The Kinks pictures from Rolling Stone

Picture: News Ticker: Phish, Ray Davies, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Janet Jackson

Picture: Ray Davies Nabs Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Killers to Redo Kinks Cuts

Picture: Readers’ Rock List: Best Sibling Bands

Picture: Kinks’ Ray Davies Pens New Musical “Come Dancing”

Picture: News Ticker: Yoko Ono, Foxy Brown, Miley Cyrus, The Strokes

Picture: Readers’ Rock List: Best “Green” Songs

Picture: Rock List: Readers’ Best Drinking Songs

Picture: Wes Anderson’s ‘The Darjeeling Limited’: First Look at the Film’s Soundtrack

Picture: David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Turns 35, Beck Hits the Studio, Ray Davies Loses His Day in Court

Picture: New Music Report: Ray Davies, The Mountain Goats

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Ray Davies Dials Up Showmanship, Kinks Tunes at San Fran Solo Gig

Former Kinks frontman Ray Davies took the stage of San Francisco’s soon-to-close Warfield Theatre Friday night with an aquamarine Fender guitar and launched into his self-descriptive “I’m Not Like Everybody Else.” This obscure 1966 B-side suggested that the first of his handful of rare solo shows would neither be focused solely on promoting the preeminent English songwriter’s new album Working Man’s Cafe nor dominated by the Kinks’ most familiar hits. Yet the crowd sang the chorus loudly without much prompting, a sure signal that this audience was comprised of serious Davies/Kinks fans, and that their hero knew just how to reach them. Nearly every Kinks tune from Davies’ two sets — popular or otherwise — was met with a sing-along response that the unrepentant ham onstage was eager to encourage. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” “A Well Respected Man” and “Days” were all treated to arrangements that would prematurely stop and then build back up again in order to give the crowd a chance to clearly hear itself and feel the power of its collective voice. Throughout the evening, Davies gesticulated with a vaudevillian broadness that underlines his aesthetic debt to British music hall traditions. During the intro to “The Tourist,” he left the stage to return in a Union Jack sport coat, and when the song finished, he pointedly turned the jacket inside out to reveal an American flag. His four-piece band remained well within its supporting role, leaving the spotlight where it should: on the showman and his keenly observed songs. Whereas the first set wove songs from Davies’ 2006 solo album Other People’s Lives between Kinks cult classics, the second featured a largely acoustic five-song serving from Working Man’s Cafe before climaxing with expected crowd-pleasers like “Sunny Afternoon,” “Lola” and “You Really Got Me.” Although Davie

Published: 2008-03-31
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

SXSW Day One Wrap-Up: The Kills, Peter Moren and Kaki King

Follow all of RollingStone.com’s ongoing SXSW coverage here. The opening day of the annual South by Southwest festival is in the books, and while fans, journalists and industry people were still busy arriving and staking out the best spots for margaritas, there were still plenty of parties and showcases to whet the musical appetite. Here are a few highlights from the opening round of what will be a long and fruitful festival. • Kill the Daylight: The line for the Levi’s/Fader house snaked around the block in the moments before the Kills took the stage on Wednesday afternoon. They opened their set with “U R A Fever,” the first single from their new album, Midnight Boom, and picked up steam — and crowd enthusiasm — over the next couple tunes. Oddly, the room was nowhere near as crowded as I expected given the size of the line. Hopefully the Levi’s/Fader folks, who consistently throw one of SXSW’s best daytime parties, will have the kinks worked out by today. • Friends With “P”: Peter Morén of Peter Bjorn and John played a solo gig at the Parish last night, as part of the Almost Gold showcase. I suspect that people eyeballing the festival guide didn’t recognize Morén’s name from his popular indie rock group, because it was a fairly low-key crowd. Morén, meanwhile, seemed slightly uncomfortable onstage without Bjorn and John, but only in between songs when his monologues rambled on and on. The performance itself, however, was lovely in just the way you’d hope: Apparently, Morén decided to do a solo project after having too much extra PB&J material, and the sparsely orchestrated tunes he played last night sounded like they could have easily fit in on Writer’s Block. He definitely needs to work on editing his own banter, though. • King of the Night: Kaki King slayed the crowd at Club DeVille just before midnight. Playing with her full band, the

Published: 2008-03-13
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, SXSW

The Kinks

The Kinks pictures from Rolling Stone

News Ticker: Phish, Ray Davies, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Janet Jackson

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Ray Davies Nabs Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Killers to Redo Kinks Cuts

Readers’ Rock List: Best Sibling Bands

Kinks’ Ray Davies Pens New Musical “Come Dancing”

News Ticker: Yoko Ono, Foxy Brown, Miley Cyrus, The Strokes

Readers’ Rock List: Best “Green” Songs

Rock List: Readers’ Best Drinking Songs

Wes Anderson’s ‘The Darjeeling Limited’: First Look at the Film’s Soundtrack

David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Turns 35, Beck Hits the Studio, Ray Davies Loses His Day in Court

Weekend Rock List: Color Songs

New Music Report: Ray Davies, The Mountain Goats

Blogging “American Idol”: Mrs. Scarnato, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter

Single Minded: Britney Spears Remix, Wilco Cover Neutral Milk Hotel and More

Ray Davies Dials Up Showmanship, Kinks Tunes at San Fran Solo Gig

SXSW Day One Wrap-Up: The Kills, Peter Moren and Kaki King