October 2007

Sly Stone took himself higher than most, and the resultant burnout saw the funk legend living the life of a complete recluse. But the comeback trail beckons, and Sly and the Family Stone will make their first NYC appearance since 1974 on December 7th at B.B. King’s. How long Sly will actually take the stage that night remains to be seen. If the band’s recent European tour is any indication, don’t expect much more than 20 minutes worth of Sly singing inaudibly and banging on a keyboard. And oh yeah…expect to pay $85 for that opportunity.

• The space that was CBGB’s will now house an upscale designer boutique
• Bloggers are pissed that OiNK has been shuttered
• HT Friend Dan Alford looks at the recent Grateful Dead vault releases
• You’ve heard about Dumbledore: Vulture presents 10 Other Fictional Characters Who’s Outings Won’t Shock Us That Much
• Johnny Marr feels The Smiths will reunite sooner rather than later
• Mars Volta have announced both a New Year’s concert in San Francisco and a February release date for their new album
• Cake relaunches their Unlimited Sunshine traveling festival in December
• Wow, it’s been 22 friggin’ years? Glen Friedman shares photos and audio from his visit with the Beastie Boys in 1985
• Former NHL’er Shjon Podein tells us about how John LeClair got him into Phish towards the end of this ESPN article

And tickets for the upcoming Mighty Mighty Bosstones reunion concerts are harder to come by than World Series tickets. Who’s got my extraaaa?

As we discussed earlier this morning, the popular file-sharing and questionably legal OiNK site came down when British and Dutch authorities arrested the alleged 24-year-old proprietor, who lives in Middlesbrough

LiveDownloads sells live concert recordings from some of the biggest touring acts in the country, but they also feature smaller bands like The Wood Brothers.

Oliver and Chris Wood formed the aptly named Wood Brothers in 2005 after a long geographical separation kept the familial duo from collaborating. Their debut album, Ways Not To Lose, is a well-crafted collection of songs, but the band displays more passionate emotion and grit on the LiveDownloads recording of their show from the Newport Folk Festival on August 6th, 2006.

Oliver and Chris grew up in Boulder, Colorado, until each brother went their own way to start their careers as musicians. Chris settled in New York City, where he formed Medeski, Martin and Wood in 1991. Oliver’s path took him to Atlanta, where he honed his guitar and vocal stylings as the leader of King Johnson. The Wood Brothers reunited in 2005 to form a badass guitar/bass duo that blends a potent mixture of folk and blues, with a shot of jazz thrown in for good measure.

Read on after the jump for more of Scotty’s review and a link to download…