You’ll never run out of amazing shows to download or stream if you keep up with the Live Music Archive. Every day, dozens of incredible recordings from a wide variety
The Allman Brothers Band visited Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday. In an unorthodox move for late night TV, Fallon gave the Allmans over six minutes so that they
For this month’s Track By Track, singer/songwriter/guitarist Fred Torphy of San Francisco-based rock band Big Light shares the story behind each tune on the group’s debut album, Animals In Bloom.
Animals In Bloom
Recorded from October to December 2009. We had a routine of recording for a week straight or so, then we’d break and do gigs another week. That’s how it kind of played out. So we were constantly listening to rough mixes in the van, hatching ideas. The main goal of the album was to take a core set of road-tested songs and turn them on their heads…
Good Time of the Year
One of our more up-tempo tunes. That’s why it’s the opening track. This was also the 1st song we tracked. It’s a about someone lamenting on a down-on-their luck friend. And the healing powers of going home to your roots. I fucking love the drum solo…
Monster
We wanted this one to be fuzzy. It’s actually one of the oldest songs written on the record. I started it when I still lived in Vermont. At the time I was surrounded by a lot of rich, coke heady, semi-obnoxious, girls who seemed to be full of feeling of entitlement. So Monster is about a fictitious person. She’s a total bitch, addicted to drugs, but somehow always can get into a sold-out show…
READ ON for Fred Torphy’s thoughts on the rest of Animals In Bloom…
While late night tv host Conan O’Brien isn’t allowed on the boob tube for quite some time, the agreement that freed him from his contract with NBC doesn’t say anything
Last week, we brought you the news of the Toronto-based sandwich shop that dedicated all its menu items to Wilco songs. Well, now this week, comes the news that the
The often elusive American rock and roll band SURPRISE ME MR. DAVIS, comprised by members Nathan Moore, Brad and Andrew Barr, Marc Friedman and Marco Benevento, have announced an April
Directed and written by Oklahoma native Bryan Beasley, and narrated by Val Kilmer, the viewer is immediately immersed from the outset in a rich cultural tapestry that describes Allan Houser’s rise to fame and the subsequent success of his two sons as they continue their father’s work to this day. Allan Houser has some very famous pieces to his name but perhaps the most significant part of his life were the dramatic changes he brought to the concept of Native American art during his tenure at the Santa Fe based Institute of Native American Arts from 1962-1975.
Midlake's sound has always been retro, but The Courage of Others takes the term to a whole new extreme. During their early career, Midlake's retro slant could be traced to striking Radiohead similarities or undeniably fuzzy 70's-rock sounds. In this album's case, "retro" means "centuries ago." Gravely spoken tales of kings, brave men, ancient woods and outward emotion are joined with wandering flutes, solemn acoustic guitars and hushed rhythms to create elegant, aged melodies. This alchemy allows Midlake to evoke the exact atmosphere they hoped to obtain, but it isn't always as engaging as one would hope.
As a whole, Broken Bells maintains hip-hop tinge from Burton’s production, but it’s layered across the board with genre meandering psychedelic passages and vocal harmonies woven throughout. Putting Broken Bells in Burton’s catalogue, it’s easy to see how he considers himself an auteur. He assembles great albums like a director puts all the pieces together of a great film. In a New York Times article Burton told Chuck Klosterman, “…even with some of my favorite bands, I only like 30 or 40 percent of what they do. I'd want to make that 30 percent into the whole album.”
Conan O’Brien will headline a live comedy/music review that begins a two-month, 30-city tour on April 12th. The aptly titled “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television” tour kicks off
