Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dead Confederate New Album and Free MP3


Athens, Georgia natives Dead Confederate are releasing their second LP, Sugar, on August 24th. I personally enjoy these guys when I'm in the mood for some heavier rock but if the free track "Giving It All Away" suggests anything we might be seeing a slightly lighter side of this band, it's early but I'm into it. I'm yet to see these boys live but imagine it's a pretty dynamite set, they are on tour now, check them out if you can. Below we have a video for the making of Sugar right here and an MP3 for all of you wonderful folks to enjoy.







Monday, June 28, 2010

The National - 2010-6-11 - Bonnaroo

Photo by: Eric England

I've had lots and lots of National requests over the past year or so. Don't really know why I never gave it a listen! Boxer is a great record (I'm still getting into it but it's growing more and more on me) and I'm waiting to listen to their latest, High Violet, until I truly "get" it. 


DR, this is for you!
Start A War
Mistaken For Strangers
Anyone's Ghost
Bloodbuzz Ohio
Brainy
Secret Meeting
Slow Show
Squalor Victoria
Afraid of Everyone
Little Faith
All The Wine
Available
Conversation 16
Apartment Story
Abel
England
Fake Empire
Mr. November
Terrible Love

Encore:
About Today

Download - The National - 2010-6-11 - Bonnaroo

Carl Broemel Solo Album in August



My Morning Jacket fans have been enjoying quite the rush of news lately! The latest and greatest of that news is the announcement of Carl Broemel's second solo outing, All Birds Say, to be released August 31st. A press release described the record as “dream-like stream of consciousness with lush and elegant arrangements.” Carl's father (a former member of the Indianapolis Symphony) lends a hand on the album with some brass instruments and the record itself will have both instrumental and vocal tracks. 


I had the good fortune to see Mr. Broemel a couple of months back and I was truly floored by his solo performance, hopefully he'll hit the road in support of this record after MMJ wrap up their forthcoming tour. 


Check out the second track on the record "Heaven Knows" below and snag the download at the end.



  Heaven Knows

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Weezer and Ryan Adams Team Up



I'm not much for Weezer but I love me some Ryan Adams. Apparently Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo told MTV "I just wrote a song with Ryan Adams. Not Bryan, Ryan. It's a very stirring and emotional and powerful Weezer song. He was really inspiring to work with. ... He has a lot of wild and crazy energy. It's gonna be on the Weezer record. He plays lead guitar on it, but it will be on the Weezer record, for sure."


Hopefully we get some nasty guitar work from Mr. David Ryan Adams on this.


Neil Young - 2010-6-5 - Austin, TX


As you guys know I like to stick to soundboard, FM/XM source recordings. After all, who likes listening to a muddy audience recording? Every now and then though, there is an exception, this being one of them. This is solo Neil playing both acoustic and electric and it's pretty astonishing how "with it" he still is. His voice is as effective as ever and his guitar playing is still right there. He rips though some new tracks (You Never Call, Peaceful Valley, Sign of Love, Leia, Rumblin', Walk With Me) as well as touching on a lot of classics. Check out this video of Mr. Young playing the new song, "Sign of Love," live below.





Disc 1
01. My My, Hey Hey

02. Tell Me Why
03. Helpless
04. You Never Call
05. Peaceful Valley
06. Love and War
07. Down By The River
08. Hitchhiker
09. Ohio

Disc 2
01. Sign of Love
02. Leia
03. After The Gold Rush
04. I Believe In You
05. Rumblin'
06. Cortez The Killer
07. Cinnamon Girl
08. Old Man
09. Walk With Me

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

John Prine - All the Best (ft. Yim Yames) - Letterman


Hey guys, meant to post the fantastic audio to John Prine with Yim Yames on Letterman last week and didn't get around to it. Check it out now though, truly beautiful stuff. Our boy is everywhere these days! Watch the video below and snag the MP3 at the very end.






Download - John Prine - All the Best (ft. Yim Yames) - Letterman

Download - My Morning Jacket - All the Best (John Prine Cover)

Delta Spirit Ticket Giveaway Winner


Congrats to Neil V. from Grove City, OH. Enjoy the show my friend!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

My Morning Jacket - All The Best - John Prine Cover


My Morning Jacket had the opportunity to cover John Prine on his upcoming tribute disk, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine. Other guest spots on the record include Justin Vernon, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Josh Ritter and more. It gets a proper release on June 22nd but you can hear the entire track list over at NPR. Listen directly below and download at the very bottom.


  My Morning Jacket - All The Best (John Prine cover) by thesteamengine

Full Track list:

01 Justin Vernon - “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)”
02 Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - “Wedding Day in Funeralville”
03 My Morning Jacket - “All the Best”
04 Josh Ritter - “Mexican Home”
05 Lambchop - “Six O’Clock News”
06 Justin Townes Earle - “Far From Me”
07 The Avett Brothers - “Spanish Pipedream”
08 Old Crow Medicine Show - “Angel From Montgomery”
09 Sara Watkins - “The Late John Garfield Blues”
10 Drive-By Truckers - “Daddy’s Little Pumpkin”
11 Deer Tick - “Unwed Fathers” [ft. Liz Isenberg]
12 Those Darlins - “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian”


Check out Yim Yames doing the song solo here and enjoy this video of him playing with John Prine on Letterman.





Karen Elson - 2010-6-15 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL



Karen Elson (Jack White's wife) surprised the hell out of this guy Tuesday night at Chicago's Lincoln Hall. I've been praising her debut record, The Ghost Who Walks (a childhood nickname of hers), since it's been available for streaming but I was a bit skeptical of her true ability. Any super model turned singer/songwriter that is married to Jack White and releases a solid record is going to raise an eye brow or two. Part of me thought "Alright, her husband is Jack White and he produced the record, no way she's going to pull this off" while the other part of me thought "Jack White is no phony and he wouldn't back it if he didn't believe in it, even if it is his wife," I was torn. Well, after watching her play a set that touched what I believe to be her entire record (no set list, sorry guys!) I can honestly say that Karen Elson is a true talent and she's definitely learned a thing or two about appearance from her husband. Her road crew consisted of two gentleman in 50's era black suits, pink oxfords, black ties and top hats. There was a definite vibe they were going for that they achieved quite well. The band looked like they were on stage at a burlesque house adorning similar clothes as the road crew (except for the stunning female bass player and Karen) and just oozing an old time vibe. The word I'm looking for isn't coming to me, can anyone take a peek at the pictures and let me know what you think? Karen is meant to be front and center; her red hair radiates a unique beauty that words cannot describe and while she's not overly tall (5'9") her slender frame gives the appearance of height.



A major highlight of the night was her stripped down, solo acoustic version of the song "The Ghost Who Walks" and, with the entire band, 'The Truth is in the Dirt." Her voice was top notch all night, hitting highs and lows with ease and I was even impressed with her guitar playing. Again, I wasn't expecting much from a former model, but she held her own amazingly well. Karen is on tour now, grab a ticket and check her out. Plus, you never know, maybe Jack White will be there.





Yes, Jack White ladies and gents. Thanks to ALady from the MMJ forum, I had the opportunity to stand next to and briefly speak to Mr. Jack White. If you've been following the blog the last few months you know of my passion for all that that man does. I truly believe he is one of the greatest artists of all time. I've gone over this quite a few times now so I'm going to post what I wrote on Facebook-


"He was at Karen's show in Chicago last night. Thanks to ALady (MMJ forum member) I was able to watch from the "VIP" area. We walked in and he was the first person on the rail of the balcony, I missed him initially actually. Once ALady and I got settled she said "Did you see Jack?" and I had no idea what she was talking about. I then went to "grab abeer" to scope it out and sure enough, he was right there. Hyperventilation was imminent. So I get back down to where ALady and I were at and sure enough, Jack White comes walking down and was standing 3-5 feet away for the rest of the show. First off, he looks so cool it's stupid. Second, he's a pretty big dude. Jack seemed very into the show and it took all I had in me to not be "that" fan and ask for a picture or autograph mid show. It killed me not to. In between songs I managed to step over, put my arm on his back and tell him that Karen's record is great and I'm really enjoying the show, he looked at me and gave a seemingly genuine "Hey, thanks man" and then continued watching. Short but sweet. He's been a pretty serious force in my rotation for the last 3-4 months and I really truly believe he's going to be remembered as one of the best so this was huge for me. All the while Alison Mossheart was standing right there, but more on that later......She was standing right next to me too. Not the entire time Jack was but for quite some time. She is strikingly beautiful and I have no idea how that much noise comes from her petite frame. After the show we got to grab a handshake/fist bump with her and exchange a word or two, she looked like she was enjoying herself. It was pretty surreal."


THANK YOU AGAIN ALADY!!!!

Great Lake Swimmers - 2010-6-14 - Millennium Park - Chicago, IL


The Great Lake Swimmers played a nice early evening set this past Monday at the Jay Pritzker Auditorium in Chicago's Millennium Park. They touched mostly on 2007's excellent record Ongiara and their most recent release (and a damn fine record) Lost Channels. I'm not going to get too detailed here, I really wanted to get some pictures up and let you guys know that Millennium Park is hosting free shows for "Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays" for the duration of the Summer. Nels Cline will be making an appearance in a couple of Mondays, on June 28th, 2010 he'll be doing a set with On Fillmore, if I'm not all that busy I'm going to try to make it.



My Morning Jacket - 2004-5-28 - The Opera House

Photo by Alexi Hobbs (from 2004-5-29)

An MMJ forum member mentioned this show in a thread I now can't find but whoever you are, thanks for turning me on to it! We get some gems in this batch of tunes; "Strangulation" and "Master Plan" most notably (to me (JUST remembered it was a thread on "Master Plan")) as well as a fifteen minute "Steam Engine" and quite a few tracks featuring Mr. M. Ward.


Who's going to hit the NYC Terminal 5 shows? If not all nights, which ones? Put me down for all five!!!!


Disc 1
01 One Big Holiday
02 Dancefloors
03 How Do You Know
04 Death Is The Easy Way (w/M Ward)
05 I Will Sing You Songs
06 chat
07 Oxen
08 The Way That He Sings
09 Lowdown
10 Strangulation
11 Master Plan
12 Bear

Disc 2
01 Steam Engine
02 Run Thru
03 End Cobra 
04 Golden (w/M Ward)
05 O Is The One That Is Real
06 Mahgeeta
07 Outta My Head (M Ward/Jim)
08 Flaming Heart (M Ward/MMJ)
09 Helicopter (M Ward/MMJ)


Download - My Morning Jacket - 2004-5-28 - The Opera House

Band of Horses - The Black Cab Sessions - Ode to LRC


I'm digging Ben Bridwell's vocals sans reverb, enjoy guys!


From BlackCabSessions.com:


After selling out London's Roundhouse the previous night, we caught up with a very hungover couple of dudes from the awesome Band Of Horses!





Band of Horses from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.


Download - Band of Horses - The Black Cab Sessions - Ode to LRC - AUDIO

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Black Keys - Live on the Interface

Photo by the excellent Gino DePinto

I am truly jealous of those that get to see the Brothers tour.

I'll have a nice update for you all tomorrow with some pictures and video from Monday's Great Lake Swimmers show, last nights Karen Elson show and my brief encounter with Mr. Jack White.


01 Tighten Up
02 Howlin' For You
03 Next Girl
04 Everlasting Light
05 Interview

Vote Model Stranger as artist of the month at The Deli


Hey guys, Model Stranger are up for Chicago artist of the month over at The Deli Chicago, a great Windy City scene resource. Even if you're not in the know on these guys do me a solid and head over to The Deli and vote them in. It's free, you don't have to sign up for anything or input any personal information, two clicks and you're done. If you remember throw something about The Steam Engine in the optional comments. These guys deserve it, thanks for helping out!





<a href="http://modelstranger.bandcamp.com/album/1-dreams-bones-2">She Don't by Model Stranger</a>

Photo by Mike Hari

Monday, June 14, 2010

Ryan Adams to (finally) Release Archived Records?

Who knows if we can put any faith in this but Ryan Adams updated his Facebook over the weekend with the news that "Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, "III/IV" double LP (in the vault since 2006) just got back from the mastering plant and "Black Hole" LP (done around Christmas 2005) is next up. Here it is coming from the man himself:



Ryan Adams "Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, "III/IV" Double LP, ( unreleased and in the vault since 2006 ) fresh from the mastering plant! Also day one of demo's went great! Have A GREAT WEEKEND yall and that's an order. XX DRA


Ryan Adams oh yeah, p.s. the "Blackhole" LP ( recorded over Christmas in 2005 ) is also back from the mastering plant. I f'n love this thing. It took 4 years to make it and to me it is basically Love is Hell Part 3... lots of shimmery guitar love on this. Exciting times!!!

My Morning Jacket 5 Day Pass in the Bag

See you guys in NYC.

Monsters of Folk Austin City Limits Taping

It's tough to get tickets to these sets but at least we know we'll have 4 sweet shows to watch at some point!

From JamBase.com

From www.austincitylimits.org:
Austin City Limits has four scheduled tapings around the dates of the Austin City Limits Music Festival:

Monsters of Folk: Wednesday, October 6
Sonic Youth: Thursday, October 7
Band of Horses: Saturday, October 9
The National: Monday, October 11

These tapings will be held in the Austin City Limits studio (as usual), and any announcements regarding ticket availability and giveaways for the public will be posted on the ACL blog approximately one week before each taping. The sets will air as part of ACL’s 36th season on PBS, premiering this fall. Exact airdates are TBD - we’ll post details as we get them sorted out. We have a few more tapings in the works, so stay tuned for word on those as well…

Friday, June 11, 2010

Delta Spirit Ticket Giveaway


I've got two tickets to give away to one lucky individual to see Delta Spirit in Columbus, OH at The Basement. The show is on June 23rd and the doors open at 7pm. Full event information can be found here.

What do you have to do? Shoot me an email and tell me why is all! thesteamengine23@gmail.com

Comments won't be accepted so an email is a must. Submissions will be accepted until June 19th. I'll overnight the tickets to you then.

For those not familiar with Delta Spirit, you can check out my recent post here for some live material.

Delta Spirit just released an excellent new record, History From Below, check it out guys.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ryan Adams - Black Clouds


How I miss this man. For those of you that haven't heard, Mr. David Ryan Adams wrote 11 new songs after attending Ronnie Dio's funeral and in his Facebook post he mentioned that he is "excited again." What does that mean for us? No idea really, it's kind of a tease actually. He knows there are a lot of fans out there waiting for him to release something, give us some sort of actual news or a snippet of actual Ryan Adams music (NOT Orion), so telling us he has some new songs and not giving us a taste hurts a little. I mean, I get it, this is just a rant from a frustrated fan.

Anyways, enjoy Black Clouds, it's a compilation of various sessions and live shows. There is a lot of excellent music on this compilation guys. You have to love the original mix of the song "Rock N' Roll" and we also get the only live version of "English Girls Approximately."

This is another treasure from Kyle V., thanks again man, you are a true gentleman.

From AnsweringBell.com:
  1. Rock N' Roll (original mix; New Orleans)
  2. Black Clouds (unreleased; New Orleans)
  3. The Drug's Not Working (original mix; New Orleans)
  4. I See Monsters (different mix; New Orleans)
  5. Anybody Wanna Take Me Home? (NY mix)
  6. When The Music Don't Come (NY mix)
  7. Love Is Hell (NY mix)
  8. City Rain, City Streets (NY mix)
  9. Hard Way To Fall (live 12/01/02)
  10. Learn How To Say Goodbye (live 12/10/02)
  11. Jim (live 11/06/02)
  12. This House Is Not For Sale (live 12/04/03)
  13. English Girls Approximately (live 10/15/02)

Download -  Ryan Adams - Black Clouds

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

My Morning Jacket 5 Night/5 Album Stint in New York!

Well this is some MASSIVE news. The last night is my birthday, this is going to be a must.

From MyMorningJacket.com :

New York City’s Terminal 5 will be presenting a historic five night run of shows in which My Morning Jacket will perform one of their full-length albums in its entirety each night, along with additional songs and covers from each album’s time period. The stint will kick off on Monday, October 18th, with a performance of the 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire, and will be followed chronologically by their next four full length albums, ending with 2008’s Evil Urges. on Saturday, October 23rd.

10/18 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – The Tennessee Fire
10/19 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – At Dawn
10/21 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – It Still Moves
10/22 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – Z
10/23 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – Evil Urges and beyond!


Tickets for the shows go on pre-sale on June 14th, with 5-show ticket packages available to fans. The individual shows will go on sale to the public on Friday, June 18th. For ticket and show information, click here.

Jack White and Conan up to something tomorrow...

Looks like Mr. Jack White and Conan O'Brien are up to something at Jack White's Nashville based Third Man Records. I'm curious as I am a clear sucker for both these dudes.

Here is Conan's tweet:

ConanOBrien
Jack White & I are doing something cool tomorrow. Hint: it involves a LOT of Tears for Fears songs. Details here: http://bit.ly/bDcImB





Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Whiskeytown - Acoustic Radio Sessions


Kyle V., you are a God amongst men! Thanks for hooking me up with so much incredible music.

[KCRW 1996:]

01 Houses On The Hill
02 Nurse With The Pills
03 Think About Me
04 Somebody Remembers The Rose
05 Inn Town
06 Turnaround

[World Cafe 1996:]

07 16 Days
08 Somebody Remembers The Rose
09 Too Drunk To Dream
10 Excuse Me If I Break My Own Heart Tonight
11 Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover)

[Mountain Stage 1998:]

12 Easy Hearts
13 16 Days
14 Houses On The Hill
15 Inn Town
16 Too Drunk To Dream


Download -  Whiskeytown - Acoustic Radio Sessions

MEDIAFIRE LINK

Monday, June 7, 2010

Model Stranger - Chicago City Limits - 2010-6-5


The boys from Model Stranger once again blew me away Saturday night in Schaumberg, IL. Whenever I see these guys I leave thinking “they are the real deal.” If there’s an equation to playing in a rock band, these guys have figured it out. They’ve got the image, they’ve got the sound and, most importantly, they’ve got the talent. Front man Stephen Francis is a treat to watch both sing and play the guitar, Kevin James, the bass man, takes up more on stage real estate than any other member, constantly moving, hopping up by the drums, getting face time with Stephen and Vincent Joseph is as animated as they come on the skins, he mouths damn near every word/note while keeping perfect time. An excellent guitarist and tight rhythm section, can you ask for more? Asides from original tunes (Dreams and Bones, their debut LP, is great, 9 concise tracks, no filler) we got a taste of a few covers. Most notably a smoking version of The Beatles birthday classic “Today is Your Birthday” (played for a friend of the band), the White Stripes hit “Seven Nation Army” (all the guys are into the White Stripes documentary Under Great White Northern Lights, pretty cool) and Jimi Hendrix “Manic Depression.”

Model Stranger are worth your time. Grab their LP from one of the links below and check them out on the road when you get a chance. They’re in Burlington, IA this weekend and then will be back in Chicago come July 2nd for a show at the Taste of Chicago. There are other dates on the horizon, check their site for more info.


Model Stranger links:

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Tift Merritt - Feel of the World (Ft. Yim Yames)


Mr. Yim Yames gets some vocal action (and maybe more, anyone have any additional info?) on Tift Merritt's latest record, See You On The Moon. Check it out now!


Download - Tift Merritt - Feel of the World (Ft. Yim Yames)

The Black Keys - NPR World Cafe - 2010-5-20


The Black Keys latest record, Brothers, has been in my rotation for a while now, I just can't get enough. Here are the boys from Akron doing four new tracks with a couple of other fellows in the studio at NPR. They sound good with additional members, for those of you that don't know The Black Keys consist of two hombres, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and they rarely have other musicians playing with them. If you haven't seen the Keys go see them ASAP!

Check out these videos too, one is them playing "Tighten Up" on Letterman, looking cleaner than usual and the other is a quick tour of Dan's all analog studio, Akron Analog.









Some great guitar work on "Howlin' For You."

01 Too Afraid To Love You
02 Tighten Up
03 Everlasting Light
04 Howlin' For You

Download - The Black Keys - NPR World Cafe - 2010-5-20

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