Official tracklisting, album art, and title for the new Constantines album. As you can see the new album is titled Kensington Heights. It's slated to hit Canada on April 15th, and in the U.S. April 29th.
The tracklisting:
1 - Hard Feelings 2 - Million Star Hotel 3 - Trans Canada 4 - Shower Of Stones 5 - Our Age 6 - Time Can Be Overcome 7 - Brother Run Them Down 8 - Credit River 9 - I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song 10 - New King 11 - Life Or Death 12 - Do What You Can Do
Now Valentines Day is tomorrow. With that in mind I'll leave you one of the best love songs I ever set eyes and ears upon. Give 'em a great big kiss.
"The Russian Futurists suck!!!" These are the words that greeted me last week as I walked into the Phoenix just as The Russian Futurists were wrapping up their warmup gig for Wintersleep. The man uttering those words was my buddy Winston Churchill. And that kid knows a thing or two.
The Russian Futurists are essentially the brain child of Matthew Adam Hart. He expanded it for live shows a few years back, but it still reallly remains his little lapdog.
Somehow or another it was recommended I listen to the RF track Paul Simon. I dig Paul Simon. Even better, I dig songs that reference Paul Simon.. There's The Clash's Fuck Art Garfunkel (I'm siding with Simon) and of course Eminem's early mixtape classic, Paul Simon Stole my Shorty. Good shit.
So I dug into the track and loved it. The video is awesome too. It basically features Hart walking around listening to the track and people he's passing by just start breaking out into spontaneous dance. Not just a good shuffle, but Fred Astaire shit. Big sweeping legs, swooping gestures. Have you ever had that desire? Walking down the street and having a track pop onto your headphones and just wanting to dance and shout your ass off. I normally stop myself; sometimes I'll allow myself an emphatic clap of the hands, but that is typically as far as I'll get.
I picked up RF's '06 release Me, Myself & Rye as a result. It's a compilation of their first three albums. I was intensely disappointed by it. I knew they were opening the Wintersleep gig and had initially been excited by this. Listening to the album took the wind out of my sails and contributed to my laziness in making it to the show on time. Luckily I had my buddy Winston to confirm this. Wintersleep though was incredible. They keep on getting better.
I've been watching Friday Night Lights all season long with mixed feelings. It has definitely stumbled in its sophomore season. The biggest one was right out of the gates with the murder plotline between Landry and Tyra. Almost right away critics called them on it with most supposing the direction was probably the result of the show trying to make a big jump out of the gates, looking for viewers and a stay of execution from NBC after barely making the cut and not getting cancelled last season.
Like some of the characters of the show, they seemed a bit over-eager to please. Given the focus of the show, perhaps a football analogy about how the green team playing in their first big championship comes out in the first half all nerves and trying too hard would be apt. But as countless movies have dictated, the team calms those nerves and comes out of the dressing room in the second half collected. All they had to do was remind themselves of what got them there. " You gotta dance (with who you came to the dance with)" as The Hold Steady might say.
Football may be the premise of the show, but it's never really been about that. It's about the characters. FNL isn't one of those typical shows that drags you into their lives by making you envious of how dramatic and blessed their existences are. Nope, it does it the old fashioned way, through character development. The beauty isn't just in the big moments; the victorious ones where a silent pumped fist is shared with the fictitious. It is in the defeats and the failings when you see them for who they are. And they're noble as hell. Not perfect mind you, but genuinely flawed characters who maintain dignity in the moments when life attempts to strip you of it.
One of the storyline's coming into the ep was Smash's suspension for the rest of the regular season. Over the past two season's we've seen how football is really the only thing Smash cares about. It's his passion. When the suspension comes down he is genuinely crushed. He's apologetic but still manages to carry that Smash swagger that as much a failing as it is off the field, is a necessity for him on the field. But then we find out his football scholarship has been taken from him and the bottom truly drops out. The episode closes out with Smash coming into the locker room just before the start of the game. His teammates, deflated and angry with their star player for letting them down, have been especially hard on him and he stands before them humbled. He reminds them of who they are and how they got to be here. And as they rush out of the tunnel to take on their competitors we see Smash in the now empty locker room bent over in tears. It is heartbreaking and powerful.
"Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose."
With the writer's strike going on most shows have already run out of new episodes to air. Friday Night Lights managed to get 15 in the can before the strike began. They still have one more to air after last Friday's 14th episode, which will air this Friday. With the writer's strike rumoured to be coming to an end I'm hopeful they can get back to work and give us another 7 episodes and finish out the season proper. If not, Friday's show will be the season finale.
I'll leave you with a track from last week's episode. It plays over an important scene between Landry and Tyra. It's by a band named The Avett Brothers. I'm not familiar with their work at all at this point, although I intend to do some listening in the coming weeks and reporting back. Disclaimer:Skip the next paragraph and just download the song and give it a listen. Ear it on your own terms without my effusive praise.
Heard it? Then lets talk about If It's the Beaches. When a song hits you in the guts and soul you just gotta ride it. You're not sure how long it will last; whether it's true or not, but like I said, you ride it. It feels purer than all get out. It makes you deny any cynical "heard it all" bullshit that might try and fight up in your throat. It makes you want to call people just to tell them about this song, "And by the way I love you, man." First time I heard Paul Simon sing Graceland. The first time I heard The Constantines sing I'm Onto You. The first time I sung along to The Deadly Snakes I Want to Die. They all come from the guts and soul. This song is having that effect on me. Something is there. That quiet acoustic guitar, some strings, the answering machine talkover halfway through. Then there's the introduction of the piano in the last verse. It feels like a baptism.
Welcome to Country Pinball Machine. We're an mp3 music blog concerned with sharing our love for those sweet little sounds. All mp3's on the site are shared with noble intentions for the artist and the reader. If you dig the music you see about on the site follow the links I easily provide and support those artists. Buy t-shirts, buy records, check out shows. Most importantly tell your friends. Pop it in when you're dancing in the living room. "Whats that rock and roll sound breaking my heart?" they'll ask.
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With the radio on.....
Concert Listings
Neil Young w/ Wilco & Everest Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON December 4 & 5, 2008
Official tracklisting, album art, and title for the new Constantines album. As you can see the new album is titled Kensington Heights. It's slated to hit Canada on April 15th, and in the U.S. April 29th.
