NO!: CANASTA (#495, JUN 30 2009).

09/26/20 • -1 min

NO! THIS is what I call music: The Podcast

Canasta "Tony's Song" (23.8 MB) High Noon Saloon Madison, WI June 30, 2009 Another solid new one from a too-short set -- sadly, I missed recording any of the trombone numbers. This is one of the Chicago bands that I could imagine making a stop in Carbondale at some point, and I hope they do. They seemed to impress the crowd at this show and I think they may be on the verge of big success with their new album.

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NO!: WHITE RABBITS (#496, JUN 30 2009).

White Rabbits "They Were Wrong/We Were Wrong" (24.2 MB) from It's Frightening High Noon Saloon Madison, WI June 30, 2009 After seeing Spoon and coming away with a greater appreciation for their later material, I wondered if a live White Rabbits show could get me to like their somewhat-disappointing new album a bit more. It's a weird record, in that it sounds so much more stripped-down than their debut; it doesn't sound like an album made by a band with six members. And, well, it didn't -- it still sounds pretty much the same on record. But, the performance on stage was really great. Check out Stephen Patterson's face -- this isn't even that intense a song! The mark of a great live band is one that makes a great show out of lesser material, and these guys sure are great live.

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NO!: CANASTA (#494, JUN 30 2009).

Canasta new song (26.0 MB) High Noon Saloon Madison, WI June 30, 2009 Way back around the time I started doing this podcast, I went to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. At the time, I only had a little over six minutes of recording time available with my 128MB memory stick, which meant I could only recording opening bands if I was there specifically to see them. That was a bad show for such a limitation, since I liked both openers -- Madison's the Super Eights and Chicago's Canasta -- much better than the headliners. I didn't get to see the Super Eights again until their farewell show about a year later, and I didn't get to see Canasta again until a couple weeks ago, nearly four years later. They were worth the wait, to be sure. We got to the show a little late but walked in just as they were starting into "Slow Down Chicago," one of the best tunes of the past five years and the best Chicago-related song of 2005 (take that, Sufjan Stevens and the Hold Steady). Most of the rest of the set was comprised of material from their in-progress new album, which hopefully will be out later this year.