#45 - Village Bar

Also music night

Tavern Night Comes Alive
Covers

#36 - 608 Sports Bar

Booze.  Sports.

Listening Party

#35 - Gib's, The Weary Traveller

 Walking into Gib's is a little like walking into a house party where you don't know anyone.  The crowd was young hipsters, the music was great, the decor dark and cool.

Afterward we walked down Willy to the Weary Traveler, where as usual everything was just right.

#34 - The Wisconsin Union Terrace

A pleasant evening on the terrace as the remnants of a storm blows across Lake Mendota.

Taver Night Spring 2016 Music Sampler: The Best of 2015

MATT

Dan Deacon - When I Was Done Dying

 
Belle and Sebastian - Nobody's Empire

Strawberry Runners - Hatchet Creek


Beck - Dreams

SOAK - Sea Creatures

Courtney Barnett - Nobody Cares If You Don't Go To The Party


TONY

Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight*
Sound and Color is one of my favorite albums from the past year. I picked this song, not because it is my favorite, but because I needed another upbeat sound in my selection. But there were many great songs on the album to choose from and I still like this one lots.


David Bowie - Black Star 
With Bowie releasing a album the Friday before he dies, how could I not include a song from that album in this mix. And Blackstar is an amazing song. It's like Bowies's ghost is singing to us. He even moans like a ghost in part of the song and the lyrics are clearly related to his thoughts of his fast approaching dealth. He was such an amazingly bright star in life that his death really does feel like the conversion of a star to a black hole after a super nova.

Lana Del Rey - High By The Beach
My first thought was to include a Lorde Song that I really like but it was recorded in 2014. When I started reading a bit about Lorde, I read that she was influenced by Lana Del Ray. So I found this great album by Lana that was released in 2015. It is all very mellow smooth stuff and this song is probably the pop hit from the album. There is probably no other artists who could sing "bad mother fucker" so beautifully and delicately.

Anderson Paak - Come Down
I'll bet we'll hear this song come up in many different contexts since it is so catchy but they have to figure a way around the N word to use it for commercials. It's one of many great songs in this 2016 album, Malibu. Other songs on the album have touches of Earth Wind and Fire, Rap/Hip Hop, and Indie Rock. I saw this band on The Late Show and I'm beginning to think that Jon Batiste is behind bringing artists like Anderson Paak to a largely white audience but it could be I don't give Steven Cobert enough credit for the breadth of his musical palette.


Beach House - Majorette
Anyone who knows anything about my musicle taste knows that I have been a huge and long time fan of the shoegazer genre. That's way I'm so happy that is is having a big time comeback with reunions by bands like Slowdive and Ride. Beach House has been around for a while but they are getting lots of attention more recently with the shoegazer revival. This song has all the elements that define the genre.


Raury - Her
I predict this era in music will be defined by the merging of music traditionally associated with African American artists with music traditionally associated with white indie rock artist. Raury is one of three examples of that in this mix. He brings together many great styles into something that is really original. they guy is only 19 or 20 years old and he puts out a first album that would make Games Without Frontiers era Peter Gabriel jealous. There are some great songs on the album but this one seemed to really blend well with the Beach House song.

GREG

Palehound - Cushioned Caging

Hayden - No Happy Birthday

Bully - I Remember


Kurt Vile - Life Like This


Diane Coffee - Spring Breathes

Mark Ronson (w/ Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk


DAVE

Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight*
Like Tony, this album was a standout for me in 2016.  I think its going to be a classic.  The Alabama Shakes aren't going away.

Julia Holter - Feel You
This is from Uncut's 2015 Album of the Year.  I first heard this song on a sample and was intrigued when I read that she went to music school at Michigan.  She didn't like it there (can't blame her as the music school is kind of isolated on North Campus), though it sounds like one of her profs turned out to be a mentor.  The song itself is great.  The syncopation is what really makes it.  Her vocals.  The bass.  Its great.

Julia Holter - Lucette Stranded On The Island
Julia Holter round two.  The first song is more accessible.  This one takes some time to get to know, but once you do it really takes you for a ride.  Turn it up and tune out.


Matthew E. White - Rock'n'Roll Is Cold
Another Uncut sampler song.  It stood out to me when I first heard it, so I put it into rotation and it's grown and grown in my estimation as I've listened to it over and over.  Great forward momentum on this one.

The Deslondes - The Real Deal
More Uncut sample magic.  These guys are liked to another band that I featured on the first sample, Hurray For The Riff Raff. In fact, one of the Deslondes was the drummer for HFTRR back in the day. Both bands are from a cool New Orleans roots scene.


Courtney Barnett - Depreston
Would you believe it if I said I learned about her from Uncut?  I put her hit (Pedestrian At Best) on the Thick Guitar sampler, though I think that this is the masterpiece from this album.  I love the riff, I love the way she says garage, and I love the lyrics that turn on the moment when she comes to the realization of the humanity of the dead woman who's house she is touring.  The realtor's suggestion that you could tear it down and start over sounds so cold after that realization.

#31 - The Irish Pub, The Capital Tap Haus, The Ivory Room

 We returned to the Irish Pub an oasis of civility on State Street, and also a dive.

 Then we wandered the street looking for adventure.  We finally settled on the Ivory Room, but were told that there was a cover... but the cover was waived if you go next door to the Capital Tap Haus and bring back a receipt for a beer.  So next thing we knew we found ourselves at the Cap Tap (I just made that up).  Strangely the place was packed (as was Buck and Badger next door) and everyone was paying this bizarre trivial game that was blasting over the PA.  Anyway...

We did make it to the Ivory Room and it was surprisingly quite enjoyable.

Pro Tip:  The ladies love the Ivory Room

Tavern Night Fall 2015 Sampler: High School

The theme for this sampler was "High School".  Music you listened to in high school that had a major influence on you or influenced your musical taste.

I Believe – REM (Greg)

Another album that I learned about through word of mouth.  Do people learn about bands through word of mouth any         more? I taped it from a friend, and then I knew it was cool because I heard Superman played by a band at a house party at UW.  Front to back, this is one of the best albums of all time.  It has almost a revival, gospel quality to it.

Graceland – Paul Simon (Matt)

What I Am – Edie Brickell and New Bohemians (Matt)

I’m One – The Who (Tony)

I was listening to a new release of Quadrophenia in high-res recently and decided I had to include a song from that album. I can't decide if this should be required listening for any 16 year old boy or avoided at all cost at that age. This was another album that I listened to over and over again. Listening to it now, I see the attraction. This totally speaks to the awkward, isolated, alienated, teen boy. I remember being on a church retreat at around age 16 listening to this in my room, off the cassette I had recorded it to, in the complete dark. Everyone else was out socializing and my church counselor came in the room and said something like "I don't think it is healthy for you to listen to this album alone in the dark".

Strangers – The Kinks (Dave)

I wanted to choose something from Lola Versus Powerman and the Money-go-Round because I remember listening to that tape on my yellow Walkman Sports during study hall in the library in high school.  The Kinks are without question the most significant band to me and this is the album that drew me into their back catalog after first being introduced to their 80’s hits.  They opened the door to everything that came after. This may not be the song from this album that most spoke to me in high school, but over the years I’ve come to regard it as perhaps the perfect Kinks song.

In The Flesh – Pink Floyd (Tony)

I've appended an opening section to this song to recognize a band that I listened to extensively in High School. I saw them live on 3 occasions during the tour from which this clip was taken and Ray always did the same talking bits for every show. Still, they were a really fun band. Anyway, Pink Floyd was huge musical influence on me beginning with the time my brother bought Dark Side of the Moon as his first record purchase. My high school girlfriend gave me The Wall for Christmas even though she was Jewish. I gave her a bag of joints.

Moonlight Drive – The Doors (Matt)

Destination – The Church (Dave)

Under the Milky Way was the song from this album that make it to the radio and changed my musical life.  I was a senior in high school and mostly listened to what was on the radio, and Milky Way was so different from usually passed for a hit.  I remember driving my parents’ jadestone green Pontiac J2000 wagon and listening to Under the Milky Way on the radio.  This is the song that was always my favorite from that album.  Dark.  Cryptic.  It’s not a religion it’s just a technique.

Kiss Off – Violent Femmes (Dave)

Nobody does Teen Angst better than the Violent Femmes.  This was on a mix tape given to me by an old girlfriend from up north in Michigan that I met on a family ski weekend.  That’s a pathetic story that also involved a great deal of teen angst.  The girlfriend was a disaster, but the mix tape she gave me changed my life.  In addition to the Femmes it introduced me to the Cure.

Add It Up – Violent Femmes (Greg)

Summer after 8th grade, on a church youth group trip to NYC, a bunch of us hanging out, dancing, making out, etc. a hotel room, no chaperones around, and someone slips this tape in the cassette deck.  The whole album was so transgressive and rebellious, perfectly capturing the pent up angst of male youth. Hearing this song marked the instant I became a teenager. 

Take Me To The River – Talking Heads (Tony)

I have a vivid memory of hearing this song for the first time on the radio my mom's Ford Granada. Luckily, my mom always listened to great radio. I was really blown away by this song, something totally new. This white geeky band laying major funk on a gospel cover. I think this set me up to explore lots of Brian Eno influenced music and a general tendency towards alternative pop. Hard to believe but this was typical pop radio fare at the time.

Ashes To Ashes – David Bowie (Tony)

Seems like I've been exploring David Bowie ever since hearing Fame for the first time. Another clear memory of hearing that on the AM radio during breakfast one morning. I was around 11 at the time. Thanks mom. Scary Monsters came out while I was in high school. Ashes to Ashes and Fashion were big hits. This song is really trippy with the chorus of people (including Brian Eno) who sing like monks in the background. I tend towards the minor key and sad songs so this is a good example of that.

Candy-O – The Cars (Tony)

I had a friend who was great about impulsive buys based on album covers. Oddly, that led him to getting the first albums by both Van Halen and The Cars. They both had huge hits and he was one of the first in due to this inclination. I really like both of these albums but The Cars were more influential on my taste. They had one more good album in them with their follow up,Candy-O. Like the Talking Heads, this was really new sound at the time, especially when you consider Van Halen 1 was probably up next on the turn table. It was that new synth sound and odd Ocasek vocals. Anyway, Candy-O was the one that aligned more with my high-school years and I think it was just about as good as the first one.

Green Shirt – Elvis Costello (Tony)

It must have been the song WSFBPLaU that got me to buy this album; one of my first and few albums on cassette. I soon realized that prerecorded cassettes were really low quality so I went back to vinyl and then recorded those to tapes and sold the records to my friends. I sure wish I had kept some of that vinyl. Anyway, Armed forces was a fantastic album but the only Elvis Costello album I have ever purchased. I listened to it to the point of realizing that pre-recoded cassettes suck and wear out easily. This is one of the quirkiest songs on the album but it is a good example of how original Costello was at that time with his voice and use of electronics.

Reel Around The Fountain – The Smiths (Greg)

During junior year, a friend lent me Hatful of Hollow on vinyl. It was an import, so you couldn’t buy it in the states, thus its coolness factor was increased by a factor of ten. I listened to it for days and then went out and bought the Queen is Dead, which had just come out, and listened to that one for days.  More songs about the anxieties of youth, anyone? 

Get Up Off Your Knees – The Housemartins (Dave)

A friend of mine had this album and I always liked it.  I see a direct connection from the Housemartins to Belle and Sebastian.

10.15 Saturday Night – The Cure (Dave)

The Cure songs I listened to most were probably Just Like Heaven and Boys Don’t Cry; and both are sublime to this day.  But this is the one that has always stuck with me.  New Wave with a dash of hard edge punk, existential lyrics and some searing guitar.

Gloria (Live) – U2 (Greg)

I can’t remember how I learned about U2, but there was a point when no one really knew who they were, yet somehow this live album was popular.  This is the first track, and I cannot really listen to the opening without air drumming.  Having this album entitled me to shrug and proclaim, when The Joshua Tree came out the following year, “eh, I liked their old stuff better.”

Black Muddy River (Live) – The Grateful Dead (Matt)

Field Trip: The Sand Bar Saloon

The Sand Bar is right in the middle of the tourist zone in Saugatuck, MI, surrounded by ice cream parlors and galleries.  That is what makes it stand out.  In this era of smoking bans the Sand Bar reeks of cigarettes.  The blues play almost exclusively on the jukebox, and if you walk by on a weekend night in the summer and look in the window you are sure to see the back side of a blues band.  The only downside is the prevalence of Michigan State memorabilia.

Tavern Night Summer 2015 Sampler

Tony gave the direction that this sampler should should contain songs featuring thick guitar as well as ethereal music.  This is what we came up with.

Songs 1-4 info coming soon....

Pedestrian at Best – Courtney Barnett

If the theme for the summer music sampler was “favorite new music” instead of “thick guitar/ethereal” Courtney Barnett would still be one of my choices.  This is the song of hers that first caught my ear, but as it turns out it’s not representative of her sound overall.  It’s loud, brash, assertive and punkish where most of her other music is charmingly self-depreciating and is delivered without the solid wall of thick guitar demonstrated here.  But it does have some of what I like most about her music; a string of stream of consciousness lyrics delivered in that awesome Australian accent.  I’d recommend giving Avant Gardner a listen for a taste of the real Courtney Barnett: https://youtu.be/lDdhzooFz4E

Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Mary Chain

This song, famous for its part in the closing scene of Lost in Translation, first popped into my head as a candidate for thick guitar, but it turns out that it’s really more ethereal.  Either way I think this one is most in line with what Tony was thinking when he announced the twin themes.  We’ll see if I’m right. 

Mack the Knife – Jimmy Dale Gilmore

You may recall Jimmy Dale Gilmore from his role as Smokey in The Big Lebowski.  He’s a Country singer (of the non-radio variety) from Austin, Texas who has been around since the early 70’s.  I love his transformative version of this old standard.  He slows the tempo so you can hear every word, revealing that Mack Heath isn’t just a neighborhood tough, but actually a serial killer.  That tempo contributes to the ethereal nature of this song, as does Gilmore’s other worldly voice.  But what really hooks me is the instrumentation, particularly the percussion, which is often nothing more than a well-placed rap on a tom tom every now and then.

4th of July – Sufjan Stevens

This song (from the new album Carrie and Lowell) is absolutely heartbreaking.  Sufjan Stevens sings to - and to himself from the perspective of - his estranged and dying mother (Did you get enough love, my little dove?  Why do you cry?  And I’m sorry I left, but it was for the best.  Though it never felt right).  The lyrics go back and forth and swirl until you lose track of who’s doing the talking.  It’s rare for an artist to put their most personal feelings out there to this degree.

Sufjan gave some thought to making this the 3rd installment (Oregon) in his 50 states project, but thought better of it.  This article has a great review of the album: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6523853/sufjan-stevens-carrie-and-lowell-comeback

La Villa Strangiato – Rush

Thick Guitar with a nice ethereal interlude

Zak's Tale Pt. 2: Zak at the Bar – Willy Porter and Paul Perrone  

Magnificent acoustic twelve-string guitar that is both extremely thick and fantastically ethereal

The Lung – Dinosaur Jr. 

A great thick guitar song by a great thick guitar band.  Not the least bit ethereal

Greg’s Note:  My picks are guided by the notion of "thick guitar" not so much in term of heavy, driving. wall-of-sound chords, but rather more in line with the concept of "thick description." Google it.  It was probably not a coincidence that two of my picks are instrumentals and the third has barely any lyrics.  Also, they are all at least 25 years old.  Screw the new stuff this month.

Dawn of the Iconoclast – Dead Can Dance (Ethereal)

Masters of ethereal, world, timeless, and placeless music. The Irish band who often sound middle eastern when Lisa Gerrard is on vocals. Using her voice with no words technique to ramp songs up to heavenly heights.

Great Radio – Bongwater (Ethereal)

This is a really quirky and interesting band. Obviously not concerned with commercial succuess, their songs are trippy and funny. Topics are usually in your face but this one is simply about great radio and chimichangas.

Buffalo – The Church (Ethereal and getting thick)

Most people don’t know that The Church have continued to produce many great albums since their one hit “Under the Milkyway” from the late 80s. Around the late 90s they really locked in on what they do best, trippy, ethereal music. This is one of my favorites from the 1998 album, Hologram of Baal.

When the Sun Hits – Slowdive (Ethereal and Thick)

A quintessential Shoe Gazer band, Slowdive combine textured and layered guitars to get a heavy, thick guitar sound that is very melodic and ethereal at the same time. Slowdive only put out a few albums before they split up and moved on to other things like Mojave 3. But they became an iconic and influential band never the less. Time was good to them and their recent reunion tour was a huge success.

Speed and Sleep - Throwing Muses (Thick)

Throwing Muses was a 4AD, mostly female, band whose members went on to form or contribute to other bands like Belly and The Breeders. Kristen Hirsh is the leader and I love the combination of her great punk voice with the thick guitar in this song.

Bonus Track:  Day 5 – The Church (Ethereal)

Since it is nearly impossible to pick out one ethereal song from The Church, I am going to tack this one on to the end if there is room. This is from their 2006 Album “Uninvited Like the Clouds”. Typically otherworldly lyrics combined with great sound effects and layered guitars.