Nuts For Music

It seems Eddie Vedder is continuing his break from Pearl Jam and going out on tour this summer on his own. He’ll be touring in support of his Monkeywrench/J soundtrack that he wrote for the move Into The Wild. Dates start in Vancouver on April 2. It seems unknown who, if anyone, will be accompanying Eddie on his Solo tour. It’d be cool if some great members from other bands dropped in and played with him on this tour. Allstar bands are always cool to catch I think.

On the Pearl Jam side, its rumored that Vedder and the rest of Pearl Jam will sketch out the details for their next album before he goes out on tour. So it seems that a new Pearl Jam album will be in the works and perhaps in our hands some time early next year. This is great news since I’ve been a Pearl Jam fan since high school and always look forward to new music from those guys.

Last night’s weather was horrible in Boston, MA. Snow, sleet, rain. Treacherous driving indeed. But I’m glad I ventured out to Boston to go see VAST with my good buddy Kyle. We got there at about 10pm, right before VAST got on stage (had enough time to buy a beer!). There weren’t many people there, I’m guessing partly due to the crappy weather. But, it made for a great show. It was like seeing a band at my house in the basement with a bunch of my friends. I’d say there were no more than 100 people there. In the end, they played about 20 songs for at least an hour and a half.

I’d have to rank last night’s VAST shows as one of the better shows I’ve seen in years. It’s not often you get to see a great band like VAST in such an intimate setting. I wasn’t really sure what to expect either, but boy was I blown away with how well they played. The sound quality of the show was excellent. I can’t remember the last time a band sounded as good as VAST did on stage. I was also impressed with how well Jon Crosby’s acoustic guitar sounded with the electric guitar in the band. They’re definitely a very talented group and I hope I get a chance to see them again soon.

I didn’t memorize the set list exactly, but it seemed that they played pretty much every song off of the April album as well as some of their other songs like Touched and Free. They also played a new song, one Jon said they wrote the day before. Sounded damn good for a song written a day earlier.

Here’s a partial set list from what I remember from the show (not in any order):

• You’re Too Young
• Dedicate (A Place For Me)
• Everything Passing By
• Sunday I’ll Be Gone
• Tattoo Of Your Name
• Is It Me
• I’m Too Good
• Desert Garden
• Touched
• Turquoise
• Falling From The Sky
• I Woke Up In L.A.
• Free
• Flames (this was the encoure…sounded awesome!)

This time its not great. According to a news article I saw over at RollingStone.com, Scott Weiland entered a rehab facility following their show last Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Apparently it was done voluntarily, which is always good. Messy when courts get involved. Their show on the 8th in San Diego was also cancelled and it looks like the rest of the tour could be in jeopardy. I’m not sure if this will affect any rumored Stone Temple Pilots reunion tour this coming summer, but I for one hope it doesn’t. I’d really like to see these guys come out for a show in Massachusetts. Anyway, Scott, get well and we hope to see you back on stage soon!

I’m definitely a Foo Fighters fan. Like I said in a previous post, I don’t generally watch the Grammy’s, but I was really psyched to see that the Foo Fighters won for Best Rock Album. It doesn’t seem like every year a true, great, rock band gets to win Best Rock Album (ahem, 1989 Metallica loses to who? Jethro Tull?). So, when one does, its refreshing to see. Foo Fighters are definitely a huge band, with what I would consider one of the greatest rock musicians of this generation, Dave Grohl. Lets see, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, sits in with Queens of the Stone Age…you get the picture. I’ll even make the argument that Foo Fighters is bigger than Nirvana. While Nirvana’s music was good for its time and started a new trend in rock, I’m not sure it would have been long lasting. But we’ll never know.

Anyway, congrats to Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters on their big win! By the way Dave, what exactly is a Foo Fighter?

So the Grammy Awards were on last night. I don’t pay attention to these types of shows much, but my fiancee had it on while I was working at the computer, so I caught some bits and pieces. Seems that Kanye West doesn’t like a time limit on his speeches. Dude, the night isn’t just about you, chill out. A very nice showing of The Beatles Love production. Its nice that they did that sow people who don’t get a chance to see it in Las Vegas can see how great and special it is. I believe they won a Grammy for that too. Nice stuff. Lastly, does anyone else out there find it ironic and really sad that Amy Winehouse wins multiple Grammy’s for her album “Back To Black”? Most notably the song “Rehab”? Uh, isn’t she in rehab? Didn’t they let her out to perform via satellite at the Grammy’s? Uhm, yeah, great message people. She needs to just go away. Thanks for coming out.

I was hunting around for new music about a week ago on iTunes and was using my technique of looking at recommended music for bands i already listen to. Interpol popped up during my search so I gave them a listen. I have actually heard these guys before through Kyle, but just never managed to get their album for my own. I must say Antics is really good. Another one of those albums you can just play. I’ve honestly worn out both albums of theirs I got, playing them over and over the last few days. I’d have to say my favorite tracks on the album are Evil, Narc, Slow Hands, and A Time To Be So Small. C’Mere is another good one. Hell, the whole album is just great! If you don’t already have it, I highly recommend you do so.

Related Bands

• Rogue Wave
• Band Of Horses

So I heard it again on the radio, (WAAF, Boston) that Stone Temple Pilots are mulling over getting back together, possibly for a summer tour. This would be great as I’m a big STP fan. Apparently STP will bring back former lead singer Scott Weiland, who was basically kicked out of the band in 2002. Anyway, The DeLeo brother’s and Wiland look to be back on good terms for another go at it. Interestingly, Slash, now of Velvet Revolver, said that Weiland rejoining his former band mates will not keep them form releasing a new album, though it might slow things down.

I’ve been able to find some tidbits online about this rumor here and on Billboard.com.

Happy Birthday wishes to Godsmack’s Sully Erna! Today is his 40th birthday. He’s been up to his own stuff lately with Godsmack on a break. Last I saw him he was on ESPN playing in the WSOP. From what I saw, he actually ended up finishing in the money! Nicely done! Anyway, Godsmack is on a hiatus, but hopefully they’ll be in the works on a new album soon. The last release, Good Times, Bad Times: 10 Years of Godsmack, was basically a re-release of their strongest songs, plus a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Good Times Bad Times. Not a bad album, but not worth purchasing to me since I own all of their albums.

The rest of the band is working on another project Another Animal with Ugly Kid Joe’s former lead singer, Whitfield Crane. Their first single, Broken Again is pretty good, but some of the other songs I heard off of the album were lackluster at best. Again, I’m hoping the whole Godsmack crew gets back in the studio to crank out some more tunes!

I was just over at Last.fm and noticed on their index page that their offering free streaming music. I hadn’t been there in a few weeks, so this was something that I thought was cool. So, I decided to check it out, doing a search for Band of Horses. I was taken to a page listing the 4 tracks they had available. The one annoyance was the music started playing immediately. What if I was already listening to something? I’m not sure what sort of licensing they have going on that lets them do this and why the number of tracks are limited, but who case. Sampling entire tracks for free is where its at in my opinion. Short clips sometimes doesn’t give you the best idea of a songs quality.

Anyway, it streams fairly well, which is nice. I always hate it when audio and video craps out in the middle of playing it. I wasn’t able to find more details about it (like how many times you can play tracks), but this looks promising for anyone looking to check out new music.

The Gorillaz are one of those few bands I can listen to no matter what mood I’m in. They’re great on a rainy day, great at work, great when driving down the highway at 75 in your Mustang Convertible. I first got into the Gorillaz with the coming of their Demon Days album. Subsequently, I got the rest of their albums, which are great too. Favorite songs on Demon Days have to be O Green World, Feel Good Inc., and of course Dare. The video for Dare is absolutely craaaaazy. Most of their videos are a little out there though.

I was actually able to catch their Live in Harlem show on the HD music channel I get many months ago. Seeing them play live on TV was great, but I can’t wait to actually catch one of their shows in person. There are plenty of clips on YouTube of the Live in Harlem show. Just do a nifty Google search for gorillaz live in harlem. I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t seen the show.

They actually have a new album out called D-Sides, which looks like its a compilation of old songs, probably remixed. I haven’t obtained it yet, but I might if it looks like its worth getting. In general I’m not a fan of remixes, etc. I’d rather see an entire new album, but maybe they’re working on other projects. I know that Damon Albarn has his other project (he seems to have tons) The Good, The Bad, and The Queen going on currently.