The Rosebuds and Land of Talk - Atlanta - The EARL - 6/23/07
Above: Land of Talk Photos taken at The EARL by Ashley Melzer Above: Land of Talk Above: The Rosebuds Above: The Rosebuds Above: The Rosebuds Above: The Rosebuds Related links: Band of the Week: The Rosebuds The Rosebuds - Night of the Furies Band of the Week: Land of Talk ... read more
Pop Go the Junkies
I’ve seen some really terrible opening bands. And I’ve even seen some good ones sabotaged by the soundman to make the headliner more impressive by comparison. But tonight at Boston’s Symphony Hall, before the Cowboy Junkies took the stage as part of the Boston Pops’ Edgefest series (ful disclosure: Paste is the media sponsor), the show opened with Keith Lockhart conducting the 60-person orchestra through selections of West Side Story and both world and regional premieres from two young composers. The first, 26-year-old Philip Glass protegé Nico Muhly, has collaborated with Björk and Antony. He said his work was inspired... read more
Rocky Votolato - 6/23/07 - Seattle 2.0
Hello again, So the week in Seattle was amazing. The CD release show at the Triple Door went as well as I could have hoped for and I’m really grateful to everyone who came out! We had a great time playing on 107.7 The End and at the Easy Street in-store on Friday as well. Definitely the best in-store experience I’ve ever had. I got up at 4:30 a.m. this morning to take the dudes to the airport. They are all flying out to our roadie’s house (Mark Gallant a.k.a “The Owl"), in Providence, RI today. If you see him... read more
Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part Three (God Bless The Flaming Lips)
Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part Three After waking up “early’, I dragged my aching soles to the Sonic Stage, my favorite venue on the farm, for the first live music of the day. It’s always refreshing when your musical expectations are surpassed and the Brooklyn Salt Mines super group, American Babies, did just that and then some. The Hamilton brothers (Brothers Past) and Joe Russo (Benevento Russo Duo) recently solidified their fledging band by adding guitar whiz Scott Metzger (Rana, Particle, Project Logic) which allows them to translate their soaring and exquisite Gram Parson’s steeped Americana blues to the stage. ... read more
Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Where have you been all my life?)
Yes, I know I am only on day two of my Bonnaroo posts but listen dear reader, I seem to live three full lives every year at that piece of fertile soil in the western Tennessee Valley and much like Jack’s famous whiskey distilled in the same county, you just can’t rush these things. There plenty more to come from the farm, but currently I am at 8000 some odd feet in what is arguably the most eye popping piece of Colorado, listening to some of the most ear popping bluegrass floating from the heavens. This is indeed the cradle... read more
Sweet Talk at Bonnaroo Part Two (When The Levee Breaks)
So where did we leave off. Oh yeah the Roots vieing for the title of hardest working band in show biz. To prove the point, as soon as ?uestlove left the stage he went back to the Holiday Inn to rehearse with Ben Harper and John Paul Jones (yes, that John Paul Jones as in Led Zep) for the annual Bonnaroo Superjam. Sometime after the witching hour the trio took the stage in the Other Tent to a thunderous reception. It was a hair on your arms standing up kind of ovation, even before the first chord was struck, but... read more
Great Lake Swimmers - Philadelphia - 6/8/07
Photos by Doug Seymour Related links: Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara Great Lake Swimmers: Songs of Ambient Rural Isolation GreatLakeSwimmers.com ... read more
Rocky Votolato - 6/20/07 - Seattle
Howdy, I’ve never done this kind of thing before. Feels pretty strange, but here we go. So my record, The Brag & Cuss, came out yesterday, and I’ve been getting ready for this string of shows for a while. The boys flew in four days ago and we’ve been practicing our asses off since then. My entire band is from Denver. Dave Barker is playing drums for me now full time. He’s the one with the “Kentucky Waterfall,” or for those of you who don’t call it that, a badass mullet. Spacey Casey is playing pedal steel and B-Bender Tele... read more
High Hopes and the Lowest Common Denominator
“America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.” – Ronald Reagan, 1984 I suspect the golden age of political campaign songs has passed us by. It’s not like it used to be back in 1960, when John F. Kennedy enlisted his pal Frank Sinatra to stump for him and sing “High Hopes” with new lyrics: K--E--DOUBLE N--E--D--Y Jack’s the nation’s favorite guy Everyone wants to back—Jack Jack is on the right track. ‘Cause he’s got... read more
Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part One (the Journey of a 1000 miles…)
Once again your intrepid traveler has survived another Bonnaroo. You’d think after four years I’d have this place dialed, but that’s the beauty. Just as soon as you get comfy....POW right in the kisser. Time To Plug into Bonnaroo 2007 Land in Nashville, jump into the fire engine red Monte Carlo, go the secret back way to the grounds. no speeding ticket this year. Good. all the more to tip my favorite bartender. Listen to a gomez / radiohead mix from last years b-roo. lots and lots of lightning bugs. Pull into Holiday Inn where all the State Troopers are... read more
Jeff Tweedy and Charlie Louvin @ Bonnaroo
Photo by Jerry Overcast ... read more
Seer suckers
Above, Colin Meloy (left) defiantly flips off the sweltering crowd as guitarist Chris Funk looks on. Or possibly not. I can’t remember what was happening when I took this. I blame heatstroke. Given my diminishing blogging power (and Bonnaroo’s diminishing wireless Internet, just as I got set to post this) pretty much everything that can be said about the Decemberists and White Stripes performances at Bonnaroo has already been said. Yes, it was hot. Yes, the White Stripes should have been on a bigger stage. Yes, The Decemberists actually began the show by asking the crowd to scream as if... read more
Bonnaroo 2007 moment of furious closure
If Saturday was about the winning of hearts, Sunday was the moment of swell, one constant bulbous swell bent on a mission to rock-or-burst. Or both. The heat shot to its most incapacitating yet. Roo’ers were laying under picnic tables, next to garbage cans, behind other Roo’ers for shade. The fainting began, the first dropping being witnessed at my second show of the day, Elvis Perkins. I was in the photographer pit, swinging to Perkins’ brand of jazzy Americana, mutually aching with the thump of this hot, wooden stand-up bass. She was right behind me, the fan; just dropped from... read more
From “Tommy” to T Bone
Needing to blow out the mental cobwebs after a late night (and late morning, as I arrived at the fest grounds about noon with Starbucks in hand), I stopped in at the jazz tent for the day’s first set by Don Byron (subject of a recent Paste feature), who’d brought his Junior Walker funk band with him, as well as a special guest I immediately recognized. That’s right, it’s “Tommy Johnson,” the Robert Johnson-styled bluesman from O Brother Where Art Thou? also known as musician/actor Chris Thomas King. But King wasn’t the only notable in the band, which featured... read more
A Girl’s Camera View of Bonnaroo
Well, I survived my second Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and brought back some souveniers: lots of empty water bottles, a cloth wristband I can’t seem to remove, an OurStage t-shirt, and half a pound of dust (now lining my bathtub). This was also my first-ever festival camping experience, as the outdoors and I have a very love-hate relationship (heavy on the hate). I was kind of excited about camping though, so I could really get a sense for what the festival is all about. Exiting the festival grounds and entering the campgrounds was pretty daunting. As I hauled my... read more
Bonnaroo photos - 6/17/07
Above: Wilco Photos by Mark Austin Above: The White Stripes Above: Feist Above: Wolfmother Above: The Decemberists Above: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy gets into the swing of things Related links: Bonnaroo photos - 6/16/07 Bonnaroo photos - 6/15/07 Bonnaroo photos - 6/14/07 ... read more
Bonnaroo photos - 6/16/07
Above: The Flaming Lips Photos by Mark Austin Above: The Police Above: Spoon Above: Regina Spektor Above: Ween Above: Gogol Bordello Above: Franz Ferdinand Related links: Bonnaroo.com Bonnaroo photos - 6/14/07 Bonnaroo photos - 6/15/07 ... read more
Picking up the spares
I was in such a rush to blog last night’s marquee event that I skipped right over yesterday’s secondary diversions. After The Hold Steady’s monumental set (which is surely already acquiring the dimensions of legend) I posted a few blogs to the beat pounding from the What Stage from Ben Harper’s band, then wandered out to see what kind of mischief I could get into. My original plan was to catch Ween, who I’d never seen live, but Dean and Gene proved surprisingly popular and I could get nowhere near This Tent without upsetting (and stepping on) people. Still, I... read more
Bonnaroo photos - 6/15/07
Photos by Mark Austin Above: Cold War Kids Above: Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and David Cross Above: Dr. Dog Above: John Paul Jones, ?uestlove and Ben Harper Above: Brazilian Girls Above: Kings of Leon Above: Lily Allen ft. Jägermeister Above: The Black Keys Above: Paolo Nutini Related links: Bonnaroo.com Ctrl-V: Holding Steady? No, pushing way ahead. Bonnaroo photos - 6/14/07 ... read more
Bonnaroo hearts are won in the fields
We could go on and on about the tents, their intimacy, shade, etc., etc. But that’s what clubs are for. Ben Harper, from the What (main) stage, late Saturday afternoon, right after “Burn One Down:” That’s the most impressive cloud of outdoor smoke I have seen in my life. Here’s this huge cow pasture, blanketed with pot heads, hippie couples and their wild mohawked children, blue collar locals in lawn chairs, beaded women weaving their hips, the lone dad-rocker soaking it all in…a hodgepodge of unbridled community. And then the music. I don’t need to describe the magic of the... read more
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
