Friday, July 2, 2010

TVD's The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel


Greetings from Laurel Canyon! | We’re having a BBQ and we’re busy with key decisions to make; potatoes salad vs. cole slaw, tofu dog vs. bratwurst, Germany vs. Argentina and many more.

Music is always an essential element to a proper BBQ and this week’s playlist is my distinct “Idelic” blend of tunes to flip burgers and chase kids to. Key ingredients are twelve bar blues chords, heavy metal licks, and a pinch of soul.

If you have a cool chick like me, feel free to take a request or two from your wife. I for one will remember it's Independence Day not Bob Marley Day! No offense to those who will spend their BBQ listening to Marley-like muzac but it’s a great opportunity to drop a few “odd ball” records into mix to let them know who in control of the grill!

xosidealer
idelicsounds.com | @sidelic

The Idelic Hour [7/2/2010] (Mp3, 86Mg)


TVD | The Caribbean - A "Discontinued Perfume" Tour Diary


More dispatches from the road from the lads in The Caribbean...


The Daytrotter Studio

JULY 1
Is Rock Island a town or a city? Some people call this one of the Quad CITIES (Latin for 4 cities); I call these people Illinois & Iowa. Do they have a cathedral? According to a man I met in London, that's the measure (which is why Liverpool is a city not a town).

The Daytrotter Gang

Either way, what are the hippest people in town/city like? Turns out they (collectively Daytrotter) are very nice & run a pro restaurant- quality ship.

The session went nicely. 2 songs from the upcoming Discontinued Perfume record, 1 unreleased song that might've been on Discon/Fume if I hadn't had a nervous breakdown in February (Pitchfork headline: mental collapse of singer yields sweet B-side), and our "hit" (The Go From Tactical).

At Random - Specialty Drinks Since 1964

Things were fun; they had a bathroom that locked and cool equipment; tears were at a minimum; and we made some good art w/these lovely people.

On to our Milwaukee show tonight and (one hopes) some vintage porn.

Milwaukee: it was a good night.

TVD: Bonzai!


Unlike yesterday's "Bad for Good" - Jim Steinman's solo LP which was planned as the follow up to Meatloaf's outrageously successful "Bat Out of Hell" (until something happened) ...I love this record. Somehow it still works for me even with all the over the top contrivances that might have doomed "Bad for Good."

Hell, it's got Todd Rundgren behind the board and the E Street Band and Utopia as the backing ensemble. Pedigree galore.

And it's a very summer, Fourth of July, Budweiser in a can, keep it low, in the back seat of a Camaro kind of record. Or it was for me way back when in steamy Jersey summers.

It's sort of a pretty record too and it's never thought of in those terms. "Heaven Can Wait" and "For Crying Out Lord" are both quite gorgeous in a way. The opening keyboard notes of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" ring with sadness and regret. Which I know nothing about.

A little while back I found the whole LP on line, condensed into one Mp3 but reordered for some reason, as if shuffling the tracks around would breathe something new into the dusty grooves. (And it does.)

So, Happy Fourth! (Keep that beer down.)


Meatloaf - Bat Out of Hell (Mp3)

TVD's The Ardent Sessions Presents: Raina Rose


"Growing up in Portland, OR, I have to admit I was oblivious to the rich muddy history of the Memphis Music scene with the exception of a vague awareness of Sun Studios and Elvis Presley, given to me by my father and his college degree from UC Santa Cruz in the history of Country and Western Music. So when I came to Ardent, referred to the lovely Rachel by my best friend and occasional tour partner, John Elliott, I had to admit I was incredibly taken aback by the eponymous albums hanging on the brick walls of the hallway down which I was stumbling, sleep deprived.

It was February of 2009 and the International Folk Alliance was exploding in the Memphis Marriott overlooking the deep and hungry Mississippi. I am in turns either a tornado, or a responsible and clean cut grown-up... while participating in this conference I tend towards the former, often staying up til 8am, drunk and barefoot in the hotel lobby with my dear brothers and sisters in arms; comrades who understand and also subject themselves to a meager living, the world through a windshield, small stages with (hopefully) quiet eager audiences, stranger's sofas, and gas station coffee... all to play songs.

I found myself driven to Ardent by one of my heroes, Cory Branan, Memphis's prodigal son and painfully brilliant songwriter. Cory gave me the quick run-down of who had wrung the very blood from their hearts into the red brick and blonde walls of Ardent Studios... I obviously had no idea what I was getting into. The faces of famous musicians watched me pass by as I walked to a room that has the warmth of countless voices embedded in it's walls.


Weary, I played my heart out (a heart which had been recently broken and also just been stunned by the walls of Jerusalem two weeks prior) to an incredible sound engineer, Alan Burcham, the beautiful Rachel Hurley, and a few others. You can hear my voice crack like ice in a few tracks. It felt only natural to let it all go in that room. I am so grateful I got the chance to sing under the branches of that amazing family tree. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know anything about it before I set foot there, I probably would've been a bit more nervous.

I left feeling entirely more full than when I arrived. My deep appreciation to Ardent for capturing me in this moment... It is a true honor to be included in Ardent Presents. May it continue to bring the sweat and the blood and the spit out of people, in song form, that is.

I am writing this from the shot-gun seat of the 15 passenger van I am traveling in all summer with my band—Andrew Pressman on bass, Trevor Smith on banjo and Anthony da Costa (a fantastic songwriter in his own right) on lead guitar and harmonies. We are pushing my new album When May Came which includes many of the songs I recorded in my first Ardent Session.

Driving through the luscious hills of southern California, we just finished listening to Cory's Ardent Session which was recorded in the hour after mine that same day. I sweet talked the engineer into mailing me a copy of Cory's sesh in addition to mine. His recording has become a favorite among our friends. Shhhh!"
—Raina Rose




The Ardent Sessions Presents: Raina Rose | The Vinyl District Podcast [72.5Mgs]

Enter to win Raina Rose's CD "When May Came" by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but hey, who's counting?)

To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.