Pittsburgh punkers Anti-Flag just released a new video today for their song “The Economy Is Suffering…Let It Die” that appears on their 2009 album entitled The People Or The Gun. Not a bad song although I find it a little heavy on the pop punk side. Overall it is a good jam and these boys still have not changed their political views on the US one bit.
It’s that time of the year again everyone. The time to give gifts…of Bonnaroo tickets!!!
Matt over at Addicted To Vinyl promised me that there would be a golden Bonnaroo ticket in my stocking this Jesus Day 2009 but I am not too sure if I believe him. He also ensured me that he would never ever ever ever ever go with me and Rad-Am again to a crazy festival like that again. 2 days was just too much (yes folks, it is a 4 day festival – Matt I still love you…haha)
Luckily for me if I decide to go for my third venture I can pre-order a ticket for myself at the Bonnaroo website starting on November 27th 12pm EST. General admission tickets will be available again on a payment plan for 5 easy payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees or a pair of VIP tickets for 5 payments of $285.00 plus applicable fees through the holiday pre-sale that lasts until December 31st. Visit the Bonnaroo Payment Plan page for more information on the payment plan.
The 9th Annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has been confirmed for the weekend of June 10- 13, 2010. The four-day music and camping festival will once again be held at the Great Stage Park otherwise known as the huge 700-acre farm in Manchester, TN that the huge festival takes place on.
The artist line-up has yet to be determined but I am pretty confident that it will be amazing as always. Again, I am not sure if I am going yet but I said that last year and once I saw the line-up I had my mind set on going. I had the time of my life and saw some amazing performaces. No regrets at all.
Here’s a great video created by Shadow Machine (Robot Chicken, Moral Orel) in honor of the Bonnaroo pre-sale featuring folk artist Gary Chardonnay for your visual entertainment.
I completely forgot that I pre-ordered the Bonnaroo 2009 Live DVD and should be getting it soon. I was able to pre-order it when I bought my 2009 Bonnaroo tickets. For $15 you can own a copy too.
(*Editor’s Note – Thanks to my reliable laptop crashing this was postponed for quite sometime.)
Before I even start I would like to publicly kick myself in the ass for not attending last night’s Mike Doughty concert at the Beachland Ballroom (Oct. 10th). I know I missed a good time and I am the one to blame for missing it. I just had too much going on and not enough green paper in the wallet so I decided to sit it out and today am regretting it. I also had the flu of sorts so it just was not happening.
Luckily I got my hands on his new album so at least I have something to listen to and talk about.
I always admire the musicians out there in the world that have overcome hardship and feed off the fan reaction rather than make music for pure financial purposes. One performer in particular that comes to mind when I think about a hard working true music maker is Mike Doughty. Doughty, as many know, was the lead man of the 90’s alt rock act Soul Coughing. Sadly the band called it quits thanks to constant battles with drugs and also financial hardship but Doughty kept going on doing his own thing.
He started recording solo material and soon had a cult following who worshiped his every word and sang along with to every song. I was one of those folk who took a huge liken to him. I loved seeing Doughty on stage alone with guitar in hand singing folky and rocky songs to an ever loving crowd.
Doughty took his fan’s reaction to his 2008 solo release Golden Delicious and used it to mold his next release titled Sad Man, Happy Man. Some of the fans loved the rock pop heavy Golden Delicious while others hated it. Perhaps the dis-likening came from the more upbeat fun styles that were bursting from the tunes over former albums.
Having such a huge step up from his widely known solo material was credited with Doughty’s “dude theory”, an idea of recording music that sounds like a bunch of dudes playing music for the fun of it. The result of his dude music won new fans and also caused some of the more so diehard fans to go so far as calling him a sellout for doing what he did. Not taking the negative reactions personal he used it to his benefit and began a different approach when creating new material.
In fact he used the responses as a fuel of sorts to making something better in his current release and admitted that his previous album sparked an array of feelings by saying:
“…some hated it, some loved it better than Soul Coughing. I tend to take sharp left turns. Every time I put out a record, the audience seems to like what I did two years ago better. You’d think I could shrug it off because that’s what always happens, but it always gets to me.”
As a fan of everything Doughty has done since the days of Soul Coughing I have to admit that I was one of the fans who liked Golden Delicious. It was a change in his style but still catchy to my ears. Just check out my review I did on it. I was happy from start to finish and the album is still played here and there when I am looking for something fun to jam out to.
When I heard that Doughty was going back to his roots when recording Sad Man,Happy Man I was eager for the release. After hearing listening to it (over and over I might add), it is clear that Doughty reached back to his solo roots as well as the days when he was in the popular 90’s act and pushed aside that poppy feel Golden Delicious had going on. This time around there is more of a Soul Coughing vibe and less of the more pop rock he achieved previously.
“Nectarine (Part II)” sequel to song on Golden Delicious was acoustic with a brief add of Irresistible Bliss horns. “(I Keep On) Rising Up” continued with Doughty’s signature raspy hypnotizing voice moving through a more personal jam (he wrote it during hardship in a relationship). Just after a couple of tracks and it was perfectly clear he was stripped down and focused on the acoustic.
“(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)” was a nice smooth rock song with long time touring pal Andrew “Scrap” Livingston taking bass duties. I should add that this album is just Doughty and Livingston with Doughty providing not just the singing and guitars but also the drum programming and keyboards as well.
“(I Want To) Burn You (Down)” was a poignant acoustic jam reminiscent to the days when Doughty would play shows and would sell CDs himself from the stage after wards when he was trying to get back on his feet. “Pleasure On Credit” clearly reached back to his witty Soul Coughing days. I don’t think it was possible for me to enjoy this song more so than I did the first time I heard it.
Ending the CD with a Daniel Johnston cover completed this album for me. Hearing Doughty’s take on “Casper The Friendly Ghost” had me smiling. The version was not nearly as depressing as the original schizophrenic take but still held on to Daniel Johnston’s eerie original.
It’s great to see that Mike Doughty keeps on going and Sad Man, Happy Man shows no form of slowing down. It sounded throughout the album as if he was just having fun without getting too serious and to me that is what I admire him most for. With all the hell the man has been though he never seemed to stop having fun doing what he loved – play music, and loving it while doing so.
Not just a musician but also an outspoken blogger. Check out Mike Doughty’s blog site. He’s not just a clever song writer you know…
Looks like I missed out on a little Q&A at the Beachland… The tour was called the Question Jar Tour. Looks like they took it very literally. Damn me for getting sick!
Punk pop rockers New Found Glory (NFG) are asking fans for help in finding local opening acts for their small club headline shows the are playing in the upcoming months. They will be touring in support of their new album they released this past Spring called Not Without A Fight.
So how can you help you ask? Excellent question.
All you have to do is send a “Tweet” to @xchadballx and @steveisdareason on the popular mini-blog site Twitter the local band you think should open for them. They will pick the bands based upon the number of local requests they get.
What a novel idea… The dates for their headlining tour (they will also be touring with Dashboard Confessional this Fall too but this contest does not apply to those shows) are listed below. If you know of a local band you think should open for NFG then I suggest you tweet them a little message.
I have a couple local favorites in mind I will be tweeting them about… I suggest you do the same. Hell, even if you are in a band it could not hurt to tell them from perhaps a friend’s Twitter account how awesome your band is. You never know, they may ask you to open for them!
The above was reshaped and manipulated from a message from Chad Gilbert of NFG. Here’s his take on the whole idea as well as some other words:
Support Your Local Scene!
Before NFG head out on tour with Dashboard Confessional this fall we will be doing a limited amount of smaller intimate club shows. For the past few years NFG have not been able to hook up local bands due to a full traveling line up. We know how important it is to support local bands and local music scenes. That is how NFG got our start. We use to open locally in South Florida for bands like MxPx, the Get Up Kids, Unwritten Law,Bane etc. Playing those shows helped build our band and build our local scene. This tour will give us an opportunity to finally help out a little.
We ask you to “Tweet” @xchadballx and @steveisdareason some suggestions for local bands to open up the NFG show in their town. Please check http://www.myspace.com/newfoundglory for all the tour dates. Make sure you request bands only for our own headline shows, Not the shows we will be playing with Dashboard Confessional.
We do not want to piss any one off or discourage any bands so NFG will not be picking the specific band. We are just compiling a list of bands that we get the most requests for and submitting it to the local promoter to pick.
Also on all of these shows will be a fellow Floridian band called Fallen From The Sky and Pennsylvania’s TITLE FIGHT!
thanks so much and we hope to see you all this fall!
DONT LET HER PULL YOU DOWN the movie coming soon!
your friend always
@XchadballX
Tour Dates (for their headlining shows only)
Oct 18 2009 – Toads Place (Headline Show) – New Haven, Connecticut
Oct 19 2009 – Chameleon Club (Headline Show) – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Oct 21 2009 – The Chance (Headline Show) – Poughkeepsie, New York
Oct 22 2009 – Northern Lights (Headline Show) – Clifton Park, New York
Oct 24 2009 – Eleanor Rigby’s (Headline Show) – Jermyn, Pennsylvania
Oct 25 2009 – Higher Ground (Headline Show) – Burlington, Vermont
Oct 27 2009 – The Intersection (Headline Show) – Grand Rapids, Michigan
Oct 28 2009 – Peabody’s Downunder (Headline Show) – Cleveland, Ohio
Oct 30 2009 – Southgate House (Headline Show) – Newport, Kentucky
Oct 31 2009 – The Rave (Headline Show) – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Nov 1 2009 – People’s Court (Headline Show) – Des Moines, Iowa
Nov 2 2009 – Slowdown (Headline Show) – Omaha, Nebraska
Nov 3 2009 – Station 4 (Headline Show) – Saint Paul, Minnesota
Nov 5 2009 – New Daisy (Headline Show) – Memphis, Tennessee
Nov 6 2009 – Emerson Theater (Headline Show) – Indianapolis, Indiana
Nov 7 2009 – Pop’s (Headline Show) – Sauget, Illinois
Nov 23 2009 – Cine El Ray (Headline Show) – Mcallen, Texas
Dec 1 2009 – Cat’s Cradle (Headline Show) – Carrboro, North Carolina
Dec 2 2009 – Recher Theatre (Headline show) – Towson, Maryland
Here is some exciting news!!! Matt at Addicted To Vinyl and I have decided to stop battling one another and joined forces in putting on a free pre-show performance featuring an amazing musician.
I’ll pass it over to Matt to explain:
A long time ago in a galaxy not really that far away….
Setting the scene: On a random Monday afternoon, Pat the Producer forwards an email my way with an opportunity attached to do something with Black Flag founder and SST Records owner Greg Ginn.
Currently on tour with two of his projects, Jambang, and Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators, Ginn will be at the Beachland Ballroom on Tuesday, September 15th for a low-dough gig in the Tavern.
Once we found this out, Brian and I put our heads together and decided to do something cool!
Prior to the Beachland show, Addicted to Vinyl and Broken Headphones are pleased to present a free special in-store performance at Blue Arrow Records and Books with Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators that will start at 7pm. Ginn will meet and greet with fans after the performance, and then we’ll all head over to the Beachland to rock it up with the Corrugators and Jambang!
Here’s a few Ginn stats for ya:
– #99 on the list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time, according to Rolling Stone Magazine.
– Founded SST Records in 1978, an influential label responsible for a wide variety of releases, including albums from The Meat Puppets, The Minutemen, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and Bad Brains, just to name a few.
– Since breaking up Black Flag, Ginn has recorded a few solo albums, and has performed with the bands HOR, Fastgato, The October Faction, Gone, Confront James, EL BAD, Mojack, The Texas Corrugators, Jambang, and also played bass with Tom Troccoli’s Dog.
Enough with the stats, let’s rock!
Here’s a recap of the details:
WHAT: Greg Ginn & The Texas Corrugators, in-store performance
WHEN: Tuesday, September 15th at 7pm
WHERE: Blue Arrow Records and Books, 16001 Waterloo Rd. (down the street from the Beachland)
COST: FREE! Come hang out with Greg Ginn, and then make your way over to the Beachland for a great low-dough night of rock and roll with Ginn, the Corrugators, and Jambang!
We promise that a rip-roaring good time will be had by all, and you’re provided with the additional benefit of having a good reason to go hang out at Blue Arrow Records and Books, the latest and greatest reason to visit Cleveland! Fox 8 News just featured a nice story on Blue Arrow recently – check it out below!
Thanks Matt!
Now I would like to note something about Greg Ginn right quick just before you all start grabbing your entire SST catalog for autographs and making mental notes of all the questions you want to ask him. I asked Greg if he would be interested in doing an interview about his punk history and asked to talk about influences from other punk acts out there that got him to where he is today.
He politely informed me that he does not care to talk about the past but prefers to focus on the present time and future. I can completely respect his decision to deny a chat about the past so don’t be surprised if the former Black Flag front man does not care to discuss his punk history.
Greg is more concerned about his current projects and I completely understand why he prefers not to talk about an era he is no longer involved in. Greg is no longer a punk rocker but more of an amazing musician and has put together some really interesting bands. Think rock, jazz, and jam. I can not wait to see him live.
The pre-show should be a lot of fun so come out and then check him out at the Beachland!
Thanks to Greg Ginn for agreeing to do this little event as well as Matt and Pat for pushing the idea. Major thanks to Pete at Blue Arrow Records for allowing us to invade his store for a few songs.
