DANIEL LANOIS @ THE TROUBADOUR

lar_import — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:31:22 +0000

Being a music fan and living in Los Angeles can have its perks. Among them is the fact that we have such classic venues as the Troubadour, where multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois performed to a sold-out crowd. There’s also a downside, of course: this particular crowd was comprised primarily of stuffy (and odds suggest way overpaid) music executives and their dolled up dates. Judging by the amount of times I was asked where the bathroom was, most of them had never even been to the world-famous Troubadour before. Even Lanois jokingly referred to this mid-show. As it turns out, the night’s entertainment would not sound anything like dub music at all—as per The Black Dub album, named for Lanois’ fascination with Jamaican music and culture. Instead, it was more of an exploration of blues-y rock and emotive Americana. With a stellar backing duo already in place—the greatly talented Brian Blade on drums and the ferocious Daryl Johnson on bass—Lanois enlisted the sultry Trixie Whitley, daughter of the late Chris Whitley, to take on multiple duties throughout the hour-long set, including both drums and organ. With all the firepower on stage, I was a bit surprised to feel (by the end of the night) somehow underwhelmed. All the players had shining moments throughout, from Whitley’s stunning vocals on Lanois’ “Silverado” to Brian Blade’s deft moves during “The Maker,” but all in all it didn’t feel like they were jiving together as a unit. This could very well be because it’s a new effort on Lanois’ part, but it was noticeable nonetheless. One of the evening’s shining moments came when Lanois played a beautiful solo on his pedal steel guitar. His motions were held together by Blade via a hypnotic rolling rhythm to match Lanois’ sweeping chords; the crowd was dead still. The real knock-it-out-of-the-park moment came on a cover of Tenor Saw’s “Ring the Alarm.” All members began to really click on the reggae number—Lanois riffed out notes you’d never see coming. From the looks of the crowd—if you want to call them that—the night was a success. Lanois dropped a great quote as he left the stage, and it’s one that I may steal in the future: “The passion never goes out of fashion.”

—Greg Caruso

PODCAST: FEAST ON MY HEART

lar_import — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:05:27 +0000

Fourteen songs of shirtless sleaze rock by a bunch of swaggering ’70s guitar degenerates. We will probably DJ about half of this tonight. Note: podcast does not include the actual Pylon song “Feast On My Heart,” but we did add that separately at the bottom of this post!

Download direct here!

SWEET “SOMEONE ELSE WILL”
B-side of the “Turn It Down” single from Desolation Boulevard. No one ever believes this is the “Ballroom Blitz” Sweet but it surely is.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY “LAZY WOMAN”
Midwest hard-rock from a band that disappeared after one hard-ass LP on RCA, which is yet to be re-issued on vinyl as far as we know. Except for one soft track the label supposedly made them include, For Love Or Money is a must-have for heavyists.

EUCLID “GIMME SOME LOVIN””
Spencer Davis Group cover from the Heavy Equipment LP, another heavy rock album with little filler. One of the guys from psych-pop trainspotter band Lazy Smoke is playing on this with the same producer as the Shaggs!

SIR LORD BALTIMORE “MASTER HEARTACHE”
This song is for Short Shorts because she has this record. No band ever said the word ‘woman’ better.

DUST “LOVE ME HARD”
Marky Ramone in his teen drum-prodigy years. Their first and best LP.

BANG “THE QUEEN”
From these Florida Sabbath fans’ first LP, which features equally endearing cover art of a gun shooting rainbows into some wizards or maybe policemen. (Album is buried in pile; will go look at it later.)

PENTAGRAM “FOREVER MY QUEEN”
True brutality from the band that lived so hard they almost had to amputate singer Bobby’s arms. Many quality reissues available.

SOUND MACHINE “WOMAN”
Competitive delivery of the word ‘woman’ from the very raw Psychedelic Minds Vol. 1 comp, which is full of bug-out stuff like this.

RANDY HOLDEN “SCARLET ROSE”
Solo track from ex-Blue Cheer/Other Half/Population II guitarist. Think this is a ’90s recording of a song he saved since the 60s, and has original Blue Cheer drummer Paul Whaley on it.

CLEAR BLUE SKY “VEIL OF THE VIXEN”
By far the most cheerful song on the Downer Rock Genocide compilation. Pretty long but they try about four kinds of downer moods so we put it in.

SIMPLY SAUCER “INSTANT PLEASURE”
Canadian Stooge-rock band that recorded live on top of a shopping mall. This track recorded by Daniel Lanois!

CACTUS “LET ME SWIM”
…in a sea of sleaze!

BLUE CHEER “THE HUNTER”
The most famous Blue Cheer love song.

BLACK SABBATH “EVIL WOMAN”
Seems like it was really hard to meet nice people during the ’70s. Even Jonathan Richman had the same problem.

BONUS TRACK: PYLON “FEAST ON MY HEART”
Not in the podcast and not scum rock but will still get your blood rushing.

L.A. RECORD » daniel lanois

DANIEL LANOIS @ THE TROUBADOUR

PODCAST: FEAST ON MY HEART