South Street Seaport Show Synopsis!

Summer show mini review:

So T Diddy and I took a little bike ride on Friday. On the way back we rode through the Seaport and caught the tail-end of the Ribbons/The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart show.

While Ribbons are awesome, I missed their set. They have some roadwork coming up and a Daytrotter session on the docket soon. You would do well to check them out. Here's their web presence. They have a record called Surprise Attacks you can grab here.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are the new darlings here in town, virtually guaranteeing that we will hear nothing of them six months from now. Fine by me, as they are BO-ring. Yikes! If you grew up on John Hughes films and still maintain crushes on Molly Ringwald and/or whoever played that Duckie guy, maybe you'll be into this. Not this guy. The sequencing doesn't help either. There were a couple times where they seemed all too anxious to rock, but were hobbled at every turn by the restrictive tempos. Lose the machines and just rock kids. Here's hoping the TPOBPAH kids are in town for the Superchunk show on Friday so they can get a primer on how the bands with legs do it. I'll be there hating Crazy Tony. Look for me and the crew.

R

CyTunes benefit cd - Superchunk: Live At Cat's Cradle 8.29.8

Were it not to be a year where The Hold Steady were touring, Mac and the Team Chunk might very well be on my shit list. Their only shows this year were for the Obama campaign and announced on short notice. It was obviously more of an issue for our Southern friends, but while I would have gone were I not to need a new couch, I was kind if bummed at the cross-pollenation of the two. When rock bands transcend humanist politics for Party ones, it's kind of a kill-joy, but then again the Chunk members are better people than me.

This cause is more up my alley, but I still wish they didn't have to throw their support behind it. Cy Rawls was a friend of the Merge and Superchunk camps, as well as a DJ on local terrestrial broadcasting force WXYC. He was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor over the summer and has since succumbed to cancer this past October 3rd, but his friends that rallied to raise funds for his treatment (he had no health insurance) have established CyTunes to memorialize their friend. All profits are donated to North Carolina's Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.

Since the inception of CyTunes, a number of bands have donated music for the cause, including Shinola, Double Negative and the mighty Superchunk. The Superchunk contribution is a live recording from the venerable Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. It commorates a benefit show they played for Cy where you could make a donation and request whatever Chunk song you'd like to hear. As a result, there are some dips into the back catalog that are more than a little unexpected. No new material, although I'd have ponied up hard for even a bad recording of "Learn To Surf". The show is as warts and all as you might suspect, with ample time for tuning breaks and generous time for Jim to be a smart-ass. It's also pretty damn good, especially in this time where Superchunk seems to be garaged for the time-being. Here's hoping Mac and Laura take some time off from politicking and procreating to get some new Sweet Chunky Goodness for our respective earholes.

I'd say the high point of Superchunk: Live From The Cat's Cradle is the live version of Home At Dawn, but there are 17 other tracks to tickle your fancy. There's even a version of Day The Sharks Flew featuring Kevin and Jennifer from Erectus Monotone for all you old-school Triangle kids and Merge estoterica aficianados. Misfits and Mistakes from The Aqua Teen Hunger Soundtrack appears, as well, (sans Meatwad lead vocals). You can buy tracks individually, or pick up the whole kit and caboodle for $13 cheap. Do that here. It's not a tax deduction, but if you want, you can donate in that regard, too. You could do a lot worse for less than $20. Check out CyTunes here and do some shopping.

There is more info on the fundraising effort here. Were you of a mind to keep up on Merge goings-on, you can check in here. The Chunk web presence is here, with info on the new Clambakes disc coming in January, too. Bookmark that shit, yo.

R

Live: Bobby Bare Jr. @ Mercury Lounge 9.22.8

I've said it before and will say it again: Bobby Bare Jr. is most important artist of our generation. No one straddles genres like he does, nor is there anyone who has a broader sense of songwriting. When you come from his genetic roots, grow up living in between the Cash and Tillis families and have Mike Grimes (of Nashville's Grimey's Record Store) as an ex-band slash roommate, you're going to have a much deeper well to draw on than the average performer.

This show was with The Broken West, who play the type of tuneful pop-rock that LA bands like Gingersol and I See Hawks In LA seem to make popular and are evidently on Merge. I prefer the power-poppy end of their material over the fairly generic Americana stuff, but they seem to be a decent, albeit average band. They evidently share the same booking agent and all parties involved were purported to be stewing it up at said agent's wedding for most of the weekend. It lent a very 'Sunday Night' vibe to the proceedings which was just as well for this old asshole, especially as I was straight off the bus from Maryland. The Broken West wrapped up on time and Bobby was on stage in short order. Evidently his drummer plays with And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and was tied up at ATP, so Bobby called an audible and decided to play acoustic with a little help from uber-sideman Chris Masterson. Masterson is from Houston, but has lived in Brooklyn in recent years. He is, in the parlance of the field, a motherfucker, playing lap steel, acoustic and beautiful Gretsch White Falcon as well as singing his ass off for the duration.

We've come to expect that from Bobby. No matter who he has backing him, they are absolutely terrifying players. Not that he needs the crutch. Over the course of his last four or five records, the quality of the songs have gone through the roof. His records have been on Bloodshot in recent years, the most recent being the Longest Meow. Bare is a man for whom music is music. If you're looking for a guy who will play a Smiths cover as readily he would a Hank Snow cover (or on this night a bitchin' cover of Bob Seger's Night Moves) this could be your type of renaissance man.

The set was pretty fast and loose, with Bobby taking requests for most of the set. As great as Bare is, much credit is due to Masterson, who fielded every song as if he had been playing it for years. I was bummed that we were going to miss the full Young Criminals Starvation League treatment, but Bare would do well to record one of the duo shows for a DVD. He is as engaging a banterer as he is a singer, and the chemistry between him and Masterson is a special thing that is a joy to behold. I assume there is a new record coming down the pike soon, as he played at least one new song, but look out for upcoming dates/info here and buy his Bloodshot back catalog here. You won't regret it.