Luke Sacks

There are so many Wilco videos of various quality at YouTube that it’s hard to sort through the schwag to find the glorious gems. We’ve asked our resident Wilco expert Luke Sacks to share his favorite Wilco vids with the rest of the class.

5. Remember the Mountain Bed with Andrew Bird – 2/18/08

Andrew Bird joins the band on stage at the Riv and infuses a class Mermaid Avenue song with some elegant violin.

4. California Stars

From the now defunct Sessions on W. 54th and featuring the old old old Wilco lineup with Jay Bennett and Ken Coomer. Bennett, as much as he looks like Drexel from True Romance, deserves at least one mention on this list. Bennett may have been an asshole but he was a key part of Wilco for a long time. He twangs it up a bit on this version.

READ ON for three more killer Wilco videos available at YouTube…

Dear Kevin:

Hope this letter finds you well and deeply buried under stacks of CDs trying to find the best choice for the next Live Phish release.

With all due respect to Trey’s upcoming June release, I wanted to take a few moments and suggest a few gems for the next Live Phish installment. Trey’s releases are fine but as far as generating excitement and that “I can’t wait to hear THAT” feeling, they are…meh at best. You don’t exactly hear things like, “Man, I simply must have crispy copies of that raging Mud City.”

Through the years, Live Phish has put some truly magical archival shows out for our enjoyment, including 12-29-97, the incredible Island Run in 1998, the 1996 mayhem in Vegas and the back-to-back winter 1994 shows from Olympia and Salem. We thank you profusely for those.

READ ON to see Luke’s five suggestions for future Live Phish releases…

Springtime means several things: the return of flip flops and sundresses, baseball season in full swing, margaritas, outside seating at restaurants, playing hookey from work and busting out music that always sounds better with the sun shining.

Just like whiskey tastes better in the winter, certain artists just feel more like “spring.” Here are some favorite springtime artists and some recommendations for that sun-drenched day playlist:

The Allman Brothers Band – The Allman Brothers Band and springtime always seem to go great together. Back when there was an actual spring in April, the Allman’s Beacon run was an annual celebration. Unfortunately this year, April in New York City has consisted of about 3 spring-like days total and the Allmans had to cancel their Beacon dates due to Greg Allman’s illness.

1. Blue Sky – Live at Jones Beach 1990
2. Jessica – Live in Gainesville 1982
3. Dreams – Live at the Syria Mosque 1970
4. Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More – Live in Macon 1973
5. Little Martha – Performed by Leo Kottke

READ ON for four more artists with a certain spring in their step…

I’m only 34 years old but there are certain occasions where I feel very old. Last month, my wife and I went ice skating in Central Park. As the young whipper-snappers zipped around the ice and bounced back from falling with a smile and a shake (all as I lay there holding my throbbing knee and aching back), I felt old. When I can’t stay up till midnight on a Friday night, I feel old. And when I look at the Billboard music chart, I really feel old.

This week’s Top 5 songs are:

1. Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
2. Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major – Lollipop
3. Jordin Sparks Duet with Chris Brown – No Air
4. Usher Featuring Young Jeezy – Love In This Club
5. Mariah Carey – Touch My Body

I have to confess – I haven’t heard any of those songs once. And other than Mariah Carey; I couldn’t pick any of the artists out of a lineup. I don’t watch American Idol. I gave up on MTV 10 years ago and I never listen to the radio. So I guess it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the top songs in the country are foreign to me.

Read on to find out who topped the charts 20 years ago…

Two weeks ago, we took a look at some Classic Rock albums that don’t get enough love. This week, we’ll take a peak at five of the best Live Classic Rock albums. A few disclaimers before we get started: Only official, live releases are included. Nothing more than a double album was considered. In other words, no box sets. Now that you know the rules, grab your lighter and muzzle the chants for Freebird for our Classic Rock Encore:

5. Neil Young – Live Rust

You get the best of both Neils on this collection pulled from a San Francisco performance in late 1978. Young’s calming voice and mellow mind is showcased in the opening tracks, including Sugar Mountain, I am a Child, Comes a Time and After the Gold Rush. Then his fractured-chord, straight ahead rock and roll takes over. When You Dance I Can Really Love kicks off the party as Young slowly builds to a trifecta of powerhouses – Powderfinger, Cortez the Killer and Cinnamon Girl.

Prior to the classic The Needle and the Damage Done, you can clearly hear a serious storm move in. Stagehands worry about guitars and Young leads the crowd in a chant of “No Rain!” I recall hearing a legend about that chant serving as inspiration to Blind Melon’s bumble bee friendly single of the same name. True or not, this album is certainly inspiring enough to make it believable.
Read on for more of Luke’s list…

If you are compiling a list of the top five greatest classic rock albums of all time, chances are you’d end up with these five albums in some order: The Who’s Quadrophenia, Led Zeppelin IV, The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street, Pink Floyd’s DSOTM and the Beatles’ Revolver. If those aren’t your top five choices, they have to at least be in your top 10. If they aren’t, find a time machine and warp yourself back to when Scott Muni was still the voice of WNEW.

All of the albums mentioned above are superbly crafted works of art that represent the cream of the crop of the classic rock genre. But just a small notch below that thick cream at the top of the list, idles the second tier of classic rock studio album respect – a group that deserves more than just an occasional spin on some Sirius station that boasts Boston, Kansas and Bon Jovi among its “classic rock” artists.

Without taking anything away from the top dogs, and leaving live albums out of the mix, here are five classic rock albums that don’t get the credit they deserve:

1. Rush: Moving Pictures

Most people have a “love it or hate it” relationship with Rush largely because of Geddy Lee’s high-pitched voice. But this album is pure rock and roll. The album opens with the thick drumming of Tom Sawyer, probably Rush’s best known song. The most underrated song about a car ever follows and provides a nice lead-in to the instrumental assault, and Neil Peart concert explosion, known as YYZ (named after the airport code in Toronto). Limelight, with Alex Lifeson’s springy guitar lick, and the dark and down Witch Hunt are also great classic rock songs.

Read on for four more underrated classic rock albums…

Saying there are an abundance of music festivals these days is like saying Britney Spears kind of lost it for a while there…it’s a major understatement.

It seems like every day there is a new festival with a new name and a new promoter in a different part of the world. The annual staples – Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, New Orleans’ JazzFest, Lollapalooza – are being challenged by newer festivals with slick names that can draw big name acts to sites near major cities making travel in and out easier than ever. Nothing ruins a festival experience faster than poor organization in terms of getting fans in and out.

It used to be one or two musical festivals a year would dot the landscape of the concert scene. But this year, it’s looked more like an urban jungle with festivals popping up everywhere. This isn’t a bad thing as more festivals means more chances for fans to see more music they probably wouldn’t pay to see on its own. At a festival, you can check out multiple bands throughout any given day and skip the bands you don’t want to see. Read on for more…

No matter how much success a musician has found or how many sold out shows that person has played over the years, he or she should never forget what got them to the top of the mountain: the fans. The hard-working, 9 am – 5 pm fans who pay good money to attend shows, buy merchandise and, at least before the digital revolution, buy albums.

On Saturday night, my wife and I trekked up to the United Palace Theater in New York City to see Van Morrison, an icon and legend in the music world. The man has put out enough albums to fill a CD rack and has played the best venues around the world for the last 30 years. He knows what he is and the fans know too. He’s a musical genius. A guy with a voice so smooth and silky, it can hypnotize you. He’s funky and jazzy and has one of the most distinct voices in all of music. He is almost mystical. But he’s also clueless.

Fans, including my wife and I, shelled out anywhere from $80 to $350 for tickets and fees to see Morrison perform for a mere 92 minutes on Saturday night. The set was mind-blowing. A fusion of jazz, funk and rock with just enough lullaby to melt you into your seat, Morrison crafted a setlist of mostly newer material and selections from his forth-coming album filled with life and eclectic punch. It was a wonderful set of music. But it wasn’t enough. With a ticket time of 7:30 SHARP (The word SHARP actually appeared on the ticket), Morrison was off the stage and probably on his way to a nice steak dinner before most New York City concerts even get started. It was 9:02 pm and he was already giving a half-hearted bow to the crowd. Read on to find out why Luke thinks Van isn’t the Man…

There is a reason almost every band on the planet breaks out a cover song now and then. Realistically, no band forms and instantly has original music. So it must perfect the works of others to see if it might come together as a unit. Or at least make some good noise.

And beyond that, good covers are just fun.

For Phish, the masters of musical mimicry, cover songs were part of the fabric of the band from the very start. From well-know takes that appeared in the regular rotation, such as Zeppelin’s Good Times Bad Times, Stevie Wonder’s Boogie on Reggae Woman and Edgar Winter Group’s Frankenstein, to rare treats like Robert Palmer’s Sneaking Sally Through the Alley, the Velvet Underground’s Cool it Down and The Mighty Diamond’s Have Mercy, covers were taken seriously and seriously enjoyed by the band and its fans.

But with so many songs and so many covers in the repertoire, and the somewhat sudden end of the band’s run as kings of the Jamband world, several one-timers were left dangling and deserving of another try.

Read on for five Phish one-timers that should have seen the light of day again…and someday, maybe they will.

Mastering the Ticketmaster.com process is not something that comes easy. It takes cunning, honing, dry runs and live-action experience. It takes patience and dedication. But for years, the effort and constant refreshing was worth it when you pulled up tickets for the show.

When Phish was touring towards the end of its career, I was at my ticketmaster zenith. I masterfully maneuvered tickets for the reunion show at MSG, the subsequent shows at Hampton and scored pavilion seats left and right. On-sale dates, re-releases, it didn’t matter. I was on it. I never got shut out. As long as you put in the effort, you were rewarded.

But in the recent past, something has happened that has made getting tickets more of a crapshoot then ever before. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I have a hunch it has something to do with the 12 presales and various “auctions” that now accompany Ticketmaster on-sales.

On Monday, I slipped back into “Ticketmaster Master” mode to grab two tickets for my wife and I to check out Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, a venue that claims on its website to have, “a flexible seating capacity ranging from 3,300 to 7,000.” When I pulled up the Event Page a few minutes early to do a little scouting – like a good Ticketmaster.com veteran does – I noticed no fewer than three presales had already taken place. One for some fan club and two more for Amex card holders. Oh, and something called the “Hot Seat Package” that apparently starts at $304.50. But hey – it does include a merchandise gift and a special laminate. That’s gotta be worth the extra $200, right? Just ask the people who signed up for the Police fan club what their “special gift” was and if it was worth the extra cost. Read on for more of Luke’s rant…