[country]
Sunday night, after the Steelers-Ravens TRIUMPH, I popped by my neighborhood coffeehouse, El Rancho Grande, to catch the better part of Andy Friedman and the Other Failures' set, played before about a dozen people from the corner of the corner of the hole in the wall. It was worth it.
This band is basically what I aspire to sound like in music -- very much rooted in a classic country tradition, complete with swingy beats and some very impressive telecaster lead playing overtop of a bare-bones rhythm section, but with a decidedly modern feel, lyrically. Hell, Friedman doesn't even have that great of a voice, but it's mediocre in the same way Ryan Adams's or Mac McCaughey's is--sort of abrasive and bleak, but suited to songs about failed road trips and stupid love affairs. Everything he played, as far as I could tell, was within the most basic of folk-song or 12-bar-blues formats, but the vibe was darker and more lo-fi than your average independent public radio equivalent. It reminded me of this Pittsburgh band I love called The Working Poor much more than, say, Langhorne Slim.
I can't say I got the names of any of Andy's songs, but he was handing out free copies of a two-song EP called Idaho, which was a really cool idea, and both songs on it, the title track and "Road-Tripping Daddy" are cool examples of the above description. Don't have too much more to say about it, because I haven't had the chance yet to really sit down and study this stuff. Plus I only have two songs plus Myspace.
Also notable is that Andy Friedman is a regular illustrator for such big-name pubs as the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, (look at his work here) and he was selling some awesome music-related prints at the show. I bought this one of Levon Helm, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet (hang it? give it as a gift?):
1 comment:
we did a show with him this summer. it was kinda fun. nobody was there because van halen was playing that night.
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