Track Archive

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I am off to wreak more havoc on the unsuspecting drivers on I-10 all of whom I will shortly think should DIE IN A FIRE. Yes it’s raining in Houston and a single drop within five miles I-10 turns everyone into complete idiots.

The Bird List. A bird’s eye view of the combined top 20 lists of what we like to call a “loose confederation of like minded bloggers”. This is the inaugural year. It’s been a patchy one! But what we do have is decent idea, and what we feel is an interesting list. So Here it is. The best albums of the year as voted on by 30 of the web’s leading aficionados of twanglike music.

1. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
2. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park
3. Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses – Roadhouse Sun
4. Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk
5. Dave Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend
6. Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
7. Todd Snider – The Excitement Plan
8. Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
9. Band of Heathens – One Foot In the Ether
10. Tom Russell – Blood & Candlesmoke
11. Jason Isbell & 400 Unit – Self Titled
12. Corb Lund – Losin’ Lately Gambler
13. Charlie Robison – Beautiful Day
14. Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print
15. Steve Earle – Townes
16. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day
17. Wrinkle Neck Mules – Let The Lead Fly
18. Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine
19. Guy Clark – Somedays The Songs Write You
20. Those Darlins – S/T
20. Miranda Lambert – Revolution

Contributing Blogs: A Fifty Cent Lighter, A Truer Sound, Alt-512, Amber Waves of Twang, Americana Rock Mix, Americana Roots, Beat Surrender, Because Whit Happens, Country California, Country Music Pride, Farce The Music, For The Sake of The Song, Front Porch Musings, Heartworn Highways, High Noon Saloon, It’s Great To Be Alive, Kim Ruehl (No Depression), Juli Thanki, (The 9513), Romeo Sid Vicious, More Cowbelle, My Aimz Is True, Ninebullets, Sounds Country, The Gobbler’s Knob, There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You, This Mornin’ I Am Born Again, Twang Nation, Twangville, Freight Train Boogie, When You Awake
Special thanks to: Truersound, Sounds Country, Romeo Sid Vicious, and David Attaway

Well my number album of the year didn’t even make the overall top 20 and that makes me sad. Hell it was AIV‘s number one as well! If you want to see my personal list keeping checking 9b this week as I suspect it will pop up there sometime soon. As soon as it’s up there I’ll cross post it here as well and I am working on a top songs mix which, like the top albums, is turning out to be much harder than I thought.

This one comes courtesy of D.C. Live Tracks. I didn’t record it and wasn’t at the show. I did go see Lucero last night here in Houston but this is not that show. So none of the credit is mine at all. I wanted to share a good quality recording of Lucero with all of you and since this is from this tour it’s pretty much what I heard last night with few exceptions. And of course I interviewed the band last night but you’ll have to wait for that post to pop up on 9b. D.C. Live Tracks has some other great shows up but you’ll have to click one of the link and head over there to check them out. I found about them on the Lucero Message Board and have downloaded most if not all of the shows that get posted there.

On another note I am working on a blogroll, of sorts, to cover all the alt-country blogs I read and will have it packaged up as a bundle on Google Reader. This was inspired by The Bird List, a project I have been invited to participate in, and no I ain’t tellin’ you what it is just yet. You will have to just wait and see.

I have also been working on some other stuff on the backend of the old site here. I have changed the MP3 player, not the tape widget, to one that’s actually being maintained after the old one decided I didn’t have permission to access the settings anymore. Most of the rest of the stuff will be transparent to the readers but I did add a twitter widget to the sidebar and some other little tweaks. Anyway…

I leave for Portland, OR on Friday and will be gone until the following Friday. I don’t know how much I’ll update from there so follow me on Twitter if you want to keep up. This’ll probably be my last post on here this week. I have a lot of getting ready to do before I bail out of town. I am sure I’ll have geeky crap to post about when I get back.

This one is a little angrier than usual but what the hell it’s Friday after all. Not the greatest week in the world but not the worst either. So enjoy your weekend folks ’cause come Monday we are back into the thick of it again.

I should also mention that I received my merch from SBHR in the form of the Cory Branan/Jon Snodgrass split album t-shirt, a Drag The River sticker, and a SBHR sticker along with a CD celebrating SBHR’s 14th anniversary.

As an aside. I am working on the Mix Widget Backend so yesterday’s compilation didn’t make it up and probably won’t. I am head down in code and don’t want to take breaks. I’ll get tomorrow’s post up but the Monday Mix may be delayed for a while until I get this code all sorted out.

You may have heard me rant about how much I like Tim Barry or listened to Please Consider Where I’ve Been – An Intro To Tim Barry but if you don’t own Live At Munford Elementary then you should be flogged, drawn and quartered and maybe flogged again. I offer the following as proof:

The first track is his version of “Shoulda Oughta” for the kids at Munford Elementary and the second is the album version. So use these links, from Tim’s site and get the album:

• Hey Lolly (by Woody Guthrie)
• This Land…(by Woody Guthrie)
• Shoulda Ought – Munford Style (by Tim Barry)

Another slightly delayed Monday Mix. This one has some tracks from folks I hadn’t posted before and that have been growing on me. I am kind of stoked about this because I think feel is right. It’s all downers but sometimes that just what a body needs to get through and it’s what I was in the mood for yesterday when I put it together. So there you have it boys and girls. Yet another Monday Mix.

As most folks who know me outside of this blog can attest to I am very vocal about intellectual property especially as it relates to music. And as everyone who reads this blog or ever hears me talk about music knows I am a huge fan of Lucero. I have done an intro to their music just to turn more people on to them. I have met them, partied with them in more than one state, and talked about all sorts of crap. I am a fanboy when it comes to Lucero and while I might should be ashamed of that I am not. Today I had my heart broken.

Let me start at the beginning. 1372 Overton Park is their first release on a major label, Universal to be exact, and with my feelings about the major players in the music industry being what they are this was a hard pill to swallow. But I remembered Ben told me that they would never sign a deal that made them be anything aside from what they were so I figured that whatever the boys put pen to paper and agreed to wouldn’t change the basic band or the fans. To be clear the album is amazing. I pre-ordered it, had the leak before anyone else I know, and love it as much as any other Lucero album. I had to say that because I didn’t want anyone to think that the music the boys are making is anything less than the amazing music they have always made and what I am about to say may have given that impression. When my CD arrived yesterday I was not happy. On the packaging there are two visible FBI PIRACY WARNINGS visible and on the CD itself there is yet another. I figured this was just Universal and being that it’s Lucero and they have always encouraged people to share their music like I did with the intro that it was just the record company shaking their junk. I was wrong. Early this morning the other site I write for received a takedown notice for the two songs posted, as is the custom there, after the review. Autopsy IV replaced them with live versions so the songs are still there technically but not the versions you hear on the album.

I will never purchase another album from Lucero. I will buy merch at the shows, and I will go see them live, but I will never send another penny of my money to the corporation who now controls their music. It breaks my heart to say that but for me this is a clear cut abuse of copyright. The songs were obviously posted as part of commentary on a site which has no advertisements and does not charge for anything. This is not commercial use and being as that the songs are part of the commentary it is obviously fair use. The abuse of fair use that the system allows is disgusting. The DMCA, in the manner in which it is enforced, provides for no fair use which is a violation of the Berne Convention at the least and morally wrong to boot.

As an old man I shouldn’t have heroes. I shouldn’t. But I do and Lucero were some of them. Since they now allow a record company, a dues paying member of the RIAA, to control their music they have lost that status. You may not feel this is political but when these companies take laws meant to prosecute people duplicating CD/DVDs/etc for profit and use them against everyday people who made the mistake of sharing files and get settlements worth millions against people who make half of what I do and it’s upheld by the courts it becomes political. So it is with heavy heart that I write that I have lost some of my last heroes and will not ever purchase their music again. I can’t help but love the music and I will see them live and most likely still buy merch and I will surely buy the band drinks but they have burned a bridge that I am pretty sure they won’t try to go back down.

For a band that got as big as they by their fans sharing their music with others and then to have them do this is unconscionable. I cannot comprehend it. I plan to try and get time before their show here in town and do an interview with the boys and ask the questions this raises. I hope they don’t know what is happening or at the very least don’t approve. But I won’t know until I ask. Right now it feels like they have sold out and I hate saying that with every bone in my body. I didn’t think they sold out when they had their music used in Cold Case or One Tree Hill, I didn’t think they sold out because this album seems more radio friendly because it sound like a natural progression, but when the takedown notices fly then I can only conclude that they have sold out. And that my dear readers breaks my heart.

I might should have posted more links to copyright abuse stuff but you can find enough on TechDirt to satisfy your curiosity as well as many explanations on why tactics like this don’t work and only hurt the band in question in the long run. I love my boys but I hope this deal crashes and burns so there is nothing left to identify in the remains and the boys go back to making music and encouraging their fans to share it. I will be buying music from Suburban Home in the meantime. In fact I am going to post this and go sign up for access to their digital catalog for life. First off because it’s a great deal and secondly because Virgil doesn’t give the RIAA a dime. I urge you all to boycott this album from Lucero and any further releases of theirs on Universal. I hate to say that, I really do, but for me this is a moral issue and I cannot stand by and be silent.