“Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has demanded an apology from Swedish newspapers for their scathing reviews of the group’s performance in the country earlier this month.” Good fucking lord. From now on, Keith, Sweden and the rest of the world promise only the most positive fanboy write-ups and forty online licks of your taint. Gimme shelter from your douchebaggery. [USA Today]
The next two nights offer a rare opportunity to see two of the best cover bands while cruising around New York City on a boat. Tonight, Give Us The Money Lebowski show off their jukebox-like repertoire, frenetic improvisations and sparkling wit on the 200-capacity Half Moon at 8 pm. Tomorrow night, Led Zeppelin face-melters Bustle In Your Hedgerow takes to the seas in honor of Rocks Off founder Jake Szufnarowski’s birthday at 11 pm on the 500-person Temptress. Both of these concerts should be, dare we say…epic.
The past two days have brought us a slew of interesting stories. Check ‘em out:
That’s all we have for now, but we’re sure the list will grow again by Friday. If you have any news tips for us leave a comment below…
NBC tonight will be showing a special called Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live at 8 pm. While we’re sure there will be plenty of hilarious clips from the likes of John Belushi and Bill Murray, we’re far more excited for the musical performances they’ll be dredging up.
SNL was one of the first shows on television that gave artists an opportunity to play without a net on live television. Not only that, the bookers at SNL were always willing to feature bands that weren’t exactly in line with the mainstream. Who else at the time would have let Frank Zappa borrow Don Pardo to perform an edgy satirical song like I Am The Slime?
Many of the best musical performances in SNL’s history occurred during the first five years of the show’s run. Featured on tonight’s special will be clips of The Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello and George Harrison accompanying Paul Simon. If you can’t catch tonight’s show, check out the YouTube’z below:
We’ve got big news for fans of The Boss (no, Papa Steinbrenner’s not dead yet). Bruce Springsteen today announced an extensive fall tour that will once again reunite him with the badass E Street Band. The Boss also announced that Radio Nowhere, the first single from his new album, will be available exclusively as a free track on iTunes for the next week. Full dates listed after the jump…
Feisty Canadian singer-songwriter, um, Feist, played the ol’ Letterman program last night, and she brought a few of her all-star indie friends with her. Joined by members of Mates of State, Broken Social Scene, The National, New Pornographers and Grizzly Bear, the all-white ensemble (clothes, you racist!) surrounded the darkly clad Feist and turned in a pretty sick performance of her 1234.
I don’t mean this as an insult, but can’t you see that song being played through the credits of a super schmaltzy film? Something like a Phenomenon.
(Okay, I asked for it, and I’ll deliver: Voices That Care — How sad is it that I still know every word to this song? I’m guessing “quite sad” is the answer.)
Scotty usually throws out an oversized post full’a music-related links every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But it’s a light day out there, I’m already semi-bored at work, and I thought it’d be nice to skip outside the music bubble for a change.
So first we’re gonna take a gander at the greatest self-defense video ever made, and then we’re movin’ on to some other shit. Just remember, I can deliver a head butt out of nothing. Dangita, Dangita, Dang.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense: Here’s some music.
Like Cosmo Kramer with the Elaine’s friend, the High Talker’s ex-girlfriend Noreen, this story from late Friday slipped right past my news goalie.
Queen guitarist Brian May ain’t just a pretty face and an inexplicable amount of ’80s hair — he’s also a doctor…of astrofuckingphysics:
He was awarded his qualification Thursday by London’s Imperial College after submitting his 48,000-word thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” which seeks to prove that planets and dust clouds in the solar system orbit in the same direction. Mr. May was an astrophysics student at Imperial College when he joined Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor to form Queen in 1970, but dropped out as the glam-rock band became one of Britain’s biggest music groups in the 1970s, with hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Will Rock You.”
Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud? I swear, I almost wrote the same exact one, but some yuppie pre-frosh tripped the wire and everyone in the computer lab lost all our theses — I ended up with “Motion of Helium Atoms In An Excited State.” I was then informed to watch out…it’s a scorcher.
Lame and relatively obscure old-school Piven references aside, it’s not every day you meet someone with a C.V. that boasts “guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, astrophysicist.” But sure enough, May will be formally presented with his doctorate in May (what other month would it be) at a ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Awesome. Kudos bar to you, Mr. May. Sorry, Dr. May.
1964 was a killer year for jazz (and for metallic green Buick Skylarks), and we’ve prepared a short list of highlights to kick off your work week.
Thelonious Monk’s Stuffy Turkey — a loping, playful number from the Alhambra in Paris — focuses first on a lyrical line from tenor man Charlie Rouse, allowing Ben, Butch and Monk to lightly roll off on little sides. Monk’s following solo is spacious and off-kilter, with cool comping from the bass: absolutely classic Monk. Speaking of classic, All Blues is performed by the first great Miles Davis quintet with George Coleman at a concert to benefit black voters in Mississippi and Louisiana — simply brilliant; Tony Williams was only 19 at the time!
Within months, Wayne Shorter would take the tenor chair in Miles’ group , but before that he issued his first album as a band leader, with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Reggie Workman — all Coltrane men — and Lee Morgan on trumpet. At the time Wayne was under the shadow of Trane, criticized often for the similarity in approach and sound, so his choice of cohorts is interesting.
Despite such criticism though, Oriental Folk Song shows that a man now widely regarded as the greatest living jazz composer was already in full bloom more than 40 years ago. The final track this week is from the recent Mingus Live at Cornell recording, with Eric Dolphy. While Take the A Train might seem a jazz cliché, you’ve never heard it like this. Enjoy!
MCA of the Beastie Boys is breaking into the virtual world, where he will be a character in the new Tony Hawk video game. Tony Hawk: Proving Ground will be released in October, and if you are good enough at the game you’ll be able to unlock MCA’s character. Jewish skateboarders…what will they think of next?
We ain’t just Beastie X Games…we’ve got plenty of other news to report:
And as usual on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Arcade Fire, Black Crowes, Kings of Leon, Rage, Ratt, RAQ, TLG, Umphrey’s, Wilco and many more…
Tonight’s your first chance to catch the second season premiere of the altogether funniest television show of 2006. And since many of us missed the first season altogether when it aired — even me, I downloaded it on iTunes — I’d suggest setting your newfangled digital video recording devices post-haste.
I can’t promise that this season of Frisky Dingo will deliver the goods of last year’s genius, but I know it’s worth a shot. The show’s cut into manageable 11-minute episodes, and the entire first season is full of more involuntary laughs than a Pat Robertson sermon. There’s billionaire Xander Crews, there’s the villain Killface, there’s the XTacles, there’s an ensemble cast of hysterical characters, there’s last year’s cliffhanger…and then of course there’s this:
Everyone needs to buy season one on iTunes — you’ll thank me later.
One last, unrelated item — I’ll let my friend Eric ask a question of the audience here after we all watch Miss Teen South Carolina answer this pageant query perfectly: “What’s more pathetic? This girl, or the fact that we all would seriously still marry her? America. Fuck yeah.”
