San Diego Serenade

Somehow, word get out that San Diego’s Mardi Gras celebration in the Gaslamp Quarter is the “Biggest Mardi Gras Celebration on the West Coast.” That promise lured me down there the first year I was out here, and I’ve heard it exclaimed to me by excited newcomers a few times since, so someone must be promoting this blatantly false ideal. I left early the one and only year that I went down to the Gaslamp for Mardi Gras, and I feel bad for anyone who will only be able to experience the day through this imitation. Here is why it does not measure up to any real celebration of Mardi Gras:

1. $20 dollar entrance fee. Ostensibly this goes towards the bands, which this year include KC & The Sunshine Band. Obviously, nobody floods down there for the bands. Otherwise, Chateau Orleans in PB would have a packed house everytime Tomcat Courtney plays. So the $20 is sort of an entry fee for a Street Scene that you’re not going to watch the bands at.

2. That includes the Street Scene festival pricing for booze. 5 dollar Heinekens, 7 dolar hurricanes. Down on the streets of New Orleans, you can buy a product known as a Huge Ass Beer, or a 151 Hurricane. They’re not overpriced, and they pack a punch.

3. The food is small portions of expensive garbage with long lines.

4. Big warning on the home page: “Please DO NOT BRING: CAMERAS OR VIDEO CAMERAS. They will not be allowed.” Awesome. It’s such a wild and crazy time that we are adament that you can’t bring a camera for some unspecified reason!

5. The parades in New Orleans are the kind of thing where you suddenly understand that all the other parades you’ve ever seen have done their best to give parades a bad name. There are floats the length of a footbal field, King Kong floats that throw bananas at you, ridiculous beads so heavy that they could kill a man if they hit him in the head, and the riders on the float frequently have a strict nudity for beads exchange program. Alternatively, I saw someone getting cited for flashing the year I went to the Gaslamp.

6. I repeat: I saw someone getting cited for flashing the year I went to the Gaslamp.

Pretty much the whole event is akin to the Eddie Murphy routine from either Delirious or Raw, where his mother says that instead of buying Eddie McDonald’s, she will make him a hamburger that is “Better than McDonald’s.” Young Eddie is intrigued, but when he is presented with the hamburger that is round like a meatball, oozing with grease and has onions sticking out of it, he realizes that some products are best left to the people who deliver to your expectations. If you’re down with a twenty dollar cover on top of whatever cover the bars are charging to experience a more crowded Gaslamp quarter, be my guest.

I suppose I should link to information about the blues and displaced New Orleans musicians that are performing, in case people still want to check them out:

7:00 PM - The Frappe’ Brass Band
8:15 PM - The Wild Apache Mardi Gras Indians
9:30 PM - The 504 Brass Band
11:00 PM - Kirk Joseph’s Backyard Groove

Click Here for the full musical lineup

Despite everything that has happened in New Orleans recently, Mardi Gras appears to still be going strong. Having spent four consecutive years a few years back attending the festivities, you understand that being out and about in Mardi Gras is the kind of thing that affects all five of your senses. Unlike San Diego, as mentioned in the previous post, New Orleans may hold the record for the most self referential, New Orleans glorifying songs. Thus, the day won’t be complete until you’ve listened to a never ending loop of the following four songs that is playing everywhere you walk and in every restaurant, bar or place of business you enter:

1. Mardi Gras Mambo
2. Iko Iko
3. They All Ask’d For You
4. Mardi Gras in New Orleans

I sat at a blackjack table at the Harrah’s New Orleans one time while they played some sort of “Now That’s What I Call Music” hits package. I debated aloud asking the pit boss to switch it over to the Mardi Gras Mambo mix, since the Backstreet Boys weren’t really capturing the spirit of the city, but the dealer pleaded with me not to. Evidently if you live and work in the city, the above four songs are pretty much the equivilent of having a never ending car alarm blaring wherever you go. But one day out of the year, they’ll be the perfect background music for you Mardi Gras Party. I’ve put them in my Radio Blog, to the right, along with a few other choices, for your listening pleasure.

Those of you who might want some more diversity in your aural replication of New Orleans would do well to check out Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol’ Box Of New Orleans. It’s a four CD box assembled by Chuck Taggart, who runs the Gumbo Pages, a exhaustive source of New Orleans Culture, Music and Food. For our Mardi Gras party tonight, we’re cooking up some of Chuck’s recommended recipes from different restaurants and chefs around town, and our musical selections will draw largely from the above box set. So pretty much our evening is in one man’s hands, and I really hope he knows what he’s doing.

Lastly, I found this unique little live Tom Waits medley in my collection, and decided to post it today in honor of the city and the holiday. It’s perfect for this years celebration of Mardi Gras: Booze soaked and raspy, a little somber to start out, but impossible to keep the good times down. Three songs, that all flow together, so get them all as a package deal.

Download MP3s below:
1. Tom Waits - I Wish I Was In New Orleans
2. Tom Waits - When The Saints Go Marching In
3. Tom Waits - Since I Fell For You / New Orleans Reprise

And after this, no Tom Waits for at least a week.

The San Diego Blog wonders where all the songs about San Diego are. Well this website is named after “San Diego Serenade” by Tom Waits. “San Diego Serenade” isn’t some song pandering to the residents of a city though, calling out local landmarks and such. It’s really just a love song and if you listened to the lyrics, you’d really have no way of guessing the song’s title. However, based on the short list of songs that people are coming up with, I guess we will have to take what we can get. In addition to “San Diego Serenade,” Tom Waits’ “I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)” off of the album Small Change and “The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone’s Pizza House)” off of “The Heart of Saturday Night,” both share the record for the longest song title that happens to be about a small slice of life in San Diego. They detail the time Waits spent working at the infamous National City Pizza House.

For further information about how strapped San Diego is for a song, this commenter seems to think that the best song ever written about San Diego was by the Velvet Fog himself, Mr. Mel Torme. He puts out a call for a local band to cover it as their ticket to stardom. You had better hurry though, because the rendition of it that he claims Mel Torme’s son and one of the members of Toto are working on is going to be tough to beat.

Lord….

Bob Dylan performs at Brixton Academy in London on November 21st, 2005

With the controversial “Bob Dylan Musical” causing San Diego residents to debate the artistic staus of Bob Dylan, I thought I would provide some evidence that Dylan the contemporary entertainer is still relevant and rockin’. I present to you the show that Bob Dylan played in London at Brixton Academy on November 21st, 2005. This bootleg has gotten some press recently, it was even reviewed in Rolling Stone. It is notable for a couple reasons. First of all, guitarist Link Wray had just died two weeks earlier, and Dylan paid tribute by opening the show with a rendition of his famous instrumental “Rumble.” Secondly, he decides to treat the Brits to a shortened version of “London Calling,” which obviously brings the house down. And Thirdly, he plays the Basement Tapes song “Million Dollar Bash” for the first time live. As I mentioned in the previous post, I consider Dylan to be very self aware of how the public perceives him, so let the debating of his intentions here begin It is nice to see these rarities popping up once in a while, because I’ve seen several Dylan concerts on the “Never Ending Tour” that he’s been on for several years now, and while he is in good form, the setlists are kind of predictable. Every show ends with the less exciting every time you hear it”Like a Rolling Stone,” “All Along The Watchtower” combo. His stage intro for every show, however, set to Copland’s “Rodeo” is the best in the business.

These little wrinkles that Dylan tosses in, along with above average recording quality for an audience mix, and the tight form his band demonstrates makes this show definitely worth a listen. When all is said and done, this Never Ending Tour stage of Dylan’s career will dominate a sizeable portion of his timeline as a performer. Since he’s been on the tour, he’s released two of his finest albums, opened up to Martin Scorcese’s camera, penned his autobiography and shows no signs of slowing down.

Plus, as an added bonus, if you download and burn this show, the kind people on the internet have done you the favor of designing TWO separate album art sleeves for you to adorn your jewel cases with. Now get busy downloading, and hope that Twyla Tharp doesn’t find out about this show and include Million Dollar Bash (Kanye Remix) in her production of “The Times They Are A-Changin’ 2: Still A-Changin’”

Download MP3s and album art below:

Disc 1:
1. Introduction
2. Rumble / Maggie’s Farm
3. The Times They Are A-Changin’
4. Million Dollar Bash
5. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
6. Moonlight
7. Down Along The Cove
8. Boots Of Spanish Leather
9. Cold Irons Bound
10. Mr. Tambourine Man
11. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
12. Visions Of Johanna

Disc 2:
1. Honest With Me
2. Waiting For You
3. Highway 61 Revisited
4. London Calling
5. Like A Rolling Stone
6. All Along The Watchtower

Album Art 1 - JPG
Album Art 2 - JPG

Letters to the editor flow into the Union Tribune yesterday regarding a somewhat more negative review of the new musical “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Critic George Varga takes the musical to task for reducing Dylan’s

“rich body of work to a simplistic, plot-challenged exercise in warm, fuzzy nostalgia.”

Varga also feels that:

“The target audience for this Broadway-bound show, apparently, is graying baby boomers for whom authenticity matters less than entertainment value. And this audience may like the idea of Dylan a lot better than it does Dylan himself…”

His assertations result in several letters to the editor, some defending the play for trying something new, others applauding Varga for defending the complexity of Dylan’s songwriting. I still know that I would hate this play, but the overall tone of Varga’s criticism seems to be that Dylan’s work is untouchable, that it is upon some higher plane of art that shouldn’t be subjected to this. As someone who is familiar with the twists and turns that Dylan himself put his music through, (listen to Live At Budokan, where his songs are given the Vegas “Big Band” treatment, for example,) there is no reason to afford the man this off-limits stature, since he has never believed in it himself. As reader Dolores Christensen points out:

If Dylan wanted to never change his work, he wouldn’t have added electric guitar and the Band to his performances.

Dylan has demonstrated over the years that he has an incredibly perverse and inscrutable sense of humor. There is no way that this show negatively affects his reputation, if anything it results in criticism like Varga’s, which glorifies his work even more. That’s what makes all the bad Dylan material from the past four decades still remain intriguing to people: you’re never quite sure if you’re in a a big joke or not.

It appears to be a pretty low key weekend in terms of your options for musical entertainment. No real big name acts coming through, and nothing in particular of note on a local level. However, there are always recommendations to be made, so I will try to point you in the right direction.

First of all, I think that the best option for anyone will be going to catch Neil Young’s concert movie, Neil Young: Heart of Gold in Hillcrest (see my post from yesterday.) Reviews have been positive across the board, check out the Rotten Tomatoes page for a sampling.

Pink Froyd plays Saturday at Winston’s

My second promising diversion would be Pink Froyd, Saturday at Winston’s. This Pink Floyd tribute band will be playing “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety. I saw the band perform “The Wall” about a year ago, and it was a great time. “Dark Side of the Moon” is one of those records that people know inside and out, so its a treat to hear it in a live setting and remember why you listened to it every night for a two year stretch of your life. When they played “The Wall”, they divided it into two sets and played a third set of audience requested Pink Floyd, so I imagine more of the same will be in order. The only question I have for the band is what the deal with the name is. It lacks the obvious pun quality that seems like a requirement for a tribute band. Maybe I am just missing it…

If revisiting classic rock icons is not to your liking, there are always checking out artists who have not yet attained “Legendary” or even “Known” status. The Union Tribune’s “Liner Notes” blog recomends a couple of local acts that sound relatively harmless, and a big party at the Casbah on Saturday:

Goodbye Blue Monday, Via Satellite and Manuok at S.D.’s best rock club Saturday for Loud + Clear Records’ 4th Anniversary Party at the Casbah. Also performing: new L+C signing neonthief and Adam Gnade…don’t miss this rare chance to catch his live show, which has been known to feature “six-person drumlines, girls banging on wine bottles with butter knives and a basement full of drunk, happy kids on electric guitars, piano, tambourine, bass, organ, homemade percussion, hand claps, you name it,” according to his Web site.

So there you go. I’ll let you know how Neil Young is.

Tickets to see The Strokes go on sale tomorrow, Saturday the 25th at 10:00 AM. They are playing on Tuesday, March 28th at UCSDs Rimac Arena. Tickets are 25 dollars. If you haven’t seen The Strokes before, and this is coming from a person who at one point in time came back from a family trip to Spain EARLY to see them and The White Stripes perform in New York, just imagine the album played note for note, really loud. It’s a fun experience if you like the music, but you’re always feeling a bit unfulfilled.

Ticket Master Link.

Here’s our weekly look at the most popular albums at a popular file sharing site. This should be used to judge which albums are the most anticipated releases among people with more eclectic music taste than the people buying the albums that make it onto the more official charts. They’re also a good indication of what you could maybe find on the internet if you searched really hard. This week, when available, links will take you somewhere where you can sample music from the album:

1. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
2. The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
3. Calexico - Garden Ruin
4. Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
5. Liars - Drums Not Dead
6. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
7. Granddaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
8. Islands - Return To The Sea
9. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
10. Destroyer - Destroyer’s Rubies

Several new entries this week, with most of the top ten surprisingly having been reviewed by the omnipresent Pitchfork, (See: Secret Machines, Sunset Rubdown, Destroyer, Liars.) The Liars in particular has been floating around for a while and really took off this week because of that review.

Sunset Rubdown is a side project of Wolf Parade singer Spencer Krug, for those interested. They have released two EPs in addition to the forth coming full length mentioned above. I found the Destroyer album to be interesting enough to warrant a couple listens, it is theatrical and dramatic. The other two new albums to hit the top ten this week I am not interested in so much. I do not like the Liars style music, and I am shocked that the Fiery Furnaces can be as popular as they are. We saw them open for the Strokes a few months before Blueberry Boat came out, and months later, as I read the applause given to the album I had to take a deep breath as I realized it was the same band. Lastly, keep in mind that the Flaming Lips album has nearly twice the seeders as any onther release on here.

I didn’t learn about this competition until I picked up a flyer about it from Winston’s, but it’s not too late to still check it out. It’s being put on by San Diego Music Scene, a self described “collective designed to showcase, educate, and promote the vast array of local artists and bands.” Pretty much, they are putting on a huge battle of the bands style competition, but with an innovative category break down by day of the week. Mondays feature singer-songwriters, Tuesdays are open to under 21 crowds, Wednesdays are for bands and Thursdays are Hip Hop focused. There’s still time to catch the last week of the opening round, with performances at Blind Melons in PB, SDSU’s Hot Monkey Love Cafe and Dream Street in OB. The finals take place March 8th at Blind Melons. Personally, I am shocked that there are that many MCs in San Diego, but there’s nothing like an old fashioned Battle of the Bands to finding an act you previously knew nothing about.

More more info check out www.sandiegomusicscene.org

Neil Young: Heart of Gold is Neil Young’s new concert film, and after a limited release it expands to San Diego this weekend. My friend Andrew, who went to college with Young’s daughter and met the man himself once, says it is one of the best concert films he’s seen in a long time. It is playing at the Landmark Hillcrest exclusively. Here’s the link to the trailer and showtimes for Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

To help publicize the movie, Neil Young appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, the issue before Kanye appeared wearing a crown of thorns and two issues before Mariah Carey. The magazine published an interesting “Lost Songs” playlist, detailing the “stellar songs on not-so-stellar albums”, of which Young has his fair share. The tracklisting is also available online, and you can listen to is for free if you register for a free Rhapsody account and install a small browser plugin, no stand alone player required.

Inexplicably, there are two songs missing from the playlist if you try to listen to them using the Rolling Stone link.

-”Will to Love” from American Stars ‘n Bars
-”Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze” from Re-ac-tor

There’s also a wide variety of Neil Young videos covering pretty much every facet of his career available at youtube.com. There’s solo Neil in ‘72, with Crazy Horse, the short lived rock-a-billy album and playing with the Grateful Dead in ‘91. The rock-a-billy video in particular is a “gotta see it to believe it” video. No wonder people thought that MTV thing wouldn’t last.