Andrew Bird Whistles A Lot (this post is about Andre Williams, though)

Starting off tonight's late-ish post with the title's observation. I'm entering the Andrew Bird portion of the A-Z project. It will mark the first three plus album segment of the project. I'm interested to see how this plays out. I have a lot of admiration for Andrew Bird, if not for the only reason that he was a teacher at The Old Town School of Folk Music, which is one of my favorite places in my favorite city. I like his music, but have never listened to this much of it all at once, so the jury's still out on just how much I like it. I do look forward to the playing of "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left", though. Such a great song!

This post isn't about Andrew Bird, though, even though I put his name in the title. Let me fix that. Please pause for about 10 seconds so you can get the proper effect of me fixing that error. Okay, thanks for that. Resume reading.

Andre Williams. Probably a name, you, my vast audience isn't very familiar with. I've got to admit, it's a name that I only recently became familiar with. In fact, I saw him perform at SXSW 2008, and yet it was only after hearing a couple of iTunes songs today and doing some Wikipedia research, that I fully began to realize the importance and brilliance of this man's music.

So the song that kicked off the way too short Andre Williams segment, was called "Humpin', Bumpin', and Thumpin'". If that doesn't speak volumes alone about the nature of rock and roll, I don't know what does! This is classic '60s rock/soul. Think Booker T. and the MG's with an edge. Williams actually wrote one of Stevie Wonder's earliest hits and was one of the largely unsung pioneers of early rock and soul, both on the writing and performing front.

Nicknamed both "Mr. Rhythm" and "The Black Godfather", Williams at one time was homeless on the streets of Chicago, only to rebound with forrays into "Sleaze rock" (???) and country, eventually finding his way back to his roots. A documentary entiltled "Agile Mobile Hostile: A year with Andre Williams" documents the highs and lows of his life and musical career, from his early success with Fortune Records to his struggles with drug and alcohol in the 1980s. I haven't seen the doc, but believe me, I'll be making a point to remedy that soon.

I saw him perform on a hot Austin day at a Bloodshot Records party at SXSW, back in 2008. Here was this older African American man, unapologetically calling out the fact that there were more white people in attendence than he was used to at his shows. Yet regardless of the audience, he played one hell of a show. If you perform a song called "Bad Motherfucker", you better deliver the goods. And oh hell yes, did Mr. Williams ever deliver the goods. This was raw, brutal, life-affirming rock and roll/soul/R&B (whatever you may call it these days) at it's best! This was the year I saw Lou Reed perform, but along with The Ting Tings, Ezra Furman, and Justin Townes Earle, Andre Williams overshadowed the grumpy old punk himself, proving that the history and present state of music, is a tad more complex than perhaps we realize.

Andre Williams' music is music for late nights and places that you shouldn't be at when it's 3AM. But if you're gonna be there, you might as well get it right. It's dirty, it's honest, it's bare boned, get-your-pulse rockin' music! Isn't the subversiveness of it all what the music's all about anyway?

Click on the title of this post for the official trailer of "Agile, Mobile, Hostile"

3 songs on shuffle (Ezra Furman Video by clicking Here!)

Starting off today listening to Grizzly Bear. Veckatimist has got to be one of the best albums of '09 so far. Possibly the best. Harmonies that are crazy good, musicianship and arrangements that are stunning. Hell, they can even make Michael McDonald sound good (find the Grizzly Bear song, "While You Wait For the Others" feat. Michael McDonald...weird that it's so good). After this track ends, we'll go straight into the second edition of, "3 songs on shuffle" courtesy of the official iTunes library of The Hidden Chord!

Private Affair--The Virgins
A Daytrotter discovery. I've heard this one a few times actually. Really like it. Kind of has a Killers/Franz Ferdinand/Modest Mouse kind of feel to it. The guy's voice kind of sounds like Elvis Costello at times. Great little shuffle beat to it too. Dance-rock is always fine by me. It's a tricky thing to pull off, but I dig this one a lot. Sounds a little like "Shakedown Street" by The Grateful Dead at times too. "In the summertime, I'm gonna lose my mind". Line sticks out because I can understand it (the guy kind of mumble-sings) and because summer's ending (or ended I guess), but also because, what a better season than summer to lose your mind?

Moon Light Drive--The Doors
I believe this is a demo version of the song off The Doors box set that came out around '97 or '98. Moon Light Drive is apparantly the first song that Jim Morrison shared with his UCLA film school buddy Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach. The Oliver Stone biopic documents the fabled meeting. It's kind of weird Beach Boys sounding. It's a very simple song that ends up on their famous self-titled debut. "Let's swim to the moon, let's climb through the tide. Penetrate the evening that the city sleeps too high." Not sure exactly what it means, but The Doors had a way of combining the mystical, surreal, and dark with the magic of rock and roll. Didn't always matter if you understood it or not. "You reach your hand to hold me, but I can't be your guide." Like Jim and The Doors themselves, the song's rather allusive.

The Dishwasher--Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
Song starts off with familiar (too familiar) restaurant sounds. First person account of being a lowly dishwasher. "You won't catch me walkin' home from work cryin'". Maybe you want to cry when you're walking home from your thankless service job. Oh, I've felt it, but you don't cry. You make sure you don't let the people who are getting ready to party on a Friday night, while you're going home, notice your anguish. They most definitely have more money and better jobs, but you carry your head high and keep telling yourself that it'll get better one day and that at least you try to be a decent person. Your work is honest, someone's gotta do it, as the song says. Who wants to eat off dirty dishes. Ezra's voice is filled with anguish. He's really got a very expresive, high-pitched, un-traditional voice that is perfect for a song like this.

There you have it. First two are good end of summer songs, while the third is just a good song in general. I first learned of Ezra Furman back in Austin in 2008, when he played The Velvet Underground's "Heroin" at a Lou Reed tribute concert. Had to have been one of the single most amazing performances of any single song that I've seen. Found a video of it on You Tube, and it still seems pretty cool, but for many performances, you really have to be there to fully appreciate it. Click the title of this blog entry to take you there...I think you'll like it.

Actually that whole day was filled with a lot of "Wow!" moments. The great part about it too was it was all free. You didn't need a wrist band, badge, or cash. It irks me when big time acts charge so much. But the funny thing turns out to be, that the best moments usually don't happen at gigantic stadium shows that people have paid hundreds of dollars to see. They often times happen in little dive bars, free venues, and places you least suspect them to happen. That's the magic of music for you!