Category — Concerts

Acclaimed rock band Low has some tour dates on the horizon. The band has been playing a lot of shows at festivals but these are mainly headlining dates. If you’re not familiar with the band, they blend melodic guitar with stark minimalism that creates a somber, quiet atmosphere.

08-27 Saint Paul, MN - Turf Club (Eight Is Enough benefit)
09-11 Tel Aviv, Israel - Barby Club
09-13 Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival
09-17 Chicago, IL - Epiphany (”An Evening With Low”)
09-18 Detroit, MI - UFO Factory *
09-20 Monticello, NY - Kutshers County Resort (ATP New York)
09-22 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge (”An Evening With Low”)
09-23 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (”An Evening With Low”)
09-24 Boston, MA - Remis Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts #

* with His Name Is Alive
# with Tulsa

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Stereogum has a very interesting post up today, which essentially is a link to a bootleg of a Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks performance at The Siren Festival from July 19th.

This is interesting because not only is a pretty official website posting a bootleg, but during the performance the band played a new song, not yet released titled “Astral Facial”.

Also of note is the picture above from the post, where it appears that Stephen Malkmus is playing a Japanese Fender Stratocaster, the kind I am always looking for because of the smaller neck radius.

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Last week I posted about VH1’s Rock Honors: The Who, footage of the Foo Fighters performing “Bargain” (with Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes on vocals), is now available online over at VH1’s site.

Dave Grohl appears to be rocking out on some strange electric guitar…I think it might be a Gibson. If anyone reading this knows, please leave a comment and enlighten me as I’m mainly a Fender guy.

The event took place last Saturday at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and also featured Pearl Jam, The Flaming Lips, Incubus and Tenacious D as well as The Who themselves. The telecast premieres tomorrow.

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Last week I posted about Green River’s reunion show at Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary bash in Seattle, WA. Now Billboard has a full review up for those not lucky enough to attend the event.

“This seemed to be a firm consensus. Some rock’n'roll reunions fall flat when musicians can’t regain the spark of youthful energy and DIY not-quite-incompetence. But Green River’s anthems sounded better with a touch of polish and precision. The 1985 classic “Swallow My Pride” (re-cut by the band in 1988, and also covered by Soundgarden, Fastbacks and Pearl Jam) sounded almost pop.”

Billboard also notes that they heard a fan say “If they were that good back then, they never would have broken up.”

This is a good thing in my opinion, most reunions fall short because the band isn’t as good as they once were, in this case its the opposite.

The article also has coverage of a lot of the other bands playing the Sub Pop anniversary festival.

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An all-star cast of rock bands are participating in another installment of VH1’s Rock Honors series, this time to pay tribute to legendary rock-act The Who.

The Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Flaming Lips, Tenacious D and Incubus will all cover a Who song, followed by The Who themselves performing. This means we’ll most likely see Townshend smashing Gibsons SG’s and Stratocasters at the end of the performance, which is always cool.

Billboard spoke to Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, The Flaming Lip’s Wayne Conye and Incubus Brandon Boyd about how The Who has influenced them and their music. Check it out here…

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The show airs tomorrow on VH1.

Record label Sub Pop, famous for releasing records by everyone from Nirvana to The Postal Service are going to be having a 2-day festival in Seattle, WA to commemorate their 20th anniversary.

Besides playing host to The Vaselines first U.S. performances ever and seeing many older Sub Pop bands re-unite, one of the most anticipated acts to play is Green River. If you don’t know, Green River was one of the first bands to release a record on Sub Pop and featured future members of Mudhoney and Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament spoke to Billboard.com regarding the reunion show…

“Bassist Jeff Ament tells Billboard.com the group re-learned two unreleased songs from its early demo, “Baby, Help Me Forget” and “Leech,” for the occasion, which will mark Green River’s first show in nearly 21 years.

“Green River, which also includes Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, Mudhoney principals Mark Arm and Steve Turner and drummer Alex Vincent, rehearsed twice in late April but has reconvened three additional times to relearn the material.

“Last night, felt like we were 95% there,” Ament says. “We had a go at 16 or 17 songs and we have 14 right now, but we may need to get that down to 11 or 12 for Sunday. We have a 40-minute slot.”

The band is reportedly having fun playing together and there is talk of a possible Green River reunion tour.

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So, the 4th of July is tomorrow and with that fast approaching I thought I’d post about some more political stuff crossing over into the music world.

It appears that Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame will be doing another Obama Benefit.

“Technically billed as “Jeff Tweedy & Friends,” the Chicago singer/songwriter will take the stage at his hometown’s Park West venue alongside Otis Clay on July 11 for a night of music benefiting the Obama Victory Fund. The Illinois senator will make an appearance as well, so if you’ve got a couple hundo to spare, head here to purchase a little piece of the future (and a ticket to a benefit concert).”

Again, a cool way of getting involved and doing something if you care to. Happy 4th of July.

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Much-loved stoner/doom band Boris have recently embarked on their most comprehensive North American tour and are riding high on the success of their latest Southern Lord record “Smile”.

Guitar World related site, MetalKult, has great video footage of Boris at a one-off New York City show the band played just recently.

The video showcases the band playing the songs “Statement”, “Laser Beam”, “Buzz-In” and “Pink” with the guitarists playing a double-beck guitar, as well as a Gibson SG custom. Well worth checking out if you’re a fan.

Boris: North American Tour Dates

Boris with Torche, Clouds
07/01/2008: Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
07/02/2008: Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
07/03/2008: Orlando, FL - The Social
07/05/2008: Atlanta, GA - The Earl
07/06/2008: Carrboro, NC - Cat`s Cradle
07/08/2008: Washington, DC - Black Cat
07/09/2008: Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
07/10/2008: New York, NY - Webster Hall
07/11/2008: Cambridge, MA - The Middle East

Boris with Torche, Nachtmystium
07/12/2008: Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa
07/13/2008: Ottawa, ON - Barrymore
07/14/2008: Toronto, ON - Lee`s Palace
07/15/2008: Buffalo, NY - Tralf
07/16/2008: Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
07/17/2008: Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel
07/18/2008: Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
07/19/2008: Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
07/20/2008: Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park

Boris with Torche, Lair of the Minotaur
07/22/2008: Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room
07/23/2008: Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre
07/25/2008: Denver, CO - Marquis Theater
07/26/2008: Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
07/29/2008: Seattle, WA - Neumo`s
07/30/2008: Vancouver, BC, Canada - TBA
07/31/2008: Thu Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
08/02/2008: San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
08/03/2008: Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex

OK, hipsters, get ready cause all the acts and the set times have been announced for Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival.

“Only individual day tickets for the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival remain, and they’re going fast! Snag yours while you still can via TicketWeb for the sweet price of $30 each.”

The end of the Day 1 bill has No Age, and then Animal Collective closing things out as headliners.

It appears that on Day 2, the last 3 bands are Dinosaur Jr, Cut Copy and Spoon. This is surprising to me as I thought Dinosaur Jr would play after Cut Copy, but this is probably a testament to just how popular Cut Copy is now.

Check out the full lineup, with set-times and more over at Pitchfork.

A few months back Noel Gallagher of Oasis remarked to the press that he felt it was wrong for Jay-Z or any hip-hop artist to be headlining the main stage at Glastonbury. Jay-Z, in turn, responded back in the press by defending hip-hop in general.

When Jay-Z’s set commenced, he strapped on a Fender strat and “strummed” along to Wonderwall by Oasis and proceeded to sing the song very out of key, as a sort of “screw you” to Noel Gallagher.

Now, I feel like I should comment on this after having read some people’s responses on sites like Stereogum. It is kind of cool that he came out and basically mocked the Oasis song, but he obviously can’t actually play guitar and it just looked stupid seeing him pretend to play. Also, they just put on the album version and he sang along to it, like someone would in their car.

I dont know, to me it just seems lame. Jay-Z did get a lot of great critical response from the performance, but also some critics saying it started to wain mid-way through. To me, this kind of proves Noel Gallagher’s point in a way. Not that hip-hop shouldn’t be a festivals, but that in my opinion, hip-hop just isn’t very good live.

Check out the video here.