Burning Wood

Monday, December 24, 2012

Musical Hopes & Fantasies For 2013




Billy Gibbons pre-ZZ Top psych band the Moving Sidewalks will be performing a handful of live dates next year. This excites me and it's something that I know I discussed over drinks about ten years ago. "You know, I'd love to see a Moving Sidewalks reunion." "Yeah, that'll never happen," one friend was quick to point out. And neither will a reunion of all four Young Rascals, right?

If I had my druthers:

A new David Bowie record will be released and it will not be produced by Tony Visconti.

Live music will become age appropriate. When Wilco comes to town, they play a seated venue with a proper start time and not some outdoor GA cornfield on a rainy day with a $60 rain or shine ducat. When Ty Segall performs, he can jam as many 20 year olds into a tiny club and hit the stage at 11:45 on a Tuesday, if he feels like it. And while we're at it, if Bruce Springsteen can keep his ticket prices under a $100, so can every one else. And while we're at it, I love you John Hiatt and Joan Osborne, but you guys are not $85 a ticket acts. Sorry guys.

The trend of artists performing full albums in concert will continue, but not at the expense of abandoning the rest of the back catalogue. Mix it up for the fans. Think about the fans. Learn your songs for the fans. 

The cost of new vinyl will drop to something a tad less odious than $26 a record.

Jazz artists will start swingin' again.  If I wanted to hear a piano trio cover Nirvana and Radiohead, I'd...well...nothing. I don't.


Todd Rundgren and Daryl Hall will turn their two brilliant episodes of "Live From Daryl House" into a record and tour.

Music journalists and critics will pull back on the hype reins just a bit and start telling like it is. Maybe a few less new Dylans and new Beatles in 2013 will help the jaded and the cranky appreciate the new guys a bit more.

Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory will shake hands and release one more new record as XTC.

The following artists will release stripped-down-back-to-basics records:
Rolling Stones



So what are your musical wishes for 2013?


19 comments:

  1. Excellent list. I would add to your Rolling Stones wish that if they feel they need guests have Keith pick them and not Mick. Have to spend some time thinking about your question before having my own list.

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  2. More Paul McCartney and Nirvana.

    Radiohead surprises everyone and makes the classic rock record anticipated by "The Bends" (but still prickly enough to avoid accusations of "sell out").

    The new Roxy Music album we were promised a few years ago.

    Somebody new who is actually good, no great, to come out of nowhere with music as muscular and majestic as The Who, as fun as The Faces, and is socially relevant.

    Kid Rock shuts up.

    Mike Love permanently loses his voice.

    Neil Young fires Crazy Horse, and hires what's left of Moby Grape. And Harvest's some decent tunes.

    The Roots take Hip Hop where it needs to go.

    A new edition of King Crimson, sans Belew?

    A Move reunion?

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  3. REM stays disbanded.

    Lewis Taylor un-retires.

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  4. Westerberg and Stinson collaborate on more than some one-off track.

    Monkees tour with Nesmith has more dates (including one in Detroit (please!))

    McCartney gets another collaborator who is not intimidated by him.

    And I fully agree on the XTC reunion wishes. Come on guys! At least do something with the back catalog to get the juices flowing.



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    Replies
    1. I have a Mojo article from 2009 where Partridge said 2 CD remasters of "Drums & Wires," "Skylarking" and "Oranges & Lemons" were "ready, with more to come." I checked the XTC site and store obsessively for months and then finally gave up. I still don't know what happened.

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  5. Rancid's US tour comes through New Orleans. Alex McMurray gets as famous (and well compensated) as he deserves to be. Plus what Sal said.

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  6. Saw the Rascals concert. Incredible. I would love to see them continue to tour and record an album.
    I would love to see Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On properly remastered.
    Allen Toussaint record another album
    The Meters reform, tour and record.

    Joe

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  7. Rundgren/Hall for sure but they can't boycott AZ as not everyone that lives here is a right wing cowboy yahoos. Most of them are but there are some semi-normal people as well.
    XTC absolutely but Andy Partridge must write or co-write all the songs as well as produce.
    A new Pugwash album.
    Any glimpse that Roy Wood may still be alive. If Brian Wilson can try, can can Roy.
    A new Cheap Trick album
    A nuclear strike on the auto-tune factory
    The joint return of proper singing and the jailing of all melismatic poseurs.
    The continuation of neo-R&B
    MORE BURNING WOOD

    Merry Christmas

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  8. At its September 2013 new product launch, and actually listening to a certain segment of fans and end users who have made themselves clearly visible on the web, Apple revamps the iPod Classic in new 250 GB and 500 GB models that run on SSD drives as opposed to hard drives. (Anyone following the Apple M.O. knows what a fantasy something like this would be given the amount of hype given to "the cloud" and streaming. I like streaming. I just ditched cable TV for a Roku box. I know what it is. But it doesn't work so well on small portable devices, especially in places like New York City.)

    Musically? I can't foresee anything happening that would start any new movements or have any long-term positive effects. Which is good, because this is exactly how the world was when real changes unexpectedly came along and turned everything on its head. All I can hope for is the artists I follow scaring up enough money, inspiration and gumption to keep making music, despite the near impossiblity for indie artists to make any kind of living doing this anymore. God bless working spouses and the occasional song placement in ads, shows or movies.

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  9. I guess my addition to the 'wish they'd record something stripped-down' list would be, as it has for years, Leonard Cohen. I've felt for a long time that his arrangements (for all he seems to like them) are the weakest things about his songs, and the Rick Rubin treatment might be just what he needs. Who else? Well, if you get past the tackiness of his whole enterprise, Jimmy Buffett has some strong songs (ask Bob Dylan if you don't believe me.)

    I suppose it's not impossible that 'ol uncle Lou Reed still has some tricks up his sleeve. Man, there is just a whole generation of cranky 'ol white guys out there that are probably going to all go at about the same time...

    Or, on the other side of that equation, wouldn't it be nice if someone gave Aretha the kind of treatment Bettye Lavette and Mavis Staples have gotten in the last few years? Much less Irma Thomas. But hell, *anything* new from Miss Irma would be a great gift, yeah?

    --hap

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    Replies
    1. Pretty much putting my energy on the XTC thing. Miracles DO happen!

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  10. More blues in 2013
    Rolling Stones Blues album
    Original Fleetwood Mac to reform and have a new album
    McKenna Mendelson Mainline to reform and tour.

    Regards

    Rhod

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  11. I like the age appropriate tour. Dylan at Terminal 5???? Anybody at Terminal 5 is a bad night at my age!

    How great would an album and tour be if Clapton continued with the trio from 121212?

    The high prices at City Winery suck, but I go to less shows so I am going to overpay on occasion. Especially because my wife lie the place. Seats!

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  12. The new My Bloody Valentine that's been promised forever.

    An original Poi Dog Pondering lineup tour (or at least one that includes Susan Voelz).

    ACL releases the Alejandro Escovedo "Boxing Mirror"-era show on dvd.

    more stuff that has not been bootlegged before from the Hendrix estate.

    ditto the Rundgren/Hall - I play those shows often as background music at work.

    That I could get back every album/cd/cassette I ever loaned out and never had returned.


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  13. Hmm, I would love it if Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso got together for Tropicalia 3. Check out Tropicalia 2 from '94:
    http://www.amazon.com/Tropicalia-2/dp/B005GBT9PA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356589085&sr=8-2&keywords=tropicalia+2

    Both can still do it - here's a link to a charming Gil effort from a few years ago:
    http://www.amazon.com/Banda-Larga-Cordel-Gilberto-Gil/dp/B001953OVC/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&qid=1356589195&sr=8-34&keywords=Gilberto+Gil

    And Caetano has put out a couple albums with his son and friends - check 'em all out!

    And, no, I don't speak any Brazilian Portuguese. But I have read translations of lyrics from both Caetano and Gilberto - they're great!

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  14. I've also been wanting U2 to stop all the "bright lights, big noise" stuff of the past few years and do a quiet, meditative thing with Brian Eno. Something the opposite of bombast.

    I'd like to hear Stevie Wonder team up with someone younger who would push him to get back into a better sound and a return to socially concious songwriting.

    I'd like to hear a new Sly Stone album that would knock me off my feet.

    I hope to hear new things from White Denim. They're so good right now, they just need to keep recording.

    And I too would kill to see Todd Rundgren and Daryl Hall team up for a full-on album next year.
    - A walk in the woods

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  15. Replies
    1. For the new Richard Thompson (with Buddy Miller producing) record Electric to be as good as it should be.

      For the new James Hunter record (produced by the immortal Gabe Roth)to be as good as it should be.

      For his Electric Trio tour to come to my small town.

      For the Rascals to tour and come to my small town.

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