Drive-by Truckers @ 9:30 Club Setlist

Truckers front man, co-founder, and co-lead singer Patterson Hood was sick last night and couldn't make the show.  Instead of cancelling, the band offered your money back if you wanted it but said they'd go on without him and do their best for those who still wanted to come.

Cooley and Shonna picked up the slack and it was, all things considered, a pretty damn good show.  Patterson's mic -- considerably higher than the rest -- remained empty at center stage, and Shonna even poured out a little Jack Daniels down on his spot in tribute.  They also asked for volunteers to sing a Patterson song, and whomever won the right to do "Life in the Factory" did a great job.  

So here's the setlist for the Hoodless DBT set last night at the 9:30:

Daddy's Cup / 3 Dimes Down / Panties in Your Purse / Women Without Whiskey / I'm Sorry Huston / Checkout Time in Vegas / Gravity's Gone / Space City / Carl Perkins' Cadillac / Bob / Home Field Advantage / One of these Days / Lisa's Birthday / Marry Me / Cottonseed / Purgatory Line / A Ghost to Most / Life in the Factory (with dude from the crowd) // When the Pin Hits the Shell / Zip City / Shut Up and Get on the Plane

I'm Not Gonna Get Caught

Quick question regarding Wilco's "Pot Kettle Black."

Is it just me, or is that beginning little bit of feedback supposed to mimic the sound of a tea kettle whistle?

This just occurred to me yesterday. At first I thought it was really clever, but now I'm wondering if I might just be a few years late to the (tea) party.

Wilco - "Pot Kettle Black" (live at Lollapalooza 2008)

*Not sure if you can really hear it on this live version -- oh well.

A Wedding Band covers Mazarin's "Another One Goes By"

So I saw this and I think you'll agree -- it had to be shared. It's a great tune by the now-defunct Mazarin -- currently reincarnated as Black Stoltzfus after the band's lead dude Quentin Stoltzfus. You may recognize it from the Walkmen's A Hundred Miles Off album... a good cover. This one? Well, you decide.

You Got Me Running

Saw this on Myspace. Yeah, remember that? It's where all your friends who didn't go to college went before 2008...

Dead Man's Bones - "In The Room Where You Sleep"

I don't know why, but I keep expecting the Count to come out at any moment.

The Rockist Revisits: Help!

In part inspired -- yet again -- by Noel Murray's Popless column on the AV Club (wherein he refuses to listen to new music for a year and instead revisits the back pages of his personal collection, reassessing as he goes), I thought it could be cool to listen to some of the less discussed Beatles' albums over and over and see how I felt about them a couple decades after hearing them for the first time.

I started with Help!, partially because it was the only one I had loaded on to my new iPod and partially because the companion film was on a few weeks ago and I had the chance to watch it for the first time in a long time. It's no A Hard Day's Night -- about as flawless a ninety-minute romp as you could ask for -- but the movie has plenty of sweet musical interludes and some funny bits (John: "Hey Ringo, whatcha doin' on the floor?" Ringo: "I'm tired") to spice up the overwhelming self-referential goofiness. The soundtrack though is unsurprisingly superb and maybe even more consistent than Hard Day's Night's.

I had forgotten that it's mostly an acoustic album, with Lennon still working on his Dylan impression and the band's harmonies a little looser and more laid-back. Harrison's songs are hit and miss: "You Like Me Too Much" should've been a Gerry and the Pacemakers hit single, but it sounds lightweight here, yet "I Need You" has a sparse but pleasant Rickenbacker thing going on and cowbell from our boy Ringo while kind of hinting at the tunefulness George would hit later.  As for John's title track, I think I listened to this one for years before I realized how desperate it is -- pretty shocking for a guy as young as John (he wasn't quite 25) and for an album and a movie's lead single.  

As I've been scouring used record stores for the past few weeks in advance of the Christmas holiday, I've noticed that Help! is the probably the most commonly sold-back used Beatles disc.  Kind of sad, really -- Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be are, in my opinion, vastly inferior albums despite some very high points (especially on the former).  So, if you're strapped for cash this holiday season, how about picking up a used copy of this one for the rockologically- challenged on your shopping list?  And if you've already got it, give it another spin.  

Music as Torture

Hey there faithful readers! Breaking news - the United States military is using rock and roll as torture. Check it out here or here. The good fellas at DC Rock Club covered it too.

It seems they basically blast Pantera, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails. Probably Motorhead too. Maybe Ween's debut, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness?

We at The Rockist Society don't like to be explicitly political, nor are we interrogation experts. I can't speak for all of us, but personally I am against torture (which seems sort of like McCain repeatedly letting us know that he was against a second Holocaust). Frankly, I think I could listen to My Bloody Valentine or the Truckers (thinking of particularly loud bands here) for hours and hours on end. There are, however, an endless number of acts who could easily be used to torture me if played at loud volumes for hours or days in a row. Among them:

Contemporary James Taylor

The Ting Tings

Ten Years After

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

mid-late period Chicago

Desaparecidos

Kid Rock's recent single that rips off both "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Werewolves of London"

How about you all?

One more thing to be thankful for

Portland, OR "Glam Parsons" quintet Cabinessence have a free ep for download.  

Particularly thankful for this one right here. 

Cabinessence - "One Day (Or Another)"