February 10, 2009

I love putting together my best live concert dvd lists each year and I’d be surprised if Wilco’s first-ever live DVD doesn’t grab a top spot. Ashes of American Flags

In a story that will affect music-loving consumers for many years to come, ticketing giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster have confirmed their intention to merge. Both companies have come under

[youtube]VNIEtwZ1OYQ[/youtube] Paul Simon & Willie Nelson – Graceland

[Originally Published: February 26, 2008, CLICK TO SEE WHO WON]

This week features six artists competing for the best cover of Stevie Wonder’s Boogie On Reggae Woman. This song comes to us off the 1974 record Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Here’s a look at the contenders:

Addison Groove Project: As you may recall, this now retired (but is any band ever really retired?) funk-fusion outfit from Boston has previously been mentioned on Hidden Track, by me, and about this song. AGP got a mention in my Top Ten Big Red sit-ins.

Legion Of Mary: LoM was Jerry Garcia’s side-band from 1974 to 1975 and featured Garcia, Merl Saunders (Keyboards, Vocals), John Kahn (bass), Martin Fierro (Saxophone, Flute) and Ron Tutt (Drums). This track comes to you from a ’74 show in Berkeley, Merl takes vocal duties, but Garcia’s guitar work starting around the 6 minute mark is definitely worth hearing. READ ON…

Mickey Rourke’s return to film glory in the title role of the The Wrestler comes at the same time as Laurence Fishburne’s new role on CSI, the long-running television hit. Both actors appeared under the tutelage of Francis Ford Coppola during a time in the early 1980s when the director was attempting to reinvigorate his mojo by filming S.E. Hinton’s teenaged rebel with a purpose novels. And Coppola was true to his cause as he experimented with style and tone poetry at a time when those virtues were being smothered by slasher flick and Reagan-era teen angst motifs.

“Loyalty is his only vice,” is one of my favorite film lines and it crops up about midway through this week’s Hidden Flick as we head into the second season of films that are off the beaten cinematic path with a look at the minor gem, Rumble Fish.

Filmed in black & white, Rumble Fish also stars Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid and Nicolas Cage, Coppola’s nephew in one of his earliest roles. However, it is the weird and twisted appearances of Rourke, Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Waits that add nuance and texture to what could have been a forgettable cheesy endeavor. Hopper is the alcoholic father who spouts historical references and odd sound bites to his beleaguered son, played by Dillon, and Fishburne, is sort of a guardian angel to the hapless lad, as well. Waits sinks his teeth into his role as an eccentric billiards hall owner, foreshadowing his 1992 bent romp as Renfield in Coppola’s Dracula.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – Rumble Fish…

Cat Power played the second of her two nearly-sold out gigs at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater on Saturday night. For almost two hours, vocalist Chan Marshall and the Dirty Delta Blues Band wove in and out of a cover-laden set and lulled the respectful crowd into a dream-like state.

While she played mostly other people’s music with a few originals sprinkled in, she put her own spin on each selection. The show moved at the pace of molasses but was enjoyable in is thickness. Marshall sounded, at times, like Janis Joplin if she weren’t allowed to scream. Often it was a little tough to pick Marshall’s voice out of the mix when the band played beyond hushed tones and her annunciation isn’t the best. But she can belt out a tune like few others and while I never actually fell asleep, I certainly hovered in that space between awake and asleep for a good portion of the night until a slightly more upbeat – and I mean slightly – tune would snap me back to reality.

With the sparsest of lightning and no stage setup to speak of – you could see the heating vents on the back wall of the stage, Marshall spend so much time in the shadows she was reduced to a pair of white shoes and a silky voice for most of us in the Mezzanine.

But the show was streamlined with minimal time between songs and no banter between Marshall and the audience save for throwing some roses into the crowd as she took her final bow.

READ ON for more of Luke’s Cat Power @ The Apollo review…