11.03.06
Posted in back catalogue - November 3rd, 2006 at 6:11 pm by Cricket
So, you’re going through life, doing your thing. If you’re me it involves watching Friday Night Lights and seeing commercials you’d probably never see otherwise. There’s that horrible Chili’s commercial, the whole baby back ribs song thing makes me insane, and suddenly you think… Man, I can’t believe that Chili’s is using some faux-Old 97s in their commercial.
Then you realize: oh shit, that is the Old 97s. Well clearly the world is ending, but what to do now? There’s nothing to be done for it but to drown yourself in Old 97s goodness and try to pretend the commercial never happened.
I’m sure it comes as a surprise to no one that I love the Old 97s but don’t really dig Rhett Miller. Faithful readers will recognize this as the same Whiskeytown/Ryan Adams problem I have. And hey, I’m the first to admit that it isn’t so much my dislike of their solo work, but my hate-on for their personalities. Somehow, when it’s a band, I can bury the hate and love on the music. Maybe someday I’ll get over myself and let it all be about the music. [Yeah, right. And I’ll stop hating Scientologists.–Mimi] Okay then, onto the music.
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11.02.06
Posted in some albums we done liked others we ain't, willie - November 2nd, 2006 at 1:31 pm by Mimi
Willie Nelson–Songbird and Teatro
Cric sent me Songbird with the one sentence remark: “You are morally obligated to review this album.” Due to the truth of this remark, I will. I really do not want to say the things I have to say about it, but, Christ on a cracker, okay, I’m doing it.
My one sentence summation of Songbird is this: It hurt my soul.
On the surface, this record was expressly made for me, and, as is the nature of such god-sends, the pudding is singularly lacking. The album is a collaboration between one Mr. Ryan Adams, and the demi-god of country music, Willie. Since Willie has had a very good run of collaborative records (see: Teatro), one would have expected Songbird to be another seminal album from a legend.
Instead, my soul is a little deader due to Ryan Adams’ chimpanzee-on-crack production. The entire album is discordant, the vocals and instrumentation on the tracks are out of any sort of sane sync. [Shockingly I love this album. I think it’s Mimi who’s on crack. I’m digging the song choices and the orchestration and the production. Who knew Ryan Adams could make something I’d finally like and Meems hates it? Huh.–Cricket]
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11.01.06
Posted in cricket spazzes, random, waylon - November 1st, 2006 at 9:22 pm by Cricket
We’re up to podcast six now! But I don’t know if we’re making what you guys want. Sure we get emails, but how do I know if those are representative of the masses? So tell us, c’mon now! Do you love the ‘casts? Do you want more talking? More music? Free candy with each download? Now is your chance to ask for anything you want. Comment here or email us. Hell, don’t limit yourself to podcasts, tell us what you like and don’t like about the site in general.
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Brown Country by Nikky Finney is a very intense poem about country music and race issues in the US. Take a second and read it. I’m not going to comment on it, you just take from it whatever you find in it, okay?
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KEXP, an excellent radio station from my home town, has a weekly show, Swinging Doors, that’s right up the HCT alley, so to speak. It’s on every Thursday, but if you know how to use that internet thing (and I know you do) you can stream each week’s program any time before the next one airs. So in that down time, after you’ve listened to our podcasts half a dozen times and are eagerly awaiting the next album review so you know what to buy, you can check out Swinging Doors for your fill of country, real country, both old and new. Trust me, if you aren’t already listening to this, you’ll thank me for turning you on to it.
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