Archive: 2010

Last Saturday, Levon Helm was hospitalized with a severe cold that was only made worse by his COPD condition. After a near week-long stay in a New York City hospital, The Band drummer returned to his Woodstock home today according to a report in the Poughkeepsie Journal. Levon hopes to perform at tomorrow’s Midnight Ramble. […]

December 24th is Santa’s time to shine. By mid-September he’s already done his recon and he’s ready to judge the world’s youth like a bad episode of Divorce Court. However, delivering fine handcrafted toys to seven continents worth of deserving children in one night is no easy task. He’s already switched from White Russians to 1% milk with his snickerdoodles and he’s been religious with his Jillian Michaels workout DVD.

[Note: The attached picture is a rough estimation of Santa’s route, that was apparently drawn by an inbred elf.]

There’s only one more step in preparation for his annual circumnavigation: the perfect mix. Through tactics we are neither proud of nor able to discuss, Three Grown Men was able to get a glimpse of this year’s Christmas Eve playlist. Here’s a sampling of tracks Santa will be grooving to on each leg…

First Leg: 9:00 pm – 12:00 am
by Conor Kelley

45:33 – LCD Soundsystem

A strong first track is vital to any good playlist, but especially a playlist that fuels a nine-hour long game of global hopscotch. LCD Soundsystem’s 45:33 is the perfect kickstart to Santa’s travels. The James Murphy composed opus offers, go figure, 45 minutes and 33 seconds of pulse-raising funk. Enough time to settle into the sleigh, get the feel of the reigns, and cruise from the North Pole to the Scandinavian Peninsula while keeping his head centered and his nerves on edge.

Intil – Menomena

Being good all year and earning a spot on the Nice List is every kid’s New Year’s resolution for one reason: the Christmas morning payoff. This concept is not lost on St. Nick. When the drums finally kick in on the last track from Menomena’s Mines all is right with the world. Plus, “Intil” is the perfect song to listen to while gazing at the sparse and endless Siberian landscape.

READ ON for more of the songs on Santa’s iPod and for an embedded playlist so you can hear all of these songs for yourself…

So far I have written two postings about my mid-November three-day weekend in Miami.  The first posting was about The Best Burger in America and the second one was about Robert Is Here farmstand in Homestead, Florida. Here we go with one more post about my trip…

On my last day in Miami, which was a Monday, I had a lunch with a good chef friend and his family at a killer Cuban place in Coral Gables called Havana Harry’s which was referred to me by a good friend in law enforcement in South Florida.

Cops and chefs always know the best places to eat, that’s for sure.  So, my cop friend says “When you go there for lunch order the Chicken Vaca Frita (Shredded chicken with onions, in a garlic and sour orange mojo, served with moro rice and sweet plantains.)  All I will say is that when the waitress came to the table, I said, “I’ll have the Vaca Frita,” the waitress responded, “which one chicken, beef or the one not on the menu?”  I asked what the one not on the menu was and was told it was chicken, beef and pork.  All I have to say is that was a damn good lunch and blew away my expectations by a country mile.

You may be wondering why I am telling you this when the subject is Palacio de los Jugos.  Here’s why.  When we were all saying our goodbyes my chef friend said “Since you are headed to the airport, you MUST stop by El Palacio de los Jugos at 5721 Flagler Street as it is right by the airport.  I was VERY full and wondered what the big deal was about a juice place.  The only answer I was given was “Oh there is MUCH more than fresh fruit but that’s all I am telling you.” WOW was he right!

READ ON for more on Jon’s final day in Miami…

With only two Tuesdays left in the year for new album releases, and nothing really noteworthy on the immediate horizon, we can start looking towards what’s coming down the pike next year. 2011 releases include a new album from The Low Anthem. The Providence- based folk-rock act will drop their third studio album, Smart Flesh, […]

Lil Wayne makes his first network television appearance since being released from jail when he joins Eminem as the musical guests on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live. Em and Weezy teamed up for No Love on Eminem’s Recovery album, so you can bet they’ll perform that tune. Jeff Bridges hosts. Friday, December 17 [All Times […]

Soulive at The Independent, San Francisco, CA 12.10.10.

Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, Camp Bisco, the three-day music and arts festival founded by The Disco Biscuits, will return to Mariaville, New York this July 7 through 9, 2011. Throughout its ten year history, Camp Bisco has continued to elevate the level of talent, turning it into one of the country’s largest and longest running […]

Wilco has announced that they will be holding their second annual Solid Sound festival. The 2011 edition will be happening the weekend of June 24-26, once again at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. The inaugural event featured Wilco along with Wilco side project The Autumn Defense, Jeff Tweedy solo, The Nels Cline Singers, Vetiver, […]

Phish has found a way to celebrate New Year’s with all of their fans. The band will offer live pay-per-view webcasts of each of their three sold-out nights – December 30th, December 31st and January 1st – at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The January 1st show will mark Phish’s first-ever New Year’s Day […]

 Damon Albarn told the US radio station Triple J that the new Gorillaz album was written in October and thusly has been titled, "The Fall." The album will still be released as a free download on Christmas Day. The singer also confirmed that Gorillaz will be taking some time off after finishing their tour in […]

It only takes a near death experience with an arsonist to make great music. Before making their new album, Lubbock roots rock band Thrift Store Cowboys had a stranger set fire to their trailer filled with merchandise and gear. But it appears that brush with the end fuelled this new effort, one with confidence, consistency and brilliant verve.

Steven Page has the ability to spin a moment of turmoil into both hopeful and hopeless, and it is the oscillation between these two that make him such a strong songwriter. Whereas his co-BNL writer Ed Robertson either came across as too earnest or too banal-parading-as-comedic, Page strikes an excellent emotional balance when deciphering the human experience, and it's no more apparent than on opener "A New Shore."

Wyllys and The World Party had time to catch up with fellow ex-Burlington native Mike Jones this week about his new label Party Guy Records and its latest release Future Sounds of North America. The compilation caught my eye by stating it was showcasing “the future sound of bass” in North America, also citing the previous styles of bass this country was so famous for (Miami Bass, Baltimore Club, and Chicago Juke).

Party Guy Records was founded in February of 2010 by Mike Jones (Kuato) and Adrian Sakgrime (DJ Hatian). The two DJ’s were playing lots of parties together and had mutual friends that were producing lots of quality tunes that they felt needed to be released, namely Bardeenz and Dub Chi. Originally, PRG was going to be an Electro House label. Their first release came from Bardeenz titled Messed Up Maison, a blippy House romp that certainly fell under the Electro moniker.

• Previously on W+TWP: Burlington Beats

Not long after the Bardeenz release, PRG started to branch out stylistically. The second offering from Guttstar titled Battery Hues was a Dubstep collection featuring remixes by PRG artists Kastle and Dev 79. This began to illuminate the label’s allure to bass sounds and culture. DJ Hatian had always been known for evil bass tones in his sets, so it seemed a natural progression.

READ ON for more of Wyllys and the World Party…

As my final tan lines from 2010 are finally fading, it’s exciting to see that it’s never too soon to start planning for Summer ’11. Today, we found out that Camp Bisco 10 will again take place at Indian Lookout Country Club in Mariaville, NY on July 7 – 9, 2011. Over 70 international acts […]

As I was watching the tapes roll in this week from recent shows, I had two thoughts about possible themes for this week’s edition: 1) Acoustic Performances/Sets 2) The Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. Not wanting to choose, we’re going to have a jumbo-sized Last Week’s Sauce and bring you six performances. We start out with three from the acoustic section: The Black Crowes, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds and Jeff Tweedy [with a little help from his friends]. Then, we’ll switch into high gear with some highlights from Asheville with help from Steve Miller, Umphrey’s McGee with John Bell and the brand-spanking-new Warren Haynes Band. This is a good one, so set aside some time and maybe even download the podcast if you want to take all of this audio with you.

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 tgakidis for this week’s photo]

The Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels, My Morning Song
Date & Venue: 2010-12-12 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Taper & Show Download: Fillmore Crowe

The Black Crowes have only three shows left before they start their next indefinite hiatus – three more shows at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore Auditorium. And they have already played three shows there so far. The locals are expecting big things this weekend in terms of special guests and I’m sure the Crowes will not disappoint. Recently, it’s been a formula of Acoustic Set I and Electric Set II and this run of shows has been no exception. These two hits closed Sunday’s first set.

More acoustic action from Sunday’s show:

READ ON for tracks from Dave & Tim, Jeff Tweedy & The Autumn Defense, Steve Miller Band, Umphrey’s McGee, and The Warren Haynes Band.

South Florida jamband The Heavy Pets have recently brought taper extraordinaire Charlie Miller on the road with them to record each show and help with production. The group aims to start selling Miller’s official recordings through LiveDownloads.com and is offering free MP3 downloads of their December 4th show at Nectar’s to give music fans a sample of […]

We came across a fairly terrible blow-by-blow of last weekend’s Christmas Jam at Mountain Xpress, but there was one redeeming quality – a batch of kickass videos shot by someone who knew what they were doing.

[Photo by Rob Chapman]

Freelance videographer Jesse Hamm has posted five great clips from Saturday’s show that are the jamband equivalent of NBC’s must-see TV.

Let’s start with John Bell tackling Silent Night…

John Bell – Silent Night

• Christmas Jam 2010 Recap: Audio, Videos & More

READ ON for incredible Xmas Jam videos featuring Umphrey’s McGee, the Steve Miller Band, Gregg Allman and the Warren Haynes Band…

After nearly two years of unofficial streams from intrepid fans at Phish shows, couch tour has gone legit. Phish has partnered with Nugs Net to offer pay-per-view video broadcasts of the group’s three upcoming shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 30, 31 and January 1st. You can purchase a three-day […]

Prince kicked off his long-awaited Welcome 2 America tour last night at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. The Purple One filled his set with material from throughout his career including a few medleys and a cover of Sarah McLachlan’s Angel. He closed out the main set with Purple Rain before returning for a […]

Brooklyn-based sax wiz Stuart Bogie has a resume most musicians would kill for. The Antibalas musical director has worked with a ridiculous list of musicians spanning nearly every genre, is featured in Broadway’s Fela! and was a member of Phish’s horn section for the Waiting for Columbus set on Halloween. Bogie also fronts Superhuman Happiness, […]