Out Standing in Their Cricket Field

It's all balls and bats these days. Last year saw the release of the Baseball Project; an album done by Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows), and Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3) which was all about baseball.

This year, it's an album all about cricket. The band is The Duckworth Lewis Method, a collaboration between Thomas Walsh of Pugwash and Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. The Duckworth-Lewis Method in cricket is a set of formulas (developed by some gents named Duckworth and Lewis, of course) to address the problem of delayed, one-day cricket matches. And yes, I had to look that one up as I'm not up on my cricket.

Not surprisingly all the songs on the album are on different aspects of the game of cricket. And the music is some very fine pop songs penned by Walsh and Hannon. Walsh, who hails from Dublin, has quietly put out some great pop records in the last few years that have melodies in the XTC/Beatles/Brian Wilson/ELO vein. And Hannon, who comes from Northern Ireland, has been at the pop thing quite a bit longer and his brand of chamber pop has also had hints of ELO in it among other things. More information can be found on the band's website.

Jack White goes all High Fidelity on us

By now I'm sure everyone has heard that Jack White of the White Stripes has formed yet another new band. This one is called Dead Weather and the band consists of White on drums, Alison Mosshart of the Kills on vocals, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age on guitar, and Jack Lawrence from the Raconteurs on bass.

In addition to the band though, White has decided to open up his own record store in Nashville called Third Man Records. He has also started a record label with the same name and has begun releasing some 7" singles. The tie between the two endeavors will be that certain releases from the label will be pressed on some nifty tri-colored vinyl (Pictured here) in limited runs of 100 that will only be available at the shop in Nashville. I'm certain these will show up on eBay shortly after they are released for a not-so-discounted price.

There are plans to release a single by the Dex Romweber Duo (Dex of Flat Duo Jets fame) in the near future, but White has just released three 7" singles this week alone; one by Rachelle Garniez, one by Mildred & the Mice, as well as the second one from Dead Weather. The first Dead Weather single was released back on Record Store Day back in April. The tracks on the new Dead Weather single are "Treat Me Like Your Mother” b/w “You Just Can’t Win." The b-side is a cover of a Them tune.

Wilco take it to the banker

Jeff Tweedy and company are set to release their new album, generically titled Wilco (The Album) on June 30th. You can pre-order it now or listen to a stream of it over at WilcoWorld. But, in the meantime the band has also released an MP3 of a post-Mermaid Avenue Woody Guthrie cover called "The Jolly Banker" that can be purchased over at WilcoWorld. Or, if you are "Unemployed / underemployed or otherwise broke" you can grab it for free. All proceeds will go to the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives.

Faking the Summer of Love all over again

This last month saw the reissue of the two records done by the Dukes of Stratosphear, which originally appeared back in 1985 and 1987. The Dukes were really just XTC in disguise, teaming up with producer John Leckie to make some crazy psychedelic records that sounded like they came right out of the Summer of Love. The first EP 25 O'Clock was even released on April Fool's Day back in 1985. I'm guessing maybe Andy Partridge was shooting for that again, but just missed it by a few weeks as the reissues came out in mid-April on his
Ape label.

The two records (which only appeared on CD before as a compilation called Chips from the Chocolate Fireball in 1987) have been reissued separately, each coming in their own beautiful mini hard back book complete with over 20 pages of photos, lyrics, and liner notes. And earch record comes with original videos ("The Mole from the Ministry" and "You're a Good Man Albert Brown"). But, of most interest to fans will be the unreleased material. The 25 O'Clock EP is more than doubled in length thanks to six demos (two of which weren't on the EP) as well three other Duke-like songs Andy Partridge recorded over the years. Psonic Psunspot also sees the addition of six demo versions of songs from the LP, including a Colin sung version of "Vanishing Girl" called "No One at Home." I've always been more of a fan of the Colin songs (although fewer in number to Andy's prolific writing) and "Vanishing Girl" is one of my favorites. So it's nice to hear Colin sing it since Andy sung it on the original album.

Finally, if all the music on the reissues isn't enough to hear a bunch of guys writing and performing songs that payed homage to the music they loved as kids, you can hear more about the process by listening to some podcasts of interviews between John Leckie and Andy Partridge that are posted over at Andy's Ape House web site.

Record Geek Day

I had meant to write about Record Store Day before it happened (it was this last Saturday) but apparently was too lazy to get around to it. I did however make it to one of the participating stores and hopefully other record collecting geeks like myself did as well. There were a slew of limited releases put out that day, most of them 7" singles. If you didn't make it out and still want to get a hold of some of these releases, I'm sure there are many folks on eBay or elsewhere that are ready to help you out (and gouge you in the process). Some of the interesting stuff I was able to pick up included;

1. The Stooges - 1969/Real Cool Time 7" (repressing)
   
2. Beck/Sonic Youth split 7" (covering each other's songs)
   
3. Jay Reatard/Sonic Youth split 7"
   
4. Tom Waits - live 7"
   
5. Andrew Bird/Loney Dear split 7" (exclusive tracks and digital download)
   
6. Wilco concert DVD (with bonus download)
   
7. Booker T. Jones 7"
   
8. Bob Dylan 7" (with track live from Bonaroo 2004)
   
9. Elvis Perkins in Dearland 7" (exlusive b-side)
   
10. Chicha Libre/Dengue Fever split 7" (exclusive tracks)
    
11. Blitzen Trapper 7" (with beautiful pink & white, marble-like colored vinyl)
    
12. Flaming Lips/The Black Keys 7" (Keys do a Captain Beefheart song, Lips do Madonna)
    
13. Alla CD EP (with covers ranging from Kanye West to Terry Riley & John Cale)
    

Rumour Has It

Adam Levy and The Honeydogs are back with a new EP after a bit of a hiatus. The EP is called Sunshine Committee and is the first self-produced effort from the group. The dogs have also added Steve Kung (trumpet) and Matt Darling (Trombone) as official members. The CD can be purchased from their website, www.honeydogs.com. Songs include;

1. Sunshine Committee
   
2. Fiber Optic Paramour
   
3. Balaclava
   
4. Stash
   
5. Levers, Pulleys & Pumps
   
6. The Good Fight
   

Massive Nights

Fresh from seeing the Hold Steady the other night, I've been interested in listening to their new live release called A Positive Rage, which is a CD/DVD release that has 17 tracks from a October 31, 2007 show and five studio cuts. It also has a 53 minute documentary on the DVD. But, one other thing that they have made available on the web is a free MP3 download of the show they did the night before the one on the CD. The show is from the Metro in Chicago and the download can be grabbed from The Hold Steady: Taped Show Archive. The tracklisting is as follows;

1. Intro
   
2. Party Pit
   
3. You Can Make Him Like You
   
4. Chips Ahoy
   
5. Massive Nights
   
6. The Swish
   
7. Magazines
   
8. Hot Soft Light
   
9. Sweet Payne
   
10. Stuck Between Stations
    
11. Southtown Girls
    
12. Same Kooks
    
13. Joke About Jamaica
    
14. Your Little Hoodrat Friend
    
15. Positive Jam
    
16. How a Resurrection Really Feels
    
17. Encore Break
    
18. Certain Songs
    
19. Lord, I'm Discouraged
    
20. Most People are DJ's
    
21. Killer Parties