Ohio’s Heartless Bastards are bringing their unique brand of garage rock to Minneapolis this Saturday when they play the Varsity Theater. It should be a fun show mixing the big stage and bright lights of the Varsity with the wide open sound that this band produces.
While you are here, why not download a couple of the band’s mp3s: The Mountain | Searching for the Ghost (solo acoustic version)
A friend was recently talking about how Jaco Pastorius is the best bass player of all time, which led me to do some Youtubing, where I stumbled upon this vintage recording of Weather Report playing its classic “Birdland” circa 1978. I don’t know where I stand on the Jaco issue, but he is quite good, and so was/is Weather Report!
I stumbled upon Jake Shimabukuro on Youtube today, and…Wow! This guy has some chops!! Sporting a ukulele as his weapon of choice, Shimabukuro decimates metronomes with sparkling precision and electrifying chord changes. Throw in the novelty of the ukulele, and you’ve got yourself a winner!
For those of you that caught last night’s packed show at the Turf Club, you have nothing to worry about — all is good with the Black Lips, and they knocked the dust out of the walls with Vampire Hands and Gentleman Jesse. A good show for sure, but did you know that the dirty psychedelic Atlanta garage band we love so much recently got booted out of India for some stupid stage antics? This condensed video from Vice Records explains it all.
Get all the dirty details on their trip by watching the entire 4-part documentary on Vice Records’ site, as they live it up via markets, pharmacies, beaches and more…
Okay, newsflash everyone: the spirit of James Brown is alive and well, dancing with Howlin’ Wolf and channeling a gritty side of motown. All from Austin, Texas of course.
Black Joe Lewis and his seven compatriots bring it loud and bring it right from the Lone Star blues Mecca, and if you were to catch them live somewhere at SXSW this year (9 shows) you would probably have to kick it up a little. If you weren’t into dancing, well, that might be a problem. Your date would leave you and you’d have to wonder why you were such a heel. You would have missed out on something crucial to being human, something that your sheepish butt would chalk up to being “too white” or something. How sad for you.
Ever heard of Northern Soul? Well, if people in dreary 1960s Manchester got it, you certainly can. Check out this cool mini documentary on Northern Soul if you have no idea what I am talking about. Remember, this was nearly two decades before break dancing, and people a lot pastier than myself (I’m hardly beige) were getting down. They would have loved Black Joe Lewis…
Kutiman has created one of the most innovative mash-ups I have seen. In this track, “Mother of All Funk Chords”, he takes a mix-and-match of all sorts of musicians on Youtube and creates a beautiful funk orchestra. Nice!
(Many thanks to Juday for sending me this link!)
This is a SWEET stop-motion music video set to Jonathan Coulton’s “Duty”:
(Roe Family Singers)
Last night, I saw the Roe Family Singers perform at the 331 Club in Minneapolis to a supportive crowd. It was my first time seeing this staple of the Twin Cities music scene, and I was struck by the fabulous musicianship that exists amongst the members. All great performers in their own rights, the bandmates easily traded solos amongst each other and let each other shine when necessary. Paying attention to dynamic range, the band created intimate moments out of saw solos and explosions out of banjo solos. All-in-all, a great show!
(Colin Anderson of Roe Family Singers)
This is more of a novelty than anything, but it still is pretty innovative! Check out MGMT’s “Kids” being played on iPhones:
“Paranoid Android is my favorite Radiohead tune, so it was with great joy that I stumbled upon this clip of Thom Yorke playing it solo at a show:
