Walter Salas-Humara update
A few months ago PHXated bumped into singer-songwriter Walter Salas-Humara at the Sail Inn in Tempe. He was the frontman of the acclaimed early Amerindie band the Silos back in the day and has since been recording solid solo albums, and was in Tempe with the Bloodshot Records roadshow.
Bloodshot is out of Chicago, but the gig wasn’t a long trip for him; Salas-Humara lives in Flagstaff now, where he still writes songs and paints. Indeed, his art—you can see a sample of it above or on his web site—has garnered a strong following, and can even be seen in Elisabeth Moss’s apartment in the new movie, Get Him to the Greek
Fans of his music can see him July 24 at Club Congress in Tucson. Details here.
1:40 PM
McCartney Mania! New Times' Martin Cizmar responds!
The New Times’ Martin Cizmar responded to PHXated’s recent pontifications on his coverage of the McCartney show.
It was too good a missive to leave down in the comments, so I’m reposting it here.
Along, uh, with my response to him below.
Original post here.
Martin Cizmar:
Bill,
Thanks for reading and thanks for keeping this blog – I truly appreciate anyone’s efforts to critique the pretty sad state of music journalism in this state, even if they’re going after me.
Regarding specific points:
1. I don’t think the lede is THAT boring. It’s not my best work but I don’t think it’s too long or wordy or anything.
2. Do you seriously not find anything offensive about people being stopped by private security guards on a public street? I think that’s pretty much illegal.
3. The end is intentionally hyperbolic and yuppyish. I’m fond of that voice.
4. It’s been years and years since I was accused of being too blowjobby in a review of anything. Seriously. If you look in the comments you’ll see people suggest it must have been PAINFUL for me to write such a glowing review. It really was an incredibly good show. Not to offend, but I think maybe as a rock writer of another generation you tend to skim a lot of what I write about people who aren’t legends. Even legends get bashed a lot. Heck, I hated McCartney at Coachella, but this was a special show.
5. “Just about every time anyone has toured, ever, in the history of the world, they do songs they haven’t done before.” That’s simply not true. Even a little bit true. Maybe the first night of any tour, but not after that. When’s the last time U2 played something totally new?
However, my broader point was that “Ob-La-Di,” (a song I played in seventh grade band for God sakes!) was being played for the first time in the U.S. The song is 30+ years old and very, very well known. Do you really not find that surprising?
6. You’re absolutely right about him still having stuff to make us tingly, and parceling it out bit by bit. Personally, I find that impressive. Most people cash it all in a lot sooner. Having an “Ob-La-Di” to pop on us? Sorry, that’s pretty cool. Perhaps you think I’m easily impressed, in which case you should read more of what I write.
PHXated responds:
Hey Martin:
Thanks for taking the time to write:
Still.
1) Being from another generation, I know that ledes that are a variant of “I’m the kinda guy who …” are seldom promising. Those that continue into the writer’s personal, uh, parking philosophy? I’m just thinking a guy like you has better things to write about.
2) Fine, let’s talk parking. I can’t believe I’m doing this. The issue is a large nearby concert venue bothering the neighbors. Or, to put it another way, rich folks shelling out hundreds of dollars to see someone who hasn’t recorded a good album in 25 or 35 years trying to save a few bucks on parking their Hummers on side streets and making life even more difficult for the—what was the word you used?—"rednecks" living nearby. The city could put up ugly permanent signs and so forth, or create a neighborhood parking district. Or they could make it easy on everyone, and hire a minimum-wage security guy to deal with the random asshole who still tried to park there.
3) Yeah.
4) Being someone from another generation, I’ve seen Paul McCartney a lot. I’ve even done my own (rather wordy) apologia for him. It’s right here!
It’s fine to like the show. Your angle—that stuff about him not playing certain songs before—was something out of a press release. (I doubt that you personally have been keeping track of the Beatles songs he’s been doing since Wings Over America. )
Being someone from another generation, I’ve seen so so many tours of heritage acts being touted with such tired “angles.” It’s not criticism. It’s not even hype. It’s just … something to fill space with. "This is the first time "Rod Stewart/David Bowie/U2/Neil Diamond/Page & Plant/Pink Floyd has played this particular song/with this particular person/in this particular town/wearing this particular pair of pants.”
5) Please tell me you don’t think that McCartney, U2, the Stones or just about anyone besides Bob Dylan plays a different set list each night. Shows on this scale are not seat-of-the pant affairs. The vast majority of the say two-dozen-song set list is written in stone for each tour. Even the racy optional spots are typically filled by one or two choices. That’s not to say a machine like the E Street band can’t play anything Springsteen wants on a given night. I’m not following McCartney’s career closely any more and maybe I’m wrong … maybe his tours in the 2000’s have been anything-goes affairs. But I doubt it. Paul McCartney isn’t calling audibles on stage.
I don’t know if it’s still true but at least up until recently fans of Bob Dylan, who has probably played more different songs at more different shows than any other major artist by a factor of four or five, had a list of songs he’d never played live.
From a cursory look at this U2 fan page …
… it seems that the band only has one album from which they’ve played all the songs in concert.
Now, off the top of my head (again, I’ll cop to it if I’m wrong) I’ll bet cash money McCartney could have played fifteen or twenty new different Beatles songs in each of his previous tours and still had a few ‘Ob-la-fucking-di’s to play.
In fact, I’ll bet money this would apply just to McCartney-written Beatles songs.
Note that that would mean no repeats of ‘Hey Jude,’ ‘Get Back,’ ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ ‘Yesterday,’ ‘Lady Madonna,’ ‘Fool on the Hill,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Long and Winding Road,’ ‘Let It Be’ etc. etc. etc. And that there would be almost no room left for classic songs from his own solo oeuvre, much less the hot new tunes from his new album—so you would still be able to be amazed by the inclusion of ‘1985.’
He has dozens and dozens of albums (and in his case an incredible number of non-album hit singles) behind him. He’s toured five times in forty years. Paul McCartney doesn’t take requests from the stage of a stadium with a crew of hundreds trying to get the sound and video right for 60k people. Of course he hasn’t played everything he’s ever recorded live. Jesus.
6. I don’t think you’re easily impressed, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with liking a Paul McCartney show.
But I don’t know, maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with frothing about ‘Ob-la-di’ in the lede. It’s not like you went back to it and beat the issue into the ground in the last three grafs of your review as well.
Oh, wait …
2:46 PM
The curious Martin Cizmar ...
… devotes some three pages of digital real estate relating his almost astonishingly uninteresting adventures trying to avoid paying for parking at the Paul McCartney concert at Jobing Arena last Sunday.
This may be the most boring lede of any story I’ve read recently:
I’m one of those people who prides himself on never paying for parking. Toss me anywhere, anytime, and I’ll find a reasonably safe spot to stow my car while I attend to whatever business I’m there for.
Parking is often a mess at the arena and stadium in Glendale; it’s a huge drag for music fans.
Cizmar is writing about something different: going from place to place in the areas surrounding the venues in an unsuccessful search for a free spot, griping like an elderly snowbird about his rights being violated along the way.
In the end, like a pompous yuppie, he vows not to patronize the Westgate mall any more:
First, let me start by saying that I’ve patronized Westgate businesses before. Two weeks ago, in fact, I bought a $23 Cleveland Indians hat at the complex before a game at Camelback Ranch. That’s the last dime anyone at Westgate will get from me.
Is this really the state of rock criticism in Phoenix? His piece on the show itself was kinda … blojobby, too. Here’s the lede of that one:
After nearly a half century in the spotlight, it’s surprising to see Paul McCartney do much of anything new. How about two new things in a single night, as McCartney did while kicking off his Up and Coming Tour with a stellar sold-out show at Jobing.com Arena? Maybe I’m amazed.
The former Beatle managed to play two classic songs live for the first time on American soil in Glendale. Those songs weren’t Monkberrian obscurities, either. One was “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a hit from the Beatles studio-only years — the Beatles’ last real concert was four years before the band’s split, so a few such songs exist. The other was Wings’ “Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five,” the closing track on the group’s epic Band on the Run album. Wings toured extensively, making the fact that the song’s live debut came more than 35 years after it was released something of a surprise.
Now, think about it for a second. Just about every time anyone has toured, ever, in the history of the world, they do songs they haven’t done before.
It’s one of the most tired PR angles around. Why is this remotely interesting, much less amazing?
For someone like McCartney, it’s an even stupider thing to say. Why?
Because McCartney has toured the U.S. five, maybe six times in the forty years since he left the Beatles. (I’ve seen him four times, if I’m remembering correctly.) He’s probably played fewer than one-tenth as many shows as, say Bob Dylan has, for example, over that same period.
Given a fairly consistent setlist for each outing, McCartney could have played nothing but all different new Beatles songs alone on each of his previous U.S. tours and still have news ones in his pocket for Cizmar to get all tingly over last weekend.
2:34 PM
For world music fans only! The concert line-up at the Musical Instrument Museum
I haven’t seen this posted anywhere, and it’s hard to find on the new museum’s site.
The new theater is a cool 299-seat affair. The museum says tickets will range from $25 to $75; tix for King Sunny Ade, the biggest name here, are $48 and $58.
The venue is booked by Sunni Fass, who is billed as its managing and artistic director.
Tickets for all shows go on sale on Thursday, online at www.themim.org or by phone at 480-478-6001.
Here again is what the theater looks like:
Below is the venue’s first calendar. Commentary is by the museum:
Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
Laurie Lewis with Tom Rozum
Recognized for her ability to incorporate traditional bluegrass instruments and vocals into an
exciting musical style all her own, Grammy award-winning fiddler, singer, and songwriter
Laurie Lewis provides a seamless mix of pure country and classic bluegrass.
Ticket Prices: $32-$36
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Nation Beat
Nation Beat fuses music from the southern United States and northeast Brazil, producing an
adventurous and colorful new sound.
Ticket Prices: $25-$30
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Melody of China
San Francisco’s premier Chinese music ensemble, Melody of China promotes Chinese classical,
folk, and contemporary music, creating synergy between ancient traditions and American youth
culture.
Ticket Prices: $25-$30
Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.
Los Texmaniacs
2010 Grammy winners Los Texmaniacs create a unique Tex-Mex groove that blends Texas rock,
conjunto, well-cured blues, and R&B riffs.
Ticket Prices: $32-$36
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Boulder Acoustic Society
Old-school but never old, the indie-folk band Boulder Acoustic Society is the new wave of
American roots music, a diverse and modern mix of blues, folk, gospel, rock, and world music.
Ticket Prices: $25-$30
Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars
Formed by a group of refugees displaced during the Sierra Leone Civil War, Sierra Leone’s
Refugee All-Stars is a reggae-influenced band with a humanitarian purpose.
Ticket Prices: $40-$45
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Pnina Becher
Israeli-American pianist Pnina Becher, now living in Arizona, has sold out concerts everywhere
from the prestigious Melbourne International Arts Festival to guest performances with orchestras
in the United States, Europe and Israel.
Ticket Prices: $32-$36
Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
King Sunny Adé & His African Beats
A pioneer of modern world music, legendary Nigerian performer King Sunny Adé and his 13-
piece band will present his signature interpretations of Jùjú music rooted in the Yoruba tradition.
Ticket Prices: $48-$58
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
R. Carlos Nakai
R. Carlos Nakai is the world’s premier Native American flute virtuoso. An adventurous artist of
Navajo-Ute heritage, Nakai explores both traditional and cross-cultural uses of the flute,
including the genres of world, new age, jazz, and classical music.
Ticket Prices: $30-$38
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.
Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem
Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem offer a jubilant mix of traditional, original, and contemporary
sounds. The group’s four-part harmonies meld with fiddle, guitar, bass, and a suitcase drum to
create a fusion of American roots music, contemporary pop, and jazz.
Ticket Prices: $25-$30
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Cimarrón
Cimarrón, a seven-piece ensemble of musicians and dancers led by harpist Carlos Rojas
Hernández, are masters of the joropo llanero tradition, the festive dance music of Colombia’s
cattle-rearing plains.
Ticket Prices: $25-$30
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
William Eaton
William Eaton’s vibrant performances feature new and innovative takes on classical guitar and
showcase his handmade avant-garde stringed instruments.
Ticket Prices: $30-$38
William Eaton will also be presenting a matinee lecture/demonstration in the MIM Music
Theater on May 22nd. Details to be announced.
12:23 PM