Medeski Martin and Wood have targeted a new audience, seeing as how most of the hip hipsters moved on to The Bad Plus. This album’s for your kids: Let’s Go
Today’s the day the Ryan Montbleau Band has been looking forward to since they first entered the studio in March to record a follow-up to 2006’s One Fine Color. Now the band finally gets to share its sophomore album, Patience on Friday, with the rest of the world.
Today’s the day the Ryan Montbleau Band has been looking forward to since they first entered the studio in March to record a follow-up to 2006’s One Fine Color. Now the band finally gets to share its sophomore album, Patience on Friday, with the rest of the world. And they should all dig it — it’s one of those rare records that nimbly moves between moments of sadness and visions of hope while remaining a focused collection of beautiful tunes.
The Ryan Montbleau Band recorded it at Woodstock’s Applewood Studios, working on it during the rare breaks that playing 200+ shows a year allows. They hired an outside producer, but the band quickly realized that if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself. The end result of their efforts presents 14 tracks (12 of them new) that show off the talents of the band and its special guests.
Montbleau is the guitar-slingin’ songwriter who writes and sings most of the material on Patience. The new album shows how Ryan’s songs have evolved and matured without losing the free-wheeling enthusiasm that made his early material exciting. Montbleau is always on the road, so I wasn’t surprised that he was at a rest stop in Fargo, North Dakota, when he called me to talk about the album:
Scott Bernstein: Did you have a vision of what the album would become when you first entered the studio in March?
Ryan Montbleau: It really did turn out like we envisioned it, because I knew it was gonna be a little more open this time. The songs and arrangements weren’t as completely nailed down as they were on One Fine Color. So we knew that we needed to be a little more open in the studio to work things out.
All of the tunes came together really well. We started tracking in March, and just kinda kept goin’. Anytime we weren’t on the road, which wasn’t often, we went to the studio to work on the album. I was actually kinda surprised how it came together so well. The songs definitely got fully realized. Read on for more…
You take the good with the bad, and today we’ve got both good news and bad news for My Morning Jacket fans (which should be everyone, seeing as they fucking kick ass). The band announced they will not be playing their usual Thanksgiving eve show in their home base of Louisville this year. Instead, MMJ will spend Turkey Day holed up in the studio, where they will be putting the finishing touches on the highly anticipated follow-up to 2005’s Z. We’ve fallen hard for these guys, so we can’t wait for a batch of new tunes and tour dates in 2008.
And as usual on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists…
Friday [all times Eastern]: BBC Crown Jewels features a vintage Stevie Wonder performance [VH-1 Classic 9:00 PM] Iron and Wine are Dave’s musical guest on The Late Show [CBS 11:35
October has begun, which means it’s time for baseball’s postseason. The playoffs kicked off last night, and I can’t remember a better collection of eight teams fighting for the championship, whether young and scrappy or experienced and powerful. Baseball and live music are similar in that you never know what’s going to happen when you enter a venue. You may see your boys play the game or show of their lives, or you may see their hopes crushed by a bad performance.
Given the similarities between music and sport, it’s no wonder that many baseball players are also musicians. So this week’s B List looks at eight baseball players who can handle both a fastball and the pentatonic scale with ease.
1. Bernie Williams: The Yankees longtime centerfielder is also a critically acclaimed guitar player who has released an album entitled The Journey Within. Bernie has a few connections to the jamband world thanks to his appearance at the Jammys in 2001, and his recent sit-in with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon.
Read on after the jump for a video of Bernie playing Who’s Been Talking with that other Derek, and for seven more baseball musicians as well…
Van Halen kicked off its long-awaited reunion tour last week, and bootlegs of just about every show are popping up at a fast and furious pace. If you’re curious about
When I first started collecting bootlegs, the quality on most of the cassettes and LPs I purchased was downright awful. Many were sourced from audience recordings that sounded like they were taped under Rerun’s trench coat. In the early ’90s a few bootleggers from Italy began focusing on releasing high-quality recordings that came from the soundboard. Now that the Interweb has made sharing shows so easily, you can find the crispiest of recordings everywhere. This week’s GTA presents four A+ quality soundboard-sourced boots for your pleasure.
Marvin Gaye ??-??-1983 SBD [FLAC, MP3 ] (date unknown, from Atlanta)
It’s just not right that Marvin Gaye was stolen from us in 1984. Just check out this bootleg from 1983 for an example of how The King of R&B was just hitting his stride. Gaye shows throughout the evening that it just doesn’t get better than his mix of well-written songs performed with the passion that was a trademark of his sound. Check out the moans from the ladies in the audience when Marvin starts Distant Lover. Even though this recording is a soundboard, you can hear the mostly female crowd voice their approval throughout.
Gaye’s voice sounds great from the opening notes of Let’s Get It On through the scintillating Sexual Healing closer. The backing band performs its job admirably, especially during a wild romp through Rockin’ After Midnight. Marvin Gaye is well-regarded as an artist, but he’s underrated as a live performer. Hopefully terrific sounding bootlegs like this one will help show that you Gotta Give It Up to him live. Read on after the jump for three more GTA SBDs from the Flaming Lips, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and The Band…
Leave it to Bill Frisell and Matt Chamberlain to produce one of the best albums to hit our desk this month — you have to hear this new Floratone disc.
Excitable boys and girls flooded Radiohead.com on Sunday night and all through the day on Monday with orders for the new album, thanks of course to the revolutionary “name your
