L.A. RECORD » gillian welch

GILLIAN WELCH + DAVE RAWLINGS @ MUSIC BOX

Intern — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:24:40 +0000

Photos of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings on September 29th, 2011 at the Music Box by Lindsey Best.

Setlist:
First Set:
1) Tear My Stillhouse Down
2) Scarlet Town
3) Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
4) Rock of Ages
5) The Way It Will Be
6) The Way That It Goes
7) Elvis Presley Blues
Dark Turn of Mind
9) I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll
10) Red Clay Halo

Second Set:
11) No One Knows My Name
12) Hard Times
13) Down Along the Dixie Line
14) Six White Horses
15) Revelator
16) I Hear Them All -> This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover)
17) Tennessee
18) Caleb Meyer

Encore:
19) Look at Miss Ohio
20) I’ll Fly Away

Encore 2:
21) The Way the Whole Thing Ends
22) Jackson (Johnny Cash cover)

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LESLIE AND THE BADGERS: TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE CHA CHA CHAUGHTS!

lar_import — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:25:03 +0000

The following ten records were my favorites during the “aughts” or “O”s or “aughties” or whatever we’re referring to them as now that it’s the “tens” or “teens” or “tweens” or what have you.

My Morning Jacket – At Dawn

Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo

Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Benji Hughes – A Love Extreme

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Lucinda Williams – World Without Tears

Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway

Martha Wainwright – Martha Wainwright

Radiohead – Kid A

Gillian Welch – The Revelator Collection DVD

-Leslie Stevens

ROBYN HITCHCOCK @ SPACELAND

lar_import — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:59:14 +0000

Eros was much on Robyn’s mind and thighs this evening as he frooged and prophesied with his folk-rock supergroup the Venus 3: Peter Buck of R.E.M. on 6- and 12-string Rickenbacker, furry-hatted Scott McCaughey (pronounced like “McCoy”) of Young Fresh Fellows on bass and vocals and William “fucking” Rieflin of Ministry on drums—who also play together in the Minus 5 and in R.E.M.’s touring band. The opening mind-raid of “I Often Dream of Trains,” “Kingdom of Love,” and “Brenda’s Iron Sledge” ate each individual member of the Incredible String Band for late supper before feasting on the audience’s hopes and dreams and burglarizing their emotions in a venereal insect frenzy. I mean it was good. The lucky customers were treated to “Television” with Robyn’s comrades Gillian Welch and David Rawlings sitting in and Rieflin joining the others (except Buck, who does not sing) on harmony—which I mention because I did not know Rieflin sang; and then the happy patrons delighted in the gorgeous tonalities of hits old and new: “Airscape,” “I’m Falling,” “Up To Our Nex,” “Madonna of the Wasps,” though I was too busy enjoying myself to keep track of the set list. Hitchcock’s singing voice is in top form and his distinctive instrumental voice cooks food; there are echoes of Robby Krieger and Richard Thompson in his guitar style, but it would be hard to mistake a Robyn Hitchcock guitar part for anyone else’s if you ever got to hear him on the radio. During one song I did not recognize, Hitchcock took a wild fuzztone solo while still singing the lead melody, which is not a thing people can just do. Rieflin delivered a brief studious lecture about how to make a proper studio recording as human hands grew from spectators’ eyeballs and undid the Gordian knot that binds commerce and music in our post-industrial society. Welch and Rawlings returned for the encores, “Queen Elvis” from Hitchcock’s masterpiece Eye, and the Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You.” One of the great rock performances of all time. Adroitly opened by Parson Red Heads, who remind me favorably of Teenage Fanclub and have sweet vocal harmonies and a steel guitarist. This seems like a good opportunity to say that Hitchcock’s Groovy Decay, which I once derided in print as “unlistenable,” now strikes me as a really good album that ought to be reissued in an expensive sleeve.

—Oliver Hall

WILLY PORTER + RAINING JANE @ THE GRAMMY MUSEUM

lar_import — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:26:32 +0000

Raining Jane, made up of four unique female artists, created rooftop rain pattering lullabys at The Grammy Museum on Wednesday night, opening for and performing with funky folk acoustic singer Willy Porter. The two lead singers of Raining Jane precisely harmonized their voices and emotionally moved their bodies with a slue of guitars, a cello, a sitar, and delicately beaded percussion instruments. The percussionist/singer, hand wrists ankles draped in her instruments, whistled from her seat, a wooden box. Willy Porter, alone on stage for a few numbers, discussed with the audience everything from guzzling beers with Paul Simon and his enjoyment of naked women, to cleaning the gutters of a very tall house. It was as if we were all sitting and listening at the local bar, over sizey sips of brown liquor. He talked and sang of the profane, the mundane, and his fingers moved so fast on his strings, building a truly impressive layered illusion of multiple people performing. The title song off of his new album, How To Rob A Bank, had the audience in laughter and applause.

Twang was out, sitar guitar blues were in, lyrics dangled the political next to the magical, and the storytelling collaborative performance was never without a sense of humor, affection and distinct talent. Raining Jane and Willy alike sang of second chances and loss, paper cuts and paper planes, pin balls, war and miracles. I had brief thoughts of Gillian Welch, Regina Spektor, Jethro Tull, Allison Kraus, The Triplets of Belleville, or a barbershop quartet, but nothing quite fit. It felt more like flowers tapping their petals on a tin wall, feminine feet splashing in an ice cube mountain spring, bees buzzing around fresh honey, a crisp trot through a bright meadow, a conversation in a nest on the moon, or a lover squeezing your head between their hands and sing-saying into your eyes, “You and me, this could be, miraculous.”

—Beth McNamara