Posts by Jeffrey Greenblatt

According to Chronicles: Vol. 1, Bob Dylan was originally to be the recipient of the Woody Guthrie lyrics that eventually became the basis for the Billy Bragg and Wilco collaboration Mermaid Avenue, Volumes 1 & 2. As the story goes when a 20-something Zimmy headed out to Guthrie’s home (on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island) […]

You won’t find any obligatory Oscar recap here today, that’s just not our thang. Fortunately for everyone though the Academy made the right choice in the Best Original Song category, awarding it to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for Falling Slowly. Glen and Marketa play shows together billed as The Swell Season. If any of […]

I thought we were in the clear without having to mention the words festival, Radiohead and Jack Johnson in the same sentence for a little while….Brief pause….Was that long enough? I think so. We’re already sick of talking about festies, and the season hasn’t even started yet. Today news surfaced about the Outside Lands Festival, […]

While any future Led Zeppelin tour dates are still lurking in the darkest depths of Mordor, former front man Robert Plant has announced a slew of dates with his current musical partner Alison Krauss. The duo will take their oddly beautiful harmonies on a worldwide tour beginning this April in support of their album Raising […]

On the heels of the Radiohead story that leaked earlier today, we now get the initial line-up for the inaugural edition of the All Points West Music & Arts Festival. Let’s take a look at who’s signed on so far…

Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Underworld, Kings of Leon, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cat Power, The Roots, The New Pornographers, Youssou N’Dour, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Metric, CSS, Girl Talk, Chromeo, The Go! Team, Amadou & Mariam, The Black Angels, Sia, The Felice Brothers, K’Naan, Jason Isbell, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Alberta Cross, The Virgins, Black Kids, Mates of State, Duffy, Forro in the Dark, Nicole Atkins, Juana Molina, Little Brother, Rogue Wave, Neil Halstead and Your Vegas.

Read on after the jump for ticket information…

The folks at URB magazine seem to have the big scoop of the day. The monthly magazine devoted to electronic music, hip-hop and urban lifestyle is reporting that Radiohead will in fact be headlining the initial All Points West Music & Arts Festival – confirming the rumor that has been swirling since they announced the […]

We get a little lazy as the week winds down, so let’s check in and see what some other people are writing about during this shortened week… Rock Revival lists the Ten Worst Critically Acclaimed Albums Of All Time Carrie Brownstein mulls over this question: “What constitutes that subtle difference between a cover tune and […]

While venerable coffee giant Starbucks has been struggling to compete in the beverage department of late, they seem to be hitting the mark with their in-store music selection (that doubles as a check-out impulse buy). For their latest release they’ve gotten the former Robert Zimmerman to handpick selections for an Artist Choice compilation. Read on for the track list of sixteen songs you’ve probably never heard of either, and another bit of Bob Dylan news…

I can’t help that I have Wilco on the brain – Jeff Tweedy and company wrap up their five-night career spanning run tonight and I’m off to see them in Philly on Saturday (mmm cheesesteaks and Wilco the perfect combination). So with that in mind I figured I’d dip into their catalog and offer up a mix of some of the rarities they have busted out at the Riviera in Chicago so far this week. Enjoy!:

Read on after the jump for a breakdown…

New Zealand’s 4th most popular musical comedy band, Flight Of The Conchords, have put together a fantastically hilarious mockumentary about their experience at SXSW called A Texan Odyssey. So, if you have 44 minutes I highly suggest sitting down and watching… [googlevideo]8327424432005226305&q=flight+of+the+conchords+sxsw&total=7&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0[/googlevideo] In other Conchords’ news Bret and Jemaine’s self-titled, full-length debut for Sub Pop […]

Over the last few years our neighbors to the North have been exporting some of the most buzzed about bands around. So much has been written about these acts, that I won’t waste your time rattling off a laundry list of them. There is one band though that has been greatly overlooked among the art-rock and indie-pop that we’ve been eating up like plates full of poutine (and coincidently happen to be rather huge in their native land) – Sam Roberts Band.

Despite the rather mundane moniker the band has been nominated for multiple Juno awards – Canada’ version of the Grammy’s – for their last two albums; raking in a trifecta of them in 2004 for Artist, Album and Rock Album of the year for their major label debut We Were Born In A Flame. While I would normally avoid most things that resemble a radio-friendly mainstream rock band, it’s really hard to not like these guys. So don’t be a hoser and read on eh…

One of my top ten shows of ’07 was a New Pornographers performances at Webster Hall, which boasted the band’s full line-up; a rarity these days with the members other recording and touring obligations. While the New Porns excel when Neko Case brings her booming voice and beautiful harmonies into the fold, it was Dan […]

Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers kicked off a tour earlier this week in support of their latest effort Brighter Than Creations Dark – their first album after the departure of Jason Isbell. The jaunt will have them working West to East over the next couple of months with two fantastic openers in tow. The first half […]

Shot over the course of 11 years Dream Of Life is a brand new documentary about “Punk’s Poet Laureate” Patti Smith. The film provides an intimate portrait into the singer/poet/artist’s life. While there is part of me that is frightened by the prospect of seeing her face plastered on the big screen, this movie looks […]

In the past Bonnaroo has had rock stars as well as comedians on the bill, but today the Superfly folks have taken things to a new level with the announcement of their first rock star comedian adding none other then Chris Rock to the bill. Here’s some info about his special performance…

We are proud to announce that legendary comedian Chris Rock will perform at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Rock will do a special one-hour set on the What Stage, Bonnaroo’s biggest. The audience for this performance will be one of the largest ever for a comedy show! For more information about Chris Rock, click here.

More announcements about the lineup will be made in the coming weeks. Check back soon for more information!

Rock will be spending the next couple of months on the road honing his act with his No Apologies tour before hitting the stage for the Manchester faithful. No word at the moment on if Chris will also be one of Phil’s friends. Read on for a full list of dates…

We’re finally dealing with winter around here. And while I’ll probably be sick of seeing the snow the minute I step into one of those murky mystery puddles (if you live in New York, you know what I’m talking about). I was feeling a bit inspired by the weather for this inaugural edition of Mixology. […]

In our relentless pursuit of giving you the goods we figured we’d check in and see what some other people have going on… IGN rattles off the Top 10 Albums That Every Music Snob Name Checks Stereogum waxes poetic on the influence of Neutral Milk Hotel’s seminal 10-year-old album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea […]

If you obsessively watched MTV anytime during the mid ‘90s there is a good chance you were familiar with Nada Surf and their quirky, spoken word-esque tome to dating and high school life: Popular.

You know, the one that kind of sounded like Weezer’s Sweater Song. Ringing a bell now? Well it was the kind of song that had many thinking they’d just be another one-hit wonder destined to be featured as the punch line on countless VH1 retro shows. Heck their own label even thought that, and dropped them because they didn’t think their follow-up album had another hit song like Popular.

End of story, right? Well not exactly. Nada Surf might have fallen off the collective mainstream music radar for a few years, but they were still hard at work crafting a new sound and recording. It was one of those records – 2003’s critically acclaimed Let Go – that my old roommate insisted I listen to. I instantly latched onto its lush, dreamy indie-pop, and it became the number one album I pushed on friends to make sure they heard too. Keep reading so I can convert you into a fan as well…

Widespread Panic’s 10th studio album and their first with guitar slinger Jimmy Herring in tow – Free Somehow – drops tomorrow. Well if you can’t wait until then to hear the Southern-jam titans latest you’re in luck, as you can stream it now. So head here, crack open some tall boys, and give it a […]

I’m a sucker for any of those multi-part, comprehensive music docs – I can’t tell you how many time I’ve watched The History Of Rock N’ Roll on VH1 Classic. So I was quite excited when I stumbled across the following story about one that is in the works…. PBS announced the development of a […]