Pitchfork: Jay Farrar Releases Live Album & DVD, Tours

Jay Farrar Releases Live Album & DVD, Tours
Expected to rival "Honkin' On Bobo" in both critical acclaim and artistic merit

Jay Farrar, that sturdy monolith around which all alt-country cro-magnons will forever hoot and holler, adds the first ever official live album to his storied catalogue this June 8th with the release of Stone, Steel & Bright Lights. Culled from solo shows recorded last fall and winter, which featured Washington D.C. space rockers Canyon playing a healthy amount of backup, the record contains 15 live selections from Farrar's solo albums; two new originals, "6 String Belief" and "Doesn't Have to Be This Way", as well as a pair of interesting covers (Syd Barrett's "Lucifer Sam" and Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane") will also be included. Tracklist:

01 Doesn't Have to Be This Way
02 Greenwich Time
03 6 String Belief
04 Feel Free
05 Make It Alright
06 No Rolling Back
07 Damn Shame
08 All of Your Might
09 Cahokian
10 Heart on the Ground
11 California
12 Fool King's Crown
13 Vitamins
14 Voodoo Candle
15 Damaged Sons
16 Feed Kill Chain
17 Clear Day Thunder
18 Lucifer Sun
19 Like a Hurricane

A bonus DVD containing an 11-song set from a January tour stop in San Francisco with Canyon is set to be included with the release as well. The nearly gratuitous audio/visual smorgasbord will be released on Farrar's newly renamed label, Transmit Sound. Anyone actually interested in the logic behind a record label's name shift, or perhaps John Birch types looking for justification to continue disliking Germany, should be fully sated by the willfully juvenile explanation on the artist's website: "We have changed the name of Jay's label from Act/Resist Records to Transmit Sound. ACT Music, a label in Germany, was concerned about the confusion created in the marketplace due to our similar label name. We came up with a name that we like better anyways." So there?

An entirely different type of live album, Live in Seattle, is currently available for download on Farrar's website. Apparently catering to people savvy enough to own computers, but unaware/afraid of the free, anonymous file-sharing programs the kids love so much these days, this 15-song performance (taped at the Showbox in Seattle last July) closes with a bitchin' Townes Van Zandt cover and actually costs money. Tracklist:

01 Make It Alright
02 Feel Free
03 California
04 Barstow
05 Gather
06 Heart on the Ground
07 No Rolling Back
08 Damn Shame
09 All of Your Might
10 Cahokian
11 Vitamins
12 Feed Kill Chain
13 Voodoo Candle
14 Fool King?s Crown
15 White Freightliner Blues
And finally, Farrar is presently out touring the world and Iowa, traveling light without his new Crazy Horse. Dates:
04-30 Kilkenny, Ireland - Carlsberg Rhythm & Roots Weekend (w/James Walbourne)
05-01 Kilkenny, Ireland - Carlsberg Rhythm & Roots Weekend (w/James Walbourne)
05-15 Auckland, New Zealand - Kings Arms *
05-16 Wellington, New Zealand - Bar Bodega *
05-19 Adelaide, Australia - Jive *
05-20 Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel *
05-21 Brisbane, Australia - The Zoo *
05-22 Sydney, Australia - Annandale Hotel *
06-17 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace *
06-18 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews *
06-19 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews *