Today we continue our series of posts that feature the exclusive premiere of video from GSW’s reunion shows in 2010, lovingly shot and put together by our pal Mike Wren. As with our last posts, God Street Wine guitarist Lo Faber tells the tale of the song in the video. Here’s Lo’s take on When She Go as well as the video of GSW performing the tune at the Gramercy Theatre on July 10, 2010.

WHEN SHE GO

I have two quick remarks about When She Go. One is that this tune, like Driving West, The Ballroom and Strange as it Seems, is a product of my long-standing love of reggae. It’s a love I first discovered through my stepfather Steve, who brought a complete collection of Marley albums to our house when I was 13. (By the way, When She Go has always been Steve’s favorite GSW song.) It’s a love I’ve shared with Tom Osander, ever since our high school days, years before God Street Wine, when (having become too cool for Marley) we avidly listened to all the Augustus Pablo, Burning Spear and Wailing Souls LPs we could get our hands on. In several bands (where I played bass) we used to turn everything we played into a roots dub groove. We also loved the Police’s reggae-flavored pop, and Stewart Copeland’s drumming in particular. At times we would fantasize about moving to Jamaica and trying to break into the recording scene as a reggae bass-and-drums combo for hire; I leave the reader to imagine how two nice boys from Princeton, New Jersey would have fared on the streets of Kingston.

[Photo by Mike Wren]

When She Go was actually an attempt to do a more Steel Pulse or Black Uhuru type reggae groove, with the kick drum on the downbeat (as opposed to the roots feel of Driving West, with a more shuffle vibe and the kick on the backbeat). It also has those sections of hits inspired by the Wailers (they were actually an awesome band) on tracks like I Shot the Sheriff or Is This Love?

God Street Wine – When She Go

My other comment about When She Go is that it reminds me powerfully of the Wetlands, and it always makes me miss that amazing place. In fact I remember writing When She Go with this exact question in mind: what sort of music would it be cool to play, first thing, to a good crowd, just as we walk out onstage at the Wetlands? I loved the thought of doing those big hits, then pausing a couple bars on that E chord, then shaking the whole room with that slow, heavy, B major groove. This was back in 1991, I think, when playing at the Wetlands was, to us, the absolute peak of rock’n'roll success. Blues Traveler had been playing there for about a year before we got in the door, and when we finally started to do well there it was very exciting and tons of fun.

By the way, this is becoming a digression, but I just remembered that, the very first time we played at the Wetlands, they had these super fancy sort of frosted embossed glass panels in the front doors, with curvy designs on them, that kind of thing. And I remember that as I helped Dan carry his heavy bass cabinet in the front door, we banged it into one of those doors and put a huge crack right across one of those fancy pieces of glass. You can imagine how stupid we felt, and totally convinced we would never get to play there again just because of that. Oh well! I guess the lesson is, if you’re playing for the first time at a cool venue you hope to come back to–smash something expensive! Wetlands certainly was good to us over the years, despite the fact that we broke their nice piece of glass, and I’d give anything to have a venue like that back in lower Manhattan to play at from time to time.

Oh yeah, the lyrics to When She Go are just about some sort of remote, hard to get a read on kind of girl, probably super foxy, and how bad you want her…whatevah! It’s for dancing, not epic verse.

Upcoming God Street Wine Shows:

August 9 – TRI Studios (Free Webcast)
August 10 & 11 – Sweetwater Music Hall, Mill Valley CA
August 16, 17 & 18 – Gramercy Theatre, NYC NY

Thanks to Lo for sharing the story behind the tune and Mike for his work on the video.

Umphrey’s McGee @ Bonnaroo, June 9

Photos: Michael Stein

We haven’t come across many photos from Umphrey’s McGee’s instant classic “sunrise” set at Bonnaroo on Saturday morning, so when our pal Mike Stein offered up his shots we jumped at the opportunity. Michael’s snaps focus on the tremendous light show UM LD Jefferson Waful presented to the crowd at This Tent and even gives context by showing the scene around the tent.

[All Photos by Michael Stein]

Here’s the setlist from the marathon set…

Set: Gurgle > 40′s Theme*, Plunger > The Floor, Pay the Snucka** > The Triple Wide > Pay the Snucka$, Puppet String, JaJunk > Breathe$$ > Plunger, Ringo& > All In Time&&, Bright Lights Big City, 1348 > Hajimemashite, Miss Tinkle’s Overture > Thunderstruck > Miss Tinkle’s Overture, Booth Love, Wizard Burial Ground

Encore: In the Kitchen% > JaJunk

late night in This Tent
* with One Nation Under a Groove (Funkadelic) tease
** with Stranglehold (Ted Nugent) jam
$ with Bulls On Parade (Rage Against the Machine)
$$ dub
& full band switch with Big Gigantic
&& with Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Michael Jackson) jam
% unfinished

[via Jeremy Welsh - Umphreys.com]

UM guitarist Brendan Bayliss explained the thinking behind the set’s full-band segue with Big Gigantic to Rolling Stone, “We figured that, playing from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., if we didn’t stop, there would’ve been a weird moment where we’d have to do a drum solo piss break.”

• UMLive.Net: Official Download of Umphrey’s @ Bonnaroo 2012

Check out a full gallery of Michael Stein’s photos from Umphrey’s at Bonnaroo…

As we head into Phish’s big weekend in Atlantic City, it seemed only fitting to plant a Little Feat seed. Since performing Waiting for Columbus on Halloween in Atlantic City in 2010, the material has been mysteriously absent with no songs entering the regular rotation. Thus, a return to one of the many great songs on the double LP would be a welcome treat for the weekend.

This particular version of Fat Man in the Bathtub comes from a 1975 session of The Old Grey Whistle Test, the BBC’s very first live music program. The show, which aired from 1971 to 1987, emphasized “serious” rock music as opposed to just highlighting the chart toppers.

The first official LivePhish webcasts of Summer Tour 2012 have just been announced as the band will offer Pay-Per-View webcasts of next week’s sold-out performances live from the nTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth, Virginia. Both single show ($14.99) and two-day passes ($25.99) are available through LivePhish.com. The shows take place on June 19th and 20th.

For a good stretch in the mid-aughts it seemed as if Ryan Adams was putting out a new record just about every few months. After stepping out of the spotlight for a handful of years, due to his struggles with an inner ear disorder, the prolific singer-songwriter returned in 2011 with the release with the highly recommended Ashes & Fire, an album he described as being full of  “elegant country-rock songs.” Tomorrow, Adams will get back to his old over-sharing ways as he will release Life After Deaf, a monster 15 LP vinyl-only box set. Yes, you read that right – 15 LPs.

According to our friends at CoS, “the set will feature will 144 tracks of Adams’ acoustic perfomances pressed on 15 LPs, as well a download card featuring all 144 tracks plus an additional 74 digital-only bonus tracks,” for a grand total of 218 tracks. The limited-edition set will go on sale tomorrow, via Adams’ webstore, at 1:30 PM EDT.

• List Time: Rolling Stone Goes Exploring Louisiana in 18 Songs
• Frank Zappa’s entire catalog is getting the reissue treat, first 12 albums out on 7/31
• Cover Alert: tUnE-yArDs & ?uestlove tackle Fela Kuti
• You can buy Michael Stipe’s two-story penthouse loft in SoHo for a mere $11 million
• Download This: Ben Folds Five – Mountain Jam – 20012-06-02 (via nyctaper)
• Party-rocker Andrew W.K. to speak at the My Little Pony convention

Finally, Pearl Jam is teaming up with Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester for a pretty inventive concert giveaway for their September 30 gig, with Mudhoney, at the Adams Center in Missoula, Montana. The influential grunge-rock act will raffle off a prize pack that features round-trip travel and hotel accommodations, VIP passes to the show, where you’ll be sitting on the stage in reclining seats. And if that’s not enough you will also get to have dinner with the Senator and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament. Any contributor to the Senator’s campaign will be automatically entered to win.

One of the year’s most anticipated tours finds former Talking Heads front man David Byrne teaming up with Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent. The pair have teamed up for a collaborative album that was recently completed after two and a half years of work. Titled Love This Giant, the LP will drop on September 11 and will be followed by a 24-date tour.

Love This Giant features 10 out of 12 songs written collaboratively as well as a song a piece contributed individually by Byrne and Clark. We’re particularly excited to hear LTG track The One Who Broke Your Heart, which features contributions from HT faves the Dap-Kings and Antibalas. For now, you can download the album’s lead single entitled Who…

Here’s the full list of Byrne / St. Vincent Tour Dates…

9/15 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theater

9/16 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater

9/18 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre

9/20 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theater

9/21 – Montréal, QC @ Eglise St-Jean-Baptiste (POP Montreal)

9/23 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre

9/25 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater

9/26 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater

9/27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theater

9/29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Park

9/30 – N. Bethesda MD @ The Music Center at Strathmore

10/2 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

10/3 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Center

10/5 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall

10/6 – Houston, TX @ Hobby Center

10/7 – Dallas, TX @ McFarlin Memorial Auditorium (SMU)

10/10 – San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s

10/11 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theatre

10/12 – Costa Mesa, CA @ Segerstrom Theater for the Arts

10/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theater

10/15 – San Francisco, CA @ Orpheum Theatre

10/17 – Seattle, WA @ 5th Avenue Theatre

10/18 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Auditorium

10/20 – Vancouver, BC @ Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts

[via Sors-Tu]

Each show will feature material from Love This Giant as well as tracks from each performer’s catalog. ”We’ll be doing these songs and a bunch of songs that we suspect people will know, with a group that includes eight brass players, a keyboardist and a drummer,” David Byrne explained in a statement. [via Exclaim, h/t - CoS]

While in the midst of a tour with The Marcus Roberts Trio, banjoist extraordinaire Béla Fleck (@belafleckbanjo) will appear solo at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival at Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Fleck will play an hour long solo set Saturday at the festival’s Rainbow Stage starting at 6:30 PM. Other acts performing at the fest include Ani Difranco, Martin Sexton, Dawes, Punch Brothers Featuring Chris Thile, Deer Tick, Donna The Buffalo and many others. Fleck is in New York City coming off a run of shows with The Marcus Roberts Trio at Blue Note and tweeted a couple of hints as to what to expect from this weekend on the Hudson River.

Clearwater Festival this weekend, should be a nice crowd out on the Hudson River. http://t.co/xitDQul8

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 7:39 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@belafleckbanjo

Béla Fleck

New York, been rehearsing a new piece with an amazing string quartet called Brooklyn Rider, preparing with Chris Thile for a duo improv set

about 22 hours ago via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@belafleckbanjo

Béla Fleck

And practicing for my solo banjo set at Clearwater on saturday. The first tour with Marcus was fantastic. Life is very full of adventures! B

about 22 hours ago via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@belafleckbanjo

Béla Fleck

After hitting up the festival Fleck will rejoin The Marcus Roberts Trio for a slot at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado on June 22. He will join the group again in August for a second tour that runs through November. Fleck and The Marcus Roberts Trio’s new album, Across the Imaginary Divide, was released last week.

Hi, all you all, today was the release day for the Bela/Marcus Roberts project.Rounder/Concord has some special packages with the CD and

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:22 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@belafleckbanjo

Béla Fleck

some other cool stuff. If you are interested go to http://t.co/OJ9WMb2o and you’ll see what it’s about. Regards, Bela

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:23 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@belafleckbanjo

Béla Fleck

[Originally Published: October 8, 2009]

Considering how big of a role music plays in everyday life, it’s not surprising that characters in dozens of sitcoms and animated television series have attended concerts or formed bands. Most of the time these fictitious artists are seen and not heard, but in a few instances the writers of these shows actually write songs for the fake bands to perform.

For this week’s B List we detail ten songs from fake bands you may have seen on television. We stuck with songs from series that weren’t focused on these fictitious artists, so we’ll save shows like California Dreams, The Heights, Kids Incorporated, Jem and The Monkees for another edition.

Here’s what we came up with…

1. Killer Tofu – The Beets [Doug]

The Beets were a fictitious band that made numerous appearances on the Nickelodeon animated series Doug. The Beets big hit was Killer Tofu – a catchy ditty that will stay with you for days whether you love it or hate it.

2. Drop Da Bomb – The Party Posse

During a 2001 episode of The Simpsons, young Bart Simpson joins a boy band called The Party Posse that was formed by a sketchy old man named L.T. Smash. The group – which also featured Ralph Wiggum, Millhouse Van Houten and Nelson Muntz – released the single Drop Da Bomb which immediately blew up behind such catchy lyrics as “Yvan Eht Nioj.” Lisa ruined it for everyone by figuring out that L.T. Smash is a Navy recruiter. She sucks.

3. Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

The Archies were a garage band formed by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones on the animated The Archie Show way back in the late ’60s. Writers Jeff Barry and Andy Kim wrote the song Sugar, Sugar for The Archies to sing on the show and the producers released the song as a single in 1969. Sugar, Sugar hit the top of the charts with a quickness and stayed there for four weeks marking the start of the bubblegum pop craze.

4. Time to Change – The Brady Six

Poor Peter Brady’s voice changes just as his five siblings are set to enter a studio to make a record on an episode of The Brady Bunch. Instead of fighting Peter’s voice, the group improvises and makes Peter’s puberty the subject of the song. We never got to hear the follow-up single about Cindy’s first period but I hear it circulates on private torrent sites.

5. Baby On Board – The Be Sharps [The Simpsons]

The second song on this list from The Simpsons, Baby On Board was the biggest hit for Homer’s barbershop quartet – The Be Sharps. This fake band was featured in the first episode of the fifth season of The Simpsons in 1993. Baby On Board – written about the fugly signs some concerned parents would stick to their back window to deter tailgaiting – was the band’s biggest hit.

6. Everybody Wants Something – Zit Remedy [Degrassi High]

The Zit Remedy – later The Zits – was a band formed by three characters on the cult-classic Canadian teen drama Degrassi Junior High that only seemed to have one song – Everybody Wants Something. The Zits played the tune a number of times over the course of the series and one episode was about the making of a Everybody Wants Something music video.

7. Forever – Jesse and The Rippers [Full House]

John Stamos played Uncle Jesse on Full House – a late ’80s/early ’90s sitcom about a widowed father of three daughters who asks his best friend and brother-in-law to help raise his three daughters. Uncle Jesse was a rocker who fronted a band called Jesse and the Rippers.

Jesse and the Rippers’ big chance at fame came with the release of a tender as fuck power ballad called Forever. In reality, Forever was a Beach Boys song from 1970′s Sunflower written by Dennis Wilson.

8. Smelly Cat – Phoebe Buffay [Friends]

Lisa Kudrow’s character on the ’90s sitcom Friends, Phoebe Buffay, loved to write goofy songs and sing them to her pals including this ode to malodorous felines. Over the course of the series, Smelly Cat was used in a kitty litter commercial and put out as a single – both times without Buffay singing.  I got the idea for this list after friend of HT, The Coach, told me that Kudrow recently busted Smelly Cat out at a benefit concert in L.A.

9. Eep Op Ork Ah Ah – Jet Screamer [The Jetsons]

Judy Jetson was the boy-crazy daughter of George Jetson on the ’60s animated series The Jetsons. An episode from 1962 focused on Judy’s infatuation with a rock star named Jet Screamer. Judy enters a songwriting contest and wins a date with Jet Screamer that ends with him performing the song she wrote, Eep Op Ork Ah Ah.

10. We’re Goin’ Way Out – The Way-Outs [The Flintstones]

Here’s another tune from a ’60s animated cartoon. The Way-Outs were a British rock group  – think The Beatles – that visit Bedrock for a 1965 episode of The Flintstones called The Masquerade Party. The episode ends with The Way-Outs performing their smash hit – We’re Goin’ Way Out – complete with Fred Flintstone on five-string guitar.

What songs by fake TV bands did we miss?

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals march to the mainstream continues when the HT faves’ episode of Storytellers debuts on VH1 at 11PM this evening. The chanteuse and her band perform fan favorites Nothing But the Water (Parts I and II), Paris (Ohh La La) and Apologies along with the The Lion The Beast The Beat and other tunes from their new album.

Friday, June 15 [All Times ET]

• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on Storytellers [VH1 11PM]
• Best Coast on David Letterman [CBS 11:35PM]
• K’Naan on Jimmy Kimmel [ABC 12:05AM]
• The Imagineers on Craig Ferguson [CBS 12:35AM]

Saturday, June 16

• Brandi Carlisle on Austin City Limits [PBS]
• Billy Ocean / Human League – Rewind Festival 2011 [Palladia 3PM]
• Beady Eye – Live at Isle of Wight [Palladia 10PM]
• Jack White on Saturday Night Live [NBC 11:30PM]

Sunday, June 17

• Bruce Springsteen and the E St. Band – Live From NYC [Palladia 6:30AM]
• Mumford and Sons – Unplugged [Palladia Noon]
• Film – The U.S. vs John Lennon [Sundance 4:45PM]
• Hall and Oates – Live at the Troubadour [HDNet 4:50PM]

After spending years touring with their own bands, and often times sharing bills together, the formidable husband and wife duo of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi decided to put their solo bands on indefinite hiatus and essentially morph them into one giant band to form the aptly named Tedeschi Trucks Band. Late last month the 11-piece ensemble released their sophomore effort, a double-disc live album Everybody’s Talkin’ that shows up the diverse talents of this meaty group.

The 12-track covers heavy effort features a mix of blues, soul, funk, jazz and gospel with takes on tracks from Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker and the Staple Singers. Let’s check out the band’s take on the record’s title track the Harry Nilsson classic Everybody’s Talkin’…

Tedeschi Trucks Band – Everybody’s Talkin’

The Tedeschi Trucks band kick off their lengthy North American summer tour, which includes a handful of dates with the legendary B.B. King, tonight at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.

Today we continue our series of posts that feature the exclusive premiere of video from GSW’s reunion shows in 2010, lovingly shot and put together by our pal Mike Wren. As with our last posts, God Street Wine guitarist Lo Faber tells the tale of the song in the video. In honor of our nation’s birthday, we’ve got a special edition of this series that focuses on a song named (but not about) after today’s holiday. Here’s Lo’s take on 4th of July as well as the video of GSW performing the tune at the Gramercy Theatre on July 10, 2010.

4th of July

“4th of July” is not about the Fourth of July. It has nothing whatsoever to do with fireworks, baseball, hot dogs, or parades, nor with liberty, equality, or the right to pursue happiness. At least I’m pretty sure it doesn’t–for confirmation you’ll have to ask Tom Osander, who wrote the lyrics. What I can tell you is that this one was written in the summer of either 1990 or 1991 when we were living, along with Aaron and our friend Roger Sands, in the top story of a big house on JFK Boulevard in Jersey City.

[Photo by Adam Kaufman]

(Downstairs there lived an Egyptian Coptic Christian family whose walls were entirely festooned with religious icons and who insisted you have an orange soda whenever you came in their door. The father had it in his head that Aaron would teach his son Peter to play guitar, and constantly asked about it; I, for some reason, escaped those demands.)

Anyway, the reason for the title was, we played on the 4th of July at the Speakeasy, which I believe was on McDougal Street in the Village. If I am not mistaken we were co-billing with The Hour, and if I am not mistaken it was quite a lame gig. But anyway, were putting this new song in the set list and it did not have a title, so like the creative geniuses we were, we simply titled it “4th of July” because that was the date.

God Street Wine – 4th of July

Musically, this song was influenced by Jono Manson, whose band, the Mighty Sweetones, I was working for sometimes on days off from God Street Wine. Jono was a legend of the downtown Nightingale scene, a veteran of the famous Worms, who ruled the Nightingale in the ’80s, and a friend of Blues Traveler and all the other people we knew in that scene. So I would drive with the GSW van and pick up him and his guys if they had out of town gigs, and help them schlep and set up their stuff. I’m pretty sure Jono saw me as basically a roadie, but he was nice enough to let me sit in sometimes on those gigs, and I was very taken with his pure, clear, straightahead striiped down rock style of songwriting. It was a good antidote to the too-many-chords and too-complicated-rhythms style I’d developed from the Manhattan School of Music.

So 4th of July is basically an attempt at a simple, grooving, bar band track, something you’d hear when walking into a crowded dive on a Saturday night, somewhere down south, sometime in the summer. Possibly even July. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. It has no chorus. And the words go by too fast for most people to even really catch more than a word or two. It’s just a mood, a vibe, which is all some songs need to be.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. America is not perfect, but at least we have rock’n'roll, the Jersey shore, New Orleans and the happiness of not being British.

Upcoming God Street Wine Shows:

August 9 – TRI Studios (Free Webcast)
August 10 & 11 – Sweetwater Music Hall, Mill Valley CA
August 16, 17 & 18 – Gramercy Theatre, NYC NY

Thanks to Lo for sharing the story behind the tune and Mike for his work on the video.

Last night at Jones Beach Phish (@Phish) pulled out the biggest bust out in their history by opening the show with Little Feat’s Skin It Back. Having not played the tune since July 29, 1988 at The Roma in Telluride, Colorado, the 1,417 show gap edged out the Fuck Your Face 2010 bust out in Charlotte by only six shows. Thanks to the webcast offered by Live Phish for both of the Jones Beach shows, fans both in attendance and on #couchtour were able to catch the epic opener. Plenty of fans recognized the significance of the opening number and tweeted their reactions, below I’ve rounded up a few to get a feel for how special of a performance this was.

They’re nailing Skin It Back. Unreal that it’s even being played

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:25 pm via txtReplyRetweetFavorite

@bizarchive

Scott Marks

::faints:: #phish

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:18 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@heyscottyb

Scott Bernstein

SKIN IT BACK opener. Holy fuck, #phish

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:19 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrianBavosa

Brian Bavosa

Skin It Back. Faked me out on Spanish Moon. #phish it’s Paul Barrere’s Birthday. That’s why we got this

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:19 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@OneTwoOhMahGawd

Tyler Laporte

Skin It Back. Holy Shit!! Could have sworn Spanish Moon at first but even better. Last time 1988, WOW!!!!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:28 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@marshmeli

Mike

I’m never devastated by what Phish plays when I’m not there, but when I do, it’s cause they opened with Skin It Back

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:27 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@hillzy

Miss Hillzy

My buddy Patrick and I have jokingly been “calling” the Skin It Back for 14 years. Wow. #phish

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:26 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@skogs64

Ben

Skin It Back?!? Oh man…..no words…

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:26 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@quenna

quenna

Ahhhhhhhhhh Faaaaakkkkkkkkk. I missed Skin it back!!!!!! Dammmmmmmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttt

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:27 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@sidewinder13

Lester Forbin

They’re playing “Skin It Back”!! 30 shows for me, 82 for my Idiot Human and this is the first time for BOTH of us!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:20 pm via txtReplyRetweetFavorite

@SpacTheBear

Spac the Bear

I suspect they played Possum for everyone who needed to S their pants after Skin it Back :)

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:28 pm via txtReplyRetweetFavorite

@alliedise

Allie Carglushkon

The fact that I witnessed the first Skin It Back in 24 years still hasn’t sunk in yet. Fun show tonight #Phish

Wednesday, July 4, 2012 1:51 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@bizarchive

Scott Marks

And for fun, check out this Twitter search for “Spanish Moon” and see how many fans were fooled at first by the (possibly teased) other Little Feat song.

Tonight, history repeated itself as Phish fans pulled a CNN and called Spanish Moon when it was really Skin it Back #featproblems

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:21 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@thephunion

thephunion

All those who called Spanish Moon are forgiven. Skin It Back hasn’t been played by Phish in 24 years. Lucky Jones Beach attendees!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 8:23 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@phishnet

Phish.net

Tonight, Phish played their fourth-ever Fourth of July show with this year’s holiday performance taking place at Jones Beach, which has previously hosted the quartet 12 times. Following last night’s bust out and jam-filled performance, the band continued to dig deep into their repertoire to end the run.

[Photo via @Kellyferr24]

When Phish took the stage, guitarist Trey Anastasio freaked out the Phish nerds in the crowd by faking towards the instrumental Dave’s Energy Guide. Thankfully, the true opener was also a treat as the band offered only the seventh take on Alumni Blues since 1991. As with all Alumni’s of the era, this one included the White Tape instrumental Letter To Jimmy Page in the middle. The bust outs were just starting as the band then dusted off a cover of The Velvet Underground’s Head Held High for the first time since they covered Loaded in its entirety on October 31, 1998 in Las Vegas. Just when you thought it was safe to take your jaw off the ground came the gorgeous instrumental The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, last played on June 21, 2009 (136 shows). Traditional Hebrew prayer Avenu Malkenu, which had also remained on the shelf for 136 shows, took its typical position between TMWSIY. Would a standard romp through Kill Devil Falls end the string of rarities? Not even close as next up was the tender Bittersweet Motel, last played on August 2, 2009 (132 shows).

David Bowie, just as with Antelope, has started to shine of late with last night’s take continuing that trend. While the band stayed within the lines for the most part, they came close to breaking free of the song’s boundaries a few times displaying an affinity for tension and release that would make a masseuse proud. Susskind Hotel shined on this evening as the third Phish version was the best yet of the GRAB-debuted rocker. Many fans thought the set would end right there when Trey put down his guitar, however Anastasio walked over to the drum kit and Page McConnell played the familiar Hold Your Head Up riff marking the second Fishman Tune of the tour. In a shocking maneuver, the drummer led his mates through a cover of Prince’s Purple Rain, last seen at the epic Deer Creek show on July 25, 1999. Fishman gave the audience another tucking lesson, lifting his dress to reveal donut-marred boxer briefs that matched his familiar dress. To honor Independence Day, Phish ended the set in front of the a cappella mic for The Star Spangled Banner.

Setlist…

[via Phish.net]

The beginning of second sets have been where the best jams have been located on this tour and tonight was no different. Boogie On Reggae Woman featured a scorching Trey solo and staccato plinking from McConnell on the clavinet. Throughout the set Page gave an in-show tour of his rig, using each keyboard in his arsenal with aplomb. Tweezer > Twist was the clear improvisational highlight of the evening, with Trey and Page egging each other on through both tunes. What was so impressive about this Twist was how different it was from the other standout versions found this tour. This Twist was more pretty than dirty. From there we were treated to a string of standard rockers in Taste, Quinn, Julius and Rock and Roll with each showing hints of the band taking the jams deep before deciding on a more rock-centric approach. Harry Hood was notable for Anastasio using the riff he usually ends his solos with as a launching pad to build towards one of the more ferocious Hood peaks of recent years. It’s not every show that Hood and Slave to the Traffic Light turn up within four songs of each other, but after the Shine A Light / Show of Life double ballad, Phish indeed ended the closing stanza with a typically beautiful Slave. Trey was feeling his oats throughout the night, so he made the most of his fiery solo. For the encore the quartet turned to Sleeping Monkey, which included a lyric about tucking, before sending fans home with Tweezer Reprise. Phish starts a three-night stand at SPAC on Friday.

Here’s The Skinny for Phish at Jones Beach…

• Venue Capacity / Attendance / Type: 15,000 / 15,000 (Sold Out) / Amphitheater
• Previous Shows at Venue: 12 Shows – 07/12/1992, 07/24/1992, 07/23/1993, 07/15/1994, 06/28/1995, 06/29/1995, 06/02/2009, 06/04/2009, 06/05/2009, 08/17/2010, 08/18/2010 and 07/03/2012
• Number Of Songs / Length – First Set: 15 Songs / 84 Minutes (18 songs if you include both intros and outros)
• Number Of Songs / Length – Second Set & Encore: 15 songs/ 102 Minutes
• Total Number of Songs / Covers / Originals: 30 Songs/ 8 Covers/ 1 Traditional/ 21 Originals (33 including both intros and outros)
• Biggest Bustout: Head Held High, 356 Shows
• Second Biggest Bustout: Purple Rain, 314 Shows
• Debuts: N/A
• Weather: 84°  and Partly Cloudy
• Wardrobe: Trey – Plaid shirt and jeans / Mike – Blue short sleeved shirt and jeans / Fish- Dress / Page – Blue button down shirt and jeans
• Average Song Gap: 45
• The Spread: Joy – 1, Ghost – 1, Junta – 1, Party Time – 1, Traditional – 1, Cover – 8, Miscellaneous – 10, Rift – 2, Hoist – 1, Picture of Nectar – 1, Farmhouse – 1, Billy Breathes – 1
• Longest LivePhish Track / Shortest LivePhish Track: 11:00 – David Bowie / :59 – Letter to Jimmy Page
• Audio: Live Phish

Poster…

Tour-wise, it’s been a quiet year thus far for the Disco Biscuits. While the members have kept busy with various side projects in 2012, the full band hasn’t played in almost six months since their January shows at the Mayan Holidaze festival in Mexico. Thus, when the band announced three club shows to gear up for their biggest shows of the year at the 11th annual Camp Bisco, it made perfect sense. The mini-run – which is being billed as the Road to Camp Bisco – not only gives fans a chance to see the band in a more intimate setting at favorite haunts like the Starland Ballroom and the 9:30 Club, but it also gives the band a chance to shake off the cobwebs.

[Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

Catching up with Marc Brownstein as he juggled a busy schedule of five flights in the span of three days, it’s clear that the lack of tDB shows this year has the band more excited to play than ever. The break has been tough on fans, but the upside of the hiatus is that the band has a sense of freedom in having the entire catalog fresh. There’s no worrying about the rotation or what’s been played lately: it’s a clean slate. And in Bisco fashion, instead of playing in the practice room, why not just go out and play shows?

As Marc put it, “Practice is great, but you play at a different level of intensity at a show. No matter how hard you try to play at a practice, you can’t replicate what happens when the adrenaline starts pumping at a show. You just can’t. Your fingers get ripped to pieces at the show, not at practice. No matter how hard you pluck, you don’t rip your fingers at practice. It’s weird. You get on that show and play for three or three and a half hours and it’s just a different kind of intensity. So, we thought, we’re heading into our biggest shows of the year; it’d be nice to have a couple shows under our belt you know?”

Hidden Track: So, before we get into the more topical stuff, I wanted to take a step back and ask you about back when you were first learning music and playing bass. What kind of music you were listening to and maybe even seeing live that led you to improvisation?

Marc Brownstein: I started with music when I was seven, right about when John Lennon died. That was a BIG catalyst for me when he died. It was like, what is going on in the streets of New York? What is causing all of this hysteria and mayhem? So, I started getting into the Beatles really heavily. Then, by the time I get into six or seventh grade and met my first band, I played piano and played through that whole catalog of Beatles songs and started getting into more psychedelic music like the Doors and the Who and super classic rock, Pink Floyd.

My first band was a Doors cover band. We were like Depeche Mode meets the Doors. It was three keyboard players and a drummer [laughs], but we played only Doors songs. I played all the basslines and so what happened was about halfway through that year, even though the Doors didn’t really have a bass player, the idea was maybe I should just go to bass and play the lines on bass. So, that’s actually how I got into bass, by getting split onto the basslines of the Doors music. Since none of us could really play perfectly two-handed, so we split up all the parts on the keyboards. One guy would play the guitar lines on the keyboard, one guy would play the right hand on the keyboard, and I played the bass parts on the keyboard.

And then I discovered the Grateful Dead from there. That’s how I got into improv, and of course then I discovered Phish and that’s when I decided I was sure I wanted to do this for a living. Then I discovered electronic music, which is when the Disco Biscuits started to have some relevance was when we were able to take it all the way up to where we wanted to go and then go past that to the new level.

Now, the new band has stripped out the improv – not all of it, but a lot of it – and is concentrating just on the electronic side. So, it’s almost a full evolution from the beginning, which is the Beatles to the present.

HT: I also wanted to ask you again on the more historic stuff, as part of the older generation of fans who got into it more at the beginning around ‘98 or ‘99, I was curious how that period of when things started getting big pretty fast compares to now in terms of your excitement for it and being wide-eyed musicians?

MB: It’s exactly the same [laughs]. We were just saying that all weekend. When we got onstage at Electric Forest this weekend and there was 15,000 people watching Conspirator , you know Conspirator was built from nothing a year ago. It was from scratch. We were playing after-show Disco Biscuits parties. It’s really hard to start from scratch with a new band and so, right now, this last couple of months we’re seeing some really solid growth. From last year’s festivals to this year’s festivals; you know last year there really weren’t many people watching us.

This year it’s ridiculous. That’s what touring really hard does. People start to know these guys are playing a lot, and people start saying, “Hey, these guys are good, I saw them here, it was good.” So, it gets to the point where everyone at the festival wants to check it out and that’s what happened. It happened at Electric Forest. It happened at Wanee. It happened at at Summer Camp. It’s fun, every time we get onstage at a festival this year, there’s been 10,000 to 15,000 people. Even in Buffalo last night, we were opening for moe. You know, opening bands usually don’t really draw as people aren’t really there to see them, that’s just the way it is, but it was packed when we played. This week has just been great. We’ve really just been taking it in. I was describe right now as exactly the same as what you described back then the first time around when it started to blow up.

HT: So, what led to the decision to add the Road to Camp Bisco shows?

MB: We haven’t played shows in a while and Aron and I aren’t playing that weekend, so we all got together and said, “Do you guys think we should play some extra shows since we’re barely playing?” Everyone was into it and Camp Bisco is selling really, really well. It should be sold out by the time the Road to Camp starts. For us, that was just a big a catalyst. The thing is blowing up, so let’s play some more shows. We’re close to home and it’ll be set up perfectly. Ultimately, we’ll get on stage at Camp Bisco with the fire of having played six full sets right before, rather than sitting just in the practice room.

PAGE TWO = Fan-Selected Setlists, HeadCount and the Future of the Biscuits

Earlier this week Wilco revealed the details of their annual summer photo contest, with this year’s theme being “Wilco In Nature.” To enter, simply snap a photo that includes Wilco, nature, why this image will remind you to vote the environment this November, then Tweet your photo @wilco with the hashtags #wilcoinnature & #becauseilove. The grand prize winner, which will be determined via a public vote on the band’s website, will get receive a Jeff Tweedy Signature Model Martin Guitar. Good luck, and start snapping those pics.

Wilco are currently in the midst of their lengthy summer tour, which brings Jeff Tweedy & Co., to Sioux City, Iowa this Saturday, where they will headline the city’s free Saturday in the Park Music Festival that also includes sets from Gary Clark Jr., Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Lissie and The Dirty Guv’nahs.

• List Time: Rolling Stone’s Top 20 Obscure Neil Young Songs
• Marky Ramone launches his own NYC food truck - Marky Ramone’s Cruisin Kitchen
• Cover Alert: Bettye LaVette tackles The Black Keys
• Pre-oders of Animal Collective’s new album Centipede Hz come w. a bonus DVD
• Download This: Pink Floyd – Fillmore East – 1970-09-27
• Hendrix biopic to feature Andre 3000 covering The Beatles, Muddy Water, but not Jimi

Finally, 2012 has been a banner year for stellar releases from legacy artists, and it’s looking like that trend will continue as on August 28 as Rickie Lee Jones will release her latest studio effort The Devil You Know via Concord Records. For her first album in three years, Jones has tapped Ben Harper to produce an all covers set that will include songs from The Rolling Stones, The Band, Neil Young and Donovan. Check out the full track listing…

Sympathy For The Devil  (Mick Jagger-Keith Richards) / Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Neil Young) / Masterpiece  (Ben Harper) / The Weight  (Robbie Robertson) / St. James Infirmary (traditional) / Comfort You (Van Morrison) / Reason To Believe (Tim Hardin) Play With Fire  (Mick Jagger-Keith Richards-William Wyman-Robert Charles Watts-Brian Jones) / Seems Like A Long Time  (Theodore Anderson) / Catch The Wind  (Donovan)

Liars have just released their sixth album, WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”), another haunting excursion into a world inhabited by David Lynch and your neuroses. After traversing the globe in support of Sisterworld (2010), the band holed up for over a year, eventually taking over a building in Los Angeles as a place to incubate a new electronic sound that is a far cry from their early years in Brooklyn as noise-rockers unwillingly lumped into the dance-punk scene. Tonight they embark on a three week U.S. tour starting at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

A dark, moody, yet ultimately melodic and groove-laden band, they have spent a career redefining themselves from album to album while always retaining a distinctly Liars aesthetic. “Generally we go down our path and get engrossed in it, at some point we realize we’ve exhausted our current selves and sort of move on,” opines lead singer and de facto frontman Angus Andrew from Los Angeles, where the band has been re-examining their new live approach after a two week jaunt through Europe debuting the WIXIW material. “Our natural progression seems to be somewhat reactionary to whatever we worked on before.”

Harkening back to their first digital experimentations, the grating and harsh, yet defiantly catchy aspects of They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (2004), WIXIW sees Andrew, along with cohorts Aaron Hemphill [guitar, synths, vocals, percussion] and Julian Gross [drums], ditching their amps almost entirely. This time they’ve fully enveloped themselves in analog synths and computer based sounds to create an environment of insidious dread that flirts with captivating beauty.

“This is the toughest record we’ve ever dealt with in terms of translating it to a live setting. It’s not an obvious physical relationship that can be had with the sound. The question really is how to inject that sort of physicality back into music. We’re dealing with a lot of equipment and technology that we’ve never dealt with before on tour. It’s exciting and demanding. The first run through Europe felt like a trial by fire. We haven’t taken the easy route. The interesting part is how some of the older songs, which were generated more traditionally, we’ve translated them through new equipment. There’s still an intensity to the show that somehow we’re always able to bring. A lot of the times things can go wrong but we sort of allow that to happen.”

To entice the uninitiated, it’s hard not to mention Radiohead. Liars were chosen to open part of their Summer 2008 tour, NPR recently proclaimed that WIXIW, and I quote, “may just be the best Radiohead album since Kid A,” and Thom Yorke contributed a stuttery remix of Sisterworld’s Proud Evolution. Of Radiohead’s family of musical limbs, Liars current incarnation most resembles Yorke’s The Eraser. Knowing what live beast that became with Atoms for Peace, as well as Liars violently rhythmic tendencies, WIXIW’s potential as a live canvas is vast.

In addition to a new sound and a new live approach, they have recently embraced the age of social media in typically Liars fashion. Amateur Gore, a blog created in the lead-up to WIXIW, brings out the visually obsessed, art-school punk in Liars. Starting in December the band began offering teasers of the recording process, little snippets of media, many of which gave the impression of the band culling found sounds from the most curious of inspirations; a houseplant, water dripping from towels and a beard trimmer.

“We wanted to interact with the audience and let them in a bit on what we were doing in terms of the recording process but at the same time pretty adamant about the idea of there being too much information around nowadays; the element of mystery has been lost with the internet age. Right from the start, the idea of messing with the assumption and general gullibility that people have about the information that they get from bands was very appealing to us. We thought it would be interesting to toy with that a bit. Some of the things we put up were completely false and some things were very real. When we put up this post of a microphone getting sounds from a pile of books, that was telling this wasn’t all just exactly real. [Amateur Gore] sort of blurred this line between reality and complete fabrication. If you do mic some books, well what is the sound going to be? It’s kind of fun to come up with that, we enjoyed that from a personal perspective.”

There’s nothing fabricated about Liars in concert. They have consistently remained one of the best live acts around, bringing an intensity rarely matched.

Thu July 5 – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco

Sat July 7 – Doug Fir Lounge, Portland

Sun July 8 – Neumos, Seattle

Mon July 9 – Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver

Wed July 11 – Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City

Fri July 13 – Bluebird Theater, Denver

Sat July 14 – The Granada, Lawrence, KS

Sun July 15 – The Waiting Room, Omaha, NE

Tue July 17 – Minneapolis, First Avenue

Wed July 18 – Mad Planet, Milwaukee

Thu July 19 – Metro, Chicago

Fri July 20 – Magic Stick, Detroit

Sat July 21 – Lee’s Palace, Toronto

Mon July 23 – La Sala Rossa, Montreal

Tue July 24 – Paradise Rock Club, Boston

Wed July 25 – U Street Music Hall, Washington, DC

Thu July 26 – Union Transfer, Philadelphia

Fri July 27 – Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, OH

Sat July 28 – A&R Music Bar, Columbus, OH

Legendary rocker Steve Winwood closed out last month’s Mountain Jam festival with a set filled with classics from nearly every period of his career, including his time as a teenaged member of the Spencer Davis Group. For SDG’s Gimme Some Lovin’ Winwood invited festival host Warren Haynes up to add soulful guitar to the 1966 hit. Radio Woodstock 100.1 has just posted professionally shot video of Haynes tearing up Gimme Some Lovin with Winwood and his band. Take a look…

Steve Winwood w/ Warren Haynes – Gimme Some Lovin’

Last December HT faves Wilco pulled off the inventive “Incredibly Shrinking Tour” through their hometown of Chicago, but the one problem with the run is that smaller venues meant that everyone who wanted to see the band couldn’t. In keeping with their “fans first” credo, they decided to go in the other direction for their next Chicagoland show. This Sunday, July 8, Wilco will play what they are calling their “largest headlining gig ever” (guess they consider the New Year’s ’04 – ’05 show at MSG a co-bill) at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in the suburb of Geneva. So anyone who wants to attend can purchase a ticket, though supposedly there are less than a 1,000 tickets left as of press time.

For those of us who can’t make it out, radio station WXRT will broadcast Wilco’s performance in its entirety on Sunday night both over-the-air and at XRT.com. As an added bonus, opener Andrew Bird’s set will be broadcast as well. Here’s hoping they dust off In A Future Age.

Get your DVRs ready because our favorite music film of 2011 airs on Palladia this weekend. Even if you’re not a Foo Fighters fan when you start the documentary Back and Forth, we bet you’ll be fan when it’s over. Dave Grohl faces any and all criticisms head on and the film includes interviews with every former member of the group about the circumstances surrounding their departure. You can watch Back and Forth this Saturday at noon (ET) on Palladia or VH1 Classic on Sunday night at 8PM.

Friday, July 6 [All Times ET]

• Florence + the Machine – Live From Radio City [MSG 8PM]
• Tenacious D on David Letterman [CBS 11:35 PM]
• Chris Robinson Brotherhood on Jay Leno [NBC 11:35PM]
• The Ting Tings on Carson Daly [NBC 1:35AM]

Saturday, July 7

• Elvis Costello / Band of Heathens on Austin City Limits [PBS]
• Jimmy Page / Edge / Jack White – It Might Get Loud [Palladia 10AM]
• Rolling Stones – Ladies And Gentlemen [VH1 Classic Noon]
• Foo Fighters – Back and Forth [Palladia Noon]

Sunday, July 8

• DMB, Primus and John Mayer – Rothbury 2008 [Palladia 5PM]
• Rod Stewart / Ray Davies – Hard Rock Calling 2011 [Palladia 6PM]
• Iron Maiden – Live En Vivo! [AXS (Formerly HDNet) 8PM]
• Nirvana – Live at the Paramount [VH1 Classic 10:30PM]

There’s no denying that Robert Plant will always be best known as the oft-shirtless singer for Led Zeppelin. In recent years though, Plant has turned his attention from bombastic arena-sized rock to the more subtle sounds of American roots music, first pairing with Alison Krauss, and more recently assembling an impressive group of roots musicians – Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott, Byron House and Marco Giovino – to form The Band Of Joy. On July 10, Plant & The Band Of Joy’s February 9, 2011 show from the Nashville War Memorial will be released on DVD as Live From The Artists Den.

The sixteen song set features a healthy dose of rearranged Zeppelin classics, mixed with material from Plant’s last two Americana-tinged albums, and handful of traditional folk songs. Let’s check it out the band’s haunting, psychedelic-tinged take on Zep’s Gallows Pole…

Robert Plant & The Band Of
Joy – Gallows Pole