Talking Head, 12/11/08
Baltimore, MD

    Walking down an alley lit softly by a string of white lights, I always feel like going to Baltimore’s Talking Head is like sneaking in on a club that likes to keep itself a secret. It’s new home is a back room off Sonar’s club room, which saves them the cost of rent and upkeep of a space all their own, and shows in the quality of the sound equipment. I’ve never been in such a small space that has such consistently great sound. The Talking Head has a quiet lineup that features extremely talented bands who seem to constantly fly under my radar, despite their vaults of talent.

    At the urging of a friend of mine, I ventured into the unforgiving winter rain last Thursday to the Talking Head to see Jukebox the Ghost. Jukebox comes in three parts:

Ben Thornewill on keys and lead vocals, Tommy Siegel on guitar and vocals, Jesse Kristin on drums and vocals. With Thornewill’s innate sense of composition at the helm of their songs, Jukebox sounds most like a minimalist Queen with a happily crossed Nick Thorburn (The Unicorns/Islands) and Ben Folds. 

    The band has a great sense of humor and they warmly engaged the small, dedicated, bleary-eyed crowd that awaited their set as they took to the stage around midnight. “This is a song about ghosts,” smirked Siegel at the mic, “and how the affect the foreclosure crisis.” Jukebox displayed impressive degrees of endurance and versatility in their set, bouncing jovially from a three-part song about the Apocalypse on to a “song about my brief, but deeply emotional affair with the Queen of England,” joked Thornewill.

    It can be hard to fully enjoy a band that features delightfully poppy and creative songs that refuses to acknowledge their own irony and engage the crowd on stage. Jukebox is well-aware of themselves and were more than keep us chuckling in between songs. In keeping with their demeanor throughout the set, they closed with an excellent arrangement of Jack Skellington’s infamous “What is This?” from The Nightmare Before Christmas. They are currently touring on their new album Let Live and Let Ghosts.
 

Have you ever been to a concert and checked out the artist’s merchandise?  Have you ever seen an item (or perhaps two or three) that caught your eye?  And has your jaw dropped in utter disbelief (and disgust) at the astronomical prices on these basic items? 

Good, me too.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a Wilco & Neil Young show on a cold, raw night in Worcester, MA.  First, let me just say that if someone were escorted into the venue as a surprise, I probably could have guessed that it was a Neil show just from the people walking around the concourse: lots of folks well into their 40’s & 50’s sporting bandanas, long burns, fu-man chus, wavy hair, beer guts… and, well, you get the point.  The show itself was fantastic; Wilco jammed for about an hour, with a set list that included “Hummingbird,” “Jesus, Etc.,” “Walken,” and “I’m The Man Who Loves You.”  Although it was an older crowd, Wilco was still received well and there were definitely a handful of die-hard Wilco-ers in the building. 

And Neil?  He sported his trademark frizzy, electrical hair with a pronounced bald patch that stared you in the face every time he lowered his head.  He may have missed a few notes here and there, but I couldn’t tell, and I’m pretty sure no one else could either.  But that may have been because everyone – on the floor, anyway – was either piss drunk or flying high.  I think I got an herbal lift just from where I was standing.  The fumes didn’t seem to get to Neil, though: he rocked like it was 1975, playing numbers like “Cinnamon Girl,” “The Needle & the Damage Done,” “Old Man,” “Heart of Gold,” and “Cowgirl in the Sand.”  The icing on the cake, though, was his encore selection: “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles.  A middle-aged guy next to me almost wet himself at the beginning of the song, and asked me, “DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?  NEIL DOING A BEATLES SONG?!”  I don’t think it does.

I'm taking a moment for this special issue of the 'Jam' to look back on 2008 and reflect on the year that was.

1. Kings of Leon – Only By Night
Ask my girlfriend, this album has been playing on repeat in my car since I picked it up. I was a little late to jump on the Kings of Leon bus, but I am so glad I did. This is easily my favorite album of the year and I am more than a little upset that the blogosphere thinks f-ing Vampire Weekend deserves a higher spot.

2. Lupe Fiasco – The Cool
I know a lot of people are going to say, "didn't this come out last year?" And to them, I will tip the cap at noticing it. But because it was released at the end of November, it was left off a lot of critic's Best of '07 lists and it really shouldn't have been. It is an amazing album and Lupe Fiasco is an amazing MC. So I am taking a moment to give Lupe what he deserves - some cred.

Keep Reading for Rest of Top 5, plus the Most Disappointing Album and our Guilty Pleasure

For those of you who tuned in to Stephen Colbert's holiday special, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, the other week, you were no doubt greeted with an hour of hilarity. His special guests included Feist, Toby Keith, Jon Stewart, Willie Nelson, and Elvis Costello. But the act that really brought me to tears was Mr. John Legend's "Nutmeg". His sultry lyrics are hallmark to any given baby-making situation, but this one really takes the cake as our new favorite X-Mas party jam.

So if you're attending an Ugly Sweater Party or just drinking by yourself wearing a santa hat this weekend, make sure this is on the playlist. Only drawback - only way to buy the actual song on iTunes is by purchasing the entire "A Colbert Chistmas" soundtrack. Not such a bad thing, but certainly more expensive that just $.99