March 11, 2010

Stockholm Syndrome | 03.05 & 03.06 | S.F.

Filed under: 11, 12, 1999, 2010, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 99, American, Eve, First, From, Guitar, Hood, Hope, IT, Joy, Last, MA, Music, New, News, Park, Phish, Pot, Too, Weed, You, a, age, and, around, as, balance, band, big, black, bouncing, brown, ca, center, community, concert, covers, down, empire, en, end, fee, fi, four, front, gag, gain, hi, high, home, inspiration, jam, las, late, lights, live, logic, lot, love, mix, mixing, nc, night, ny, of, on, op, opener, page, party, pro, rad, radio, read, reggae, rock, room, row, sci, second, set, show, solo, song, sound, stage, state, stick, street, studio, the, third, times, to, tone, tour, track, view, with, years — hamptonphish @ 12:37 am

Words by: Kayceman | Images by: Susan J. Weiand

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.05.10 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.05 :: San Francisco, CA

It’s amazing how little has changed in six years. In 2004, I was in Europe with Stockholm Syndrome (read about it here). I was documenting the band’s first tour, carrying amps and selling t-shirts. While it was a great time to be around the band, watching them learn the material and wrestle their way into a hierarchy of sorts, it was not a cool time to be an American overseas. When Obama took office it became a little easier to wear your American pride outside our borders, but inside the confines of our 50 states, it’s still a shit-storm. We may have voted for change, but not much has changed.

Rock & roll is comfort food in times like these, and this band dishes it out in plentiful portions. Whether magnifying our demons on songs like “American Fork” and “Empire One” or helping us forget the pain for a minute with “Bouncing Very Well” or an uber-funky, Clav-heavy “Couldn’t Get It Right” (that sounded like it might drop into “Superstition” at one point), the power of a great song or inspired jam can medicate.

Few of us have known leaner times than today and there are few artists alive who channel struggle, pain and frustration as well as Jerry Joseph. Regardless of what configuration we find him in (Jackmormons, solo, Denmark Veseys, etc.), Jerry always charts a path to open hearts. But, he is never more affective than with Stockholm. Backed by bassist Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), drummer Wally Ingram (David Lindley, Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne), keyboardist Danny Louis (Gov’t Mule) and the inimitable Eric McFadden on guitar, there are not many bands that can match the intensity and sheer power of SS.

Jerry Joseph :: 03.05 :: San Francisco

Mixing songs from the band’s 2004 debut, Holy Happy Hour, with new tracks off the soon-to-be-released sophomore album and Jerry’s solo work, Stockholm Syndrome also decimated a few huge covers on their first night in San Francisco. Coming out of a sprawling “Kind Of Place,” a Jerry song with a huge sing-along hook that should have charted on the radio years ago, the band closed set one with the late Vic Chesnutt’s “Flirted With You All My Life.” A song about death by a man who recently took his own life, there is no heavier subject matter, and they paid homage by taking it into very dark terrain. But what was so remarkable about this song was the transition from pitch black despair into something with a slight reggae influence and upbeat conclusion. Together it was a musical reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if we have to cross over to find it.

The other bust-out cover came mid-way through the second set with Dylan’s “Where Are You Tonight?” Beefed up on testosterone and delivered in classic Jerry style, they latched onto the original’s gospel roots and turned it into a rock burner. Even folks familiar with the song were scratching their heads for the first few minutes. You could almost read their minds: “I know this song… but what is it?”

More than any specific song, what makes this band so fun is watching them lock horns. Each member is a true Alpha Dog and if they don’t take some space, they won’t get any. This is what makes Danny Louis such an asset. The original keyboard player, German star Danny Dziuk, was more passive, Louis is not and he knows when to really lean in. The same could be said for McFadden. A more talented guitarist you will not find, and though he is at times overshadowed by Jerry’s massive stage presence (not to mention his often overlooked guitar work), McFadden is a powder keg ready to explode. His solos are always over-the-top, but it’s when he and Jerry rub against each other, harmonizing their guitars and weaving notes, as they did on “Ray Of Heaven” and “Conscious Contact,” that the sparks really fly.

McFadden & Schools :: 03.05 :: San Francisco, CA

Alas, one would be remiss to not make prominent mention of Dave Schools. Playing a bit more of a traditional bass role than in Widespread Panic, Schools utilizes a four-string here to devastating effect. From heavily dubbed out sections that would set Jerry up for surprisingly strong white-boy reggae (not easy, and Jerry does it better than just about anyone) to expansive bass solos, mean power rock and spot-on vocal harmonies, Schools is the not-so-secret weapon of Stockholm Syndrome.

It can be a dicey situation with Jerry Joseph as the bandleader. He can’t do it any other way. He has to be the frontman, and the more confident and loose he is, the better the performance. But this is not the Jackmormons and every player needs room to shine or they’ll grow bored (or worse, they might get angry). Finding that balance is the key to Stockholm Syndrome’s success, and longevity.

During second set standout “Shinning Path,” I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if this band was the full-time priority for all five members. An older Jerry song about the brutal Communist Party of Peru, the band gave Jerry as much rope as he wanted, and he tied a knot around The Independent, pulling us deep into his world. A slow building, explosive rocker, when Jerry screamed, “You said that you’d die for me,” while McFadden blazed a solo and Schools dumped heavy bass over the top, it was everything rock fans dream about.

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.05.10 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA

Set I: Red Lightning, Couldn’t Get It Right, These Grey Days, Sing Bird, In Your Cups, Kind Of Place, Flirted With You All My Life

Set II: Ray Of Heaven, Purple Hearts, Shining Path, Where Are You Tonight?, Friendly Fire, Bouncing Very Well, Conscious Contact

E: Wisconsin Death Trip

Continue reading for Dennis Cook’s review of the second night…

Words by: Dennis Cook | Images by: Susan J. Weiand

Stockholm Syndrome/These United States :: 03.06.10 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.05 :: San Francisco, CA

The best rock shows tend to carry a sense of ritual about them. It’s all fine and well for a band to play appealing songs good and loud, but if the instigators have deeper intentions – even if they’re primarily subconscious – then a gig becomes an experience, perhaps first felt in a visceral manner but followed by psychic aftershocks that keep one pondering what occurred. More simply, if musicians build a metaphorical bonfire, bang a drum and wag their talking stick in our faces we respond to the shaman’s call.

While maybe not a full blown pagan revival meeting, Stockholm Syndrome with testifying openers These United States, flirted with this sort of ontological rising tide. For sure, both bands proffer some of the sturdiest, thickest rock out there right now, but both also actively engage in questions of spirit, humanity, politics and ethics. No teenybopper tripe here, and while some of the headier notions got caught in a snarl of guitars, volcanic bass and the sweat ‘n’ heat of the moment, there was no denying we collectively surfed the edge of a deep wave. Sometimes the music held us high, staring out over an ocean, and at others pulled us down into the salt and seaweed to gasp a little.

From their reaction inspiring name through their coiled group energy and increasingly tricked out catalog, These United States long to connect – for good or bad – with any audience they face. Largely unknown to the heavily Panic slanted crowd at The Independent, TUS nevertheless delivered a raggedly right performance that leapt with such joy and happy intensity that I stood dumbfounded at the mostly motionless people around me – dear lord, how can you NOT move to this!?! Watching lead singer/frontman Jesse Elliott leap into the yawning divide between the stage and hangers-back, there was no doubting their dedication to bridging such spaces. From their foundation up, TUS is about connections, all of them – love, hate, envy, history, etc. – just so long as truthful feeling is involved. And their strong playing and cool variety in interpreting their earlier tunes shows the density of shared intentions has grown very strong with this lineup. There’s more than a touch of mid-70s Dylan to them, and their interpretation of Bob’s “Meet Me In The Morning” this night would have put a smile on Dylan’s pancake white face during the Rolling Thunder days. As with every other time I’ve seen TUS, it seemed like they left everything they had in them on the stage. To withhold from one’s calling would be a sin and these boys aren’t sinners in any but the most playful ways.

Dave Schools :: 03.05 :: San Francisco

There are a lot of “what if’s” in rock history. What if Blind Faith hadn’t been undone by ego and friction and managed to make a second or a third album? What if Robbie Robertson hadn’t pirated The Band’s fortunes and instead shared the wealth and creative control with his comrades? There are too many such seemingly brilliant combinations of talents that imploded despite the best hopes of all involved. Which brings us to Stockholm Syndrome, a supergroup of sorts, at least within the cloistered jam community. Jerry Joseph (lead vocals, guitar), Dave Schools (bass, vocals), Wally Ingram (drums), Eric McFadden (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Danny Louis (keyboards) all have their fingers in multiple pies, some high profile (Schools’ enduring role in Widespread Panic, Louis’ anchor role in Gov’t Mule), some cultily adored (Jerry J, McFadden), some relentlessly busy (Ingram’s in-demand studio talents and hired killer status for big name acts as well as collaborator with great lesser-knowns). But, every damn time they assemble as Stockholm Syndrome we I start wishing they’d quit their day jobs and really see what Stockholm can do. It’s usually a few songs into the first set that this feeling hits me, hard, and right on time it whacked my solar plexus as Joseph roared, “I’m a killer, baby, that’s what killers do!” with McFadden prodding his ass like the devil with a new pitchfork and a luxurious, furious undercurrent of Schools, Louis and Ingram creating a rumble you felt in the meat of you.

This is not small-ball rock ‘n’ roll. Stockholm not only aspires to but achieves the dense, intermingled thickness of ’70s progenitors like Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy but with Jerry’s politically and psychologically intense lyrics (which provide the lion’s share of the words thrown out) transforming them into a totally different animal than these classic rock stepping stones. And here’s where that shamanic/cosmic thing comes in. Combined with music that’s not just reaching out but actively snatching one up and slapping them around a bit, the lyrics hold a deep, dark, truthful mirror up. It’s for society in the larger sense, but also for us, personally. Slamming down drinks and numbing the working week’s disappointments, I still couldn’t escape the feeling I’d been psychically depantsed by Joseph refrains like, “It’s good to be alone,” “We see what we want to see,” and other nitty gritty couplets that hit close to home for dreamers and lovers that struggle to do either in the world as it is today.

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.05 :: San Francisco, CA

Some sections are strong and uplifting, but even that is hard won in Stockholm’s scheme of things. The work of life, the labor of being better than our past and emerging into the best we can be, floats in their themes and stories, which sometimes offer us “crayons from our childhood/ a 64-pack set” but more often hand us a gun or torch. Personally, I freakin’ love it and welcome any chance to dive deep in this shallow world. It’s clear they won’t be satisfied in the shallows based on the new material played at this show, all of which is promising and worthy of further inspection. It’s hard to get a distinct sense of Stockholm’s catalog or where it’s going because they play together so rarely, but for guys who only gather occasionally they sure exhibit a TON of chemistry that largely overcomes the rough edges. Dressed in jeans and t-shirts, this feels like their “working band,” a project that reconnects them to the roots of their inspirations AND is a total blast to play in. None of these guys is known for oodles of smiles in their other bands, yet they can’t seem to stop grinning in Stockholm Syndrome. That alone is a powerful sign that they should invest whatever time they can in this band. Plying one’s craft with genuine pleasure is the surest way to guarantee positive end results.

The steaming, churning engine inside them was firing on all cylinders by the end of the first set with a blistering takedown of “Crime & Punishment” and especially “American Fork.” Wasting little time with a break – who could deny them a smoke after a set that left one feeling pleasantly wrecked like after good sex – they attacked the second set with enormous vigor, with the highlights, perhaps predictably, being shattering, faith affirming versions of Joseph’s signature tunes “The Jacob Ladder” and “Road To Damascus.” Now, nothing surrounding these two was any slouch, and it’s intriguing how the songs are starting to mingle and morph with this quintet. If nothing else, the relatively intimate Independent allowed one the rare opportunity to perch mere feet over Dave Schools’ shoulder and just let his technically brilliant, he-man-as-hell bass work vibrate your balls and make you feel alive. The man oozes rock power and his presence as much as his playing informs this band in totally positive ways.

Stumbling out onto Divisadero Street, I once again entertained the question that’s followed me from every Stockholm show: What if these guys made this band their priority? My gut says the possibilities are pretty limitless and that they’ve only just scratched the surface. The collective confidence and sheer talent of these five men is staggering and incredibly exciting. I just hope we get to see it come to its full fruition one day.

Stockholm Syndrome :: 03.06.10 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA

Set I: Tight > Empire One > Easter, Tarantula Hawk, Miranda, Crime & Punishment, American Fork

Set II: Apollo > The Jacob Ladder > Emma’s Pissed, That Which Is Coming, Spy > Road to Damascus, Light Is Like Water
E: Lick The Tears

Continue reading for more pics…

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome Tour Dates :: Stockholm Syndrome News :: Stockholm Syndrome Concert Reviews

JamBase | In Love With Our Captors
Go See Live Music!



March 10, 2010

Backyard Tire Fire: Food For Thought

Filed under: 09, 11, 2010, 27, 29, 30, 99, American, Beer, Enjoy, Eve, Exile, First, From, Guitar, Hope, IT, Joy, Last, MA, Main, Music, New, News, Phish, Pot, Stern, Too, Weed, You, a, age, and, around, as, band, beginning, blue, ca, center, conan, concert, console, down, en, end, fall, fee, fi, front, hi, high, inspiration, interview, jam, las, late, live, los lobos, lot, love, mash, nc, night, ny, of, on, op, page, pro, rad, radio, rage, read, recording, rock, room, row, show, smooth, song, sound, stage, stick, street, studio, the, times, to, tone, tour, track, view, war, with, years — hamptonphish @ 11:37 am

By: Dennis Cook

Ridin’ down the highway/ Goin’ to a show
Stop in all the byways/ Playin’ rock ‘n’ roll
Gettin’ robbed/ Gettin’ stoned
Gettin’ beat up/ Broken boned
Gettin’ had/ Gettin’ took
I tell you folks/ It’s harder than it looks

Backyard Tire Fire by Brad Hodge

AC/DC’s Bon Scott might have been writing about Backyard Tire Fire in his detailing of the long road ahead of aspiring rockers. These Midwestern survivors have endured all manner of flotsam and hiccups over the past 10 years, including their trusty tour van recently breaking down on the road to San Francisco. Most groups might have considered hanging it up but there’s something inside Tire Fire that simply won’t let them. BTF has distilled this enduring mojo on their fifth studio release, Good To Be (released February 16 on Kelsey Street/Thirty Tigers and potently produced by Los Lobos‘ Steve Berlin), which wrestles with life’s struggles, offers inspiration for surmounting them and still rolls with their usual gruff-smooth savoir faire.

“I’m trying to be, uh, more positive, I guess, in my thinking,” says bandleader-guitarist-singer-songwriter Ed Anderson, expressing the difficulty and ambivalence of someone who’s spent some time scraping and struggling in the real world. “It’s a strange thing to even bring up, but when they yanked the carpet out from underneath Conan [O'Brien] – who I think is a genius – on the last night he said something to the effect of, ‘Don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism. It’s one of my least favorite qualities,’ even though he’d been the most cynical asshole for weeks leading up to this night – which I loved [laughs]. And it got me thinking about how nobody likes a cynic; I sure don’t like cynics. But, I turn into the ultimate cynic of all-time – the judgmental musician asshole – at the drop of a hat. With friends, I’ll tear somebody apart that I don’t think is doing it from the heart. But, you know what? Some of my favorite people are musicians that will find the best quality in the worst piece of shit. It makes me realize there’s a better way to be in this world.”

As complicated as we make our lives, it’s sometimes a simple shift in perspective, a resolve to grin rather than grimace, that tilts our axis towards the positive. This notion is central to music’s intrinsic value and purpose. A song can turn our whole world upside down or right side up through the intersection of melody, lyric, our emotions and countless other, interwoven factors. Backyard Tire Fire – Ed Anderson, Tim Kramp (drums) and Ed’s brother Matt Anderson (bass, vocals) – grasps this notion with unforced flair on Good To Be, a series of succinct reminders that life isn’t so bad, especially with quality rock ‘n’ roll like this.

Ed Anderson by Dan Videtich

“One of the things that keeps coming up with [Good To Be] is it has this sort of conceptual ‘glass half full’ quality,” says Ed Anderson. “When you write a tune it’s obviously influenced by how you were feeling when you wrote it. Clearly, it’s not always just ‘good to be,’ but it was at the moment I wrote that song. Then, I started to think, ‘Maybe I should start taking my own advice a bit more.’ I talk positivity in these tunes but then I can be this surly fucking sarcastic, cynical asshole, and I don’t really want to be that. Spend enough time in this business and it’s easy to turn into that, but I’d like to just have fun and enjoy the moment, even if it’s just in front of a hundred people and not a thousand.”

“I can be a very fucking mean person, if I want to. I was raised by wonderful people and generally try to be good to everybody, but it can get bad some days [laughs]. I try not to get to that place, and in general I’m trying to enjoy the moment more,” says Anderson. “It’s not easy to just lay back and enjoy the ride with all the debt and things we owe, but we’re sure as hell trying.”

If program directors everywhere had half a clue and a little courage to go outside the prescribed mainstream offerings they all slot in, well, they’d find a treasure trove of classic American rock waiting in Backyard Tire Fire – something that’s never been clearer than on the hook-heavy, highly focused Good To Be. Not so long ago ditties like “Piss and Moan” and the title track were the yardstick for airplay not the exception. BTF cranks out rock with the sturdiness and potential universality of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who’d likely have the same kind of uphill climb Tire Fire faces if they’d come up today instead of the 1970s. Backyard Tire Fire is solid gold for all the cranky motherfuckers complaining about how “they don’t make rock like they used to,” or the people smitten with the Drive-By Truckers or The Hold Steady, kindred spirits who’ve picked up sizeable core audiences in recent years. What they’re laying down resonates with the sturdiest, most endearing stuff rock has ever produced, and one senses that folks just need to hear BTF in order to fall hard.

Backyard Tire Fire by Dan Videtich

“I was sitting around late one night recently, drinking beer alone on my couch and playing ‘Piss and Moan,’ and I realized – I felt it inside – that EVERYBODY has something they can’t let go of, that thing that keeps them up at night. There isn’t one person in any crowd that doesn’t have something, and if we can get together and forget about all this shit for just that moment, just the length of a song, then we’re doing something worthwhile,” says Anderson, who respects and understands the power of music that gets a lot of people off at once. “If you’re up on a stage, what the fuck are you doing up there if not shooting for that? If you have some stage presence and try to leave it all out there [with the intensity of your performance] and add subject matter that people can really relate to, then that’s the whole package. That’s what makes people pump their fist in the air and think, ‘This song is about me!’ That’s how I feel when I’ve seen Alejandro Escovedo. It’s the whole package; he’s the real deal. I can identify with every word he says, and sometimes I feel like some of his songs are about me.”

One of Anderson’s virtues as a songwriter is his ability to encapsulate what it’s like to be near money but never really get a couple ugly handfuls for yourself. His lyrics reflect the wisdom and challenges of working class people, i.e. the vast majority of us who will never know the fantasy world the top one-percent live in. Anderson’s catalog is a place where even small choices matter, the alarm clock rings too soon and there’s almost always a debt collector chasing us down. Grasped with understanding arms by Kramp and his brother Matt, BTF’s music is rib-sticking sustenance for anyone with a blue-collar soul.

“I’m the son of a plumber for crissakes!” exclaims Anderson. “What was around me growing up was the idea, ‘You can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it.’ That’s the kind of advice all of us got as kids.”

Continue reading for more on Backyard Tire Fire…

border=0>
 


I was sitting around late one night recently, drinking beer alone on my couch and playing ‘Piss and Moan,’ and I realized – I felt it inside – that EVERYBODY has something they can’t let go of, that thing that keeps them up at night. There isn’t one person in any crowd that doesn’t have something, and if we can get together and forget about all this shit for just that moment, just the length of a song, then we’re doing something worthwhile.

-Ed Anderson

 

Photo by: Brad Hodge

Music with an openly expressed “can-do” attitude can often be so cloying and disingenuous that you think, “If I had a hammer I’d smash this damn record!” Tire Fire dexterously sidesteps such perils on Good To Be, even when they’re dissecting the niceties (or lack thereof) of the rock life – touring, selling records, etc. There’s a smiling honesty about the realities of being a struggling band in today’s environment. Anyone trying to shake a dollar out of the music industry is likely to empathize with the truths inside BTF’s latest.

Backyard Tire Fire by Dan Videtich

“I’m so fucking one-dimensional! I eat, sleep and breathe rock ‘n’ roll. What I want to focus on is the music but there’s all the business stuff that sucks up one’s days, too,” observes Anderson. “As a band that’s not even close to where they’d like to be, every day is just movement towards that place. It’s every fucking day, so it’s on my mind. And maybe not ['I Love Rock N' Roll'] and that type of shit, but I’ve loved songs about rock going back to Lou Reed singing about it. I love those early fuckin’ Wilco records – A.M., Being There, Summerteeth. There’s a moment on Being There where Jeff Tweedy says, ‘I was maimed by rock and roll/ I was tamed by rock and roll/ I got my name from rock and roll’ ['Sunken Treasure']. That just works! He pulls it off and not everybody can sing about it. I think you have to be all-in to pull that off.”

“All-in” is a concise description of Backyard Tire Fire. Not one element feels false or forced with this trio, and even after a decade of grinding it out, their chief goal remains creating rock of real quality and resonance. It’s this fundamental rightness and attitude that’s won over folks like Steve Berlin, a lifer who’s known both massive success and lean years with Los Lobos.

“The conceptual rhythm of [Good To Be] is all Berlin. I sent him about three-dozen demos and he whittled them down to about a dozen,” explains Anderson. “I didn’t go into this record with any preconceptions. In fact, a lot of the stuff I wrote happened in the weeks leading up to these sessions. Steve said, ‘I love this stuff but don’t get complacent, keep writing.’ I wrote ‘Good To Be,’ ‘Roadsong #39′ and ‘Brady’ after that, after we’d hooked him in and were excited to be working with him. The whole situation with Steve has just been good. He chose the songs and the [track] order, got the tones and performances he wanted. He was very involved with shaping the material.”

Backyard Tire Fire by Will Byington

Berlin’s presence is also felt in tasty horn and keyboard touches throughout the album, with the veteran chipping in alongside the band as well as manning the recording console. These accents beef up the Tire Fire sound in significant yet subtle ways, extending the band’s longstanding love affair with the studio even further.

“That keyboard part at the end of ‘Piss and Moan,’ that counter melody that comes in with the response vocals, is all him. He came up with that on the fly; just went in and played it and left all of our jaws hanging on the floor,” recalls Anderson, who values Los Lobos’ example as a band dedicated to the long game of a sustainable, creatively rich career over fair weather stardom. “It’s surreal to have Steve believe so much in our band. He did this interview [see clip below or click here] talking about working with us that made me feel so proud and privileged to work with him. Watching it, I can’t believe this cat is saying this stuff about us!”

“I’m proud of the whole thing with Good To Be. The band played their best, and Steve got the best performances out of us. Everything he suggested we at least gave it a shot. Whether all of it made it onto the record or not, we did everything he asked of us. It’s a proud moment, where we’re sounding as good as we ever have and we’re stepping our game up. It was a really positive experience from the beginning to the end. It’s one of those experiences that turns your whole world upside-down. I’m used to going in and calling all the shots, and all of the sudden we’ve got this guy making us stand on our heads and we did it at the drop of a hat [laughs].”

Backyard Tire Fire by Brad Hodge

“He’s got a great sensibility for putting things where you don’t normally hear them. I love that about him and his musicality, but it’s totally different from mine,” continues Anderson. “From the first day, hung over and recording ‘A Thousand Gigs Ago,’ I just knew it was gonna be a challenging, good experience. For the next 10 days we’d take what we’d recorded and go back and drink a case of Rainer at this place we stayed at, the White Eagle Tavern. It’s the oldest tavern in Portland and all three of us stayed in this shoebox room for two weeks. Late night they’d let us listen to what we recorded each day on their PA. That’s pretty much how it went every day, except Steve had a Los Lobos gig one day so we took that off and ended up helping a friend move [laughs].”

Hard work lies at the center of all things Backyard Tire Fire. These guys simply don’t quit, and their latest salvo is filled with their most refined, direct tunes yet. While their path may be pocked with broken vans, lousy guarantees and other potentially Tire popping impediments, where they find themselves today is genuinely positive, a well-earned place of pride, craftsmanship and endurance. It is indeed a long way to the top but Backyard Tire Fire is built to last. With a little luck and some borrowed faith on dark days, one hopes they’ll get there eventually. Regardless, it’ll never be dull riding shotgun wherever this classic-in-our-midst roams.

“I sometimes feel like I should have been 20-years-old in 1972 instead of being born in 1972. That’s when Exile On Main St. was on the fucking radio! That’s when I feel I should have been in my prime. Right now I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” laughs Anderson. “If you really start thinking about this stuff it’ll drag you down. You just have to do what you do. It’s easy to lose sight of how good it is to just be alive. It’s hard to embrace the philosophy of enjoying the moment, but the reality is everything is temporary. It’s not necessarily about where you get but the process in getting there. Enjoying the moment and enjoying what you do is the important thing. However, that’s a lot easier said than done.”

Backyard Tire Fire Tour Dates :: Backyard Tire Fire News :: Backyard Tire Fire Concert Reviews

JamBase | Burning Bright
Go See Live Music!



March 9, 2010

Breathe In: Ski & Music Fest Fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis

Filed under: 12, 2010, 30, Beer, Eve, From, IT, Joy, MA, Music, News, Phish, You, a, age, and, as, band, ca, center, concert, disease, down, en, end, fee, festival, fi, hi, jam, las, live, nc, of, on, op, pro, rock, show, stage, state, stick, the, to, war, with — hamptonphish @ 7:14 pm

Breathe In Copper Mtn – March 20 :: Ski & Music Fest Fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis

Eliot Lipp, The Motet, Pimps Of Joytime & A Ski Ticket!

Eliot Lipp

Make a difference by elevating awareness and raising money in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at Breathe In Copper Mtn – Saturday March 20, 2010. For less than the price of a normal lift ticket, participants get a full day lift ticket, a concert ticket, an event t-shirt and complimentary beer at the base of Central Village. Or get all this, minus a lift ticket for just a $30 donation. Tickets and info at BreatheIn.org.

In addition to a day of world-class skiing, Breathe In will feature live music from noon to 6 p.m. The groundbreaking electronica styling and dance floor shaking beats of Eliot Lipp will headline the festival stage. In support, Boulder’s own The Motet will showcase their improvisational, Afro/Latin oriented grooves and The Pimps of Joytime will open things up with a progressive blend of multi-ethnic funk in the afternoon sun.

Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food. For more information, please visit cff.org.

Plus, buy your ticket online and receive a fundraising packet in the mail that will help you cover the cost of your admission with donations from your friends and family! So put your lungs and legs to the test at Breathe In to help those affected with this chronic lung disease. All donations are tax deductible.



Page 1 of 1012345...Last »