Archive for March 2011
You should listen to the Ike Reilly Assassination, you really should. I’ll get you started; here is a link to download 10 FREE Ike Reilly songs form amazon.com.
A brief background on Reilly:
Over the course of the last 10 years Ike Reilly has released 6 albums and 3 eps. That is a pretty productive 10 years. Some musicians want you to listen to their music, others need you to listen to their music. Ike Reilly belongs to the latter group. Ike and his band don’t tour much because they can’t really afford to. The last album, the spectacular Hard Luck Stories, was funded, in part, by the fans. The album was funded by a loan from the bank and Ike’s now good friend Max. Then the music was released in the fall of 2009 digitally. The money from this, I assume, was funneled to help release a hard copy version of the album in late winter of 2010.
Reilly really tried hard to promote this album, not so much with touring but through the internet. He started doing a series of greatly entertaining podcasts and promotional videos through his website. He also started being accessible through facebook and doing live webcasts on stickam. It is hard to judge whether this promotion was a success or not but it really couldn’t have hurt.
I discovered Ike Reilly right before his second album, Sparkle In The Finish was released. My favorite band Cracker covered one of Reilly’s songs on their 2003 album Countrysides. I saw the the Ike Reilly Assassination listed in a local concert listing. The listing was in St. Joseph, Missouri, a place not a lot of bands comes to play. My brother and I went to the show not knowing really anything about Reilly and his band. The cracker album featured covers of work from Dwight Yoakam and Mearle Haggard, so I thought the Ike Reilly may well have a strong country influence. Not really true. Country influence? Yes. Country sound? No.
So let me set the scene; September 23, 2004 at The Bone in St. Joseph, MO. The Assassination comes out as a five man band, the crowd featured my brother and I, another table of three people and the sound guy. So essentially; five on stage, five in the crowd. On the plus side the special was $1 PBRs. The show was great, the band didn’t phone it in because of a small crowd and didn’t shorten the show either. It featured a heavy scattering of Reilly’s first two releases and a few covers. The covers I remember were; The Clampdown(Clash) From A Buick 6(Bob Dylan) and Dick In Dixie(Hank Williams III) He would return to the venue five months later to a much better reception, a crowd of about 40 people.
From that point, I was a devoted fan, buying every album and patiently watching concert listings. I would recommend picking up his third album Junkie Faithful if you would like to start with an album after the free sampler I posted a link to. Here is a brief summary of his recorded career.
Community #9:
I don’t have it and have never heard it. It is a release from the early ’90s that I have seen one copy of in the seven years I have been listening to Reilly. I don’t know how many copies exist but it is not a lot. It sold for around $55 on eBay, I was sniped but that is beside the point.
Salesman and Racists:
Reilly’s only major label release. Republic/Universal released the album in 2001 to critical praise, apparently it didn’t pay too many bills for Universal because Reilly was dropped. The album features many Reilly classics including: Commie Drives a Nova, My Wasted Friends, Last Time and Duty Free(the song Cracker covered)
Cars and Girls and Drinks and Songs EP:
Five song EP sold at shows around the time of Sparkle In The Finish. Featured four songs from the album including a different version of I Don’t Want What You Got Goin’ On and a EP only song Farewell To The Good Times Pt. 2(later released on a b-sides album.)
Sparkle In The Finish:
A bold rocking album and his first on Rock Ridge music which is still his label. Loaded with concert staples including I Don’t Want What You Got Goin’ On, Whatever Happened to the Girl In Me, The Boat Song and It’s All Right To Die.
Junkie Faithful:
In my opinion, Mr. Reilly’s best album. Not as much as a rocking album as Sparkle In The Finish but the songwriting got better and the album is stronger as a whole. Best Songs are God and Money, The Mixture, Kara Dean, Suffer For The Trust and I Will Let You Down.
Sparkle In The Finish; The B-Sides:
Features four unreleased songs that are really strong and would have fit well on the album they were intended for. It was the first of two digital EPs released by the band. The best song is by far Trainbomber.
The Last Demonstration EP:
Another digital EP; features 6 songs, four of which appear on the Junkie Faithful album. They repeat songs are dramatically different and worth listening to. They sound almost like demos or solo performances. Has great songs on it including the short and powerful Lust Song ’78 but the true gem is the version of Suffer For The Trust that ranks high among my favorite songs of all time.
We Belong To The Staggering Evening:
Great album of new material featuring two old songs that had been played live for years. I still remember the excitement of reading the email in the library while I was in college when it said that “The Work Song” might just be on the tracklist. The Work Song is “Fish Plant Uprising” and is one of Reilly’s standout songs of his career. The other older song is 8 More Days ‘Till The 4th of July. The song had a video on Reilly’s website of Reilly playing it solo electric with a lit sparkler in his guitar while he ripped through the song. Other great songs on the heavily front-loaded album are When Irish Eyes Are Burning, Valentine’s Day In Juarez and It’s Hard To Make Love to An American.
Poison The Hit Parade:
A B-Sides album is the best way to describe this one. Of course, artists like Reilly don’t really have B-Sides but the album features EP tracks and alternate versions of album cuts. The two new songs are the highlight; Poison The Hit Parade and Janie Doesn’t Lie. The album also features Duty Free with the alternate lyrics that were featured on the 2003 Cracker album, Countrysides.
Hard Luck Stories:
I spoke a little about Hard Luck Stories earlier in this post. It is a strong album and perhaps his most “accessible.” Reilly gives a nod back to his friends from Cracker for covering his song by letting them guest on this album. David Lowery sings on The Ballad Of Jack & Haley and Johnny Hickman gets to play guitar on Girls In The Backroom. The shining songs from this album are 7 Come 11, Good Work and the duet with Shooter Jennings The War On The Terror and the Drugs.
There you go, now LISTEN TO IKE REILLY.
There is no competition at shortstop in Royals camp this year. Alcides Escobar will be the starter and this only being his second big league season, he could be the starter for a while. It should be a lot of fun this year watching the young star play shortstop. The first thing I heard about him when the Greinke trade went down was that the Royals now have the best fielding shortstop in the American League. I think by the time I heard that I had already forgotten about Yuniesky Betancourt.
He is a what I would consider a bit of a “throwback” shortstop. This means defense comes before offense. Starting with the great Cal Ripken, shortstop became an offensive position which it really had never been. Escobar will not hit a lot, he batted just .235 last year with 4 homers and 41 runs batted in. The Royals know this going in so the offensive expectations should remain low for him. Any offense a team can get out of the shortstop and catching positions is a bonus.
Then the Royals have the prospect in camp that isn’t ready yet but we get to see our first glimpse of. In the case of shortstop it is Christian Colon. What I have seen and heard I have liked, except the fact that he looks like a Yankees fan judging by his twitter account. He is more of an offensive shortstop than Escobar. He clearly is not ready for the majors so he is no threat to Escobar yet. In 2012 he might be, and hopefully he will be a big threat in 2013 but only time will tell.
Getz will be the starting second baseman on opening day for the Royals. I believe he will have a better year than last year. I will also predict that Mike Moustakas will come up around June and force Aviles to second and Getz either to the bench or the trade block.
I listened to a recent Broken Bat Single podcast featuring an article on beyond the boxscore that made an interesting argument. It was discussed that basically Billy Butler is a microcosm of the Royals. While by no means to I feel this is inaccurate, I would substitute another player, Mike Aviles, to replace Butler in the argument.
Aviles burst onto the scene as a surprise and made a major contribution in his rookie season in the big leagues. From what I had gathered during that year, Aviles really didn’t have a ton of big league potential. He was sort of tagged as a “career Minor Leaguer.”
Now Aviles seems to be a cornerstone for the Royals, not necessarily in a way that they can build around him but they can rely on him. The Royals didn’t seem to have many of these players in recent years. A couple names do come to mind: Dejesus, Butler, Aviles. At least with some players you know what you are getting.
Aviles is a microcosm of the Royals because not much was expected out of him. Is he a superstar? No. Is he a star? No. He is consistent and solid. Low expectations and slightly higher results I guess is the bottom line. That is your microcosm of the Kansas City Royals.
So it is his year, Luke Hochevar is set to be the ace of the Royals pitching staff and likely start on opening day. Hochevar has had a career filled with potential with scattered results. At times he looks brilliant and at times not. Either way this is a make or break year for him. With all the left handed pitching coming up through the Royals system right now I like to envision a rotation with three to four lefties and Hochevar.
He is still a young pitcher. He is getting to the typical age when pitchers figure “it” out. It is another building year for the Royals. They won’t be very good but this could easily be the year that Luke Hochevar and Alex Gordon show whether they will be on the team with all of this young talent or whether they are just more high draft picks that never panned out.
Danny Duffy is a part of the Royals future plans, period. Is he part of the plan for this year though? I have him playing a lot in Kansas City this out of the bullpen. I originally thought Everett Teaford would fill a lefty out of the bullpen role along with Tim Collins but Teaford has gotten rocked so far this spring. He did pitch two innings and give up one run today in a spring training game but I still see him missing the cut unless things improve dramatically for him.
That is not to say Teaford won’t spend time in Kansas City too, I think he will. After his first couple spring appearances it just looks like he has some things to figure out.
So my prediction is that Duffy is likely to make the team. He might not make the opening day roster due to some service time issues but I’m not really sure where he is on that. Service time is a bit confusing and I’ll admit I don’t have it figured out. I know in some cases if a team holds a prospect off the roster for as little as a couple weeks they can keep him under contract for another year. The bottom line is Duffy will be in KC.
Performance is really only a part of this. I think Duffy could be in Kansas City to appease the fans. Fans have endured a lot of losing over the last few years, alright, a lot of years, and they keep hearing the names Duffy, Lamb, Hosmer, Moustakas… The fans will get the first glimpses of these guys this year. It appears to be a consensus that Moustakas will spend some time in Kansas City this year and by the end of September we are likely to see Hosmer, Lamb and a couple other guys.
Now back to Teaford for a bit. Everett Teaford seemed to be a leading candidate going into camp this year to fill a lefty spot in the bullpen. Now, maybe not so much. Ned Yost may even carry three lefties in the pen at times, I think two will be a much more common number.It will be interesting to see who joins Tim Collins in the Royals pen this year. Teaford and Duffy are not the only candidates either. There are several dark horses that could perform well and grab a spot on the 25 man roster. We will find out in a few weeks.
Dyson got into some Major League games last year, as well he might this year. It is however hard to see him on the opening day roster with how packed the Royals outfield appears to be. I like his speed in the lineup but unless he really starts to shine hitting I don’t see him getting a lot of playing time this year, that is, until we trade Melky Cabrera, even then I would rather see Cain in the biggs.
There is not a lot to say about Kyle Davies. He isn’t an ace and never will be but he is a decent starting pitcher. He shows sparks of being very good and at times looks like he isn’t even a major league caliber player. He is currently a good fit for the Royals. A long term solution? No, but he is alright for now.
I am behind this signing. I was against it at first, but after interviews and hearing what teammates say about Francoeur, I am behind him. I will admit it seems rather similar to the Mike Jacobs situation of 2009 because he was a great guy, great teammate but the skills he brought to the team didn’t match up with the team’s needs.
Jeff Francoeur will be different. I am convinced of this. Even if he doesn’t have a great year, he will be a good influence on some young players and allow those same young players time to develop before next year. I have never been very good at predicting stat lines for a year but I’m think Francoeur will end up somewhere around .265, 18 HR, 68 RBI. Not huge numbers but would undoubtedly be a respectable line for both Francoeur and the Royals.
It is not far fetched to believe that Ka’ahue could have a breakout season this year. It will be his first full season in the Major Leagues. He has been great in the minors but has had a few struggles making that big league success. He has a chance to big year, he is ready and it may be now or never. The Royals seem to have a potential logjam at first base. This could mean if Ka’ahue doesn’t perform he may the person that has to move.
The logjam pretty much involves four players; Billy Butler, Kila Ka’ahue, Eric Hosmer and Clint Robinson. Hosmer and Robinson aren’t ready yet but they aren’t far away considering how young Butler and Ka’ahue are. The Royals can DH one of these guys, which seems to be the plan in 2011, but to have a third first baseman on the roster doesn’t make any sense. I would think baring a major setback Hosmer should be ready to play every day in the big leagues next year at this time. This means Ka’ahue has this year to perform. There is a chance the Royals could move Butler but it is hard to see that happening.
What kind of year would Ka’ahue have to have to be on the opening day roster next year if Hosmer is ready? I’m not really sure but my money is on Ka’ahue getting moved at the deadline this year or next offseason, which is a shame but may be something that just has to be done.
A Hair Off Square 