{"id":860,"date":"2016-09-09T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=860"},"modified":"2016-11-08T23:56:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T04:56:07","slug":"new-release-roundup-music-from-the-beatles-dex-romweber-the-zomba-prison-project-and-nots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/09\/09\/new-release-roundup-music-from-the-beatles-dex-romweber-the-zomba-prison-project-and-nots\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup – Music from The Beatles, Dex Romweber, The Zomba Prison Project, and Nots"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUSIC <\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The Beatles<\/a> \u2013 Live at the Hollywood Bowl<\/em>
\nThe Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl<\/em> occupies a special place in Beatles history, and the band\u2019s discography. It documents the early Beatles at their peak before they stopped touring and became a studio band. The material is taken from three shows on their first two tours of America, mostly from August 23, 1964 and August 30, 1965. A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em> and Help<\/em> had made them film stars. Yet to come was the backlash from John Lennon\u2019s \u201cbigger than Jesus\u201d comment that, along with the fact they couldn\u2019t hear themselves onstage, made their 1966 tour their last. After that, they left the road behind and became an increasingly ambitious studio band, creating soundscapes they couldn\u2019t hope to reproduce live. That leaves Hollywood Bowl as the only official live album the band released, which is a shame, because it shows what a powerful band they were in concert. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s surprising this has never been released on CD before now, even if only for the novelty of a Beatles live album. I got the original 1977 (then titled just The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl<\/em>) release as a kid and listened frequently. I tossed it on the turntable before I wrote this and it still sounds great, if you can get past all the trebly screaming from the audience. (A new 180-gram vinyl version will be released November 18). In the original liner notes, producer George Martin explained how he was initially against releasing the tapes. They could only record with three tracks on tape, and for a guy used to having so much control over his recording environment, capturing the Beatles at an outdoor amphitheater at the height of Beatlemania was an absolute nightmare. \u201cThe fact that they were the only live recordings in existence (if you discount inferior bootlegs) did not impress me,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhat did impress me, however, was the electric atmosphere ad raw energy that came over.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"C
C Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>The updated version, released as a companion piece to Ron Howard\u2019s upcoming documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week \u2013 the Touring Years<\/em><\/a>, was taken from the original tapes, new discovered in the Capitol vaults. It includes four songs \u2013 \u201cYou Can\u2019t Do That,\u201d \u201cI Want To Hold Your Hand,\u201d \u201cEverybody\u2019s Trying to Be My Baby,\u201d and \u201cBaby\u2019s In Black\u201d \u2013 not included on the original release. George Martin\u2019s son Giles and technical engineer James Clarke cleaned up the screaming crowd. It\u2019s still there, of course, but it\u2019s not as overwhelming. That leaves more space to hear the band. IF you haven\u2019t heard this in a while, it\u2019s a pleasant surprise. If you\u2019ve never heard it, it\u2019s somewhat of a revelation. The set kicks off with a churning \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d that clocks in at 1:33. Listen to the taut \u201cThings We Said Today,\u201d and how the band kicks into gear when McCartney sings, \u201cMe, I\u2019m just a lucky guy,\u201d George and John laying into their guitars and Ringo splashing on his loose high hats. Ringo and George both get their turns at the mic (\u201cBoys,\u201d originated by the Shirelles and Carl Perkins\u2019s \u201cEverybody\u2019s Trying to Be My Baby,\u201d respectively). They blast through Check Berry\u2019s \u201cRoll Over Beethoven\u201d with abandon. In this setting, \u201cShe Loves You\u201d and even \u201cI Want To Hold Your Hand\u201d are played slightly faster and come across a bit less quaint than their studio counterparts. They\u2019re having fun, and you can hear it. Catch that near-laugh in Lennon\u2019s voice on \u201cBaby\u2019s In Black.\u201d It\u2019s a mystery why that one was left off the original release. <\/p>\n

If you want to know why the Beatles hit so big in 1964 this is your answer. They were a kick ass rock and roll band, road-tested in sweaty clubs, making their audience stand up and dance, bending them to their will, making a ruckus. After 1966, there was no more of this, save for the rooftop show from Let It Be<\/em>, which was intended at one point as a live album (Martin calls it \u201cthe ill-fated Let It Be<\/em>\u201d in the original Hollywood Bowl<\/em> liner notes). So this collection comes with a bit of melancholy that we didn\u2019t get more live Beatles, especially considering they played so well live as solo artists. Glad to have just a little bit more, even if it\u2019s just four more songs and less screaming. <\/p>\n

Hear “Boys” from The Beatles’ Live at the Hollywood Bowl<\/em> here. <\/a><\/p>\n

\"dexromcarrboro\"2. Dex Romweber<\/a> \u2013 Carrboro<\/em>
\nDex Romweber has written the soundtrack for your October. In fact, every time I listen to Carrboro<\/em>, I want to make a campy, spooky horror film just to take advantage of the music. We start with a full moon. A dog howls, and the eerie instrumental \u201cNightide\u201d kicks in as the camera pans over a sleepy town, catching all the evil creepy crawlies the residents don\u2019t know walk amongst them as the saxophone grinds and the theremin-like vocals wail. Our hero is a the lovable town frump, and his theme song is \u201cI Don\u2019t Know,\u201d Romweber’s gritty take on the Jeff Bridges\/Ryan Bingham tune from Crazy Heart. He is lamenting his lost love and in a bad place, \u201cwalking the backstreets of hell,\u201d and looking for trouble listening to the bouncy piano of \u201cTomorrow\u2019s Taking My Baby Away\u201d in a dive bar. He falls for an exotic stranger, but doesn\u2019t know she\u2019s in town to awaken her long-sleeping rockabilly vampire father, a scene that takes place to the raucous stomp of \u201cKnock Knock Who\u2019s That Knockin\u2019 On My Coffin Lid Door.\u201d (The vampire roll is Dex\u2019s if he wants it). Kevin, the rockabilly vampire\u2019s lackey, captures out hero and serenades him with the standard ballad \u201cSmile,\u201d intending to follow up by torturing him to death. But our hero is able to loosen his bonds, and a fight ensues over the drum solo in \u201cMy Funny Valentine,\u201d which bears little resemblance to the standard. It all ends with a spirited showdown in the desert to the low-fi twang of \u201cMidnight at Vic\u2019s.\u201d It seems like the end for the rockabilly vampire. But is it? Everyone goes home on a rockin\u2019 note as \u201cTrouble of the World\u201d plays over the credits. It doesn\u2019t have to go exactly like that. Feel free to make the movie that forms in your own head with you listen to Carrboro.
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