I love a Cloudcast where I get to hear a bunch of music I wouldn't otherwise have heard. Rinjo's got it right: this is a worthwhile 33 minutes.

Labels: Rinjo Cloudcast

By: David Schultz


In entering the studio with Steve Berlin, Anderson, his brother Matt and drummer Tim Kramp have found a producer that can harness the their feral growl without losing their band-next-door geniality. An unfairly unsung songwriter, Anderson excels at capturing moments and feelings with a pithy empathic wit. “Brady,” a song about a kid in Amsterdam with too much money and too much time, bounces along with an apropos sense of giddy enthusiasm and “Estelle” could sit comfortably amidst anything from the Tom Petty collection. Once again, the greatest bar band in the world proves they can tear it up in the studio.

NINETIES ERA JAMBAND God Street Wine will reunite for a pair of benefit shows at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On July 9 and July 10, they will raise money and awareness for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a charity endorsed by their longtime stage manager who was diagnosed with MS in 2004. Well before the announcement, Hidden Track has tirelessly kept the memory of the band alive with their God Street Wednesdays. This may be the only news that can derail the wire-to-wire Phish coverage.

Labels: Backyard Tire Fire

By: David Schultz


Chuck Berry who’s also featured in The T.A.M.I. Show, has his own documentary floating around the nether regions of the cable universe. In Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Taylor Hackford, the director of Ray, focuses on the preparations for a 1986 concert at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, Missouri to celebrate Berry’s 60th birthday. Filmed almost a quarter century ago, it features a fascinating round table between a now-deceased Bo Diddley, a now-incoherent Little Richard and Berry discussing the good-old-days in a calm, unembellished manner. It also features Berry going into a slow burn as he instructs an increasingly irritated Keith Richards on the correct way to play “Carol.” All of originators of rock and roll know what gets a crowd going and the concert footage, especially “Little Queenie,” captures Berry doing just that.

Howlin’ Wolf, one of Berry’s label mates from Chess Records, is the appropriate subject of Don McGlynn’s 2003 documentary, The Howlin’ Wolf Story. Popping up sporadically on Ovation, this one is a must DVR as it’s riddled with lengthy commercial breaks. The black and white footage from Wolf’s TV appearances, reminiscences from peers like Hubert Sumlin and Wolf’s own voice from archival footage make this worth the time. Among the voyeuristic moments, footage of a gathering of old blues musicians that gets a little edgy when Son House has too much to drink and, to Wolf's consternation, becomes a bit of an irascible and annoying presence in the room.

Beyond The Sea, Kevin Spacey’s biopic of Bobby Darin, falls at the other end of the spectrum. Using nearly all of the musical biography staples mocked in Walk Hard, Spacey fails to make Darin captivating or show why his career was worthy of the feature film treatment. The actor’s version of “Mind Games” blew people away at a 2001 John Lennon benefit, overshadowing many of the actual musicians on hand that night. He doesn’t recapture that glory in his embodiment of Bobby Darin. Stay away from this one and just watch The Usual Suspects again.

Although none of them play a note of music, rock stars dominate Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 gabfest Coffee & Cigarettes. Consisting of conversations between smokers sipping Java, the offbeat director gets the most out of his musical actors. Meg White says more in her one scene with her brother/husband/houseboy Jack and a Tesla coil than she has in a decade on stage. The GZA and RZA, who are the only ones in the film to neither light up or imbibe caffeine, more than hold their own in their absurd interlude with Bill Murray as they convince him to gargle oven cleaner as a homeopathic remedy. The piece de resistance is Iggy Pop and Tom Waits engaging in an uncomfortable conversation in which Waits consistently rebuffs all of Pop’s overtures of friendship while they both chain smoke their way through a found pack.

Labels: Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, White Stripes

By: David Schultz

If it's OK, first let me answer a related question you didn't ask: Mayer wasn't "drunk" during the interview, as many people have written and presumed.

Read the interview by clicking here.

Labels: Allman Brothers Band, John Mayer, Rob Tannenbaum

By: David Schultz


After Woodstock, the Leroy Justice/Hothouse Flowers combo will play one more gig, March 11 at the Fairfield Theater in Fairfield, CT. On March 14, the first off-day of the 2010 Allman Brothers Band residency, Justice will play BB King Blues Club & Grill as part of a benefit for The Allman Brothers Band Museum. The Jamie McLean Band, Lingo and Yonrico Scott from the Derek Trucks Band will also be on the bill.

Leroy Justice will remind you why you love rock and roll. Why deprive yourself of that?

Labels: Leroy Justice

Labels: Jay Reatard, Rinjo Cloudcast; Future Of The Left

By: David Schultz

The second album from Blues & Lasers, Scott Tournet's Delta blues side-project that features fellow Nocturnals Benny Yurco and Matt Burr, bassist John Rogone and drummer Steve Sharon, is at the mastering stage and is on schedule to beat the new Grace Potter & The Nocturnals album into the stores (or whatever passes for one these days). The band is targeting April 15 as a release date for the CDs (give or take a week or two) but are aiming to have it available for digital download by the end of the month. If their set at the Brooklyn Bowl served as a preview, get excited for what's coming.

Early last year, I interviewed B&L for jambands.com. Check it out by clicking here.

COMPILATIONS FROM BONNAROO always tend to be eclectic collections and now they support a cause. Music For Action, a partnership between Bonnaroo, HeadCount, the NRDC Action Fund and JamBase, is willing to give you a 17 song album of live tracks if you help them pester Congress and news outlet to do something about climate change. Best of Bonnaroo features My Morning Jacket covering the Velvet Underground's "Oh Sweet Nuthin'," a portion of The Decemberists' rock opera The Hazards Of Love and Grateful Dead standbys from Phil Lesh & Friends and Bob Weir & Ratdog. It also has live cuts from jamband stalwarts like moe., Phish, The Disco Biscuits and the Dave Matthews Band as well as non-traditional festival fare from Pearl Jam, Wilco and Raphael Saadiq. Download the album and get the political info by clicking here.

Labels: Blues and Lasers, Bonnaroo

By: David Schultz


IF YOU ARE READING THIS because The Stones and/or Petty tickles your musical fancy, then you will be excited to know that Alan Parsons has a new live album coming out March 19 in Europe and April 6 in the USA. Eye 2 Eye - Live In Madrid captures a May 14, 2004 show at the Playa Mayor in Spain and contains "Games People Play," "Damned If I Do" and "Sirius," a staple of every NBA pre-game. There seems to be a supporting tour but to see it, you need to be in Israel, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Russia.

Labels: Alan Parsons, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty

By: David Schultz


Last Thursday night, Lewis & The Honeybears played a sold-out show at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom, pulling in a sizable crowd despite the raging blizzard that shut down Gotham the next morning. Much as he does on Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is, the band’s full length debut on Lost Highway Records, Lewis offered up the emotionally unguarded sentiments that underlie the blues. In a voice that bears a slight resemblance to Chris Rock and an attitude derived from James Brown, Lewis confronts lack of money on “I’m Broke,” the need and desire for female companionship on “Sugarfoot” and “Big Booty Woman” and the fear of losing a good woman no matter how many times you screw up on “Get You Shit.” The Honeybears rank up there with the best bands of any era: there’s no song that a horn section can’t make better and when Lewis ramps up into roadhouse raves like “Bobby Booshay,” they kick into another gear.

It’s become commonplace at most shows for there be a level of chattiness amongst the crowd. If you go to enough shows, you get attuned to drowning it out. For Lewis’ set at the Bowery Ballroom, it was too loud to ignore. A combination of hipsters who were present because the bloggers told them they were supposed to like Lewis & The Honeybears and drunken frat boys hoping to howl along with misguided glee at Lewis’ “Bitch I Love You” seemed to dominate the crowd that braved the weather to get to the show and their incessant chatter overwhelmed and at times drowned out Lewis. During “Get Yo Shit,” one of Lewis’ wittiest and humorous songs, his tale of frustrated reconciliation became lost within the din of the self-involved audience, depriving it or any other song of any sense of resonance. Casting pearls before swine, Lewis played a fine show before a predominantly uninterested audience.

Labels: Black Joe Lewis

I am unsure how this started but some time back Rinjo developed an obsession with songs that lasted 2:22. I know of no significant February 22 birthdays and unless he's been hiding it from me, there's no weird numerological fixation at work. It results in The Hives, The Len Price 3 and The Staples Singers ending up on the same Cloudcast, so three cheers for iTunes for making this simple.

By: David Schultz


FOR ALL OF JOHN LYDON'S POSTURING as an irredeemable punk, he sure understands the lucrative allure of a reunion tour. On April 16, Public Image Ltd. will play their first U.S. show in 18 years as part of the Coachella Festival in Indio, California and then produce eastward on a month long tour that will conclude May 18 at New York City's Terminal 5. The new Millennium PiL will include guitarist Lu Simmonds, drummer Bruce Smith and bassist Scott Frith.

Labels: The Kinks

By: David Schultz

Labels: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Rock Hall of Fame, The Hold Steady

By: David Schultz


In just his 5th show since stepping into the breach created by founding member Rob Salzer’s departure from the band, guitarist Kevin Griffin has already had a noticeable effect on the band. Wisely, Griffin doesn’t try to mimic Salzer’s solos or guitar style. Everything is still eminently recognizable but since it’s being filtered through a different musician with his own unique set of sensibilities, the end result is refreshing variations on familiar themes; a little less tronica in the jamtronica. Griffin’s presence was felt the most during “The Eternal Groove,” when he set the guitar aside and turned one of U-Melt’s signature tunes on its head by adding some tasty licks on the tenor sax. The new instrument also added some jazzy life to a cover of Robert Palmer’s “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On.” Griffin’s buoyant stage personality seems to be contagious: Adam Bendy, the band’s normally stoic bassist, cracked a smile or two and the band played with an extremely loose feel.

At their release party at The Knitting Factory for The I’s Mind, U-Melt debuted “Clear Light,” “Elysian Fields” and “Perfect World,” all of which appear on the new album. Three years later, those songs found their way into the setlist, which featured many of the tracks from Perfect World, their development over that time noticeable. While U-Melt didn’t offer a preview of their fourth album, they did open their second set by busting out a phenomenal cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” the opening riff getting a loud response of delightful recognition. Filling the room quite nicely, keyboardist Zac Lasher’s voice sounded remarkably strong. His confidence as a lead vocalist seems to be growing at the same rate his keyboard setup approaches Benevento-like size and complexity.

It would be ignoring the stress on the floorboards to ignore the weight of the 800 pound elephant of Salzer’s absence. He’s been so integral to U-Melt’s development and signature sound that it would be naïve not to muse over the unavoidable changes that are to come. Stasis never fosters growth though and from a creativity standpoint, change is always good. Near the close of U-Melt’s 3 ½ hour extravaganza, the band’s past and future meshed melodically as "Panacea" veered significantly into “Shakedown Street” territory. Coming from Reckoning, a decidedly Grateful Dead influenced jam fell right within Griffin’s wheelhouse and while U-Melt have never been Dead-averse, this is the most Dead-friendly I can remember hearing them. It’s just the start of the Flash Sideways that U-Melt’s going to offer their fans.

YOU MIGHT BE AS SHOCKED AS Claude Rains to find out that Internet rumors could get out of hand, run wild and gain steam. But yes, Virginia, they do. Rolling Stone magazine didn't forget to renew their domain name or run into any intellectual property issues. It appears they are just experiencing technical difficulties and will be back soon. At least that what's I read on the Internet.

Labels: U-Melt

By: David Schultz


Although a double bill, Beck essentially acted as the opener and featured guest for Clapton’s headlining set. He’s had modest successes with “Beck’s Bolero” and “People Get Ready,” Beck remains primarily an acquired taste; many more people know of and respect him than have spent considerable time listening to him. His forty-five minute opening set gave a quick glimpse into his virtuosic predilections, utilizing a string orchestra to give proper texture to his classical minded arrangements. Much of what Beck does, going from opera to the Beatles, is daunting enough to even attempt, even more impressive that Beck thinks it’s business as usual.

As if inspired by his stint last March with the Allman Brothers Band, Clapton’s portion of the show relied more on blues standards and back catalog selections than classic rock radio fodder. Beginning with an acoustic set that featured measured and by now commonplace recitations of “Driftin’” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out,” Clapton nodded towards his newfound status as adman finishing a fine rendition of “I’ve Got A Rock N’ Roll Heart” without being interrupted by Buddy Guy’s need to chat. Clapton’s arrangements didn’t venture far from their traditional framework, although “Key To The Highway” borrowed heavily from Jethro Tull’s “Someday The Sun Won’t Shine For You.” Clapton’s take on J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine” and Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” provided the night’s most well-known moments and got the biggest reaction. It’s still puzzling that despite all the furor raised over Ice-T and Body Count’s “Cop Killer,” “I Shot The Sheriff” is still considered acceptable fare.

Much like Clapton’s shows with Steve Winwood, Clapton had no qualms about sliding into a complementary role, letting Beck take many of the leads over the last third of the show with Beck. Disappointingly, no guitar duels erupted nor were there of any memorable histrionics you might expect when two of the best guitarists in the world get together. Instead, the night went the other way, the two bizarrely nestling an unexpected version of “Moon River” amidst their heavy take on blues sounds they helped create forty years past. By underplaying the moment, the two effectively dispelled all of the mythic aspects of their pairing, depriving a fine performance of the defining jawdropping moment everyone seemed to want. It might have been the only way that these two could have left anyone feeling unsatisfied.

Labels: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck