Post by Matt Kivel

The Glass Candy set was a tale of two shows. If you were up close and crammed into the throbbing stageside pit, the dance beats and tightly-wound synth refrains were all too much to deal with -- boogie fever overtook the entire crowd. Friends of mine came back sweating and sucking for air, claiming they had "seen god" and danced to his sweet funk. The other experience was my own -- casually observing beside the well-lit merch table, jotting down notes and generally feeling bored with what I gleaned to be an average set of mid-tempo disco.

But I give my friends the benefit of the doubt on this one. I should have been down there, sweating alongside them, fixing my eyes on the nodding heads and Ginger Green's emerald tube top. I'm off my high horse -- the ecstatic looks that concertgoers gave one another after the set were enough. Glass Candy rocked the f&%ing house.

Post by Sammy JC

Inside the spacious Echoplex, fresh-faced highschoolers, tattooed punks, neon t-shirted hipsters and local Latinos all mixed and mingled together. Like a visual census of the alternative youth of East Hollywood, there was a rare sense of community and ease as the stagehands set up the gear for hardcore punk legends Negative Approach.

Before the band launched into their jackhammer sonic assault, frontman John Brannon remarked, "It only took us 27 years to get here," noting this as the Detroit band's first West Coast appearance. Even with such abrasive music, the room was large enough that fans at the stage could crowd surf and mosh while those in the back continued to socialize and drink as if immune to the mayhem up ahead. F Yeah Fest founder Sean Carlson himself even stood by the lip of the stage to help the flailing stream of crowd surfers off and on. The songs were short, Brannon struck menacing poses and contorted his face and the kids ate it up. Though abrasive and outwardly inaccessible, Negative Approach is such a powerful band with so much presence that they handily won over people who simply had never seen a hardcore performance before. They devirginized the casual observers and Brannon was just mesmerizing.

Check out our interview with Negative Approach's John Brannon.

(Photo by Olivia Hermaratanatorn)

Post by Sammy JC

Abe Vigoda played a set of highly inventive songs with rollicking rhythms, echo- drenched guitars, dub-thick bass lines and yelping dual vocals that put their sound somewhere between Sonic Youth, Talking Heads and calypso music. However, the jam-packed audience never let their hipster-selves get too lost in the danceable grooves and instead, remained polite and patient even when one of the guitar players took a few minutes to change a broken string.

Coupled with the sweet smell of bar-b-q wafting in from the back of the club, the band socialized with friends between numbers and kept the mood loose and carefree. Fixtures of the LA scene, much of the F Yeah Fest would play out as a celebration of Abe Vigoda and other Smell-based bands like No Age and Mika Miko whose recent success seems to have taken the whole community by surprise.

Photo by Dan Monick

Post by Matt Kivel

Alright, we get it. Country is cool. Late nights barnstorming, plowing through bottles of Jack Daniels, lamenting broken love affairs, firing a 12-gauge -- it's all well and good, but where is the new angle? Where is the next level of artistic depth that once seemed inevitable when bands like Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks roamed the midwest? David Vandervelde is cut from that same cloth of talented country songsmiths as Tweedy, Louris and Farrar, but he really doesn't stray from the tried and true formula of honky-tonk rave-ups and weep into your Pabst ballads that seems to define nearly every band under the alt-country tag. 

His trio proved to be a nice change of pace for the Echo stage, whose audience was ready for a reprieve after an altercation with the police and a brutal series of hardcore acts. Bass, drums and guitar, simply played with Vandervelde's axe floating high above the mix. They dutifully channelled the hard-rocking power of Southern rock overlords Lynard Skynard and were met with a modest reception from the weary crowd of punks and hardcore addicts. 

There is no doubt that David Vandervelde is good at what he does -- especially the ultra morose ballads, which are quite reminiscent of Secretly Canadian labelmate Jason Molina's work. His high wail cuts clear and warbly, much like Neil Young's more somber vocal inflections ("Old Man" and "Mellow My Mind"). But he's just not adding anything new or exciting to the tested songwriting formulas.

Photo by Nick Befort

Post by David Lewis

Most bands interact with the crowd to form a "we're all together" bond. Some bands stage-dive and let the crowd hold them up, passing them around the venue on a sea of fans' hands. Monotonix tops them all, by playing while crowd surfing. At their late-night Echo performance, the Israeli trio skipped playing on the stage (too pedestrian), opting instead to perform with their instruments set up in the middle of the crowd. It made for difficult viewing, but an electrifying performance.

Before long, singer Ami Shalev was being passed over the heads of the packed crowd, singing all the while. Likewise, guitarist Yonatan Gat was raised up high in the air by a groups of fans, while hammering out sloppy arena-style solos. The coup de grace came when various audience members hoisted seated drummer Haggai Fershtman up high, along with multiple pieces of his drumkit (hi-hat, snare drum). He then played more than just a few bars while seemingly floating in thin air. The music itself, though somewhat of a moot point, was non-stop garage rock, chock full of Zeppelinish riffs.

Best of all was the fact that they pulled off all of these maneuvers with out cordless equipment. Meaning that there was still a length of cord, originating from the amp on stage, snaking through the audience even after Gat had been passed right out the exit. They then proceeded to play outside the venue for the brief remainder of their set.

Photos by Bryce Frees.

Post by Sammy JC

How can music so violent inspire such an odd sense of joyful camaraderie between band and audience? This was the juxtaposition posed by Trash Talk's thrashing hardcore set.

The entire front floor area was cleared out for a young male bonding ritual of tackling and collective screaming. Mirroring the celebration often reserved for college football national championships, twenty or more boys soon rushed onto the stage, bouncing together in a massive group huddle. The band's long-maned lead-screecher even had his mic pulled away by an overzealous fan, but nonetheless, continued to roam the stage -- shouting with a poisoned expression on his face. Chaos ensued and security guards attempted to hurl and elbow a sense of order into the crowd to no avail. The kids won.

Post by Sammy JC

Even while the daylight shown brightly through the Echo's doors, Paint It Black kept the mood dark and foreboding. They played a set of brutal hardcore anthems inspired by Black Flag, complete with their own shirtless and muscular lead screamer.

At one point, an audience member climbed onstage and put the frontman in a headlock before quickly diving off the stage again into the slam dancing audience below. Nonetheless, it was all in good fun and much more the musical equivalent of the tongue in cheek WWE than the rancourous Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Post by Andrew Barker

Considering the band is comprised of only two people, it's simply astounding how much noise No Age is capable of generating. Waves of noise, looped and layered over each other, bubbling over with low hypnotic patterns and building to epic catharses, all the while never dipping below the red. And yet you don't even notice just how loud they are until you step out into the street afterward and notice the painful ringing in your ears, so perfectly controlled and oddly soothing is their deeply original, brilliantly crafted brand of beautiful chaos.

Delivering the headlining set of Saturday's F Yeah Festival, the L.A. duo justified the substantial attention they've been receiving of late, making for a perfect closer to a day filled with excitement, energy and experimentation.

Whereas the band's recordings can often hew too closely to the same formula (a gentle, syncopated instrumental suite followed by a bone-rattling blast of blissed-out noise pop, or vice-versa), here they let the songs stretch, drag and bleed into one another as needed, reinventing a number of them entirely. Guitarist Randy Randall climbed the amps and covered every square foot of the stage like the bastard son of Kevin Shields and Angus Young, while drummer/singer Dean Spunt proved an engaging, watchable frontman, despite being seated for most of the performance.

It was also a perfectly structured show, beginning on a loose, improvisatory note, then slowly ratcheting up the energy to the mid-set one-two punch of "Brain Burners" and "Eraser" (the latter of which would be a top 10 hit in a slightly skewed parallel universe), cooling down a bit to the dreamy "Ripped Knees," then ending on an explosive, feedback drenched cover of the Misfits' "Night of the Living Dead" that likely left anyone within 10 feet of the speakers with permanent hearing damage.

For all the obvious attention that No Age put into the instrumental side of their music, Spunt's vocals can often seem an afterthought, and are frequently buried so far down in the live mix that they might as well be -- hopefully this is an area the band will continue to fine tune and develop. As it is, No Age still have more potential than any new band in recent memory.

Photo by Bryce Frees.

Check out the Set List's video interview with No Age's Randy Randall.

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Andrew Barker

Brooklyn alterna-dance duo Matt and Kim were on some serious happy drugs Saturday night, with keyboard player/singer Matt frequently jumping up from his seat and cutting himself off mid-song, too eager to get to the next one, and perpetually smiling drummer Kim bobbing her head with a maniacal intensity. The crowd responded in kind, becoming an ebullient, throbbing mass, even prompting this reporter to attempt his first crowd surf since a Descendents concert in 1996 (semi-successfully).

Photo by Bryce Frees.

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by David Lewis

Toronto hardcore iconoclasts Fucked Up (a name somewhat appropriate for this particular festival) have been building a significant buzz over the last few years due to their reputedly raucous live shows and their willingness to experiment on record (unexpected instrumentation, pop sounds, epic-length songs, guest vocalists). Raucous their F yeah set was, but it was short on experimentation and stuck rigidly to traditional, but relentlessly entertaining, hardcore punk.

The sweaty crowd was packed in tight and it was clear from the outset that they came to fuck things up: Many audience members started moshing a split-second before the band even began, anticipating a large, savage pit. Fucked Up frontman, a 300-pound dude named Damian Abraham, was intimidating but surprisingly charming, funny and self-deprecating. He spent half of his time interacting with the crowd, offering audience members the mic and stage-diving in equal measure. Likewise, the band seemed to have a strong sense of humor often missing from the hardcore scene, even playing a few bars of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Having three guitars allowed the sextet to create an endless stream of speedy, distorted crunch, but in the spacious Echoplex, the specific riffs melted away, leaving a deafening wall of white noise.

They're obviously informed by the early days of hardcore (including Negative Approach, who played immediately after them), but Fucked Up push the envelope musically and are significantly more populist and accessible than some of their peers. The F Yeah Fest in general is the same way: Look to the early days of DIY punk, but mix in new elements and invite everybody to contribute in some way.

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Andrew Barker

Playing in the early evening at the Echo, Bay Area duo Two Gallants' blend of vintage folk melodies, blues riffs and sea shanties should have been a welcome respite from the steady hardcore that dominated the afternoon. They certainly exhibited good taste in the styles they chose to emulate, and it's encouraging to see a roots band dig back further into the blues/folk vault than the simple Mississippi Delta/Woody Guthrie diet that sustains most retro-minded rockers.

But Two Gallants just simply didn't swing, despite a style that demands it. Perhaps it was the strange lack of chemistry between the two men (a drummer and guitarist/singer), or their sour-faced lack of enthusiasm performing, or the fact that their singer sounds far more like Geddy Lee than Leadbelly, but there was something uncomfortably amiss about the whole performance.

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by David Lewis

Vancouver's Ladyhawk* suffered one of the day's few major technical glitches. As a result, they took to the stage about 15 minutes late, but vocalist Duffy Driediger passed the time by riffing on Canada, U.S. vs. Canadian money (someone in the crowd gave him a Canadian $5 bill), and, hilariously, the awkwardness that follows when a fellow male compliments his well-groomed beard (it was pretty handsome, to be honest). He later kept the comedy vibe going by jokingly yelling "Yeah Ladyhawk! Worst band ever!" between songs.

Decked out in vintage tees (including the Grateful Dead and Elvis) and vintage sneakers, Ladyhawk is also most comfortable drawing their music from the past. Echoes of Neil Young creep into their largely late '80s-early '90s-inspired (think Dinosaur Jr., Replacements, even Built to Spill) arsenal of rootsy, guitar-driven indie rock. At the 3/4-full Echo they got jammy in a welcomed, My Morning Jacket kind of way, but their final song (for which the drummer and guitarist swapped instruments) was jammy in a bad way. They also played the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated," which was itself rather sedated.

*Not to be confused with buzzy New Zealand electro-poppers Ladyhawke (like the Matthew Broderick film), who will be gracing the Echo's stage in October.

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Matt Kivel

With a name that inspires second-looks and suspicions of pre-pubescent speech impediments, Best Fwends are pranksters with a simple agenda -- to play loud music recklessly without pretense. A swelling crowd crammed into the undersized Annex venue two storefronts down from the Echo to dance and thrash to a rapid set of homespun karaoke freak-outs. The duo, comprised of Austin-based performers Dustin and Anthony pumped-fists and sang their hearts out to a series of ipod backing tracks, which ran the gamut from dance-floor friendly electronica to barroom, Pogues-style punk.

It was one of the more popular shows hosted at the surreal, linoleum-lined Annex venue and the group's extreme DIY aesthetic seemed to resonate with the F Yeah faithful on a visceral level. It's music that doesn't wait for the corroded wheels of bureaucracy to turn, completely obliterating the pedestal we so often place our musical heroes upon.

Photo by S. Cass

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

Post by Matt Kivel

The first day of the F Yeah Fest in Echo Park proudly displayed a veritable all star team of bands from Los Angeles' vibrant counterculture. Hipsters and teenagers decked out in florescent t-shirts and wide-rimmed spectacles engulfed the three block stretch of Sunset Blvd between Glendale Blvd and Echo Park Ave, within which which the Echo and Echoplex venues reside.

Festivities kicked off at around 3: 30 PM and for the most part, early concerts enjoyed moderate attendance. The Mae Shi proved to be an exception. Fans packed into the Echoplex at around 4: 15 PM to catch a glimpse of the band's spastic punk rock -- a refreshingly unpretentious blend of seemingly incongruous musical sub-genres. Some of the songs employ long, avant-garde freak outs and Kraut-flavored improvisations while others borrow unashamedly from early 90s mainstream FM radio with epic hooks and gleeful crowd-bating chants.

Band members propelled themselves across the stage and the lead vocalists screamed and shouted in tandem, echoing each other's refrains and hammering home the choruses. The Mae Shi set was galvanizing in the best of ways, revving up the crowd and uniting concertgoers from different ends of the musical spectrum. Hardcore and punk fans pumped fists with pop-lovers and ska fans alike -- that sort of unity among fans regardless of musical preference continued throughout the night and made for a celebratory concert experience.

Photo by Faith Crawford

Check out the F Yeah Fest photo gallery.

During an interview for my weekly column in Daily Variety, guitarist-singer John Pizzarelli did not explain he and wife Jessica Molaskey would be creating rounds out of two different songs throughout their set. Beyond the fun and playful, they hit a serious note by combing the "South Pacific" tune on racism "You've Got to  Be Carefully Taught" and "Children Will Listen" from "Into the Woods," a darker and jazzier take than Barbra Streisand's medley of the songs.  They take their act to the Cafe Carlyle on Sept. 9 for a two-month run.
At the early show on Aug. 29 at Catalina Bar & Grill, John & Jessica performed:
I Didn't Know What Time it Was (Jessica)> Just in Time (John)/My Baby Just Cares About Me / Small World / I Want to Be Happy / Meditation (John) > Summer, Highland Falls (Jessica) / Happy Talk / This Can't Be Love / It's Easy to Remember / Johnny One Note  / I'm Just Wild About Harry >Everybody Loves Louis / Hide in Plain Sight (that's a guess) / You've Got to Be Carefully Taught (John) > Children Will Listen (Jessica) / You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You / Little Girl   

   

Post by Andrew Barker

For a city so adept at self-promotion, Los Angeles does a remarkably poor job advertising its legacy as  one of the three  major capitals of punk rock. While the closing of New York's punk epicenter CBGB captured nationwide attention, monuments to the West Coast’s underground have usually gone under with a whimper. The much mythologized Masque – home to many an inspired X gig and infected Germs burn – was razed several years ago. Black Flag’s old riot center, the Starwood, is now a strip mall. Downtown dive Al’s Bar, where fledgling Seattle band Nirvana played one of their first head-turning sets, has long since shuttered, as has the storied Jabberjaw Café.

But thankfully, there’s a new crop of venues ready to take their place and a new generation of resourceful, ambitious and deeply weird bands eager to make a venue their own. Whereas the city’s past underground scenes were often dirty, druggy, dangerous and covered in graffiti, L.A.'s new crop of D.I.Y. venues are largely collaborative, dry (or else discretely BYOB), vegan …and covered in graffiti.

Compared to the transuranic half-life of so many of the city’s underground venues, Downtown's post-apocalyptic hotspot the Smell boasts a cockroach’s tenacity. Founded in 1998 in North Hollywood, the venue quickly moved to its current space adjacent to Skid Row, where it has been the nucleus of the all-ages LA experimental/punk scene for years. Recently, greater outside attention for the club has come with the success of favorite sons No Age (who used a photo of the club’s street-facing side for the cover of debut “Weirdo Rippers”), as well as regulars Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda and HEALTH.

Accessible only through an easily-overlooked alley entrance, the venue is a circuitous, cramped, underventilated mass of noise, sweat and graffiti. Yet for all the tumult, the Smell is a quasi-anarchist labor of love. Members of resident bands put in time  as volunteers when offstage. There is no booking agent. Keeping the place up to code is a full-time job (it was temporarily shut down in 2003) and the venue’s homeless neighbors occasionally function as bouncers. Somehow -- improbably -- it works.

Smaller, cleaner, and less intimidatingly located, Echo Park’s Pehrspace nonetheless has much in common with the Smell – it’s also nonprofit, all-ages, staffed by volunteers and nearly impossible to find on first attempt. The relatively new space (which also exhibits art and photography) has seen its profile rise recently with onetime habitué Dan Deacon moving on to larger pastures. Smaller still is the nearby Echo Curio, an art gallery/curiosity shop that plays host to crowded concerts with a living room vibe.

Yet for every new space that opens up, it seems just as many shut down. Among the most recent casualties are Zero Point (an offshoot of legendary fallen club Il Corral), which hosted many a sui genris event from the second floor of a warehouse in the industrial wasteland south east of Downtown. The venue closed its doors last month, going out on an appropriately idiosyncratic note: a showcase of experimental noise bands, followed by a book club-style discussion of Slavoj Zizek.

Mika Miko @ The Smell

Dan Deacon @ Pehrspace

One of the most common questions I am asked regards rights, as in "who gave the Democrats the rights to use that awful song after Barack Obama's excellent speech last night?" It evolves into a discussion about the difference between synch/mechanical rights and a writer's copyright, which is not even clear when the all-sample work of Girls Talk is explained by someone who might understand the issue and still draws no distinction between a recording and a copyright.
Using a performer's recording, like John Williams' Olympics themes, can be a big payday for the writer, but a writer needs to make sure that when their songs are covered, they are still credited. Like the people who may or may not have written the Elmore James hit "Done Somebody Wrong," perhaps best known  by the Allman Brothers Band's cover.
I had been looking at a few of their set lists since the Allmans resumed touring on the heels of Gregg Allman's recovery from hepatitis C. One of my favorite bands ever and an addiction I have never been able to shake, I was jonesing for a little Duane Allman and Dickey Betts interplay so I threw on disc 2 of the 2006 edition of "Eat a Peach."
Scanning the liner notes, I noticed "Done Somebody Wrong" was credited to James, Clarence L. Lewis and everybody's favorite white bluesman in a business suit with mob ties, Morris Levy. For some reason, I had never noticed Levy's name in the credits for the song and wondered if it had always been an oversight on my part.
On the original vinyl of "Live at the Fillmore East," which is the first place most of us ever heard the tune, lists the songwriting credit as Lewis, James, David C. Thomas and Morgan Robinson. Lewis and Robinson were something of a team, writing songs such as Lee Dorsey's "Ya-Ya" with their "co-writer" Levy. Who Thomas is remains a mystery.
In 1992, Polygram issued a complete, two-CD edition of the Fillmore East recordings from 1971 and credited "Done Somebody Wrong"to the team of Lewis, James and Levy. But when it came time for Universal to issue a version of the album - in 2003 through its Mercury Chronicles unit - the writing credit was changed to just Elmore James.
Perhaps not too oddly, James gets the lone credit on the song Rhino Records' "Very Best Of" issued in 2000.
A significant reason I lament the digital migration of music to Internet services such as iTunes is the absence of this arcana - the list of musicians on tracks, songwriting and producing credits, recording dates, etc. So many of my peers grew up not just on the albums, but the information held within and these days listeners who limit their purchases to Apple do not even get the benefit of having the label listed. "Live at Fillmore East" brought a fair number of new names to my world as a 13-year-old - specifically James, Willie McTell and T-Bone Walker - that exposed me to a world I did not know existed, and I have long credited the combination of credits on records and curiosity for my insatiable desire to consume as much music as possible. (Last weekend my soundtrack while I was cooking was Mosaic Records' T-Bone Walker set; that stuff has an enduring appeal even if many of the songs are structured exactly the same way).
There's no way to know how many other tunes fit the example of "Done Somebody Wrong" and one wonders how vigilant an heir needs to be to ensure that money from their ancestors' work is going to the right places and is in the right amount. Technology may short change a good number of artists down the road as all it will take is the wrong information being printed once and then repeated; it's bad enough that "American idol" does not require that songwriters be properly credited when the contestants give the wrong name before a song. It's small, but it's one more step toward crushing our musical heritage and the writers upon whose work the American songbook is built. And in the case of Levy, the business executives who stole from the creatives.

As I continue my quest to get to 100 shows and see 300 acts this year, I have slipped a bit lately, making it to two only three shows in the last two weeks and seen six acts. I have 41/136 to go.

James Lavelle, who together with Pablo Clements makes up Unkle, points out that the band’s new release, “End Titles…Stories For Film,” is not an album of new music but it functions as an album.
Ten of the album’s tracks were featured in the Abel Ferrara documentary “Odyssey in Rome,” “Broken” appears in “X Files: I Want to Believe” and “Trouble in Paradise” was featured in a BMW advertisement. Among their collaborators are Gavin Clark, South’s Joel Cadbury and Black Mountain. The album, already released digitally, becomes available at retail Sept. 2.
“It’s important to stay active with Unkle,” Lavelle told the Set List, partially explaining the existence of “End Titles.” “There’s no need to do a record every four years as if it’s a big statement that somehow will change the world.”
Lavelle formed the Mo' Wax label in his teens and essentially birthed trip-hop until an attempt to sell the label and still remain a recording artist turned into a giant mess. With Unkle, a band name he has used since the early ‘90s, the manner in which he works has changed considerably and he is starting to see how others function.
“We toured for a year and I want to take that energy into the studio. It’s a real way to write – about 99% of the bands do things that way – and we can make a record we can tour on. I just want to keep the momentum going. I don’t want to wait five years. We’re never going to be a hot new band. We’re self sufficient and at a creative peak. We should keep ourselves there.”
Lavelle is in the studio with his touring band, writing songs based on jams. The new way of working, last year's "War Stories" and the brilliance of Black Mountain were all subjects we discussed.

Q: On first listen I kept imagining a black screen with names scrolling by and tried to imagine what sort of film I had just seen. By using a title as suggestive as this, was there an intention to make all of the songs sound as if they were a resolution of some sort?
A: It was originally titled ‘Film Stories’ because I wanted to show a continuity with previous records. This was a collection of tracks from previous projects and for fun we added to the mix. The concern from a distribution element was that it would be seen as a B-sides record. Struggling with economic thinking, the title was geared toward the moving picture. It’s not too literal — it’s sort of a DJ mix of music for film. It’s name for a track on the ‘Blade Runner’ soundtrack. It has the sort of feel of a title of an Unkle album.

Q: The album does have a coherence to it — it all could come from one film.
A: A lot is about leaving it to the imagination. There’s an ambiguousness, creating your own picture. Right now we’re doing a version of the record that’s strings and ambient sounds and it’s much more cinematic. The record we have made is juggling two things — certain things are very specifically written for TV shows, trailers and games and people have heard them in that context. We also wanted to gather stuff we had sitting around — the soundtrack genre is pretty broad.

Beck's father, David Campbell, will conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings when they back his son Sept. 20 at the Hollywood Bowl. It will  be the first time father and son have shared the stage.
Campbell is an arranger and conductor whose work has been on more than 400 albums.As a performer, he has played on historic sessions with the likes of Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and Carole King; his arrangements can be heard on recordings by Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones, Cat Power, The Mars Volta and, of course, on several of Beck's albums.

Oasis has booked a club show in New York and an open air show in Cornwall prior to the Oct. 7 release of "Dig Out Your Soul" through Warner Music's Reprise in the U.S. 
Oasis will perform at Manhattan's Terminal 5 on Sept. 12 and  the Eden Project in Cornwell on Sept. 27. The U.K. show will be filmed by MTV for a later broadcast.
Getting tickets requires registering on the band's website. Applications for the New York ticket purchase will close midday Wednesday; U.K. applications will be taken until midday Sept. 5.

The CMJ Music Marathon has unleashed another list of names of acts that will be appearing at the New York confab Oct. 21-25. It's time to bring on the obscure so here's a breakdown.
Identifiable Bands And Acts: Au, Charlie Louvin, Collections of Colonies of Bees, David Banner, Five Finger Death Punch,Joan Osborne,Jungle Brothers, Kid Sister,Midway State,Stetsasonic, Talib Kweli,The Duke Spirit, Tigercity,
Bands With Cool Names: Bison B.C., Cars Can Be Blue,Five Finger Death Punch, The Emeralds, the Lolligags, People Under the Stairs, Zimbabwe Legit
What Were You Thinking Names: Awkward Stage, Ho-ag, Vancougar, Whomadewho,
Personally Excited to See: I'll get back to you on that one.
Full list after the jump

F Yeah Fest founder Sean Carlson chats with Variety's Abe Burns about the history of his 5 year old festival, the LA music scene and the importance of DIY venues.

Post by Matt Kivel

A large portion of this week's Set List content has been devoted to a dynamic, locally-run Los Angeles festival called the F Yeah Fest. Each year, the promoters and festival operators generously give their money, time and effort to the maintenance and  independence  of the  F Yeah brand -- often receiving little  to no recompense for their tireless work. So it saddens me to report that those same, well-meaning festival volunteers were attacked outside of Radiohead's Hollywood Bowl performance Monday night.

The harrowing scene is depicted vividly in Randall Roberts' report for the LA Weekly.

Basically, F Yeah Fest  founder Sean Carlson, promoter Phil Hoelting  and  filmmaker Robert Reich were  allegedly stationed outside of the Bowl Monday night, distributing flyers for the weekend festival when they caught site of a grizzly altercation between Bowl security and a concertgoer. Reich -- who was filming the scene  for an upcoming F Yeah documentary -- captured much of the action on camera. What followed was a disturbing chase down Highland Blvd, in which Carlson and Reich were physically attacked by security guards. The tape was confiscated and the young men were left bruised and bewildered -- Carlson's cell phone and keys were stolen.

A sad situation to say the least. If any Set List readers witnessed this event, please leave your account in the comments section.

   

Once Boz Scaggs wraps up his tour of small theaters, he will hit a few jazz clubs in support of his second album of standards, "Speak Low," which will be released Oct. 28 on Decca.
He will also unveil jazz versions of hit tunes from "Silk Degrees": "Lowdown," "JoJo" and "Lido Shuffle." Since the album is all ballads, those tunes could go a long way to bringing some pep to the show.
Scaggs will perform at Jazz Alley in Seattle Oct.30-Nov.2;Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis on Nov. 5 and 6; UCO Jazz Club in Edmond, Okla., on Nov. 7; the Blue Note in New York  Nov. 10-11 and 14-16;
Blue Alley in D.C. on Nov. 19;  Ram's Head on Stage in Annapolis, Md., on Nov. 20; and Boston's Wilbur Theatre on Nov. 23.

Interview by Sammy JC

When Negative Approach formed in 1981 the term “hardcore” hadn’t even been invented. The vernacular was still wanting in terms of adjectives to describe their break-neck style of punk rock, but John Brannon and N/A ended up setting the standard for all of the hardcore bands that were to follow in their wake. The band originally only lasted for three years -- before John went on to start other trailblazing musical projects. Yet even during that brief time, N/A’s impact was firmly cemented with the release of several genre-defining EPs on the Touch and Go label.

With almost 25 years gone by, the legend of Negative Approach has only grown larger with band recently bringing back the noise to festivals across the U.S. and Europe. While Negative Approach never played in California in their original ’80s prime, Keith Morris of Circle Jerks has taken the opportunity to invite the band to unleash their punishing force at The Glass House in Pomona (supporting the Melvins) on Friday and at the F Yeah Fest  in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Q: Negative Approach originally disbanded in 1984. What spurred your recent return and why didn’t you reform with all the original members?

A: Touch and Go contacted me and said, “John, what are the chances of putting Negative Approach back together?” Me and Opie, the drummer, have always been in contact even though he lives in New York. We’ve maintained a friendship but kinda lost touch with the other guys.

I was talking to the guitar player and he was like, “I haven’t picked up the guitar in 15 years”, so it was kind of a thing that it was too weird to get together with all the original guys. So we got a couple of guys from Easy Action, the other band I’m in now, and along with me and Opie it’s been good.

Q: At the time that N/A originally reunited for the Touch and Go 25th Anniversary Party in 2006 was it supposed to be a one-off gig or did you intend to keep it going?

A: It’s like the weirdest thing. We just thought it was gonna be a one-off and that was really cool. But a couple of weeks later Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth calls us up and he’s like, “Hey! Do you guys wanna fly out to England and play with The Stooges and The MC5?” We were like, “Oh fuck!” and at that point we kinda got it together for that. He was the curator for that All Tomorrow’s Party festival and then while we were over there we picked up another gig in England. And then we’re thinking, “This is great!” It was like a dream to play with The Stooges and MC5. We all grew up on that.

Out of that, it’s been kinda sporadic one-off gigs that come up and we just have so much fun doing it. It’s kinda like if this comes up and we’re not doing anything, we’ll just do this. And with that we’ve been to Europe like three times. Before we went to Europe we also did a little East Coast thing. We did Boston. We did Brooklyn. We did Rhode Island. It’s not like we’re trying to cash in or anything but with the whole history of N/A, we never made it out to the West Coast and we obviously never went to Europe. Back in the day, we did a few East Coast tours, but ya gotta think the guys in the band were like 15, 16 -- still in high school. I was the old man at 19. We never really had a chance to do the things that we wanted to. It’s 25 years after the fact but the energy is still there the shows have been great.

Acute laryngitis is the diagnosis for Neil Diamond's condition that led to him offering refunds for a concert he gave at Ohio State on Monday.
The AP reports:
Some fans left the Monday concert early and others said Diamond completed the concert without mentioning anything to the audience about his voice. Diamond spokeswoman Eve Samuels says the singer is offering a refund to those who place a request before Sept. 5. "I haven't let you down before and I won't let you down now," the singer said in an apology on his Web site.

Knowing it's a swing state, Neil begs Ohio for forgiveness and of course more than 125 fans immediately grant him his wish. He will resume his tour on Sept. 10.

We caught up with Randy Randall of LA-based noise rockers No Age and asked him about the band's recent success and their upcoming performance at this year's F Yeah Festival .

Interview by Matt Kivel

Baltimore music maverick Dan Deacon has had quite a year. After toiling in the indie underground for the better part of a decade, his schizophrenic dance music finally caught on with bloggers and casual music fans alike. Deacon went from playing Pehrspace (a tiny 60 person venue in Echo Park) to a packed tent at Coachella  and an equally rabid crowd at the El Rey Theatre in January. Musically restless and defiantly broad in his tastes and artistic endeavors, Dan Deacon will perform this Sunday at an undisclosed location as the headliner, and final act of the F Yeah Festival .

Q: How did you come to be involved with the F Yeah fest?

A: I really like playing LA and I was asked to play the fest last year, but I was already on tour elsewhere -- I think on my first tour of the UK. So here I am this year! What a crazy world!!!!

 Q: What do you think of the LA music scene? Do you see similarities between the artistic community you are a part of in Baltimore and the tightly-knit collection of bands here?

A: LA is just so massive. It’s hard to compare a city like Baltimore with LA, but I think what’s going on in LA is wonderful. They have a great collection of venues and a really strong, supportive community of people. Also, Kyle Mabson  is there, so it’s of course the best. Community is the most important part of anything. The most important aspect of the DIY and independent scene is the community it breeds. To a lot of casual "members of the scene" shows are just a place to meet people and get laid or be "seen" but to people who devote their lives to it, it’s a lot more. It’s about bringing people together and being proud of our city, neighborhood and the people who inhabit it. I know this sounds really dorky or like I'm giving the piece sign while cumming on a tree, but it’s true.

 Q: At your El Rey show earlier this year you chose Health and Abe Vigoda as openers -- bands one wouldn't normally associate with the type of music you make -- do you think pairing disparate bands on a bill makes for a rich and more rewarding concert experience?

A:Weird, I would think my music would be associated with theirs. I guess I'm made out to play dance music in the press, but all of my shows starting up were with noise-based bands. While our immediate sounds are different, I think we are based in a similar root idea. That idea being expanding upon pop music with large levels of dissonance and arhythmic sounds over a steady rhythmic pattern. I do think a diverse bill makes for a better show, but again, I think the only thing making my music so different from Health's is the perception the has been attached to it. Health and I have been playing shows for years. It still blows my mind that people say I write dance music. Sorry, I'm venting. I think your question is valid, but I just disagree with thinking that we are vastly different bands. I think it’s weirder when I play a show with just DJs. Health and I played a show at Perhspace in June of last year before either of us were very well known. It was awesome. That was one of my favorite shows. I guess the main difference is that I play music you can "dance" to. Most of it isn't dance music and I don't think most people dance to it, they move around really fast. I don't know, I can't really see what’s going on when I play. I have the worst seat in the whole room.

Q: You've done a number of shows with Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk ), what artistic ground do you two share and what separates you as musicians/producers?

A: I guess we are most similar as performers. We both are very focused around the audience as being the major part of the event. After that our approach to music creation is very different. We use a very different pallet of sounds and instruments. Gregg and I met in Pittsbugh years ago. He was one of the only people who went to my shows there. The night we met we both got completely wasted and went to this bar called Gooski's and almost got the shit beaten out of us on several occasions. Luckily our friend Lord Grunge is a well respected and HUGE man.

Q:    Do you have plans for more video projects in the vein of "Ultimate Reality" ? How did the experience of touring a visually-projected show differ from your standard touring experience?

A: The tour I do in 2009 for “Bromst” [Forthcoming album] will be a large scale production with a full ensemble and a large visual aspect to it. Now that the show has grown in size and I'm playing facilities that have really nice PA systems, lighting rigs and lots of open space it’s fun to experiment with those aspects. It’s still fun to play a house show or a warehouse, but it’s also a lot of fun to have technology at my disposal and also to do performances in large, open rooms. That’s more of the direction I want to go in. Fancy, ritzy-ditsy places, but still push it to the limits.

Q: What were your intentions with "Ultimate Reality?" There was an obvious political message – what was the dynamic between you and Jimmy Joe Roche as collaborators?

A: Jimmy and I are really old friends and have worked together on many projects. As for my intentions with the music, I just wanted to create something that was vast and would fill the space with sound -- very intense but at the same time really droning. The main thing I like to accomplish as a performance artist is to re-contextualize the space with my work. I sound like such a pompous dick-head, but isn’t that what interviews are all about?

Q: What can we expect from you, in terms of album releases and new projects, in the coming year?

A: I'm working on “Bromst” right now, which is my next full length record. I've been working on it for a long time now and I'm going to miss working on it. But I'm really excited about it coming out. I've been drifting away from computer music and electronics as the main instruments I compose for. I've started writing more for small and large mixed ensembles, but in the same sort of pop based, dance-tempo style I'm known for. This album is mainly live instruments with a focus on marimba, glockenspiel, drum kit, and player piano. There is also a much larger lyrical aspect to the record. Most of the songs are about becoming a ghost and my views on the coming dark age of the future -- the ancient past getting older as a positive thing. I guess it’s mainly about cycles and balance. It’s the first album I've worked on like this and I'm really happy with how it’s coming out. The tour of the record is going to be with a full ensemble so that everything will be performed live. I'll still do most of the old stuff solo -- I hate when a solo artist (or duo or whatever) that normally plays solo gets a band and then never goes back. I still really like playing solo but if I did only that forever I would go insane. After “Bromst” I'd like to start working on more site-specific compositions and sound installations. When I tour I want it to be a production that’s worth coming out to see.

(Photo by Uli Loski)

posted by Stuart Oldham

Radiohead completed their two-night residency at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday with a dazzling two and half hour set, which featured signature tracks from "In Rainbows," their latest album, as well as a Neil Young cover ("Tell Me Why") and hits from "The Bends" and "OK Computer."

Lead-singer Thom Yorke was in good spirits throughout the night, dancing on stage in bright red pants and telling the audience at one point: "Hello in the way back! We're the tiny people on stage. Especially me!"

The second encore began with Yorke fumbling "Cymbal Rush" by himself on piano (He stopped mid-way through with a chuckle and advised the audience to "Shhhhh!" before completing the song.) The rest of the band (Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood and Jonny Greenwood) then joined for fan-favorites "Karma Police" and "Idioteque" to close out the show.

The Liars, local art-rockers from Los Angeles, opened the concert with a tapered 30-minute set.

Radiohead plays San Diego on Wednesday night before heading to the Santa Barbara Bowl on Thursday for the final stop of their current U.S. Tour.

Full set list:

Reckoner/Optimistic/There There/15 Step/All I Need/Pyramid Song/Weird Fishes/Arpeggi/The Gloaming/Videotape/Talk Show Host/Faust Arp/Tell Me Why*/No Surprises/Jigsaw Falling Into Place/The Bends/The National Anthem/Nude/Bodysnatchers/Encore: House of Cards/Planet Telex/Go Slowly/Fake Plastic Trees/True Love Waits Intro/Everything In Its Right Place** Encore 2: Cymbal Rush/Karma Police/Idioteque

* = Neil Young cover featuring Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke on acoustic guitars

** = Thom sings two minutes of "True Love Waits" on a sustained dark organ before launching into "Everything In Its Right Place"

(Photos by sweetcell)

Interview by Sammy JC

This year’s F Yeah Fest, the brainchild of 23-year-old promoter Sean Carlson, takes place in Echo Park and downtown Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday. The Set List will be running a series of articles to introduce readers to the festival and the bands involved, beginning with musical curator Keith Morris.
As a founding member of hardcore pioneers Black Flag, Keith Morris quickly established himself as a powerful creative force in the nascent ’70s American underground. After leaving that band in 1979, he became the lead singer of the Circle Jerks. With both groups, he helped to propel the musical ideals and aesthetics of punk rock across America, setting the standard for DIY-style music careers -- decades before any band would be labeled as “indie rock.”

Q: How did you get involved with Sean Carlson and the F Yeah Fest?
A: I met Sean when he was an intern at Epitaph Records and later he had asked me to do spoken word at one of the earlier Fuck Yeah Fests. We were upstairs at the Echo and there were so many people inside that it would have taken me a half hour to get to the stage so I never made it. So I go outside and there were as many people out front on the sidewalk as there were inside the club.
And I’m really into this because there’s all this chaos. It got to the point that it was difficult to see the bands. It was so thick; it was difficult to breath. And I go looking for Sean and he’s nowhere to be found.
So I walked out to the front, decided to walk over to the bus stop and get a bus ride home. I’m sitting there on the bus bench and Sean is sitting on the bus bench drinking whisky or scotch or some really cheap booze.
I’m like, “Dude, this is your music festival. Why aren’t you over there in charge, chiefin’ out, acting presidential?” He was like “Dude, there’s so much anarchy. I just had to throw in the towel.” So I said, “Look, give me a ding when you want to do this again, I would like to be part of it.” I’ve now been working on it with him for three years and he’s been doing it for about five.

Q: Even though Circle Jerks are not playing at F Yeah Fest this year, you are the festival’s musical curator. What makes the music at F Yeah Fest different from other music festivals, particularly among the many this summer in Southern California?
A: Well, it’s actually really simple. If you look at the roster of bands, it’s not a roster of bands where we gotta charge $40 to $50 for a ticket. We have certain local bands that we want and certain national bands we want. If you notice, none of the bands are anyone who would be on any of these other festivals. But maybe in a couple years if somebody blows up they might be.

Q: In your opinion, what’s the state of the music industry?
A: The scenario is all of these people that work at the record companies became more important than the most important part of what they’re doing, which is finding good music to turn loose on the public. But the fact is no matter what’s happening, people are always going to want to listen to good music. Just like women and cosmetics. Women are always going to want to put on make up, So there ya go …

Q: When you formed the Circle Jerks in 1979, did you ever imagine you’d still be performing 30 years later?
A: Well some of the stuff we wrote back then is just as important now. With the events in the world and a lot of the anger it’s just as important now. Actually, now we have even more things to be angry about.

On a four-day staycation, I spent a fair amount of time going through stacks and stacks of CDs. Plenty were tossed out after just a couple of tunes, but several stayed in for a full listen. These are the 12 albums worthy of recommendation after a single listen, plus a review of recordings of an old song.

B.B. King "One Kind Favor" (Geffen)
Influence of producer T Bone Burnett is felt most deeply on the opening track, a gurgling, sparse and treble-free take on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean." Otherwise, Burnett makes sure the sharp and invigorating horns land in the right places and that King's voice still sounds like man consumed with despair finding a way to smile. 

Jack Rose "Dr. Ragtime & Pals" (Beautiful Happiness)
Jack Rose and James Blackshaw have quietly emerged as the John Fahey and Leo Kottke for a new generation, acoustic guitarists steeped in  blues and folk melodies who fingerpick at blazing speeds. On "Dr. ragtime," Rose keeps the songs short and limits his use of ragas, instead choosing to play it straight as he explores blues and rags, occasionally with guest players. "Fishtown Flower," one of his new compositions that sounds hill-born a few years after WWI,  is a regular march down Main Street U.S.A., the guitar working at a pace of pride and a banjo clopping along like a well-mannered horse.

Mike Gordon "The Green Sparrow" (Rounder)
The former Phish bassist delivers a playful, easy-going version of Phish-funk, a Vermont spin on New Orleans rhythms. Perfect for hacky sack or an afternoon barbecue, Gordon's a laid-back singer with a crew that includes some veteran all-stars - Bill Kreutzmann, Trey Anastasio, Chuck Leavell - but the snappiest and possibly most convincing track is "Andelman's Yard," which goes on a bit too long at six minutes, 13 seconds. It's the one tune in which he played all the instruments.   

Jonatha Brooke "The Works" (Bad Dog Records)
Soft-rocker gets an invite to dig through the Woody Guthrie archives and picks over whatever Billy Bragg left behind when he did his "Mermaid Avenue" project. Rather than the rustic route Bragg took with Wilco when he finished off some of Guthrie's tunes, Brooke brings together a collection of jazz musicians (Christian McBride, Joe Sample, Steve Gadd) and studio aces (Mitchell Froom, Greg Leisz) to make a record that should appeal to the Norah Jones-Bonnie Raitt set. It's a lot of love songs and none of it feels very Guthrie-ish; the bluesier material is the strongest, "You Oughta be Satisfied Now" being the standout.

Boz Scaggs "Speak Low" (Decca)
The always elegant Boz makes a significant leap from his first collection of standards, bringing a strong sensual edge to "Speak Low." Not only does he sound thoroughly involved but he has an acoustic bassist as a sparring partner, dancing around his vocals and peppering the empty spaces with flair. Album will be released on vinyl on Sept 30.

Glen Campbell  "Meet Glen Campbell" (Capitol)
Given the sort of strings and pop backing he was afforded on albums such as "Galveston," Campbell leaps into a rock 'n' roll repertoire and emerges with impressive results. Two Tom Petty tunes sparkle brightest, "Angel Dream" and Walls," though one wonders why he never recorded Jackson Browne's "These Days," a song that seems tailor made for him. I wish we could A/B between two versions, one he cut when he was 32 and one he's done now, at 72.

This Is Ivy League "S/T"
Baroque folk-pop, this spin-off from Cobra Starship reaches back to Love's "Forever Changes," Lee Hazelwood, the Left Banke and early Scott Walker to create a lovely album rich in summer splendor. The heart-tugging, bossa-loungey "Viola" would have made women in beehives swoon back in '68.   

Roy Harper "Counter Culture" (Science Friction)
Disc one of this 25-song career overview is an endorsement for Harper's place in the evolution of British folk music alongside Richard Thompson, Nick Drake and John Renbourn. Covering 1966 through '75, the music is an ambitious integration of American and U.K. folk styles, the selections sticking with songs that relish structure. Harper has long had a jazz player's sense of adventure and on some of the recent reissues from his catalog it's clear that got the best of him at times.         

John Pizzarelli "With a Song in My Heart" (Telarc)
An all Richard Rogers program from the ace jazz guitarist and singer, this is one of the best-sounding recordings of 2008. Telarc, which prides itself on the quality of its recordings, can often deliver sterile sounding albums, but here there's a sense of space and warmth. Pizzarelli is, of course, superb on the guitar solos, and his voice gets the job done, setting the tunes on a balancing beam between jazz and cabaret. He's in truly fine voice on "Happy Talk," "Mountain Greenery" and "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"; his father Bucky guests on "It's Easy to Remember."   

"The Lady is a Tramp"
The weakest rendition on Pizzarelli's album is the Rodgers & Hart song Frank Sinatra made his own. Scrolling through my iTunes library, I decided to check out other takes on the tune. Sammy Davis Jr. does a balls to the wall version, which appeared on the Rhino box set "Yes I Can," that includes the first verse that Sinatra dropped. Tony Bennett did an intimate version in the mid-1970s with guitar and piano on "The Complete Improv Recordings." Sinatra recorded a cool jazz version with the vibraphonist Red Norvo on their 1959 live album. Oscar Peterson plays it at lightning speed - as does his guitarist Herb Ellis - and throws in some fascinating left turns in his chordings on "At the Concertgebouw." The pianist Bill Charlap plays it brisk with his bassist Peter Washington taking a refreshing and lyrical solo.    

Jerry Douglas "Glide" (Koch)
The dobro player goes in four different directions - bluegrass, Dixieland, country and ambient - maintaining a group feel to every piece. Not hot dogging - an oxymoron on most bluegrass discs - and on a  good half of the album it's hard to tell the dobro is the focal point. Still, the uptempo, organic numbers are the most impressive. Guests include Rodney Crowell, Sam Bush, Travis Tritt and Earl Scruggs.   

Delta Spirit "Ode to Sunshine" (Rounder)
"People, Turn Around" - a great call to arms. A great upright piano sound, proof that the influence of the Band lives on.

The Cowsills "The Cowsills/We Can Fly" (Cowchip)
Realizing I had no Cowsills in my library I picked this up recently and was pleasantly surprised the band had more to offer than "The Rain, the Park & Other Things." Success of "Mamma Mia!" suggests that audiences love the blending of male and female voices and this family band from the '60s did that a lot better than they ever received credit for. All 28 tracks on this two-fer are quite listenbable.

At the first of two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, Radiohead performed everything from the new album, half of "Kid A," four tunes from "OK Computer," three from "Amnesiac" and only one from "The Bends."







1. 15 Step
2. There There
3. Morning Bell
4. All I Need
5. Pyramid Song
6. Nude
7. Arpeggi/Weird Fishees
8. The Gloaming
9. The National Anthem
10. Wolf at the Door
11. Faust Arp
12. Exit Music
13. Jigsaw Falling into Place
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing up the walls
16. Bodysnatchers
17. How to Dissappear Completely

encore:
Videotape
Dollars and Cents
Paranoid Android
Street Spirit
Reckoner

2nd encore:
House of cards
Lucky
Everything In Its Right Place

(Photo courtesy of WireImage)

Tone plays a crucial role in Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden's documentary on "Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer." Their technique and story-telling style is  as matter-of-fact and no-holds-barred as the life they are chronicling, a chronologically organized story of a woman who was one of the most talented singers of the 20th century.
Her medium was jazz, her story was an opera. Rape, drugs, imprisonment, divorce, financial ruin - those things all preceded the bad health care that did in her voice. I was fortunate enough to have met her and hear her sing on several occasions. And what I saw was probably pretty common from the 1960s onward: When O'Day took the stage, she was the best musician on the  bandstand. In the documentary we see her chiding the musicians for not following her direction and musicians talking about taking direction from her; the filmmakers did not capture her tearing into someone for their flubs or musical ignorance.
"Life of a Jazz Singer," unlike so many docs that make it  onto PBS, is unconcerned with the redemption or moments of poignancy. There's no pity for her time spent in a trailer in the Southern California desert or her drug busts. Nearly everything is a side story except the facts about her ability to sing. And that's why this movie deserves to be seen.
Positive reviews from the New York Times,   LA Times and Variety

 

   

Using the attitude that made their music such a distinctive mix of funk, folk, polyrhythms and uncommonly smart lyrics, Little Feat's latest effort has a multitude of flavors. Like their classic work, its a bit hard to define.
They have brought in a cast of guests - but don't call it the dreaded "duets album. They have re-recorded a number  of their classics, but in no way is this a tribute album. And they have dipped into the songbooks of some of their contemporaries, but that does not make it a covers record.
"The record exemplifies the idea of calling the children home," Payne says. "It's a New Orleans thing - let's meet at the barn or the club for a fish fry. It's not just for the musicians, but for the children, too." 
"Join the Band," which 429 Records releases Tuesday, features Dave Matthews on ""Fat Man in the Bathtub," Vince Gill on "Spanish Moon" and Inara George, daughter of the late Little Feat chief Lowell George, doing a gorgeous version "Trouble"  with just Payne's accompaniment. "There are a lot reasons, but I just teared up after we finished that one," he says.
Payne had returned from a European tour with the band when he picked up the phone in Michigan to chat about the band. The real kick in the conversation came when he was explaining his piano part on "Dixie Chicken" and sat down at the keys and played the riff - the way Little Feat did it in 1973 - then played the root of its origins - a riff from a Howlin' Wolf record - and then a few variations to demonstrate how uncommon the Feat style was when it came to the little things, like shifts in keys that no one expects.
Little Feat formed in 1969 and from the start made their marks by mixing the organic  and the polished, as much California as they were Louisiana. Payne talked about their beginnings, their current position and the help of old friends like Jimmy Buffett and Bob Seger.
(Video is from a European tour they did with several Warner Bros. acts, among them the Doobie Brothers, in the mid-1970s. He noted that many people who saw them on this most recent tour noted they saw them  on that trek, too. Both tours, he says, "were magical times.")

Dean & Britta have composed a baker's dozen songs for a project that focuses on Andy Warhol's  "screen tests," in which individuals were seated in front of a camera for four minutes and filmed in silent portraiture.
“13 Most Beautiful … Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” will debut in Pittsburgh as part of the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts on Oct. 24 and 25. Warhol was a native of Pittsburgh.
Project will use the screen tests of Lou Reed, Richard Rheem, Dennis Hopper, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Susan Bottomly and seven others.
The four-minute, silent film portraits will be shown via large scale video projection with the musicians performing live on stage.
Warhol shot approximately 500 "screen tests" between  1963 and 1966. The subjects — both famous and anonymous — were visitors to his studio, the Factory. They were asked to pose, lit with a strong keylight, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film.  Each screen test lasted only as long as the roll of film. The films were projected in slow motion so that each lasted four minutes. 
The screen tests were also used, as were other Warhol films, as part of the light show for his 1966 Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows that featured the Velvet Underground and Nico.

An Australian newspaper reports that Michael Guglielmucci, who had a hit record in Christian music circles called "Healer," is a fraud.
Guglielmucci claimed for two years to be terminally ill and has performed his hit song with an oxygen tube in his nose - he even lied to his family about his illness.  Naturally, the Australian Christian Church suspended his credentials as a pastor but then asked all the believers to pray for him.
The guy is all over YouTube, but I can't find the video of his that apparently has been watched 300,000 times.
I had never heard of the guy until I Googled news items to figure out why the band Hillsong's "This is is Our God" shot to No. 55 on the pop chart from No. 158. Hillsong is the Australian church this guy performs at; they have made a gazillion records since 1997.
For some people, I am sure this is worse than steroids in baseball, but imagine the comeback opportunities.

Glen Campbell sounded as good live as he does on "Meet Glen Campbell," his return to Capitol Records after a 27-year absence. To celebrate Tuesday's release of the album,Campbell performed at the Troubadour in West Hollywood with an expanded band that included a fair number of contemporary rock musicians, among them Roger Joseph Manning Jr. of Jellyfish.
He has a exceptional command of Travis' "Sing," Tom Petty's "Walls" and the Replacements’ "Sadly Beautiful"; his live rendition of "Jesus" was revelatory, far outdistancing the recorded version.
Conversely, John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" and Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" are not yet striking the proper emotional chords.
The set played by Glen and his 11 piece band was:
All I Want Is You (U2) / Sing (Travis) / Angel Dream (Tom Petty) / By the Time I Get to Phoenix / Walls (Tom Petty) / Galveston / Jesus (Velvet Underground) / Gentle on My Mind / Sadly Beautiful (Replacements) / Good Riddance (Time of Your Life (Green Day) / Wichita Lineman / Grow Old With Me (John Lennon) / Rhinestone Cowboy / Times Like These (Foo Fighters)

The first time around, Atlantic Records' CD issue of Graham Nash's brilliant "Songs for Beginners" sounded like crap. This is the sort of record that gets the blood boiling in the vinyl enthusiasts: Not only is the overall sound tinny, the vocals have none of the warmth or focus of the original record.
That, I expect, will be remedied Sept. 23 when Rhino issues a new version of "Songs" on CD and  DVD-A in 5.1 surround sound. Nash tweaked a vinyl version of the album eight years ago to remedy some harshness and distortion.
The album's three best songs - "Better Days," "Simple Man" and "I Used To Be King" - concern his breakup with Joni Mitchell; musicians on the disc include  Jerry Garcia playing some impressive pedal steel guitar. Even Lenny Kaye kinda sorta liked it when it was released in 1971. Of all the solo albums by the CSN guys, this one is the true masterpiece.
Early next year, Rhino will also release a three-CD retrospective of Nash's career. 

Dex Romweber, who used to go by his full first name of Dexter when he led Flat Duo Jets, gets props from Jack White in Davis Guggenheim’s documentary “It Might Get Loud” on White, Jimmy Page and the Edge.
In the film, White acknowledges the Romweber influence, singling out the Flat Duo Jets’ “Go-Go Harlem Baby.” Film contains live footage of Romweber playing “Crazy Hazy Kisses” and “Frog Went A Courtin.”
White says “Dex Romweber was and is a huge influence on my music. I owned all of his records as a teenager, and was thrilled at the fact that we were able to play together recently on tour. His attitude towards music is remarkable. His songwriting, along with his love of classic American music from the south, be it rockabilly, country or R&B, is one of the best kept secrets of the rock n roll underground.”
Romweber is the only musicians I have ever interviewed in a storage closet. It was prior to an in-store at an indie shop in the San Fernando Valley about 17 years ago, back when Flat Duo Jets was the greatest band name in America.
The Dex Romweber Duo will kick off its fall tour in September after the movie makes its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Prince and Ray Davies did it in the U.K.; Brian Wilson is first veteran act to do it in the States: Promote a new album through newspapers.
From Friday until Labor Day, more than 50 Gannett newspaper and TV station websites will stream Wilson's new album "That Lucky Old Sun." It will be released Sept. 2.
Gannett sites include USATODAY.com plus 32 local newspaper websites and 19 TV websites. The audio player will link to Amazon.com to pre-order the CD, limited edition CD/DVD and digital album.
After some September dates that are expected to be limited to the hits, Wilson will tour with his band , performing songs from "That Lucky Old Sun."

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, 77, is working with Joe Henry, who has produced Bettye LaVette, Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint in recent years, on a blues album.
A parade of musicians have been working on the sessions, among them Van Dyke Parks, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Greg Leisz, who plays just about every string instrument imaginable.
Word on the street is that the sessions are relaxed and professional.
Henry issued a statement: "Jack Elliot had never approached this music before, but it's important to understand that many of the country blues masters represented here were friends of Jack's.  These blues share a tremendous amount -- in both form and substance -- with the folk music of the same era, the 1930s; and few people made any such distinctions during that day. Everybody was dipping from the same stream, be it Woody Guthrie or Tampa Red, Jimmie Rodgers or Furry Lewis; and Jack drank it all in. His approach is fresh but authentic. He's using an old language but he's speaking in the present tense."
Anti- expects to release the record early next year. He won a Grammy for this one, but this one remains my favorite.

Neil Young, who played large theaters on his last tour, will be performing in arena between Oct. 14 and Dec. 15. Once again he will wind up with a New York show, this time at Madison Square Garden. Tour begins in St Paul, Minn.
The band remains the same: Ben Keith, Rick Rosas, Chad Cromwell, Anthony Crawford and Pegi Young.  Death Cab For Cutie will support dates through Nov. 5; Wilco are on the bill from Nov. 29 forward  with the exception of the Dec. 9 Chicago date. Everest, who are on Young's Vapor label,open all the shows. Eric Johnson, who painted during the performances on the last tour, will again bring his brushes and canvases. Floor will be general admission - for 75 bucks - while reserved seats will run $250 to $45.
Tour and on-sale dates after the jump.

Jared Leto responded Monday to Virgin Records' $30 million lawsuit against his band 30 Seconds to Mars, invoking a labor clause that relates to actors that Courtney Love used when trying to separate Hole from the clutches of Universal Music Group.
Leto says a key reason the band has left EMI is the new regime and their pinkslipping of 2,000 employees.
"It is hardly the same company we have known," Leto wrote. "After more than five regime changes in nine years you'd think we would be used to the inconsistency, but the team that took the journey together for 'A Beautiful Lie' was a very very special group of people and it's a huge loss that so many of them are gone."
Saying 30 Seconds to Mars is not calling it quits, Leto noted "we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we've experienced to date."
He called the lawsuit amount "ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever)."
He writes:
"We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.
"Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting'. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.
"We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal."
The rest of Leto's note follows.

Partially following the lead  of the Eagles and Journey, AC/DC will release its next album through a single retail outlet, Wal-Mart, on Oct. 20.
"Black Ice" will be sold at  Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores and online at  the ac/dc site, and Walmart.com  and Samsclub.com. The band's first album of all-new material in eight years, it will feature 15 tracks and will sell for  $11.88.
Unlike Wal-Mart's two other high-profile exclusive offerings from veteran rock bands, AC/DC is not self-releasing. This is a Columbia Records release, Columbia being the sister label of Epic, which released all of AC/DC's recordings between 1976 and 1990. Columbia also released the DVD set "Plug Me In."
Limiting a release to a single retailer seemed fool-hardy a couple of years ago unless that retailer was willing to purchase CDs as "one-ways," i.e, nothing can be returned to the distributor.
Since Billboard changed its policies regarding reporting the sales of exclusives, the  key repercussion of the move - not being counted in the top 200 - has been eliminated. The change occurred after the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" sold more than 700,000 copies in its first week late last year; all sales of current albums now qualify on the official top 200 that Nielsen SoundScan tallies.
The only high-profile debut schedule for that week at this time is "High School Musical 3: Senior Year Premiere Edition," which makes it highly likely AC/DC will register its first No. 1 since 1981 when "For Those of You About to Rock We Salute You" topped the chart.
The track listing is after the jump.

Jerry Wexler had the sort of touch Miles Davis looked for in his playing: He knew which notes to not play.
Like the best record men, it often requires an individual to be a facilitator, the guy who knows how to manage a room and the people in it. He was no great knob controller - that was Tom Dowd's job - but he knew a good thing when he heard it. Or when he saw the way Southern musicians worked together in a way New Yorkers did not.
So many great records came from the man that it was alway easy to overlook the business deals that contributed to the financial downfalls of some studios and labels. He was a soul music guy, not a rock 'n' roller. he is the last of the great Atlantic team to die, passing away Friday morning   
at a hospice in Sarasota, Fla. He was 91.
Wexler was in the studio with Ray Charles, Joe Turner and Ruth Brown in the ‘50s; he shaped the career and records of Aretha Franklin and other soul greats in the ‘60s; and helped Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Linda Ronstadt forge new identities in the 1970s and ‘80s.
“I was presumably their overseer, they were my instructors” Wexler wrote in his 1993 autobiography with David Ritz, “Rhythm and the Blues.” “These were the artists who made my career and changed my life, infusing the business blues with a joy transcending all earthly matters.”

Used to be that the music played over the PA before the headliner came out was handpicked by the artist and even if it was incongruous with the act, it somehow connected with the overall statement. The Beach Boys’ collection of instrumentals “Stack-O-Tracks” was played before every show on Neil Young’s”Rust Never Sleeps” tour; once music by the Beatles or John Lennon was heard at a U2 show, the audience would get restless as it was a sign Bono and the guys would be onstage soon; Tom Waits has long played music that sounds like it was recorded decades before he was born.
The other night, though, was absolutely magical. Three songs played in the lead-up to Inara George’s show with Van Dyke Parks at Largo were astounding revelations: Mixed together, they were essentially the sound, atmosphere and attitude of the entire George-Parks show. Elaine Stritch singing “Ladies Who Lunch” from “Company,” an Edith Piaf tune and Caetano Veloso’s Tropicalia tune “Maria Bethania” — toss ‘em in a blender and you have a complete idea of what the night was like – minus the French, of course. I wish every show was like this.
Nothing is worse than pre-concert music that has absolutely nothing in common with the artist about to take the stage – rap before a country act, for example – and it stuns me that an artist’s management would tolerate it. Off the mark, too, is playing music by the artist that will soon take the stage. I am finding that to be a regular occurrence in the hallways and box office area at Staples Center in L.A. It does no favors to the act or their fans. Maybe the recording being played is no longer in the set or radically altered - why remind the patron of a recording's sound co close to curtain?
You need something like the vintage blues and country that played before John Mellencamp’s recent show at the Greek Theatre. The music itself probably does not appeal to his fan base but it shares tone and texture with Mellencamp’s latest CD. I’m guessing John’s guys handled the music; if left up to the promoter or venue operator, they’d probably opt for some sort of “classic rock ‘80s mix” featuring Rod Stewart and Bob Seger.
Sure it’s speculation, but I figure the more performers think about the environment their fans are in – from the time the doors open until the house lights go on after the encores – the more the act will be appreciated.
In my quest to get to 100 concerts and see 300 acts this year, I am now have  44 shows and 142 performers to go.

Placement in a General Motors commercial has bolstered sales of Brandi Carlile’s 16-month-old album "The Story," pushing her into the top 10 lists on iTunes and Amazon. The commercial, which premiered during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, features the album's title track. (The commercial showcases the company’s alternative fuel projects.)
Carlile will donate all proceeds from the advertisement  to environmental charities. VH1 will be adding Carlile's video for "The Story," made when the album was released, back into rotation on Monday.   
Meanwhile, "Brandi Carlile Live in Boston," an iTunes exclusive EP, will  be released Sept. 16, 2008.  Included will be a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” I was sold on her and the album when it was released and she first toured in support of it.

Less than a week after Edgar Bronfman Jr. says he wants more money for music suplied to games, Warner Music Group has announced it will make its music videos available on Microsoft’s Xbox Live.
Xbox Live members worldwide can download music videos by featured WMG artists from Xbox Live Marketplace and watch them on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Warner singled out  Cute is What We Aim For, Death Cab For Cutie, Flo Rida, Matchbox Twenty, Panic At the Disco and T.I. in its announcement as artists with videos available.
In the coming months WMG will add to its offerings on Xbox Live.

Loved this song when I was 11. It's still valid today, maybe even improved from Elton's original.