Posts by Shane Handler

Neil Young has just about done everything in his 50  career:   country, new-wave, CSNY, Crazy Horse, Pearl Jam, rockabilly, proto-grunge, acoustic folk, rock operas, films, and the list goes on.  But it took until 2010 for Young to do something entirely different – record an album without any backing musicians.

Yonder Mountain String Band is renowned for their premier annual Northwest String Summit in North Plains, Oregon. The Colorado string quartet now has their name attached to a new festival.  The former Mulberry Mountain  Harvest Music Festival in Ozark, Arkansas has now been coined Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival, taking place October 14-16, 2010 on Muberry Mountain. 

In the music world it so common to hear the phrase: “you got to listen to the CD a number of times before it sinks in.”  Sure, kind of like hearing “practice makes perfect. “ We can keep doing it over and over, but to what extent? David Gray’s recent double album Foundling is like that, 18 songs that are sink or swim.Shane

Although he’s still figuring it out what it means to be a New Englander, Ryan Montbleau can at least know he’s resilient.  After ten years of steadily touring the Northeast, Monbleau  has finally reached a pinnacle, calling 2010 a year that “I’ll remember for a long time.”  The singer-songwriter/guitarist has just released his fourth studio album – the eclectic and plentiful Heavy on the Vine, produced by Martin Sexton.

Just when you thought the ticket buying process was a no win monopoly, up and comers Ticketfly is working on the fans' side to revolutionize the ticket buying process for both live music fans and promoters /venue owners alike.

Later this month, one of the best new pop-jam bands in the East will join forces with one of the West's finest.  Tea Leaf Green returns the favor of some other pioneer jam acts that invited them on stage by inviting Long Island's fledgling Tauk out on the road for a swing up the PCH.  

Dead Confederate’s sophomore album Sugar, recorded by John Agnello (Hold Steady, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.), was shaped by touring with legends such as Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets and gave Dead Confederate an increased appreciation for the early underground bands of the 80s and 90s that laid the foundation on which their sound is built. Writing songs in their studio on full instrumentation, Dead Confederate’s songs are shorter and more concise this second time around,  dropping some of the ragged glory repetition of their heralded 2008 debut Wrecking Ball.

Supporting their most recent effort Power Patriot that came out in late 2009 on the stellar Royal Potato Family label, Garage A Trois made no reservations about being playing the part of entertainers. With two one hour sets, the quartet put whimsicality and energy first, while placing compositional perfection somewhere down the priority line, but it didn’t matter – this is a live band and these four guys toss any preconceived jazz notions by way of prog and rock leanings.

Closing this summer where they basically began last summer, Tuesday night’s fans were offered the perfect benchmark to see how far Phish has really come in their first year back.  The Jones Beach ‘09 run showed great promise, featured a few debuts that are now set staples, and gave a glimmer of hope that the band was taking this third time around with a revived focus and commitment.  One year later, all of that has apparently changed.  People working the lot for a ticket were shutout, concise ‘09 debuts are being stretched and explored, and from the opening notes of “Fluffhead,” they delivered a top-to-bottom blowout that offered a heated first set and a second set that dipped into Type II territory.

With all that Danger Mouse has tackled of late, he’s giving T-Bone Burnett a run for his co-production, co-mastermind skills.   And unlike prior recent collaborations like Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells, Dark Night of the Soul features Danger Mouse at his most haunting.    Perhaps it’s an ironic show of foreboding that DM’s collaborator on this project – Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse committed suicide last March.