Grousing The Aisles: Long Live Rock and Roll

The Clash were a monumentally important band that bridged the gap between punk and pop before leading the transition to new wave. This video compilation features 33 tracks spanning from 1979 through the band’s performance at the US Festival in 1983. The quality on all of these clips are amazing, and it is quite a trip to see the band on some old television shows I had forgotten about.

Disc One features The Clash on British television, while the second disc presents many of the band’s American televison appearances. My favorite performances occur at the end of each DVD in the set. Clash City Rockers, Somebody Got Murdered, London Calling, and Safe European Home that end the first DVD from Ohne Maulkorbe in Vienna are played with the fierce passion of a band on the rise.

The footage from the US Festival that ends the second disc shows a band at the peak of their career. In fact, that show was Mick Jones’ last gig with The Clash. Some sources say The Clash only agreed to come on stage that night after festival promoter (and Apple Computers co-founder) Steve Wozniak agreed to pony up more money for the band, while others say The Clash wanted Woz to donate more money to charity.

Outformation 02/08/07 DAUD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):

Sam Holt spent seven years as Michael Houser’s (Widespread Panic) guitar tech. Upon Houser’s untimely death in 2002, Holt decided to strike out on his own and formed Outformation. I’d heard a ton about this band, both good and bad, so I finally decided to check out a recording for myself.

One of the things that struck me immediately upon listening to this show from Philadelphia is how similar Holt’s tone is to his former employer. I can understand the criticisms I’ve heard about this band being Panic-Lite, but I kinda dug the similarities — Houser had such a unique “I’m going to play a bunch of different not-connected lead lines and see how it turns out” style to his playing. And Holt and Outformation don’t run from their close association with Widespread Panic, going so far as to cover the instrumental A of D towards the end of this show.

Houser was also a terrific (and extremely underrated) songwriter, something that is going to take Holt et al sometime to achieve. Outformation also needs to work on their vocals. The band is at its best when Holt is given room to solo and no one is singing. All in all, I enjoyed this show and look forward to catching the band live.

The Lemonheads 06/24/93 and 07/04/94 SBD (320kbps MP3):

The Lemonheads were my favorite band the year before I found Phish. There really aren’t any striking similarities between the music of the two bands, so I’m not sure how I transformed from power pop to jamtastic so quickly. But I did.

Evan Dando, the leader of The Lemonheads, is a rare singer/songwriter type that knows his way around a distortion pedal. Over the 20 years since the band formed in Boston, The Lemonheads music has gone through numerous changes. The mid ’90s brought a poppy element to the ‘Heads music, which had previously relied on punk rhythms and changes.

It’s A Shame About Ray and Come On (Feel The Lemonheads) show the music of this band at its best: catchy pop tunes with a rock sensibility combined with lyrics that hinted at a darkness behind the light. The two shows featured here focus on that material. Many songs are repeated between the two shows, but the way Dando and company performed the songs, they were always unique and different from night to night. Hey look at that: I guess I figured out the connection between the Lemonheads and Phish.

For tracklists, source information, and lossless files, feel free to check out the original torrents on Dimeadozen.

So what have you been listening to this week? Anything new and exciting? Please let us know by leaving a comment below…