February 2008

In our relentless pursuit of giving you the goods we figured we’d check in and see what some other people have going on… IGN rattles off the Top 10 Albums

We’ve finally got some confirmed dates for the first leg of Radiohead’s upcoming North American tour, as well as a list of cities they will hit on the second leg.

Scanning through the endless list of super groups, jam bands, hip hop acts and comedians slated to perform at this summer’s Bonnaroo, one act jumped off the page for me: the Bluegrass All Stars (Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Luke Bulla, and Bryan Sutton). Upon first glance, it’s probably easy to overlook this as this group as a highlight given that they join forces in so many shapes and sizes every summer.

The thing is though, this is a complete performance of the best and brightest musicians, and they have a whole show to play together. The bluegrass fest thing is usually snippets of collaboration involving standards and covers, but rarely do we see a cohesive setlist. With this show, we’re getting a more organized affair that might just go down history with Strength in Numbers or the New Grass Revival…

Instead of just sitting here slobbering, I’d rather just highlight some of the endless flexibility that is joining forces here. Read on for a diverse concoction of the collaborations to which the different members of the Bluegrass All Stars have contributed…

If you obsessively watched MTV anytime during the mid ‘90s there is a good chance you were familiar with Nada Surf and their quirky, spoken word-esque tome to dating and high school life: Popular.

You know, the one that kind of sounded like Weezer’s Sweater Song. Ringing a bell now? Well it was the kind of song that had many thinking they’d just be another one-hit wonder destined to be featured as the punch line on countless VH1 retro shows. Heck their own label even thought that, and dropped them because they didn’t think their follow-up album had another hit song like Popular.

End of story, right? Well not exactly. Nada Surf might have fallen off the collective mainstream music radar for a few years, but they were still hard at work crafting a new sound and recording. It was one of those records – 2003’s critically acclaimed Let Go – that my old roommate insisted I listen to. I instantly latched onto its lush, dreamy indie-pop, and it became the number one album I pushed on friends to make sure they heard too. Keep reading so I can convert you into a fan as well…