Steve Earle Sale!

Steve Earle's latest album was released this week. The album is a tribute to one of Earle's heroes, Townes Van Zandt, and is appropriately entitled Townes. Our friends at Amazon are having a sale on this release - only $2.99 (US) for the digital download. Sale ends tomorrow (Friday, May 15). Love me some Townes Van Zandt, by whoever is performing it.

I dig the below track because it is more of a reworking than an actual cover.

Lungs.mp3
Buy: Townes (2009)
($2.99 DRM-free digital download, US only)

Also, check out a great article on this release from last week's New York Times.

Rockstars Have Kidnapped My Son!

I watched the brilliant Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous again the other day. Tell me if this isn't one of the best music scenes in any movie?



Elton John - Tiny Dancer.mp3
Buy: Madman Across the Water (1971, reissued 1996)
Edit: if you listened to this track before 3:15 pm Eastern time it was actually a Ben Folds version. My bad! The link has been fixed.

(There is also a hysterical version of Dave Grohl doing this song where he talks about the movie. Its floating around the internets somewhere, so get your google on.)

What many people do not know is that the actor who plays Larry Fellows, the bass player for the fictional band Stillwater, is Mark Kozelek, a very talented musician in his own right. You can hear his distinctive vocals when he starts the "Handing tickets out for God..." lyric in the "Tiny Dancer" scene. Kozelek first formed the band Red House Painters in the early 90s, but after having label problems, he eventually released a solo album in 2000. He resurfaced with the band Sun Kil Moon in 2003, and released what many of my rock snob friends consider the best album of the decade, Ghosts of the Great Highway. In 2008 they released April, which landed on many critic's year-end top ten lists.

I wonder how Kozelek ended up with the roll on Almost Famous? Is he friends with Cameron Crowe? Is Crowe a fan of his music? If anyone knows the answer to these questions, please let me know.

Sun Kil Moon - Salvador Sanchez.mp3
Buy: Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003, this one is the 2007 edition with bonus tracks)

Casimir Pulaski Day

From our friends at Wikipedia: Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday observed in Illinois on the first Monday of every March to commemorate Casimir Pulaski (March 4, 1745 – October 11, 1779), a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland as Kazimierz Pułaski. He is known for his contributions to the U.S. military in the American Revolution by training its soldiers and cavalry.

The day is celebrated mainly in areas that have large Polish populations. Chicago has the largest Polish population of any city in the world, save for Warsaw. This is a separate holiday from the federal holiday, General Pulaski Memorial Day, which commemorates Pulaski's death at the Siege of Savannah on October 11, 1779.

Illinois enacted a law on June 20, 1977 to celebrate the birthday of Casimir Pulaski and held the first official Pulaski Day celebrations in 1978. The bill was introduced by Senator Leroy W. Lemke, a Democrat from Chicago. Chicago celebrates Pulaski Day on the first Monday in March with an annual parade. Chicago Public Schools, Cook County government offices, and the Chicago Public Library close on this holiday.

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day.mp3
Buy: Illinois (2005)

This song is dedicated to Junior, Devin, Nic, Southern, Brad, random Polish tourists, Alex the dancer, B.J. the waitress (waiter?), and all of the other poor, unsuspecting fuckers we tortured in Miami last weekend. Actually, this song is incredibly sad and I find it hard to listen to cause it makes me cry. Its about a woman who dies of bone cancer, on May 1, which happens to be Casimir Pulaski Day in Illinois. I never want to dedicate a song about dying to strangers, because I really wish them nothing but the best, but how the hell does Casimir Pulaski Day come up in conversation at 2:00 a.m. at a club in South Beach? Oy.

Going back to Miami

If you happen to be in South Beach this weekend and see someone with blindingly white skin playing in the surf, that person might be me. If you are on a flight from Miami to Toronto on Sunday, and you see someone who looks exhausted and nauseous, this person does not have the swine flu, this person is just really hungover.

The Blues Brothers - Going Back to Miami.mp3
Buy: The Definitive Collection (1992)