Sunday, January 27, 2013

Hoo-Ray! The Sonic Parthenon Show Archive is Alive

You can now work your way back to the very beginning of this humble, low-production-value ramble full of failed wit, shallow wisdom, but sincere vigor.

The podcast, to which you can subscribe in the links to your left, has been updated all the way back to the first episode.

And all of the individual show pages have been updated with restored and/or proper links for those shows.

Now we can all look back together and smack our foreheads in shame while you do your laundry, walk the dog, feed the cat, pet the rat, and call up Tom Waits at 3 in the morning, living in the house that Elwood built.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Sonic Parthenon Show – Episode 69: “Death, Religion, Race, and Other Uncomfortable Topics”



The Sonic Parthenon Show – Episode 69: “Death, Religion, Race, and Other Uncomfortable Topics” 



http://www.hurricanebrassband.nl/images/JazzFuneral3.jpg

Intro
“Take Me to the River” by Al Green

Set 1
“You Gonna Need Somebody When You Die” by Charley Patton
“When I Got Troubles (home-recording)” by Bob Dylan
“Dark Was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson
“Little Black Train” by Woody Guthrie
“John the Revelator” by Son House

Set 2
“Why Me Lord?” by Johnny Cash
“Halleujah” by Jeff Buckley
“God is in the House” by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
“Way Down in the Hole” by the Blind Boys of Alabama
“Jesus Gonna Be Here” by Tom Waits

Set 3
“I’ll Fly Away” by Hank Williams
“Time Brings About a Change” by the Soul Stirrers
“A Chang is Gonna Come” by Otis Redding
“The Weight (live from the Last Waltz)” by the Band & the Staples Singers
“Trampin’”by Marian Anderson

Outo
“Angel Band” by the Stanley Brothers

Sunday, January 06, 2013

The Sonic Parthenon Show – Episode 68: “Are You Serious? Yes! The Best of the Sonic Parthenon Show, Volume 1 AKA Lazy Bugger Starts the New Year”



The Sonic Parthenon Show – Episode 68: “Are You Serious? Yes! The Best of the Sonic Parthenon Show, Volume 1 AKA Lazy Bugger Starts the New Year”



http://brianorndorf.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54ee7b6428833017742eb3d79970d-800wi

Intro
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Set 1
“Y Control” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“New York Groove” by “Ace Frehley
“All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem
“Throw a Boogie” by Scott H. Biram
“If I Knew You Were Coming (I’d Have Baked a Cake)” by Eileen Barton with the New Yorkers

Set 2
“Velouria” by the Pixies
“Listen Like Thieves” by INXS
“Hanging on the Telephone” by Blondie
“Politics of Dancing” by Reflex
“See Ya Later Alligator” by Bill Haley & the Comets

Set 3
“Dance Commander” by Electric Six
“Rockin’ in the Parlour” by AC/DC
“Orange Sky” by Alexi Murdoch
“What is the Soul of a Man?” by Blind Willie Johnson
“Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Set 4
“Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest
“Date to Church” by the Replacements and Tom Waits
“Oh Oh I Lover Her So” by the Ramones
“Who’s that Knocking?” by the Genies
“Hallelujah, I’m a Bum” by Harry “Mac” McLintock

Outro
“Perfectly Good Guitar” by John Hiatt

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

The Hold Steady; Lucero @ The Wellmont Theatre

The Hold Steady; Lucero 
@ The Wellmont Theatre
Montclair, NJ - December 31, 2012

A night of firsts, most of them great: witnessing a great double bill of two like-minded bands, each representing a wing of their generation in music; finally seeing the Hold Steady on New Year's Eve; being part of the cover of Boys & Girls in America come to life; the show having to briefly stop to make sure a person didn't become the first demise of 2013; making the trek out to this most distant of NYC-area venues (does/did the Starland Ballroom count?);

Besides sharing Steve Selvidge, the Hold Steady and Lucero have a lot more in common than one may think, even though in some ways the bands appear to be passing each other like ships in the night. Lucero has really gotten into horns and keys as they continue to discover the soul side of their Memphis home. The Hold Steady have decided to turn away from keys and accoutrement and just plunge into guitars, calling up just a little bit more of their punk upbringings. At one point the Joe Regulars in the Hold Steady had some cognitive dissonance going on when they had the fantastically bedecked and out of place looking accordionist Franz Nicolay in the band. Cognitive dissonance is the name of the game when looking at Lucero: a couple of guys looking they should be in a southern metal band, one dude in the Irish flat cap, one refined looking lap steel chap; and of course a couple of southern rockers led by Ben Nichols who was definitely sporting a bandana in his back pocket, casting echoes of a certain New Jersey resident living just down the way who also knows a thing or two about finding the sweet spot of soul and rock.

More important than any of that, we have two hard working, long-time traveling ultra-class bar bands who love the music they make and love playing it for their loyal fans. Even if some of the earlier Lucero songs don't immediately indicate it, Lucero share Craig Finn's religion of having "so much joy" in what they are doing up there on the stage.

By all lights, 2012 is being remembered as something less than a perfect year. It would be foolish to think 2013 must turn out better. It might. But either way, with the Hold Steady and Lucero writing songs and anthems for their generation, we have our soundtracks and our escapes to whatever 2013 will bring.