2008

Our good friend and longtime long-winded scribe Neddy has been reviewing each night of Marco Benevento‘s Sullivan Hall residency. Here’s the latest…

I won’t go into crazy note-by-note detail (at least I’ll try not to), but Thursday was more of the same…which is to say completely different than the first two nights of the residency. The line-up had a “can’t miss” quality to it with Stanton Moore on the drums and Marc Friedman on bass. (Marco will complete The Slip Trifecta on 1/31 when Andrew Barr gets behind the kit). The crowd returned, although I think it might have been a slightly different crowd. There were definitely some expectations in Sullivan Hall, and I’m not sure they were met. In fact, in perfect form, when everyone leaned in, foreseeing things going one way, Benevento went in quite the opposite direction.

All Photos by Greg Aiello

For one thing, for the first time this month, you could actually say that songs were being played. If you wanted to, you could probably sit down and write an actual setlist…at least for the 1st set. There was an “Atari” and a “The Real Morning Party” off of his new album, Invisible Baby, as well as the oft-played cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.” Yes, the songs were there, in neatly contained packages, but those packages were like eggs in a carton: thin and fragile, easily broken into runny, messy things.

The unexpected thing was that when things got out of the shell, they did not tend toward the funky not at all. You’d think, by sheer presence alone, that Stanton would will the music into a dance-happy groove-fest. Rather, the opposite path was taken. So when “The Real Morning Party” — a tune that’s got an inherent, addictive funkiness to it — split open, it oozed into something much more slow, cerebral and simmering. I personally thought it was a fantastic romp, but the crowd seemed amped for a different kind of show. Read on…

The promoters of Coachella on Monday night unveiled a lineup that’s actually much more diverse than any of the previous seven festivals they’ve thrown in the deserts of Indio, California. Instead of featuring the typical mixture of indie flavors of the month and reunited bands from the alt-rock dynasty, the 2008 festival will feature a number of artists you wouldn’t typically hear in the hipster havens. Roger Waters? Jack Johnson? Of course, there are still plenty of acts like The Breeders and Cold War Kids on the bill to satiate the Pitchfork crowd.

So let’s preview this year’s Coachella by checking out some amazing recordings from eight of the bands that are scheduled to rock the desert on April 25-27, including Roger Waters, Sharon Jones and My Morning Jacket…

Roger Waters 03/14/2007 Pre-FM [FLAC, MP3]

Roger Waters isn’t exactly the first person that comes to mind when you think of Coachella, but festival-goers will be in for a quite a treat when he headlines that Sunday night — Waters has spent the last two years on the road perfecting his band’s performance of Dark Side of the Moon. Everyone who saw one of these shows had nothing but glowing things to say, including Ace, who ranked Waters’ MSG gig as his second favorite concert of 2006. The best-sounding bootleg to emerge from the tour comes from a radio broadcast of a March 2007 gig in Chile.

Roger’s backing band is in fine form throughout their performance in Santiago, especially during Dark Side of the Moon. Carol Kenyon delivers the booming high notes that are so essential to a well-played Great Gig In The Sky, while guitarists Andy Fairweather-Low and Snowy White both rip it up during Money. Even Roger’s usually ragged voice sounds perfect throughout the evening. Waters doesn’t spare any expense, recreating every aspect of the album both visually and aurally. Those Coachella attendees who are thinking about beating the traffic should just take a hit of acid and enjoy a mind-blowing set that will make you remember why Dark Side of the Moon is the fifth highest-selling album of all time. Read on for more…

Lead Belly was born on January 23 1888, or January 20 1889, or maybe some other day sometime in the late 19th century. Here’s a possible 120th birthday wish from Resident Curmudgeon Chuck Myers and his total bastardness…

I like to think of myself as musically omnipotent. I know music, I know it well, and I certainly know more about it than you. I mean, c’mon. You probably don’t even know that Jim Steinman, the man behind Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Total Eclipse of the Hear, was responsible for those annoying Sisters of Mercy goth anthems like This Corrosion. When it comes to self-righteous rock snobbery, I could beat you with my left ear tied behind my back.

Alas, last year I learned that I’m ignorant. I learned that I’m flawed. I learned that my musical omnipotence is more like impotence.

I’ve always heard people talk about Lead Belly, but I’ve dismissed them as wannabe snobs who are trying to impress those of us who know music. So what if Kurt Cobain said that Lead Belly was his favorite? Kurt was probably just trying to score points with that chick from Hole so she’d sit on his cock. And yeah, Led Zeppelin’s Gallow’s Pole was (ahem) borrowed from Lead Belly’s Gallis Pole, but Zeppelin borrowed stuff from pretty much everybody. Read on for more…

Festivals, they’re fucking everywhere these days, so you’d think we would be opposed to any new festies entering the overcrowded fray. For the most part that’s true, but we’d make

Fantastic news for fans of that lovely brooding baritone emanating from the mouth of Leonard Cohen. The legendary Québécois songwriter “will tour with his band in Canada and the U.S.

One of our loyal readers sent in this video and message, and because we’re in full Jessie Spano On Caffeine Pills Mode (there’s never any time!), we thought we’d just

Take it from famed New York Metropolitan Ed Kranepool and watch this short video as to the true origin of the band’s moniker. Our confidential informant Jesse Jarnow passed that

It’s been a good long while since we’ve gone rummaging through the Internet’s greatest bargain bin: the SugarMegs archives. So while my plate remains full with tasks related my daytime