November 28, 2007

It feels like forever since we posted a Grousing The Aisles, but it’s only been two weeks. We’re gonna make up for lost time by posting three incredible soundboards by legendary artists and linking to an additional five at the end of the piece As my mom likes to say “Don’t ever say we never gave you anything.” Let’s get down to business…

Sly and the Family Stone 09/01/1969 SBD [FLAC, MP3]

Much has been made about Sly Stone’s reappearance onto the scene. Sly clearly has seen better days, so instead of looking at his present, let’s take a look at a golden oldie from the days when crack was just the line on your ass. Just this week we came across an incredible soundboard of Sly and the Family Stone’s groundbreaking performance at the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969. You can hear the urgency in Sly’s voice as he sings early versions of songs that would soon be classics.

The whole band absolutely kills this material throughout the set. M’lady brings the funk, Sing A Simple Song shows a bit of a harder edge and Stand! gives the crowd a feel for the more political side of Stone’s music. All of Sly’s musicians are having a great night, especially bass player Larry Graham. Other highlights include a bombastic Dance To The Music and the whole filler, especially the guitar-driven Thank You (Fallentime Be Mice Elf Again). If you want to see what Sly and the Family Stone was all about, download this set or check out the Woodstock video, but whatever you do don’t pay $75 to see them play. Read on for tasty boots from Paul Simon, the Dead and more…

If Tea Leaf Green replacing Ben Chambers with Reed Mathis was a steal, then the Black Crowes replacing Paul Stacey with Luther Dickinson will go down as the best deal this side of the Louisiana Purchase. The Crowes announced the move on Tuesday as they spilled the beans on details about their new album. Warpaint will be released via the Crowes’ new imprint Silver Arrow Records on March 4th.

Photo by VanArk

Dickinson makes his Crowes recording debut on Warpaint and will join the band on a world tour supporting the album throughout 2008. Before anyone starts scouring Northern Mississippi for another Allstar, keep in mind that Luther will probably keep his role in NMAS. At least that’s what Mike Greenhaus thinks, and we trust him. This won’t be the first time a Robinson brother will be in a band with Luther Dickinson, as Rich played in the short lived Circle Sound with Luther last year. Read on for more about the Crowes big move…

We never thought that visiting Vineland, New Jersey — the armpit of America’s armpit — would be in our plans next summer, but yesterday’s announcement that C3 Presents will be holding a festival in Vineland puts the city square in our plans.

C3 Presents, the brains behind Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits festival, always seem to know how to put together a varied and exciting lineup that can draw a diverse crowd. The new festie will be held on a 500-acre privately owned farm on August 8th – 10th.

Interestingly, Vineland takes place only one week removed from Lollapalooza, which means they are ultimately competing with themselves. We don’t really care about that; we’re just psyched to check out what’s sure to be an epic festival about two hours from NYC. Read on for more about Vineland…

We’ve been blown away by the flood of amazing new rock documentaries about old bands. No Direction Home was brilliant. Amazing Journey was awesome. Runnin’ Down A Dream beats ’em all. And everything we’ve heard about Julien Temple’s Joe Strummer documentary makes us feel like a couple of custies for not seeing it yet. USA Today examines the trend, filling us in on what it takes to bring these artists’ stories to the screen.

• A lucky Radiohead fan got his copy of the In Rainbows box set a week early
• Van Halen adds a few more dates to their busy 2008 schedule
• Our friend Brian Bavosa writes about his experience at a recent Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm’s barn
• Somebody played a joke on Weezer, and the media fell for it (including us)
• We don’t blame James McCartney for getting his dad to help him record his debut album
• Slapdelay asks What Would Zappa Do?
• Benji and Mike pick up the pace with some stellar editions of Cold Turkey
• Hey Parents: Get your kids a hippie van this holiday season
• The Police bring the never-ending reunion tour to the Isle of Wight

Finally, we really got a kick out of Jack White’s matador impression in the White Stripes new video for Conquest. Check it out after the jump…