"Jeff's Quick Picks"

"Pigs, Sheep and Wolves"
Paul Simon
You're The One

This quirky number comes to the masses from Simon'2 2000 disc You're The One. After a decade that saw no traditional release from Rhymin' Simon, he saw fit to return to his roots...in a matter of speaking.

One can definitely hear the influences of the South African/World music that Simon has utilized throughout his career; but it has lost some of it's charm and uniqueness. Still, the production/musicianship is ten times better than anything you would hear on Top 20 Radio.

No, this song loses points on performance of Simon himself. Lyrically, the allegory between Pigs, Sheep, and Wolves and mankind has been made before (In fact I think there's been an album dedicated to it....). Simon's odd vocals don't help matters much; to be frank it sounds as if he decided to lazily toss these off at 9 at night when he was bored and tired. He does this now and then, the worst example being his vocals on "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" from the Simon & Garfunkel live record Old Friends.

Paul Simon has a decidedly hit or miss solo career; this particular song qualifies as a miss.

Chris Cubeta and The Liars Club Prep for June Residency at Manhattan’s The Living Room

Daily Vault faves Chris Cubeta and The Liars Club, who too-modestly call themselves "an Americana rock band from Brooklyn," will begin a prestigious, month-long residency at New York City's The Living Room on June 2. The Liars Club will appear every Monday in June at 10 PM. All five Monday night shows are -- get this -- FREE with a one-drink minimum per set. That's an unbeatable bargain for an artist who's earned straight "A"s from the Vault and delivered this reviewer's favorite indie releases of both 2006 *and* 2007.

The Liars Club has been making noise in and out of New York over the last year. Last summer, they embarked on a seven-city East Coast tour that included stops in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Richmond, Raleigh, Wilmington and Nashville. The band has opened for singer-songwriter Gary Jules (“Mad World,” Donnie Darko soundtrack) and Cubeta has performed solo on two occasions in support of former Pushstars lead singer Chris Trapper. In December, Cubeta released the spectacular Change EP to a packed crowd at The Living Room. The band has also drawn big crowds at some of the city’s most lively rooms including Rockwood Music Hall, Pianos, Crash Mansion, The Bitter End and Trash.

This is the first-ever residency for The Liars Club at The Living Room. Sets will include special guests and promotions. The Living Room is at 154 Ludlow between Stanton and Rivington in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side (take the J or F to Delancey -- phone number is 212-533-7235). For more information, contact band manager Danny Lanzetta at 914-475-8070 or at dlanzetta[at]galuminumfoil.com.

Most of all -- if you can possibly help it, don't miss these shows. If I lived within a thousand miles of NYC, you can bet I wouldn't.

"Jeff's Quick Picks"

“San Francisco Mabel Joy”
Kenny Rogers
The Gambler

And the inaugural song to break in “Jeff’s Quick Picks” is……Kenny Rogers? What were the odds in Vegas on that one? Well, I promised to be indiscriminate, and indiscriminate I shall be!

The Gambler is one of Roger’s most famous albums, if not his most famous. It provided him with a platform to launch a few crossover tunes from the country charts to the pop charts, and “San Francisco Mabel Joy” is a good example. While the refrain and vocal twangs scream country, the orchestral overdubs and reggae-tinged guitar sound much more contemporary.

While there are other songs on The Gambler that have reached the status of classics and were much bigger hits, “San Francisco Mabel Joy” has the feeling of being that 3rd or 4th single to mop things up from one record to the next. Definitely a keeper from a great album.

The Daily Shuffle...

It can be quite a challenge picking music to listen to when your music library is as vast as mine. I’m not trying to gloat or show off, but it’s the truth. Tell me that you have not walked into a video rental store, or the grocery store, and been presented with so many options that you can’t even begin to pick where to start.

When such a time arrives, I tend to crawl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb for a few hours. However, with my music collection, I have the option of one of the most glorious aspects of the CD/MP3 age: SHUFFLE!!

Instead of spending my time debating the merits of listening to Close To The Edge over Kill’em All, I can let my iPod choose for me. One click, and I’m reveling in the entire breadth and scope of my library. What song is my iPod going to deliver? I have no idea, and that’s the beauty of the whole process.

Over time, I’ve come to realize that when I shuffle things up, I am often introduced/reintroduced to songs I had no memory of owning, or even listening to. Therein lies the thrill of listening to music, in a method that was once the sole domination of radio, but now accessible to any consumer.

Our focus here at the Vault are albums, and rightfully so. However, God bless this blog of ours, for it allows a certain degree of latitude and freedom in covering content. We don’t often get the chance to highlight a new song that we heard on the radio, or saw in a commercial, or had a friend tell us about.

So, with an incredibly small amount of fanfare, I introduce “Jeff’s Quick Picks,” whereupon I’ll hit on a few tunes I come across while shuffling. Whether it’s an album cut from a record I know very well to a track that I will swear up and down to never having listened to, rest assured that not even I know what is coming up next.

Now serving: free lunch

Apparently, Trent Reznor has never heard of the famous economics maxim which states "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Today, Reznor announced that the latest NIN album was available to the fans 100% free,

This announcement comes two months after Reznor released Ghosts I-IV, a 36 track instrumental album in every format known to man. In the span of a week, Reznor sold roughly a million dollars' worth of digital downloads, lighting the internet on fire with his bold new delivery model.

As many have surmised, with the actions of NIN, Radiohead, and Coldplay, there is a paradigm shift occurring within the music industry. The old way of walking down to the local record store to pick up the latest released from Bread is going the way of the dinosaur. How much one laments the loss of such a process is growing more and more dependent on the age of individual.

Of course, it's going to be some time before this is preferred delivery model of music; the bands that are utilizing this system have huge, established fanbases. They have made it big, and can afford to take losses when announcing and delivering released of this nature. Your fledgling, indie band trying to make it big simply cannot afford to the same. At least, at the present time...

Oh Piggy, where art thou?

The iconical and infamous inflatable pig that was originally inflated to support Pink Floyd’s Animals tour back in 1977, was sent aloft this past weekend during the Coachella music festival out in the California desert. Waters has retained ownership of the pig and deployed it periodically for the past 30 years.

For reasons unknown, the pig broke loose of its moorings and drifted off into the sky, to be found the next morning in tatters in suburban La Quinta about 10 miles away. Festival organizers offered a $10,000 reward for its return, which was gratefully split between the two families whose yards were festooned with the shredded remains.

The reasons for the pig's attempted escape are unclear. However, he had been plastered with pro-Obama slogans for the festival, and some speculate it was headed for nearby Arizona, home of Senator John McCain.

Turning forty

I turned forty this year. I think the most notable thing about being forty so far is the sheer number of people dying who make me at least momentarily sad.

So this news was kind of depressing.

Paul Davis was not a great singer. I do not own any of his CDs, nor do I plan to. But there is a place in Musical Valhalla for someone who turned out a few listenable tunes. "I Go Crazy" is still a wonderful love song, "Cool Night" is an axiomatically seventies soft rock song, and "'65 Love Affair" was just fun, putting cheerleaders in a song before Toni Basil ever thought of it.

Was Paul Davis a legend, a groundbreaker, an unsung genius? Well, put it this way; we're not likely to do a Paul Davis retrospective any time soon. Davis was just a Mississippi boy who liked doing country-rock and had a few successes doing it. But I still remember that smooth voice on the radio...

"Cool night, brings back memories of a good life, when this love was not so old..."

I wasn't this old, either.

RIP, Paul.

*Duke

Chinese Democracy: any day now, really, we mean it

Making fun of the industry joke that is the "band" Guns N'Roses is so easy at this point that it's become the moral equivalent of cruelty to small animals. So we'll give you the very latest with as straight a face as we can muster: Axl says the band is "in negotiations" for the release of the long-rumored album Chinese Democracy, and the band professes to have no idea why guitarist Robin Finck up and left to return to touring with his old band Nine Inch Nails.

Not that Axl's former bandmates have had much better luck with their latter-day frontman. What can you say but bad karma all around.

R.I.P. Danny Federici

His Boss called E Street Band organ, glockenspiel and accordion player Danny Federici "one of the pillars of our sound." Late yesterday word came that Federici had died at the age of 58, after a three-year battle with melanoma. Ten years ago, Danny Federici was my first professional interview, after DV Founder Christopher Thelen was kind enough to assist me in lining it up.

The interview, which took place concurrent with the release of Federici's first solo album, 1998's Flemington, is here. Chris's review of the album is here. You can read more about Federici's colorful life and tremendous musical accomplishments here, and see video of his last live performance with the band on March 20th here. I recommend having the Kleenex handy for the latter. Judging by their expressions, I think they must all have known.

Danny Federici was a remarkable musician and a true gentleman. Our condolences to his family, friends, and bandmates.

R.I.P. Danny.