Darken My Door from Lucero on Vimeo.

1372 overton park is due out 10.6, pre-order it here.

october 6, you aint so far away, but you are just far enough away that the thought of you slightly irritates me. im not much of a waiter, or better yet patience, outside of what i have to extend towards my kids, is not one of my strongest suits. october 6 finds lucero releasing, my most anticipated record of the year, 1372 overton park. you can pre-order it now, and in doing so you get an instant download of 6 song sampler – including the track below. from what i have been reading, the record is heavy on the memphis soul, awesome!, as they worked with legendary memphis sessions player jim spake (cat power, solomon burke, john hiatt, etc.)

hey darling do you gamble

i know i have mentioned this a few times before, and it actually ended up on my top ten of 08 list, but i think its worth bringing up again. i actually may enjoy ben nichols’ solo, the last pale light in the west, more than any lucero record. it maybe the fact that this is mostly an acoustic record and his voice, which is one of my favorites, is more in front and center and not fighting through a wall of guitars. the 7 song mini-record is based off cormac mccarthy’s blood meridian, which i have not read, but the characters are classic nichols, ne’er do wells, the downtrodden, lost souls, and maybe even the un-wantingly romantic. one thing i have loved and love about every nichols’ penned tune is that he finds away to make the characters, fiction or non, sing through him, and not vice versa. my only complaint is that its about 3-4 tracks too short. other than that, its a minor classic to these ears.

buy the last pale light in the west and other lucero awesomeness, here

this is my favorite track off the record and lyrically this is one of my favorite ben has written.

toadvine

another piece of awesomeness has alluded me, but luckily for not very long. as it turns out, my man ben nichols, of lucero, is releasing a 7 song mini album entitled, the last pale light in the west. its not being released until 09, but you can get it now for a mere 22 bucks. for that 22 bucks you get an instant download of the last pale light, a physical cd, and a limited edition shirt.

soafb! he’s playing tomorrow eve in atlanta @ the masquerade. he’s got a bunch of upcoming tour dates, so check out his tour schedule.

buy all that good stuff, here.

toadvine off the last pale light in the west

lucero’s “i can get us out of here tonight” on fuel tv

If Ben Nichols writes about you, you’re probably pretty OK. In “Tears Don’t Matter Much,” easily one of our favorite Lucero tunes, off “That Much Further West,” Nichols canonizes a few of his songwriting pals — Matt Bradley, Doug Deluca, and Cory Branan. The song poignantly captures the very nature of being a fan — and a man like Nichols, who wields a dangerously pithy pen, can’t help but succumb either. Witness:

Matt Bradley’s got the broken teeth
He wears a jean jacket with a bullet in the sleeve
He’s just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I sing along

My tears don’t matter much
They don’t matter much

Doug Deluca’s voice could break a heart
I recorded every song
I used up three whole tapes, and put ‘em in a box
To give away
To break a heart

My tears don’t matter much,
They don’t matter much

When the boys sing their songs
And the kids they sing along
I’m just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I sing along

Cory Branan’s got an evil streak
And a way with words that’ll bring you to your knees
Oh he can play the wildest shows and he can sing so sweet

I still sing along

My tears don’t matter much,
They don’t matter much

When the boys sing their songs
And the kids they sing along…
I’m just another Southern boy who dreams of nights in NYC
And I sing along
I still sing along

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hltj1aMnBdQ]

We found Cory Branan thanks to a mutual friend, the same one who had turned us onto Lucero. He teeters with a certain sepia-toned nostalgia, doesn’t mind pop hooks and has an uncanny knack for dovetailing sublime couplets about rollerskating in the 7th grade, the one crazy girl who dances at shows, falling in love with the wrong girl and doing way too much cocaine. Err… we digress. Here are a few tracks from Branan’s first record, 2002’s “The Hell You Say,” which features some Lucero members backing on a handful of tracks.

Whiskey Grove

Tame

Skateland South

Crush

Branan — along with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Justin Townes Earle, The Good Fear and Dan Montgomery — joins Lucero  Saturday 9/13 at Riverside Park in Batesville, Arkansas for the Lucero Family Picnic. A bargain at $15; a hassle at 136 miles from Memphis. For and aft, Branan sets out on 40 days and 40 nights of hopefully not hard-candy snow. That’s from “Tame,” people — get with it.

Sep 4  Cactus Cafe w/ Greg Barkley of Oh No! Oh My! (All Ages) Austin, Texas
Sep 5 Club Next Texarkana, Arkansas
Sep 6 Blackthorn Joplin, Missouri
Sep 10  Parrish Baker Pub Oxford, Mississippi
Sep 11  12th & Porter (CB @ 10:15) / Next Big Nashville Nashville, Tennessee
Sep 12  Hi Tone (18+) Memphis, Tennessee
Sep 13  Lucero Family Picnic (CB @ 5:30)(All Ages) Batesville, Arkansas
Sep 18  Pour House Music Hall w/ Blue Mountain (CB-8:30) Raleigh, North Carolina
Sep 19  Evening Muse (All Ages) Charlotte, North Carolina
Sep 20  Pour House w/ Blue Mountain Charleston, South Carolina
Sep 22  New World Brewery Tampa, Florida
Sep 24  Big Daddy’s (18+) Tallahassee, Florida
Sep 25  Egan’s (Late Show / Post Avett’s) Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Sep 27  Barley’s Tap Room (18+) Knoxville, Tennessee
Oct 1  The Camel w/ Josh Small, The Fox Hunt (All Ages) Richmond, Virginia
Oct 2  Rapture (Free / 18+) Charlottesville, Virginia
Oct 3  Iota (CB to Open @ 9pm) Arlington / D.C., Virginia
Oct 4  Della Rose’s Canton (Free) Baltimore, Maryland
Oct 5  Laurrapin (5pm / Free / 18+) Havre de Grace, Maryland
Oct 8  Flat Street Brew Pub (18+) Brattleboro, Vermont
Oct 9  Jake’s w/ Quiet Life (18+) Providence, Rhode Island
Oct 10  Oasis Pub w/ Quiet Life New London, Connecticut
Oct 12 The Cake Shop w/ Quiet Life New York City, New York
Oct 16 Brothers Lounge w Magpies (18+) Cleveland, Ohio
Oct 17 Uncommon Ground @ Devon Chicago, Illinois
Oct 18 Rudyard Kipling w/ Dangerbird (18+) Louisville, Kentucky
Oct 19 Molly Malone’s (18+) Covington (Cincinnati), Kentucky
Oct 22 Jackpot Saloon (18+) Lawrence, Kansas
Oct 24 The OPO (18+) Fayetteville, Arkansas
Oct 25 Whitewater Tavern Little Rock, Arkansas

Nichols says Cory “can play the wildest shows” but unfortunately we’ve never — het hem — seen him with a full band. These are solo dates, but Cory holds his own there, too.

Cory’s MySpace // Cory’s website

ok, i can still make it. i think i only have 3 to go to make it to 24 posts within 24 hours.

here is lucero @ the loft in atlanta on 9.9.05.

1. across the river

2. aint so lonely

3. tonight aint gonna be good

4. raisin hell

5. kiss the bottle

6. nights like these

7. sixteen

8. sweet little thing

9. that much further west

10. slow dancing

11. bikeriders

12. chain link fence

13. i’ll just fall

14. blue and gray

15. joinin the army

16. last night in town

17. little silver heart

18. my best girl

19. anjalee

20. tears dont matter much

21. nobodys darlings

22. the last song

23. the war

tashi delek, schmoopy! i was pretty psyched to find out that the sonic slop of mudhoney’s superfuzz bigmuff is being reissued, with all the expected extra goodies, by subpop on 5.20. more info can be found here. not only that but they gots a new record, being released ont the same day, entitled the lucky ones. cant wait for these two. in case you have never found yourself confronted by the music of mudhoney now’s your chance. dig it…

sonic infusion off since we’ve come translucent

the straight life off since we’ve come translucent

blindspots off under a billion suns

mudhoney myspace

as a reminder to my fellow atlantans, cory branan is @ smith’s olde bar this saturday evening and if you ever wanted to ignore me, this is your chance. cory who you ask? here are a couple o’ solo tracks from his excellent record, 12 songs and a show featuring cory and one of my main men, ben nichols of lucero. of all the shows i have posted this is definitely one of my favorites. its an impecable recording and it sounds like they had a blast. much love to the original taper!

tall green grass

prettiest waitress in memphis

this happene on 6.20.07 @ the rudyard kipling in louisville.

1. intro

2. across the river

3. a bad man would do you good

4. last night in town

5. amnesia

6. when you decided to leave

7. sour mash

8. i’ll just fall

9. on and on

10. easy

11. it gets the worst at night

12. tonight aint gonna be good

13. chain link fence

14. joining the army

15. daddy was a skywriter

16. nights like these

17. summertime

18. she wakes when she dreams

19. freefall

20. tears dont matter much

21. the prettiest waitress in memphis

22. my best girl

23. skateland south

24. great balls of fire

25. see that my grave is kept clean

26. all sewn up

27. tall green grass

28. hold me close

29. a girl named go

30. better than this