Posts by Ace Cowboy

Here’s a survey that must be flawed: “The poll by Harris Interactive…showed that…83 percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education.” Then how do I know tons of poor folk that’ve played the skin flute for years?

It looks as if the Jackson 5 may reunite for what may potentially be the biggest source of Grade-A music-blog fodder since Radiohead “pulled a Radiohead.”

Jermaine’s talking, and he claims the talented one will be involved in some role:

Michael will be involved. We want to tour. We want to touch the lives of everybody who’s bought our records and supported us. It will probably start here first, but it will be sometime in 2008. That’s our plan.”

Our guess is Michael will want to touch more than just lives…we’ll let you know if “scrumptious boycock” is featured prominently on the tour rider. Eh, too easy.

We had some fun at the expense of the popular indie-jam rock band moe. some five weeks ago, taking the piss out of the group’s management after it blasted out an e-mail to fans about the band’s innate potential for corporate partnerships, synergistic sponsorships and customized ad jingles. And while Don’t Fuck With Flo has, […]

Sixteen years ago this weekend the world lost the ultimate showman, a once-in-a-generation performer who couldn’t singlehandedly erase the Village People from public consciousness yet still managed to make butch flamboyance a relatively cool endeavor. So to celebrate the life and times of the great Freddie Mercury on this day, I now present this not-so-fitting […]

It’s the What-the-Fuck-on-Earf-Do-I-Do-Today? morning after Thanksgiving, and if you’re one of the sociopathic nutbars whose been up for five hours grousing the aisles of your local retailer in search of holiday bargains, best take a load off with the following seven numbers and a cup of hot cocoa. This one’s drenched in funk the pilgrims […]

Ronnie Hawkins pitched Robbie Robertson on joining his band with one undeniable sentence: “Son, you won’t make much money, but you’ll get more pussy than Frank Sinatra.” That’s what most heterosexual males call “a decent offer.”

Some 15 or so years later, Hawkins stood with Robertson and the other four brilliant members of The Band on the Winterland stage on Thanksgiving day in 1976. It’d mark the last time these five performed together as one of the greatest mostly non-American, American rock bands in music history (and probably the most underrated). Just about 31 years after The Last Waltz, we celebrate the greatest rock concert ever and the greatest concert film of all-time. Lotta superlatives today.

There’s no legitimate or acceptable excuse to be a music fan and not own this DVD. But if for some strange reason you “just never bought it,” we’ve compiled just about every single musical clip from the movie after the jump. Spend this fine turkey day with The Band and some little-known friends like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Van the Man Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Ronnie Hawkins and more. Could you imagine if blogs existed back then? The Internet may have exploded that night.

Maybe one day when the time is right, we can finally pull off my Last Waltz Halloween Party. It’ll be better than Vegoose. Anyway, read on to really enjoy your Thanksgiving…

The Silver Jews yentas over at Pitchfork always seem to have the Berman-related scoop, and today they’re reporting the title of the band’s forthcoming LP will be Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. The album hits some time in April 2008, but so far there’s no confirmed information, speculative rumors, innuendos, hints or allegations about either a […]

The truth about that “song from Fenway” hath been revealed: “Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy’s daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit Sweet Caroline.”

The Benevento/Russo Duo sets up in Williamsburg on Thanksgiving Eve, a surprisingly rare New York show following years of playing the shit out of this city.

The Duo built up incredible momentum over the past couple years: The jamband crowd praised their individual efforts on the widely (and wrongly) panned summer 2006 tour with Half of Phish, while the hipsters watched as Pitchfork generously heaped kudos all over their sophomore album, Play Pause Stop.

But Marco and Joe covered the brake, going their separate ways for much of the year. Despite a recent tour, nobody knows what the future holds for the twosome nor whether they’ll choose to make their livings with other musicians.

Regardless of the Duo’s long-term plans, both parties are producing fantastic music away from each other. Sir Joe’s teamed up with American Babies and debuted his Anti-Jazz Raygun imprAvant death metal band, while Marco’s making incredible jazz-plus music with equally incredible musicians.

And now comes word into Hidden Track headquarters that HYENA Records will release Marco Benevento’s new solo studio album, Invisible Baby. In addition to Marco, the new album features JFJO and TLG’s Reed Mathis, Matt Chamberlain and The Slip’s Andrew Barr. We’re told this album will be released digitally on January 8th, and the physical CD version will come out on February 12th.

• Stream: The Real Afternoon Party — Marco Benevento [ropeadope]
• Stream: Atari — Marco Benevento [ropeadope]

Many Clapton fans went apeshit when Col. Reunion announced he’d be pairing up with former Blind Faith bandmate Steve Winwood for three shows at Madison Square Garden in February. A good portion of those fans then went conversely apeshit when they realized a decent seat would cost them at least $145 with fees, all for that ever-elusive taste of nostalgia (and chips). That’s right bollocks.

But if you want a $265 look at the reformed collaborators for considerably cheaper (though, obviously, not live), Rhino today released the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 on a 38-track DVD just in time for the Black Friday rush.

Filmed in HD from every angle, the two-disc set captures the best efforts from a star-studded lineup that included the aforementioned Winwood (for Presence Of The Lord, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Had To Cry Today and Crossroads), as well as B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Jeff Beck, Robert Randolph, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and many more.

Now as part of our Everybody Wins When We Plug Something And In Return They Offer Me Free Shit To Give Away contest, we’ll send you a free copy of the Crossroads DVD and a heady copy of Clapton’s autobiography if you chime in below and answer this query: You are Slowhand, and you’re putting together next year’s big guitar jam — who are the five [living] guitarists you’d want on the festival’s bill? Sound off in the comments for your shot to win.

• View the Crossroads E-Card here or buy the two-disc DVD here
• Sample Video: Presence of the Lord (Clapton/Winwood) — QT or WMV
• Sample Video: Belief (John Mayer) — QT or WMV
• Sample Video: Sweet Thing (Vince Gill) — QT or WMV
• Sample Video: Tulsa Time (S. Crow/Clapton/Gill/A. Lee) — QT or WMV

For once in my life, I didn’t get exactly what I wanted at a concert and still walked out elated. In lieu of my desired throwback to nonstop ’70s funk from start to finish, Stevie Wonder instead turned in one of those legendary, well-rounded shows we’ll be talking about for decades. Saturday was mastery incarnate.

For once in my life, I didn’t get exactly what I wanted at a concert and still walked out elated. In lieu of my desired throwback to nonstop ’70s funk from start to finish, Stevie Wonder instead turned in one of those legendary, well-rounded shows we’ll be talking about for decades. Saturday was mastery incarnate.

Photos by JanesAddiction

Take away the awe-inspiring Tony Bennett sit-in on For Once In My Life. Strip out Prince’s cool-as-fuck raunchy rhythm guitar cameo during Superstition. Stevie’s return to Madison Square Garden as a headliner for the first time in 11 years needed no celebrity frills — along with an eight-piece, three-singer band, Wonder played a monster two-and-a-half hour set filled with every possible hit.

The show was a bit more mellow, somber and emotional than I’d have preferred, but one thing is certain: That motherfucker can still play and sing as well as any time in his musical history. Close your eyes during Golden Lady or Too High and you’d think it’s 1974 and he’s touring behind Innervisions. His voice is still as powerful as ever, his personality as sharp as ever, his music downright timeless.

Sure I thought the show started out slow and that his backup band was the type you’d see at a reception celebrating a boy from the Goldstein or Schwartz clans becoming a man, but 150 straight minutes of Stevie fucking Wonder begets a huge smile from this jerk on his way out of the venue. Also, I now know that “God is Good” (as seen here during Saturday’s Master Blaster), and you can’t put a price on that. In lieu of continuing with one of them there proper reviews, I thought I’d turn to some non-pertinent news and notes for youse:

1. Every time the house lights go down and a band takes the stage, I generally hope the show begins with a balls-out rocker, a top-drawer opener eager to fuck me right in the ear. Stevie on this night didn’t disappoint, treating the crowd to a solemn speech that started with a moment of silence for 9/11 and an emotional anecdote about the loss of his mother. In a word, rager. Fucking rager.

2. I keed, I keed. It was moving. But said speech did contain a moment of “Oh na she di’int” hilarity. Stevie mentioned the date “May 31, 2006” and received a loud, female “WOOO!” that reverberated throughout the self-proclaimed world’s most famous arena, a scream similar to the one produced when an artist says he just came from “Cleveland” and an Ohioan perks up. Only Stevie immediately followed that noise with the words “That was the day I lost my mother,” which drew an audible “Ooooh” from the capacity crowd at this girl’s faux pas.

3. I rarely catch political acts of any kind, and whenever an artist makes a political statement or preaches (to the choir or otherwise), I generally take that moment to take a bat hit and tune out. Stevie took the opportunity in the third song of the night, Visions, to belt out a sermon, highlighted by the repeated phrases “I can’t believe it” and “That’s unacceptable.” He touched on hate and war and the obvious things that are unacceptable, though he lost me when he said something like “Everyone should have the right… pause … to insurance.” To car insurance? Life insurance? Workman’s comp? His mouth just moved faster than his brain on that one, methinks. And that’s unacceptable. Read on for more nonsense…

Your ol’ pal Ace Cowboy wasn’t the only one returning to the Large Apple this weekend. Residents of New York last night welcomed back to the stage Stevie Wonder at Madison Square Garden and the canceled-due-to-writers’ strike Saturday Night Live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. We’ll have more on Mr. Wonder’s triumphant homecoming later, […]

I’ve been on the road for much of the week, and if I released a series of videos chronicling my travels you’d see hundreds of minutes of an exhausted Ace Cowboy staring blankly into space and wishing to holy hell he were home in his jammies. Besides, the only two people who’d be remotely interested […]

Much like a eunuch in an orgy, I watched many of my friends and colleagues enjoy the shit out of the gaming tables last night but experienced no pleasure for myself. There’s the girl who hit two zeros in three spins of the roulette wheel, the guy who bagged a straight on his third-ever hand […]

In one of the most stunning departures since JFK Jr. took off into the fog, Tea Leaf Green bassist Ben “Milky” Chambers today announced he’ll no longer be addressing the community. Chambers made the shocking announcement earlier tonight, a decision nobody outside the San Francisco foursome and its inner circle could say they saw coming. […]

Of all the great bands and musicians of whom I’ve become a big-time admirer this year, first-class whistler and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird may top the list. Just take one look and listen at his A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left and tell me that’s not a wonderful example of originality and […]

Fourteen years, two days and one untimely death after Nirvana recorded the salad-days soundtrack of so many lazy college afternoons, the first-ever DVD release of Unplugged in New York will hit online and actual shelves. On November 20th, it’ll be time to break out the flannel.

The new release will feature the complete, unedited 66-minute concert, and if Ron Popeil were here right now he’d tell you that’s not all: The DVD also includes Something In The Way and Oh Me, two performances not aired during the original 44-minute broadcast. But wait, there’s more…if you act now, they’ll throw in five previously unreleased rehearsal performances and MTV News interviews with the band and audience members. Super.

Now as part of our Everybody Wins When I Plug Something And In Return They Offer Me Free Shit To Give Away contest, we’ll send you a free copy of this DVD if you chime in below and answer this query from Lake of Fire, obviously the best track from the evening: Aside from this so-called lake of fire, where do bad folks go when they die if they don’t go to heaven where the angels fly?

If I could enter, I’d guess they go to a cold, secluded room where they’re tag-teamed by the stand-up comedy stylings of Elayne Boosler and Rita Rudner while highlights of Jm J. Bullock‘s best Hollywood Squares jokes run on an A Clockwork Orange-type projector screen in between sets. But I can’t enter, so go get ’em. This contest ends on Friday, November 16th, so sound off early and often…

• Full Video Trailer: Nirvana Unplugged in New York
• Sample Videos: All Apologies and About A Girl
• Read on after the jump for more about the upcoming release

Your ol’ Ace Cowboy heads out on a four-city, five-day work junket at 6:20 AM. I’ll be away from my regular station all week and checking in only periodically, but fortunately you’ll be left in the all-to-capable stewardship of 1st Lt. Scott Bernstein. He’ll treat you right, and if you’re nice enough, he’ll even cuddle […]

It’s been football all day and it’ll be football all night following two straight evenings of live music. Friday night brought me to my first Phil & Friends show of the nine-night run at New York’s Nokia Theatre, an intensely enjoyable concert worth far less than the $70 face value of the ticket price. The […]