when this show was first announced, i didn’t pay much attention. sure it looked like an interesting idea, but not enough to make me run out (or rather, click over) and buy tickets. i’m talking about the karl denson/anders osborne [...]]]> karl denson’s tiny universe & anders osborne
the independent
san francisco, ca  usa
2011-10-22

when this show was first announced, i didn’t pay much attention. sure it looked like an interesting idea, but not enough to make me run out (or rather, click over) and buy tickets. i’m talking about the karl denson/anders osborne tour, wherein the two collaborate on a complete run-through of the classic rolling stones album “sticky fingers.” don’t get me wrong. i love the stones and that album is a personal favorite…probably just behind “exile on main street” and “beggars banquet” in my top 10 stones albums list (what—doesn’t everyone have one of those?).

one of the reasons for my reticence was that i had (unfairly, i’ve now come to realize) always thought of karl denson’s tiny universe as one of those 3rd- or 4th-tier jam bands. i, of course, was basing that judgment not on any firsthand experience, but from the general perspective of a snobbish deadhead. (and yes, i understand how that might seem like an oxymoron to some folks.) i thought of karl as a horn player who sat in with other jam bands; his own thing couldn’t possibly be that interesting, could it? well, yes. yes it could. more on that in a minute. as for anders osborne, well i thought i knew a thing or two about him too, musical omnivore that i am. he was the guitar player in the early 90s alt-country  band varnaline, right? wrong. that was anders parker. parker, osborne…you’ve seen one anders you’ve seen ‘em all, right? again, wrong. in fact, this was a night where all of my preconceptions were dead wrong. i love it when that happens.

anders opened the show with his trio and delivered a blistering 45-minute set that left many of us scratching our heads in amazement after the band left the stage. what we’d witnessed was what new orleans natives have known for a long time: this motherfucker is for real. blues, rock, psychedelia, balladry—you name it he can play it. and he can sing it. and apparently he can write it too, because other than a 10-minute scorching run through the CSNY classic, “ohio,” his set was drawn from all original material. i’m glad it wasn’t anders parker after all (even though i liked varnaline when i saw them open for son volt years ago), because anders osborne is my new favorite guitar hero. go see him if you can.

next up was the main event, at least in terms of how the show was billed. after a 25-minute break, anders came back out with karl denson’s tiny universe and launched into “brown sugar.” what followed was a mostly-exhilarating recreation, track-by-track, of “sticky fingers.” the songs were faithful recreations for the most part, jammed out at appropriate times, but delivered with clear love and reverence for the tunes. karl did most of the singing (who knew he sang? anybody who’s seen him before, i suppose) which might have been my only complaint. some of the tunes could have used anders’ more refined and polished voice. but all in all it was a killer set. karl’s guitar player, DJ williams, was a perfect foil for anders, giving the songs a funky variation on the richards/taylor vibe of early 70s stones. highlights included the “can’t you hear me knocking” linked at the end of this post. would love to hear this band keep chugging through “goat’s head soup” in 2012. good stuff.

the biggest surprise of the night, however, was the KDTU set to close the show. after another 20-25-minute break, it was time for what tiny universe heads have been crowing about for years: a funked-up hour-plus set of surprisingly great original tunes. i honestly can’t recall a highlight for a couple of reasons: i don’t know the band’s material at all and therefore couldn’t identify a tune to single out; and  i was having such a sustained good time that, from start to finish, there weren’t any lows that would have accentuated a high point.

rumor has it the tour will be hitting the east coast for more dates in 2012. i can’t recommend the show highly enough.

when it was first announced that todd rundgren would be performing his classic “a wizard a true star” album in its entirety for the first time ever, rundgren fans everywhere began to quiver in anticipation. where would the shows be? (the [...]]]> todd rundgren
the palace of fine arts theater
san francisco, ca  usa
2009-12-01

when it was first announced that todd rundgren would be performing his classic “a wizard a true star” album in its entirety for the first time ever, rundgren fans everywhere began to quiver in anticipation. where would the shows be? (the first rumor was london only.) who would be in the band? (could this be the long-awaited utopia reunion?) what else would be played that night, given the LP is only 50 minutes in length? (a solo set of hits? utopia’s greatest misses? another run through of “arena“?)

as the rumors turned into reality, most of the questions were answered: the shows would happen in the midwest where they’d been orginally conceived by fans (rundgrenradio.com). the band would be rundgren’s usual suspects (some ex-utopia folks, other veterans from todd solo tours, greg hawkes from the cars/new cars, etc.). and that first set? a spin through some utopia chestnuts. all in all, it promised to be a grand thing. and as the reports came in from the september shows in akron, chicago, minneapolis and a few other towns, fans were raving.

then came the announcement that todd would bring AWATS to the west coast. and in SF, it would be the palace of fine arts, the site of rundgren’s live recording of the “2nd wind” album back in the early 90s. could it get any better, we thought? no, it couldn’t. and so we bought tickets dead center orchestra in the first several rows and waited for todd to come to town.

when the evening finally arrived and the lights went down, we were greeted with only four people on stage, dressed in black with minimal instrumentation visible: todd and jesse gress on guitars, kasim sulton on bass, and prairie prince on drums. could this be ‘newtopia’? unfortunately, no. this was the debut of “todd rundgren’s johnson,” a ‘blues’ band covering robert johnson songs exclusively. apparently this was borne out of a contractual obligation with rundgren’s current label to try and eke out publishing money for their roster artists by having people cover each other’s material. not sure who will be covering todd’s stuff, but i can’t imagine this arrangement generates much income. what it did generate this evening was a lot of grumbling from fans who had hoped to hear a set of utopia music as a precursor to the AWATS set.

now, as we all know, nobody tells todd rundgren what to do. and that’s served us fans well for the most part over the course of his illustrious career. this robert johnson set, however, was an unfortunate choice in my opinion, as todd’s vocal and guitar styles are not suited to the blues. add in the fact that the band was ill-prepared and under-rehearsed and you ended up with forty minutes that would have been better spent out in the lobby drinking.

all that said, there were some enjoyable moments; it’s always great to hear todd play electric guitar, of course. but it sure would have been nicer to hear that guitar on a selection of tunes from his vast catalog of amazing songs. if this is any indication, the best part of the set for me was when roger powell responded to a comment from todd (“it’s the blues, you don’t wanna get too tight!”) by yelling out “just like utopia!”

i used to be a ‘todd is godd’ guy. seriously, he was my favorite artist for a while. a lyric from ‘healing, pt. III’ was my senior quote. but todd lost me after “2nd wind” with (in my opinion) misguided and not very interesting career choices at times. for years, his output just didn’t grab me like so much of his past work had. until last year when i saw the “arena” tour at slim’s. and i remembered why i used to commit to rundgren’s music so deeply.

which brings us to the main event of the evening—the second set. it was, quite frankly, amazing. i’ve always loved the AWATS album precisely for what many people think makes it one of his least accessible works—the wild musical schizophrenia of the whole thing. it has some bonafide rundgren classics (“sometimes i don’t know what to feel” and “just one victory”) combined with scratch-your-head aural snippets (“dogfight giggle”) and musical sketches (“just another onionhead”) strung together in one continuous 50-minute (on LP, anyway) cosmic rock and roll suite. great stuff.

live, the music was nothing short of revelatory. todd always manages to put together a crack band (they must do it for love, because i can’t imagine he can pay them much) and tonight was no different. prairie prince, kasim sulton, ralph schuckett, greg hawkes…all brought something unique and personal to an already unique and personal set of music.

highlights for me were an extended “you don’t have to camp around,” a nice long version of the motown medley, a throat- and emotion-wrenching “i don’t want to tie you down,” and a stirring “just one victory” to close. but the entire set was inspired, touching, goofy, fun, rockin’, you name it. after 70 minutes, everyone in the theater had forgotten about the opening set and left buzzing about how todd had managed to pull it off again. still an iconoclast at age 61, rundgren demonstrated why so many of us have been such passionate proselytizers for him over the years. it was a beautiful thing to see. and hopefully this recording will attest to the fact that it was also a beautiful thing to hear.

here’s a sample from that night, “when the shit hits the fan/sunset blvd.” enjoy.

why? because i said so. in this radio spot right here, actually.

Posted via email from litmus’s posterous

(note: i’m going to be testing out the posterous-to-wordpress integration over the next few posts in an effort to jumpstart my rather dormant blogging efforts.)

posterous (www.posterous.com) is a pretty interesting proposition: post just about anything anywhere via [...]]]>

(note: i’m going to be testing out the posterous-to-wordpress integration over the next few posts in an effort to jumpstart my rather dormant blogging efforts.)

posterous (www.posterous.com) is a pretty interesting proposition: post just about anything anywhere via email. now, wordpress is incredibly easy to use as is, but sometimes adding media files gets a bit cumbersome. posterous allows you to link your various social media accounts (e.g. facebook, flickr, tumblr, etc.)—as well as your blog—via their APIs, and then upload posts and files just by sending an email. cool stuff. so here’s the inaugural test from big microscope. i’m dipping back into my audio archives to a show i recorded in 2001.

old 97’s
2001-05-11
slim’s
san francisco, ca

i was right in the middle of a very dense, very drunk, very loud crowd. not ideal for recording, but hey, it was an old 97’s show. i should have been a human bobblehead, bouncing and careening to the overdriven twang lickfest. the old 97’s are always great, but this was a great period for a great band. "satellite rides" was going to be the big breakthrough after the crossover success of "Fight Songs," but somehow greater exposure/recognition never happened. rhett’s solo career also began around this time, so perhaps that contributed to the relative stall in the 97’s rise in popularity.

i’ve seen the old 97’s probably 10 times over the years and this stands out in my memory (and upon listening back) as one of the better performances. great set list too. here’s a sample track, "Big Brown Eyes." the full show can be downloaded over at DIME if you have an account: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=259565

ps. yes, it bothers me that the old 97’s insist on using the apostrophe in their name. no, i’m not that much of a grammar cop to copy edit the name of a band, no matter how much it galls me to type it that way. i guess i can justify it mentally by thinking to myself "well, the band is ‘possessive’ about their incorrect spelling, so i’m going to let this one pass."

<>

Posted via email from litmus’s posterous

this ought [...]]]> the analogy has been made before, but it bears repeating. we, the people, are behaving like a battered spouse who forgives his/her abuser. it’s sickening to watch us. and we know it. we can’t bear to actually act on what we know must be done. we ought to be punching back. hard.

this ought to be required reading for every american. mark danner lays out the facts and they aren’t pretty. an excerpt from the ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody by the International Committee of the Red Cross:

The result is a document—labeled “confidential” and clearly intended only for the eyes of those senior American officials to whom the CIA’s Mr. Rizzo would show it—that tells a certain kind of story, a narrative of what happened at “the black sites” and a detailed description, by those on whom they were practiced, of what the President of the United States described to Americans as an “alternative set of procedures.” It is a document for its time, literally “impossible to put down,” from its opening page…

...to its stark and unmistakable conclusion:

The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Such unflinching clarity, from the body legally charged with overseeing compliance with the Geneva Conventions—in which the terms “torture” and “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” are accorded a strictly defined legal meaning—couldn’t be more significant, or indeed more welcome after years in which the President of the United States relied on the power of his office either to redefine or to obfuscate what are relatively simple words.

subject: your behavior

yo davy:

i heard about your unfortunate episode at the airport last week and thought i’d offer a [...]]]> after reading about senator david vitter’s latest bout with bad behavior (he’s a naughty little boy, for those who aren’t aware), i dashed off a quick note to him via his senate site.

subject: your behavior

yo davy:

i heard about your unfortunate episode at the airport last week and thought i’d offer a couple of pieces of advice:

1. read those guidelines the airlines publish, particularly the one about arriving for your flight at least two hours before departure. surprisingly, they apply to all travelers, including self-righteous assholes who hold public office and are members of the party that created so many fake ‘terror’ threats for political reasons that the entire security system is now bogged down with unnecessary and expensive routines.


2. if an airline employee doesn’t recognize you from your cute little ‘senator’ pin, just tell them you’re the republican guy who likes to pretend he’s a family man and a good role model for his three daughters while paying for sex with hookers who let you wear diapers. that will help differentiate you from the republican senator who likes to troll for anonymous blow jobs in airports. i know, i know: it’s hard to keep up with all of you hypocrites, but most people are pretty sharp and will be able to remember your particular set of identifying characteristics if just reminded of them.


3. stop giving louisiana a bad name with your unfortunate behavior. it would be one thing if you actually did something worthwhile for the fine folks of your great state to offset your antics. but barring that unlikely occurrence, it’s probably best that you follow the lead of that classic cartoon character, snagglepuss, (oh the irony) and “exit stage left!”

all my best,

great little montage of senator loser mcangry at tonight’s debate.

watching these two together is truly fascinating; the contrast could not be more stark. and the choice could not be more obvious. more fascinating still is the fact that there are actually people out there who believe mccain would be a better leader [...]]]>

great little montage of senator loser mcangry at tonight’s debate.

watching these two together is truly fascinating; the contrast could not be more stark. and the choice could not be more obvious. more fascinating still is the fact that there are actually people out there who believe mccain would be a better leader of this country.

no meaningful comparison between the two would lead one to that conclusion. not a comparison of intellect. nor of temperament. nor of judgment. obama is clearly – to anyone with eyes, ears and a brain – the smarter, more even-keeled, wiser, thoughtful, empathetic, and POSITIVE candidate. it’s not even close.

in fact, it is becoming more and more clear that people who plan on going to the mat for john mccain on november 4th can truly only fall into some simple categories:

• racists. of course they’re out there. sad but true. real support of education policy in this country will go a long way toward eradicating this problem. but until we fix the root cause, we have to turn over the rocks and let them scurry out into the light, exposed for what they are. a black president. get over it. get used to it. understand why it doesn’t matter.


• selfish ‘financialists’. this group can’t see beyond the faux ‘robin hood’ argument put forth by mccain and the republicans about ‘spreading the wealth’. paying one dollar more (regardless of how many dollars one might already have) is “un-american” and “antithetical to the beliefs of our capitalist system.” this group generally has little understanding of macroeconomics or the concept of the greater good.


• the incredibly stupid.  exhibits A and B: gayle quinnell and jonah goldberg. there are many others, unfortunately. they watch fox news. they think jerome corsi is a journalist. they think barack obama is a muslim. they think the republican party is actually looking out for them but they’ve never bothered to actually see if that’s true or not.


• ‘down with the ship’ republicans. often, but not always, a subset or matching set of the ‘selfish financialists’, this group just loves being republican. it’s like a frat. or sports team fan club. USA! REPUBLICAN! there are chants, bumper stickers, and a desperate need for a party with which to identify. republicans to the death, the ‘country first’ mantra of the mccain campaign is a bitter joke. nobody believes that for a second; it’s party first and always has been.


• single-issue voters. gay marriage. gun control. prayer in school. abortion. this group can’t see the forest for the trees. and in most cases, the single issue is one that is not a majority-held position, but rather a morality-based issue of personal choice favored by a few. given most of these ‘wedge’ issues have some association with religious beliefs, the republican party is the only one willing to meld church and state to lock down the voting bloc.

it’s possible there may be more. i’m sure a mccain voter would never want to be put into any of the above buckets, but any arguments made with regard to “better policies” or “higher integrity” or “he was a POW” are easily swatted down like horseflies in 105-degree heat.

i long for a thinking, feeling adult in the white house. we can’t afford to elect a me-first asshole of the first degree like john mccain.

mccain has neither the guts nor the moral compass to denounce the [...]]]> nobody’s calling this pathetic excuse for a human being a “hero” these days. here’s mr. “country first” at one of his nuremberg – er, campaign – rallies today with what is obviously a sizable chunk of the low-information voter bloc in attendance.

mccain has neither the guts nor the moral compass to denounce the supporter who yells out “terrorist!” in response to mccain’s question “who is the real barack obama?”

this is today’s republican party in a nutshell: ignorant, living in fear of manufactured threats and enemies, selfish and self-serving, and utterly incapable of acting with civility, compassion or grace. i imagine that true self-described ‘fiscal conservatives’ and/or ‘goldwater republicans’ (commonly mistaken for libertarians) have already abandoned the shitheap that is their party. but those who continue to claim proud membership in the republican club are either incredibly and willfully stupid – or morally bankrupt.