Archive: 2007

Addison Groove Project‘s 10-year career came to a close on Saturday night. The first concert I ever booked featured AGP playing in front of 50-60 people at Skidmore College in 1998. After seeing the incredible level of talent each band member possessed, I was blown away to find out most of them were still in high […]

The week begins with a whiff of giddy anticipation: The First Lieutenant and I are headed southbound for Langerado for three days of headiness in the South Florida warmth. Scotty and I will channel our inner Tricia Takanawa and do our best to bring you slutty, ethnic reports from the field. But that’s the glorious […]

Instead of St. Bart’s or St. Tropez, Sexotica could very well be the next hottest jet-set journey. The quartet led by Steve Bernstein on trumpet has released an album, Sexotica, on Thirsty Ear Recordings, basing the disc on Martin Denny’s “Exotica” recordings.

week of 3.4.07

 Singer/pianist Ben Folds has lined up a handful of spring tour dates, starting in the Northeast with a March 24 gig at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. He’ll move to Illinois and Michigan in early April, with scattered shows booked for the rest of the spring. The last date on the books is May 9, when […]

Xavier Rudd – the acclaimed Australian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist – will release the follow up to his acclaimed Anti- debut, Food In The Belly on June 19th. Titled White Moth, the disc finds Rudd speaking out against his country’s Aboriginal land right policies which have led to the wholesale displacement and mis treatment of […]

The Flaming Lips  have lined up a run of US dates in April that will take them along the East Coast. The band will start off April 11 in Athens, GA, and hit cities in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Rhode Island through April 21. Fellow Oklahoma City alt-rock outfit Stardeath and White […]

In a press release dated 28th February 2007, Lost Highway Records confirmed that Adams has completed a new album, Easy Tiger, for release on June 5th (June 4th in the UK). The track order is not yet finalised but will comprise: "Goodnight Rose," "Everybody Knows," "The Sun Also Sets," "Halloween Head," "Off Broadway," "Two Hearts," […]

Earlier today I quickly posted some videos from last night’s 20th Anniversary of the Old Knit gala event. My running mate Neddy now gives it the full treatment.

What’s that saying about how we all get the face we deserve by the age of 50?

Well, apparently, for music clubs you get the anniversary show you deserve at the age of 20. Last night the Knitting Factory — referred to lovingly as the “Old Knit” — celebrated a couple of decades, less as a jazz club and more as the genesis of the entire downtown aesthetic. Of course, in a production decision that made as little sense as holding an AA meeting at a brewery, this monstrosity of a benefit show was held smack dab in the middle of Times Square, at Town Hall, as far as you can imagine from the Tribeca/Lower East Side roots of the club and the music.

When I think of the music that grew out of that Old Knit scene I think of a messy, experimental goop, occasionally brilliant, occasionally moving, occasionally intolerable. Whether they intended it or not, that’s exactly what they delivered on Thursday night. Read on for more of Neddy’s play-by-play review…

Our friend Marc recently unearthed this music-on-the-web gem, and you’d have to be batshit crazy not to play around with this resource for a little while. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the greatness that is Musicovery.

Flanked by my esteemed colleagues Neddy and Double J, I attended last night’s benefit concert to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Old Knitting Factory. Times Square’s Town Hall hosted Michael Dorf‘s celebratory concert, with proceeds going to benefit John Zorn’s The Stone. The Knit founder offered us a slew of performances from incredible artists like Marc Ribot, Zorn, Medeski […]

One week ago in this space we launched a new regular feature: Dan Alford’s Friday Mix Tape. If you missed it, you’re dead to us. But we press on… We’ve got some gritty, rootsy, mostly early-seventies guitar rock this week. First up is a foot-stomping good cover of Back to Memphis from The Band, complete with Bill […]

I’m glad February is behind us and we’re moving onto March. This month, in addition to Langerado, I’m excited to see Levon Helm and The Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theater. And yesterday I received the good news that Steely Dan will also be appearing at the legendary venue. As we previously reported, the Beacon has […]

The White Stripes are expected to release their sixth full-length album, "Icky Thump," this year. The garage rock duo revealed on its Web site that it has finished recording and mixing the set, which will be its first since 2005’s "Get Behind Me Satan." There is no official word of a release date, though the […]

Kristoffer Ragnstam, “Sweet Bills” (Bluhammock Records)Admirers of Spoon and Sufjan alike may find common ground in this collection of alt-rock-ified sketches of violent genre collisions tabled by an artist with a suspicious amount of consonants in his name.  The melting pot is so vast but quirkily accessible here that the easiest comparison that comes to […]

Every music genre and corresponding subculture has levels of cool. But until I saw this eye-opening (and eye-lining) news report, I had no clue just how cool emo kids really were. You gotta love a news report that features intentionally ironic and probably fake websites as its source materials. J-School, baby, J-school. [youtube]Ri6ySOHoDfk[/youtube] I like […]

The loud and persistent rumors that Pearl Jam would finally be playing the Bonnaroo festival never quite materialized. But Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis broke the news today that the grunge legends will headline Lollapalooza. The major headliner for year three of the retooled Lollapalooza concert will be none other than the band that became the breakout superstar […]

YouTube is an incredible source for finding rare performances (I know, I know, we landed on the moon!). Last week I was fooling around looking for Police videos when I came across an amazing clip of Alanis Morrisette performing King of Pain. Her rendition blew me away — see a further description below — and sent me searching for other crazy covers on the video-sharing site. Seek and ye shall find.

Over the next two weeks, The B List will take a look at these unique cover versions of some of my favorite songs. We’ll kick it off this week with 10 incredible covers from truly unexpected sources, like Faith No More playing War Pigs, Ween tackling Motorhead and Death Cab for Cutie channeling Devo. Read on for 10 must-watch covers you can pass onto your cool friends…

Just a little morning filler ’til you get that third cup of coffee mainlined in there… From the good people at StreamStash come these gems: The Sheik of Araby — Django Reinhardt [Live at Birdland] How High the Moon — Sarah Vaughn [Live 1957 Mister Kellys] The Letter — Joe Cocker [Live at Fillmore East 1970] […]

Memphis the Band’s Radio truly has a fitting title.  Most of the songs contained therein could be played on any generic radio station.