I copped Sonny Smith's One Act Plays last summer after a Sunsets show in DC. The hand-drawn packaging caught my eye, as did the album title. I was imagining Smith showing off his acting chops with a few melodramatic monologues. Instead, what were originally written as plays were transformed into a series of comical and occasionally heartbreaking songs—and they don't dissapoint. With a supporting cast that includes Vetiver's Andy Cabic and Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer (misspelled as "Dwire" on my copy), the prolific Smith delivers his usual impeccably crafted pop goods. A major highlight and selling point is the duet with Neko Case: "Troublesome Affair." With Case playing the "lonesome cheater" character, the two voices slowly waltz over a mellow strum of acoustic guitar as they get acquainted with each other's "sinful stares," "lonesome bodies," and eventually feed their "starving souls." Basically, Smith and Case have sad lonely sex. Apparently that makes for great music.
Originally released in 2005 on CD, One Act Plays is now being rereleased on vinyl by the good folks at San Francisco's Secret Seven Records in an edition of 400 hand-numbered copies. Pick it up here.
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" was Stevie Nicks' first single as a solo artist back in 1981. The track was written by Tom Petty and Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell and featured the entire Heartbreakers crew as Nicks' backing band. Although Nicks and Petty would collaborate on a number of songs—"The Insider," "The Apartment Song," "Needles & Pins"—"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" would be their most successful, charting at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The classic duet has been dug up this summer as an encore for My Morning Jacket's current tour with Neko Case, pairing the fiery red head with Jim James. As various Youtube clips show, they absolutely nail the cover. Now all we need is Case to join MMJ in the studio and inject one of the world's greatest live rock bands with some fresh creative juice. If the rather meandering and flat Circuital is any proof, they could use a little fire. (via)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers w/ Stevie Nicks - "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"
Harry Nilsson was an unbelievable songwriter. And quite the character. Explaing the concept behind his 1971 album The Point—a fable about the only round-headed person in the Pointed Village—Nilsson said: "I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to a point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it." You said it, Harry.
Never hire a vibraphonist. That's the lesson San Francisco's Dodos seem to have learned after the disappointment of their blandly received third album Time To Die. The absence of hired-then-fired vibraphone player Keaton Snyder means the Dodos are back as a duo for their fourth release, No Color, and the album's first single "Black Night" suggests all is well again in the world of these manic minimalists. The duo will, however, receive some help on the album: red-haired alt-country goddess and New Pornographer Neko Case reportedly will add her considerable vocal chops to half the album's songs. Something tells me people won't have any trouble finding the purchase link to No Color—due out March 14th.
