With its five famous verses and a chorus that just begs to be sung along to, The Weight is one of the best known songs by The Band and was released on their 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink. For all the information you ever could possibly want to know, check out this link.

The Contestants:

Artist: Aretha Franklin
Album: Soul Folk in Action
The Skinny: Leading off this week is definitely one of the best covers of The Weight and the first of this week’s contestants to feature the late Duane Allman on guitar. Also the first of a few really incredible soul/gospel arrangements.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

READ ON for more covers of The Weight by The Band…

Those holding out for the availability of single-day tickets for the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival – which is scheduled to take place from August 12 – 14 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – will be pleased to know that a “limited number” of single-day ducats go on sale this Wednesday, July 13, at 10AM PDT via the event’s website.

Also, the single-day lineups for Outside Lands are now available.

Here’s a batch of fresh links straight out of the HT link generator…

• Umphrey’s LD Jeff Waful interviews Phish LD Chris Kuroda for Relix
• Producer Ross Hogarth has glowing things to say about Van Halen
• Glasto founder Michael Eavis has some dire predictions for fests
• Liam Gallagher “heartbroken” over brother Noel’s “lies” about split
• Free tickets for Virgin Mobile Freefest to be given out on Friday
• Pearl Jam announces a rare tour of South and Central America

In other news, Weezer and the Flaming Lips have announced that they will share “side-by-side” headlining sets during previously announced shows at the PNC Bank Arts Center (July 28) and Jones Beach (July 29). Both bands gear will be set up allowing them to “trade off songs back and forth for the entire length of the concert.” It’ll be very interesting to see how that plays out.

We all know plenty of songs that reference another song by name, for example the famous line in Sweet Home Alabama, “I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow.” Or how about when Snow Patrol sings, “Put Sufjan Stevens on and we’ll play your favorite song. Chicago bursts to life and your sweet smile remembers you.” But then there are the tunes that just go crazy and mention a ton of tunes over the course of a couple minutes and those are the songs that are included in this week’s Friday Mix Tape.

First up is Heart Songs by Weezer, an interesting ode to a slew of songs that influenced and stayed with Rivers Cuomo. Interestingly, it seems Rivers confuses Debbie Gibson and Tiffany in the process. Built To Spill has a similar onslaught of song references in their tune You Were Right. When Bob Dylan wrote Tweeter and The Monkey Man for The Travelling Wilbury’s, he snuck a number of Bruce Springsteen song titles into the lyrics of the New Jersey transsexual-drug-dealing tale. In Waltz #2 by Elliot Smith, singing karaoke to Cathy’s Clown and You’re No Good both get mentioned. And finally, Jimmy Eat World’s A Praise Chorus gets bonus points for slipping in some They Might Be Giants in addition to a number of other tunes.

We were saddened to learn yesterday of the death of Gerry Rafferty at the age of 63. While his name is most closely associated with the saxophone-rock-hit Baker Street, Rafferty also was a member of Stealers Wheel and wrote the classic Stuck In The Middle With You. The Guardian wrote a very in-depth obituary that is worth your time. Every year the great gig in the sky gains a few more superb players, and they already have their first legend of 2011.

As always, we’ve got six more links to help you over the hump…

• Rivers Cuomo performs a solo piano cover of God Only Knows
• The Allman Brothers add five more shows at The Beacon Theater
• Roger Waters is recording six shows for a possible DVD release
• Tea Leaf Green announces an in-studio webcast January 12th
• Was 2010 the year of The Cat & The Beach?
• Trent Reznor, Tom Morello, Eric Clapton and others to appear on the first Robbie Robertson record in over a decade

Finally, it was announced yesterday that David Sitek (guitarist of TV on the Radio) was joining Jane’s Addiction as part of the “creative team” and it looks like he’ll be acting as bass player for their next album. Unclear as of now if Sitek will be touring with Jane’s Addiction or what effect this will have on his participation in TV on the Radio.

Earlier this year the Dave Matthews Band announced that they’d be taking all of 2011 off from recording and touring, with DMB currently scheduled to conclude their year with two shows at at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA on November 20 and 21. For fans looking to get one more fix before their 18-month break, the band’s front man has recently announced a handful of December dates with longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds. The duo will play the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO, as well as a pair of shows in Sin City at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

If you’re not into a night with Dave and Tim, than maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Wilco side-project The Autumn Defense hits the road
• Sade begins to roll out dates for her first US tour in over ten years
• Stoner-rockers Clutch put together a lengthy cross-country run
• Great American Taxi take their brand of Americana on the road
• Blues legend B.B. King lines up shows into January of ’11
• NMAS side project Hill Country Revue mix headline & support gigs

Finally, as we previously reported, pop-rock act Weezer will get into the full album show phenomenon this November as they tackle their debut Blue Album and longtime fan favorite Pinkerton on consecutive nights. Rivers Cuomo & Co. have begun to firm up details for what they have dubbed the Memories Tour – though we think that Blinkerton is a lot more catchy – which will see the band hit select cities for a series of two-night stands with special VIP packages available that include a meet and greet, backstage tour, pre-show party and exclusive Weezer gift bag.

As summer begins to wind down,  we’re getting excited about all the great shows on the horizon this fall, especially when we found out about the first ever Paste Tour. The 15-city package tour, sponsored by the music and culture magazine, will feature the roots and Americana lineup of Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Langhorne Slim, Jesse Skyes & Paul Wandscher and the Mimicking Birds. Tickets are currently available via an exclusive pre-sale for the low, low price of $15 and will also include a digital subscription to Paste.

If the Paste Tour isn’t hitting a town near you, than maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Umphrey’s McGee announces the rest of their fall tour dates
• Former Blips act Lisse to criss-cross the country for a fall tour
• Robert Randolph & The Family Band head out for a 19-date run
• Electronica act Pretty Lights embarks on a lengthy headlining tour
• Yonder Mountain String Band mix festival and headlining  gigs
• Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin hit the road in a major way
• Politco-singer-songwriter Billy Bragg crosses the pond

Finally, with full album shows being all the rage over the last few years, pop-rock act Weezer recently revealed to MTV.com that they were looking into a tour where they’d spend two nights in a city to play all of the Blue Albumand longtime fan favorite album Pinkerton in their entirety on consecutive evenings. The band, who has generally avoided playing tunes off of their sophomore release, is currently pitching the idea to promoters to see if there would be enough interest for the endeavor. In other Weezer news, the alt-rock band will release their eighth studio album, Hurley, which features the mug of Lost star Jorge Garcia on the cover, on September 14.

It’s been six months since I was able to browse through Phish tapes for Last Week’s Sauce. Even with the LivePhish SBD’s sounding better than ever thanks to a new engineer working on the recording, we still enjoy a good AUD tape. Brings me back to a time when SBD’s were rare, even non-existent, for entire tours at a time. Fans were thankful to grab a quality recording and it sure seems like this led to us being a lot less critical of everything related to the shows. But Phish is just one of five bands featured this week, we’ve got some tapes from Bonnaroo and some other goodies for you as well.

[Thanks to JBanyai97 for this week's photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Michael Franti & Spearhead – Yell Fire, Hey Hey Hey
Date & Venue: 2010-06-12 Minglewood Hall – Memphis, TN
Taper & Show Download: Tim DiScenza

This is a tape from Tennessee but surprisingly not from Bonnaroo. I guess Superfly allowed Franti to play a gig in Memphis in addition to Bonnaroo, who knew? I don’t have an official How You Feeling/I Wanna See You Jumping count, but I can tell you there are at least three just IN BETWEEN the two songs. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of love for Franti, I watched his webcast from Mountain Jam two weekends ago and was reminded just what command he has over a festival audience. Michael Franti & Spearhead play two shows on June 20th at Yoga Tree Casino in San Francisco.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A video from Bonnaroo, Franti apparently really likes Alabama:

READ ON for tracks from Phish, Tortoise, and Umphrey’s McGee…

Bonnaroo can be such an exhausting adventure and Saturday was no exception. With a heat index nearly to 100, one had to do whatever could be done to avoid the heat. Sitting at the main stage waiting for the legendary Jimmy Cliff to perform I could feel the sweat just dripping of my face and for that matter, everywhere else on my body.

[Jimmy Cliff]

Nevertheless, it was an opportunity of a lifetime to get to see the reggae legend from Kingston, Jamaica perform only a few yards away. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame member got things kicked off with a great version of You Can Get It If You Really Want. His set also included a fantastic cover of Yusuf Islam’s (aka Cat Stevens) Wild World. The set was very politically infused, with Jimmy discussing the oil spill in the gulf and that led into a song about global warming. Cliff later changed the lyrics of his own song titled Vietnam to make it relevant about the war in Afghanistan.

• Bonnaroo Journals: Day 1, Day 2, Fri. Late Night
• Glide Magazine @ Bonnaroo: Friday, Saturday

Up next was one of my favorite and most anticipated performances of the weekend – Mumford and Sons. I was extremely surprised and impressed by how many people were in attendance at this show, particularly because the Avett Brothers had an almost identical time slot. You could feel that the crowd was hungry for the performance, as they sang along to every single song. The band opened with Sigh No More and immediately went into The Cave. The vocals on Awake My Soul were particularly poignant. The surprise of the show was the appearances of Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch and members of Old Crow Medicine Show to perform the band’s own Roll Away Your Stone and then a rip-roaring version of OCMS’s Wagon Wheel.

READ ON for more from Jennifer on Saturday at Bonnaroo…

This weekend soccer fans around the world began rooting their favorite countries on as the World Cup got underway in South Africa – with the United States tying perennial powerhouse England on Sunday, 1-1. Being a mega-footie fan Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo took it upon himself to pen an unofficial theme song for the US team called Represent, which you can download for free on iTunes. Give it a listen…

Weezer – Represent

Weezer, who is coming off a slightly uneven set at Bonnaroo, continue their summer tour with an appearance at the Basilica Block Party on July 9.

Colorado’s big festival aims to get bigger in year number three as the Mile High Music Festival returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park outside of Denver on August 14 and 15 with a lineup headed by big-time record sellers the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Weezer and My Morning Jacket.

[Photo by Soren McCarty]

In a blast from the past, the original members of The Samples will reunite for a performance on the first night, a night that will also include sets from Jack Johnson, the Steve Miller Band, Slightly Stoopid, Phoenix, Nas & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Keane, Cypress Hill, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band,Keller Williams, Rusted Root, Donavon Frankenreiter, One eskimO, Mayer Hawthorne & The County, ALO, Amos Lee, The Constellations, The Motet, Bobby Long and MyNameIsJohnMicha.

Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Cliff is among an eclectic group of artists set to play the second night that also includes the Dave Matthews Band, Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Atmosphere, Train, Bassnectar, Z-Trip, Drive-By Truckers, Railroad Earth, Ozomatli, Punch Brothers, Tim Reynolds & TR3, Trevor Hall, Matt Morris, BoomBox, On My Stars, Joe Purdy, The Knew and Danielle Ate the Sandwich.

Tickets go onsale Saturday at 10AM [MDT] through the festival’s website.

Once in a while a band comes along that so captures the attention of their contemporaries, that the covers just start flowing in. It used to be much more common to cover your peers, these days it’s a rarity. Somewhere along the way it got less cool to cover songs that were released in the past couple of years, but MGMT is one of the bands that seems to have avoided this.

For this week’s B List we assembled our favorite MGMT covers…

10) The Kooks – Kids:

English band The Kooks acoustically cover Kids live at Triple J Studios:

9) ALO – Time To Pretend

This ALO side project played under the name “Bag Of Tricks” for this gig on 10-29-2009 and featured three members: Zack Gill (Keyboards), Steve Adams (Bass), and Dave Brogan (Drums).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

READ ON for eight more artists covering MGMT well..

Time is the fourth track on Pink Floyd’s 1973 release Dark Side Of The Moon. Well, this song called Time is anyway. Let me tell you, rounding up the renditions for this week was no easy task as: a) There are lots of other songs simply called “Time” and b) There are thousands of songs with the word “time” in them, and you can’t always make search terms do exactly what you want them, no matter how hard you try.

The Contestants:

Dream Theater: According to the 3,585 comments there are on YouTube for this video at the time of publication, this cover is both the best ever and fucking awful all at once. The YouTube comments section is an interesting cross-section of humanity. Anyway, one very frequent comment is that guitarist John Petrucci really rips, and that is hard to deny. Couldn’t tell you the date of this video, I read about 50 of those 3,000+ comments and nobody mentioned it.

READ ON for the rest of this week’s contestants.

Last week, alt.pop-rock act Weezer declared their love for everyone’s favorite blanket with sleeves the Snuggie, by donning them for the second of their two-night stand on the Late Show. The band has taken things a step further by introducing their very own line of Snuggies.

Check out their infomercial for it…

Weezer – Snuggie Infomercial

Over the last few years the Virgin Mobile Festival has established itself as one of the premiere East Coast festivals, bringing both big name arena acts and more indie-oriented bands to the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD. This year the fest, which had been a multi-day affair, is scaling back and changing venues. The fest will now be a free one day concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 30, featuring the likes of Weezer, The National, The Hold Steady, Girl Talk, St. Vincent and more.

If you’re not into the one day fest’s line-up, than maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• The Dodos will head cross-country this fall
• Elizabeth & The Catapult keep busy through July
• Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd team up for a shed tour
• Psych-rockers Woods mix headlining and support dates
• Gregg Allman Band lines up handful of summer shows
  
• Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer will head out together

Finally, emo-pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate have announced a string of reunion shows. The band, whose debut album Diary is revered among some, will embark on a 21 date tour that kicks off on September 17 in Vancouver and will hit larger-scale rock clubs around the country.

We don’t get a chance to talk too much hip hop around these parts, but in our relentless effort to keep you up to date on the summer concert season, we bring you the news of the lineup announcement for the sixth annual Rock The Bells tour. The all-day traveling fest, which will hit ten cities, is set to feature an impressive roster of acts including the likes of Nas & Damien “Jr. Gong” Marley, The Roots, Common, K’NAAN and Reflection Eternal.

If you’re not into an all day hip hop festival, than maybe you’ll want to hit one of these recently announced tours…

• Conor Oberst begins to line up summer dates
• Blink-182 recruits Weezer to open on their reunion tour
• Guitar-slinger Jimmy Herring heads out for a slew solo dates
• Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival reveals its initial line up
• Rhett Miller will play solo shows mixed with Old 97s dates
• Ben Lee and Low Vs Diamond join up for a co-headlining jaunt

Finally, Eddie Vedder will head out for a slew of solo dates on the East Coast and in the southern part of the US. The 14 date run will find the Pearl Jam front man setting up shop at a variety of theaters for multi-night stands in Albany, Philly, Baltimore, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and Hawaii.