FISTFULAYEN

[photo from the Aquarium Drunkard review of the LA show]

I biked all over Santa Monica yesterday dropping off dry cleaning, picking up a few groceries, and watching Zoe get fitted for her prom dress, mostly listening to this Ryan Adams show from two weeks back, live in Santa Cruz. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten into one of Ryan’s records (since Gold, to be specific, though the new one was definitely ok and Zoe spun the hell out of it), but I’ve got nothing but respect for the guy. He’s a talented, thinking, feeling human who pours his soul into the world via music on a daily basis. And the band is AMAZING, killing it out there night after night, as you hear if you listen to this whole show. We need more Ryans in this world. Haters need to stop criticizing the dude and let him do what he does.

It’s hard not to admire his love of his job. Three hour shows with an intermission? When he was at Yahoo! someone asked about being frighteningly prolific and he said something like, “I don’t have another job. If I can’t get up every morning and write songs and play music for four hours, what good am I?” I wish more of my favorite artists had this sort of work ethic. I get up and work every day, I’d be stoked if they did, too.

My unsolicited and 100% ignored advice to his manager was that he stop releasing “albums” and just put it *all* out there on the Web. I’d subscribe to that. Then you can package up the best as “albums” every now and then if you need something to sell at Starbucks. I’m not a huge fan of this idea for most artists, but I think it could work for Ryan.

Anyway, check out the show and enjoy some rock.

Download the whole show from Archive.org
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Peaceful Valley
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Bartering Lines
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – I See Monsters
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Magnolia Mountain

Oh one last thing: don’t miss this performance on Hank Rollins show. Mind-bending.

ian