Any blogger — music or otherwise — worth his weight in inflated ego checks the site’s stats about as often as, say, inhaling oxygen. And every single day, I’ve noticed, Hidden Track gets multiple search engine referrals from people seeking information on The Roots’ universally acclaimed performance of Masters of War at the Bob Dylan Avery Fisher Hall Tribute earlier this month.
It took a while to track down, but my buddy Cantor loves The Roots more than, say, inhaling oxygen, and he’s been monitoring the Okayplayer boards for the last two weeks waiting for this song to appear. I got an excited e-mail from him today, and now you can all listen to the performance that inspired a predominantly aging white crowd to Google “Who the heck are The Roots?” after this show.
To be completely accurate, this really isn’t the full Roots ensemble you’d see at a show (like when I caught them at Webster Hall in August). But in the absence of Black Thought, guitarist Kirk Douglas showcases his vocals, and drummer ?uestlove and Damon Bryson of the Jeff Bradshaw Band on the tuba provide an excellent musical backdrop. It’s a brave and amazing performance, and when they open it up about seven minutes into it, it’s nothing short of spine-tingling.
Previously on HT: Bob Dylan Tribute: Great Tunes, Less Mumbling
Nights like Wednesday evening at places like Tonic are what make seeing live music a truly worthwhile endeavor. I know, this post already reeks of condescending uber-headiness, but I can’t figure out how to frame it any other way. What those four guys did up on stage two nights ago reminded me of the dragon most of us are constantly chasing. The word I can’t shake is “mesmerizing.”
For the fourth show of his Wednesday Novemberstand, Marco Benevento invited up his Duo partner Sir Joe Russo, composer/drummer Bobby Previte and master percussionist Mike Dillon for a night of collaborative improvisation. It wasn’t one of those perfect melody-driven rawkfests, but what we saw was so much better than that. This was a total throwback to the days when you could watch a band feel each other out and actually make serious music together, not just play it.
Photo courtesy of Ted Wong
Benevento played a grand piano most of the night, eschewing the lavish set-up of toys he employed at his solo show the previous week. Previte and Russo sat behind drumsets for much of the show, but the two of them and Dillon managed to bang on some other shit and break out little-used percussion tactics for much of the night — Russo even played the flute with his nose for a bit, and Previte both threw or drained sand (or rice? or Fuji Dust?) onto the high-hats and drums.
Unfortunately, this was a shining example of a “You really had to be there” show. So instead of sputtering with imagery, I’ll just cut my losses and post this poorly lit clip I shot during the encore, a fantastically unique take on the Spencer Davis Group classic Gimme Some Lovin’. This 51-second video of the lead-in features Mike D absolutely ripping the xylophone a new bumhole before the rest of the band gets cookin’ with gas on an inspired-as-shit cover.
There’s one more show left in Marco’s residency at Tonic. Next week he’s playing with Reed Mathis and Matt Chamberlin, so get down there and wave goodbye to a month of clever experimentation and reaffirming improvisation.
Photo courtesy of Ted Wong
Previously on HT: The Duo -1 Russo (+1 Metzger) = The New Duo
The Friday after Thanksgiving is all about the leftovers, and today is no exception. If you’re part of the 99 percent of people that are off from work or school today, be thankful. No, I’m totally not bitter I’m working today.
- Bob Doran interviews Trey Anastasio for the North Coast Journal (I bet he didn’t have to pay $35) and provides some outtakes as well
- Jeff Sipe talks about the when-it-rains-it-pours lifestyle of a musician
- Jambands presents The Doors of Perception with Ben Fong-Torres of Almost Famous “mojo” fame
- For the lighting nerds around here, check out this feature on current Widespread Panic lighting director Candace Brightman
- Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin talks about the new Pumpkins album. “Eight guitars resonating in one big harmonic handshake,” sounds good to me!
- A couple articles honor the 30th Anniversary of The Last Waltz. I’m not sure, but something tells me Ace Cowboy reeeeaaaally likes this move. As the articles indicate, Levon Helm doesn’t quite share Ace’s enthusiam
- Bonnie Raitt sits in with the Rolling Stones as the band finally finishes the US leg of its Bigger Bang Tour. I used to feel the Stones will play for however long the money is on the table, but with canceled gigs, members leaving, and guitarists falling out of trees, this could be the last tour
- Hits From The Blog clues us in to Coachella dates as well as a new country/bluegrass festival the following weekend
- Tom Waits sits down with NPR for a quick chat
- Steve Kimock and Bobby Vega will reunite
Now go ahead and re-heat the the real thing…that stuffing’s calling.
Written by
Scott Bernstein on
11.23.2006 |
Disco Biscuits,
MMW,
moe.,
My Morning Jacket,
PGroove,
RAQ,
SCI,
Tenacious D,
The B List,
The Slip,
Wilco
The crew here at Hidden Track hopes you’re having a wonderful Thanksgiving. The eats and the family fun/drama maybe be all gobbled up, but there’s still time to enjoy these 10 shows around the country this holiday weekend…
- moe. — Chicago, IL: Al Schnier makes his trimphant return to playing guitar after a bad bout with tendonitis took him out of action for a while [ed. note: Tricky Bill Belichick upgraded Al to "probable" earlier this week despite the certainty of his return]. Strong rumors of Umphrey’s McGee sit-ins can fly, but you didn’t hear that from me.
- RAQ — New York, NY: Ace and I will be checking out this Vermont band as they play a special three-set show in Brooklyn “On The L.”
- String Cheese Incident — Atlanta, GA: The band everybody loves to hate on plays their first shows since announcing the departure of Bill Nershi. Hoop it up, y’all.
- Wilco — Chicago, IL: The list of great concerts taking place in Chicago this weekend goes on forever. Besides the aforementioned moe. concerts, My Morning Jacket will be at the Riv, Wilco sets up camp at the Auditorium Theater, and Tenacious D blows the asses out of the UIC Pavilion. Something for everyone in the Windy City.
- My Morning Jacket/The Slip — Chicago, IL: There’s more buzz about this tour than any other right now; look for this one to sneak up on everybody as the Big Bad Turkey Show of the weekend.
- The Disco Biscuits — New York, NY: Bucking their normal New Year’s at the Hammerstein tradition, the Biscuits will play two raging Hammertime shows this weekend instead. Tilt yo’ hats, kidzzzzz.
- Lotus — Boston, MA: I got nuthin’ here.
- Tenacious D — Chicago, IL: JB and KG are everywhere these days, but it’s the Second City that gets ‘em in time for stuffing.
- Perpetual Groove — Winston-Salem, NC: P-Groove continues to build its base, and over Thanksgiving they’re spending a weekend at the legendary club Ziggy’s. After a few years on the road, this band has certainly caught my attention with its original sound.
- Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood — New York, NY: When MSMW announced their tour dates, New York City was suspiciously absent. Luckily the band finally declared it would end the tour at the Bowery Ballroom, and all is right with the world. Welcome home.
So what shows are you seeing this weekend? Speak, dammit.
A wise man once said, “When you think of garbage, think of Akeem.” I’d like to just tweak that lasting quotation slightly today.
Thanksgiving, 30 years ago (almost today), The Band said farewell to the road forever with an epic celebration at the Winterland in San Francisco. So when you’re bored tonight, a little sleepy from all that turkey and drunk off all the wine necessary to put up with Uncle Frank’s close-talking and Aunt Miriam’s overbearing Jewishness, have a listen to the greatest concert in history, in its unrivaled entirety.
When you think of Thanksgiving, think of The Band. Big time, Bill, big time. Big time.
Once a year, Grousing The Aisles comes out on the last work day of the week. And that day is today, which means it’s essentially a Friday right now.
Here’s my friendly advice to help you celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday weekend: Start downloading these shows now, so that when you get back from your holiday host you’ll have plenty of music to wash out all the Christmas music that will begin to surround you. And with a last name like Bernstein, I’d rather hear a mix of classic rock, funky soul and jambanditry, like this week’s fresh slate of downloads:
Heart — 08/03/76 SBD (FLAC)
This is one of the tastiest-sounding of all soundboards from Heart, which in 1976 was just starting its climb to rock infamy. Not only does this recording feature original hits such as Magic Man and Crazy On You, but the Wilson sisters tear their way through three hotter-than-fuck Led Zeppelin tunes: Lez Zeppelin has nothing on the original female Zeppelin. Cameron Crowe is a lucky man — his wife Nancy Wilson drops guitar solos that offer some serious face meltage. Since this show is a must own, we also offer up the 320kbps MP3 files from sendspace. And, c’mon, check out those sweet mullets. Read on for more great downloads…
Has anyone else seen the new supermarket-themed commercial that shows our protagonist playing songs on a hip Samsung/Cingular Sync cellular telephone as he strolls confidently through the aisles? I’ve only seen it once — it’s the anti-Mellancamp — so I’ll accept a “no” answer here.
If you haven’t seen this mersh, it’s a mindfuckingly quick-paced short that features Ludacris pushing around a shopping cart with a sweet hydraulics system, the Pussycat Dolls whorin’ it up in the produce aisle and aisles full of products named after musicians or bands (e.g. the ice is Vanilla Ice, the canned corn is Korn, the salt and pepper shakers are obviously Kajagoogoo).
But the first thing we see after the phone itself is a hanging aisle sign, the table of contents thing that tells you where to find Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese when you’re lost. And tops on the list of items in this particular aisle? Hippie salad:
I mean, I know the band’s name lends itself to both nostalgic pop culture and food-related allusions, but who the hell at BBDO Worldwide did Mikey Kang have to blow to get String Cheese Incident into that commercial? I know the hula hoop was an old fad that flamed out quickly, but if this Cingular Sync thing catches fire and turns some heads to SCI, certainly the hula hoop can make a serious comeback. Still, I don’t think America’s ready for the bunk molly and malnourished dog fads.
It’s Tuesday again, that day when my employer feels compelled to tie me up with some of my ties, Ty. I mean, buddy, I’ve got a terrifically shitty music blog to run for no compensation, I can’t be doing your work all fucking day…
But alas, I must, and I will. So to keep you busy for at least a little while, let’s roll on with our usual Tuesday department, Pullin’ ‘Tubes. We’ll start today’s edition off with everyone’s favorite coal miner Levon Helm and his band on Eddie Cochran’s oft-covered Summertime Blues. Sure it’s trite, but this one be good.
In honor of Levon, let’s just drawl on with the rest…
- I like to call this one The Three Faces of Van the Man: Here Comes the Night > Turn On Your Lovelite (with Them in 1965), Gloria (with John Lee Hooker) and TB Sheets. Tell me that Van doesn’t look exactly like a combination of Detective Sipowicz and Sam Kinison in that Gloria video.
- My jaw naturally descends every time I watch Joni Mitchell’s performance with The Band in The Last Waltz. Inevitably I’ll turn with mouth agape to the person in the room with me — or I’ll mumble to myself when I watch alone — and I’ll manage to squeak out, “They just don’t fucking write songs like this any more.” So take a look at one of the best examples of why unattractive women can still be sexy as fuck: No regrets, Coyote.
- You may or may not have seen the video of an eager Bank of America employee singing One floating around the information superhighway last week. Hopefully you did, it’s that awful and good. Well, my hero David Cross and former Smith Johnny Marr performed a rousing rendition of the BofA One before the Modest Mouse show in New York City this weekend.
- You know what they say about Neil Young playing Forever Young with the Grateful Dead? It doesn’t suck.
- Oh dear lord, how have I never stumbled across this video one in my late-night YouTube travels and travails (I guess because it’s not tagged with “teen webcam,” but let’s not get too literal here)? If this clip is any indication, I’d listen to Leo Kottke and Doc Watson play together all day and night.
That should keep you bastard hooligans occupied until I get some free time…
Scott Metzger is a free agent again. And if the music world were as financially rewarding as professional sports, the 29-year-old guitarist would surely command a healthy contract above the market rate.
Metzger wisely de-Part-ed everyone’s favorite late-night technojamband in late July, ending the odd mismatch that saw him playing straight rock in a group that mostly fused together trance, boredom and epileptic seizures. Chalk it up to a learning experience or call it decent exposure, the end result is a reinvigorated songwriting guitarist with a narrower focus and a newfound determination.
I sat down with Metzger to see what lays in store for New York City’s rock scene and the rest of the country, and what follows is a Chris Farley-style “That’s awesome!” interview jumping from topic to topic and back to previous topics. But fans of Metzger, and those unfamiliar with him, will certainly come away impressed with his intellect, his honesty, and most of all, his love of having fun on stage.
My hard-hitting questions didn’t cause him to make the face above — it’s possible his underwear was as brown as his shirt in this Six Flags’ Great Adventure photo from the Nitro ride — but Metzger did open up about possible plans for a Bustle In Your Hedgerow tour, the long-awaited Danjaboots album, the status of RANA, a job offer from James Brown, his father’s methodone clinic, teaching kids to rock, and learning to play Metallica on a nylon-string acoustic guitar. Get on it…
It may be Monday, but we can take some solace in the fact that we have a short week in front of us. Remember, New Year’s is only five weeks off at this point, so start making those plans, concert or otherwise…
Three new DVDs you should add to your Netflix queue:
Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us
Widespread Panic: Earth To Atlanta
Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man
As always, please comment below if we missed anything, if you have anything to tell us, or if you just need to vent about the Bears owning the NY football teams.
Here’s the story you’ll hear 32 times today: “Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping, and TMZ has obtained exclusive video of the ugly incident.”
Come to think of it, besides Jackie Childs and that family that George busts in on to watch Breakfast At Tiffany’s for his book club, were there any black people on Seinfeld? Maybe it was all Kramer’s pull with the casting folks…look to the cookie!
I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of the self-aggrandizing weekly recap most bloggers enjoy, but considering we’ve published 70 posts on this here rag in less than a month of full-scale operations, there’s bound to be some shit that’s slipped through your cracks. Hmm, maybe there’s a better way to say that…
Regardless, here’s just a sample of The Week That Was:
Since you’ve allowed us to suck our own balls for a post here, we’ll reciprocate with a gift of our own. Here’s a terrific God Street Wine show from 9/3/01 at the Wetlands Preserve in Manhattan. Highlights include every song they played.
Sports fans around the country were saddened to learn that former Michigan head coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler had died at the age of 77. Perhaps the group of people most surprised by the mellow-harshing, morbid news was a Columbus-based punk band called the Dead Schembechlers.
In the wake of the ol’ ballcoach’s passing, the band has decided to call it quits and donate the proceeds of its final show — headlining the Hate Michigan Rally before Saturday’s big matchup of undefeateds — to a charity chosen by Schembechler’s family. Frontman Bo Biafra reportedly said “This will be it for us as a group,” and the band posted the following message on its website after hearing the news:
“The band is crushed to learn of the death of Bo Schembechler. We named this band after Coach Schembechler to honor him as the face of Wolverine football. We have never wished ill will upon him in any way and have always wished him the best.
How unfuckingpunk is that? We were kinda hoping Biafra and his Woody Hayes-dressed cohorts would release a statement that wished the larger-than-life coach’s soul luck as it burned in fiery Hades before threatening the Schembechler family that it may stop by the funeral with some friends to beat Bo’s relatives and light the casket on fire. I guess these just ain’t yo’ daddy’s punk rockers.
Related Video: If you’re in the dark about this band, check out the Dead Schembechler’s first ever music video, Bomb Ann Arbor Now.
My good friend Russ Kahn — better known in some circles as the entreprenurial young man that created the “101 Songs” Phish poster — took his sweet-ass time posting his usual encyclopedic concert and/or festival summary. But good things come to those who beg slackin’ slackers to get the fuck motivated, and Russ’ finished product is easily the best personal summary of Vegoose anywhere on the Internets.
For some of you, this recap may be a little too personal…but if you’d like to watch some cool YouTube videos of The Black Crowes, MMJ’s Jim James, Tom Petty, Damian Marley, G-Love and String Cheese Incident, and if you’d like to read an excellent narrative accompanying a slew of amazing photos, then stop over at Russ’ Travelogue for the Vegoose goods. This thing is the tits, I says.
Written by
Scott Bernstein on
11.17.2006 |
Bloggers,
Grateful Dead,
Leftovers,
Metallica,
News,
Pearl Jam,
Phish,
Pink Floyd,
Soulive,
Trey,
Umphrey's McGee
You can breathe again, it’s Friday. While you get your plans together for tonight, check out these items from Al Gore’s Interweb:
Many thanks to those of you that sent me items this week – I am always open to submissions for this column. Have a great weekend…
