In Music

Assorted news from my musical world:

1. Honky Tonk Heroes – A great story by Jimmy Patterson about the life of Waylon Jennings, and the “outlaw” movement forged by Waylon and Willie that “changed the course of country music and redefined everything about it from how it was made to where it was played.”

2. The Local Scene – The newest House of Blues is set to open in Boston next weekend at the Landsdowne street address formerly occupied by the Avalon & Axis nightclubs. The new HoB will include a 2,400 capacity music hall, a restaurant, and a VIP lounge. The opening will mark a return to New England for the music chain, which first opened doors in Boston’s Harvard Square in 1992 and remained there until it closed in 2003. They plan to do about 300 shows a year.

3. Best New Album this Year (so far) – Speaking of the House of Blues, The Derek Trucks Band is set to play there on April 2. Derek Trucks released their latest album, Already Free, in January and I can’t say enough good things about it. There isn’t a note too many, nor one you could do without. From top to bottom, it’s a wholesome blend of soulful, bluesy, southern-rock infused good music. For the uninitiated, Derek Trucks is Allman Brothers progeny and one of the best guitarists alive today. For the initiated, don’t expect something similar to their last album, Songlines- this album is a departure from the jazz and world music influences on that album.

4. Sadness – Billy Powell, the only keyboardist Lynyrd Skynyrd ever had, passed away on January 28^th. “He was one of the best piano keyboardists, rock ‘n’ roll keyboardists, of our lifetime,” said Ross Schilling, the band’s manager. Hank Williams Jr. said: “I will truly miss Billy. We have all lost one of our best rowdy friends.” I like to think Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph all greeted him with “We’ve been waiting on you, welcome to the band.” R.I.P

5. Awesomeness – Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash

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New iTunes Pricing and DRM Policy

Apple just announced some significant changes for iTunes’ pricing and DRM protection policy. Here are the highlights:

• The majority of songs will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents.
• Beginning this week, Sony, Universal and Warner will join EMI in selling music through iTunes without digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which controls the copying and use of digital files.
• With the copying restrictions removed, people will be able to freely shift the songs they buy on iTunes among computers, phones and other digital devices.
• And, customers will be able to pay a one-time fee to strip copying restrictions from music they have already bought on iTunes, at 30 cents a song or 30 percent of the album price.

Finally – in the music industry’s latest attempt prevent further slowing of digital music sales - we will get to own the music we buy free and clear.

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From ‘Blah Blah Blah’ to ‘Fa La La La La’

It may seem early, but two Boston radio stations are already kicking off the Christmas tunes. WROR (105.7 FM) and WODS (103.3 FM) started playing Christmas songs around the clock on Thursday, and will continue to play them through Christmas Day.

 

 

 

4-Block World

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Buzz Back at the Homestead

It can be difficult to come up with a steady stream of blog post topics, but there is nothing like a week of great experiences (and a week off from work and blogging) to renew your creativity and inspire a number of new ideas. I could probably come up with about a dozen posts or more just based on trip to Texas – we spent three days taking in the sights and sounds at the Austin City Limits music festival and another three days exploring Austin and the Texas Hill Country - but I think 2 or 3 posts might do the trick

The festival was great – it reminded me of our last “festival” experience (Woodstock ’99) except much much better. The ACL festival was extremely well organized. They had free water and, most of the time, there was no line at all at the water stations. They also set up mister stations to keep you cool in the 90+ degree weather. There were plenty of porta-potties too, which were usually stocked with toilet paper (a wonderful thing for the ladies). Not to mention, the music was awesome – a few highlights for us were Joe Bonamassa, Beck, David Byrne, Shooter Jennings, and Jamie Lidell, among others.

  

The only negative was the dust – after thousands and thousands of people trampled over the already dry grass in Zilker Park, by the last day, we had to walk around with bandannas and medical masks over our faces so as not to breathe in all of the dirt flying around. It was pretty gross.

Many of the experienced ACL-goers (the festival has been held for the past 7 years) brought tall sticks with a little bit of everything hanging off the top to mark their territory and make it easy for friends to spot them in a crowd. We saw Texas and American flags, witch hats on the end of sticks, Spongebob balloons, bungee jumping baby dolls, t-shirt flags, and a number of other crazy markers. I often found myself with an eye to the sky to check out these cool creations.

Besides the music, the ACL attendees alone were a source of entertainment. I’ve always been a fan of people-watching and this festival attracted a mix of characters. There were parents with kids, young teenagers, old hippies, and rocker-dudes covered from head to toe (seriously, there were tons of people in jeans and long sleeve shirts, which baffled me given that I was sweating my butt off in shorts and a tank top). There were lots and lots of cowboy hats and I caught myself thinking to myself multiple times that Dan and I might just be the only ones without tattoos!

One night as we were leaving the park, we even saw a couple of old guys with a mega-phone preaching to the exiting crowds about our need to be “saved.” Just as these god-loving fellahs were about to hoist up a big sign, one determined young lady battled the old men in protest. The crowds gathered to cheer her on as she wrestled the sign to the ground. It was crazy.

In addition to the music, people, flags, and dust, there were, I’m guessing, over 20 food stands from local businesses (including Stubb’s BBQ). None of the food was that great – I didn’t have high expectations given that the food was sitting outside on a hot day and not cooked-to-order – but it did the job. Then, of course, there was beer and plenty of Texas Tea. But, after the first day, water became my beverage of choice. It was a key to our survival – and survive we did!

Stay tuned…I also plan to post about our adventures outside of Austin!

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Austin or Bust!

It’s been a long month. Things have been especially busy at work, so I’m really looking forward to our trip to Austin. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning….at dawn.

On the other hand, we’re not looking forward to paying to check our bags. We, ironically, ordered our tickets in June, one day after the new checked-baggage fees went into effect – $15 bucks a bag. But, we do have a gigantic suitcase, so managed to smush all of our stuff into one bag and then we’ll carry a couple bags on the plane. Now, the only question is – will our checked bag come in under the 50 lb. limit?

Flying has become such a hassle lately, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it when we’re dancing (or trying to – neither us “cut rugs” very well) to Beck and Joe Bonamassa at the ACL music festival and licking the Texas BBQ sauce off our fingers.

With that said, there won’t be much action on the blog for a week or so. While we’re away, just remember…don’t squat with your spurs on!

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Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock – A Saturday Night Special

 

We were at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA (formerly Great Woods) on Saturday night to see Lynyrd Skynyrd & Kid Rock on their Rock and Rebels tour.

It was a hot, sunny day - we got there at about 2:30 and tailgated all afternoon. It was the first time in a looong time that the atmosphere felt like the old Great Woods…everyone was mingling together having a great time, and no one got harassed by the event staff. When you put it all together – the sights (flags waving, footballs flying, hundreds of Harleys); the sounds (a blaring mix of southern rock, outlaw country and blues); the smells (charcoal grills and all kinds of funny things) - the general consensus seemed to be: music and whiskey makes us want to get down

Skynyrd opened the show. They still sound great! Kid Rock always puts on an incredibly energetic, entertaining live show. It is absolutely one of those cases where, even if you aren’t really a fan going in, you’d come out of the concert as a Kid Rock fan. And for this show he had a couple surprise guests too: he did a miniset with Rev Run consisting of Run D.M.C.’s It’s Like That and Aerosmith’s Walk this Way; then, Peter Wolf (former J. Geils frontman) came out and they did Centerfold. It was kick-ass!

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Willie and Wynton – Two Men with the Blues

Well, first of all, I think labels were invented to sell the music. You had to know what to call it before you could sell it. So they call it, the blues, jazz, bluegrass, gospel, or whatever. But, some music accomplishes it all…so what do you call that? And, that’s pretty much what I like to play.”  - Willie Nelson

Check out this cool short documentary of live music and behind the scenes video of Willie and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis playin’ the blues. Their new record, Two Men with Blues, was released today. Long live Willie!

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The Black Crowes Let it Slide, Like Mercury on Silver

The Black Crowes, soulful purveyors of music’s most authentic brand of rock n’ roll, played the second show of their “Euphoria or Bust” tour last night - June 28, 2008 – at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire. We were there…In the front row…It was awesome.

This new tour follows the release of their much acclaimed 7^th studio album, Warpaint, and marks the debut of the band’s two new members, guitarist Luther Dickinson and keyboardist Adam MacDougall. I think the story of the night was Luther Dickinson (pictured on the left), who featured as prominently as Chris Robinson’s always impeccable vocals throughout the night. The set list seemed to be designed, in large part, as a platform for highlighting Dickinson’s slide guitar playing acumen. He really was incredible; ripping frequent, extended solos and injecting – if you can imagine it – even more richness into slide guitar staples from the Crowes’ catalogue, like Descending (hence the post title, which comes from the lyrics in Descending).

Right from the start, the band as a whole played as strong as I have ever heard them, quickly settling into their blend of, as Dennis Cook put it in a recent Crowes interview, “bohemian gospel, dirt road blues, freshly harvested psychedelia, uncut funk and tear-in-your-beer country.” My favorite song of the night, which also happens to be my favorite Crowes song of all, was Thorn In My Pride – it was just a great show! To top it all off, one of our other favorite bands, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, opened the show (Grace is pictured below)! I could go on…but anyway, here is the Crowes’ set list, as best I can recollect:

1. Move It On Down the Line
2. Evergreen
3. Gone
4. Cosmic Friend
5. Nebakanezer
6. Locust Street
7. Never Ending Song of Love (by Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett)
8. My Heart’s Killing Me
9. Whoa Mule
10. Wee Who See the Deep
11. Thorn In My Pride
12. Descending
13. Twice as Hard
14. Virtue and Vice
15. Wounded Bird
16. Hung Upside Down
17. Hey Grandma

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Rolling Stone: Beauty and the Beast

 

Speaking of Plant & Krauss…David Fricke with Rolling Stone has written a great piece about the duo:

How a rock legend and a bluegrass queen became the unlikeliest match in rock & roll. On the road with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

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From Boston to Austin

A long first paragraph describing how we came to decide on our next vacation destination would be pointless, as I’ve already revealed it in my clever blog title (I should have been a rapper – could have put my superior rhyming skills to better use.)

Anyways, Buzz headed to Texas, ya’ll!

We just ordered our tickets and booked our flight for a trip to the Austin City Limits music festival. We’ll head out for the 3-day festival, which starts on September 26th, and stay for a few extra days to check out the city and surrounding Texas Hill Country and just relax (ahem, recover) before heading home to Beantown.

Austin is the “live music capital of the world,” so even though I haven’t heard of a lot of the 130 bands that will play at Austin City Limits, I’m sure I’ll have a blast and enjoy all of the music, nonetheless. I’m totally looking forward to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck, John Fogerty, G Love & Special Sauce, The Black Keys, Mason Jennings, Shooter Jennings and Joe Bonamassa. Heck – I’ll probably even dance until my feet hurt. If you are going the festival and see a blonde girl that dances like Elaine Benes from Seinfeld – it is probably me.

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Eric Clapton Gets His Mojo Workin’ in Mansfield

Elicia mentioned in her earlier post that we saw the legendary Eric Clapton last night at Great Woods in Mansfield (a.k.a Tweeter Center, and as of yesterday, Comcast Center). I miss the old days of roaming the lawn, but it is still a terrific venue to see a concert and we all had a great time getting our mojo workin’ too! Clapton and his band were amazing – they played a very cool, energetic set of mostly blues songs, including a bunch of covers. He covered Jimi Hendrix, Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, Blind Joe Reynolds, Muddy Water, Bill Broonzy, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, and others. I’m a huge fan of blues music so it was a sweet surprise and just an all around awesome display (I mean, if you want to hear all his “hits,” you can always pop in a CD). My favorite song of the night might have been his spine-tingling cover of Little Wing but – wow – it is a really tough call.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band opened the show with a 45-minute set of their unique foot-stompin’, country-funk-blues style, including I Need More Love, Deliver Me, an instrumental cover of Voodoo Child, and a tribute to the late Bo Diddley.

Here are the local papers’ reviews of the show: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, The Providence Journal. And here is Clapton’s set list from the show:

1. Motherless Children
2. Key to the Highway
3. Hoochie-Coochie Man
4. Little Wing
5. Outside Woman Blues
6. Double Trouble
7. Don’t Knock My Love
8. Driftin’ Blues
9. Rockin’ Chair
10. Motherless Child
11. Traveling Riverside Blues
12. Running on Faith
13. Tell the Truth
14. Little Queen of Spades
15. Before You Accuse Me
16. Wonderful Tonight
17. Layla
18. Cocaine
19. Got My Mojo Workin’ (with Robert Randolph)

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Wacky Week – Our House Didn’t Burn Down

This week might just be my wackiest yet of 2008.

So, to kick things off on Monday night I attended the Publicity Club of New England’s annual Bell Ringers – the Oscars of the New England PR world. I enjoyed myself – food was good and I loved the steel drum band. The award show usually runs about 4 hours, so I didn’t get home until after 11pm. After getting only about 3 hours of sleep, Dan and I were then ripped from our slumber by the pungent smell of burning house.

I guess some old wires short circuited behind one of the walls in the hallway that leads up to the apartment above us (we live in a two-family). We stood out on the curb for 2 hours while about 20 Newton firemen gathered around the house, geared up and then entered the “danger zone.” Our apartment didn’t suffer any damage – as the fire stayed within the walls – but the whole house was filled to the brim with smoke. The couple that lives upstairs, however, haven’t really been home since the fire because they can’t use their bathroom (the firemen had to rip up the walls to extinguish the fire in the wall on the floor below.)

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On top of all this, work has been hectic. We made a HUGE announcement for one of my clients, so we’ve been busy, to say the least. In addition, Dan and I went to go see Eric Clapton last night at Great Woods (aka The Comcast Center, formerly the Tweeter Center). The concert was a blast. The second we walked through the gates I said to Dan’s mom “so, what are the chances we’re going to run into someone we know?” Out of the thousands of people at the venue, within minutes of us being there, we ran into a whole family that we knew from Hopkinton. I called it.

Because of the fire, we’ve also had workers in and out of our apartment – insurance adjusters, cleaning crews, electricians, and the like. Luckily I’ve got a couple days off – and I need them. My sister’s bridal shower is this weekend and I’ve got to wrap up the planning. Can you say “go, go, go?”

Despite all the craziness, we were really lucky that the fire wasn’t worse. There was no damage to our “stuff”, and, more importantly, no one got hurt!

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Buzz Wins Kickball; David Archuleta Loses Idol

 

Last night was bitter sweet. The sweet – our kickball team walked away with a win (I knew all we needed was our official t-shirts – see previous post) followed by some celebration drinks, flip cup, and karaoke at the bar Samba in Somerville.

The bitter – while we were consumed in kickball victory bliss, David Archuleta was defeated by rocker David Cook on American Idol. Don’t get me wrong ”big” David has talent, but I was rooting for Archie, hands down. From the beginning I knew ”little” David was going to make it to the final – but I guess he just didn’t have the “right stuff” (Citation: New Kids on the Block).

I guess I can’t really complain about the outcome, though, since I never vote. On the flipside, you can look at the loss as a positive – being an American Idol winner doesn’t guarantee success. Many AI “losers” have had great careers thus far – ahem, Chris Daughtry.

Now, Fox, bring on So You Think You Can Dance! It starts tonight - right now actually, so Elicia Buzz OUT!

(Note to Ryan Seacrest – it was a wise decision to die your hair back to a somewhat normal color and please don’t ever go back to saying “Seacrest Out” – it was a dark dark time in American Idol history.)

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Working 9 to 5 (or 6 or 7) – Getting Through the Day

Most of us get up every day to the sound of an alarm, get dressed, grab a bite and its off to work we go for hours and hours….and hours and hours. I switch gears quite often throughout the day with my job- which can make focusing difficult sometimes, but overall it helps to make the day go by pretty quick. Others I know work on the same project for weeks, which can seem daunting. Either way, every now and again, you’ll catch yourself watching the minutes tick by waiting to go home. For me, here are a few things that help me get through those REALLY LONG days.

• Pandora.com- Online radio at its best. Make playlists based on your favorite artists and songs and then Pandora will generate similar songs that you might like. It is a great way to hear new music while blocking out unwanted office noise and keeping your toes tapping til its time to go home….
• Hoops and YoYo - A couple of REALLY adorable animated characters from Hallmark. Their site has great free e-cards, so when you are thinking of someone while at work – friend, loved one, etc. - shoot them a quick card. I love sending and getting these! This one about ”Mondays” is hilarious.
• Go for a walk (sorry no link for this one) - The most practical item on my list. With the weather getting nicer, I’m sure a walk around the block will do you good (I should do this more often myself). 
• Take a Break. Read a blog!

So, what tricks do you have up your sleeve?

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“Nevermind” Boy – Then and Now

 

Ah, the 90′s – plaid shirts and grunge bands aplenty.  Jason Lazarus, a photographer and teacher from Chicago, took a very buzz-worthy portrait of Spencer Elden - a High School senior from CA who is now much bigger than when he was photographed for the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album. Check out the photo:

 

Jason Lazurus also has a collection of submitted Nirvana-related photos posted on his website all of the which answer the question “Do you remember who introduced you to Nirvana?”

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The Most Rock n’ Roll Band in Rock n’ Roll

The Black Crowes first studio album in 7 years, Warpaint, will be released on Tuesday, March 4!! They’ve added guitarist Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars for this album – here’s the full Rolling Stone review.

Related Note: Here are the top 5 rock n’ roll vocalists of all time in no particular order - yes, I’m going there. Each of these guys has tangible and intangible rock-vocal abilities that might be matched only by the other guys on this list:

1. Robert Plant – Led Zeppelin
2. Steven Tyler – Aerosmith
3. Chris Cornell – Soundgarden & Audioslave
4. Chris Robinson – The Black Crowes
5. who do you think?

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Upcoming Mic Monarchy Show!

(click image to enlarge)

Mic Monarchy will be playing their first-ever show on Saturday, March 8th at the All Asia Bar in Cambridge, MA. The show is half hip-hop and half stand-up comedy, which means that the performers will alternate between hip-hop acts and comedians. Mic Monarchy will be playing a 20 – 25 minute set around 10:10 PM. I’ve never seen any of the other acts in the show, but it should be fun and MM will be going all out for their first show as a group!

For more information about the show, click the image above or check out the landing page. A full website is coming soon. If you just can’t wait, you can hear some of their music now.

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Tina and Beyonce – Proud Mary at the Grammy’s

The Grammy’s were on last night (if you haven’t already heard or, perhaps, live under a rock). Tina Turner and Beyonce’s performance of Proud Mary was absolutely FABULOUS!

Tina probably could have picked a better outfit (the silver body suit wasn’t extremely flattering for her), but I loved her hair and the overall performance from both of them was outstanding.

If you ask me, Tina’s wheels are definitely still turning!

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The Red-Headed Stranger?

American icon and country legend Willie Nelson evidently doesn’t believe 19 terrorists are responsible for the tragedies of 9/11. He likens the “symmetrical” way that the towers fell to the appearence of an intentional building demolition, and makes the leap that 9/11 was therefore an inside job.

He said the following on a nationally syndicated radio show hosted by Alex Jones on Monday:

“I certainly do,” Nelson said when asked if he questions the official story. “I saw those towers fall and I’ve seen an implosion in Las Vegas, there’s too much similarities between the two. And I saw the building fall that didn’t get hit by nothing,” Willie said. “So, how naive are we, you know, what do they think we’ll go for?”

“I saw one fall and it was just so symmetrical, I said wait a minute, I just saw that last week at the casino in Las Vegas and you see these implosions all the time and the next one fell and I said hell there’s another one – and they’re trying to tell me that an airplane did it and I can’t go along with that,” said Nelson.

Emmylou Harris once said, “If America could sing with one voice, it would be Willie’s.” As an American and a huge fan of Willie, these comments are surprising and disappointing.

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