I’ve always loved the simplicity and intrigue of “Billy Jean”, my favorite song of his. Thank you Michael, and may you rest in peace.

Billy Jean by Michael Jackson

Back in January, Neko and her record label released a free MP3 of “People Got A Lot Of Nerve”, a song which has a deceptively bright sound, but with lyrics that are a bit on the dark side. I was intrigued and couldn’t wait for the album to come out.

So the saying says, “An elephant never forgets.”
Standing in the concrete cave, swaying sad and insane.
They walked over the ocean, in their dreams they dream awake,
Until the lights grew dim, until the cop cars came.
Everybody tells me this is crazy, yes I know it.
I’m a man, man, man, man, man, man eater.
But still you’re surprised-prised-prised when I eat you.

You know, they call them “killer” whales?!
But you seem surprised,
When it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank,
Where you can’t turn around.
It took half your leg, and both your lungs.
“When I craved I ate hearts of sharks, I know you know it.”
I’m a man, man, man, man, man, man eater.
But still you’re surprised-prised-prised when I eat you.

It will end again in bullets friend…

Animal and nature imagery are very present on this record. One of my current favorite tracks, “Magpie To The Morning” is a perfect example.

Neko’s lyrics have often leaned a bit surrealistic. On “This Tornado Loves You” (the album’s opening track) she sings about a cyclone, chasing her down because of its undying love for her. As I heard Neko tell NPR, the track was inspired by a dream she had.

There are so many wonderful layers to her music. Even in the simple “Middle Cyclone” (also available as a free MP3 from Anti- records), you’ve got a solitary guitar, her beautiful voice, ethereal background vocals, interludes from a music box, and those marvelous lyrics.

Baby, why am I worried now?
Did someone make a fool of me,
‘Fore I could show ‘em how it’s done?
I can’t give up acting tough,
It’s all that I’m made of.
Can’t scrape together quite enough,
To ride the bus, to the outskirts,
Of the fact that I need love.

There were times, that I tried.
One for every glass of water that I spilled,
Next to the bed, retching pennies in a boiling well,
In a dream,
That at once becomes a foundry of mute and heavy bells.
They shake me deaf and dumb.
Say, “Someone made a fool of me,
‘Fore I could show ‘em how it’s done.”

It was so clear to me,
that it was almost invisible.
I lie across the path waiting,
Just for a chance to be,
A spiderweb, trapped in your lashes.
For that, I would trade you my empire for ashes.
But I choke it back, how much I need love…

With all those layers, it’s still that gorgeous voice that stands out for me. I could probably be mesemerized by listening to Neko Case sing nursery rhymes. Her voice shines beautifully on “The Pharoahs.”

Toward the end of the album, in the song “Don’t Forget Me,” she reminisces sweetly about a former love. The song’s chorus urges:

Don’t forget me, don’t forget me.
Make it easy, only just for a little while.
You know I think about you,
Let me know you think about me too.

Forget Neko Case? Not a chance.

I’ve posted before that sports and rock & roll don’t necessarily go well together. Having said that, Bruce Springsteen’s halftime performance was my favorite thing about yesterday’s big game.

Springsteen and his band are the quintessential showmen, even when they’re only playing for twelve minutes, they push it to the full limit.

And you’ve got to love that introduction…

I want you to step back from the guacamole dip. I want you to put the chicken fingers down, and turn your television all the way up!

Update: The NFL had YouTube remove the videos I was linking to. (Boo!) However, you can download bootlegs of the performance. T.U.B.E. has links to an audio bootleg of Bruce Springsteen’s halftime show as well as a video bootleg.

From now until February 13, Neko Case and Anti records will donate five dollars for every blog that posts the song (or one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to their profile) to the Best Friends Animal Society.

The new song is from her forthcoming release Middle Cyclone (coming out on March 3, 2009). What a great way to put out the word on the new material. Thanks Neko! I can’t wait for the new album.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
The fresh and unique sound of Vampire Weekend made this my favorite album of the year. It’s also the best debut album of 2008. See my post from last February for a review of Vampire Weekend.

Kathleen Edwards – Asking for Flowers
I really should have written up a full review of this album. For the past five years Kathleen has released three solid records, and I think this one stands at the top. She has a definite talent for songwriting, singing and musicianship. She can go from quiet and introspective, to loud and raucous, and everything in between. Kathleen and her band also performed my favorite concert of 2008.

The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
This band plays straight rock and roll with vivid, storytelling lyrics. They’ve been compared to Springsteen and the E-Street Band, which is spot on.

Cowboy Junkies – Trinity Revisited
See the review of Trinity Revisited I wrote back in August.

2008 was a banner year for neo soul music. I’ve got three outstanding titles in that category:

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – 100 Days 100 Nights
Sharon Jones has a classic soul voice reminiscent of soul singers from days gone by, and the Dap-Kings do an excellent job backing her up. As an aside, this disc was actually released in 2007, but I didn’t discover it until I received it as a surprise Christmas gift. It’s such a good record, it deserves to be highlighted, even if I am a little late.

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple
I posted a review of The Odd Couple last summer.

Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It
Raphael Saadiq (formerly of Tony! Toni! Toné!) has a sound that comes straight out of Motown. Hearing his voice makes you wonder if he’s got DNA from Smokey Robinson. This album is very strong, and features guest artists like Stevie Wonder, Josh Stone, and Jay-Z.

Big Blue Ball
A few weeks ago I wrote a review of Big Blue Ball.

The Verve – Fourth
The Verve reunited after ten years and released an excellent album. While I do like Richard Ashcroft’s solo records, when he’s with the other members of The Verve, the music is over the top. I’ll give them the best comeback award of 2008.

Sun Kil Moon – April
See the review of April I posted earlier this year.

Honorable Mentions

• Alejando Escovedo – Real Animal
• Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
• Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cardinology

YouTube: I Believe in Father Christmas

Hope you have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Almost eighteen years in the making, Big Blue Ball grew from three extraordinary Recording Weeks at Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992 and 1995. The project’s originators and curators were Real World founder Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger of World Party and The Waterboys.

So very appropriately named, Big Blue Ball is filled with international artists, collaborating together. On “Shadow” Congolese singer Papa Wemba combines his vocal and musical styles with flamenco guitarist Juan Cañizares.

A few songs feature Peter Gabriel (who also produced the album) as the lead singer. “Burn You Up, Burn You Down” is a classic addition to the Peter Gabriel catalog.

“Rivers” featuring Hungarian singer Marta Sebestyen, has a very meditative feel to it. In fact, I almost missed my bus stop the other day because I was so enchanted with the song playing on my iPod. By the way, “Rivers” just begs to be listened to with headphones.

Cross-cultural collaboration is a huge part of Big Blue Ball and “Altus Silva” is an outstanding example. It features American singer Joseph Arthur with Irish singer Iarla Ó Lionáird providing a Gaelic choral counterpoint.

On another multicultural track Joji Hirota (Japanese percussionist and composer), Sinead O’Connor, and Chinese flautist Guo Yue create a musical prayer for peace on “Everything Comes From You.”

The title track (which closes the album) was written and sung by Karl Wallinger, but as on many tracks, you can also hear Peter Gabriel’s production influence.

At first listen, Big Blue Ball almost sounds like a world music sampler, but dig a little deeper and you can hear the all of the cultural influences, mixing together elegantly, to create a unified collection of outstanding music.

This is an outstanding recording, available in lossless FLAC format, released by the Cardinals themselves. The entire show is posted in the audio section of the Internet Archive: Ryan Adams Live at Overture Hall on 2008-10-05.

What a great souvenir of a great concert. A must for all Ryan Adams fans.

The show began in a big way with “Love in Action” from his days in Utopia. When the band repeatedly sang the line before the title phrase, “You can’t stop, you can’t stop…” I thought, what you can’t stop is the energy emanating from the stage. They played with a garage-band-like ferociousness, pounding out the power chords.

Todd kept digging deep into his back catalog with “Black Mariah,” “Open My Eyes” and “I Saw The Light” all of which the crowd just ate up. The first part of the set also included a couple of covers: The Call’s “The Walls Came Down” and Red Rider’s “Lunatic Fringe.”

After the first part of the set, Todd said, “Now we come to the real reason you’re here. To get a bootleg copy of our new album, recorded on your cell phone.”

The band then played through the entire tracklist of Todd Rundgren’s new CD, Arena. Those songs held up very well next to the older stuff. Todd has certainly not lost his gift for songwriting. Even when he’s rocking out there are memorable melodic hooks and choruses. I liked the new songs so much I bought the new disc from the merch table at the show.

Todd certainly didn’t hold anything back when he sang the older songs, but I thought he sang the new stuff with renewed passion. Maybe it was simply because the songs are fairly new, but it made them sound that much better. Judging by the audience reaction, I wasn’t the only one that felt that way.

The new album is an homage to the sound of arena rock and the band definitely put out enough sound to fill a 10,000 seat venue. It’s also filled with political overtones, some subtle, some not. Before this part of the show, Todd even told us “the evening will now turn into a seminar in anger management.” I thought the band was managing their anger admirably, channeling it straight into rock ‘n roll.

During the show I was also reminded what a good guitarist Todd Rundgren is. He and his four band mates (including guitarist/keyboardist and fellow Utopia member, Kasim Sultan) all gave fantastic performances.

For the encore, the band played a raucous version of “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” and closed with “Just One Victory.” After the many sardonic comments Todd made about last night’s Presidential debate (my favorite was, “John McCain is going to change the dynamic of the election tonight, by making his head explode”), that song seemed a hopeful way to end the show:

If you don’t know what to do about a world of trouble,
You can pull it through if you need to and if,
You believe it’s true, it will surely happen,
Shining still, to give us the will,
Bright as the day, to show us the way,
Somehow, someday,
We need just one victory and were on our way,
Praying for it all day and fighting for it all night,
Give us just one victory, it will be all right.

The concert started off with two new songs, which went over fairly well with the audience. Next was a solid “Everybody Knows,” a pained and somber cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, followed by another new song. By this point Ryan and the band seemed to be functioning like a well-oiled machine, and came to the first big highlight when they played “Goodnight Rose.” It included a wonderful instrumental jam featuring harmonizing guitars, an almost whispering chant of “goodnight, goodnight” toward the end, which segued into the signature musical riff of the song at full volume to finish.

After a few more songs (including another new one), Ryan finally addressed the fools in the crowd who were shouting out their requests. What brought him over the edge was someone who wouldn’t stop shouting a song from his former band, Whiskeytown. “No” he finally responded, “not going to happen.”

He then mentioned something about they were here to play for the people who came with an open mind, which got a nice round of applause. In my opinion, the only thing more annoying at a show than people who shout out unsolicited requests are those who feel the need to scream “wooooooo!” in the middle of a quiet part of the concert.

A few songs later, the band played “Desire,” which was very much an ensemble piece, highlighting the performance of the entire band. As was printed on the tickets, this was The Cardinals (not Ryan Adams and the Cardinals). After a few more songs Ryan mentioned how well he thought the show was going, and the band took a well deserved break.

The tightness of the first set continued after the intermission as the band started off with another new song. While that new one was a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll number, most of last night’s tunes were more laid back, fitting comfortably into the alt-country style the band is known for. Highlights of the second set included “Magnolia Mountain” and “Easy Plateau,” both of which featured beautiful extended jams (which at times were reminiscent of the Grateful Dead). I really got the feeling the band was having a great time playing together, which again speaks to how well they perform as a group. And they kept it up, song after song.

As the band paused between songs around 11:25pm or so, someone from off stage walked on to talk to Ryan Adams. After they spoke, Ryan told us they completely lost track of time, and went over their curfew. Then he joked about how much it just cost for him to tell us that. Next the band huddled up for a minute and decided to finish the show with a stellar version of one of my favorite songs, “When The Stars Go Blue.”

After 31 songs, and almost three hours, the show was over. Maybe it was the late hour, but I walked out of the Overture Center almost dazed by the concert. What a great show.

Want to read more? The forums of the Ryan Adams Archive has a setlist, discussion, and pictures from the Madison show.