From the extensive Over Before It Started files, it now appears the upcoming Van Halen 2.0 tour will not proceed as planned. Hey, at least this one lasted longer than
Usually when we mention teenagers on this site there’s an immediate follow-up mention of either Pete Townshend or Gary Glitter. But this post is about precocious teenagers, not the kind that are physically exploited for kicks.
Head Yes-man Jon Anderson fronted Paul Green’s School of Rock All Stars last night at BB King’s for a unique take on the catalog of his 70s progressive rock outfit, and Hidden Track Podcaster General Mike Newman was smart enough to shuttle himself over to Times Square for the evening’s action.
Read on after the jump for more of Newman’s photos and a couple of YouTube videos of Anderson’s fantastic collaboration with the PGSRAS. And if the videos are any indication, we all definitely missed the boat on this one…
Our friend Neddy headed down to Judson Memorial Church last night for a taste of New York’s most hyped week-long event in years. Here’s his report…
I never dreamed that I would climb
Over the moon in ecstasy
But nevertheless, it’s there that I’m
Shortly about to be
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket
Willy Wonka was a PR genius, no doubt. I mean, that golden ticket thing made grown men go ape-shit for candy bars. It was the hype machine at its finest and yet, the fact of the matter is, the chocolate was actually pretty damn good. These are the thoughts I had as what seems like the entire city of New York (as well as any portion of the music blogosphere worth a damn) has gone somewhat ape-shit themselves over The Arcade Fire and their super-special week of shows at the certainly-too-small Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.
The hype was to the point where it was literally impossible for the band to live up to it, but when C-Dawg asked me to be the Grandpa Joe to his lucky Charlie Bucket for Thursday night’s performance, I had no choice but to drag my asleep-at-the-wheel ass out of bed, grab my cane and head into the Large Apple.
Read on for the rest of Neddy’s Arcade Fire @ Judson review, which contains more Willy Wonka imagery and a handful of YouTubes and great photos. Oh, and if you read on ’til the end, we’ve got the 2/13/07 AF download for you.
Get the Soulshine Receiver™ out the attic. We’re goin’ camping.
Clear the first week of June on your hippie calendars (or do wooks go by the lunar?): Warren Haynes announced the lineup for the third annual Mountain Jam Music Festival this evening on WDST radio. Warren’s festival, which takes place at Hunter Mountain in New York, has even added a third day of music.
Call us jamband fluffers, but to us the lineup looks solid to quite solid. According to the press release, the following bands will perform:
Gov’t Mule, Umphrey’s McGee, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, New Orleans Social Club featuring Henry Butler, Ivan Neville, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr and Raymond Webber, Ozomatli, North Mississippi, Tea Leaf Green, New Monsoon, and Backyard Tire Fire. Late night performances as well as additional artists will be announced soon.
This is clearly one festival that’s not kowtowing to the burgeoning hipster crowd, offering a straight-up barrage of jambands. Noodle on.
We confirmed the Bonnaroo 2007 lineup last night, Roger Waters is coming back to the USA, and all is right with the world halfway through the week. Let’s look around the
Our stellar photojournalist friend Nathan Ingraham craves the indie jam rock. So we sent him down to Boston’s Orpheum Theatre this past Friday, and he came back with these moe. better gems…
The venerable Boston Metro couldn’t make it two paragraphs without mentioning Phish in its preview of Friday’s moe. concert. So instead of fighting the urge to follow the paper’s questionable lead, I’ll get the comparison out of the way up front. As the Metro noted, moe. has not grown exponentially since the demise of the popular rock band Phish two and a half years ago. But I’d be willing to bet most fans at the Orpheum wouldn’t have it any other way.
The band as well seems content with its place in the musical hierarchy: moe. is big enough to throw large-scale events like the upcoming Snoe.down and yet intimate enough to still allow for band/fan interaction (such as the full band merchandise signing post-show) and 2005’s acoustic Coda shows in New York.
But let’s just talk about the music. Most in the crowd that night had a feeling they were in for a special show when the band opened with the raging jam-vehicle Recreational Chemistry. The song was just about to take off when who should wander onto the stage but bassist Rob Derhak’s son, Zach, wielding some sort of key-tar and screaming into a mic guitarist Al Schnier had provided. Sure it was adorable, but it also slammed the breaks on the jam, and the band sloppily segued into Blue Jeans Pizza. But things picked up there, and the song featured guitarist Chuck Garvey’s most ripping solo of the night. He didn’t get lots of other opportunities to really shine though — this evening was definitely an “Al” night.
Read on for 11 more amazing photos and the rest of Nate’s review…
It’s the middle of another long week and there’s more news to be digested. And don’t forget the glorious stuff we posted yesterday: Levon comes drawling back to NYC and Ozzfest may be free of
Men, suck in your gut and comb your sideburns: The lovely SuperDee is here. Our favorite female rock writer brought NOLA’s Rotary Downs to town last weekend, and she wants you to set your radio dial so you can hear them this weekend.
The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Can a rock ‘n roll band save a sunken city? Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath seized many souls from the beloved city of New Orleans. Its denizens have been spread all over the country, if they survived the storm.
Those who stayed behind or returned home after mandatory evacuation were faced with the daunting task of rebuilding a city below sea level. They not only have to construct physical homes and infrastructure, but they have to rejuvenate the unique spirit of this place that so many hold close to their hearts.
We all know how powerful music can be in its ability to affect social change and expedite healing. The history of New Orleans is so deeply rooted in its music that it only makes sense the rebuilding would start with the artists. Habitat for Humanity acknowledges this with its Musicians’ Village project to build houses for displaced musicians: Bring the music back, bring New Orleans back.
But it’s not only the sound of brass and blues that are bubbling back up in this aftermath. An unlikely sound from the Crescent City is emerging to do its part to revitalize the city’s music scene — indie rock. Rotary Downs is a band that is rising to this challenge. Read on about the band that just turned New York heads…
Our good friend Neddy likes good music, and he wants you good folks to like good music as well. So listen to him when he preachifies about The Bad Plus.
Sometimes it’s a match made in heaven. Destiny, if you will — the people, the places, the times: Tiger Woods at Augusta, the Grateful Dead at Winterland, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the Continental Congress, and The Bad Plus at the Village Vanguard. Yeah, you heard me.
I’ve seen the Bad Plus over a dozen times at various rooms and outdoor shows over the past three years, and it’s always been a treat. But nothing beats the magic of those three guys at the vaunted Village Vanguard: It is magic, nothing less. This week they’re celebrating their fifth week at the club, and the first set of the first night was the place I had to be…
Read on for more of Neddy’s review, especially if you’ve never heard ’em. In other words, get into new shit, you stubborn dipshits.
For this week’s B List, we’re honored to introduce our friend Stuart Hartstone. Stuart has worked many festivals with “oo” at the end of the title for Superfly Productions, and most recently he has helped promote concerts and manage artists under the Hartstone Productions banner (along side his brother Jarrett).
“I’ve never been a fan of Top 10 lists when it comes to music — to me, the premise is kind of silly. I’ve always believed that art was in the eye of the beholder, so who’s to say one person’s art is better than someone else’s? But I also generally tend to disagree with most Top 10 lists. I don’t know who writes these things, but with the exception of The B List’s recent Top 10 Side Projects, I often come away feeling like the author has his head firmly affixed up his ass.
Well, that didn’t stop me from taking this opportunity to put together a Top 10 list of my own. I was listening to the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers the other day, and Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ came on. I’ve always loved that song, especially the intro. For lack of a better word, it’s just so badass. So it got me thinking: What other songs have similar badass intros like that one? You know, an intro that is just so good it makes you want to pump your fist in the air and yell ‘Yeah!’
So while I know some of you probably won’t agree with me on all of this — I’m still not 100% convinced I do — here without further ado is my Top 10 Badass Guitar Riff Song Intros. While you might not agree with all my choices, I think you will find that for the most part, the intros to these songs are pretty fuckin’ badass!”
Read on below for Stuart Hartstone’s guest edition of The B List…
