Radio Silence

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. I do intend to return eventually to this blog, but I’m weathering a bit of personal turbulence at the moment.

While I’m gone, here’s one of my favourite bands (My Morning Jacket), with guest vocals from my favourite singer (Mr. Eddie Vedder), singing one of my favourite songs (“It Makes No Difference” by The Band). Things aren’t so bad.

No dejes que!

Well, last Friday was the first-ever performance of the band I’m a part of - Katie Loves Pain. We played at 3 Minots on St. Laurent, for a crowd of almost 100 people! I was really excited, since it was the first time for me playing music in public in a long time, and the first time ever playing in a rock band. We’d practiced enough so that I wasn’t too nervous, though the pre-show tequila from Xoxo certainly helped. And the mid-show tequila, I guess! I also had an excellent new cowboy shirt, thanks to my new shirt-shopping buddy.

We played mostly covers, and took turns with lead vocals and guitar and bass duties. I played acoustic and electric guitars (finally giving my SG its first real live workout), bass, sang, and got to play drums on one song. I don’t really know how to play drums, but the band is very forgiving. Our encore was totally unplanned, which was fun, but maybe a bit scattered - it turned out Volker and I knew less of the words to “Cortez the Killer” than we thought we did.

Nevertheless, from all reports the crowd had a really good time, and we got an invite to play the bar again whenever we wanted. Shawn’s brother took some pictures which are available here. Maybe more photos (and video?) will surface at some point. If you were there, thanks for coming out! Next time around is October 12 at McGill’s Thomson House.

Here’s the setlist, with the original artists (or songwriters from our band) in brackets. Shawn and Volker contributed originals, the rest are covers.

Set 1:

1. For The Turnstiles (Neil Young)
2. Why Be So Curious (The Sadies)
3. Long Prairie Road (Shawn Leroux)
4. Wrecking Ball (Gillian Welch)
5. Cold-Blooded Old Times (Smog)
6. California Stars (Wilco)
7. Chick In Jar (Volker Bahn)
8. Keep The Car Running (Arcade Fire)
9. On The Bus Mall (The Decemberists)
10. Fake Palindromes (Andrew Bird)
11. No Dejes Que (Caifanes)

Set 2:

1. Le Train (Vilain Pinguin)
2. Murray (Pete Yorn)
3. Miserlou (Greek Traditional)
4. Quand Ca Sera Elle (Shawn Leroux)
5. Creepin’ In (Norah Jones / Dolly Parton)
6. Sweethearts (Camper van Beethoven)
7. Catalog (Shawn Leroux)
8. Sweet Jane (Velvet Underground)
9. Cowgirl in the Sand (Neil Young)
10. Wake Up (Arcade Fire)

Totally Unplanned Encore:

1. For The Turnstiles (Neil Young)
2. Cortez the Killer (Neil Young)
3. Sons and Daughters (The Decemberists)

Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy

September The Fifth (Part I)

Here’s an index to the current batch of written (and yet-to-be-written) Gillian Welch posts:

Written:

• Background on Gillian and David

Yet-to-be-written:

• Uncomfortable albums
• Revelator / April 14th
• Legends and little people
• First lovers, Highways dreamt of
• Wrap-up

Watching Waves, Moving Faders

I was having a discussion about music with myself the other day, and thinking something like “well, Time (The Revelator) is obviously Gillian Welch’s best album, but I find myself listening to Soul Journey and even Revival much more often”. That seemed like a bit of a contradiction to me, so I thought I’d try to explain myself to, uh, myself. I’d like to try to write a series of posts about Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and specifically about the album Time (The Revelator). I’ll start with some background on Gillian and David, and then try to explore a few different aspects of Time.

How do I know Gillian Welch?

Probably from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Gillian sings "I'll Fly Away" with Alison Krauss, and "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby" with Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. She also has a cameo in the film, as the girl trying to buy the Soggy Bottom Boys single!

Who’s this David Rawlings character?

"We're a two-piece band called Gillian Welch". David plays guitar, sings harmony, and helps write the songs.

What kind of music do they play?

Lots, really, but they’re best known for playing stripped-down folk and bluegrass music, featuring Welch and Rawlings singing in close harmony.

I’m a big guitar nerd. What the heck is that thing David Rawlings is playing?

Me too, apparently it’s a 1935 Epiphone Olympic Archtop.

What else have you got?

• Wikipedia links for Gillian and David
• Their discography at all music
• Their official website, with a helpful biography

How should I get into them?

Maybe start with this video:



And if you like that, check out Soul Journey, then Time (The Revelator), then the rest. It’s probably best to avoid reading too many interviews before listening to the albums. A lot of the material on the later albums is pretty autobiographical, and I always like to think about the lyrics by themselves for awhile before reading too much of the backstory. Alright, enough introduction!

I Thought It Was A Metaphor

Oh God, we’re on MySpace now.

There’s one song up there, that was written by our fearless leader Shawn. It’s called “Catalog”, and I always thought it was an extended metaphor about relationships. He tells me I’m all wrong but I don’t believe him.

Also, I may as well say that we’ll be performing live (live!) for the very first time, next Friday Sept. 14 at 3 Minots on St. Laurent. Come check us out, anonymous internet people!

Also also, this is the 100th post on this blog! Hooray! In a sense, I think it's kind of fitting that it's about our first show.

No 'Stairway To Heaven'