2010

Last week’s introductory post, F4tF: Los Angeles Adventure, Pt. 1 – The Neville Brothers @ Hollywood Bowl started out my recollection of my recent first trip to Los Angeles where I had the opportunity to see some wonderful places as I was staying with an old friend who is a private chef and showed me all of the markets and local places to check out. Since last week’s story took place on the Wednesday evening of my week-long trip I thought I’d share with you what I did earlier in the day.

We went to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market

The Wednesday market has been around since 1981. Here is the history of the market from its website:

The Wednesday Market opened in Santa Monica’s downtown retail district with the modest goals of providing reasonably priced, high quality produce to the city’s population, and bringing more foot traffic into the area. The market met with instant success in its first year. Now, more than twenty years later, it’s widely recognized as one of the largest and most diverse grower-only CFM’s in the state. Some nine thousands food shoppers every week, and many of Los Angeles’ best known chefs and restaurants, are keyed to the seasonal rhythms of the Wednesday Market. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say, at mid-week in the heart of the city the mother of markets comes to town. Whether you’re looking for a common, exotic or experimental variety of fruit or vegetable, this market is a treasure trove of agricultural diversity.

That last line about the market being a “treasure trove of agricultural diversity is so true.” Upon our entry, one of the first things I wanted to try was fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juices. I found two separate vendors. Some of the best juice I have had in a long time. First stop was for Valencia Orange Juice from Polito Family Farms. Refreshing doesn’t even begin to describe the taste of locally grown and squeezed oranges juice.

READ ON for more of this week’s Friday For the Foodies…

Concert films from three of this summer’s best British Music Festivals debut this weekend on Palladia. You can catch highlights from Glastonbury featuring the likes of Muse, Stevie Wonder, Phoenix,

The Mike Gordon Band, dormant since March, returns to the stage this weekend at moe.down 11 in Mohawk, NY. Today, we found out those won’t be the only dates for

When a musical act has a rabid fanbase, it becomes tough for said act to keep the inner workings of their organization from the fans. Many times this leads to all kinds of speculation about what goes on “behind the curtain,” especially when something particularly controversial happens without much of an explanation from the band.

For this week’s B List we put together a list of five questions for which we’d love to know the answers. In many cases, the answers may never be known or can only be answered by the people involved – who aren’t talking. Yet, for conversation’s sake we’re going to put these questions out there…

1. What did the fax that the Allman Brothers Band sent to Dickey Betts say?

Back in May 2000, the Allman Brothers Band – supposedly – sent a fax to founding member Dickey Betts informing him that he had been replaced by Jimmy Herring. According to an Entertainment Weekly article, the fax implied he needed help with a substance abuse problem. We’ve always wondered exactly what the fax said. Was there small talk before the deed was done? “Hey Dickey, How’s the weather in Sarasota? Oh, by the way, we went another direction after 30 years, give our best to the fam.”

2. What was in Trey Anastasio’s backpack?

While promoting 2005’s Shine LP, 70 Volt Parade lead singer Trey Anastasio repeatedly referred to a backpack he took with him to visit producer Brendan O’Brien. We’ve always wondered what was in said backpack. A copy of The Phish Companion? Some Clif Bars and some cold green tea? The moments from Page’s day he received in the mail?

READ ON for three more unanswered questions…

Yonder Mountain String Band @ Red Rocks, August 27

What do you do when the time is getting late, the crowd is slowly clearing out and you’re losing energy, but the band won’t stop playing? You stay and enjoy the music. Well, at least that’s my opinion. It’s always a coveted show at Red Rocks: it always seems to be the big stop on every band’s tour, and for the boys of Yonder Mountain it was no different. Bassist Ben Kaufman at one point remarked, “I can’t believe we get to do this,” and later mandolinist Jeff Austin, always excited and always smiling, told us, “This is our favorite part of the year.” And they did their best to prove it to us. On Friday, Yonder Mountain String Band played for well over three hours, starting at 9 and not finishing until after 1 in the morning.

[All Photos by Jason Woodside]

Split Lip Rayfield started the evening at 6PM, and after that set came 90 minutes of Leftover Salmon. By 8:45pm, the sun had gone down, the buzzing of the crowd had settled and the carpets had been laid down on stage to accommodate Yonder Mountain’s modest stage set-up. It wasn’t long after that Austin, Kaufman, Adam Aijala on guitar and Dave Johnston on banjo walked slowly on stage and broke right into Looking Back Over My Shoulder.

Even though it was an exciting moment – the first chords of the main event, a night of Colorado bluegrass – it was hard to get into at first. Because of Yonder’s affinity for the simple acoustic bluegrass, and because they are accustomed to smaller venues, they seemed to have a bit of a hard time filling the space. There is a lot of open air at Red Rocks Amphitheater. But, once my ears got used to it, and the crowd settled a bit more, it was easier to listen to each note.

READ ON for more about Yonder Mountain at Red Rocks…