Tampa Calling

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.

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Another year, another posthumous release from Elliott Smith. An album’s worth of unfinished recordings and outtakes from From A Basement On The Hill has leaked.

Among the 17 songs is a Beatles cover for the song I’ll Be Back.

Considering how much material has been uncovered, we’d expect to be hearing really rough and diluted material at this point, but these recordings are anything but.

Download Smith’s cover of the Beatles’ I’ll Be Back.

To download all 17 tracks, follow the link below the jump:

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On Feb. 3, 1959, a four-seat airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) crashed into a cornfield eight miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa.

The term “rock ‘n’ roll” had only come into widespread use about three years before.

The seeds planted between 1958-1964, between Elvis and the Beatles, go often unheralded in rock history. Motown got its start; it was Roy Orbison’s peak — same for the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons, not to mention Phil Spector, Stax and Muscle Shoals, the Shirelles, Del Shannon and James Brown.

Here are some Buddy Holly tunes for your listening enjoyment, below the jump:

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Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander perform at a post-show jam. The guitar Nielsen is playing fetched $4,000 in an auction.

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Every note, sound and lyric of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is so indelibly imprinted in people’s heads that the thought of performing it live must be a little daunting. If that was the case last night at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Cheap Trick did not let on.

They nailed it.

The band had help. A keyboardist and second guitarist augmented the group. Behind them on a riser, 24 members of the Florida Orchestra filled out the sound, playing the string and horn parts with accuracy and feeling. Just for good measure, an Indian sitarist and tabla player came in from Miami specifically for the George Harrison-penned raga “Within You Without You.”

The evening opened with some instrumental versions of Beatles songs by the orchestra, which was followed by a brief set by Donovan. The 62-year old Irishman brandished a kelly green acoustic guitar and performed “Catch the Wind,” “Sunshine Superman” and “Lalena,” followed by heartfelt turns at the Beatles “Dear Prudence” and “Blackbird.”

I thought “Hurdy Gurdy Man” would’ve been a nice choice; it’s Donovan’s most psychedelic tune, and he could’ve employed the orchestra for interesting effect.

After an intermission, Cheap Trick and company took the stage and launched into “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with exuberance and just the right measure of rock ferocity.

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