'Roo

Mark your calanders now kids Bonnaroo numero cinco will be the weekend of June 16th - 18th. Looking forward to the artist annoucement which will be coming in the in the next few weeks. For now enjoy some great music from last year....


Brazilian Girls - 2005-06-11 - The Other Tent - Bonnaroo - Manchester, tn
Joss Stone 2005-06-11 Which Stage
Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
The Secret Machines Bonnaroo 2005-06-11 Manchester, TN
Modest Mouse 2005-06-12 Bonnaroo What Stage Manchester, TN
The Word - 2005-06-12 - Bonnaroo -Manchester, TN
Drive By Truckers - 2005-06-10 -That Tent, Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN
Benevento Russo Duo With Mike Gordon - 2005-06-10 - Bonnaroo - Manchester TN 6/10/05
Jurassic 5 - 2005-06-10 - Bonnaroo - Which Stage - Manchester, TN

Enjoy!!!

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Phish -Live At Madison Square Garden New Years Eve 1995
Ryan Adams - 29

Bad Idea

On the heels of the announcement of Dylan hosting his own show for XM comes this slightly scary story from Rolling Stone....

Bob Dylan Songs Inspire Musical

This is just wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin - let's hope that this never makes it to Broadway. Haven't people learned already from such flops as the Lennon and Beach Boys musicals that this is just not a good idea ever.

Breakfast Of Champions

As I went to bed last night I was about 1/3 of the way done downloading the SerialPod show from Saturday night's XMas Jam. So when I woke up this morning I was treated to a heaping serving of the Pod - I seriously suggest grabbing this show. There is some jawdropping stuff here, but I'll let everyone enjoy it on their own.


Also thanks to Justin Kreutzmann for the pic. Check out his great blog as well - Rock And Reel

You can grab the show here...

SerialPod - 2005-12-17 - 17th Annual Christmas Jam - Asheville Civic Center -Asheville, NC

And here's their debut from the night before at the Pre-Jam show....

SerialPod - 2005-12-16 Pre-Jam Party - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC

Enjoy!!!!

SerialPod

Apparently the Trey/Cactus/Kreutzmann trio has a name and will from this day forward be known at SerialPod. Here's the setlists from the last two nights....

December 17, 2005
Warren Haynes Xmas Jam, Asheville, NC
*Cumberland Blues
Chalkdust Torture
On a Plain
^Wave The Ocean
Sweet Thing %
**Waves
**Angel #
**Loose Lucy

^ Nirvana cover % Van Morrison cover ** with Ivan Neville on keys # Jimi Hendrix cover

December 16, 2005 Asheville, NC
Wave The Ocean >
On Your Way Down*^
Iko Iko*^
Sugaree&

*with Ivan Neville on keys^Warren Haynes on guitar&Danny Louis on keys

Hopefully some downloads will be up soon, pretty curious to hear how some of this stuff sounded.

Phall Tour '06??

So this has been floating around the internets over the last couple of days....

Tentative Phish Tour Dates

I wouldn't get too excited though. First off whoever put this together should have consulted spell check before trying to pass this off they spelt Worcester wrong - it doesn't have an 'h' there buddy. Second off come on anyone with a scanner and some letterhead can easily do something like this. In fact when I worked on an MTV show called High School Stories: Scandals, Pranks & Controversies we did a story on this similar prank involving a fake letter....

In June 2000, two seniors made more than 600 copies of the school's master key and mailed it to other students along with a bogus letter from the principal. The school spent $100,000 to change all its locks and threatened to call the F.B.I. That's when the students confessed. They were fined $1,250, required to do 200 hours of public service and denied the right to take part in graduation ceremonies.

Pretty clever huh.

Door #3

So the folks over at Slack LaLane are reporting that Trey Band will now be the support act for the Black Crowes on NYE. Apparently the announcement will be coming later today - hopefully someone confirmed this with Ernest prior to going public with it.


While checking out the Crowes website the other day came across this post about ticket exchanges for the NYE - seems like sales might not be so hot. I know they released some great seats a few weeks back.

Phebruary

Well as Mr. Lesh promised after skipping NYC on his recent tour that he's be back in 2006 he wasn't lying - he's not only going to be back he might as well rent an apartment while he's here. Phil and Friends will be playing a total of eight nights in NYC - February 10-12, 14-15 at the Beacon Theater & 17-19 at the Hammerstein Ballroom (I'm sure this will become 10 shows when it's all said and done).

The tour is being dubbed 'Hell I Still Love New York' - so judging by the name my bet is on Ryan Adams being involved. Though you have to wonder what their relationship is like now after the whole Vegoose debacle of him backing out at the last minute. Anyway despite the fact that I've seen my share of mediocre P&F shows (I even walked out of one once) I've definitely been digging the more roots-y, song based shows he's been doing over the last year - no more mindless noodling jams that don't go anywhere.

Tickets through Phil's online tickets start this Friday or if you want to kick it old school mail order is also Friday as well.

Here's a couple of download's from his most recent tour to kept you entertained till then....

2005-11-26 Chicago Theatre -Chicago, Il
2005-12-08 House of Blues - Atlantic City, NJ
2005-11-23 NJPAC - Newark, NJ

Been Caught Stealin'

Once again I'm stealing stuff from the peeps over at Slack LaLane with these two great links - here's their descriptions of them....

The first is called Pandora, created by the Music Genome Project, and it basically creates a virtual radio station based around your inputted preferences. You can tell Pandora what songs you like, what songs you don't, who your favorite artists are, and like a musical Jewish mother, it'll try to introduce you to as many new bands and tunes as possible.

The second is Music-Map, which allows you to input an artist and find out to which other bands people who like that band also listen. It sounds more confusing than it really is, so just go on over there and see what the hell I'm talking about.

Thanks guys!!!!

The Country Music Station Plays Soft

I don't currently own or subscribe to satellite radio yet. If I did I think I would now have a tough time choosing between Siruis and XM. I'm extremely curious to see what Stern is going to do now that he won't have the FCC on his ass anymore - since from what I've heard he's pretty much been mailing it in for the last year. Today though XM announced a major addition to their line-up of DJ Zimmy who will be on starting in March 2006.


According to XM, 'Dylan will offer regular commentary on music and other topics, host and interview special guests including other artists and will take emails from XM subscribers'. I'm going to have to find someone that has XM by then so I can take a listen to this - should be interesting. This is just another example of how much commercial radio sucks - though I would think most everyone knows that by now.

Hipster Holiday Gifts

Looking for the perfect gift for the hipster music fan in your life well look no further then The Modern Age's 2005 Hipster Gift Guide.

You can also impress your music snob friends at your holiday party by downloading these two indie-rock holiday song compilations from the infinite PET - featuring the likes of Sufjan Stevens, The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo, and Death Cab for Cutie. Grab Volume 1 and Volume 2, apparently Vol. 3 is on it's way too.

Let The Year End Lists Begin

Figured I'd give a plug to the fine folks over at Glide Magazine - since I do contribute to the site. They recently posted their Top 20 Albums of the Year - enjoy.

moe.'s tavern

So the moe. acoustic trio will be playing Coda once again this Sunday night. Get your tickets here. Here's their first two shows....

2005-11-28 Coda - New York, NY
2005-12-04 Coda - New York, NY

If I'm around Sunday I might try and hit this.

Also for those of you headed to see The Black Crowes on NYE while I was bummed to see that My Morning Jacket had to pull out of the show because of complications from lead singer's Jim James pneumonia - they swapped in another killer band in their place by adding The Secret Machines. They will finally be playing a room big enough for their sound and kick-ass light show. Here's a review of their recent NYC gig at Webster Hall (via Live Music Blog).

For those of you out there that haven't seen TSM yet take a listen to their late-night set from Bonnaroo which features their sludgy version of Dylan's Girl From The North Country....

2005-06-11 Bonnaroo - Manchester, TN

How To Create A Hip Year's Best Albums List

One more post for today - yeah I know four in one day, big day for me. As the year winds down we will soon be subjected to everyone's Top 10 albums of the year list. Well my friend over at My Blog Is Poop has some advice for creating yours.

Here's a couple of examples from his post....

Make sure to include an album that just came out. This will lead people to believe that you got an advanced copy months ago and had plenty of time to get into it. But WARNING- BE CAREFUL- make sure it's not something that will become popular or produce a radio-friendly single in the next couple of months. Nothing will kill your indie cred than including the next Killers on your next Hip List.

Before you begin, make sure you pre-empt your list by saying/blogging/writing in your journal that there weren't many great albums out this year and that music sucks in general right now. If you don't, people will assume that you derive pleasure out of making lists about your favorite things. And that's soooo unhip.

Read on here...

How To Make A Hip End of the Year 'Best Albums' List

Good stuff.

Linkage

Here's a couple links to keep you busy today...

Looks like the CBGB saga is finally over. The club plans to close it's doors on Halloween of next year - though owner Hilly Kristal is looking into some new spaces on the LES to reopen.

Here's an interesting one from the Washington Post on indie bands selling their music to be used on tv shows, commercials, etc.

Also for anyone that cares the Grammy nominations came out today - but seriously does anyone really get excited for about this??? Here's the list of nominees - you know there is problem when Mariah Carey gets the most nods.

Self-Promotion

Here's my latest review for Glide Magazine.....

Stubbs The Zombie Soundtrack

25 Years Ago Today

Buy, Play, Trade, Repeat

Here's an interesting Op-Ed piece from the NY Times today about cd copy protection from the frontman for the band OK Go....

Buy, Play, Trade, Repeat

He brings up some great points in the piece. Enjoy.

Phishful Dead Trio

As if the line-up for the Warren Haynes X-Mas Jam wasn't great enough it's just gotten a bit cooler with the addition of Mr. Bill Kreutzman who will join the previous announced duo of Big Red & Cactus to form a trio for the night.


In honor of the announcement check out Slack LaLane for their post of Phish's version of Terrapin Station from 8/9/98 Virginia Beach Ampitheatre.

I Love Tuesdays

Here is the lone purchase for the week....

Ray LaMontagne - Live At Bonnaroo 2005 EP

I previously wrote about this guy here (actually as part of a Bonnaroo preview) for Jambands.com.

Bragging

Just wanted to brag a little bit about my alma mater - The George Washington University's men's basketball team who came up with the win tonight against number #22 Maryland at the BB&T Classic. This was a big win for the Colonials who came into the game ranked #19 in the AP and #20 in the Coaches Poll. This was certainly the toughest game GW has had this season(they've played a pretty soft schedule going into this game), but they proved they belong in the Top 25. There next big test comes at the end of this month when they play at N.C. State .

Juicy Juice

Through the magic of the internet (and someone getting an advance of the album) you can download The Strokes new album here - via Done Waiting (it's due out on January 3rd - so be the first cool kid on your block listening to it a good month before it hits the streets).

You can also watch their somewhat controversial new video here - featuring indie-rock's favorite comedian David Cross. You can read about the controversy here - via The Modern Age

Picture Pages, Picture Pages, Open Up Your Picture Pages....

Saw this the other day - luckily the peeps over at Slack Lalane did too (because I honestly forgot where I found it, thanks guys). There are 75 bands represented, see if you can find them all...

When I first saw that picture it instantly made me think of this classic dormroom poster....

Have fun!!!

The Chairman of the Boards

Looks like Mr. Page McConnell is coming out of hiding again to perform with his old pal and Vida Blue bandmate Russell Batiste at the Lion's Den on December 14th, which is being billed as Russell Batiste & Friends: A New Orleans Musicians Benefit. Here's the line-up for the show....

A New Orleans Musician Benefit Russell Batiste and Friends 9pm
David Russell Batiste Sr.Adam Deitch (Lettuce)Dave Dreiwitz (Ween)Gordon Jones (DJ Williams Projekt)Chris Jacobs (The Bridge)w/ a special appearance by Page McConnell (Phish) Other special guests to be announced!

It's $20 and I'm sure it'll be well worth the admission for a great cause.

Here's a few downloads featuring Batiste....

The Meters - 1991-12-7 - Mensa, Germany
Ratdog - 2002-03-30 House of Blues - New Orleans, LA
Papa Grow Funk - 2002-05-30 BB King's - NYC, NY
Russell Batiste/Chris Jacobs/Stanley Perkins - 2004-12-31 - The Funk Box - Baltimore, MD

Also if you're in NYC and looking for something to do on Sunday night Al, Chuck & Rob (of moe.) are doing another acoustic trio performance at Coda - guess they're making up for not coming through NYC as much as they used to.

Hippie Spring Break

Seems like the folks that put together the Langerado festival have taken a page straight out of the Superfly playbook as they unveiled the initial line-up for their fest. Take a look....

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Wilco, The Meters, The Black Crowes, The Flaming Lips, The Disco Biscuits, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Keller Williams, The Secret Machines, Burning Spear, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, RJD2, Kid Koala, Steel Pulse, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Umphrey's McGee, Drive-By Truckers, Lyrics Born, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, MOFRO, Slightly Stoopid, Brazilian Girls, Rose Hill Drive, Brothers Past and Pnuma Trio.

This is quite the impressive line-up. Glad to see the people are finally realizing the jamband fans are some of the most open minded folks out there who don't just listen to bootlegs of Phish shows.

Heard it's a great time and a small fest to boot - only 15,000 tickets being sold. So grab you're tickets when the go on sale this weekend.

Here's a few shows from previous years....

Umphrey's McGee - 2005-03-12
Keller Williams - 2005-03-13 - Sawgrass Stage
STS9 - 2004-03-06

Dead Soundboards

Just wanted to weigh in on the whole Archive.org /Dead issue, this has become quite the hot topic among live music fans. You know the story is big when the New York Times is even covering it. This whole thing really seems to stand against what the Dead as an organization has always been about. Deadheads are probably the most loyal fans in all of music and to say all of a sudden 'Yes it's great to trade show, but we no longer want this website to make soundboard recordings available to you to download,' just doesn't make any sense to me. Most of these recording have been available for years and years, just now you have instint access to them instead of getting a 15th generation cassette of a soundboard in the mail.

This whole thing is certainly doesn't seemed to be aimed at the older Deadheads. They are the ones that shell out the money for the Dick's Picks and the other archive releases. I think they're going after the kids instead who probably don't have the money to buy up every release the organization puts out and are basically telling them if you want the good shit you're going to have to ante up. Seems like they're just getting greedy here. Don't get me wrong I think it's great they have they're own digital download series. I for one not only download shows, but I buy a good amount of the stuff the put out in the stores and on their website. It's just they seem to be approaching this all wrong. You're going to have fans that will only seek out the free stuff, but I would place a healthy wager on the fact that the majority of their fans are spending money on the official stuff.

Both Phil Lesh and David Gans (host of the Grateful Dead Hour) expressed they're dismay with the whole issue. You can read Phil's reaction at his website http://phillesh.com

As of right now it's being reported that only audience recording will be made available, instead of the initial streaming only policy. You'll have to find your soundboards somwhere else (namely bt.etree who's been flooded with them in recent days - grab them while you can).

Garcia Auction

Every want to own Jerry Garcia's frig? Well now you can, the Sophia Foundation is currently auctioning off some interesting items from Jerry's last home including the dishwasher, bathtub and even the toliet. All the money is going to a good cause.

Link Of The Day/I Love Tuesdays

Just want to thank the fine folks over at Slack LaLane for this great link from an Ebay auction.....

Trey's High School Yearbook

Nothing out this week worth purchasing, but I'm going to take this opportunity to make a recommendation....

Nada Surf - Let Go

My roommate turned me on to this cd and I have thus burned it for a bunch of other people who've also fell in love with this album of perfect wintry pop songs. Go pick it up.

Weekend Wrap Up

Thanksgiving weekend in the New York City area can't be beat if you're a music fan. Over the course of four days I had the opportunity to catch four different bands, at four different venues. I won't bore you all with the details of the shows, but I do have a new band that I've now become a fan of - Scarecrow Collection. I don't really get excited about too many of the 'newer' jambands out there, but after catching moe. at Roseland on Friday night I headed down to the Knit to catch SC - with the promise that my man Lo Faber(formerly of God Street Wine - a band I used to really dig) would be sitting in (unfortunately had to miss out on his solo acoustic set earlier in the night). There was maybe about 30 or so people there, but man was there a lot of energy in the room. These guys play what I would call organic-jamrock - it falls somewhere in the realm of the Black Crowes , ekoostik hookah and Tea Leaf Green - and Lo did sit in for three songs which included the classic GSW song 'Get On The Train'.

Here's a couple SC shows to check out (didn't see anyone taping Friday night)....

2005-08-15 The Brass Lantern - Reading, PA
2005-10-07 Revolution Hall - Troy, NY

And here's moe.'s weekend run....

2005-11-25 Roseland Ballroom - NYC, NY
2005-11-26 Roseland Ballroom - NYC, NY

Unfortunately was too tired to catch the moe. acoustic show tonight at Coda, but looking forward to the download tomorrow. Also for all you GSW fans out there Lo will be playing the Knit with his band on Friday, December 16th - see you there!!!

You Can Get Everything You Want....

Not sure if they do this all around the country, but in the New York City area every Thanksgiving on the classic rock radio station at noon they play Arlo Guthrie's classic social/political anthem 'Alice's Restaurant Massacre'. It's become a tradition that me and my dad listen to it each year. We don't really share much as far as music goes so it's nice that we do this and it's something that I look foward to as well.


So in the spirit of Thanksgiving here's a download from this summer. It's the 40th anniversary of the song this year too. Enjoy all 18 plus minutes of it....

Arlo Guthrie - June 15, 2005 Hudson RiverFest - Nelson A. Rockefeller Park

I Love Tuesdays....Wednesday Edition

Didn't pick up anything in the stores yesterday, but got sent a couple of CDs to review for Glide. Here's what I got....

The Go! Team -Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Various Artists - Stubbs The Zombie (The Soundtrack)

Going to see Reid Genauer & The Assembly of Dust out at Mexicali Blues Cafe tonight - really looking forward to it - haven't seen him in ages and seems like a great way to start off the long weekend of music and eating.

Enjoy Thanksgiving!!!

Lost Weekend

Been out of commission for the last few days because I had my brother's wedding this weekend so unfortunately had to miss out on all the great music that was invading the city. So while I missed out on Huey Lewis sitting in with Umphrey's on consecutive nights, Tea Leaf Green's NYC coming out weekend, Ryan Adams ignoring his audience and the drunken crowd at NMAS - I will make up for though as Thanksgiving weekend in NYC is always jammed packed with some great shows.

You can grab some of this weekend's shows here....

Umphrey's McGee 2005-11-18 Irving Plaza
Umphrey's McGee 2005-11-19 Irving Plaza
Tea Leaf Green 2005-11-19 Coda

I'll hopefully have a better post up tomorrow. Enjoy the music.

Live/Dead

I'm not really into the whole tribute band thing. I really don't understand how anyone can go see a band like Ants Marching or Phix when you can go see other bands play original music - or see the actual band itself. With that being said I do have a soft spot for Dead cover bands - yes I know it's a double standard, but sometimes I just have to hear some live Dead. So last night I had opportunity to catch Dark Star Orchestra at Irving Plaza. This is the second time I've seen them and damn did they play an rockin' show - 9/8/73 from the Nassau coliseum which include a ton of my favorite tunes.

A lot has already been written about the DSO experience, so I won't really bore you with that. But yes they do what they do and they do it well - it's almost a bit eerie how much they sound like the Dead. I only had the opportunity to see the Grateful Dead three times, but have since seen all the subsequent bands on numerous occasions - Ratdog (who I have a bit of a soft spot for), Phil & Friends, The Other Ones, The Dead. While I've really enjoyed seeing these bands it's nothing like hearing those songs played they way they're supposed to sound - not Bobby singing 'Stella Blue' or Phil doing 'Scarlet Begonias'. So do yourself a favor if your a Dead fan and have the opportunity to see DSO go you won't be disappointed.

Here's last night's setlist....

09-08-73 Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y. (Sat)
1: Bertha, Me & My Uncle, Sugaree, BIODTL, Tennessee Jed, L. L. Rain, B. E. Women, Jack Straw, Row Jimmy, WRS Prelude> WRS Part 1> Let It Grow, Eyes> China Doll
2: Greatest, Ramble On, Big River, Let Me Sing, China Cat> I Know You Rider, El Paso, He's Gone> Truckin> NFA> GDTRFB> NFA
E: Stella Blue> Saturday Night

Download the original show here....

1973-09-08 Nassau Coliseum

Self Promotion

Here's my latest review for Glide Magazine....

Variable Unit - Mayhemystics Outbreak

The Circle Of Life

So I'm watching the UCLA/New Mexico State Preseason NIT game last night when the announcers mention that the coach of NMS is Reggie Theus. Well that got the old synapses firing when I say to myself 'Hey didn't Reggie Theus play a basketball coach on a Saved By The Bell type Saturday morning show for NBC called Hang Time? Wait a minute he did!'


Don't know why I found this to be funny. Maybe because I remember that show being so damn cheesy or the fact the during his interview to be their coach he might have brought up the fact that his prior coaching experience was playing one on TV where he had a girl play on a boy's basketball team. Didn't this high school ever hear of Title IX? (Well that's a story for another time I guess). Clearly I watch too much television.

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Wilco - Kicking Television - Live In Chicago
Bright Eyes - Motion Sickness: Live Recordings

The Kids Are Alright

Saw this article in the Washington Post today and thought it was a pretty interesting read. A bunch of high school kids have started a Classic Rock Appreciation Society as an after school club. Good to see the kids getting schooled in the basics, classic rock was a big part of my high school years. The article though does mention their love for the band Chicago - I guess I'll let that slide.

The writer's argument that MTV is still at the forefront of determining what music kids listen to might be a bit off. Not sure if he has tuned into the channel over the last five or so years - if you want to see a music videos now a days you'll have to tune if from 5 AM till 11 AM.

And The Winner Is....

Well I guess it's time for me to finally chime in about MLB's postseason awards on the heels of today's announcement of the ARod as the AL MVP. Seems that everyone outside of New York had already handed the award over to Big Papi before the season was over - he ended up finishing second in the race. Yes ARod stunk it up in the ALDS, but as all diehard baseball fans know the award is voted on before the playoff start. So that aside this guy did have a monster season and became the first Yankee to win the award since Donnie Baseball did it in 1985 - wow can't believe that was twenty years ago.

Check out these numbers....


G: 162
AB: 605
R: 124
H: 194
2B:29
3B: 1
HR: 48
RBI: 130
SB: 21
BA: .321
OBP: .421
SLG: .610


Seems like the bottom line in the voting was that ARod played the field. I won't knock Ortiz he had a hell of a season and had some huge hits down the stretch for the Sox, but he really only plays half the game being a DH while Alex played Gold Glove caliber defense.

Yes I definitely did my fair share of knocking ARod this season for getting a lot of meaningless hits that seem to pad his stats and lack of clutch hits at times, but down the stretch he helped carry this team to the AL East title.

While both Mo and Cano were robbed of the CY Young and Rookie of the Year awards respectively it's great to see Alex's season being validated.

Three Quarter Way There

It's Sunday night and I'm just killing time till The Simpsons/Family Guy/American Dad so figured I'd post about what happened at the Trey show in Utica on Friday night. All I need to say is check out the picture....

You can read all about it over at Live Music Blog ....

Halfway There Becomes Three Quarters

They got some great stuff up from the show including some video.

You can also download here....

2005-11-11 - Utica Memorial Auditorium - Utica, NY

R.I.P. Tribeca Rock

In the ongoing gentrification of Lower Manhatten the Tribeca Rock Club will be closing it's doors next month to make way for a new building of luxury condos. I can't say I will really miss the place, I was probably there less then ten times in its short existence. I did though see a few killer shows there. I was previledged enough to be there the night that Trey sat in with the Seth Yacovone Band for a solid two hours or so with maybe less then 100 people there. I also saw the OM Trio do a post-Phish New Year's show as well as their farewell show there too. So while I certainly won't be that bummed to see it go, it's just one less venue for smaller bands to play. Maybe the Lion's Den will pick up the slack - I'm sure they could use the business and maybe avoid booking so many tribute bands.

So in honor of the Tribeca Rock Club here's a few of shows to check out....

OM Trio Farewell Show - 2004-12-09
Rana - 2004-04-21
Garaj Mahal - 2004-03-05

Be sure to check their schedule, I'm sure they'll be some special farewell shows to check out.

Craigslist Rules!!!

A few weeks ago I stood in line for four hours in hopes of scoring tickets to one or both of the Jeff Tweedy shows at Tribeca Performing Arts Center and all I walked away with was tickets to two shows that I really didn't care to much about and sore legs. But through the miracle of Craigslist I found someone that was willing to part ways with one of their tickets for two tickets to see Buddy Guy - which I'm sure will be a great show (though one has to wonder how John Mayer left him alone long enough to schedule his own dates). Picking up the ticket tonight and I'll probably have a perma-grin till then - can't wait!!!

From what I've read the shows have been great so far, with Tweedy digging deep into his catalog playing stuff from the various groups he's be in - Uncle Tupelo, Loose Fur, Golden Smog and of course Wilco. You can download all things Wilco here - bt.viachicago.org

Here's a couple shows off the tour so far....

2005-11-08 Michigan Theater - Ann Arbor, MI
2005-11-05 Orpheum Theater - Madison, WI

Don't Think Twice It's Alright

So this email showed up in my inbox yesterday.....

From: "Concerts Tonight"
To: "List Member"
Subject: ZZ Top Special Offer!
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 13:20:23 -0800

A pair of free tickets from concertstonight.com!!
Thank you for helping to make this falls concert season a tremendous
success. As a special thank you, you are part of a limited group that
are being offered a pair of tickets to ZZ Top's opening night
performance at the Beacon Theatre this Thursday (Nov 10) at 8pm.

This is ZZ Top's first New York City appearance in 10 years, and you
can be there to groove with the lil 'ol band from Texas as they
play their classics.

The first 50 people to respond by 2pm on Thursday (Nov 10) will have
two tickets waiting for them at the Beacon this Thursday. If you would
like to attend, please send an email to concertstonight@metro-talent.com
with you name and email address. You will receive a email to confirm
your tickets.

For more concert info visit www.concertstonight.com.

So I figured, with a bit of skepticism, what the hell I'll respond they already have my email address and no one was offering to wire millions of dollars into my bank account. A couple of hours later I get an email back saying two tickets will be waiting for me at the box office. So I'm going to see ZZ Top tonight - and you know what it'll probably be fun they don't have an album to promote, so no new material and the Beacon Theater is actually a cool place to see a band like that and more importantly it's free!

I will admit this isn't the first time I've seen them - that happened back in 1994, back in the golden age of Classic Rock radio when I was a senior in high school and saw them play at the Garden.

I'm not going to sit and defend everything they've done or pretend that I'm a huge fan, but go out and pick yourself up a copy of Tres Hombres it's a damn good album. Plus all you Phish fans out there let's not forgot that the boys used to cover not one, but two of their songs.

Here's a couple of downloads from Dimeadozen.org one from back in '94 and one off of this tour....

1994-05-24 Hartford, CT
2005-10-20 Ruth Eckerd Hall - Clearwater, Florida

Two Headed Monster

As if the The Sports Guy wasn't good enough, ESPN.com's Page 2 has now added the genius of Chuck Klosterman - who will contribute a column once a month to the site - and I couldn't be more excited (well I did score a ticket to see Jeff Tweedy next week so I'm slightly more excited about that).

If you're not familiar with Chuck go out and pick up a copy of Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puff or Killing Yourself To Live or go and read his monthly column in Spin Magazine and you'll realize why I'm so excited about this.

Here's an brief excerpt from his new column, just to prove my point....

"I am an apolitical person. Absolutely nobody believes me when I say that, but it's true. Every conservative person I know thinks I'm mixing Noam Chomsky's personal Kool-Aid, and every liberal I know seems to assume I want to shampoo Ann Coulter's hair while watching outtakes from "The Passion of the Christ." I have no idea how this happened. For example, I don't have an opinion on abortion. I really, truly do not. You want to have an abortion? Fine; take my car keys, You think abortion is murder? Well, you're probably right. Who knows? Either way, it doesn't have anything to do with me. Do I think George W. Bush is the worst president of my lifetime? Well, of course I do -- but that's not because he's a Republican. It's because he somehow (a) got into Yale, yet (b) claims "the jury is still out" on the theory of evolution."

Halfway There

Well as I stuck to my convictions and didn't go see Trey last night at Roseland I missed out on him debuting his 'new' band during the encore that he dubbed 'Halfway There'......

Yes I'm a bit bummed I missed out on seeing Page (oh how I miss him), but then again if Trey is that jazzed about his new record and band why is he consistently doing Phish tunes? In my opinion that's what people are going to his shows expecting to hear - as well as a sit in by his former bandmates. I doubt anyone is really that excited to see 'Sweet Dreams Melinda' or 'Love is Freedom'.

Anyways you can read about it over at Slack LaLane ....

Play It Leo

And here....

Jambands.com News

Oh John Medeski also sat in during the 2nd encore for 'First Tube' too. I guess the moral of the story is next time I'll think twice about missing Big Red in NYC. I will grab this when it's up for download later today.

I Love Tuesdays

Really nothing that great came out this week, but I did pick this up.....

Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff

I know it's been out for awhile, but looking foward to giving it a spin.

Rockin' The Suburbs (Well Radio City, With A Lot Of Suburban Kids In The Audience)

So going to see Ben Folds tonight. Saw him back in the spring at Town Hall here in NYC and it was great show, he's a lot of fun to see live. He covers Dr. Dre's 'Bitches Ain't Shit' and does it as a ballad - come on that takes some balls. To be honest though the only reason I'm going to tonight is because I got offered a free ticket and love seeing shows at Radio City. He has yet to disappoint me live so I'm going in with a good attitude - despite the feeling it might be the same show I already saw.


Bt.etree has got some of his shows up for download....

8/10/2005 Ravinia Festival - Highland Park, IL
8/24/2005 Mountain Winery - Saratoga, CA

Check it out, he does a good job at mixing in classic Ben Folds Five songs with the newer stuff, and he's got some funny stories as well. Enjoy!!

Vegoose Torrents

A bunch of music from Vegoose is starting to roll in - from both the festival grounds and late night shows. You can download a bunch of stuff over at Bt.Etree.org and Live Music Blog Vegoose Torrents ...


Lots of great non-jambads stuff up already including Arcade Fire , The Decemberists , Devendra Banhart , Beck

And the also have some of the usual suspects up too....
Gov't Mule , Widespread Panic , Sound Tribe Sector 9 , Umprhey's McGee

Enjoy!!!!

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Trey Anastasio - Shine

Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Self Promotion

Here's my review of Holopaw's new album Quit +/or Fight for Glide Magzine .....

Quit +/or Fight Review

#24!!!

Anyone that knows me can attest to the fact that I'm not the biggest pro football fan. Yes I do follow it and watch the games and do fantasy football, but truthfully I don't get pissed off if the Giants lose - I just don't. So now that baseball is over I'm just biding my time till the college hoops season starts. Well last week ESPN/USA Today posted their first pre-season poll and I was ecstatic to see my GW Colonials ranked at #24 . I figured we'd be somewhere near the Top 25 to start the season considering we're returning four of five starters from a team that won the A10 tournament and made the NCAA's for the first time since '99.

This team has talent and experience - two dangerous things when you talk about college basketball. Plus we've also got one of the most exciting players in all of college basketball with Pops Mensah-Bonsu . If you haven't seen this kid play he may be one of the best finishers out there, and seems from the reports from the Chicago camp he's developed more of a post game. This is going to be an exciting season.

More on the Colonials as the season gets closer.

Play It Leo

Going to see Mike Gordon & Leo Kottke tomorrow night at Irving Plaza. Saw them a few years back at Bowery and it was a pretty enjoyable show. Very mellow and the audience was pretty respectful of the fact that it was just two guys playing quiet music. You kind of know what you're getting yourself into with a show like this, but that's not a bad thing. I'd rather give Cactus my money then Trey. I'm taking a stand and not caving in to see him at Roseland when he's here in a week or so. I've heard the new album and have to say it was quite underwhelming. Wish he would stop trying to be Dave Matthews - anyways enough about him.

I Love Tuesdays....Wednesday Edition

Didn't buy anything in the stores yesterday, but had order this.....

Jerry Garcia - Garcia Plays Dylan

which came in the mail today. Good stuff can't wait to give it a spin.

Cream of the Crop

Going to see Cream tonight at the Garden - can't wait. From all reports I heard last night was great. Hopefully with one night under their belts they'll be a bit more comfortable and rock the house. Should be a great time. I've avoided seeing Clapton over the past decade or so, he seemed to have become a greatest hits touring package for awhile with some blues tours sprinkled about. This should really be something special and different though - at least that's what I'm hoping for. I think everyone in attendence at these shows are hoping that we can once again start spray painting 'Clapton is God'.

I Love Tuesdays...Burned Edition

Well there was really nothing worth purchasing this week, but a friend hooked me up with some music last night. Here's what I got.....

Tortoise - It's All Around You
Seu Jorge - Cru
Orchestra Baobab - Specialists In All Styles
Garaj Mahal - Blueberry Cave
The Perceptionists - Black Dialouge


Going to see My Morning Jacket tonight at Webster Hall - can't wait, should be a great show.

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the cd purchases for the week.....

Dios (Malo) - Dios (Malo)
Danger Doom - The Mouse And The Mask

Going Back To Cali

So it all comes down to tonight a Game 1 rematch of Moose vs. Colon. Hopefully the Yanks can repeated what they did a little less then a week ago in Cali and send us to the ALCS. Yanks need to get their bats to wake up a bit, they managed to only get four hits the entire game and two that barely left the infield last night. Come on guys we were second in the league in home runs, lets get some balls to leave the yard tonight. Both Chacon and Lackey pitched brilliantly last night, but I think that the Angels have been stretching Sheilds and Escobar a bit thin over the course of this series. Moose needs to give us a solid five to six innings and then I believe we'll see some combination of Randy Johnson, Aaron Small, Tom Gordon and Mo to close it out.

On another note why is it that every time that A-Rod comes up to bat everyone's chanting 'MVP', but no one does that when Mo comes into the game?? Yes A-Rod's numbers are quit impressive - he's had a hell of a year, but if I had a vote for AL MVP it would definitely go to Mariano Rivera - at the very least give this guy the CY Young Award.

Let's get some solid pitching and an early lead tonight - I want to be watching baseball for a few more weeks this October.

Go Yanks!!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been pouring all day here in NYC and thus the Yankees/Angels game has been postponed until tomorrow night at 8:15.

Yanks have got to have a break out game tomorrow or the season is over. This team hasn't come all this way to roll over and die in the Division Series. They're going to need Shawn Chacon to come up big and give them a solid starting pitching performance. There is no reason that a team that 21st in the league in home runs should have so many off of Yankee pitching already. I'll be at the game tomorrow night and hopefully I won't be taking the 4 train back feeling disappointed. If this series goes the distance The Unit will likely be coming out of the pen - hopefully to atone for his disastrous start last night where it looked like he was pitching batting practice.

I Love Tuesdays....Thursday Edition

So here are the cd purchases for the week.....

My Morning Jacket - Z
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine


Seeing Stellastarr* tonight at Irving Plaza. Full review tomorrow (hopefully), plus thoughts on the Yanks/Angels series.

Thank You Cleveland

Eight in a row, nine in ten years it doesn't get old hat to keep winning the American League East - and it feels even better to do it in Boston. Yes the Yanks had a bit of help today from the Cleveland Indians who lost and coupled with the Yanks win guaranteed them the title, but I'll take it. I'd rather know we have the AL East today then sweat it out tomorrow. We might have also benefited from good 'ol Mother Nature as well when earlier in the week the Sox had to play a double header which pushed back Curt Schilling's start to Sunday - but hey won't complain about that either. I won't get into a lengthy dissertation about the season. Let's just say those of us who have been following this team closely all year feel a great sense of satisfaction today. Let's get one more tomorrow and hope Cleveland can do us another favor by winning tomorrow which would result in a one game playoff on Monday versus Boston.

I Love Tuesdays

Why Tuesdays - well because it's new release day for cds. Here's a rundown of the purchases for the week.....

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights
Neil Young- Prairie Wind
Blackalicious - The Craft
The Band - A Musical History

Triple Threat

So potentially the Yankees could have the AL MVP, CY Young and Rookie of the Year all of the same team - A-Rod, Marino & Robinson Cano. Not sure if a team has ever had all three award winners on the same team - I'll have to look into that. I can see the arguments for David Ortiz getting the award, but the guy doesn't play the field and A-Rod is a potential Gold Glovers this season. If he doesn't come up with that great play on Wednesday night the game would have been tied 2-2. I just can't see giving it to someone who only plays half the game. As for Mo he's probably having his best season ever as a closer and he's had some amazing seasons. If it comes down to Sunday night in Boston for the AL East and Mo's has to close it out in the 9th for the save how could you not give the guy the award?? (Though I'm hoping that we can somehow wrap it up beforehand) And I've already posted about Cano - this kid can hit.



I'll be at the game tonight, so hopefully they'll keep their streak going. It's my last regular season game of the year, so would love to see a win.

View From The Top

Well as it stands the Yanks are a 1/2 game up on the Sox with a little over a week to go in the regular season. It's the first time we've been in first since July 18th and I have to say it feels really good. I don't want to get overconfident yet there is still a lot of baseball to play and the Indians are still on fire.

Randy Johnson deliver another vintage start. His last two starts at home he's given up a total of 4 hits and 1 run - not too shabby. Hopefully Moose can keep the line moving tonight and give us a solid performance. He's on an 80 pitch limit, but if he's got his control working he might be able to get us to the 6th 0r 7th.

It's finally nice to see that we almost have too many starters now, when at a point in the season they were making moves just to find starters. Looks like Aaron Small may be the odd man out at this point and headed to the bullpen with a 9-0 record, but that's certainly not a bad thing. Yanks pen has looked shaky of late and if Small and Leiter (who has pitched great out of the pen recently) can be their middle inning guys I like our chances down the stretch.

Let's go Yanks!!!!!

CMJ Music Marathon

Well CMJ started last night here in NYC, if you can't make it here for the shows this will do as a summary from my friend over at My Blog is Poop....

My Blog Is Poop - CMJ Awards

Enjoy

So I'm Not Good At This

Ok so I'm not good at updating this thing. Sounded like a good idea at the time, but clearly I've done a bad job at writing anything new for the last month or so. So it's now September and I'm hoping that I'll feel a bit more motivated to actually update this. Anyway it's week one for the NFL and we're in the final stretch run for baseball, hopefully that'll inspire me to do some more writing.

Recently downloaded a live show from The Redwalls. If you don't know about this band let me sum them up in a nutshell - The Beatles. Well let me bit a bit more specific early Beatles.

They've got the great tight harmonies and do sound eerily like the boys from Liverpool, but hey can't fault a band for that. Would you rather them sound like Limp Bizkit??? They're new album is called DeNova and you can find the download here - The RedWalls - moe.down 9/03/2005 And FYI they do a killer version of Ophelia by The Band too.