Neil Young & Pearl Jam - Throw Your Weapons Down

One thing for sure is that Neil Young is not rusting at all. At the age of 61, next November, and after 40 years of a prolific career, the Loner is still on the road.
Last week, he was on stage with some of his friends like Devandra Banhart, Bert Jansch, The Foo Fighters, Brian Wilson, and others, for the 20th Bridge School Benefit. Below you’ll find a live performance of Neil Young with Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam playing an acoustic version of Throw Your Hatred Down a song that was recorded in 1995 for the album Mirror Ball. Don’t ask me the source of that recording, I received the link yesterday, it probably came from someone from Holland who was at the show in California. Don’t expect too much but it’s worth seeing it.
By the way, you will be able to download the Bridge School Benefit concerts for Christmas. Tracks from your favorite artists from the first twenty years of the Bridge School concerts will be available exclusively on I-Tunes (November 14, 2006)… stay tuned.

Also, as has been reported recently here on Leaky Sparrow, the first installment of the legendary Archives is scheduled for November 14, 2006 with Live at the Fillmore East from the March 6, 1970 early show's 2nd half electric set.

And, if you have some money left, Living With War will be released in a new CD/DVD version that will include the original mixes done the day of each session. These raw mixes do not include the choir that was added in L.A. the week after the original recordings were done. These recordings are not remixed. Included in the new set is a DVD of all 10 of the videos done in the Living With War network form, as well as all 10 of the documentary videos of the original sessions. These Living With War documentary videos show the choir and the sessions, day by day, as the project was evolving.
The Raw version In the Beginning is a separate CD within the package. This new LWW package, including the Raw CD and the DVD of the videos, with a new cover featuring art by Amber Young, will be released in December (In the Beginning will be released on I-Tunes in early November).
More information and videos here: neilyoung.com/lwwtoday

Well, Long May You Run, Neil!

Web: bridgeschool.org

Neil Young & Pearl Jam - Throw Your Hatred Down (2006-10-21) .mpg

Sorry, looks like that link is dead. Try this latter... who knows: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rdvdijk/bsb20/

Neil Young & Pearl Jam - Downtown .mp3

Photo Neil Young and Pearl Jam – Bridge School Benefit, 2006: Ciarancronin

Kevin Shields Meets The Go! Team

I have been much busy those last days, so I let the Leaky Sparrow rest for a while until I was free to come back to share more music with you.

Today, I thought about Kevin Shields, you know the mysterious, reclusive genius behind My Bloody Valentine who created that abrasive master-piece and classic called Loveless (November 1991). After working up for the OST of Lost In Translation (Sofia Coppola) in 2003 with 3 instrumental pieces, everybody expect him to resurface with a new My Bloody Valentine album. Well, 15 years is a very long wait… Anyway, meanwhile, Kevin Shields broke this long period of semi-isolation and ventured out of hibernation to create a mega-remix of The Go! Team songs Ladyflash and Huddle Formation, to be included on the forthcoming Ladyflash single. Due January 30 on Memphis Industries (El Perro Del Mar, The Pipettes…) in the UK, the single will also include a RJD2 remix of Huddle Formation, a Simian Mobile Disco remix of Ladyflash, and a brand new Go! Team song: The Wrath of Mikey. It will be available as a 7", CD, and download. The Go! Team gang (Brighton) expects to hire Kevin Shields to produce their new project to be released in 2007.

The Go! Team Website: thegoteam.co.uk
The Go! Team Myspace: myspace.com/thegoteam

My Bloody Valentine Website: mybloodyvalentine.net

Go! Team - Huddle Flash (Kevin Shields Remix) .mp3

Kevin Shields - Lost In Translation Sountrack - City Girl .mp3

My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep .mp3

Kris Delmhorst On Tour

Kris Delmhorst's fourth studio release, Strange Conversation (Signature Sounds, June 2006), is a brand new CD based on the works of various poets. After several albums of genre-bending original work, Kris Delmhorst (Brooklyn, NY) found inspiration in the work of various well-known poets like Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Walt Whitman…

The inspiration for the project arrived by chance. In the midst of writing for another record, Delmhorst picked up a poetry anthology sitting on the coffee table and flipped through the pages. "My eye caught the first line of a Robert Browning poem as it flashed by, and the rhythm of the language was so musical that by the time I had paged backwards to find the poem again, a tune already existed in my head," she recalls. A week's worth of unwashed dishes and unanswered phone calls later, most of a new album had emerged.

Kris Delmhorst is currently performing in Europe. She was in Paris last week; unfortunately I couldn’t see her... For more, visit her official site.

Kris Delmhorst - Galuppi Baldassare .mp3 from Strange Conversation (2006)

Kris Delmhorst - Juice And June .mp3 from Songs For A Hurricane (2003)

In addition, Kris Delmhorst is part of a collective adventure called Redbird. Redbird is both the name of the album (February 2005) and the loose affiliation of three American songwriters that began to take shape during a common tour experience in 2003. Across the tour, Kris Delmhorst, Jeffrey Foucault, and Peter Mulvey discovered musical affinity and a shared love of a fairly diverse spectrum of Americana.

Redbird - Ships .mp3 from Redbird (2005)

Mark Kozelek New Live CD

This picture is taken from Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical Almost Famous (1999)… you know the story of this teenager who is approached by Rolling Stone magazine to interview and write on the up and coming band Stillwater (Led Zeppelin?) during their tour. I hope you saw this movie, it is a great documentary of the 70’s and the soundtrack is amazing.

The guy on the right is Mark Kozelek. Yes, himself… you know this teenager who later was the leader of Red House Painters and, now, of Sun Kil Moon. To tell you the truth, Mark Kozelek is one of my preferred rock songwriter. He is among the best. In the movie, he is cast in the role of the bass player of Stillwater. He doesn’t talk much and is always hidden when the band is playing live. Why? Can’t tell you… Anyway, I saw the movie again two days ago and it was very funny to see him acting.

On November 28th Caldoverde Records will release a limited edition (10,000 North America) 20-song live compilation entitled Little Drummer Boy Live. The double-CD was recorded live to CDR during Mark Kozelek’s European and North American performances last year. The record is now available for Pre-Order here. I can’t wait listening to it.

WebSite: markkozelek.com and sunkilmoon.com

Mark Kozelek - Lazy .mp3

Sun Kil Moon - Space Travel Is Boring .mp3

Red Sparowes Campaign

Every Red Heart Shines Towards The Red Sun (September 2006 on Neurot Recordings), the second album from Red Sparowes (Los Angeles), invites us to travel into frightening musical landscapes. 8 tracks, all between 7 to 10 minutes, led us like waves in a panorama field with emotion and melancholy. This is post-rock like Mogwai, Gregor Samsa or Explosion In The Sky… Red Sparowes is for me one of the best at the moment.

The music is black and the cover of the record is red. Red, like the blood of million of sparrows killed by the Chinese government during the Great Sparrow Campaign, useless campaign to exterminate birds menacing future harvesting. Of course, Leaky Sparrow is very sensible and much sorrow about that massacre.

To see, a video where the group explains why they are so concern about that carnage.

Web: redsparowes.com
Myspace : myspace.com/redsparowes

Red Sparowes - Like The Howling Glory Of The Darkest Winds... mp3

Red Sparowes - Alone and Unaware .mp3 (from the first album At The Soundless Dawn, 2005).

Joseph Parsons European Tour - Köln

To move from Terry Lee Hale to Joseph Parsons it only takes a little step. Not geographically - Terry Lee played in Paris last Saturday and Joseph in Cologne last night, so you need the Thalys train to go from one city to the other - but musically because the two musicians share together the same interest in the songwriting and guitar playing. They had both been once members of the “supergroup” call Hardpan formed in September 2001 with songwriters Todd Thibaud - who opened last night for Joseph Parsons - and Chris Burroughs. Both have played solo for years and have a number of albums released since more than a decade. They also have been leaders of their own bands for years. But most of all, they are true friends.

Yesterday evening at the Yard, Cologne, The Joseph Parsons Band launch a new European Tour that will bring them throughout Germany and part of France until late November. The band assembled for this tour includes Joseph Parsons on guitar and vocals, Tom Gillam (lead guitar/vocals), Scott Bricklin (bass/vocals) and Matt Muir (drums/vocals). The band amplify the strong sing-along melodies with bright vocal harmonies that are reminiscent of Parsons' work with 4 Way Street (Sanctuary Records).

I hope you will have a chance to see them live during this tour. Don’t hesitate to buy a ticket. The show was solid and the band had much fun playing at last together on stage songs they recorded for The Fleury Sessions CD (Blue Rose Records). “A much happier album” said Joseph Parsons while playing solo two songs sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar. They finished the show with their new hit call Sun Gonna Shine and a beautiful rendition of Steve Earl song’s Jerusalem.

Website: Joseph Parsons

Tour dates: myspace.com/josephparsons

Joseph Parsons - Sun Gonna Shine .mp3

Terry Lee Hale & Fingerbones

Just another picture from Terry Lee Hale & Fingerbones in the Bounty Bar, Paris, Saturday September 30th.

Photo: Katy

Terry Lee Hale Back In Paris

On Saturday night Terry Lee Hale played for the first time in Paris since months. It was an enjoyable warm-up show with his new backing band called Fingerbones. On that occasion, he played with Farris Smith Jr (farrisjazz.com) on contrabass and with a special guest on violin called Jean-Louis Mahjun (Giroux & Mahjun). Together, they rehearsed live some songs of the forthcoming CD from Terry Lee Hale called Shotgun Pillowcase who is scheduled for release beginning of next year.
I have an mp3 below to offer you, a demo version of Worksong, one of the new songs from Shotgun Pillowcase. Also, you can listen to some songs from his last album called Celebration What For on his MySpace, as well as some old demos on his Website.
Terry Lee Hale & Fingerbones will play again next Saturday at the Bounty Bar, in Paris, and will be also at the Pomme d’Eve the 7th of December for an Acoustic in Paris evening. More dates in France on his Website.
So, more about Terry Lee Hale in December.

Website: terryleehale.com
MySpace: myspace.com/terryleehale

Terry Lee Hale - Worksong (demo) .mp3

Photo: Mathieu 'metamatik' Richardoz (http://www.metamatik.org)