Archive: 2010

The latest Funny or Die clip had us cracking up this afternoon, so we just had to share. Take a look as comedians Will Ferrell and John C. Rilley do their best David Bowie and Bing Crosby impression, with a twist… Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will […]

Guess it’s a week to talk about comebacks from the world of hip-hop, as Lauryn Hill has announced a ten-date Northeast tour that will kick off  at the Higher Ground in Burlington, VT on December 18. The semi-reclusive Hill, who is rumored to be working on the long-awaited follow up to her seminal debut The Miseducation […]

In the pantheon of gut wrenching, emotionally charged break up albums none may top the sheer heartbreak found throughout Bob Dylan’s 1975 release Blood On The Tracks. The album has been mined for its share of covers over the years, but it’s the first time we are actually featuring a track from what is arguably one of Dylan’s best LPs.

While there may be a few more obvious choices, we’re going with the moody album’s melancholy closing track, Buckets Of Rain. The tune, which according to Wikipedia has astonishingly only been played live once by Dylan, is as tender as it is devastating with lines such as, “Like your smile, and your fingertips. Like the way that you move your lips, I like the cool way you look at me. Everything about you is bringing me misery.”

The Constestants:

Before hitting it big on his own, M. Ward was a member of Beth Orton’s touring band. The duo’s version finds Orton and Ward trading off on the verses, which was released as the B-side for the digital single of Heart Of Soul, a track that Ward co-wrote with Orton for her 2006 album Comfort Of Strangers.

READ ON for more covers of Buckets Of Rain from the likes of Neko Case, David Gray, Vic Chesnutt and more…

We’re less than two weeks away from the start of Phish’s first five-show New Year’s run at the DCU Center in Worcester. Outside of 1998’s four-show stand at MSG, Phish New Year’s runs usually contain at least a few bust outs – a holiday gift of sorts from the band. What’s interesting is that there actually aren’t many tunes the group has played more than ten times in their career that they haven’t performed at least once since Hampton ’09.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

To give you a visual on what Phish cover and originals have yet to be performed in the current era, we’ve put together a list of songs the quartet has played at least ten times in their career – and at least once since 1994 – but have yet to be dusted off since Hampton. Many of these tunes are Fishman songs or a capella tunes; we’ve marked those compositions in italics. Here’s what’s left listed by the last year the songs made it into a Phish setlist…

Last Played 2004: Terrapin, Friday,

Last Played 2003: Carolina, Magilla, Beauty Of My Dreams, Dogs Stole Things, Dog Log, Life On Mars?, Daniel Saw The Stone,

Last Played 2000: The Curtain, I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome, Inlaw Josie Wales,

Last Played 1999: Sweet Adeline, La Grange, Cracklin’ Rosie, Whipping Post, If I Only Had a Brain, Purple Rain, Foreplay/Longtime

READ ON for the rest of this potential bust out list…

Last week, Widespread Panic kicked down a free video of Bring It On Home from Halloween in New Orleans as “a thank you for an awesome 2010.” Not only can you stream the clip on YouTube, but they have offered the video as a free download. If you like what you see, send a note […]

If earlier performances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live served as the appetizer for Paul McCartney’s whirlwind trip through New York, tonight’s show at the Apollo Theater was the main course. Macca’s first-ever show at the legendary Harlem venue was broadcast live on numerous SiriusXM channels and didn’t disappoint. [Confetti Canons at […]

Diving into their brand new release, Worm Moon Waning, it is apparent the band is a creative and inspired trio lead by songwriter and vocalist Jody Nelson.  With so much folk and Americana indie rock being released these days it is challenging for a band to stand out from the heaps of mustached hipsters but Through the Sparks manages to strike a solid balance inside their melancholic lyrics and wistful, creative arrangements.

Andy Hunter’s fourth album, Collide, bears little resemblance to his last album, Colour, and its more traditional song structures. A return to the epic and ethereal rhythms and beats that were found on his first two records—particularly on his debut Exodus—Collide is a thirty-five-plus minute dance party that is tailor-made for the club scene, and it is one hell of a show.

Some documentaries are for casual fans, others are for more serious fans and others are almost for musicians themselves. This one falls into the latter two categories. There is a bit of narrative that takes him from childhood to the London of 1967 and a bit more that surrounds his death, but the focus is more on his music, his legacy and the many wild guesses as to what he would have done had he lived.

Sam Bush is best-known for his prodigious skills on the mandolin and the fiddle, but it would be a mistake to label him simply a bluegrass musician. Throughout his years with the New Grass Revival, the Nash Ramblers and Strength in Numbers, he’s explored a wide swath of traditional American music, and his cross-genre blending has continued with the many iterations of his solo band over the years.

After five months on the road, the Black Crowes have reached the final stop of their Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys Tour. Last night saw the band play the first of six shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco, which will be followed by the dreaded “indefinite hiatus.” SF Weekly has a review of yesterday’s […]

2010 has been a big year for tenth anniversaries, and one of the last is also one of my favorites. Medeski, Martin & Wood’s fall tour, which featured guitarist and singer Oren Bloedow, whose album featured the trio as the session band, and percussionist Cyro Baptista, made its way to Upstate New York at the […]

You’re bound to find The Who’s Live At Leeds album sitting comfortably towards the top of most best live albums of all-time lists. Recorded at the University of Leeds on February 14, 1970, during arguably the height of the band’s prowess, the gig featured a set of Who classics followed by a full run-through of […]

Roger Waters, who has been astonishing audiences with his new production of The Wall, will stop by Conan on TBS this Wednesday night. Monday, December 13 [all times Eastern] Ice-T on Live with Regis and Kelly [Syndicated – check listings] Green Day: Behind the Music Remastered [VH1 Classic 3PM] Depeche Mode: Live in Barcelona [Palladia […]

It’s not too often that we post a video from the world of hip-hop, but we thought it was rather noteworthy that Dr. Dre has released a video for Kush, the first single from his long delayed and much anticipated new album Detox. Due out early next year, the record will be his first since […]

Levon Helm performing at the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 11.27.10.

From one bar story to another, Please Stand By rolls by quick, one Crazy Heart anthem after another, except these guys aren’t has-beens playing bowling alleys.  Amaker’s voice is more spoken word than country howl, which depreciates any old timey gracefulness for a rougher edge. Although Brent Amaker and the Rodeo don’t score any points for originality, these guys are no posers. Grab the bourbon and enjoy.

Beginning with the upbeat knee-slapper “I Feel The Christmas Spirit”, the twelve tracks in Indigo Girls’ Holly Happy Days include standards like “Oh, Holy Night”, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “Angels We Have Heard On High” along with inspired versions of not so familiar tunes and three original songs that will find their way into one’s holiday rotation.

If you have the patience to give one more Christmas album a go, then you could do much worse than Crazy For Christmas. Hicks and his band mates roll triumphantly through a few classics (“Run Run Rudolph” and “Here Comes Santa Claus”), but it’s the originals that shine brightest and set this apart from other holiday offerings.  “Santa’s Workshop” for one is a classic in the making with its signature sense of humor and witty word  that we’ve come to expect from Hicks.

Shreveport, Louisiana, native Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been listening to the blues since his early childhood. After discovering Muddy Waters in his father’s record collection, Kenny Wayne has been mixing some rock & roll with those blues and blasting out something that catches fire once he hits a stage, because that is where he comes alive. On his new CD, Live In Chicago ( which has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album), Kenny Wayne has been able to capture that spirit while playing alongside some of the legends of the blues.