Morning Shorts

Following up on yesterday's Koz live album post, the discs are getting a good spin in the iff stereo this evening, and now you can download the album's version of Ghosts of the Great Highway's "Salvador Sanchez", courtesy Pitchfork. The album is sure to rile the fierce anti-fingerpicking faction over at unofficial Koz site message board Sad Reminders (take this one show review, fer instance: "The one problem I had with the show is that EVERY song was in the same 4/4 fingerpicked format. I've heard live mp3's of Mark's shows where he would vigorously strum his way through Grace Cathedral Park or Michigan, and create all kinds of really cool crescendo effects. But this time, it was the same mournful stream of notes through each song, and after two hours the magic began to wear off.")

Last week we covered Corrina Repp's DC show; she shared the bill with Norfolk & Western. On Wilmette Week's Local Cut, N&W love NY and share the tale they lived to tell about what playing and loading out of a DC9 show is like:

"Washington DC proved to be a less pleasant experience for all of us. DC is not the safest city in the world to begin with, and according to my sources, the club we played at was located in a particularly bad area. The guy running sound at the club was hands down the worst soundman any of us have ever worked with. He obviously didn’t give a flying fuck about making it sound good and actually alternated between seeming annoyed and laughing at us when we demanded unreasonable things like, oh, turning the microphones on, or turning down the bass. During Corrina’s set, Joe looked like he was either going to kill somebody or cry. After the show, as we were loading out our equipment, our van was surrounded by what I can only assume were six or seven gang members complete with bandanas and masks over their faces. They just stood there, staring at us shoving thousands of dollars worth of equipment into the van piece by piece. A couple of them even leaned up against the van, casually smoking cigarettes. Corrina got pissed off and said, “You guys want some of this shit?” to which one of them replied, “Fuck yeah, I want some of this shit. I’ve got thirty years, bitch.” They didn’t leave, even after all of the gear had been loaded into the van. I’ve never been so happy to leave a city in my life."

The icing on the cake? We got paid twelve dollars for the gig.

Huzzah! Greatest living songwriter Mark Eitzel has announced a bunch of tour dates. For those who haven't seen him solo, it's a special night, so no missing it for C.H.I.P.S. DVD marathons.

Mark and Vudi appear as McArthur Park Music Club
Dec 1- Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
* seven new songs and a couple of old ones *
Mark Eitzel Solo Shows
Dec 18- Brighton UK- Sussex Arts Club 7 Ship Street
Dec 19- Winchester UK- The Railway 3 St Pauls Hill
Jan 18- New York NY - Tonic
Jan 19- Brooklyn NY - Union Hall
Jan 20- New York NY - Winter Garden The American Beauty Project - free show
Jan 21- New York NY - Winter Garden The American Beauty Project - free show
Jan 22- Boston MA - Middle East Upstairs
Jan 23- Northampton MA - Iron Horse
Jan 24- Philadelphia PA - Northstar Bar
Jan 25- Arlington VA - Iota

The Live Music Archive (part of the archive.org empire) is mostly a wasteland of jam bands, but there are a few Kimya Dawson shows available. Live, the "fun" vibe, with multiple, chipper, tuneless background singers, can diminish the power of her subversively moving, personal songs (particularly those from her first three albums), but "Singing Machine", a highlight from Hidden Vagenda, benefits from the drums and overall enthusiasm.

MP3: Kimya Dawson - Singing Machine