Late Night Pick of the Night: Das Racist

Hope you all had a splendid Thanksgiving weekend.  I caught "The Muppets" movie with the family on Sunday and it was excellent, with "Rainbow Connection" still bringing a lump to my throat after all these years.

Tonight, check out the experimental, satirical and funny rap band Das Racist (the name is tongue in cheek) on Conan at 11 PM on TBS. 

Late Night Pick of the Night: Paul Simon

It's Paul Simon week here in Richmond so check out Paul tonight on a repeat of Conan at 11 PM on TBS.  Matthew Broderick is on too. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Paul Simon, Carbon Leaf, Poston Brown Project

As to be expected, at least in Richmond, it's a slow week for concerts the week of Thanksgiving.  But as with most Thanksgivings, people come back to visit their hometown and homeboys Carbon Leaf are no exception.  They'll do a show at The National on Friday night.  Tix are $15.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with openers Say Chance and Scars on 45.  Here's Carbon Leaf performing "The Sea" in Charlottesville earlier this month.



Also on Friday night, Poston Brown Project will perform at Cary St. Cafe.  Show starts at 10 and it's $7 to get in.  As they put it, "We play covers that you like to hear and like to get drunk to."  And they promise to play lots o' Dead since they'll be at Cary St. Cafe.  Here they are doing "Friend of the Devil" at Ashland Coffee & Tea in June:



On Tuesday night, the ageless and perpetually wonderful Paul Simon will be at the Landmark Theater.  The show starts at 7:30 PM.  Tix are $87 and $67 and if you didn't get 'em yet, they are down to "Partial View Seats".  Here's Paul performing "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" in 2000:



For your Thanksgiving weekend listening pleasure, here's 10 seconds from every hit song of the 70's.  This was my AM radio period so it was a nice walk down nostalgia lane for me.  I listened to 1976 - 1979 and was struck by a couple things.  I had forgotten how many hits Barbara Streisand had in that era.  The Bee Gees owned 1977 with seeemingly every other song being by them, written by then or produced by them.  Some people may dismiss disco (I dig it) but it brought a nice bit of funkiness to hit radio.  The absolute MOR whiteness of the 1976 hits was pretty bad.  HERE is the link.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  I'll see you at "The Muppets" movie this weekend.  It's looking like "The Muppets" may be one of the best reviewed movies in the history of Rotten Tomatoes.  It currently has a 100% Tomatometer score with all 60 critics who have seen it loving it (an average score of 8.1 out of 10).

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night: Portugal. The Man

A night of repeats on the late night shows for Thanksgiving week.  We'll go with Portugal. The Man (yes, that's how you write it, though I guess he must differentiate himself from Portugal. The Country, especially for internet searches) on Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35 AM on NBC and then on repeats the next day on FuseTV.  Also, appearing will be Nirvana producer and Garbage band member, Butch Vig.

Springsteen to tour in '12, Late Night Pick of the Night: M83

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will tour in 2012.  This has been confirmed on Bruce's official web site.  They announced four dates in Europe and said they will be announcing US dates soon. 

Sounds like there will be a new album too.  Interested to hear who will be playing sax instead of Clarence.  I would say “replacing” but no one can replace Clarence.

Tonight's Late Night Pick of the Night is electronica band M83 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC at 12:35 AM.  Also interested to see the other guests, Jason Segel (talking Muppet movie), Deepak Chopra & Michele Bachmann.  Not sure if Jimmy will interview Ms. Bachmann but even if he did I wouldn't expect much fireworks.  I like Jimmy's humour but he's not the type of guy to ask hard-hitting questions.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Tom Morello w/Ben Harper, 40 Years of Black Sabbath

I usually don't do Leno because I'm not a fan, but the musical choices on late night TV are really slim tonight and this pairing should be a guitar extravaganza.  Tom Morello will be joined by Ben Harper tonight on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35 PM on NBC.

For your Friday viewing pleasure, here's a nice video retrospective of 40 Years of Black Sabbath and their many, many, many lead singer changes.  Click HERE.

Review: Manchester Orchestra, White Denim, Dear Hunter; Late Night Pick of the Night: Vince Gill

A quick review of last night's Manchester Orchestra, White Denim, Dear Hunter show at The National.  Dear Hunter came on first and definitely led the night in beard quality with lead singer Casey Crescenzo's Zach Galafanaikis appearance and bassist Nick Sollecito channeling JEB Stuart's beard.  Dear Hunter featured a relentless (but in a good way) triple guitar attack that gave their songs a psychedelic edge.  Think the last few minutes of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which they ended their set with.  I also heard elements of Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket & Smashing Pumpkins.  The keyboardist also added some swirling elements and interesting touches that added depth and variety to the songs.  I enjoyed these guys.

Next up was my find of the night, White Denim from Austin.  I loved these guys.  They had a maximum R&B/blues feel but it wasn't straight-forward blues.  It was the blues was filtered through punk and prog.  The songs were streteched out as if jamming but the sharp rhythm changes could definitely not have been unrehearsed.  However, the tempo changes didn't feel forced.  In my conversation after the show with the bassist, he said they were about 95% rehearsed and about 5% improv, primarily on the solos.  The rhythm section, bassist Steve Terebecki (who, with his thick black-framed glasses, looks like the 12 year old geek from every 80's pre-teen movie) and drummer Joshua Block locked in thunderously, calling to mind The Who at times.  The guitarists, James Petralli & Austin Jenkins, could play clean, classic rock style solos and also fuzzed up, distorted harsh Chicago blues.  Influences that I heard were White Stripes, early Steve Miller Band, Minutement, firehose and maybe even, moe., and they even locked in a groove with an African beat for a while.  I think I asked the bassist two or three times to come back to Richmond when they have a chance and if they do, you are all coming with me to see them.

Finally, the headliner, Manchester Orchestra, who, for me, was the most disappointing band on the bill.  Every tune seemed to follow the same soft/loud/soft/loud pattern with little variation.  While they did that well, the lack of any curve balls (except one humorous slower song which I beleive was about courting a Hollywood actress or perhaps stalking her) led to the show feeling repetitive.  The keyboardist had a second drum kit behind him that he played on occassion nd rather than adding some counterrhythms to the music, he played exactly the same thing as the main drummer, making it louder but not necessarily better.  The crowd was definitely into them the most, headbangin' when the loud parts of the songs came on, but there never seemd to be that explosion when the band and the crowd lock in.  I did enjoy the personable and funny lead singer Andy Hull who kept things light in between songs. 

Tonight's Late Night Pick of the Night is country singer-guitarist Vince Gill on Jimmy Kimmel on ABC at midnight.  Vince will be coming to Richmond soon (12/9 to be exact) for a Christmas concert with his wife, Amy Grant.

Late Night Pick of the Night: Michael Stipe, Kermit & Miss Piggy

Tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Michael Stipe, formerly of REM, will surely discuss the REM breakup.  And also promote REM's new greatest hits album.  It will be interesting to see if he performs a song and whether it will be an REM song or something else.  Also, Kermit & Miss Piggy will be on to promote the much anticipated, at least in my house, new movie, "The Muppets".  And, if that was enough, we get to find out what the hell Martin Short has been up to, because he'll be on the show also.  Late Night is on NBC at 12:35 AM.

Manchester Orchestra, Dear Hunter, White Denim, Barstool Heroes, Peace Beast

Wednesday night at The National is Manchester Orchestra, The Dear Hunter & White Denim.  It's $19 to get in and show starts at 7:30 with White Denim (note that their site says they start at 7, I don't know who to believe! You're tearing me apart!), then Dear Hunter, then MO.  Get there early because all the bands are getting a nice critical buzz. All fall into that broad indie rock category. Comparable bands in parentheses. I haven’t seen any of them live before but just feel the need to see some new music so I think I'm going to the show even though it looks like I'll be flying solo.  Of the people I asked, had a couple doing Daddy duty while moms are away, a couple were still burned out from the Hank3 show on Sunday night, and one at band practice.  Anyway, here are the  influences/similar bands in parentheses if you want to know: Manchester Orchestra (Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Nirvana, Weezer, Modest Mouse), The Dear Hunter (Sufjan Stevens but can get louder) & White Denim (Stooges, CCR, MC5, Stones, Yardbirds, Hendrix, White Stripes). If you are heading to the show or want to join me, let me know.  Let's do a video from all three bands.

This is the heavy video for Manchester Orchestra's latest.  It's called "Virgin" and both the video and the music remind somewhat of "Division Bell" era Pink Floyd.  I have no idea what the video means but it left me uneasy.  Which I believe was the intended effect.



Here's the Dear Hunter with "We've Got a Score to Settle" live:



And here's White Denim playing at my senior prom performing "Street Joy". OK, well it's not really my senior prom but it could have been with all the big hair, big shoulder pads/ruffles on the girls dresses' and cheesy mustaches on the guys.  I hope the band wears these tuxes tomorrow.



Big hip-hop show at The National on Thursday night with Curren$y / Method Man / Big KRIT / Smoke DZA / Fiend / The Pricks / Corner Boy P.  Tix are $25 in advance, $28 day of show. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8.  Here's Curren$y doing "Elevator Music" ("all we do is ride around and get high to it"):


 And here is some classic Wu-Tang Method Man:

Also Thursday night at The Camel, RVA band Peace Beast and Memphibians (from Jacksonville FL) will perform an early show.  Doors open at 6, show starts at 7.  It's only $3 to get in and you'll be outta there by 9.  Peace Beast is inspired by 60's garage rock.  The Memphibians have a slightly dischordant heavy psychedelic groove going on.  If you want to check out some tunes by the bands, click through on the link above to the event announcement on Facebook.

On Saturday night, you can get your outlaw country on with Barstool Heroes at The Republic.  This is again an early show, which is great news for those of us that like to sleep.  This is the Republic's 2nd anniversary show.  Barstool Heroes comes on at 7 and then DJ Amy Alderman will start at 10:30.  It's FREE to get in so money is no object.  Here's the band doing a Jerry Reed song at Cary St. Cafe earlier this year:



Well it gets late fast in these parts so I'm outta here.  Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Late Night Pick of the Night: Mastodon

Let's get heavy tonight with metal band Mastodon on Last Call with Carson Daly.  Last Call is on at 1:35 AM on NBC.  The Chicago Tribune recently said about Mastodon, "Sometime in the last few years, who knows exactly when, Mastodon became the greatest metal band in the world."