Category — Concerts

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.

Whoever Weezer’s PR person is, they sure do a good job of getting the band out promoting their new record and tours. Weezer has recorded a set with AOL Sessions, re-working a lot of songs with acoustic guitars, unplugged.

The band recorded acoustic/unplugged versions of “Pork and Beans” and “Troublemaker” as well as “Why Bother” from their classic Pinkerton album, which is performed very well.

The band also performed 3 Red album b-sides, which were available previously. “Miss Sweeney,” “It’s Easy,” and “King” were the songs, they also participated in a Q&A about the Red album, which I’m sure fans will find interesting.

Check it all out here.

The Cure has been playing live again recently and releasing new songs as singles. The band is out again pre-promoting the upcoming release of their new album on September 13th.

Now, courtesy of Stereogum, one of the new songs is available for your viewing pleasure via YouTube.

“As far as the singles go, “The Only One” was poppy, lovey, not offensive and “Freakshow” just kinda was. We haven’t heard a recorded version of “A Perfect Boy.” Same goes for new concert opener, “Underneath The Stars,” which is my favorite of the new material: A cascading, spacious, classic-sounding six-minutes-and-change slow builder that would’ve made sense, at least texturally, on Disintegration.”

I have to agree with them here, as this song features that classic Cure guitar work and has the ambiance that made all of their best songs work so well.

Check it out…“Underneath The Stars” live.

As I reported last week, Weezer came up with some different ideas regarding live shows. The band set out on a handful of dates promoted by radio stations in select cities.

The idea was to have all sorts of different people come out and join the band in choosing and playing songs. Particpants could bring their electric guitars, acoustics, or whatever other instruments they wanted.

The results of the Portland, OR Hootenany stop were documented by radio station 94.7. Check out some video here…

Weezer: Hootenany Portland, OR

The tenth Voodoo Music Experience will be happening this year, Oct 24-26 at New Orleans City Park. The festival is starting to release an impressive lineup of big name acts.

“Death Cab For Cutie, Erykah Badu, Wyclef Jean, Panic At The Disco, Joss Stone, Lupe Fiasco and Dashboard Confessional are among the top names joining headliners R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots.”

“Billboard.com can reveal that the event will also feature performances by DeVotchKa, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Cold War Kids, Ghostland Observatory, Joseph Arthur, Old 97’s, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the reunited Shudder To Think, the Gutter Twins, Thievery Corporation, Tokyo Police Club and Man Man.”

“Among the dozens of local and/or non-rock acts set to appear are the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Irving Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, the New Orleans Bingo! Show, Ozomatli with Chali 2na, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Kermit Ruffins, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Iguanas, Bonerama, Marc Broussard and King Britt, the latter staging a tribute to local legend Sister Gertrude Morgan.”

Weekend passes for the event are priced at $115. Three-day VIP passes will sell for $450 and both go on sale Monday, June 23rd.

Personally, I feel that there really aren’t that many bands I’d like to see but the lineup does boast a small number of unique acts. Besides solid headliners, R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails, I’d love to see the reunited Shudder To Think and wouldn’t mind seeing Death Cab For Cutie, as I’ve never seen them live before. I think one of the most interesting thing about this festival would be the local talent. Usually, you look at festival lineups and every single one lists the same artists. It’s nice when a festival makes a point to add some local flair to its lineup.

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