Archive: 2011

The beginning of the year is traditionally slow for new music, but over the last few weeks things have been picking up with a number of quality releases giving us some fresh music to inject into our ears. With that in mind, I thought I’d use this week’s Mix Tape to offer up a batch […]

When jam titans Widespread Panic opened last night’s hometown show in Athens with For What It’s Worth, fans immediately started speculating about what would follow as the group opened its first show ever with the Buffalo Springfield song back on February 6th, 1986. WSP originals Sleepy Monkey and Chilly Water followed, just as they did […]

Is John Oates of the the iconic pop-soul band Hall and Oates a closet jam fan? Considering Oates sat in with moe. at the Belly Up in Aspen last Thursday night and followed that up by guesting with Umphrey’s McGee at the same venue last night, we’re thinking he has copies of Junta, Anthem of […]

As we first reported last Saturday, Mike Gordon and the Mike Gordon Band will perform on tonight’s episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. MGB guitarist Scott Murawski recently blogged about the group’s preparation and offers a few hints as to what to expect. Friday, February 11 [All times EST] The Dears on David Letterman […]

If you don’t want a secret to come out in the open, you best not tell legendary musician David Crosby. Crosby spilled the beans about Buffalo Springfield’s plans to tour this fall to Rolling Stone before he started pitching himself and a Byrds reunion to the writer as an opening act. Buffalo Springfield reunited in […]

Birds of Avalon must be one of the few touring bands that sports a dueling, husband and wife guitar attack. Paul Siler and Cheetie Jumar’s churning, melodic and quirky axe work propels the LP forward alongside a vibe that mixes melodically rhythmic bass patterns, Merseybeat’s steady, thunder pop drumming and pleasantly spacey vocals.

Say what you will about the prince of darkness, but the man knows how to put on a show, to get and most importantly KEEP the crowd involved. It is an experience. Yes, it may primarily be the same show he did last year but for the approximately two hours that Ozzy is on the stage, you sweat, you wave your hands, you clap, you sing, you hear the f-bomb a million times and you scream.

Starting her brief northeast tour on a snowy winter night in Vermont, Neko Case brought her “country noir” sound in it’s full glory to Higher Ground’s Ballroom. It was a night with a lot of hype, as the last time Case was scheduled to perform on this same stage with her band The New Pornographers back in August, she was a no show.

Now that’s it’s been just about a month since Jam Cruise 9 returned to land, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on all the music I witnessed. While I was familiar with most of the bands aboard the MSC Poesia, there were a number of acts who were new to me. For this week’s B List, I made a list of the 10 bands I hadn’t seen live before the trip who impressed me the most.

Yes, it’s ridiculous that I hadn’t seen a few of these bands, but now that I have, I won’t miss them again the next time they come around.

10. Big Gigantic

[All photos by Chad Smith]

Colorado’s Big Gigantic features drummer Jeremy Salken and producer/saxophonist Dominic Lalli coming together to forge an inventive sound that’s equal parts electronic and rock. You can’t help but dance to the ridiculously high-energy beats and grooves the pair provides. BG’s Zebra Bar set was otherworldly, not only for the work of Salken and Lalli, but also for sit-ins by the likes of Brock Butler, Eric Krasno and Joel Cummins.

• Previously on HT: All Aboard, Knee Deep In It, Letter to 16-Year-Old ScottyB, Nourished Soul, Day Four – Part 1, My Jam Cruise Debut, Jam Cruise 9 Videos, Day Four – Part 2, Photo Gallery – The People

READ ON for more of this week’s B List…

February has been a month of heartache for music fans as breakups and rumors of breakups abound. First, the White Stripes amicably quit their courtship, then LCD Soundsystem announced they’d play their last show in April and there was even a rumor about the Gorillaz calling it quits at the top of their game. All of the tragedy aside, 3GM found it strange that these breakups, whether rumored or true, were uncharacteristically harmonious.

Conor Kelley on LCD Soundsystem:

It’s better to burn out than to fade away.

What could be more rock and roll than following through with that line? Although Neil Young is way past the age where he can burn out, and his new work shows absolutely no signs of fading into insignificance, his lyric is still a tried and true adage of the musician lifestyle. Going out while on top almost ensures a legendary reputation in the rock and roll record books.  It’s the George Costanza theory about leaving on a high note, and it works like a charm.

In the ’60s and 70s people would rarely leave the game by choice. It was mostly at the hand of drug overdoses (Hendrix), alcoholism (Joplin),  french hookers and baguettes (Morrison) or the occasional peach truck (Allman). These days people are hanging up their guitars for a different reason entirely: they see a project’s creative end in sight and walk away before it becomes stale. READ ON for more of this week’s Three Grown Men column…

A dream came true for the author and other Winos around the country, when God Street Wine came back for four shows last summer followed by two sets aboard Jam Cruise 9. While the group’s fans held out hope that GSW would continue to perform the occasional show, an announcement from the band posted on […]

Brothers Past @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, February 5

Words: Carla Danca
Images: Jeremy Gordon

Despite an intimate start to the show, the diehards all came out to support Brothers Past at Williamsburg’s Hall of Music this past Saturday. From the bros in the front row who embodied the “dance like no one is watching” mantra to the Funtown dancers on the stage, the floor kept moving all night long in Brooklyn. While it may have been cold and raining outside,  inside things got so hot that there was more than one shirt removed.

[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]

The show began with a set from New Jersey’s own FiKus who were crowded together among the equipment of BP. The tight set up seemed the aid the band as their playing intermixed seamlessly.  By adding additional electronic layers on top of the already rich sound provided, the five members of the band dominated the room.  Things heated up when DJ Nutritious spun while his two dancers roamed the stage with painted body art that accentuated every curve. Though it seemed a bit risqué, they didn’t quite know what to do when a dollar was thrown on stage… apparently it wasn’t that kind of party after all.

READ ON for more from Brothers Past in Williamsburg…

It sort of seems hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since Jack Johnson put out his debut album Brushfire Fairytales via the small indie-label Enjoy Records (which is now known as Everloving). When the pro-surfer turned musician’s record was picked up for wider distribution, the label’s co-founder and album’s producer JP Plunier struck […]

We’re going to fire up the Hidden Track time machine to take us back to my favorite show of 2008 – Paul Simon’s Under African Skies at BAM. This unique concert, which was part tribute / part Paul Simon show, featured one highlight after another. Yet, the best moment came when David Byrne delivered a […]

Longtime Phish fan Andy Silver has been seeing the band perform since 1992 and recently spent some time preparing a list that we think will be of interest to our readers. Take it away, Andy…

Trying to get a handle on the evolution of Phish can be a daunting task. For new fans and seasoned vets alike, surfing through nearly 25 years of performances may seem like an exercise in futility. Each of us has special language, tour short-hand, inside jokes, personal preferences and individual memories that shape our perspective on the band, its history and our place within it.

[Photo by Regan Teti Marscher]

Many of us have spent hours arguing the merits of 1992 versus 1995, or the cow funk of 1997 versus the juke box tour of summer 1998. Personally, I find these debates entertaining, albeit somewhat pointless, as beauty is always in the eye (or in this case, the ear) of the beholder. After all, what I choose to put on my iPod may be very different from what you consider to be “must listen material.”

Given this context, I set out to compile a list of shows (and multi-night stands) that roughly document the various stages of Phish, their sound and their emergence as a cultural phenomenon. It should be noted that the list is not intended to be a “best of.” Rather, it’s a guide for those that love the band and want to revisit key moments in Phistory.

READ ON for Andy’s list of 200 Essential Phish Shows…

On his fourth album, Mission Bell, Amos Lee decided to take his time to get it right. Though the previous two releases weren’t bad, Lee admits that they were rushed and were easily lost among a myriad of rootsy singers strumming an acoustic guitar. The result of that deliberation could be a career-defining album.

In the midst of their quick 4-night, 3-city tour, Glide had a chance to catch up with dada, the hard rocking trio from LA. After touring only intermittently during the last decade, the band decided to take a break from recording their first album since 2007, and play three cities where they had an established  fan base.

moe. @ Ogden Theater, Denver CO – February 5th

Words: Jonathan Kosakow
Images: Jason Woodside

I’ve always wondered why moe., of all the bands in the jam scene, has never caught hold of a larger mainstream audience. Their songs are easy on the ears, and the group’s sing-along choruses are nearly always high energy. But Saturday’s show at Denver’s Ogden Theater finally gave me my answer. At times we were spoonfed slow, low-energy ambience, at others we were caught in the middle of an old-fashioned cafeteria food fight. By the end of the night, it was hard to tell which way was up.

[All photos by Jason Woodside]

It was about 9:30 by the time the band took the stage. Following a spicy set of pre-show music that included everything from Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, the first notes of live music we heard were those first lingering tones of Mexico. It was absolutely the way to start it off, an old favorite to remind us why we came. Al Schnier’s noodling guitar was helped along by Chuck Garvey’s, and the two worked off each other’s riffs until they settled into a steady groove for Day Dreaming.

Set One: Mexico > Day Dreaming, Blue Jeans Pizza, Good Trip, Opium > 32 Things*

Set Two : Haze > Dr. Graffenberg, One Life, Billy Goat > Understand, Kyle’s Song > Moth

Encore: Mar-DeMa, Spine Of A Dog

* – w/ Allie Kral of Cornmeal on Fiddle

[Setlist via PT moe.]

Soon though, somewhere between the high notes of Rob Derhak’s vocal on Blue Jeans Pizza and the joke-along “Don’t Die’s” of Good Trip, something started to fade. Perhaps the band, at the end of a tour and about to take a quick stint in Japan, was a bit road-weary, but it definitely showed in the general lack of collective energy throughout the room.

Their jams, though note-tight, dragged a little too long, and the foot-shuffling slowed throughout the audience. Soon, though, the familiar drone of Opium sunk into our brains and swallowed us whole. The slow, powerful train that is this song gained speed steadily until it found its (in)sanity in the bright lights of Derhak’s bellowing chorus. The outro of Opium saw the introduction of Cornmeal’s Allie Kral who joined the band for 32 Things, ending the set with a three-way guitar-guitar-fiddle duel that was powerful enough to leave Schnier with both jaw and hands dropped nearly to the floor in stupefaction. “Leave it to Allie” was the word throughout the room during setbreak. READ ON for more on moe. in Denver…

Widespread Panic returns to the town in which the band was formed – Athens, GA – tomorrow and Friday to kick off a celebration of the group’s 25th Anniversary at the Classic Center. As we reported last month, WSP will webcast each show. In addition, the performances will be filmed in HD. You can pre-order […]

Please welcome HT reader Max Eddy to break down the career of The White Stripes, a band who recently announced their break up…

On February 2nd, Groundhog’s Day, The White Stripes announced that they would no longer be recording. The surprisingly straightforward message posted on the band’s website explicitly ruled out “artistic differences” and “illness,” saying rather that the band wanted to keep the music as it was. In their final message, the blues-rock duo comprised of faux-brother and sister Jack and Meg White implored their fans not to be sad, saying that the music “belonged to you now and you can do with it whatever you want.”

Though no one has died and Jack will surely continue recording with any of his side projects like The Dead Weather, the White Stripes are dead.

The band hardly burst upon the scene with their debut self-titled release in 1999. Jack was already a veteran of the burgeoning Detroit garage-rock scene, though he’d seen mixed success up to that point. It’s easy to assume that he formed the two-piece duo simply to play the music he wanted without having to worry about anyone else. He took the lead with vocals and a hammering guitar line, with Meg backing him up on drums.

Over the next two albums, De Stijl (2000) and White Blood Cells (2001), the White Stripes perfected their sound and the image that helped to define their image as much as any album did. Always with an eye for artistry, Jack gave the band a red and white color scheme which was splashed over their albums and stage presence. Growing in their popularity as well as their musicianship, the band produced some of the best music of the then-young millennium and gathered a cult following.

READ ON for more of Max’s White Stripes Retrospective…