2008

David Bowie put together a list of his favorite songs that he wrote for Sunday’s Daily Mail. Instead of picking his greatest hits The Thin White Duke dug deep through

Last year Stormy Mondays celebrated the birth of the country with a selection of Brit rock covers by Mr. Warren Haynes. One good tune deserves another, so this year we

Welcome to our latest edition of Blips, where we look at three under-the-radar bands that you need to know about.

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

Website / MySpace

If you ever catch yourself in one of those funks where they noodling doesn’t hit the spot, indie rock is too tired, and you just can’t find the cure for what ails ye’, what you need is a dose of Reverend Furry Peyton playing some old time guitar, slide or dobro, “Washboard” Breezy on the washboard, and Jamie Peyton on the drums. Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band does for Delta Blues, what the Dropkick Murphy’s do for Irish Music; they douse it with strong whiskey and light it on fire. The threesome lives up to their ironic moniker by transcending their size in both sound and stage presence. This is a band that is destined for greatness, particularly festival greatness. For summers to come, this band will attract festie stragglers to their stage as the quirky, frenetic sound reels ‘em in like the Banjo Minnow. – Rupert

READ ON for two more bands that you need to hear…

A few months back Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher singled out Jay Z as the reason that this weekend’s Glastonbury festival didn’t sell out – claiming there was no place for

This weekend NBC airs the first episode of Saturday Night Live in honor of the late George Carlin. Carlin hosts the episode which originally aired on October 11, 1975. The

It might not have the coolest line up around but the list of performers for the 30th annual Seaside Summer Concert Series was revealed earlier this week. Geared more towards

What is it about a lyric or a guitar solo that evokes so much emotion in people? Or for that matter — even the lack thereof. For example, the part in Divided Sky when there is silence and Trey just waits and waits to feed off the crowd for that exact timing and then it just explodes into this momentary epic masterpiece of bliss. That, my friends, is why I love Phish so much. It was never, ever the lyrics that grabbed my attention (sorry Tom Marshall) — it was always about the sounds that the instruments made and the way the boys talked through their instruments. How many bands could do that and do it so fucking well?

Not to sound too cliche but music is my life. It has been ever since I can remember. You can ask anyone of my friends or even my family, I always prefer to go to a concert or a music festival over taking a vacation to the beach, mountains or a foreign country. And much to my families dismay, I prefer concerts over church. It’s simply because music speaks to me personally more than anything I have known or probably ever will know. It simply is and that’s it for me. I can’t imagine myself doing or being anyone else.

Now, I know music doesn’t speak to everyone in this way but music is an important part of our country and our world. It’s a form of communication that everyone can understand and relate to in one way or another. For this reason, it’s very important for political candidates to pick the correct theme song for their campaign. These songs are something that the candidate’s supporters can relate to and it helps to create a feeling, mood or even a memory. Much like the ending of The Sopranos these songs are meant to evoke an emotion and often times serve as inspiration to people to believe in the individual they are supporting. So now, let’s take a look at some campaign theme songs from some of the candidates from this race. READ ON to see what we think Obama’s theme song should be…

Whenever I think about Def Leppard I can’t help but think about the third concert I ever saw, when the boys from Sheffield poured some sugar-y sweet hair metal on