Deadline Publishing

New Discs

As I move on to my next full time gig covering the automotive industry I find a lot of my music coverage has lagged. I’ll be putting some thoughts here since I don’t have a lot on my freelance plate right now. Here’s a quick round-up of recent discs and my thoughts.

Snow Patrol, Eyes Open

This has got to be the most boring, most generic rock record I’ve heard this year. It’s actually been a great year for new music so I guess it could be worse for the Patrol, but if I wanted to hear a somber retread of Oasis meets the Goo Goo Dolls I’d…well I’d never want to hear that. I don’t understand why this record is getting so much buzz.

Download: “Chasing Cars” (it proves my point)

More on Thursday, Wolfmother and Tool after the jump.

Getting Back Into The Groove

I’m back from a week of Pearl Jam revelry and landed with an awesome cold and cough. I get this once a year and usually following a long week of said revelry. For those PJ folks who are interested, the Grand Rapids show was good but our seats were horrible. The Fan Club screwed up and put us in the last row of the lower bowl in front of the skyboxes filled with drunken 20 somethings.

The set was killer though and Ed even played with My Morning Jacket. Shown here.

The BMW 650i was a nice ride for the three and a half hour trip, although Courtney didn’t like the cupholders, and I agree. But I couldn’t argue with the performance and the ride.

Otherwise, I’m finishing up some other projects and preparing for a new full-time job to start Tuesday. I’ll be working downtown again so Roxy will be getting a dog walker five days a week.

Riding to Grand Rapids in Style

When people ask what I do and I tell them I write about cars they kind of scratch their head and wonder what that means. It was easier to say I covered music and got free CDs and concert tickets when that was my beat. Now I get free cars…for a week…to test.

Usually, I schedule vehicles when they’re available and never get the right car for when a road trip comes up. But today as I head out to Grand Rapids, for yet another Pearl Jam show, I’ll be driving the BMW 650i shown at right. The thing is sweet. I’ll report back on how the ride and show went tomorrow or Sunday.

Pearl Jam: Chicago Night 2

Part of being a Pearl Jam geek fan is critiquing the setlist night from night. In that way last night blew me away. The second show also seemed a bit sweeter because my wife could go with me. She’s not a fanatic like me, but she always enjoys the shows and is going to Grand Rapids with me Friday and Summer Fest in June. How Supportive is that?

OK here’s the set with my favorites in bold. And after the jump I’ll talk about all the photos.

Main Set: Severed Hand, Worldwide Suicide, Life Wasted, Animal, Marker in the Sand, Do The Evolution, Whipping, 1/2 Full, I am Mine, Even Flow, Gone, Insignificance, Betterman, Save it for Later, Down, Garden, Inside Job, Lukin’, Why Go

Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Footsteps, Once, Alive (Backwards Mamasan Trilogy)

Encore 2: Last Kiss, Last Exit, Glorified G

Encore 3: Small Town, Crown of Thorns, Rocking in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

Pearl Jam: Chicago Night 1

OK so I went to the first night of the Chicago two-night stand and it was great. Before you go off saying “of course” the band sounded better than ever even if the setlist was “standard.” There were loooooooong jams on Even Flow, Porch and Alive and the encore was Go, Blood and Indifference. Really great stuff. Some photos Below. The wife joins me tonight for the show, too bad she missed Baba O’Reilly last night though.

Thanks to Bill for the ticket! 12th row from a fellow 10 Club member.

 

Set list: Release, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Comatose, Given To Fly, Lowlight, Corduroy, I'm Open, I Got Shit, Even Flow, Unemployable, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Save You, Porch

1st Encore: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, Betterman, Come Back, State Of Love And Trust, Black, Alive

2nd Encore: Go, Blood, Indifference, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

Eddie Sings The Stretch

I don't know if this will work but we'll find out. Here's the MP3 of Eddie Vedder singing the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley today. If this works I'll upload his WGN interview. I'm working on the video as well for youtube later. But enjoy this for now.

Download eddies_stretch.mp3

Pearl Jam Disc Gets Here Early, Dave Rejoices

Friday afternoon I got a surprise package in the mail. The copy of Pearl Jam’s new self-titled album I had preordered arrived a full five days before its official release date. Oh joy. And while the NFL Draft disappointed me on so many levels, the album didn’t really leave me wanting much.

It certainly is one of the heavier albums the band has produced in some time. Starting off strong isn’t unusual for a Pearl jam disc and “Life Wasted,” “Worldwide Suicide” and “Comatose” (sounding a lot like “Spin the Black Circle”) are sure winners. But Pearl Jam is best at the soaring “epic” tracks.

“Marker In The Sand” is the one that struck me right off as adding more creativity to the formula. But I don’t think any of the songs have the adventurous traits that Riot Act gems like “You Are” featured. The entire album sounds much more stripped, bare bones and raw.

Slower tracks like “Parachutes” (sounding a lot like “All Those Yesterdays” from Yield) and album closer “Inside Job” (the band sounds just like the Afghan Wigs on it) don’t really do it for me either. Luckily, “Gone” is one of those stark, well-written ballads that resonates with the sincerity that first turned so many people on to the band fifteen years ago. It’s one of the album highlights.

I know the new disc will grow on me, as they always do, and the rock songs are terrific. But there are quite a few songs, “Army Reserve,” that probably won’t succeed in getting my vote for “musts” when I go see the band live this month.