Archive: 2009

At this very moment, in every college town, in every city, in every state, there is at least one functioning rock band with a lead singer/pianist.  Blame Ben Folds.  Like Elton John before him, Folds has redefined the piano as a lead instrument.

Music Today has started sending out notices of regret and confirmation to those who entered the lottery for tickets to Phish’s upcoming Summer Tour. How did you fare? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Look who’s back with a new Phish cover… [youtube]ro4YQpa3NRs[/youtube] The McLovins – Harry Hood What do you think?

Way back on September 9, video game maker Harmonix and cable network MTV announced a partnership with Rhino Records to bring 18 of the band’s most popular songs to Rock Band. Last March, things started out well for Deadhead gamers when six of the band’s songs became available for use in Rock Band. Most Deadheads […]

A German court has ruled that the Zappanale, a festival celebrating the music of Frank Zappa, does not violate the trademark held by Zappa’s widow Gail. The Frank Zappa festival in Bad Doberan, Germany, known as the Zappanale, can continue. That’s the verdict reached by a court in Düsseldorf on Wednesday according to an article […]

While making our way to the Variety Playhouse to bear witness to Perpetual Groove’s sold-out show in Atlanta last Saturday evening, I was struck by the flurry of activity taking place outside the venue. Drum circles, blown glass vendors and teens from area high schools greeted us as we approached the front door. It had been a few years since I last caught the band and was honestly unaware how much their fanbase had grown.

[All Photos by Megan Case]

Located roughly 70 miles from the band’s homebase in Athens, Saturday’s show was somewhat of a homecoming. Taking the stage just after 9 p.m. and showering each other at center stage with talcum powder, the band manned their respective positions and we settled in for three-hour-plus show.

READ ON for more of Matt’s review and Megan’s photos…

[youtube]db_7Lr5Rb3Y[/youtube] Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator)

As we pop our collective cork on a new (read: better) era, we want to take this opportunity to pound the table a little on behalf of Joe Pug. Make no mistake; Joe has received no shortage of fawning via the media, such as this career grenade from Jason Killingsworth of Paste: “If you want to read the actual endorsement, touch the Braille stretching up my arms. Twenty years from now, lazy journalists will compare every halfway decent songwriter to Joe Pug. Mark my words.”

Still, Joe Pug really emanates the fitting spirit of cautious optimism for the new administration, so we invited Joe for a chat about his incredibly well-received debut EP writing music and the future. Before we dive into the interview, be sure to check out Joe Pug’s new video released in celebration of Inauguration Day directed by Peter James, the winner of Pug’s fan-submitted video contest…

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FoOK3NfgFQ

Ryan Dembinsky: I read somewhere that the seven songs on the Nation of Heat EP were derived from a play you were writing while at the University of North Carolina. Could you give us a little synopsis of what you envisioned for the play? In other words, who would you have cast given the option to choose absolutely anybody and what would the sets look like?

Joe Pug: The play took place in rural North Carolina on the jobsite of an unfinished house. It only had three characters… a surly carpenter, an affluent journalist, and an 18 year-old girl. I never had any actors in mind. To be frank, it really wasn’t a good play. The resulting album is much better. Maybe that’s why the play never saw the light of day.

READ ON for more of Ryan Dembinsky’s interview with Joe Pug…

For Pink Floyd’s last tour in 1994, the band covered Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. One year later, the group released a concert film entitled Pulse that didn’t make it onto DVD until 2006. This weekend, VH-1 Classic premieres a special 60 minute cut of Pulse focusing on Floyd covering Dark Side. […]

For the past 24 hours we’ve been remiss in not writing about the sad meltdown of Leftover Salmon that’s happening out in Colorado. The story keeps on changing, so stay with us and we’ll start from the beginning.

[Eagle County Sheriff’s Department]

On New Year’s Eve, Salmon keyboardist Bill McKay performed with his solo band at Rick & Kelly’s American Bistro in Edwards, Colorado. On January 9, a woman contacted the police and told them that McKay drugged her after that show and brought her home, where she alleges McKay sexual assaulted her. McKay was arrested Tuesday at his Denver home on a charge of sexual assault.

You’d expect your family – or in this case your band mates – to defend you, but Leftover Salmon’s Drew Emmitt immediately threw McKay under the bus. Yesterday, Emmitt told Boulder’s Daily Camera that McKay was an alkie and no longer a member of the band…

“We have been aware of Bill’s drinking problem for a long time,” Emmitt said. “We’ve been trying to help him, but we knew he was going down this path. He’s been really lucky that something bad hasn’t happened before this.

“He’s no longer with this band.”

“We definitely want to let people know that he is just one person in this band and that he is no longer with us,” Emmitt said. “We’re just going to find another keyboard player. This is beyond what any of us can deal with.”

READ ON for more on today’s installment of As The Leftover Salmon Turns…

Hailing from the mean streets of Northern Virginia, Future takes a genre busting approach to music, switching in and out of and sometimes fusing elements of funk, soul, psychedelia, gospel, hip hop, punk and rock into what often can be a very engaging blend. On Saturday night, they brought all these to a not large, but energetic (and feeding off the energy of a Ravens victory earlier in the day) crowd at the Rams Head Live in beautiful downtown Baltimore.

There was a recent rumor spread across the blogosphere that indie rock faves Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were calling it quits (’tis the season for alleged breakups…), but now their management attest that they are simply taking a break.  What is true is that CYHSY have postponed recording of a future album and have […]

Glasvegas have announced the dates of their biggest North American tour yet. The Glaswegian four-piece will hit the road this spring in support of their recent self-titled debut album. They’ll kick off the tour on March 23 in New Orleans, and hit cities including Washington DC, New York, Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, Seattle and Portland […]

Tentacles, the hotly anticipated debut album from Crystal Antlers, will be released on April 6th (Europe) and April 7th (North America) via the stalwart indie label Touch and Go Records, home to CocoRosie, Ted Leo, The Jesus Lizard, and many others. Recorded and mixed on 2” tape at San Francisco’s Closer Studios in the span […]

Poet / actor / hip-hop innovator Saul Williams has signed on as support for Les Claypool’s The Oddity Faire: A Mutated Mini Fest. The 16-stop tour starts March 7 in Los Angeles and wraps the 28th in New York City. Other artists performing on select dates along the way include DeVotchKa, Yard Dogs Road Show, […]

We don’t often talk about children’s television shows around these parts, but when I found out that earlier this week a revamped version of the 1970’s classic kids show The Electric Company (and one I had grown up on) had returned to the air I thought it was worth mentioning. According to Rolling Stone the […]

Despite numerous reports that The Faces have recorded an album and are planning to tour with Flea on bass, Rod Stewart’s rep told Rolling Stone that there are no plans for the legendary group to record or tour in 2009. Did Ron Wood imagine the rehearsals and recording session? Seems weird.

Most of the inaugural balls celebrating the start of Barack Obama’s presidency went off without a hitch, but you can always count on George Clinton and P-Funk to add some drama. According to an article in the Washington Times, several wounded war veterans walked out of the Heroes Red, White & Blue Inaugural Ball in […]

After tackling Holiday flicks in my last column, I wanted to keep the ball rolling with the big screen theme. This week I’m taking a look at five of the top music scenes to appear on film. My criteria, because there’s a million ways to do a list like this, is that the song (on its own) and the movie (on its own) have to be enjoyable. I’m not talking about a good musical scene in a piece of crap movie or a piece of crap song in a great movie.

Basically these movies and songs all stand on there own but in these cases, morph together to make the other even more special.

1. Moving in Stereo – The Cars: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

The Cars + a topless Phoebe Cates + slow motion = winner. In one of the most memorable scenes in teenage sex-romp comedy history, the music, plot and gratuitous sex come together to form that perfect storm. It’s not too often you can pick the exact scene where an actor peaks but for Cates, this is clearly it. She went on to star in Gremlins and disasters like Drop Dead Fred, but after Fast Times it was all downhill. Cars bassist Benjamin Orr sings lead on the heavily produced track which ironically, is not on the film’s soundtrack.

READ ON for four more of Luke’s favorite musical movie scenes…

[youtube]9uEKsYHrYlk[/youtube] Sara, 13 Year Old Girl, Performs Rush’s YYZ