Buckner Reup

Reuploaded, two radio appearances from Richard Buckner.

Plus an excuse to post this clip:

Buckner on the Radio

These are two rips from two live radio appearances by Richard Buckner. The first, a short one from Minnesota Public Radio and the second from Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW. You can watch this one in streaming video too!

Richard Buckner - in studio

September 13, 2006:

1. interview segment 1

2. Lucky

3. interview segment 2

4. Spell

5. interview segment 3

6. Kingdom

April 4, 2007:

1. intro talk

2. The Tether and the Tie

3. Lucky

4. 10-Day Room

5. Count Me In On This One

6. Interview segment

7. Kingdom

8. Town

9. Figure

10. outro talk

enjoy!

Back to Basics

Often described as the "one-man Clash", Billy Bragg is much more than that. As much as I love "The Only Band That Matters", Billy's songs are political in a way that the Clash's songs never were, mining a much more personal and confessional vein. This record (which is actually his first two albums plus an EP on one CD), to me, has him at his best, and while it does contain some amazing protopunk-sounding tunes, for me his most affecting are songs like "A New England", "The Saturday Boy" and "A Lover Sings".

Before he was "The" Billy Bragg, he was in a band called Riff Raff. Whilst researching this post I found a nice blog with a complilation of their singles. So head on over to SOMENOISE if you want to check that out!!

BACK TO BASICS

1. "The Milkman of Human Kindness"
2. "To Have and To Have Not"
3. "Richard"
4. "Lovers Town Revisited"
5. "A New England"
6. "The Man in the Iron Mask"
7. "The Busy Girl Buys Beauty"
8. "It Says Here"
9. "Love Gets Dangerous"
10. "The Myth of Trust"
11. "From a Vauxhall Velox"
12. "The Saturday Boy"
13. "Island of No Return"
14. "St Swithin's Day"
15. "Like Soldiers Do"
16. "This Guitar Says Sorry"
17. "Strange Things Happen"
18. "A Lover Sings"
19. "Between the Wars"
20. "World Turned Upside Down"
21. "Which Side are You on"

And here is a more recent song that has some great lyrics - "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward":

Slight Return

Back from a long awaited and long overdue hiatus, aka vacation.


To celebrate, a reup requested by a Mr "Tobi" of Los Lobos live and acoustic in 2005. So here you go, bud. I re-equalized it from the original FLAC files, so if you downloaded this from here before, I do believe this sounds better.
Actually as part of my vacation I was just in Chiquinquirá, mentioned on the 6th track here, "El Cuchipe", which is a traditional Colombian/andean song:

"De Chichinquirá yo vengo de pagar una promesa / Ahorita que estamos solitos dame un besito Teresa"

It's a small town in the "departamento" of Cundinamarca. The Virgin of Chichinquira is the patron virgin of Colombia, and many people still to this day make long pilgrimages to, like the song says, pay off a promise.

Los Lobos
McNear's Mystic Theatre
Petaluma, CA
March 2, 2005
(acoustic show)

LOBOS.part1

01 introduction by John Skeels 01:32
02 Canto Veracruz 02:50
03 Colas 02:54
04 La Paloma 03:42
05 La Pistola y El Corazَón 04:10
06 El Cuchipe 03:41
07 Saint Behind the Glass 03:40
08 Los Ojos De Pancha 03:15
09 Porro Por Pedrito 04:21
10 Kiko and the Lavender Moonó 04:23
11 Arizona Skies 01:47


LOBOS.part2

12 Borinquen Patria Mia 05:19
13 Llorona 03:44
14 Sabor a Mí 04:20
15 La Feria De Las Flores 03:24
16 Gema 05:19
17 Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir 03:47
18 Cielito Lindo (Huasteco) 03:42
19 Wreck of the Carlos Rey 05:47
20 Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio 02:45
21 How Much Can I Do? 03:39
22 Teresa 06:04
23 Guantanamera 06:05
24 --encore break-- 04:02
25 Our Last Night 03:15
26 Corazَón 03:33
27 Guajira 04:34

photo by Adam Kaufman

About to Choke

Since getting my Ipod nano I have been relistening to a lot of things, and this album by Vic Chesnutt has been on the heaviest of rotations for some reason. The lyrics are silly/deep/troubling. His voice should be annoying but somehow isn't at all. The production and mix is just wonderful, with strange little sounds all over the place, very acousticsounding in a real way that I really like.

LADLE

you file me with the libertines
I fold in line
my monthly dole of magazines
beaming bistro shine
in my ladle is your plum
and my daily staple of your cutesy crumbs
of your cutesy falling crumbs

I saw you at the snazzy din-din
you made me sad that I watched
I must say you truly packed 'em in
nearly dearly debauched
in my ladle is your plum
and my daily staple of your cutesy crumbs
of your cutesy falling crumbs

in my ladle is your plum
and my daily staple of your cutesy crumbs
of your cutesy falling crumbs

ABOUT TO CHOKE

1. Myrtle
2. New Town
3. Ladle
4. Tarragon
5. Swelters
6. (It's No Secret) Satisfaction
7. Little Vacation
8. Degenerate
9. Hot Seat
10. Giant Sands
11. Threads
12. See You Around

Ghetto Bells:


Band Camp:


Robots:

Devotion + Doubt

Hey all. Sorry about the "vacation". But i am back at ya now, with a great, great album from 10 years ago. I listened a lot to this album back in 97, when I (and possibly you too?)was in my alt country phase. This is Richard Buckner's "Devotion + Doubt", his second. As they say here, "No tiene presa mala", meaning; there's not a clunker in the bunch, imho.

His newer disc, Meadow, from 06 is more of a rock thing, and it ain't bad at all, but THIS is pure gold. A beautiful, acoustic sounding record, intimate, depressing (yay!), one of my favorite albums from that time in my life. And beautifully designed packaging, too. Buy it HERE.

DEVOTION + DOUBT:

1. Pull
2. Lil Wallet Picture
3. Ed's Song
4. Home
5. A Goodbye Rye
6. Fater
7. Kate Rose
8. 4AM
9. Roll
10. Polly Waltz
11. Figure
12. On Travelling
13. Song Of 27

If you've never heard Mr Buckner, here are a couple of live performances from 1994 that'll give you an idea. And if you like this, the album is even better:

Richard Buckner on Fog Town Network--"The Worst Way":


Richard Buckner on Fog Town Network--"22":

And some amusing RB quotes from an interview (I think he was having a bad day):

It's funny, I was just talking to someone about this yesterday. I'm working in a studio right now with a bluegrass band, producing their record. We were talking to the engineers, and one of the interns is a real young guy and he's talking about MP3s and the people behind all that, and he's like, well, these companies, they're not making any money off it. And I was like, what are you fucking talking about? You think people are doing this for nothing? If people weren't making money off this, they wouldn't be doing it, because that's the nature of the beast.Usually every night when I'm performing onstage, at some point I think, like, ‘isn't this fucking weird?’, I'm up here on a podium hollering and people are looking at me. This is a really weird fucking way to make a living. Or not, as the case may be, he adds wryly. And it is weird. You're up there facing a couple hundred people and they're facing you and you're up there hollering.. When you put it in those terms it's strange, and after doing it for nine months of a year you're like, ‘God, I can't believe this is what I do with my time.’

You know, the only reason I write is that I'm trying to figure things out in my own life. It comes from there. I'm trying to comfort myself or something.

Does it matter that your music matters to others?
No. If that matters, I think I'm in big trouble. Absolutely not. I don't give a fuck. And I tell people that too. They start telling me, ‘Well, you know, I thought this, I didn't think this.’
He shakes his head, laughing.
You know, I don't want to know this. Keep this shit to yourself! It's not important to anybody. Especially me. So keep it to yourself.
Look, if I'm talking to somebody I'm not going to be a dick and say, ‘hey, I don't want to hear what your favourite song is.’ But if people get too deep into it, I have to say, ‘Listen, this is not what this is all about. You know, take it for what it's worth and that's it. If it means a lot to you, great.

Surely there must be some songs which say something you want to say to someone else; surely there must be some people you want to hear a song and take a message from it. Buckner laughs, as much mocking as self-mocking.
I think it's kind of a cowardly way to tell somebody something you want to say to them, don't you? Like, ah fuck, give me a fucking break. Is that what you're doing, you're sending me like a secret note or something? Fuck. That's my whole problem with computers. People can get on there and write whatever they want and not leave their own name. You fucking coward! God damn. Put your name on there. If you're going to say something to somebody, so when you make these little glib nerdy-ass comments, we'll know who it's coming from, we can get down to business and see what your real fucking problem is.

True to form, my first new post is a few days late. Oh well.

Today's goodies come from The Pogues.

These gents (and lady, occasionally) play Irish folk music with punk abandon. I had the good fortune of seeing them in NYC in 1991, at the Beacon Theater, which was kind of a mixed blessing type thing, since I never got to see/hear Shane MacGowan, being as he was.. indisposed (for three months) and had to be replaced by honorary Pogue and legendary Clash frontsman, the late, great Mr. Joe Strummer, one of my heroes. While Shane's toothless mumbling is irreplaceable, it was still one of the best concerts I ever did see. If anyone has the bootleg from this show, PLEEEASE: gimmie.

Ok, so for this grand occasion, I will be featuring three bonus tracks from their first two albums, Red Roses For Me and Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. And two live recordings on the forementioned Strummer/Pogues tour, doing two Clash classics.

Without further ado, the tuneage:


- London Girl
- The Body of an American
- Wild Rover
- I Fought the Law
- London Calling