The creators of liveween.com have teamed up with iClips to launch Ween TV – a portal that will broadcast a vast array of brown concert footage from throughout Ween’s career.
As you’ve probably read, the streaming service we used for Friday Mix Tape – Lala – will close on May 31 after the company was purchased by Apple. Current Lala
If you’ve caught Tea Leaf Green over the last six months, you’ve probably heard a number of the tracks that will make up the group’s new album, Looking West, which
Wayne Shorter Quartet – Philadelphia Museum of Art – April 23, 2010
Going to see the Wayne Shorter Quartet premiere a new commissioned piece penned by the legendary saxophonist is an odd occurrence. Certainly he is recognized as the greatest living jazz composer, but in fact his band, now celebrating its tenth year (a tenure largely unheard of in the jazz world) has long since moved beyond the concept of songs per se, addressing most performances instead with an organic, suite based approached that has more to do with spontaneous composition than written music, with the closest listening than the defined roles of piano, drums, bass and sax.
As an ensemble, Shorter, Danilo Perez, Brian Blade and John Patitucci are the world’s premier improvisers, delicate and dynamic, ethereal and explosive all at once. Two years ago Shorter wrote a piece for the Imani Winds, and their performances featuring the sax player held tightly to the written form; but to see the Quartet handle a new composition on their own more than piqued my curiosity and sent me running to the Philadelphia Museum of Art three hours before show time.
The commission for the Philadelphia Music Project, entitled Lotus, was a response to the museum’s varied collection and was to be unveiled as part of the free Live at 5 series, a bit surprising considering the world class talent involved and the small space that is used for these events, nestled at the foot of the museum’s main staircase. An hour and a half before the show began, the stairs and gallery above were packed with people, and by gig time, it was a hectic scene with a few thousand people crowded into the institutions first floor.
READ ON for more from Dan on the Wayne Shorter Quartet…
Tickets for psych-pop act MGMT’s Radio City Music Hall debut – set for August 17 – went onsale this morning and although tickets for that show are still available, a
Earlier this week the world’s greatest bar band The Hold Steady released their fifth studio album, Heaven Is Whenever, their first without long time keyboardist and mustache enthusiast Franz Nicolay.
The Sundance original series Iconoclasts shows what happens when you bring two celebrities from completely different disciplines together to pick each other’s brain and sometimes, just hang. One of the
Just waiting to absorb Corinne Bailey Rae’s presence in the moments leading up to her sold out show in Philly felt magnificently eternal. Once Corinne, dressed in a hip black jumpsuit wearing ballerina slippers, accompanied her awesome five-piece band on stage, the audience erupted in excitement. It was great to see her smiling ear to ear as she slung her electric guitar around her neck, pushing back her hair and diving into the opening chords to her ever moving song “Are You Here.” Beginning without the accompaniment of her band, you could feel the emotion in the opening lyrics to the song, “He’s a real live wire/ He’s the best of his kind/ Wait till you see those eyes.”
This record, on its surface, may sound like another '80s throwback, synthesizer-spiced space jam, but Minus the Bear's equation comes off more measured than, say, the last great album from Seattle peersModest Mouse. While OMNI's title might imply MtB's desire to be everything to everyone, there's no posturing, no faking it from these composers
