Archive for the 'Video' Category

Late night music, August 3-8: Gomez, Glasvegas and more (with video of Regina Spektor on Conan)

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, August 3: Levon Helm (original air date July 9)
Tuesday, August 4: Kelly Clarkson (July 13)
Thursday, August 6: St. Vincent (pictured, photo by Annie Clark, June 24)
Friday, August 7: Anthony Hamilton (February 11)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, August 3: Gomez
Tuesday, August 4: All-American Rejects
Thursday, August 6: the Jonas Brothers
Friday, August 7: Flo Rida

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Thursday, August 6: Glasvegas
Friday, August 7: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Read the rest of this entry »

Video: “Folsom Prison Blues” as interpreted by a 5-year-old


Kids are freaking great, right? They just keep getting smarter and more clever every generation. Here’s the latest whiz, 5-year-old Wesley, who performs his own unique rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” at the 2009 Spring Coffee Shop Jam at Columbia City Theater in Seattle. This is not a child being exploited or another chance for fanatical stage parents to put their kid under a spotlight. The clip is from an ongoing event that gives students at Heartwood Guitar Instruction a chance to showcase their abilities. I

I love how he says “twain” instead of “train,” and when he sings, “But I shot a man in Reno / just to watch him die,” it kills me. Read the rest of this entry »

Old School Friday with Soul Train (video)

A friend of mine sent me a link to this Soul Train clip featuring Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” While the quality of the video isn’t great, the dancing is effing classic. I want to bust moves like this. I do bust moves like this, in my mind.

Must-see show: Atmosphere at State Theatre this Saturday

Minneapolis indie hip-hop duo Atmosphere — made up of rap artist Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ/producer Ant (Anthony Davis), pictured (photo credit Dan Monick) — bring a smart and refreshing change to the bloated bravado found in much of modern hip-hop music. Slug raps in a personal style that often draws from his own experiences, like the uplifting “Sunshine,” about appreciating the sunny days of life and wanting to bottle them in a plastic jar, “Bust it out whenever someone’s actin hard,” or the funky fun, sample-heavy “C’mon” from the duo’s new (and free) EP, Leak at Will, about being aware of where you’re from but not falling prey to its lawless temptations. But he’ll just as soon offer up a story — “The Waitress” from 2008’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, looks at the antagonistic relationship between a waitress and a homeless man as told from his point-of-view, “I wonder when she’ll realize / That she’s the only reason I visit / The only woman in my world that acknowledges my existence.” Eyedea & Abilities and Attracted to Gods provide support for the duo’s Bay area show. Sat., Aug. 1, 8 p.m., State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $21. (Videos after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »

CL Feature: Black Moth Super Rainbow (the psyche-pop-fizz group plays Crowbar on Friday)


Pennsylvania experimental rock ensemble Black Moth Super Rainbow (pictured, photo by Jae Rumberto) hit retro and modern notes all at once with their day-glo vibrant electro-dance melodies, fizzadelic folk shambles and made-for-space jams. It’s some of the headiest music you’ll find out there right now, but songwriter/frontman/creative conscience Tobacco (real name Tom Fec) doesn’t consider his music psychedelic at all.

“I think everything I do is pop,” he told me a few weeks ago during a phone interview before the second leg of the band’s two-part tour. “I don’t like psychedelic music and I never set out to do it. It just sort of comes out that way. I might be the only person who thinks this, but Eating Us … it seems like a pop album to me.”

Eating Us, his band’s fourth and latest full-length, is not the sort of name that makes me think pop. The black-and-white album cover, with its smeary sad face superimposed onto the back of a hand, doesn’t make me think of pop music, either. And the limited edition “hairy” version of Eating Us (with synthetic hair in its inner sleeve) is probably as far from pop packaging as you can feasibly get. (VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP) Read the rest of this entry »

Video: Buck 65, “The Rebel”

Normally, I don’t do video posts. But sometimes I see one that is just so sweet I have to share it with y’all. Such is the new video for Buck 65’s song “The Rebel” off his latest effort, Situation. It was done by animator Benjamin Logsdon and you need to make sure you watch it in HD.

Late night music, July 27-August 1: DMB, Regina Spektor, the Fray and more (with video)

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 27: Dave Matthews Band
Tuesday, July 28: Silversun Pickups
Wednesday, July 29: Elbow (The British alt rockers are currently on tour with Coldplay.)
Thursday, July 30: Cage the Elephant (They don’t have a new album out since their 2008 self-titled debut, but they did play a much-talked-about set at Bonnaroo.)
Friday, July 31: Dave Matthews Band (Two nights of DMB on Letterman. Woo fucking hoo!)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 27: the Fray
Thursday, July 30: Regina Spektor (Check out my review of her new album and two of her new videos here.)
Friday, July 31: Ben Harper & Relentless7 Read the rest of this entry »

CL Interview: Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello (audio + video)

Google “gypsy punk” and most of the dozen or so results relate back to Gogol Bordello. Search the band specifically and you’ll find more than a million pages that mention it. While Gogol’s Ukraine-born visionary/composer Eugene Hütz isn’t interested in taking credit for spearheading a whole new movement in American music, his band’s influence is undeniable.

Gogol grew from NYC’s underground music scene, just as much a melting pot as the city itself. Hütz immersed himself in it and assembled a motley crew of talented, multi-ethnic musicians to create his gypsy punk orchestra and make his vision of infusing East-European culture into Western music a reality.

The nine-member band represents seven nationalities all told. Their sound combines gypsy and Slavic music traditions with punk rock, dub reggae, metal, rap and even some funk and grooves, and the lyrics are delivered in English sprinkled with Spanish, Ukrainian and Italian verses. Since 1999, they have released four LPs; the most recent, 2007’s critically acclaimed Super Taranta!, fully launched Gogol into the international spotlight.

Many of Gogol’s songs (including “Wonderlust King, below”) are about living a roving, responsibility-free lifestyle, though various other topics are touched upon, from the absurdly catchy “Start Wearing Purple,” about letting loose and being silly, to “American Wedding,” which pokes fun at our country’s stuffy wedding traditions (“Where is the vodka, where’s marinated herring? / Where is the supply that gonna last three days?”), to the hilarious God vs. Science debate in “Supertheory of Supereverything.”

http://cltampa.com/content/Wonderlust_King.mp3

Everyone contributes vocals to the boisterous, colorful music, like violin virtuoso Sergey Ryabtsev, capable of some of the fastest and most furious fiddle playing I’ve ever witnessed; accordion player Yuri Lemeshev, who also moonlights with the studio band on Late Night with Conan O’Brien; and attractive lady entertainers and pandemonium makers Pamela Jintana Racine and Elizabeth Sun, who alternately sing, dance, and play marching band-style percussion throughout the live shows.

Hütz is the captivating and unpredictable center of it all. He sings lead, plays forceful acoustic guitar, and, usually shirtless with sweat dripping from his thick handlebar mustache, marches back and forth encouraging playful unruliness and leading spirited singalongs. He pilots the vigorous musical spectacle and keeps both his band and the audience as amped-up as he is.

Leilani: So, tell me about the role you play in the band as ringleader. How much of your songwriting goes into what happens on stage?

Eugene: I think it’s quite obvious (laughs robustly) that I write all the songs. (VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP) Read the rest of this entry »

Top 10 Songs for the Moon; or, Songs to Make up for NASA’s Loss of the Apollo 11 Footage (with video!)

Last Thursday, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to land on the Moon, NASA came out with the embarrassing news that it had somehow, over the years, managed to record over America’s most important historical footage of said trip to the Moon’s surface. You know, the famous footage of Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the one that all those conspiracy theorists say is faked Wag the Dog style? Yeah, that footage.

(Apparently, in the 1970s and ’80s, NASA had a shortage of tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them, including ones documenting the historical event.)

Luckily, NASA’s news came with a Hollywood saves-the-day solution: those crafty preservationists who restored Casablanca are digitally sharpening and cleaning up grainy footage of the moon landing taken from four sources NASA scrounged from around the world. The results are said to be better than what TV viewers witnessed on July 20, 1969, and according to senior NASA engineer Dick Nafzger, “There’s nothing being created; there’s nothing being manufactured.”

In honor of NASA’s royal fuck-up, I’ve made up a playlist of songs dedicated to the moon. There are a great deal more than 10, and some are rather obvious, but headlines are better with nice round numbers … interesting how many of these songs were produced in the ’70s. I guess a mission to the moon will inspire some songs, huh? Read the rest of this entry »

Late night music, July 20-25: Ginuwine, Demi Lovato, and more (+ video of Grizzly Bear on Letterman)

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 20: Spinnerette (the alt rock foursome featuring Brody Dalle and Tony Bevilacqua, both formerly of The Distillers; the band just released their self-titled debut in June)
Tuesday, July 21: the Flatlanders
Wednesday, July 22: Diane Birch
Thursday, July 23: Ginuwine (pictured) with Missy Elliott (They’ll likely perform “Get Involved,” the second single from Ginuwine’s latest album, A Man’s Thoughts. The song also features Timbaland — he produced it — but he’s not scheduled to appear.)
Friday, July 24: Judy Collins Read the rest of this entry »

Paul McCartney, Wilco and Feist on Letterman (video)

Here’s a video 1-2 punch that’s tough to beat.

Tuesday night, Wilco appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, with special guest vocalist Feist, to perform “You And I.”

The next day, 66-year-old ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his band played a 22-minute concert on the roof of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater. They flew through “Coming Up,” “Band on the Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Helter Skelter,” and “Back in the USSR,” and sounded tight as f!@#, in this author’s opinion.

Videos after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

The Rock Report: Nerdapalooza, Orlando (with audio and video)

As I said with my last post about Nerdapalooza, I wasn’t really familiar with the whole genre (or its fan base) until mere weeks before attending the festival, but I had a short list of people I wanted to see as Trevor and I shoved off from St. Petersburg last Saturday morning.

Now, I’m typing this a little under 24 hours after getting home from the festival. Showered, rested, and fed, I’m still not sure how I want to cover it. There were plenty of disappointments, such as Kabuto The Python (the #1 thing I wanted to see) not thinking to try the rapping with a mask thing out before stepping out onto a stage, which resulted in Kabuto the Mime. There was The Protomen’s set so mired in feedback that you would have thought they brought it along as a special guest. Then there was the most frustrating part of all, the festival’s complete and utter inability to stay anywhere close to the schedule (more on that later).

But this isn’t meant to be a diatribe from some outsider coming in to point at the nerds and talk about how shitty their convention was. And as I drove home, I reflected on some of the cool shit we saw. The first band we caught, Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew, were quite entertaining both sonically and visually as they took the stage in complete pirate garb. Kabuto aside, the rest of the Scrub Club showcase was phenomenal. As a “crew” they seem to embrace a “hiphop first, nerd second” approach to their music and stage show that really appealed to me.

Then there was the out of left field “holy shit I am gonna talk about that for months” set by Schaffer The Darklord. I’d listened to his material on Myspace in preparation for the festival and was lukewarm to it at best. However, live … live is where it was at. Those lazy beats and rhyme delivery were pushed aside for an uptempo, high energy tight stage show that captivated the entire room. Watching him on stage I kept thinking, this dude is like nerdcore’s version of Col. J.D. Wilkes (for those who don’t know, read about JD here). I don’t think there is any doubt that Schaffer stole the entire festival with his shortened performance. Read the rest of this entry »

CD Review: Regina Spektor, far (with video)

It’s been three years since Soviet-American songstress Regina Spektor first enchanted us with the soul-pop perfection of Begin to Hope and proved herself a storyteller with a keen sense of detail and drama, a confident singer with a broad vocal range — from high and pure to low and sensual — and a poet with a unique use of words and an alluring inflection, not as if English were her second language, but as if she’s established a whole new charming style of speaking.

The follow-up and Spektor’s fifth studio album doesn’t quite attain the catchy ease of its predecessor, but far (Sire Records) carries its own abundance of appeal.

In the bouncy opening track, “The Calculation,” Spektor playfully ponders the mathematical equation of love and the surprising fury of its burn while in “Folding Chair,” she enjoys a casual day at the beach with her sweetheart and daydreams of domestic bliss (“Let’s get a silver bullet trailer, and have a baby boy / I’ll safety pin his clothes all cool and you’ll graffiti up his toys”). “The Wallet” shows her way of making the mundane seem remarkable with a touching ballad about finding someone’s lost wallet, and she combines quiet, abstract contemplation with grandiose stretches of piano and rhythmic flourishes in the melancholy yet somehow uplifting “Eet.” (Video after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »

Late Night Music, July 13-18: Kelly Clarkson, Grizzly Bear, Jonas Brothers and more.

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 13: Kelly Clarkson (Pictured, to promote her new album, All I Ever Wanted)
Tuesday, July 14: Wilco with Feist (who will perform their collaboration from Wilco the Album, “You and I.”)
Wednesday, July 15: Paul McCartney (hopefully he’s be yakking and playing)
Thursday, July 16: Grizzly Bear (to make up for their non-appearance a few months ago, when they got bumped because GM’s Bob Lutz went over. Will likely play something from Veckatimest.)
Friday, July 17: Metric

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 13: The cast of Hair (all the way from Broadway, NYC)
Tuesday, July 14: Sugar Ray (Why, oh why, did this shitty ass band have to come back? Wasn’t it bad enough they gave Mark McGrath a job over there at Extra!?)
Wednesday, July 15: Kris Allen (American Idol)
Thursday, July 16: Daughtry
Friday, July 17: Demi Lovato Read the rest of this entry »

Watch live video coverage of Michael Jackson memorial

No TV at the job? No worries. We’re streaming the Michael Jackson memorial here via Hulu. The stream starts at 12:55 p.m., so leave the window open or check back with us. Comment, comment, comment. I’ll be watching and weighing in.

Maxwell releases DVD with new BLACKsummers’night album: 5DAYSofBLACK

This week, R&B artist Maxwell releases his fourth studio album and first new effort in eight years years, BLACKsummers’night, on Columbia. The release is available as a two-disc CD/DVD deluxe set that includes 5DAYSofBLACK, a film inspired by the making of the album. Maxwell recently released a series of excerpts from the film that take a rather interesting behind-the-scenes peek at the way he put it together. The featured tracks are “Cold,” (which features long-time Maxwell collaborator, producer/songwriter Hod David), “Pretty Wings,” “Stop the World” and “Help Somebody.” Check out all four previews after the jump; Maxwell plays Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater Thursday, July 30. Read the rest of this entry »

Pepsi’s 1984 ad featuring Michael Jackson, Carlton Banks and the Jackson Five (video)

I actually remember seeing this commercial on the air as a six-year-old boy in 1984. It sparked my desire and my need to own one of those red jackets. Also appearing in the commercial is Alfonso Ribeiro, Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

If “Michael Jackson” and “Pepsi ad” sound like something you’ve heard in the same sentence before, you’re probably recalling how in the same year, while recording a Pepsi commercial on stage in Los Angeles, Jackson was apparently seriously burned by malfunctioning equipment, which may or may not have led to some of his later plastic surgeries.

See the happier Pepsi ad below the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tampa’s Lush Progress presents a new (nice-looking) video.

If you recall, Tampa area art rockers Lush Progress held a video release party back in May. If you missed that show, and the premiere of their new tasteful and rather well-made video for “Even Now” (produced by frontman Drew Cutler and directed by Jesse Newman, still at left), check it out here: Read the rest of this entry »

Late night music, July 6-11: Conor Oberst, Andrew Bird, Will Dailey and more

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 6: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (pictured)
Tuesday, July 7: Rob Thomas
Thursday, July 9: Levon Helm
Friday, June 10: Maxwell

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 6: Death Cab for Cutie
Tuesday, July 7: Andrew Bird
Thursday, July 9: Playing For Change
Friday, June 10: Ray LaMontagne Read the rest of this entry »

Douglas Armour’s new and baffling Daft Punk-produced video

So, I got this email about this “spellbinding” (PR agent’s words, not mine) Daft Punk-produced video for Douglas Armour’s song, “Flushed & Flamelike, Themselves.” While the video looks real good, there’s not much to it. In sum, a crazy-eyed dude runs through the forest, stopping to do some slow-mo thrashing of his long stringy hair against various particularly breathtaking (and likely digitally-produced) backdrops (still shot at right). After watching the video, I thought the postscript to the e-mail was particularly funny: “PS: I’m accepting submissions to my unofficial video caption contest. Current front-runner: ‘This is why no one invites Andrew WK to go camping any more.’” Check it out after the jump and tell me if you are as baffled by it as I. Read the rest of this entry »

New videos for new music: Moby and Bjork

It used to be that MTV would overplay videos to such a degree that it was impossible not to know the latest singles by Madonna, or Prince, or Michael Jackson (may he RIP). Those artists blew wads of cash to make miniature movies for their songs. (Michael and sister Janet’s 1995 acclaimed video duet, “Scream,” cost $7 million alone to produce.)

Nowadays, MTV doesn’t play videos so much as it airs clips of them during the closing credits of its neverending reality TV programming, so many artists have turned to YouTube to get the vids out and are likely alot more budget conscious when making them. The results vary from fun and inspired to downright garbage. Here’s a look at two Moby videos created in support of his ninth album (out today on Little Idiot). I’ve also included a preview clip of Bjork’s live Voltaic CD/DVD release. (Complete clips from the DVD would be nice but sadly, there are leaked or uploaded as yet.)

Artist: Moby
Album: Wait for Me
Songs: “Shot in the Back of the Head,” “Pale Horses.”
Both of Moby’s new singles have intrigued me with their raw electro-meets-organic feel. The video for “Shot in the Back of the Head” is David Lynch’s dark and abstract translation of the song, which is rather gloomy all on its own; and “Pale Horses,” the second single with haunting female vocals by Amelia and melancholy overtones, is directed by Elanna Allen and follows a lonely alien who takes a train to the moon to find some companions. Both are animated, but in very different styles.
Grade: A for both; the music was good and the videos compelling enough to make me want to check out Moby’s new album. (CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP). Read the rest of this entry »

Late night music, June 29-July 4: The rerun edition, Vol. III (with video)

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime and you haven’t already caught these appearances (or want to see them again).

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, June 29: Steve Earle (June 3, pictured; photo by Ted Barron)
Tuesday, June 30: The Fray (April 2)
Wednesday, July 1: the Jonas Brothers (June 11)
Thursday, July 2: P.J. Harvey & John Parish (June 12)
Friday, July 3: Rick Ross with Magazeen (May 14)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, June 29: Green Day (June 2)
Tuesday, June 30: John Mayer (June 4)
Wednesday, July 1: Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal (June 9)
Thursday, July 2: Neko Case (June 11)
Friday, July 3: Incubus (June 17) Read the rest of this entry »

Quincy Jones remembers his first encounter with Michael Jackson (video)

Ed. Note: What follows is a repost of an item by CL Marketing Director Joran Oppelt from his recent trip to SXSW. At the time, I thought it was just a really cool video. Today I think it’s become something more. You can see Joran’s original post here.

Quincy recalls his first encounters with Michael Jackson and their work on the best-selling records Off the Wall and Thriller, as well as the birth of MTV and how they broke through the “no black artists” mandate.

This exclusive CL TV video was shot in March at Jones’ 2009 South by Southwest keynote address. Video after the jump …

Read the rest of this entry »

He’s a rocket man: Moon astronaut Buzz Aldrin raps on new Snoop Dogg song (video)

The second man to walk on the surface of the moon meets the first man of bud in this Funny or Die clip.

Guided By Voices documentary Watch Me Jumpstart now online (video)

For what we assume will be a very limited time, Pitchfork is streaming the entire epic Guided By Voices documentary Watch Me Jumpstart on its site, for free.

The 1998 film tells the story of the unlikeliest of rock stars (featuring Dayton, Ohio born Robert Polllard, an ex-4th-grade teacher) who never actually became rockstars to the general public but still managed to spawn a new sub-genre of DIY music-making, from recording albums on cassettes to printing T-shirts and album covers in their garage.

You can watch the whole thing by following the link below the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Sonic Youth debuts new video for “Sacred Trickster”

The new single from the well-reviews new Sonic Youth album, The Eternal, is Sacred Trickster, sung by Kim Gordon.

The video features a trio of young girls going all commie and busting up a rooftop party.

Video below the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Late Night Music, June 15-20

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Tuesday, June 16: Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
Thursday, June 18: Phoenix
Friday, June 19: the Sounds

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, June 15: Spinal Tap (to coincide with the release of Back from the Dead, a two-disc 25th anniversary release with all new material that comes out June 16)
Tuesday, June 16: Gavin Rossdale
Wednesday, June 17: Incubus
Thursday, June 18: The Dead Weather (pictured, an alt rock supergroup that features bassist Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes, the White Stripes‘ Jack White, guitarist Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and vocalist Alison Mosshart of The Kills; the foursome will release their debut, Horehound, on July 13, and they’ll likely perform that album’s first single, “Hang You from the Heavens”)
Friday, June 19: Holly Williams Read the rest of this entry »

New videos for new music: Placebo, Mos Def and Anti-Flag.

A sneak peek at videos for music releases due out this week by a range of artists, with short reviews and grade school-style ratings!

“For What It’s Worth,” the first single off Placebo’s Battle for the Sun, on Vagrant Records. This is the British alt rock trio’s sixth album and its first since 2006’s Meds. Good visuals, interesting commentary. Rating: B+

For What It’s Worth
Read the rest of this entry »

Late Night Music, June 8-13: Mos Def, Green Day, and more

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, June 8: Mos Def (Performing something off his fourth and latest solo album, The Ecstatic, out June 9. Maybe “Supermagic”?)
Tuesday, June 9: Black Eyed Peas
Wednesday, June 10: Sonic Youth
Thursday, June 11: the Jonas Brothers (Won’t these kids go away already? We still have to deal with the tour stopping here August 18.)
Friday, June 12: P.J. Harvey & John Parish

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Tuesday, June 9: Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal (Likely promoting their “BonTaj Roulet” co-headlining tour, a series of concerts where the two veteran blues artists perform separate sets with their own bands, and then take the stage together for a blues jam)
Wednesday, June 10: Rancid
Thursday, June 11: Neko Case (The rest of this week’s schedule + video of Pearl Jam on Conan after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Top 10 keyboardists, ever (with video).

Several days ago, while watching Marco Benevento fire up his piano on a YouTube video, I got to thinking — who are some of the best keyboardists around right now, the ones who truly bring chops to the table, either via instrumental compositions, or songwriting, or both? I’ve tried to go less obvious — no one’s questioning the skills of Gregg Allman, or Keith Emerson, or Count Basie, or Richard Wright, or George Duke, or Dr. John, or interchangeable piano men Billy Joel and Elton John, or even the wondrous Stevie Wonder. We all already know those dudes are at the top. But what about some of the less obvious, but no less great? In the vein of Ivan’s Top 5 Bass Players Ever — except that, despite the title of my post, I’m not really claiming these are the best key players ever, just my favorites — I’ve put together the following list, in no particular order, and with video.

Marco Benevento
He’s among the most talented keyboardists around right now, in my humble opinion. He’s pretty hip to current technology and usually incorporates it into his compositions. I’ve seen him play in his main band with drummer Joe Russo, the Benevento/Russo Duo, I’ve seen him perform as part of a Led Zeppelin tribute, Bustle in Your Hedgerow, I’ve seen him tear it up with Russo, Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio during the GRAB tour, and I’ve seen him in his solo project, a trio with badass bassist Reed Mathis and drummer Matt Chamberlain. The following video Marco with his trio playing “Twin Killers” from a May 13 show in Philly.

Read the rest of this entry »

Regina Spektor’s new album, first single, tour dates and more (with video)

I fell in love with Soviet-born songstress Regina Spektor a few years ago with the release of 2006’s Begin to Hope. While I was initially turned off by the inherent pop marketability of the album (it’s almost too well-produced for its own good), I was drawn to her poetry, to the sweetness of her accented voice, to the moments of her singing in her native language. (There’s more of that on her earlier self-released albums, though she really does it best in her third album, Soviet Kitsch.)

Anyway, the point of this post is that Miss Spektor is set to finally release the follow-up to Begin to Hope and I am stoked. Other than her adorable duet with Ben Folds, “You Don’t Know Me” — the first single off his 2009 album, Way to Normal — Spektor has been virtually MIA for far too long. Now, she’s gearing up for a worldwide release of far, due out on Sire Records June 23. (The official press release with info on her upcoming Letterman and Good Morning America, track listing and European tour dates, and the video for her new song, “Laughing With,” after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Pitchfork TV: The Dodos


The Dodos
perform solid, straighforward, no-frills-attached acoustic-driven pop music, and their 2008 album, Visiter, was among one of my favorites last year. Here’s the band performing “Red and Purple” and  “Eyelids” from Visiter, and what seems to be a new song, “Fables,” on Pitchfork TV. (See the video after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

New Les Claypool video, “Red State Girl”

Bass playing maverick Les Claypool — whose co-headlining tour with Matisyahu stops at Jannus Landing this upcoming Monday, June 1 — is currently celebrating the release of his second and most recent solo release, Of Fungi and Foe. This high quality slice of avant rock bizarrity is inspired by two soundtrack projects Claypool worked on last year, one for the Wii video game, Mushroom Men, about an ongoing civil war between Earth’s small population of formerly regular fungi who, along with various other native flora and fauna, gained sentience from a comet that crashed to Earth); and the other for the forthcoming horror flick, Pig Hunt, described as “a guy’s weekend of hunting gone wrong in the backwoods of Northern California, set amidst the chaos of marijuana, meth, rednecks, and a killer cult that worships a legendary 3,000 pound wild boar called ‘The Ripper.’”

The first single to get video treatment, “Red State Girl,” has the sort of weirdo feel you’d expect, with its players in freaky masks (are they presidents, or no-name cartoonish politicos?). Anyway, because I can’t embed the video, all I can do is show you a screen shot (see below) and offer you a link to the actual YouTube vid — click here to check it out.

Tortoise: new tour, album, video

Another band not coming to a town near you, Chicago experimental post-prog rock-n-jazz quartet Tortoise has announced a tour that makes stops in Greece, Japan, France and Belgium, hits nine US cities over the course of three months, and never once ventures further south than Austin. The band is set to release their latest album and first in more than five years, Beacons of Ancestorship, on June 23 via Thrill Jockey, and will supposedly announce another string of U.S. dates in the fall. Here’s hoping for a Florida run. Or at least a stop anywhere in the state.

Check out the video for their new single, “Prepare Your Coffin” and current tour dates: Read the rest of this entry »

Ghetto Love Sugar reunion videos

A few Fridays ago, I had the pleasure of seeing the Ghetto Love Sugar reunion. The band — a local experimental jazz jam outfit that enjoyed its heydey several years ago and played their last show in ‘03 — re-banded for a single show when drummer/percussionist Jon Priest returned to town for a weekend of performing. Priest (now a resident of Boone, N.C.) sat in in with pretty much every band he helped shape over the course of his many years that Friday night: Middle Rhythm Session, GLS, the funk-jazz foursome Infinite Groove Orchestra, and reggae masters Rocksteady@8.

That night, Priest told me he was going to play “until I can’t play no more.” And he did. The GLS set was, IMO, one of the most spirited parts of the night, though IGO pretty much KILLED it. (If you haven’t seen IGO perform, sans Priest, they play Yeoman’s Road Pub every first Friday of the month.) Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post some video from that night that a local music lover sent me, but just didn’t get the chance until today. Here’s two, parts one and four, the latter featuring GLS playing a smokin’ cover of The Beatles’ “Within You, Without You” from the May 8 show. Read the rest of this entry »

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