This DVD features a great band making a great documentary about a great tour. Of course, it documents many of the amazing feats of the Somewhere Back in Time tour which found Maiden playing 23 shows in 45 days on five continents (sadly, they didn't get to Antarctica).
Having supported The Flaming Lips and Raconteurs in recent years, psychedelic rock band Birds Of Avalon indeed have an uncanny ability to make retro sound relevant again on Uncanny Valley, especially on the short but punchy “Side Two” but up the ante on the heady “I Never Knew” and the vibrant “Eyesore” thanks to the guitar work of husband Paul Siler and wife Cheetie Kumar.
The book truly is the story of the path leading to the event as we’re 170 pages into the story before we reach the morning of August 15, 1969. It’s all good reading, though. It doesn’t matter if you’re one of the several million who claim to have rolled in the mud at Woodstock (actual crowd estimates still bounce between 450,000 and 500,000), you’d still have no way of knowing all the amazing events that led up to the most famous 3 days of music the world has ever known. (Digging a series of new wells on Max Yasgur’s farm and laying out 14 miles of water pipe was just one little detail.)
2009, like most years, was an event first and a music festival second (or third depending on how much you like Skeeball).
With “80’s synth-pop” being all the rage these days amongst the hipster elite, it’s surprising that Tears For Fears haven’t generated more buzz amongst the Urban Outfitter set. Instead, their show at the Celebrity Theater brought out an aging 40 something crowd to soak in the new-wave sounds of Orzabel and his musical partner – Curt Smith.
Singer-songwriter Sara Wasserman knows a little something about patience. Her debut album, Solid Ground, took seven years to finish, and the carefully crafted project is as promising as it is polished.
Having performed for over a decade with the increasingly popular Celtic folk/punk act Flogging Molly, Nathen Maxwell is faced with the double challenge of living up to yet not rehashing his band's strong body of work. On his solo debut, White Rabbit, Maxwell brings songs that have been simmering inside of him, some for over a decade, and prepares to meet these challenges involved in stepping outside of his established work.
It may be no coincidence Ian Hunter’s newest solo album precedes a reunion of Mott the Hoople in autumn of 2009. The prospect of revisiting the most-high profile work of his career appears to have elevated him as a songwriter and performer on Man Overboard.
In his mid-90s heyday, Tom Morello was a top guitarist, mixing skill, innovation and groove that was at the heart of Rage Against the Machine's hip-hop/hard rock hybrid. In fact, his sound was so successful that he rode it to mainstream success a second time with Audioslave during the first half of this decade. After an acoustic aside for the past couple years and reliving the RATM glory years, Morello is back for another shot, this time with Boots Riley of the Coup.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a band referencing a youthful Dylan’s girlfriend, Echo Helstrom is both musically notable (all five in the band are classically-trained musicians) and poetic, writing lyrics that capture one’s imagination. Though they weren’t quite as well suited to lasers (has a band sporting upright bass and violin been accompanied by lasers without being named Pink Floyd?), they did a great job of engaging the audience and creating solid, contemporary-feeling rock.
