Music DVD Review: The Black Keys - Live At The Crystal Ballroom
Blues-rock duo The Black Keys showcase their live music on Live At The Crystal Ballroom. Some dudes just want to rock, and that's exactly what a couple of guys that make up The Black Keys do.In support of their fifth full-length LP Attack & Release, The Black Keys recorded their April 4, 2008 concert performance at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. Produced and directed by Lance Bangs (R.E.M.'s Road Movie, Nirvana: With The...
Was kid Jonny really in his prime at the age of 18? Only time will tell.
Jeez, has it already been 12 years since Fargo, North Dakota's very own blues-guitar prodigy, Jon Gordon Langseth Jr. - that's Jonny Lang to you - released his 1997 major label debut at the ripe old age of fifteen? Well, seeing that I just watched the big crystal ball drop on Times Square a few days ago to usher in the 2009 new year, I...
The big news this week is of course Green Day's much-anticipated punk-opera 21st Century Breakdown . Green Day's album is one which is sure to be carefully watched by industry bean-counters. Their last album, American Idiot , was an all too rare modern-day multi-platinum selling physical CD in the MP3 era. But decades from now it may well also be remembered as symbolizing the Bush era in the same way that people like Bob Dylan are considered synonymous with the sixties. Our own Jordan "J-Rich" Richardson will be along shortly to provide his own 21st century breakdown of sorts on whether or not Green Day have once again delivered the goods.
As uncompromising in his personal life as he is in his music, Steve Earle is one of the few guys left from the original era of outlaw country who has managed to survive despite his excesses with his artistic integrity
This is a follow-up of sorts to fellow Blogcritic Glen Boyd’s recent “Whatever Happened To The Live Album?” article published on BC a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed Glen’s piece. But there seemed to be an essential element of the Seventies live album absent from his article.
Whatever happened to the drum solo?
When you went to a concert in the Seventies, the drum solo was a given. And it was never really an issue. It simply provided you with an opportunity to reload the bong, or to take a whizz. Kind of an intermission basically. But then someone got the bright idea to include the drum solo in the inevitable double live album, and all hell broke loose.
Blame it on Iron Butterfly, or I. Ron Butterfly as Bart Simpson calls them. At one point their In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was the biggest selling album in Atlantic Records’ history. The centerpiece
Moss returns to Chan's to record a live album, this time joined by a special guest
Just as no good deed goes unpunished, no good idea goes unrepeated. On April 21, 2009 Blues Music Award Band of the Year nominee Nick Moss & The Flip Tops will release the follow up to his first critically acclaimed live album, Live at Chan's, with Live At Chan's: Combo Platter No. 2. Live at Chan's (2006), Moss' first live...
But tonight I got to thinking, who really is the best modern day rock band out there? Coldplay? White Stripes? Kings of Leon?
I mean let's face it, we really haven't got that many really great candidates waiting in the wings to assume the throne right now. There certainly isn't any Beatles, Stones, or Who standing in waiting and ready to step up to the plate -- to say nothing of a future Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.
As far as songwriters go, I likewise can't see the next Dylan, Springsteen, Brian Wilson, or Neil Young anywhere out there on the horizon -- as much as I would really like to. I mean, I like Conor Oberst as much as the next guy, but honestly speaking I just don't see him filling the shoes of Bob or Bruce.
These are different times than the sixties or the seventies were, and I understand that. Believe me, I do.
We are influenced by the blues. Here's a couple of reminders.
If the blues is not the foundation of all modern pop music, it comes pretty damn close. Jazz was an outgrowth of the blues, originally adding brass to the 12 bar structure of the blues. Country music was born alongside the blues, and, as marketing worked in those early days, differentiated primarily only in the race of its performers. Rock and soul...
