Jeff Tweedy
Irving Plaza
2/26/01
It’s really odd to be old enough to watch the progression of a great songwriter like Jeff Tweedy. While his songs were always great, the early stuff he did for Uncle Tupelo was very much overshadowed by co-singer Jay Farrar’s superior work. We got flashes of brilliance like Gun and If That’s Alright, but it always seemed to be Jay’s band, at least to me. He’s obviously stepped up to the breach, as his post-Tupelo band Wilco has overshadowed both Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo’s legacy. Every record that Wilco has released has been a step away from Uncle Tupelo’s roots and this one marks the (unwilling) departure of fellow ex-Tupelo drummer Ken Coomer. Bet there’s a story behind that. There’s a new album that’s pretty much in the can and these shows were to road-test and refine the last of the songs before putting the record to bed. I had heard a number of the songs on Napster and they were just as good live. Of course, they will become different animals in the studio, so this was a pretty interesting insight into Tweedy’s writing process. The crowd ate it up, hanging on every word and laughing at every anecdote like they went to school together. In fact, Jeff was presented with his yearbook photo at the show, an era that he self-deprecatingly referred to as "back when I was inventing alternative country". Put his songs in any cubbyhole you like, they will stand the test of time. While Jeff always seems to want to be a Dylan, I would expect that soon he’ll be held as the Brian Wilson of his generation before he rightfully takes his place in the pantheon of songwriting greats.

Old 97s
Bowery Ballroom
3/1/01
The last couple of records the Old 97s have released have been rocky roads for me. In both instances, I heard the singles before the record came out and both times I thought the same thing: looks like someone’s getting some "record company influence". And both times I fell really hard for the record. The new single King Of All The World is unabashedly poppy, with a jaw-droppingly blatant quote from a classic song whose name I’ll leave it to the lawyers to mention, but there’s a whole lot of good, original, stuff on the record, too. Frontman Rhett Miller has been getting his Elliot Smith on, doing residences at Limbo in LA and Fez here in town fleshing out new material. Safe money is that many of the nubile young ladies that filled the audience had been at those shows, too, as the screams that filled the air did not abate when they played new stuff like "Designs on You". Nor were they put off by his silly haircut. All player hating of Rhett aside, he truly is a great songwriter, a Texas Elvis Costello with a great ear for a turn of phrase and a witty pun, but the band often gets shunted to the background unfairly. Bassist and singer Murray Hammond is most assuredly the linchpin behind the band, taking the lead to give Rhett a rest and singing spot-on harmonies all night long while fellow 97s Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples hold make a racket behind them. Not a bad thing, I tell ya. Yet another fine show from one of the country’s best live (and all-around) bands.

GvsB
Alien Crime Syndicate
Pocket For Corduroy
Bottom of the Hill
3/2/01
So this year I opted to go to San Francisco and Noise Pop instead of Austin and South by Southwest. It all came together at the last minute, and despite the best efforts of American Airlines and their baggage handlers’ enforced slowdown I found myself flying at 4:30 in the goddamn morning to San Francisco. So I got there, grabbed a nap, and dragged my miserable jet-lagged ass out to the Bottom of the Hill to see the Alien Crime Syndicate. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — god bless coffee, you bewitching consort you. If you’ve spoken to me in the last year or so, you’ve probably heard me ramble on at length about how great these guys are. Hell, I probably gave you a copy of the record. Combining the best part of the Beach Boys and the Fastbacks, along with a light show that blew all the power in the joint at one point, the kids rocked the hell out of the Bottom Of The Hill. This is arena rock for the noise pop set. Pocket for Corduroy were billed as being like Fugazi and Superchunk. They weren’t. I didn’t stay for Girls against boys but I’m contractually obligated to say that whatever they did, it was probably very, very sexy. Yawn.

Superchunk
Spoon
Matt Suggs
Bimbo’s 365 Club
3/3/01
Next night was the reason for the trip. Superchunk are simply the awesomest, and having missed all the dates they did down South prior to this show, a little junket seemed in order. This was a Merge showcase and a pretty damn good one. I missed Action Slacks, but we got there in time to see Matt Suggs’ set. Formerly of Merge franchise Butterglory, he busted out a great set of, well, noisy pop songs that were very favorably reminiscent of World Party. He’s got that Wallinger-esque baritone and a great band behind him. Go see him. Spoon I have some issues with. I remember that about five years ago they were the toast of CMJ and SXSW circuits. To the point of nausea, frankly. I also remember the singer and somebody he’s eventually kicked out of the band banging on the fire door at Mercury for like a half hour til they burst in an interrupted a set that I remember as being vastly superior. But I digress. The new record Girls Can Tell, has a great title and the songs they played from it seemed pretty good. Seems like the tour with Superchunk has served them well. The kids ate it up and probably have them in their cd changers with a bunch of GbV stuff. They have "high profile opener" written all over them. But what about the Chunk, you ask? Now I am a wee bit biased, but suffice to say that if you: prime me with four glasses of wine, pair me with one of Chicago’s loveliest, and then have the Chunk open with Without Blinking and Detroit Has A Skyline; you could have one of those silly earthquakes and I’d still pretty positive about the whole endeavor. The big buzz was that they were breaking up and the new record would be their last, based pretty conclusively on the fact that Jim had pretty much said so in the little Noise Pop guide. Oops. Thankfully enough, this has proven to be false. My thirtieth year looks somewhat brighter. The set was pretty short due to some sort of venue regulation, but pretty damn good. Some new stuff, including a pretty good one called Phone Sex, along with most of the hits that you’ve heard me shout along with throughout the years. They’ll be playing dates on and off in the next couple of months while they record the record including a date at Maxwell’s on 4/30. See you there.

Sunday’s Best
New and Originals
The Good Life
Droo Church
Bottom of the Hill
3/4/01
So the Bottom Of The Hill has a pretty famous Sunday afternoon barbecue that I’d never been able to attend. Pretty cool and pretty punk rock, I gotta say. I am also pleased to report that my fears of it being meat free were unfounded. They’re not all bad in SF. Droo Church opened the afternoon’s proceedings while most people were staking out space on the food line. The DC are from Seattle and had Fastbacks/Young Fresh Fellows guitarist Kurt Bloch produce their new record. I’ll give them points for setting off on the right foot, but they didn’t really rock my world. Great guitar player who I suspect is the older brother of someone in the band, but they sounded like your average hard rock band. That and the fact that they’re from Seattle should be an albatross to haunt them for years. Now The Good Life is Tim Kasher from Cursive’s extremely morose side project. These are some seriously depressed alcoholic rockers. I had seen them a month or so before and enjoyed them at night, but on a sunny day in SF, it was a little maudlin. Truth be told, they were good, and seemed genuinely depressed and down, but not what I needed the day before I had to fly back to work. Now there’s nothing weirder than seeing four guys you knew from different bands get up and play in a new band you didn’t know existed (he said pretentiously). So New and Originals is Norm from Texas is the Reason with Jonah from Far and two other guys whose bands you should like. Now if you’ve ever seen Jonah play in his One Line Drawing project, you know that he can be sincere to the point of caricature. He is one earnest guy. The stuff is a little half baked and sounds very much the Sunny Day Real Estate-esque rock that their old bands were rooted in. See them on tour with their new labelmates Jets To Brazil soon. Sunday’s Best closed out the evening. They’re on Polyvinyl and sound pretty good: big choruses, loud guitars, decent vocals. Their new record is called Poised To Break and it would appear that they are. I don’t know if I’d consider them headliner material, but they sound good and put on a good show. Not a bad way to end a decent festival. Kudos to Noise Pop for putting on a great bunch of shows.

Rocket From The Goddamn Crypt!
The Go To Hells
Mercury Lounge
3/8/01
It’s still very odd to me that both these bands are on Vagrant. They aren’t the type of bands that you’d expect them to pick up, but they both rock like hell, so kudos to the mysterious Vagrant and their strange ability to sign everybody. The Go To Hells feature people from bands that I’m ashamed to say that I’m not familiar with. That being said, if you want to see some heavily tattooed guys drink heavily and rock the hell of a sweaty little room, these are your boys. You wouldn’t want them to date your sister, but you’d probably buy them a beer. There’s not too much more that you can say about Rocket From The Crypt. Them boys are simply the rockingest band you ever did see. Speedo let us know from the get go that he was horny for the crowd and then had at us like a sailor on shore leave. Even with a new drummer (Superchunk’s Jon Wurster played on the new record) they were frighteningly tight. Not a lot of surprises in the set, but there was the added bonus of them encoring with side one of The State Of The Industry Is On Fire. Screw U2 and their proclamation that they are reclaiming the title of best rock band in the world, the boys from Rocket have that title and they don’t stand to lose it anytime soon.

Sometimes the rock and roll world deals you a strange hand. When I first heard that Scott Macaughey, Peter Buck and Mark Eitzel were playing in the same band, I was pretty excited. Then I went to see them at Mercury and was aghast. Luckily, this incarnation was a much better one. (I still love you, Mark) The theme and aesthetic of the new record seemed to be rock, doing yeoman duty in proving that if it ain’t broke, there’s no real sense in fixing it. When you get down to it, the Minus 5 are just a bunch of guys that like to have a drink and play the rock. Golden Smog’s older brothers, if you will. I haven’t seen Peter Buck look as happy (or as drunk) in years. Subtract Eitzel, add Ken Stringfellow plus opener John Wesley Harding on a couple of songs and you’ve got a good show on your hands. Seems like the Maxwell’s of yesteryear is returning. It’s good to have it (and the Minus 5) back.

Q and not U
Har Mar Superstar
Brownies
3/18/01
The Q and Not U are from DC and sound like it. Hell, they’re even on Dischord. More guitar based than the Dismemberment Plan and not as willfully arty as Shudder To Think, they stand to be a big force in the rock world, perhaps even this year’s At The Drive In. They haven’t played all that much in NYC, and the room was filled in anticipation of the mayhem to come. Hype was lived up to. Exploding from note one and throwing themselves around a cramped stage with little regard for each other, they inspired the crowd to follow suit and the floor at Brownies got friskier than it has been in a real long time. I’d like to see these guys play with Radio 4 sometime. The 70s resurgence has come and as fading fast. Brace yourself for the 80s. Opening up the proceedings was Sean Tillman of Sean Na Na in his solo incarnation as Har Mar Superstar, an Atom and his Package-esque satire of new jack swing and r&b. It’s pretty damn funny and almost distracts you from the fact that Tillman has a great voice. I bet that it would be pretty irritating if you saw it more than once, but it was pretty entertaining for a Sunday night with a somewhat confused crowd.

ElizabethElmore4
Brownies
3/19/01
This was the first New York show for Elizabeth Elmore’s post-Sarge project the ElizabethElmore4. I really wanted to like it, and really would have like to have heard a Sarge song or two, but this was all about new material and a couple covers. I get the impression that the backing band is a separate entity and were just helping her out, as they didn’t really have the feel of a band that had been playing together for a while. Of course Sarge hasn’t been broken up for that long, but this set seemed to be a bit half-baked. There’s evidently a project with Bob Nanna (Hey Mercedes) coming out, as well as another with Harris Klahr (Q and Not U). I’d like to hear them and like to see the EE4 play in another couple months when they are a little tighter.

Young Fresh Fellows
Irving Plaza
3/24/01
Shrewd move on Scott Macaughey getting the Minus 5 signed along with the Young Fresh Fellows. The two records are packaged together and now, fresh on the heels of the Minus 5 tour; here comes the Young Fresh Fellows. Can I get a hoo-hoo?!!? I won’t deign to comment on them being teamed with the Soft Boys, but it was nice to see the kids early so I could go to bed. I gotta say that the combination of Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch is the best thing since the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. If there’s a better band for a Saturday night, I’ve not heard them. Some new stuff, some old stuff (including one hell of a Got My Mojo Working {And I Thought You’d Like To Know}), and a whole lot of drinking. Same as it ever was. They are hardly young, but these Fellows sound as fresh as ever. Do yourself a favor, buy all of their records and impress your friends to boot.