Long out of print on vinyl, still unavailable on CD in the early 21st century and widely bootlegged, the album is considered to be the "Holy Grail" of all Neil Young albums.

In an effort to gain wider distribution of this essential Neil Young recording, fans have started a petition requesting that the album be officially released. Those interested in obtaining a legal copy of Time Fades Away are urged to sign the petition today.

Go here for more details and to sign the Release "Time Fades Away" Petition.

Black Crowes Add Hammerstein Ballroom Concerts

The Black Crowes have added two additional shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom on March 29 & 30.

This is after selling out five nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom last week.

Randomly Blogged: Wintersleep, MP3 Blogs, Mercury Rev, Comes With A Smile

One of the early predictions for 2005 comes from *6ize:

"First it was The Arcade Fire, next it will be Wolf Parade, and then hot on the heels of these two -- the mast of their indie rock ship cresting the horizon as they sail forth from the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, comes what will be the next in a long line of amazing indie bands from Canada. Wintersleep is their name."

A MP3 "Jaws of Life" by Wintersleep.

From Daily Tarheel article on music blogs:

"Indeed, Web sites devoted to keeping tabs on these musical journals — and bloggers’ personal lists of trusted links — are growing by the day. Even Daniel Sheldon — curator of Boom Selection, one of the foremost hip-hop and DJ mix blogs — is a bit baffled by the numbers. “There are far too many knowledgeable MP3 bloggers,” he said. “How can they know so much stuff about music? It’s impossible.”

From Beaufort Gazette on Mercury Rev's "The Secret Migration":

"Despite this disadvantage, Mercury Rev rise above on a number of cuts, buoyed by the high, delicate singing of Jonathan Donahue - who sounds like Neil Young on a helium bender - along with beautiful piano work throughout."

The new issue of Comes With A Smile is out now featuring tracks from Archer Prewitt, M Ward, Jeff Parker, Jens Lekman, Mark Mulcahy, Camper Van Beethoven, and Comets On Fire (a bruising fourteen-minute improvised piece with Burning Star Core), previously unheard versions of songs by Low, Cass McCombs, Art of Fighting and The Heavy Blinkers, two 'live in London' gems from Lou Barlow (a cover of Charlie Feathers' Man In Love) and Ken Stringfellow (a reworked solo piano rendition of Reveal Love), a superb radio session track from Dolorean, an uncensored version of a song from Brendan Benson's new album (and if you made it through the Comets track, you'll not mind a little profanity), and airings for two unsigned UK-based acts, The Eighteenth Day of May and Michaelmas.

Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst

OK, so the first time I really started paying much attention to Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes' was last fall when he was out on the Vote For Change tour.

Last month, I caught Bright Eyes on Austin City Limits with Wilco and was intrigued enough to dig a little deeper.

So I learned the standard biography background stuff like Conor Oberst refuses to record for major labels, shuns corporate radio and won't play venues owned by Clear Channel Communications. OK, so cool.

And he's got a couple of new CDs out -- I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.

Then I heard the NPR Live Web-Cast of the Bright Eyes concert at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club. One song in particular struck me which sounded like the ranting of an angry - yet wise - young man. A song written specifically for our hometown's most famous resident.

So who is this "voice of his generation" who's been writing and recording introspective tunes since he was 14?

As Caryn writes on Jukebox Graduate the "obligatory bright eyes posting" of the new Conor Oberst song "When The President Talks To God" lyrics:

"It's a great, biting, eloquent talking blues, in the spirit of Woody and Arlo and Steve Earle. Writing a song like this is tough to do, it's not just the lyrics that are important, it's the tune and the performance and the delivery, and it's freaking masterful."

And the indie press has been all over him and bloggers are ga-ga.
Rather than the usual Bob Dylan comparison, recently we got a comparison to Eminem in Technician Online?! Grayson Currin writes on Conor Oberst, the "precocious poet laureate of the indie world":

"Eminem is restating both his popularity and his ability to hold a large part of the American youth in rapture, hanging on his every flip and slam. Marshall Mathers -- a 32-year-old rapper from Detroit -- commands an obedient, trusting audience, and he knows it.

And, as strange as it may sound, Conor Oberst -- a 24-year-old singer/songwriter from Omaha -- isn’t that different. Oberst, who has recorded with a revolving cast of band members under the name Bright Eyes since 1998, commands an equally attentive if smaller audience. Both writers are fully aware of their character flaws and prodigious talents, and both of them bleed through in striking four-minute poses. Mathers and Oberst are separate, incomparable beasts, of course, but -- when it comes to finding an audience and making it shut up and listen -- they are ironically equivalent masters. "

At last month's concert in Toronto, Frank on chromewaves.net writes:

"But that's not the curious thing about the show. I went down onto the floor between the main set and the encore to retrieve my camera from the coat check, and some of the audience down there were behaving like they'd just witnessed the rapture (the Biblical event, not the band). There was one girl I saw crying through the whole encore, and others who looked on the verge of tears or ecstasy. It was as if they were experiencing a completely different show than me - they were taking it in on another level entirely... It's sort of hard to explain, but it was strange. I felt like a tourist."

Not enough Conor yet? Here's a recent NPR chat with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.

More Bright Eyes photos from Austin City Limits.

(This article originally published on Blogcritics.)

Nick Cave covers Neil Young's "Scattered"

From Undercover, via Bad News Beat, comes word that Nick Cave will cover Neil Young's song 'Scattered' for an American film series called The Ten Commandments.

Lucinda Williams' Live At The Fillmore West

An update on the new Lucinda Williams double-live album, Live At The Fillmore West. A release date of May 10 has now been set. Thanks Chromewaves.

More on Lucinda Williams.