Where is My Mind?: A New England (Fourth of July Mixtape)

A monthly Web in Front column by KROQ Locals Only DJ Kat Corbett, Where is My Mind? features Kat’s musings about, rants on, and love letters to music–local, national, world, whatever.

By Kat Corbett

I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
I’m just looking for another girl

-    Billy Bragg

I guess way back the Pilgrims did want a new England and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Since all of the breaking free of the monarchy hullabaloo began on the east coast and since I grew up in New England I made an Independence Day New England mix tape for you to groove to while you chug beer, bbq and set off M80’s.

Sure I could have rocked you with New Kids on the Block and Aerosmith and I do have a soft spot for pre-delinquent Bobby Brown when he sang “Candy Girl” in New Edition but that’s not what I’m delivering today.  I’m going for a decade of music that really shaped who I am today.

The Boston music scene has always been eclectic.  From the ska of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and alterna pop of The Gigolo Aunts and Letters to Cleo to the moody drug tracks of Come or the heavy hardcore bones of Sam Black Church, Boston has provided some damn fine music.  I have been out of that scene for a while now, therefore, I would like to share some of my favorites from approximately 1988-1998.

This mixtape includes bands out of Boston, western Mass and Providence, Rhode Island.  As much as I love living in Los Angeles there are times when I do miss things like sitting in the glorious seats at Fenway Park, late nights in Cambridge, rotaries, Dunkin Donuts coffee and people who say “wicked.”

Happy 4th of July.  Podcast and tracklisting after the jump.

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July 3, 2009 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Featured Media, Mixtapes, Where Is My Mind? | Leave a Comment  |

Podcast: Creedence Clearwater Revival live in San Francisco (7.4.71)

In light of the fact that John Fogerty is hosting a three-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl this week in order to curate the venue’s annual fireworks display, and because there is, quite possibly, no better band to celebrate the 4th of July to, we’re offering up a podcast of Creedence Clearwater Revival playing a 4th of July show in San Francisco from 1971.  Taken from a KSAN-FM radio broadcast, the sound quality is high, the band is a live wire, and the music is ferocious.  Give it a listen, have a barbeque, enjoy the 4th.  Podcast and setlist after the jump.

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July 3, 2009 | Filed Under Featured Media, Podcasts | Leave a Comment  |

Podcast: Bob Dylan with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live in New York (7.4.86)

The 4th of July is almost upon us, which means fireworks, barbecues, booze… and, if you’re like me, lots of American rock ‘n roll.  And, as a preemptive podcast to Saturday’s festivities, check out this live show, recorded on the 4th of July in 1986, featuring Bob Dylan with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  While Dylan may have been at his nadir as a recording artist in the mid-80s, he was still capable of turning in a fiery concert set, as evidenced below.  And Petty?  He rocks.  Podcast and setlist after the jump.  Happy early 4th.

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July 2, 2009 | Filed Under Featured Media, Podcasts | Leave a Comment  |

Tonight: She Wants Revenge, Living Things, Dead Meadow, Great Northern and more @ the Echo/ Echoplex

Make it out to the Echo and Echoplex tonight–in addition to catching a bevy of local talent, you’ll be helping to raise money that will aid Spaceland talent buyer/ booker Jennifer Tefft in her battle with blood clots.  Tefft has helped bring countless local bands to your ears as the booker for one of Silver Lake’s best venues–repay the favor by coming out tonight for some great music and a good cause.  See you there.

July 2, 2009 | Filed Under Music News | Leave a Comment  |

Mixtape #7: “Let’s Make This Perfectly Clear, There’s No Secrets This Year” (Best Music of 2009 Mix, Part 2)

Every Wednesday, Web in Front will be offering up a digital mixtape, comprised of whatever happens to be floating through my head and ears at the time–great local music (including exclusive unreleased tracks from our Featured Artist Interviews), old favorites and oddball obscurities; also featured will be mixes made by some of our favorite Los Angeles musicians, along with the stories and explanations behind their picks.

Today’s mixtape is the second of two mixes (the first is here) dedicated to my favorite songs and albums of 2009’s first half, with Part 2 being the more eclectic and sprawling of the two, featuring artists as disparate as Jarvis Cocker, Castledoor, Dinosaur Jr., Avi Buffalo, Phosphorescent and Frankel, among others.  Both mixes are meant to be companion pieces to our Best Music of 2009 lists, Parts 1 and 2.  Use the songs as a guide to your 2009 record shopping, or to kill 90 minutes of your day, or to inspire comments wall flaming.  Enjoy.  Track listing and information after the jump.

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July 1, 2009 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Featured Media, Mixtapes | 1 Comment  |

Concert Review: Radars to the Sky debut material from their upcoming album @ the Echo (6.29.09)

Having spent the first half of 2009 lying low and recording material for their debut album, Radars to the Sky opened for Oliver Future last Monday at the Echo, offering a live preview of the material that will make up the soon-to-be-finished record.  In a set also peppered with such ‘classic’ material (some of which will reappear on the new album) as “I Might,” “Zurich,” and “Victoria,” Radars offered a glimpse into their new direction as a band since the departure of guitarist Seamus Simpson in January (Simpson is now working with the excellent Thailand)—dense, insular and bruising, with just as many nods towards complex indie-rock as there were towards hooky new wave.

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July 1, 2009 | Filed Under Concert Reviews, Music News, New Local Music in 2009, New Music Preview | Leave a Comment  |

Tonight: A Benefit for the Pablove Foundation w/ Eulogies, Bad Veins and Avi Buffalo @ the Echo

In honor of Pablo Castelaz (2003-2009), son of Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz, and the Pablove Foundation (which helps the fight against childhood cancer), come out to the Echo tonight.  You’ll be helping a good cause, and hearing some great music.  See you there.

July 1, 2009 | Filed Under Music News | Leave a Comment  |

Album Review: Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

By Travis Woods

Release Date: 6.30.09

Label: Nonesuch

If the short history of rock music is any indication, shapeshifting pop prisms like Wilco nearly always hit an impasse mid-way through their varied careers—they either keep evolving with each stylistic about-face of an LP, a la PJ Harvey (for the purposes of this hypothesis we’ll do as everyone else did and just ignore Uh Huh Her), or they can lock themselves within the gleaming, freeze-framed amber that offers hazy reflections of their in-rainbowed past, as post-Hail to the Thief Radiohead has done, or spin of an endless series of waterlogged copies of their breakthrough record, as Beck continues to do.

Wilco has now come to that crossroads in their career, having released the self-consciously titled (and quite apt) Wilco (The Album).  It’s an amalgamation of everything that’s come before—the affable chug-a-lug country-rock of “Wilco (The Song)” would fit snugly within the alt-twang of AM or its sprawling, sonically expansive companion, Being There; the shimmering pop jaunt “You Never Know” recalls the gorgeous Summerteeth; the off-kilter and startlingly pretty “Deeper Down” would swirl comfortably within Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s troubled, knob-twisted waters; the odd, driving “Bull Black Nova” belongs to the Kraftwork-by-way-of Crazy Horse migraine rock of A Ghost is Born, while the winning strum-and-hum “One Wing” and the lovely duet with Feist, “You and I,” would seamlessly weave themselves within Sky Blue Sky’s laidback classicism.

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June 30, 2009 | Filed Under Album Reviews, Exclusive Features | 1 Comment  |

Podcast: Lou Reed live @ the Roxy in Los Angeles (12.1.76)

Between Beck’s new Record Club series–in which he and friends cover whole albums, beginning with The Velvet Underground and Nico–and the fact that I’ll be catching the Man himself live in Chicago for Lollapalooza, I’ve been obsessing over Lou Reed a little more than usual lately.  As such, a Lou podcast is in order.  Recorded at the Roxy here in Los Angeles for the Rock and Roll Heart tour, it finds Reed’s live show moving away from the more overblown, glammy trappings that marked his early ’70s work, with he and his band turning in a series of almost jazz-like, impressionistic takes on such classics as “Sweet Jane,” “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and “Walk on the Wild Side.”  Check it out.  Podcast and setlist after the jump.

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June 30, 2009 | Filed Under Featured Media, Podcasts | Leave a Comment  |

Podcast: Blur live at Southend Cliffs Pavilion (6.21.09) [Reunion show]

Though our podcasts tend to traffic in L.A.-based bands or shows, this was a set that any Brit-pop obsessive simply couldn’t pass up–one of Blur’s recent reunion shows, held at Southend Cliffs Pavilion in preparation for their headlining slot at Glastonbury 2009.  It’s a monster of a set, spanning their entire career of melody-addled Brit-pop, stately Kinks-styled rock, and lo-fi indie dalliances, with the massive audience singalong during “Tender” alone making this show worth a listen.  It’s the sound a band remembering how staggering their potential was and still is.  Podcast and setlist after the jump.  Enjoy.

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June 29, 2009 | Filed Under Featured Media, Podcasts | 1 Comment  |

Castledoor: Residency Diary, Part Four

Residency Diaries are exactly what they sound like: the thoughts, musings, and scribbles of rock bands as they host a series of month-long shows in various Los Angeles venues. This month’s R.D. entries will be from Castledoor, whose charging, joyous indie rock can be heard at Spaceland every Monday night in June for free.

Residency Diary 6/22

Music For Animals
Local Natives
The Glass Beef

by Brandon Schwartzel (slappa da bass)

So the day started about 3-ish when Joel and I went over to the Cole’s to finish up recording a certain surprise that we had planned for the show (more details later). But first we hit up Trader Joe’s for some snacks. Then we got there to find Nate already working on the song (such a leader). After chilling with Agent Cooper (the Cole’s cat/ official band mascot), I recorded some banjo and slide guitar, then by the time I finished, Lisa got home from work and started tracking some background vocals.

Then Joel and I headed back to my house to get ready to head over to the ol’ Spaceland. We decided that the Two Towers (our nickname in the band) were going to match tonight. Joel had been rocking this sleeveless hoodie all day, which I had been clowning him for, but I decided that I would cut the sleeves off an old hoodie to match him. Then we headed to the venue to started loading in our gear for soundcheck (even though we didn’t really have one because Gabe had a meeting at work). We loaded in and then walked over to our friend Matt’s to do the usual routine of having some drinks, Matt cooking us something to eat, and myself playing NBA 2K9 till we head back over.

This time was a little different, though: Nate and Joel burned CD’s of the song we had recorded earlier the whole time, while Lisa and I played NBA 2K9, which was a pretty epic game, especially for Lisa’s first time playing, the final score ended within 4 points. DAMN!

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June 29, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment  |

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