Archive - May 2009

Cereal's mild obsession with Frightened Rabbit for the past year eventually led my interest in the group to spike, soaking up every bit of material released by the Scottish brother combo of Scott and Grant Hutchinson. We've even made plans to travel all the way across the country to catch them at Brooklyn's Siren Music Festival, which also features Built to Spill, Spank Rock and a handful of other indie acts. Recently, the folks over at Off The Beaten Tracks had a session with Scott, who offered an acoustic take on a new song, "Swim Until You Can't See Land," as well as a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Song Against Sex" and his own "Be Less Rude."

Check out "Song Against Sex" and "Be Less Rude" after the jump

The Virgins, Lissy Trullie and Anya Marina at Rudyard's
Show at 8:30
Tickets are available at the door
21+

Recently, we took a short trip to New York City to attend the Dark Was The Night benefit concert that took place at the extravagant Radio City Music Hall. It was an incredible night of music that featured over three hours of outstanding collaborations between everyone on the bill. David Byrne guested with The Dirty Projectors, Feist guested with David Byrne, My Brightest Diamond guested with Bon Iver, Bon Iver guested with just about everyone while The National, whose brothers Dessner arranged the show, served as the house band for most of the evening.

During the show, they announced that NPR was recording the entire event, and would be streaming it soon after – a bit of information that escaped my mind as soon as the concert started. Well, NPR is now streaming the concert for everybody to hear. While the stream is missing a few key collaraborations, namely Feist's cutesy duet with David Byrne, it still features pretty much the entire show, including Bon Iver's magical set-ending "Flume" with My Brightest Diamond and The National.

You can find the full stream here. While listening, scope out our review of the show.

The guitar playing half of Akron, Ohio garage rock duo The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, is responsible for one of my top five albums of 2009 thus far. Keep It Hid is full of gritty blues-infused rock that is solid from start to finish. One of my favorite tracks from the album is the Keys-like "Heartbroken, In Disrepair," which showcases Auerbach's songwriting skill and his love for the wah-wah pedal. The new video has Auerbach and his band, including drummer Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket, rocking out in the desert just before sunset. Give the video a watch, then immediately go buy the album (if you don't already own it, of course).

The announcement of several new additions to the very heady 2009 Rothbury line-up came today. Umphrey's McGee – who were heavily rumored before the initial line-up was released in March – made the bill, as did Keller Williams, who had nothing but great things to say about the festival grounds during his set last year with the WMD's. Several other newly announced acts will be also be joining headliners The Dead, Bob Dylan, String Cheese Incident and Willie Nelson during the four day Michigan event, which is set to take place Fourth of July weekend.

You can check out the new additions, and scope the full line-up after the jump

The "hardcore troubadour" Steve Earle brought himself, a guitar and host of Townes Van Zandt covers to the tiny stage at our favorite local record store, Cactus Music, for a semi-private afternoon show. It was a nice introduction to Earle for me, but was the "perfect set" for our friend Bacon, who was along to capture the event with his colorful words and a much wider depth of knowledge of Earle's catalog than myself.

Check out the review, pictures and video after the jump.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Other Lives made a stop at Walter's on Washington last week, drawing a healthy-sized crowd for the Wednesday evening performance.

Read all about the show after the jump

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

With Phish's highly anticipated summer tour fast approaching, some exciting things are also happening for the Vermont quartet inside the studio. Enlisting famed producer Steve Lillywhite, Phish are almost set to release their as-yet titled album, their first in five years. To tide fans over while they wait for both the summer tour and the album, Phish have released the first single from the forthcoming LP for all to purchase on iTunes. "Time Turns Elastic" clocks in at thirteen and a half minutes, and prominently features lead guitarist Trey Anastasio (Chuck Norris) on vocals throughout. Highlighted by an instrumental breakdown towards the middle, reminiscent of several songs from their recent studio efforts, "TTE" could lead to some epic new jams in a live format this summer.

Anastasio performed a softer version of "Time Turns Elastic" when he joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last week for several re-workings of his own solo material on top of a few Phish songs. Check it out:

According to Phish.com, they will release the Lillywhite-produced LP on July 28th. If you're like me, you're blown away by how suddenly this album is dropping. It's great that it's already finished and ready for release – I'm just thrown at the expeditiousness of the process. With "Time Turns Elastic" added to the two tracks they debuted at Rothbury last year – "Alaska" and "Backwards Down The Number Line" – Phish's new album should be pretty damn good. See you on summer tour!

Former Wilco multi-instrumentalist and all around genius Jay Bennett passed away today at the age of 45. Bennett was the yin to Jeff Tweedy's yang, but due to constant creative differences during the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, he parted ways with Wilco. Jim DeRogatis of The Chicago Sun Times has posted a lengthy article chronicling Bennett's life and death much better than I ever could, so head on over there and take a read. R.I.P. Jay Bennett, the world's a less creative place without you.

Warehouse Live played host to Nashville newgrass vets Old Crow Medicine Show, turning the ample rock club into a barn dance. Hippies and hipsters alike took over the ballroom to catch a burning set from OCMS, which included a few covers and a host of their own material. The highlight of the night came after inviting opener Justin Townes Earle to the fold on mandolin, as they played "Wagon Wheel," a song written using the chorus of an old Dylan tune, "Rock Me Mama," put together with their own verses to form one hefty sing-a-long. Despite a bunch of their sound being lost to the cavernous venue, they still kept the several hundred in the crowd moving from start to finish.

I took the night off from photography, but still managed to take a few videos, including that stellar version of "Wagon Wheel," and another OCMS original.