My 12 Favorite Concerts - #5 Midnight Oil
#5Midnight OilAug. 28, 1993, Lakewood Amphitheater (Atlanta)A few people were dropped onto this Earth with a natural ability to command a stage and lead a crowd through a night of music. Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Prince all come to mind. But a lot of folks forget that Peter Garrett could put on a show. I had no idea what to expect, but the six-and-a-half-foot singer was just a monster on stage. It was protest music during a decade where no one was singing protest music, and Garrett's earnest pleas for aboriginal fairness and environmental awakening were potent; it wasn't a... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #6 INXS
#6INXSMarch 3, 1988, The Omni (Atlanta)OK, before you get in a huff about INXS topping U2 on this list, you need to know that this is the first concert I went to with my buddies (I'm not counting Bon Jovi, where we got dropped off). You also need to notice the seat number above. Somehow we got third row seats in a 15,000-seat arena. We also were among the few to get there in time to enjoy Public Image Ltd., so I got to hear "This is Not a Love Song" live. Michael Hutchence & co. put on a great... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #7 U2
#7U2Nov. 19, 2005, Philips Arena (Atlanta)I remember missing the Joshua Tree tour. My sister went, and I, being the jobless 15-year-old, stayed home. I remember that The BoDeans opened, and I instead listened to the Joshua Tree cassette on my boombox. I apparently was one of the few people who actually liked the follow-up, Rattle and Hum, and was initially bored by Achtung Baby, Pop and Zooropa. So in 2005, I somehow found myself never having seen one of the best bands of my generation. And they really are. Bono still seems to draw his energy from the adoring masses,... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #8 The Ramones
#8The RamonesNov. 22, 1988, Center Stage (Atlanta)It all started with a crappy job and a mix tape some guy made for my older sister. The job was at a one-hour photo place. My two bosses chafed at my love of '70s classic rock. I'd talk about The Steve Miller Band and the Eagles, and they'd wonder why I didn't listen to anything new and play XTC and P.I.L. It was about that same time I borrowed my sister's mixtape. Among tracks from Drivin' 'n Cryin' and Plimsouls were two Ramones songs—"I Wanna Be Sedated" and a cover of the Beach... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #9 Uncle Tupelo
#9Uncle TupeloFeb. 11, 1994, The 40 Watt (Athens, Ga.)As with Guadalcanal Diary, Uncle Tupelo became my favorite band just in time for me to catch the farewell tour. Whatever personal problems Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy might have been having offstage, when they started playing, they were in lock-step. Not since Lennon and McCartney had a band been as blessed with two songwriters (#98 and #24 on our list of the 100 Best Living Songwriters), and they took turns at the mic singing some great ones from their entire catalog: "Chickamauga," "Anodyne," "The Long Cut," "Watch Me Fall." Plus old... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #10 The Hold Steady
#10The Hold SteadyOct. 25, 2007, The 40 Watt (Athens, Ga.)Craig Finn really isn't even a singer in the proper sense. He kind of half-drunkenly shouts out stories, and the effect live is like he's talking to the audience all night. There's a shallowness to much of the subject matter—ingesting chemicals and hooking up—but he's still so damn insightful and interesting. He's a little goofy and infectiously happy. And so is the music, sloppy bar rock with big '70s muscular hooks. If you look around the room, everybody has big ol' grins on their faces, including guitarist Tad Kubler and the... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #11 Guadalcanal Diary
#11Guadalcanal DiarySept. 15, 1989, Center Stage (Atlanta)I've had a lot of favorite bands through the years, but the one that held the top spot through my senior year of high school was an Atlanta band called Guadalcanal Diary. They played literate rock songs on topics as varied as the Trail of Tears and unexplained visions of The Three Stooges. The music veered from stately Rickenbacker college rock to loose-as-hell rockabilly. They were smart and fun. Problem was, they were on the verge of breaking up soon after my discovery. So my first time to see them happened to be their... read more
My 12 Favorite Concerts - #12 Radiohead
I was recently digging through a pile of ticket stubs I've saved, finding cool show after cool show, from high school, college and especially, these last six years since we started Paste magazine. There are some big omissions—I've still never seen Springsteen or The Stones. I've only in the last few years checked off Dylan and Prince (neither made the list and only Prince was close). Some of my favorites are obvious choices. Others are more offbeat or just personal. But all are seared into my memory; for each night, I stood (or occasionally sat) in awe of the performance... read more
If you haven't seen this Joe Cocker video...
Someone probably forwarded you this YouTube video today too. But in the event that your friends have let you down, I give you:... read more
Sigur Rós, Elin Ruth Sigvardsson & other hard-to-spell things
We just wrapped up putting together Paste's International Issue for August, which will be out in a couple of weeks (one of the problems with working at a long lead magazine is keeping up with which month I'm actually in). The idea behind the issue is that there's great music coming from all over the world. This week's picks continue that theme:CD Pick of the WeekSigur Rós - Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaustOne of the highlights of Bonnaroo, Iceland's Sigur Rós is no less impressive on album. For the first time, the band left their now-famous studio built... read more
Reason #287 Why I Should Go to Comic-Con
I've never been to Comic-Con or even it's little brother in my fair city, Dragon Con. For someone who can tell you his 10 favorite sci-fi shows, who has seen all the Star Trek movies (even the bad ones) and has been known to Netflix the occasional anime film, you think I'd make the trek. But I didn't have a compelling reason until now, and it's name is The Dude (Unemployed) 8-Inch Action Figure. It's exclusively available at Comic-Con, unless, you know, you decide to order it from this website for $24.99. I guess I'll skip this year too.... read more
Bill Mallonee at AthFest 2008
After four days of Bonnaroo, AthFest felt wonderfully local. Instead of trying to decide between Cat Power and The Avett Brothers, I was watching bands I'd never heard of—some good, some bad. And the bad ones left me plenty of time to reconnect with friends in Trappeze, Athens' coolest pub, which also happens to be run with one of my old bandmates.One set that I wasn't going to miss, though, was Bill Mallonee's. Paste first launched as a company in 1998 by releasing a live album from his old band, Vigilantes of Love, and he played several Vigilantes songs with... read more
Sam Phillips, Don Chambers + Goat & Gulden Draak
Sam Phillips to TourMy interview with Sam Phillips is up on the site now and includes the news that she'll be touring this fall, including a trip to Atlanta. It's been several years since her last show here, a jaw-droppingly good set at The Red Light Cafe.... read more
10 Best Sci-Fi TV Shows
I started this blog with a list of the 10 Best Sit-coms since 1980, but in light of last week's season finale of Battlestar Galactica, it's time to unleash my inner geek and look at the best sci-fi TV series of all-time: 10. Mystery Science Theater 3000Certainly the funniest sci-fi show of all time (apologies to both Futurama and Red Dwarf), MST3K was as good as the movies it parodied were bad—meaning it was very, very good. The movie theater on the Satellite of Love was more ruthless than a cage of Klingons when it came to savaging B-movies.... read more
Levon Helm, Pearl Jam and Sigur Rós at Bonnaroo
We just finished putting together our August issue, which is our special International Issue. Our premise is that "world music" isn't a genre; musicians from around the world are contributing to every style of music and adding their local flavors. International influence certainly proved to be true the first part of the day yesterday at Bonnaroo. I started local with Augusta, Ga., native Sharon Jones and her Dap Kings. It was like watching Amy Winehouse if she was better and likable—and could dance. From there, I caught Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet. Abigail is from Tennessee, but her music... read more
Swell Season at Bonnaroo
When Swell Season played "Falling slowly," and Glen Hansard asked the crowd to sing along “because we’re really quiet,” and thousands of people took him up on the offer, I remembered why I love music festivals. When Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a pair of actors who became one of recent cinema’s most intriguing fictional couples, then became one of music’s most intriguing actual couples sang Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” into the same mic, looking at each other lovingly, I remembered why I love music festivals. When Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood told a six-minute maybe-true, maybe-not six-minute story about his... read more
Zach Galifianakis at Bonnaroo
I came to Bonnaroo yesterday looking forward to the music, but as surprisingly tight as Vampire Weekend was last night (they played like a band that's been around longer than three weeks) and as surprisingly big Nicole Atkins' voice is, the best thing I saw was Zach Galifianakis. Bonnaroo has been doing a comedy tent for years, but this was the first time I'd actually gone. I was more familiar with his awkwardly uncomfortable skits, like this ad for Absolut:... read more
R.E.M. with Johnny Marr, New Sigur Rós Stream
Forget that R.E.M.'s new record is their best in years. Forget that even when their albums started sucking, their live shows remained phenomenal. Forget that one of the openers is one of the best young bands around (The National, whose album was declared by Paste as the best of last year—an honor that has gone to their heads, according to Rainn Wilson). And forget that Modest Mouse is also on the bill. This one thing is reason enough for you to make sure you get out to see R.E.M. on their North American tour...... read more
My Morning Jacket, The Bridges & Beer
Lots of good records out today, including new ones from Jakob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, The Fratellis, Joan as Policewoman and Solomon Burke, but there can be only one...CD OF THE WEEKMy Morning Jacket - Evil UrgesBack in 2006, when we recruited Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood to write about one of our 100 Best Living Songwriters, I was surprised that he chose Prince. But listening to My Morning Jacket's latest makes me realize Mr. Purple Rain's influence on Southern rockers is more widespread. Jim James gets downright funky on songs like "Highly Suspicious" which has half our office scoffing and... read more
10 Great Books of Southern Fiction
There are plenty of things about the South that I'm either indifferent to (NASCAR, sweet tea) or ashamed of (a history of slavery, segregation and racism; Ernest). But I'm certainly proud of our writing tradition, from William Faulkner to Alice Walker. Here are 10 great novels and collections of short fiction by Southern writers, set in the 20th Century South.As with any of the lists on my blog, these are simply my favorites. We do plenty of lists in Paste magazine, all of which are researched, vetted and argued over endlessly. But what follows are simply 10 books that were... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 20 Best Live Acts of the…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
