December 19, 2007

Over the past few months we’ve been very lucky to have our friend Dale contribute some wonderful shows to the Grousing The Aisles mix. Dale doesn’t mess around with average shows — he only brings the best of the best from his collection. Every show Dale suggests to us winds up being a winner we’ve never come across before, so we asked him to pick three killer sets for this week’s column.

So excuse us while we put our feet up, and let Dale spread his wings and fly:

Pink Floyd 11/16/1974 SBD [MP3]

If you don’t already have this bootleg, stop whatever you’re doing (hell, even if it’s sexy time) and download it now. You have to hear this pristine multi-track SBD recording made by the BBC on November 16, 1974. This is the 2nd set and encore of the band’s performance that night: a full performance of Dark Side Of The Moon followed by an Echoes encore.

Now, even if you already have this recording in your collection, you’ll probably want to download this new version. All of the processing applied to previous versions has been eliminated through the use of a source closer to the original BBC tapes, and many previous versions in circulation did not include the Echoes encore. This is seriously an amazing treasure of a recording, possessing the ability to make Dark Side Of The Moon sound fresh and new to the ears. Best of all, it does not sound like a bootleg and it does not sound 33 years old.

Read on for two more epic downloads from Zeppelin and Zappa…

We’ve said often that 2007 will forever be known as the year of the reunion. And now it looks 2008 will offer more of the same. Return To Forever, one

Every December our lord and savior Glide Magazine takes the “year end” shit to another level, pollsing artists across the entire music spectrum to find out which albums, performances and/or

Wired Magazine set up what many superlative speakers and tall tale tellers believe is the most epic meeting of musical minds since Bach met Mozart in 1764. The writer of

We’d like to nominate Jeffrey Sofer’s 40th Birthday celebration for best party of 2007. Sofer, heir to the Turnberry fortune, threw himself a $2 million bash at an executive airport near Miami. Most people usually pay a band to play Get Down Tonight or 1999 at their parties, but Sofer actually hired both KC and the Sunshine Band and Prince to perform at his event.

Prince played a full set at the party, chock full of classics like Cream, Controversy and Let’s Go Crazy. The Miami Herald reports that the Purple One seemed happy during his performance, but we’ll need to see a YouTube before we believe that. [via thedailyswarm]

So let’s see what else is goin’ down on this marvelous hump day:

• Jason Bonham plays coy when asked about a potential Led Zep tour
• Rhapsody jumps into Facebook with a taste of their subscription model
• Cold War Kids gives their fans a free EP for the holidays
• Jay and Conan returning without writers? More time for the musical guests!
• New York Mag breaks down Pitchfork’s Top 100 Tracks, pie-graph style
• You can hear a simulcast of Widespread Panic’s NYE concert on Sirius
• Rolling Stone’s Joe Levy finds out what everyone already knew about vinyl
• Benji and Mike get Dead Sirius on the latest installment of Cold Turkey
• Amy Winehouse spent some time talking to police yesterday
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s Carl sounds off on The Mitchell Report
  

Finally, Tori Amos interrupted a recent concert in LA to urge writers to “Stop sucking the cock of the infested corporate clone.” You fuckin’ tell ’em, girlfriend. Check out the video after the jump…