Archive: 2008

omprised of approximately ninety minutes of rare concert recordings on two CDs, Live at The Avalon Ballroom 1969 is a formidable set of recordings documenting an ever so fleeting phase of Gram Parsons’ career.

Gov’t Mule began their annual New Year's run at the Beacon Theater on Friday December, 28th.  Opening with “Brighter Days,” one of their High & Mighty tunes that usually appears much later in the show, they immediately threw their fans an even bigger curveball with Robert Johnson's “32/20 Blues.”

Mick Jones, former Clash lead guitarist and vocalist, would never have imagined that he would be considered a punk icon, no less a major part of a legendary band. The whole concept is overwhelming as he says, “I try to ignore all of that otherwise my head will explode.” Almost six years ago, Jones teamed up with his old bandmate and fellow punk legend, Tony James (Sigue Sigue Sputnik/Generation X) to create Carbon/Silicon. These days, Jones seems fulfilled to the point where just making music is enough. Getting there though, has been a trip and a half…

Lightning Rod Records will release singer/songwriter James McMurtry’s new CD, titled Just Us Kids, on April 15, 2008. McMurtry’s ninth album, which features 12 new songs, is a follow-up to 2005’s critically acclaimed and award-winning project, Childish Things.   McMurtry has long been known as fine storyteller, but he has lately received nationwide attention for his […]

Marty Crandall, keyboardist with The Shins has been arrested in California following a violent incident involving his girlfriend. Crandall (pictured far left) was taken into police custody in Sacramento, CA on Friday night (January 4) after a domestic violence dispute in a hotel room. According to a Live Journal blog posted by Crandall’s girlfriend Elyse […]

Stephen Malkmus and his band, The Jicks, have mapped out the first leg of a spring headlining tour in support of their forthcoming new LP, "Real Emotional Trash." The former Pavement frontman and crew (which still includes former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss) will kick off the tour on March 19 in Minneapolis and runs through […]

For the first time in their 18-year career, THE BLACK CROWES will perform an album of theirs in its entirety.  On a special run of "One Night Only" shows beginning March 2 and wrapping March 20, fans will experience WARPAINT–the group’s first album of all new studio material in seven years, due out March 4 […]

Crowded House mixes their classics with tunes from their latest album during their first appearance on Austin City Limits. The band’s come back with a vengeance after an 11-year layoff and is preparing to enter the studio to record a batch of new songs with Matt Sherrod on drums. The folks at ACL have kindly […]

We’re sure this one’s making the rounds virally, but our main man Coach just alerted us to a spectacular piece of video. You may have seen Sweet Child O’ Mine through the years covered by Texas, Sheryl Crow, Most Precious Blood, Akasha featuring Neneh Cherry, Schmoof, Flat Pack, Luna, Chester the Pup, Dead Tongues, DJ […]

Like my cool Uncle Frank back in the day, we’ve been playing around with imeem behind closed doors, probing its parts and figuring out what buttons to press. So instead of offering up our regular Friday mediafire-type download that requires you to take a few extra steps to listen, allow us to present our first […]

The Flaming Lips, the most obvious beneficiary of the cash-heavy festival circuit, will make their first appearance at the Summer Camp Festival on Memorial Day weekend in Chillicothe, IL. Other performers named in the first round of artist announcements include moe., Umphrey’s McGee, The Avett Brothers and Cornmeal. This year’s installment marks the first time […]

Shut down the Internet cafes — it looks like Pete Townshend’s coming to town. In what’s become the most buried story of the new year, the former Who guitarist joined Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr for a secret New Year’s Eve gig in Surrey, England. A group that combines The Beatles, Cream and The Who […]

Warning: Do not start playing with this if you have actual work to do. (SFW)

You may remember Stevie Ray Vaughan as arguably the greatest electric blues guitarist, but do you know him as a video giant?  No, probably not, because SRV was no Michael Jackson. And the Texas boy would be more likely playing dance punk chords (as he did for Bowie’s “Lets Dance”) before looking pretty in a video. Stevie was more about sound than image; although you have to hand it to him for always looking cool with his flat brimmed hat, poncho and SRV initialed Statocaster.

While the resumes of some members the Mystix may look impressive (Jerry Lee Lewis, Ben E King, Peter Wolf, even studio work at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals), don't be fooled. This is a group of session players, not a real band. They do play well together as session players often do, but there is little originality or real heart in the music.

Neko Case has announced a handful of live dates around the US to "try out" material for her forthcoming album. The ginger-haired chanteuse and part-time New Pornographer has announced that she has almost finished writing the follow-up to 2006’s ‘Fox Confessor Brings The Flood’. She’ll be hitting several New England cities beginning later this month […]

US indie rockers Eels are to release a Best Of compilation later this month. ‘Meet The Eels: Essential Eels Volume 1, 1996-2006’, out on January 21, is a 24-track compilation covering the band’s first ten years. It contains all the group’s hit, including the UK Top Ten single ‘Novocaine For The Soul’, ‘Last Stop: This […]

New York Dolls have announced a string of live shows, kicking off February 12 in Baltimore, MD. The legendary band continue their trek to support the release of ‘One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This’, released in 2006. They will visit major cities in the US and Canada, completing the jaunt at […]

 Rodrigo y Gabriela have lined up a short run of US shows in February. The pair will launch their headlining run Feb. 7 in Portland, OR, winding up with a Feb. 16 show in Austin, TX. Dates are below. The duo has also lined up an Australian tour starting in March. Those dates can be […]

The highlight of my November in 2006 wasn’t the supple turkey breast or the Democratic takeover of Congress. Nope, that honor’s reserved for one half of The Duo: Marco Benevento set up his keyboard and toy shop for five Wednesday shows at the now-defunct Tonic, inviting a slew of superb musicians — musicians’ musicians, really — to join him for stellar improvisation and clever instrumentation.

Marco‘s at it again: Tonight, Benevento kicks off his five-Thursday Januarystand at the new and improved (paint job’d and floor wax’d) Sullivan Hall. All five shows are packed with fantastic guests, and while we can’t fluff this residency enough, the truth is that every word of anticipatory praise will show itself to be well-deserved. Benevento will be joined by members of The Slip, Sir Joe Russo, Steven Bernstein, Bobby Previte, Stanton Moore, Billy Martin and many more guests.

It all leads up to the January 31st Release Party for Marco’s new album, Invisible Baby (he’ll be joined by Andrew Barr and Reed Mathis that evening). And as part of our very special contest, we’re giving away one free pair of tickets to every single night of the residency, and a five-night pass that gets you and a loved one inside. Now, since we took our sweet-ass time with this, we’ve gotta work quickly. So the first commenter gets the tickets for tonight.

As for the five-night pass and the other shows, all you’ve gotta do is leave a comment telling us who’s your favorite keyboardist/pianist of all-time, and if your tastes match up with ours, you’ve got entry. Our favorite answer will get the (Corbin Dallas) multipass, and we’ll give out the remaining individual shows to our next favorites. Hurry up and enter now, ‘cuz we’re on borrowed time here.

• Read on after the jump for the full lineup, and enter the contest below…
• Previously on HT: Marco Benevento: A ‘Live at Tonic’ Interview
• And many thanks to the fine folks at HYENA Records for hookin’ you up…now get out there and buy some real albums, people!