It's a wonderful life, this life of music
From the category archives:
Seriously, I know I’ve said this before, but there is a reason that SongbyToad is one of my favourite music blogs. And this is just one example of why.
I stumbled across this video of Mumford & Sons performing “Untitled” at a recent Toad Session, and man, it’s beautiful…
Anyway, this is more of a “tip o’ [...]
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God, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I went to a gig… I think my last one was Ryan Adams at the beginning of the year, and here we are in November already. The good news is, my lapse in attending gigs was broken by an absolute kicker of a night, watching Pearl [...]
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So, a while back I noticed that I had watched a lot… and I mean, a lot… of Ryan Adams videos on the ol’ Tube. And I got it into my head that one day, I should really post a collection of my favourite performances of his on here, but for various reasons, I never [...]
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I don’t quite know how I’ve let this go until now without a post. Mumford and Sons was a band I’d heard mentioned in quite a few places online, but for some reason I’d never bothered to track down much of their stuff. That was, at least, until Song, By Toad (easily one of my [...]
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My love for Joe Pug is no secret. If there is one artist who I have ever featured on this blog that I would like to see succeed, it’s Joe. Joe’s “Nation of Heat” EP was passed around my friends and family and random people I accosted on the street like no other, and it [...]
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The other day I got that kind of email that music bloggers love to get… an email from an artist’s management saying, “Hey… you know, I’ve noticed from your blog posts that you like xyz… and I think you might like some of my client’s stuff. Want to check it out?”… and you actually do [...]
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On Sunday night, I was lucky enough to see “superband”, Coldplay, perform live at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
Now, I’m going to throw this right out there. Even when uber-popular music blogs like Stereogum feature bands like Coldplay, there always seems to be a massive backlash from the “Hipster Runoff” type kids. The ones who don’t [...]
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This past weekend, Ray Lamontagne performed “You Are The Best Thing” and “Trouble”, live on SNL.
Posting the videos here… because… well… simply because both performances are FREAKING AWESOME. ‘Nuff Said.
Ray Lamontagne, “You Are The Best Thing”, live on SNL
Ray Lamontagne, “Trouble”, live on SNL
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So, last night, I saw titans perform at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Not only did I see My Morning Jacket perform as the opening act, but then Neil Young came on and absolutely tore the stage apart.
There won’t be a normal review post here today, because, frankly, I decided that I needed to go to [...]
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Last night, I had probably the most visceral experience of my life, watching Bon Iver perform live at the Tivoli in Brisbane. To call it sublime would be an understatement.
It was over two years ago (side note: how fast is time going these days? I mean, honestly…) that the dulcet tones of Justin Vernon first [...]
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Because it’s been a while since my last Ryan Adams post, and because Black Cab Sessions just posted this a few days ago… well, the timing was too fortuitous to ignore. Below, for your entertainment: Ryan Adams performing “Sinking Ships”, live for a Black Cab Session.
Hat’s go off to the cabbie; Ryan could have been [...]
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Ok ok, I’m going to be upfront here. I’m probably a bit biased about this track, as ever since the days of The United States of Leland (seriously… this is a criminally underrated film), actor Ryan Gosling has been… well, probably my favourite actor. So when I heard news of him being in a band, [...]
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I recently came across this session on the always fabulous LaundroMatinee site, and simply had to post it. Anyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time will know my love for Joe Pug (after all, I included him in my “Best Of 2008” post, and called him the artist I “most wanted to [...]
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You know, I wasn’t sold on Samantha Crain… not quite, despite the major promise that I heard in her release “Confiscation EP“. It was undeniable that there was major talent in there, but for some reason, it just didn’t seem to reach that “critical mass” point, where everything comes together in this wonderful, glittering moment, [...]
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It’s obviously a week for talking about my favourite bands. Today, I’m going to post about another favourite band of mine, State Radio. For more about how much this band means to me, you can check out my past posts on State Radio here. If not, suffice to say that this band has been instrumental [...]
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So over the last four days, Ryan Adams has been busy on Youtube (see the Cards’ ‘Tube profile here), uploading “home jams” of some of his past songs. Given that he uploaded yet another one, “Cobwebs”, only 8 hours ago, I started thinking… well, how many more of these does he plan to do? So, [...]
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Included here for no other reason than:
It’s Kelly Jones… I mean, c’mon.
“Maybe Tomorrow” was always one of my favourite Stereophonics songs.
And, perhaps most importantly…
It’s been one of those days, and I’m hoping that… well, maybe tomorrow, you know?
Anyway, watch it below. Taken from the BBC’s “Later… with Jools Holland” show.
[youtube]Y6ferehHaWQ[/youtube]
You can see more posts where [...]
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Following on from the Cardinals’ Coffee Shop Show, Ryan Adams & Co. have just released the entire (yes, entire… in other words, close on 30 minutes) 3 Voor 12 set up at cave.cardinology.
I really don’t see the need to enter too much in this post here. Honestly, I think I’ve talked about Ryan Adams and [...]
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So this past Saturday, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals appeared on BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary show… and man, what a treat we were in for.
It was a short and sweet slot, with only 2 interview segments, and two songs, but those two songs were pure magic. The first was the always-stunning “Fix It” (by [...]
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Wow, look at all those alliterations in that title.
Anyway, straight to the business at hand. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals recently celebrated the release of their “Cardinology” album with a eight-song acoustic performance at Café Select in New York’s Soho. For those who were there, in such an intimate setting, it must have been an [...]
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Ok… so this isn’t so much a post as an announcement to all Bon Iver fans. Bon Iver (now more than just Justin Vernon, as pointed out here… now a full band) recently contributed to the Myspace Transmissions series; and they’re now offering the entire EP (four songs) for free download. For fans, this is [...]
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Ryan Adams & The Cardinals on tour… standing on the shoulders of giants.
You know, by all accounts, it’s been a different Ryan Adams that has posted on Foggy lately. Having been on tour with Oasis for the last while, it seems like Ryan’s… well… maturing. And healthier than he’s been in a while.
And I don’t [...]
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Unfortunately, and in keeping with the general lack of time around these parts lately, this post might need to be a bit short. But on Friday night, I saw one of my top 5 shows that I’ve ever seen at the Tivoli… Death Cab for Cutie. And what a set it was.
An Horse kicked off [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here on Burgo’s Blog. For today’s show, I’ve decided to post one of the most requested sets from my readers: Radiohead, performing live at the BBC Radio Theatre, on April 1, 2008.
Long-time readers of this blog might remember that when Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” finally arrived, I was… well, [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For today’s post – and largely due to the fact that I’ve just watched “August Rush” again – I thought I would post something slightly different; a 2004 show, where guitar virtuoso Kaki King performed, lived at the Ironhorse.
Now, I’m pretty sure this show [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. For this week’s post, I decided to revisit a past Live Music Friday post, from April, where I featured The National live on the Radio Inter Black Sessions. In that post, I mentioned that they had followed up from that show with another show [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Thanks to all the regular readers who were patient while I took my week off from posting… it was much needed, and I think it did me a world of good.
For this week’s Live Music Friday, I decided to post a show from 2005, [...]
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Aaaah… La Blogotheque, you’ve done it again. If you’ve read my blog for any period of time, you might have noticed my love for the Takeaway Shows that La Blogotheque puts out.
This is no exception.
Bon Iver, now more than Justin Vernon… a full band. And Vincent Moon has filmed them… beautifully. I don’t think there’s [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgo’s Blog. Today, we’ll be featuring someone a little closer to my (adoptive) home… Australian musician, Xavier Rudd.
One of my favourite shows of 2007 was an Xavier Rudd gig on the Gold Coast… in fact, I even put up a post about it, although that post [...]
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So I was all set for a Calexico “Live Music Friday” post today, and then at the last minute, an email came through pointing me towards this NME article, which in turn led me to the BBC Radio 1 site, which – finally – pointed me towards this set: Coldplay, performing live from the Brixton [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here on Burgo’s Blog… unfortunately, due to time constraints, this post might be a bit short… but still packed full of great tunes.
Today, I thought we would get a bit soulful, and listen to the silky smooth sounds of Amos Lee, live on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show.
I [...]
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So by now, if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you would know my love affair with the band Dispatch. Dispatch was, I think, probably the first band that I really obsessed over. Ultimately, they were everything that I wanted to be in the music world; they were the epitome of my [...]
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So, I realised the other day that this blog has now been live for over 6 months on this domain (not including the few months I was on a Wordpress hosted domain), and I thought now was as good a time as any to take a step back, and look at some of the tunes [...]
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Welcome back to another Live Music Friday here at Burgoblog.com. For today’s post, I thought we would get a little motown. A little funky. A little bluesy. A little… well… everything, with a show from G Love & Special Sauce.
One of my favourite live shows of 2008 so far has been a night spent with [...]
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Possibly the post that I receive the most emails about on this blog was my past post about the Counting Crows performance on WXPN’s World Cafe Friday.
I don’t think that a a single week has gone by, since that post was published, where I don’t get an email asking me for the rest of [...]
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“Later… with Jools Holland” constantly impresses, and most who have read this blog for any period of time would know my love for the show.
Their most recent show was no surprise. Not only were we treated to The Raconteurs performing “Salute Your Solution” and “Consoler of the Lonely” on the show itself, but in addition, [...]
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I’m in serious mourning here. Somehow, the fact that Howie Day was in Brisbane – or even Australia, for that matter – opening for Whitley completely flew under my radar, and I only found out after it was too late. To put this into perspective, Howie Day is one of my ultimate “hope and pray [...]
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Just so that everyone knows, my iPod has officially given up the ghost, completely and utterly without warning. With most of my music on there, this is severely going to impact posting, and – quite frankly, more importantly – completely bums me out. Anyone want to start a “donate to help Matthew buy another iPod [...]
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Time for another Live Music Friday! Following on from our Alex & Angela Dezen post here, and The National Black Sessions post here, today we’ll be following up with a Bob Schneider show from 2002.
Bob Schneider, live at Antones, 2002
Bob Schneider… always an electrifying live show…
Bob Schneider is, quite possibly, one of my favourite singer-songwriters [...]
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Romantica
Knowing my passion for Ryan Adams, a post featuring these guys shouldn’t come as a surprise. After Romantica’s “America” album was featured on Paste Magazine’s “Top 100 Albums of 2007″, comparisons began popping up between Romantica’s singer/songwriter Ben Kyle, and both Ryan Adams and Jeff Tweedy just about everywhere… heady company indeed.
When I first heard [...]
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Billy Bragg recently performed a live set on PRI’s “Fair Game”
Billy Bragg, the “working class hero”, recently performed a set on one of my favourite shows, PRI’s “Fair Game“. And it was stunning.
I truly feel that Bragg has been responsible for some of the best protest songs that we’ve heard in the last 30 years… [...]
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Wow. That week went fast. I can’t believe it’s time for another Live Music Friday. Following on from our Alex & Angela Dezen/Damnwells post here, I thought that today we’d feature a show from The National.
The National Black Sessions
The National (image credit: David Greenwald)
Aah, those Frenchmen. I swear, whether it’s my favourite La Blogotheque videos [...]
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Over the years, I’ve amassed quite a large collection of live shows of my favourite artists… thank god for all those tapers out there who share their wealth with those of us who can’t make it to the show! When I was living in South Africa, those tapers pretty much managed to get through the [...]
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I’m off to Sydney for the rest of the week, and probably won’t manage to post until next week. I know, I’ll miss you too.
But to help stave off withdrawal symptoms, here’s a short – extremely short – but sweet tune trio.
Brett Young
Brett Young has just released his self-titled EP
Unbelievably, Brett Young is still, as [...]
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Ryan Adams has left us a parting gift. Unfortunately, I think this signals the end of his blog.
But he’s left us a parting gift.
And it’s a beautiful thing.
The guy makes me ache.
Goodbye Ryan.
Goodbye Wilson.
Goodbye Barnabus, and Foggy. (if you’ve been reading his blog, you’ll know what that’s about).
It was great meeting you all.
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So after a few days off down the coast, I know this entry is popping up late; but on Sunday evening, I accomplished one more of my “band goals”, with a night at the Tivoli. This entry is being composed on the long train back to Brisbane… so excuse some grammatical errors, which I have [...]
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So last night, I went to another show.
If I was to give you clues as to the show, I would probably say:
1) The performer absolutely wails on guitar.
2) The performer has probably the most pure voice you’ll ever hear. Able to leap and soar in ways uncommon in contemporary music.
3) The performer has some [...]
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I’ll admit it. I haven’t been a fan of Yeasayer at all. Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely talent there; intelligent lyrics, great harmonies… I’m not denying that’s there. But, listening to their recorded material, it’s just always been too much for me. Those were my exact words: “Too much”.
So it was great to see [...]
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As mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I headed across to the Brisbane Riverstage, for an evening with Jack Johnson, Matt Costa, and Will Conner. And – despite my longtime love affair with Jack Johnson, and my (extremely) tenuous connection with him via my friend Farryl Purkiss (Farryl and Jack once composed a song together, a fact [...]
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