Bobby Bare, Jr. at The Sunset Tavern in Ballard

We saw an awesome show last night at the Sunset Tavern in our neighborhood. My sister in law is a long time fan of Bobby. I knew his dad's music. In fact, I thought that who we were going to see, although I thought it mighty strange he was playing at the grungy but beloved Sunset Tavern. Like some other alt country folk, Bobby has a twisted sense of humor. Bobby stopped in Seattle after touring with Son Volt, and playing at Austin's SXSW. From a recent review in the Baeble blog:

"Blown to New York on a carefree combination of crude oil chords, and sweet summer melodies, Bobby Bare delivers the kind of take on authentic country blues and southern rock that lets the whiskey running through your blood do its job. Humid and hazy at times, fearlessly grungy at others, Bare brought the region that bred him to the Bowery's stage. Whether lamenting for a Flat-Chested Woman in two-part harmony, moaning and whaling like a real singing cowboy, or rolling through rock and roll barn burners, Bobby and his band rollicked like a southern fried Guided By Voices. "

Bobby Bare, Jr. , 43, has recorded several solo albums, along with two major label albums with his band, Bare, Jr., (1998 and 2000) and his new, loosely-confederated band, the Young Criminals Starvation League. Last night he released a DIY album, American Bread, consisting of him covering songs by Bread and America. You get the feeling Bobby is just barely keeping it together, and yet he is sweet and funny on stage.

Bare is the son of country musician Bobby Bare. In 1974 — when Bobby Jr. was eight — they were both nominated for a Grammy for the song "Daddy What If."

He plays now with the Young Criminals Starvation League, a constantly-changing group of musicians who have released three studio albums, an EP, and a live album. Bobby will be at the Sunset Tavern again this coming Friday, for an early show. Get tickets early--last night's sold out.
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Video: The Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity - The Story Behind The Album

A video on the making of the Old 97's latest album, Blame It On Gravity. The album is very good, and it sounds great!


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The Dusty 45's perform at Chop Suey in Seattle

I saw the Dusty 45's again last night at King Cobra, a new (and fantastic) rock club in Seattle. Why these guys didn't explode nationally is a mystery to me. They're skilled, their music is infectious, and they're masters of fusing rock with alt country, rockabilly, pop, and good old fashioned western swing. With a touch of surf music ala The Ventures (other local heroes) and a little bit of that wacky mariachi trumpet. Here is a YouTube vid of their performance at Chop Suey.


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The Dusty 45's perform Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy"

Seattle's Duty 45's perform Buddy Holly's classic Oh Boy. I saw the Dusty 45's at The Hideout Thursday night, and had a ball. I regret that I didn't know about them sooner, because I've missed a lot of great shows. For my money, they are one of the most interesting and tuneful bands playing in Seattle today. They are playing this Friday in Seattle, about which, more later.

The Making of The Old 97's Satellite Rides (By Rhett Miller)

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If you have stop here often, you probably know that I have become a huge Old 97's fan over the last year. Some of you are saying "what took you so long?" and the rest are saying, huh? All I can say is go out tomorrow and buy Satellite Rides and Too Far To Care for starters.

When the Old 97's created their fifth album, it was their third after signing with Elektra (most famous, probably, as The Doors label). Elektra commissioned a making of piece from the band. Rhett Miller, singer, songwriter, front-man, and heart-throb wrote the following for Elektra:



Hi.

I’m tempted to tell you how good our new record is, but that sort of thing is hard to communicate – like describing a card trick. I will instead tell you WHY it is so good.

In early 2000 it came time to get to work on what would become Satellite Rides. I thought about it and realized that the Old 97’s function best in close proximity. Four interdependent pieces of a larger whole. For example, when we first formed the band three members lived in the same apartment building. When we made our second album (1995’s Wreck Your Life), we slept on the floor of an attic recording studio in Chicago’s Wicker Park.. Our best music is bred by living like a litter of puppies, all over each other.

On the other hand, Fight Songs (our 1999 record, and second Elektra release) was a geographical nightmare. By then, we lived apart – the band in one city and me in another. During the pre-production for that album, I flew to Texas one week a month for two months in order to rehearse with the guys. That’s a sum total of a mere two weeks preparation. And, we’re slow-learners! I’m proud of Fight Songs, but it was a hard record to make.

So for Satellite Rides I came home to Texas. Abandoning LA for the spring. The idea was to be intimate enough with these songs to cut them live if we so fancied. To achieve that level of comfort we spent three months working. Working! Everyday. Like regular working stooges. Granted we took long lunches and left early sometimes, but come on… We started in Ken’s guest bedroom with acoustic guitars and Philip playing drums on a cardboard box.. We wound up at Universal Rehearsal, punching the clock like we had years before in my mom’s garage. I’d already lived most of these songs while writing them, and I needed the guys to love them and believe in them also. It was easy to get excited about the great tunes Murry brought to the table. “Can’t Get A Line” was the highlight of every rehearsal for me – there is no song that is more fun to play (it’s in C if you want to try it at home). Our spring was spent in a fugue-state. Mantra-like repetition of these songs (“Rollerskate Skinny”, “King Of All The World”, “Designs On You”, “Up The Devil’s Pay”, “Nervous Guy”, etc. ad infinitum) until we lived inside of them – we are after all very much a live band.

In August we disappeared into the Texas hill country. Willie Nelson’s studio outside Austin. Unfortunately Willie (whom we all count among our heroes) was out of town for the duration of our stay – probably not a bad thing since the “Oh-my-god-Willie-is-in-the-next-room” factor could have wrecked the whole session. His recording studio suited our needs perfectly, set as it is atop a hill overlooking the studio’s two swimming pools and below, Lake Travis. I was born in Austin, and we’ve all lived there at various times in our lives, so we truly felt at home.

We invited Wally Gagel who’d produced our Elektra debut Too Far To Care and is, like me, a transplanted Angeleno (though he is native to Boston). Also from the LA area we recruited the freakishly-nimble-fingered engineer Robert Carranza. And we started laying tape. Even though I caught myself knocking wood 50 times a day, I had no doubt these sessions would yield the best Old 97’s album yet.

The daily regimen consisted of some music, a lot of swimming, an hour or so of sloppily but heartily played tennis, shooting a BB gun at some cans we hung in a copse of trees, and at least a quarter hour counting falling stars at the end of the night just to wind down. At the risk of mixing metaphors, I must tell you that this litter of puppies was in hog heaven.

When the grueling experience of recording was over, we took the tapes to the Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles where Tchad Blake performs his particular brand of magic. He panned left. He tweaked right. He did a little dance in his chair. He mixed the album. Mixed it up good. Somehow made it squishy and warm and at the same time architecturally precise. This man’s genius is his intuition and it was a joy to listen to him assemble our Satellite Rides.

Hooray for the Old 97’s! I’m proud of us. Why is Satellite Rides so good? It’s simple. We took a batch of killer songs and played the hell out of them. What more can you ask of a rock band?
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The Old 97's show at Stubb's BBQ was a rainout . . .but the Small Stars were great!

click to enlarge The Small Stars

I went to Stubb's BBQ in Austin for the Old 97's/Small Stars show. Maybe twenty minutes after the last Small Stars tune, the skies opened with some fantastic Texas thunder & lightning and win and rain. The ticket-taker earlier told me no, it won't start raining until midnight. Now, I have some Seattle rain cred. and am, in fact, a rain fan. There was water in the air. It was about 80, with humidity in the high-90s. . .in other words a couple percentage points from being an actual mist. I was not shocked to see the rain.

I did not get to see the Old 97s, but I did get to see the Small Stars as the opening act. And they were great!

Small Stars are a quirky melange of influences. In a good way! Miles Zuniga, is in another band, Fastball. Small Stars have a great buzz in Austin. Read more about them and hear a song here. My favorite song title of the show: "That's What God Made Whiskey For." The Small Stars play funny, seriously rocking songs, with great chops and a lot of theater and vamping. With these guys, it's a nice schtick. . .a nice balance between hard rock and alt+country with maybe a whiff of Zappa and The Kinks and Big Star and The Beatles and even maybe a touch of Bongwater, the Dukes of Stratosphere, Wheezer, and finally a good-blast of Tex-Mex and the Austin sound. I liked them a lot. And they came across as really nice, guys. . .weird as they were. Christopher Gray wrote in the Austin Chronicle: "A rare example of a half-baked concept fermenting into a full-fledged band, Austin’s Small Stars smooth-talked noted L.A. engineer Bob Clearmountain (AC/DC, INXS) into brightening the edges of their self-released sophomore effort, Tijuana Dreams, out of pocket no less. Which would be all for pristine-sounding naught if their lounge-lizard tales of showbiz delusions and debauchery didn’t cut frighteningly close to home." Buy their record!
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The Old 97s in Austin

I am going to see the Old 97s tonight at Stubbs' in Austin. It should be a great show in the dirt courtyard there.

These guys are an alt-country band (think Whiskeytown, etc). But better: great guitars, harmony, fantastic lyrics, melody, and a power pop sheen. I am including a video below from You Tube.


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