Grateful Dead

Prince took the stage at the Billboard Music Awards earlier this week and accepted the Billboard Icon award from Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu, which quickly turned into Prince slaying the crowd with his new version of “Let’s Go Crazy.” The video is awesome, must-see stuff if you didn’t catch any of his small-club tour that just ended in Anaheim earlier this month. In case you missed it, our crew caught this show in Las Vegas at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and we saw a very similar version of the two-song diddy that Prince showed off to the crowd. You really can’t be a “Frankenstein” tease no matter where’s it’s placed.

What happens when every guy at your coffee shop starts rocking long hair and a beard? If you’re Devendra Banhart, you ditch the hippie costume, start playing around with a synthesizer, and release a new album. Earlier this year the Texas born, Venezuela raised musician released his eighth solo album, Mala, revealing a more mature side to the once hippie-dippie, nature rocker. But Banhart’s show last night at The Regency Ballroom proved his new album isn’t as much a departure from his freak folk roots as it is a musical evolution. The Mala pop sound is providing Banhart with yet another spectrum of sounds to play with. “It’s good to be home,” Banhart proclaimed, reassuring an excited audience that they too were home.  The audience was markedly captivated by Banhart’s every note and gesture, like children sitting around a campfire waiting for a story to unfold. As Banhart dropped into “Little Yellow Spider” the energy of the room intensified and the audience clapped and sang along. Banhart harnessed the energy of the crowd and fed it back to them offering a boyish jig and playful impersonations of the animals in the song. “Little white monkey staring at the sand,” he sang. “Maybe that monkey figured out something I couldn’t understand, who knows.” The tempo picked up as Banhart’s band joined him on stage with “Golden Girls” and “Für Hildegard von Bingen”, two danceable pop songs with Euro club undertones. This up-tempo carried through most of the set with “Can’t Help But Smiling” infused with laughter, gypsy ballad “Quedate Luna”, and Klezmer pop tune “Shabop Shalop.” Banhart commanded for the lights to shine on the crowd and he subsequently serenaded the crowd with “Little Boys.” The set peaked with “Seahorse,” a loud, reverb-rich song with a couple solid minutes of jamming that confirmed that Banhart can play rock and roll, too. Banhart’s all-male bad included the opener, Rodrigo Amarante of Little Joy on bass. The band supported the Banhart well, save for a minor hiccup on “Your Fine Petting Duck” with some half-baked backup vocals. It’s worth noting that the vocal track on the studio version of this song are sung by a female who also happens to be Banhart’s fiancee. Banhart’s music is an exotic melting pot of styles blended together with ocean water and seaweed to go down easily. He’s shown a prolific sense of writing short, catchy songs that explore the human condition, love and nature with effortless wit. But what distinguishes Banhart most from contemporary folk singers is his stagecraft. Banhart radiates vibrations from every part of his body–from his fingers and step to his eyes and, most notably, his voice. Not only has he mastered a vocal range that spans in quality from delicate crooning to feathery, emphatic yodeling, he also uses hand gestures to manipulate his vocal mix. Above all, Banhart delivered a lively performance in celebration of the wild, weird world we live in. The kind of performance that makes you want to fly your freak flag high. Last night’s show marked the culmination of Banhart’s California tour, but you can catch him in Portland and Sasquatch Music Festival this week before he moves east across the United States eventually landing in Europe. Devendra Banhart at The Regency 5/21/2013 1. The Body Breaks * 2. A Sight to Behold* 3. Little Yellow Spider* 4. At The Hop (shoutout to Andy Cabic)* 5. My Dearest Friend* 6. Golden Girls 7. Für Hildegard von Bingen 8. Can’t Help But Smilin 9. Shabop Shalom 10. Quedate Luna 11. Daniel 12. Bad Girl 13. Mi Negrita 14. Cristobal Risquez 15. Seahorse 16. Something French 17. Never Seen Such Good Things 18. Little Boys 19. Your Fine Petting Duck E: Carmensita *Devendra Banhart solo Photos by Justin Yee

The tireless and must-see Ty Segall will release his sixth solo album titled Sleeper August 20th on Drag City via vinyl, CD, MP3 and cassette. The announcement video for Sleeper features a montage of Segall sleeping in various places wearing a t-shirt with the words “couch potato” on the front. How very ironic. Today, a similar second video of Segall being awoken (this time in a tour-ready flannel) by a menacing voice warning him that it’s time for tour has been released and this time, it announces Segall’s summer tour plans. Check out the dates and the tour release video below. TY SEGALL 2013 TOUR DATES Fri. July 19 — Paris, France @ City Sounds Festival ** Thu. Aug. 1 — Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst Atrium * Sat. Aug. 3 — Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Sun. Aug. 4 — Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Sat. Aug. 24 — Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest Tue. Aug. 27 — Austin, TX @ Mohawk Outside Thu. Aug. 29 — Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Fri. Aug. 30 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Sat. Aug. 31 — Chicago, IL @ Logan Square Auditorium Mon. Sep. 2 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall ! Wed. Sep. 4 — Monterey, CA @ Golden State Theatre ! Thu. Sep. 5 — Oakland, CA @ New Parish ! Sat. Sep. 7 — Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s ! Sun. Sep. 8 — Boise, ID @ Neurolux ! Mon. Sep. 9 — Reno, NV @ Holland Project ! Sat. Dec. 1 — Camber Sands, UK @ ATP Festival ** solo performance * w/ Daughn Gibson, Mike Donovan, William Tyler ! w/ Mike Donovan ^ w/ Mike Donovan, Old Light Ty Segall’s new album, “Sleeper,” is out August 20th on Drag City.

We had to take a break for a day or two from the Daft Punk fever pitch that has invaded LMB HQ but there was some news yesterday that we can’t pass on covering. Rolling Stone ran an awesome cover story, remixes were announced for Random Access Memories, and they put a bonus track on their Japanese release for the album and it’s pretty rad. Read on, fellow robots… Daft Punk: All Hail Our Robot Overlords [Rolling Stone] Rolling Stone’s latest cover story is damn good; kudos to Jonah Weiner on laying this bad boy down. Not only did he break that the Kanye West track, “Black Skinhead,” debuted on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, is likely the Daft Punk collaboration which they spoke to him about while he was putting together the cover story. My @rollingstone Daft Punk story, out soon, broke the Kanye collab news and indicates DP worked on Black Skinhead: twitter.com/jonahweiner/st… — Jonah Weiner (@jonahweiner) May 19, 2013 And the article is fitting tribute to the hype surrounding the entire release, and it sums up a very succinct picture of how calculated and coordinated the duo in Daft Punk are, even if they appear a bit aloof about it all and purposely rebellious in their pursuit of the ultimate dance groove. The story about how they did their commercial release at Coachella is just incredible work. Definitely a must-read if you haven’t gotten your copy in the mail yet. “Today, electronic music is like an audio energy drink,” Bang­alter says. “Artists are overcompensating with this aggressive, energetic, hyperstimulating music – it’s like someone shaking you. But it can’t move people on an emotional level. It’s a way to feel alive, but?.?.?.” “It’s not deep, it’s surface,” de Homem-Christo offers. “Maybe it’s the difference between love and sex, or eroticism and pornography,” Bang­alter says. Random Access Memories Remixes Announced RunTheTrap.com was the first we saw to run with this: the duo came out on record stating that they would be doing remixes of their own music. “We’re working on some mixes ourselves,” Bangalter answered. “So yes, there will probably be Daft Punk mixes of Daft Punk. Usually we never mix ourselves, that’s something we feel we’re interested in doing this time.” You’ve got to assume other producers are going to be brought on, and based on what the duo had to say about Skrillex a few months back, I’m personally crossing my fingers to see something like that go down. Not to mention a Panda Bear remix of “Doin’ it Right” — GAH! “Horizon” Bonus Track on Random Access Memories Japanese Release Finally, if you’re a music fan in Japan then you were one of the lucky ones to get Random Access Memories with a bonus track that was not present on the US release. Thankfully the internets always win, and the track is freely floating around right now and definitely worth hearing. If you want to break away from the flock at your next DJ set, make sure you drop “Horizon” and not one of the obvious tracks like “Get Lucky,” because the “Get Lucky” remix is the first one that Daft Punk will put out and I’m sure we’ll all think it’s sick when it drops anyway. RAM on.

Over the past couple of weeks, Austin, TX modern psych phenoms The Black Angels and Hanni El Khatib paired up for a May tour that wrapped up in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The venue of choice was the exotic confines of The Mayan, a revival-style theater of the late 1920s featuring a lobby known as “The Hall of Feathered Serpents” and a large and gaudy chandelier based on the Aztec calendar stone. Think Legends of the Hidden Temple, except not a television set. This place is real…and it’s awesome. Both bands delivered in their own very distinct ways and the second band of the night (we missed the first) Hanni El Khatib had the musical talent, intensity and pop sensibility to easily be headlining a venue the size of The Mayan (if not larger) in the very near future. In only thirty-five minutes HEK of LA left a huge impression and even if you think you don’t know their music, you probably do, unless you don’t own a television (El Khatib’s music is in countless major t.v. commercials at the moment). Be on the lookout for these guys and check out their brand new 2nd LP Head in the Dirt (produced by Dan Auerbach). The Black Angels took the stage right at 10 pm, with members coming out after three minutes of sonic etherea and projections filled the room and slowly eased the crowd into the colorful and jarring audiovisual experience they were about to take in. Starting off the show mostly in the dark (amidst bubbly colors) with “Vikings” (from 2008′s Directions To See A Ghost), the gravity of the evening’s headlining set was quickly established and moments of levity thereafter could be counted on one hand…er finger. “I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)” would come next, with perhaps the most fitting lyrics to describe their current lysergic visual display, a throwback to the early days of Acid Rock in the early 60s that woulda done the recently-departed Ray Manzarek proud. The band’s latest single “Don’t Play With Guns” came next and got the biggest response from the crowd of the night. The surfy and upbeat “Telephone” (from 2010′s Phosphene Dream) and dark and heavier new tunes from Indigo Meadow like the title track “Indigo Meadow” and “Holland” were arguably the pre-encore personal highlights of the night. However, the real meat of the show came during a downright stunning encore that sent the packed house off a little more mind-bent then when we arrived. SHOW NOTE: The Black Angels Lead singer Christian Bland made a subtle nod to Biggie Smalls when he versed on “Going Back To Cali” amidst a heavy squall of sound midway through the show. Fans could’ve missed it if they weren’t paying attention at that particular moment. This is the aforementioned single moment of levity from an otherwise mega serious and powerful set of music.

Interlocken has revealed more alluring details about its inaugural festival set to take place September 5 – 8 at Oak Ridge Farm at the foot of the Blue Ridge in Central Virginia, 35 miles south of Charlottesville. This is shaping up to be one of the most well-curated, jam-centric festivals since the early years of Bonnaroo or the H.O.R.D.E. tour. Organizers have just announced the following details. See below. * Widespread Panic confirmed to play two of the four nights, with John Fogerty sitting in one night for CCR songs (See “Born On The Bayou” here); * Furthur confirmed to play three of the four nights, one featuring a special performance of Workingman’s Dead in its entirety; * The Black Crowes confirmed to play two of the four nights; * The String Cheese Incident to play two of the four nights, one will feature the debut of “The Zac Brown Incident” with Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band PRESS RELEASE Unique in its take on the modern music festival, Interlocken will feature a smaller amount of bands playing longer sets on multiple days, and will also create exclusive and historical collaborations throughout the weekend. Interlocken’s two main stages will feature full two-hour sets that will run seamlessly from one to the other without breaks between performances, giving the audience a unique and singular experience, as the music will be continuous throughout the weekend. Festival organizers are excited to confirm that Widespread Panic will perform on two of the four nights, with one set featuring a special collaboration with John Fogerty performing his classic songs from the Creedence Clearwater Revival era. Furthur is confirmed to play on three of the four nights, with one set featuring an exclusive performance of Workingman’s Dead , the Grateful Dead’s classic fifth record, originally released in 1970. The Black Crowes will perform on two of the four nights, while The String Cheese Incident will also play on two of the four, with one featuring the debut collaboration of the Zac Brown Incident, with Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band, a bold, one-time-only, experiment by two artists who are masters of their craft and have built loyal fan-bases by touring consistently and creating memorable experiences for their audience every time they hit the stage. Interlocken, is a 4-day music festival, with an emphasis on world class music, locally sourced food and sustainability. Artist pre-sale tickets will be available beginning May 22 at 10am EST and general “early bird” tickets will go on sale May 23 at 10am EST. All Tickets will be sold via interlockenfestival.com. Interlocken was created by industry veterans Dave Frey and Peter Shapiro. Frey founded the HORDE Festival while Shapiro owned New York City’s historic rock club, “Wetlands Preserve.” He also produced U2′s award-winning film U23D and currently publishes Relix Magazine as well as being the proprietor of Brooklyn Bowl and The Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. With the pedigree of these two producers, Interlocken is set to be one of the country’s most unique and dynamic events. Frey and Shapiro’s sense for innovation and creativity together with the backdrop of this beautiful setting in the Blue Ridge Mountains is certain to make for an unforgettable weekend. Interlocken was named for traditions central to both Frey and Shapiro: The inter-locking performances presented at Wetlands and the continuous uninterrupted music featured between the two stages at HORDE. Interlocken’s conceptual theme will touch all elements of the event: “when something ends, another begins.” This simple yet powerful ethos of sustainability will be integrated into camping, lodging, food, drink, transport offerings as well as specialized onsite activities. “Most festivals these days are trying to be everything to everyone — very eclectic with an emphasis on a large numbe

Unfortunate news from the folks over at JamBase. They just posted an update informing fans that their inaugural festival at The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington for July 5-6 has been cancelled. No reason for the cancellation was given but we can only assume that low ticket sales and competition from the High Sierra Music Festival, which has been a west coast tradition for the past twenty-three years may have factored into the decision. Robert Plant, Rodrigo & Gabriela, STS9, Galactic, Railroad Earth and a host of others were scheduled to perform over the two day event. JamBase included a silver lining in their cancellation update with the news that they “are now working with another awesome venue (much closer to Seattle) to host many of the bands originally slated to play at The Gorge Amphitheater July 5-6. While we’re still hammering out the details, keep July 5-6 open on your calendar as we expect to have a new announcement soon. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.” We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

Cross another one off the bucket list! Last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, The Rolling Stones finished up the “West Coast” portion of their “50 And Counting” Tour with a rocking two and a half hour affair. In an interesting curve, especially in the star-saturated City of Angels, The Rolling Stones didn’t bring out a special guest for the first time all tour (pointing to the crowd — “You guys are THE special guests” – Mick Jagger). Instead, the second LA date focused on former guitarist Mick Taylor (1969–74), as he played on FOUR songs, including the first 2013 performances of “Sway” (voted in by the fans) and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” is one fans have been clamoring for all tour and the band finally obliged. It seemed like everyone in the arena knew the signature Keith Richards guitar intro as fans roared in approval. This version didn’t disappoint as Taylor was front and center bringing the 1971 Sticky Fingers classic to a jam-worthy end (although Jagger seemed to cut his solo short.) The Stones also played “Far Away Eyes” for the first time in 2013. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” was the highlight of the show for me (besides @3po1nt0 upgrading our nosebleeds to Sec 102!) as the Mick Taylor led-guitar excursions brought the band’s sound and cohesion to a level that makes you say “This is why I’m here.” Nostalgic moments are a wonderful thing, but the Stones ability to balance those with unique musicianship and energy — especially by Jagger, who will turn 70 in July — is awe-inspiring to watch. Heck, Jimmy Fallon’s character in the 2000 film, Almost Famous wrongfully predicted “If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age fifty, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken.” Not so fast. Don’t miss these Hall of Famers while you have the chance. As they bowed and left the stage one couldn’t help but think — “Could this be their last tour?” The Stones play Toronto this weekend before heading to Chicago next week! SETLIST: Rolling Stones 5/20/13 – Los Angeles Get Off of My Cloud It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It) Paint It Black Gimme Shelter All Down the Line Faraway Eyes Sway (with Mick Taylor – by fan request) Doom and Gloom One More Shot Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (with Mick Taylor) Honky Tonk Women You Got the Silver Before They Make Me Run Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor) Miss You Start Me Up Tumbling Dice Brown Sugar Sympathy for the Devil ENCORE: You Can’t Always Get What You Want (with the USC-Thornton Chamber Singers) Jumpin’ Jack Flash (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (with Mick Taylor) Upgraded to sec 102 thanks to @3po1nt0! twitter.com/phortin/status… — Aaron Fortin (@phortin) May 21, 2013

Let me be the first to say, I am by no means a jam band connoisseur or even a casual fan at best. Bands like Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic, Phish, or even the Grateful Dead aren’t remotely part of my personal musical lexicon. To give you the extent – the closest thing I’d consider to my foremost ‘jam band experience’ up to this point would have been seeing Pearl Jam doing a raucous fifteen minute cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Going into the Moon Taxi show, I’d be remiss to not mention that I was a bit hesitant. I had checked out their music online and was already familiar with the style and talents going in, so at the very least there wasn’t going to be any outright disappointment. Instead, on the flip-side, the show was an overall pleasant surprise. Thursday night’s show at Tipitina’s marked the first time Moon Taxi had ever played the legendary music venue as well as both opening bands, Coyotes and Frontier Ruckus. New Orleans’ own Coyotes had the honor and daunting task of opening up the evening’s show. The trio, although only formed in 2010, commanded the stage and looked like seasoned veterans while doing so. The small crowd was appreciative of their efforts and enthusiastically cheered the band as they wrapped up their set, which was a combination of material from the current EP, Good Times Old, as well as new material yet-to-be-recorded. After a quick turnaround, Frontier Ruckus took the stage and tuned up, to which lead singer Matthew Milia joked about being embarrassed that we had to see that. The Americana-Folk band sprawled across Tip’s entire stage and made great use of the space. The set was mainly composed of material from their double LP Eternity of Dimming which came out this year. The highlight of the set was a unique banjo and saw cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The band was also thrilled to be playing Tipitina’s and the audience was grateful and attentive during the amazing and enjoyable set. Next up was the evening’s main event Moon Taxi who, much like their openers, were extremely happy and excited to be playing Tipitina’s after nearly a decade of touring. The band had previously appeared in NOLA during last year’s Final Four for a late night show at The Maison. To say the band was energetic would be a massive understatement. Initial impressions of the live set were to me, “What if Jamiroquai and Joe Satriani had a love child?” The space/jungle jam and vocally-powered music had a better and more far-reaching power than the recordings I had listened to. The band also played several new and yet-to-be-recorded tracks which included, “Change,” “Suspicious,” “Running Wild,” and my favorite “Silent Underground.” The new material was in step with the rest of the songs that were played. The main set ended with an amazing rendition of “Mercury,” the opening track from their most recent full-length Cabaret. After a few minutes, the band came back to the stage to finish off the evening with a couple more tracks. Throughout the set, the audience was having a blast. The floor wasn’t overly packed and it was thus very comfortable to get around, in many ways helping with the overall enjoyment of the set. The nice thing about the jam sessions that were present was the fact that they actually seemed to have form and a logical conclusion and not lift off aimlessly into an abyss as many-a-jam session tend to do. I’m still not a jam band fan per se, but wouldn’t hesitate to come back and catch another set from Moon Taxi, who offered a great opportunity for me to step out of my comfort music zone.

What a show! Pure Rock & Roll played to its finest and sung by Chris Cornell, a man with the voice of a God and a vocal range like no other. I’ve had the pleasure of catching a solo acoustic Chris Cornell show a couple of years back but that was a completely different realm as Soundgarden literally ripped shit up late last week at The Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT. Don’t get me wrong, Cornell’s voice is entertainment enough on its own, but when the lights went down, you could feel the energy just ooze through the air from this packed house of 5000 worked up fans just waiting for the band to bust out of the gates…so much that I literally started to shake in anticipation and excitement! I haven’t had the chance to see a hard rock show in quite some time, let alone photograph one and man, was I glad I got to catch this one! It was just perfect for a Friday night as you can tell everyone could use letting off some steam after their work week. The stage setup was great with plenty of lights,  a nice digital backdrop screen, and plenty of room for the band to move around, and that they did all night. I’ve seen so many jamband type shows that I forget about the energy that can emerge from a band like Soundgarden. Constant rolling guitar riffs with a thunderous bass-line and booming drums laying down the foundation…what more could one ask for??? This was nothing but loud, hard, slammin’ rock & roll and that is certainly what I was out to see and hear this evening! Starting out with “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” and then right into “Jesus Christ Pose”, I soon realized I was in for a doozy of a night and I guess that was validated the next day by the ringing in my ears and the stiff neck I had from bouncing my head all night…good times for sure! Setlist: Searching with My Good Eye Closed Jesus Christ Pose By Crooked Steps Let Me Drown Attrition Loud Love Ugly Truth Get on the Snake Non-State Actor Live to Rise Worse Dreams Been Away Too Long The Day I Tried to Live Ty Cobb Hunted Down Fell on Black Days Blow Up the Outside World Blood on the Valley Floor Burden in My Hand Head Down Rusty Cage Encore: Spoonman  Outshined  Rhinosaur  Rowing