Ace Cowboy

November 2006 brought us a Democratic victory in the midterm elections, Tony Romo throwing five touchdowns for the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving and Marco Benevento playing five Wednesday shows as part of his residency at the legendary former club, Tonic. As far as I know, that’s all that happened.

Benevento mixed the five shows into a three-disc set, and the must-get Live at Tonic debuted yesterday. Special guests on the live album include Mike Gordon, Steven Bernstein, Dave Driewitz, Reed Mathis, Matt Chamberlain, Bobby Previte, Sir Joe Russo, Mike Dillon, Scott Metzger, Claude Coleman and Brad Barr. We’re not shills, but this is a live release that will get much rotation on my iPod.

Our favorite bearded hipster pianist/organist agreed to answer a few questions for us about the new release, the closing of Tonic, the brake pedal on all things Duo and the awesomeness of Eggs Benevento in the morning — so here we go:

I had the pleasure of seeing three of the five Tonic shows during that Novemberstand, and it’s difficult for me to pick a favorite. Of the five Wednesdays in the residency, did you have a clear favorite, or a specific memory that stands out from the run?

Without hesitation I can easily say the trio night with Reed Mathis and Matt Chamberlain really stood out for me, which is pretty much what leads me here to Seattle — we just began a seven-day West Coast run. The energy of the three of us on stage is very visible; we’re totally in awe of how the music happens. It was and still is unexplainable! Every time Reed and Matt touch their instruments, they do it with wide-eyed wonder and excitement, which I’m a big fan of. The first disc of the “Live at Tonic” release features a lot of the trio, however, the second tune on the second disc “We’re Using Time For Fun” is one of my favorite improvisations of the entire run.

Read on for more on why Marco may be moving from NYC to a country farm…

We already know that Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett all resemble the Lucious Bobby Dylan enough to play the formerjew in

Two of the most iconic musicians of the last 50 years each wrote a song for the same woman, whom they both loved so intently it formed the most bizarre love triangle

…though our route’s clearly not up through the quad to the gymnasium… Just as we all love to raid the fridge at 2 am, we also love to raid the Internet

New rule: If you’re struggling to reach a milestone, invite me to your next game. Barry Bonds couldn’t manage to hit #714 to tie Babe Ruth’s mark for 40 at-bats,

We don’t know much about Godsmack, other than what the always-reliable folks at Wikipedia tell us: They’ve had two #1 albums, 11 top-ten singles and four #1 hits on the way

As New Yorkers that were working downtown in September 2001, we’re sensitive to tragedy. So our hearts and thoughts go out to our friends in Minnesota this morning — and

I had a whole My Morning Jacket post full’a YouTubes all set to go today, but then I stumbled upon these wicked Blind Melon clips from — shit, could it

Pitchfork today posted a double dose of dip-dappin’ news from the Sharon Jones camp, and if youse’ve been reading this here rag since inception, you know how much we love the struttin’ n’ cluckin’ sassmouth Queen of Funk.

The Female James Brown has announced a slew of tour dates, including an early October show at the world famous Apollo Theater (read on for dates). But what else has Ms. Jones been up to while The Dap-Kings are shuffling off with legendary strumpet Amy Winehouse? She’s gonna be in pictures:

Jones will play a small role as a soul singer (quite a stretch) in the forthcoming flick The Great Debaters, directed by and starring Denzel Washington. It’s scheduled for a Christmas Day release. And, because Denzel knows on which side his bread is buttered, he’s pegged Sharon to contribute a few tracks to the film’s soundtrack.

I’ll be in Harlem for sure, and I’ll be at that Denzel flick on opening night. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from watching Sharon Jones ask all kinds of rhetorical questions through song. Read on after the jump for a full list of tour dates and a handful of YouTube videos that’ll make you wanna dance…

We’re gonna gender bend on this one and combine an informative post with a video post. We’ve got some big, brown news from the Ween camp: Yes, the new Ween album has a name,