Afropunk 2017 Sunday Setlists

Review to come.


SON LITTLE - 08.27.17 - COMMODORE BARRY PARK, AFROPUNK FESTIVAL (25 minutes, 30 seconds)

SET -
Alice / Blue Magic (Waikiki) > Go Blue Blood Red / Your Love Will Blow Me Away / The River / Charging Bull

GARY CLARK, JR. - 08.27.17 - COMMODORE BARRY PARK, AFROPUNK FESTIVAL (53 minutes)

SET -
When My Train Pulls In / Next Door Neighbor Blues / Ain't Messin' 'Round / Our Love / Cold Blooded / Bright Lights / Things Are Changin' / You Saved Me

RAPHAEL SAADIQ - 08.27.17 - COMMODORE BARRY PARK, AFROPUNK FESTIVAL (1 hour, 23 minutes)

SET -
Intro > 100 Yard Dash > Heart Attack > Be Here > Will It Go Round in Circles / Movin' Down the Line > Good Man > Get Involved > I Chase You* > Dance Tonight > Don't Mess with My Man / Let's Get Down > Still Ray > Blind Man / Oph > Charlie Ray / You're the One That I Like > Never Give You Up > Just One Kiss / (Lay Your Head on My) Pillow > Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop) > Anniversary / Kissin' You > It Never Rains (in Southern California) / Soul Sista (feat. Bilal) / Ask of You / Lady > Just Me & You > Cranes in the Sky > Skyy, Can You Feel Me > Outro

Beale Street Music Festival: Day 3 Review

We woke up to sunshine at our hotel, optimistic for the final day of the festival.  We'd be seeing full sets instead of splitting our time between performers, and it was finally warm out!  We took a MATA bus that drove past Sun Studio on its way downtown, but that was the last sun we'd see all day.  When we got to Tom Lee Park, the clouds rolled in and the wind whipped the snot right out of my nose.  But after Friday, it was a relative cakewalk.  We set out for the Bud Light Stage, where we'd be watching three consecutive acts.

First up were the Kingston Springs, who I'd first seen supplying some gorgeous harmonies to Rayland Baxter's "Olivia" in this video.  Left to their own devices, however, the Tennessee band are rockers.  Sure, that rootsy Nashville sound is present, but on "Sweet Susie," Ian Ferguson sounded a lot like Jack White (although I guess Jack's been picking up that Nashville sound too).  The vibe was friendly and relaxed, with long-haired bassist Alex Geddes asking the crowd, "Anybody out there getting drunk today?  We are."  Ian expounded, "We got off to an early start. We already finished all the beer in our trailer."  "So whoever heard that, bring us some more beer," added Alex with a smile.  The boys were accompanied by some squealing harmonica on "Lover," courtesy of Patrick Weickenand, who used to play with War.  They clapped it up on the chugging "1991," which was enhanced with a little trumpet from James Guidry, before they closed it out with the hard-edged "Lowest of Animals."  I would've bought a vinyl if I didn't have to carry it all day.

And who wants to carry anything but two beers during a Deer Tick set?  They kicked things off with "The Bump," John McCauley punctuating "They call me the Bump" with a long snort on the microphone.  They weren't entirely satisfied with the sound (or lack thereof) coming from their monitors, but McCauley skillfully worked in his "Hey! Hey!" mic-checking to the transition into easily the best "Easy" I've heard.  After playing the catchy "The Dream is in the Ditch," Ian O'Neil asked the crowd, "How was that?  Because I couldn't hear it," which was kind of nuts, considering the mix offstage was the best of the festival.  As the technicians tried to remedy the issue, McC admitted, "We're the problem children at every festival," following it with a few Bon Scott screams of "Problem child!"  For new number, "Really Just Friends," John put down his guitar, singing at the mic while holding a beer can and a cigarette like a white trash Sammy Davis, Jr.  "If I was you, I would be watching Public Enemy right now," he confessed.  But then I would've missed the funky keyboard jam in "These Old Shoes" that briefly turned into "Superstition."  After a winning "Ashamed," McCauley said, "Happy Cinco de Mayo, bee tee dubs."  The band crept into "Sleep Walk," and although I knew what Mexican treat was coming next, most in the crowd were delightfully surprised when they launched into their fully Spanish cover of "La Bamba."  It was one of the top sets at the festival that I'm sure resulted in dozens of new Deer Tick fans.

My brother had pinned Gary Clark, Jr. as a "legend in the making" when he saw him at the 9:30 Club, so it was time to see for myself.  Gary walked onto the stage, picked up his guitar, and smiled briefly before asking the eager crowd, "Y'all ready?"  We all clapped like we were, but no one was prepared for the 13-and-a-half-minute "When My Train Pulls In" he pulled out.  Gary Clark spent half of "Please Come Home" crooning in a sweet falsetto, and the other half ripping into his guitar, with members of Kingston Springs and Deer Tick watching studiously from the wings.  "Travis County" and "Ain't Messin' 'Round" charged up the audience for the set's biggest moment, Clark's reinterpretive "Third Stone from the Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say" medley.  While returning to "Stone" from Collins' song, Clark transmogrified his six-string into a turntable, scratching out a string-breaking solo that dropped jaws.  "Y'alright?" Clark asked with a wry grin.  Because we'd only just gotten a taste of Albert Collins, GCJ covered the bluesman's "If Trouble Was Money."  It was nice to hear so much Collins after seeing his guitar on the wall at Rum Boogie Cafe on Friday.  He finished with "Bright Lights," and you could be damn sure that everyone in the constantly growing crowd knew his name by the end of the song.  In fact, I bet you could edit the entire concert together from all the iPhone footage that was taken.  "Well, it's been fun. Thanks for listening to me," he said bashfully at the song's end.  While he did seem shy with the banter, there's no doubt the man has stage presence.  His band spent the entire show flanking the drum riser, so it may be a bit forced, but this towering figure in front, grimacing in pain at the emotion he was dispelling out of his fingers and onto the strings is exactly what the blues are about.  I foresee a brass note on Beale St. in his future for sure.

I was excited to see many of the bands at the festival, but after hearing Phoenix's new album Bankrupt!, the French band stood out as number one.  They kicked things off with "Entertainment," pumping me up for a set of new tunes.  Thomas Mars counted off, "Un, deux, trois," and the band launched into "Lasso."  "Lisztomania" had the crowd going crazy, but not as much as I was while screaming out the chorus to "S.O.S. in Bel Air."  They followed that with "Love Like a Sunset" with a hunk of "Bankrupt!" squeezed in the middle, a mash-up some have taken to calling "Sunskrupt!"  When the first verse of "Too Young" gave way to "Girlfriend," I finally noticed a saddening trend: They weren't just favoring Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; they were playing the entire album.  Don't get me wrong; I like the record.  But it's not on the same level as It's Never Been Like That or Bankrupt!  In recent interviews, they'd discussed the possibility of failure after the success of Wolfgang, so it seemed too safe of them to play the album in full here.  In spite of the song selection, they sounded excellent and put on a great show.  Mars climbed offstage and onto the barricade mid-"Armistice" and stayed there for all of "1901."  He even took the opportunity to crowdsurf a little during the encore.  Fortunately, his shoes didn't appear to be muddied.

If I'd been hoping that Phoenix would play their new album, it was the complete opposite for the Flaming Lips.  My first listen of The Terror was disappointing, finding it to be somehow both abrasive and boring.  But I'd only ever seen them play a few songs at StePhest Colbchella, so I wanted a full FLips set.  I even had a backup plan: If things get too weird, just go watch the Black Crowes.  Things got weird alright, but it was an engrossing live experience that demanded my attention.  Flaming Lips shows have always been strange, but they may have been getting too cuddly with people dressed as life-sized stuffed animals, "She Don't Use Jelly" singalongs, and Wayne Coyne crawling across the crowd in his space bubble.  If that aesthetic was an all-embracing, stoned lovefest, their new one represents a harsh acid trip.  From a four-foot-tall platform amid a nest of sparkling tubes and silver globes, Coyne coddled a baby doll while he sang over the nightmarish groove of "Look... The Sun is Rising."  At the song's end, he informed us, "This baby's sleeping," and set it aside for a louder, more frightening version of "The Terror," the screen behind him rapidly hurtling through a succession of sharply toothed mouths.  It was audacious and horrifying. The relief of the crowd was audible when the band kicked into "The W.A.N.D." but that didn't stop Wayne from shining a spotlight into fans' faces.  The assault on the eyes continued later with "Try to Explain," when the lighting rig lowered to eye level and continuously strobed red into our retinas.  It was annoying and yet mesmerizing.  The dichotomy of Wayne's banter and the eerie songs was interesting.  Aside from a kooky tangent about a girl in the front being an alien who was there to see Phoenix, he spoke pretty much like a normal guy.  "How you all doin'? My fuckin' pants are too tight," he said, tugging at his waistband.  Well, I guess the invocation about the Mississippi River was a little bizarre too: "We're gonna command it to just fucking overtake us.  See you guys swimming together.  That fried chicken stand over there is where we'll all huddle together."  Then, back to tormenting us with menacing music.  And just when you weren't sure if you could take any more, they dropped a Yoshimi classic like "One More Robot" or "Do You Realize??"  I'm actually excited to revisit The Terror now that I have some visual mindfucks to accompany it.  Nice job, Flaming Lips.

I even got to see the Black Crowes play "Hard to Handle," and Smashing Pumpkins encore with "Today" to finish off the best day of the three.  Despite all the mud, I'm highly considering a trip back in 2014.

DEER TICK - 05.05.13 - BEALE ST. MUSIC FESTIVAL (59 minutes)

SET -
The Bump > Easy / Baltimore Blues No. 1 / Main Street / Problem Child (tease) / The Dream is in the Ditch / Bastards of Young > Mirror Walls / Clownin Around / Born at Zero / Really Just Friends* / Houston, TX / These Old Shoes > Superstition (tease) > These Old Shoes / Ashamed / Sleep Walk > La Bamba

GARY CLARK, JR. - 05.05.13 - BEALE ST. MUSIC FESTIVAL (1 hour, 13 minutes)

SET -
When My Train Pulls In / Don't Owe You a Thang / Please Come Home / Travis County / Ain't Messin' 'Round / Third Stone from the Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say / If Trouble Was Money / Bright Lights

PHOENIX - 05.05.13 - BEALE ST. MUSIC FESTIVAL (1 hour, 7 minutes)

SET -
Entertainment / Lasso / Lisztomania / Long Distance Call / Fences / S.O.S. in Bel Air / Love Like a Sunset pt. I > Bankrupt! > Love Like a Sunset pt. II / Too Young > Girlfriend / Trying to Be Cool > Chloroform / Armistice / 1901

ENCORE -
Countdown / Don't / Rome > Entertainment

THE FLAMING LIPS - 05.05.13 - BEALE ST. MUSIC FESTIVAL (1 hour, 15 minutes)

SET -
Look... The Sun is Rising / The Terror / The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat) / Silver Trembling Hands / Try to Explain / Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die / One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21 / Heroes / Turning Violent / All We Have is Now

ENCORE -
Do You Realize?? / Always There in Our Hearts

Top 10 Albums of 2012

The Top 10 Albums of 2012

10. Ben Taylor - Listening
If Another Run Around the Sun is his Sweet Baby James, Listening is his JT: still rootsy but more pop-oriented.  He has a similar honey voice to his father, but made by feistier bees.  The last track "Next Time Around" uses the same progression as James' "Bartender's Blues," which someone should've noticed, but overall, still a solid record.

9. ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) - Sounds Like This
When a band meshes so well onstage, sometimes that energy doesn't translate into the studio, but ALO have done it... with the first six songs on this album.  "Cowboys & Chorus Girls" ends with a funky keyboard jam, but then the songs start to sound like different renditions of tunes they've already recorded.  "Bark of a Tree" recalls "The Champ."  "Combat Zone" is "Monday" with different lyrics, and "Room for Bloomin" is similar to "I Love Music."  Fortunately, aside from "Bloomin," they are better versions.

8. Bill Baird - Career
Sound Team's Movie Monster is one of my favorite indie records ever. Unfortunately, the band split, with Bill Baird going solo and Matt Oliver and Jordan Johns forming TV Torso. Fortunately, both are still making good music.  Baird took a more experimental route in crafting Career, a noisy grab bag of lo-fi ambition.

7. Gary Clark, Jr. - Blak & Blu
Some are dubbing GCJ a "legend in the making," and while his eclectic major label debut may not confirm that, it's a fun ride.  In fact, Clark had previously released all but 5 of the songs in some manner, but it's exactly these songs that show his experimentation, from the horn-accented opener "Ain't Messin' 'Round" to the Lenny Kravitz-esque "Glitter Ain't Gold."

6. Diamond Rugs - Diamond Rugs
John McCauley rounds up a different batch of friends, including Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, for a 14-song drunken romp.  "Call Girl Blues" is an easy contender for song of the year with its bouncy horns and catchy backup vocals.  I saw them perform it straight-through in June, and it holds up live too!

5. Kishi Bashi - 151a
At nine tracks, it's a breeze, but it's the only violin-based album I've been digging this year.  It's clear Kevin Barnes' influence has worn off during his touring with Of Montreal, and yet Mr. Ishibashi manages a sound all his own.  Beat-boxing, loops, and an impressive vocal range only add to its diverse beauty.

4. Jack White - Blunderbuss

First off, I've never liked the White Stripes, so this came as a shocker even to me.  After seeing White and the Peacocks play Virgin Freefest in October, I was intrigued enough to check out his solo debut.  "Sixteen Saltines" is a fucking rocker, the "I'm Shakin'" cover is fun and faithful, and oodles of piano move the album along nicely.  My brother said that Jack White would convert me, and he has.

3. Rayland Baxter - Feathers & Fishhooks

I had to specially order the vinyl from a record store in Texas, and it proved entirely worth it.  It's a beautifully textured country/folk album, with accomplished songwriting that belies Baxter's 28 years of age.

2. Fun - Some Nights

While not as stylistically variant as their debut Aim & Ignite, this collection of songs makes a nice addition to the Fun canon.  The singles were picked correctly, but "Stars" is the hero of the album, with its self-referential lyrics building to an Autotuned climax.  I listened to this album more than any other new release this year, and correctly predicted their Best New Artist Grammy nom.

1. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill

After seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse play new songs at Farm Aid and Global Festival, this became my number one LP to pre-order.  Though the 27:35 opening track "Driftin' Back" makes this a daunting listen, those who make it through will be well-rewarded.  Fellow 16-minute+ epics "Ramada Inn" and closer "Walk Like a Giant," with its whistling and dinosauric instrumentation, are the best songs on the album.

Legend in the Making: Gary Clark, Jr. at 9:30 Club

The Cody Chesnutt show was sold-out, so here's another review cobbled together from my brother's texts.

On Friday night, Gary Clark, Jr. headlined a sold-out show at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club, which many people, including myself, consider one of the best clubs in the nation.  Kat Edmonson opened, but had to compete with a loud, chatty crowd that was there to see Clark.  Gary Clark, Jr., the 28-year-old guitarist, is "so hot right now" to say the least.  He burst into the public's ears last year with The Bright Lights EP, a 4-track hors d'oeuvre to the 3-week-old Blak & Blu, his major label debut.  A fixture on this summer's festival scene, Clark has amassed a legion of fans, many of whom were quick to dismiss a handful of the album's more eclectic songs as filler imposed by the label when Blak & Blu dropped in October.  What they may not realize is that GCJ released 3 albums and an EP before Bright Lights, and several of the songs on his new album appeared on them, including the hip-hop-flavored "The Life."  The only one of these records still available is the eponymous EP, which you can download from Amazon.  These documents of GCJ's past have been swept under the rug by Warner Brothers to reinvent him as the savior of the blues, hyping him up as a new artist so as to capitalize on his talent.  Only five songs on Blak & Blu hadn't been previously released before the album debuted at #6 on the Billboard chart.  His entire fall tour sold out in advance, including three shows at the Bowery Ballroom and the Troubadour.  But does he live up to the hype?

Just before 10:30, GCJ and band hit the ground running with "When My Train Pulls In," accentuated by a screeching solo that extended the song to 11 minutes.  After "Don't Owe You a Thang," Clark went with "Oh, Pretty Woman," the funky Albert King track; not the Roy Orbison hit.  My brother's favorite performance of the night came next on "Please Come Home," where Gary let his vocals, usually reminiscent of fellow blues revivalist Dan Auerbach, take a trip into Smokey Robinson falsetto territory.  Following that was "Third Stone from the Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say," the Hendrix-Collins hybrid that was immortalized on this year's Record Store Day release HWUL Raw Cuts Vol. 1, and tailed by a hornless "Ain't Messin' 'Round."  Clark paid tribute again to blues-great Albert Collins with "If Trouble Was Money."  If you don't recognize Collins by name, you may remember him from Adventures in Babysitting, where he delivered the classic line, "Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues."

A slower version of "Blak & Blu" featuring only Gary and drummer Johnny Radelat segued into closer "Bright Lights."  Gary returned to the stage alone to play a very old blues song, "When the Sun Goes Down," which was released in 1935 by Leroy Carr and later popularized by Ray Charles.  He closed with the album's single, "Numb," whose hard rock riffing inspired two crowdmembers to brawl before being escorted out by security.  When the concert ended more than 20 minutes after midnight, my brother texted, "Don't miss this guy the next time he's in NYC.  Legend in the making."

Which made me think: What constitutes a legend?  In this era of shuffling playlists, mp3s, and laptop studios, can there be legends?  When so much music is inundating the marketplace, a marketplace in which many people see no problem in shoplifting, is there room for legends?  When I think of legendary musicians, the first people that pop into my mind are Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley.  In "Bright Lights," Clark contends, "You're gonna know my name by the end of the night," which is hopefully true for anyone attending a show of his that sold out in an hour, but will he ever be as iconic as Elvis?  More fittingly, perhaps, is that he may become a blues legend.  Albert Collins has influenced many blues artists and would likely be considered a legend in his genre, but I had to google him to see what he looked like, and then attached him to "Babysitting Blues."  Surely we can all picture B.B. King's face in our heads, but can we readily imagine Albert King's?  I suppose only time will tell for Clark, but one thing's certain: Right now, on stage, he lives up to the hype.

I don't usually make it a point to invite people to comment, but this topic intrigues me.  What makes a legendary musician?  Who would you consider the most recent musical legend?  Do you think Gary Clark, Jr. is next?  Leave your comments below.

GARY CLARK, JR. - 11.09.12 - 9:30 CLUB (1 hour, 52 minutes)

SET -
When My Train Pulls In / Don't Owe You a Thang / Oh, Pretty Woman / Please Come Home / Third Stone from the Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say / Ain't Messin' 'Round / Things Are Changin' / If Trouble Was Money / Catfish Blues / Travis County / Blak & Blu > Bright Lights

ENCORE -
When the Sun Goes Down / Numb