Archive: 2006

I’m off to the wonderful city of Tampa for a quick work adventure, so I’ll be out of commission today. Your first order of business: Watch this pretty cool clip of Waste by a fiddler, a bassist and an acoustic guitarist. Next: Scroll down to read Monk’s recap and see his disgustingly cool photos of […]

We sent our resident left-coast photographer and good friend Felonious Monk down to the 12/3 Primus show in the California capital to snap a few shots of the action and deliver us a brief report of the evening…

Monk’s cherry-popping experience in the pit was so bizarrely overwhelming that he decided to share with us the ridiculousness of being a credentialed photographer. Maybe that lead-in sounds a little boring, but when a half-naked girl magically appears in the story, you’ll realize how interesting a night up front can be.

Using cliché-riddled math, the pictures he sent over should be worth exactly 7,000 words. But because he’s such a good guy and he took such exquisite pictures, I think we can bump that up to, like, 7,150. Check these puppers out…

While GBV was indeed a legendary band, the coverage and mystery surrounding the event seemed highly unlikely for a band that reached its peak with audiences in 1994. However, the aftermath had critics and the faithful alike scratching their heads and wondering, “What direction will Pollard take with his solo career?” The answer is very simply, “More of the same.”

Matthew Ryan’s latest, From a Late Night High-Rise, could certainly be called his life-support project, only because there is a certain strain, a certain struggle that clings to the thinnest ice on every note, where the sadness becomes beautiful.

South By Southwest (SXSW) has announced Pete Townshend as the keynote speaker for the 2007 Music Conference. The Who have recently resumed recording and performing activity with enthusiastically received performances and the  new CD,  ‘Endless Wire.’  In addition, Townshend and artist Rachel Fuller regularly present ‘Attic Jam,’ a collaborative series of performances and webcasts featuring […]

Brooklyn indie four-piece Grizzly Bear will embark on its biggest North American headlining tour yet next February. Fellow New Yorkers The Dirty Projectors and San Francisco’s Papercuts will split up support duties on the trek, which launches February 1 in Philadelphia. Grizzly Bear and the Projectors will play one date with Akron/Family February 8 in Ann […]

Assembly of Dust is set to release their debut studio album, Recollection, on Hybrid Recordings on March 6, 2007.  In keeping with the title, this is an album that recalls a time in pop music when song craft reigned supreme and players valued taste as well as technique, thanks to co-songwriters Reid Genauer and Nate […]

This week, Grousing The Aisles takes a look at the best podcasts on the web.

Just in case you are living in the early 2000s, a podcast is a file (usually mp3) distributed by subscription for use on a portable music device or on a computer. In researching this piece, it really surprises me more up-and-coming bands haven’t taken advantage of this cheap and easy way to market their music. For now, these podcasts are the best music you can buy (legally) for absolutely nothing:

Umphrey’s McGee: UM was the first band in the so-called jam genre to use podcasting to market their music. Just about every two weeks, the band releases a new 70-minute “Best Of” compilation…for free. This week the band released the 35th installment of the series that features the best music of July 2006. Jon McLennand, podcast coordinator for the band, reports “It’s been a fairly steady growth since the inception, starting from around 6,000 downloads per podcast initially to 20,000 currently.” Yes, 20,000! That’s a serious model for success…

Can’t make it to one of the 417 Allman Brothers Band shows at the Beacon Theater every year? Want to see Gregg Allman look like Jon Voight dressed as Willie Nelson for Halloween from the comfort of your home couch instead of the deep balcony? Don’t wanna stand right behind Bill Walton’s enormous torso as One Way Out starts? Then get on over to the to the ABB site and vote in support of Butch Trucks’ new plan to stream the band’s Beacon run and beyond…

Read on for more details on this potentially awesome plan from a group of guys I wouldn’t automatically classify as all that tech-savvy…fix a laptop, eat a peach.

I’m not sure what kind of coincidence this is — after all, as a kooky Russian author told Elaine Benes, there are no big coincidences and small coincidences, there are only coincidences — but two of the first three randomized songs on my iPod this morning were Boston tunes. Maybe someone’s trying to tell me […]