September 5, 2007

We had a little help from our friends putting together this week’s edition of Grousing The Aisles. Our friend Chappy turns us onto an incredible Dead show, while Terry O’Brien reports on The Breakfast’s new lineup. Hell, we even have Joel Berk contributing one of his amazing pictures from Riverview to our review of Umphrey’s McGee at the festival. And as an added bonus, we also take a look at YMSB’s Red Rocks debut with the help of their friend, drummer Jon Fishman.

Yonder Mountain String Band 09/02/2007 DAUD [FLAC]:

Photo via Timloco

This past weekend was a dream come true for the boys of Yonder Mountain String Band. The Colorado-based quartet not only sold out their debut gig at Red Rocks, they also persuaded Phish’s Jon Fishman to join them on drums. Fans of the band were so thrilled with YMSB’s performance that they started multiple threads on popular message boards begging for Fishman to be added on a permanent basis. After listening to Sunday night’s show, I don’t blame them. How can you?

Yonder started the show by playing most of the first set as a quartet. The band played some fan favorites, including the fitting 40 Miles From Denver. Towards the end of the set Fishman came out for a three-song bloc that featured the amazing coupling of Kentucky Mandolin > Steep Grade Sharp Curves. The band’s excitement is so obvious it comes through on tape. Fishman sat in for the whole second set, and he added a much-needed rhythmic base to the music. After Damned if the Right One Didn’t Go Wrong, Ben Kaufman asked the crowd if they thought Fishman passed the audition. As you can imagine the crowd went nuts. Hopefully we will all have the chance to see this pairing again soon.

Read on after the jump for three more great GTA downloads…

Two of the biggest bands in the history of rock and/or roll have recently signed up with Guitar Hero-maker Harmonix to allow their music to be used in two upcoming video games. Aerosmith is currently in the studio recording music that will be featured in Guitar Hero IV, while the Grateful Dead have licensed 18 original studio-quality recordings to be played in Rock Band.

Guitar Hero games of the past have used cover bands to save money, but as a result of awesomeness and laziness, the games are generating much more revenue, allowing Harmonix to actually use the original version of most songs.

The Grateful Dead have allowed Harmonix to use such classic songs as Sugar Magnolia, Casey Jones and Truckin’ in Rock Band, which builds on the Guitar Hero premise by allowing gamers to simulate singing, bangin’ drums, and of course, playing guitar. Other artists that have already licensed songs to Rock Band include The Who, Metallica and David Bowie. Rock Band is tentatively due to be released on November 20th. Read on after the jump for much more…

Eddie Vedder, Metallica, John Mayer and Tom Waits will headline this year’s Bridge School Benefit, where they’ll be joined by Tegan & Sara, Regina Spektor and Jerry Lee Lewis. Neil

Investment banker Warren Hellman is a rich motherfucker. Hellman is so rich [ed. note: how rich is he?] that he throws a free festival in San Francisco every October. The