[Originally Published: May 4, 2010] The Wicked Messenger is a track from Bob Dylan’s 1967 release John Wesley Harding. The bassline defines the music and the words are steeped in bible verse. Let’s dive right into this week’s covers because there are some really good ones.
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READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
The Faces reunited on Monday night at the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London for a one-time charity show with Simply Red front man Mick Huchnall, Kiki Dee and Mel C replacing Rod Stewart – who couldn’t attend – on vocals. Drummer Kenney Jones told Music News Net that Stewart is up for a reunion when he finishes his current commitments to promote an album.
Before we leave, our buddy Goff told us that pro poker player Jeff Shulman – a longtime Phish fan – has been wearing Phish gear throughout the World Series of Poker tournament. Thus far he’s worn a Phish tee, a Trey Anastasio tee and a Phish hoodie. As of last night’s episode, Shulman is still alive in the tournament and appears to be in good position to make the final table.
We’ve been screaming for a reunion of The Faces ever since we started this blog, but you can’t reunite that band without Rod Stewart which is exactly what the other members of the band have planned. According to Britain’s The Sun, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and Ronnie Wood plan to perform at London’s Royal Albert Hall in December. What a shame.
Here’s a look at six stories that came our way this weekend…
Finally, in what’s the most unfortunate case of bad press for the Dave Matthews Band since they emptied the shitter of their tour bus in the Chicago River, the DMB has turned up in the New York Times as the potential wedding band for 2004 & 2008 Democratic presidential nominee John Edwards. The article states that Edwards told his mistress, Rielle Hunter, that he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band after his current wife died. Classy.
Speaking of DMB, if you haven’t seen this video yet check it out…
Despite numerous reports that The Faces have recorded an album and are planning to tour with Flea on bass, Rod Stewart’s rep told Rolling Stone that there are no plans for the legendary group to record or tour in 2009. Did Ron Wood imagine the rehearsals and recording session? Seems weird.
London’s Mirror revealed that Rod Stewart and Ron Wood spent Christmas and New Year touring Costa Rica, Bermuda and Miami to write the new Faces album. The article goes on to mention that the first new Faces album in over 30 years was recorded in just three days. Look for a tour announcement – with Red Hot Chili Pepper Flea on bass – in the next few weeks. Giddyup!
Old HT favorite Marco Benevento recently announced details about his new studio album, Me Not Me. They keyboard wizard covers My Morning Jacket, Leonard Cohen, Beck and Deerhoof among others for his latest release. Me Not Me hits stores on February 3 and features bassist Reed Mathis and drummers Matt Chamberlain and Andrew Barr backing Benevento.
Here’s a quick look at what’s happening around the ‘nets…
Confirmed: The Roots will be Jimmy Fallon’s new house band
Finally, as if the potential Faces reunion wasn’t exciting enough, word has started to spread that Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will join the band for the reunion tour. Fellas, just announce the dates already.
After a few years of close calls it appears that we are mere days away from a reunion of legendary rockers The Faces. Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and Stewart’s touring bassist are heading into a studio on Monday to run through their hits according to the NME. We’re still a little hesitant to believe this until we see it, but we pray this happens.
In other news, our friends at Charity Folks have put a really cool package up for auction, with proceeds benefiting the Bob Woodruff Foundation. The 2009 Music Festival Package includes two VIP ducats to Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo & All Points West. Woodruff, an ABC newsman who spent five weeks in a medically induced coma after a traumatic brain injury in Iraq, decided to open the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury to raise money to assist members of the military with cognitive rehabilitation and other care needs following a traumatic brain injury suffered during service to their country. Please support this most worthy cause.
Has it really only been a week? There were no real surprises last Tuesday, and by this I mean that Pearl Jam has emerged victorious from last week’s edition where we looked at eight covers of Rockin’ In The Free World.
The general election may be over, but Cover Wars goes on. This week we will be featuring one of my favorite John Lennon solo songs: Jealous Guy. There are many covers of this tune out there, so this week’s contestants are by no means the only artists to have covered the song, but rather a sampling. Lennon originally wrote the melody to Jealous Guy on a trip to India in 1968 when the song was called Child Of Nature. The song would get new lyrics three years later when it was released on Lennon’s second studio album Imagine. You can read more about that here.
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Sometimes you wonder why some bands don’t get the nostalgic reacharound that others so readily do. Can’t get enough of The Stones, gotta have more of The Who…The Beatles could take a dump in a jewel case and it’d fly off the shelves.
But where’s the love for the Faces? Where’s the schmaltzy ol’ sentiment for Rod, Ron, Ronnie, Ian and Kenny? Chris Robinson owes his whole shtick to Rod Stewart’s Faces days. Watch the right video and you’ll wonder why these guys are constantly omitted from the classic rock vernacular. Here’s one of those videos, a clip of Bad n’ Ruin from Top of the Pops in 1971. And if you’re really looking for an over-the-top reason to watch this one, just check out Ron Wood playing a guitar made from a toilet seat and strings. Don’t get better than that.
Neil Young on Friday continued a tradition he started in 1969, when he played material from his new album for about 100 people at his record label in Burbank. Young has recorded 10 songs for a new album entitled Chrome Dreams II. Word from the meeting is that two of the songs are monsters that clock in at over 10 minutes each. Look for Reprise to announce a release date for it soon…
We’ve got plenty of links from the weekend, so let’s get down to bid’ness:
And, as usual, after the jump we’ve got all kinds of setlists from the weekend, including the Allmans, the Crowes, Cake, Zappa Plays Zappa and many more…
Apple is getting in on the social music scene started by Last.fm, MOG and iLike with the launch of MyiTunes. The new service is a series of three embeddable widgets that can help you tell the world what is in your iTunes collection. But there’s more: Tech Crunch does a nice job of examining why Apple started MyiTunes, and like Brown, what the new widgets can do for you.
And as always on Mondays, read on after the jump for a full roster of setlists from the weekend, including The Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, Ween, Rush, Ozzy, Peter Gabriel and the String Cheese Incident’s final notes…
I’m borderline obsessed with the short-lived Faces. Between the ridiculous musicianship of each band member and Rod Stewart’s appearance and stage presence, how are these guys continually overlooked? Footage from what’s billed as the Face’s Final Concert in 1974 has started to hit the ‘Tube of You, so let’s check out this clip of Keith Richards joining these guys and future bandmate Ron Wood. It’s a fantastic version of Sweet Little Rock & Roller, and it emphasizes how fucking unbelievable Ian McLagan was on the piano. Nice outfit, Rod.
Wilco’s sixth album, Sky Blue Sky, finally hits stores tomorrow. The band played a warmup gig at Ace’s alma mater Northwestern University on Friday, as they prepare to embark on a long world tour. Most reviews of the album and the show have been favorable, and Jim DeRogatis sat down with Jeff Tweedy to discuss the album and tour — as always, Tweedy has many memorable quotes.
Elsewhere from around the Interweb, let’s check in with some news:
And as always on Mondays, read on after the jump to check out the setlists from this past weekend, including Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Perpetual Groove, They Might Be Giants, Elvis Costello and many more…
My roommate unearthed the ultimate Talking Heads stash recently — almost and entire show from Rome in 1980, with future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew sitting in with the band. It’s delicious, and you oughta check out Belew’s craftsmanship on Life During Wartime. Then move onto Crosseyed and Painless, I Zimbra, Cities and the rest.
Since I got RAQ on the brain following their show on Saturday, here’s a pretty sick cover of Living Colour’s Cult of Personality from 3/24/07 at the Park West. (Coincidentally, Vernon Reid from Living Colour and Adrian Belew will be playing at the just-announced School of Rock festival.)
Even though they’ve already done it once, we’ll do just about anything to see Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings back on a Rocks Off Cruise. It’s been a year, and I’ve heard no reports of her seasickness, so get her and those funky bastards back on the boat. That’d be hot as fuck. In the meantime, let’s watch this performance in Brooklyn from early 2005.
Lastly, Widespread Panic played a hot JB-infused version of Sympathy for the Devil in Raleigh on Saturday night, and thankfully someone was there to record a bit on video. Of course they were, this is America, and these are concerts, and everything’s recorded now. Well, parts of everything…
Let’s end on with an oddly staged but strangely compelling Jane Says from the Lollapalooza ’03 presser. Perry’s a pretty cool dude. Cooler’n me, at least.
I wanna dance with somebody. No, I’d really rather feel the heat with somebody.
David Byrne is making headlines down at SXSW. Well, to put it a bit more accurately, some editors are making pun-fueled headlines about him. The music industry is abuzz after Colonel PowerPoint presented some obviously maverick viewpoints down at the Austin festival last week during his lecture entitled “Record Companies: Who Needs Them?” So in honor of Mr. Byrne’s recent efforts, here’s a new-to-YouTube video of his unique take on Whitney Houston’s rager:
Given all the Industrial Strength Levon Fluffing I’ve been doing ’round these here parts lately, I figured I’d balance things out with some Danko and some Manuel, two men this world is worse without: When You Awake and Tears of Rage (ToR video quality is ‘eh’ but audio is ‘wow’)
Speaking of bands I’d love to see on the same stage again, here’s a great video of the Faces playing a rockin’ I’m Losing You for the British telly
Every now and again I’ll type Sly & the Family Stone into YouTube and see what’s new on the ol’ cyberweb. It’s been about a month since my last check-up, and in that time someone’s been kind enough to post Sly & Co. performing a sweet medley on the Kraft Music Hour — so get down on it
I’ll let Scotty introduce this one from the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions: “Sammy and Michael Anthony leading the Letterman band through Why Can’t This Be Love. The redeeming quality is Will Lee jumping up and down like a mad man. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that guy without a bass before, and he makes the most of his opportunity.”
I gotta jump in here and ask an important question: Dude, is Michael Anthony on the juice these days? Somebody search that guy’s jock. Search his jock!
on 11/23
