Archive: 2010

Earlier this year, The AV Club invited 25 bands to stop by their Chicago office to take part in their inaugural A.V. Undercover series – which yielded some fantastic results. As a follow up, the website decided to go with a holiday music theme, but changed the rules a bit, by allowing bands to pick their own song, with the caveat that it had to somehow be holiday related.

The first band to take the challenge was New York-based, indie-rockers The Walkmen, who have awesomely and cleverly chosen Lindsey’s Buckingham’s Holiday Road – otherwise known as the theme to the National Lampoon Vacation series. READ ON to see the results…

This evening, Fuse debuts an hour-long program featuring highlights from SPIN’s 25th Anniversary Concert Series, which took place earlier this year in New York City. Tune in at 9PM EST to see performances by the Black Keys, Smashing Pumpkins, The National, Spiritualized and the Flaming Lips. Friday, December 3 [all times EST] Flaming Lips & […]

When you listen to a record like Push, it’s almost like you’re feeling the live show right through the headphones.  Definitely a band with a positive outlook, 40 Watt Hype is a rare breed of instrumental hip-hop soul and the Latin influence that is rooted within the music only gives off more energy.    

The Allman Brothers concluded their short autumn tour of theatres with three sold out shows at The Orpheum in Boston that simultaneously re-affirmed  their own passion for their music and justified the loyalty of their fan base.

Michael Cera is playing bass guitar in new Sub Pop band Mister Heavenly, it has been confirmed. The actor, who starred in Juno and Scott Pilgrim Versus The World, played with the band at The Moore theatre in Seattle on Tuesday (November 30), when they supported Passion Pit. A Sub Pop representative confirmed his role […]

Rather than an “I was there and you weren’t” account of hanging out with ’70s rock gods, LZ-’75 manages to make all concerned seem rather mortal in their own way. The impetus for Davis to write the book after all these years was the recent discovery of a box of long-lost treasures from the tour. Call it a time capsule if you will; a happy accident seems more apropos.

This year’s batch of live concert DVD releases was more about quality than quantity. While there weren’t dozens of releases from the bands we love like last year, the DVDs that did come out make up for the lack of numbers. For this week’s B List, I continue a long-standing tradition of detailing my favorite concert DVDs of the year. I’ve included a taste of these releases, except the Avett’s DVD, so you can get a feel for these outstanding videos.

10. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – London Calling

If 2009 was indeed the last year for the E Street Band, what a year it was. One of the highlights of ’09 for The Boss and his long-time backing band was a headlining set at London’s Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. London Calling contains 26 tracks from throughout Springsteen’s career as well as a few cool bonuses such as a memorizing version of The River from Glastonbury. As you’ve probably inferred from the title,  the DVD contains a scorching cover of London Calling by The Clash that starts this release out right.

READ ON for my Top Nine Concert DVDs of 2010…

The fine folks at Hear Rock City have put together a fantastic compilation featuring rock gods the Drive-By Truckers covering a wide range of other artists. Download the mix to hear Patterson Hood and his band mates tackle Wings’ Let Me Roll It, Even The Losers by Tom Petty, Warren Zevon’s Play It All Night […]

For your weekly hour’s worth of music, you’ll first be listening to The Frames, the Irish band celebrating their 20th year of existence. From there, we cruise over to the soulful sounds of J.J. Grey & Mofro for a track from their 2010 record. Mike Gordon, who was recently singing the praises of J.J. Grey, contributes four tracks from his show in Maine where he was joined by Phish drummer Jon Fishman. And we close it out with a recent Robert Hunter penned tune from New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Hope you enjoy it.

A reminder, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.

[Thanks to scb for this week’s photo]

The Frames – People Get Ready
Date & Venue: 2010-11-23 The Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
Taper & Show Download: Brian Emerick

As you may have read in Monday’s Pullin’ Tubes, Irish folk-rock act The Frames are turning 20. Unfortunately, for our American readers, you have missed the live dates at this point. The Frames [tour dates] continue their anniversary run overseas tomorrow night at Paradiso in Amsterdam.

Video from The Avalon Theater:

READ ON for tracks from JJ Grey & Mofro, Mike Gordon w/Jon Fishman, and New Riders Of The Purple Sage…

Upstate NY’s Press-Republican newspaper ran a feature about Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s 7 Walkers project today and what’s most interesting in the article is Billy’s take on Furthur – a band featuring two of his GD band mates, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. Here’s what he said… “I haven’t really got much interest in […]