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October 23, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Joel Paterson: Let It Be Guitar! Joel Paterson Plays The Beatles

Joel Paterson

Let It Be Guitar! Joel Paterson Plays The Beatles

Bloodshot Records

I’m a sucker for an album of Beatles covers – I’ve collected up loads of the Chet Atkins-styled and other lounge/easy-listening ones over the years. And this might be the very best of them – a brand new but so-so-retro mid-century modern-af take on Beatles songs as guitar-slinging instrumentals. So if you’re in the Chet Atkins camp (and some of this is very Chet Atkins – All My Loving and some of this is very camp – From Me To You) you’ll want to hear this immediately. Read More »

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October 22, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Black Crowes: Live At The Greek Theatre 1991

The Black Crowes

Live At The Greek Theatre 1991

Cult Legends / The Media Champ

I recently went back through the whole Black Crowes catalogue. What a fucking band! Look, I always liked them – especially the first two/three albums. And then the last couple. But to go back and hear them all, in order, they rarely missed. They were unique in their timing and placement of a retro-vibe; pre-grunge, post second summer of love, they had a swagger and sway to their playing that was equal parts Zep and Stones, but of course was its own Southern Rock thing too.

Great jam band also. And you hear that with the live stuff.

And this is a classic bootlegged show that’s turned up a few times, but here’s a new version of it. And it is pretty great sound quality and catches the band riding an early high.

Here they are with the debut album in the can and doing the rounds and just a lot of great fire in their belly and in their soul.

They go full Zeppelin on the quarter-hour blues medley of Shake ‘Em On Down/Get Back/Walk With Jesus, they take Stare It Cold out for a big long stroll (10 minutes) featuring some searing slide guitar and they know when to reign it right in and deliver something close to a pop-hit (their short, sharp take on Hard To Handle).

This live show radio broadcast has them already setting She Talks To Angels up as the lighter-waving encore. And it’s majestic.

If you were never convinced have a listen to this album – the band is celebrating the end of a whirlwind tour on the back of the runaway success of its first album. They’re fired up and about to go in and cut what is actually their greatest album. And it’s a stunning reminder of the power of a live band.

There’s various talks – always – about the band coming back together and its key members are all music-making under various guises.

But this is all the reunion you need in a way. The actual proof of something quite special.

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: Wind Chimes

What’s the last song
that made you
feel like you
actually stopped
existing?

That was the question.

And there’s only one
answer.

That one by The Beach Boys…

The one that goes,

“On the warm breeze the
 little bells/Tinkle like wind chimes
Though it’s hard I try
not to look at my wind chimes

Now and then a tear rolls off my cheek”

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Tour Announcement: Patti Smith To Play Two NZ Shows (April 2020)

Patti Smith returns to New Zealand for the first time since she shared the bill with Bob Dylan. That was in 1998. Two years ago she announced Australian shows and I wrote a piece begging promoters to bring her to New Zealand. My call went unanswered by promoters but I received an email from Patti Smith inviting me to her shows in Aussie.

I went – and I saw an amazing show!

One of the great musical highlights of my show.

So don’t miss out. Go and see Patti Smith in New Zealand in April 2020 on the back of a return to the Australian Bluesfest at Byron Bay. Read More »

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

R.I.P. Nick Tosches

Nick Tosches has died. He was one of my favourite writers. Total firebrand. You almost had to hold on to the handrail while you worked out how to balance the book and turn the pages. He wrote with fury, anger and huge, huge heart.

Tosches was equal parts Lester Bangs and Hunter S. Thompson. Or was he equal parts Bukowski and Richard Meltzer. The answer is yes. To all. He was all of these things and more.

And one of my all-time favourite books by anyone ever is The Nick Tosches Reader which does a pretty decent job of appearing like a “Greatest Hits”. One of the things that’s always said of Tosches was that his prose came out like Rock’n’Roll – and that extended over to the many subjects outside and away from music that he covered. Read More »

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 231

The Beach Boys, Rock And Roll Music [Single] (1976)
It’s when you don’t really care about the A-side or the B-side and you own the parent album which has both songs on it anyway (and that’s also not great) that you realise you’re in pretty deep. This is me, in real time, with my latest binge on The Beach Boys. I have a lot still to get on vinyl – I own none of the early surf albums (outside of hits comps) and I only have a couple of singles. I’ve got the key albums from the late 60s on through to the 70s and I have my favourites and I have a hit-list of things I aim to get. But for some reason I forked out (okay, it was only a couple of bucks) for this just recently. Despite not really caring at all about either of the songs. That doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re great though. It should mean that. But when a big deep-dive fan-binge kicks off all bets are off. Read More »

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: Not That Funny

I would like a job
please.

I have applied for
several, had a meeting
with a recruitment specialist,

signed up with agencies (plural)

and turned up as a casual.

But I’m not getting interviews
and so I’m not getting jobs.

(Well, I did get one interview recently.
They rang back to deliver the ‘feedback’ that
I showed great experience, answered their questions
with the correct information and good stories around
the cause and that I ‘aced’ the test. They decided to
with someone with “even more experience”. So I didn’t
get that job).

Once I got a callback
for a background check, asking if I’d be available
for an interview the very next day – and I said yes, and
that was obviously the wrong thing to say…

They were calling me right back to complete the check…

…still waiting.

The only reasonable assumption here is that
someone has added me to a sex offender list.

And I don’t think that’s very funny.

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October 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Joan As Police Woman: Joanthology

Joan As Police Woman

Joanthology

Play It Again Sam

I don’t remember when I first heard Joan As Police Woman – or heard about her – but it was right near the start. So that’s over a decade ago now, 2006 in fact. The album Real Life was almost instantly a revelation – I remember skipping straight to the second track, Eternal Flame? Was it a cover of one of my favourite Bangles songs? No. It was something else. I’ve always loved hearing a brand new song with a hugely familiar title. Eternal Flame, the Joan As Police Woman song, hit instantly at me. Here was a soul-singer, a total soul singer. And the way the song starts, repeated use of the word “Yes”, it’s as if we’re already deep in the song; she’s chosen to start this one in the middle. I’m a fan of that ‘kind’ of songwriting too. Read More »

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October 20, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Gig Review: Tami & Jay Neilson (October 18, Wellington)

Tami Neilson: This is Tami Neilson! With Special Guest Jay Neilson

Meow, Wellington

Friday, October 18

One of the trickiest things for Kiwi musicians, I think, is keeping touring fresh. There’s the old album/tour/album cycle – which is more about releasing a single, then touring, then releasing a single sometimes in this long, extended death-of-the-album daze. But what else? What do you do when you need to earn some money and serve some fans but it’s just the same old show time and again. We are not a very forgiving bunch. Read More »

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October 20, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

Shit That’s Good! Crap Albums I Love # 12 – Oasis, “Wibbling Rivalry”

Oasis, Wibbling Rivlary, 1994

Technically, it’s a single. It was released as a single back in 1994 – even though it’s an interview. I believe it’s the highest-charting “interview” ever.

It is Liam and Noel, the Gallagher brothers of Oasis locked in a lunatic-rant against one another. It’s hilarious, embarrassing, stupid and invigorating. It was released right as Oasis was on the cusp of being a very big deal.

And it’s terrible.
Read More »

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