The artist behind Bright Eyes will be in New Orleans November 20 at the Republic as part of his tour under his own name in support of his self-titled Merge Records debut. Here’s Jon Caramanica’s New York Times review of one of Oberst’s recent New York appearances: 

And so in this show, his second of two nights here performing material from that album as well as some newly written songs, he didn’t need to bear the burden of his own emotional bloodletting or carry the torch for a generation of sensitive men too smart to rely on emo to speak for them. He needed only to put on a passable, occasionally enthusiastic rock show.

Oberst will also be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight peforming a new song, “Nicorette.”

               

Next week, Cheap Trick’s Budokan! will be released - a 3 CD and one DVD box set documenting Cheap Trick’s breakthrough album, Live at Budokan. I’ve always preferred the indispensible In Color and Heaven Tonight because the space in Tom Werman’s production undercut their arena-ness and made the songs move with a little more elegance. Still, the live version of “I Want You to Want Me” put Cheap Trick on the map.

The live DVD of the show from 1978 is the box’s selling point, with Robin Zander looking like a real rock star in a white satin suit. Within an album or so, Rick Neilsen would become simply odd with the multi-neck guitars, a weirdo beard and a bulky belly under a black jacket; at this point, he’s merely manic in a red sweater and ball cap with the brim flipped up. The songs are slightly simplified and muscled up here, and the audience screaming really doesn’t stop. All in all, it’s a pretty cool document of a band that can barely believe it’s getting the Beatles treatment.

The CDs are remixed, reconfigured versions of the material. The Jack Douglas remix is valuable because the album was originally done on the cheap, never meant for American release. One disc presents the whole 19-song show in its original sequence, while two discs present the same show, same mix but with the song sequences of the 20th anniversary reissue of the show as a two-disc set. I guess that makes it possible to listen to initial album as it was originally released, only with better sound and a slightly expanded songlist, but it really doesn’t seem cost efficient to me. I’ll watch the DVD or listen to the whole show. 

               

Last summer, singer/monologuist/cultural adventurer Henry Rollins came to New Orleans to document the state of the city and to tape an episode of his Independent Film Channel show. The show airs Friday on IFC at 9:30 Central, and Rollins previews the show today at HuffingtonPost.com:

Three years later, I wanted to go to New Orleans with a film crew and talk to some of the people there to try to get an understanding of where they were at present, how they were feeling and what the state of their city was. Basically, I wanted to see what three years and billions of dollars devoted to reconstruction and restoration gets you.

               

This morning on NPR, a feature on the expectations for Barack Obama’s presidency included a clip of a woman who said something to the effect of, “He’ll work some magic.” Obviously, expectations like that are dangerous and set him up to fail even when he’s succeeding. Last night, though, I saw a sign of something more real: six kids in my neighborhood parading down the street with a makeshift drum chanting, “O-ba-ma, oo nah nae / O-ba-ma, bom-bah-yae.”

               

Tano Sokolow has remixed Barack Obama into Lee Dorsey’s “Yes We Can Can” here.

               

When Hurricane Katrina leveled Peter Holsapple’s house, he left town and hasn’t been back nearly often enough. He has, however, been blogging on songwriting for The New York Times. In today’s posting, “Thank You, Bob,” he talks about aging, making peace with collaboration and Bob Dylan’s Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8:

Dylan’s latest record, “Tell Tale Signs,” features three more versions of his song “Mississippi” that are considerably different from the version from “Love and Theft” that we’ve all known and loved for several years. It’s exciting to hear someone else going through the winnowing and polishing process, especially an acknowledged master like Bob Dylan. The confidence, the element of surprise, the ability to make an entire set of lyrics come alive in a whole ‘nother way simply by wholesale revision of the band’s arrangement… that’s what this new Dylan record represents to me, license for change.

               

Folks - if you can’t vote on election day, Tuesday is your last chance. Wait times vary. I voted early Thursday at 2 p.m. and was out in an hour-and-a-half, but a friend who was at City Hall in the morning took two-and-a-half hours. My wife voted on Saturday and got out five hours later. I hear the lines are shorter at the Algiers County Courthouse, but theoretically, that site is supposedly for West Bankers. Is it in practice? You might want to find out if you’re short on time. In my experience, the process was about as efficient as it could be, and they took good care of special needs voters, hustling them in as quickly as possible. Whatever the case, I recommend taking a book and an iPod.

Here’s the info:

Early voting in Person is available 14 to 7 days prior to a set election, excluding Sunday. This period covers two Saturdays to accommodate out of town or working citizens. The Registrar’s office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is an option for persons who know they will be out of town on election day or for personal reasons they do not wish to visit their polling site. Early voting in person is available at the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Office in City Hall at 1300 Perdido Street, Rm. 1W23.

Residents of the Westbank may vote early at the Registrar’s satellite office at the Algiers Courthouse at 225 Morgan Street.

You must bring a Louisiana Driver’s License, Louisiana Special ID or other official picture ID when you vote early in person. If you do not have a picture be prepared to bring other proof of residency such as a utililty bill and be prepared to fill out an affidavit.

               

I waited until the Saints managed to not lose a game that should never have been close before going out to Voodoo Sunday. The hot day matched with people dressed for a cool evening meant the Bingo! Parlour was a little gamey by the time Quintron and Miss Pussycat came out to “Waterfall” from the new Too Thirsty 4 Love. Quintron’s use of noise and drone - particularly at the margins of songs - frames tunes, creating energy each time he slides out of them and into the song’s melody, and marking a clear closure when each track returns to noise. Noise seems to be the place from whence everything flows, and he and Miss Pussycat are simply wrestling it into shape for three or so minutes at a time. The high point: Pussycat’s punk-out moment, throwing her maracas (covered in red and white maraca cozies) to the back of the stage to jump in the crowd, pogo and shout “Yeah Baby, Yeah.”

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - If this weekend didn’t demonstrate that retro soul starts Charles Walker and the Dynamites and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings belong at Jazz Fest, nothing will. The Dap Kings were pokey going on - part of a general slack that seemed to set in on the final day of Voodoo - but once they kicked in, Jones turned the WWOZ/SoCo Stage was the land of 1,000 James Brown-inspired dances. 

Panic at the Disco - Guitarist Ryan Ross looks like he’s 15, but he announced that he and the band would be voting for the first time this year, then hinted at their choice when they played “That Green Gentleman” with the chorus, “Things have changed for me, and that’s okay.” Singer Brandon Urie was a rock star when Panic played the House of Blues in 2006, but for this set, he was strapped to a guitar and rendered ordinary, much like the band when it played songs from the recent Pretty.Odd. The older material was self-consciously clever dance rock, with musical and lyrical thoughts tumbling into the next phrase, and Urie mugged and styled, enjoying the fact that he pulled one such trick off and would do it again in moments. Playing faintly psychedelic pop from the new album made the band ordinary. Pleasant, but ordinary.

Promoter Steve Rehage snuck onstage during Cowboy Mouth’s set to crouch beside a floor tom and play it during the band’s finale.

The Soul Rebels in the Preservation Hall Tent had crowd control that Fred LeBlanc would have appreciated. While Marcus Hubbard rapped that “I got nuthin’ but love for you baby,” they had the packed house jumping, crouching and dancing when and how he instructed.

R.E.M.’s closing set was the most political by a headliner, but it was also the feel-good show of Voodoo. The crowd was relaxed and in a sing-along mode when “Fall on Me,” “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” and encores “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon.” When the set ended with “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” many sputtered out the wordspew lyrics to prove that they still could.

Michael Stipe was the best rock star of the weekend because he approached it with a sense of dispassionate play. He wasn’t working out basic tension like Trent Reznor, nor did he accept rock stardom without a hint of irony, unlike Scott Weiland. He seemed amused by it, but so much so as to mock those who love him and invest belief in him.  His performance matched the curious video presentation, which was in its way as impressive as that of Nine Inch Nails. Their live footage was manipulated in real time and presented on the backdrop and overhead screen as a music video, playing intelligently with the live/video relationship.

The set drew heavily on Accelerate, but it went back as far as Murmur for “West of the Fields,” which Stipe introduced as being inspired by living on the streets of New Orleans for a week or so and having a rough time on Elysian Fields. They also visited Automatic for the People, which was recorded here at Kingsway Studio, and sang “Houston,” which could be about New Orleans when it begins, “If this storm doesn’t kill me / the government will.”

Still, the political subtext threaded the show together. “We hate the Bush Administration,” Stipe said when he introduced “Man-Sized Wreath.” “We also really hated the Reagan Administration, too,” he followed as the band went into “Ignoreland.” During the song, the audience elbowed each other and pointed at the screen as the Obama “Change” image was interspersed with shots of the band. Near the end of the encore - between “Driver 8″ and “The One I Love” - Stipe asked the crowd how many were born after 1975, and “Who wants to end the first decade of the 21st Century with hope and change and joy?” At that point, Obama’s face was shown on the rear screen and the audience erupted. “Fuckin’ awesome!” Stipe said. Then “Seven Chinese Brothers,” “Man on the Moon” and time to go home.

               

I guess she is that popular. Looks like she flew back to London after Voodoo to sing “God Save the Queen” before the Saints-Chargers game.

               

Next to Nine Inch Nails, Lil Wayne was the biggest draw Saturday and generated the most excitement. That didn’t make him punctual; in fact, his DJ was 10 minutes late for the stage, then he spun a 15-minute set that ranged from “Party Like a Rock Star” to “Wild Thing” to “Free Falling,” leaning heavily on ’90s pop hip-hop. Was this simply crowd-pleasing DJ’ing, or a subtle comment on the audience? I have a hard time imagining him getting a party hype for traditional hip-hop audiences with “Born in the U.S.A.” and “Ice, Ice Baby.” 

When he came out playing “Mr. Carter,” the crowd treated him like the rock star he is. Backed by a live band and a DJ, the songs had the impact hip-hop often lacks live, and a lot of the teens and twentysomethings in attendance rapped along. The cad/lover they wanted or wanted to be is in his rhymes. If anything, he spent a little long indulging his soul man side, and the show slowed to an unmemorable midtempo for 15 or so minutes, when attention flagged after “Lollipop.” He then hustled through shortened versions of songs including “Phone Home,” “Misunderstood” and “Shoot Me Down” - a hip-hop tradition these days, but not a good one. That revved the energy back up and saw the return of rap hands to the audience for the finale, “A Mili.” He, guest Mack Maine and a child I assume is a little Carter took the song as a physical freak-out, dancing and running the width of the stage, Weezy often struggling with his shorts, which were showing off a lot of his blue boxers by the end. When that ended almost 15 minutes past his scheduled stop time, the PA was cut off during what looked like band introductions. Still, we could hear from the stage the DJ spin Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Lil Wayne was cut so Thievery Corporation could start, and he didn’t look to happy when their first notes boomed over whatever he was saying into a dead mic. The issues I have with the band on Radio Retaliation remain - the heart of Thievery Corp were the most minor presences onstage, and the show felt more like a revue than a band. Still, live it was so much more physical - particularly playing dancehall and reggae - that it was a dance party, and name aside, they’d be a hit at Jazz Fest. Unfortunately, they one-upped Lil Wayne by taking the 15 minutes of their set that he cut into and going an extra 10 minutes for good measure.

I was curious about the Mars Volta, and I wanted to like a band with some of the style of a young Wayne Kramer and Rob Tyner at their core, but the lengthy pieces - not jams; this was organized music in its way - resulted in a lot of intensity without movement or significant change. In theory, I approve of their indulgence, stretching ideas beyond the boundaries of conventional sense, droning to let psychedelic moments happen. But for the most part, they didn’t. Singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala was physically feeling the music and danced with an impressive recklessness onstage, but in the end, it was just a lot jumping around that didn’t create drama or excitement.    

The most interesting thing about the Nine Inch Nails show was a curious sense of - well, “contentment” is probably not the right word, but something like it. Angst is still central to Trent Reznor’s music, and he’s still tightly wound, hunched in a semi-fetal position over the microphone, but he doesn’t perform like this could all go away tomorrow. He rearranged “Closer” to something slinkier, something less bombastic than it once was, and he slowed the set for a suite of instrumental tracks from Ghosts I-IV that sounded gorgeous outdoors. He played for over two hours with a state of the art light system including a grid that dropped behind the band to serve as projection screen and diffuser for light. All very beautiful and dynamic, and moreso than it had to be.