Pearl Jam is hitting the road again! The fellas are gearing up for a long summer of sloring over in Europe and decided to visit the Northeast and play a bunch of tunes:
May 3rd Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
May 4th St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
May 6th Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
May 7th Noblesville, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center
May 9th Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
May 10th Buffalo, NY HSBC Arena
May 13th Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
May 15th Hartford, CT XL Center
May 17th Boston, MA TD Garden
May 20th New York, NY Madison Square Garden
May 21st New York, NY Madison Square Garden
The band is touring to support “Backspacer” which received critical acclaim upon its release in the fall and quickly found its way into my CD library at home (where it stayed for months without being listened to). There were some good songs on it, but it marked the end of the 2-3 minute recording room jam sessions that made “Ten” timeless.
While this past CD didn’t really do it for me, seeing them live is an experience. It’s made me spoiled to go to another show and expect at least 2 hours of play minimum. If you can swing it, I suggest you see a show. It’s definitely worth the money. Just don’t wait to get tickets – they go faster than Captain Flintheart when he’s pleasuring his mistress.
Musicians are despicable people too. Thanks to Billboard.com’s Top 50 Musician’s Mugshots I now know that Yanni beat his wife and 1 out 5 famous musicians get arrested for drunk driving.
If your a regular TCM reader, you will know that I have expressed apprehension with the up in coming generation. Whether it be the fact that their lives are run by cell phones and facebook or that they are showing no respect to the loose jeans revolution veterans and rocking tight ciruclationless jeans, oh and don’t get me started on the stupid haircuts. Now I’ve found something much worse and apparently her name is Ke$ha (and yes the $ is suppose to be there).
When a generation of teenagers comes into adulthood they begin to grow resentful of the younger generations claiming they can’t understand their new interests, the fashion trends, the music etc. This is all true and obviously I am no different. When it comes to music though, sometimes I can see why a certain band will become popular or revered by the youth even if I deem them as god awful. Well this is where that line is drawn.
Awhile back I wrote an article about bands who continue to make records after the lead singer dies, trying to live off that person’s talent. We can now add a new band to that list: Sublime.
If you’ve never heard of Sublime chances are you don’t smoke weed, didn’t go to college or weren’t a teenager at some point in the 1990’s. Sublime was an intoxicating mix of stoned out/chill reggae, punk and California sunshine. Lead singer, Bradley Nowell died in 1996 right before the release of their 3rd album that catapulted them into mainstream success. A lot has been done in the following years to capitalize on their success, another cobbled together studio album of new songs and old outtakes, a live album, an acoustic album, a box set, a re-release 2 disc version of their self titled album and countless greatest hits packages. Now they are going out on tour.
In 1997, the remaining members of the band formed The Long Beach Dub Allstars with some other musicians carrying on the Sublime vibe with all new material but eventually broke up in 2002. Now, (billing themselves as) Sublime With Rome are hitting the road with Bradley Nowell replacement, Rome Ramirez for a few shows and the some possible recording sessions.
Seriously? Give it a rest guys. The man is dead. Show some respect for his talent instead of raping it.
The Strokes put out 3 critically acclaimed albums from 2001-2006 and than disappeared into indefinite hiatus land which saw every single member (except for second guitarist, Nick Valensi) do their own solo projects. Most recently and most Strokes sounding was lead singer, Julian Casablancas’ album. Well, we finally have good news to report as the band is back in the studio recording and eying a September 2010 album release. They also have confirmed two isolated concert appearances at music festivals in the UK.
In honor of this news, we’d like to show you a music video that is a TCM favorite. It combines binge drinking and Family Feud hosted by a robust Al Borland. It’s the song, “Someday” from the Strokes 2001 debut, Is This It?
Fuck Ticketmaster. I know that I’m not the first person to ever say that. Hell, Pearl Jam spent most of 1995 doing its best to stick it to them only to get fucked in the ass. But my friends, this is because Ticketmaster’s greed cannot be stopped.
A few weeks ago, She & Him announced a small tour consisting of about 6 U.S. shows. The band does not tour often because it’s made up of actress, Zooey Deschanel and musician M. Ward who both have limited free time due to their other projects. 2 shows were scheduled for NYC’s Bowery Ball Room and I was hell bent on going. Not only do I greatly enjoy their music, but what self respecting male wouldn’t want to see Zooey Deschanel in person? I could finally cross it off my bucket list.
I knew I would have a hard time getting tickets but their website announced a pre-sale a week ahead of time. I figured this would be my best opportunity. So, Â I readied myself on the internet and the second they went on sale they sold out. I shrugged it off and hoped the actual sale would go better.
Minutes before the general public tickets went on sale weeks later, I pretended I got an emergency phone call in the middle of a meeting at work and excused myself. I went to my computer logged into Ticketmaster’s website and refreshed the page approximately 48 times. The exact moment they went on sale my fingers flew and I got fucked on the captcha. Instead of getting something like, “Dog Tree” I got “Colloquialism Rumination” or some other bull shit word that you’ve never seen before or just doesn’t look right. Nevertheless, when it was all said and done it took me about ten seconds and the shit sold out. How is it even possible that hundreds of other people were able to do it faster than 10 seconds? That is some fucked up shit.
Directly after, I went onto E-Bay and Stub Hub and all those kind of places to see if people were selling tickets. Now, the tickets (sans fees) were $25 all general admission. I was willing to pay $50 or $60 a piece for me and my lady. The cheapest I could find them was for $90 each and some going as high as $160. It makes me sick to think that some asshat buys up 7 tickets at a time just to turn a profit and could give a shit about the band, thereby fucking over real fans. Capitalistic bullshit.
To make matters worse, I recently bought 2 tickets to a see a slew of comedians performing together. It had been advertised as costing $25 in advance, $35 day of show. I figured I’d save $20 and order them online ahead of time. With all the bullshit fees it ended up costing $70 altogether. I could have paid the same amount at the door.
Fuck you Ticketmaster! Now I can put you on the list with Philadelphia and Captain Polish for things that have fucked me in the ass.
New York City band, Candy Hearts returns with their 2nd full length album, Ripped Up Jeans And Silly Dreams. The down home suburban sunshine of their first album is filtered through a glorious wall of distortion and a full bodied band sound that helps to flesh out their tight knit power pop constructions.
Lead singer, Mariel Loveland posses a voice that cuts deep into everyone’s perpetual 16 year old self, imperfect but honest. The band who carries on in the Matthew Sweet/Teenage Fanclub tradition, reminds me of the latter day era of the Replacements. With songs that contain a strange realness to them, snapshots of life on the road and the big city, merged with a band trying to harness all it’s electricity into 2 minutes.
Recommended listening:
“What I Want” – The entire vibe of the album is boiled down to the album opener with smart, focused and joyous hooks.
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“Punk Songs” – A ridiculously catchy acoustic riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on Nirvana’sIncesticide, this 1:11 track is exuberant and perfect.
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You will find these songs worming their way into your subconscious for the next few weeks, so get use to it.
Their new album is available for free digital download here and will be released on cd in March. You can catch them playing at the following places:
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