Archive: 2007

Welcome to yet another weekly edition of Grousing The Aisles. This week we have some great audio and video from established legends with five letters in their last names like Frank Zappa, Warren Zevon and Bob Seger, as well as up-and-coming acts Brock Butler and Rose Hill Drive. Check it out:

Rose Hill Drive 12/30/06 DAUD (FLAC)

Rose Hill Drive continues to make fans of some of the biggest names in rock, like Roger Daltrey of The Who. On December 30th, the boys started their concert with a tribute to Jimi Hendrix by playing Band of Gypsys in its entirety at the Boulder Theater. RHD tears through such classic tracks as Who Knows, Machine Gun, and Power to Love with brute force. Daniel Sproul does a fine job of channeling Jimi, who is not exactly an easy musician to cover.

Covers weren’t the only showstoppers of the night for Rose Hill Drive, as they also played driving versions of Cool Cody and The Guru, amongst other original songs. The interplay between the Sproul brothers and drummer Nathan Barnes is incredibly tight, leaving the impression these boys have played together for decades. I expect big things from these guys in 2007, as do we all.

For no other reason than rockin’ out to some Stones on this fine morning… [youtube]ZxWPHNjGaHs[/youtube] If you’re curious, this one’s from the famed Montreaux rehearsals in 1972.

Lucinda Williams has lined up a spring tour in support of West, her first album of all new original music since 2003’s critically acclaimed World Without Tears. 3/6 Tucson, AZ, Rialto3/7, Albuquerque, NM, Kimo3/9, Austin, TX, Stubb’s3/10, Dallas, TX, Granada3/13, Tallahassee, FL, Musical Moon 3/16, Jacksonville, FL, Florida Theater3/17, Atlanta, GA, Tabernacle3/18, Asheville, NC, Thomas […]

RANDOM STABBINGS & ARTLESS CRITIQUE Black Elk, Black Elk (Crucial Blast Records)A band that can’t decide whether to be Red Scare calc, Melvins fuzz-froth or Lake of Dracula no-wave, and the world is better off while they’re making up their minds.  Black Elk’s cacophony will probably end up getting lumped in the section of your […]

As Tall As Lions self-titled release, the second one in their discography with Triple Crown Records, shows that Long Island, New York’s music scene has something different to offer then the club rock/emo driven Taking Back Sunday and Head Automatica.

Snoe.down ’07, the all ages, weekend winter music festival hosted by indie-jam rockers moe., returns to beautiful Lake Placid, N.Y., March 23-25, 2007. Snoe.down kicks off the week-long Adirondack Almost Springfest celebration, which will take place at all the 1980 Olympic venues in Lake Placid, N.Y., including the Olympic Center, home of the 1932 and […]

Gomez and ATO Records labelmate Ben Kweller have confirmed a month-long,co-headlining North American tour from mid-February through mid-March.The four-week run, which follows a January tour with Gomez supportingO.A.R. in Midwest and East Coast arenas, kicks off February 15 in Seattleand continues across the country through the March 11 closer inNorthampton. Each artist will also perform […]

It looks like The Police isn’t the only band discussing reunion plans in 2007.  Van Halen has been selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you know what that usually means. The induction ceremony takes place in New York City on March 12th, giving the band three months to figure out which […]

And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. About 20 minutes later He invented YouTube and sat in It for anywhere between 6,000 and 1,000 years. The raw footage from An Acoustic Evening with David […]

The King of the Smooth Jam will make his television debut in March with a guest appearance on the popular hospital drama House. Incoherent rambler Dave Matthews takes on the role of Patrick, a savant and virtuoso pianist who suffered a severe neurological impairment as the result of an accident 10 years prior. Patrick’s illness […]

Following a January schedule spent flying coast-to-coast playing 6 already-sold-out shows, Cold War Kids have lined up a busy spring tour.   This coming Tuesday, January 9th, "Hang Me Out To Dry" will be the iTunes Single of the Week! COLD WAR KIDS TOUR DATES  01/10/07 New York, NY @ Pianos 01/12/07 Los Angeles, CA @ The […]

Neko Case will open four shows for country legend Merle Haggard in February, and then play a few of her own headlining shows later in the month. Case, primarily a solo artist, but one who has spent much of her performing time in recent years on the road with her ongoing side gig, The New […]

Trailer Life is a catchy, happy release by the Drunk Stuntmen, an independent roots-rock band fronted by Steven M. Sanderson, and made up of eight or nine other seasoned musicians. What comes across when spinning this disc are the stories, experiences, and work that went into crafting these tunes.

On Long Island Shores, Smith pervades her distinctly gentle voicing amidst soft modern country ballads and light gales of folk-pop textures.

"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar prodigy who rose to fame as one of the original members of the Flying Burrito Brothers, has died. He was 72. Kleinow, who also worked in film as an award-winning animator and special effects artist, died Saturday at a Petaluma convalescent home near the skilled nursing facility where he […]

Consumers will finally get the chance to own an iPhone, a mobile phone that plays iTunes and surfs the Web, electronics maker Apple said Tuesday. The device will retail for between $499 and $599. Company chairman Steve Jobs, speaking at the company’s annual Macworld expo, called the iPhone, which will be available in June, a […]

If you’re familiar with The Lefsetz Letter, you’re aware of the fact that this guy knows his shit, and he’s knows your shit. He’s the Roto Rooter of the music world, sifting through everybody’s shit and cleaning all the pipes. I’m a little late on this, but Lefsetz issued his 2007 Predictions last week, basically […]

Any of you Widespread Panic fans ever wondered what John Bell would sound like if he were a chick? That’d be pretty weird, but I bet someone has. Wonder no more, freaks, your answer has arrived. Jesse Sykes has been around for a few years now, even making New York Times critic Jon Pareles’ list […]

I’ve written about Tea Leaf Green coming to New York and flat-out flooring me so many times that I can’t even find a fresh angle with which to present the blistering 12/28 show at Mexicali Blues in Teaneck, New Jersey.

I guess I can talk about how I brought my snobby musician friend who previously had only unflattering adjectives to describe them, only to hear him whisper “I’m totally sold” a few songs into the proceedings. I can talk about the sweet, sweet venue and how it played the perfect host on a sold-out night. I can talk about the impossibly frenetic Wet Spot > Death Cake > Wet Spot that closed the first set, or the beautiful nod to the New York crowd in the wholly original Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues cover, or the utter evilness and sheer nastiness emanating from Josh Clark’s guitar in Bouncin’ Betty.

Mostly, though, I left the Mexicali show elated that TLG had successfully restored my faith in the band after two fairly mediocre shows in October (Irving Plaza and The Vic). I had written after the CBGB show in April that “TLG gets hyperbolically better every time I see them. Tighter. Looser. More Confident. They’ve got the swagger now. They don’t take a night off. They don’t take a note off.”

But whereas I had begun to re-evaluate the above stream of thought after those two shows in October, I walked out of Mexicali Blues that night as committed to their present and their potential as I’ve ever been. This show proved exactly why this band is one of my favorite touring acts in the country today.

With my faith now restored, I can now in good conscience present this sick photo gallery from the show, courtesy of our crafty friend Ted Wong…

After a couple of short weeks, we’re back to the grind with a full week of action. Don’t think of it as more work, think of it as more Hidden Track. To start you off on the right foot, here’s a handful of links to keep you occupied: Cold Turkey’s Benji Eisen and Mike Greenhaus offer us […]