Hartamophone

Here in Victoria there is a "Smart Car only" spot on each block in the downtown. They aren't branded as such, but they are so small that Smart Cars are the only things that can fit in them. Personally, I think it's pretty cool.

From jambands.com: Former Band singer/drummer Levon Helm will release his second solo album on June 30. Like Dirt Farmer, Helm’s latest disc Electric Dirt was recorded at the drummer’s Woodstock barn and produced by longtime collaborator Larry Campbell, "Our objective here was to take the honesty, innocence and purity of the Dirt Farmer record which represents a true element of what Levon is all about but also expand on that and explore deeper the goldmine of Levon's musical artistry,†Campbell said in a statement. The album includes covers of The Grateful Dead's "Tennessee Jed," Happy Traum's "Golden Bird," Randy Newman’s “Kingfish,†as well as originals like the new Helm/Campbell collaboration "Growing Trade.†Allen Toussaint also lends his skills as an arranger.

You left out the letter "n" in the thread title.

I wonder how many people will spend their money on it, though. They are clearly going for the same demographic that The Dead were looking for with their $100 ticket prices, and I dare say that that hasn't gone totally according to plan. Also, I second your idea for a Forrest Richard Betts box set.

I don't know what you mean by that.

Would you say that to Billy Bob Thornton?

[color:purple]Sure am glad I didn't click on that. Jerk.

Billy made sure that they emphasized that HE didn't have the flu. Other weaker members of his band and crew did. fuck. I suspect that the other three members of the band have come down with an astute case of douche chills and are unable continue the tour.

I'm talking about the point in the interview where Ghomeshi confronts him and asks if he was offended by the intro. There are several pauses where Jian had the opportunity to steer the interview back on course but he kept going back to the conflict even though he was just basically repeating himself at that point. The opportunity to steer what interview back on course? The one where Billy Bob was refusing to answer questions, going on tangents about painting monsters as a kid and trying to put himself on the same musical level as Tom Petty? Jian had no choice but to "confront" Billy Bob on why he was refusing to participate in the interview after several failed attempts at engaging him. If Jian had tried to carry on with the interview without getting to the root of why Billy Bob was acting the way he was, it would have continued to go absolutely nowhere.

I wish I was a more proficient Photoshopper so that I could make a Billy Bob Thornton t-shirt with "Would you say that to Tom Petty?" somehow incorporated. Or maybe a Petty t-shirt with "Would you say that to Billy Bob Thornton?" on it.

Yes, yes she does.

If BBT honestly thinks that he can do major national interviews with his band and not have people even mention his acting/screenwriting career then he does not deserve that kind of media play. If he really wants to be treated just like any other musician, then he can damn well cut his teeth playing dive bars and being written up in campus papers and weekly alternatives just like everyone else (if he's lucky). As far as I'm concerned, he has no right to land an interview based on who he is and then act like a fucking six-year-old when the interviewer tells the audience who he is talking to.

Yeah, I wondered that in one of my first posts in the thread. Clearly, if he had given a mundane or even cordial interview we would not be here talking about him. Yet with things unfolding as they did, this is the most active thread on a music message board today. I'm sure there are at least a couple of folks around here who will be checking out the band's MySpace page - if nothing else - as a result of all of this attention. I don't care what they say about me, just as long as they spell my name right.

I really think the perfect question for him would have been "Do you think that your band would be sitting here getting interviewed if it weren't for your acting career?" Granted, that probably would have ended the interview right there, but I think BBT wants to have his cake and eat it too - using his preexisting celebrity to leverage gigs and publicity, but not wanting to talk about it during interviews. It doesn't work that way, brah.

United Steelworkers of Montreal - Three on the Tree

Do you see what happens, Jian?

You mean coitus?

The Trews: Behind the Music Forum, please.

It's funny, because from the description of the music it sounds to me like something I'd be interested in (I was thinking along the lines of The Sadies). But after that, I wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Way to not help your own cause, Billy. (Then again, had he not been such a wanker we wouldn't be sitting around here talking about his band at all, so maybe it was a little more calculated than we'd like to think).

I really think Ghomeshi did an incredible job of taking the high road, but at the same time not backing down. Billy Bob wanted to pretend that his celebrity wasn't the reason they were being interviewed, and Jian was having none of it.

He certainly comes across that way. "Would you say that to Tom Petty?" Wow, way to be modest in the comparisons you're making bro.

This is a little lengthy but worth the watch. Billy Bob Thornton is on Q with his band and acts like a brat when Jian has the nerve (?) to mention that Billy Bob is an actor. I've never been a huge Jian Ghomeshi fan, but props to him for not getting sucked in and for salvaging the interview as much as he could.

It is a rare thing to see a band called back to the stage for an encore. True, we have all seen bar bands take three unconvincing steps to the left and milk a few seconds of cheering from the crowd before finishing a set. And the perfunctory dimly-lit five-minute lighter-raising break has long been a hallmark of arena rock. Really though, encores in these cases are surprise to no one. On the other hand, seeing a band legitimately punch-out for the night and start packing up their gear only to be called back by an unrelenting crowd they have worked into an irrational frenzy is the stuff of Springsteen legend. Springsteen and, apparently, the United Steelworkers of Montreal. Midway through an exhaustive coast-to-coast and back again tour in support of their third full-length, Three on the Tree, the Steelworkers brought their gritty harmonies and firey finger-picking to Logan's on Saturday night as part of a double-bill with Edmonton's Hot Panda. Drawing heavily on the new material but also hearkening back to their previous two releases, the sextet offered up heaping doses of back-breaking, love-making and whiskey-drinking all served on a cobbled platter of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, gospel and early rock and roll. The genetics of each of these styles are blatantly apparent in the Steelworkers' musical aesthetic, to be sure. However, the band's real talent lies in its ability to chew it all up and spit it out in distinct four-minute installments that make you want to drink, punch, dance and cry - sometimes all at once. The sermon-infused Jesus We Sweat and worker's lament Shot Tower, both from the new disc, were foot-stompers of the highest order. On the flip-side, the gentle sway of Son, Your Daddy Was Bad had many in the liquor-soaked crowd in a full-on waltz while frontman Shawn "Gus" Beauchamp paradoxically sang of jealousy, murder and revenge. Beauchamp's voice was smooth throughout and fit like a work-glove in between the ranges of his co-lead singers - the gravely and janitorial Gern F., and the high-harmonizing Felicity Hamer. In addition to assuming vocal duties, Hamer shone instrumentally, adding soothing accordion tones to arrangements that would include banjo and mandolin (Chris Reid), stand-up bass (Eddy Blake) and searing electric guitar (Matt Watson), in addition to the rhythm guitars of Beauchamp and Gern. Having to share the bill this night, the Steelworkers were just hitting their stride as the clock struck midnight on their hour-long set. Despite their best efforts to convey that their time was up - coiling up cords, packing instruments away and shrugging apologetically - the calls for encore were genuine and unrelenting. The band was noticeably touched by their local reception as they reemerged for the heartfelt Place St. Henri from their 2005 debut Broken Trucks and Bottles. "If we had two or three Victorias, we'd be West a lot more often," Gern was heard saying after the show. Indeed, it's been a year and-a-half since the band's first Victoria appearance, this being their second trip to the Garden City. That said, if supply-and-demand has taught me anything we should be able to hope for a Steelworkers return much sooner than that this time around.