Music Blog
Jolie Holland has built a career on the interplay between past and present, her throwback vocals recalling the likes of Bessie Smith while hovering over songwriting that seems out of time. A large part of that quality has been her affinity for steeping her music in the sounds of old spaces, whether that meant a speakeasy or a backporch, yet the music has still almost always managed to sound present and anything but dusty. For The Living & the Dead, her latest and fourth album overall, she adds an element that many a review has already identified as "rock n' roll," though it's so only in comparison to her past work. Co-produced with Shazad Ismaily, one thing that quickly becomes apparent is the shift away from the sometimes jazzy, ungrounded textures of her previous effort, Springtime Can Kill You, resulting in straight-forward but affecting pop numbers like the de facto title track, "Mexico City," a song written following a dream in which she found herself waking up next to an elderly William S. Burroughs, and that meditates on the phrase "the living and the dead." With a road band that consists of Portlanders Rachel Blumberg (Decemberists, Norfolk & Western), Dave Depper (Norflok & Western, Loch Lomond), and Sean Flinn (Invisible Rockets, Nick Jaina), Holland's tour hits the Doug Fir lounge this Friday night with openers Herman Dune. Watch soon for an our in-studio session with Ms. Holland.
Also out and about this week (and speaking of in-studio sessions), Thursday night finds the CD release show for Boy Eats Drum Machine's Booomboxxx, out on Tender Loving Empire. Jon Ragel makes up the band of one, and part of the entertainment when seeing him live is watching him switch out his various musical hats while he creates the songs before your eyes. Turntable, tambourine, keyboard, sampler, tenor sax, a solitary drum, and vocals are the ingredients, and the final product is not only unique, but in a way Ragel becomes a re-animator of beats, some of which are long dead or forgotten. Ragel's appropriations might be seen as their latest incarnations in an on-going, decades-long musical conversation. Boy Eats Drum Machine plays Thursday night at Holocene with Dat'r and Southern Belle.
MP3: Boy Eats Drum Machine, from Booomboxxx- "Demonic With Horns"
Stream: Boy Eats Drum Machine's opbmusic in-studio session
Much to come here, including music from releases out this week from Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs, Ray LaMontagne, Todd Snider, and Nikka Costa. Plus, performances this week from Pinback, The Shaky Hands, and more.
What's on your minds?
Tagged: mp3
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Archived Comments
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
IMOJP-- I really can't believe you didn't like The Stone Roses-- can I play you one to change your mind? (that's pretty '95, right? Not quite, I guess). Don't know if you've managed to catch Andy Combs live or not, but you should if you haven't. Good times. They actually feature the two main players behind Point Juncture, WA as well as The Thermals' former drummer in addition to frontman Combs, of course, who has a bit of Tom Waits in him. They were great at our showcase in Salem Friday night-- hopefully we'll get some photos up soon.
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
Glad you liked it-- her debut's worth a look, too.
bo.monro / October 16, 2008
ps, i picked up Boy Eat's Drum Machine's boo0mboxxx release, and i have had the tunes stuck in my head all week... its worth checking out.
bendlistener / October 12, 2008
I agree; rarely does a comeback break any new ground. Nostalgia is not often a very productive motivation. I did like them though . . . . Thanks both for your comments. Great show tonight, as always.
bo.monro / October 13, 2008
hey guys, new to the site. is there a better way to request songs than leaving comments on blogs?
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
Definitely a lot to like-- I think most would agree it's really an amazing feeling to see/hear music live that you grew up on. No problem there (once again, as The Pixies showed). Still, so many cases of comebacks/ regroups/ rebirths that failed (and miserably). BTW, Kevin Shields does some pretty cool guitar work on the new album from Irish singer Gemma Hayes, of all places. I'm certainly not calling for a moratorium of creation, just not under MBV's name. Oh, and I just wanna see a reunited Smiths play the classics.
Jeremy Petersen / October 13, 2008
Thanks for stopping by, feel free to let us know what you think about it. A blog comment's probably the most effective way at this point-- you could also email: opbmusic@opb.org. There may be some lag, but we do our best to get them on when we can. Happy listening....
inmemoryofjohnpeel / October 12, 2008
I'll follow up on Combs when I can - was thinking Pogues/waites/?? That Crooked Fingers reminds me of Michael Chapman's vocals - worth finding (http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk/cd4.htm). The great John Peel was a fan of Stone Roses, as were my friends, I had two albums, but there was always someone doing whatever they did slightly better I felt. '85 - '95 the decades fly by.
bo.monro / October 13, 2008
Thanks for getting back about it.. Not sure where you guys are at as far as developing something like that, but I think it would be cool... Users could drop a line about stuff they want to hear, and then others can join the discussion... There are plenty of forums out there so I am guessing you guys have thought of something like that, but I would vote yes for a section that is strictly threads for requests... ? I will drop an email to that address about me wanting to hear some Cloud Cult! (Advice from the Happy Hippo, Meaning of 8 or Feel Good Ghosts would be superb.) Was good meeting you guys the other night.
gunky / October 13, 2008
an enhancement I've thought would be handy would be a search feature to allow us to see if you've played a certain artist or song (and, maybe, when). I guess this is sort of in line with bo.monro's request for a specific place to drop requests - after all, you may end up playing a request after we've logged off and missed it. But at least we'd be able to see you tried! It also might help us see that in fact, you have (or haven't) anticipated our requests and played said group at times in the past. great shows as always. Mostly just lurking these days, with other things going on.
bendlistener / October 12, 2008
I find it interesting that My Bloody Valentine is recording and touring again. I was very impressed with "Loveless" when it came out (wouldn't mind hearing something from it, if you're so inclined). I wonder what we can expect from the band now.
bo.monro / October 13, 2008
by the way, i just found the review feature... i think that is really cool!
inmemoryofjohnpeel / October 12, 2008
G'd Sunday JP I've realised that you are like the weather the locals speak of: If you don't like it wait a half-hour and it will be different. That Cure-Black Kids-... Jamie Lidell sequence scored flat ones, (Nikka Costa lives off the fame of Frank Zappa who would turn in his grave at this output)... but I held out and you played interesting songs by Joan as Policewoman cumulating in Andy Combs and the Moth. The opener from Anthony was sensational. And here's another request: Unconsciously Screamin' by The Flaming Lips, or something else 95 ish if you can't find it. Great programming as always. Zaph
bendlistener / October 13, 2008
"an enhancement I've thought would be handy would be a search feature to allow us to see if you've played a certain artist or song" You could try this in Google and see if you like it: site:opbmusic.org "[song name or artist name]" Not perfect but it can work.
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
Just a sec.......huge response just got ERASED!
Hans Biendenbauer / October 14, 2008
I was unable to access OPB Music on my car HD radio today. I could only get the main OPB station; the radio would not switch to OPB2. I cross-tested it with KNRK's HD2 station, and it switched between KNRK1 and 2 without a hitch. Is this a problem on my end, or a temporary SNAFU, or are you going off the air and switching to web only?
inmemoryofjohnpeel / October 12, 2008
JP - That's what I was referring to weeks ago. I'm now in the habit (with lengthy posts) of typing them in "stickies" or notepad etc and cut and pasting them into blogs. Bendlistener - I was in London - active in the scene uring My Bloody Valentine but I never liked them or the Stone Roses. Did you ever hear Loop, or their morphs - Main and The Hair & Skin Trading Company? Or - more melody - Catherine Wheel?
David Christensen / October 15, 2008
Hans-- a problem with our HD2 channel, hopefully fixed soon. The engineers are working on it now.
David Christensen / October 15, 2008
HD2 back on the air!
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
OK, so as I was saying (and much more eloquently than this re-attempt) before I was deleted....... I was just reading about the Jeff Mangum siting at last night's Elephant 6 reunion/showcase in NYC, the gist being that he's indie rock's most notorious recluse now that Kevin Shields has begun firing up the MBV machine. I then went on to say that I'm not sure new music from the band is such a great idea. Look at The Pixies, for example. As far as I know, they have no plans to record a new album, and that's good because it would be a mistake (as their one or two attempts at new songs showed).
bendlistener / October 12, 2008
Gemma Hayes -- wow; excellent. Heading straight to iTunes. Thanks!
gunky / October 15, 2008
bendlistener -- nice one. That worked for searching. And it's really only slightly klugy. My biggest problem will be remembering the syntax.
Jeremy Petersen / October 12, 2008
Anyway, a legacy is worth something, isn't it? Does it make sense for a band like MBV or Neutral Milk Hotel to trash the lore that was built up in part by a short and electric output? Call it the JD Salinger Principle, maybe.