One For The Weekend: Pirate Bob Sings!

From Rutland Weekend TV (1975) with Eric Idle introducing the show’s special guest, Lonesome George Harrison.  Inexplicably, you get a few seconds’ worth of credits before the sketch.

Best Nude Album Covers

Last week we featured our opinion of the worst nude album covers. This week here are some of the best…This post contains nudity, all photos after the jump are NSFW.

“Whipped Cream & Other Delights” – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – Hands down the best cover of all time.

Review: “War Child Presents: Heroes”

This cool little compilation has, at its heart, a pretty interesting idea: take a handful of legendary singers/bands and ask them to identify a current artist to perform cover versions of their songs.  The result is War Child Presents: Heroes, a 16-track disc that aims to benefit children affected by war.  Although the album is a bit uneven, it rocks in its best parts.  So Beck’s garage-rock dismantling of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat,” the Kooks’ faithful rendering of “Victoria” by the Kinks, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs channeling the Ramones in “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” are successful because each of these artists understand the context (and the era) that fuels these classics. 

When the performer imposes too much of his or her personality on a song, the result is less satisfying: Rufus Wainwright turns a medley from the Beach Boys’ Smile into a long whine, and Duffy’s too-sultry reading of “Live And Let Die” drains all the excitement out of the song.  And a few choices couldn’t be more right: Bruce Springsteen is dead-on with his choice of The Hold Steady to do “Atlantic City” and TV On The Radio is a perfect fit for David Bowie’s “Heroes.”  I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised by this album – try it and you will be too.

MP3: “Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat” by Beck

Stream songs from War Child Presents: Heroes at this MySpace page

Review: “No Line On The Horizon,” U2

Quite a few people have been eagerly anticipating U2′s No Line On The Horizon, particularly because it’s been five years since the Irish uber-rock band released their last studio effort.  And this new album is pretty good; at times it’s “Magnificent” (to steal the title from one of the highlight songs) but falters a bit in the middle.

The good news first: U2 has reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the producers who helped them to their greatest successes (The Joshua Tree, The Unforgettable Fire, etc.).  Although the band recorded some music with Rick Rubin, they have shelved that work in favor of a more textured sound with Eno-Lanois.  The first four songs are brilliant: from the title track that kicks off the album to the radio-ready “Magnificent” and ”Moment Of Forever” and the breathtaking Edge guitar solo that closes out “Unknown Caller.” 

30 Days Out Exclusive Interview: Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo is the greatest musician working out of Texas today.  For more than 20 years, he has been a premier songwriter and a crack bandleader.  But his roots go back even farther – he comes from a musical family.  His father was a musician, his brother Coke (died 1986) was a member of Santana and the rest of his brothers are also musicians.  Alejandro was a member of seminal punk rockers the Nuns, who opened for the Sex Pistols’ last show in 1978, and alt-country pioneers Rank and File as well as the True Believers.

As a solo performer Escovedo has earned many kudos: No Depression magazine named him its “Artist of the Decade” in 1998 while last year’s Real Animal was atop many “best of” lists last year and it was Escovedo’s first effort to chart on the Billboard album lists.  He has worked with some of the biggest and most interesting names in music, and he recently took a few minutes to speak to us from his home near Austin.

30 Days Out: You had a pretty good year in 2008 … how do you turn around and top that?

Alejandro Escovedo:  I try not to top it, actually.  Just go ahead and keep playing gigs and enjoy the warm glow of last year and just try to write good songs, you know?

Yeah You Right ! Mardi Gras Day

Not much to say today: it’s Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras day, and it’s the final big blowout before the period of fasting and sacrifice called Lent.  Feel free to party as you please; here’s some music to help you on your way.  Play ‘em loud, play ‘em often, and play ‘em all year – make every day a Mardi Gras Day.

Don’t forget: You can tune in to real-time live webcams for your window on some Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans.  NOLA webcams

MP3: “Meet De Boys On De Battlefront” by the Wild Tchoupitoulas

MP3: “Mardi Gras Mambo” by the Hawketts

MP3: “Big Chief” by Professor Longhair

MP3: “Mardi Gras In New Orleans” by Fats Domino

MP3: “Shake Your Curios” by the Snake Oil Stompers

MP3: “Cajun Honey” by the Tail Gators

MP3: “This Night Of Sin” by the Iguanas

MP3: “Soul Soul Soul” by the Wild Magnolias

MP3: “Voodoo” by the Neville Brothers

MP3: “Iko Iko” by Dr. John

MP3: “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” by the Blind Boys of Alabama w/the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

MP3: “Carnival Time” by the Rebirth Brass Band

MP3: “They All Ask’d For You/Hey Pocky Way” by the Meters (live 1977 broadcast on WNOE-FM)

MP3: “When The Saints Go Marchin’ In” by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Thanks to L.A. correspondent Randy Fuller for his contributions to this post.

 

Walkin’ To New Orleans: Let’s Go To The Mardi Gras!

Ah yes, Mardi Gras.  If this is your first time, welcome.  I remember my first Mardi Gras in New Orleans, back around 1978 or so.  I spent three days and nights there, and when I left I wondered “What the hell just happened?”

Mardi Gras is a party for the best of reasons: to have a party.  Catholics say it’s to get all the deviltry and mischief out of your system before Lent sets in but if you go to New Orleans you get the impression most of these partygoers aren’t worried about sinning, church and stuff like that. 

At Mardi Gras, you drink a lot.  You stand around to yell and grovel for someone to toss you cheap colored beads and worthless coins.  You drink some more.  Women walk up to you and lift up their shirts, and their breasts are painted like big eyeballs.  Prostitutes hit on you, transvestites hit on you, middle-aged male tourists from Des Moines hit on you.  You need to drink some more.

So, as a public service, on the other side of the jump we give you the official 30 Days Out Mardi Gras Party Kit.

Ozzy: No Ozzfest this year!

Goofy metal rocker and Prince of F***ing Darkness Ozzy Osbourne has postponed his namesake Ozzfest this year.   The Ozzman is currently in a Los Angeles studio working on his 10th studio album, the followup to 2007′s Black Rain.

Ozzy says he won’t tour until the album is complete and in stores, which he expects should be around Thanksgiving of this year.  So he is going to put the ever-popular Ozzfest on hold this year.  You may remember some grumbling in the summer of 2008, when Ozzfest was a one-time-only event, held in Dallas’ Pizza Hut Park.

So the only way you’ll see Ozzy before Thanksgiving is by watching him with Sharon, Kelly and Jack on “The Osbournes: Reloaded,” a variety show (?) set to premiere this spring on Fox TV. 

MP3: “I Don’t Wanna Stop” (live)

Ozzy Osbourne official website

Review: “Hymn and Her,” Earlimart

About a month ago, I did a post about finding great new music on TV. Well, last week I hit the jackpot again on “ER.” At the end of the episode, a catchy, soulful song was playing over an emotional scene where Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) was contemplating his fate on a cold Chicago day. After some serious digging (it would be nice if the names of the songs were included on the credits at the end of the show, but I digress) I found out that the tune, with a great melody and a piano part you can get lost in, was “Town Where You Belong” by Earlimart. After downloading the band’s disc, Hymn and Her, I can honestly say it’s the best $9.99 I’ve spent in a long time.

It’s Time To Enshrine The Meters/Neville Brothers!

The Neville Brothers

If there is anyone who deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s Art Neville.  He should have been one of the first guys to get in there.  Art is the cornerstone of two of the greatest bands of all time- both of which should have been in the Rock Hall a long time ago.

Of course, Art Neville is the keyboardist and singer of The Meters (sometimes known as the Funky Meters), simply the finest bunch of musicians to ever come out of New Orleans.  The Meters – guitarist Leo Nocentelli, drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, bass player George Porter Jr. and Art Neville – collaborated with the great Allen Toussaint on landmark recordings.  They appear on “Right Place, Wrong Time” by Dr. John, “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle, “Listen To What the Man Said” by Paul McCartney and Wings, and countless other hits.

The Meters also made their own records, and they are great.  They worked as a mostly instrumental unit in the late 1960s and early 1970s, cranking out such funky standards as “Look-Ka Py Py” and “Cissy Strut.”  But in 1972 they signed with Warner Bros./Reprise and added Art’s little brother Cyril on vocals and bongos, and kicked off a creative period that included the classic albums Rejuvenation (1974) and Fire On The Bayou (1975).  “Hey Pocky Way,” the monster track from Rejuvenation, kicks off with an Art Neville piano lick that virtually defines New Orleans music.

The original Meters

In 1976 George “Big Chief Jolly” Landry began recording an album of New Orleans Mardi Gras music with his Wild Tchoupitoulas “Indians” (a social group known for its elaborate costumes during Mardi Gras).  The one trouble was, the Tchoupitoulas weren’t musicians.  But Landry just happened to have a few nephews who were – they were all named Neville.  So the Meters served as the Tchoupitoulas rhythm section and for fun they invited brother Aaron Neville to sit in.  They covered “Hey Pocky Way” again (the Nevilles would also do it later).