Son Volt & Austin City Limits
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Although Jay Farrar helped create the Alt Country genre with the band Uncle Tupelo, his work afterwards seemed to take a back seat. After the fallout between Jay and Jeff Tweedy, the Alt Country world faced its first Metallica/Megadeth catfight ever. Jay went on to form Son Volt and Jeff formed Wilco. For those of you who are scratching your head on the previous reference, Dave Mustaine was an original member of Metallica but drank too much and was kicked out. He vowed to start his own band, one that would rival Metallica. Megadeth was born and lived in the shadows for years. Dave made it onto MTV and the radio in the mid 90s but never saw the same success his buddies did. Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand, Jay Farrar put out some excellent material under Son Volt and strayed true to the Alt Country sound. Wilco pulled a Metallica and went genre jumping trying to shake the stereotype they felt held them back for years. Did Wilco succeed, in some ways yes but that can be saved for another posting.
Son Volt was part of the Austin City Limits Music Festival this September and released 3 songs from the performance for download via iTunes. The 1st song is "Atmosphere" comes from their latest cd Okemah And The Melody Of Riot. Its raw but has a some great hooks and you can really tell it was recorded live. With hints of a Hammond organ and a slowed down beat this song is a must have for any fan. Track 2 "Circadian Rhythm" is a new song slated for release on their upcoming 2007 cd. Its mid tempo/melodic style has some excellent guitar work and is a bit on the darker side. Track 3 "Medication" hails from Okemah and is more or less a jam with little vocals popping up here and there. The live version is 2 minutes longer than the original and has a bit of hypnotic eastern rhythms to it.
I usually don't download from iTunes, I still think the prices are too high but I had 3 free downloads left over from some free credits a friend at work gave me. They had been sitting in my account for months and when I saw this I decided to go for it.
Posted by mardenhill 12/02/2006 10:52:00 PM
Labels: Music
