Super Bowl Weekend
It’s Super Bowl weekend, folks. Who else out there thinks that either Monday should be a national “recovery” holiday, or the big game should be moved to Saturday to allow for one day of rest before returning to work. More people would show up to work on Monday, productivity would increase, yada yada…
So it’ll be a surprise to no one that, for the second year running, I’m more looking forward to the Half Time Show than the game itself. Last year, Prince bathed in the Purple Rain at Dolphin Stadium to rave reviews, and this year, Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers will get their chance to wow the millions upon millions of viewers right across town from me in Glendale, Arizona. I’ve seen TP about a half dozen times over the years, and have never been disappointed. I’m glad he’ll have his moment in the spotlight, he deserves it.
Predictions: “Free Falling” opener, “American Girl”, “Shout”, and “Running Down a Dream”.
And look for a Benmont Tench nip-slip at 2:23 of “Running Down a Dream”.
To get us psyched up for Super Bowl weekend, let’s take a trip back to last year’s amazing half-time show, courtesy of our purple friend…..
Part 2 is here.
The Heavy: Funk from the Land of Noid
Here’s a nice one that came through the inbox recently. The Heavy hails from a small town outside Bath, England called Noid. Their U.S. debut, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire, will be released on April 8th. In the meantime, you can preview one of their funk-rock hybrids here. It sounds like they went with the Spinal Tap technique and turned their amps up to 11 in the studio. Funky horns, bangin’ drums, and what could pass as a jet engine backing them up.
The Heavy – That Kind of Man (mp3)
The Heavy’s Official Site | MySpace
Upcoming Shows – Los Lobos
Seeing Los Lobos live should be on the Lifetime To-Do List of every music lover out there. Well into their fourth decade of making music together, with the same core lineup of friends / musicians since their start in East L.A. – David Hidalgo, Cesar Rojas, Louie Perez, Steve Berlin, and Conrad Lozano – these guys are as talented, tight, and dynamic as ever. They dip into several genres: blues, roots, latin, folk, traditional Mexican, and others. And if you haven’t heard their take on the Dead’s “Bertha”, you’re cheating only yourself, my friend.
Los Lobos – Bertha
Los Lobos is kicking off a tour on Friday night at Royce Hall at UCLA. Saturday night, they’ll be at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA. I’ll be catching them in a couple of weeks at the Mesa Arts Center in my neck of the woods (I’ll have a review up soon after).
Check out the tour dates, and go check out these legends when they come to your area. That’s an order. You’ll thank me.
Another Los Lobos classic…
Los Lobos – I Got Loaded
Links: Los Lobos Official Site | Los Lobos on LastFM | Hear their version of Bob Dylan’s “Billy 1” from the I’m Not There soundtrack (LastFM)
Buy: Amazon MP3 Store
Tour Dates
02.01.08 – Friday – Royce Hall, UCLA – Los Angeles, CA
02.02.08 – Saturday – Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA
02.15.08 – Friday – Abraham Chavez Theater – El Paso, TX
02.16.08 – Saturday – Ikeda Theater – Mesa, AZ
03.05.08 – Wednesday – Ithaca State Theatre – Ithaca, NY
03.06.08 – Thursday – McCarter Theater – Princeton, NJ
03.07.08 – Friday – William Patterson University – Wayne, NJ
03.08.08 – Saturday – Shubert Theater – New Haven, CT (Michael, represent!)
03.09.08 – Sunday – Strom Auditorium – Rockport, ME
03.11.08 – Tuesday – The Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT
03.12.08 – Wednesday – Birchmere – Alexandria, VA
03.13.08 – Thursday – The Grand Opera House – Wilmington, DE
03.14.08 – Friday – Lehigh University / Zoellner Arts Ctr Bethlehem, PA
03.15.08 – Saturday – Bardavon 1869 Opera House – Poughkeepsie, NY
03.16.08 – Sunday – Calvin Theatre – Northampton, MA
03.21.08 – Friday – Columbus Palace Theatre – Columbus, OH
03.25.08 – Tuesday – Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, Manitoba CANADA
03.27.08 – Thursday – Jack Singer Concert Hall – Calgary, Alberta CANADA
03.28.08 – Friday – Northern Alberta Jubilee Aud. – Edmonton, Alberta CANADA
03.29.08 – Saturday – Bowness Hall – Calgary, Alberta CANADA
03.30.08 – Sunday – Eric Harvie Theatre – Banff, Alberta CANADA
04.01.08 – Tuesday – Vancouver Centre For The Arts – Vancouver, B.C. CANADA
04.02.08 – Wednesday – Royal Theatre – Victoria, B.C. CANADACheck out their tour page for more dates extending into the summer.
Up On Cripple Creek
The closest I ever came to going through a country music phase was during the summer of 1992. I had just graduated from college, and my plan was to jump into a career in law enforcement. Ever since an 11th grade internship with my local police department, I had my sights set on being a police officer. Well, it didn’t exactly turn out that way in the end. A change of heart ensued after a few interviews.
Thinking of You
Canadian Cam is back with a look at Toronto singer-songwriter Kim Jarrett… – Pete
Kim Jarrett writes excellent songs that showcase her outstanding voice. There’s nothing fancy or pretentious about the songs, or the voice, or Kim herself.
Kim received critical acclaim for her self-titled debut album. She still receives accolades for many of the tracks, in particular the opening number, “How Long”, as it comes pre-loaded on an mp3 player sold worldwide. This is an indication of Kim’s great universal appeal.
Kim is almost always busy performing live and hosting various open mic nights for singer-songwriters, road-testing her next batch of originals and revising old favourites with bassist, backup vocalist, partner and, now, producer Mike Costantino.
Thinking of You (2007) primarily features Kim on guitar/vocals and Mike on bass and backing vocals. The sound has been stripped down in comparison to the debut album, and I think it works extremely well with the songs that have been chosen. Guest appearances have been limited to a couple of ace guitarists: Tim Bovaconti (Ron Sexmith) contributes stellar electric guitar and pedal steel on many tracks, and Eric St-Laurent’s electric sounds great on two others.
Kim (and Mike) can reliably be found hosting an open mic night every Tuesday at the Liberty Bistro in Toronto. You never know who will show up to perform and listen to the varied performers!
Kim Jarrett – Everybody Pays (mp3)
Buy Thinking of You and check in at Kim’s web site (http://www.kimjarrett.com/). If you want to hear more, a few more new tunes (including Hypnotizing, possibly the catchiest on the album) are on her MySpace page.
The Time + Rihanna = Jungle Umbrella Love? – Watch the Grammys
Here’s a newsworthy item for a Prince geek like me… According to this Billboard article, Rihanna will be joined by none other than the Time for a performance at next weekend’s Grammys.
I’ll be adding my sometimes snide, sometimes cynical, but honest commentary all night in year 2 of my live blogging of the Grammys. Believe me, it works better than barking mean-spirited comments to my wife all night!
There should be some blog-worthy moments, especially if Amy Winehouse shows up. They tried to make her go to rehab and she said Yes Yes Yes – this time around. But she’s expected to be there for the ceremony.
Here’s Morris, Terry, Jimmy, Jesse and the boys throwin’ down on American Bandstand back in ’82-’83 with “777-9311” (quality = shiteous, but fun nonetheless):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABa-Spd9tUM 336 278]
A Nudge in the Right Direction
- Do you want an early Jeff Tweedy acoustic show? Berkeley Place has got you covered with a Dec. 29th, 1994 show with special guest Jay Bennett.
- Itching to hear Nelly Furtado join Anne Murray for a studio version of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”? Thought so. Check out Hi-Fi Heart.
- Aikin at Licorice Pizza has some live Kiss from their ’79 tour rehearsal, and some Janis Joplin from the 1969 Texas Int’l Pop Festival.
- Steve at Maybe We Ain’t That Young Anymore is in full on P-Funk discovery mode, and posts a nice Parliament show from 1978 at the Howard Theater in D.C.
- New Blogger Alert! Java John has a new music blog, Spill the Beanz (http://spiltbeanz.blogspot.com). Here he is taking a look at David Bowie’s Pin-Ups album. Off to a good start, Java John….
- There’s always a plethora of cool shizz goin’ on over at Popdose. Let’s see… Jeff looks back at the New Monkees, Mr. Malchus reveres Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” with a very personal touch (such a great song), and the Popdose Guide to the Call.
Stoned in Belgium: Brussels Affair
This, my friends, is the Stones in arguably their finest form. They were touring in support of their latest album, Goats Head Soup, the follow-up to 1972’s Exile on Main Street (a tough album to follow!). Mick Taylor absolutely shredded up the stage with his lead guitar work. You’ll hear it all first hand in this great quality show.
This was intended to be an official live album, but in the early 70’s the Stones were still bound to to an agreement with their former record label (Dekka/ABCO). So the first post-Dekka official live album didn’t come out until ’77 (Love You Live), seven years after they left Dekka.
One of the great musical memories I have are the years in my late teens when I was discovering the Rolling Stones catalog, particularly their albums from the 70’s – and even more particularly – the greatness of Exile and Sticky Fingers. So to come across a show like this for the first time is really a treat.
And if you’re a young ‘un or just new to the Stones, fasten your seatbelts…
The Rolling Stones
Brussels, Belgium
October 17, 1973Nov 17, 2011: The show is now part of the Goats Head Soup Deluxe Box Set.
1. Brown Sugar
2. Happy
3. Gimme Shelter
4. Tumbling Dice
5. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
6. Dancing With Mr. D
7. Angie
8. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
9. Honky Tonk Women
10. Midnight Rambler
11. All Down the Line
12. Rip This Joint
13. Jumping Jack Flash
14. Street Fighting ManBuy:
Jumping on the Band (of Horses) Wagon
I’m late to the Band of Horses bandwagon. I guess my inclination is to shy away from the darlings of the indie critics and hipsters. Well, I made a mistake for not checking these guys out earlier. Since the beginning of the year, Cease to Begin has been on regular rotation over here in the House of Ickmusic. Lead singer Ben Bridwell’s voice is the key for me – gentle and soothing.
The album is top notch from start to finish, but it’s this track – the finale – that I could literally put on repeat for a day straight and never tire of it.
Band of Horses – Window Blues
Buy: Cease to Begin
Links: Official Site
LastFM takes it to the next level
If you’re here, you love music. And if you love music, you should be on LastFM – a free social music networking site. Especially with this morning’s news…
LastFM, which CBS bought last year, just announced a major deal with all four major labels, and thousands of indie labels, that will allow you – the music fan – to go to LastFM, and listen to any song you want, in its entirety. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.
Okay, so what is LastFM? What all does it do? I turned a few friends on to it over the last few months who had never heard of it, so there are probably bunches of you fine people out there who don’t know about LastFM. So here goes…
The first thing you want to do is sign up for LastFM. It’s free.
The next thing you’ll want to do is download their software (PC or Mac, it doesn’t matter). What the software does is it ties in to your music player, whether it’s iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, whatever – and keeps track of the music you listen to.
When you go to your profile page, you’ll find “charts” of the music you’ve been listening to, your top artists, your top songs, etc. Pretty sweet in itself. But that’s just the beginning. This is where the networking part comes in to the picture. Based on what you’re listening to, it shows you other LastFM members with similar interests, and displays them as your “Neighbors”. You can check out their profile pages to see what they’re listening to. You can send them invitations to be your “Friend” too. Friends can send recommendations to other friends, send private messages, etc.
Then there’s the Recommendations feature. By just typing in an artist, LastFM will start playing full tunes of similar artists – a great way to discover new music. It’s pretty sweet. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but it’s not. I’m a music GEEK, and this is music geek heaven, in my opinion. And now that they’ve made a deal with virtually the entire music industry (refreshing to see), this takes LastFM to another level.
Just think, any song you want to hear – in its entirety – for free. I am GEEEKED!
So check out my LastFM presence. If you sign up, send me a friend invitation. The more, the merrier!
That was my LastFM pitch.
Next Up: I have a ton of friends who still visit web sites one by one to check them out. This cannot stand! So coming soon… “Bloglines, Google Reader, and RSS Feeds: Get Fed!” or “You Still Check out Web Sites One by One? WTF?”
