Tag Archives: music calendar

Today: Nick Cave is 56 Happy birthday

September 22, 2013 Hallgeir

“If you got a trumpet, get on your feet, brother, and blow it!”

― Nick Cave

“I was about 12 years old and I was sitting watching the television and it was some kind of talent show, you know, and on marches this monkey, this ape, in a pair of red-checked trousers with a little matching jacket holding a ukulele and it started jigging around playing it, and it was looking straight into the camera, straight at me, and I remember thinking, that’s it, that’ll be me, you know, that’ll be me.”
― Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward “Nick” Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional film actor.

He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1983, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly gothic, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave’s music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with religion, death, love and violence.

Upon Cave’s induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, ARIA Awards committee chairman Ed St John said, “Nick Cave has enjoyed—and continues to enjoy—one of the most extraordinary careers in the annals of popular music. He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist—beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute.”

“O we will know, won’t we?
The stars will explode in the sky
O but they don’t, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die
~Nick Cave ((Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?)

From allmusic – Steve Huey:

After goth pioneers the Birthday Party called it quits in 1983, singer/songwriter Nick Cave assembled the Bad Seeds, a post-punk supergroup featuring former Birthday Party guitarist Mick Harvey on drums, ex-Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld. With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk, although in a more subdued fashion than his work with the Birthday Party. Cave also allowed his literary aspirations to come to the forefront; the lyrics are narrative prose, heavy on literary allusions and myth-making, and take some inspiration from Leonard Cohen. Cave’s gloomy lyrics, dark musical arrangements, and deep baritone voice recall the albums of Scott Walker, who also obsessed over death and love with a frightening passion. However, Cave brings a hefty amount of post-punk experimentalism to Walker’s epic dark pop.
… read more over @ allmusic.com

Here is a brilliant live version of “People Ain’t No Good” (one of his best):

The Mercy Seat:

My Nick Cave Spotify playlist for today:

Nick Cave’s best album – The Boatman’s Call (1997):

Other September 22:

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Leonard Cohen, Music Calendar

Today: Happy 79th birthday Leonard Cohen

September 21, 2013 Hallgeir 1 Comment

Like a Bird on a Wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
~Leonard Cohen, Bird On A Wire

“The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”
― Leonard Cohen

“I don’t remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don’t remember
if I’m here alone
or waiting for someone.”
~Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

From Wikipedia:

Birth name	Leonard Norman Cohen
Born	21 September 1934 (age 79) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Folk, folk rock, rock, pop rock,spoken word, synthpop
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter,poet, novelist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano,keyboards, synthesizer
Years active	1956-present
Labels	Columbia
Associated acts	Sharon Robinson, Jennifer Warnes

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.

While giving the speech at Cohen’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters.”

The critic Bruce Eder wrote an assessment of Cohen’s overall career in popular music, writing:
“[Cohen is] one of the most fascinating and enigmatic. . .singer/songwriters of the late ’60s. . . [and] has retained an audience across four decades of music-making. . . Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon) [in terms of influence], he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century.”

The Academy of American Poets has commented more broadly on Cohen’s overall career in the arts, including his work as a poet, novelist, and songwriter, stating that “[Cohen’s] successful blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear in Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, published in 1993, which gathered more than two hundred of Cohen’s poems . . .several novel excerpts, and almost sixty song lyrics. . .While it may seem to some that Leonard Cohen departed from the literary in pursuit of the musical, his fans continue to embrace him as a Renaissance man who straddles the elusive artistic borderlines.”

From allmusic.com – Bruce Eder:

One of the most fascinating and enigmatic — if not the most successful — singer/songwriters of the late ’60s, Leonard Cohen has retained an audience across four decades of music-making interrupted by various digressions into personal and creative exploration, all of which have only added to the mystique surrounding him. Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon), he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century, which is all the more remarkable an achievement for someone who didn’t even aspire to a musical career until he was in his thirties.
read more over @ allmusic.com

Leonard Cohen – Tower of Song – Live, London 2009:

Leonard Cohen – Dance me to the end of love (live. Later with Jools):

Album of the day – Ten New Songs (2001):

Other September 21:

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Drive-by Truckers, Music Calendar

Today: Mike Cooley is 47 Happy Birthday

September 14, 2013 Hallgeir

Mike Cooley, guitarist, songwriter and singer in one of our favorite bands Drive-By Truckers, was born 14 September 1966.

Happy Birthday, Mike Cooley!

Drive-By Truckers are an alternative country/Southern rock band based in Athens, Georgia, but two of the members (Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley) are originally from The Shoals region of Northern Alabama, and the band strongly identifies with Alabama. Their music uses three guitars as well as bass, drums, and now keyboards.

During a recent solo tour, the Drive by Truckers’ Mike Cooley stopped by the Fretboard Journal magazine offices to perform this tune. “Birthday Boy” originally appeared on the DBT’s album ‘The Big To-Do.’ Cooley also describes the unique guitar he’s playing, built by luthier Scott Baxendale.

Mike Cooley – Birthday Boy:

Drive-By Truckers was co-founded by Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood in Athens, Georgia, in 1996. The two had played in various other bands including Adam’s House Cat which was chosen as a top ten Best Unsigned Band by a Musician contest in the late 1980s. After the demise of Adam’s House Cat, Cooley and Hood performed as a duo under the name “Virgil Kane.” They eventually started a new band, “Horsepussy,” before splitting for a few years. It was during this split that Hood moved to Athens, Georgia and began forming what would become Drive-By Truckers. Cooley soon followed.

Mike Cooley – Gravity’s Gone (The Hideout, Chicago, November 29, 2012):

” After spending much of his young life scrapping in the rock & roll trenches, he’s become one of the best songwriters of his generation, having
amassed a catalog of songs that can go toe-to-toe with any of his contemporaries. Along the way, he and DriveBy Truckers have become an acclaimed, enduring lynchpin of American rock & roll. And now, with The Fool on Every Corner, Cooley begins the latest chapter in his impressive career, uncompromising as always, and more thankful than ever.

I’m lucky as hell,” he says. “No doubt about it. I’m not rich, I’m probably not gonna be, and I’m totally cool with
that. But I’m making my living, and I do what I want—I do it my way. I’ve got an awesome family, a bunch of
great friends, loyal fans. And I think about that every day. It just would be immoral for me not to.”

– drivebytruckers.com (press release, Fool on Every Corner)

Today’s album is Fool On Every Corner (Spotify):

Continue reading Today: Mike Cooley is 47 Happy Birthday →

Blues, Great albums, Music Calendar

Today: Eric Clapton released From The Cradle in 1994

September 13, 2013 Hallgeir 2 Comments

From the Cradle is a blues cover album by Eric Clapton. It is also his 12th studio album. Released on 13 September 1994, the album was Eric Clapton’s long-awaited follow-up to his massively successful live album, Unplugged. The liner notes states, “This is a live recording with no overdubs or edits except for dobro overdub on ‘How Long Blues’ and drum overdub on ‘Motherless Child’.”

Although he’d long been associated with the blues, From the Cradle was Clapton’s first attempt at an all-blues album.

When I listen to the album, I am transported to a small blues club where a group of fantastic players give us their best, fantastic musicianship. I saw Martin Scorsese’s documentary, Nothing but the blues before I heard the album. I started to seek out the songs from the film, and found From the cradle. It is one of my favorite Clapton albums.

Nothing but the blues:Eric Clapton discusses who has influenced him throughout his career, with clips of performances by Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, etc. Filmed by director Martin Scorsese, this documentary was broadcast once on PBS stations, but never officially released for reasons which remain unclear. A planned release on home video was slated for early summer 1995, and Warner/Reprise produced a limited number of advance copies to be used for promotion. (it is on YouTube in 10 parts)

Eric Clapton – Five Long Years (Eddie Boyd) from Nothing but the blues(doc/live):

“It takes the assurance of a titan like Eric Clapton to muster the humility that inspires From the Cradle. The guitarist’s tribute to the gods who formed him (Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Otis Rush among them), the disc sacrifices flash to sheer blazing force. “Groaning the Blues,” “Five Long Years” — this is the bone and sinew of blues.”
– Paul Evans (Rolling Stone Magazine)

Eric Clapton – Motherless Child:

From the cradle on Spotify:

– Hallgeir

Great albums, Music Calendar

September 13: Jonathan Wilson released Gentle Spirit in 2011

September 13, 2013 Hallgeir

“A hundred blowin’ up in the headlines
We’ve seen it all before
The powers are killing the paupers
For some idea of God,
or whatever”

Gentle Spirit is the first official studio album released by Los Angeles, California artist Jonathan Wilson. It was released in the United Kingdom and Europe on August 8, 2011 and in the United States on September 13, 2011 on Bella Union and received the #4 spot on Mojo Magazine’s 2011 Best of Albums of the Year. The album was recorded at Wilson’s former studio in Laurel Canyon and mixed at his new studio in Echo Park.

Jonathan Wilson records great music and he is fantastic live, I needed some time to get into his mindset, and I must confess that I didn’t understand all the positive reviews this album got at first. We did not include it in our top 25 albums of 2011, it should have been in the top 5. We got the opportunity to see him live in 2012 and that changed everything I thought I knew about Jonathan Wilson. It was a tremendous concert, and when I got home I started to listen to Gentle Spirit in a completely different way. My stats on LastFM tells me it is my most played album of 2012.

Gentle Spirit (acoustic):

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