Most people will be touching themselves to Arcade Fire’s performance on Austin City Limits this weekend, but really, will it get any better than Jay-Z sitting down with Chaz Rose?
The Sex Pistols kicked off their reunion tour in Brixton last night during a raucous gig that lasted a little over an hour. Lead singer Johnny Rotten relied on a crib sheet to remember some of the lyrics he screwed up during the band’s recent warm-up gig in LA. We can’t imagine seeing a bunch of rich 50-year-olds play angry punk music would be any good, and according to early reports, we’re right.
And, finally, Umphrey’s McGee just announced their annual holiday shows in Chicago. Guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss break out the acoustics at the Vic Theatre on December 7th, while Joel Cummins leads the keyboard holiday show at Schuba’s on December 21st. The band will also play the last three nights of the year at The Aragon Ballroom, but you probably already knew that.
Thursday night laziness ensured our outsourcing of this week’s edition, so it’s Uncle Neddy time once more. The Ned claims to be a little liberal with his definitions here, but allow him to present a set loosely based on the slide guitar.
01 Mississippi Bollweevil — North Mississippi Allstars: Electric Blue Watermelon
02 Concrete And Barbed Wire — Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
03 Wild Mountain Nation — Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation
04 Helpless — Fareed Haque: Deja Vu
05 Native Stepson — Sonny Landreth: Grant Street
06 Like a Rolling Stone — Drive-By Truckers: Highway 61 Revisited Revisited
The festival’s website says “Tough shit, honkey,” mas o menos. Originally called for today, the initial artist announcement for the expanded Big Cypress shindig will be unveiled some time…well, whenever
Coming up with the perfect title for a new album is something artists have struggled with since Leo da Vinci named his masterpiece “Mona Lisa” instead of the more catchy “Hot Chick I Fucked Last Night.”
Giving an album a good title can make all the difference in the world. Squeeze’s Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti may be a decent record, but I’m not putting anything with that title on my iPod. Meanwhile, Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s Ruin Jonny’s Bar Mitzvah probably sold an extra thousand copies due to its awesome title.
Most of the time record companies don’t really care too much what a band names an album, but once in a while they put their proverbial foot down (perhaps their literal feet as well). A few weeks ago we looked at 10 albums released with controversial cover art, so this week we look at eight albums whose titles were rejected either by members of the band or the big bad record company…
1. Grateful Dead — Skullfuck:
The Grateful Dead submitted a live album to Warner Brothers in 1971 with the title Skullfuck. As you can imagine, the record company rejected the title, and instead decided to release the album with no title. Fans call this album Skull and Roses to avoid confusing it with the band’s eponymous debut.
2. XTC — Black Music:
XTC released their debut album, White Music, on Virgin Records in 1978. The band wanted to call the album Black Music but Virgin nixed the idea because they thought the title may suggest a blues or soul album. Racists!
Read on for six more rejected album titles we would liked to have seen…
But some of our friends attended last night’s tribute concert to Bob Dylan, celebrating Todd Haynes upcoming biopic. Apparently Cat Power no-showed the Beacon bill, but My Morning Jacket, Calexico,
It means no worries, brahhh: “Lion King audiences at the Minskoff have been sniffing the sweet scent of marijuana. It turns out the pot-head fans of former Grateful Dead bassist
Scarecrow Collection just released a podcast featuring some well-played covers hand picked by guitarist Nick Setteducato. Check out the band tearing through covers of Come Together, Sledgehammer, Polly and more. We especially dig their inventive sequence of Take 5 > In Memory of Elizabeth Reed > Take 5.
Finally, our friends at Covert Curiosity turn us onto two killer up-and-coming acts: iKiLLCaRS and This Will Destroy You. Check that shit out.
Is it just us or does it seem like every nearly living legendary rock star is currently on tour? Just take a look at the recent schedule for Madison Square Garden: In a one-month period, Stevie Wonder, The Police, Bruce Springsteen and Van Halen will all have played the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena.
Prices for all of these shows are expensive as hell, but luckily you can “try before you buy” thanks to the tapers who have made downloads of recent shows by all of those artists easy to find. We want you to make an informed decision about spending your hard-earned paycheck, so we’ve devoted this edition of Grousing The Aisles to three Hall of Fame acts that have been tearing it up lately.
Bruce Springsteen 11/04/2007 DAUD [FLAC, MP3 ]:
Photo via Tinkerbell 4406
Most ignorant jamfans think that Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play the same setlist every night, but that simply isn’t the case. On Sunday night in Cleveland, for example, Springsteen debuted two songs from his vast repertoire for the first time on his lengthy fall tour. The first well-played bustout was the Dylanesque rocker It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City off of Greetings In Asbury Park. Be True, a fast tempo River-era B-side, which also hadn’t been played on the tour, followed soon after to excite the crowd.
Obviously there are some songs Bruce plays every night, because everyone who attends one of his shows deserves to see Born To Run. The Boss is also playing the shit out of a number of tracks from his new album, including the poppy Radio Nowhere and the bittersweet Girls in Their Summer Clothes. Yet Springsteen did an incredible job mixing things up in Cleveland, playing at least one song from every E-Street album except for The River. You can find audience tapes from each show of this tour, but we recommend you check out this show from Cleveland for the varied setlist and crisp recording. Read on for seven more downloads…
If someone would have told me a month ago that the biggest album sales controversy in the music industry during the first week of November 2007 would involve Britney Spears
