On the road with Alabama 3

My favorite obscure band, Alabama 3 (known as “A3″ in the US, for trademark reasons), is on tour… I came within an insane hair’s breadth of heading to London to go see them play the Astoria this week, but at the last minute, I couldn’t get it pulled together… Oh well…

In the meantime, the band’s drummer — “The Spirit” (Orlando Harrison) has shared his diary of existential angst on tour with one of the UK’s most popular live acts, and the best band you’ve never heard of…

CAMBRIDGE

I have slept, I’ve had a shower, I’ve had breakfast. I am a normal person. Yes I am.

It’s an easy gig. D Wayne has recovered from his psychotic episode, Rock has remembered how to play and it’s a fluffy crowd; they jump up and down and shout and scream just like they’re supposed to.

Later, on the bus, me, Ed and Davey pontificate with great articulation on the state of the music industry, then they draw faces on an apple and a tangerine and make them talk to me in funny voices. I love this business…

The rest of the article is here, and the highly unofficial fan forum is here.

Alabama 3 – Katrina Relief Appeal

Brothers and Sisters, I’ve been remiss in mentioning that my favorite band, the UK’s Alabama 3, has up an MP3 of a new song, “Trying to get to Heaven (Before They Close the Door)” — it’s available free, but only if you donate to one of the various Hurricane Katrina charity funds (you’re on the honor system, but you don’t wanna piss off the Rev. D. Wayne.)

The back story is that after they got the news about Katrina, they headed into the studio and cut this track especially for this purpose (which is more than some folks over here were doing at the time — not bad for a club band from Brixton.)

They selected “Trying to get to Heaven”, a cover of an old Bob Dylan piece, as being particularly appropriate to the situation, but as you can imagine, it sounds a little different with Larry Love’s blues-soaked vocals than it did when Dylan did it.

“‘Cus I’m going down the river baby,
I’m going down to New Orleans.
When find out you’ve lost everything,
you find out you lose a little more.
I’ve been all around the world boys,
I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door”

Alabama 3 – Trying to Get to Heaven (Before They Close the Door)

Excellent work, from the best band that nobody ever heard of…

Alabama 3 – Outlaw Early Review

“There’s a train a-coming…”

It looks like things are ramping up for the imminent release of the new Alabama 3 (“A3″ in the US) album, “Outlaw”.  An early review is available here…

“The latest offering is simply called “Outlaw”. Once again it features wit as sharp as a needle. Once again it’s built around a melange of country, bluegrass, the blues and home-grown techno. However, where previous outings occasionally found the disparate elements engaged in a stylistic tug of war, this set sounds completely natural. No longer a case of welding together opposites in a perverse game of Push The Parameters, but simply an exercise in common ground. These are sounds that emerged from the (under)ground up. Decades apart perhaps, but from the same unifying tortured soul. The songs of life’s outsiders. The sounds of history’s outlaws.

And it’s a great record. Far more extravert than either “La Peste” and “Power in the Blood”, more pure than “Exile on Coldharbour Lane”, “Outlaw” finds the band jumping the trains of sepia tinted American mythology and drawing a direct line to the all too often unsung outlaws of British history…

…an album that draws on the unifying experience of the outsider fuses cultures and revels in the resulting confusion. It’s an album about survival in a crazy world, a record that is rich in its own humanity (like all great story tellers Rob ["Larry Love"] brings to life the real emotions at the core of the moody, dangerous ghetto – a fact that goes way beyond bling bling culture). Above all however “Outlaw” is the album that Alabama 3 have threatened to make since day one. “

Via FreeA3

Want a taste of Alabama 3?  You can find several excellent free MP3s (including an early version of “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”, apparently to be the first single from the album) here.

(Courtesy of Captain Paranoid, who also has some tasty MP3s on that same page)

New Alabama 3 Album and Tour

Alabama 3, the “music industry’s best kept secret”, has just announced the dates for their new tour, in support of their soon-to-be-released new album, “Outlaw”.

w00t!  A new album, and a new tour!  Unfortunately, the tour isn’t coming within 5,000 miles of me, but hey, I can still enjoy it vicariously…

As always, you can find more details about this, like all things Alabama 3, at Free A3 – The unofficial Alabama 3 forum.

Pictured: Larry Love (left) and The Very Reverend Dr. D.Wayne Love (right)

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Captain Paranoid / Hunter S. Thompson Tribute

Paranoia and Loathing in Cardiff

One of my favorite bands, Captain Paranoid and the Delusions, is doing a Hunter S. Thompson Tribute Night, Thursday March 24th, at the Toucan in Cardiff, UK.

More info here.

If you’re in the area, get out and show your support!

What’s that?  You haven’t heard any Captain Paranoid?  Well where have YOU been? 

You need to click here and getcha some free MP3s! 

Clever and astute readers will also find some tasty Alabama 3 tracks on that very same page…

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“Born again of water…”

The world’s getting smaller.  Alabama 3 plays Cabot Hall, and Mark Reed has blogged it…

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The Continuing Adventures of the Music Industry’s Best Kept Secret*

(*due mostly to their advanced age and politics, a friend suggested in e-mail)

One of the definite highlights of 2003 was a flurry of releases from my favorite band, the UK’s Alabama3 (known as A3 in the US, to the extent they’re known at all).

Like most folks in the US, I first discovered them back in early ‘99, when the Sopranos first aired, featuring “Woke Up This Morning” as the series theme…

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Worthy Import

Even though it’s been out for six months, the latest A3 (Alabama3 outside the US) album hasn’t made it’s way to US distribution yet.

Nevermind, it’s worth paying for the import…

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Favorite Shoutcast Streams

For me, getting things done often requires proper musical support… While my local collection is fairly extensive, occasionally I get tired of listening to what I’ve been listening to, and don’t feel like taking the time to build a new playlist… When that happens, it’s time to turn to a decent Shoutcast stream… Here are my recent favorites:

SomaFM: Listener Supported, Commercial Free Internet Radio – six different streams, each in three rates.  Groove Salad, Secret Agent, Drone Zone, indiepop rocks, cliqhop idm and Beat Blender.

My favorite band, Alabama3 (known as A3 in the US, aka “that Soprono’s theme song band”) has a great new site up.  As well as some kick-ass flash work and a generous sample of free MP3s, the site features a Live365 stream chock full of old and new album stuff, some excellent remixes, and the occasional piece of old school country.  If you’re not familiar with Alabama3, expect smokey, whiskey-soaked vocals, gospel & blues influences, all done up as cutting edge house music.  They call it “Acid House Country”, but it rather defies description—you’ve got to experience it. If you enjoy A3, you may also want to check out FreeA3.com , the Unofficial Alabama 3 Website…

If you enjoy Shoutcast streams, you might also want to check out StreamRipper, a tool to capture (and in many cases split out component songs) from Shoutcast streams. Since a rather nasty cease and desist action, StreamRipper does not support Live365 streams in its released configuration.

Gotta love Open Source software…

Do you have a favorite Shoutcast stream or tool?  You’re welcome to leave a comment (or trackback) and share it…

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