Tuesday, August 28, 2012

First/Last-Brian Olive

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Kinker

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Polish Hill

"Following his 2009 self-titled debut , which was praised for skillfully blending soulful R&B with raunchy garage and psychedelia, Brian Olive (Ex-Greenhornes guitarist & Soledad Brothers multi instrumentalist) takes us further on his latest full length Two Of Everything. Listeners will recognize a number of musical touchstones here (Night Tripper era Dr. John, Exuma, early Funkadelic, Canned Heat, West Coast psych, etc) but the end result is completely Olive’s own, an insanely dynamic, soulful, psychedelically-rich summer album perfect for intergalactic flight, night visions, or voodoo rituals. Two Of Everything was recorded and produced by both Olive and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys at The Diamonds in Cincinnati, and Easy Eye Sound in Nashville and features a revolving cast of talent including long time right hand man Mike Weinel, Detroit psychedelic caveman David Shettler (SSM, the Sights), Daniel Allaire (Darker My Love), Jared McKinney (Greenhornes), and with Courtney Jaye, Leisa Han, Kari Kragness, and Sarah Benn on backing vocals. The hauntingly beautiful artwork is by Laura Dolan. Brian is also laying down sax parts for Dr. John’s upcoming album."

Brian most recently co-wrote and performed on Dr. John's album "Locked Down" on Nonesuch. He returns to Pittsburgh tomorrow night for gig Gooski's. My thanks to him for taking a few moments to participate in this edition of First/Last.

The first album you ever bought?
Queen, "The Game".

Your last album bought?
“The Rough Guide to Desert Blues”.

Favorite album of all time?
Dr. John, "Gris Gris".

Least favorite/most disappointing album?
The one where David Bowie was still Davey Jones.

First concert attended?
The Stray Cats.

Last concert?
Battles.

Favorite concert ever?
Neil Young in Golden Gate Park by accident. Some friends talked me into going to see Pearl Jam. I had seen them before and wasn't very excited. When it was announced that Eddie Vedder couldn't perform the crowd freaked out. A mass exodus had begun when the band started playing "Powderfinger". Neil Young walked out on stage. I went straight to the front and watched him play a 2 hour set!

Least favorite concert?
I saw "The Coasters" in high school. We showed up expecting the original members but what we got was five dudes looking/sounding like Bobby Brown.

Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh's always been good to me. It's a beautiful town. I'll never forget the first time I was shot out of the mountain onto the bridge!

Thanks, Brian. That's a great Neil Young story. How about the saps that left and found out later what went down? Ha!

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