Archive: 2009

Phish’s first album in five years, Joy, was set for release on July 28th but the band pushed out that date without really telling anybody. Of course if you read You Enjoy Myblog you already knew it had been delayed. Today, the band updated Dry Goods with a page that will soon allow fans to […]

While the world celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11, I made the best selection I could to fit the vibe and that is a track off of the Grateful Dead’s 1989 release Built To Last titled Standing On The Moon.

Many in the Grateful Dead community have hypothesized that the outro lyrics, “A lovely view of heaven but I’d rather be with you” indicated a feeling from Jerry that while he appreciated the band’s success and fans, a part of him wanted to just be out in the crowd with everyone else. Makes sense.

The Contestants:

Big Frog: You may recognize this band from their spot opening for Phish back in 2000 during their Japan tour. The ever-elusive Phish opening act spot. Source: 8-1-2007

READ ON for the rest of this week’s Cover Wars contestants…

Last week we pointed you in the direction of a blog post made by former Grace Potter & The Nocturnals bass player Bryan Dondero where he ripped into Potter for her actions before, during and after his tenure in the band. We wanted to give an update on things that have happened since.

[Photos by John Schulze]

First, Dondero took the entry off of his website that same day. Perhaps he felt bad, perhaps he realized you win more bees with honey or perhaps his lawyer told him not to air his grievances publicly. Regardless of the reason, the only evidence of Dondero’s rant is the parts we quoted in our article.

GPN responded to Dondero’s diss through a statement by their management to Brent Hallenbeck of the Burlington Free Press…

“Many of the statements made by Bryan Dondero about the facts surrounding his leaving the band are inaccurate. Since Bryan left the band, we have accommodated many of his requests for additional compensation which go above and beyond the original contract he, and all band members, signed upon joining GPN. That original contract clearly states all compensation any departing band member will be entitled to upon leaving the band. The additional compensation that we are offering him goes beyond any contractual obligations we have with him and we offered this in the hopes of continuing a positive relationship with someone that we have great respect for. We are surprised and saddened by Bryan’s recent show of public disdain for us, particularly since we believed that an understanding had been reached that was acceptable to everyone. Despite Bryan’s response, we wish him only the best in his future endeavors.” [via Burlington Free Press]

A classy response to say the least. As we mentioned in our original post, there’s two sides to each story and the truth generally lies in the middle so we may never know what really happened between the two parties. In any case, we’ve got a gallery of stunning GPN photos from John Schulze that he took at Rothbury. READ ON to check ’em out…

After a spending three years inhabiting venues across the mighty Northeast, Farm Aid will once again return to its roots with a show in the Midwest at the Gateway City of St. Louis. The long running socio-political benefit concert will make its debut appearance in the Show Me state on October 4 at the Verizon […]

Reading a biography, it’s easy to overlook all the behind the scenes work that goes into prepping the written material. If done well, these works read like a good flowing piece of narrative fiction, but there is far more upfront preparation required in the form of gathering articles, watching video footage, reading reviews, conducting interviews and – in the case of music biographies – becoming intimately familiar with the musical catalog. Hence, while the writing itself plays a huge role in the quality of a biography, the real masters of this craft are those who take the preparation to the next level.

In this installment of Writer’s Workshop, we had the chance to match wits with one of the true legends of the music writing landscape and particularly the music biography, Robert Greenfield. To put it in perspective, in Greenfield’s latest book, A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People, and the End of the Sixties – the story of Tommy Weber and Puss Coriat, a pair of London socialites who regularly rubbed elbows with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles – the section in back reserved to credit sources spans a jaw-dropping 40 pages. A rough estimate of twenty line items per page puts the total number of sources at around 800; not exactly lazy journalism.

Over the course of the interview, we discuss this arduous approach to the research process as well as other anecdotes detailing the ups, downs, ins and outs of Robert Greenfield’s life as a music writer.

Ryan Dembinsky: I understand you started your career as a sports writer. Could you explain the motivation and circumstances behind your move from sports to music, and ultimately to music biographer/historian?

Robert Greenfield: Because I grew up in Brooklyn when the Dodgers were still at Ebbets Field (and where I got to see Jackie Robinson play), I was like most kids in my neighborhood obsessed with sports, not just baseball but basketball as well. I was also obsessed with music and went to my first rock ‘n’ roll show, hosted by Murray The K, when I was 13 years old. When the world began changing in the late sixties, music seemed more interesting and important than sports on every level and so I began to write about it.

READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with famed author Robert Greenfield…

Bob Dylan – Romance In Durango (Live)

[Originally Published: 06/02/2009] The Death of the American Dream has been laid out for quite some time. If anything, the definition has seemed to change from generation to generation and, ultimately, one is left to interpret the hallowed Dream as one see fits. As it should be, it is, I suppose.

However, some never really had that chance to pursue their ambitions, never really had an opportunity to find out what they could do if given the right passage to success. Yes, but many, if not all, see who they have become, and what they have done with their lives. It is those points on the road through existence that we see clearly demarcated in this week’s Hidden Flick, a tale of a destiny bound and buried, American Me.

Directed in his debut at the helm by Edward James Olmos, the film was inspired by a true story, but is essentially a heavily fictionalized characterization of life as a Mexican on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1950s-70s, detailing the racism of the dominating white populace, the early gang warfare in the city, and then, inevitably, life behind the walls of various California prisons where the Mexican Mafia solidified its formidable reputation.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick – American Me and be sure to check HT in two weeks for the first edition of Hidden Flick’s Season 3…

Southern Comfort announces the launch of Southern Comfort Presents: underCOVER, a music program where The Polyphonic Spree, Ghostland Observatory and The Hold Steady will give an up close and personal look into their musical influences, paying tribute to the artists and covering the very songs that helped forge the sounds you hear today.  DJ Lord […]

Brooklyn synth-popsters Chairlift are pleased to announce an extensive headlining tour across North America and Europe with Phoenix, innovative UK up-and-comers Micachu and the Shapes, and several others. The band’s summer is in full swing after several performances at Bonnaroo last month, and their first set of West Coast headlining dates in the LA area.  […]

Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon, Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck will be hitting the US highways in various musical disguises as the brand new Steve Wynn IV, the Minus 5, and The Baseball Project, with all three bands made up of the same players with a possible costume change or two.  (See full tour schedule below.) […]

There's been a palpable flow to a couple of the Grateful Dead Road Trips releases, but nothing so tangible as that which distinguishes the latest issue from the summer tour with the legendary “Wall of Sound.” It's no illusion each CD of the triple set segues to the next on the way to a rousing finish.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a band referencing a youthful Dylan’s girlfriend, Echo Helstrom is both musically notable (all five in the band are classically-trained musicians) and poetic, writing lyrics that capture one’s imagination. Though they weren’t quite as well suited to lasers (has a band sporting upright bass and violin been accompanied by lasers without being named Pink Floyd?), they did a great job of engaging the audience and creating solid, contemporary-feeling rock.

Zero 7 have announced that they will release a new ‘uptempto’ album, ‘Yeah Ghost’, on September 7. The album, which will be their fourth full-length studio effort will, according to a statement issued on behalf of the band, see the tempo of their music upped from their usual ambient dance fare. According to the statement […]

Animal Collective, who earlier this year released the magnificent Merriweather Post Pavilion, have become the first artists to ever receive approval from the Grateful Dead to sample the jam band’s catalog, Gorilla Vs. Bear reports. Animal Collective’s management company Leg Up confirmed that the band had the “first officially licensed Grateful Dead sample” for a […]

Been on a bit of a new music kick with ‘Tubes, so figured why buck the trend considering the amount of great new releases coming our way. With that being said, we also don’t often cover too many female fronted acts around these parts so let’s kill two birds with one stone as we introduce […]

Back in the wee hours of the first day of this year at BB King’s on 42nd Street, the Benevento Russo Duo just finished a show opening Echo Park when Surprise Me Mr. Davis (The Slip’s Brad Barr, Andrew Barr and Marc Friedman along with modern minstrel Nathan Moore), clad in suits, stormed on stage […]

Phish.com has just been updated with a graphic advising fans to save the dates of October 30, 31 and November 1 for what will be the first Phish-thrown festival since Coventry in August 2004. As of now, three states in the graphic representing the United States that appears when you visit Phish.com have been blacked out. Those states are Idaho, Oklahoma and West Virgina. Some fans have speculated that as time passes more states will be blacked out leaving only the state where the festival will be held.

Rumors are swirling that the quartet will perform at the Polo Fields in Indio, California where the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals are held each year near Palm Springs, but nothing is confirmed at this point except for the date and the fact that the band will indeed be hosting a festival. Starting on October 31, 1994, Phish concerts on Halloween were three set affairs in which the band would don a “musical costume” in the second set by performing a classic album by another artist. The group played The Beatles’ White Album in 1994, Quadrophenia by The Who in 1995, Remain In Light by the Talking Heads in 1996 and Loaded by the Velvet Underground in 1998.

This announcement leaves fans with a number of questions, so we want to hear from you. Where do you think they’ll play and what album do you think they’ll cover? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

UPDATE: All sorts of theories abound in our comments section. Be sure to read all of the insightful comments from our readers.

UPDATE [7/13 11:30AM]: The latest change to the animation on Phish’s Save The Date map shows California being lifted from the map by three hot air balloons. Is this some sort of trick or are all the people who swore it will be held at Indio wrong? Gotta love this band’s trickster hearts.

Where do you think Save The Date will take place? READ ON to place your vote and to leave a comment telling us where you think it will be…

After last week’s bit of house cleaning with our Top 6 Of The First 6, it’s time to start looking forward to all the great music coming our way in the second half of the 2009. Among the albums that are coming our way over the next six months, the one that has a lot […]

Sad news from the Beastie Boys camp this morning that the band has postponed the release of their new album and have canceled their upcoming tour and festival appearances – including All Points West – as MCA has been diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer. Our thoughts and vibes are with Yauch. Here’s the […]

Recently, our friend Bob Margolis spoke with Nels Cline about what got him into the music of Wilco, who creates the setlist each night and much more… When asked if he had developed an “attitude” towards playing in more song structured environs, after a long career at home in more free-form orbits Nels Cline answered […]