It tears us up every time we hear him drawl that Southern drawl, and we’ll have that opportunity once again: Levon Helm returns to New York’s Beacon Theatre on March 7th and 8th, about one year removed from last year’s awesomeness.
Interestingly I’ll be at the Beacon this evening, in what can only be described as a truly underrated night of music in the Large Apple: We’ve got Andrew Bird at the Beacon, Ween at Terminal 5, Cold War Kids at Webster Hall, Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith at the Village Vanguard, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at the Highline, The Breakfast at the Lion’s Den and a handful of other acts. So if you’re hangin’ in tonight, youse got some serious ’splainin’ to do.
Tickets for the Levon Helm Band, by the way, go on sale Friday, December 7th at 10 AM through Ticketmaster only. That last part is weak…
Get ready for more makeshift, mediocre, misguided Fillmores: The Wall Street Journal today published a fine feature on the world’s largest concert promoter, and it appears the current business model just ain’t generating enough capital for Live Nation. The company will now attempt to morph into a record label, memorabilia dispenser and employer of seasonal workers. Let’s see whose identity they can steal for those new growth drivers. Read on for the full story…
Kudos to the good people at Farm Aid for the best turnaround this side of Bonnie Tyler. HD Net will feature highlights from September’s concert this Sunday at 6PM (as they did last Sunday as well, but we missed it). Hopefully we’ll get plenty of the Allmans, Neil Young and Willie Nelson, with a side order of Derek Trucks and the Counting Crows. Tune in to find out what made the cut.
Get up offa that thing, and welcome my tired honkey ass home from what feels like a lifetime of traveling the wide open spaces of these United States. I’ve learned I’m way too soft for life on the road, yet my colleagues and I still negotiated eight cities in nine days over a two-week span (broken up only by Thanksgiving, a day in which we, I think, appreciate small pox blankets).
At many times I felt trapped in a Steve Miller Band song, hitting all four corners of the country and roaming the Midwest for good measure. And like Miller, I can now, in fact, claim that I “went from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma.” That actually happened, though Philadelphia, Atlanta and L.A. were not on our itinerary. Wait, now that I think about it, what no-good fonzanoon managed Steve Miller’s tours? What kind of geographic dolt set that shit up? That guy deserves a swift kick in the vas deferens and perhaps a rabbit punch to the man-tits.
I’d like to thank 1st Lt. Scott Bernstein for holding down the fort as brilliantly as could be expected with minimal aid and support (’cuz my bullshit post about Levon Helm from Arkansas ain’t really considered “help”). And rest assured, as we go forward, we’ll bring you our best effort and some special year-end features — we promise they won’t be as awful as the rest of the schlock out there.
So stay tuned, because we’re gonna rock your shit. Now enjoy some JB.
We’re getting closer and closer to Led Zeppelin’s return, which takes place in London just one week from Monday. The new issue of Rolling Stone contains a terrific feature by David Fricke about the circumstances that led up to the reunion, as well as a report from one of the band’s tightly guarded rehearsals. Jason Bonham got us excited when he described Zeppelin’s first attempt at playing No Quarter: “When the riff came in, there was this look that went around. It was brilliant.” Bring it on fellas, and then bring it to the States next summer.
Let’s see what else is happening on this final day of November:
Radiohead announced a batch of European tour dates in June and July, leading to speculation they will play the states in May
Neddy and I are off to see Andrew Bird this evening while the rest of this city hits Terminal 5 for Ween’s two-nighter…so in order to get Neddy on my good side before the show, we’re gonna pimp out another one of his efforts.
I’m letting ye olde algorithm choose the mix again this week, with the one caveat being that I’ve restricted the choices to music released or recorded during 2007. So here’s a random — literally and figuratively — mix of this year’s infinite crop of tunes, including a couple live tracks of varying sound quality. There’s even two songs performed within a day of each other, interestingly enough. Enjoy.
01 Can’t Leave Her Behind — Stephen Malkmus & Lee Ranaldo: I’m Not There
02 Welcome, Ghosts — Explosions In The Sky: All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
03 All This Time — Heartless Bastards: Atlanta 9 June 2007
04 Wet and Rusting — Menomena: San Francisco 8 June 2007
05 Underwater (You and Me) — Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Some Loud Thunder
06 Firecracker — Steel Train: Daytrotter Session
The Guardian’s list of the 10 Most Dangerous Musicians caught our eye when it was published a few weeks back. There have been some crazy motherfuckers that played music, but there are also a slew of rockers who retire to the bus after the show to read Harry Potter and sip on Orange Coolattas. If G.G. Allin, Spade Cooley and Jim Gordon are the among the most dangerous, who would qualify as least dangerous?
We asked our friends at Team HLA and on The Bort to come up with a list of 10 rock stars they wouldn’t run away from in a dark alley:
10. Beck:
Read on for nine more rockers who look meek, but could probably still kick my ass…
Rotary Downs was smack dab in the middle of recording their latest album when Hurricane Katrina forced the band to flee for higher ground. The New Orleans based quintet documented their experience both before and after the storm hit as they survived the odds to put out Chained to the Chariot. Current TV is currently airing a brief documentary featuring the Katrina footage along with a taste of one of their dynamic performances:
We came across the ultimate compilation of Prince’s unreleased studio tracks from 1982 - 1997 thanks to The Ultimate Bootleg Experience. T.U.B.E. constantly kicks down primo stuff, but this collection raises the bar. We especially like the demo version of what turned out to be I No from the Lovesexy album. Here’s hoping T.U.B.E. keeps those gems comin’ at the same pace they are now, and here’s to also hoping Prince doesn’t sue the pants off these guys.
While many in the music world obsess over the schadenfreude that is Strumpet d’Winehouse, we’ll continue to celebrate the sheer awesomeness of the Dap-Kings’ best frontlady. So we couldn’t wait to share yesterday’s now-streaming interview with the Lovely Miss Sharon Jones from her appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air with Daptone co-founder and Dap-Kings bass player Gabriel “Bosco Mann” Roth.
The provocatively funny and wholly interesting interview promoting her 100 Days, 100 Nights album runs about 40 minutes, with some fine music from Jones and Winehouse thrown in for good measure. What’s astounding is her unbelievable humbleness in the face of her late-blooming fame, and clearly my favorite part is when she talks about not buying expensive shoes because of all the people out there with no feet or legs. As long as she can still strut and cluck and dance around that stage, we don’t care what the fuck she’s got on those feet. Long live the current first lady of soul.
