Columbia City Paper

Willie Nelson is “on the road again,”
spending
next month touring the East Coast with Asleep at the Wheel and
their new
album of Western Swing. Austin’s own Bismeaux Records releases Willie
and
the Wheel this coming Tuesday, an album that the late producer
Jerry Wexler
had been imagining for 30 years, now fully realized with his
hand-picked song
list. One selection, the 1927 instrumental favorite “South,” features
guests
Vince Gill and Paul Shaffer.

A deluxe edition is also available, with
bonus
postcards and stamps tucked in the digipack CD and audiophile vinyl LP…
Also
due next week is To Willie, a new album of Willie Nelson covers
by Matthew
Houck’s one-man-band Phosphorescent on Dead Oceans Records.
Selecting
deep-album cuts and staying away from the classics, the eleven tracks
sound
like a hangover’s a brewing, with “Reasons to Quit,” “I Gotta Get
Drunk,” “The
Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)” and “Too Sick to Pray.”
Speaking of covers, two new CD’s due next week take a Jazz tilt on some
surprising choices. Post-Jazz pianist Marco Benevento first
stunned
audiences with his Hammond B-3 and Wurlitzer prowess, and now attacks
and
caresses acoustic piano keys, Farfisa and Mellotron in his latest, Me
Not Me
on Royal Potato Family Records. Opening with a cinematic run at My
Morning
Jacket’s “Golden” and Leonard Cohen’s “Seems So Long Ago Nancy,” other
sly
transformations include Led Zeppelin’s “Friends,” Beck’s “Sing It
Again,”
Deerhoof’s “Twin Killers” and The Knife’s “Heartbeats.” Vocalist Wendy
Lewis
joins The Bad Plus on their latest, For All I Care, on
the Do the
Math / Heads Up imprint. Mixing classical flourishes and progressive
Jazz
tumbling pauses, the result is wickedly smart and creepy cool,
guaranteed to
perk up your ears as Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” Heart’s
“Barracuda,”
Nirvana’s “Lithium,” Yes’ “Long Distance Runaround,” and the Bee Gees’
“How
Deep Is Your Love” come wafting up in the lush mist. Highly recommended!

 

 

Television
Alert: 

The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno
hosts Franz Ferdinand on Thursday; The Late
Show with David
Letterman presents Graham Nash on Thursday and The
Gaslight
Anthem on Friday; Late Night with
Conan O’Brien boasts Cold War Kids
this evening overnight; Jimmy Kimmel Live features Disturbed
tonight and Benji Hughes on Friday overnight; and Austin
City Limits
welcomes Nick
Lowe and The
Swell Season this weekend.

 

New
Releases Coming Tuesday, February 3:

(and
like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to
change…)

The BPA – I Think We’re Gonna
Need a Bigger Boat (Southern
Fried Records) Fatboy Slim/ Norman
Cook’s warehouse party tapes see the
light of day, created with a who’s who of mirthful noisemakers
including Pete
York, David Byrne, Iggy Pop, Dizzee Rascal, and Olly Hite

Gene Dante and the Future
Starlets
– The
Romantic Lead (Omnirox Entertainment) glam-rock from the former star of
stage
productions Beauty and the Beast and Hedwig and the Angry Itch

Melinda Doolittle – Coming Back To You
(Hi-Fi
Recordings) new from the American Idol season six finalist

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Bella
Union)
special reissue edition featuring the bonus six-song Sun Giant EP

Fol Chen – Part One: John Shade,
Your Fortune’s Made
(Asthmatic Kitty) recently composing instrumental music for the Los
Angeles
County Museum of Art’s collaboration of textile designers and Machine
Project
audio

The Fray – The Fray (Epic) follow
up to 2005’s smash “How To
Save a Life”

Hatcham Social – Postcard In Colours
(TBD / ATO
Records) six songs from the London trio, produced by Tim Burgess of The
Charlatans UK and Faris Badwan of The Horrors

He’s Just Not Into You – original motion
picture
soundtrack (New Line) with music by R.E.M., The Replacements, Corinne
Bailey
Rae, The Cure, and Talking Heads

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain (Fat Possum)
newly transplanted to Texas from
Dayton, Ohio, singer/songwriter Erika Wennerstrom recruited a new
hometown
bassist and drummer to join her

Ben Kweller – Changing Horses (ATO)
old-school analog recording with a Country feel

The Loved Ones – Distractions (Fat
Wreck) CD EP
of covers of songs by Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen

Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – Catnip Dynamite
(Oglio)
new solo album from the Jellyfish and Imperial Drag popsmith, with
bonus covers
of Thomas Dolby’s “Europa and the Pirate Twins” and Elton John’s “Love
Lies
Bleeding” on the stateside issue

Graham Nash –
Reflections
(Rhino) three-CD box set collecting 40 years of solo material and time
spent
with The Hollies and CSNY, featuring an acoustic demo of “Right Between
the
Eyes”

The Nighthawks - American Landscape
(Powerhouse
Records) featuring their take on Tom Waits’ “Down In the Hole,” Bob
Dylan’s “She
Belongs to Me,” Marvin Gaye’s “Try It Baby” and the Andy Griffith Show
theme,
“Fishin’ Hole”

Nous Non Plus – Menagerie (Aeronaut)
wild ride
from a fun New York City band that sings in French, featuring former
members of
Les Sans Culottes and vocalist Céline Dijon

Mary Kate O’Neil – Underground (71 /
Nettwerk)
third solo album of easybeat indie pop from the former Piewackit
vocalist, with
songs co-written and co-produced with Jill Sobule

Pine Leaf Boys – Fomage Au Passe
(Lionsgate)
featuring an English-to-French reinterpretation of Webb Pierce’s “I’ll
Always
Take Care of You.” This is Cajun fais do-do boogie bliss from this
young
Louisiana quintet, nominated for a Grammy for their last album in the
Best
Cajun/Zydeco category

P.O.S. - Never Better,
February (Rhymesayers) featuring clever Digipak packaging with a
variety of
solid and transparent inserts that let you create your own layer CD
cover

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – Lonely Road (Virgin)
featuring an alternative cover gracing the vinyl LP edition

Josh Reichmann Oracle Band – Life Is Legal EP
(Paper
Bag) five-song CD EP from the former Tangiers vocalist, backed by funky
drums,
sax and flute and channeling the soul of Marc Bolan

Rhythm Devils - The Rhythm Devils
Concert
Experience (StarCity / MRI) two-disc live DVD set from Mike Gordon of
Phish and
Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead on their 2006 tour

Simply Red – Simply
Red
25: The Greatest Hits (Razor & Tie) with a new cover of the Moody
Blues’
“Go Now”

Sole & the Skyrider
Band  – Remix LP (Black Canyon) with mix
merchants Fog’s Andrew Broder, Odd Nosdam, Bit tuner, Thavius Beck, and
Electric President

The Veronicas – “Untouched” Lost
Tracks
(digital-only) five-song EP with an unplugged spin on the single and
three
previously unreleased songs

The Von Bondies – Love, Hate, and Then
There’s
You (Majordomo / Shout! Factory) with guests Nico Vega

Watch Out! Theres Ghosts – Ghost Town (Rise
Records) two-man band on tour now with Cash Cash

The Whip – X Marks Destination (Razor
& Tie) featuring four bonus remixes on the stateside pressing

various
artists – Rough
Trade Shops – Counter Culture 08 (Rough Trade) two-CD
set,
released annually, collecting the year’s best indie releases from
Department of
Eagles, Crystal Stilts, Indian Jewelry, Mark Stewart, Headless Heroes,
and 39
other hand-picked gems

 

John
James can be found via cyberspace at yeahyeah@cinci.rr.com