Abigail Washburn tour diary - The Ambassador, a Famous Opera Singer, Hot Dogs and the Great Hall of the People
Ambassador Randt and his wife have welcomed me into their home four years in a row to play for them and 80 of their closest friends. This time with the Sparrow 3 was no exception. The guests filter in thru the courtyard and into the “venue,” which is the long living room overlooking the courtyard and the dining room with a big impressionist painting of W Jr. and steaming handmade hotdogs waiting for the conclusion of our show to get munched up.... read more
Abigail Washburn tour diary - Regina to China and Somewhere in the Middle
* Note: "Regina" is pronounced "rah-gina." The town slogan is “Regina rhymes with fun.” We started at 4 a.m. yesterday from the Ramada in Regina, Canada. First layover in Minneapolis for eight hours, then Tokyo, then Beijing. Just arrived in our Beijing digs. Sitting on a high floor of Oakwood Apartments near Beijing’s third ring road at the airport expressway exit. The view out the window is of other newly built residential towers just like this one, and a neon-bannered restaurant of food in the Xiamen style that the receptionists says is “hai keyi” (translation: "it’s ok") with a smirk... read more
G. Love's tour diary - Detroit Soul
We are on the second week of our six-week tear here. Last night found us in Detroit. I was chilling eating my dinner before the show, and what was on TV but 8 Mile. I had to watch it because Eminem is from Detroit, and, in all honestly, the freestyle is inspiration, plus the whole movie is dope. 8 Mile put me in a Detroit state of mind. There was a hell of a lot of good music that came out and is coming out of Detroit. John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder and Motown, right? Recently, other peeps like Em,... read more
G. Love tour diary - Lollapalooza wrap-up
So, I'm out here on the never ending road, the road that keeps going and going. As a matter of fact its been going for 15 years. Damn, that's a pretty long time. Ahh the places I've been…you name it just about every big city and small town in this god-fearing country. I play the hip hop blues. Please don't say, "I love that kind of music" if you've never heard of me before because, not to sound like a jerk, but I'm the only one who plays the hip hop blues. So on Sunday I had the great honor... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #6
[Above: Bobby Drake]Every band has its own dynamic. Sonic Youth, DBT and Dinosaur Jr are all very different bands internally. Some are more democratic than others, and with that, dealing with each band and individual member is a case by case scenario. The same holds true with The Hold Steady. In terms of songwriting, both Tad and Franz are strong songwriters in their own way.... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #5
[Above, L-R: Bobby Drake and John Agnello]Things are really rolling. We’ve been tracking furiously and the band is really hitting their stride. We’ve nailed easier songs like “Stay Positive” and harder ones like “Creepy Jam,” which will end up being called “One For The Cutters.” That song became one of my favorites early on. We cut it live with Franz playing the intros and verses with a synth harpsichord simulation. We knew we needed a real harpsichord on the song, but we had to find one that was accessible. But that would be for another day.... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #4
“I don’t think anyone could have anticipated 'Adderall' not making the record.” Sound familiar? The first part is all too familiar with me. That’s how our administration explains levy breaches or not finding WMD’s, etc. But that’s a different blog for a different day. At least in this case, my statement is absolutely true.... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #3
On a panel a few years ago at SXSW, a producer/manager sitting to my right discussed how he developed a camaraderie with the artist during the making of the records. He described it as “making the record company the common enemy.” I found this transparent and short sighted. And those were two of the nicer things I thought about this idiotic approach.... read more
Bell X1 tour diary: Southern Bellies
So we're driving from Lake City, Florida to Athens, Georgia and we've just heard that Munster have beaten Toulouse 16-13 to win the Heineken Cup. Phil sound engineer has been receiving text message updates during the game. This would be rugby (the oval ball), and yes, it's kind of a big deal.... read more
Colour Revolt tour diary: 5/25/08
I haven’t Pasteblogged in awhile, honestly, because I haven’t had much to say. Now I sort of do. After two weeks of dismal dreariness briefly punctured by one (uno) snippet of lovely in New York, the sun decided to haul its butt out from behind the clouds and make the day not look so ugly. We spent the whole day with our wonderful sweet booking agent, Wendy, and we saw a bunch of kids fly kites. As the past two weeks have been a plague-bespotted misery for some of us (our van was starting to resemble a sick ward, only... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - #2
Above [L to R]: Tad Kubler, Galen Polivka, John Agnello, Bobby Drake As fans eagerly count down the days until The Hold Steady releases Stay Positive, the follow-up to Paste's #2 album of 2006, on July 15, we thought it would be interesting to hear a little background on the record. So we asked producer John Agnello to reminisce on the recording process of Stay Positive. This is his second post. Read his first here.The Hold Steady tours a ton. I believe the number of shows they played last year was around 200. That’s amazing, but essential for bands these... read more
The Hold Steady studio diary - Stay Positive - 11/29/07-2/19/08
Above [L to R]: Producer/Paste blogger John Agnello and mastering engineer Greg Calbi As fans eagerly count down the days until The Hold Steady releases Stay Positive, the follow-up to Paste's #2 album of 2006, on July 15, we thought it would be interesting to hear a little background on the record. So we asked producer John Agnello to reminisce on the recording process of Stay Positive. This post, the first in a series, covers the album's first single, "Sequestered in Memphis," which is available today (Mary 20) on iTunes. “That sounds great, Greg! Really awesome. Okay, let’s do a... read more
Brett Dennen tour diary: 5/15/08
I am writing from UC Berkeley, on the day of my mother’s birthday. My whole family is coming to the show tonight. Having family in the audience always makes it special. We are playing Zellerbach hall, an intimidating and stunning venue. Though I love San Francisco, it is nice to play in the East Bay for a change.... read more
Colour Revolt tour diary: 5/12/08
Geez, okay. We stayed with this kindhearted dude, Mr. Ryan Chavez, in Houston, and he was a gentleman and a Beatles scholar. We listened to the four-track breakdown of several Sgt. Pepper songs, and let me tell you, the ghost vocal tracks on “A Day in the Life” were lovely and shocking. Not even talking about the bassline from “With A Little Help From My Friends.” Good god. Despite being the only Beatles song that sounds better covered (see Joe Cocker’s glorious Wonder Years theme, something the movie Across the Universe happened to get right), it still sports the most... read more
Colour Revolt tour diary: 5/6/08
Nothing in God’s Universe is more depressing than Vegas in the daytime. We crossed the Mojave desert and I saw the huge Louie Anderson and Carrot Top billboards and I quaked and wondered things. What else was there to do but bust out Woven Hand on the iPod and try to take it head-on, like I was cavalry-charging Vegas, the Great Beast. I’ll lose to you, probably, but only a little.... read more
Mason Jennings - 5/4/08 - Nashville, Tennessee
I am looking down at a passing train on a Sunday morning from a bridge in Nashville.Trains were once the new imagery of a powerful, new world. A force of progress cutting across countrysides bringing new cultures together and opening a route of escape for those unsatisfied with their lives. Song imagery using trains was representative of that force. Now trains have taken a new roll in our collective consciousness. Somehow they still evoke escape or power but, as the information age whirs up around them, they more often represent imminence or memory and the fading of all temporal things.... read more
Colour Revolt: 5/2/08
So, San Francisco rules, right? Certainly, but I’m getting ahead of myself. When we landed blissful and exhausted in San Diego, our first move was to hit up the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Incredible. We saw a polar bear try his damndest to retrieve a red ball lodged in an underwater crevice in his tank. I watched him for maybe 15 minutes, his huge paw swiping at the unreachable ball with all the tenacity of a 12-year-old hurling his dad’s tennis racket at the football stuck in the uppermost branch of a front-yard magnolia. The koalas, the baby panda asleep... read more
Colour Revolt: 4/29/08
The best part about a 32-hour non-stop drive from your hometown of Oxford, Mississippi where you left an on-stage cookout with Dent May and His Magnificent Ukelele where your friend and resident math genius Brian Hall was onstage in his Michelangelo’s David apron cooking delicious burgers which he claimed are so delicious because he rolled them in his “secret ingredient” (brown sugar and onions…shhh! don’t tell!) and you’ve been in the van so long you feel like you’re in a space shuttle speeding onward infinitely, destined to crash land on the moon and you wake up in New Mexico which... read more
Pigeon John - 3/13/08 - Sean Connery in Cabo
The next day was my showcase with Money Mark, Tommy Guererro and Curmimin at Buffalo Billards. I was very excited and relaxed and had nothing to after soundcheck, so we walked and heard a thousand bands lean out of bar windows, scratching for an ear to listen. There are so many dope bands and sounds to choose from, that the audience gets paralyzed and runs into Coyote Ugly for peace and shelter. We were one of them. I forgot where we were holed up, but it was quiet, fun and warm. We were waiting till it was our time to... read more
Pigeon John - 3/12/08 - I Can’t Feel My Face
We left New Orleans in a stupor. Defeated and used and the wind felt good on our faces. Seven hours until Austin and the start of a carnival called SXSW. I drove the whole way. Peter and Davey slept, laughed and talked. We had no iPod connection, so all we could listen to was M.I.A, Lenny Kravitz (sorry about that) and a new “I can’t feel my face” mix CD on Dim Mak. We made it though, finally. First, we all met our Austin host Katie, hung for awhile, then met up with Ms. Sarah Landy at the house we... read more
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