Another live Black Keys show on the web

Okay, this one’s even better than the one I highlighted in my previous post. Later in the afternoon, I did some more surfing, and I found this outstanding live video of the Black Keys from June 2006. According to Wikipedia, it’s a show they played in Amsterdam.

So, why’s this one better? Well, the show from the other post was from 2003, and this one’s from 2006. As a band, the Black Keys seem to be getting better and better with each passing year (month, even?), and that goes for their live shows, as well. With each record, and with each time I’ve seen their live performance, they seem to be refining their sound, yet they’re still exploring more of the space that can conceivably be covered by a band taking equal influence from both blues and punk music. I know, that’s saying a lot.

In this video, even more so than the other, the sound is clear, the picture is crisp, and the outcome is fantastic. Check it out. Now. I’m serious.

Live Black Keys video: full 2003 show from Austin, Tex.

I had no idea this was available. I feel like such a fool. Nonetheless, I believe I have a deep responsibility to move past my wounded pride and make sure you, dear reader, know about this video of a live Black Keys show from Oct. 2003 at the music venue Emo’s in Austin, Tex.

Apparently, a limited number of copies of the show were released on DVD, and it’s supposedly available in podcast form on iTunes (though I’ve tried many times to download it, and it never works). Based on the info I’ve found, what we have in this video that I’ve linked to above is the full show, almost 50 minutes; it’s incredible. The setlist is made up of songs from the band’s first two albums, both of which I also highly recommend (along with their other albums — let’s not forget those).

As for the band itself: the Black Keys are a couple guys from Ohio, both around 30 years in age, busting out the finest blues rock in decades — probably since Zeppelin. That’s right, you heard me. Like the White Stripes, to whom they’re often compared, the only instrumentation here is guitar, drums, and vocals (though I guess Jack White plays all kinds of other stuff, too, these days). Their style is also similar to the Stripes, loud and bluesy, though the Stripes are more erratic. The sound is raw and ragged, with lots of fuzz tones. And guitarist Dan Auerbach’s vocals are gritty, rough and extremely soulful, sounding nothing like any other band I’ve ever seen even remotely promoted by MTV.

In my opinion (which, let’s face it, counts for quite a bit), the Black Keys are the best rock band on the planet today. Period.

[Bonus: I also just discovered that the Keys have a free, four-track live album for download on their MySpace page (again, it's probably been there a while and I just didn't know). And they have a cut on the soundtrack to the new Bob Dylan psuedo-biopic, I'm Not There, a cover of Dylan's "The Wicked Messenger." All this stuff is good. I've never heard anything by the Keys that wasn't.]

Update: live music archives online, JFJO show

Had the chance to witness an incredible performance last night by the highly atypical piano jazz trio Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey in Norman. (You can read a brief preview of the show here.) The show was part of the 2007 fall Groovefest and was scheduled to be held outside in a park. But due to the threat of a lightning storm, it was moved inside to a small, hole-in-the-wall venue called the Deli. The energy was perfect, and the band absolutely tore it up.

The band recently took on a new, younger drummer, and the energy he brings is indispensible. If you’ve heard JFJO before, you know their music can be both electric and acoustic and can range from the avant-garde to more traditonal jazz by the likes of Ellington, Monk, and Mingus. But last night, in an all-electric show, they also brought the funk — even more so than usual — and they applied the punk aesthetic to a jazz trio in a way I’ve seldom heard before.

Needless to say, this morning I’ve been trying to find some live JFJO performances online that bear resemblance to the marvelous spectacle I observed last night. Of course, I checked out the Live Music Archive that I blogged about previously. But I also found some good stuff at nugs.net, and found some tracks that are quite similar to the ones I heard last night.

While I was at it, I browsed around the nugs site to check out what else is available from other artists. It appears that nugs serves as a clearing house of sorts, where interested persons can see what live digital recordings are out there, somewhere, online for, say, Phish, Widespread Panic, JFJO, or some other outfit that could potentially be labeled as a “jam band”. I guess, since tape trading became a popular thing initially among Grateful Dead fans, it only makes sense that most live digital music would be centered around the jam band scene.

And sure enough, another good place to find live digital downloads is at the website of the Bonnaroo festival — an annual event in Tennessee that began a few years ago to give all the jam bands and their fans a place to congregate and “freak out”. Also, if you’re a fan of Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule, it looks like you can find some good stuff at this site, too.

I should point out that you have to pay for most of the downloads at the nugs and Bonnaroo sites (though nugs does have a “free stash“), while the downloads at the Live Music Archive are free. I don’t know if the quality of the pay-for shows are, on average, better than the free ones. But either way, there seems to be some good stuff out there.

And finally, here are links to some killer JFJO shows similar to last night’s; sound quality may vary. Some of the songs the band played last night were “Oklahoma Stomp”, “Dove’s Army of Love”, “Santiago”, and the closer, a cover of “Happiness is a Warm Gun”. Outstanding.

[Update: Just found a good article on another recent JFJO show that elaborates a little more on some of the aforementioned songs and states, quite rightly, that the fellas of JFJO are "on top of their game".]

Fans say Radiohead’s online-only album of poor sound quality, may just be marketing gimmick

I find this quite hilarious. According to this MTV News story, some Radiohead fans are peeved because they pre-ordered the band’s new album — which, in case you haven’t heard, is only available online – and then found out that it’s only available in a bit rate of 160. I don’t know much about bit rates (though Chris will hopefully explain it to me), but apparently a 160 bit rate is pretty lame, far inferior to the 320 bit rate that Radiohead allegedly distributes their other albums in, and far below CD quality (though Radiohead’s guitarist says 160 bits is still better than iTunes — I don’t know … Chris, please help!).

Some disgruntled fans are even going so far as to say this Internet-only release, in which you get to decide what you want to pay for the album — and which has been hailed as a revolutionary new approach that could shake up the music industry as we know it — wasn’t radical at all. It was just a bunch of pre-hype to get people ready for the release of the physical CD, due out next year. So it’s possible that the indie rock music intelligentsia (a long, pretentious list) just got played by one of their Lancelot bands. Priceless.

[On another note, regardless of your personal opinions about the state of MTV, have you looked at their website lately? Every time you refresh it, the background is different. The arrangement is essentially the same; only the background changes. I know, I know, they're surely not the first to do it. But still a cool idea.]

New Dylan film looks trippy, but I still can’t wait to see it

I’ve already mentioned two of the films opening this fall that I’m eager to see: The Darjeeling Limited and No Country for Old Men. The third is the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There. From what I’ve read (particularly this article from the most recent New York Times Magazine), this is no ordinary musical biopic, like the recent films on Ray Charles or Johnny Cash. It’s kind of a trippy montage of tales about characters meant to represent Dylan in various periods of his life — six characters in all, including a young African-American boy and a woman. Should be very interesting, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to drag Marsha to see it. (I’ll be lucky enough to get her to go see those other two movies with me, and they have clear-cut story lines.)

I’m also intrigued by the lineup of artists who’ll be covering Dylan songs on the film’s soon-to-be-released soundtrack. The list includes the Black Keys, of whom I’m a big fan, as well as Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), Tom Verlaine (of Television), members of Sonic Youth, and Willie Nelson, among quite a few others. The soundtrack also includes a number of Dylan songs by Dylan himself, in case you were wondering. This blog has quite a few good posts on the topic, including these three.

Wes Anderson profile in New York Magazine

Last week’s issue of New York Magazine features a good profile of filmmaker Wes Anderson, who’s new film, The Darjeeling Limited, was released this weekend in a few U.S. theatres and will be opening soon in the rest of the country.

A lot of people think Anderson’s movies are too kitschy and quirky, and they don’t like him. Well, I do. In fact, I think his films are the best out there today, at least in part because of the incredible worlds he conjures up. If you’ve seen any of them, you know what I’m talking about: a mix of mythical New York or European aesthetics, which Anderson pairs with the dry, melancholy wit of his writing. The soundtracks for him films are just as kitschy, mixing everything from British new wave, to punk, to baroque classical, to flamenco guitar, Indian sitar, and on and on. For a lot of people, it’s all too much (or too little). For me, it’s a wonderful blend of styles, along with enough substance to keep me interested.

[The issue of the magazine also features a good profile of the filmmaker brothers Ethan and Joel Coen, who made The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, and Fargo, among others, and are favorites of mine as well. Their new film, No Country for Old Men, I am also eager to see.]