Mixology

This week's edition of Mixology is all about drinking, enjoy.....

Bloggy Goodness

Here's what some other people have going on....

NewmRadio is Blog Jammin' to Indie, The New African Prog with videos from MGMT, Vampire Weekend and Black Mountain - check it out here.

Coventry kicks down a download of Ween's performance at Toad's Place from last Thursday - head here to grab it.

How about some jazzy-tinged Americana? That's how Here Comes The Flood is describing the debut album from The Belle Outfit - give them a listen here.

You Ain't No Picasso has a boatload of covers done by Of Montreal. The eclectic grab bag features everything from Europe to M.I.A. to the Talking Heads - click here and start grabbing them.

In honor of tonight's Lost premiere (finally some new TV to watch) The Late Greats have some Driveshaft for us - head here.

Finally Some Velvet Blog is declaring Erykah Badu's new video the best of this young year - it's pretty damn cool - check it out for yourself here.

And as always head on over to Hidden Track for their daily distraction and check in with Uncensored Interview while you're at it too.

At The Brew

I'll tell you Starbucks knows their audience when it comes to putting out music. Their latest in-store exclusive album will be a live compilation culled from Simon & Garfunkel's November 1969 tour - to be aptly titled Live 1969. The tour was the last for the duo for over a decade and featured selections that would come to make up their final album Bridge Over Troubled Water - read about it here.

In other Paul Simon news the singer-songwriter will be playing a series of shows with some great special guests including David Byrne at BAM this April called Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon. Here's some more info....

BAM presents Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon, three unique engagements --all part of a series celebrating and exploring the music and lyrics of Paul Simon. Inspired by locales ranging from the Mississipi Delta to the townships of Johannesburg, the extraordinary music of Paul Simon will be part of BAM's Spring 2008 season in April. The three programs include Songs from The Capeman, Under African Skies, and American Tunes and will include performers such as Oscar Hernández and The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Claudette Sierra, Obie Bermudez, Ray de la Paz, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Hugh Masekela, Milton Nascimento, Kaïssa, David Byrne, Luciana Souza, Cyro Baptista,Olu Dara, Grizzly Bear, The Roches, and others including Paul Simon. Phil Ramone is the musical advisor for Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon.

"We are so pleased that Paul agreed to let us do this series. He is a true New York City and BAM artist--courageous, pioneering, and deeply heartfelt. His unique storytelling through music has touched the world. There is an elegance to his music," commented BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo. BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins added, "Paul Simon's vast body of work over 40 years warranted a new kind of retrospective. BAM wanted to give audiences over an extended period of time the opportunity to experience the totality of his talent and contribution to popular music."

Tickets for the Love in Hard Times: The Music of Paul Simon engagements go on sale Feb 11 (Feb 4 for Friends of BAM and Visa Signature cardholders). For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or order online at BAM.org.

The first event of the series, Songs from The Capeman, (April 1-6), will be a concert staging of the 1998 Broadway show The Capeman that includes the doo-wop, rock and roll, and Latin rhythms of a special New York musical era. The music of The Capeman was written by Paul Simon with lyrics by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott. The Capeman is based on the life of Salvador Agrón, a Puerto Rican teenager convicted of murder in 1959. Grammy-nominated Oscar Hernández and The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Latin Jazz vocalist and original Capeman cast member Claudette Sierra, Latin Grammy-winning artist Obie Bermudez, Salsa and Jazz singer Ray de la Paz, and Paul Simon are confirmed to appear with more artists to be announced. This engagement will also feature a special appearance by Little Anthony and the Imperials.

Under African Skies (April 9-13) rekindles Paul's passion for the rhythms of South Africa and Brazil represented in the Grammy Award-winning, critically acclaimed albums Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints. Simon will be joined by South African trumpeter and composer Hugh Masekela, Brazilian singer/songwriter Milton Nascimento, Cameroonian vocalist Kaïssa, David Byrne, Brazilian songstress Luciana Souza, and world renowned Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista. Simon's band will include: Jay Ashby (trombone), Anthony Cedras (keys & accordion), Steve Gadd (drums), Jamey Haddad (percussion), Jim Hynes (trumpet), Bakithi Kumalo (bass), Vincent Nguini (guitar), and Andrew Snitzer (saxophone). Many of which were members of his original Graceland band. Mark Stewart will be the musical director for Under African Skies.

American Tunes (April 23-27) will be a revisit to the quiet railway stations, urban sounds, and immigrant dreams covering a wide range of songs throughout Paul Simon's brilliant career. American bluesman Olu Dara, Brooklyn-based indie band Grizzly Bear, and harmonic trio The Roches and others to be announced will all be performing along with Paul Simon.

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

Back in September after catching the Counting Crows at Farm Aid, I declared it was time we all admitted our love for August And Everything After - and to stop hiding it under hipper bands on your iPod. During their set Duritz and Co. debuted a new tune, and talked energetically about their upcoming release. Well after several delays their new album Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings - their first in five years - will hit stores on March 25th.


The album is a double-disc with Saturday Nights being more of a rock record and Sunday Mornings leaning towards the acoustic, folk infused stuff. Take a listen to selections from both discs...

"1492" and "I Dream Of Michelangelo"

You can also download both tracks here (as a Zip File).

Better Than Noodling

My latest column for Hidden Track is now up for your perusal so click on over - Better Than Noodling: Vampire Weeeknd.

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Arthur & Yu - In Camera

Mountain Jam

Festival season is right around the corner folks. While we're still waiting on announcements from the big guns, the initial line-up for the 4th installment of Warren Haynes' Mountain Jam has been revealed. Check out the poster....


Tickets go on-sale this Friday, starting at 10 A.M. - grab them here.

HFTB favs The Felice Brothers will make their second appearance there, check out this video of them performing "The Ballad Of Lou The Welterweight" from last year's edition of the fest - watch it here.

New Lou

Good news Lou Reed fans, the ever cantankerous singer has some new music that don't involve interpreting the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. The Godfather of LES cool has recorded a couple of new tunes inspired by the documentary Nanking - which is about the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China during World War II. Don't be afraid of that description the songs harken back to classic Lou. Check out the widget below where you can listen to "Safety Zone" and "Gravity," along with checking out the trailer to the film as well.....

Music Video Mondays

Caught this video last week on Subterranean and just loved the cinematic landscapes, its just beautifully shot and the song just fits perfectly with it. Here's Arthur & Yu with "Afterglow"....

Vineland Postponed To '09

On the heels that the All Points West Festival would be taking place the very same weekend the promoters of the Vineland Music Festival have decided to delay the fest by a year aiming to launch it in the summer of 2009.

Vineland has been running into some obstacles over the last few months from the local community, but are also sighting the "overall festival traffic in the northeast and big bands touring through this area at the same time" for the postponement. Read the full article here.

The move seems to make sense since it's doubtful both fests could exist and compete in the same market on the same weekend. While we Northeasters have been waiting for a large scale music festival to come over way we didn't think we'd end up with two competing for our hard earned money.

Summer Tour Ticket Sales 101

Tom Petty is no idiot. Clearly he knows the value of what 90 million sets of eyes watching his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance could lead to - sold out shows across the country. So in a stroke of business genius Petty and The Heartbreakers have announced a full slate of summer shows - with Steve Winwood providing opening duties. Here's the kicker tickets go on-sale for all shows the day after his performance, making sure to cash in on the boomers remembering how many his songs they know. Nicely done.

Here's the dates, so far....

May 30- Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI
May 31- The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
June 03- Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
June 05- Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA
June 08- Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA
June 10- Post-Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
June 11- New England Dodge Music Center, Hartford, CT
June 13- TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
June 17- Madison Square Garden, New York, NY %
June 18- Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
June 21- Darien Lakes Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY
June 22- Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
June 25- Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
July 02- United Center, Chicago, IL
July 03- Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN
July 08- Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
July 09- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Atlanta, GA
July 11- Charlotte Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
July 12- Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, Raleigh, NC
July 15- BankAtlantic Center, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
July 16- St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL
July 19- TBD, Denver, CO
July 20- Quest Center Omaha, Omaha, NE
July 22- Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO
July 23- Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
August 07- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Maryland Heights, MO
August 09- MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB
August 11- Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary, AB
August 12- Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
August 15- The Gorge, George, WA
August 16- The Gorge, George, WA
August 20- Jobing.com Arena, Glendale, AZ
August 22- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA
August 23- TBD, San Francisco, CA
August 26- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Selma, TX
August 27- American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
August 29- Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Woodlands, TX

In other Petty news he recently finished recording an album with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch - here's a little taste of what they sounded like from the fantastic (and fantastically long) documentary Runnin' Down A Dream.....

New Bonnaroo Website

The new and fantastically improved Bonnaroo website is now up and running with some very cool new features - including their very own social networking community.

Here's some info....

When you roll into Manchester each summer, you join a vital community of music fans from all across the nation and around the world. Now you can do that year-round, right from home. Our new Bonnaroo Community lets you create your own profile and meet fellow citizens of Bonnaroo online.

You can upload photos, share audio, show off your best Bonnaroo videos and riff in your own blog. We even have a "Ride Finder" message board set up to help you get to and from the grounds. Broadcast your past Bonnaroo experiences or make plans for this year's festival starting right now here. We're waiting for you!

So head on over, start exploring and make sure to add me as your friend!!

Also for all thing Bonnaroo make sure to click on over to my Bonnaroo blog where I'll again be posting everything 'Roo related.

Bloggy Goodness

Here's what some other people have going on...

YSTS reviews the latest album from LA's The Radar Bros. Auditorium - who's sound has been compared to Meddle-era Pink Floyd - find out more here.

An Aquarium Drunkard goes "Off The Record" with MMJ's lead singer Jim James to discuss his hometown of Louisville, KY - check it out here.

How about a live download? The Owl & The Bear kick down this mid-'90s Ben Folds Five soundboard - give it a listen here.

Super Furry Animals played Maxwell's for the first time in nine years and Music Snobbery was there - check out his thoughts and pictures of the show here.

Finally The Good, The Bad & The Unknown picks their 11 Favorite Drive-By Trucker Songs - see what made the list here.

And as always check in with Hidden Track for their daily distractions and stop by Uncensored Interview while you're at it too.

Ernest Goes To Jail...Again

Not good news for those of you hoping that Ernie would return from exile to hit the road in the near future, as Jambands.com had this to report on the other Red Headed Stranger.....

The Jambands.com news staff is disheartened to share news from Albany TV Station WNYT regarding Trey Anastasio. The station is reporting that a Washington County's drug court ordered the guitarist to spend three days in jail last week. The NewsChannel 13 story explains, "A participant in drug court can be sanctioned and sent to jail for a number of reasons, including failing to show up for the program, showing up intoxicated or failing a court-ordered drug test." At present, Anastasio has not announced any touring or recording plans for the coming year.

Self-Promotion

Got the opportunity to do some writing for the fantastic site Baeble Music. Check out my review of Cat Power's latest Jukebox - read it here.

Mixology

For this week's edition of Mixology we once again head back to the covers, but this one is dedicated to one Robert Zimmerman. Enjoy.....

All Points West

Things are coming together quickly for the recently rumored, confirmed and now announced multi-day music festival that is set to take place at Liberty State Park. While the name Coachella East kicked to the curb pretty early, the fest now has an official name (and website) of it's very own - let's all welcome the All Points West Music & Arts Festival to our vernacular.


The fest is set to take place the very same weekend as the proposed Vineland Music & Arts Festival - August 8th - 10th. Common sense says that both of these fests will be competing for the same artists, so expect to see some overlap as the line ups come together.

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Cat Power - Jukebox

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark

The Whigs - Mission Control

Coachella Line Up

For those of you keeping score at home the full line up for the Coachella Fest was revealed earlier today and have to say isn't as hipster cool as in years past - didn't know the ironic t-shirt, tight jeans wearing set loved Jack Johnson and Pink Floyd - not to say this isn't a killer line up though. Here's the details....

April 25:
Jack Johnson, the Verve, Raconteurs, the Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan & Sara, Madness, the Swell Season, the National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does It Offend you, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture In Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Professor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, the Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Bang, Lucky I Am

April 26:
Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab For Cutie, Cafe Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars On Broadway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Carbon/Silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, Dredg, The Bird and the Bee, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony Club, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Uffie

April 27:
Roger Waters, Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, the Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, the Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fav, The Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy F*ck, Black Kids, Black Mountain, the Annuals, Kid Sister w/A-Trak, Man Man, Duffy, I'm from Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, the Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen

Tickets go on-sale this Friday at 10 AM - get them here.

Music Video Mondays

How about a healthy dose of the weird this morning, and who better to turn to for that then Of Montreal. There is a good chance you've already heard some of their music if you're a fan of the Awesome Blossom or investing your money in the stock market. But if you haven't seen them in action you're in for a treat, here they are with "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse"....

Wetlands Preserved

Wetlands Preserved - the documentary about the much missed rock club - is finally going to hit theaters for a limited run in New York in L.A. Starting March 14th you can catch the movie at Cinema Village and the two weeks later in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Grande 4-Plex - check out the trailer here.

Looking forward to finally getting to see it.

Bloggy Goodness

Here's what some other people have going on....

Rock Revival thinks you should be listening to the legendary Ozric Tentacles - find out why here.

The Song Of The Week over at The Late Greats is "God Here I Come" from The Weinlands - give it a listen here.

The Weight is count downing the days until their first birthday with some of their favorite cover tunes, day three of the countdown brings us Travis covering Joni Mitchell - head here.

Indie Surfer Blog gives us a history lesson on the guy who coined the phrase Anti-folk - a genre which is once again getting a lot of attention thanks to the Juno soundtrack - check it out here.

And speaking of said soundtrack, Passion of the Weiss offers up a list of things he'd rather do then listen to it for his review in LA Weekly - read it here.

Finally The Wreckroom offers up a Spoon show from last September for your downloading pleasure - head here.

And as always spot by Hidden Track for their daily distractions and check in with Uncensored Interview while you're at it too.

Mixology

Figured I'd jump on board with the new IMEEM phenomenon and start offering up some music for your listening pleasure - hopefully this will morph into the new Wednesday feature around these parts. So for the first installment of Mixology we'll go with cover songs, enjoy....

Better Than Noodling

Week two of my column for Hidden Track has been posted check it out - Better Than Noodling: Elvis Perkins.

This Is How Your Remind Me

The words Nickel and back have never appear together on this here blog, but since my friends over at The Post Show did this great Family Guy homage involving said band there is a first time for everything. Enjoy.....

Coachella East?

I'm not sure how much I trust a source like Perez Hilton when it comes to music news, but according to his site Coachella may be headed to the East Coast this summer - and somewhere in the New York/New Jersey area. Could this move be in response to the proposed Vineland Music Festival (who is running into some opposition)? Read about it here.

Update: According to this Billboard article Coachella producers AEG Live/Goldenvoice will in fact stage a summer festival at Liberty State Park (which has hosted a number of large scale concerts over the years - it's actually where I caught the first installment of the Furthur Fest)

Music Video Mondays

Forget about Brooklyn or Montreal or whatever is being touted as the new buzz city for music and set your sites on Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love may have some of the worst sports fans in the country, but they have been producing some great bands over the last few years. I've fluffed Dr. Dog over and over on this here blog, so now it's time to introduce you to the music of their label-mates The Teeth. They have a few fantastically bizarre videos, but let's go with "So Long" off of Carry The Wood...

Page's Playlist

Check out this great piece that ABC's Nightline of all places did with the Chairman of the Boards who talks about some of his influence and favorite tunes - give it a read and watch the video here.

In other Page news he will perform as part of the Big Easy Blowout: a Mardi Gras Benefit Celebration on January 25 at the Boulder Theatre and January 26 at Cervantes in Denver. Here's some info via Glide.....

All proceeds from the events will benefit the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and Tipitina's Foundation. In addition to Page, the musical lineup will feature Russell Batiste (Funky Meters, PBS), Papa Mali (Rhythm Council), Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians) and Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green, JFJO). The two shows will include Mardi Gras decor and activities including silent auctions, raffles, drink specials, food drive, New Orleans themed artwork and more. Euforquestra will support on both shows. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Boulder Theater and Cervantes online.

Saddle Creek Free Sampler

Impress your hipster friend by downloading this great free sampler from the folks over at Saddle Creek. Here's the tracklisting...

Art In Manila - I Thought I Was Free
Bright Eyes - I Must Belong Somewhere
Georgie James - Look Me Up
Maria Taylor - Clean Get Away
The Good Life - Keely Aimee
Two Gallants - Miss Meri

There is two ways to grab it - get it from the official download via BitTorrent here, or this much easier Sendspace link - here.

Bloggy Goodness

Here's what some other people have going on....

Runaway Dinosaur has a great weekly feature called Rock Art Wednesdays this week they talk with Billy Perkins who's designed some great pieces for the likes of Los Lobos, Widespread Panic, ZZ Top - check it out here.

Muzzle Of Bees introduces us to their best-kept secret in music Kelley Stoltz who's new album comes out next month on Sub Pop - find out more here.

How about some more new music? Cause=Time introduces us to the vintage psychedelic sounds of The Whitesundays - give them a listen here.

Kate Nash gets her third mention of the week here as Music Snobbery reviews her Bowery Ballroom show - find out how it went here.

2007 is barely over but, Oceans Don't Listen give us a list of some albums to look forward to in 2008, along with some MP3s to download - head here.

Finally ever wondered where the Bonnaroo Music Festival got the inspiration for its name from? It was from Dr. John's Desitively Bonnaroo album and Aquarium Drunkard fills you in on the album - head here.

And as always head on over to Hidden Track for their daily distractions and check in with Uncensored Interview while you're at it too.

Radiohead News??

Extra, extra Radiohead announces North American tour - sort of, maybe....Wait what it's just the cities that they plan on playing? And major American cities at that, that you could have predicted anyway. This is newsworthy?? Well for those of you interested here's the cities they'll be hitting in alphabetical order since they love being cryptic....

Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Fransisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C.

Head here for more info - but I'll warn you what you just read is about it. I guess when you give an album away for free you can do whatever you feel like.

Here's "House Of Cards" from their recent New Year's Eve webcast....

Better Than Noodling

Big news HFTB fan(s) (I'm optimistic it's fans), my pal Ace has given me the opportunity to do some writing for Hidden Track with what I hope to make into a weekly column over there called Better Than Noodling - check out the first installment here.

Team Love For The Felice Brothers

Of all the great bands that I discovered in 2007 the one that I'm probably the most excited about (well maybe besides Vampire Weekend) is The Felice Brothers - whom I've mentioned here before. Well it looks like former tour mate Connor Oberst really digs them too as he's signed them to his label Team Love and will put out their self-title album on March 4th. Here's some info....

"Team Love will release a collection of The Felice Brothers hottest new tunes combined with some select and hard to find tracks from the tour-only full length “The Adventures of the Felice Brothers Vol 1”.

The Felice Brothers self-titled American debut will be available at brick and mortar retailers and digital stores on March 4th. In April, an 180 gram double vinyl version complete with a free download card will hit stores."

The Felice Brothers play their first New York headlining show on February 1st at Mercury Lounge and then hit the road with the Drive-By Truckers.

UPDATE: The Merc show is official sold out, but they have just announced that they will headline at the Bowery Ballroom on April 12th.

I Love Tuesdays

So far only picked up this....

Kate Nash - Made Of Bricks

But after sampling a few tracks I may have to grab this up too....

Johnny Cash - The Johnny Cash Show: The Best Of Johnny Cash

The Ray Charles version of "Ring Of Fire" sounded killer.

One Night Only

It's been nice to see the Robinson brothers playing nice again. Seems like since their comeback a few years back The Black Crowes have been hitting the road pretty hard to reestablish themselves as a viable touring band and come this March they will release their first all-new studio album in seven years - Warpaint (which hits stores on 3/4).

To celebrate the Crowes will be offer up the album in its entirety live on a special run of shows called "One Night Only," here's the dates....

3/2 - Starland Ballroom - Sayerville, NJ
3/4 - The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza - New York, NY
3/5 - Sommerville Theatre - Boston, MA
3/7 - Park West - Chicago, IL
3/9 - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA
3/19 - The Fillmore - San Fransisco, CA
3/20 - The Avalon - Los Angeles, CA

Head here for more details and on-sale info.

The Crowes have also added Luther Dickinson (of NMAS) as a full-time member too, who joined the band in-studio for the new album. Here's a recent show for your downloading pleasure (via bt.etree)....

The Black Crowes - 2007-11-03 - The Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA

Music Video Mondays

Let's go with a little sassy, indie-pop from the much buzzed about Kate Nash today. Here she is with "Foundations"...



Her debut album Made Of Bricks hits stores tomorrow and the inevitable Lilly Allen comparisons to follow, which do have some merit - smart edgy pop tunes and the dresses - but musically quite different.

NARCS Vs. Vineland Music Fest

A group calling themselves NARCS - Neighbors Against Rock Concert Site (oh the irony of the choice in the 'ol acronym department) are trying to rally some support against this summer's Vineland Music Festival. According to an article in the Daily Journal the group is ready to mobilize and has voiced the following concerns....

"Many neighborhood residents share concerns about traffic, noise, potential crime associated with the festival and the environmental impact on the area."

The group insists that it isn't against the festival they just don't want it their backyard, and are suggesting an alternate site instead, as well as considering filing a lawsuit to stop it - read the full article here.

Totally Abandoned

You think you were at a great New Year's Eve show? I beg to differ after reading this report from NME on a secret gig involving some of classic rocks heaviest hitters (via NME).....

Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend and Ringo Starr teamed up to play a New Year’s Eve gig together in Surrey on.

According to The Independent, the trio sold tickets to the gig, at an unnamed location, for under £50 each, with proceeds going to charity.

A source told the newspaper that the band were called Totally Abandoned for the night, and the three legends performed “mainly old classics”.

So just how did this gig stay a secret? And how did it take three days to finally get some press??

I don't really have time to think about that after seeing this post on The Who's official website, about what seemingly points to the re-teaming of Pete and Slowhand at MSG in February.....


"Pete Townshend to perform at a major gig in New York? After his performance at an annual village gig laid on by pal Eric Clapton for New Year's Eve, the rumour's now going around that Who guitarist Pete Townshend is going to be performing at "a much larger gig" in New York sometime before March. No further details are available."

If I wasn't excited enough for that gig, this puts it well over the top.

Bloggy Goodness

Here's what some other people have going on, I swear new content from me soon....

I feel like pimping Bob yet again to make sure you realize that My Blog Is Poop is in fact back - check out his Top Ten albums of '07 - head here.

Earvolution reviews U-Melt's late night New Year's gig at the Highline, which ended sometime around 6 AM - this might have contributed to their rather lackluster set opening for TLG the other night - check it out here.

Live Music Blog unveils a new feature called Drymount - the inaugural post looks back at the best rock posters of 2007 - find out what made the cut here.

Bag of Songs introduces us to the music of The Motion Stick - describing their sound as a blend of '60s garage rock and '80s New Wave. Intrigued? Head here.

Ever heard of The Interpreters? Me neither, but Philadelphia Freedom keys us into this lost band who was at the center of a major label bidding war in the '90s - see what the fuss was about here.

Finally Pop Tarts Sucked Toasted declares their love for The Clash's self-titled album - click here.

And as always head on over to Hidden Track for their daily distractions and also check in Uncensored Interview while you're at it too.

Don't Call It A Comeback

I'm still shaking off the binge drinking of the last week and a half, so I've got nothing today - but you're in luck as 2008 is looking to be a good one already with the triumphant return of My Blog Is Poop.

So stop over and show Bob some love - even though he hated Juno.

Now if we can only coax a certain band out of retirement 2008 will really be a great year.