Geof’s New Music: 14-20 Oct 2007

The new studio cut this week comes to me as a recommendation from Derek. I asked him once about Tom Waits …

• Tom Waits’s Mule Variations.
  
• 15 Apr 1990 [Detroit, MI, USA] concert bootleg of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn. MusicBrainz URLs: 1990-04-15: Detroit, MI, USA (disc 1) and 1990-04-15: Detroit, MI, USA (disc 2).
  
• 11 Nov 1998 [Hollywood, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Son Volt. MusicBrainz URLs: 1998-11-11: House of Blues, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 1) and 1998-11-11: House of Blues, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 2).
• 26 Jun 2004 [Lexington, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. MusicBrainz URL: 2004-06-26: The Dame, Lexington, KY, USA.
• 7 Jul 2007 [Hollywood, CA, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. MusicBrainz URLs: 2007-07-07: Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 1) and 2007-07-07: Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 15 Sep 2007 [Dalton, GA, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb. MusicBrainz URL: 2007-09-15: First Presbyterian Church, Dalton, GA, USA.
• 21 Sep 2007 [Louisville, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. MusicBrainz URLs: 2007-09-21: Louisville Slugger Field, Louisville, KY, USA (disc 1) and 2007-09-21: Louisville Slugger Field, Louisville, KY, USA (disc 2).

Last week:

• Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. Drake is an influence to a number of artists that I enjoy, so it’s little surprise that I liked this a lot. Four stars.
  
• Sigur Rós’s Takk. There is nothing new and unique that I can add to the commentary here. I just plain like this stuff. I wouldn’t listen to it all the time, but it has a spot in the rotation. Four stars.
  
• 2 Sep 2002 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. Admitting that the present era of the band is my favorite musically, this is an excellent recording from the pre-Nels/Mikael/Pat days. Four stars.
  
• 24 May 2003 [Akron, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. It’s a solid little Karin-and-Linford recording from the days after OHIO was recorded but before it was released. Good times. Four stars.
• 30 Jul 2006 [Council Bluffs, IA, USA] concert bootleg of 311. I had this thing for 311 in my freshman year of college. It seemed like Saturday nights would be spent in our dorm room with the lights out, the colored and blacklights on, and 311 on the stereo. [Please note that no mind-altering substances were used at this time. Okay, other than that sole Icehouse I drank of my roommate's the second weekend of school, which was so horrible I didn't drink beer for another 18 months.] That explains why I’d grab this, just to see if I was still interested. Ehhhh … sorta. This is not a good enough recording to tell. Two-and-a-half stars.
• 4 May 2007 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. Merely okay. The crowd noise near the taper needs a fair bit of compression. As an audience recording, it’s an artifact of what was going on around you—this really is what you would’ve heard—but still … I tend to compress that stuff out. Three stars.
  
• 18 Jul 2007 [Phoenix, AZ, USA] concert bootleg of Snow Patrol. I think any qualms that I have with the sound on this one go on the sound guy, not the taper. The recording is very, very clear—the mix just stinks early on. It gets better, but I can’t tell if that’s just me lowering my standards or what. Three-and-a-half stars—five for the band, two for the sound guy.