We weren’t racing to set our DVRs for Michael Buble’s stint as the musical guest on this week’s Saturday Night Live until we read Brooklyn Vegan’s post advising us that
On March 11th, progressive reggae band John Brown’s Body and West African-influenced quintet Toubab Krewe kick off a 13-city co-headlining U.S. tour. The tour begins in Brooklyn, NY, and ends in Solana Beach,
Drive-By Truckers have announced new headlining dates in support of the band’s forthcoming studio album, "The Big To Do." The tour, which kicked off with three hometown shows last week
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
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
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
Transference remains a grower with its brooding underbelly, but once you get it, you’re thankful for the not-so obvious pop nods. The one catchy exception is “Written In Reverse,” where the ker-plunky piano and crashing drums make for another silent classic. With Transference Spoon is further cementing their status as cult survivor rather than a pop/blog flash in the pan, thanks to their intense consistency and only selling out to their fan-base, not the mainstream.
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
