C&L's Late Nite Music Club with the Dave Matthews Band
By Nicole Belle Thursday Jul 19, 2007 10:08pm(guest blogged by Howie Klein)
Jonathan Powers will be our special Blue America guest tomorrow afternoon (2pm, EST) at Firedoglake.
When I interviewed him, he was excited about a Roger Waters live concert he was going to. Turns out he goes to a lot of live shows. In fact, this former U.S. Army captain-- memorialized both in the movie Gunner Palace and the book What Was Asked Of Us-- An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It-- has just turned 29 this month and he's probably the most enthusiastic music fan I've talked to among anyone running for Congress... ever.
I asked him to suggest a song for the Late Night Music Club at Crooks & Liars. I saw it was hard for him to narrow it down, but he chose a great one. "Whether it's sung by Dylan or Hendrix or the Dave Matthews Band or anyone else," he told me, "All Along the Watchower is a song that can carry you away. I was at the Gorge in Washington State about a month after coming home from Iraq and DMB played one of the most wonderful versions of this. Stefan, the bassist, led in with a bass line that just rocked your soul... and to be honest, I did not even know what was coming. Once they broke into Watchtower I was just blown away. Anytime Dave and Trey are on stage together... I feel that those two are musical geniuses of our generation. Throw in Tim Reynolds and it can just get scary. Whether they are covering tunes, or mixing Everyday and Bathtub Gin... a great blend... they are magical." Here's a video of the actual show Jon was at:
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Great Music and Great Venue. Hard to beat. Oh and 8)
Gots to agree! Awesome rendition. There's another video out there of DMB performing this. It's great!
I don't think I've ever heard Wah Wah violin before. My life is changed ... ;-)
Back in the mid to late 1980's both Dave Mathews Band and Tim Reynolds played very frequently in our little town of 7K (plus 2K of college students). Dave was one of the most popular frat party bands in Lexington, and although they were always a good band, we were prone to complain that the music this weekend in town "was Dave again". Being in the center of a musical/social community I know that it takes a lot more than exceptional talent to become the superstars that DMB has become. It takes some great luck. Part of DMB's great luck was being picked up for management by Coran Capshaw, then a local (Charlottesville, Virginia) music empresario and scoundral. Whatever else he is , Coran is a man with great vision and the ability to manifest things. He made DMB in so very many ways. And one of the great things about DMB is that they are humble, fully acknowledge their great luck, and give back generously to their home communities (as well as the greater world at large).
The real musical genius is Tim Reynolds. That quirky son-of-a-bitch is from another planet. I have seen him play on several occaisions in a basement sandwich shop/bar that holds a maximum of 40 people, playing to an audience of 10-12 people. No one knew who he was then, nor could easily relate to his solo intense "noodling". There were some of us though, who knew that we were in the presence of something/someone really special. It has been great to see Tim get the attention , audience and recognition he deserves. He also deserves the highest compliment one musician gives to another..."he's a real motherfucker".
I love Dave Matthews, and I love Hendrix, but I thought that sucked. Just my opinion.
Virginia Renegade - Amen about Tim Reynolds. I got to see him play solo once in Lexington about 10 years ago and was absolutely blown away.
Okay- I know there are some pedigreed musicians around here...
so tell me,
what's with the respect I hear for this group? I just hear *suck*.
Seriously, fill me in.
Guess I'm not hip, that was seriously underwhelming.
Hmmmm... Gonna have'ta check this out . . .
DMB could not be any more over rated.
He wakes up in the morning, brushes his teeth blah blah blah...
Ants marching. Great stuff.
Every so often pop music becomes so predictable, so repetitive and so formula that people will hunt for any talent that dares to slap them out of their doldrums . This creates a problem for new listeners who are " just looking " for a new sound . You can't casually watch a band like DMB and scratch your head and wonder what the fuss is about . You either emerse yourself in their treatment of the music, or you move on . They don't exist to make you happy. They exist to make you think . Happy comes later .
Were they trying to improve upon or render this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aUDVpHxw9c
His voice makes my skin crawl. Maybe I just don't get it.
I have not heard much of their stuff, so with little to go on
DMB seems to me ..... allot to do about not much.
That was like putting a mustache & a goatee on the Mona Lisa . . .
As a High school graduation present my Best Bud and I got to go to the Montery Pop Festival. We were walking around Saturday afternoon and heard this killer guitar playing coming from one of the small rooms with displays of music gear, so I say "Man let's check that out, who is playing that?" and as we walk into the room we see this Black guy sitting on a stool by himself, dressed like nothing we were familiar with, playing a guitar left handed. He did a few more riffs then stopped. There was only Me and my Bud and him in the small room. We were standing no more that 3 feet from him. I was hoping He would continue to play but He did not, instead, He began looking at the guitar (an epiphone or gibson 335 type). I then said "That sounded real good man" he looked up and said "Thanks man" then got up from the stool and walked away. The next night we saw Him, I in the audience, and my bud, standing alongside of Grace slick on stage. It was a Killer Concert that upstaged even The Who, whom we were familiar with. I was extremely fortunate to have grown up with the musical acts I did, and that fact is painfully obvious when watching some of the "big names" of today. Nothing personal Dave.
The best wah ever is Mick Box with Uriah Heep.
Second is Zappa.
Violin makes for interesting use of the device in Dayton Ohio and beyond - we love it whenever applied.
Noticed long ago Cheetah Chrome didn't grasp its value.
Noticed recently W doesn't grasp the value of our Constitution.
Sarah Silverman would have made this comment so much dirtier and funny.
But it is about the wah pedal and wanking the instrument. (Hi Ted).
Oh my. I would never have heard of the Dave Matthews Band had it not been featured here at Crooks and Liars. So much for obscure.
How about:
Billy Bragg
Shriekback
CS Angels (aka Comsat)
Peter Murphy
Midnight Oil
The worst ever. If I could go back in time and kill one artist it would Be Dave Mathews.
He can't write a song to save his life and that scat singing, well SCAT is the operative word.
He is responsible for more awful singer/songwriter/jamband loser crap than any other artist in history, just wretched.
I know many people who like the Dave Mathews Band but I have yet to hear anything by them that made me think "Wow, I gotta hear that again". It isn't that their music is bad or hard to listen to, it's just boring.
Not a Dave Mathews fan at all but at least he had the good sense to sign Patty Griffin to his label. He may be seen on the 'Songwriters' video release from Europe in a roundtable session with Patty and others and the look on his face while Patty sings and plays is that of astonishment at her songwriting and performance. He knows what he wants to do as a songwriter, he just can't quite make it happen.
My husband saw the DMB in concert for the first time not long ago. He said they were pretty amazing. He enjoys their music, but they were apparently way better in concert.
I really do like U2's version of All Along The Watchtower better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3lv5gbMSSY
I went to elementary school and high school with Boyd; he's a real nice guy, and a great violinist in the classical tradition.
That said---DMB is bland and soulless stuff; just awful. The Boyd Tinsley Band played with more feeling than these guys.
Tim Reynolds (solo, w/ TR3, w/ Cosmology, etc.) never moved me much either. Great technical player, but he doesn't play with soul; for that, you have to get the hell out of Charlottesville.
Musical geniuses of our generation? Now that's depressing. The 60's got Hendrix and the Beatles, the 70s got the Sex Pistols and Zeppelin, the 80s got U2, the early 90s got Nirvana, and then came... Dave Matthews? I'm going to go kill myself now. My definition of Hell would be forcing myself to watch that whole video. Somebody clear this up for me. Is Dave Matthews imitating Eddie Vedder's voice, or is it the other way around? Pearl Jam started recording a little earlier. And that fuzz bass diddle rocked your soul? Did anyone else notice that the guy can't play bass? Put on Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets" and listen to Percy Jones play bass. I am afraid I just don't get DMB, but I don't get them in the way I don't get the Grateful Dead. If you want a "jam" band, what about Pavement? I mean, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't boo DMB at a club, but after the first song, I would be leaning on a car outside, waiting for whomever they were opening for, but I certainly would never pay cover.
Well, the DMB haters seem to be out in full force on this post. I like them. Not saying anyone else has to, but I do. However, I prefer Hendrix's version of AATW.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1n7EEcv5bIw
That... Was... Amazing
They found the groove and didn't fall off. Not once.
Here is the deal...
Not a big DMB fan. At all. But they are very competent musicians. They did what you are supposed to do when covering a song. Make it their own.
For all the haters. The pretense is pretty thick. If you can watch that, and NOT AT ALL respect what they are doing, even if it is not to your personal taste, you have a pretty closed musical mind. You all sound like Sean Hannity turned music critic.
Pretty pathetic.
Nice post Howie
Heretic @ 24:
Wow, I never in a million years would have imagined Pavement described as a jam band! Those guys would fucking gag and laugh out loud at that. But, as another band with strong UVA/Charlottesville, VA roots , they might enjoy the contrast with DMB. Pavement was such a unique band - did you know that they turned down the opportunity to open for U2 on one of their world tours? The Pavement guys are friends with the Pixie's who had the same gig on U2's previous world tour. The Pixie's reported to Pavement that the guys in U2 are stuck up dickheads and that they never hung out and chilled with them. Pavement decided that the tour would not be fun for them and they turned it down despite the overwhelming commercial advantages... now that is integrity.
You may have caught newlywed Steve Malkamus solo project, but if you are a Pavement fan you should also check out drummer Steve West's (a neighbor of ours) band that has been touring a bunch in Europe, The Silver Jews.
TruthSeeker @ 25:
Another interesting and pretty original interpretation of the song has been recorded by an awesome acoustic band (old-time americana and world music fusions) from Charlottesville , VA called “The Mando Mafia”. Sweet.
Hey Virginia Renegade, do you have a link to their version?
Personally I don't hate DMB at all. They are very technical and capable musicians. They just don't do it for me. Kind of like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, or even Eric Johnson, great musicians but not for me. I much prefer John Petrucci and my favorite guitarist is Robert Fripp. It's just a matter of taste.
TruthSeeker @ 29:
Sorry TruthSeeker, I searched around the web but could not find a download...too bad...I listened to it again on my iTunes and still love it.
It is a fusion of a song called "Bob's Farewell" by Joe Thrift of Donna the Buffalo fame and AATW. The Mando Mafia won the non-traditional band contest with this song at the The Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia a few years back. They kicked ass another year combining the traditional tune the "Yellow Barber" with Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage"...smokin'... No downloads on their website (www.MandoMafia.com) probably as the bands momentum was stunted by the untimely death of the extraordinary and beloved Kelly Perdue, but you can get CD info. This tune is on "Take Two". If there is a way to send you a version I'll do it, but am a digital immigrant and don't know the process so you'll have to instruct...
BTW, the band got their name when they were radical old-time punks upsetting the traditionalists at the world famous Galax Fiddle Convention. Mandolins were an unwelcome instrument in jams and not permitted in competion except under strict conditions. These guys would hide their mandolins under trenchcoats or something bulky and then break them out in the middle of a jam session or contest and just BLAZE it. They were so good they eventually won respect and changed the the way things there are done.
Virginia Renegade @ 31:
I screwed up, its on "Get Up in the Cool". doh!
Sorry to crash the party, and I hope you can stomach some harsh judgments here, but Dave Matthews completely sucks. Dave Matthews is there for homophobic frat boys to place on their CD shelves to fool their future date rape victims into thinking they're sensitive guys. The music lays there and lets Dave's half-whine manipulate it in unseemly ways, just like the frat boy will do after the rohypnol kicks in. This is music with a dark agenda, friends, and Dave is feeding on that energy just like Little Richard used to feed on puppies and Nick Nolte.
He has to be some sort of dark prince; he's convinced at least one human being that they have some small spark of "teh punk r0x!!!" There is absolutely nothing punk rock about a mandolin played at a fiddle convention, just like there is absolutely nothing punk rock about serving chicken at a hamburger joint. Come back when they "tuba-fy" a banjo convention, or bring triangles to the drum circle.
Sorry kids, but not everyone likes the effluvia that the uber-PC college campus backlash of the mid-late 90's belched into our ears. That stuff is shit and makes me want to sleep, like, forever. He may as well be a marimba band for all the grit I can detect. And his role in enabling crap like John Mayer to be deemed acceptable will one day be recognized as the sin against modern music that is truly is.
But, hey, there's no accounting for taste, so "rock" on, I guess.
Stanley Rosenthal @ 3:
Stanley, look up Camper Van Beethoven. You know, the band that did what Dave Matthews wishes he did, but only, like, 15 years before. They broke out the wah-violin all the time.
Hey, Where's Waldo, I happen to think Dave Matthews is amazing but I guess that makes me some kind of an idiot in your book. BOO HOO. I think I'm going to bawl. NOT.
It's hard to believe the people who come to the music thread just to bitch and cry and moan about the music selection in all of their ultra-superiority complexes. Thank you so much for gracing everyone with your presence. If you people don't like the band then why bother making a comment? If you don't like the band, then how about hooking us up with a link to one of your own choices?
I was one of those college students in the mid to late nineties and yes, I traveled around to see the DMB and enjoyed every single concert I attended. And I happen to know quite a few fellow C&Lers who really dig Matthews but probably wouldn't post a comment considering all of the bile being spewed.
Sphinx @ 35:
Word!
I've managed to participate in a discussion here about music without spewing my personal criticisms about Dave and the 'DMB phenonemon'. I am not a fan, don't buy any DMB music, and havent heard them play live since the 80's and they were playing a party (again..) But I can clearly recognize that a HUGE group of people really love them and feel better about life when they are groovin' on their tunes. Further more 100's of thousands of these people come together in a peaceful, celebratory way to take the groove even further. That is good shit. That is real. All the negativity aside, and I have my own laundry list, it just doesnt matter. In a violent, fucked up world, I think any expressions of creativity, coming together in peace and practicing our humanity are most welcome and ESSENTIAL.
...so maybe some posters need chill their inter-nuts...
Virginia Renegade @ 32:
OK, great thanks!
Sorry, Virginia Renegade. I don't really know Pavement's music much, other than to know that they are pretty original, but I heard there was a little controversy over whether they were a jam band or not, so I just put them in there as an alternative to DMB. Yeah, anyone could tell U2, at least Bono, is a stuck-up dickhead by watching him strut around the stage in that over-dramatic way. I loved them on the first album, and saw them at a club, but after that, it was all downhill. But I think Steve Lillywhite was half the magic of the Boy album, anyhow, especially with that drum sound. Yeah, my ex-girlfriend is all about the Silver Jews. I am not depressed enough to enjoy them right now. At least the song she has on her myspace is depressing. BTW, another band of stuck-up dickheads is the Bad Brains. We opened for them, and we were all backstage sitting around a big round table, and the bass player lights up a joint, passes it to the singer, then the singer passes it back to the bass player, and this went on until it was burnt out. (The guitar player, however, was cool, I must admit.) But back on the originality angle, the lack thereof in the DMB is what really bugs me about DMB. I mean, how can you just get up there and just strum your guitar and sing in this day and age without having any style or originality or really anything? And how can anybody say they are good musicians? Just because they can tune, strum in rhythm, and sing basically on key doesn't mean they are any good. I mean, if they are playing Holiday Inns or bowling alleys, fine, but as serious contributors to musical culture? Oh, come on.
Okay, I guess I owe an apology to those who took offense at the DMB haters' attacks on the DMB. Oh, damn, I don't think I'm going to get through this apology. I can feel it. I keep looking at DMB and seeing DUMB. Anyway, the argument was raised that basically if I can't say something good, I shouldn't say anything. I am sorry. I think it was the "musical geniuses of our time" that really set me off. I don't hate the DMB. Most of the posters don't hate them, and that's part of my point. They don't inspire much hatred. They don't really inspire much of anything. It just makes me see red when I hear that they are "the musical geniuses of our time." So, I think I speak for most of the haters when I say that we don't hate DMB. We hate the mysterious overrating of the DMB. I think SaintWaldo may be right. There must be dark forces at work in their success because there doesn't seem to be a rational explanation.
OMGWTF, and please don't polish the name of punk rock with DMB. I am an old-time punk rocker, and they are not. They seem like they would have been the guys who showed up to punk rock shows in the late seventies with their long hair in a pony tail like we couldn't see it, their bell-bottoms stuffed into a pair of work boots, and a single safety pin through their inside-out Styx baseball jersey.
SaintWaldo, you gotta see this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3zvTRQr7ns8
Heretic @ 40:
WTF are you even talking about???
You totally lost me
...and yeah they are the same evil forces that have brainwashed these same whitebread college kids since they were in Huggies brand and Pampers brand all the way through their TVGuide educations and off to BonaRoo or some other huge commercializied MCFestival. Whats the surprise that they slurp up DMB packaged, sterile, pap?
Just one more indication of our emerging zombie nation...
Virginia Renegade, nice post. Yeah, you are right, people do need to chill. There are a few posts that I have seen that have been deleted that lend credence to what I was saying about the hate fest. I singled out Waldo because the smug factor is really annoying so hey. But I can deal with it and if someone wants to bring it with me then please do.
As far as Dave Matthews is concerned, I listened to him regularly and loved him in the late nineties and always will because I was growin' up and it will remain with me as an imprint on my heartstrings. I admit that I haven't listened much recently.
I have a wide range of musical tastes and I do realize that there are a lot of people out there who really love to hate the DMB, VISCERALLY. My question is this: WHY? It always seemed weird to me because it is so pronounced. Is Dave Matthews a threat or something? If we all really want to get worried let's look at Britney Spears pop-schlock as scary if you are going to try and single out a voice for the recent times. I'm starting to think there is a profile for the haters. There is something about Dave that really gets some people's goat.
It's becoming more clear every time Dave Matthews is posted.
And I don't think the DMB is responsible for date rape.
Yeah, I definately feel like Britney ushered in a new phase that is really destructive and degrading to our young girls and emerging young women. And she has been joined by whole troop of fame-whores to lead the prosti-tot revolution. This highly sexualized 'pop-schlock' has the latent pedophiles really frothing. People seem to tolerate it because despite their common sense they're still being titillated. And look what it did for Britney- beyond the big bucks. It did not take long for that girl to revert to her white-trash roots... what a freakin' surprise. She may be in the biggest league, but she's not much more than a glorified pole dancer.
SaintWaldo @ 34:
Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDB9oCgVHGw
Virginia Renegade @ 44:
You are so on! I moved from Europe to West Hollywood and I can tell you, it is a freaking nightmare from hell and beyond. Anyone (particularly young women) who haven't experienced their own selves before entering into the plastic nightmare is in danger and I am beginning to realize that this is all young women in the U.S. I am a woman and I can say this firsthand.
And as far as Hollywood is concerned, Britney is older than dirt now that she's 25 according to many. Glorified pole dancer? Hell, yeah; but discarded and delusional on top of it. No matter, she is worth tons of big bucks to lots if she can just speak a few words and her producers will turn it into gold. They just need her to stop leaving the house where her trash can be filmed. It's starting to seem like the coolest thing that can happen is to be in jail or rehab. I know lots of people who where t-shirts with the word "Rehab" stenciled on them for hundreds of dollars if you don't buy a cheap knock-off.
Nowadays the Michael Jackson fame collapse happens in nano-seconds. And he was actually truly talented, unlike Brit-porn Inc. (I personally hate him now because I firmly believe he is guilty of child molestation but that is beside the point)
I hear she's been working on a new "comeback" video this week in L.A.. Help us all! Photos show her looking whorish as usual. She also looks bloated and zitty which will especially not help her since she's so damn old. If she had some real talent or something interesting to share from her intellect the reliance on the cheap tricks wouldn't be needed. oh, for a little class and taste... so what is it now for the uber-rich idiots?... loser chic???
Obviously she is so loser-eqsue that there is nothing to be done until she does something for herself. I can just see the CEOs banging their heads against the wall. Whatever. She sucked in the first place.
I do have to say that loser chic is way in. And has been.
How grotesque. Having lots of money to be a loser.
Also, what an ingenious marketing bonanza if your client is sucking.
What she really needed was some actual parenting and an EDUCATION. She was denied an education so she could whore her childhood away. Nice. Very American - big, bloated, flashy facade and nothing of substance and value beyond it.
Just pray you don't happen to be under a bridge while their tour bus is passing by overhead!
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