another piece of awesomeness has alluded me, but luckily for not very long. as it turns out, my man ben nichols, of lucero, is releasing a 7 song mini album entitled, the last pale light in the west. its not being released until 09, but you can get it now for a mere 22 bucks. for that 22 bucks you get an instant download of the last pale light, a physical cd, and a limited edition shirt.
soafb! he’s playing tomorrow eve in atlanta @ the masquerade. he’s got a bunch of upcoming tour dates, so check out his tour schedule.
If Ben Nichols writes about you, you’re probably pretty OK. In “Tears Don’t Matter Much,” easily one of our favorite Lucero tunes, off “That Much Further West,” Nichols canonizes a few of his songwriting pals — Matt Bradley,Doug Deluca, and Cory Branan. The song poignantly captures the very nature of being a fan — and a man like Nichols, who wields a dangerously pithy pen, can’t help but succumb either. Witness:
Matt Bradley’s got the broken teeth
He wears a jean jacket with a bullet in the sleeve
He’s just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I sing along
My tears don’t matter much
They don’t matter much
Doug Deluca’s voice could break a heart
I recorded every song
I used up three whole tapes, and put ‘em in a box
To give away
To break a heart
My tears don’t matter much,
They don’t matter much
When the boys sing their songs
And the kids they sing along
I’m just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I sing along
Cory Branan’s got an evil streak
And a way with words that’ll bring you to your knees
Oh he can play the wildest shows and he can sing so sweet
I still sing along
My tears don’t matter much,
They don’t matter much
When the boys sing their songs
And the kids they sing along…
I’m just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I still sing along
We found Cory Branan thanks to a mutual friend, the same one who had turned us onto Lucero. He teeters with a certain sepia-toned nostalgia, doesn’t mind pop hooks and has an uncanny knack for dovetailing sublime couplets about rollerskating in the 7th grade, the one crazy girl who dances at shows, falling in love with the wrong girl and doing way too much cocaine. Err… we digress. Here are a few tracks from Branan’s first record, 2002’s “The Hell You Say,” which features some Lucero members backing on a handful of tracks.
Branan — along with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Justin Townes Earle, The Good Fear and Dan Montgomery — joins Lucero Saturday 9/13 at Riverside Park in Batesville, Arkansas for the Lucero Family Picnic. A bargain at $15; a hassle at 136 miles from Memphis. For and aft, Branan sets out on 40 days and 40 nights of hopefully not hard-candy snow. That’s from “Tame,” people — get with it.
Sep 4 Cactus Cafe w/ Greg Barkley of Oh No! Oh My! (All Ages) Austin, Texas
Sep 5 Club Next Texarkana, Arkansas
Sep 6 Blackthorn Joplin, Missouri
Sep 10 Parrish Baker Pub Oxford, Mississippi
Sep 11 12th & Porter (CB @ 10:15) / Next Big Nashville Nashville, Tennessee
Sep 12 Hi Tone (18+) Memphis, Tennessee
Sep 13 Lucero Family Picnic (CB @ 5:30)(All Ages) Batesville, Arkansas
Sep 18 Pour House Music Hall w/ Blue Mountain (CB-8:30) Raleigh, North Carolina
Sep 19 Evening Muse (All Ages) Charlotte, North Carolina
Sep 20 Pour House w/ Blue Mountain Charleston, South Carolina
Sep 22 New World Brewery Tampa, Florida
Sep 24 Big Daddy’s (18+) Tallahassee, Florida
Sep 25 Egan’s (Late Show / Post Avett’s) Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Sep 27 Barley’s Tap Room (18+) Knoxville, Tennessee
Oct 1 The Camel w/ Josh Small, The Fox Hunt (All Ages) Richmond, Virginia
Oct 2 Rapture (Free / 18+) Charlottesville, Virginia
Oct 3 Iota (CB to Open @ 9pm) Arlington / D.C., Virginia
Oct 4 Della Rose’s Canton (Free) Baltimore, Maryland
Oct 5 Laurrapin (5pm / Free / 18+) Havre de Grace, Maryland
Oct 8 Flat Street Brew Pub (18+) Brattleboro, Vermont
Oct 9 Jake’s w/ Quiet Life (18+) Providence, Rhode Island
Oct 10 Oasis Pub w/ Quiet Life New London, Connecticut
Oct 12 The Cake Shop w/ Quiet Life New York City, New York
Oct 16 Brothers Lounge w Magpies (18+) Cleveland, Ohio
Oct 17 Uncommon Ground @ Devon Chicago, Illinois
Oct 18 Rudyard Kipling w/ Dangerbird (18+) Louisville, Kentucky
Oct 19 Molly Malone’s (18+) Covington (Cincinnati), Kentucky
Oct 22 Jackpot Saloon (18+) Lawrence, Kansas
Oct 24 The OPO (18+) Fayetteville, Arkansas
Oct 25 Whitewater Tavern Little Rock, Arkansas
Nichols says Cory “can play the wildest shows” but unfortunately we’ve never — het hem — seen him with a full band. These are solo dates, but Cory holds his own there, too.
tashi delek, schmoopy! i was pretty psyched to find out that the sonic slop of mudhoney’s superfuzz bigmuff is being reissued, with all the expected extra goodies, by subpop on 5.20. more info can be found here. not only that but they gots a new record, being released ont the same day, entitled the lucky ones. cant wait for these two. in case you have never found yourself confronted by the music of mudhoney now’s your chance. dig it…
as a reminder to my fellow atlantans, cory branan is @ smith’s olde bar this saturday evening and if you ever wanted to ignore me, this is your chance. cory who you ask? here are a couple o’ solo tracks from his excellent record, 12 songs and a show featuring cory and one of my main men, ben nichols of lucero. of all the shows i have posted this is definitely one of my favorites. its an impecable recording and it sounds like they had a blast. much love to the original taper!
sup, gaywads? hope everyone had a loverly weeks end. mine was just fine. nothing too exciting, just lots of sierra nevada and rogue dead guy. oddly enough, no hangovers like i reported later last week.
friends of captains dead, the line of best fit have a very cool comp for download made available from the fine folks at something in construction records. the comp features the likes of loney, dear, sambassadeur, sons of noel and adrian, the leisure society, and a bunch more. clicky to visit and download.
admittedly, i get a lot of good music coming to me, but then again i get a lot of shit too. even with all the goodness that fills up my bounty, it’s pretty rare that i actually get excited about something new. this is not to take away anything from anyone else, but it tis a rare feat to touch me in that special/secret spot. i should have saw this one comin, though. when my man ben nichols name checks you in lucero’s “tears dont matter much,” proclaiming that “cory branan’s got an evil streak/and a way with words that’ll bring you to your knees,” you are going to be judged differently. i’m an absolute sucker for whiskey and cigarette ravaged voices spinning tales of love, loss and drunkness, and cory seems like a man that may have a tale or two to spin. fans of lucero, john prine, dbt, westerberg, glossary, etc will definitely love this guy.
cory is playing in atlanta @ smiths olde bar on saturday, april 19th.
i havent been able to give the honey clouds my full attention as of yet, but i am definitely diggin their sound which is very reminiscent of early pavement, velvet underground, the fall, east river pipe, etc. i love the use of the jangly guitar, it always goes far with me. will definitely be reporting on these guys in the future.
i know i am so slow, but i know there are a lot of you out there like myself. you hear about shit, people tell you to watch some youtube video, that its “hilarious” and you just never get around to it. such is the case with the dramatic gopher, which i just saw for the first time about 30 minutes ago. my brother hit it right on the head when he said this about the gopher, “he makes me smile.” so stupid its hilarious.
if you frequent this page with any amount of frequency you have probably come to understand or at least tolerate my very manly love affair with lucero. if you dont know what i am talking about please use the search function, or see this drunken review/love letter of their new record, rebels, rogues, and sworn brothers. without much further ado here is my interview, albeit brief, with ben nichols, lucero’s frontman.
following the interview is a show from atlanta on 9.9.05. its a damn shame that shows from the recent tour are so hard to come by.
CD: When I first heard Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers, which is phenomenal, my knee jerk reaction was that it was going to alienate a lot of diehard Lucero fans that had grown accustomed to a certain Lucero ?sound.? Keep in mind; this was a knee jerk assessment of the record. After playing the Lucero catalogue front to back, several times, I realized that there really is no definitive Lucero sound. Each record has its own vibe. So, what drove you down the musical path that makes up Rebels? Did working with David Lowery play any role in the recording, or did he take a hands off approach?
BN: We pretty much knew what direction we wanted to go in before we ever went to Richmond. We knew we wanted to continue in a more Rock & Roll direction. I think that is something that’s been there all along, and has been gradually asserting itself more and more. It was really the addition of Rick Steff, the keyboard player, that allowed us to really flesh that sound out. And you’re right… there is no definition for the Lucero “sound”. That’s one of the things I like best about the band. We aren’t tied down to any one genre or type of fan. That freedom is nice. Freedom to do things the way you want is important.
CD: As I watched Dreaming in America I found myself wondering why bands in your position, at least at the time, keep on going. Have you ever gotten to the point where you just wanted to say, ?fuck it,? pack it in and call it a day? Or, as clich? as this may sound, is it truly the music that keeps you going?
BN: We kept going ’cause we had nothing else to do. Even if we weren’t committed to the band, each of us in the band had already kind of personally committed to a lifestyle outside the normal realm of things. We weren’t giving up internships at law firms or corporations to do this, because we weren’t gonna lead a normal life with or without the band anyway. And yeah… the music is what makes you feel good. Being a part of Rock & Roll still kicks ass even if you’re not successful. Don’t ask me to define successful.
CD: You tend to write quite a bit in the third person, which tells me either A. you are hiding something or B. you come across a lot of messed up folks. Which one is it? Or, none of the above? I should mention, that I identify with just about everything you write, so what does that say about me?
BN: I decided pretty early on to keep stuff as simple and straight forward as possible. I think most the stuff in these songs is stuff that most of us can relate to. Obviously I relate to it. Some songs just work better third person, even if it is a factual set of lyrics based on myself. Kinda like talking to yourself. And no…we’re not that messed up.
CD: I find myself having a lot of free time during the day when I should be working. During these moments, I find myself day dreaming about either winning the lottery or what record I wish I had the talent to be a part of ? which usually goes back to either Public Enemy?s It Takes a Nation of Millions or GbV?s Bee Thousand. In your quiet times what do you dream about or if that?s too queer is there any record that you wish you had recorded?
BN: Daydreams for me usually involve a front porch and a lake and a bottle of bourbon and my girl. Sounds pretty simple but that stuff is hard to get on the road. And I don’t have a front porch or a lake even when I am at home so…that stuff sounds good all the time. Born to Run and The Band’s second record.
lucero, of course, is on tour. so, check their tour page for when they are coming to your town - tonight they are in austin and tomorrow in baton rouge.
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