2006

It’s been exactly eight years since the last time I ate the fungus, the magic mushrooms. Now, I know this space’s supposedly a music blog and not a debauched forum for drug-induced narration and hippie Bacchanalia, but if there’s anything I’ve learned along the way, it’s that the two often go hand-in-hand.

The popular rock band Phish swung through Chicago (aka the Windy Apple or the City of Broad Hips) during Parents’ Weekend of my sophomore year in college. I missed the first night of the three-night stand in order to dine in style with the folks, but they departed Sunday morning and I enjoyed that night’s show thoroughly. I couldn’t wait for the Monday concert, and my over-anxiousness hurt me.

That last UIC show did not disappoint. From start to finish, Phish put on a stellar performance — one of the more underrated concerts I caught from the band. It was an all-good affair, except of course for the 45 minutes when I just completely freaked the fuck out, peaking hard in a fully enclosed arena with no air and no music to distract me, as the band was taking a break in between sets…

Most Internet banter places Trey Anastasio’s appearance somewhere between Eric Clapton and Chuck Norris. But we ran a cadre of musical portraits through the new Hidden Track Facial Recognito 3000, and as it turns out, Bob Weir looks more like the redheaded ass-kicker/name-taker than Big Red. Trey? It seems that he’s more a cross between Jane Fonda, Ellen DeGeneres and Dolph Lundgren. Seriously.

Myheritage.com is a new social networking sites for families. The site is largely negligible, except for a cool feature that let’s you upload a picture of someone so it can find celebrity lookalikes. We gave the service a spin using some of our favorite musicians, and the results may surprise you…

You’ve gotta love a piece of software that says Bob Weir looks like both a crazed murderer and the kid that fucked a pastry in American Pie. Let’s see some more…

The kind folks that produce what I consider the nation’s best music festival are promising the Langerado lineup will be announced one week from today. That’s November 15th for those of youse

It’s time for our regular Hump Day Grousing Spectacular, and today we’ve got an impressive collection of audio torrents for you to hop on and download. We’ll start with two severely underrated shows from the 1980s, move into two ’90s bands that’re still rocking shit today, head into hippie-friendly territory and finish it all off with some Jay Leno favorites. Trust me, your slut of an iPod will thank me…

Talking Heads – 08/20/83 SBD
http://www.shnflac.net/details.php?id=1c619889db6041ca47525061c8c368bd3c8eef67

Stop Making Sense is one of the best, if not the best, rock films ever made. The band hit the road in August 1983 with their concept and filmed a few shows in December for the movie. Featured here is one of the first shows from the tour, and the band stretches out a bit more than they did when it was time to film. Bernie Worrell owns faces on this great sounding recording.

Please accept our insincerest apologies if you happen to be one of these girls, but life is all about having fun at other people’s expense. So let this be a lesson: If