July 18, 2007

While it would be easy to fill this column with the likes of Pearl Jam, Phish and the Grateful Dead every week, we’d also like to introduce you to some bands you may not have heard of or completely forgot about. So as promised, this week’s Grousing The Aisles looks at four bands that have flown under the radar. We start off with an incredible recording of the newly reunited Buffalo Tom, and then check out shows from Railroad Earth, Toad The Wet Sprocket and Lima Charlie. Clear some room on your iPod, and give these bands a chance to impress ya…

Buffalo Tom 7/13/2007 MATRIX (FLAC):

Boston’s Buffalo Tom is back with a vengeance this summer. The boys released a stellar album, entitled Three Little Pieces, and are following it up with a few record release shows. This past Friday night, Buffalo Tom played a precise set of power pop at the Bowery Ballroom that showed they haven’t lost a step, despite basically nine years off. The band and a taper named Christopher Jones have teamed up to offer a matrix recording of that show for download.

I first heard of Buffalo Tom when I saw the video for Sodajerk on MTV’s 120 Minutes. Sodajerk, still my favorite Buffalo Tom tune, is a rock tune that mixes the jangle of The Byrds with the emotional depth of The Replacements. While the Tom played a terrific version of Sodajerk and a few other tunes from the old days, the songs from Three Little Pieces were the main meat of their set. CC and Callas, You’ll Never Catch Him and September Shirt all sound terrific in concert. Also of note were the multiple diatribes by singer and huge Red Sox fan, Bill Janovitz, directed at all the Yankee fans in the room. Buffalo Tom continues their tour on July 25th at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

Read on after the jump for three more GTA downloads…

Our main man Danfun hath returned from Canada, where he caught The White Stripes’ 10th Anniversary show. Hey, Dan: Get a job, ya hoser…

The White Stripes tour de Canada was nothing short of astounding. The duo played secret show after secret show, setting up in locations that moved from bowling alleys to public buses to the back of boats. The full tour built up to an exciting conclusion this past weekend, when the band played Nova Scotia.

I flew into Halifax early on Friday morning, and early in the day the band played a secret show located in a banquet hall that was just packed. Friday’s show featured a great set, which saw the band come out wearing kilts. The band set up was really crazy for Halifax: There was a makeshift catwalk platform on which Jack could play guitar while moving across it, and it gave off the illusion that his feet were putting off smoke. We’ll move on to the anniversary gig, but Union Forever and Catch Hell Blues stand out as highlights of the early Halifax show.

Read on for more great photos and videos from Danfun’s trip to Canada…

We’ve hit the peak of the summer concert season, with multiple festivals going off this weekend. RatDog, String Cheese Incident and Umphrey’s McGee headline the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota, while RAQ