Archive: 2010

Cage The Elephant is back in the U.S. for a Spring headlining tour, beginning February 15, 2010 in Augusta, GA.  After a busy 2009, the band is riding the momentum of two chart-topping singles and going back out on the road, hitting many cities they have not played in before.  Check out the dates below! […]

Surfer Blood have announced an addition of dates to their US tour beginning in February to support their critically acclaimed debut record, Astro Coast. SURFER BLOOD TOUR DATES 02-03 London – Hoxton Bar and Kitchen 02-04 Kingston – Hippodrome 02-05 London – KOKO 02-09 London – Scala 02-16 Orlando, FL  – Backbooth  % 02-17 Deland, […]

Jakob Dylan will release his sophomore solo album, Women and Country, on Columbia Records on April 6th, 2010.  Soulful yet striking and ripe with sublime beauty, Women and Country is the follow up to the artist’s 2008 critically acclaimed debut, Seeing Things. This  new collection finds him reuniting with acclaimed Grammy and Golden Globe winning […]

I bought my first Bob Dylan album in San Antonio, Texas, in November of 1993. I had taken a train there from Springfield, Illinois with my dad and my brother—a ride that lasted 26 hours each way. We traveled to watch NAIA soccer, you know, the usual things a family does over Thanksgiving.  Needless to say, we weren’t the usual family.

As we leave the 2000-2009 decade behind, we’ve been looking at a lot of the bands that didn’t quite make it. Esteemed HT editor Scott Bernstein had his picks in a few months back, and here are some of mine. I was surprised to see we overlapped only once, but that says a lot more about the scope of bands that thrived in the decade but that we (probably) won’t see again.

I didn’t have room here for all the supergroups. I loved the JoJo Hermann/Dickinson Brothers combo Smiling Assassins, for example, and it’s hard to believe the Oysterhead tour (minus the 2006 ‘Roo reunion) was nine years ago. I felt like reaching back to Frogwings, too, but seeing as they became inactive in 2000, they weren’t really of this era, were they? And recent reunions by both The Word and Will Bernard’s Motherbug are enough to convince me those groups aren’t lost to the dustbin, either.

Then there’s the matter of Leftover Salmon. Salmon hasn’t been a proper touring outfit since at least the 2005 hiatus, but they continue to reunite and play, and as Drew Emmitt told us in recent site interview, they’re comfortable leaving it at that. Works for us, though maybe they should count for this list seeing as that probably means we won’t see new music or extended tour dates anytime soon. Hard to say.

Did I miss anybody? Am I crazy? Leave a comment below and argue.

10. Phil Lesh & Friends (2007-2008)

They didn’t top another PLF ensemble (see below), but this lineup – with Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Steve Molitz, John Molo and sometimes Teresa Williams and Barry Sless – was strong enough to make observers wonder if Phil would finally commit to a band again. It wasn’t to be, and their shows could be frustratingly inconsistent, but this particular band had a strong roots and country-rock jones that felt especially pronounced in Dead classics like Brokedown Palace, Brown Eyed Women, Beat It On Down the Line or, their signature, Cumberland Blues.

Not psychedelic enough for some – and at times lacking the finesse and guitar acrobatics of other PLF lineups – but they were plenty strong (rarely more, for my money, than 11/11/07, the last night of their first NYC residency). They also introduced an entire new group of fans to Greene, now a jam-scene favorite.

READ ON for nine more bands that didn’t make it out of the ’00s…

As we previously reported, the ever busy Jack White has teamed up with Wanda Jackson to produce the Queen Of Rockabilly’s latest release. The album, which will hit stores later this year via White’s Third Man Records, will feature Jackson backed by White and a number of his Raconteurs and Dead Weather band mates. As […]

The past few weeks have been extremely eventful for Umphrey’s McGee as the Chicago-based sextet kicked off the year with two weeks worth of killer shows and continue to announce more dates in 2010. Yesterday, the band announced that they will make their first trip to Australia in April for the Byron Bay Blues Festival, iClips will broadcast an upcoming show on February 4 and that Atlanta will host the next S2 event on February 6.

Last Saturday afternoon, UM hosted the latest S2/Stew Art event in Denver which yielded improv based on such themes as “Marc Brownstein vs. Jenn (sic) Hartswick,” “Iron Maiden Does Devo” and “How You Feel After Eating At Waffle House.” For more details on what S2 events are, check out DaveO’s review of the Washington D.C. S2 and this video from the Denver event. The next S2 takes place in Atlanta at The Tabernacle on February 6. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at noon eastern time.

Umphrey’s will continue to tour their way across the country starting on Tuesday in Omaha. The next stretch of the band’s never ending tour takes them through the Midwest to the South and ends in Baltimore on Valentine’s Day. Anyone who wants to check out UM’s show in St. Louis on February 4 can tune in to the iClips premium broadcast for $6.99. Finally, the prog-jammers will make their first trip down under in April for the Byron Bay Blues Festival in Australia.

READ ON for a full list of Umphrey’s McGee tour dates…

Every couple of weeks we take a look at a few under the radar bands for our beloved Blips column. Today, we kick off a new column, Blips Update, to take a more in-depth look at what one of the artists we’ve featured in Blips has accomplished since being profiled on our humble site. Will […]

iClips has been archiving videos from Jam Cruise 8 for the past few weeks including full performances by Maceo Parker, Fantastic 4, Lotus & Galactic. Apparently, we can expect the Steve Kimock Crazy Engine pool deck set soon since iClips has uploaded this stunning video of the Stella Blue with special guest Robert Walter to […]

With summer festival announcements starting to role in, it’s no surprise that Camp Bisco is again scheduled to be held at Indian Lookout Country Club (ILCC). The biker haven has hosted Camp Bisco since 2006, and continues to be one of the best  festival sites in the Northeast. Camp Bisco, now in its 9th year, […]

The Disco Biscuits will continue the tradition of bringing cutting edge acts to Mariaville, New York, when Camp Bisco 9, the ninth annual three-day music and arts festival, returns this July 15-17, 2010. As hosts of Camp Bisco, one of the country’s largest and longest running electronic/rock music festivals, the Disco Biscuits have continued to […]

Earl Greyhound has announced the release of ‘Suspicious Package,’ a blistering rock inferno spun out of the Brooklyn trio’s inspired and innovative rock-n-roll imagination machine.  ‘Suspicious Package’ was recorded at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica, under the nimble and keen producerly auspices of Dave Schiffman (Mars Volta, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a […]

Big Ears 2010 has announced its initial schedule for the weekend of March 26, 27, and 28 in Knoxville, Tennessee. On Friday, January 29th at 10:00 a.m. EST, a limited number of individual show tickets will go on sale for Vampire Weekend, the Dirty Projectors + Bang on a Can All-Stars, Joanna Newsom + special […]

One week from tomorrow, Michael Franti and Spearhead head out for one of the biggest gigs in the band’s illustrious history – a nine week arena tour opening for John Mayer. Spearhead stands to win over a ton of fans on the jaunt, but I wondered if the group would change things up from the […]

Nearly 11 months after the release of the Clifford Ball DVDs, the LivePhish archive has finally opened again with the release of a show from November 19, 1992 at St. Mike’s College in Colchester, VT. Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro hinted at this show’s release when he played the epic Divided Sky from 11/19/92 during one […]

Taking our weekly audio look back, there’s a bit of a supergroup vibe going on. Tim Palmieri and Todd Stoops had the jazz/fusion thing going on in Kung Fu and Scott Metzger/Will Bernard channeled Hendrix in their ensemble Some Cat From Japan. We mix in tracks from Gov’t Mule and Umphrey’s McGee for the Rock & Roll contingent, and complete the audio with Marco Benvento’s long overdue collaboration with moe. as the band celebrates its 20th year.

[Thanks to sonicsound for this week’s photo]

Artist & Title: Gov’t Mule – Broke Down On The Brazos
Date & Venue: 2010-01-20 Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale FL
Taper & Show Download: Steve Kwartin

This tune is the first track on Gov’t Mule 2009 album By A Thread. I’ve featured tapes from a lot of friends in this column since its creation and I was very happy to see that I could use my first track from taper legend Steve Kwartin. As Steve says in the torrent information on bt.etree.org, “If you like what you hear – buy a taper a beer”. Mule plays tonight at The Lyric Theater in Oxford MS.

Video from the same show of Mule doing 30 Days In The Hole:

READ ON to stream the rest of this week’s selections…

You say you can’t wait till the summer to get your music festival fix in? Well you’re in luck as the Harvest Of Hope Fest will once again give an early kick start to the 2010 season when it returns to the St. John’s Fairgrounds in sunny St. Augustine, FL from March 12-14. Now in […]

The HT Staff was so smitten with The Avett Brothers major label debut I & Love & You that it took home the number one spot on our first annual Top 25 Album list. The North Carolina-based act will hit the road for a lengthy world tour that kicks off on February 24 at the […]

Jam titans Widespread Panic have announced the next installment of their Porch Songs series of archival releases which will feature two entire shows played at Paolo Soleri in Santa Fe, NM on June 19 & 20, 2001. Unlike the regular Widespread Panic Archives releases, Porch Songs compilations are derived from two-track recordings “warts and all.” […]

Dave Matthews Band will launch an extensive North American summer tour with a two-night stand at The Comcast Theatre in Hartford, CT (May 28th and 29th). An online ticket request period begins this Thursday, January 28th, and continues through Monday, February 8th, at: http://www.warehouse.davematthewsband.com/. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on February […]