2009

Thin Lizzy: Still Dangerous – Live At The Tower Theatre 1977

Probably the biggest trap into which a live album can fall is that of sounding too much like a studio album. After all, if it sounds pretty much like the studio cuts with crowd noise in between, what's the point? A live album should inject different energies or arrangements into the songs we already love, not just rehash them. It's an all too common disaster and any band on the verge of it would be wise to use Still Dangerous as a guide toward righteousness (just as much as Lizzy's established classic Live and Dangerous).  

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Unreleased Beatles Track Surfaces Online

An unreleased recording of The Beatles performing ‘Revolution 1’ from The White Album has surfaced on the internet. Fans are already calling the 10 minute-plus track, announced as take 20,

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Stormy Mondays: Covering The Band

This week’s Stormy Monday celebrates the music of The Band – potentially the greatest music ever made. The covers begin with Ohio’s own ekoostik hookah killing Don’t Do It, a

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Land of Confusion: Our Era of Responsibility

Every morning on my way to work I pass one of the largest American flags I’ve ever had the distinction to see first hand. And every morning since the inauguration – and release of Umphrey’s McGee’s Mantis – as I wait patiently sitting at that stop light while staring at that flag I tend to bounce my thoughts back and forth between the president’s speech and the opening line to the title track of Mantis…

We believe there’s something here worth dying for…

Oh, how those lyrics ring true for our country’s past, present and future. People have fought and died to defend the ideals that our government originally set forth.

Obama touched on this issue, too, and spoke of an era of responsibility with these great words from his inauguration speech:

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

READ ON for more of this week’s Land of Confusion column…

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Hampton Countdown: Poster Show

Over the next 10 days we’ll keep you updated on events happening down in the Hampton area during next weekend’s Phish shows. Up first, we’ve got some interesting news for

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Review: An Evening With Gene Ween

We’d like to welcome our new Midwest correspondent Benji Feldheim to the team with his review of a recent Gene Ween Band show…

[All photos by Allison Taich]

Gene Ween tried something different.

Armed with only an acoustic guitar, a harmonica and himself, Aaron “Gene” Freeman led about 100 people in a drunken singalong during a private party Jan. 30 at Tonic Room in Chicago. About halfway through, he forgot the words. But it’s Gene Ween, so who cares? At least that’s what the audience thought.

“What’s the second verse?” Gene said through a smile when he stopped in the middle of Marble Tulip Juicy Tree.

Amidst hoots and hollers, a few people obliged him and shouted the next few words. He jumped right back into the bouncing rhythm of the song with a scream and was back on point.

The intimate, one-man-show is a new thing for Gener, as he playfully reminded the patient crowd of this a few times. Not only was Gene playing his songs without the full electric energy of the band Ween, but he was also missing his musical partner and soulmate, the axe-wielding Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo.

READ ON for more of Benji’s Gene Ween solo acoustic review…

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Televised Tune: On The Tube This Week

VH1 Classic will air the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster tonight at Midnight. Released in July, 2004 the film features unprecedented access to the band members as they recorded

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