Last week, Asbury Lanes played host to Tim Barry's record release show for his fantastic new album "40 Miler." Infused with a relaxed confidence both in delivery and composition, "40 Miler" is forty minutes of lean, plainspoken storytelling and a definitive milestone in Barry's solo career . With "Driver Pull," Barry may have written his most beautiful song yet. If ever there was a "train" song to make Johnny Cash proud, this is it.
New songs fell easily into the evening's set of selections from Barry's earlier solo work. The ranting "Fine Foods Market" provided a hilarious moment when almost on queue a "a hipster with ironic mustache" joined in onstage to play some tambourine. Barry took it in stride and helped the kid find his rhythm throughout the song.
Barry's side man/resident picker Josh Small and harp player Andrew Ali have been joined by vocalist/guitarist Julie Karr, who also opened the show with a great acoustic set.
This morning the OBEY Blog ran my Asbury Park Photo Series as a lead in to Shepard Fairey's new REVOLUTIONS show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery opening tomorrow night. The event is part of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival running all this weekend in venues throughout Asbury Park. Following tomorrow night's opening reception, Fairey will head over to Asbury Lanes to rock the turntables with a special DJ set for the official afterparty.
Revolutions features over 80 pieces of Punk, Rock, New Wave, Jazz, and Hip Hop inspired artwork based on the 12" record cover format. A very limited quantity Album Cover Print Box sets will be available in person at the exhibit.
REVOLUTIONS: The Album Cover Art of Shepard Fairey
Presented by Jonathan LeVine Gallery
Opening Reception:
September 29th, 2011, 6-9pm
On Exhibition:
9/30/11 - 10/3/11
1200 Ocean Ave
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
For more information please contact Jonathan LeVine Gallery
These are a little overdue but here's some pics from Dave Hause's recent performance at The Asbury Lanes with Mikey Erg and Ian Graham from the band Cheap Girls.
I hadn't heard about Ian Graham or Cheap Girls before but wow Graham's performance was great and Cheap Girl's albums are even better. Check out two songs from them at the end of the post and go buy both their albums My Roaring 20's and Find Me A Drink Home now. Asbury favorite Mikey Erg followed with a collection of Ergs songs delivered via solo electric guitar and true to character repeatedly asked "What am I doing? Billy Bragg already did this and much better."
Despite the miserable weather, a full crowd made it down to the Lanes for Dave Hause. Rounded out by Pete Steinkopf on guitar, his sister on piano, and his best friend on drums, Hause delivered a great performance with a set drawing heavily from his solo record. The solo material easily worked in the live setting and the full band arrangements refreshed older songs "Come On Kid" and "Melanin" while newer tunes "Time Will Tell" and "Years From Now" had everyone singing along.
Hause voiced frustration with record label Paper & Plastick's long and continuing delay on delivering his new record to customers despite the fact it was "released" in February. Full disclosure, I ordered the record from Paper & Plastick back in February and have yet to receive it. When I contacted the label in March about the delay I received a response which curtly reminded me of the definition of a pre-order which now apparently includes when the pressing plant messes up, multiple times.
Anyway, it was good to know that Hause was aware of the situation and shared many of his fans feelings on the situation. In response, Hause has been selling vinyl copies of his new album with limited edition hand screened sleeves. If you're going to buy the album, I suggest grabbing one of these very cool records at the shows.
"Meet Me At The Lanes" was played in honor of its namesake and made for a memorable moment. Spotting a teenage fan in the crowd rocking a Replacements t-shirt Hause quipped "Wow if I was a girl you're age I would totally give you sex for wearing that shirt" and launched into a fantastic cover of "Can't Hardly Wait" featuring some help from Ian Graham and Mikey Erg. I'm not sure there could have been a better way to close the show.
