Carney just released their debut album Mr. Green, Vol. 1 today. The L.A. rock quartet is fronted by and named for actor-musician Reeve Carney – formerly a member of Johnny Lang’s backup band and soon to be seen as Ferdinand in Julie Taymor’s upcoming film adaption of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Carney’s music tempers arena rock pomp with flourishes of psychedelica, pop, and blues.
The opener “Love Me Chase Me” punches up a swirling rock arrangement with militant drumbeats. It and many of the other tracks have a swaggering pop-rock sound reminiscent of Butch Walker’s The Rise and Fall Of….
The middle of the album lags a bit, but there’s a lovely splash of what sounds like old-fashioned slide guitar work in “Amelie” and a slinky hint of Queen in “There She Goes.”
The grand finale “Testify” is a crunchy blend of Zep-like blues and psychedelic rock.
I was not granted permission to share an mp3, but you can watch the video for “Love Me Chase Me” (starring actress Evan Rachel Wood and shot on the set of HBO’s Carnivale) at the link below…
As I posted yesterday, Gaba Kulka performed with Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley in Prague earlier this week. You can see some great photos from the gig here. And following are some YouTube video links from the performance provided by Gaba, including a new one of her elephant puppetry while Amanda and Jason sang “Elephant Elephant” from their Evelyn Evelyn album.
I can tell you now that Gaba Kulka’s Hat, Rabbit will be in the Top 5 of my best of list this year. She has a fun new video on YouTube for “Niejasności,” which is my favorite song on the album.
I don’t usually post tributes or personal stories to this site, but it’s been an unusual month. The loss that I referred to a few weeks ago was the death of my 92 year old Grandma. This week my best friend’s grandmother (who was even more of a Grandma to me than my own) also died. I’m not the type to unload my emotions into a public post, and I don’t plan to start now. But I’ve been listening to the following song a lot and thought it would be nice to share…
I wish the audio quality was better. There are several YouTube videos of this song from various concerts, but this seemed the best of the lot (here’s another). Unfortunately, Rounder Records wouldn’t grant me permission to share even a live mp3, so this will have to do. “Grandmother Song” is from Vienna Teng’s new album Inland Territory. Here are the lyrics:
Grandmother Song by Vienna Teng:
“Oh girl you think you got time
You’re gonna get ’round to it way down the line
But one step, two step, you fall behind
So you better have a good plan
Oh girl you think you got time
You’re gonna get ’round to it way down the line
But I’m telling you no matter what you have in mind
You’re still gonna need a man
Take it from your grandmother I’ve been ’round
No one’s gonna take care of you
In that world you’ve got yourself into
All the good boys, oh baby they’re in grad school
Oh girl your story’s all wrong
Your dream’ll be a nightmare before too long
Turning thirty and still trying to sing your songs
Come on who do you think you are
Oh girl it’s too heavy a load
Your mama and your baba they are worried souls
How you gonna raise a family when you’re on the road
With some tattooed boy with a guitar
Take it from your grandmother I’ve been ’round
This music career isn’t real life
It won’t see you through to when you’re sixty-five
When the tide turns you won’t survive
You’ll sit on the banks and cry
Oh girl you’ve never know war
When they come in the night and knock on the door
You can go from the high life to dirty poor
And lose everything you knew
But the one thing they can’t take away from you
Is your mind and the education you’ve been through
O you find a man who understands that too
Make sure that he stays true
Gives respect where its due
Make sure he knows what he’s got in you
Because a woman isn’t just for cooking meals
Scrubbing floors, making babies
A woman’s got ambitions same as he does
Maybe more
When the sirens wailed and the bombs fell
We ran from the schoolyard into hell
And what we could’ve been time will never tell
’cause we never had your chances
The advantages that you’ve been handed
Amanda Palmer has posted a new YouTube video from her live performance in Fort Lauderdale this week. Palmer dedicated the song “Please Drop Me” to her record label. As I’ve posted before, Palmer has been battling with her label over everything from their criticism of her weight to their lack of promotion for her album.
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