Expect to hear a lot more about Ty Segall in the upcoming months. The Traditional Fool released a solo record that's already one of my favorites for 2009, and his videos are just as instant an attraction. Check out the manic stop-motion fun on the video for "Pretty Baby." Who needs lenses in both eyeglasses when one works just fine?
On Friday, Willie Nelson and son Lukas graced the Fillmore with their presence (they'll be doing so till tomorrow, Jan. 20, if you missed out). All Shook Down correspondent Jonathan Kiefer waxed poetic in his review of the evening, painting Nelson in red and blue lights such that he resembled Shepard Fairey's poster of Barack Obama - if you're a literalist, there's a web site you can visit to re create just that.
Mezzanine
January 18, 2009
Better than:
All the Philly steaks you can eatIt had been announced that, for this performance, the multiplatinum R&B superstars Boyz II Men would be performing tunes from their 2007 cover album Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville U.S.A., but I had vowed to raise holy heck if they didn't sing the group's classic debut single, "Motownphilly."
I needn't have worried, for Boyz II Men know exactly what their audience wants, and "Motownphilly" kicked off a show heavy on the crowd-pleasing material.
That made him about the closest thing to an actual black person in his own sold-out Fillmore crowd, but never mind. Why can't Nelson -- now 75, not at all red-headed, not at all a stranger, and apparently not at all ready to stop touring -- come to stand for hope and change and how far we've finally, arduously come? Soon enough, he and his family band were cruising into the evening's denouement with Steve Goodman's wistfully sturdy "City of New Orleans," whose chorus famously kicks off by asking, "Good morning, America, how are you?" and on this occasion seemed to prompt something like collective deep-breath reflection.
