November 2007

This week’s Stormy Mondays is all about the winner of the other NYC marathon, Mr. Phil Lesh, who’s in the midst of a monster 10-night run at the Nokia.

Leaving the Q aside, as the band deserves a mix of its very own, these tracks attempt to cover Lesh in a number of different lights. The Help > Slip > Franklin’s comes from the 2004 Dead tour — it’s the show opener from Great Woods, and the bass work is stunning right from the intro, the playing of a true master. Buckets of Rain, from the blizzard show in ’06 with Trey, doesn’t feature much in the way of bass chops, but it does show off just how great a bandleader Phil is.

Next, Bo Diddley joins the Grateful Dead for a super-bad, stand-alone “Jam” in 1972 — this incredible and unique 10 minutes is an absolute must-hear. The mix closes with a nice Just Like Tom Thumb Blues from MSG in ’93, unless of course there’s a hidden track this week…oh so clever. Enjoy!

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You know Saturday Night Live’s fallen on tough times when the only compliment you can give is: “Hey, the humor may be completely missing, but at least they still continue to book great bands.” The show continues to induce blank stares, with this weekend’s episode representing a new low for the current cast. But a brutal evening of comedy provided a splendid night of music, and Feist’s renditions of 1234 and I Feel It All were truly gorgeous, very Joni Mitchellesque.

Spreaking of shows that book great acts Zappa Plays Zappa rocked Late Night with Conan O’Brien last week. But enough of the videos, it’s linkage time:

• Indie bands dive into Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim
• Page McConnell shows off his setup for keyboard.tv
• The NY Times spends a night out with Beirut’s Zach Condon [via LHB]
• Just exactly what finger did Jimmy Page injure?
• Sly and The Family Stone add two more dates at BB King’s in NYC
• Live Nation once again faces a class-action lawsuit
• The comments on TMZ’s Neil Young post are freakin’ hilarious
• Aretha Franklin continues to gain r-e-s-p-e-c-t at age 65 (too easy?)
• A Canadian government study finds that file sharing sells more music
• The Rawking Refuses to Stop doesn’t understand all the love for Broken Social Scene (Ace said the same exact thing at ACL)

And read on after the jump for a comprehensive list of all the setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Ryan Adams sitting in with Phil Lesh and Mike Gordon playing with RatDog, Van Halen in New Jersey, Jason Isbell and They Might Be Giants. Some torrents from the weekend are also available for download…

So the undefeated Patriots eked out a victory over the now-defeated Colts, and we’ll be hearing an assload on ESPN tonight about Boston’s current sports dominance. But if we’re gonna