Posts by Scott Bernstein

Hear that? That’s the clamorous sound of 80,000 laser jets jamming as they try to print out the monstrous tome that is the Bonnaroo schedule. Kudos to Superfly for putting together such an incredibly varied (and huge!) lineup. The major conflict that jumps out as us occurs around 7:30pm on Saturday night. Festival-goers will have to choose between Ween, […]

Our favorite part of collecting live music comes when incredible new recordings surface that we didn’t previously know about. Just this week we came across four pristine quality shows that kept us throughly entertained. As always, we share our finds with you on a weekly basis…as we go Grousing The Aisles:

Steve Winwood w/ Eric Clapton 05/19/2007 FM (FLAC, MP3):

We reported on the epic Winwood/Clapton collaboration on Saturday, and now we’ve come across a crispy FM recording of the quasi-Blind Faith reunion. Clapton joined Steve Winwood’s band for the last seven songs of their set at the Countryside Rocks festival. You can judge for yourself whether this was a monumental sit-in or two old guys trying to re-live their former glory days (I personally think the music is quite entertaining). Sure it’s weird that Winwood felt compelled to play guitar for a few of the songs, but when Steve is singing and Eric is ripping, the songs sound amazing. I particularly like Clapton’s inspired wah-playing during Presence of the Lord.

Video from the webcast of this show is also available to stream or download. For our loyal readers we’ve provided 320kbps Tagged MP3s of this bad boy.

Read on for more gems from Pink Floyd, Neil Young and moe….

Want free tickets and press access to any show you want this summer? Do you like to write about and take pictures at concerts? If you answered yes to those questions, check out Billboard’s Mobile Beat contest. Billboard is teaming up with LG to offer the winners press passes to any concert they want and […]

Lollapalooza brings some big acts to Chicago every year, but does the festival wield a double-edged sword? Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jim DeRogatis takes a look at how performers signing Lollapalooza’s exclusive contracts actually hurts the city’s sheds. Also, buried within this piece is the news that Jam Productions plans to open a new venue in Hoffman Estates next summer.

Let’s check in on some other news and interesting links on the world wide web:

• Arcade Fire owned Chicago this weekend
• Roger Daltrey is not a fan of the upcoming Live Earth concerts
• Good news: Levon’s ready to travel!
• Passion of the Weiss lists the 10 bands he’s most excited to see at Bonnaroo (girls in sun dresses do not count, Jeff)
• Classic Rock bootleg time: Rush – 1978, Journey – 1986, Nirvana – Various, and Tom Petty – 1980
• Stewart Copeland has high hopes for The Police’s reunion tour, which kicks off on Sunday
• Lady Sovereign lost it during her concert at Studio B on Friday night
• Bruce Hornsby takes a new path
• The NY Post looks at reunions that aren’t
• It’s Mule Monday over at Rock Music Daily
• Adrian Belew blogs about recording Paul Simon’s Graceland
• A new podcast of Widespread Panic tunes from the EC crew
• Rochester’s Party in the Park and Buffalo’s Thursdays at the Square are two amazing free concert series that just released their summer lineups
• M. Ward played Chinese Translation on Conan last week with fellow beloved indie heroes Neko Case, MMJ’s Jim James, Kelly Hogan, Mike Coykendall, Than Luu, & Adam Selzer
• Neddy presents the concerts of the week

As is our Monday custom, let’s take a look at some setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Arcade Fire in Chicago, Steely Dan, Brock Butler, Tool, Damien Rice, Disco Biscuits, The Sea & Cake, ZZ Top and many more…

Now is the summer of our nostalgia, made glorious by these bands of yore. Add another quasi-reunion to the growing list: Eric Clapton joined former Blind Faith mate Steve Winwood and his band for most of their set last night at the Countryside Rocks festival in the UK. Clapton came out about halfway through Winwood’s […]

In between hitting live shows this weekend, why don’t you make the most of the $100 you spend each month for cable and set your DVR to record these shows… Woodstock: The Movie VH-1 Classic SUN 8PM EDT Friday Night That other Elvis, the one with the Attractions, makes his 417th appearance on The Late […]

Genesis returned to the stage last week to play three songs for VH1: Rock Honors (Heart, Ozzy Osbourne and ZZ Top also played the show). In a pretty cool move, Genesis performed one song from each decade of their history — here’s the setlist and some amateur videos for those of you that don’t want […]

It’s time for another edition of Digging Deep, our B List series that searches high and low for the best covers on YouTube. We’re gonna change it up a bit by finding the best bluegrass versions of some of our favorite songs. Pick on that.

Some of the tunes are done for comedic value, while others are actually pretty damn good covers. Read on after the jump for 10 great YouTubes featuring the music of Van Halen, Metallica, Outkast, Led Zeppelin and more…

From the Better Late Than Never department comes the news that the Grateful Dead will finally be releasing Three From The Vault. In typical stoner fashion, Three From The Vault comes nearly 15 years after the release of Two From The Vault. Three From The Vault, the Dead’s second release on Rhino, will feature music from […]

We’re getting back to our roots with a jam-heavy edition of Grousing the Aisles. All four artists featured here love to noodle, each in completely different ways. First up is U-Melt, a band that mixes together more genres than the Bonnaroo lineup. Also featured this week is an amazing compilation of Jerry Garcia covering Van the Man. We follow that up with two of the crispiest shows I’ve ever heard from Gov’t Mule and the Phish. Enough with the small talk — check it out…

U-Melt 03/02/07 SBD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):

U-Melt’s music is all over the place. Within five minutes the band can hit heavy metal riffs, Steely Dan-esque lyrics and poppy melodies. The show featured here is a crispy soundboard from the band’s recent peformance at the Wheel House in Narragansett, RI. One of the segments that you’d only see at a U-Melt show is the scorching Bubblehouse > Boy In A Bubble > Bubblehouse that the band drops early in the show. U-Melt has never run away from their influences, covering the likes of Phish, the Smashing Pumpkins and MMW. Bubblehouse sounds extremely tasty with the addition of some rippin’ guitar.

U-Melt’s epic compositions are the true stars of this March 2007 recording. A Robbins Tale is a well-written tune that’s got a Steely Dan meets ELP vibe. The second set is palindromic in nature, and it’s chock full of some of the best this band has to offer. Kind Insight features Talking Heads-esque vocals with a beat that kinda sounds like Caravan on acid. I think I’ve thrown out enough random band comparisons for one day, so just go check out this show before I run out of ’em.

Read on after the jump for the rest of this week’s Grousing The Aisles…