Wreck on Time

The Old 97’s put on an energetic show full of ebullient twang, spit, sweat and whiskey last night at Boston’s sold out Royale club.

The set of alt-country pop originals at times recalled Uncle Tupelo, The Rev. Horton Heat and even Soul Asylum, but retained plenty of the Texas train fanatics’ own brand. They threw in a couple of choice covers (a manic version of R.E.M.’s “Driver 8” and Rhett Miller’s solo rendition of The Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation”) to reinforce their indie influences. Overall stand outs of the evening’s performance included: the rockin’ opener, “The Grand Theatre”; the honky tonk of “Barrier Reef”; the propulsive “Please Hold on While the Train Is Moving”; the plaintive atmospherics of “Let the Whiskey Take the Reins”; the Dylan re-write, “Champagne, Illinois”; and the new song featured below:

I shot flip-cam videos of a couple of songs. I was pleased to get this new one, slated for Grand Theatre Volume Two, which the band announced will be released in July.

Recalling the Sound of a Special Place

A portrait of the artist’s perspective on lyric composition, songwriting and recording processes from a classic “big music” endeavor 26 years ago ... Some interesting stuff from The Waterboys’ leader Scotsman Mike Scott:

Demos for The Waterboys’ classic 1985 This Is the Sea album are the focus of a new release of mostly piano and vocal demos called In a Special Place, which is what Scott is discussing in this recent interview at EMI offices in London.

Come Out to the Woods with Me

This recent live video of one of Mark Cutler’s new songs is a simple, melodic wonder-filled, romantic expedition on one level, but there’s seriously sinister possibilities lurking just beneath the surface — as Mark alludes to in the introduction to the song. Yet another great example of the depth of this man’s music, this a great mood piece that – for me – absolutely captures the rural woodland adventures that I had as a kid in New Jersey ... without any malignant intentions, of course.

Kudos to my friend Kevin for being such a committed curator of all things Cutler!

Funky Tower

This building shows some serious shake and shimmy ... it does have Seoul, man!

Check out more interesting images of the GT Tower here.

Content Curation

Some interesting stuff in this Mark Ragan interview with IBM’s Digital Strategist Ben Edwards ... especially around the 5 min. mark:

... particularly to someone currently going by the title “Content Curator” at work. Quite fitting for me though, both personally and professionally.