The Prodigy have always had the sound of a band that should be captured live; they radiate an angry energy, wielding music seeping a hint of dangerous power. Their new live double DVD, World’s on Fire, filmed mostly at the Warrior's Dance festival, would seem to prove that those who haven’t seen The Prodigy live are missing the fulfillment of that livid promise.
The same year Tapestry appeared Carole King recorded a concert at Carnegie Hall, but it wasn’t released until 1996, when it came out on CD. Mobile Fidelity has now put out a remastered 2-LP version of the concert on 180-gram vinyl. As audiophile releases go, this is the flip side of such sonic spectaculars as Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Pepper’s or Close to the Edge.
For an evening teeming with humor, reflection and aesthetic exploration, Neko Case and her band kept the audience rapt with their superlative set. It’s further evidence that Case is unequivocally a significant voice in music today, deserving of her success, yet still looking to the future to investigate increasingly the depths of the human heart and mind.
Deep inside an electronic jungle there lies a creature with a personality that is characterized by the unique sounds that it spews into the atmosphere. It’s those individualities that make up the sound of Swedish electro-jazz-pop quartet Little Dragon and the subtleties that keep their sound ever evolving within itself. The band, whose identity was discovered through creative frustration, returns with their third album on Peacefrog Records titled Ritual Union, an album that works within the structure of diverse beats, yet explores beyond those boundaries extensively.
The road to Bob Weir’s first-ever solo acoustic tour, which was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, has hit a bump as the Grateful Dead/Furthur guitarist has postponed all of his
Before we dive into this week’s subject matter, I’d like to say thanks in advance for reading. I look forward to this column which will be appearing on Tuesdays.
Sometimes it’s tough to stay on top of all the cool gadgets, apps, software, web services, and other things that makes our lives easier, better, more enjoyable and just plain more fun. While of course we are all music fans here, and that will clearly be a focus of the column, not everything will be music related. Photography, web services, communication, computers and many other topics will be covered in the coming weeks.
While my contact information will be in the footer of each column, I figure I’ll put it up here this week as I’d really like to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch with topics you’d like covered along with feedback and suggestions.
Find me on Twitter at @tmwsiy. Email me at parkerjh@gmail.com. Leave a voice mail at my Google Voice Number: (781) 285-8696.
Many music fans have but one simple goal – to be able to listen to any of their tracks, anytime, on any device. It takes a lot of time and expense to accumulate, organize and archive your music. It’s a bummer when you leave the cozy confines of your house only to remember you’d really like to listen to something you forgot to burn to CD or transfer to a portable music player. Likewise, when the 32GB storage is at capacity on your device, it’s disheartening to get to the “one in, one out” mode by having to decide which album no longer makes the cut.
There are more options than ever to keep your music playing. This week we’ll focus on Subsonic which is free, plays virtually any music format, is available on any operating system and on most all mobile devices.
READ ON for more of Parker’s thoughts on Subsonic and what it can do for you as well as what separates the service from its competitors…
Considering this week’s song, Walking the Cow, was first released via a 1983 self recorded cassette tape, made in the home of Daniel Johnston, the covers sound quite different from the original. Johnston’s take from his album Hi, How Are You is a poignantly simple and honest delivery from the Austin, Texas mainstay whose well documented mental illness has both informed and hampered his creative output. His influence on recent artists from the Seattle grunge movement to the current wave of independent bands is undeniable evidenced by two of the contenders coming from tribute albums featuring impressive lineups of inspired musicians. For a true appreciation of the song and the covers start with the original recording by Johnston.
The Contestants:
Artist: fIREHOSE
Album: Flyin’ The Flannel
The Skinny: Bassist Mike Watt’s snapping notes punctuate this mellowed out version and only cover on their 1991 album. The California band puts just a touch of country twang on the Texan tune.
READ ON for more covers of Daniel Johnston’s Walking The Cow…
In the second installment of our Hidden Track Presents recording session featuring the Sam Roberts Band, Sam Roberts and Dave Nugent treated us to a barebones version of Twist The
As Phish gears up to hit the road early next month for the second leg of their summer tour, Trey Anastasio is looking to the fall when he will tour
Crossing back into time, one feels an almost drifting sense of purpose; fleeting, at best, but often wandering outwards, amidst some other surreal force; constantly, persistently pulling and pushing one onto a destiny which is always in reach, but seems so far away.
The human pursuit for land and resources has reached an almost epic battle point, prefacing some sort of almighty negative spin which has neither a mysterious conclusion, nor seems inevitable. Let’s face it, in a conflict of species versus planet, well…species would lose, wouldn’t it? Is the earth a species? Are we? Or, are we some sort of hodge podge, some mixture of the tease, some amalgamation, a wolfman’s brother, forged by the mind, the third eye of some unseen extraterrestrial force? Is this land we inhabit real?
In Carroll Ballard’s modest 1983 masterpiece, Never Cry Wolf, one feels an almost intangible pull towards the truth on a journey of modern man versus ancient beast. Scripted by Curtis Hanson, Sam Hamm, Richard Kletter and Ralph Furmaniak, and based upon the autobiography by conservationist Farley Mowat, the power of the film rests in the formidable work of actor Charles Martin Smith. Smith has the unlucky task of making his performance blend with the natural skills of his non-human thespians, the wolves, caribou and critters, effortlessly telling their parallel tale along with the straight narrative. Smith also redefines what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land. His epiphany, through his acting—spoken word, quiet gesture and dawning wisdom—of what humans have become, is sobering to the core in this edition of Hidden Flick. READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick…
