Music man

Did you know:

• There’s a new album with Robert Plant and Allison Krauss? (I’m listening to right now, so far it’s just ok)

• Like a year ago there was an album with Mark Knopfler and Emmy Lou Harris? (Fucking Awesome)

• Every time I hear the Nickelback song about wanting to be a rockstar, part of my soul dies?

• Every time I hear any song by Creed, Maroon 5, or Lincoln Park I want to shoot myself?

• First in the foot, then the knee, then the face?

• Kanye’s album beat 50’s because it has no Timberlake appearances?

• And because it’s good?

• Spell check recognizes “Timberlake”, but not “Kanye”?

• Yogurt has bacteria in it?

• That’s good for you?

Sorry, I got a little carried away at the end there. But seriously, yogurt bacteria = health, MRSA bacteria = kiss your sweet ass goodbye. And how about that flesh eating strep? Is that some nasty shit or what?

Anyways, where was I, oh yeah, Plant & Krauss, Knopfler & Harris, four people that are all kind of weird looking. Making collabo’s that come out of the blue and rock me gently to sleep. I forget where I was going with this, something about haw far the divide is between people like Allison Krauss and people like Timberlake. Unfortunately since few people over the age of 18 buy more than a few albums a year, (although this may be changing thanks to iTunes et al.) Timberlake could probably buy Allison Krauss several times over.

I went to Voodoo fest last Friday and saw some pretty solid acts, Galactic w/ Lyrics Born and Chali 2na, Lez Zepplin, Toots and the Maytals, Rage Against the Machine, but my favorite was a guy named Jason Isbell (Actually he was probably tied with Toots for best in show.) Jason Isbell is a weird looking dude. He is one of the three singer/songwriter guitar players from the Alabama born Drive-By Truckers. He is undoubtedly one of my top five favorite songwriters, to wit:

I used to go out in a mustang
A 308 Mach 1 in green
Till me and your mama made you in the back
And I sold it to buy her a ring

I don’t really have a point except to say that his second to last song was a cover of Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads, which was awesome, but his last song, called Hurricanes and Hand Grenades, and written about New Orleans, was somewhat soured because people where walking away to go see a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club might be the best name for a shitty band ever. Seriously I was kind of interested to hear a band with a name that bad-ass, but they pretty much ate a fat cock.

Galactic played a pretty good set, but I only got to see a little bit of it. They teased Immigrant Song for a few bars of their closer, but then turned it over to the MC’s for a little off the top session. I have a constantly changing opinion of Galactic, back in the day when they had the Houseman, they were the shit, but he split and they went into a lull. I haven’t heard their new album, but lately I’ve been feeling pretty middle of the road about them, this will be the first year in a while that I haven’t seen them at Tips for New Years (although Kashmir at the Lundi Gras show was ridiculous.) Some of my favorite musical memories are of Raines, Mercurio, and Vogel playing at Le Bon Temps with Simon Lott and Anders Osborne, in the first few months after Katrina, that shit was so awesome.

Lez Zeppelin was fun, in a novelty sort of way. They’re an all female Led Zeppelin cover band, whose sexual orientation was debunked by Chuck Klosterman after interviewing them (for SPIN presumably, I read it in his anthology “IV”.) Anyway, they opened with Immigrant Song, which I think may be a requirement of any Zeppelin tribute act. Even if it is SOP, it’s a fucking badass song to walk out on any stage and rip in to (In case you haven’t noticed I’m a pretty big Zepp fan, I also enjoy a good parenthetical aside.) Jan Bonham and Jan Puala Jones were obviously having the most fun, while Jamie Page was undoubtedly the best musician. Roberta Plant wasn’t quite Robert Plant skinny, but who is? Zeppelin songs lend themselves to a female singer quite well, but I’m almost positive Robert Plant doesn’t have a Long Island/Brooklyn accent (think toned down Fran Drescher trying to casually do a british accent.)

Rage Against the Machine was the headliner, but I couldn’t stay for their entire set. Rage’s first album dropped when I was 9 years old, but they didn’t really hit the big time until ’96-’97, when Evil Empire hit #1 on our charts #4 across the pond, and they won a Grammy for a song celebrating the death of Richard Nixon. In between jumping around the stage and making a fortune, Rage is like the Sean Penn of the music world taking vocal stances on stuff like Mumia, Zapatistas, and I’m pretty sure it was front man Zach De La Rocha who made that ubiquitous Che Guevara t-shirt so popular. Anyways, they opened with their two most poular songs (lame) and the sound/view where we were standing was pretty bad, so I left and went home.

So on Wednesday (Halloween) night, I went down to Frenchman Street and saw a band called The Morning 40 Federation, who are awesome. One of the guys opens the show by greeting everybody, and asking who went to Voodoo Fest, and who everyone thought the best band was. Then he says: “Did anyone see Fallout Boy? I thought Fallout Boy was the best band at Voodoo, and anyone who disagrees with me is definitely a heterosexual!”