Mar 20, 2014

Fairport Convention - Live in Evanston

I have a long list of bookmarked music related blogs and websites that I try to check in on every couple of days. While there is always something interesting happening on many of them, it isn't often I'm stopped short by seeing the name of my town in reference to legendary musicians. Sure, Chicago has a fantastic and thrilling musical history, but one doesn't specifically run across Evanston very much.

So imagine my surprise when I was checking out one of my frequent stops, that always excellent Doom & Gloom From the Tomb, and I saw a post about a 1975 Fairport Convention bootleg recorded in Evanston. It featured a link to the Big O live archive, from which the set can be downloaded. This was recorded at an old folk club, Amazingrace (not The Amazing Grace as indicted in the post and on the artwork). This is post Richard Thompson, but the always imitable Sandy Denny is in fine form. Well worth checking out for all of you folk fans.

Of course this, in turn, led me down a rabbit hole of other noteworthy Evanston live music stories. I didn't find too much exciting, but did stumble across the second set from a Dead show at McGaw Memorial Hall on Northwestern's campus. Cool listening.

Mar 19, 2014

The War On Drugs - "Red Eyes"



This one isn't my favorite from the new War On Drugs record, Lost in the Dream, (that would probably be either "An Ocean in Between the Waves" or "Burning") but this is the first with a real video, which would be more fun for you to look at than the still of the album cover. Still, it's a fantastic record. Go buy it.