The Led Zeppelin Reunion is on!!!*

* – According to a tabloid that keeps getting the story wrong

In preparation for the public debut of Time Turns Elastic tomorrow evening at the Ryman, Trey Anastasio has been making the rounds in Nashville. On Wednesday, Big Red visited Belmont College to hang with the students before heading to Oceanway Studios for yesterday’s dress rehearsal.

[All Photos by Taylor Ivey]

Taylor Ivey was on the scene for both appearances and shares some photos and thoughts with us. Here’s his take on Wednesday’s “hang”…

On Wednesday at 1:00 pm, Mr. Trey pretty much just came and hung out for an hour or so at the Massey Performing Arts Center at Belmont University, here in lovely Nashville, TN. He played an excerpt from the Time Turns Elastic show. All I can say is that I’m very excited to hear the entire piece with a real orchestra (seeing that trey played with a midi backing track that he’d been practicing with). Ol’ Trey looked healthy as a horse and was very enthusiastic. He seemed genuinely happy to be shooting the shit with a bunch of music majors.

There was a little talk of the reunion. A paraphrased quote from Trey: “I can’t tell you the straight up answer, because it’s what everyone wants to hear.” So, he pretty much said it’s a go, but he can’t say so yet. That’s what I got from it at least. Someone also asked a question about Bonnaroo 2009 and Trey immediately looked surprised. He said that there would be a yes or no answer in the next few weeks. Anywho, take that as you will, but it’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

READ ON for more from Trey’s whirlwind week in Nashville…

As we near the beginning of the third year of this sweet blog’s existence, and my writing career for that matter, there’s still plenty left for me to learn. For instance, I just found out what a series of five related works is called: a pentalogy. What does this have to do with this week’s Friday’s Mix Tape? Our mix begins with my favorite pentalogy of all-time about horses.

Ween’s epic Stallion pentalogy starts the mix off with a bang. All five parts of The Stallion come to us from Chocodog’s All Request Live release, an album recorded when the band entered the studio to perform a list of songs hand picked by their most hardcore fans. We keep the energy up with Naked City’s cover of the James Bond Theme. Next, we’ve got a song I can’t stop listening to since reading Some Dude’s Blip entry on The Virgins: Rich Girls. Finally, a DVDrip of Problems by The Sex Pistols off of There’ll Always Be An England sends us on our way with a bark and a sneer.

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK’S MIX

Earlier this evening in Tel Aviv, former Wings lead singer Paul McCartney thrilled the crowd at his first-ever gig in Israel. He crafted a magnificent setlist that featured tons of Beatles songs, a smattering of Wings classics and just four tunes written after 1976. The recently debuted live versions of A Day In The Life and Mrs. Vanderbilt both were performed giving hope that they’ll make it into Macca’s set when he finally does an extended tour.

This wasn’t supposed to be McCartney’s first concert in Israel. The Beatles were set to perform in Israel back in 1965 when they were denied permits due to concerns their music would corrupt the country’s youth.

Let’s take a look at the full setlist from tonight’s Paul McCartney show…

Set: Hello Goodbye, Jet, Drive My Car, Only Mama Knows, All My Loving, Flaming Pie, Let Me Roll It, My Love, Let ‘Em In, The Long and Winding Road, Dance Tonight, Blackbird, Calico Skies, Follow The Sun, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Here There and Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby, Something, A Day In The Life, Give Peace a Chance, Band On The Run, Back In The USSR, I Got A Feeling, Live And Let Die, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, Get Back, I Saw Her Standing There, Yesterday, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

• Previously on HT: The B List – Underrated Macca

As we mentioned earlier, we’re less than a week away from the release of Rhino’s latest Grateful Dead vault release Rocking the Cradle: Grateful Dead, Egypt 1978 on September 30. The 2 CD set, culled from the band’s run at the Sound & Light Theater outside of Cairo, is also being packaged with a DVD that will include a mini-documentary called the Vacation Tapes along with 95 minutes of spectacular concert footage. To get you ready for the release Spinner is currently sharing an exclusive video of Deal.

• Check out the first trailer for the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious
• CLD urges you to sign the petition to get Pete Seeger a Noble Prize
• Ear Farm took in Saturday night’s Fab Faux show at RCMH
• List Time: 11 Best Kings Of Leon songs
• Stereogum offers up the new Vampire Weekend track Ottoman
• WNEW interviews UK buzz band Noah & The Whale

Finally, Ray Davies is stirring the rumor mill about a possible reunion of the original dysfunctional brother fronted rock band. According to a BBC report the former Kinks lead singer is claiming that the major obstacle holding things up is if his brother Dave, who has experienced some health problems over the last few years, feels good enough to commit to it. The Kinks have not performed together live since 1996, and are the only major British Invasion band whose original members are all still alive. The clock’s ticking!

We’d like to welcome back Sleepy Floyd for this week’s B List…

One of the most degrading jobs in the world, aside from greeter at Best Buy, has got to be the classic rock DJ. Playing a pre-programmed format, day after day – the same Rush songs followed by the same Foreigner songs followed by the same 38 Special songs followed by the same Boston songs.

The only thing more boring than working a tollbooth on the turnpike would have to be manning the controls of a corporate classic rock station. You know those stations: “100.7 KZLX – playing the greatest hits of yesterday and today.” Since when was Jukebox Hero or Shakin’ a greatest hit?

Bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Stones have a plethora of greatest hits. Yet we only hear Black Dog, Another Brick In The Wall, and You Can’t Always Get You Want over and over again. At least those tracks are halfway decent compared to these ten tunes which just need to be stopped from playing…period. Not that in this age of the iPod and satellite radio, anybody listens to classic rock radio anymore, but here it is anyways…

1. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Blinded by the Light

Alright, what most people don’t know is this obnoxious tune was actually written originally by Bruce Springsteen and featured on his album – Greetings From Asbury Park. But as the boss explained himself in concert, somehow the words got changed from “revved up like a deuce” to “revved up like a douche.”

READ ON for more tunes we can live without hearing anymore…

Like many folks in NYC, I’m slowly coming to grips with the fact that I will have my first baseball free October in thirteen years. I guess that’s a good thing with all the concerts I have lined up next month, or at least I keep telling myself that. There have been many heartfelt tributes to the House That Ruth Built over the last few days, the latest comes in the way of an aptly titled song Yankee Stadium from E Street Band member Nils Lofgren.

Here’s some info about the track straight from Nils’ website…

Hello everyone. Nils Lofgren here. I wanted to give you some history on this new song, “Yankee Stadium.” My fabulous wife Amy (a Jersey girl), remains a life-long Yankee fan with a great, emotional history of experience in Yankee Stadium from childhood to present. Her concept and the song’s chorus; “everyone is beautiful in Yankee Stadium,” was born from those memories and experiences. She’s been asking me to write this song for a while and here it is.

I’m a long time fan myself, especially of the mythical and mystical nature of old Yankee Stadium, which I’ve been fortunate to experience first hand. This song is an homage born of respect and gratitude for all the emotional and spiritual beauty Yankee Stadium has offered to so many, for so long. We hope all you Yankee fans out there enjoy it!

Give a listen to Mr. Lofgren’s ode to the Cathedral Of Baseball…