Pearl Jam returned to Saturday Night Live this past weekend to perform two tunes from their most recent album – Backspacer. Here’s clips of Just Breathe and Unknown Thought courtesy
Bill Kreutzmann Trio performing at The Independent in San Francisco CA on February 25th, 2010.
Kings of Leon have announced their summer 2010 touring plans. Beginning June 5th and ending September 23rd, the Bonnaroo 2010 headliners will be playing 32, mostly outdoor-amphitheatre shows across the
The greatest virtue of bassist Dave Holland's recordings, whatever the size of the ensemble he leads, lies in how directly the compositions evolve from the improvisation(s) of the players. The key may be that Holland writes with his players in mind. As exhibited on the title song to this live recording from Birdland in 2009, that's clearly a consummate talent in itself. But the band's still got to execute and it's only a matter of moments before the Octet is in full flight for close to eleven minutes on "Pathways."
With Planet Anthem, The Disco Biscuits have finally created an album worthy of their broad range of abilities. The band has always embraced paradox, grinning through wide-eyed rock numbers and delving into the maddening murk of electronic music with equal enthusiasm, charting their own brave new musical world while ingesting an incomprehensible amount of influence, and creating an atmosphere at live shows that appeases both beatmongering dance junkies and improvisational scavengers.
The Allman Brothers Band March Madness run continued tonight at the United Palace where the band played their fourth of eight shows in Uptown Manhattan. Once again, the evening was
The members of Phish will take the stage tonight for the first time in 2010 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City where they will open this year’s Rock
Earlier this month, the Common Council of Madison, WI voted unanimously to make the members of Wilco honorary citizens of their town. One of the reasons given was that Jeff
Mike Gordon Band @ Pearl Street – March 13, 2010
Mike Gordon’s solo project combines a good dose of funk with a lot of boundless improvisation. The band stopped at the Pearl Street nightclub in Northampton, MA on Saturday to prove how capable and willing they are to put on a fresh, exciting, and unique show. In a post-show conversation with percussionist Craig Myers, “Mike is constantly pushing new sh**. Sometimes the hits come late, but then other times we’ve just created something new.” And more often than not, they’re creating something new.
His backing band is not so much of a “backing band” when you look at how guitarist Scott Murawski and keyboardist Tom Cleary took the helm during portions of Saturday’s show. Murawski’s solos are smooth and story-like, concluding gracefully as Mike subtly brings the band back to a chorus. While Murawski is off on his own improvising, he’s clearly locking into Mike’s playing at all times. Cleary, on the other hand, usually lays low adding color when necessary to every song. However, when it’s his turn to solo, Cleary is unstoppable and wild – he often ends up halfway through his jams standing up and spinning around while playing.
The Saturday show kicked off with Can’t Stand Still, an original song that evokes ’90s era alternative pop. Mike’s voice harmonized and blended well with the voices of the other members of the band who sang backup. While everyone danced in sync to the opening song, Spiral, which followed, was a little hiccup in the setlist. The groove was a little hard to grasp for an audience that wanted to dance. Things quickly changed however when Mike invited Mark Mercier, one of his favorite musicians and Murawski’s Max Creek band mate , to take over Cleary’s position on the boards. Mercier sang lead and jammed on Columbus Stockade, and Cleary came back to do double duty on keys with Mercier on Voices, a standout track from The Green Sparrow.
READ ON for more of Balaji’s thoughts and photos of the MGB…
Back in 2007, when Neil Young pulled into Philadelphia for a two-night run at the historic Tower Theater during the tour for Chrome Dreams II, the legendary singer-songwriter had some
