December 21, 2007

I was flippin’ through the channels last night when I came across a Dennis Hopper-narrated documentary on punk. I realized after a few minutes that I was watching an episode

The world moves on a woman’s hips; the world moves and it swivels and bops… It’s Friday, it’s 3 pm, and many of you will be off for the next

You walk into the Paul Robeson Theater, a former church tucked away in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene, and the first thing that springs to mind is the timeless middle-school assembly. Should we say no to drugs, or to crime, or is someone about to raise a little more awareness about The AIDS? Are the 8th grade elections coming up? Four-day school weeks, motherfucker, promise me!

So you take your seat next to a lovely blonde and wait for the band that’s scheduled to play this hidden gem. They come out, they begin to tune, and instantly your drawn to the awesome acoustics of the small auditorium. The music bounces off the walls and the band immediately sounds the best they’ve ever been. Then it hits you: This may be the coolest venue you’ve never heard of, and you want everyone you’ve ever fancied to play on that stage…post-haste.

American Babies took that stage at 10:30 last night, part of the Paul Robeson Concert Series that’s begun to bring more rock acts to this underutilized venue. I’ve seen the Babies — Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger on guitar, Jim Hamilton on bass and Sir Joe Russo at the kit — more times this year than any other band, and last night may have been their finest show of 2007. Read on…

It’s time once again to consult the 8 Ball that is Uncle Neddy for his last dabbling in mixology for the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven: “Here are some live tracks from the latter half of this year. Thanks always to the tapers and others who make these great tunes readily available. As usual, these being live recordings, the quality varies, but it’s all good. Here’s to much rockin’ and rollin’ in 2008.”

01 While You Were Sleeping — Elvis Perkins in Dearland: 3 December 2007
02 Pilgrims — Widespread Panic: 29 September 2007
03 The General Specific — Band Of Horses: 6 September 2007
04 Time Travel Is Lonely — John Vanderslice: 22 September 2007
05 Fake Empire — The National: 17 August 2007
06 Trapeze Swinger — Iron and Wine: 29 November 2007

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S FRIDAY MIX TAPE

Live Nation moved one step closer to an imminent showdown with Ticketmaster by forging a partnership with CTS Eventim, a global ticketing technology platform. The artist formerly known as Clear Channel Entertainment poses the first real threat to Ticketmaster’s reign of terror since the long lost days of Ticketron.

We’re sick of paying $2.50 for the honor of printing our own tickets, so we welcome any relief competition gives to the consumer. Then again, Live Nation isn’t quite the Ralph Nader of the entertainment biz, so maybe we will just have two companies sucking us dry. Yeah, that’s the more likely option. I sense we’re gonna get the fingercuffs from both ends on this one.

So let’s get the Friday before Christmas started with a hearty batch of links:

• Jack White’s working on three new albums; don’t ask him what’s on ’em
• Led Zeppelin Rumor of the Day: Headlining Glastonbury
• The Smashing Pumpkins offer four new tracks exclusively via iTunes
• Look for Rush to return to some familiar venues next summer
• Del McCoury and High Sierra Music team up to announce DelFest
• January will bring us unusually worthwhile re-issues of Beck’s Odelay and Van Morrison’s first six albums
• The SNL cast stages another strike show at Comix on January 7
• Stream Andrew Bird’s breakout performance from Bumbershoot, courtesy of KEXP

And the long-awaited 11th episode of Yacht Rock debuts at the Knitting Factory on December 27. What soft rock all-stars are they gonna skewer this time?