Tag Archives: Adam Weiner

Flashlite #617

Sarah Harmer

Good songwriting today! We have new music by Sarah Harmer and Eamon McGrath, both from Canada, Adam Weiner and his Low Cut Connie on a new album. We also have one of the most legendary ones: Bruce Springsteen. Talking about legends, John Mayall has just celebrated his 86th birthday with a new single, collaborating with Buddy Miller. Willie Nile had a good record this year and there’s also a tribute organized in his honor. Shemekia Copeland has a lovely new feminist cover of Under My Thumb. Finally, Templo Diez is a new band from Netherlands that we introduce in today’s show.

Daniel Romano – Natural Lover;
Sarah Harmer – New Low;
Low Cut Connie – Help Me;
Swampmeat Family Band – Mother’s Lies;
Molly Tuttle – She’s a Rainbow;
The Rolling Stones – Under my Thumb;
Shemekia Copeland – Under My Thumb;
John Mayall – I’m as Good as Gone (Feat. Buddy Miller);
John Mayall – Curly;
Bette Smith – I Felt It Too;
Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap;
Any Trouble – Growing Up;
Bruce Springsteen – Last Man Standing;
Eamon McGrath – Sparkle & Bleed;
Dan Penn – Edge of Love;
Templo Diez – 305 South;
Graham Parker – One Guitar;
Willie Nile – the Fool Who Drank the Ocean.

Flashlite #590

Beth Bombara

Low Cut Connie used to be a band of two primary songwriters: Adam Weiner and Dan Finnemore. Dan is now with Swampmeat Family Band and Adam continues with Low Cut Connie. It’s a wonderful coincidence that we have new songs by both bands in today’s show. Legendary punks X from Los Angeles are also back with the original line up on a new record Alphabetland. Original line up means Billy Zoom on guitar. They revisit a song they did on an album without Billy on the new record and we check that out. Back then, Tony Gilkyson was with the band on guitar. And Tony’s sister Eliza has a new record too. David Bromberg revisits his 1972 song Diamond Lil in his brand new record. Glenn Danzig is here with a cover album dedicated to Elvis Prisley. Beth Bombara is back with the new record and Whitney Rose is a new singer songwriter that we introduce in this episode. Also introducing are Fred and Rose from Argentina, who named themselves after a historical couple who committed crimes. Suicide Swans are also a new band for us, they come from Toowoomba in Australia.

Robert Forster – Songwriters on the Run;
Beth Bombara – Evergreen;
Whitney Rose – In a Rut;
Ashley McBryde – Hang In There Girl;
Fiver – It Is What It Is (Radio Edit);
Low Cut Connie – Look What They Did;
Swampmeat Family Band – If You Want Me To;
The Flesh Eaters – Cyrano De Berger’s Back;
X – Cyrano De Berger’s Back;
Eliza Gilkyson – Peace in our Hearts;
Glenn Danzig and the Power and Fury Orchestra – You & Me (Less Than Zero);
Elvis Prisley – When It Rains, It Really Pours;
Glenn Danzig – When It Rains It Really Pours;
David Bromberg – Diamond Lil;
Ida Mae – My Girl Is A Heartbreak;
Fred & Rose – My Baby Got Balls;
Suicide Swans – Someone’s Chrome;
Yawpers – Live in CLE;
Bele Vrane – Eskalacija.

Low Cut Connie – Call Me Sylvia (Side One Dummy)

Low Cut Connie - Cal Me SylviaIf you haven’t seen Low Cut Connie live show yet, you should. There is not too many bands out there that put such a fun, carefree show. They would surely prefer to have a full house, but even if there’s an audience of five, they’ll knock the house down. Adam Weiner carries upright piano to every show and it’s gotta be a hell to tune it while on tour, but that piano is a key instrument in the band and some synthesizer just won’t do. Weiner shares song writing and vocal duties with an Englishman Dan Finnemore. Dan sings in a flawless american accent though. The band will sometimes rotate not just vocals, but also instruments at their live show and in short, it’s the hardest working band out there on the tour.

Excellent sense of humor will keep a smile on your face and upbeat tunes will keep you on your feet. Their record Call Me Sylvia is in that sense an excellent representative of their live shows. Wild, unbridled atmosphere did not get lost in the studio. Chatter of the background singers was not taken out of the mix and sometimes you will feel that the band members also called in their friends to help with the hand-clapping. It’s never generous to represent some band as “this” meets “that”, but I cannot resist to say that Low Cut Connie sounds like Replacements would, had they decided to make an LP with Willie DeVille. And their live music enthusiasm can only be compared to the shenanigans one can see at The Fleshtones gigs. And of course, Weiner’s piano acrobatics and his ruffled bangs rightfully often draw comparisons to Jerry Lee Lewis.

Clevelanders should get a kick out of the song Cleveland, which is a hilarious story of a suicidal male stripper returning to his hometown after a failed career, perhaps in some bigger town, like New York City, which is where Low Cut Connie are based in. Call it black humor, but as a Clevelander, I am proud. That’s a Weiner’s song, whose writing is generally humorous, ironic and cabaret, while Finnemore’s tunes are generally more melodious, no-frills rock’n’roll tunes about cars and girls.

Although the record was originally published as a CD in 2012, the vinyl release saw the light of day in 2013. That and the fact that I got a hold of the record only in December last year, qualifies it for consideration for one of the best albums in 2013. The outer groove of the record indicates that the vinyl master was done by Joe Lambert at JLM and the vinyl sound overall is pretty good. It is wide and spacious, although slightly heavy on high frequencies, but that’s just my taste. I fixed it with an easy adjustment on my equalizer. I am not sure what pressing plant was used, but that factory could pay more attention to the quality control – B side of my copy has a slight eccentricity and some wobble due to it.