Posts by Scott Bernstein

For four days each year, Wilkesboro NC transforms itself into the bluegrass capital of the world. And it happens this weekend, when the 20th Annual Merlefest serves as epicenter of more than 80,000 attendees and nearly every legendary performer in the scene. The lineup this year includes Merlefest veterans Alison Krauss and Union Station, Sam […]

It’s official: Camp Bisco will take place at the Indian Lookout Country Club in Mariaville, NY on August 16th – 18th. The initial Camp Bisco lineup announcement includes an eclectic group of bands featuring Amon Tobin, STS9 and Girl Talk. We’re perhaps most interested in the inevitable battle between the real-deal bikers that run Indian […]

The true caveat about live music is that you can never predict which shows are gonna rock and which shows are gonna spiral straight into the shitter.

I had been really excited to see the recently reformed and revamped Zero play at the Gramercy Theater as part of the Green Apple Music Festival on Friday night. Years have elapsed since I had last seen legendary guitar player Steve Kimock tear up a solo. Over the past few years I’ve listened to a bunch of Zero, and I really dug the band’s multi-layered compositions. So imagine how surprised I was to be so turned off by Zero’s disappointingly boring performance.

The Gramercy is a nice new venue that has a sloping floor for standees and seating in the back for the old fogies like me. I got to my seat and the lights went down at 8:25. Everyone around me was excited for the show to begin, but nothing happened. The lights were down, but the band didn’t go on until about 8:40. That’s professionalism at its finest: The night had certainly begun on the wrong foot. Read on for more on this unfortunately subpar show…

For the final installment of the first annual Hidden Track Baseball Preview, I spoke with U-Melt’s Rob Salzer about his band and his beloved Metropolitans.

Scott Bernstein: How closely are you able to follow the Mets from the road?

Rob Salzer: Honestly, it’s hard to watch all the games. But we keep up pretty well. Some of us have Internet on our phones, so we are able to follow the team. Finding hotels with wireless internet is key. Unfortuntely we don’t get to see as many games as we would like, but we are able to keep tabs on the Mets.

SB: Are the other guys in the band into baseball?

RS: Everyone in the band is a fan of baseball. Myself and Zac, the keyboard player, are big-time Mets fans. My drummer and bass player are both Yankee fans, so we’re split right down the middle.

SB: How does that dynamic work?

RS: It’s actually fun. We’re outnumbered if you include our manager Jason, because he’s a big Yankee fan too. But he’s not on the road with us. There is a little bit of a rivalry; it’s not to too bad, especially since the Yankees haven’t been that succesful in the last six years. It was very, very painful losing to them in the World Series back in 2000. I’m definitely not a Yankee hater; I definitely like the Yankees. It’s a good-natured rivalry.

Read on for more about the ballclub and the band from Rob and Scott’s chat…

There was a time when Bob Dylan tours were few and far between. Now the Lucious Bobby Dylan barely takes a break from the road, as you can see from the extensive North American tour he just announced. Dylan is currently on tour in Europe, where reviews have been positive. I’ve had mixed experiences seeing Bob, but I’d be down with seeing the legend perform again. Onto the rest:

• IGN lists the Top 10 Epic Songs
• JamBase competitor Tourfilter is expanding its reach
• Another D.U.M.B. announcement: Biscuits and Umphrey’s play Jamaica
• Jefitoblog serves up a tasty Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show
• Phil Lesh and Friends have been added to the Mountain Jam lineup
• Vail’s 8150 club will soon be demolished
• The Jesus and Mary Chain have reunited
• The Weight busts a myth about Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
• Queen musical We Will Rock You has opened in Toronto
• A preview of moe.’s upcoming tour of Japan — the band also just announced they are giving out free soundboard patches at one of their upcoming Highline Ballroom shows
• Harp Magazine speaks with the Avett Brothers
• Phish has some heady ringtones to sell you
• NYT‘s Ben Ratliff has an interesting take on the summer of the reunion
• Say goodbye to The Polyphonic Spree’s robes; hello to their new jumpsuits

And read on for some setlists from a great weekend of music, including !!!, Flaming Lips, Disco Biscuits, Spoon, RatDog, Wolfmother, G-Mule and more…

Finally we’ve come to the end o’ this week, so relax, put your feet up, and we’ll bring the best of the web to you. Feel free to molest these links for all they’re worth like you’re rapper Akon dry humping this 14-year-old fan on stage in Trinidad. We hear teenage Tobagans are pissed it wasn’t them. The attendees […]

This summer, two bands without ironic names have been booked to play the McCarren Pool. And some hipsters are fucking pissed about the booking. Umphrey’s McGee and the Disco Biscuits will be performing at the Billyburg venue on August 15th. Hipster-blogger Crooked Rain was so enraged that he wrote the following inaccurate rant about the […]

Last week’s edition of The B List looked at some amazing performances from David Letterman’s late-night NBC and CBS shows.

But Saturday Night Live is another late-night television show that features a musical performer each week, and there’s plenty of material to pillage for this here blog. Over the past three decades, SNL has produced 423 episodes, providing us a ton of incredible moments through the years. Most compliations from SNL just show the top performances from the early days and the recent days, fully ignoring the shows that weren’t produced by Lorne Michaels.

We won’t ignore the No-Lorne years. We make you that promise. So this week’s B List presents 10 great SNL music performances from 1978-1986. Read on for some classic clips from Queen, The Clash, The Band, James Brown and many more…

Last month we brought you the story of “Hot” Carl Mumpower, an Asheville, North Carolina city councilman who wants to eradicate drug usage in his fair city. Hot Carl attended a Ratdog concert and relayed his feelings to the city manager and local paper that the Civic Center smelled like “an Amsterdam hash bar.” Hot Carl is back on the […]

This week’s Grousing The Aisles is all over the place. We start out by digging deep for some rare soundboards from Frank Zappa and Blind Faith before checking out an epic Leftover Salmon show in honor of its upcoming reunion. Finally, we’ll end with a set from the terrifically wacky Give Us The Money Lebowski.

Frank Zappa 2/15/78 SBD (FLAC):

Frank Zappa’s estate has done a superb job keeping the literal tons of soundboard tapes from his career out of bootleggers’ hands. In fact, there aren’t many great Zappa recordings that circulate that weren’t released directly by him or his estate. One of the better sounding shows that circulates, though, is this amazing concert from Berlin during FZ’s 1978 European tour. That ’78 tour featured an incredible lineup of Zappa, Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf, Terry Bozzio, Ed Mann and Patrick O’Hearn.

The show starts off with a crazed Dancin’ Fool, followed by a spot-on Peaches En Regalia. The band proceeds to tear through Zappa’s greatest hits, playing incredible versions of every song they played. Frank also kept it light with some funny banter throughout the show, although I wonder how much the German audience understood. My favorite part of this show is the closing combo of Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man. Those two songs feature what I love best about FZ’s music: face-melting solos and absurd lyrics. Be sure to download this show while you can, before Gail Zappa finds a way to charge you for it.

Read on for more from Blind Faith, Leftover Salmon and GUTML…