Archive
F*ck That! Erin McKeown’s Anti-Holiday Album
If you’re here for the Pomplamoose Portland 10/27 photos & review,
I apologize, but it’ll be up tomorrow (10/31).
I generally abhor holiday albums. Good ones I can count… Over the Rhine’s The Darkest Night of the Year is dark & hauntingly gorgeous, Monk’s How Like a Winter shows off Ric Hordinski’s lush guitar work, Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas is part childhood lexicon and part perfect piano jazz wonderment. I hate holiday albums, but I can wholeheartedly recommend these…
Then, you get utter rubbish like this… Kenny G’s Happy Birthday Jesus I Hope You Like Crap, Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas Toots and Synths that Your 5-Year Old Could Make But Doesn’t Because They Understand Quality, Tran-Siberian Orchestra’s I Remember When They Were Savatage and Took One Song From a Great Concept Album and Turned It Into a Cringe-worthy Christmas Juggernaut, and lastly Middle-Aging Rocker’s I’m Being Non-traditional in My Grab for Cash.
Well, along comes a favorite pint-sized singer-songwriter, Erin McKeown, to add another FAVORITE album to my winter-listening pile. I present to you F*ck That! Erin McKeown’s Anti-Holiday Album…
GO HERE for sound samples of all these songs
1. Christmas Waltz (F*ck That!) [Explicit]
2. Santa Is An A**hole [Explicit]
3. Go Tell It On The Mountain (That Karl Rove Is Born)
4. Fa La La La
5. Visions I Have Had While High
6. It’s a Very Queer Christmas
7. Christmas (Love It Or Leave It)
8. Frozen Smiles
9. You Wish Us A Happy Holidays
10. Toyland
11. Christmas Waltz (Kleen Mix)
12. Santa Is An A**hole (Kleen Mix)
It’s out-now digital/mp3 download from Amazon (and iTunes), and it comes out physically on November 1st. Check her out at http://erinmckeown.com/.
Erin McKeown Anniversary tour / Earshot Jazz 2010
Two unrelated PacNW tour updates…
Erin McKeown is hitting the West Coast on her upcoming Distillation Anniversary Tour and the annual Earshot Jazz Fest in Seattle just put out its 2010 program…
Erin McKeown Distillation Anniversary Tour 2010
- OCT 8* One Longfellow Square Portland, ME
- OCT 9* Iron Horse Northampton, MA
- OCT 17* Highline Ballroom New York, NY
- OCT 20* Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL
- OCT 22* Rex Theatre Pittsburgh, PA
- OCT 23* IOTA Arlington, VA
- OCT 24* World Café Live Philadelphia, PA
*with Distillation producer Dave Chalfant - NOV 6 Someday Lounge, Portland, OR
- NOV 8 Triple Door Seattle, WA
- NOV 11 Largo at the Coronet Los Angeles, CA
- NOV 14 Cafe DuNord San Francisco, CA
The Earshot Jazz Festival’s official program is over at: http://earshot.org/Publication/pub/10october.pdf. Or you can check out just the schedule over at http://earshot.org/Festival/schedule.html. Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Vagabond Opera, Toshi Reagon, Dave Peck, Ornette Coleman (film), Brian Blade, Ziggurat Quartet (mulltiple shows), DJ Spooky, Eugene Chadbourne, and more… sounds like a great three week line-up.
I hope to hit Erin’s Portland (Oregon) show… I saw her this past spring, and she puts on a great show. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to any of the Earshot shows this time. Damn the 5-6 hour drive. Now, if they can get John Zorn back in 2011… I’m there!
REVIEW: Erin McKeown & Emily Wells @ Mississippi Studios (Portland, OR – 4/21/10)
FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM
(despite these pictures, this show was not a head-scratcher)
Last night, the Mississippi Studios in Portland had a triple-bill tour de force. Almost two and a half hours from three wonderful musicians – violinist indie-rapper Emily Wells, folk-pop songwriter Erin McKeown, and Portland-based singer Timmy Straw. All three were showered us with great music (both old and new)…
Timmy Straw hit the stage late and quickly went into the first number. Timmy’s vocals were gorgeous, in that gristly-yearning kind of way. Songs were mostly haunting piano numbers, but there was some electronic-infusion on a song or two. I picked up Timmy’s equally gorgeous debut CD, 2009’s State Parks. Timmy only had a little banter during the set, playing fairly straight from one to the next (playing about 6 or 7 songs in a half hour). Songs I did catch names for are “Rock of Ages,” “Scoops,” and “Herakles.” I highly recommend State Parks. I think you can only get it at shows at this point (if someone has other info, please pass it along).
Erin McKeown went on around 10 and his us with a lot of gems from her latest album, Hundreds of Lions, out on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. I’d seen her a couple times prior (in Cincinnati), and she was just as adorable and delightfully charming with her stories and music as she can be. My wife noted (and I agree) that Erin has such great stage presence and spark. She’s a ball of joy and it comes through in her songs…
Erin’s Setlist: ~45 mins
- “Manifestra” (new song)
- Cinematic
- Santa Cruz
- You, Sailor
- (Put the Fun Back in) the Funeral
- Queen of Quiet
- Didn’t They
- “Train of Steel” (new song)
- Lullaby in 3/4
Emily went on around 11 and started swinging with her crowd-pleasin’ hip-hop numbers. She employed Doug from the Portland Cello Project during half of her set. I saw her play with the PCP last summer, and it’s what had me sold on her music. She switched between violin and various other toys in her arsenal (toy pianos, drum loops, toy microphones, guitar, ukulele, etc). She relied a lot on looping – which is always fun, as far as I’m concerned. The hour-long Emily Wells “solo/live remix” included some of her Symphonies, her über-fun Notorious B.I.G. cover, as well as some newer songs… oh, and she was sportin’ some bling…
Emily’s Setlist: ~1 hour
- If You Love Me, Really Love Me
- Symphony 1 In the Barrel of a Gun
- Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & the Requiem Mix
- Juicy (Notorious B.I.G.)
- Mama’s Gonna Give You Love (new song)
- Give Ya Everything (new song)
- Let Your Guard Down (new song)
- The Fire Song (new song)
- Passenger
- Encore: Symphony 9 & the Sunshine
Emily has a new album coming out later this year, and also a project with Dan the Automator called Pillowfight. Check her out on the MySpaces to keep in the loop. We headed back home to Eugene around midnight… tired, but content.
many more photos below
The Appropriate Linkage:
- Emily Wells on MySpace
- Erin McKeown’s Site
- Erin McKeown on MySpace
- Timmy Straw on MySpace
- Mississippi Studios
~Dan – np: Ozomatli – Fire Away
no download or free torrent mp3 flac available
support music by buying it
EMILY WELLS, ERIN McKEOWN
& TIMMY STRAW PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2010 Daniel Temmesfeld and Margaret O’Brien,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution
(click for larger)
Holy Fuck’s Daytrotter Session -Free EP-
Holy Fuck‘s Daytrotter Session has finally been released (it was mentioned in a Daytrotter email, like, 2 months ago)… :)
http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1266/holy-fuck
Latin – a relatively new song. It hasn’t been released on anything yet and we’re not sure what will become of that song yet. We’ve been trying out different things on this one during this tour, and it’s starting to take shape!
Daytrotter does in-studio performances, and has MANY artists on their webpage. Some of the ones I’ve dug recently are My Brightest Diamond, David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion), and Erin McKeown… (and more, like The National, Death Cab for Cutie, et cetera)…



The Holy Linkage
http://www.myspace.com/holyfuck
http://www.holyfuckmusic.com/
~Dan