Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Today We Are a Blurb: Special "Klaatu Barada Nikto!" Edition

In case I haven't mentioned it previously, the incomparable Willie Nile has a brilliant new live album out...

...and as you can see, I am honored to have my review -- succinct and, I think, accurate -- gracing the shrinkwrap.

Here's my favorite track, "The Day the Earth Stood Still." An epochal rocker (originally on Willie's 2021 studio album of the same name)...

...that not only kicks major ass but whose lyrics do total justice to the great sci-fi film of the same name. (The 1951 original, not the misbegotten Keanu Reeves remake).

Long-time readers are aware of my enthusiasm for Willie's work; I remain convinced that his eponymous 1980 debut LP is one of the great folk/rock/punkish/jangle artifacts of its decade, and he's made several others easily in the same league. I should add that a glorious live show he did soon after said debut with his non pareil original band (recorded in Central Park for a radio broadcast that aired in NYC on the old WNEW-FM, if memory serves) is also eminently worth hearing; a CD of it can be ordered at Amazon over HERE, along with the rest of Willie's extensive catalog, and -- of course -- the new one.

BTW, if you're a creaky old person like me, and can't quite make out what I said about Live at Daryl's House Club -- as immortalized in that attractive yellow cover sticker -- without reaching for your reading glasses, just click on the photo and enlarge it. Sorry, I'm too lazy to reproduce it as text here.

5 comments:

paulinca said...

I absolutely LOVE Willie! Living on the West Coast, his is a name that doesn't pop up very much; back when Backstreets used to provide a printed magazine its subscribers paid for, Willie's (then) latest album, The Streets of New York, had an ad. Loving all things NYC, I checked it out. Have been a hard-core fan ever since. Caught him at the City Winery in 2017 and he and the band killed it.

paulinca

John K said...

That first Nile album was a real gem. The opening track " Vagabond Moon" alone is worth the price of admission.

steve simels said...

Marc Jonson, who sang the backup vocals on that (and the whole album) also sings backup on a track by some band with a bass player whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIcZqx3-Zb4

mistah charley, sb, ma, phd, jsps said...

the story of the song

https://www.antimusic.com/news/2021/August/16Singled_Out-_Willie_Niles_The_Day_The_Earth_Stood_Still.shtml#google_vignette

pete said...

I had just gotten to NYC when the first LP came out. It was playing at the first party I went to in town. I remember thinking, "I'm not in the provinces anymore."