The Fabled Automatic

Usually on Friday morning at this time I am stuck in lab meeting wondering 'dear lord, when will this end?' The last two weeks have been lab meeting free, and I'll take advantage today to post for the 2nd time this week, who knew? Amazing! Picked up a new band through my 'Gaslight Anthem' channel on Pandora yesterday.  The Weeks hail from Jackson, Mississippi, and remind me a lot of Kings of Leon.  In fact lead singer Cyle Barnes sometimes sounds so much like KOL frontman Kaleb Followell, I had to check that The Weeks were not a side-project.   Two songs that came up on Pandora grabbed my attention and I decided to pick up their debut record "Comeback Cadillac" this morning.  Two spins in and I really dig it.  Mostly unique, straight ahead rock with some slower songs arranged around the acoustic guitar that really stand out.  Here's what I heard on Pandora, illustrating this pretty well.  Love the hook in  'Buttons', and 'Sai

  I have really fallen in love with The Avett Brothers over the past couple of years, and am excited for their upcoming album The Carpenter out September 11.  I'll see the tour at the Fabulous Fox here in St Louis about two weeks later.  A great preview of the new record from NPR in this field recording of the first single "Live and Die".  Love, love this song.  Seth Avett's voice is just amazing, so distinct.  Scott's voice goes perfectly with it, and the harmonies on this one are great.  Check it out!  

Courtesy of NPR.  Posted about this a while back, but I am very excited about the new album from The Gaslight Anthem entitled 'Handwritten'.  As they often do NPR has a 'First Listen' .  This things are usually up for a limited time, so check it out while its hot!

Bruce and the Band are out on the road, and though I have yet to catch the show, all of the video I have seen shows them at the top of their game.  www.brucespringsteen.net has posted lots of very good "pro shot" videos from the tour.  A couple of recent uploads stand out. The E-Street Shuffle was an early "holy shit" song for me when I was really getting into Springsteen. Heard it for the first time my junior year in college in Pat's car which had a great stereo, and was blown away by the ending.  It was 25 years old then, is almost 40 years old now, but sounded as fresh as ever last night with the Roots sitting in. Bruce played Paris for the 4th of July and, fittingly, did a beautiful solo-piano version of Independence Day, one of my favorite songs off of The River.  Check it out at http://brucespringsteen.net/ .  Scroll down just a bit and you will spot it.  Enjoy!    

Been burning up The Band on the ipod over the last month and have really gained new appreciation for a band and a musician I already held in high esteem.  Came across a couple of good items  From Wilco .  Love the picture of Levon and drummer Glen Kocthe.   Really nice piece on a fans' first visit to a Midnight Ramble (long, but worth it.) Nice song (w/ Max Weinberg) and interview with Levon on Late Night with Conan in 1993.  

The new record from The Gaslight Anthem "Handwritten", is due out July 24.  Hear a preview here . We have written about these guys before , and this should be one of the highlights of the summer.  Produced by Brendon O'Brien , this first song has his wall of sound hallmarks all over it. Sometimes this style serves him well, sometimes lots gets lost in the mix.  We shall see.  

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band (eh.. orchestra these days) have played 4 shows since the passing of Levon Helm, with many in the fan community, including myself, wondering if and when some tribute might come.  The Seeger Sessions Band played "Rag Mama Rag" several times, making it an obvious choice.  I would have loved to hear them tackle "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down". Instead, as the the first US leg of the tour ended last night in Newark, they opened the encore with "The Weight".  A fitting tribute and a heartfelt rendition by Bruce, who I image has already been thinking a lot about loss nightly on stage these past few months. 

I suppose if you are of the inclination to read this blog, you already know that Rock and Roll lost a true giant last week with the death of Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band. His unmistakable voice and unique but succinct drumming style helped define the one-of-a-kind sound of The Band, not to mention backing Bob Dylan on Blonde on Blonde and his infamous first 'electric tour'. Here is one of his many shining moments. What beats this?   Since his passing, I have been mildly obsessed with learning more about The Band, how they arrived at The Last Waltz, and what happened afterward; it wasn't pretty.  Originally I was going to write a post about how surprised  I was that it had gotten so ugly and how sad it all made me. But its out there, just google it; read and decide for yourself.   The Band is a key musical touchstone for me and epitomizes much of what I love about Rock and Roll.  I sort of consider them the opposite of The Beatles. 

Excited about the first solo effort from former White Stripe Jack White next month. Big fan of his work, especially Van Lear Rose, the Lorettea Lynn project he produced and played on a few years back. Spectacular album , if you don't own it, you should; her part on each song was done in one take. He also has a side project- The Rancoutours' that is definitely on my radar, but as yet unexplored. I've heard a couple of tracks off of the new record and so far, I like. See the video for the very cool "Love Interruption" here . Super talented and unique, I really look forward to this record. Face it, Jack White has got it going on, who else has the (ahem) 'guts' to get up in front of President Obama and Paul McCartney and pull this off?  

It was a rocky start for me and the most influential band of my generation.   OK, the most influential band ever .   The British invasion hit when I was in 7 th grade.   The Beatles were everywhere.   You couldn’t get away from Beatlemania no matter how hard you tried.   When it came to the interlopers from across the pond I personally preferred the edginess of the Kinks and the driving beats of the Dave Clark Five, but the Beatles so dominated the radio stations those bands could hardly get a song in edge-wise.   Strike One. The Fab Four pushed my beloved Beach Boys from the top of the charts.   Strike Two. But what really put me off was how the girls just swooned over them.   There I was, thirteen, just starting to notice (and be noticed by?) girls, and along comes this gang of Brits with their lilting accents and long hair. Was I getting noticed any more?   Not a chance.   How was a short, skinny, prepubescent teenager supposed to compete with Paul McCartney and John Lennon?

I worked hard on the best of 2011 post and thought it turned out pretty well. However, in the last few weeks I have been listening to one major oversight from that post. Death Cab For Cutie's Codes and Keys . Sonofabitch this is a good record. They are very sonic and 'deep' but this album is 100% accessible and really shows what DCFC is all about. Great lyrics, unique lead vocal and really interesting, progressive music. I love these guys, a huge new beacon on my radar. Check it out.

So I am looking for ways to keep us more on-task as far as posting to the blog.  We appreciate all of the great feedback we have received, but as my wife (author of a much better blog than this) reminds me, if you don't post often, they don't come to read.  You may have noticed our posts tend to be long and involved; that takes time and editing, especially for a perfectionist like myself.  In an effort to improve and to give you reason to visit more often,  we are going to try and post some shorter, easier to prepare/ digest stuff that catches our attention.  Here's one: Song of the Day (won't pretend it's going to be everyday, but you get the idea). One of the great things about my job is I can wear headphones about 75% of the time.  This= lots of tunes, and I often think "I should post about this". Today it's the record Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket.  This is the only thing I own by them, but they have been in my pipeline of bands-to-check-out fo

Kevin's album of the year: Old School-Nils Lofgren I read an interview about this album on Backstreets and decided to give it a try. I’ve been listening to Nils since his power pop , guitar slinging days of the early 70s, way before he joined the E Street Band. What intrigued me from the interview was that a lot of the album was recorded “live” without overdubs and post production.  Lay down the track and let ‘er rip. I certainly wasn’t disappointed.  His guitar craft is better than ever and his voice has matured. The album is a great blend of rockers, ballads and  blues with some old school Nils ala the Grin days, the power pop of Love Stumbles On and Just Because You Love Me thrown in to tie it all together.  To top it all off, I can relate the titles: 'Old School' , 'Sixty is the New Eighteen' (I can only hope!) and ' Ain’t Too Many of Us Left'. My favorite song on the album is ' Miss You Ray' , Lofgren’s tribute to Ray Charles.   “I poun

Other recommended listening from 2011 The Damnwells – No One Listens to the Band Anymore.   I picked up this band from the guys at the Popdose podcast . They share my tastes and generally steer me in the direction of good music. I don’t really know how to describe this band and can’t pinpoint exactly what I like about them, but I listened to this album a lot this year.  It is great music for work; upbeat and very catchy so that you don’t have to pay attention all the time to enjoy it, but well written so it is worth really listening when you do. Lots of good rock and roll on this record, but the slower ‘Werewolves’ is a standout and really showcases frontman Alex Dezen’s voice and songwriting ability.  --SCB Alison Kraus and Union Station - Paper Airplane   Union Station is everything that’s right about bluegrass.  This is a group of very talented musicians and Alison Krauss sings like an angel. The album opens with her soaring soprano on the title track and closes with my favo

Happy New Year from the Fabled Automatic.  Sorry for the month long hiatus, holidays and all that.   But we are back and hopefully better than ever with lots of great music to look forward to in 2012.   Look for a dual post this weekend about our favorites of 2011, it was a great year for the artists we love and for new discoveries. Speaking of music to look forward to in 2012....  We FINALLY get the news today of the new Springsteen release entitled "Wrecking Ball".  www.backstreets.com   The first single "We take care of our own" is out today.  Lots has been said about the new record. Of note from manager John Landau. "Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years."   It has been described as "very rock, and very angry" using a wide range of influences.  Regardless of whether you agree with h