The first two minutes of the video above is the Cold War Kids covering Tom Waits song “Dirt In The Ground” before segueing into their own song “Hospital Beds”.

This video is Elvis Perkins playing his song “All The Night Without Love” off his album “Ash Wednesday”.

I stopped listening to Modest Mouse after “The Moon and Antarctica”, the album signaled the beginning of a stylistic shift in the music that was markedly different from their previous efforts. Not that it was bad, judging by the explosion in popularity upon the release of “Good News For People Who Love Bad News” alot of folks were into it, it just wasn’t for me. Up until “The Moon and Antarctica” though I had seen the band in concert 8 or 9 times, always a mixed bag, you never knew which Isaac Brock was going to show up - the consummate showman or the belligerent drunk.

The Radiators are old. Seriously, the guy playing lead guitar reminded me of an elderly grandfather, his old man pants with the elastic waistband pulled up over his gut. The other guitarist stood at the front of the stage complaining to the guy working the soundboard in a tone reminiscent of an Andy Rooney diatribe. There are plenty of older musicians I enjoy seeing, but these guys just seemed worn out, and I started wondering if I could leave in time to catch a movie. Then the music started, it took a few minutes for the crowd to warm up, but soon enough everyone was dancing and the band reclaimed some of the years they had left out on their 3 decade road trip.

I’ve grown increasingly impressed with the choice of artists the River to River organization has put together for their yearly summer concert series. The Walkmen, Danielson and Animal Collective are a few of the more eclectic acts that have appeared on past bills, and this year I was once again surprised as Wire was chosen to open the series of shows at the South Street Seaport. Late 70’s post punk aficionados aren’t the first thing that spring to mind when you imagine a crowd you may be catering to at the Seaport. But that’s the beauty of the River to River, they don’t seem to care about catering to a specific demographic, they just want good and interesting music.

Firewater first hit my radar back in 1998 or so, I didn’t know much about them, but I had Soul Coughing’s album “El Oso” on repeat at the time and I read somewhere that their drummer, Yuval Gubay, had collaborated on a new Firewater album called “The Ponzi Scheme”. Seemed interesting enough, but I never gave it much thought until one day I wandered over to HMV on my lunch break and saw a few copies of the CD packaged in a metal container with a limited edition sticker splashed across the front. I’m a sucker for anything “limited edition”, so I couldn’t get my money out my pocket fast enough, you never knew when a rush was going to come and make them all collectors items.

The album was a personal favorite for awhile, “Green Light” and “Whistling In The Dark” were two of the standouts on an album that was surprisingly accessible rock and roll for a band incorporating strings and a horn section. Lyrics like “going down like a pederast in a boy’s school”, may not have ingratiated them to the Catholic community, but they sure were fun to listen to. As is my norm, I eventually moved on to listening to something else and I honestly forgot all about these guys until I read online a few weeks ago that they were touring in support of a new album, “The Golden Hour”.

Inspired by Tod A’s travels and reasons therefore, the new album is overtly political (possibly a bit ham-fistedly on a song like “Hey Clown”) but packaged thoughtfully with lyrics that accessorize the fusion of sounds pulled from around the globe. I immediately thought of Joe Strummer’s “Streetcore” record when I first heard “The Golden Hour”, Tod’s vocal delivery is uncannily similar to Joe’s, and the music is running a parallel path to the direction Strummer was going in his solo career.