2007

The past few weeks have been crazy for your old pal Scotty B, leaving me little time to review some of the concerts I’ve recently attended. So allow me to kill two birds with one stone for this week’s edition of Grousing The Aisles.

We’ll start by looking at RAQ’s first-ever performance at the beautiful new Highline Ballroom before moving onto Ween’s Friday night gig at NYC’s newest shitty venue, Terminal 5. Luckily high-quality recordings of both shows have surfaced, so you can listen to the shows I’m reviewing. You gotta love modern technology.

RAQ 11/24/2007 DAUD [FLAC, MP3, STREAM]

Photo by Dave Vann

It isn’t hard to have fun at a RAQ show. While they may not be breaking any new ground sonically, the Vermont quartet plays a mix of quirky originals and killer covers that keeps the crowd both entertained and dancing. The energy that the crowd gave the band and vice versa at Highline Ballroom a few weeks ago was pretty cool to watch. Everyone in the venue (besides me) seemed like longtime RAQ fans, and they consequently hung on every note the band played.

Keyboardist Todd Stoops is a guy most people either think is the best thing since sliced bread or the most annoying musician they’ve ever heard. Personally, I think Stoops’ spastic style adds some originality to both the jams and songs themselves. Check out Shirley Be A Drooler for a taste of Stoops’ hyper organ-playing or Clamslide for a sample of what he can do on the piano. Guitarist Chris Michetti shredded his way through the evening, starting with rapid-fire runs during the cover of AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way to The Top that opened the show before exhibiting a more melodic side of his fretwork on Carbohydrates Are The Enemy > Freya > Carbohydrates Are The Enemy. Read on for much more…

Here’s a shocker: Stewart Copeland’s big mouth causes trouble again.

Copeland apparently disparaged current Chilean president Michelle Bachelet back in October, comparing her less favorably to another leader: “Look, the future President of Argentina would be good for one beer; yours [would be good] for four.” Copeland + beer goggles reference = international incident.

Not surprisingly, the people of Chile took The Police drummer’s words to mean he found Bachelet less attractive than Argentina’s hot president. Copeland apologized for the slight, and invited Bachelet and her party to see tonight’s concert in Santiago. If you haven’t seen The Police yet, be sure to see them next summer, because we’d be surprised if Sting ever goes on tour with Stewart again.

Scotty and I are a little busy with our day jobs and pressing HT issues at the moment, so it’s time to turn to the greatest song and video from

With The Pixies’ reunion fading into memory, the time’s finally come for Kelley and Kim Deal to get The Breeders back together. The Deal sisters have teamed up with producer Steve Albini to record Mountain Battles, an album that was put on hold in 2002 when Kim entered rehab. Mountain Battles hits stores on April 8th, and for Fuse’s sake we hope they don’t use any bong references on this album.

Let’s see what else is goin’ on ’round the world wide web this week:

• Live Nation teams with Costco to sell concert tickets
• Glide Magazine points us in the direction of Radiohead’s new video
• Bono promises U2 fans they’ll “feel a difference” from their next album
• Phil & Friends’ John Molo discusses his past and present with Blair Jackson
• Tom Petty talks to Rolling Stone about his decision to play the Super Bowl
• Jason and Jeff (of Jefitoblog fame) celebrate the 25 Days of Mellowmas
• Daniel Lanois offers the first digitally downloadable album to be released in high-resolution CD quality
• STS9 announces a few weeks worth of 2008 tour dates
• Runaway Dinosaur highlights some cool shit on Rock Art Wednesday
• John C. Reilly takes the stage as Dewey Cox during special screenings of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (watch trailer here)

Finally, be sure to watch on Friday night when Page McConnell names his favorite songs for ABC’s Nightline. He’s totally gonna pick Jennifer Dances.