2006

Marco Benevento knows his math. The bearded hipster pianist wisely chose to set up a regular Wednesday residency at Tonic on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in November, which fortunately for all of us, has five Wednesdays. As Cosby would say, that’s “One, two, three, four, fiiiiive Marco Wednesdays.” Bonus.

Last night’s over-before-it-started, 70-minute show marked the middle gig of Marco’s Novemberstand, a (mostly) solo performance full of experimental covers and spacey loops. Somehow he ended up with more equipment on stage than most full bands, but like a musical polygamist, I’m pretty sure he spent a little time with every one of them: the grand piano, the electric piano, the tiny keyboard, toy circuits, drum pad, you name it. Still, the per instrument set-up to play-time ratio couldn’t have been lower than 5:1. I made that up, but it sounded good.

Marco began with Randy Pink Floyd’s Fearless, then followed that stellar beginning with terrifically tickled homages to Thelonius Monk (Bye-Ya), Leonard Cohen (Seems So Long Ago, Nancy) and Radiohead. He even played a lesser known Duo tune off Best Reason To Buy The Sun, Welcome Red, before saying something like “Joe [Russo] is gonna kill me for playing that.” But if a recording of this show ever surfaces, that Monk tune — a grand piano jazz performance devoid of all his typical layers of sound — floored me more than any of his other inventiveness.

Marco eventually called up to the stage his occasional collaborator and preferred rock shredder Scott Metzger for three songs near the end of his set. The lowercase duo kicked it off with a Combustible Edison tune, hightailed it into the capitalized Duo’s Abduction Pose and finished it up with a Happy Birthday-infused cover of Ween’s Birthday Boy (read on below for a couple of videos I shot of these last two). As much as I loved the solo stuff, Metzger took the night’s proceedings to a higher level, his understated-ness notwithstanding.

You’ve got two more chances to see Marco & Friends down at Tonic this month. Next Wednesday features the keyboardist with three drummers — Sir Joe Russo, Bobby Previte and Mike Dillon (and where there’s a Mike D there’s usually a Skerik, but…). Make it your beeswax to get down there and see what unfolds…

Just think, one week from today we’ll all be off and celebrating the turkiest of all days. We’re almost there, and to help you get to the short week faster, check out

Because sometimes you just gotta share cool shit with your friends… I love the brief description of this video on YouTube: “Just because you dont know how to play the

We’ve gone grousing the aisles once again to help you get over this week’s hump. This edition returns to our jambandian roots, with a few clever diversions into classic rock. We’re moving beyond torrents and opening up the floor to streaming shows, as well as MP3 downloads. Don’t worry, we’ll alert you as to what’s what.

Benevento/Russo Duo – 11/3/2006 Matrix (FLAC)
bt.etree.org/details.php?id=501756

Compliments to The Duo — it’s a very fan-friendly move to allow tapers to record matrix versions and spread them within days of the show. The sound quality on this particular show is amazing, and it helps that the band kicks the proverbial asses of Something For Rockets, Becky and 9×9. The Duo gets better every show they play, and we look forward to watching their continued upward trajectory.

Read on for more on The Clash, The Who, The Santana, The Umphrey’s, The Phish, The Grateful Dead, The J. Geils Band and more…

The lineup for the 5th Annual Langerado Music Festival is now officially out there, and it looks pretty damn good. Save all your anti-jamband bullshit for Coachella, ya hipster doofus, this one’s gonna be down and dirty.

The Langerado Music Festival is known for kicking off the country’s festival season each March by attracting thousands of music lovers from all over the country to sunny South Florida. Today, the region’s premier music festival makes its first announcement regarding the artist line-up for its fifth annual event, happening at Markham Park on March 9, 10, and 11, 2007. Reputed for always gathering a diverse collection of today’s hottest artists, 2007’s Langerado Music Festival is thrilled to host Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio, moe., O.A.R., Matisyahu, Micheal Franti & Spearhead, Paolo Nutini, The Disco Biscuits, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Toots and the Maytals, Los Lobos, Blackalicious, Yerba Buena, Girl Talk, Explosions in the Sky, Rodrigo y Gabriela and many, many others. Visit http://www.langerado.com for the complete list of confirmed artists, with more artists still to be announced.

Good lord, I know it’s a pipe dream, but what I wouldn’t give to see Trey take the stage with Stevie Malkmus and MMW. Greyboy, Toots, Tea Leaf Green, The Slip, Bela, moe., Panic, and look out for Band of Horses, Apollo Sunshine, Sharon Jones and Assembly of Dust — this thing is a dream lineup for this here sucker.

Tickets go on sale to the public December 1st, and the late-night shows will be announced shortly. Read on for the full lineup, and let us know what you think — are you a holier-than-thou hipster that’s pissed there’s no Death Cab for M. Ward, or are you a satisfied wook ready to sling phatty grilled cheese in the lots?

“Oh,” she shrugged. “You’re one of those guys.”

I’d been chatting up a leggy blonde at someone’s rooftop party well past midnight when she lobbed that one at me. The topic of conversation had turned to music at some point — it so often emanates from geeks with beat game — and having just run the table for six straight Beirut victories, my voice must’ve conveyed a loud conviction that bordered on either batshit insanity or total deafness.

“One of which guys?” I asked sheepishly, trying to play cool the fact that during my pointed lecture I had just spat on her face, breast, chest neck and head.

“You know, those guys,” she retorted. “Those guys in their twenties that talk about The Band like they’re the greatest thing in the world, as if possessing such a love for an obscure group of rock musicians you weren’t even old enough to see makes you cooler than everyone else, when really it just makes you an elitist that refuses to play nice with his own generation.”

“Look, ma’am,” I began with arrogant charm, “I make no apologies for wearing my love for the most underrated mostly non-American band in American rock history on my short sleeve for the world to see. You know how they say if we didn’t jump into World War II that all of Europe would be speaking German right now? Well, if The Band hadn’t hung ’em up in 1976 we’d all be singing Canadian-Injected Southern Country Soulful Rock right now. You don’t assemble a collection of fucking talent into one band often enough that I’m willing to just brush them into the dustpan of misplaced rock. Music From Big Pink? I mean, c’mon…”

“I’m gonna go get another beer,” she mumbled, inching away slowly. “Bye.”

I know that all sounds more like an anecdote in a J. Peterman catalogue than a newsy blog post about a new tribute album hitting shelves on January 30, 2007, but I felt the need to preface my first real post on here about The Band with a full disclosure of my belief in their greatness. Nobody puts The Band in the corner.

So when ScottyB e-mailed me the information that 429 Records is releasing Endless Highway: The Music of The Band early next year, I perked up like I’d stumbled upon a cache of free porn. Hornsby on King Harvest? My Morning Jacket on It Makes No Difference? The Allmans on The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down? ALO on Ophelia? I’m normally not a tribute album guy, but buying this disc sounds like a total no-brainer, a real Schiavo. Read on for the full setlist…