You can find all the episodes over on iTunes by clicking here. If you would like to subscribe to the podcast while you are over on the iTunes page, we would absolutely love that. For those of you that like to subscribe via your favorite RSS reader, click here.

As always, you can still listen to or download all episodes from their direct links. Just click below on your episode of choice. (To download: Right Click (PC)/CTRL-Click (Mac) and then select Save Link As….)

Episode 3: Bart, Jeff, and Scott Rambling – Part 2

Episode 3: Bart, Jeff, and Scott Rambling – Part 1

Episode 2: The Trophy Mules

Episode 1: Best of 2012 and John Krane

You can find all the episodes over on iTunes by clicking here. If you would like to subscribe to the podcast while you are over on the iTunes page, we would absolutely love that. For those of you that like to subscribe via your favorite RSS reader, click here.

As always, you can still listen to or download all episodes from their direct links. Just click below on your episode of choice. (To download: Right Click (PC)/CTRL-Click (Mac) and then select Save Link As….)

Episode 3: Bart, Jeff, and Scott Rambling – Part 1

Episode 2: The Trophy Mules

Episode 1: Best of 2012 and John Krane

If you prefer to subscribe via RSS, just click here and subscribe using your prefered program.

As always, you can still listen to or download both episodes from their direct links. Just click on Episode 1: Best of 2012 and John Krane or Episode 2: The Trophy Mules. (To download: Right Click (PC)/CTRL-Click (Mac) and then select Save Link As….)

Thanks again to everyone who has already checked out the podcast. We look forward to bringing you the next episode here real soon.

Episode 2 of the podcast is here!

In this episode, Scott, Jeff, and myself are joined by Corey, Dan, and Larry from The Trophy Mules. We talk about their great new record, Sorry Motel, and also about how the band formed and their musical influences. The band was also kind enough to play a few songs live for us.

We had a great time talking with the guys and we hope you will head out to one of their shows and pick up their new record.

You can listen to this episode of the 3 Minute Record podcast by clicking this Episode 2 Link. (To download: Right Click (PC)/CTRL-Click (Mac) and then select Save Link As….)

As always, thanks for checking out the blog and the podcast, hope you enjoy!

Texas Is The Reason in October 2012: (l/r) Chris Daly, Garrett Klahn, Norman Arenas, and Scott Winegard

One fateful day sometime back in the late 1990s I made my way into Vintage Vinyl to pick up whatever albums I could find from four bands that my friend, Dan Huffman, had played for me a few days before.

I would end up buying Horse Latitudes by The Promise Ring, Four Minute Mile by The Get Up Kids, Finding The Rhythms by Hot Water Music, and Do You Know Who You Are? by Texas Is The Reason. Sounds trivial, but this would end up being one of those life-altering type of events.

I ended up seeing The Promise Ring, Hot Water Music, and The Get Up Kids, as much as I possibly could, even traveled out-of-town – mainly to Champaign, IL – to catch their shows. Sadly, I never had the chance to see a Texas Is The Reason show. By the time I was introduced to the band they had since disbanded. I felt like the only way I could ever hear a live Texas Is The Reason show would be to play the split live album they released with Samiam at a really high level on my stereo. We all know that never even remotely comes close to recreating the experience of a live show no matter how loud you turn the stereo up.

In November 2006, my hopes were raised when the band got together to play a show at Irving Plaza in New York City to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the release of their debut – and only – album, Do You Know Who You Are? This show would prove to be a “one time only” gig and no further dates or plans were made by the band.

Fast forward six more years and Revelation Records started to announce plans to have shows to help celebrate the label’s 25th Anniversary. News came around that Texas Is The Reason would be headlining the New York installment of the anniversary shows. And then the news hit, the band would be headlining the second night of the Chicago installment of shows. Without hesitation I snagged tickets to the show. I was finally going to be at a Texas Is The Reason show.

The show would be held on January 6, 2013 at the House Of Blues in Chicago, IL. Reunion shows in the freezing winter months in Chicago must just be in the cards for me. In February, 2008 I went up to see a reunited Hot Water Music at the Metro, and in February, 2012 I got to see The Promise Ring reunite, also at the Metro.

I was pretty anxious to get to the venue and ended up getting in the door with plenty of time to look around before the festivities kicked off. The Chicago House Of Blues is definitely a little more intimate than the Orlando and Las Vegas locations I have been to in the past. Normally, I would not describe a venue that has two balcony levels as being intimate, but the distance between the front of the stage and where the balconies started was minimal and really helped keep with the small theater vibe.

Opening the show were Popeye (from Farside), Sense Field, and Into Another. All three acts put on solid sets and were a testament to the level of quality music that Revelation Records has released over the years. The crowd was really into all three openers and many people were heard singing along during all three sets.  One personal highlight was seeing Popeye cover the Dramarama tune, “Work For Food.” The set from Sense Field brought back memories of Mississippi Nights, where I saw the band open for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I admit I felt a little guilty though in wishing that the openers would just hurry up and be done. I was getting really anxious and looking forward to finally seeing a band after a 14+ year wait.

At about 11:20 p.m. my wait would come to an end as the house lights went down and the instrumental “Do You Know Who You Are?” started playing over the PA system. An image of the state of Texas filled with alternating colors, patterns, and pictures was projected onto a screen at the front of the stage. As the song came to an end, the screen slowly started to rise out-of-the-way and the curtain was drawn back to reveal the band as they exploded into “Back And To The Left.”

As a cruel twist of fate, Norman Arenas’ amp decided to cut out within about 30 seconds of the opening song. The band took the setback in stride and powered their way through the song. Norman held his cool and smiled his way through the gear malfunction and took to firing up the crowd by emphatically clapping along with the band. While the guitar tech swapped out amps after the song ended, Norman quipped about how everyone had been waiting 14 years for this show, so they could probably handle waiting a few more minutes.

Even after this minor delay, the band appeared to be in extremely high spirits. The smiles on all of their faces was infectious and they played just flawlessly. Bassist Scott Winegard seemed to be on cloud nine as a smile stretched from ear to ear for most of the set. The crowd sang along with every song and there was a great energy throughout the room. I found it hard to believe that a band that had been inactive for so long was just absolutely killing it. Garrett’s voice sounded great and getting to watch Chris Daly play drums was such a thrill. Seriously, Chris Daly is a beast on the drums. Watching him play, especially towards the end of “Antique”, floored me.

The band was playing with such a high energy level and with so much joy that you could not help but wish that they had never ceased to be a band after such a short time. Garrett even joked after playing a little riff to check his tuning that the riff was from a new tune they were writing. This joke brought up the realization that the band has stated that they have no plans to write or record any new material. I really made a concentrated effort to just let myself get lost in the performance and soak it all in and make the most of the opportunity.

In just over an hour, the band played its way through their entire catalog and even included two new songs, “When Rock ‘N’ Roll Was Just A Baby” and “Every Girls Dream.” These two new songs were the last songs the band ever wrote but never recorded. The band went back into the studio last year with Producer J. Robbins to record them. The two new tracks will be included in Do You Know Who You Are?: The Complete Collection which will be available in February through Revelation.

Even though the band has a few gigs booked on both coasts, they have stated that Chicago was the only and last Midwest show they will be doing. To me, it was very fitting that the last song they played, and the last song I may ever hear them play, was “A Jack With One Eye.” This has always been one of my favorite songs and with the lyric, “Your place is still at the heart of my everything,” seemed very fitting it would end up being the last song. I am so glad I made my way up for the this show. Thank you to the band for some great memories and for being part of “my everything.”

Setlist:

1. Do You Know Who You Are? (recorded intro)
2. Back And To The Left
3. The Magic Bullet Theory
4. Nickel Wound
5. Johnny On The Spot
6. When Rock ‘N’ Roll Was Just A Baby
7. If It’s Here When We Get Back, It’s Ours
8. There’s No Way I Can Talk Myself Out Of This One Tonight (The Drinking Song)
9. Something To Forget
10. Dressing Cold
11. Every Little Girls Dream
12. The Days Refrain
13. Blue Boy
14. Antique
15. A Jack With One Eye

Otis Redding – “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” Atlantic picture sleeve

During the summer of 1967, singer Otis Redding was riding high. He headlined successful tours of Europe and began to bring along new artists under his wing. In June, he left a pool of sweat on the stage during his set at the Monterey Pop Festival. This headlining appearance on Saturday night brought him to a much wider audience with a show-stopping performance of some of his best hits backed strongly by Booker T. & The M.G.’s.

During the tour Redding started to write a new song on scraps of paper and napkins. In response to the Beatles latest album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he wanted to shift his sound against the wishes of his wife and record label. By the time he got to the studio he was able to finish the song with guitarist Steve Cropper.

Opening with a machine simulating ocean waves and a slow bass line, the song sounded more pop than his previous work, but the melancholy lyrics still resonated with deep soul. According to Peter Gurlanick’s book,  Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Redding thought it was the best song he ever wrote and believed it would top the charts.

Tragically, less than a month before “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was released, Redding lost his life along with six others from his backing band The Bar-Kays in a plane crash into Lake Monona outside Madison, WI. He had recorded the song at Stax Studios in Memphis, TN on November 22, 1967 with overdubs on December 8, just two days before the plane crash. Posthumously, the single became the first song to reach the top of the charts.

Otis Redding – “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”

We will never know what future greatness Redding had in store for us had he lived and continued to create music, but he left us with a wonderful catalog to remember his legacy.

In response to Redding’s death, singer Eddie Floyd, best known for his hit “Knock On Wood,” wrote a song to express his feelings of heartbreak over the sudden loss of his friend. “Big Bird” was written while Floyd waited in a London airport for a plane back to the United States for Redding’s funeral. While he never mentions Redding directly in the lyrics, there is the line that makes it clear who it’s about.

With me down here
and you up there
now all we know is
it ain’t no fair

Floyd’s tone is far from melancholy as the groove pounds with help from Booker T. Jones on organ and guitar, Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, and Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass; you can hear the frustration in the tone of Floyd’s voice and the musicians playing their instruments. The song is a fitting tribute to the powerful singer from Georgia that left us much too early.

Eddie Floyd – “Big Bird”

Happy New Year!

If you hadn’t noticed before – or read between the lines – we are essentially a group of music lovers just nerding out about music.

For us, the topic of music comes up constantly and is the main focus of nearly every conversation. The topic even permeates an ongoing group text message via iPhone. Somebody mentions some band or link and the conversation continues from there sometimes well into the night.

Tonight, Jeff sent a link that he heard about on the Postcard message board, a small corner of the internet that started in the early ’90s as place for Uncle Tupelo fans to talk about their favorite band and the successive off-shoots – Son Volt and Wilco. The link was for a video posted below about the recording sessions of the 1995 Buffalo Tom record, Sleepy Eyed, at Dreamland Studios – a converted nineteenth-century church in Woodstock, New York.

This piqued my interest because Sleepy Eyed is my favorite Buffalo Tom record, and therefore I had to check it out post-haste. Diving in further, the video link led to Jeff and I sharing our top Buffalo Tom records, and continuing the conversation. (Mine are the aforementioned Sleepy Eyed, then Let Me Come Over, followed by Big Red Letter Day, their Self-Titled album, and their comeback record Three Easy Pieces rounding out the top five.) As you can see this can snowball. Tonight it did just that because as I write this it’s nearly 2:30 a.m. and for two hours I’ve scoured YouTube, chatted, read others wax nostalgic, listened to Sleepy Eyed in its entirety via headphones a couple of times and now started to write.

After being learning about a little influential trio from Belleville, IL in the early ’90s, Uncle Tupelo, it wasn’t much of a leap to dig another powerful trio from Boston – Buffalo Tom. When the “alternative” music world blew up in the wake of the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind, bands that had been on the radar of only college DJs and the cool kids suddenly became fodder for the mainstream.

The single “Sodajerk” from their 1993 album, Big Red Letter Day, brought me to the band originally. With radio play and an appearance in a television commercial for Nike, the album brought a larger notoriety to the small outfit. Others took notice and the band made a cameo as themselves on an episode of the ABC series “My So-Called Life” playing their broken-hearted lover’s ballad, “Late at Night,” while Jordan ignores Angela at the band’s live show.

Subsequently, I caught the tours for both Big Red Letter Day and Sleepy Eyed when the band rolled through St. Louis and Mississippi Nights in 1993 and 1995 respectively and those concerts are still near the top of my personal list of favorite all time shows.

However, it was Sleepy Eyed – bulging at the seams with the excess of 14 songs the ’90s CD era afforded – that stuck out as Buffalo Tom’s most cohesive record and the one that I can listen to beginning to end effortlessly. Whether it was mostly live performances the band committed to tape or the ghosts that haunted that church graveyard paved over with a parking lot, the record continues to breathe life into me every time I put it on.

Sometimes, I wish other things in my life affected me as much as music does, but not much else gives me as much pure pleasure in this life and for that I am thankful.

Now, time to get some rest. My hunch is I’ll need something stronger than usual after I wake up in the morning.

“Open up your sleepy eyes /cut off all your family ties / ain’t it hard when you realize you’re young.” – Buffalo Tom “When You Discover”

Buffalo Tom – The Making of “Sleepy Eyed” (1995)

Buffalo Tom – “Summer” (Official Video, 1995)

Buffalo Tom – “Summer” (Live on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, 1995)

Buffalo Tom – “Clobbered” (Live on MTV 120 Minutes, 1995)

Buffalo Tom – “Tangerine” (Live on MTV 120 Minutes, 1995)

Bill Janovitz – “Crueler” (Acoustic at home, 2010)

Bill Janovitz and guest – “Kitchen Door” (Acoustic at home, 2010)

Record Spin Playlist – The Royale, St. Louis, MO – 12/27/12 with Scott Allen, Bart Darnell, Jeff Fields and Lauren Smalley

Cat Power – Cherokee
Now, Now – Thread
Gossip – Love and Let Love
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Thrift Shop *
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is Playing at my House *
Sleigh Bells – A/B Machine
Foxy Shazam – I Wanna Be Yours
Japandroids – Evil’s Sway *
The Gay Blades – Bob Dylan’s 115th Nightmare
Titus Andronicus – In A Big City
The Gaslight Anthem – Biloxi Parrish
Butch Walker – Synthesizers
Delta Spirit – Trashcan
The dB’s – That Time Is Gone
The Rolling Stones – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Lucero – Sounds of the City
Alejandro Escovedo – Evening Gown
Beck – Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Lee Baines III & The Glory Fires – Magic City Stomp
JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound – To Love Someone (That Don’t Love You)
Fontella Bass – Soul of a Man
Fontella Bass – Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (Chuck Berry cover)
Fontella Bass – You’ll Miss Me (When I’m Gone)
Freddie King – Palace of the King
Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour
Ike & Tina Turner – A Fool in Love
Eddie Floyd – I’ll Take Her
Barbara Lewis – Baby I’m Yours
Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
Aretha Franklin – Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)
J.D. McPherson – North Side Gal
John Paul Keith & The One Four Fives – I Think I Fell In Love Today
Justin Townes Earle – Baby’s Got A Bad Idea
Buddy Holly – Not Fade Away
Alabama Shakes – Be Mine
Craig Finn – No Future
Wanda Jackson – Tore Down
Langhorne Slim – Cinderella
David Bowie – Suffragette City
T. Rex – Baby Strange
The Jam – Art School
The Clash – Spanish Bombs
Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’tve)
The Menzingers – I Was Born
Uncle Tupelo – Postcard
Black Flag – Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Wire – Pink Flag
Morphine – Thursday
Big Black – Bad Penny
Fairweather – If They Move…Kill Them
Torche – Kicking
Title Tracks – Every Little Bit Hurts
Small Brown Bike/Casket Lottery – Under Pressure
Cory Chisel – Never Meant To Love You

* = Dings on the bell from the bartenders

Also see playlists for April 2012, May 2012, July 2012, September 2012 and November 2012.

Yesterday, we posted our first podcast in which we talked about our favorite albums of this year. In case you missed it, due to all the holiday food filling up your belly, please do us a favor be sure to check it out! (To download: Right Click (PC)/CTRL-Click (Mac) and then select Save Link As….)

Tonight, our staff will do our very best to spin many of these records and much more at The Royale from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. We hope you can join us for a pint or two at our favorite corner watering hole and listen to some of our favorite music from this year. Please – as the sign above indicates – just don’t sit at the back table at 10 p.m.

So, without further pomp and circumstance here is our list. Enjoy!

Best of 2012

Bart

Lucero – Women and Work (ATO)
Hot Water Music – Exister (Rise)
Cory Branan – Mutt (Bloodshot)
Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes (Full Time Hobby)
Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten (Mercury)

Jeff

Japandroids - Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls (ATO)
White Rabbits - Milk Famous (TBD)
Minus The Bear - Infinity Overhead (Dangerbird)
Blake Fleming - Time’s Up (self-released)

Reissues:
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991 Creation / 2012 Sony)
Shiner – The Egg (2001 DeSoto / 2012 Son Of Man)
Archers Of Loaf – Vee Vee (1995 Alias / 2012 Merge)
Sugar – Copper Blue (1992 Ryko / 2012 Merge)
Codeine – Barely Real EP (1992 Sub Pop / 2012 The Numero Group)

Lauren

Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory (Carpark)
Wanda Jackson – Unfinished Business (Sugar Hill)
Make Do and Mend – Everything You Ever Loved (Rise)
The Menzingers – On the Impossible Past (Epitaph)
Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)

Scott

Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (Columbia)
Cat Power – Sun (Matador)
Sharon Van Etten – Tramp (Jagjaguwar)
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe (XL Recordings)
Heartless Bastards – Arrow (Partisan Records)

Reissues:
R.E.M. – Document [25th Anniversary Edition] (1987 I.R.S. / 2012 Capitol)
Peter Gabriel – So [25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition] (1986 Geffen / 2012 Real World Productions)
The Velvet Underground & Nico – S/T [45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition] (1967 Verve / 2012 Polydor/UME)
Ryan Adams – Life After Deaf [Live Boxset] (PAXAM)
Cotton Mather – Kontiki (1997 Copper Records / 2012 Star Apple Kingdom)

Finally, feel free to take a look back at our 2011 Lists here – Bart / Jeff / Scott