For the first time in their long and storied careers two of New Orleans most recognizable acts – Dr. John and The Neville Brothers – will head out together for a US tour. The two acts will hit road starting on January 31 of next year for a cross-country run that brings their brand of Crescent City funk and soul to a mix of clubs and theaters, that will surely lend itself to some collaborations throughout the run. At least we hope so.

If some good ‘ol New Orleans flavored music isn’t for you, than maybe one of these recently announced tours will be…

• Apollo Sunshine & Dead Confederate team up for a November run (begins: 11/08)
• Comedy troupe Stella line up a brief seven city run (begins: 11/30)
• Tom Morello goes out solo for a month long trek (begins: 11/04)
• MerleFest reveals the lineup for its 22nd installment (from: 04/23-26/09)
• Psychedelic-Americana act O’Death head cross-country (begins: 11/04)
• Hip hop collective Wu Tang Clan hit the road for a lengthy US tour (begins: 11/29)

Finally, last week we brought you news on Matisyahu’s Festival Of Lights shows, this time around we’ve got one for all you Christmas celebrating folks out there. For the third year in a row singer-songwriter Aimee Mann will hit the road for a twelve-date holiday tour in support of the re-release of her Christmas themed album One More Drifter In The Snow. Mann has recruited Patton Oswalt, Nellie McKay and Grant-Lee Phillips to fill out the bill.

Whenever a big gig comes to Philadelphia you can count on WXPN to let us all join in the fun. WXPN will simulcast this evening’s My Morning Jacket show directly from the Festival Pier around 7:30PM. I know what I’m doing tonight.

Let’s take a look at what we missed this week…

• Jambase talks to Apollo Sunshine about Shall Noise Upon
• Boing Boing TV Plays The Building in NYC with David Byrne
• Jeff Tweedy treats Spanish crowds to some brand new music
• Lost!: What happened to our friends at The Daily Swarm site?
• Mike Berg of Van Ghost moves from promoter to performer
• Ryan Adams clarifies his use of the term “jam” for Relix

Can you think of a better way to end a sun-and-fun filled weekend at the shore than with a great rock concert? If you’re spending Sunday heading north on the Garden State Parkway you’ll want to get off at Exit 102. Asbury Park’s legendary Stone Pony hosts a terrific triple bill on Sunday evening featuring three amazing rock bands: the American Babies, Apollo Sunshine and Gov’t Mule.

Ace Cowboy-favorites the American Babies kick things off at 4pm inside of the nightclub. Tom Hamilton’s once-side project has blossomed into a powerful unit that consistently delivers top-notch performances. Of course that’s not surprising considering the skills of drummer Joe Russo, guitarist Scott Metzger and Tom’s Brother bassist Jim Hamilton. Check out American Babies set and you won’t be disappointed you left the beach early.

Once the American Babies finish up around 5pm, the gates to the outdoor Summer Stage open up for the final two bands of the evening. Boston’s Apollo Sunshine are a gritty psychedelic-rock trio who visably put their blood, sweat and tears into every note they play. These guys have written a slew of anthemic tunes that channel Cream and the Beatles. AS hasn’t played around here too often, so don’t biff their set which begins outside at 5:30pm.

The headliners of Sunday night’s festivities are no strangers to Asbury Park. Gov’t Mule first played “The House That Bruce and Johnny Built” on April 6, 1996 as a power trio with the late Allen Woody. These days the Mule functions as a quartet that’s capable of switching genres and styles within the same song. Thanks to the rapidly expanding catalog of covers and originals that Warren and the boys play on a regular basis we’re long past the days of Mule playing Soulshine every night. Gov’t Mule hits the outdoor Summer Stage at 6:45pm.

For those of you who like their Sunday shows to end early, you’ll be happy to know the curfew is 10pm. The best part of this whole deal is that tickets are only $33. That’s cheaper than a reading from a fortune teller on the boardwalk.

• American Babies – Rocker (Live)
• Apollo Sunshine – Flip (Live)
• Gov’t Mule – Thorazine Shuffle (Live)
• Previously on HT: Bringing Up Babies – Hamilton’s Best Crew, Listen To This Shit – Apollo Sunshine’s 666 and HT Giveaway – Warren Haynes DVD

Now that Evil Urges has finally been released, we can fully focus the HT fluffmachine on Apollo Sunshine’s new album, Shall Noise Upon. Luckily, we don’t have to wait until the album’s released on September 2 to get a taste of the new record. That’s because the band is offering a free download of 666: The Coming of the New World Government over at Apollosunshine.com.

While most of the songs on Shall Noise Upon are brand-spanking new, 666: The Coming of the New World Government is actually a tune the guys have been playing in concert for years. Fans of the tune will notice 66 has a completely different vibe on record. This song sounds like the sick twisted child of Baby You’re A Rich Man and Rain, without sounding too much like the Fab Four. No one makes psychedelic tunes hum like the Apollo Sunshine boys. But enough from me, let’s see what you think of the new track… [be sure to register at Imeem to be able to stream the whole track, or just download it from apollosunshine.com]

• Previously on HT: Get Yer Rocks Off: Basking In Apollo Sunshine

• If you’re looking for a complete overload of golf/rockstar metaphors, check out the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s article about hitting the links with Widespread Panic’s John Bell. While registration is required for the article you can view a slide show of photos from JB’s round of golf without having to turn over your personal information. [Hat Tip to Rook]

[Photo by Rich Addicks for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

• Prince’s rabid team of lawyers may have been overly zealous when they took down videos of the purple one performing Radiohead’s Creep at Coachella. Thom Yorke would like to remind Prince that Radiohead owns the right to that one. Unblock that shit, my man.

• Now that everyone and his brother has heard My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges, we can turn our attention to the long-awaited new album from that other band we can’t stop fluffing: Apollo Sunshine. The boys from Boston will release the CD of Shall Noise Upon on September 2, but you’ll be able to purchase the album digitally on August 5. We can’t wait to hear what they came up with, and hopefully they’ll get back on the road for an extended jaunt over the next few months after a long layoff. Bring it, fellas.

When Ace first asked me to work with him on Hidden Track a little more than a year ago, I would have never guessed how much I’d enjoy writing for y’all. One of the first ideas I presented to Ace was a column highlighting the best live shows that turned up on the torrent sites each week. Now please allow me to toot my horn a bit: I began my writing career — really, my first published article — on October 22nd, 2006 by posting the first edition of Grousing The Aisles, and I followed that up with 380 other posts this year, including 48 editions of GTA.

We’ve turned you onto to some terrific shows this year, but a few stand out from the pack. First up is a Steely Dan DVD that is the best unofficial concert video we’ve ever seen. Next up is Crowded House’s American coming-out party from The Bottom Line in 1987. After that we’ve got recent shows from two of our favorite bands: Apollo Sunshine and Wilco. So make the most of your high speed connection and check out the best of Grousing The Aisles…

Steely Dan w/ Michael McDonald 08/12/2006 PROSHOT (VIDEO, AUDIO):

Nearly every shed in America these days has those screens that show video of the concert to people with bad views. Most of the footage from these screens either doesn’t get recorded or gets stashed in the archives of the venue or the performer. Once in a while, though, video from one of these concerts leaks onto the ‘net. The latest of these leaks comes from last summer’s Steely Dan tour, which featured special guest and longtime HT idol Michael McDonald.

The Dan was feelin’ it this night, rolling through magnificent performances of hits such as Hey 19, Green Earrings, and Josie. Mikey Mac adds his husky vocals to the last seven songs of the set, including the kickass My Old School closer. The Steely Dan Orchestra backing band is made up of extremely talented musicians. Keith Carlock is a revelation on the drums — at times there is so much going on that you wonder whether there are two drummers behind the kit. Backup vocalists Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery and Cindy Mizelle both look and sing beautifully.

The quality of this footage is unbelievably good, allowing a nice look at the ladies as they sing their hearts out during Dirty Work. The crispy soundboard feed that supplies the audio is also top notch, and worth the download by itself. I can honestly say that in my four years of collecting live concert DVDs, this puppy may take the cake as the best in my collection. It’s that good. Read on for more…

Medeski Martin and Wood have targeted a new audience, seeing as how most of the hip hipsters moved on to The Bad Plus. This album’s for your kids: Let’s Go Everywhere will be released on Little Monster Records on November 20th. You can stream a couple of the tunes now on Little Monster’s website. We’ve long said, if children can really “get” any band, it’s obviously Medeski Martin and Wood.

• Oxford American Mag tackles the blogosphere’s merciless Hype Machine
• Stevie Wonder will play MSG: November 17th, be there [via the_rick]
• Those cheeky bastards: Radiohead is making sure In Rainbows won’t wind up on Oink by releasing the tracks at 160kbps
• RockCorps is an innovative program that rewards teens who volunteer with free concert tickets
• Bjork is returning to the States in December for another batch of dates
• Hits From The Blog introduces us to the music of Malajube
• George Harrison’s solo albums are now available on iTunes
• Ian Rogers of Yahoo! preaches the gospel about what customers want when they download music
• Sting tops the list of Blender’s Worst Lyricists…in other Police news, Andy Summers thinks recording a new album is the next logical step
• YesButNoButYes brings us the top 10 Ronnie Wood videos

And, lastly, Liffy from Kitsch Dork has some good things to say about the Dr. Dog/Apollo Sunshine tour, and considering they’re two of our favorite new bands, we thought we’d direct some traffic that way. Enjoy your Wednesday…

The show went on last night for Bustle In Your Hedgerow, even though bassist Dave Dreiwitz ran into plane troubles while traveling to the Chicago show.

Umphrey’s McGee’s Brendan Bayliss filled in admirably on bass for the first portion of the show before Dreiwitz took over. Bayliss, who normally sticks to six-string guitars, had just finished a three-night run on Saturday in Hampton Beach, NH, and spent most of his day on a bus before heading to the Bustle gig. Last night wasn’t the first time Bayliss filled in for the Led Zep cover band. Brendan subbed on guitar for Scott Metzger about a year ago for a Lollapalooza late-night gig.

But let’s also take a look at what else went down this weekend…

• Led Zeppelin (the real Bustle!) readies some re-issues for the fall
• Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival was a major success
• Pearl Jam is releasing a live concert DVD culled from last year’s Italian tour
• Stylus lists the top ten obscure Steely Dan lyrics
• Apollo Sunshine and Dr. Dog team up for a bunch of tour dates in October
• Neddy lists the shows of the week in NYC
• Promoters of a Rolling Stones’ show sold VIP seats that didn’t exist
• Dweezil Zappa talks about the release of Classic Albums: Overnite Sensation/Apostrophe
• There aren’t enough festivals for Michael Franti, so he started his own
• KISS played as a trio when Paul Stanley was unable to perform
• Galactic is hitting the West Coast in October
• Best Week Ever compiles all the best of the Simpsons lists

And as always on Monday, read on after the jump for a full slate of setlists from the weekend…and don’t forget to enter our Zappa Plays Zappa ticket giveaway.

Welcome back to a regular ol’ edition of Grousing The Aisles — we’re back to our normal format after a week off and Ace’s terrific July 4th special. Picking four entries was tough this week, as so many incredible shows have made the rounds on the torrent sites since we last posted GTA. This week we’ll look at some of our favorites, while next week we’ll get a little more under the radar for y’all. We’ve got three tasty shows for your iPod, and a Phish DVD that you need to have.

Apollo Sunshine 06/17/2007 DAUD (FLAC, MP3, STREAM):

It’s been nearly six weeks since we’ve talked about Apollo Sunshine, and I’m starting to get the shakes. The Sunshine dudes are currently in the studio recording an album that could break them into the big time. As nice as it would be to keep Apollo Sunshine a secret, my parents taught me to share. One of the only shows the band played this summer was a plum spot at Bonnaroo, and recently, a kind-hearted taper uploaded AS’s set to the Live Music Archive.

As per usual, Apollo Sunshine opened the set with Better Change Your Mind, which quickly melted into a tasty orgy of noise and melody. They followed it up by playing Magnolia, their most accessible tune. Two classics, 666 and Flip!, kept the momentum goin’. Your Advice, a song I don’t think I’ve heard before, calms things down a bit before Bach and Lord bring back the frenetic energy.

All told, Sunshine played a terrific set and seemed to be augmented by the percussion player banging on the bongos. Here’s hoping the new album brings us plenty of tour dates, because when these guys add a new batch of songs to the mix, you better hide the children. Read on for much more GTA…

We’re switching up two of our regular departments this week to better accomodate last-minute readers heading off to Bonnaroo. So Grousing The Aisles will be seen tomorrow, and today we present this special Wednesday edition of The B List, as we continue with our nonstop coverage of this weekend’s festival.

Our coverage kicked off yesterday with HT Bonnaroo Reporter and Shakedown Mayor TJ’s thoughts on the biggest conflicts of the festival. We follow that up today by listing 10 bands that fly under the radar — you may not have these bands circled on your printed calendar just yet, but we think you should:

American Babies (Saturday 12 pm, Sonic Stage)

I caught this semi-supergroup‘s warm-up gig at the Knitting Factory on Monday night, and it’s clear these guys are ready to make the leap. Brothers Past guitarist Tom Hamilton has put together a ridiculous backing troika — brother Jim on bass, Scott Metzger on guitar and Sir Joe Russo on drums — for his incredible songbook. American Babies features killer musicianship, fantastic vocal harmonies, great lyrics and tight chemistry — now, as my friend Mike says, all they need is fans. I’m pretty sure these guys are the only band playing in this time slot, so you’ve got no excuses not to head to the Sonic Stage and get blown away by a band you didn’t know was there. You’ll be singing Invite Your Friends for weeks. –AC

Apollo Sunshine (Thursday 10:15 pm, Other Tent; Friday 1:30 pm, Sonic)

You’ll excuse us for pimping one of our favorite bands yet again, but Apollo Sunshine will be “flying under the radar” until they start playing theaters and arenas. The band’s music mixes terrific songwriting with incredible harmonies, and most importantly, the ridiculous chops of each member of the band. An Apollo Sunshine set hits upon many different emotions and genres, leaving spectators drained of energy by the end of the show. This summer marks a hiatus of sorts for the boys; they plan to head into the studio soon after Bonnaroo. If you are looking for a unique musical experience, look no further than Apollo Sunshine. Listen to this Bach from 4/22/07 and hear for yourself. –SB

Read on for eight more must-see, under-the-radar bands playing Bonnaroo…

Apollo Sunshine once again proved that rock and/or roll is alive and kicking on last night’s Rocks Off boat cruise.

Warm weather, blue skies and, well, sunshine offered a perfect environment for a three-hour floating rock show around lower Manhattan, and Apollo Sunshine provided a high-energy blast of power pop, heavy on the power.

You can try to list some similar-sounding bands to describe their sound, but you’d have to list at least six or seven to even attempt to portray a realistic vision of what we heard last night. It was truly a perfect evening of music, friends, gorgeous views, the Queen Mary II and a gigantic double necked bass/guitar.

Read on to see whether Scotty got a good look up Lady Liberty’s knickers…

Scotty and I are out the door in a matter of minutes to catch Apollo Sunshine on the Rocks Off Boat Cruise around Manhattan. In preparation of this evening’s nautical aural event, we offer this clip of the band playing Magnolia at the University of Massachusetts, a recent upload to The YouTube. Enjoy.

• Click here for the most recent posts in the Pullin’ ‘Tubes archive

Tuesday brought 70-degree weather and sunshine to the New York City area, and I think I’m coming to the conclusion that I hate winter. Spring, on the other hand; that’s my jam. Hopefully the weather is nice where you are on this fine hump day. To help you get over that hump, check out these fine links from around the Interwebs:

• The best and worst afros in music today
• The tape-trading culture is not dead
• Tom Morello talks about the Rage Against The Machine rehersals
• Stylus rates the top 50 one-hit wonders
• Frank Zappa’s official site is teasing a new release
• Franz Ferdinand has released an Annual, an old idea that needs a comeback
• It seems like Elton John’s 60th Birthday Concert at Madison Square Garden was quite the affair
• Live Music Blog’s latest podcast features Apollo Sunshine
• This week’s Taper’s Section presents some rare Grateful Dead from the ’80s
• Spoon is preparing a new album for release in July
• Genesis, Ozzy, and Heart will be the subject of the next VH-1 Rock Honors
• We’re jealous: Our friend Jeff at The Passion of the Weiss caught a super-secret Beck show
  
• moe.down 8 is right around the corner
• While you are getting screwed by Ticketmaster, you may as well take advantage of their free iTunes offer

Did I miss anything? Let me know by leaving a comment below…..

Over the years there has been one constant in rock and roll: terrible band names.

Hell, one of my faves, Umphrey’s McGee, has one of the worst band names ever. The tie that binds this week’s Grousing entries together is the lack of an interesting moniker. Some of these bands didn’t even try and just used the name of the player(s). But while KVMW, The Ryan Montbleau Band, Apollo Sunshine, and BAD II suffer from uncreative naming, their music absolutely blows my mind.

Kimock, Vega, Molo, and White 03/17/07 (FLAC, 320kbps MP3):

Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, Alan Hertz, and Ray White did a few tours in 1998 and 1999 as the creatively titled KVHW. The band mostly played unique versions of Kimock and Frank Zappa tunes, as well as other covers. Kimock had been playing the same songs with Zero and his own band for years, and it was really nice to see him play a slew of material that was new to him. As with all of Kimock’s bands, KVHW ended in a trainwreck when Ray White was kicked out of the band.

This past weekend KVHW reformed with “Mountain” John Molo (The Range, Phil and Friends) replacing Alan Hertz on drums. The two gigs flew far below my radar, so I was pretty shocked when I saw setlists for these gigs on Jambands.com boxscore section. I also saw that nugs.net made official recordings of both gigs available, so I took the plunge and bought 3/17/07.

Simply put, KVMW is fucking amazing. They played the most out-of-the-box versions of the Dead’s Wharf Rat, Spring Water, Zappa’s Willie The Pimp, and much more. It would be a tragedy if this band didn’t play more gigs. If this is what the first weekend of gigs sounds like, just imagine what this group would sound like with a few tours under their belt. Read on for more Grousing downloads…

As part of our continued effort to geek everyone up about underrated artists we can’t wait to see down at Langerado next month, today we’ll sneak a peek into the Apollo Sunshine archive and get particularly geeky. Sadly I missed this trio of Berkelee gents at this year’s NYC Freaks’ Ball, but redemption is only one month away under the chicken soup-infused blanket of warmth that is Florida.

These guys are an interesting case. I’m not really into any specific, singular genre that Apollo Sunshine could be pigeonholed into (pop? punk? noise?). But draw a Venn diagram of their sound and I’m really diggin’ that shaded spot in the center where all the sets meet. They’ve got me. The sum of their sounds really proves that whole “parts” adage true. Meanwhile, I apologize for throwing the concept of Venn diagrams into a post at all, let alone this early in the morning.

So without further (Freddy) ado, let’s jump back to Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool. Here’s some badder-than-hot Live Music Archive tuneage from Apollo Sunshine’s opening set before Beirut and Deerhoof on August 13, 2006:

• Lord 
• Magnolia
• Better Change Your Mind (William Onyeabor cover)
• Phony Maroney
• Can You Get To That? (Funkadelic cover)

That oughta keep you scoundrels occupado for a little bit while Daddy works…