Listen Up

It is me or does anyone else find it a bit ironic that Trey sung lead on Wharf Rat with Phil last week after his recent comments in Rolling Stone about free-basing cocaine??

He actually does a pretty good job with it, take a listen....

Trey & Phil... - Wharf Rat - 2006-10-28 - Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Hannukah Rocks

Yo La Tengo has announced that do to their touring schedule they will be unable to do their annual eight night Hannukah run at Maxwell's this year - don't fret though there is still other music to see after you've gorged yourself on latkes.

First up Matisyahu will be taking the stage for three nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom for his First Annual Festival Of Lights - December 16th, 17th & 19th - with a different special opener each night (The Coup & Mr. Lif - 12/16, Ben Kweller 12/17 and John Brown's Body 12/19). Tickets are on sale now.


Also slated to make a return to the road for a special Hannukah tour is The Leevees - who last year put out the great Hannukah Rocks album. As of now they only have one date scheduled, but have promised shows in New York, Boston, Miami, L.A. and more.

And finally if you're looking to do some early holiday shopping here's the perfect gift for you're Jewish music loving friend - The Heebie-Jeebie at CBGB'S: A Secret History of Jewish Punk.

Here's some music from Ya La's past Hannukah runs....

Yo La Tengo - Best of Hannukah 2002 - Maxwell's - Hoboken, NJ

Yo La Tengo - 2005-12-26 - Maxwell's - Hoboken, NJ

Yo La Tengo - 2005-12-27 - Maxwell's - Hoboken, NJ

Yo La Tengo - 2005-12-28 - Maxwell's - Hoboken, NJ

Say Cheese

As per a statement on their website singer/guitarist Bill Nershi is planning on leaving SCI at the end of next summer to pursue other musical projects. Here's the official announcement....

After summer 2007, Billy Nershi is leaving The String Cheese Incident to pursue other musical projects. There will be only a limited number of Incidents between now and then. Current plans include Thanksgiving in Atlanta, a New Years Eve blowout in San Francisco, Winter Carnival in Colorado, and a return to Red Rocks. Presently, there are no plans for The String Cheese Incident beyond summer of 2007. The band would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our friends and fans for all your support.

Bluntly put that's it for SCI sorry all you hula-hoopers out there. Unfortunately I'm guessing my last memory of seeing the band will be their lackluster set at Radio City back in July when they opened for Ratdog.

Here's some music from his other project....

Honky Tonk Homeslice - 2005-12-11 - 8 x 10 Club - Baltimore, MD

Honky Tonk Homeslice - 2005-06-10 - Nederland Acoustic Coffee House - Nederland, CO

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Willie Nelson - Songbird

Phish - Colorado '88

Music Video Mondays

Weezer and The Muppets what else is there to say.....

Vegoose Torrents

Music from Vegoose is starting to roll in as they do I'll keep adding to this list. Here's what's up for grabs....

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - 2006-10-27 - MGM Grand Hotel - Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV (24 Bit)

Gomez - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Jokers Wild Stage - Las Vegas NV

Keller Williams Incident - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV

The Mars Volta - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Snake Eyes Stage Star - Las Vegas, NV

Medeski, Martin and Wood with Maceo Parker - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Joker's Wild Stage - Sam Boyd Stadium - Las Vegas, NV (from AT&T Blue Room stream)

Phil & Trey - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival Late Night - Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV (1st Set)

Phil & Trey - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival Late Night - Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV (2nd Set)

Praxis - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV

The Black Crowes - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV

The Raconteurs - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Snake Eyes Stage - Las Vegas, NV

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage
Las Vegas, NV

Yonder Mountain String Band - 2006-10-28 - Vegoose Music Festival - Las Vegas, NV

Galactic feat. members of Blackalicious - 2006-10-29 - Vegoose Music Festival - Las Vegas, NV

"Phil & Trey..." - 2006-10-29 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV

Rhythm Devils - 2006-10-29 - Vegoose Music Festival Las - Double Down Stage - Vegas, NV

The Roots - 2006-10-29 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV

String Cheese Incident - 2006-10-29 - Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Widespread Panic - 2006-10-29 - Vegoose Music Festival - Double Down Stage - Las Vegas, NV (AT&T Blueroom Internet Stream)

Turf War

In the wake of CBGB's closing down the NY Times took an opportunity to talk about the "turf war" between Live Nation and Bowery Presents and some new venues that both companies will be booking - as well as some other places to catch live music too. Check it out here.

Here's their handy downtown venue map of the place mentioned in the article.....

Goosed

Once again the folks over at AT&T's Blue Room will be helping out all of us who couldn't make the trek out to Vegas for Vegoose by webcasting the festivities. Here's the schedule....

10/28 Lineup

12:20 PM - Gomez
1:30 PM - Cat Power & The Memphis Rhythm Band
2:30 PM - The Coup
3:15 PM - Toubab Krewe
3:50 PM - The Raconteurs
5:oo PM - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
6:15 PM - Medeski, Martin & Wood featuring Maceo Parker
7:30 PM - The Black Crowes
9:00 PM - Praxis
9:15 PM - Jurassic 5
9:45 PM - The Killers

10/29 Lineup

12:00 PM - The Keller Williams Incident
1:45 PM - Band of Horses
2:25 PM - Galactic
3:40 PM - Built To Spill
4:40 PM - The Rhythm Devils with Mike Gordon
6:10 PM - Guster
7:10 PM - Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
8:00 PM - Trey & Phil
10:00 PM - Widespread Panic

Remember all these times of PST so adjust accordingly and enjoy!

Watch it all here.

I Love Tuesdays

Here are the purchases for the week....

Bright Eyes - Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998 - 2005)

Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae

The Whigs - Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip

Music Video Mondays

Caught Ben Kweller at Webster Hall on Friday - great show. It kind of amazes me that more people don't know him since he writes such great indie-pop songs. Somehow I only had listened to his new album a handful of times before I knew most of the lyrics to the songs - definitely the sign of a great pop album. So here's "Sundress"....

Down At Fraggle Rock

I'm suprised it took this long, but the beloved (and slightly heady) children's show Fraggle Rock is headed to the big screen. Ahmet Zappa is currently developing the movie which is feature new and improved puppet versions of all your favorite Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs. Read the full story here. FYI the Margory the trash heap lady always freaked me out when I was a kid.

Punch Drunk Love

Ok so it might not be Ali/Frazier, but Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy did have an altercation with a fan that jumped on stage the other night. Ok so Jeff punched the guy in the face when this schmuck tried to grab him - semantics. Read about the whole thing and see some video of it too courtesy of Pitchfork here.


Here's the official response to what the band is calling the Springfield Masacree...

Although we normally go WAY out of our way to avoid responding to things like this, we feel obligated to address some sensationalized stories about Monday night's Wilco show in Springfield, Missouri.

Here's a brief synopsis of what happened. It was clear fairly early on that security was a a bit lax at the Shrine Mosque. We had decided in advance to not have a barricade in front of the stage (a mistake?) so the band and crowd could be as close together as possible. The band prefer it that way.

Fairly early in the set, there were a couple of people shoving and roughing up others in front of the stage. Jeff asked everyone to calm down and respect each other and when things did, the band resumed the set.

At the end of the main set, a woman sneaked up a back stairway and entered from a side stage door. Shortly thereafter she ran onto the stage and sat on the piano bench next to keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen while the band played "Poor Places". She was heavily intoxicated and was removed from the stage by several members of the band's crew.

As that situation was getting dealt with, another arose. During the first encore a young man jumped onto the stage and did the requisite salute to his pals. While we certainly do not encourage that kind of behavior, we were prepared to let it go, as he was, it seemed, heading back into the crowd. Just when it appeared he was walking off the stage he turned around and moved towards Tweedy from behind. Jeff did not see him approaching, but felt the guy’s hands on his head. To this, Jeff reacted. As Jeff put it... "I really regret what happened last night. I wish it had gone another way... and i suspect had i felt safer on that stage, had security been doing a better job all night long, well things would have gone differently. He approached me from behind... and I reacted in defense to get him away. I didn't know what his intentions were... and I had to get him off of me. I'm sad that it happened at all."

Longtime Springfield resident Lou Whitney (owner of The Studio, record producer and bassist for the Skeletons/Morrels, Syd Straw, Steve Forbert, and others) was at the show. He put it this way. "Jeff shouldn't back off an inch on this one. I saw the whole damn thing... he reacted how anyone would when surprised by having someone invade their personal space -- a space that is supposed to be secure. The guy walked up behind him and grabbed him around his head.You couldn't tell if he was gonna kiss him, hug him or something else. And Jeff pushed him or hit him or whatever to get him away. Hell, under the circumstances, Mahatma Gandhi probably might have done the same thing."

From there the show continued normally. Nobody got hurt, a few people got scared, but it went on. The band played their entire set list (okay, they dropped a song... but that happens all the time) finished up their two encores and got on the bus and headed for W. Virginia. Suffice to say... a good time was had by most.

Jeff's also got a live dvd coming out called Sunken Treasure: Live In The Pacific Northwest - buy it here.

Vegoose Schedule

For those of you headed out to Vegoose the schedule is now up so you can start planning your day. While I'm not going to be out there you should definitely check out the following HFTB approved acts....

Satruday - 10/28

The Raconteurs - Snake Eyes Stage - 3:50 - 4:50 (Jack White with his Zepplin-esque side-project - this may be the best set you'll see all weekend)

Sunday - 10/29

Band of Horses - Jokers Wild Stage - 12:20 - 1:05 (ouch, they're the first band on, on Sunday - but well worth seeing)

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Cabarat Club Tent - 5:05 - 6:20 (Ok it's up against Phil and Trey, but those guys are playing a late night show and Jenny Lewis ain't too bad on the eyes)

Jim James - Cabarat Club Tent - 7:30 - 9:00 (solo set from the My Morning Jacket frontman, what else is there to say about this?)

Check them out first....

The Raconteurs - 2006-09-19 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA

Band of Horses - 2006-07-28 - Capital Hill Block Party - Seattle, WA

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - 2006-03-07 - Richards on Richards - Vancouver, BC

Jim James - 2005-11-05 - Easy Street Records - Seattle WA

Hidden Tracks

Sorry been out of commission the last couple of days and probably won't be getting much up during the day for the next few weeks, but will still try my best.

While I might not be providing a lot of content to keep you distracted you should definitely head on over to Glide's new music blog Hidden Tracks - Ace Cowboy of Slack LaLane fame is heading it up and it's sure to be a must read, so show him some love.

I Love Tuesdays

Picked up a couple of things at the Tower Records going out of business sale....

Otis Redding - Live In Europe

Jimmy Smith - Root Down

Harp's 50 Most Essential Albums Since 2001

The fine folks over at one of my favorite music magazines - Harp - are celebrating their 5th anniversary and in honor of that they put together their list of the 50 Most Essential Albums Since 2001. The list has been hotly debated on a some blogs (head here and here) so figured I'd post here and see what you guys thought....

50) Gillian Welch - (Time) The Revelator
49) The Roots - Phrenology
48) Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
47) Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
46) Guided by Voices - Isolation Drills
45) Neko Case - Blacklisted
44) Solomon Burke - Dont Give Up On Me
43) Kathleen Edwards - Failer
42) Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum
41) Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore
40) Lucinda Williams - World without tears
39) Missy Elliot - Miss E…So Addictive
38) Sparklehorse - Its a wonderful life
37) The Libertines - Up the Bracket
36) The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
35) Franz Ferdinand - S/T
34) Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary
33) Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
32) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
31) Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day
30) Ryan Adams - Gold
29) Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now
28) Elvis Costello - The Delivery Man
27) The Strokes - Is This It?
26) The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
25) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
24) The White Stripes - Elephant
23) Cat Power - You Are Free
22) Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
21) Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
20) My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
19) Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
18) Steve Earle - Jerusalem
17) Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
16) Wilco - A Ghost is Born
15) PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
14) Kanye West - Late Registration
13) The New Pornographers - Electric Version
12) The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
11) Sleater Kinney - The Woods
10) The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
9) M.I.A. - Arular
8) Anthony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
7) Tom Waits - Real Gone
6) My Morning Jacket - Z
5) Tom Waits - Alice
4) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3) Brian Wilson - Smile
2) The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
1) The Arcade Fire - Funeral

Six Degrees Of Bob Dylan

Head on over to Coudal Partner to play Bringing It All Back Home - basically it's the Kevin Bacon game, but with Bob Dylan. A random winner with the correct links will be selected each day and win a copy of Modern Times. Check it out, today you'll need to figure out how to get from reclusive author J.D. Salinger to Zimmy - good luck.

R.I.P. CBGB

Seminal punk club CBGB's hosted its final concerts over the weekend. Brooklyn Vegan has some pics and a reader's review from The Dictators show on Saturday (head here) and Stereogum and Jaded Insider have pics and a review - respectively, from last night. Head here and here for those.

Here's some shows to help you remember the glory days...

Blondie - 1975-07-18 - CBGB's - New York, NY

Television -1976-03-12 - CBGB's - New York, NY

Talking Head - 1977-03-31 - CBGB's - New York, NY

The Ramones - 1977-10-27 - CBGB's - New York, NY

Bad Brains - 1981-02-25 - CBGB's - New York, NY

Music Video Mondays

Great way to kick off a Monday morning, here's the Beastie Boys with "Sabotage"....

Live At The 9:30 Club

I'm always a bit amazed that people come to this here blog on a daily basis and even take the time to leave comments and send the occasional kind email my way. I'm even more shocked some of said people work in the music industry. So when I got an email about my interest in posting some MP3s and info about a bands new album it was hard to say no - plus it's good karma.

So with that in mind (wait for it).....

Live At The 9:30 Club is the latest release from D.C. based roots-rockers the Virginia Coalition. If you're not familiar with the band they lie somewhere in the realm of the O.A.R./Pat McGee Band/Dispatch's of the music world (or jam-lite as I like the call those bands). While these guys might not be my cup of tea (read my review of thier last album here) I'm all for spreading some tunes, so here's a couple of tracks off the album for your listening and downloading pleasure...

"Gates of Wisdom" (MP3)

"That's What You Said" (MP3)


And here's what some people have had to say about the album:

Live at the 9:30 Club is an hour and 45 minutes of unwavering vibrancy; even on the many songs that stretch longer than eight minutes, Poliakoff and company never let their energy wane. Likewise, the crowd's excitement audibly ricochets through the club's cavernous space, capturing the rock 'n'adoration that VaCo surely dreamed about in high school.
-Washington Post

The song writing is mainly what moves the VACO sound, but the live show brings out the musicianship of this band and moreover, the soul that goes into the connection with the fans each night. Whether your pile of ticket stubs is the remnants of a jam tour, indie clubs, or pop hot spots, Virginia Coalition's Live at the 9:30 Club will fit pleasantly with your live tastes. This is the music loyal fans have been following for years, and it's a nice piece to hang on to.
-Jambase.com

VACO is currently on tour in support of the album, so go out and catch them if you dig the tracks and be their friend on MySpace too - VACO's MySapce Page.

10/19 - Mexicali Blues - Teaneck, NJ
10/20 - Pickle Barrel - Killington, VT
10/21 - Harper's Ferry - Allston, MA
10/22 - Cafe Nine - New Haven, CT
10/27 - Blue Note - New York, NY
10/28 - North By Northwest - Philadelphia, PA
10/30 - 123 Pleasant Street - Morgantown, WV
10/31 - Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, PA
11/2 - The Temple Club - Lansing, MI
11/3 - Bogart's (Front Room) - Cincinatti, OH
11/5 - The Music Mill - Indianopolis, IN
11/15 - Martin's Downtown - Roanoke, VA
11/16 - House of Blues (Cambridge Room) - Cleveland, OH
11/17 - Park West - Chicago, IL
12/29 - The Birchmere - Alexandria, VA