CMJ coverage

Another CMJ Music Marathon in NYC has come and gone, and damn if I missed the lot of it. But there's good news, cause you can revisit CMJ and all the news and views about new bands, new sounds and new haircuts.

Click to these:
-- On this NPR Music's All Song Considered segment.... "Bob Boilen sits down with two New York journalists: Maura Johnston, music editor for The Village Voice, and Sydney Brownstone, a writer and videographer for The L Magazine. Together, the three pick a dozen favorite acts from this year's CMJ, while sharing stories of their disparate journeys through the festival."

-- Click over to BlearyEyedBrooklyn for upclose and intimate videos from last week's crop of cool new bands at CMJ.

-- Stereogum shares its top picks for the CMJ week.

-- Pitchfork covers the action from Friday

-- Grab some CMJ live sets by new bands over at NYC Taper.

Live from Tokyo - Indie Underground Rock Doc

LIVE FROM TOKYO - a documentary about underground music - Trailer from ingenious, inc. on Vimeo.

"Directed by U.S. filmmaker Lewis Rapkin, Live From Tokyo is a fascinating documentary that takes viewers through the back streets in Shinjuku, the intersections in Shibuya, the alleys in Koenji, and all over Tokyo , as it highlights the innovative musicians that create the city’s multi-faceted underground music scene. Tokyo ’s reputation for an overwhelming variety of global information, media-saturated urban environment and cutting edge innovation, makes it the perfect sample for addressing a new outlook on music culture.

The film explores this eccentric music culture set within the back­drop of the modern Japanese megalopolis. Featuring surreal stop-motion animation, interviews and live performances by acts such as Nisennen­mondai, Tenniscoats, DMBQ, PARA (Boredoms members), Shugo Tokumaru, Sexy-Synthesizer, Sajjanu, KIRIHITO, d.v.d, Optrum, Uhnellys, Samm Bennett, W. David Marx, Tokyo Pinsalocks and many more."

If you buy the DVD, you get the free soundtrack LP as a digital download. Audio tracks were donated by many of the bands that appear in the film. A special code is contained within the package of each DVD allowing the viewer to down­load the album at no extra charge.

Click here to stream the 'Live From Tokyo' soundtrack.

Live from Tokyo is out now on Good Charamel Records, with distribution through MVD Visual. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Live From Tokyo DVD/ALBUM will be donated to the Red Cross Tsunami Relief fund in Japan.

Wilco Tickets on sales Friday for ASU show (Tempe)

Get your tickets Friday morning to see veteran rock band Wilco for its Saturday, Jan 21 ASU (Tempe, AZ) appearance early next year on The Whole Love Tour. Wilco has already sold out five shows in its hometown in December. That's awesome and stunning.



Or be one of the smart ones and follow "Stateside" (the show's promoter) on Facebook and they will send an early ticket-buying link on Thursday.See deets below.

The Pixies - Lost Cities Tour kicks off Thursday

Indie rock legends The Pixies kick off another round of touring for their classic 1989 LP Doolittle on Thursday in Montclair, NJ. It's the start of the 'Lost Cities' tour, playing cities The Pixies haven't played in a looooooooooooooooong time, if at all.



Surfer Blood and Imaginary Cities are tour openers.

Pixies Doolittle “Lost City” tour dates:
Oct. 27: Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, N.J.
Oct. 28: Asbury Park Convention Hall, Asbury Park, N.J.
Oct. 29: Palace Theatre, Waterbury, CT
Oct. 30: Hampton Beach Ballroom, Hampton Beach, N.H.
Nov. 1: State Theatre, Portland, ME
Nov. 2: The Armory, Rochester, N.Y.
Nov. 3: State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton, PA
Nov. 5: Paramount Theatre, Huntington, N.Y.
Nov. 6: Grand Opera House, Wilmington, DE
Nov. 8: War Memorial Auditorium, Greensboro, N.C.
Nov. 9: Louisville Palace Theatre, Louisville, KY
Nov. 10: Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, TN
Nov. 11: North Charleston Performing Arts Center, North Charleston, S.C.
Nov. 14: Orpheum Theatre, Memphis, TN
Nov. 15: Bricktown Events Center, Oklahoma, OK
Nov. 16: Santa Fe Center, Sante Fe, N.M.
Nov. 18: Fox Theatre, Bakersfield, CA
Nov. 20: The Uptown Theatre, Napa, CA
Nov. 21: Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA

New Music Tuesday: Kirby "Picking up Page"

Yes, there is new music being made everywhere, and it's not just being written by Noel Gallagher and Robert Pollard.

Kirby is the band/recording name of a guitarist-singer John Kirby, and he put out a new CD in September called "In the Dark". The blurbists write:

"Into The Dark, (John) KIRBY’s second official release, wrestles the ideas of hostile despair, anguish of being unable to change, the worthlessness of envy and the desire to be wanted so unconditionally. It's a glimpse into the psyche of a man whose spent the last two years touring Canada, crossing the country numerous times. The EP works towards summarizing the vast enormity of his experiences into seven calculated, succinct booms of folk-pop passion and interwoven with hook filled melody."

Kirby writes that "I’m working on following the EP with tours to Europe, and America." So here's hoping for a tour soon by this popster. Check out this fine pop song by Kirby called "Picking Up Page":

New GBV single "The Unsinkable Fats Domino"

From Robert Pollard's page:

10/25/11 "The Unsinkable Fats Domino," the first preview of the new Guided By Voices, can be heard / downloaded here. The song will come out as a 7" single on Matador Records on Nov. 22, and on the album Let's Go Eat The Factory, coming out January 1 on GBV Inc. in North America and on Fire Records for the rest of the world.

Download the track and read more at Stereogum.

The Musical Box - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

[SPOILER ALERT: Prog Rock '70s history Geek Out full straight ahead. You have been warned.]

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French-Canadian Genesis tribute group The Musical Box, which has been recreating Peter Gabriel-era Genesis concerts for nearly 20 years now, brought its spectacle to Phoenix over the weekend, and it was (again!) terrific.

The Musical Box is currently performing Genesis' much-loved 1974 "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". It is a full-on recreation of what American audiences might've seen in 1974 and 1975 when genesis toured the LP here. Here's a snippet from a fine CashBox Canada article:

"“We keep that music alive, in a way,” says Serge Morissette, who serves as the band’s artistic director. “I’m sure we’ve sold a lot of Genesis albums. No doubt. Each time we’re in a new city, in a new arena, there’s new interest.” The group has an exclusive licence to mount its current tour, restaging Genesis’s 1974 rock opera The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

“They’d never granted anyone that kind of licence,” says Morissette, who spent two years negotiating the rights. Morissette is a lifelong Genesis fan. with a collection of memorabilia that includes hundreds of photos, films and documents, material the crew uses to reconstruct the elaborate costumes and sets. The 1,120 slides in the Musical Box’s current stage show are replicas of the 31-year-old originals; the band even hired Genesis’s original slide operator to put them in proper sequence."

Here's The Musical Box performing the opening title cut (not from the Phoenix show, but just the same):


It was my third time seeing this outfit. I saw them first in a rachety, sound-plagued performance of "Foxtrot" at NYC's Irving Plaza rock club, and again in New York in 2004 seeing the band perform The Lamb. Hearing it again, with all those years of performing time under The Musical Box's belt, made it a captivating concert. The band is touring this show in Eastern Canada and the United States from October to December 2011, and then onto Western Europe in February 2012.

The sound in the Orpheum was wonderful, the crowd was respectful with its handheld devices, and The Musical Box treated us to two extra encore songs of early Genesis - The Musical Box and Watcher of the Skies. Thanks to Phoenix promoter Danny Zelisko for bringing The Musical Box to Phoenix, and for taking the time to personally introduce them onstage.

Alabama Shakes - CMJ

Awesome! Alabama Shakes, a band I blogged about this past summer that knocked my aural socks off apparently did the same aurally and visually this past weekend to NY Times music critic Jon Pareles, who wrote the wonderful review of the band from its CMJ appearance this past Friday in New York:

"Her guitar playing guides the band, from deliberate picking to outbursts of tremolo; if there’s a hint of post-1970s influence, it’s in the way Alabama Shakes can suddenly crank things up, as if someone might have smuggled them a Pixies album. Or maybe the band just likes its dynamics. The music is old-fashioned – though, really, just a decade more old-fashioned than the punk that’s all over CMJ – but its fervor is wholehearted and the band has musicianship to match."

Here's a taste at what blew the roof off the Bowery Ballroom...

The Ramones - Live October 1976, Max's Kansas City

Here they are, The mighty Ramones in all their early NYC glory, kicking out "Havana Affair" and "Listen to My Heart" from the stage at Max's Kansas City in October 1976. That's....um, wait for it....some 35 years ago. Wild.

Stream Lou Reed & Metallica new LP "Lulu"

Click here to stream the new Lou Reed and Metallica collaboration called "Lulu".

From the combo site:
"Lulu is a musical collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica. It is inspired by German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind’s plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, which tell the story of a young abused dancer’s life and relationships, and are now collectively known as the Lulu plays. Since their publication in the early 1900s, the plays have been the inspiration for a silent film (Pandora’s Box, 1929), an opera, and countless other creative endeavors. The plays challenged the sexual and moral standards of their day and have remained highly controversial.

Originally the lyrics and musical landscape for Lulu were sketched out by Lou for a theatrical production in Berlin. After Lou performed with Metallica at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts in New York in 2009 they all knew they wanted to make more music together. The Lulu project began in May 2011 at HQ studios in Northern California, with Lou’s lyrics as the starting point."

I've been listening today, and it's got to be one of the strangest pairings in rock history. Lou's anarchic poetry mixed with Metallica's deafening heaviness, and it creates.....actually, something grand and powerful. My first time through and it's a wildly invigorating ride. And this comes from a pop guy, more or less.

Give it a listen yourself and drop a note in the comments.

X - 'The Unheard Music' re-release - US Tour

MVD Entertainment announces the Silver Anniversary Edition of X - The Unheard Music, a great rock doc from the 1980s that went largely unseen over the years. It's being re-released in Blu-Ray, DVD and whatever else people spend money on these days.

"X: The Unheard Music takes long, detailed, and often funny look at the LA music scene of the late 70s and 80s and focuses on the group that critics had singled out as the leader of the underground pack. The Unheard Music is a documentary that combines live footage of the band and interviews with the four members (as well as their friends and families) with surreal music videos and montages of newsreel footage and vintage television commercials which help to illustrate X's uphill struggle against the music industry. Their story rings true even today. Bonus interviews and more.

"Available for the first time in HD, this Silver Anniversary Edition of one of the greatest rock films ever made includes a new film transfer and 5.1 mix, plus never-before-seen Xtras: a 25th anniversary dialogue with John Doe & Exene Cervenka; an inside look into the making of the film with Angel City Productions (circa 1983); a raw outtake of a live performance of the song "Some Other Time"; the original theatrical trailer; and a replica of the original souvenir song book."

Here's a cool clip of X performing "White Girl":


X the band is also touring the US in the next weeks, performing at Club Red in Tempe, AZ on December 9th with special Guests : Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss(Circle Jerks, the Weirdos, Joe Strummer) * The Black Tibetins * The Love Me Nots * The Father Figures * More TBA

CMJ Week in NYC

One of the things I miss about not being in NYC this time of year is attending all the free music parties with Brooklyn Vegan for CMJ Music Marathon week. They were always a great place to see new bands you've not heard of, meet new friends, drink more than you should at 2pm, and start your day to late night debauchery.

Like every March at South by Southwest, New York and Brooklyn becomes deluged with rock bands from all over the world during CMJ week, and all of the bands are hoping to make new fans, and provoke a spark in someone's ears and brains. Being out west makes it hard to enjoy it all, but I'll keep my eyes peeled on Youtube and the blogs and bring some action this week to Waved Rumor.

New (last?) R.E.M. single stream at Rolling Stone

The new R.E.M. single "We All Go Back To Where We Belong", culled from recent recording sessions is streaming at Rolling Stone, and it's a lovely tune.

Rolling Stone writes:
"The song, a wistful ballad with a lush Burt Bacharach-esque arrangement, recalls the trio's experimentations with easy-listening pop on their 2001 album Reveal, but the mood is even more placid and relaxed. It sounds a bit like the closing credits of a movie, a happy ending where the heroes head off into the sunset. As the tune winds down, Michael Stipe sings "Is this really what you want?" As much as we'd all love for the answer to be "no," you can hear in his voice that he's finally ready to move on, even though he's overwhelmed by sentiment."

Michael sings "This might be my essence....lost". Sounds like that. I could do without Michael's gargled "haaaaa haaaa haaas" at the end. Maybe a melodica would've fit there better. But if it's a sendoff for the band with their imminent greatest hits package, then it's a terrific one.

Also, check out R.E.M. doing a nine-minute 'Country Feedback' at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit show in 1998. It's from an upcoming DVD release of that show.

Try Rdio for Free

Rdio writes today with:
"You can now listen to music for free on Rdio! Play millions of songs from the web anytime you want. No ads. We have new albums and new apps that we want you to check out. No credit card required, no obligations."

Rdio is battling against the large catalogs of MOG and Spotify, so wrote OSNews over the summer:
"So if you try to weigh all three services, you'd likely say they're about the same, with Spotify having an advantage, with possibly RDIO getting a 2nd place. However, it's not so. Spotify/MOG leap ahead to a huge advantage over RDIO in regards to their catalog size. At the end of the day, if your favorite artist is not part of the service, having a nice social networking integration won't do jack to keep you satisfied. That's what's killing RDIO right now: their limited music catalog. They have about 8-9 million songs, while MOG has about 11-12 million, with Spotify having about 13 million (15 million according to some news outlets)."

Not sure if that's entirely true, however. What have you found? Which music listening site do you like? Flip it into the comments.

Chameleons Vox Upcoming Nov-Dec US Tour

Exciting to read that ChameleonsVox (with two members of the original Chameleons UK) will be touring parts of the US in November and December.

"Chameleons Vox is Mark Burgess, bassist, lead vocalist and principle songwriter with 80's Manchester band 'The Chameleons' (UK), backed by a loose collection of musicians currently spanning two continents. ChameleonsVox is a vehicle for the perpetual performance of 'Chameleons' material by people who have a deep passion for the music and a desire to keep the music alive in the wake of the original band's demise in 2003. ChameleonsVox continues to tour in Europe and the United States and plan to take the show even further afield in 2011 and 2012."

The tour comes to Phoenix's Rhythm Room on November 14th. The lineup of bands on this date could be the most perfectly complementary lineup of bands ever: Chameleons Vox will be supported by Manchester's broody dream poppers Black Swan Lane (who were helped by Mark Burgess on some of their recordings). Do yourself a favor and click on the BSL player at their site to listen to the awesome post-gloom pop. Also as support at the show will be The Captives, who also traffic in post-punk sounds recalling the heady days of The Smiths, The Cure and The Chameleons. Buy tickets here for the Phoenix show.

The Big Takeover has always been a fan of Burgess' music, from the brooding tunes to the brash one. Here's a top review by Tim Bugbee of one of the concerts Burgess put on a few years ago with a Boston band called The Curtain Society, filling in the music for old Chameleons songs.

Here's a fine rendition from this past August of their song 'Nostalgia':

Foo Fighters - United Airways Center, Phoenix last night

Foo Fighters played United Airways Center last night in downtown Phoenix and this is the view that Dave Grohl had. Cool right?


[Great pic from SouthWest Shots]

The band even played Tom Petty's 1978 song 'Breakdown' last night. here's a clip from the nosebleeds....

YouTube - Buy Music Merch From Your Fave Indie Artist Without Ever Getting Off Your Couch

YouTube announced today a new program (during this kickoff CMJ week) to help indie music artists sell merch and more through their YouTube channels. No longer will there be a need to go to a rock club to buy your favorite band's tee. Plus, you won't have to be near all these sweaty people or get beer spilt on your shoes!

Tech Crunch wrote today:
"Through a feature called the Merch Store, YouTube partners will be able to sell artist merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and other experiences to fans and visitors. YouTube has partnered with a number of companies to launch these stores. Topspin is helping power merchandise sales, concert tickets and experiences; SongKick will help sell tickets for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon will power transactions for music downloads."

From Social Media Times:
"Prior to this launch, music partners were able to link out from their page to their personal websites and e-commerce stores, iTunes and other sites where fans could purchase music and merchandise, but offering this stuff directly from a musicians YouTube channel will make it much easier for fans to find and buy merch from their favorite YouTube artists. Merchandise will be available through a number of affiliates, including Topspin, Songkick, iTunes and Amazon."

Rock Clip of the Week - Devo, Gut Feeling, live 1996

It's D-E-V-O! Live 1996, Irvine, California, doing their classic 70s song 'Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy', likely as an encore song. It starts out a bit slower, but they kick it up at the 2:27 mark, nice.



From Wikipedia:
"Gut Feeling" is a song by Devo. It appears on their 1978 album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!. The track was used on the soundtrack of the Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, for which Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh composed new music, and also used in the Stacy Peralta documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys", in the End Credits. The Weather Channel used "Gut Feeling" as one of the songs played during the Local Forecast segments. The song is also in the EA video game Skate. It is also used in the horror spoof film "Otis" released in 2008.

Youth Explosion!

"All around the world, I've been looking for new..."

...and some old, as the case may be...

- Looks like much of the old gang of nightlife habitues from the early 1980s NYC scene around the Mudd Club, New Wave Vaudeville at Irving Plaza, and Club 57 on St. Mark’s Place are gathering at the end of the month for a reunion concert. Do you remember these names? Comateens, Bush Tetras, Marilyn, Animal X, Richard Lloyd, Ann Magnuson, John Kelly, 3 Teens Kill 4, Phoebe Legere, Tina Peel, Sic F*cks, Joey Arias and Walter Steding. If so, then you're gold to go.

- NPR likes Grouplove, writing of the duo: "Grouplove knows how to write the kind of songs that keep me awake at night, that sing in my head over and over, that have me pounding the steering wheel to the beat, and that are worth rolling down the car windows and sharing with pedestrians whether they want to hear them or not."

- Classic Rock Legends revisits Led Zeppelin's origins, writing: "In late September of 1968, The New Yardbirds fulfilled the last of the obligations of the old band, and in October recorded their first album in an astonishing 30 hours. They also changed their name to Led Zeppelin, after being told by friend Keith Moon of The Who that they would go over "like a lead balloon."

- Philly garage rockers Lantern warrant some kind words from Phoenix New Times's Jason Woodbury, who writes: "On the surface, there's no reason that the Lantern releases should beat out the Lips, or the Jacuzzi Boys, or Bass Drum of Death, or any of the other good-to-great garage rock albums of 2011, but they do. The records possess both halves of the rhythm and blues religion, and have a palpable sense of femininity to go along with the Iggy Pop-macho vibes (credit drummer Sophie White and Emily Robb for helping Fairbrother accentuate it). Lantern's records are blown-out and distorted, but there are melodies, tried-and-true chord progressions, and foot-tapping rhythms, the same kind of sounds that made your grandma and your kid sister feel like moving their hips."

- And lastly, Stuff.co.nz writes about musicians like Paul Weller, Paul McCartney, Alex Chilton, Peter Gabriel and others who 'made it in more than one band.' Good piece, worth a read. To wit: "But, anyway, what about when a singer or musician steps out and away from one band, or re-emerges from the ashes after the meltdown and creates successful music as part of another band? Not as a solo artist but via collaboration - even if it is just a way of pushing their own songs and their own agenda (see McCartney, Paul: Wings)."

"Last night, I dreamed I was Fucking Bob Pollard"

This could be the coolest rock song I've heard all year. Ben Krieger, you're a genius. Stream the song here.



"Last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard / we did it all evening long / he weirded me out, sat their drinking a stout and kept leaving the bed to write songs / last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard / there wasn't a thing i could say / and he kept screaming phrases like "ear mite tinnitus" and "elephants tango that way" / COME ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! ROCK ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! DRIVE ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! FUCKING BOB POLLARD RIGHT INTO THE SUN! /

last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard / it gave me a terrible fright / he kept on calling me "little gnome witch" and he smoked away four packs of lites / my sexuality's all out of whack / the man has got something that my woman lacks / once you have bob you can never go back! / COME ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! ROCK ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! DRIVE ON! FUCKING BOB POLLARD! FUCKING BOB POLLARD RIGHT INTO THE SUN!"

Teenage Bottlerocket - Urge Overkill - Weezer at Riotfest

OMG, like my three fave guitar bands playing on the same night in Chicago this past weekend? Why wasn't I there? Sheesh!

Teenage Bottlerocket, Urge Overkill and Weezer all killed it at Chicago's Riotfest 2011 this weekend. Critical Mass, which has the goods, wrote about Urge Overkill's set:
"They blasted through such UO classics, new and old, like "Positive Bleeding" and "Bottle Of Fur" from their breakthrough album Saturation, and "The Break" from their last album from the 90's, Exit The Dragon mixed in with "Mason/Dixon" and "Poison Flower" from RARS. The band seemed to be having a blast, even though the audience seemed to not quite GET them. Too bad for the kids in the crowd. If they would have given this band a fair shake, they would have enjoyed the set as much as I did. UO were always a big band for me. And having them back after so many years away makes me not take them for granted. Kids these days...it's all about what's trendy and not about the music itself."

And then this about Teenage Bottlerocket:
"The boys in the band, singer/guitarist Ray Carlisle, singer/guitarist Kody Templeman, bassist Miguel Chen and drummer Brandon Carlisle hit the stage running at around 12:30 am, shortly after the Danzig Legacy show let out at the Congress Theater, opening with a barn burning rendition of "Skate Or Die" from their last studio album They Came From The Shadows. And for the next hour or so it was hit after hit from these Laramie, WY natives. The crowd welcomed them with open arms, singing along to such TBR classics as "Radio", "Bigger Than Kiss" and "Bloodbath At Burger King". The energy level was set to explosive proportions! And why not? This is, after all, one of the greatest live bands to come out in the last few years."


Time Out Chicago wrote about Weezer's set:
"Despite the sudden passing of former bassist Mikey Welsh on Saturday night, Weezer brought a now-typical surplus of goofy fun to the Congress on Sunday. With powerhouse touring drummer Josh Freese on the kit, the band plowed through a career-spanning set of hits. Drummer Pat Wilson joined Rivers and Brian Bell on guitar, occasionally shredding through solos with commendable proficiency—the weirdly impeccable “Paranoid Android” cover best exhibited this.

Welsh’s lone contribution to the Weezer discography, the Green album, got its fair share of representation. “Hash Pipe” set the Congress ablaze, and “Island in the Sun” received a somber treatment, with Rivers kicking off the song solo and his bandmates joining him piece-by-piece.

Every member of Weezer has figured out how to sing exactly like Rivers Cuomo. As the bespectacled, soccer-shirt-and-khakis wearing frontman made his way around the stage, introducing the band, each did a dead-on impression of the rock star. If you looked away, you would’ve thought Rivers to be the only man onstage."

Here's Weezer performing 'Say it Ain't So' from the Blue LP, which was played in its entirety Sunday night.

Gang of Four - New site, new video

Erstwhile British aggro-rock vets Gang of Four have announced a new web site and a new video for their song "who am i?" from last year's CONTENT LP.

Gang of four recently participated in performing two songs, ‘Not Great Men’ & ‘Do As I Say’, at the BBC studios in Maida Vale for The Old Grey Whistle test 40th Anniversary radio programs. They were interviewed by the legendary Bob Harris about one of their original performances on The Old Grey Whistle Test.



Be friendly - Like Gang of Four on Facebook.

Good News Monday!

There's Good News out there in rock and roll, my friends. Seek and ye shall find.

- Paul McCartney got married for the third time this past weekend to New Yorker Nancy Shevell, who Paul has been palling with for a few years now. Ringo Starr attended. That's good news! Huffington Post wrote:
"The 69-year-old former Beatle appeared proud, content and eager to share his joy with the crowd, raising his bride's hand in triumph as he walked down the steps after they became man and wife in a simple civil ceremony attended by close family and friends, including drummer Ringo Starr and Barbara Walters, a second cousin of the bride. "I feel absolutely wonderful," McCartney told fans as he arrived at his home after the ceremony. He was expected to sing a new song he had composed for his bride at the reception."


- Check out a podcast of words and music with solo singer-songwriter Doug Gillard, who's played in Cleveland's Death of Samantha and Cobra Verde, then in Guided by Voices (1996-2004), as well as more recently with Nada Surf, Hamburg-era Beatles tribute band Bambi Kino and Tommy Keene and Sally Crewe. Doug's a super guitarist who stays busy and sounds as humble and nice a guy you'd want to talk music with. That's good news! The interviewer is Travis Harrison, a founder of Serious Business Records and cool dude who needs to drink less caffeine before interviews. :-)

- Phoenix pop-rockers Kinch have a new CD 'The Incandenza' coming out, with a record release show this week. It's an all ages show is on Thursday, October 13, at the Rhythm Room in central Phoenix, with doors at 7:30pm. You can stream the new CD at Kinch's bandcamp site. That's Good News!

- Weezer is hosting a cruise ship party on January 19-23, from Miami to Cozumel. Follow the build-up on Facebook. From the site:
"The Weezer cruise is sailing on the Carnival Destiny sailing from Miami to the island of Cozumel off of the Gulf Coast of Mexico, on January 19 – 23, 2012. Coming along with us are special guests Dinosaur Jr., as well as Sebadoh, Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz, Wavves, The Antlers, Yuck, Free Energy, Boom Bip, J Mascis (solo acoustic), Lou Barlow, Keepaway, Ozma, The Nervous Wreckords, The Knocks, Sleeper Agent and Yacht Rock Revue. That’s right – weezer is hitting the open seas. It’s going to be our own floating music festival on a cruise ship. Bands will perform on the outdoor Lido deck and in the inside theater. All of the bands will be performing in stages around the ship, festival style, so you can catch any or all of them during the entire trip to Cozumel and back."
Here's the trailer - It's good news from Captain Cuomo!

Matthew Sweet - "Modern Art" LP and "Girlfriend" tour

Longtime powerpoppin' rocker Matthew Sweet, who scored huge in the 1990s with his 'Girlfriend' LP and has returned to rock the US on a tour with a new LP "Modern Art" kicks off the tour tonight in Louisville, KY.

WLKY writes:
"Musician Matthew Sweet will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of his groundbreaking power-pop album "Girlfriend" by performing it in its entirety on a tour that kicks off this weekend. Sweet, who will be joined on tour by Paul Chastain (bass), Ric Menck (drums) and Dennis Taylor (guitar), will also play selections from his new album "Modern Art."

Give Matthew your email below, and you can download the single "She Walks the Night" for free.

Catch all the tour dates here for Matthew Sweet.

The Hives - A Thousand Answers

Yay! There's a new recording up this week from one of my favorite bands THE HIVES! YOU KNOW YOU LOVE THE HIVES!

It's a 2-minute blast called "A Thousand Answers", a song the band has played live as long ago as 2008. It was included the FIFA 12 soundtrack in Europe. And you can hear it below.


Live version 2008:


Other Hives news shows that singer Pelle Almqvist suffered a concussion in August when he "tried to fly too close to the sun" (as he puts it on the band's site). And there's not much since then. So let's hope that Pelle and the band get it together and regroup for a great 2012, with a US tour to boot!

Follow The Hives on Facebook and Twitter.

R.E.M - Demise, Remembering, Rarities, Greatest Hits

When R.E.M. announced last week that it was ending its rock 'n roll run, the news sorta washed over me like another matter-of-fact nugget in the fast-paced news of the day cycle.

I shrugged my shoulders and thought briefly, 'well, this is pretty typical in the new age of music, where no one's buying records anymore, and "Collapse into Now" probably sold poorly and sank without a trace, and the band members just said, that's it, let's finish this thing.'

And indeed they are, with the impending release of a 40-track career-spanning R.E.M. retrospective R.E.M., PART LIES, PART HEART, PART TRUTH, PART GARBAGE, 1982 - 2011 coming out for the holiday season. R.E.M. finished its contractual commitment to Warner Brothers with 'Collapse into Now', so this release is icing on the cake.

This Wikipedia link about the upcoming greatest hits compilation cites:
"In addition to previously-recorded music that spans the band's entire career, three new songs are included. Their final studio album—Collapse into Now—fulfilled the band's contractual obligations to Warner Bros. and they began recording material without a contract a few months later with producer Jacknife Lee in Athens, Georgia with the possible intention of self-releasing the work.

Rather than completing an album's worth of material, the band elected to take what they had completed from those sessions and release them on this compilation. The new songs "Hallelujah" and "A Month of Saturdays" were demoed in the Collapse into Now sessions and the lead single "We All Go Back to Where We Belong" was recorded entirely after that album."

Maybe they will return as a new foursome (threesome?) down the line. Or maybe Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe will each continue their own illustrious path in music, movies, art and farming. For whatever reasons, though, it's just sinking in that rock and roll listeners have lost one of the greats.

So...I've been reliving a lot of R.E.M. old and recent and realizing how much I listened to the band over the past 30 years...I saw the band live at least five times, and it's hit me how much the band meant to the whole development of the indie touring circuit in the early 1980s, the college rock movement of the 1980s/1990s, the democratic notion of all the songs being credited to all four band members (in order to preserve their financial unity and mental sanity) and so much more.

I've got the 1996 revised edition of Marcus Gray's R.E.M. bible "It Crawled from the South" which every dyed-in-the-wool R.E.M. fan should try to seek out at a used book store or somewhere.

And the music! Cool, catchy guitar-oriented songs, without heart and beat, but without the bluster of metal, the anger of punk and the corniness of pure pop.

Slicing Up Eyeballs put together an hour-long compilation of R.E.M. music over the years, including live cuts and rarities, and I've embedded it below for your good listening. I'm digging it as I type.

Slicing Up Eyeballs: R.E.M. Retrospective (Aired 3/8/11) by Slicing Up Eyeballs

And this weekend, The Power of Independent Trucking uploaded some rare early R.E.M. demos recorded in 1981 - check it out for awesome early bird goodness.

Long Live R.E.M - Watch the promo trailer below for the upcoming greatest hits CD "R.E.M.--Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage", mentioned above that's coming out in November.

New Angels and Airwaves release, new video 'Anxiety'

Rockers Angels and Airwaves have a new release "Love Part 2" coming out on (wait for it) - 11-11-11! Yes, that's right, on Nigel Tufnel Day! Bet they did not know that! No worries, it's all good.

AVA includes frontman/guitarist DeLonge (blink-182); guitarist David Kennedy (Hazen Street and Box Car Racer); and bassist/keyboardist Matt Wachter (30 Seconds to Mars), who joined in 2007. The band has released three studio albums: 2006’s gold-certified We Don’t Need to Whisper; 2007’s I-Empire, which rocketed into the Top 10 of Billboard’s Top 200 charts; and 2010’s LOVE. To date, AVA has sold more than two million albums worldwide, with chart-topping singles that became mainstays at modern rock stations around the globe.

The band has released a high-tech video for “Anxiety,” which was filmed at the state-of-the-art Sky Church venue at Seattle’s Experience Music Project Museum, boasting the world’s largest indoor video screen and a 48,000-Watt sound system. So far, “Anxiety” has received more than 500,000 views online, including over 350,000 views in the first week alone. See it below.

ANGELS & AIRWAVES "ANXIETY" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO from Angels And Airwaves on Vimeo.

Under the God! Under the God!

Yo Wednesday! Here's a smattering of superheavy rock 'n roll for you super heavy baseball fans. Are ya Digging for Something? Or are you Under the God?

- I read a USA Today story about cassettes making a 'return' to certain music circles. Well, shoot, in my circles, cassettes have never gone away. Come over sometime, we can play my Green on Red or Salvation Army tapes on my boombox. It'll be fun.

- Speaking of the old days, today you can relive the 'Twin Peaks' era with a weird-ass track from TP creator David Lynch, who has released a song called "Crazy Clown Time" over at his Facebook page. It sounds like drunk munchkins from the Wizard of Oz having sex, while reading local news stories. You might like it. It rips near the end. "We all ran around the backyard....it's Crazy Clown time, it was real fun."

- Speaking of Crazy Clown Time, the editorial clowns over at the local alt-weekly Phoenix New Times named this Waved Rumor blog one of their faves. Something about being the 'Best Indie Music Blog' around these parts. It's a kind honor, though for years, I've resisted the term 'indie', saying I prefer 'outie music'. Anyone who knows my extroverted nature gets that pretty quickly. And there are certainly other cool bloggerheads here in the Valley, who post about indie music and hit more local rock shows than I ever could. And those are definitely worth reading too. Well, anyway, thanks, New Times, I'll take it. One day we shall become beer bros.

Rock singer Mick Jagger spoke earlier this week to NYC radio station Q104.3's Jim Kerr, talking about his latest musical go-round SuperHeavy. Hear the interview below:

We Were Promised Jetpacks - New LP, Tour, PHX show

In early 2009, I blogged about my discovery of Scotland rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks, a thoroughly thrilling trio that rocked the pants off its songs like "Quiet Little Voices", that were filled equally with fury and hooks.

Well, here it is two years alter, and after a lot of touring, the band is releasing its second LP this week. It's called "In the Pit of the Stomach" and it's already getting raves across the pond:

“It’ll definitely drive your paws skyward.” 7/10 NME

“Recorded at Sigur Ros’s studio, it’s fiercer and denser than their 2009 debut, with echoes of The Cure and New Order giving way to scything guitars on the thunderous ‘Sore Thumb’” 4/5 Uncut

“This follow up is the sound of a band stamping hard on the pedal marked ‘epic’” Q Magazine

“It’s hard-edged, it’s proficient and most certainly smarter than the average band.” 8/10 Clash Magazine

“There’s nothing here unworthy of the warmest of praise.” The Fly



Regarding the new LP, here's some quottage from the band and the blurbists:
"We recorded the debut album in 8 days with one short tour under our belts - this time around we spent a full three weeks in the studio recording with [live sound engineer] Andrew Bush and made an album that both captured the sound of our live show and that is strong start to finish." Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) was also on hand for mixing and additional production duties.

Armed with the confidence built from their time on the road and firm ideas as to how the new record should sound, ‘In The Pit Of The Stomach’ is emphatically a sustained piece of work full of fiery, muscular and hugely atmospheric epics like (lead single) ‘Medicine’, ‘Picture Of Heath’ and ‘Human Error’ - and an album that impresses with the sheer scale of its ambition."

To my ears, I hear echoes of great UK bands like The Skids, The Fall, The Cure, New Order and newer bands like Arctic Monkeys and others. Coupled with a thundering rhythm section, the Jetpacks make a good fuckin' racket. Here's the new single called 'Medicine", followed by US tour dates below. The Phoenix date is on November 8th at the Crescent Ballroom.

The Rapture - Live in Scottsdale tonight

NYC post-punk-dance band The Rapture are out on the road promoting their new LP "In the Grace of your Love", which has gotten mixed reviews since its September release. They play at Scottsdale's Martini Ranch tonight.

The Rapture have been around for over a decade and received a lot of early acclaim. Their first full-length record, 'Echoes', was released to critical acclaim in 2003, including being named "Album of the year" by Pitchfork. And here we are 8 years later, and my guess is the band is probably reaching a new peak of talent, showmanship and more. This new record was recorded in Brooklyn and Paris, and is the Rapture's first album since 2006's "Pieces of the People We Love."

The band had the crowd at Chicago's Metro eating out of their collective hands last Thursday night, as seen in this clip below. Tickets are still available at the Marquee box office or at Martini Ranch.

Guns N' Roses - Rock in Rio

Guns N' Roses emerged from the depths of the dunderworld to perform at the Rock in Rio concert down in Rio, Brazil way late last night.

According to Crave Online, G n R came on two hours late and started wheezing its way through the set:
"Taking to the stage in a yellow raincoat, black hat and sunglasses Axl ushered in the performance with the title track from Chinese Democracy, and immediately there were signs of trouble. Levels were wildly off, the vocals initially nonexistent, and the term "clumsy" came to mind far more than any other adjective. The stomach of this original-era GNR maniac twisted in knots as the notoriously reclusive frontman croaked and wheezed his way through the song - often with a backing track too high in the mix."

and this...

"GNR were once gods, the only band to truly straddle the schism between the collapsed hair metal era and the grime rock generation that followed. It only worked for a time, before egos and control issues devoured the promise and mojo of the greatest collective to ever rock the Sunset Strip, leaving a generation of tattooed leathered copycats and venereal half-cocked celebrators in their stead. Now we have this, a faltering musical Frankenstein geared for arenas and big-budget productions, cold calculations for nostalgia mining. And with Axl's diminishing ability, perhaps we should be thankful we're not watching that band we remember from so long ago, coming apart at the seams as it rattles down rock's unforgiving gravel road."

The video of 'Welcome to the Jungle' seems to bear out that description. Or maybe the band and Axl just need to get a few more shows under its belt. Who knows?


Upcoming G n' R tour dates are like this:
Oct. 2 Rio de Janiero Rock in Rio Festival
Oct. 5 Santiago Movistar
Oct. 8 Buenos Aires La Plata
Oct. 10 Santa Fe Salon Metropolitano Rosario
Oct. 12 Cordoba Orfeo Superdomo
Oct. 15 Asuncion Jockey Club
Oct. 18 Mexico City Sports Palace
Oct. 19 Mexico City Sports Palace
Oct. 22 Jalisco Telemex Arena
Oct. 23 Monterrey Arena

UFO "Mother Mary" live at Club Red, Tempe, AZ

Veteran British Rock band UFO rocked Club Red in Tempe, AZ over the weekend, and from a few accounts still sounded great to the standing room only crowd of rockers young and old. The band consists of original singer Phil Mogg and drummer Andy Parker, along with longtime bandmember keyboardist/guitarist Paul Raymond, and rock guitaist veteran Vinnie Moore.

This clip may not do much justice to the entire set, but it's a fine rendition of the band's "Mother Mary" - Dig it.